RealTimeData/bbc_alltime
This dataset contains BBC News articles from 2017 to 2022. The articles are arraged by month. Access the specific month by using the format "YYYY-MM" as config. Such as load_dataset("RealTimeData/bbc_alltime", "2021-1").
0332
1{"title": ["Ambulance strike: Poor pay impacting our health, says worker - BBC News", "Killamarsh murders: Damien Bendall given whole-life order - BBC News", "Cost of Supreme Court Indyref2 case revealed - BBC News", "Joe Biden praises Zelensky and the Ukrainian people - BBC News", "Avoid contact sports during ambulance strikes, says minister - BBC News", "Olivia Pratt-Korbel: Liverpool man denies nine-year-old girl's murder - BBC News", "Three men jailed for role in Bristol Kill the Bill riot - BBC News", "Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney get freedom of Wrexham - BBC News", "Elon Musk to quit as Twitter CEO when replacement found - BBC News", "Energy bill help drives record government borrowing - BBC News", "Joe Lycett defends himself after Qatar hypocrisy charge - BBC News", "Deadly California earthquake leaves thousands without power - BBC News", "Brixton Academy: Tributes to security worker killed in Asake gig crush - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Tears and protests as Taliban shut universities to women - BBC News", "Two NHS Scotland unions accept 7.5% pay deal - BBC News", "Olly Stephens: Concerns about killer's violent nature raised before killing - BBC News", "Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden hurt by body shaming - BBC News", "Bob Dylan: Coronation Street offers singer a cameo - BBC News", "Gatwick Airport: Man's body found in undercarriage of plane - BBC News", "Disused cruise ships could be used to house asylum seekers - Braverman - BBC News", "Belfast: Man in court over £1m of cannabis inside beds - BBC News", "Terry Hall was diagnosed with cancer before his death, his bandmate reveals - BBC News", "Zelensky in Washington: Ukraine's leader heads to US for first foreign trip - BBC News", "Firms frustrated by post-Brexit trade red tape - BBC News", "Glaswegian who 'invented' chicken tikka masala dies - BBC News", "Weather leaves 300 oil workers stuck in North Sea - BBC News", "Migrants detained illegally, official email claims - BBC News", "Toronto: Eight teenage girls charged with deadly stabbing - BBC News", "US pastor robbed on livestream faces fraud and extortion charges - BBC News", "Zelensky's address to US Congress comes 81 years after Churchill did the same - BBC News", "Ukraine weapons: What tanks and other equipment are countries giving? - BBC News", "Cost of living: If no one comes we close early, says pub - BBC News", "Flawed EU settlement scheme could create illegal migrants says High Court - BBC News", "Fresh warning of disruption on airport strike days - BBC News", "Terminally ill boy, 11, enjoys video call with Johnny Depp - BBC News", "Clarkson's Meghan comments 'awful' but host will remain, says ITV boss - BBC News", "US seizes enough fentanyl in 2022 to kill every American - BBC News", "Ros Atkins on... China’s Covid surge - BBC News", "Midwives in Scotland reject latest NHS pay offer - BBC News", "Netflix password sharing may be illegal, says UK government - BBC News", "Pele: Brazil great's cancer has advanced, says hospital - BBC Sport", "MSPs conclude late-night debate on gender bill - BBC News", "Sports Personality of the Year 2022: Beth Mead crowned winner - BBC Sport", "Rishi Sunak refusing to budge on pay as strike action escalates - BBC News", "H&M: Justin Bieber collection axed after singer's 'trash' criticism - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Argentina abandon Buenos Aires bus parade amid jubilant scenes - BBC Sport", "Irmgard Furchner: Nazi typist guilty of complicity in 10,500 murders - BBC News", "Ceredigion: Water supply still off for hundreds of homes - BBC News", "Ukraine war: US Patriot missiles will comfort Kyiv and alarm Moscow - BBC News", "Most expensive streets in England and Wales revealed - BBC News", "Police investigate Conservative MP Bob Stewart's Bahrain comment - BBC News", "Kaylea Titford: Mother admits manslaughter of obese daughter - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russia not to blame for conflict - Putin - BBC News", "Gleision: Families granted full inquest into men's mining deaths - BBC News", "Ambulance strike: Thousands of ambulance workers strike as public told to avoid risks - BBC News", "Former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried agrees to be extradited to US, says lawyer - BBC News", "Zelensky makes his pitch - will US sceptics buy it? - BBC News", "Coronavirus: China's hospitals seem to be filling up - WHO - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban ban women from universities amid condemnation - BBC News", "Benin Bronzes: Germany returns looted artefacts to Nigeria - BBC News", "Nurses in Scotland to strike after rejecting pay deal from NHS - BBC News", "Blaenavon: Tenants battle damp and mould in draughty homes - BBC News", "The two sides of Scotland's gender law debate - BBC News", "Eddie Jones: Former England coach wants another international job - BBC Sport", "As it happened: Zelensky tells Congress Ukraine will never surrender - BBC News", "Martin Duffy: Primal Scream and Charlatans keyboardist dies at 55 - BBC News", "University of Derby: Mother suspended from lectures over baby row - BBC News", "Kate Winslet: Parents feel powerless over children's social media use - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 25 November - 2 December - BBC News", "Tyson Fury v Derek Chisora: 'Gypsy King' retains WBC world heavyweight title as Oleksandr Usyk watches ringside - BBC Sport", "Matt Hancock: I was warned 820,000 in UK could die from Covid - BBC News", "Third charge after two boys stabbed to death in London - BBC News", "St Edward's Crown leaves Tower of London ahead of Coronation - BBC News", "Viking Polaris: Passenger killed after 'rogue wave' hits cruise ship - BBC News", "Liz Truss wanted government turned up to 11, says former aide - BBC News", "Cyril Ramaphosa: South Africa leader won't resign, says spokesman - BBC News", "Police foil group trying to steal Banksy mural from Ukraine wall - BBC News", "Pele: Brazil legend says he is 'strong with a lot of hope' - BBC Sport", "Police watchdog head Michael Lockwood resigns amid investigation - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Argentina 2-1 Australia: Lionel Messi scores in 1,000th game - BBC Sport", "Elnaz Rekabi: Family home of Iranian climber demolished - BBC News", "Ukraine war: New images show Russian army facility built in occupied Mariupol - BBC News", "Surge in Strep A cases reported across Scotland - BBC News", "Alex Jones files for bankruptcy after Sandy Hook verdict - BBC News", "Sacked Tory minister Conor Burns cleared of misconduct - BBC News", "Takeoff: Police arrest man in fatal shooting of rapper - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Price cap on Russian oil will hit Putin immediately - US - BBC News", "Bristol: Fossil shows lizards millions of years older than thought - BBC News", "Netherlands 3-1 USA: Dutch overcome USA to book quarter-final spot - BBC Sport", "West Bank footage throws spotlight on Israel's use of lethal force - BBC News", "Tesco shoppers switching from fresh to frozen food - BBC News", "Russian businessman arrested in oligarchs investigation - BBC News", "Eurovision star Sam Ryder appeared in Cardiff on Saturday - BBC News", "Sheku Bayoh: Expert witness criticises police tactics - BBC News", "Six children die with Strep A bacterial infection - BBC News", "Ukraine war: G7 and allies approve cap on price of Russian oil - BBC News", "Peter Kay moved to tears in live comeback as tour kicks off in Manchester - BBC News", "Glasgow stars in new Indiana Jones film trailer - BBC News", "Channel crossings: Dozens of Albanian child migrants go missing - BBC News", "Finland's Sanna Marin says Europe would be in trouble without US - BBC News", "Father of girl, 4, fighting for life with Strep A infection is 'praying for a miracle' - BBC News", "Two men guilty of abuse of 28 children at Kerelaw residential school - BBC News", "Deal to return Elgin Marbles to Greece at advanced stage - reports - BBC News", "Brit nominee Pa Salieu jailed for Coventry violent disorder - BBC News", "Cost of living: Vicar left in tears over community's food poverty - BBC News", "'Merry Christmas': 30 years of the text message - BBC News", "World Cup 2022 - Cameroon 1-0 Brazil: Cameroon out despite win over Brazil - BBC Sport", "Ukraine war: Zelensky calls West's Russian oil cap 'weak' - BBC News", "Neath Port Talbot village helping sustain Ukraine in winter - BBC News", "Swansea: Motorcyclist dies and driver hurt after police stop attempt - BBC News", "Poinsettia growth is all in the timing, say CAFRE students - BBC News", "Sweden Furuvik zoo: Anger over shooting of chimpanzees in zoo escape - BBC News", "Hundreds turn out for Solihull lake-death vigil - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russia could launch more heavy strikes, Zelensky warns - BBC News", "Fans fall silent for boys who died in Solihull lake fall - BBC News", "Cost of living: Parents ask for Calpol and baby wipes for Christmas - BBC News", "Capitol riot: Committee to seek charges for Trump - reports - BBC News", "Dresden Green Vault robbery jewels recovered after heist - BBC News", "Investigation after two boys found dead in London home - BBC News", "Frankie Dettori: Jockey says he will ride for one final season before retiring - BBC Sport", "Mayfair restaurant fire: Guests flee after Christmas decorations catch alight - BBC News", "Brixton Academy: Three women still critical after Asake concert crush - BBC News", "Angelina Jolie steps down as UN refugee envoy - BBC News", "Brisbane nativity camels returned safely after stroll - BBC News", "December strikes: 1,200 troops to cover for ambulances and Border Force - BBC News", "Eurovision 2023: Ukraine chooses Tvorchi from bomb shelter - BBC News", "Car crash compensation: Man awarded £9m over severe injuries - BBC News", "SNP to hold special conference on independence in 2023 - BBC News", "Berlin's giant AquaDom hotel aquarium containing 1,500 fish explodes - BBC News", "Shanghai schools to go online as Covid spreads in China - BBC News", "Leo Varadkar becomes taoiseach as Micheál Martin steps down - BBC News", "Peru protests: President Dina Boluarte refuses to resign amid political crisis - BBC News", "Ambulance staff to strike on 21 December - BBC News", "A-League: Melbourne City-Melbourne Victory game abandoned after fan injures player - BBC Sport", "Weather: Wales facing heavy rain from Sunday to Tuesday - BBC News", "Festive disruption as strikes cripple rail network - BBC News", "Ukraine's second city Kharkiv without power after Russian strikes - BBC News", "Angel Lynn: Kidnap victim's home transformation begins - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Putin meets generals as Russian missiles pound cities - BBC News", "Taraneh Alidoosti: Top Iran actress who supported protests arrested - BBC News", "Would every 1% rise to nurses' pay cost £700m? - BBC News", "Ngozi Fulani receives personal apology at Palace - BBC News", "Glen Allen: Murderer at large from Maghaberry Prison - BBC News", "Homes flooded after north London water mains burst - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak orders audit of Ukraine war progress, source says - BBC News", "Brixton Academy: Mother of two dies after Asake concert crush - BBC News", "Pokemon to go on without Ash Ketchum and Pikachu - BBC News", "Avanti West Coast rewarded with £6.5m in bonuses - BBC News", "Train strikes disrupting weekend before Christmas - BBC News", "Hospitals told to free up beds for ambulance strike - BBC News", "Twitter reinstates banned journalists' accounts - BBC News", "Amazon workers in Coventry vote for strike action - BBC News", "Poland grenade incident: Police chief confirms unusual Ukrainian gift - BBC News", "Berlin AquaDom aquarium: Police not seeking suspects over explosion - BBC News", "Snow and ice warnings continue over weekend - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Croatia 2-1 Morocco: Josko Gvardiol, Achraf Dari and Mislav Orsic score - BBC Sport", "Labour pledges to fast-track Albania asylum claims - BBC News", "Elon Musk no longer world's richest man - BBC News", "Shetland power cuts declared major incident - BBC News", "Dangerous Christmas lights listed for sale online, Which? finds - BBC News", "Millions face £250 monthly mortgage rise next year - BBC News", "Some Shetland homes could be without power for days - BBC News", "Meteosat: Europe's new weather satellite heads skyward - BBC News", "Anger as Roma teen shot by Greek police dies - BBC News", "Cars stolen while drivers left them defrosting in West Lothian - BBC News", "Jersey explosion: Final two people feared dead named - BBC News", "Private workers' pay growth outpaces public sector - BBC News", "Ketamine for alcoholics trial goes to next stage - BBC News", "Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff hurt in Top Gear accident - BBC News", "Reality TV star Stephen Bear guilty of sex tape offences - BBC News", "Chris Mason: Asylum backlog is complex issue to resolve - BBC News", "Mick Lynch: RMT leader hits out at BBC train strikes coverage - BBC News", "Wieambilla: Six dead in shooting at remote Australian property - BBC News", "Former seat of Confederacy takes down last monument - BBC News", "Megan Newborough: Man who strangled girlfriend convicted of murder - BBC News", "Homes for Ukraine: Sponsorship ends for thousands of Ukrainians - BBC News", "NHS Wales: Cancer patient waits seven hours for ambulance - BBC News", "World-record nonuplets return home to Mali from Morocco - BBC News", "Ukraine’s missile graveyard 'is evidence against Russia’ - BBC News", "Nurses' strike: Union accuses minister of belligerence after talks fail - BBC News", "US charges Sam Bankman-Fried with defrauding investors - BBC News", "Northern Ireland schools left in 'impossible position' with budget - BBC News", "Peru protests: Roads and airport blocked in anger at new president - BBC News", "Lockerbie bombing suspect will not face death penalty - BBC News", "Spotlight: Paramilitary loan sharks targeting food bank users - BBC News", "Unimaginable pain over boys' Solihull lake deaths - aunt - BBC News", "Russia's Putin scraps trademark year-end news conference - BBC News", "Tony Hudgell: Family appalled at Gatwick wheelchair wait - BBC News", "Kingshurst community pulls together amid lake deaths - BBC News", "Crypto exchange boss Bankman-Fried faces criminal charges - BBC News", "Taylor Swift: Judge dismisses Shake It Off copyright lawsuit - BBC News", "Nice: Eight guilty over the deadly Bastille Day lorry attack - BBC News", "Cancer mRNA vaccine completes pivotal trial - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Argentina 3-0 Croatia - Messi and Alvarez put their side into World Cup final - BBC Sport", "Train strikes: Widespread delays as latest walkouts begin - BBC News", "Mick Lynch: Union leader who's in the national spotlight - BBC News", "Breakthrough in nuclear fusion energy announced - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan on Netflix: They lied to protect my brother, claims Harry - BBC News", "UK braced for more disruption from snow and ice - BBC News", "EU corruption scandal: MEP denies Qatar bribery after €1.5m seized - BBC News", "NHS Wales: Hospital staff 'in tears' over A&E pressures - BBC News", "Tory Lanez trial over Megan Thee Stallion shooting begins - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak pledges more staff to help clear asylum backlog - BBC News", "Prince William and Kate release family Christmas card image - BBC News", "EU corruption scandal puts democracy under attack - European Parliament head - BBC News", "Ambulance staff to strike on 21 December - BBC News", "K-pop star Jin from BTS begins military service - BBC News", "New Zealand: Jacinda Ardern apologises for MP insult caught on mic - BBC News", "'Last Hawaiian princess' Abigail Kawānanakoa dies with $215m in wealth - BBC News", "Jersey explosion: Seven victims named by police - BBC News", "Solihull: Three children die in icy lake tragedy - BBC News", "Emma Caldwell accused faces charges against 28 women - BBC News", "Search for remains at Birmingham home after child death report - BBC News", "Sam Bankman-Fried: FTX founder arrested in Bahamas - BBC News", "Azeem Rafiq 'driven out of country' since speaking out on racism - BBC Sport", "Welsh midwives vote to strike, but England turnout too low - BBC News", "Weather warnings extended as more strikes announced - BBC News", "Diver finds jewellery worth £10k in Helford river - BBC News", "Scarlet fever: Mother's terror after late-night antibiotic search - BBC News", "Antrim mother jailed for murder of two-year-old son - BBC News", "Stillbirth: Aberdare mum's 'unforgiveable' two-year wait - BBC News", "Matt Hancock to stand down as MP amid local criticism - BBC News", "BrewDog fruity beer ad banned over five-a-day claim - BBC News", "Schools Bill scrapped, education secretary says - BBC News", "RSPB Minsmere: WW2 sea defences emerge from Suffolk beach - BBC News", "Oldest DNA reveals two-million-year-old lost world - BBC News", "Cumbria coalmine decision delayed until after COP27 - BBC News", "TikTok homemade heater trend blamed for Derby flat fire - BBC News", "Stormont: Who is minding the shop without any ministers? - BBC News", "Conservative peer Michelle Mone to take leave of absence from Lords - BBC News", "Turner Prize: Windrush memorial artist Veronica Ryan wins for 'poetic' sculptures - BBC News", "Labour MP suspended from party pending investigation - BBC News", "PSNI: Northern Ireland police resignations double among new recruits - BBC News", "Samuel Bateman: Polygamous cult leader had 20 wives, FBI says - BBC News", "Lisa Dorrian: Reward offered for information on 2005 murder - BBC News", "Supreme Court says bill to ban anti-abortion protests at clinics is lawful - BBC News", "Cumbria coal mine proposal is indefensible, says UK climate chief - BBC News", "Plesiosaur fossil: Rare find in Australian outback excites scientists - BBC News", "As it happened: PMQs: Rishi Sunak promises tough action as strikes continue - BBC News", "First UK coal mine in decades approved despite climate concerns - BBC News", "David Fuller: Double murderer sentenced over more mortuary sex abuse - BBC News", "Stephen Flynn elected as new SNP leader at Westminster - BBC News", "Volodymyr Zelensky is Time Magazine's 2022 Person of the Year - BBC News", "Cost of living: Derry and Strabane council heat fund oversubscribed - BBC News", "'The baby I lost to miscarriage saved my life' - BBC News", "Strep A: Antibiotics shortage in some Welsh pharmacies - BBC News", "UK weather: Freezing conditions trigger cold weather payments - BBC News", "Sunny Balwani: Former Theranos executive gets nearly 13 years in prison - BBC News", "Peru's President Pedro Castillo replaced by Dina Boluarte after impeachment - BBC News", "Paedophile Keith Edmonds jailed after confessing on tape - BBC News", "Wordle: The most Googled word globally and in the US in 2022 - BBC News", "Fireworks and flares after historic Morocco win - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Morocco’s heroic win over Spain gets royal approval with call from the King - BBC Sport", "Doreen Morris: Inquest into Anglesey woman's murder 28 years ago - BBC News", "Strep A among Carmarthenshire school scarlet fever outbreak - BBC News", "More diagnostic hubs to tackle NHS waiting lists in England - BBC News", "Ukraine war: US neither encouraged nor enabled Kyiv to strike inside Russia - Blinken - BBC News", "Man charged after egg thrown towards King Charles - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England v France - Kyle Walker 'will not roll out red carpet' for Kylian Mbappe - BBC Sport", "Dorset boy in coma after strep A misdiagnosis, family says - BBC News", "Whitehaven coal mine: An almighty row only just beginning - BBC News", "Stormont stalemate: Northern Ireland fails to restore power-sharing - BBC News", "Stephen Bear raised OnlyFans fee after 'revenge porn' post, trial hears - BBC News", "China abandons key parts of zero-Covid strategy after protests - BBC News", "Senior Tory MP suspended after complaint to police - BBC News", "Raheem Sterling: Police not linking break-ins in Surrey village - BBC News", "Wigan shooting victim doused in both acid and alkali - police - BBC News", "Germany country profile - BBC News", "SNP split claims are complete fiction, MP insists - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Animal eye packages sent to embassies 'from German address' - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan: 'A ripple of hope can turn into a wave of change' - BBC News", "Northern Ireland Assembly: Stormont's fifth recall as it happened - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan Netflix series launches amid controversy - BBC News", "Cost of living: House prices drop by 2.3% in a month - Halifax - BBC News", "Georgia Senate runoff result: Democrats solidify Senate control after Warnock victory - BBC News", "Spanish train collision outside Barcelona injures scores - BBC News", "PMQs: Rishi Sunak working on 'tough' new anti-strike laws - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: BBC to broadcast Friday's quarter-finals - all you need to know - BBC Sport", "Unions 'very sorry' for teacher strike disruption - BBC News", "Murderer publicly executed by his victim's father, Taliban say - BBC News", "Rail strikes: Passengers warned not to travel by train next week - BBC News", "PMQs: Rishi Sunak 'shocked' by allegations about Tory peer Michelle Mone - BBC News", "Brentford v Tottenham: Spurs boss Conte may rest all his World Cup stars - BBC Sport", "Edgware: Man arrested after woman dies in Christmas Day crash - BBC News", "Skiers rescued after avalanche in western Austria - BBC News", "Maxi Jazz: Tributes hail Faithless singer as an 'incredible talent' - BBC News", "Wales' archbishops mourn the Queen in first joint Christmas message - BBC News", "Premier League: State of play as English top flight returns after World Cup - BBC Sport", "Prince Harry and Meghan criticise the Sun's Jeremy Clarkson apology - BBC News", "Lionel Messi & Paris Saint-Germain reach 'agreement in principle' to renew contract - Guillem Balague - BBC Sport", "Wallasey pub shooting: Woman fatally shot was not targeted - police - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban ban women from universities amid condemnation - BBC News", "Archbishop of Canterbury remembers Queen's example in Christmas message - BBC News", "Wallasey pub shooting: Police hunt gunman after woman dies - BBC News", "Pope condemns human 'hunger for wealth and power' at Christmas Eve Mass - BBC News", "Pope Francis says world suffering a 'famine of peace' - BBC News", "King Charles' first Christmas speech - text in full - BBC News", "US winter storm: Americans and Canadians face mass outages on Christmas Day - BBC News", "US storm: Dozens dead as big freeze grips North America - BBC News", "Dog starts house fire after turning on hairdryer - BBC News", "Rob Burrow's wheelchair accessible van vandalised in Castleford - BBC News", "Four die after coach crashes on icy road in Canada - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Zelensky delivers defiant Christmas message after Russian strikes - BBC News", "US winter storm: Icy blast hits 250m Americans and Canadians - BBC News", "Boxing Day shoppers to face traffic during rail strike - BBC News", "Afghanistan protests: Taliban use water cannon on women opposing university ban - BBC News", "Paris shooting: Protests after deadly attack on Kurds - BBC News", "George and Charlotte sing at Westminster Abbey carol service - BBC News", "Al-Shabab: 14 Iranian fishermen freed years after abduction - BBC News", "The making of a young Hero of Ukraine - BBC News", "Boy, 4, dies in swimming pool incident at Center Parcs Longleat resort - BBC News", "Hundreds brave North Sea in Christmas Day dips - BBC News", "Monmouthshire homes without water on Christmas Day - BBC News", "King Charles greets Sandringham crowds after Christmas Day service - BBC News", "Cardiff: Volunteers give up Christmas Day to feed care leavers - BBC News", "Tribute paid to woman fatally struck by police car on Christmas Eve - BBC News", "Faithless lead singer Maxi Jazz dies aged 65 - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban ban women from working for NGOs - BBC News", "Train strikes: Walkout brings early end for Christmas Eve services - BBC News", "Foreign aid groups halt work after Taliban ban on female staff - BBC News", "King Charles' first Christmas speech reflects cost-of-living crisis - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Zelensky urges US to help it defeat Russia - BBC News", "Ukraine: Students spend Christmas in Wales - BBC News", "New Zealand: Jacinda Ardern offensive MP comment transcript sells for NZ$100,000 - BBC News", "Monmouth: Morgan Wainewright locked up over single-punch death - BBC News", "Killamarsh murders: Damien Bendall given whole-life order - BBC News", "Cost of Supreme Court Indyref2 case revealed - BBC News", "Joe Biden praises Zelensky and the Ukrainian people - BBC News", "Ambulance workers in England to strike again in January - BBC News", "Ambulance service urges rethink before calling 999 over Christmas - BBC News", "'Fantastic' winter solstice marked at Stonehenge - BBC News", "'Miracle baby' born to mum diagnosed with cancer - BBC News", "Perseverance: Mars rock sample deposited for Earth return - BBC News", "Joe Lycett defends himself after Qatar hypocrisy charge - BBC News", "Gwent Police: Officer filmed striking man referred to CPS - BBC News", "Uffizi gallery director Schmidt lays down email rules in Italy - BBC News", "Sir Laurie Magnus: Rishi Sunak appoints veteran banker as ethics chief - BBC News", "Deadly winter storm knocks out power for 1.5m in US and Canada - BBC News", "Gender campaigners celebrate 'historic day for equality' - BBC News", "Doctors in Wales consider striking for the first time - BBC News", "Gatwick Airport: Man's body found in undercarriage of plane - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban arrest women protesting against university ban - BBC News", "Move to the country property trend fading - Zoopla - BBC News", "School absence rates increase as more pupils fall ill - BBC News", "How did President Zelensky get to Washington? - BBC News", "Firms frustrated by post-Brexit trade red tape - BBC News", "Glaswegian who 'invented' chicken tikka masala dies - BBC News", "Natalie McNally: Suspect seen in victim's street on night of Lurgan stabbing - BBC News", "Caewern: Man murdered neighbour in sustained attack - BBC News", "Zelensky's address to US Congress comes 81 years after Churchill did the same - BBC News", "Ukraine weapons: What tanks and other equipment are countries giving? - BBC News", "Ambulance workers in Wales vote to strike again in new year - BBC News", "Diphtheria cases confirmed at hotel housing asylum seekers - BBC News", "Cardiff grandmother charges family for Christmas dinner - BBC News", "Journey star tells his bandmate to stop performing for Donald Trump - BBC News", "FTX founder released to parents on $250m bail - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Fifa investigating Salt Bae's 'undue access' to pitch after final - BBC Sport", "Ukraine war: Zelensky urges US to help it defeat Russia - BBC News", "Russia-Ukraine war: Top official Rogozin wounded in Ukrainian shelling - BBC News", "The making of a young Hero of Ukraine - BBC News", "Arizona-Mexico border: Container wall to be dismantled - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Zelensky's visit shows neither Ukraine nor US want peace, Russia says - BBC News", "World Rugby: 'Shot clock' will be introduced in January to speed up game - BBC Sport", "One million energy vouchers unclaimed in cold snap - BBC News", "Welsh Ambulance Service: GMB to hold industrial action ballot - BBC News", "Molnupiravir Covid antiviral treatment hastens recovery - trial - BBC News", "Brixton Academy licence suspended after fatal crush - BBC News", "Pele: Brazil great's cancer has advanced, says hospital - BBC Sport", "MSPs conclude late-night debate on gender bill - BBC News", "Sports Personality of the Year 2022: Beth Mead crowned winner - BBC Sport", "Health Secretary Steve Barclay keen to focus on next year's NHS pay deal - BBC News", "Cerebral palsy: Wrexham boy gets first football boots - BBC News", "As it happened: Zelensky tells Congress Ukraine will never surrender - BBC News", "Ukraine war: US Patriot missiles will comfort Kyiv and alarm Moscow - BBC News", "Trooping the Colour: New roles for Kate and Camilla - BBC News", "FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried arrives in US to face charges - BBC News", "Council condemns vandalism of memorial to Queen Elizabeth II - BBC News", "Seán Rooney: Irish peacekeeper's death 'pierced his family's heart' - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russia not to blame for conflict - Putin - BBC News", "Zelensky makes his pitch - will US sceptics buy it? - BBC News", "Coronavirus: China's hospitals seem to be filling up - WHO - BBC News", "Glastonbury Festival radio breached rules with Little Simz song - BBC News", "Cost of Living: UWTSD offers meal deals to support students - BBC News", "Who is striking? How this coming week’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News", "Nurses in Scotland to strike after rejecting pay deal from NHS - BBC News", "Train strikes: Rail passengers told to avoid Christmas Eve travel - BBC News", "Princess of Wales pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth at carol service - BBC News", "Rex Orange County: Singer has sexual assault charges dropped before trial - BBC News", "The two sides of Scotland's gender law debate - BBC News", "Changing gender to be made easier in Scotland - BBC News", "Ambulance staff strikes: Eluned Morgan hopeful of 999 response - BBC News", "Dorset hunt saboteur captured on film assaulting elderly man - BBC News", "Rail fares in England to rise by up to 5.9% from March - BBC News", "Mario Sandoval: Notorious Argentine torturer jailed - BBC News", "UK economy shrank more than previously thought - BBC News", "Sex education: Parents lose legal challenge against curriculum - BBC News", "Far-right groups had racism rift before Capitol riot - BBC News", "Elon Musk no longer world's richest man - BBC News", "Nurses' strike: 'I want to join the picket but can't afford to' - BBC News", "Shetland power cuts declared major incident - BBC News", "Grant Wahl: Journalist died from ruptured aortic aneurysm at World Cup - BBC Sport", "Military housing: Families say they're living in damp, mouldy conditions - BBC News", "Millions face £250 monthly mortgage rise next year - BBC News", "FTX crypto boss Sam Bankman-Fried denied bail in Bahamas - BBC News", "Meteosat: Europe's new weather satellite heads skyward - BBC News", "Zara Aleena murder: Jordan McSweeney jailed for at least 38 years - BBC News", "The Gloucester: Items from 1682 shipwreck to go on display next year - BBC News", "Tomasz Waga: Two men guilty of murdering drug rival - BBC News", "As it happened: Zara Aleena: Woman's 'deeply violent' killer jailed for life - BBC News", "Power being restored as Scotland freeze goes on - BBC News", "Ed Sheeran ticket touts ordered to repay £6m - BBC News", "Lionel Messi says final will be last World Cup game for Argentina - BBC Sport", "Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff hurt in Top Gear accident - BBC News", "Reality TV star Stephen Bear guilty of sex tape offences - BBC News", "Zumba instructor with Down's syndrome lands dream job - BBC News", "Chris Mason: Asylum backlog is complex issue to resolve - BBC News", "Australia: Scientists find clitorises on female snakes - BBC News", "Cyndi Lauper and Sam Smith sing at White House - BBC News", "Son sues Meta over father's killing in Ethiopia - BBC News", "Inflation eases to 10.7% but cost of a night out going up - BBC News", "HSBC to end funding for new oil and gas fields - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan Netflix trailer claims Palace planted stories - BBC News", "Scottish worker dies after incident on Qatar rig - BBC News", "Christmas post hit as Royal Mail workers strike - BBC News", "Nurses' strike: Union accuses minister of belligerence after talks fail - BBC News", "Strep A links investigated after child's death in Powys - BBC News", "China diplomats leave UK over Manchester protester attack - BBC News", "Solihull: Six-year-old boy who fell into icy lake dies - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: France 2-0 Morocco - holders set up Argentina final - BBC Sport", "US charges Sam Bankman-Fried with defrauding investors - BBC News", "'Ice pancakes' form on freezing Glasgow river - BBC News", "Solihull: Call to improve safety at lake after boys' deaths - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Security guard John Njau Kibue dies after Lusail Stadium fall - BBC Sport", "Free school meals for Bradford primary after public donates £50,000 - BBC News", "School pupils aim to crack GCHQ Christmas card code - BBC News", "Jersey explosion death toll rises to eight - BBC News", "Spotlight: Paramilitary loan sharks targeting food bank users - BBC News", "Soho police force entry to help woman, but find artwork - BBC News", "Unimaginable pain over boys' Solihull lake deaths - aunt - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: 'Lionel Messi on brink of making Qatar tournament his' - BBC Sport", "How a British special forces raid went wrong, and a young family paid the price - BBC News", "Royal Mail: Views from both sides of the picket line - BBC News", "Lynch attacks Labour and Tories as strikes continue - BBC News", "Shetland: Dozens of engineers work into night to restore power - BBC News", "China Covid: Hospitals under strain in wave of infections - BBC News", "Social work image issue as hundreds of jobs vacant - BBC News", "Messi: The Argentine pop song that Messi & 40,000 fans in Qatar are singing - BBC Sport", "World Cup: France fans jubilant as Morocco's dream ends - BBC News", "Strep A: Parents say son misdiagnosed before death - BBC News", "Strabane bomb attack: Man in court on attempted murder charges - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Argentina 3-0 Croatia - Messi and Alvarez put their side into World Cup final - BBC Sport", "Ukraine war: Explosions in central Kyiv amid air raid warning - BBC News", "Boris Johnson makes more than £1m from speeches since leaving office - BBC News", "Barbados scraps laws banning same-sex acts - BBC News", "Breakthrough in nuclear fusion energy announced - BBC News", "Stephen \"tWitch\" Boss: Dancing DJ on The Ellen Show dies aged 40 - BBC News", "Megan Thee Stallion testifies Tory Lanez shot her - BBC News", "Four people dead after migrant boat started sinking - BBC News", "Prince William and Kate release family Christmas card image - BBC News", "St Dogmaels: Tribute to 'devoted' couple who died in fire - BBC News", "Welsh midwives vote to strike, but England turnout too low - BBC News", "The Crown: Child actor beat leukaemia to play Prince Harry - BBC News", "Dominic Raab: Five more complaints about justice secretary being investigated, No 10 says - BBC News", "Antrim mother jailed for murder of two-year-old son - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Morocco are 'Rocky' of tournament after beating Portugal - BBC Sport", "One killed in explosion at flats in Jersey - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: 'Focused, happy & ready' - inside France squad before England game - BBC Sport", "Laura Kuenssberg: Putin set UK on search for new friends - BBC News", "Kwasi Kwarteng says he got carried away as chancellor - BBC News", "Harry Kane suffers anguish despite equalling Wayne Rooney's all-time England goals record - BBC Sport", "Sam Bankman-Fried: I hope to make money to pay people back - BBC News", "The NHS backlog: Who are the 7 million? - BBC News", "Andrew Tate: 'I fear online influencer radicalised my son' - BBC News", "Elton John quits Twitter blaming change in misinformation policy - BBC News", "Nobel Peace Prize: Russian laureate 'told to turn down award' - BBC News", "Idaho murders: Tips pour in about white car sought by police - BBC News", "Young Moroccans in Europe thrilled by World Cup success - BBC News", "Ukraine war: US says Iran now Russia's 'top military backer' - BBC News", "Hong Kong: Media mogul Jimmy Lai gets over five years for fraud - BBC News", "Sam Ryder: A surfing accident changed my life - BBC News", "Four SNP MPs in new roles in Westminster reshuffle - BBC News", "Coldest night of 2022 as Scots struggle with energy bills - BBC News", "Zef Eisenberg: Racer's high-speed crash 'not survivable' inquest told - BBC News", "Biodiversity: 'Magical marine species' pushed toward extinction - BBC News", "England: Pets, banter and Robbie Williams - inside World Cup camp with Three Lions - BBC Sport", "Bangladesh accused of violent crackdown on free speech - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: France's Kylian Mbappe 'ignoring talk' before England quarter-final - BBC Sport", "Morocco 1-0 Portugal: Youssef En-Nesyri scores winner to put African side into semis - BBC Sport", "George Floyd: Ex-officer J Alexander Kueng sentenced for manslaughter - BBC News", "Paul Whelan: US and Russia to explore more prisoner swaps - BBC News", "Pakistan v England: Hosts' collapse gives tourists control of second Test in Multan - BBC Sport", "Hospital apologises after hiding surgeon's error for seven years - BBC News", "Stadium 974: What happens next to the first temporary World Cup stadium? - BBC Sport", "Cost of living: Childcare fees mean mum makes £2 on overtime shift - BBC News", "Renee and Andrew MacRae murderer abandons appeal - BBC News", "Nobel Peace Prize: Russian laureate 'told to turn down award' - BBC News", "Jim McColl backs bid to expose 'truth' of ferry fiasco - BBC News", "SNP Westminster leader denies plotting to oust predecessor - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England manager Gareth Southgate to 'reflect and review' position after loss - BBC Sport", "UK weather: Snow, ice and freezing fog cause travel disruption - BBC News", "Fatal explosion in Jersey block of flats - BBC News", "Jersey explosion: Three killed, about a dozen missing in 'devastating' blast - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England 'have got credibility now', says manager Gareth Southgate - BBC Sport", "World Cup 2022: Messi the master as Argentina beat Netherlands in chaotic Qatar classic - BBC Sport", "Six PCs banned from policing for grossly offensive messages - BBC News", "Eva Kaili: Senior EU lawmaker arrested over alleged bribery by Gulf state - BBC News", "Rail strikes: RMT boss calls for meeting with Sunak - BBC News", "Patient's last wish granted as Tom Hardy calls - BBC News", "Police: Jersey explosion 'a devastating scene' - BBC News", "Hove secondary school pupil dies with suspected strep A - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Brazil 'in pain' after exit on penalties against Croatia - BBC Sport", "England v France - key battles that may decide World Cup quarter-final - BBC Sport", "Jersey explosion: Searches into the night after deadly blast - BBC News", "Nurses' union wants health secretary to talk pay - BBC News", "Ruth Madoc: Hi-de-Hi! actress dies aged 79 - BBC News", "Who needs to 'step up' to keep kids safe online? - BBC News", "Prince Harry and Meghan say they didn't step back over privacy concerns - BBC News", "Nimco Ali: Adviser to step down to avoid serving under Braverman - BBC News", "World Cup: Bukayo Saka rated best player as England lose to France - BBC Sport", "Emiliano Sala: Cardiff City FC sue insurance broker - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Morocco make history as they reach semi-finals - BBC Sport", "The self-proclaimed kingdom that doesn't recognise Germany - BBC News", "BBC Casualty broadcasts first improvised episode - BBC News", "Ngozi Fulani's charity Sistah Space stops work over safety - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England 1-2 France - Harry Kane misses penalty as Three Lions out - BBC Sport", "Channel Islands profile - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: US sports journalist Grant Wahl dies in Qatar - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Fighting set to slow for winter months, says US intelligence - BBC News", "Tan Hill Inn: Guests snowed in at highest pub hold reunion - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: 'I was ecstatic at the end' - England fans celebrate win - BBC News", "Kate Winslet: Parents feel powerless over children's social media use - BBC News", "Cyril Ramaphosa: South African leader leaves future in ANC hands - BBC News", "Newry: Man dies after being shot multiple times at close range - BBC News", "Tyson Fury v Derek Chisora: 'Gypsy King' retains WBC world heavyweight title as Oleksandr Usyk watches ringside - BBC Sport", "Portrush: Multiple sclerosis patient in mobile home 'due to housing shortage' - BBC News", "France 3-1 Poland: Olivier Giroud, Kylian Mbappe, Robert Lewandowski score - BBC Sport", "World Cup 2022: What you need to know about England's quarter-final with France - BBC Sport", "Nigerian student Aminu Adamu Mohammed apologises to Aisha Buhari over tweet - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Can we expect peace talks to begin? - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Learning to survive in Ladyzhyn, a town with no heating - BBC News", "St Edward's Crown leaves Tower of London ahead of Coronation - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: France's Kylian Mbappe upstages Olivier Giroud after goalscoring record - BBC Sport", "Cyril Ramaphosa: South Africa leader won't resign, says spokesman - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Why Senegal have nothing to lose against England - Jermaine Jenas - BBC Sport", "Cutting energy prices will take years - power boss - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Why Senegal are 'dangerous' for England - BBC Sport", "Police watchdog head Michael Lockwood resigns amid investigation - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England 3-0 Senegal - 'Gareth Southgate's critics must admit he got it spot on again' - BBC Sport", "Pele: Brazil legend says he is 'strong with a lot of hope' - BBC Sport", "Second teachers' strike to lead to more disruption - BBC News", "Strikes: Nadhim Zahawi says military part of contingency plans - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Argentina 2-1 Australia: Lionel Messi scores in 1,000th game - BBC Sport", "Elnaz Rekabi: Family home of Iranian climber demolished - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England boss Gareth Southgate looking forward to 'acid test' against France - BBC Sport", "Train strikes: RMT union rejects offer to stop Christmas walkouts - BBC News", "Ukraine war: New images show Russian army facility built in occupied Mariupol - BBC News", "EU must act over distortions from US climate plan - von der Leyen - BBC News", "Mount Semeru: Indonesia raises alert to highest level as volcano erupts on Java island - BBC News", "Russia: Bodies of 2,500 seals found along Caspian Sea coast - BBC News", "Cost of living: The impact on the Christmas market - BBC News", "The photographer who puts little people in the frame - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Two generations share bed after Russian strikes - BBC News", "Strikes unfair at Christmas, Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi says - BBC News", "Trump's call for 'termination' of constitution condemned - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Fifa's Arsene Wenger criticises performance of protesting nations - BBC Sport", "Liverpool Santa Dash: Thousands join charity run - BBC News", "England 3-0 Senegal: Jude Bellingham voted your star player - BBC Sport", "Eurovision star Sam Ryder appeared in Cardiff on Saturday - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: How Harry Maguire got his head right to prove his critics wrong - Rio Ferdinand - BBC Sport", "Kate Winslet on why she paid family's £17,000 energy bill - BBC News", "Colombia peace talks with leftist ELN rebels make progress - BBC News", "Who needs to 'step up' to keep kids safe online? - BBC News", "Raheem Sterling leaves England World Cup squad after burglary at family home - BBC Sport", "Ukraine war: Zelensky calls West's Russian oil cap 'weak' - BBC News", "Channel crossings: Dozens of Albanian child migrants go missing - BBC News", "Father of girl, 4, fighting for life with Strep A infection is 'praying for a miracle' - BBC News", "Coding: Female engineers deleting myth that tech is for men - BBC News", "Currys drops Royal Mail due to strike action - BBC News", "Brazil 4-1 South Korea: Dazzling Brazil dismantle South Korea to set up quarter-final against Croatia - BBC Sport", "Ngozi Fulani: Dialogue held over Buckingham Palace remarks, BBC told - BBC News", "England 3-0 Senegal: England set up quarter-final with France - BBC Sport", "Royal Navy digs out world's most remote post office from Antarctic snow - BBC News", "Blackford denies being pushed out by SNP MPs - BBC News", "England v Senegal: Gareth Southgate says 'favourites' tag means nothing before last-16 tie - BBC Sport", "Bangor receives city status in Princess Anne visit - BBC News", "Brentford v Tottenham: Spurs boss Conte may rest all his World Cup stars - BBC Sport", "Arsenal 3-1 West Ham United: Premier League leaders extend advantage to seven points - BBC Sport", "China stages big military incursion, Taiwan says - BBC News", "Water pipe robots could stop billions of litres leaking - BBC News", "Blackwood: Girl, three, seriously injured in Christmas Day crash - BBC News", "Skiers rescued after avalanche in western Austria - BBC News", "Edgware: Man arrested after woman dies in Christmas Day crash - BBC News", "King's first Christmas message tops 10m viewers - BBC News", "UK Covid modelling data to stop being published - BBC News", "Premier League: State of play as English top flight returns after World Cup - BBC Sport", "Ronan Vibert: Stars' tributes after death of actor, 58 - BBC News", "Seán Rooney: Arrest made after Irish soldier killed in Lebanon - BBC News", "Wallasey pub shooting: Two arrested after Elle Edwards killed on Christmas Eve - BBC News", "Wallasey pub shooting: Woman fatally shot was not targeted - police - BBC News", "Winter storm strands Canadian family in RV in Texas - BBC News", "Archbishop of Canterbury remembers Queen's example in Christmas message - BBC News", "Ben Stokes: England Test captain discusses the future of cricket with Lord Botham - BBC Sport", "Kathy Whitworth: Golfer who broke record for wins dies at 83 - BBC News", "Migrants: Ninety people cross Channel on Christmas Day - BBC News", "Welsh Water: Supply failings after homes left without water over Christmas - BBC News", "East Renfrewshire homes left without water on Christmas Day - BBC News", "Pope Francis says world suffering a 'famine of peace' - BBC News", "King Charles' first Christmas speech - text in full - BBC News", "North Korean drone reaches north of Seoul - BBC News", "US storm: Dozens dead as big freeze grips North America - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russian military airfields hit by explosions - BBC News", "Four die after coach crashes on icy road in Canada - BBC News", "Wallasey pub shooting: Merseyside police appeal for information - BBC News", "Post-Christmas shopping footfall beats Boxing Day - BBC News", "Iran protests: 'No going back' as unrest hits 100 days - BBC News", "Seven die in coach plunge horror in Spain - BBC News", "Official white Christmas but more snow to come - BBC News", "Fox hunting: Fresh demands to toughen laws ahead of hundreds of meets - BBC News", "Boxing Day shoppers to face traffic during rail strike - BBC News", "Sunken Jersey fishing boat bodies identified - BBC News", "The making of a young Hero of Ukraine - BBC News", "Al-Shabab: 14 Iranian fishermen freed years after abduction - BBC News", "Do not reduce UK's modern slavery protections, Theresa May warns - BBC News", "Hundreds brave North Sea in Christmas Day dips - BBC News", "King Charles greets Sandringham crowds after Christmas Day service - BBC News", "Cardiff: Volunteers give up Christmas Day to feed care leavers - BBC News", "Tyrone crashes: Patrick Rogers and Mary Duffy among victims - BBC News", "Rohingya refugees reach Indonesia after month at sea - BBC News", "Tribute paid to woman fatally struck by police car on Christmas Eve - BBC News", "Jersey flats explosion: Tenth person injured dies - BBC News", "Blackpool fire crews tackle blaze near Promenade - BBC News", "Neath: The rock choir bringing women together - BBC News", "Foreign aid groups halt work after Taliban ban on female staff - BBC News", "King Charles' first Christmas speech reflects cost-of-living crisis - BBC News", "China ends Covid quarantine for travellers in January - BBC News", "Iran protests: Family of football legend Ali Daei stopped from leaving - BBC News", "Buffalo blizzard: Storm turns city into 'war zone' - BBC News", "US winter storm in pictures - BBC News", "Speed limit cut won't hurt Wales' economy, says minister - BBC News", "Canada's polar-bear capital Churchill warms too fast for bears - BBC News", "Poinsettia growth is all in the timing, say CAFRE students - BBC News", "Kettering: Man charged with murders of nurse and two children - BBC News", "Hundreds turn out for Solihull lake-death vigil - BBC News", "Ukraine: Russia to deploy musicians to front to boost morale - BBC News", "Cost of living: Parents ask for Calpol and baby wipes for Christmas - BBC News", "World Cup final: Lionel Messi lifts trophy in bisht - traditional Arab robe - BBC Sport", "Dresden Green Vault robbery jewels recovered after heist - BBC News", "Oliver Dowden firm on pay as nurses warn of more strikes - BBC News", "People on frozen water prompt urgent warning from police forces - BBC News", "Mayfair restaurant fire: Guests flee after Christmas decorations catch alight - BBC News", "Signed Coldplay guitar helps pay for school extension - BBC News", "December strikes: 1,200 troops to cover for ambulances and Border Force - BBC News", "World Cup final: Kylian Mbappe's sensational volley draws France level with Argentina - BBC Sport", "Ukrainians install Christmas 'tree of invincibility' - BBC News", "Salang tunnel: 19 killed, dozens injured in fire - BBC News", "Tunisia: President Saied urged to resign after 'fiasco' election - BBC News", "Eurovision 2023: Ukraine chooses Tvorchi from bomb shelter - BBC News", "World Cup final: Lionel Messi lifts World Cup trophy for Argentina - BBC Sport", "Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: Oliver Dowden urges nurses to call off strikes - BBC News", "Bury ex-lollipop lady died on road she campaigned to make safer - BBC News", "Rapid thaw leads to huge rise in burst water pipes - BBC News", "China Covid: Health expert predicts three winter waves - BBC News", "UK weather: Temperatures jump by 15 degrees as heavy rain predicted - BBC News", "Strictly Come Dancing: Villagers celebrate Hamza Yassin's victory - BBC News", "Iraq: At least nine police killed in bomb and gun attack - BBC News", "Leo Varadkar becomes taoiseach as Micheál Martin steps down - BBC News", "Who is striking? How this coming week’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News", "Weather: Wales facing heavy rain from Sunday to Tuesday - BBC News", "What's the gap between public and private sector pay? - BBC News", "World Cup final: Lionel Messi restores Argentina's lead in extra time - BBC Sport", "World Cup final: Lionel Messi leads Argentina to glory - is he now football's greatest? - BBC Sport", "World Cup 2022: Was Argentina's win over France the best ever final? - BBC Sport", "Channel migrant deaths: Man, 19, charged after four die at sea - BBC News", "Steven Spielberg regrets decimation of shark population after Jaws - BBC News", "Gareth Southgate to remain England manager until after Euro 2024 - BBC Sport", "Ukraine war: Putin meets generals as Russian missiles pound cities - BBC News", "Taraneh Alidoosti: Top Iran actress who supported protests arrested - BBC News", "NI facing into a 'homelessness disaster' this Christmas - BBC News", "Glen Allen: Murderer at large from Maghaberry Prison - BBC News", "Homes flooded after north London water mains burst - BBC News", "NI Weather: Cold snap to end with blustery gales - BBC News", "World Cup final: Argentina beat France on penalties in dramatic Qatar showpiece - BBC Sport", "Brixton Academy: Mother of two dies after Asake concert crush - BBC News", "Welsh midwives vote to strike, but England turnout too low - BBC News", "Handsworth garden search: Child's body found - BBC News", "Salah Hammouri: Israel deports Palestinian lawyer to France - BBC News", "Ambulance staff strikes: Eluned Morgan hopeful of 999 response - BBC News", "World Cup final: Angel di Maria rounds off team move to double Argentina's lead - BBC Sport", "Scottish school subjects could be axed due to cuts, union warns - BBC News", "Berlin AquaDom aquarium: Police not seeking suspects over explosion - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Croatia 2-1 Morocco: Josko Gvardiol, Achraf Dari and Mislav Orsic score - BBC Sport", "NI state papers: Flying union flag shows 'patriotic exuberance' - BBC News", "Record alcohol deaths from pandemic drinking - BBC News", "Levi Davis: Reward offered in search for missing rugby player - BBC News", "PSNI: Northern Ireland police resignations double among new recruits - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Raheem Sterling to return to Qatar for England v France - BBC Sport", "Water companies 'letting down' customers and the environment - BBC News", "Haverfordwest paddleboarder deaths 'tragic and avoidable' - BBC News", "UK weather: Cold Weather Payments triggered in Wales - BBC News", "Jet Black: 'Inspirational' drummer for the Stranglers dies aged 84 - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan Netflix latest: Royal Family deny they were asked to comment on series - BBC News", "Sunny Balwani: Former Theranos executive gets nearly 13 years in prison - BBC News", "Peru's President Pedro Castillo replaced by Dina Boluarte after impeachment - BBC News", "Wordle: The most Googled word globally and in the US in 2022 - BBC News", "Air passengers told to expect 'serious disruption' - BBC News", "First King Charles 50p coins enter circulation - BBC News", "Remarkable space blast identified as black hole collision - BBC News", "Ulster Hospital: Bed pressures 'worse than during Covid' - BBC News", "Morriston Hospital Swansea: Emergency care criticised - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Qatar tournament chief criticised for migrant worker death comments - BBC Sport", "Viktor Bout: Who is the Merchant of Death? - BBC News", "Idaho murders: Police release victims' belongings to grieving families - BBC News", "Oldest DNA reveals two-million-year-old lost world - BBC News", "Brittney Griner: Griner's wife 'overwhelmed' as Russia releases star - BBC News", "Haverfordwest: Deaths after River Cleddau rescue operation - BBC News", "As it happened: Harry Dunn: Sacoolas gets suspended sentence over teenager's death - BBC News", "Elon Musk turns Twitter into 'hotel' for staff - BBC News", "Three missing after Jersey fishing boat collision - BBC News", "Managing A&E 'like a massive game of Jenga' - BBC News", "Nurses bitten and screens smashed - life in A&E - BBC News", "Conwy: Family tributes to woman who died paddleboarding - BBC News", "Met Police: Officer charged with false imprisonment and assault - BBC News", "Brittney Griner: Russia frees US basketball star in swap with arms dealer Viktor Bout - BBC News", "Mohsen Shekari: Iran carries out first execution over protests - BBC News", "Respiratory illness may take up half of NHS beds this winter - BBC News", "Umar Patek: Anger and fear in Australia as Bali bomber freed - BBC News", "Scarlet fever: Three more cases at Carmarthenshire school - BBC News", "Harry Dunn: Anne Sacoolas admits causing crash death - BBC News", "Harry Dunn: Teen's death case explained in under 3 minutes - BBC News", "Schengen: No EU border-free zone for Romania and Bulgaria - BBC News", "Stormont: Who is minding the shop without any ministers? - BBC News", "'If I buy a bus ticket I can't eat for two days' - asylum seeker Aymen - BBC News", "Cumbria coal mine proposal is indefensible, says UK climate chief - BBC News", "Ministers consider tougher curbs on strike action - BBC News", "Cost of living: Derry and Strabane council heat fund oversubscribed - BBC News", "UK weather: Freezing conditions trigger cold weather payments - BBC News", "Girl band Flo win the Brits rising star award - BBC News", "Haverfordwest: Inquest opens into paddleboarding deaths - BBC News", "Sea rescue: 'I was scared drifting a mile-and-a-half out to sea' - BBC News", "Whitehaven coal mine: An almighty row only just beginning - BBC News", "Racism in cricket: England and Wales Cricket Board reviewed 208 discrimination cases in 2021 - BBC Sport", "Universal Credit: Taxi driver refunded £11k after complaint - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan Netflix series launches amid controversy - BBC News", "Matt Hancock to stand down as MP amid local criticism - BBC News", "Tributes paid as last surviving Dambuster Johnny Johnson dies - BBC News", "Patients in England at risk as NHS and care 'gridlocked' - BBC News", "Staff in tears and frustrated patients - inside A&E - BBC News", "Pedro Castillo: Peru's leader ousted over 'rebellion attempt' - BBC News", "Turner Prize: Windrush memorial artist Veronica Ryan wins for 'poetic' sculptures - BBC News", "Harry Dunn: Anne Sacoolas gets suspended jail term for fatal crash - BBC News", "Supreme Court says bill to ban anti-abortion protests at clinics is lawful - BBC News", "UK banking rules in biggest shake-up in more than 30 years - BBC News", "Patients dying as ambulances face crippling delays in England - BBC News", "First UK coal mine in decades approved despite climate concerns - BBC News", "'A&E is absolute chaos - I spent 15 hours on a trolley' - BBC News", "Moment Anne Sacoolas sentenced for Harry Dunn death - BBC News", "'Harry Dunn had to be household name for justice,' says mother - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England v France - Gareth Southgate's ability is underestimated, says Kalvin Phillips - BBC Sport", "Stormont stalemate: Northern Ireland fails to restore power-sharing - BBC News", "MP Julian Knight accuses Tory party of denying right to fair hearing - BBC News", "Senior Tory MP suspended after complaint to police - BBC News", "Putin vows to continue hitting Ukraine's power grid - BBC News", "Northern Ireland Assembly: Stormont's fifth recall as it happened - BBC News", "Stormont stalemate: MLAs' wages cut by £14,000 from January - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan on Netflix: Royals 'didn't understand need to protect Meghan' - BBC News", "'We haven't had a single penny from the Post Office' - BBC News", "Brittney Griner: Who is the freed US basketball star? - BBC News", "SKA: Construction to begin on world's biggest telescope - BBC News", "Stormont stalemate: Assembly recalled for fifth time - BBC News", "Newry: Man dies after being shot multiple times at close range - BBC News", "Portrush: Multiple sclerosis patient in mobile home 'due to housing shortage' - BBC News", "Oxford word of the year 2022 revealed as 'goblin mode' - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England 3-0 Senegal - 'Gareth Southgate's critics must admit he got it spot on again' - BBC Sport", "CCTV shows thieves driving away cars worth £700,000 in Essex - BBC News", "Labour promise biggest ever transfer of powers - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England boss Gareth Southgate looking forward to 'acid test' against France - BBC Sport", "EU must act over distortions from US climate plan - von der Leyen - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Wave of missile strikes hits Ukrainian cities - BBC News", "Russia: Bodies of 2,500 seals found along Caspian Sea coast - BBC News", "Kennedy Center Honours: Julia Roberts turns George Clooney into a fashion statement - BBC News", "Extra rail services in north Wales on hold after firm goes bust - BBC News", "Two hurt in Glasgow St Enoch Christmas market gas explosion - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Japan 1-1 Croatia (1-3 on pens): Dominik Livakovic saves three penalties - BBC Sport", "Ukraine war: Russian military airfields hit by explosions - BBC News", "Youth centre cuts: Warning that wider community will suffer - BBC News", "Industrial action by health workers in NI begins - BBC News", "December train strikes: Extra walkouts planned over Christmas - BBC News", "Ngozi Fulani: Charity boss in Palace race row faces online abuse - BBC News", "Murder arrest after man killed in bridge crash - BBC News", "Keir Starmer wants a stronger Scotland within a changed UK - BBC News", "Strep A: Family of Penarth girl Hanna Roap 'broken' by death - BBC News", "Nasa's Orion spacecraft is homeward-bound - BBC News", "Cost of living: The impact on the Christmas market - BBC News", "Wingate grave error caused by 'perfect storm' of problems - BBC News", "Waterlooville: Call for awareness after eighth strep A child death - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Eighth wave of Russian missile attacks - BBC News", "Bob McGrath: Sesame Street icon dies aged 90 - BBC News", "Raheem Sterling leaves England World Cup squad after burglary at family home - BBC Sport", "British Fashion Awards 2022: Stars descend on Royal Albert Hall's red carpet - BBC News", "England 3-0 Senegal: England set up quarter-final with France - BBC Sport", "Caerphilly: Woman, 83, suffers life-threatening injuries in dog attack - BBC News", "Haiti: Inside the capital city taken hostage by brutal gangs - BBC News", "Bangor receives city status in Princess Anne visit - BBC News", "Pakistan v England: James Anderson and Ollie Robinson lead tourists to first-Test win - BBC Sport", "World Cup 2022: France's Kylian Mbappe upstages Olivier Giroud after goalscoring record - BBC Sport", "Strep A death of eighth child confirmed - BBC News", "Harry Potter 50p coin to be last with Queen's portrait - BBC News", "Haiti: Inside the capital city taken hostage by brutal gangs - BBC News", "Passengers warned over Christmas rail disruption - BBC News", "Amber Heard files appeal against Johnny Depp's US libel win ruling - BBC News", "Scot dies after bar shooting in St Lucia - BBC News", "Brussels attacks: Trial begins over 2016 attacks that killed 32 - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Two generations share bed after Russian strikes - BBC News", "Flo, Cat Burns and Gabriels tipped as Sound Of 2023 - BBC News", "Strikes unfair at Christmas, Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi says - BBC News", "UK faces decade of lost growth without action, says CBI - BBC News", "'I want to work but struggle to leave my house' - BBC News", "Labour gets ball rolling on its plan to reshape UK - BBC News", "Brazil 4-1 South Korea: Dazzling Brazil dismantle South Korea to set up quarter-final against Croatia - BBC Sport", "Ngozi Fulani: Dialogue held over Buckingham Palace remarks, BBC told - BBC News", "Prince Harry says 'it's a dirty game' in new Netflix trailer - BBC News", "Glasgow Airport evacuated over 'innocent item' in luggage - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Harry Kane scores England's second against Senegal - BBC Sport", "Nigerian student Aminu Adamu Mohammed apologises to Aisha Buhari over tweet - BBC News", "EasyJet flight safely diverts to Prague after bomb threat - BBC News", "Train strikes: RMT union rejects offer to stop Christmas walkouts - BBC News", "Crash deaths on notorious section of the A9 reach 20-year high - BBC News", "Kate Winslet on why she paid family's £17,000 energy bill - BBC News", "Migrant with diphtheria who died at Manston centre named - BBC News", "Schoolgirl killed in knife attack in Germany - BBC News", "Aberystwyth: Holocaust refugee meets woman who fled Syrian war - BBC News", "Michelle Mone sent aggressive Covid contract email, Matt Hancock says - BBC News", "Cody Fisher stabbed to death on Birmingham nightclub dance floor - BBC News", "Russia bans oil sales to countries using price cap - BBC News", "Shaws the Drapers enters liquidation after 106 years - BBC News", "Train strikes: Services start later after latest walkout ends - BBC News", "Arsenal 3-1 West Ham United: Premier League leaders extend advantage to seven points - BBC Sport", "Four injured in Evesham suspected gas explosion - BBC News", "Spain announces €10bn help to fight rising prices - BBC News", "King's first Christmas message tops 10m viewers - BBC News", "Jamie Oliver: Sugar tax could fund school meals - BBC News", "Ronan Vibert: Stars' tributes after death of actor, 58 - BBC News", "Wallasey pub shooting: Two arrested after Elle Edwards killed on Christmas Eve - BBC News", "Kosovo: Serbia puts troops on high alert over rising tensions - BBC News", "Welsh language: Call for more teachers in Patagonia - BBC News", "Fresh appeal for Lyla Lake, 13, missing over Christmas - BBC News", "North Korean drone reaches north of Seoul - BBC News", "Republican George Santos admits lying on his CV - BBC News", "Train strikes: Disruption to continue into the New Year - BBC News", "Man stabbed to death on Birmingham nightclub dance floor - BBC News", "Two authorities hold £738,000 in overpaid council tax - BBC News", "Post-Christmas shopping footfall beats Boxing Day - BBC News", "Seven die in coach plunge horror in Spain - BBC News", "Taiwan extends mandatory military service to one year - BBC News", "Man, 62, dies after being hit by police car in Livingston - BBC News", "Deadly blizzard leaves more than 60 dead across US - BBC News", "Melanie C pulls out of Poland NYE gig in solidarity with 'communities I support' - BBC News", "Do not reduce UK's modern slavery protections, Theresa May warns - BBC News", "Michael Gove: Better housing design could curb development opposition - BBC News", "Russian sausage tycoon Pavel Antov dies in Indian hotel fall - BBC News", "World War Two: Thousands of bombs still left unexploded - BBC News", "Buffalo blizzard: Storm turns city into 'war zone' - BBC News", "Blind BBC News correspondent Sean Dilley defeats mugger who stole his phone - BBC News", "Tyrone crashes: Patrick Rogers and Mary Duffy among victims - BBC News", "Blackpool fire crews tackle blaze near Promenade - BBC News", "Watch: Rapper Loyle Carner and Jamie Oliver talk food and confidence - BBC News", "Covid in China: People rush to book travel as borders finally reopen - BBC News", "China ends Covid quarantine for travellers in January - BBC News", "Iran protests: Family of football legend Ali Daei stopped from leaving - BBC News", "Premier League returns: Arsenal extend lead, Southampton bottom, pressure grows on bosses - BBC Sport", "Burston detectorist finds Roman gold earring in field - BBC News", "World Cup viewing figures: 19.4m UK viewers watch England crash out - BBC News", "Laura Kuenssberg: Putin set UK on search for new friends - BBC News", "Cost of Living: Christmas takes toll on young parents - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Exiled governor reports strike on 'Wagner HQ' - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England 1-2 France - Harry Kane misses penalty as Three Lions out - BBC Sport", "Nasa's Orion capsule makes safe return to Earth - BBC News", "Five confirmed dead in Jersey explosion - BBC News", "Nobel Peace Prize: Russian laureate 'told to turn down award' - BBC News", "Thousands join the return of Glasgow's Santa Dash - BBC News", "Wales weather: Snowfall as warning extended and roads shut - BBC News", "Ukraine war: US says Iran now Russia's 'top military backer' - BBC News", "Four SNP MPs in new roles in Westminster reshuffle - BBC News", "Cinema: Swansea-set 1960s film attracted the attention of MI5 - BBC News", "UK weather: Flights delayed and cancelled due to cold snap - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England players arrive home after France quarter-final defeat - BBC Sport", "Junior Eurovision: France wins song contest as UK comes fifth - BBC News", "Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg... in 60 seconds - BBC News", "Nasa's Orion capsule on target for splashdown - BBC News", "King Charles and Camilla's Christmas card shows pair at Highland Games - BBC News", "Wales weather: Icy snap sees ambulance calls exceed capacity - BBC News", "Nurses set to strike but open to new negotiations - BBC News", "Lockerbie bombing suspect in US custody - BBC News", "Morocco 1-0 Portugal: Youssef En-Nesyri scores winner to put African side into semis - BBC Sport", "Thor: Visiting walrus prompts warning at Calshot beach - BBC News", "Jersey fishing boat sinking: Two crewmen named - BBC News", "'Major' emergency services operation underway at Solihull - BBC News", "Will you be affected by the nurses' strike? - BBC News", "Owen Farrell says Eddie Jones sacking as England boss is 'unbelievably disappointing' - BBC Sport", "Timeline: Lockerbie bombing - BBC News", "Jim McColl backs bid to expose 'truth' of ferry fiasco - BBC News", "England: 'A brutal outcome as Three Lions exit feels even more painful' - BBC Sport", "UK weather: Snow, ice and freezing fog cause travel disruption - BBC News", "Homeless: 1,700 children in temporary housing in Wales - BBC News", "Jersey explosion: No survivors found in search after blast - BBC News", "LadBaby and Martin Lewis rework Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas - BBC News", "Airport strikes: PCS union alarm at plan to deploy Army - BBC News", "Eva Kaili: Senior EU lawmaker arrested over alleged bribery by Gulf state - BBC News", "Base editing: Revolutionary therapy clears girl's incurable cancer - BBC News", "Patient's last wish granted as Tom Hardy calls - BBC News", "Jersey explosion: Searches into the night after deadly blast - BBC News", "Nurses' union wants health secretary to talk pay - BBC News", "Four children fall into icy lake near Birmingham - BBC News", "Ruth Madoc: Hi-de-Hi! actress dies aged 79 - BBC News", "World Cup: Morocco fans party in Cardiff street after win - BBC News", "Search under way after people pulled from icy lake near Birmingham - BBC News", "Housing crisis: Homeless charities warn of perfect storm - BBC News", "Wales housing: Mother and baby in hotel due to shortage - BBC News", "Hospitals in England pay £5,200 for one agency doctor's shift - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Gareth Southgate should remain England boss because he has unfinished business - Alan Shearer - BBC Sport", "Strikes: Will the clash between workers and firms ever end? - BBC News", "Serbian leader holds security talks over Kosovo unrest - BBC News", "Four suspects charged in probe into European Parliament bribery by Gulf state - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: US sports journalist Grant Wahl dies in Qatar - BBC News", "Higher earners in Scotland to pay more income tax - BBC News", "Oli McBurnie: Footballer cleared of assault on pitch-invading fan - BBC News", "Are nurses striking in your area? - BBC News", "Greyhound racing should be banned in Wales, says committee - BBC News", "Nurses' strike: 'I want to join the picket but can't afford to' - BBC News", "Murder inquiry after woman and two children die in Kettering - BBC News", "Solihull community's sorrow over fourth boy's death after lake fall - BBC News", "Grant Wahl: Journalist died from ruptured aortic aneurysm at World Cup - BBC Sport", "Military housing: Families say they're living in damp, mouldy conditions - BBC News", "Solihull police pay their respects after lake tragedy - BBC News", "Elon Musk taking legal action over Twitter account that tracks his private jet - BBC News", "Zara Aleena murder: Jordan McSweeney jailed for at least 38 years - BBC News", "Awaab Ishak: Widespread failings at mould death housing group - BBC News", "GMB union rejects improved NHS pay deal in Scotland - BBC News", "Boy run over and killed after France World Cup win - BBC News", "BBC's Tam Cowan apologises after Marvin Bartley bullying row - BBC News", "Thai princess collapses from heart condition, palace says - BBC News", "Power being restored as Scotland freeze goes on - BBC News", "Strep A: Pharmacies can now give alternative antibiotics - BBC News", "Bank of England puts interest rate up to 3.5% - BBC News", "Scottish income tax rate rises will go to NHS - BBC News", "Boris Becker: Former Wimbledon champion released after serving eight months of prison sentence - BBC Sport", "Stretford and Urmston by-election: Time for a Labour government, says Starmer after win - BBC News", "Two boys rescued from Winter Wonderland bungee ride - BBC News", "Macclesfield fantasist who claimed Tyson Fury link guilty of rapes - BBC News", "Government announces inquiry into allegations SAS killed Afghan civilians - BBC News", "Ninth death confirmed in Jersey explosion - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan Netflix trailer claims Palace planted stories - BBC News", "Engineers brave ice and snow to reconnect Shetland - BBC News", "Will you be affected by the nurses' strike? - BBC News", "Denmark's new government drops public holiday to boost defence budget - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan Netflix: William screamed at me during summit, says Harry - BBC News", "Airport security 100ml liquid rule to be scrapped - BBC News", "Smart motorways: Warning safety tech must improve 'urgently' - BBC News", "Wieambilla police killers were obsessed with guns, says father - BBC News", "Rare ice pancakes form on River Wharfe in Yorkshire - BBC News", "Polish police chief in hospital after gift from Ukrainian officials explodes - BBC News", "China diplomats leave UK over Manchester protester attack - BBC News", "Solihull: Six-year-old boy who fell into icy lake dies - BBC News", "Scottish budget likely to target higher earners - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: France 2-0 Morocco - holders set up Argentina final - BBC Sport", "Scottish Budget: What might it mean for you? - BBC News", "Snow and ice warnings continue over weekend - BBC News", "Eight children among 39 rescued from migrant boat - BBC News", "Solihull: Two brothers among boys who died after icy lake fall - BBC News", "Inhaled metal Tube dust can enter bloodstream, study finds - BBC News", "University of Edinburgh film screening cancelled due to protest - BBC News", "Royal Mail strikes: Shops say don't risk buying Christmas gifts online - BBC News", "Kingshurst community pulls together amid lake deaths - BBC News", "Gunna: Rapper released from jail in guilty plea deal - BBC News", "World Cup: France fans jubilant as Morocco's dream ends - BBC News", "Strabane bomb attack: Man in court on attempted murder charges - BBC News", "Boris Johnson makes more than £1m from speeches since leaving office - BBC News", "Zoom gaffe sees Carmarthenshire councillor swear in meeting - BBC News", "Stephen \"tWitch\" Boss: Dancing DJ on The Ellen Show dies aged 40 - BBC News", "Who is striking? How Friday 16 December’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News", "Results delays hit 20,500 students this summer - BBC News", "Four people dead after migrant boat started sinking - BBC News", "Henry Cavill: British actor will not return as Superman - BBC News", "Thousands of unedited government JFK assassination files released - BBC News", "Conwy councillor denies voting on Zoom while driving - BBC News", "Storm Efraín: Waist-deep floodwaters in Madrid metro after heavy rain - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan Netflix latest: 'It felt cold' - duke addresses royal rifts - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Deadly attack leaves retaken Kherson with no power - BBC News", "RCN strike: Nurses' pay demand is unaffordable - health secretary - BBC News", "Ministry of Justice: Apology as victim's details sent to stalker - BBC News", "Flu and Covid: People told to avoid mixing at Christmas if unwell - BBC News", "Mariupol theatre demolished 'to hide Russian crimes', aide says - BBC News", "Fresh nurse strike dates announced in England - BBC News", "Boiling water instantly turns to snow in frigid Montana - BBC News", "King's Christmas message to pay tribute to Queen's legacy - BBC News", "Far-right groups had racism rift before Capitol riot - BBC News", "Lakeside Miller & Carter floating restaurant starts to sink - BBC News", "Zara Aleena: Family members 'completely destroyed' by murder - BBC News", "Forceps left in patient following Alexandra Hospital operation - BBC News", "The Traitors: Wilfred and Kieran are rooted out in BBC One finale - BBC News", "Ambulance workers in England to strike again in January - BBC News", "Airport and postal strikes: Warnings of disruption in Christmas run-up - BBC News", "Paris shooting: Three dead and several injured in attack - BBC News", "Kyra King: Mother admits losing control of dog that killed baby - BBC News", "Pat Cullen: Who is the RCN nursing union boss leading strikes? - BBC News", "December strikes: 1,200 troops to cover for ambulances and Border Force - BBC News", "Molnupiravir Covid antiviral treatment hastens recovery - trial - BBC News", "LadBaby: Food Aid is the UK's Christmas number one - BBC News", "How did President Zelensky get to Washington? - BBC News", "Midwives in Scotland reject latest NHS pay offer - BBC News", "Killamarsh murders: Review under way over probation service handling - BBC News", "Russia may send empty Soyuz to bring ISS crew home - BBC News", "The Sun apologises over Jeremy Clarkson's Meghan column - BBC News", "North Korea sold arms to Russia's Wagner group, US says - BBC News", "Santa-filled armoured truck gets stuck in Cornwall lane - BBC News", "US trio face extradition over alleged child kidnap plot - BBC News", "US man uses 'intuition' to win lottery six times - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak thanks public servants with surprise Christmas calls - BBC News", "Oldham police crash: Tribute paid to Heather Smedley - BBC News", "Natalie McNally: Suspect seen in victim's street on night of Lurgan stabbing - BBC News", "£20 daily bonus for troops covering Christmas strikes - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 16-23 December - BBC News", "Cerebral palsy: Wrexham boy gets first football boots - BBC News", "Nurses in Scotland to strike after rejecting pay deal from NHS - BBC News", "George Cohen: England World Cup winner and Fulham right-back dies, aged 83 - BBC Sport", "Scientists find secret to how glass frogs turn transparent - BBC News", "Laura Nuttall surprised by England Lionesses during interview - BBC News", "Scottish government to 'impose' pay deal on nurses - BBC News", "Betsi Cadwaladr health board: £122m fraud probe launched - BBC News", "Ana de Armas fans told they can sue over Yesterday trailer - BBC News", "Princess of Wales pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth at carol service - BBC News", "Uffizi gallery director Schmidt lays down email rules in Italy - BBC News", "The two sides of Scotland's gender law debate - BBC News", "South Wales Police: Ex-inspector jailed for computer misuse - BBC News", "Winter storm live updates: Power outages hit 1.5m across US and Canada - BBC News", "Changing gender to be made easier in Scotland - BBC News", "FTX founder released to parents on $250m bail - BBC News", "Train strikes: Walkout brings early end for Christmas Eve services - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Fifa investigating Salt Bae's 'undue access' to pitch after final - BBC Sport", "Serial killer The Serpent, Charles Sobhraj, deported from Nepal - BBC News", "Deadly winter storm knocks out power for 1.5m in US and Canada - BBC News", "Rail fares in England to rise by up to 5.9% from March - BBC News", "Baby born on helicopter between Isles of Scilly and Cornwall - BBC News", "Manchester City 3-2 Liverpool: Man City reach Carabao Cup quarter-finals - BBC Sport", "Seán Rooney: Irish peacekeeper's death 'pierced his family's heart' - BBC News", "Donations for late Queen given to fuel bill charity - BBC News", "Musk says Twitter feud with Apple boss 'resolved' - BBC News", "Mark Brown guilty of murdering Alexandra Morgan and Leah Ware - BBC News", "Newry: Man dies after being shot multiple times at close range - BBC News", "Strep A: Penarth primary school child dies of disease - BBC News", "Climate change: US to pay $75m to relocate tribes facing flood threat - BBC News", "Deadly landslide engulfs motorway in Brazil - BBC News", "Violence against women: The families demanding change - BBC News", "Rugby League's Rob Burrow to read CBeebies Bedtime Story - BBC News", "Boris Johnson: Former PM announces plans to stand at next election - BBC News", "National Care Service for Scotland will 'end postcode lottery' - BBC News", "Abu al-Hassan al-Qurayshi: IS announces leader's death and names replacement - BBC News", "The Scotland fans making their mark at the Qatar World Cup - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan Netflix series 'behind closed doors' - BBC News", "Canada: Alleged serial killer accused of murdering four indigenous women - BBC News", "China signals ease in Covid policy after protests - BBC News", "Bridgend: Three released on bail after babies' bodies found - BBC News", "Lady Susan Hussey quits over remarks to charity boss Ngozi Fulani - BBC News", "San Francisco to allow police 'killer robots' - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Australia parties at 3am as unheralded Socceroos silence the doubters - BBC Sport", "'We are chasing never-ending debt to pay for basics' - BBC News", "Brexit added £210 to household food bills, LSE says - BBC News", "Rotherham: Independent inquiry to examine death of Yusuf Mahmud Nazir - BBC News", "MP denies challenge for SNP Westminster leadership role - BBC News", "Lady Susan Hussey, Queen's confidante and Prince William's godmother - profile - BBC News", "Ukraine faces humanitarian catastrophe, says Archbishop of Canterbury - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak pledges police powers to tackle illegal protests - BBC News", "Cyril Ramaphosa: Damning report raises tough questions for South Africa's leader - BBC News", "Respiratory illness may take up half of NHS beds this winter - BBC News", "Cyril Ramaphosa: South African president faces threat of impeachment over 'Farmgate' - BBC News", "Buckingham Palace race row raises awkward questions - BBC News", "Sheku Bayoh inquiry lawyers told off for using mobile phones - BBC News", "Bridgend: Police get extra time to question suspects after babies' bodies found - BBC News", "Mobo Awards: Little Simz and Knucks tie for best album prize - BBC News", "Bridgend: Candlelit vigil held after babies' bodies found - BBC News", "Spectacular scenes as Hawaii volcano erupts - BBC News", "His Dark Materials: Swansea gallery shows props from hit show - BBC News", "Prince William and Kate continue US trip ahead of climate prize - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Kyiv displays dummy nuclear-capable missile fired by Russia - BBC News", "Chester by-election: Sunak fails first by-election test, says Rayner - BBC News", "Trump taxes: US lawmakers get access to former president's returns - BBC News", "House of Commons given low hygiene rating - BBC News", "China condemns British lawmakers' Taiwan visit - BBC News", "Croatia 0-0 Belgium: Early exit for Belgium as Croatia reach last 16 in Qatar - BBC Sport", "Elon Musk's Starlink to help strengthen internet in remote UK places - BBC News", "Bruce Lehrmann: Australia parliament rape retrial abandoned - BBC News", "Met Police special constable raped woman at roadside, court told - BBC News", "Ian Blackford to stand down as SNP leader at Westminster - BBC News", "Ngozi Fulani: Lady Susan Hussey's race comments were abuse, says charity boss - BBC News", "Royal race row: Ngozi Fulani says experience felt like violence - BBC News", "Danny Masterson: Jury fails to reach a verdict in rape case against That 70s Show actor - BBC News", "Bridgend: Police get more time to question baby death suspects - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Man killed in Iran celebrating football team's loss - report - BBC News", "Melrose memorial service to celebrate Doddie Weir's life - BBC News", "House prices see biggest fall for two years, says Nationwide - BBC News", "My mum's 40-hour wait to get to A&E with hip break - BBC News", "Brecon: Man arrested after cleaning fluid attack - BBC News", "GCSE pupils to have extra help with exams next year - BBC News", "James McAvoy's Cyrano de Bergerac co-stars 'racially abused' in Glasgow - BBC News", "SNP chief Ian Blackford dismisses resignation rumours - BBC News", "Judy Murray's Saudi role branded 'sportswashing' - BBC News", "Patients in England at risk as NHS and care 'gridlocked' - BBC News", "William and Kate in Boston after palace race row - BBC News", "Woman attacked by Babes in Wood killer wants to be heard - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: 'England's only problems right now are good ones' - BBC Sport", "World Cup 2022 - Costa Rica 2-4 Germany: Four-time champions out of World Cup despite victory over Costa Rica - BBC Sport", "Patients dying as ambulances face crippling delays in England - BBC News", "Lucy Letby: Nurse made celebration banner for baby before alleged attack - BBC News", "Batteries linked to hundreds of waste fires - BBC News", "Ex-FTX boss Bankman-Fried: 'I didn't try to commit fraud' - BBC News", "Trains: Plans for new Cardiff to London services hit buffers - BBC News", "Climate of fear putting patients at risk, say doctors - BBC News", "Prince William and Kate in Boston after Lady Susan Hussey resigns in palace racism row - BBC News", "Trains: Plans for new London-west Wales services approved - BBC News", "School absence pupils to be helped rather then punished - BBC News", "Next rescues fashion chain Joules saving 1,450 jobs - BBC News", "Glastonbury yoga teacher Dawn Lewis murdered her lodger - BBC News", "Family court reporting to be allowed for first time - BBC News", "Levi Davis: Missing rugby star's family frustrated by search - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Poland 0-2 Argentina - South Americans top group after dramatic night - BBC Sport", "Labour pledges to fast-track Albania asylum claims - BBC News", "NI state papers: Flying union flag shows 'patriotic exuberance' - BBC News", "Zef Eisenberg: Racer's high-speed crash 'not survivable' inquest told - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 2-9 December - BBC News", "Met Police officer charged with two rapes - BBC News", "Jet Black: 'Inspirational' drummer for the Stranglers dies aged 84 - BBC News", "TikTok discovery: Landlord guilty in viral video murder case - BBC News", "Children stopped sleeping and eating to play Fortnite - lawsuit - BBC News", "Street harassment to be banned in crackdown, government says - BBC News", "Hospital apologises after hiding surgeon's error for seven years - BBC News", "Renee and Andrew MacRae murderer abandons appeal - BBC News", "SNP Westminster leader denies plotting to oust predecessor - BBC News", "Met special constable cleared of Shropshire roadside rape - BBC News", "Huge fire engulfs Russian shopping mall Mega Khimki near Moscow - BBC News", "Hove secondary school pupil dies with suspected strep A - BBC News", "E-scooters: Blind woman left feeling anxious after being hit - BBC News", "Brittney Griner lands in US after prisoner swap with Russia - BBC News", "UK weather: More snow on the way as people struggle to heat homes - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan reveal Archie's favourite song in Netflix documentary - BBC News", "Viktor Bout: Who is the Merchant of Death? - BBC News", "Backstreet Boys Christmas TV show pulled after Nick Carter rape allegation - BBC News", "Ukraine war: US says Iran now Russia's 'top military backer' - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Croatia 1-1 Brazil (4-2 pens): Tite's men knocked out - BBC Sport", "Coldest night of 2022 as Scots struggle with energy bills - BBC News", "Biodiversity: 'Magical marine species' pushed toward extinction - BBC News", "Slaves: British punk band change name to Soft Play after criticism - BBC News", "Strep A: Grandmother says four-year-old Camila Burns getting better - BBC News", "Managing A&E 'like a massive game of Jenga' - BBC News", "Nurses bitten and screens smashed - life in A&E - BBC News", "George Floyd: Ex-officer J Alexander Kueng sentenced for manslaughter - BBC News", "Cap on bankers' bonuses will still be lifted - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Argentina beat the Netherlands in penalty shootout to reach semi-finals - BBC Sport", "Ed Sheeran makes surprise appearance at Framlingham school - BBC News", "Brittney Griner: Russia frees US basketball star in swap with arms dealer Viktor Bout - BBC News", "Royal Mail workers begin wave of Christmas strikes - BBC News", "Six PCs banned from policing for grossly offensive messages - BBC News", "Six month delay to Scottish short-term lets licensing scheme - BBC News", "Cold weather tips: Coping with dropping temperatures - your questions answered - BBC News", "Brittney Griner packs bags, leaves jail and boards plane - BBC News", "Jersey fishing boat crew still missing as search operation ends - BBC News", "Harry Dunn: Teen's death case explained in under 3 minutes - BBC News", "Schengen: No EU border-free zone for Romania and Bulgaria - BBC News", "Kremlin critic Yashin jailed for 8 years for 'fake news' on Russia war - BBC News", "Nimco Ali: Adviser to step down to avoid serving under Braverman - BBC News", "Stormont: Who is minding the shop without any ministers? - BBC News", "Billie Eilish heads Leeds and Reading line-ups - BBC News", "Sam Ryder: A surfing accident changed my life - BBC News", "'If I buy a bus ticket I can't eat for two days' - asylum seeker Aymen - BBC News", "Activision Blizzard: US seeks to block Microsoft's $69bn acquisition - BBC News", "UK weather: Freezing conditions trigger cold weather payments - BBC News", "Cardiff gin bar closure due to planning clause from 1979 - BBC News", "Wrexham: King and Queen Consort meet Hollywood royalty - BBC News", "Harry & Meghan documentary series gives Netflix a ratings hit - BBC News", "Netherlands 2-2 Argentina (AET 3-4 on penalties): Wout Weghorst named your star player - BBC Sport", "UK, Italy and Japan team up for new fighter jet - BBC News", "UK government could challenge Scottish gender change law - BBC News", "Cost of living: Woman, 78, lives in bedroom to keep warm - BBC News", "Universal Credit: Taxi driver refunded £11k after complaint - BBC News", "Chester Zoo celebrates birth of endangered Malayan tapir - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: England 1-2 France - Harry Kane misses penalty as Three Lions out - BBC Sport", "Harry and Meghan: Does Netflix's documentary live up to the hype? - BBC News", "France ramps up Channel migrant patrolling - BBC News", "King Charles and Camilla meet Ryan Reynolds in Wrexham - BBC News", "Santander UK fined £108m over money laundering failings - BBC News", "Fauci: 'Low-life trolls harass my wife and kids' - BBC News", "Harry Dunn: Anne Sacoolas gets suspended jail term for fatal crash - BBC News", "UK banking rules in biggest shake-up in more than 30 years - BBC News", "Jewish students want change after NUS antisemitism claims - BBC News", "How the Big Bang changed the City of London for ever - BBC News", "Passport delays: Watchdog warns against repeat of 2022's problems - BBC News", "Stormont stalemate: Northern Ireland fails to restore power-sharing - BBC News", "MP Julian Knight accuses Tory party of denying right to fair hearing - BBC News", "Prince Harry and Meghan say they didn't step back over privacy concerns - BBC News", "SpaceX moon flight to include DJ, YouTuber and K-pop rapper - BBC News", "Putin vows to continue hitting Ukraine's power grid - BBC News", "Stormont stalemate: MLAs' wages cut by £14,000 from January - BBC News", "The self-proclaimed kingdom that doesn't recognise Germany - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan on Netflix: Royals 'didn't understand need to protect Meghan' - BBC News", "Emiliano Sala: Cardiff City FC sue insurance broker - BBC News", "Brittney Griner: Who is the freed US basketball star? - BBC News", "Canada's polar-bear capital Churchill warms too fast for bears - BBC News", "COP15: Nations reach 'historic' deal to protect nature - BBC News", "Doddie Weir legacy will be to find a cure for MND - BBC News", "Ukraine: Russia to deploy musicians to front to boost morale - BBC News", "World Cup final: Lionel Messi lifts trophy in bisht - traditional Arab robe - BBC Sport", "Oliver Dowden firm on pay as nurses warn of more strikes - BBC News", "Vaughan condo shooting: Three victims were on condo board - BBC News", "Capitol riots timeline: What happened on 6 January 2021? - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak wades into Gary Neville Qatar workers' rights row - BBC News", "Merthyr: Thief switches £6k gold chain for 'worthless trinkets' - BBC News", "Jeremy Clarkson says he is 'horrified' over Meghan column - BBC News", "UK schools must teach about antisemitism, says government adviser - BBC News", "Ukraine to boost Belarus border defences as Putin meets Lukashenko - BBC News", "NI facing into a 'homelessness disaster' this Christmas - BBC News", "January 6 committee: What's next for Trump legally and politically - BBC News", "NI Weather: Cold snap to end with blustery gales - BBC News", "ANC conference: South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa defies scandal to win party vote - BBC News", "Manchester Arena attack: Martyn's Law for venue security to cover all of UK - BBC News", "Jeremy Clarkson and Meghan Markle: The Sun column gets 6,000 official complaints - BBC News", "Scottish school subjects could be axed due to cuts, union warns - BBC News", "Out-of-hours GPs struggle with hundreds of calls - BBC News", "Strictly Come Dancing: Bangor University behind winner Hamza - BBC News", "Ukraine war: How pathologists identify victims of Russia's invasion - BBC News", "Poinsettia growth is all in the timing, say CAFRE students - BBC News", "Jan 6 committee: Capitol riot panel recommends criminal charges against Donald Trump - BBC News", "Cold weather: Welsh Water hopes to restore water by end of Tuesday - BBC News", "Pregnancy: IVF clinics 'can't just tell women to lose weight' - BBC News", "Christmas: Rats shut Colwyn Bay school until new year - BBC News", "Sean Fox and Mark Hall murders carried out by 'same gunmen' - BBC News", "Rapid thaw leads to huge rise in burst water pipes - BBC News", "China Covid: Health expert predicts three winter waves - BBC News", "Mother of ill child grills health secretary on NHS plans - BBC News", "BAE Systems to recruit 2,600 apprentices and graduates - BBC News", "Amber Heard settles defamation case against Johnny Depp - BBC News", "Strictly Come Dancing: Villagers celebrate Hamza Yassin's victory - BBC News", "Leo Varadkar becomes taoiseach as Micheál Martin steps down - BBC News", "Iran protests: Family finds signs of torture on man's exhumed body - BBC News", "Doddie Weir's sons honour father at memorial - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Was Argentina's win over France the best ever final? - BBC Sport", "Cost of living: NI charity getting 2,000 calls for help a week - BBC News", "Rwanda asylum plan: PM backs 'common sense' scheme after court win - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Argentina celebrate on open-top bus in Qatar - BBC Sport", "Bob Stewart MP tells human rights activist to 'go back to Bahrain' - BBC News", "Handsworth garden search: Child's body found - BBC News", "NHS trust apologises as man kept in hospital for more than a year - BBC News", "Solihull: Boys who fell into lake died from drowning - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Overnight strikes hit Kyiv as Putin visits Belarus - BBC News", "Frank Salemme: Former mafia boss dies in prison at 89 - BBC News", "Will Elon Musk's ultimatum cost him Twitter? - BBC News", "Man armed with knife shot dead by police - BBC News", "Lionel Messi named BBC Sports Personality's World Sport Star of the Year - BBC Sport", "Rwanda asylum seekers: 'Fighting to survive' - BBC News", "Channel migrant deaths: Man, 19, charged after four die at sea - BBC News", "World Cup final: Argentina beat France on penalties in dramatic Qatar showpiece - BBC Sport", "World Cup 2022: How the world reacted to Argentina's win - BBC Sport", "World Cup 2022: Argentina's victory over France watched by peak of 14.9m people on BBC One - BBC Sport", "Capitol riot committee seeks four criminal charges for Trump - BBC News", "Mayhill riots: Eighteen locked up for Swansea violence - BBC News", "Man guilty of murder and rape in oldest double jeopardy case - BBC News", "Thailand warship capsizes leaving 31 sailors missing - BBC News", "UK weather: Temperatures jump by 15 degrees as heavy rain predicted - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Emiliano Martinez's penalty shootout mind games help Argentina to victory - BBC Sport", "Who is striking? How this coming week’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News", "Alcohol duty to be frozen for further six months - BBC News", "Care workers paid £8,000 less than NHS equivalents in England - study - BBC News", "Armagh man Odhran O'Neill dies in kayaking incident in Thailand - BBC News", "Brixton Academy: Security worker dies after Asake gig crush - BBC News", "Train strikes: Rail passengers told to avoid Christmas Eve travel - BBC News", "World Cup final: Lionel Messi leads Argentina to glory - is he now football's greatest? - BBC Sport", "Student, 23, charged after eggs thrown at King Charles in York - BBC News", "Government to sue Mone-linked PPE firm for £122m - BBC News", "Terry Hall of The Specials dies aged 63 - BBC News", "More than 130 bus operators to offer £2 tickets - BBC News", "Wales NHS remains under 'intense pressure' - HIW report - BBC News", "Stormont stalemate: Assembly recalled for fifth time - BBC News", "Stephen Flynn elected as new SNP leader at Westminster - BBC News", "CCTV shows thieves driving away cars worth £700,000 in Essex - BBC News", "Scottish car manufacturer unveils electric 4x4 - BBC News", "Lucy Letby's colleague tells trial of surprise at baby's illness - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russian missile strikes force emergency power shutdowns - BBC News", "Strep A: Mum warns of symptoms after child's illness - BBC News", "December train strikes: Union told not to hold country 'to ransom' - BBC News", "Two hurt in Glasgow St Enoch Christmas market gas explosion - BBC News", "UK sleepwalking into food supply crisis, says farming union - BBC News", "Petrol prices dropping too slowly, says watchdog - BBC News", "Housing targets to be diluted after revolt from Tory MPs - BBC News", "Portugal 6-1 Switzerland: Ronaldo replacement Ramos scores hat-trick as Portugal advance - BBC Sport", "Youth centre cuts: Warning that wider community will suffer - BBC News", "Trump Organization found guilty of tax crimes after New York trial - BBC News", "Conservative peer Michelle Mone to take leave of absence from Lords - BBC News", "Industrial action by health workers in NI begins - BBC News", "Notting Hill Carnival: Man arrested after rapper fatally stabbed - BBC News", "December train strikes: Extra walkouts planned over Christmas - BBC News", "Ngozi Fulani: Charity boss in Palace race row faces online abuse - BBC News", "Fireworks and flares after historic Morocco win - BBC News", "Matt Lucas ends run as Great British Bake Off host - BBC News", "Nasa's Orion spacecraft is homeward-bound - BBC News", "Which schools will be hit by the Scottish teachers' strikes? - BBC News", "Harry Dunn: US driver will not attend sentencing in person - BBC News", "Basic Welsh to be required for new Welsh government jobs - BBC News", "Thousands of ambulance workers to strike before Christmas - BBC News", "Tampa police chief quits after trying to avoid golf cart ticket - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Eighth wave of Russian missile attacks - BBC News", "Stephen Bear shared sex footage with ex 'for money', court told - BBC News", "Chris Mason: Strikes and unrest spell trouble for government - BBC News", "Nursing union to consult members in Scotland over new pay offer - BBC News", "British Fashion Awards 2022: Stars descend on Royal Albert Hall's red carpet - BBC News", "NHS Wales: Doctors question their future in staffing shortage - BBC News", "Meta threatens to remove US news content if new law passes - BBC News", "Welsh speakers should do more to welcome incomers - academic - BBC News", "Jiang Zemin: China says goodbye to former leader - BBC News", "Strep A death of eighth child confirmed - BBC News", "Just Stop Oil: Protesters guilty of John Constable masterpiece damage - BBC News", "Angela Rayner: Covid contract VIP lane was 'a scandal of epic proportions' - BBC News", "Passengers warned over Christmas rail disruption - BBC News", "Scot dies after bar shooting in St Lucia - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Morocco 0-0 Spain (3-0 pens) Achraf Hakimi chips winning penalty to reach quarters - BBC Sport", "Elon Musk's Neuralink firm facing animal testing investigation - report - BBC News", "Iran protests: Ex-president Khatami says rulers must heed protesters' demands - BBC News", "Onshore wind rules to be relaxed after Tory revolt - BBC News", "Catterick Garrison: Young soldier dies at Army base - BBC News", "King Charles: Man arrested after reports egg thrown in monarch's direction - BBC News", "Labour questions PPE contract award and Baroness Mone links - BBC News", "Brazil 4-1 South Korea: Dazzling Brazil dismantle South Korea to set up quarter-final against Croatia - BBC Sport", "Labour gets ball rolling on its plan to reshape UK - BBC News", "Indonesia passes criminal code banning sex outside marriage - BBC News", "Prince Harry says 'it's a dirty game' in new Netflix trailer - BBC News", "Glasgow Airport evacuated over 'innocent item' in luggage - BBC News", "Eddie Jones sacked by England after review into poor run of form - BBC Sport", "Kirstie Alley: Emmy-winning Cheers actress dies of cancer at 71 - BBC News", "Billie Eilish: Growing up in public has been bruising - BBC News", "Wolverhampton fire: Explosions heard as roads and rail lines shut - BBC News", "Greek Roma boy shot by police prompts outrage in Greece - BBC News", "Lady Gaga dog walker shot: Gunman gets 21-year prison sentence - BBC News", "Medieval necklace found near Northampton 'internationally important' - BBC News", "Apple sued by women over AirTag stalking - BBC News", "NHS Wales: Doctor staffing shortage as winter pressure hits - BBC News", "Ambulance staff to strike on 21 December - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan's Netflix trailers criticised over 'misleading' clips - BBC News", "Postcode checker: how has your High Street changed since 2020? - BBC News", "Matthew McCallan: Police Ombudsman notified over teenager's death - BBC News", "Schoolgirl killed in knife attack in Germany - BBC News", "Michelle Mone sent aggressive Covid contract email, Matt Hancock says - BBC News", "Canada's polar bear population plummets - government report - BBC News", "Ministry of Justice: Apology as victim's details sent to stalker - BBC News", "Bethlehem sees Christmas tourism boost after two-year Covid hiatus - BBC News", "Kalvin Phillips: Pep Guardiola says Man City midfielder was 'overweight' after World Cup - BBC Sport", "Boiling water instantly turns to snow in frigid Montana - BBC News", "King's Christmas message to pay tribute to Queen's legacy - BBC News", "Lakeside Miller & Carter floating restaurant starts to sink - BBC News", "White Christmas forecast for Scotland as weather warning issued - BBC News", "Zara Aleena: Family members 'completely destroyed' by murder - BBC News", "Wales' archbishops mourn the Queen in first joint Christmas message - BBC News", "Snowman composer reversions classic with TikTok violinist - BBC News", "Prince Harry and Meghan criticise the Sun's Jeremy Clarkson apology - BBC News", "Lionel Messi & Paris Saint-Germain reach 'agreement in principle' to renew contract - Guillem Balague - BBC Sport", "Megan Thee Stallion: Jury finds Tory Lanez guilty of shooting rapper - BBC News", "Paris shooting: Three dead and several injured in attack - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban ban women from universities amid condemnation - BBC News", "Russia-Ukraine war: Strikes on Kherson kill 10 - BBC News", "LadBaby: Food Aid is the UK's Christmas number one - BBC News", "The Sun apologises over Jeremy Clarkson's Meghan column - BBC News", "Santa-filled armoured truck gets stuck in Cornwall lane - BBC News", "Scuba diving Santa makes waves in Florida - BBC News", "Cost of Living: 'Wrong' to reduce glasses help for Wales' poorest - BBC News", "Mark Ormrod MBE: Triple amputee makes swimming record attempt - BBC News", "Iran protests: Activist Narges Mohammadi details 'abuse' of detained women - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak thanks public servants with surprise Christmas calls - BBC News", "Dog starts house fire after turning on hairdryer - BBC News", "Oldham police crash: Tribute paid to Heather Smedley - BBC News", "Rob Burrow's wheelchair accessible van vandalised in Castleford - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Zelensky delivers defiant Christmas message after Russian strikes - BBC News", "US winter storm: Icy blast hits 250m Americans and Canadians - BBC News", "Cerebral palsy: Wrexham boy gets first football boots - BBC News", "Christmas: Fears Botox voucher gifts 'normalising' procedures - BBC News", "Afghanistan protests: Taliban use water cannon on women opposing university ban - BBC News", "Paris shooting: Protests after deadly attack on Kurds - BBC News", "Workers over 50 encouraged to end early retirement - BBC News", "Boy, 4, dies in swimming pool incident at Center Parcs Longleat resort - BBC News", "Llandudno: Blind veterans celebrate Christmas together - BBC News", "Scientists find secret to how glass frogs turn transparent - BBC News", "Betsi Cadwaladr health board: £122m fraud probe launched - BBC News", "South East Water supply problems persist on Christmas Eve - BBC News", "Faithless lead singer Maxi Jazz dies aged 65 - BBC News", "South Wales Police: Ex-inspector jailed for computer misuse - BBC News", "Winter storm live updates: Power outages hit 1.5m across US and Canada - BBC News", "Welsh Water: Handful of homes still without water on Christmas Eve - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban ban women from working for NGOs - BBC News", "Brixton Academy crush: Gaby Hutchinson's partner wants answers - BBC News", "Train strikes: Walkout brings early end for Christmas Eve services - BBC News", "At least 20 dead in Russia illegal care home fire - BBC News", "Cost of living: Where can you keep warm in Wales this winter? - BBC News", "US winter storm in pictures - BBC News", "Winter storm strands Canadian family in RV in Texas - BBC News", "UK weather: Dozens take refuge in pub amid heavy snowfall - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Exiled governor reports strike on 'Wagner HQ' - BBC News", "UK braced for more disruption from snow and ice - BBC News", "Nasa's Orion capsule makes safe return to Earth - BBC News", "Lockerbie bombing suspect will not face death penalty - BBC News", "Five confirmed dead in Jersey explosion - BBC News", "Jersey explosion: Search enters third day after flats blast - BBC News", "Golden Globes 2023: Banshees of Inisherin leads nominations - BBC News", "UK weather: Flights delayed and cancelled due to cold snap - BBC News", "Italy shooting: Three women shot dead in Rome cafe - BBC News", "Lockerbie bombing suspect due to appear in US court - BBC News", "Junior Eurovision: France wins song contest as UK comes fifth - BBC News", "Ministers hold emergency Cobra meeting amid wave of strikes - BBC News", "King Charles and Camilla's Christmas card shows pair at Highland Games - BBC News", "Russia's Putin scraps trademark year-end news conference - BBC News", "UK has its coldest day since December 2010 - BBC News", "Lockerbie bombing suspect in US custody - BBC News", "Asda home delivery driver rescues Queensferry man, 90 - BBC News", "Train strikes: RMT members reject latest Network Rail pay offer - BBC News", "EU corruption scandal puts democracy under attack - European Parliament head - BBC News", "Nurses' strike to go ahead in Wales - BBC News", "'Major' emergency services operation underway at Solihull - BBC News", "JK Rowling funds women-only rape help centre in Edinburgh - BBC News", "Megan Newborough: Man who strangled girlfriend convicted of murder - BBC News", "Majidreza Rahnavard: Iran carries out second execution over protests - BBC News", "Owen Farrell says Eddie Jones sacking as England boss is 'unbelievably disappointing' - BBC Sport", "UK weather: Snow and ice cause travel disruption around UK - BBC News", "Victor Lewis-Smith: Journalist and satirist dies aged 65 - BBC News", "Jersey explosion: Seven victims named by police - BBC News", "UK economy will get worse before it gets better, warns chancellor - BBC News", "Homes for Ukraine: Sponsorship ends for thousands of Ukrainians - BBC News", "China deactivates national Covid tracking app - BBC News", "Solihull: Three children die in icy lake tragedy - BBC News", "Call for UN to choose Lockerbie bomb trial court - BBC News", "Twitter's paid blue tick re-launches after pause - BBC News", "UK weather: Snow, ice and freezing fog cause travel disruption - BBC News", "LadBaby and Martin Lewis rework Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Dave the cat coming home with England team - BBC News", "Nurses' strike: Union accuses minister of belligerence after talks fail - BBC News", "Viktor Bout: Russia's released arms dealer joins ultranationalist party - BBC News", "Queensland shooting: Two police officers, and member of public, killed at remote property - BBC News", "Fewer than 100 migrants arrested for arriving in UK illegally - BBC News", "Four children fall into icy lake near Birmingham - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Odesa port reopens after energy network hit - BBC News", "Two NHS Scotland unions accept 7.5% pay deal - BBC News", "Baby loss: Campaigners call for official certificates - BBC News", "National Grid: Coal plants stood down to supply electricity - BBC News", "Ukraine war: The Russians locked up for refusing to fight - BBC News", "Hospitals in England pay £5,200 for one agency doctor's shift - BBC News", "Train strikes: Widespread delays as latest walkouts begin - BBC News", "Solihull: Four children critical as search of icy lake continues - BBC News", "Adventurer attempts Antarctic row after heart surgery - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan on Netflix: They lied to protect my brother, claims Harry - BBC News", "Serbian leader holds security talks over Kosovo unrest - BBC News", "Puppies rescued at Belfast Port in illegal dog trafficking crackdown - BBC News", "December strikes: Both sides need to work ‘quickly’ to end strikes - BBC News", "Higher earners in Scotland to pay more income tax - BBC News", "Chris Buckler's teeth-chattering ice bath plunge - BBC News", "Murder inquiry after woman and two children die in Kettering - BBC News", "Solihull community's sorrow over fourth boy's death after lake fall - BBC News", "Northern Ireland cold snap to continue into Saturday - BBC News", "Solihull police pay their respects after lake tragedy - BBC News", "Black Friday fails to lift sales in November - BBC News", "Warhammer to be made into movie and TV show, starring Superman actor Henry Cavill - BBC News", "Ukraine's second city Kharkiv without power after Russian strikes - BBC News", "Anglesey: 'Lavish life' couple in fraud case sentenced - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak orders audit of Ukraine war progress, source says - BBC News", "Woman's luggage turns up five months after luxury holiday - BBC News", "Avanti West Coast rewarded with £6.5m in bonuses - BBC News", "Suspected crush outside Asake gig at Brixton O2 Academy - BBC News", "'Use my correct title': Australia's female Speaker repeatedly called 'Mr' - BBC News", "Stretford and Urmston by-election: Time for a Labour government, says Starmer after win - BBC News", "Brittney Griner vows to play this season after prisoner swap - BBC News", "Megan Newborough murder: Man who strangled girlfriend jailed for life - BBC News", "Toxic spinach causes hallucinations and delirium in Australia - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Fifa to reconsider format of 2026 World Cup after 'best ever' tournament - BBC Sport", "Twitter blocks users from sharing Mastodon links - BBC News", "Car crash compensation: Man awarded £9m over severe injuries - BBC News", "Amber warning lifted but parts of Scotland still on yellow alert - BBC News", "Engineers brave ice and snow to reconnect Shetland - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan Netflix: William screamed at me during summit, says Harry - BBC News", "Ngozi Fulani receives personal apology at Palace - BBC News", "Glen Allen: Murderer at large from Maghaberry Prison - BBC News", "Malaysia landslide: At least 21 campers dead and more missing - BBC News", "Lyon fire: Ten dead, including five children - BBC News", "Rare ice pancakes form on River Wharfe in Yorkshire - BBC News", "Polish police chief in hospital after gift from Ukrainian officials explodes - BBC News", "Amazon workers in Coventry vote for strike action - BBC News", "Scottish budget could lead to service cuts, councils warn - BBC News", "Snow and ice warnings continue over weekend - BBC News", "Sisters dive into icy Blaenavon pond in bid to save dogs - BBC News", "Investigation after two boys found dead in London home - BBC News", "UK weather: More snow and ice due before cold snap ends - BBC News", "Twitter condemned by UN and EU over reporters’ ban - BBC News", "Ukraine: Refugee children learn Welsh in 11 weeks - BBC News", "Missing RAF crew who crashed on secret mission found 76 years later - BBC News", "Solihull: Two brothers among boys who died after icy lake fall - BBC News", "Livestock farming polluted rivers 300 times in one year - BBC News", "Inhaled metal Tube dust can enter bloodstream, study finds - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 9-16 December - BBC News", "Kingshurst community pulls together amid lake deaths - BBC News", "Nurses' strikes: Union warns of more action unless pay talks open - BBC News", "Katherine Jenkins Pope show to go ahead despite lost luggage - BBC News", "Peak ScotRail fares to be scrapped for six months - BBC News", "Talks to end strikes 'painstaking process' - train companies - BBC News", "Ukraine war latest: Kharkiv without power after latest Russian strikes - BBC News", "Who is striking? How Friday 16 December’s walkouts will affect you - BBC News", "Sweden Furuvik zoo: Anger over shooting of chimpanzees in zoo escape - BBC News", "Nurse and children in Kettering murder case named by police - BBC News", "Flu nasal spray vaccine for children may reduce strep A risk - BBC News", "Brixton Academy: Three women still critical after Asake concert crush - BBC News", "Jane Fonda: Hollywood star 'feels blessed' her cancer is in remission - BBC News", "BA and Virgin halt ticket sales to Heathrow on strike days - BBC News", "Wes Streeting: I won't pretend NHS is envy of world - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Kyiv says Russia planning major ground offensive in new year - BBC News", "Berlin's giant AquaDom hotel aquarium containing 1,500 fish explodes - BBC News", "Ambulance staff to strike on 21 December - BBC News", "Thousands of unedited government JFK assassination files released - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak says nurses' pay offer appropriate and fair - BBC News", "Storm Efraín: Waist-deep floodwaters in Madrid metro after heavy rain - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Boss Robert Page says Wales need to use their Qatar 'disappointment' - BBC Sport", "Pokemon to go on without Ash Ketchum and Pikachu - BBC News", "Hospitals told to free up beds for ambulance strike - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Deadly attack leaves retaken Kherson with no power - BBC News", "Biodiversity: Row over funding threatens to stall talks - BBC News", "British Airways: Flights leaving US grounded over technical issue - BBC News", "Georgia Harrison: Revenge porn experience felt like 'grief' - BBC News", "Are nurses striking in your area? - BBC News", "Harvey Weinstein found guilty in second sex crimes trial - BBC News", "Avoid contact sports during ambulance strikes, says minister - BBC News", "Argyll road and railway hit by 100-tonne landslip - BBC News", "Capitol riots timeline: What happened on 6 January 2021? - BBC News", "First pictures of King Charles banknotes revealed - BBC News", "TSB fined £49m over IT system meltdown - BBC News", "Dagenham deaths: Woman charged with murdering two young boys - BBC News", "Ukraine to boost Belarus border defences as Putin meets Lukashenko - BBC News", "Deadly California earthquake leaves thousands without power - BBC News", "January 6 committee: What's next for Trump legally and politically - BBC News", "Perseverance: Nasa Mars rover to lay down rocks for Earth return - BBC News", "Caerphilly dog attack: Tributes to Jack Lis, 10, after death - BBC News", "Tea dunking test finds Hobnob-style does the perfect job - BBC News", "Nurse strikes Wales: Pay dispute 'beginning of end for NHS' - BBC News", "Low-deposit mortgage scheme extended for a year - BBC News", "Zelensky in Washington: Ukraine's leader heads to US for first foreign trip - BBC News", "Mother of ill child grills health secretary on NHS plans - BBC News", "Weather leaves 300 oil workers stuck in North Sea - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Volodymyr Zelensky visits front-line city of Bakhmut - BBC News", "Bob Stewart MP tells human rights activist to 'go back to Bahrain' - BBC News", "China Covid: Five deaths under country's new counting method - BBC News", "3M manufacturing giant to stop making 'forever chemicals' - BBC News", "NHS trust apologises as man kept in hospital for more than a year - BBC News", "Caerphilly: Woman, 83, suffers life-threatening injuries in dog attack - BBC News", "Caerphilly dog attack: Inquest into Jack Lis death opens - BBC News", "MSPs debating changes to gender reforms - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Argentina return home and bank holiday declared - BBC Sport", "In pictures: France receive heroes' welcome in Paris after World Cup heartbreak - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak faces questions from top MPs' committee - BBC News", "Ros Atkins on... China’s Covid surge - BBC News", "Rail travellers in Scotland in disruption warning due to strikes - BBC News", "Man armed with knife shot dead by police - BBC News", "Caerphilly: Woman, 83, dies after being injured in dog attack - BBC News", "Train drivers announce new January strike date - BBC News", "Rishi Sunak refusing to budge on pay as strike action escalates - BBC News", "Ice soldiers mark Russia's very patriotic Christmas - BBC News", "Robert De Niro: Woman charged over burglary in NYC - BBC News", "Lionel Messi named BBC Sports Personality's World Sport Star of the Year - BBC Sport", "World Cup 2022: Argentina abandon Buenos Aires bus parade amid jubilant scenes - BBC Sport", "Terry Hall: Tributes to The Specials singer who was 'one of the greats' - BBC News", "Irmgard Furchner: Nazi typist guilty of complicity in 10,500 murders - BBC News", "UN chief backs Scottish government's gender recognition reforms - BBC News", "Police investigate Conservative MP Bob Stewart's Bahrain comment - BBC News", "Kaylea Titford: Mother admits manslaughter of obese daughter - BBC News", "Shoreham air crash victims unlawfully killed, coroner concludes - BBC News", "BBC correspondent mobbed by joyous Argentina fans - BBC News", "Capitol riot committee seeks four criminal charges for Trump - BBC News", "Afghanistan: Taliban ban women from universities amid condemnation - BBC News", "Man guilty of murder and rape in oldest double jeopardy case - BBC News", "Benin Bronzes: Germany returns looted artefacts to Nigeria - BBC News", "Care workers paid £8,000 less than NHS equivalents in England - study - BBC News", "Train strikes: Rail passengers told to avoid Christmas Eve travel - BBC News", "Met Office forecasts 2023 will be hotter than 2022 - BBC News", "Brixton Academy: Security worker dies after Asake gig crush - BBC News", "Merthyr Tydfil: Toy beads warning after boy, 4, nearly died - BBC News", "Baby's life 'probably saved' by umbilical stem cells - BBC News", "Government to sue Mone-linked PPE firm for £122m - BBC News", "Martin Duffy: Primal Scream and Charlatans keyboardist dies at 55 - BBC News", "Sports Personality of the Year 2022: Gadirova, Mead, Muirhead, Stokes, O'Sullivan, Wightman up for award - BBC Sport", "Terry Hall of The Specials dies aged 63 - BBC News", "Ambulance strike: ‘Deep worry’ among hospital bosses, says NHS Confederation - BBC News", "Newry: Man dies after being shot multiple times at close range - BBC News", "Portrush: Multiple sclerosis patient in mobile home 'due to housing shortage' - BBC News", "Strep A: Penarth primary school child dies of disease - BBC News", "Archbishop of Canterbury: Russian invasion must not succeed - BBC News", "Sajid Javid to stand down as MP at next election - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Can we expect peace talks to begin? - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Canada 1-2 Morocco: Boss Walid Regragui says 'why not?' on winning - BBC Sport", "Suella Braverman reappointment sets dangerous precedent - MPs - BBC News", "'Rats will hate this job posting' - New York City seeks rat tsar - BBC News", "Infectious Covid virus can stay on some groceries for days - BBC News", "Tesco shoppers switching from fresh to frozen food - BBC News", "Harry and Meghan Netflix series 'behind closed doors' - BBC News", "Canada: Alleged serial killer accused of murdering four indigenous women - BBC News", "Ukraine war: G7 and allies approve cap on price of Russian oil - BBC News", "Peter Kay moved to tears in live comeback as tour kicks off in Manchester - BBC News", "Ukraine war: US estimates 200,000 military casualties on all sides - BBC News", "Food hacks: Cheap ways to shop and tips to feed yourself well as costs rise - BBC News", "Two men guilty of abuse of 28 children at Kerelaw residential school - BBC News", "Leigh Griffiths questioned by police in sports gambling probe - BBC News", "No more airplane mode? EU to allow calls on flights - BBC News", "Queen's fell pony Emma named horse of a lifetime at awards - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Ecstasy and agony as South Korea progress at Uruguay's expense on another dramatic day - BBC Sport", "Labour MP Christian Matheson resigns over sexual misconduct - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: 'Germany exit as a fallen giant of world football' - BBC Sport", "Rishi Sunak pledges police powers to tackle illegal protests - BBC News", "Chris Dawson: Husband in podcast-famous case jailed for murder - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: German media and pundits react to group stage elimination - BBC Sport", "Cold water swimmers welcome Wales' sea water quality ranking - BBC News", "Buckingham Palace race row raises awkward questions - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Japan goal has fans making their own VAR explainers on social media - BBC Sport", "Sheku Bayoh: Expert witness criticises police tactics - BBC News", "Glasgow stars in new Indiana Jones film trailer - BBC News", "Prince William and Kate continue US trip ahead of climate prize - BBC News", "World Cup 2022 - Cameroon 1-0 Brazil: Cameroon out despite win over Brazil - BBC Sport", "Ukraine war: Kyiv displays dummy nuclear-capable missile fired by Russia - BBC News", "Bangor receives city status in Princess Anne visit - BBC News", "Mermaids: Commission opens inquiry into transgender charity - BBC News", "Glastonbury 2023: Elton John will headline Pyramid Stage in final UK gig - BBC News", "Chester by-election: Sunak fails first by-election test, says Rayner - BBC News", "Working from home: 10% Welsh government staff in office each day - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Russia demands annexations recognised before talks - BBC News", "Free the Baillieston Christmas tree, locals demand - BBC News", "Prince William meets US President Joe Biden ahead of climate prize - BBC News", "Jeanne Dielman: Film directed by woman picked as best ever - BBC News", "Brexit: Progress on trade deals slower than promised - BBC News", "Takeoff: Police arrest man in fatal shooting of rapper - BBC News", "Bruce Lehrmann: Australia parliament rape retrial abandoned - BBC News", "Ngozi Fulani: Lady Susan Hussey's race comments were abuse, says charity boss - BBC News", "Former Fettes pupil given £450,000 in damages over abuse - BBC News", "Jury in double murder trial of TikTok star dismissed - BBC News", "Scotland's bloodsucking pests have mixed fortunes - BBC News", "Formula 1: Chinese GP cancelled because of country's 'ongoing difficulties' with Covid - BBC Sport", "Elon Musk suspends Kanye West from Twitter for inciting violence - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: How to take a penalty in a shootout - BBC Sport", "Strep A: London child among six deaths from bacterial disease - BBC News", "Brit nominee Pa Salieu jailed for Coventry violent disorder - BBC News", "Ukraine war: Zelensky aide reveals up to 13,000 war dead - BBC News", "University of Derby: Mother suspended from lectures over baby row - BBC News", "Your pictures of Scotland: 25 November - 2 December - BBC News", "US appeals court denies Trump 'special master' request in documents case - BBC News", "Indonesia set to punish sex before marriage with jail time - BBC News", "World Cup 2022 - Costa Rica 2-4 Germany: Four-time champions out of World Cup despite victory over Costa Rica - BBC Sport", "Alex Jones files for bankruptcy after Sandy Hook verdict - BBC News", "Stephen Sondheim: Live recording of Phinney's Rainbow found on bookshelf - BBC News", "Netherlands 3-1 USA: Dutch overcome USA to book quarter-final spot - BBC Sport", "World Cup 2022: 'I am very afraid', says Qatari transgender woman - BBC News", "Climate of fear putting patients at risk, say doctors - BBC News", "Cost of living: 'Santa's poorly' Christmas ad goes viral - BBC News", "Six children die with Strep A bacterial infection - BBC News", "Monaghan deaths: Men named as Christopher Mooney and Kieran Hamill - BBC News", "Finland's Sanna Marin says Europe would be in trouble without US - BBC News", "World Cup 2022: Serbia 2-3 Switzerland - Swiss through after exciting victory - BBC Sport", "Kearne Solanke and Charlie Bartolo deaths: Two teenagers charged with murders - BBC News"], "published_date": ["2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-21", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-03", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-17", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-13", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-07", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-25", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-22", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-14", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-10", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-04", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-26", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-18", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-08", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-05", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-27", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-11", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-15", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-23", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-01", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-09", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-19", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-06", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-24", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-12", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-16", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-20", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02", "2022-12-02"], "authors": [["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], [], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"], [], ["https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews"]], "description": ["One ambulance worker says some colleagues cannot afford \"quality food\" and also rely on food banks.", "Damien Bendall carried out \"brutal, vicious and cruel attacks\" on his defenceless victims.", "Scottish ministers spent more than £250,000 on the independence referendum legal challenge.", "The US President called out Ukrainian people for their courage during a visit with President Zelensky.", "Will Quince also urges people not to make unnecessary car journeys during action by ambulance workers.", "Thomas Cashman, 34, pleads not guilty to the murder of the nine-year-old in her home in Liverpool.", "Gopal Clarke, Arthur Lazarus and Henry Olohan admitted crimes at the Bristol disorder in 2021.", "Wrexham AFC's Hollywood owners are honoured for promoting the city and the club's history.", "Elon Musk says he will resign as soon as he finds someone \"foolish enough\" to take over the job.", "Government borrowing hit the highest level for a November since records began in 1993.", "The comedian criticised David Beckham's links with Qatar but has previously played gigs there himself.", "The magnitude 6.4 tremor north of San Francisco killed two people, damaging roads and buildings.", "Relatives pay tribute to security contractor Gaby Hutchinson who died in a crush at Brixton O2 Academy.", "As the Taliban shut universities and other education centres, Afghan women see their future crumble.", "Health members of Unison and Unite accept an improved offer which ends the risk of strike action.", "Worries about a teenager's violent nature were repeatedly raised before he murdered 13-year-old Olly Stephens.", "Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden talks about how nasty comments can hurt her.", "Producers made the offer after the singer said watching the ITV soap makes him feel \"at home\".", "The plane had flown from The Gambia to the West Sussex airport on 7 December.", "The home secretary told a committee of peers that using hotels was costing more than £5m a day.", "Dozens of packages of the drug were discovered during searches of divan beds at Belfast Harbour.", "The Specials star had pancreatic cancer which spread to his liver, says bassist Horace Panter.", "The White House will announce a further $2bn in aid to Ukraine, including a Patriot air defence system.", "Two years after post-Brexit trading began with the EU, UK firms are still struggling with the new rules, says BCC.", "Glasgow chef Ahmed Aslam Ali is said to have first come up with the dish in the 1970s.", "\"Triggered lightning\" has left staff unable to leave platforms near Denmark since November.", "Hundreds of people were sent to immigration removal centres after Manston exceeded capacity, emails show.", "Police believe the girls met online, possibly meeting in person for the first time on Saturday.", "Lamor Whitehead was robbed of more than $1m in jewellery during a livestreamed sermon in July.", "Almost exactly 81 years ago, Winston Churchill spoke to Congress in the days after Pearl Harbor.", "The US will soon send the first of its Abrams tanks to Ukraine, but Poland has stopped sending weapons.", "Almost 90% of pubs are considering shorter opening hours over winter as bills rise, according to a new survey.", "Home Office rules affecting millions of EU citizens in the UK after Brexit are unlawful, a judge rules.", "A senior Border Force official has said he hopes to keep all airports open as staff strike.", "The star reprised the role of Captain Jack Sparrow for Kori, a huge Pirates of the Caribbean fan.", "ITV boss Kevin Lygo says Jeremy Clarkson's comments in The Sun do not represent the channel's values.", "Nearly 400m potentially fatal doses - double last year's total - were intercepted by federal agents.", "As China deals with a new Covid wave, Ros Atkins looks at why it’s hard to assess its scale.", "Members of the Royal College of Midwives are considering strike action after voting down a pay deal.", "The Intellectual Property Office said the practice might break criminal and civil law.", "Brazil great Pele's cancer is advancing, according to the hospital where the 82-year-old is being treated.", "The Scottish Parliament's business managers had agreed members could go discussing and voting on amendments to the legislation.", "England and Arsenal footballer Beth Mead is crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2022, ahead of Ben Stokes and Eve Muirhead.", "The prime minister is under pressure to reopen nurses' pay talks, as ambulance workers prepare for walk outs.", "The retailer removed its collection after the star says he didn't approve it or give permission.", "Argentina's World Cup winners have to abandon an open-top bus and take a helicopter ride over the millions of fans celebrating in Buenos Aires.", "Irmgard Furchner, 97, who worked for a Nazi commandant, is convicted in Germany.", "About 200 households are still cut off from the mains water supply, Welsh Water confirms.", "The advanced air defence system is not a silver bullet, but it is extremely capable and effective.", "All 10 of the most expensive streets in England are in south and west London, according to Halifax.", "Scotland Yard says it received an online report from a man alleging he had been verbally racially abused.", "Kaylea Louise Titford, 16, was found dead at her Powys home in October 2020.", "President Vladimir Putin says he still continues to see Ukraine as a brotherly nation.", "Four men died when thousands of gallons of water flooded the Gleision drift mine in 2011.", "Paramedics, call handlers and support staff are striking over pay in much of England and Wales.", "Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to be taken from the Bahamas to the US to face fraud charges.", "The Ukrainian leader urged Americans to see the billions in military aid as an investment not charity.", "China's figures say no-one died of Covid on Wednesday - but there is scepticism about the data.", "The move further restricts women's education, after girls were already excluded from secondary schools.", "The return of 22 Benin Bronzes is part of Germany's efforts to deal with a \"dark colonial history\".", "Members of the Royal College of Nursing are planning strike action after voting down a pay deal.", "One resident found toadstools at the bottom of her kitchen radiator caused by damp conditions.", "MSPs have passed controversial plans to reform gender recognition legislation.", "Eddie Jones says he wants to continue coaching at international level and has not ruled out the possibility of taking the Australia job.", "Ukraine's president gets a standing ovation from US lawmakers on his first foreign trip since Russia's invasion.", "\"Another tragic loss of a beautiful soul,\" Charlatans singer Tim Burgess says about the keyboardist.", "Leah Foster says the university went back on an earlier deal and she is now missing valuable teaching.", "The actress tells the BBC ministers should make firms enforce strict age limits on their platforms.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 25 November and 2 December.", "Tyson Fury retains his WBC world heavyweight title with a brutal 10th-round stoppage of Derek Chisora and set up a potential undisputed showdown with Oleksandr Usyk.", "Ex-health secretary's diary recalls conversations in government before the UK went into lockdown.", "The deaths of Kearne Solanke and Charlie Bartolo, both 16, are being linked by detectives.", "The 17th Century crown has been removed from the Tower of London to be altered for the Coronation.", "Four others were injured in the incident on board a cruise ship bound for Antarctica.", "The short-lived prime minister was in a hurry to get things done, her former speechwriter tells the BBC.", "Cyril Ramaphosa is accused of keeping large sums of cash on his farm then covering up its theft.", "Police arrested several people who cut the artwork from the wall of a war-torn building in Hostomel.", "Brazil great Pele is \"still undergoing treatment and remains stable\" according to a statement from his hospital in Sao Paulo.", "The home secretary says Michael Lockwood is the subject of a probe into a historical allegation.", "Lionel Messi produces a moment of magic in his 1,000th career game as Argentina beat Australia to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.", "Elnaz Rekabi became a hero of the protest movement after competing abroad with her hair uncovered.", "Russia captured Mariupol earlier this year, and the images suggest it is consolidating its presence.", "Public Health Scotland say more than 430 cases of the infection have been recorded in two weeks.", "He was recently told to pay almost $1.5bn (£1.2bn) for claiming a 2012 school shooting was a hoax.", "Mr Burns, who was fired over allegations he touched a man's thigh, will be readmitted to Tory party.", "Takeoff, youngest of the rap group Migos, was killed last month outside a Houston bowling alley.", "The G7 and Australia join the EU in imposing the cap of $60 a barrel meant to hit Russia's war chest.", "A scientist says the fossil is \"one of the most important found in the last few decades\".", "The Netherlands survive a late scare against the United States to move into the World Cup quarter-finals with a ruthless display of finishing.", "Four Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops during confrontations on one day this week.", "The supermarket boss says there have been many changes to how people shop due to the cost of living.", "A businessman is arrested on suspicion of money laundering at his multi-million-pound London home.", "The Eurovision star played live for people in Cardiff Bay on Saturday.", "An inquiry is told police should have agreed a tactical plan for a \"managed and controlled intervention.\"", "Parents concerned about their child's symptoms are urged to seek medical advice.", "The G7 agrees a cap of $60 a barrel on exported Russian crude, after the EU gave its backing.", "The comedian gets emotional on stage in Manchester as he opens his first tour for 12 years.", "Parts of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny were filmed in Glasgow in the summer of 2021.", "Of 197 children taken in by Kent County Council this year, 39 are missing, figures show.", "\"I must be brutally honest with you,\" Sanna Marin says. \"We would be in trouble without the US.\"", "Dean Burns urges other parents with any concerns about their children's health to get them checked.", "Matthew George and John Muldoon physically and sexually attacked pupils at an Ayrshire residential school.", "The British Museum is said to have held secret talks with Greece about returning the sculptures.", "Brit nominee Pa Salieu attacked a man in Coventry shortly after his best friend was stabbed to death.", "\"I spend most Monday evenings in tears,\" says Father Dominic Cawdell, of St Peter's in Flintshire.", "In December 1992, the first SMS text message was sent to a mobile phone by an engineer in Berkshire.", "Cameroon are out of the World Cup despite securing a dramatic victory over Brazil at Lusail Stadium in their final Group G match.", "The measure - due to come into force on Monday - intensifies pressure on Russia over the Ukraine invasion.", "As a cold winter looms in Ukraine, one Welsh village is collecting, sorting and delivering supplies.", "Motorcyclist dies and another motorist is hurt in a crash after an attempted police traffic stop.", "The light needs to be right for this red star of Christmas and they don't like draughts.", "Critics ask why the Swedish zoo shot the chimpanzees instead of tranquilising them.", "People gather to remember four young boys who died after falling into a frozen lake.", "Work is continuing to restore electricity following a ninth wave of heavy Russian air strikes on Friday.", "Silences and a vigil will be held for Jack Johnson, brothers Finlay and Samuel Butler and Thomas Stewart.", "With many families struggling to heat homes or feed children, presents are \"on the backburner\".", "The committee will reportedly seek an unprecedented charge of insurrection against an ex-US president.", "Police say 31 objects from Dresden's Green Vault have been recovered after the 2019 robbery.", "Police are investigating after two boys were found dead at a home in Dagenham, east London.", "Jockey Frankie Dettori announces that 2023 will be his final season after riding more than 3,300 winners in a 35-year career.", "Dramatic video shows flames inside the MNKY HSE restaurant in London's Mayfair as guests rushed to get outside.", "A woman says she feared for her life during a crush at a gig where several people were badly hurt.", "The Hollywood star says she now wants to work with groups led by people most directly affected by conflict.", "The three animals were seen wandering the Brisbane's streets after opening the gate of their enclosure.", "Separately nurses have threatened to escalate strike action in the new year if ministers do not enter pay talks next week.", "A Kyiv metro station and bomb shelter is transformed into a TV studio for the selection programme.", "Aaron Glover, 27, sustained severe brain damage when a car driven by his brother hit a lamppost.", "Nicola Sturgeon says the party will gather to set out a \"clear pathway\" on the constitution.", "Two people are injured as the Berlin aquarium, containing a million litres of water, bursts open.", "The easing of strict lockdown measures has led to growing concerns in China.", "Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar is the leader under a deal with government partners Fianna Fáil.", "President Boluarte renews her call for early elections as a way to curb violent street protests.", "Services across England and Wales affected, but life-threatening calls will be responded to.", "The A-League derby between Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory is abandoned after a player is injured by a spectator during a pitch invasion.", "The warning comes as the ambulance service says it is experiencing high demand.", "ScotRail services are severely limited as Network Rail workers stage another walkout this weekend.", "Kharkiv suffers \"colossal\" damage as the latest wave of Russian strikes targets power supplies.", "Renovations will allow woman paralysed in a botched kidnapping to live in her parents' property.", "Senior Ukrainian commanders say Russia could be planning a new attack early next year.", "Taraneh Alidoosti is accused of \"spreading falsehoods\" about the protest movement gripping Iran.", "Fact-checking a claim made by Health Minister Maria Caulfield.", "Lady Susan Hussey has met Sistah Space founder Ngozi Fulani at Buckingham Palace.", "A man convicted after stabbing his victim 51 times in 2008 is on the run following temporary release.", "Residents are evacuated from their homes when water floods the streets in the middle of the night.", "Senior figures fear the PM may be taking an overly cautious approach as the war enters a key phase.", "Rebecca Ikumelo's family say she was well respected for her \"care, kindness and love\".", "The long-time lead characters of the anime series will bow out in January, as the show continues.", "The train company received bonuses last year, but has been criticised for poor service this year.", "People are being advised not to travel on the railways as workers continue strikes on Saturday.", "Health bosses warn of \"extensive disruption\" as staff in England are set to walk out next week.", "Elon Musk suspended some journalists' accounts after accusing them of sharing location data about him.", "More than 98% of them backed strikes after an offer of a 50p per hour pay rise, the GMB union says.", "Jaroslaw Szymczyk says he accidentally set off a grenade launcher given to him as a gift by Ukraine.", "Berlin police say a tweet asking for help in tracking down suspects linked to the incident is fake.", "Further wintry conditions are forecast, with more weather warnings issued by the Met Office.", "Croatia's third top-three finish at the World Cup has a \"golden layer\", says boss Zlatko Dalic after his side clinch a play-off victory over history-makers Morocco.", "The party says speeding up processing of claims from \"safe\" countries would help clear the backlog.", "His wealth has been hit as shares in his electric carmaker Tesla have more than halved.", "Extra engineers are due to arrive on the ferry from Aberdeen to help restore power to 2,800 homes.", "Testing by consumer group Which? finds some cheap lights fail to meet UK electrical safety regulations.", "The average monthly mortgage bill will go up from £750 to £1,000, the Bank of England says.", "Engineers are facing \"extremely challenging conditions\" in restoring power to island homes.", "Forecasting hazardous storms should get a big boost from the new Meteosat just launched to orbit.", "The 16-year-old was shot in the head in the city of Thessaloniki after allegedly stealing €20 of petrol.", "The drivers had left their cars after switching them on to let the heaters defrost windows.", "Nine people feared dead after an explosion have been named after the blast in a block of flats.", "The gap between wage increases in the public and private sector is near a record high.", "The £2.4m trial led by the University of Exeter will be available at seven NHS sites around the UK.", "The BBC TV show co-host is taken to hospital after an incident during filming at an aerodrome.", "Stephen Bear shared footage of himself having sex with a woman that ended up on the OnlyFans website.", "Successive governments have struggled to tackle problems with the asylum process.", "The boss of the UK's biggest rail union accuses the BBC of \"parroting\" the right-wing press.", "Three suspects have been shot dead after the killings of two police officers and a man, authorities say.", "A descendant of the rebel general said it was \"a tough day\", but a black Richmond resident said it was \"nice\".", "Ross McCullam admitted Megan Newborough's manslaughter but had denied murder.", "BBC analysis finds 51,000 Ukrainians have reached the end of their six-month sponsorship in the UK.", "Keith Royles, 85, broke his hip and was forced to wait seven hours for an ambulance.", "The nine Malian babies had been receiving specialist care in Morocco where they were born last year.", "Prosecutors want the collection of more than 1,000 munitions to be used in any future court action.", "Strikes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are set to go ahead on Thursday after talks fail.", "Sam Bankman-Fried is accused of a scheme to defraud investors in failed crypto exchange FTX.", "Schools are facing a significant real terms cut in their funding, says one union.", "At least seven people have died in clashes with police since ex-President Castillo was ousted.", "Abu Agila Masud is the first person charged on US soil in connection with the 1988 airline attack.", "Victims of illegal money lenders tell BBC Spotlight how they faced a cycle of debt and intimidation.", "One victim is named locally as Jack Johnson, 10, as the Solihull community mourns their loss.", "No reason is given, but there is growing unease among Russians over the invasion of Ukraine.", "The airport apologised after double-amputee Tony Hudgell was forced to wait four-and-a-half hours.", "As four boys die after plunging into a frozen lake near Solihull, tales of community spirit emerge.", "The FTX founder is accused of eight offences, including wire fraud and violation of campaign finance laws.", "Two songwriters had alleged that the singer lifted their lyrics for her hit song Shake It Off.", "They are given jail terms from two to 18 years over the 2016 lorry attack that left 86 people dead.", "It uses the same messenger-RNA technology as some Covid-19 vaccines.", "Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez were on target as Argentina beat Croatia to reach the World Cup final.", "About 40,000 rail workers are walking out in a series of strikes starting on Tuesday in a row about jobs and pay.", "The chief spokesman and negotiator for the RMT has a crucial job as rail workers strike.", "US researchers have overcome a major barrier to achieving low-carbon nuclear fusion.", "But there is confusion over who is being blamed in the latest trailer of the Harry and Meghan series.", "Forecasters say the freezing conditions will bring more problems for travellers on Tuesday.", "Eva Kaili, one of four suspects, is stripped of her role as vice-president of the European Parliament.", "Staff and bed shortages at one major hospital have led to unsafe A&E conditions, say medics.", "Tory Lanez denies shooting the rapper as they left a pool party at Kylie Jenner's house in Hollywood.", "A dedicated unit to handle claims from Albanians is one of the measures Rishi Sunak has announced.", "The photograph shows the family of five dressed casually, smiling and holding hands in Norfolk.", "Four people have been arrested over accusations Qatar bribed officials to try to win influence.", "Services across England and Wales affected, but life-threatening calls will be responded to.", "What can Jin from BTS expect from his time in the South Korean army?", "In a parliamentary debate, the New Zealand prime minister used the insult after sitting down.", "Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kawānanakoa's ancestors include Hawaiian royalty and an Irish landowner.", "Seven of the nine people missing since the explosion are named by police.", "An officer tried to punch through the ice as emergency workers attempted to reach the children.", "Iain Packer has pleaded not guilty to a total of 46 charges, including 11 rapes, over a 26-year period.", "The hunt follows information given to police suggesting a death in 2020 at a Birmingham house.", "According to a court filing last month, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors almost $3.1bn (£2.5bn).", "Azeem Rafiq says he has \"been driven out of the country\" by \"threats and abuse\" since \"opening his heart out\" about racism at Yorkshire.", "The strike vote didn't make the 50% legal threshold for turnout in England.", "Forecasters issue new snow and ice alerts as workers announce fresh walkouts in wake of train strike.", "Police hope the distinctive haul of rings and pendants can be reunited with their owner.", "Beth Foreman says she left hospital just before midnight on a hunt to find \"non-existent\" drugs for her ill baby.", "The 42-year-old was given a 20-year sentence for the murder and attempted murder of her children.", "Hayley Ryan says it is \"unforgiveable to leave somebody for two years when they've lost a son\".", "It comes as some Tory members in his Suffolk constituency say the MP is \"not fit to represent\" them.", "The controversial brewer is told an advert for its fruit beers could mislead consumers.", "A bill designed to \"raise education standards\" in England has been dropped, Gillian Keegan says.", "A slice of England's wartime history has re-emerged - thanks, in part, to easterly winds.", "Genetic material extracted from soil has revealed the ancient plants and animals of North Greenland.", "A ruling on a coking coal mine in Cumbria had been due in July but was then put back to August.", "Fire experts warn people not to use tealights and terracotta pots as makeshift heaters.", "A select group of senior officials is currently running government in Northern Ireland, but who are they?", "Baroness Mone is accused of benefitting from a company she recommended for a Covid contract.", "Veronica Ryan's winning works include giant sculptures of Caribbean fruits on a street in Hackney.", "Conor McGinn, who represents St Helens North, will now sit as an independent MP.", "Data shows that 49 probationary constables quit in the past year, up from 25 the year before.", "Samuel Bateman claimed it was God's will for him to engage in sexual acts with his wives.", "Lisa Dorrian's family say she does not deserve to be out there alone, as Crimestoppers offer £20,000.", "Northern Ireland is the first part of the UK to ban protests outside clinics offering abortions.", "Lord Deben says a new coal mine in Cumbria will \"not contribute anything to domestic needs\".", "The 100-million-year-old fossil is the first such find in Australia to have a complete head and body.", "The prime minister says he will act \"to protect lives and livelihoods\" if union bosses remain \"unreasonable\".", "Climate experts and Tory MPs argued the Cumbria mine would scupper UK efforts to lower emissions.", "David Fuller abused a woman's body just seven hours after she died, her daughter tells a court.", "Stephen Flynn defeats Alison Thewliss - who is seen as being close to Nicola Sturgeon - in a vote of SNP MPs.", "The nomination of Ukraine's president is \"the most clear-cut in memory\", the magazine's editor says.", "Applications for a Derry and Strabane Council hardship fund exceed available funding.", "If Laura Strathearn had carried her baby to term, she would have gone straight into hospice care.", "The Welsh government says it is confident suppliers are working to address stock issues.", "Temperatures across the UK plummet overnight, dipping as low as -9.1C in the Scottish Highlands.", "Second-in-command Sunny Balwani receives a heavier sentence than the start-up's founder Elizabeth Holmes.", "Dina Boluarte becomes the country's first female leader after ex-president Pedro Castillo is detained and accused of rebellion.", "Keith Edmonds did not realise one of his victims was recording him with a mobile phone.", "Lottery numbers, the Queen's death and elections couldn't outperform US search interest in one thing...", "The north African team beat Spain on penalties in their World Cup last 16 match.", "Morocco's history-making win is given the royal seal of approval with a call from their King after Achraf Hakimi’s penalty proves him the coolest man in the stadium.", "A man was acquitted of Doreen Morris's murder in 1995 and the case remains unsolved.", "One primary school in Carmarthenshire reports 30 cases of scarlet fever among its pupils.", "Rishi Sunak promises to leave no stone unturned tackling the hospital backlog and ambulance delays.", "Russia says a third site was attacked by drones on Tuesday, a day after two of its airfields were hit on Monday.", "The 28-year-old is charged under the Public Order Act after the incident in Luton on Tuesday.", "Kyle Walker says he will \"not roll out a red carpet\" for Kylian Mbappe when England meet France in their World Cup quarter-final.", "A one-year-old was placed in an induced coma a day after a hospital discharged him, his parents say.", "After months of ministerial prevarication a decision has been made, but the arguments will go on.", "NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is now set to cut the pay of assembly members who have not legislated since May.", "Stephen Bear is accused by his ex-partner of uploading video of them having sex without her consent.", "Officials say asymptomatic and mild cases will no longer be forced into state quarantine centres.", "Julian Knight suspended as Conservative MP after complaint made to Metropolitan Police, party spokeswoman says", "Police say no arrests have been made in connection with the burglary at Raheem Sterling's home.", "Murder detectives say Liam Smith's body was found doused in both acid and alkaline substances.", "Provides an overview of Germany, including key dates and facts about this European country.", "There have been reports SNP MPs are divided between those loyal to Nicola Sturgeon and those who are not.", "Ukraine says bloody packages sent to its embassies bore the address of a German Tesla dealership.", "The couple were honoured in New York for their racial justice and mental health work.", "Updates as they happened as the Northern Ireland Assembly fails to elect a speaker for the fifth time.", "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series promises the inside story of why they left their royal roles.", "The mortgage lender says the annual rate of growth in property prices fell from 8.2% to 4.7%.", "Raphael Warnock fights off Republican challenger Herschel Walker to hold his Georgia Senate seat.", "Two trains collide near Barcelona on Wednesday morning, leaving at least 155 people injured.", "The PM says it is his \"duty\" to protect livelihoods if union leaders continue to be \"unreasonable\".", "Croatia take on Brazil, the Netherlands face Argentina, Morocco meet Portugal and England are up against France in the World Cup quarter-finals - here's all the key details.", "Members of the SSTA and NASUWT unions say they have been left with no option but industrial action.", "The shooting at a stadium is the Taliban's first public execution since their return to power.", "Disruption will be inevitable even if strikes are called off passengers are warned", "Rishi Sunak says it is \"right\" that the peer has taken a leave of absence from the House of Lords.", "Tottenham boss Antonio Conte suggests he will only select players who were not involved in the World Cup for his side's Boxing Day match at Brentford.", "The 22-year-old was in a car involved in a crash with a vehicle that had failed to stop for police.", "All ten members of a group of skiers caught in snow near a resort have been rescued, police say.", "Dutch trance legend Armin van Buuren hopes the London singer's music keeps on \"inspiring others\".", "Wales' Anglican and Catholic archbishops have issued a joint Christmas message for the first time.", "As the Premier League returns following the World Cup break, BBC Sport brings you up to speed on where it left off.", "A spokesperson for the royal couple says the newspaper profited off \"hate, violence and misogyny\".", "Argentina captain Lionel Messi reaches an \"agreement in principle\" to renew his contract at Paris St-Germain says BBC Sport's Guillem Balague.", "The 26-year-old was shot in the head while celebrating Christmas with her sister and friends.", "The move further restricts women's education, after girls were already excluded from secondary schools.", "The archbishop remembered the late monarch's ability to put her own interest after those she served.", "Police are hunting for a gunman who fled after shooting a number of people at the busy venue.", "His comments at Christmas Eve Mass in the Vatican follow previous remarks about the war in Ukraine.", "In his Christmas Day message, the pontiff also called for an \"immediate end\" to the war in Ukraine.", "King Charles III addresses the nation on Christmas Day in his first speech as the new monarch.", "At least 19 deaths are linked to a massive winter storm that continues to pummel the US and Canada.", "At least 38 deaths are now linked to a fearsome winter storm pummelling much of the US and Canada.", "Crews were called to Hockley, Essex, on Christmas Eve and treated the dog and owner at the scene.", "The Rugby League star's father says it happened while the family were out for a Christmas meal.", "An intercity coach overturns on Christmas Eve in British Columbia in \"extremely icy road conditions\".", "President Zelensky urges his people to persevere as Russian attacks leave millions without power.", "At least 19 deaths are linked to the freeze, which has brought blizzards and floods to the US and Canada.", "A small number of rail services usually operate on 26 December, but no trains will run in the UK today.", "Women in Afghanistan are protesting against the Taliban's ban on female students attending university.", "Protesters clash with police following Friday's shootings, which killed three people.", "The Christmas Eve service was organised by the Princess of Wales and featured tributes to the late Queen.", "Some of the 14 fishermen were abducted by al-Shabab militants off the Somali coast eight years ago.", "Quentin Sommerville traces the journey of a 22-year-old from the start of the war to being awarded the highest honour for bravery.", "Police say officers were called to a \"serious medical incident\" at the complex in Wiltshire.", "The charity fundraisers were held in Lowestoft, Felixstowe and Southwold.", "Welsh Water apologises as several villages are left without water on Christmas Day.", "Members of the Royal Family attended a Sunday morning service at St Mary Magdalene Church.", "Volunteers are spending their day with care leavers to ensure they are not alone this Christmas.", "The family of Rachael Moore, 22, who died on Christmas Eve, describes her as a \"caring friend\".", "The dance musician, who was best known for singles including Insomnia and We Come 1, died on Friday.", "The latest move by Afghanistan's Islamist rulers is condemned by the United Nations and the US.", "Trains will not run again until 27 December, as walkouts on the railways and other industries continue.", "Five NGOs suspend operations in Afghanistan after women are banned from working for them.", "In his first Christmas speech, King Charles praises public services and volunteers helping those in need.", "On his first foreign trip since the Russian invasion began, the Ukrainian leader pleads for more support.", "Two Ukrainian students hope to bring their Christmas traditions to west Wales.", "The auction follows a heated exchange between the prime minister and a political rival in parliament.", "Morgan Wainewright was 19 when he attacked Andrew Nicholas, who was on a golfing weekend.", "Damien Bendall carried out \"brutal, vicious and cruel attacks\" on his defenceless victims.", "Scottish ministers spent more than £250,000 on the independence referendum legal challenge.", "The US President called out Ukrainian people for their courage during a visit with President Zelensky.", "The action is a direct result of the government's refusal to negotiate over pay, union leaders say.", "Calls to the Scottish Ambulance Service are up 25% on the same period in previous years.", "A crowd of people watched the sunrise at the ancient Neolithic monument.", "Heidi's mum was diagnosed with cancer while pregnant just months after dad James was too.", "Nasa's Perseverance Mars rover begins building a store of rocks for retrieval by a later mission.", "The comedian criticised David Beckham's links with Qatar but has previously played gigs there himself.", "The unnamed policeman is alleged to have used excessive force while arresting two men.", "After seven years at Italy's flagship museum, Eike Schmidt has clearly had enough of bad punctuation.", "Rishi Sunak appoints veteran banker Sir Laurie Magnus to the role, which has been vacant since June.", "A winter storm has also disrupted holiday travel, with thousands of flights cancelled in both countries.", "Bill makes it easier for people to change their legally recognised gender but has been hugely divisive.", "The BMA's Welsh Council chairwoman says it is \"gut-wrenching\" for doctors to consider strike action.", "The plane had flown from The Gambia to the West Sussex airport on 7 December.", "It is the latest policy restricting women's education since the Taliban returned to power last year.", "Buyers will search for homes in affordable towns, the property website says, as house prices fall in 2023.", "Absence rates by early December were already ahead of 2021's autumn figures, when Omicron took hold.", "How Ukraine's president travelled out of his country for the first time since the war began.", "Two years after post-Brexit trading began with the EU, UK firms are still struggling with the new rules, says BCC.", "Glasgow chef Ahmed Aslam Ali is said to have first come up with the dish in the 1970s.", "A man arrested on suspicion of murdering pregnant 32-year-old Natalie McNally is freed on bail.", "Emmett Morrison, 38, admitted manslaughter but was convicted of murdering Timothy Dundon.", "Almost exactly 81 years ago, Winston Churchill spoke to Congress in the days after Pearl Harbor.", "The US will soon send the first of its Abrams tanks to Ukraine, but Poland has stopped sending weapons.", "About 1,000 paramedics, technicians and call staff are expected to go on strike.", "The UK Health Security Agency says the risk posed to the wider public is low.", "Some think Caroline is a \"Scrooge\" for charging her family-of-12 but she says it is \"fair\".", "The rock band's keyboardist played their hit Don't Stop Believin' at Donald Trump's Florida estate.", "Prosecutors have accused Sam Bankman-Fried of \"one of the biggest financial frauds in US history\".", "Fifa is investigating how celebrity chef Salt Bae and a number of other people gained \"undue access\" to the pitch at the end of the World Cup final in Qatar.", "On his first foreign trip since the Russian invasion began, the Ukrainian leader pleads for more support.", "A hotel is hit in Donetsk and hours later a Russian-installed official is killed in the south.", "Quentin Sommerville traces the journey of a 22-year-old from the start of the war to being awarded the highest honour for bravery.", "The US government sued the state's governor last week for allegedly trespassing on federal lands.", "Moscow accuses the US of fighting an indirect war with Russia as Ukraine's leader visits Washington.", "A countdown timer on scrums and kicks at goal will be introduced in January to help speed up the game, says World Rugby.", "Postal strikes may have added to delays in claims for energy support in December's sub-zero snap.", "Paramedics and ambulance staff are angry over the government's imposed 4% pay award.", "But molnupiravir showed no obvious benefit at reducing hospital cases and deaths, a study found.", "The venue has its licence suspended as it emerges there was a similar crush there in 2020.", "Brazil great Pele's cancer is advancing, according to the hospital where the 82-year-old is being treated.", "The Scottish Parliament's business managers had agreed members could go discussing and voting on amendments to the legislation.", "England and Arsenal footballer Beth Mead is crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2022, ahead of Ben Stokes and Eve Muirhead.", "The UK is facing a wave of strike action over pay, including by nurses and ambulance workers.", "Carter has his first pair of football boots, three years earlier than doctors thought he would walk.", "Ukraine's president gets a standing ovation from US lawmakers on his first foreign trip since Russia's invasion.", "The advanced air defence system is not a silver bullet, but it is extremely capable and effective.", "The Queen Consort will replace Prince Andrew as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards.", "Two ex-associates plead guilty as the former \"King of Crypto\" is extradited from the Bahamas.", "A council says it is not the first time trees, planters and benches at the park have been vandalised.", "Seán Rooney is the first Irish soldier to be killed on UN deployment in Lebanon for 20 years.", "President Vladimir Putin says he still continues to see Ukraine as a brotherly nation.", "The Ukrainian leader urged Americans to see the billions in military aid as an investment not charity.", "China's figures say no-one died of Covid on Wednesday - but there is scepticism about the data.", "Worthy FM accidentally played a Little Simz song that contained \"racially offensive language\".", "Students say higher costs are limiting opportunities to socialise and take part in trips and clubs.", "Useful information on strikes during the week up to Christmas, by the BBC’s Zoe Conway.", "Members of the Royal College of Nursing are planning strike action after voting down a pay deal.", "Network Rail advises people to travel only if \"absolutely necessary\" due to strike action by the RMT.", "Hundreds of people recognised for showcasing community values are celebrated in the service.", "The chart-topping British singer-songwriter had been due to stand trial in early January.", "MSPs have passed controversial plans to reform gender recognition legislation.", "A new law will simplify the process of transitioning, but the UK government says it has concerns and may step in.", "Eluned Morgan says she's \"hopeful\" ambulances will attend most serious calls during strikes.", "Alexandra Dennis was found guilty by trial of assault by beating of an 81-year-old man.", "The below-inflation increase in regulated fares will take place in March, the government said.", "Mario Sandoval was found guilty of abducting and torturing a student during Argentina's military rule.", "The economy has been weaker than previously estimated for much of this year, official figures show.", "Campaigners launched a judicial review against the relationships and sexuality education curriculum.", "The Oath Keepers and Proud Boys had a shared love of Donald Trump, but not so much for each other.", "His wealth has been hit as shares in his electric carmaker Tesla have more than halved.", "Some nurses can't join their colleagues on the picket lines for financial or practical reasons.", "Extra engineers are due to arrive on the ferry from Aberdeen to help restore power to 2,800 homes.", "American sports journalist Grant Wahl died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm at the World Cup in Qatar, his widow says.", "In a rare show of discontent, personnel say they wait days or sometimes weeks for repairs.", "The average monthly mortgage bill will go up from £750 to £1,000, the Bank of England says.", "Sam Bankman-Fried is accused of a huge scheme to defraud investors in failed crypto exchange FTX.", "Forecasting hazardous storms should get a big boost from the new Meteosat just launched to orbit.", "Jordan McSweeney refused to leave the Old Bailey's cells to be sentenced for Zara Aleena's murder.", "The Gloucester has been hailed as the UK's most important maritime find since the Mary Rose.", "Tomasz Waga, 23, was killed after he tried to steal drugs from a cannabis factory.", "Jordan McSweeney gets a minimum term of 38 years for murdering the law graduate in London last June.", "Dozens of engineers are now on Shetland to repair fallen electricity cables.", "The pair made almost £9m from their crimes, a hearing in Leeds is told.", "Argentina forward Lionel Messi says Sunday's final against France or Morocco will be the last World Cup game of his career.", "The BBC TV show co-host is taken to hospital after an incident during filming at an aerodrome.", "Stephen Bear shared footage of himself having sex with a woman that ended up on the OnlyFans website.", "Hannah Payton has started running her first classes after securing a job at a Manchester gym.", "Successive governments have struggled to tackle problems with the asylum process.", "The females had long been overlooked, say scientists who suggest snake sex could involve seduction.", "The White House invited the musical artists to perform as President Biden signed a same-sex marriage bill.", "Abrham Meareg and others are suing Meta for $2bn over claims its algorithm spread hate in Ethiopia.", "The drop from 11.1% in October is due to petrol prices falling but the cost of alcohol is increasing at its fastest rate since 1991.", "One of the world's biggest banks will end fossil fuel financing as part of efforts to become \"net zero\".", "Buckingham Palace spread stories about Meghan to \"suit other peoples' agendas\", Meghan's lawyer says.", "Three men were believed to be involved and one has been detained by the Qatari authorities.", "Royal Mail staff walked out on Wednesday in a fight over pay and conditions.", "Strikes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are set to go ahead on Thursday after talks fail.", "Health officials remind parents to be vigilant for signs and symptoms after a series of deaths.", "The group includes the consul-general, who denied beating a pro-democracy protester in Manchester.", "The six-year-old becomes the fourth boy to die after being pulled from the water in Solihull.", "Defending champions France beat World Cup surprise package Morocco at Al Bayt Stadium to set up a final against Argentina.", "Sam Bankman-Fried is accused of a scheme to defraud investors in failed crypto exchange FTX.", "Frozen discs were spotted in Glasgow's Linn Park during the current cold snap.", "A six-year-old boy is still in a critical condition, police confirm, after three others died.", "John Njau Kibue, a Kenyan security guard at the Lusail Stadium, dies after falling from the World Cup venue in Qatar.", "Hundreds of people asked to help, after Alishah's family spoke about struggling to pay for hot meals.", "The UK spy agency has challenged children to put their skills to the test in a festive brainteaser.", "Jersey police confirm one further death, taking the total to eight with at least one person missing.", "Victims of illegal money lenders tell BBC Spotlight how they faced a cycle of debt and intimidation.", "Two officers broke into a Soho gallery only to find a mannequin made of packing tape and foam.", "One victim is named locally as Jack Johnson, 10, as the Solihull community mourns their loss.", "Argentina winning the World Cup will see Qatar 2022 become known as Lionel Messi's World Cup, writes BBC Sport's Phil McNulty.", "Special forces killed two Afghan parents and shot their two boys. No one was held accountable.", "The BBC spoke to a striking worker on the picket line and someone who chose to work on Friday.", "The union boss accuses Labour of \"prevarication\" on workers' rights - having also attacked the government.", "Almost 3,000 households were cut off after heavy snow hit the islands prompting a major incident to be declared.", "A wave of Covid infections hitting China as it opens up has put pressure on the healthcare system.", "Some parts of Wales have a 30% vacancy rate for jobs as social workers.", "An Argentine pop song has become the unofficial World Cup anthem for Lionel Messi, the Argentina squad and fans.", "Celebrations for Les Bleus as Moroccan fans are left in silent despair.", "The family of Jax Albert Jefferys says he was diagnosed with flu in the lead-up to his death.", "Charlie Love is accused of attempting to murder two police officers in Strabane.", "Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez were on target as Argentina beat Croatia to reach the World Cup final.", "Mayor Klitschko reports blasts in a central district of Ukraine's capital and air defences are activated.", "The former PM's paid appearances since September include speeches in America, India and Portugal.", "The nation becomes the third in the Caribbean to scrap laws that criminalise gay sex.", "US researchers have overcome a major barrier to achieving low-carbon nuclear fusion.", "Tributes have been paid to the dancer and actor who was a big part of Ellen DeGeneres' talk show.", "The Grammy winner tells a jury of her \"torture\" after the Canadian rapper allegedly attacked her.", "A dramatic rescue by a fishing boat first on the scene saw 31 people hauled to safety from the water.", "The photograph shows the family of five dressed casually, smiling and holding hands in Norfolk.", "David Edwards and his wife Margaret were together for 35 years, say their \"distraught\" families.", "The strike vote didn't make the 50% legal threshold for turnout in England.", "Will Powell, 13, from Halifax, plays Prince Harry in series five of popular Netflix drama The Crown.", "The allegations relate to the deputy PM's previous tenure as justice secretary, Downing Street says.", "The 42-year-old was given a 20-year sentence for the murder and attempted murder of her children.", "The marvellous Moroccans have lit up this World Cup - and their fans got reward by witnessing their side becoming the first from Africa to reach the semi-finals.", "A search of the collapsed building has begun as about 12 people are missing.", "Before Saturday's World Cup quarter-final against England, French football writer Julien Laurens takes a look inside Didier Deschamps' squad.", "The UK wants better relations with nations which are neither bad guys nor allies, writes Laura Kuenssberg.", "Kwasi Kwarteng says Liz Truss’s short-lived government was “too impatient” with its economic plans.", "Harry Kane equals the England scoring record with his 53rd goal, netting in the World Cup quarter-final to move alongside Wayne Rooney.", "The former FTX boss says he would give anything to start a new business and repay crypto investors.", "Lives on hold. Living in pain. The hospital waiting list uncovered.", "After an incident at school, Jane is worried how Andrew Tate's views are affecting her 15-year-old.", "The website recently rolled back a policy aimed at tackling the spread of Covid falsehoods.", "Yan Rachinsky, from rights group Memorial, tells the BBC he ignored the order from the Kremlin.", "Police say they are looking for the car and any occupants, who may have information about the case.", "Fans have partied in the centre of European capitals, but some of the celebrations have turned ugly.", "Washington says it has seen reports that the countries are considering jointly producing drones.", "Billionaire Jimmy Lai is sentenced to prison and fined, as his son calls on the UK to help.", "After he almost drowned, the star refocused on his music career and ended up singing at Eurovision.", "Stephen Flynn announced his new team after he replaced Ian Blackford as the SNP Westminster leader.", "A charity says almost half of Scottish households have cut back on spending as energy bills soar.", "Maximuscle founder Zef Eisenberg was killed attempting a land speed record at Elvington in 2020.", "A new extinction list reveals grave conservation concern for a 'sea cow' that inspired tales of mermaids.", "BBC Sport's England reporter Kelly Somers takes us inside England's World Cup camp before Saturday's quarter-final against France.", "Thousands join protests in Bangladesh as the government denies cracking down on freedom of expression.", "France forward Kylian Mbappe is \"ignoring the talk about him\" before Saturday's World Cup quarter-final against England, says captain Hugo Lloris.", "Morocco become the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final and end the hopes of Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal.", "J Alexander Kueng is already serving time for a federal sentence for violating Mr Floyd's civil rights.", "President Joe Biden's administration tells Paul Whelan, convicted of espionage, to \"keep the faith\".", "England take control of the match and series thanks to a dramatic Pakistan collapse on day two of the second Test in Multan.", "The trust has apologised to a woman for failing to admit a surgeon was responsible for a massive haemorrhage.", "The World Cup's first temporary ground - Stadium 974 - will soon be dismantled. But what happens next?", "Louise Morgan pays £71 a day for her two sons, Teddy and Dexter, to go to nursery.", "William MacDowell was jailed for 30 years for the murders of a mother and her young son in 1976.", "Yan Rachinsky, from human rights organisation Memorial, says the order was made by Russian authorities.", "The Caledonian Inquirer publication will be distributed in west coast towns and island communities.", "Stephen Flynn insists he only decided to stand for the SNP group leadership after Ian Blackford quit.", "England manager Gareth Southgate says he will \"review and reflect\" on his side's World Cup quarter-final exit with the FA before making a decision on his future.", "Snow, ice and freezing fog sweep in over the weekend, with temperatures set to fall as low as -15C.", "This video has been removed for rights reasons.", "The search at the block of flats in St Helier will take days, even weeks, officials say.", "England are now established as genuine contenders as they prepare to meet World Cup holders France, says manager Gareth Southgate.", "Argentina's vast hordes of fans were finally able to celebrate as a chaotic, dramatic World Cup quarter-final against the Netherlands was won on penalties, writes Phil McNulty", "Two officers are sacked and four more told they would have been if they had not already left.", "Prosecutors suspect the country tried to influence European Parliament decisions using bribery.", "The RMT's general secretary says a meeting between the two was the best hope of making progress.", "Jo-Anne Shaw's dreams came true when she got the video call from her hero after a social media appeal.", "Chief of Police Robin Smith describes the damage following a fatal blast at a block of flats in Jersey.", "Sixteen children have now died with invasive strep A since September, health officials say.", "Brazil had danced into the quarter-finals of the World Cup but their dreams of a showpiece jig in the final ended in tears at Education City Stadium.", "Where might the match be won when England meet reigning champions France in Saturday's tantalising World Cup quarter-final?", "An explosion at a block of flats in St Helier leaves three people dead and a dozen missing.", "The Royal College of Nursing wants pay talks with the government, but a minister says it’s not their role.", "The actress died in hospital on Friday after surgery for a fall earlier in the week, her agent says.", "As actress Kate Winslet says more can be done to protect children, is the Online Safety Bill enough, asks Laura Kuenssberg?", "The couple's press secretary rejects claims they stepped back from royal life to protect their privacy.", "Nimco Ali says she's on a \"completely different planet\" from the home secretary during a broadcast interview.", "Bukayo Saka is rated the best player as England lose to France in the Fifa World Cup quarter-final in Qatar.", "The club says it was not told it had to immediately change its policy to cover new players.", "Youssef En-Nesyri's first-half header gives Morocco a 1-0 win over Portugal as they make history and become the first ever African side to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.", "Money, ID cards, flags, and even their own king: meet the Germans who refuse to recognise the state.", "The instalment, called Thin Green Line, focuses on real-life pressures facing paramedics.", "Ngozi Fulani earlier this week said her team had received \"horrific abuse\" on social media.", "Harry Kane misses a late penalty as France beat England in their World Cup quarter-final to set up a semi-final against Morocco.", "An overview of the Channel Islands, including key facts about these UK Crown Dependencies.", "Grant Wahl, 48, collapses suddenly while watching the Argentina-Netherlands game.", "US intelligence says fighting has slowed down and this will continue throughout the winter.", "Guests who spent three nights snowed in at the Tan Hill Inn during Storm Arwen return for a reunion.", "Football fans turned out in droves across England to watch the Three Lions triumph over Senegal.", "The actress tells the BBC ministers should make firms enforce strict age limits on their platforms.", "Cyril Ramaphosa, under pressure following a critical report, says the ANC will decide his next move.", "Police believe the man may have been killed as part of a cross-border drug-related feud.", "Tyson Fury retains his WBC world heavyweight title with a brutal 10th-round stoppage of Derek Chisora and set up a potential undisputed showdown with Oleksandr Usyk.", "A woman who uses a wheelchair says she had to move from an upstairs flat due to mobility issues.", "Olivier Giroud becomes France's all-time leading goalscorer as the World Cup holders coast past Poland to reach the quarter-finals.", "England face France in a mouth-watering World Cup quarter-final on Saturday - here's all the key details.", "Aminu Adamu Mohammed, 24, describes the experience as the ''darkest hours'' of his life.", "Joe Biden says he is willing to sit down with Vladimir Putin, but when might peace talks take place?", "Ladyzhyn's 18,000 people went without heating for a week after Russian missiles hit its power plant.", "The 17th Century crown has been removed from the Tower of London to be altered for the Coronation.", "Olivier Giroud becomes France's all-time top scorer, but he is upstaged by the performance of Kylian Mbappe in their last-16 win over Poland.", "Cyril Ramaphosa is accused of keeping large sums of cash on his farm then covering up its theft.", "BBC pundit Jermaine Jenas explains why Senegal have a winning mentality after enjoying two huge triumphs already this year.", "The head of energy giant Enel says renewables are key to getting prices back to pre-Ukraine war levels.", "England are through to the last 16 of the World Cup but if they want to go further they must overcome a 'dangerous' Senegal side who are African champions.", "The home secretary says Michael Lockwood is the subject of a probe into a historical allegation.", "Why England's emphatic win over Senegal to set up a World Cup quarter-final with France was more proof of Gareth Southgate's sure touch in team selection.", "Brazil great Pele is \"still undergoing treatment and remains stable\" according to a statement from his hospital in Sao Paulo.", "The extent of the disruption is becoming clear as schools inform families about strike-related closures", "The Conservative Party chairman urges unions not to disrupt people's Christmases as more action looms.", "Lionel Messi produces a moment of magic in his 1,000th career game as Argentina beat Australia to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.", "Elnaz Rekabi became a hero of the protest movement after competing abroad with her hair uncovered.", "England manager Gareth Southgate praised his side's \"ruthless\" display against Senegal that sets up an \"acid test\" game against defending champions France in the World Cup quarter-finals.", "Talks between the RMT and train operators aimed at halting the walkouts are expected to continue.", "Russia captured Mariupol earlier this year, and the images suggest it is consolidating its presence.", "Ursula von der Leyen says the EU must act amid concerns within the bloc over US climate legislation.", "Nearly 2,000 people are told to leave the area of Mount Semeru, as \"hot avalanches\" of lava pour from it.", "The seals were found on the Caspian Sea coast, but officials do not believe they died violently.", "How are the stall holders of one Christmas market coping with the cost of living crisis?", "David Gilliver has won awards for his Macro photography putting tiny figurines into imaginative scenes.", "Sofia lives in cramped conditions with her boyfriend and his mother after strikes destroyed their home.", "Nadhim Zahawi says President Putin \"wants to see\" strikes, as he outlines plans to avoid disruption.", "The White House says the former president's comments are \"anathema to the soul of our nation\".", "Arsene Wenger suggests that countries that protested at the World Cup before their first matches saw their on-field performances suffer as a result.", "Participants, who wore red and blue suits, were fundraising for the Alder Hey Children's Hospital.", "Jude Bellingham is voted the star player by BBC Sport readers as England beat Senegal to progress to the quarter-finals of the Fifa World Cup in Qatar.", "The Eurovision star played live for people in Cardiff Bay on Saturday.", "Rio Ferdinand explains how this World Cup has been a test of Harry Maguire's character as well as his ability - and the England defender has shown everyone he has plenty of both.", "The actress says the plight of a mother who runs life-saving support for her daughter \"destroyed me\".", "Both sides reach a first point of agreement in bid to end almost 60 years of war, the president says.", "As actress Kate Winslet says more can be done to protect children, is the Online Safety Bill enough, asks Laura Kuenssberg?", "Raheem Sterling leaves the England World Cup squad in Qatar and returns to London after his home was burgled.", "The measure - due to come into force on Monday - intensifies pressure on Russia over the Ukraine invasion.", "Of 197 children taken in by Kent County Council this year, 39 are missing, figures show.", "Dean Burns urges other parents with any concerns about their children's health to get them checked.", "Huge growth in technology means women are desperately needed to fill more jobs, businesses say.", "The electronics retailer has switched to alternative delivery firms for the time being.", "Brazil deliver an ominous message to their World Cup rivals with a dazzling display of attacking brilliance to dismantle South Korea and set up a quarter-final against Croatia.", "Ngozi Fulani told the BBC her encounter with Lady Susan Hussey was like an \"interrogation\".", "England will meet France in the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday after an impressive demolition of Senegal at Al Bayt Stadium.", "Sailors spend two days at remote UK science station and unearth buildings buried in heavy snow.", "Two MPs enter the race to replace Ian Blackford who has stood down as the SNP's Westminster leader.", "Gareth Southgate says England's tag as 'favourites' means nothing as the Three Lions prepare to face Senegal in the World Cup last-16 in Qatar.", "It was one of eight towns elevated to a city to mark the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.", "Tottenham boss Antonio Conte suggests he will only select players who were not involved in the World Cup for his side's Boxing Day match at Brentford.", "Arsenal underline their title credentials by fighting back to beat West Ham as they move seven points clear at the top of the Premier League.", "More than 70 fighter jets and drones crossed into its air defence zone, the defence ministry says.", "About 20% of our water supply is lost to leaks and scientists say miniature 'pipe robots' could help.", "A man also suffered life-threatening injuries and two people have been arrested.", "All ten members of a group of skiers caught in snow near a resort have been rescued, police say.", "The 22-year-old was in a car involved in a crash with a vehicle that had failed to stop for police.", "The 10.7 million who saw King Charles's message compares with 8.96 million who watched the Queen a year ago.", "The UK Health Security Agency says it will halt publishing the figures from early January.", "As the Premier League returns following the World Cup break, BBC Sport brings you up to speed on where it left off.", "Kathy Burke and Richard E Grant are among the celebrity names remembering Ronan Vibert.", "Pte Seán Rooney is the first Irish soldier to be killed on UN deployment in Lebanon for 20 years.", "A man, 30, and a woman, 19, are held in connection with the killing of Elle Edwards in Merseyside.", "The 26-year-old was shot in the head while celebrating Christmas with her sister and friends.", "Canadian Annick Ruedi wanted to spend Christmas on a Texas beach. Now its too cold to go outside.", "The archbishop remembered the late monarch's ability to put her own interest after those she served.", "Ben Stokes speaks to Lord Botham about transforming Test cricket, their heroics at Headingley and opening up about mental health.", "Over a long career, Kathy Whitworth captured 88 professional titles - more than any other golfer.", "More than 45,000 migrants have made the perilous crossing from France to England so far this year", "Welsh Water admits it should have done better as households remain without water on Boxing Day.", "Scottish Water says supplies have now been fully restored to the 5,000 homes that were affected.", "In his Christmas Day message, the pontiff also called for an \"immediate end\" to the war in Ukraine.", "King Charles III addresses the nation on Christmas Day in his first speech as the new monarch.", "\"Unmanned aerial vehicles\" violated South Korean airspace, say the country's joint chiefs of staff.", "At least 38 deaths are now linked to a fearsome winter storm pummelling much of the US and Canada.", "Three people are killed by explosions at the airfields, which Russia blames on Ukrainian drones.", "An intercity coach overturns on Christmas Eve in British Columbia in \"extremely icy road conditions\".", "The police are asking the public to help identify the gunman involved in a shooting in Wallasey.", "More people ventured out to stores on 27 December but overall numbers are below pre-Covid levels.", "Anger swells despite a fierce crackdown as the regime faces its biggest challenge in decades.", "The body of a woman is found two days after a bus falls from a bridge into a river in the Galicia region.", "The Met Office has confirmed snow fell in parts of Scotland on 25 December as weather warnings were extended.", "Using dogs to chase or kill foxes was made illegal in England and Wales in the Hunting Act 2004.", "A small number of rail services usually operate on 26 December, but no trains will run in the UK today.", "Larry Simyunn and Jervis Baligat were working as crewmen on the L'Ecume II when it sank.", "Quentin Sommerville traces the journey of a 22-year-old from the start of the war to being awarded the highest honour for bravery.", "Some of the 14 fishermen were abducted by al-Shabab militants off the Somali coast eight years ago.", "The former PM tells the BBC that Rishi Sunak should avoid creating new loopholes for criminal gangs.", "The charity fundraisers were held in Lowestoft, Felixstowe and Southwold.", "Members of the Royal Family attended a Sunday morning service at St Mary Magdalene Church.", "Volunteers are spending their day with care leavers to ensure they are not alone this Christmas.", "Patrick Rogers and Mary Duffy were among four people killed in two crashes in County Tyrone.", "A boat carrying more than 180 Rohingyas lands in Indonesia - the second to do so in two days.", "The family of Rachael Moore, 22, who died on Christmas Eve, describes her as a \"caring friend\".", "Kathleen McGinness, 73, lived in a building next to the block which collapsed on 10 December.", "Eight fire engines were sent to the scene and a building has partially collapsed due to the fire.", "Valley Rock Voices in Neath is a choir of over 200 women aged between 21 and 80.", "Five NGOs suspend operations in Afghanistan after women are banned from working for them.", "In his first Christmas speech, King Charles praises public services and volunteers helping those in need.", "Chinese citizens will also be able to travel overseas, the immigration authority said on Tuesday.", "The wife and daughter of Ali Daei, who has backed protesters, are taken off a flight out of Iran.", "Half the deaths from the big freeze across the US and Canada are recorded in western New York State.", "A powerful Arctic winter storm moving across the US could bring the iciest Christmas in decades.", "The speed limit will drop from 30mph to 20mph in some built-up areas in Wales next September.", "The amount of time without sea-ice is becoming too long for the bears to survive, experts say.", "The light needs to be right for this red star of Christmas and they don't like draughts.", "Anju Asok, 35, and her children were found seriously injured at a property in Kettering on Thursday.", "People gather to remember four young boys who died after falling into a frozen lake.", "The new \"front-line creative brigade\" will consist of volunteer musicians and mobilised recruits.", "With many families struggling to heat homes or feed children, presents are \"on the backburner\".", "How Argentina great Lionel Messi lifting the famous trophy was an iconic moment that will live forever in World Cup history and Middle East imagery.", "Police say 31 objects from Dresden's Green Vault have been recovered after the 2019 robbery.", "The union says ministers must respond within 48 hours of next week's walkout to avoid more action.", "Police forces implore people to stay off icy water, as cases continue a week after four boys died.", "Dramatic video shows flames inside the MNKY HSE restaurant in London's Mayfair as guests rushed to get outside.", "A village school has now opened its new building, paid for in part by a guitar donated by the band.", "Separately nurses have threatened to escalate strike action in the new year if ministers do not enter pay talks next week.", "Kylian Mbappe scores a \"sensational\" volley as France come from 2-0 down to level in the World Cup final against Argentina.", "The tree in Mykolaiv is made from camouflage nets which will be donated to soldiers in the new year.", "Officials say an oil tanker overturned and caught fire in a tunnel linking Kabul to the north.", "Only 8.8% of eligible voters took part in parliamentary elections largely boycotted by the opposition.", "A Kyiv metro station and bomb shelter is transformed into a TV studio for the selection programme.", "Watch the moment Lionel Messi lifts the World Cup trophy for Argentina after they beat France 4-2 on penalties after a thrilling 3-3 draw in the final.", "The cabinet minister, on Laura Kuenssberg's Sunday show, says health workers should end their industrial action.", "Irene Allen was hit by a van in Walmersley Road, which she campaigned to make safer in the 1960s.", "Scottish Water says there has been a rise of up to 150% in burst pipes in recent days due to the rise in temperatures.", "The country is currently facing a spike in cases after restrictions were eased earlier this month.", "The cold snap ends with warnings of rain and possible flooding, ahead of the Christmas getaway.", "Residents in the Ardnamurchan peninsula were cheering on their friend in the dance final.", "The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack near Kirkuk in northern Iraq.", "Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar is the leader under a deal with government partners Fianna Fáil.", "Useful information on strikes during the week up to Christmas, by the BBC’s Zoe Conway.", "The warning comes as the ambulance service says it is experiencing high demand.", "Do public or private sector workers get paid more?", "Lionel Messi restores Argentina's lead in extra time as they lead France 3-2 in the World Cup final.", "After Lionel Messi led Argentina to World Cup glory, no-one can now deny he belongs in the same pantheon as Pele and Diego Maradona.", "It was one of the greatest finals in World Cup history, so how did the \"breathless\" showpiece unfold?", "Thirty-nine people were rescued and four people died when a migrant boat got into trouble.", "The director tells Desert Island Discs he fears sharks are \"mad\" at him after his 1975 blockbuster.", "Gareth Southgate will remain as England manager until after the European Championships in 2024.", "Senior Ukrainian commanders say Russia could be planning a new attack early next year.", "Taraneh Alidoosti is accused of \"spreading falsehoods\" about the protest movement gripping Iran.", "The Simon Community says it is seeing a rise in the amount of people sleeping on the streets.", "A man convicted after stabbing his victim 51 times in 2008 is on the run following temporary release.", "Residents are evacuated from their homes when water floods the streets in the middle of the night.", "A cold weather warning for Northern Ireland has ended with Monday's temperatures to hit 14C.", "Lionel Messi leads Argentina to World Cup glory, beating France on penalties in one of the most thrilling climaxes in final history.", "Rebecca Ikumelo's family say she was well respected for her \"care, kindness and love\".", "The strike vote didn't make the 50% legal threshold for turnout in England.", "A man and a woman are charged with neglect and have been remanded in custody.", "Israel says Salah Hamouri is a member of a terror group and has planned attacks on the state.", "Eluned Morgan says she's \"hopeful\" ambulances will attend most serious calls during strikes.", "Angel di Maria finishes off a lovely team move as Argentina take a 2-0 lead over France in the World Cup final.", "Class sizes will increase as teacher vacancies go unfilled, a union warns following the budget announcement.", "Berlin police say a tweet asking for help in tracking down suspects linked to the incident is fake.", "Croatia's third top-three finish at the World Cup has a \"golden layer\", says boss Zlatko Dalic after his side clinch a play-off victory over history-makers Morocco.", "Almost 500 internal Northern Ireland Office memos from the 1990s are now online for the first time.", "The number of people dying rose by 27% between 2019 and 2021, to more than 9,000.", "The rugby player, who was last seen outside a bar in Barcelona, is still missing and without his passport.", "Data shows that 49 probationary constables quit in the past year, up from 25 the year before.", "England winger Raheem Sterling is to return to Qatar before Saturday's World Cup quarter-final against France.", "Industry watchdog Ofwat, has said that poor performance has become the norm in the water industry.", "The leaders of a trip which killed four people did not have the necessary training, a report says.", "Cold weather raises concerns for the vulnerable as temperatures drop below 0°C.", "The musician, who co-founded the band, played on tracks like Golden Brown, No More Heroes and Peaches.", "Harry and Meghan's Netflix series touches on press intrusion, relationships with the royal family and race.", "Second-in-command Sunny Balwani receives a heavier sentence than the start-up's founder Elizabeth Holmes.", "Dina Boluarte becomes the country's first female leader after ex-president Pedro Castillo is detained and accused of rebellion.", "Lottery numbers, the Queen's death and elections couldn't outperform US search interest in one thing...", "People are warned to \"think carefully\" about plans after airport border staff announce a Christmas strike.", "Anyone receiving change in post offices across the UK may get a King Charles 50p coin for the first time.", "Scientists describe the minute-long blast as \"remarkable\".", "A senior hospital manager says it is difficult to secure community care for vulnerable discharged patients.", "Patient privacy and dignity, nutrition, and staffing levels all need to be improved, say inspectors.", "The Qatar World Cup chief is criticised for saying \"death is a natural part of life\" when asked about a migrant worker's death at the tournament.", "The Russian has been freed by the US, in a prisoner swap with basketball star Brittney Griner.", "Police say the belongings are no longer needed in the ongoing investigation into the four deaths.", "Genetic material extracted from soil has revealed the ancient plants and animals of North Greenland.", "The basketball star was exchanged for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.", "A town councillor says he sends his sympathies to the \"families who have lost loved ones\".", "US citizen Anne Sacoolas is given an eight month suspended sentence for causing the death of teenager Harry Dunn in 2019.", "One photo shows a double room with wardrobe and slippers, as Elon Musk seeks to instil a \"hardcore\" work culture.", "Jersey Coastguard says a captain and two crew are missing after a collision off the Jersey coast.", "BBC News NI gains access to the emergency department at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.", "A shortage of beds and huge demand is causing severe overcrowding and delays in A&E.", "Emma Louise Powell's family pay tribute to their \"beautiful young lady\" who had a free spirit.", "PC Sam Grigg is set to appear in court after an alleged offence in south-west London.", "Brittney Griner flies home to the US while notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout returns to Russia.", "Mohsen Shekari was convicted of \"enmity against God\" after what an activist called a \"show trial\".", "Health bosses in England are worried about the threat of flu, Covid and other respiratory illnesses.", "Survivors of the 2002 attacks tell the BBC they don't believe Umar Patek has been deradicalised.", "Thirty-three cases of scarlet fever have now been found in pupils at Brynaman Primary School.", "Anne Sacoolas pleads guilty to causing death by careless driving after a three-year transatlantic row.", "The BBC's home and legal correspondent Dominic Casciani explains the case in under three minutes.", "EU ministers vote to admit Croatia to the Schengen zone, but Romania and Bulgaria must wait.", "A select group of senior officials is currently running government in Northern Ireland, but who are they?", "Often living off just over £5 a day, people in the asylum system say they are struggling to cope.", "Lord Deben says a new coal mine in Cumbria will \"not contribute anything to domestic needs\".", "The government is exploring the idea of stopping some emergency service workers from walking out.", "Applications for a Derry and Strabane Council hardship fund exceed available funding.", "Temperatures across the UK plummet overnight, dipping as low as -9.1C in the Scottish Highlands.", "The London-based trio follow in the footsteps of previous winners Sam Fender, Celeste and Tom Odell.", "An inquest into the deaths of four people who died paddleboarding on the River Cleddau last month.", "Zoe Williams warns people to \"be prepared\" on the water after the paddleboarder had to be rescued.", "After months of ministerial prevarication a decision has been made, but the arguments will go on.", "The England and Wales Cricket Board reviewed more than 200 complaints of alleged discrimination in 2021 as part of a new centralised investigation system.", "A Universal Credit applicant lost £54 a week in tax credits when he was temporarily unable to work.", "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex's Netflix series promises the inside story of why they left their royal roles.", "It comes as some Tory members in his Suffolk constituency say the MP is \"not fit to represent\" them.", "Sq Ldr George 'Johnny' Johnson, 101, was part of the World War Two operation involving bouncing bombs.", "England's health and care system can no longer operate effectively as delays mount, regulators warn.", "BBC News reports from hospitals across England as the latest figures show more people are waiting longer.", "Pedro Castillo tried to dissolve parliament but instead ended up being thrown out of office.", "Veronica Ryan's winning works include giant sculptures of Caribbean fruits on a street in Hackney.", "The 19-year-old's family say justice is \"complete\" as US citizen Anne Sacoolas is sentenced.", "Northern Ireland is the first part of the UK to ban protests outside clinics offering abortions.", "Rules introduced after the financial crisis in 2008 that were aimed at limiting risks will be eased.", "Warning by NHS bosses as nearly three in 10 crews caught in queues outside A&E in England last week.", "Climate experts and Tory MPs argued the Cumbria mine would scupper UK efforts to lower emissions.", "A shortage of beds is causing severe overcrowding in A&E and putting patients at risk, doctors warn.", "Sacoolas is sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for 12 months.", "The mother of the teenager says justice in the courts marks the end of their three-year campaign.", "England manager Gareth Southgate is not given enough credit for the job he has done, says midfielder Kalvin Phillips.", "NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is now set to cut the pay of assembly members who have not legislated since May.", "Julian Knight was suspended as a Tory MP after a report to police involving allegations of sexual assault.", "Julian Knight suspended as Conservative MP after complaint made to Metropolitan Police, party spokeswoman says", "The Russian president has vowed to continue attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure.", "Updates as they happened as the Northern Ireland Assembly fails to elect a speaker for the fifth time.", "Stormont's political stalemate is delaying a £600 energy payment to homes, suggests the NI secretary.", "The first episodes of the Netflix series cover racism, press intrusion and life in the Royal Family.", "Three years after winning in the High Court, hundreds of sub-postmasters are still waiting for compensation.", "Griner, who was freed in a prisoner swap, is arguably the greatest-ever female basketball player.", "It is one of the grand scientific projects of the 21st Century and will even search for extra-terrestrials.", "Members will be asked to elect a Speaker, which the DUP has refused to do since May's election.", "Police believe the man may have been killed as part of a cross-border drug-related feud.", "A woman who uses a wheelchair says she had to move from an upstairs flat due to mobility issues.", "A landslide public vote chooses the 2022 word of the year from options prepared by lexicographers.", "Why England's emphatic win over Senegal to set up a World Cup quarter-final with France was more proof of Gareth Southgate's sure touch in team selection.", "The vehicles, including two Porsches and a rare Ariel Atom car, were taken from an industrial unit.", "Sir Keir Starmer says sweeping constitutional change would free up £200m a year and restructure the economy.", "England manager Gareth Southgate praised his side's \"ruthless\" display against Senegal that sets up an \"acid test\" game against defending champions France in the World Cup quarter-finals.", "Ursula von der Leyen says the EU must act amid concerns within the bloc over US climate legislation.", "Ukraine’s electricity grid operator says infrastructure has seen emergency power cuts after an eighth wave of Russian attacks.", "The seals were found on the Caspian Sea coast, but officials do not believe they died violently.", "The actress was teasing her Ocean's Eleven co-star as he received a lifetime achievement award.", "A new service to Liverpool out of north Wales is set to start in 2023, says Transport for Wales.", "Emergency services were called to the market on St Enoch Square in Glasgow at about 11:00.", "Goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic is the hero, saving three penalties in the shootout, as Croatia edge past Japan with a 3-1 victory to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.", "Three people are killed by explosions at the airfields, which Russia blames on Ukrainian drones.", "Some youth leaders say they would have to reduce the number of nights that centres can open.", "Nipsa and Unison workers are taking industrial action from Monday in a dispute over pay.", "The new walkout threatens to hit celebrations and travel over the festive weekend.", "Ngozi Fulani says she has suffered horrific abuse, but has also been heartened by messages of support.", "A 27-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder over the head-on crash.", "The Labour leader takes part in the second of two events about the party's proposals for constitutional change.", "Hanna's family's \"hearts have been broken into a million pieces\" after she died within 24 hours.", "The ship fires its main engine near the Moon, committing itself to a return to Earth on Sunday.", "How are the stall holders of one Christmas market coping with the cost of living crisis?", "A family found they had been visiting the wrong grave for their father for 17 years.", "The headteacher of Morelands Primary School in Waterlooville says they are \"devastated\" by the loss.", "The latest deadly strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure caused significant disruption to the power grid.", "The veteran actor was one of the founding cast members on the hit children's TV show.", "Raheem Sterling leaves the England World Cup squad in Qatar and returns to London after his home was burgled.", "Celebrities from across the world enjoyed an evening of glitz and glamour at the awards.", "England will meet France in the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday after an impressive demolition of Senegal at Al Bayt Stadium.", "Three people are arrested after a woman suffers life-threatening injuries and another man is hurt.", "Orla Guerin reports from Port-au-Prince, where Haitians live in fear of killings, kidnappings and rape.", "It was one of eight towns elevated to a city to mark the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.", "England pull off one of their greatest victories with a 74-run win over Pakistan in the first Test in Rawalpindi.", "Olivier Giroud becomes France's all-time top scorer, but he is upstaged by the performance of Kylian Mbappe in their last-16 win over Poland.", "A child in Hampshire has died of strep A, officials confirm, bringing the total deaths to eight.", "The 50p coin featuring the Hogwarts Express is the second in The Royal Mint's Harry Potter series.", "Orla Guerin reports from Port-au-Prince, where Haitians live in fear of killings, kidnappings and rape.", "Passengers told to plan journeys in advance due to engineering works over the festive period.", "The actress's team have now asked for the jury's verdict to be reversed, or for a new trial entirely.", "Donnie McKinnon, 48, believed to be from Lochaber in the Highlands, died after the incident in a bar.", "As 10 men finally go to trial over the 2016 Brussels attacks, the BBC speaks to victims' families.", "Sofia lives in cramped conditions with her boyfriend and his mother after strikes destroyed their home.", "Girl band Flo, pop singer Cat Burns and dance act Piri & Tommy are all tipped for success in 2023.", "Nadhim Zahawi says President Putin \"wants to see\" strikes, as he outlines plans to avoid disruption.", "The business lobby group calls on the government to boost plans for economic growth.", "A mother with agoraphobia wants employers to be more clear when listing remote and flexible jobs.", "Buoyed by recent opinion polls, the party wants to start talking about its ideas for the long term.", "Brazil deliver an ominous message to their World Cup rivals with a dazzling display of attacking brilliance to dismantle South Korea and set up a quarter-final against Croatia.", "Ngozi Fulani told the BBC her encounter with Lady Susan Hussey was like an \"interrogation\".", "Prince Harry describes the \"pain and suffering of women marrying into\" the Royal Family in a new clip.", "Glasgow Airport flights were cancelled and passengers were left outside in the cold for two hours.", "England captain Harry Kane scores his first goal of the 2022 World Cup to double their lead against Senegal in the last 16.", "Aminu Adamu Mohammed, 24, describes the experience as the ''darkest hours'' of his life.", "A plane from Krakow to Bristol landed safely and no dangerous object was found, officials say.", "Talks between the RMT and train operators aimed at halting the walkouts are expected to continue.", "Local campaigners say they are living in constant fear of the next crash on the A9.", "The actress says the plight of a mother who runs life-saving support for her daughter \"destroyed me\".", "Hussein Haseeb Ahmed died after arriving on a small boat seven days earlier.", "Police say a man came out of a refugee shelter and attacked two teenagers on their way to school.", "Two women who fled to Wales in different centuries find common ground on loss and integration.", "Ex-health secretary accuses Tory peer of being threatening when trying to secure a contract for a firm.", "The stabbing of non-league footballer Cody Fisher on a dance floor has left his family with \"broken hearts\".", "The oil price cap, agreed by Western countries, aims to reduce Russian revenue for its war in Ukraine.", "About 150 staff are believed to be affected after they were told by email the company will close.", "Passengers are being urged to check travel times as rail workers finish their latest walkout.", "Arsenal underline their title credentials by fighting back to beat West Ham as they move seven points clear at the top of the Premier League.", "Properties were evacuated and four people taken to hospital after the incident in Evesham.", "PM Pedro Sánchez backs aid for households amid an energy crisis prompted by Russia's war in Ukraine.", "The 10.7 million who saw King Charles's message compares with 8.96 million who watched the Queen a year ago.", "The celebrity chef says more pupils could get free food, if money raised by the soft drinks levy was used.", "Kathy Burke and Richard E Grant are among the celebrity names remembering Ronan Vibert.", "A man, 30, and a woman, 19, are held in connection with the killing of Elle Edwards in Merseyside.", "Sabre-rattling grows amid claims an attack is being planned on the territory's ethnic Serb areas.", "Recruitment of Welsh language teachers in the Argentine province has been difficult since Covid.", "Police issue a new CCTV image of Lyla Lake, who was last seen at Reading train station a week ago.", "\"Unmanned aerial vehicles\" violated South Korean airspace, say the country's joint chiefs of staff.", "George Santos, who was recently elected, says he misrepresented his education and employment history.", "Strikes this week include staff from customer service, safety and timetabling at three companies.", "Despite efforts to save him, police say he was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after being injured.", "Taxpayers in Torfaen and Monmouthshire are being urged to double check their council tax bill.", "More people ventured out to stores on 27 December but overall numbers are below pre-Covid levels.", "The body of a woman is found two days after a bus falls from a bridge into a river in the Galicia region.", "The decision comes as tensions between the self-ruled island and China grow.", "An investigation has begun after a pedestrian was struck by a marked police car in Livingston on Boxing Day.", "Nearly half of the confirmed deaths have been in the hard-hit town of Buffalo, New York.", "The singer says she has been made aware of issues \"that do not align with the communities I support\".", "The former PM tells the BBC that Rishi Sunak should avoid creating new loopholes for criminal gangs.", "Michael Gove says too many planning applications are \"indifferent\" or \"insipid\".", "Meat millionaire Pavel Antov, who recently denied criticising the war in Ukraine, had just turned 65.", "Armed with a hammer, chisel and ball of string, bomb disposal teams had a short life expectancy.", "Half the deaths from the big freeze across the US and Canada are recorded in western New York State.", "Sean Dilley says he acted 'instinctively' after being targeted in central London early on Tuesday.", "Patrick Rogers and Mary Duffy were among four people killed in two crashes in County Tyrone.", "Eight fire engines were sent to the scene and a building has partially collapsed due to the fire.", "The musician tells Jamie Oliver, who is guest editing R4's Today, how cooking is a space for his neurodiversity.", "But Chinese tourists will not have unfettered access to all countries - as some impose restrictions.", "Chinese citizens will also be able to travel overseas, the immigration authority said on Tuesday.", "The wife and daughter of Ali Daei, who has backed protesters, are taken off a flight out of Iran.", "Premier League football resumes with a feast of Boxing Day fixtures which produces 25 goals, as table-toppers Arsenal show no signs of letting up.", "A battered little piece of jewellery found in a Norfolk field is much older than first thought.", "The most-watched single TV channel moment of 2022 sees England lose 2-1 to France in Qatar.", "The UK wants better relations with nations which are neither bad guys nor allies, writes Laura Kuenssberg.", "Mother-of-five Charlotte Chapman says positive attitude gets her through any tough times.", "Kyiv's forces hit a hotel used by the Russian mercenary group, a Ukrainian official says.", "Harry Kane misses a late penalty as France beat England in their World Cup quarter-final to set up a semi-final against Morocco.", "After a 26-day flight around the Moon, Nasa's future astronaut ship parachutes into the Pacific.", "Four other residents are still unaccounted for, police say.", "Yan Rachinsky, from rights group Memorial, tells the BBC he ignored the order from the Kremlin.", "The family run took place on a new 5K route starting and finishing at Glasgow Green.", "Road closures in place and people asked to avoid certain areas as wintry conditions impact roads.", "Washington says it has seen reports that the countries are considering jointly producing drones.", "Stephen Flynn announced his new team after he replaced Ian Blackford as the SNP Westminster leader.", "It was not just fans who were drawn to Swansea for the filming of an X-rated comedy.", "Passengers at Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick airports have seen their travel plans disrupted.", "Harry Kane says England will use their World Cup defeat by France to be \"mentally and physically stronger for the next challenge\" as they arrived home.", "Thirteen-year-old Lissandro won with 203 points for his song Oh Maman! at the contest in Armenia.", "Laura Kuenssberg questions guests including NHS England's medical director and the foreign secretary.", "After a test flight around the Moon, America's next-generation astronaut ship is about to come home.", "They pick an image from September's Highland Games for first festive card since Charles became King.", "The NHS 111 Wales helpline receives more than 10,000 calls in 24 hours, its busiest day ever.", "Foreign Secretary James Cleverly says the government is not due to sit down to discuss pay with nursing unions.", "The Libyan man is accused of making the bomb which destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie.", "Morocco become the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final and end the hopes of Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal.", "The public were advised to stay away while the walrus regained strength before carrying on its journey.", "Larry Simyunn and Jervis Baligat were on board the L'Ecume II when it sank off Jersey on Thursday.", "The BBC's Sophie Madden is in Babbs Mill Park, where emergency services are at the scene of the incident.", "Nurses are set to strike twice in the run up to Christmas after rejecting below-inflation pay rises.", "England captain Owen Farrell says the Rugby Football Union's decision to sack Eddie Jones as head coach was \"unbelievably disappointing\".", "Key moments in the story of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1998.", "The Caledonian Inquirer publication will be distributed in west coast towns and island communities.", "As England exit the World Cup at the quarter-final stage, BBC Sport's Phil McNulty says this loss feels even more painful than those of previous tournaments.", "Snow, ice and freezing fog sweep in over the weekend, with temperatures set to fall as low as -15C.", "The overall number of temporary homes climbs 60% in a year to 6,935.", "Emergency chiefs confirm that a search and rescue operation is now one of recovery.", "The duo will make their fifth assault on the charts with a cover of Do They Know It's Christmas.", "A union leader says using the Army at Cardiff and other airports would be \"completely wrong\".", "Prosecutors suspect the country tried to influence European Parliament decisions using bribery.", "New way of altering DNA is used to engineer an \"exciting\", experimental therapy for a 13-year-old girl.", "Jo-Anne Shaw's dreams came true when she got the video call from her hero after a social media appeal.", "An explosion at a block of flats in St Helier leaves three people dead and a dozen missing.", "The Royal College of Nursing wants pay talks with the government, but a minister says it’s not their role.", "There is no update on their condition after the incident at Babbs Mill Park on Sunday.", "The actress died in hospital on Friday after surgery for a fall earlier in the week, her agent says.", "Fans party in the street after becoming the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final.", "Reports suggest people were playing on ice at a park near Birmingham, the fire service says.", "Charities are warning of the combined impact of the cost of living, Covid and a housing shortage.", "Local authorities are putting families in hotels that have no facilities for cooking or washing.", "Figures obtained by Labour through Freedom of Information requests reveal staff pressures in the NHS.", "Former England captain Alan Shearer says Gareth Southgate has shown he is the right man to take this exciting young team to the 2024 European Championship.", "Millions of workers across the public and private sector are demanding higher pay rises as prices soar.", "Longstanding tensions between Kosovo's authorities and its Serb minority have risen again.", "A Gulf state - reportedly Qatar - is accused of attempting to bribe parliament officials.", "Grant Wahl, 48, collapses suddenly while watching the Argentina-Netherlands game.", "Everyone earning more than £43,662 will pay more next year as Scottish government looks to raise money for public services.", "Sheffield United striker Oli McBurnie is cleared of a charge of assault by beating.", "As nurses take part in the largest strike in NHS history, use our tool to see if your area is affected.", "It comes after 35,000 people sign an online petition calling for the sport to be scrapped.", "Some nurses can't join their colleagues on the picket lines for financial or practical reasons.", "A woman died at the scene and two children, aged four and six, died later in hospital, police say.", "The child's loss on Wednesday follows the earlier deaths of three other boys pulled from icy water.", "American sports journalist Grant Wahl died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm at the World Cup in Qatar, his widow says.", "In a rare show of discontent, personnel say they wait days or sometimes weeks for repairs.", "Officers from West Midlands Police lay flowers near the scene on Tuesday.", "Twitter's owner says an account tracking his private jet has put his son's safety at risk.", "Jordan McSweeney refused to leave the Old Bailey's cells to be sentenced for Zara Aleena's murder.", "A housing group \"failed to respect\" the family of a two-year-old boy who died after exposure to mould.", "The union represents the majority of ambulance staff working for the NHS in Scotland.", "A 14-year-old is knocked down by a car draped with a flag in the southern city of Montpellier.", "The football show host says sorry after Livingston coach Marvin Bartley accused him of bullying.", "Princess Bajrakitiyabha is widely seen in Thailand as the most plausible heir to the throne.", "Dozens of engineers are now on Shetland to repair fallen electricity cables.", "The new protocol comes amid temporary supply issues of penicillin to treat strep A, as cases rise.", "The benchmark rate is increased to its highest level for 14 years in a bid to tackle inflation.", "Scotland's Deputy First Minister John Swinney confirms that the top two rates will rise by a penny in the pound from April 2023.", "Boris Becker is released from prison after serving eight months of his sentence for hiding £2.5m worth of assets and loans to avoid paying debts.", "Labour increases its vote share in Stretford and Urmston, which it has held since the seat's creation.", "A bungee ride failed at the London attraction, leaving the teenagers suspended in a cage.", "A \"violent bully\" who said he was related to boxing champion Tyson Fury is convicted of multiple rapes.", "The government will expand a planned inquiry to include murder allegations against special forces.", "Police believe there are no more residents that remain unaccounted for.", "Buckingham Palace spread stories about Meghan to \"suit other peoples' agendas\", Meghan's lawyer says.", "About 1,700 properties are still cut off, despite dozens of staff being drafted in to fix the network.", "Nurses are set to strike twice in the run up to Christmas after rejecting below-inflation pay rises.", "The new government says it will scrap a public holiday observed since the 17th Century.", "The prince says it was \"terrifying\" to have his brother shout at him during a meeting at Sandringham.", "Restrictions on liquids and removing electrical items from bags are to be axed by June 2024.", "Safety measures on all-lane running smart motorways are not working well enough, the transport watchdog says", "Ronald Train says his sons took a \"dark track\" after cutting off their family 20 years ago.", "Dog walker Michael Cox spotted them on the Wharfe between Bolton Priory and Bolton Bridge.", "A gift the officer received from a senior Ukrainian official explodes at police headquarters in Warsaw.", "The group includes the consul-general, who denied beating a pro-democracy protester in Manchester.", "The six-year-old becomes the fourth boy to die after being pulled from the water in Solihull.", "Finance Secretary John Swinney says his budget will include \"decisive action\" to tackle the cost of living crisis.", "Defending champions France beat World Cup surprise package Morocco at Al Bayt Stadium to set up a final against Argentina.", "BBC experts look at how some of the decisions could affect your take-home pay and Scotland's public services.", "Further wintry conditions are forecast, with more weather warnings issued by the Met Office.", "A teenager is confirmed to be among the four people who died, while four others are still missing.", "Tributes are paid to Jack Johnson, siblings Finlay and Samuel Butler and Thomas Stewart.", "High levels of maghemite were found in some air samples but it is not known if they are harmful.", "The screening of the documentary on gender issues has been called off after student demonstrations.", "The warning comes as Royal Mail staff walk out in a fight over pay and conditions.", "As four boys die after plunging into a frozen lake near Solihull, tales of community spirit emerge.", "The Atlanta rapper says he wants to end the \"ordeal\" of awaiting trial on gang-related charges.", "Celebrations for Les Bleus as Moroccan fans are left in silent despair.", "Charlie Love is accused of attempting to murder two police officers in Strabane.", "The former PM's paid appearances since September include speeches in America, India and Portugal.", "Dorian Phillips says he thought his microphone was muted when he used \"colourful language\".", "Tributes have been paid to the dancer and actor who was a big part of Ellen DeGeneres' talk show.", "Travellers face disruption on the railways and roads on Friday - by the BBC’s Zoe Conway.", "Waits for BTec and other vocational results threw university places into question, students say.", "A dramatic rescue by a fishing boat first on the scene saw 31 people hauled to safety from the water.", "The British star, who revealed his return as the superhero in October, is dropped from the role.", "The CIA reiterates it \"never engaged\" the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, as over 13,000 files go online.", "Andrew Wood denies he was driving while taking part in a vote during a council meeting.", "Video shows gushing water and submerged platforms as Storm Efraín shuts forces several stations.", "The Duke of Sussex has spoken in his Netflix series of a \"wedge\" driven between him and his brother.", "Heavy shelling of critical infrastructure knocks out the power supply to the entire Ukrainian port.", "Steve Barclay says the government cannot afford a 19% rise given the \"economic pressures\" facing the country.", "Ministry of Justice are investigating after intimate details were shared with jailed stalker.", "Health officials warn people with flu or Covid symptoms to avoid mixing with vulnerable relatives.", "An aide to the Ukrainian city's exiled mayor says Russia is trying to cover up its crimes.", "Nurses threaten to strike again on 18 and 19 January, as more ambulance workers join walkout next month.", "Even boiling water is freezing as dangerously cold temperatures sweep large parts of the US.", "Charles is set to include a tribute to his late mother in his first Christmas Day address.", "The Oath Keepers and Proud Boys had a shared love of Donald Trump, but not so much for each other.", "A Miller & Carter restaurant begins sinking into a lake at a major UK shopping centre.", "Zara Aleena's aunt says the family is struggling with daily life six months on from her murder.", "An investigation is launched at the Redditch hospital after the so-called never event.", "Viewers were gripped to Thursday's final as a \"parting gift\" changed the course of the reality show.", "The action is a direct result of the government's refusal to negotiate over pay, union leaders say.", "Border Force officers at some of the UK's biggest airports are walking out while Royal Mail will not be delivering letters.", "Protesters and police clash after what authorities say may have been a racially-motivated attack.", "Kyra King was attacked in woodland in Lincolnshire as her parents walked 19 dogs.", "The general secretary of the nursing union has led the first nationwide strikes in the profession's history.", "Separately nurses have threatened to escalate strike action in the new year if ministers do not enter pay talks next week.", "But molnupiravir showed no obvious benefit at reducing hospital cases and deaths, a study found.", "The charity campaigners now have more Christmas number ones than any other act in chart history.", "How Ukraine's president travelled out of his country for the first time since the war began.", "Members of the Royal College of Midwives are considering strike action after voting down a pay deal.", "Damien Bendall killed his pregnant partner and three children while serving a suspended sentence.", "The crew members may have to return to Earth early after their capsule started leaking.", "The newspaper says it regrets publishing the piece, in which Clarkson said he \"hated\" the duchess.", "The White House says North Korea provided missiles and rockets to be used in Ukraine, which Pyongyang denies.", "The Santas, who were thought to be on a pub crawl, got wedged in a hedge in Cornwall.", "The Supreme Court refuses to hear an appeal from three US citizens who face extradition from Scotland.", "The Massachusetts man's head-scratching strategy nets him nearly $2m, plus 20 annual payments of $25,000.", "Rishi Sunak phones diplomats, Royal Navy crew and other workers to thank them for their efforts.", "Mother-of-three Heather Smedley was hit by a police car which was pursuing a suspected stolen vehicle.", "A man arrested on suspicion of murdering pregnant 32-year-old Natalie McNally is freed on bail.", "About 1,300 members of the armed forces are covering for ambulance and border staff walkouts.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 16-23 December.", "Carter has his first pair of football boots, three years earlier than doctors thought he would walk.", "Members of the Royal College of Nursing are planning strike action after voting down a pay deal.", "England World Cup winner George Cohen dies, aged 83, his former club Fulham announces.", "Scientists discover the glass frog's \"superpower\" in its ability to pool blood to turn see-through.", "The 23-year-old, who has terminal cancer, says meeting her heroes was \"one of the best days of my life.\"", "Talks between nursing unions and Health Secretary Humza Yousaf have ended with no new pay offer being made.", "Specialist investigators have been called in to Betsi Cadwaladr health board in north Wales.", "Two fans complained after the actress was cut from a film despite featuring in the trailer.", "Hundreds of people recognised for showcasing community values are celebrated in the service.", "After seven years at Italy's flagship museum, Eike Schmidt has clearly had enough of bad punctuation.", "MSPs have passed controversial plans to reform gender recognition legislation.", "Joseph Jones passed information to his cleaner, with whom he had a brief sexual relationship.", "More than 200 million people are affected by the extreme cold and strong winds hitting a large swathe of North America.", "A new law will simplify the process of transitioning, but the UK government says it has concerns and may step in.", "Prosecutors have accused Sam Bankman-Fried of \"one of the biggest financial frauds in US history\".", "Trains will not run again until 27 December, as walkouts on the railways and other industries continue.", "Fifa is investigating how celebrity chef Salt Bae and a number of other people gained \"undue access\" to the pitch at the end of the World Cup final in Qatar.", "Charles Sobhraj, convicted for killing two tourists in 1975, was suspected of several murders in Asia.", "A winter storm has also disrupted holiday travel, with thousands of flights cancelled in both countries.", "The below-inflation increase in regulated fares will take place in March, the government said.", "Baby Ebbyn was born in the rescue helicopter between the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall.", "Manchester City beat Liverpool in an entertaining fourth-round tie to reach the last eight of the Carabao Cup.", "Seán Rooney is the first Irish soldier to be killed on UN deployment in Lebanon for 20 years.", "Money donated in memory of Queen Elizabeth is being used to help those unable to pay energy bills.", "The Twitter boss says he met Apple's chief Tim Cook after he criticised the company.", "A jury dismissed claims from Mark Brown that he did not kill Leah Ware and that she is still alive.", "Police believe the man may have been killed as part of a cross-border drug-related feud.", "Strep A is a bacterial infection that can be extremely serious, but is treatable.", "The Biden administration will give three tribal communities $75m to move from coastal areas.", "A search effort is under way for dozens of people after the disaster in the southern state of Paraná.", "Families of three women, each killed by an abusive partner, tell the BBC how their loved ones were let down.", "The former Leeds Rhinos player is appearing on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.", "The former prime minister says he will run for re-election as MP for Uxbridge and Ruislip in west London.", "New legislation will make Scottish ministers accountable for adult social care, the health minister says.", "The US military says Abu al-Hassan al-Qurayshi was killed by rebels in southern Syria last month.", "Tartan Army members have made their mark at the tournament despite Scotland's absence.", "The first trailer comes amid a race row sparked by comments made to a black guest at a royal reception.", "The alleged serial killer was arrested for one murder in May. On Thursday police laid more charges.", "Dozens of districts in major cities have now begun lifting lockdown measures despite high case numbers.", "Two men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of concealing the birth of a child.", "A palace aide steps down over remarks made to Ngozi Fulani at a reception hosted by the Queen Consort.", "The measure permits police to deploy robots equipped with explosives in extreme circumstances.", "Australian fans party through the night as the unfancied Socceroos stun Denmark to reach the World Cup last 16.", "Citizens Advice says homeowners and pensioners are among those increasingly seeking debt advice.", "A new study suggests extra red tape and checks pushed up food bills in the UK over two years.", "Yusuf Mahmud Nazir died after he was sent home from Rotherham Hospital.", "Stephen Flynn says he has \"no intention\" of challenging Ian Blackford as SNP group leader.", "The late Queen's confidante, and Prince William's godmother, resigns from her role as a palace aide.", "The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, praises the \"extraordinary courage\" of Ukrainian people.", "It is unacceptable that people's lives are being disrupted by a \"selfish minority\", says Rishi Sunak.", "South Africa's president came to power vowing to fight corruption but now has his own case to answer.", "Health bosses in England are worried about the threat of flu, Covid and other respiratory illnesses.", "A panel finds Cyril Ramaphosa abused his position in the handling of a theft from his farm.", "A Buckingham Palace reception is overtaken by a racism row that could scarcely have come at a worse time.", "Legal counsels at the Sheku Bayoh inquiry have been told off for using phones and pulling faces.", "Two men and a woman will remain in police custody on suspicion of concealing the birth of a child.", "Little Simz and Knucks tie for the main prize, while Craig David wins outstanding contribution.", "About 100 people held a vigil in memory of two babies found dead at a property in Wildmill, Bridgend.", "Aerial footage shows Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, spewing lava into the air.", "Costumes, props and visual effects used to bring Philip Pullman's novels to life are exhibited.", "The Prince and Princess of Wales are in Boston to hand out awards for their Earthshot Prize.", "Kyiv says the missiles were fired with non-explosive warheads to deplete Ukrainian air defences.", "Labour would win general election if Chester's new MP Sam Dixon's vote share was repeated nationally.", "The former president had fought for years to keep his records from being disclosed.", "Westminster City Council found mouse droppings in 19 separate locations around the House of Commons.", "\"This is... a gross interference in China's internal affairs,\" a embassy spokesperson said.", "Belgium are knocked out of the World Cup at the group stage as Croatia progress at their expense with a goalless draw in Qatar.", "World’s richest man’s company is involved in a trial to get isolated areas of the UK connected to the internet.", "A retrial of Bruce Lehrmann - who denies rape - would endanger his accuser's life, prosecutors say.", "The off-duty special constable allegedly showed his warrant card before attacking the woman.", "There had been speculation that some SNP MPs were plotting to replace Mr Blackford as group leader.", "Ngozi Fulani tells the BBC her encounter with Lady Susan Hussey was like an \"interrogation\".", "Ngozi Fulani was questioned about her background at a charity event at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.", "A jury fails to reach a verdict in a case against Danny Masterson, accused of raping three women.", "Two men and a woman are in custody after the bodies of two babies were found.", "Activists say Mehran Samak was shot by security forces after he honked a car horn as a sign of protest.", "The gathering to remember the Scottish rugby legend will be held at Melrose Parish Church.", "Prices fell 1.4% in November as higher interest rates put off buyers, Nationwide says.", "Woman, 85, endured \"agonising\" wait as BBC analysis shows delays now at record levels.", "A 41-year-old man is in custody after a reports of a woman being attacked with cleaning fluid.", "In mathematics, physics and combined science, students will be provided with supporting material.", "The actor says female members of the Cyrano de Bergerac cast were harassed on a daily basis.", "The SNP's Westminster leader insisted that party MPs are behind him in \"getting on with the job\".", "The tennis coach will hold classes for girls at the controversial Diriyah Tennis Cup in Saudi Arabia.", "England's health and care system can no longer operate effectively as delays mount, regulators warn.", "The prince's godmother resigned after repeatedly asking a black British charity boss where she was \"really\" from.", "Rachael Watts was attacked as a girl and left for dead by Babes in the Wood killer Russell Bishop.", "Teams will be wondering how they can stop England - the World Cup's top scorers - following their impressive passage to the knockout stages, says Alan Shearer.", "Germany crashed out of the Fifa World Cup on a remarkable night of drama despite victory over Costa Rica at Al Bayt Stadium.", "Warning by NHS bosses as nearly three in 10 crews caught in queues outside A&E in England last week.", "Nurse Lucy Letby is accused of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others.", "Batteries thrown into household rubbish bins cause about 700 fires a year in waste facilities, a survey suggests.", "Sam Bankman-Fried says he has almost no money left after the collapse of the crypto exchange.", "Regulator dismisses bid by Grand Union Trains to run new services from Cardiff and Carmarthen.", "Whistleblowers allege they were punished for raising concerns at one of England's worst performing trusts.", "The prince's godmother resigned after repeatedly asking a black British charity boss where she was \"really\" from.", "The regulator approves new rail services between London Paddington and Carmarthen.", "Psychologists and community workers will visit homes to help pupils overcome anxiety, stress and mental health issues.", "Next says it will keep about 100 Joules stores open, but 19 will be closed with immediate effect.", "Dawn Lewis stabbed Glenn Richards then stabbed herself to make it appear like it was self defence.", "Family courts have powers to make significant interventions - such as ordering children be put into care.", "Levi Davis, who was last seen outside a bar in Barcelona, is still missing and without his passport.", "Argentina comprehensively beat Poland to top their group as the former edged through in second place on goal difference.", "The party says speeding up processing of claims from \"safe\" countries would help clear the backlog.", "Almost 500 internal Northern Ireland Office memos from the 1990s are now online for the first time.", "Maximuscle founder Zef Eisenberg was killed attempting a land speed record at Elvington in 2020.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 2-9 December", "The charges relate to alleged offences against two women aged in their 20s and 30s.", "The musician, who co-founded the band, played on tracks like Golden Brown, No More Heroes and Peaches.", "The Seattle-area killings made headlines after TikTok refused to remove video of the victims' bodies.", "A Canadian judge approves legal action by parents who say their children were addicted to the video game.", "Catcalling, following people and blocking their path to be criminalised in England, under new plans.", "The trust has apologised to a woman for failing to admit a surgeon was responsible for a massive haemorrhage.", "William MacDowell was jailed for 30 years for the murders of a mother and her young son in 1976.", "Stephen Flynn insists he only decided to stand for the SNP group leadership after Ian Blackford quit.", "Paul Hoile, who has since resigned as a special constable, said the sexual activity was consensual.", "Video of the blaze shows explosions at the massive Mega Khimki complex outside Moscow.", "Sixteen children have now died with invasive strep A since September, health officials say.", "Angharad Paget-Jones says encountering them on the street now frightens her and guide dog Tudor.", "The basketball star returns home 10 months after she left the US to play the game in Russia.", "The cold snap continues with snow forecast for more areas, including London and the South East.", "And, luckily for them, it happens to be one sung by one of the couple's best friends - Elton John.", "The Russian has been freed by the US, in a prisoner swap with basketball star Brittney Griner.", "ABC drops a Christmas TV special after a woman alleges pop singer Nick Carter raped her in 2001.", "Washington says it has seen reports that the countries are considering jointly producing drones.", "Tournament favourites Brazil are knocked out of the World Cup on penalties as Croatia keep their nerve to edge through to the semi-finals.", "A charity says almost half of Scottish households have cut back on spending as energy bills soar.", "A new extinction list reveals grave conservation concern for a 'sea cow' that inspired tales of mermaids.", "The UK duo admit they responded to previous controversy \"from a place of fear and defensiveness\".", "A four-year-old who was fighting for her life with a strep A infection is recovering, her grandmother says.", "BBC News NI gains access to the emergency department at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.", "A shortage of beds and huge demand is causing severe overcrowding and delays in A&E.", "J Alexander Kueng is already serving time for a federal sentence for violating Mr Floyd's civil rights.", "Jeremy Hunt dismantled much of the mini-budget, but will still be scrapping the cap on bankers' bonuses.", "Argentina will face Croatia in the World Cup semi-finals after beating the Netherlands in a penalty shootout as Lionel Messi scores and Emiliano Martinez saves two spot-kicks.", "The singer gives a speech and hands out prizes at his former high school's awards ceremony.", "Brittney Griner flies home to the US while notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout returns to Russia.", "Millions of pieces of mail have been piling up as more than 115,000 postal staff walk out.", "Two officers are sacked and four more told they would have been if they had not already left.", "The Scottish government has pushed back the deadline for Airbnb-style hosts to obtain a licence.", "The UK is in the grip of a severe cold weather snap as people struggle with spiralling heating costs.", "Russian state media release footage showing the WNBA star's final moments in prison.", "All options in a search for the crew of the boat that sank off Jersey are \"exhausted\", rescuers say.", "The BBC's home and legal correspondent Dominic Casciani explains the case in under three minutes.", "EU ministers vote to admit Croatia to the Schengen zone, but Romania and Bulgaria must wait.", "Prominent opposition figure Ilya Yashin gets more than eight years for discussing alleged war crimes.", "Nimco Ali says she's on a \"completely different planet\" from the home secretary during a broadcast interview.", "A select group of senior officials is currently running government in Northern Ireland, but who are they?", "Sam Fender, Lewis Capaldi and Imagine Dragons will also be topping the bill at the summer festivals.", "After he almost drowned, the star refocused on his music career and ended up singing at Eurovision.", "Often living off just over £5 a day, people in the asylum system say they are struggling to cope.", "Microsoft said it would fight to buy Activision Blizzard, the studio behind games such as Call of Duty.", "Temperatures across the UK plummet overnight, dipping as low as -9.1C in the Scottish Highlands.", "CFeleven only has permission to sell alcohol to residents staying at its B&B.", "The King and Camilla have an on-field chat with star owners as Wrexham celebrates becoming a city.", "Episode one of the couple's series is watched by 2.4m people in the UK on its first day.", "Wout Weghorst is your star player as the Netherlands lose a dramatic penalty shootout to Argentina in the World Cup quarter-finals in Qatar.", "The countries enter a joint venture to design and build the next generation of fighter aircraft.", "Legally changing gender is to become easier in Scotland but the UK government is not happy about the move.", "Audrey says she can't afford to heat the rest of her home, and this is the coldest she's known.", "A Universal Credit applicant lost £54 a week in tax credits when he was temporarily unable to work.", "Chester Zoo says the birth of a female calf is an \"important moment\" for conservation of the species.", "Harry Kane misses a late penalty as France beat England in their World Cup quarter-final to set up a semi-final against Morocco.", "The couple tell their \"truth\" about love, the media and racism, but many questions remain unanswered.", "It is deploying two more vessels to deal with the growing number of migrants trying to reach the UK.", "King Charles III and the Queen Consort visited Wrexham to mark its new city status.", "The bank had \"serious and persistent gaps\" in anti-money laundering controls, the watchdog finds.", "Dr Anthony Fauci speaks to Americast as he stands down as chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.", "The 19-year-old's family say justice is \"complete\" as US citizen Anne Sacoolas is sentenced.", "Rules introduced after the financial crisis in 2008 that were aimed at limiting risks will be eased.", "The Union of Jewish Students says it has lost confidence in the National Union of Students.", "Thirty years ago in a single day Big Bang deregulated the City of London, creating a financial sector many believe can withstand anything Brexit can throw at it.", "Passport services dealt with an \"unprecedented demand\" as coronavirus travel rules were lifted.", "NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris is now set to cut the pay of assembly members who have not legislated since May.", "Julian Knight was suspended as a Tory MP after a report to police involving allegations of sexual assault.", "The couple's press secretary rejects claims they stepped back from royal life to protect their privacy.", "A Japanese billionaire recruits an artists-only crew for a space voyage around the moon.", "The Russian president has vowed to continue attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure.", "Stormont's political stalemate is delaying a £600 energy payment to homes, suggests the NI secretary.", "Money, ID cards, flags, and even their own king: meet the Germans who refuse to recognise the state.", "The first episodes of the Netflix series cover racism, press intrusion and life in the Royal Family.", "The club says it was not told it had to immediately change its policy to cover new players.", "Griner, who was freed in a prisoner swap, is arguably the greatest-ever female basketball player.", "The amount of time without sea-ice is becoming too long for the bears to survive, experts say.", "The plan will put 30% of the planet under protection by the end of the decade.", "Former rugby player John Jeffrey gives an emotional address to his late friend saying: \"You are a legend and your legacy will be that we do find a cure for MND.\"", "The new \"front-line creative brigade\" will consist of volunteer musicians and mobilised recruits.", "How Argentina great Lionel Messi lifting the famous trophy was an iconic moment that will live forever in World Cup history and Middle East imagery.", "The union says ministers must respond within 48 hours of next week's walkout to avoid more action.", "Police said the gunman, who lived in the building, killed five people in three separate units.", "Here's a reminder of what happened on the historic day a mob stormed the Capitol.", "Rishi Sunak hits back as ex-England footballer accuses the government of \"demonising\" nurses.", "A jeweller is offering a £10,000 reward to catch the light-fingered conman.", "The broadcaster had written in the Sun on Friday that he \"hated\" the Duchess of Sussex.", "\"It is not enough to teach about the Holocaust,\" says a report on anti-Jewish hatred.", "Kyiv fears a fresh Russian assault is on the horizon after President Putin travelled to Minsk.", "The Simon Community says it is seeing a rise in the amount of people sleeping on the streets.", "While he could face jail if convicted, these are symbolic recommendations for now not formal charges.", "A cold weather warning for Northern Ireland has ended with Monday's temperatures to hit 14C.", "South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa wins leadership of governing ANC, despite corruption allegations.", "The new rules will require venues and local authorities to have action plans against terror attacks.", "In a controversial column for the Sun, Clarkson wrote he \"hated\" the Duchess of Sussex.", "Class sizes will increase as teacher vacancies go unfilled, a union warns following the budget announcement.", "Two GPs faced a backlog of nearly 400 calls in Belfast by the early hours of Monday - a spike on the normal 10 calls.", "Graduates had posed with a giant cardboard Hamza to wish him luck ahead of the final.", "Scientists are finding and naming family members killed by Russian troops, one mouth swab at a time.", "The light needs to be right for this red star of Christmas and they don't like draughts.", "The committee investigating the January 6 attack announces criminal referrals in its final public meeting.", "Nine schools have also been forced to close as some areas have been without water for two days.", "Rachel says she was devastated by the lack of support after being told she was overweight for IVF.", "Rodents forced the school to cancel its Christmas concert and have children learn from home.", "Detectives say they believe the 'horrifically violent' murders of Sean Fox and Mark Hall were carried out by the same two gunmen.", "Scottish Water says there has been a rise of up to 150% in burst pipes in recent days due to the rise in temperatures.", "The country is currently facing a spike in cases after restrictions were eased earlier this month.", "Steve Barclay is told by the mother that she is scared for \"the length\" of her daughter's life.", "The majority of the roles will be based in Samlesbury and Warton in Lancashire and Barrow in Cumbria.", "Ms Heard will pay her ex-husband $1m after jury found she had defamed him in a Washington Post article.", "Residents in the Ardnamurchan peninsula were cheering on their friend in the dance final.", "Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar is the leader under a deal with government partners Fianna Fáil.", "The 23-year-old's relatives say they found severe injuries and stitching when they exhumed his body.", "The former Scotland rugby international died last month, six years after being diagnosed with MND.", "It was one of the greatest finals in World Cup history, so how did the \"breathless\" showpiece unfold?", "St Vincent De Paul estimates about 200,000 people will have contacted their local branches this year.", "The prime minister's comments come after the High Court ruled that the Rwanda asylum plan is legal.", "The Argentina team celebrate their World Cup triumph on an open-top bus in Qatar after a thrilling final against France.", "Human rights activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei has complained to the Tory Party over the incident.", "A man and a woman are charged with neglect and have been remanded in custody.", "The man tried to \"escape\" on one occasion and broke his arm in the process, a court hears.", "The boys were in the water more than 20 minutes after the first 999 calls, the inquest hears.", "The unusual night attack causes blackouts across the city, but no one is killed, Kyiv officials say.", "Frank Salemme was serving a life sentence for killing a Boston nightclub owner in 1993.", "The BBC's technology editor Zoe Kleinman looks at the future of Musk and Twitter.", "Police were called to reports of an armed man threatening people at a home in Carlisle.", "Lionel Messi is named BBC Sports Personality's World Sport Star of the Year after inspiring Argentina to World Cup glory.", "The BBC goes to Rwanda as a court rules on the UK's plan to send asylum seekers there.", "Thirty-nine people were rescued and four people died when a migrant boat got into trouble.", "Lionel Messi leads Argentina to World Cup glory, beating France on penalties in one of the most thrilling climaxes in final history.", "One newspaper suggests a destiny has been fulfilled for Lionel Messi, while another says it is \"spring once again in Argentina\" - BBC Sport looks at how the world reacted to the World Cup final.", "Argentina's victory over France in the World Cup final was watched by a peak of 14.9m people on BBC One.", "The committee airs critical testimony by a Trump loyalist and criticises his daughter, Ivanka Trump.", "A judge describes the Mayhill riots as the worst mass violence in Swansea during his life.", "Dennis McGrory is convicted after he raped, stabbed and strangled a teenager in Islington in 1975.", "The navy is searching for survivors after the HTMS Sukhothai, carrying 106 crew, sank in a storm.", "The cold snap ends with warnings of rain and possible flooding, ahead of the Christmas getaway.", "Emi Martinez's penalty shootout mind games help secure an incredible win for Argentina and make the dancing goalkeeper a hero.", "Useful information on strikes during the week up to Christmas, by the BBC’s Zoe Conway.", "Alcohol prices will be frozen until August 2023, when a new system for alcohol taxes is introduced.", "Social care workers earn about £8,000 a year less than NHS staff, a study suggests - with some relying on food parcels.", "Odhran O'Neill from Lurgan was last seen on Saturday after his kayak capsized.", "Gaby Hutchinson becomes the second person to die following Asake's gig at the Brixton Academy.", "Network Rail advises people to travel only if \"absolutely necessary\" due to strike action by the RMT.", "After Lionel Messi led Argentina to World Cup glory, no-one can now deny he belongs in the same pantheon as Pele and Diego Maradona.", "The 23-year-old man will appear in court next year after being charged with a public order offence.", "The firm won contracts to supply protective equipment after being recommended by peer Baroness Mone.", "His distinctively dour voice can be heard on hits like Ghost Town, Gangsters and Too Much, Too Young.", "The government-funded scheme will cap fares in England outside London from 1 January to 31 March.", "Pressure on emergency care, access to GPs and concerns about patient safety highlighted in report.", "Members will be asked to elect a Speaker, which the DUP has refused to do since May's election.", "Stephen Flynn defeats Alison Thewliss - who is seen as being close to Nicola Sturgeon - in a vote of SNP MPs.", "The vehicles, including two Porsches and a rare Ariel Atom car, were taken from an industrial unit.", "An East Kilbride firm aims to be the first to produce a car at scale in Scotland since the 1980s.", "A colleague of Lucy Letby tells the nurse's trial how the baby became ill on her 100 days birthday.", "President Zelensky says Ukraine's power grid needs to be stabilised after another wave of deadly Russian strikes.", "Joanne Jones said she initially mistook her daughter's sickness for a chest infection.", "The new Christmas Eve walkout threatens to hit celebrations and travel over the festive weekend.", "Emergency services were called to the market on St Enoch Square in Glasgow at about 11:00.", "Yields of tomatoes and other crops are set to hit a record low as farmers struggle with surging costs.", "Retailers may have put prices up quickly when wholesales costs rose but dropped them slowly in 2022.", "The government has reached a deal with rebel MPs, who had backed a plan to ban mandatory targets in England.", "Portugal coach Fernando Santos drops Cristiano Ronaldo and is rewarded with a hat-trick from replacement Goncalo Ramos as they beat Switzerland to reach last eight.", "Some youth leaders say they would have to reduce the number of nights that centres can open.", "The business is synonymous with the former president, but neither he or his family were on trial.", "Baroness Mone is accused of benefitting from a company she recommended for a Covid contract.", "Nipsa and Unison workers are taking industrial action from Monday in a dispute over pay.", "An 18-year-old man is held over the killing of aspiring rapper Takayo Nembhard who died in August.", "The new walkout threatens to hit celebrations and travel over the festive weekend.", "Ngozi Fulani says she has suffered horrific abuse, but has also been heartened by messages of support.", "The north African team beat Spain on penalties in their World Cup last 16 match.", "The presenter leaves the tent after three series helping oversee signature bakes and show stoppers.", "The ship fires its main engine near the Moon, committing itself to a return to Earth on Sunday.", "Wednesday and Thursday's industrial action will cause partial or full closures across Scotland.", "An application for Anne Sacoolas to appear at the Old Bailey for sentencing via video-link is granted.", "The Welsh Conservatives say the priority should be recruiting \"the best person for the job\".", "More than 10,000 ambulance workers will walk out across England and Wales on 21 and 28 December, the GMB union says.", "Video shows Mary O'Connor being pulled over for driving an unlicensed vehicle on a public street.", "The latest deadly strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure caused significant disruption to the power grid.", "Stephen Bear denies voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photographs and films.", "Ministers face political peril as the stuff we normally take for granted stops working.", "The RCN says Scottish nurses will strike if they vote to reject the latest offer from the government.", "Celebrities from across the world enjoyed an evening of glitz and glamour at the awards.", "Doctors are thinking about quitting because they cannot deliver the care they want, a union says.", "Facebook's parent company says it will pull news from the platform in the US if a new media law passes.", "An award-winning learner says he feels like an outsider, despite having lived in Wales for 16 years.", "A grand ceremony was held for the former leader in Beijing's Great Hall of the People.", "A child in Hampshire has died of strep A, officials confirm, bringing the total deaths to eight.", "Eben Lazarus and Hannah Hunt taped posters on The Hay Wain and glued themselves to its frame.", "Prioritising firms recommended by MPs and peers wasted taxpayers' money, deputy leader Angela Rayner says.", "Passengers told to plan journeys in advance due to engineering works over the festive period.", "Donnie McKinnon, 48, believed to be from Lochaber in the Highlands, died after the incident in a bar.", "Achraf Hakimi makes himself a hero with a chipped winning penalty as Morocco stun Spain in a shootout after a goalless draw to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.", "Staff have complained that testing is being rushed and is causing needless deaths, Reuters reports.", "A former Iranian president makes rare public comments praising anti-government protesters.", "The government says it will rewrite a planning rule restricting new turbines in England.", "Pte Joshua Kennington died at Catterick on 24 November, the Ministry of Defence says.", "The alleged incident happened while the monarch was on a walkabout during a visit to Luton.", "A firm previously linked to Tory peer Baroness Mone won £203m to supply protective gear during Covid.", "Brazil deliver an ominous message to their World Cup rivals with a dazzling display of attacking brilliance to dismantle South Korea and set up a quarter-final against Croatia.", "Buoyed by recent opinion polls, the party wants to start talking about its ideas for the long term.", "New laws will disproportionately punish women, LGBT people and religious minorities, critics say.", "Prince Harry describes the \"pain and suffering of women marrying into\" the Royal Family in a new clip.", "Glasgow Airport flights were cancelled and passengers were left outside in the cold for two hours.", "England sack Eddie Jones, leaving the team without a head coach nine months before the Rugby World Cup.", "Tributes have been paid to the late TV and film star by her castmates Ted Danson and John Travolta.", "The star says growing up in the public eye was hard and that she struggled with impostor syndrome.", "The smoke from a fire at industrial units near Wolverhampton could be seen more than 15 miles away.", "The 16-year-old Roma boy is shot in the head, in the latest incident involving police use of force.", "Ryan Fischer was shot by James Howard Jackson while walking two of the singer's French bulldogs.", "Experts uncover a \"once-in-a-lifetime\" discovery near Northampton of international significance.", "Two women say their ex-partners used Apple AirTags to find them.", "Unable to deliver the care they want, many doctors are thinking about quitting, a union says.", "Services across England and Wales affected, but life-threatening calls will be responded to.", "There are at least five allegations of footage or stills being used in editorially questionable ways.", "Fewer banks and shops but more tattoo studios and beauty salons since 2020 - how does your High Street compare?", "Matthew McCallan's mother Frances has raised concerns about the initial police response.", "Police say a man came out of a refugee shelter and attacked two teenagers on their way to school.", "Ex-health secretary accuses Tory peer of being threatening when trying to secure a contract for a firm.", "Climate change is said to be a key factor in a 27% decline in the population over the past five years.", "Ministry of Justice are investigating after intimate details were shared with jailed stalker.", "Thousands visited the Palestinian town, where the economy was badly hit by lockdowns.", "Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says Kalvin Phillips was \"overweight\" when he returned to training from the World Cup.", "Even boiling water is freezing as dangerously cold temperatures sweep large parts of the US.", "Charles is set to include a tribute to his late mother in his first Christmas Day address.", "A Miller & Carter restaurant begins sinking into a lake at a major UK shopping centre.", "A Met Office yellow alert for snow and ice has been put in place for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.", "Zara Aleena's aunt says the family is struggling with daily life six months on from her murder.", "Wales' Anglican and Catholic archbishops have issued a joint Christmas message for the first time.", "Esther Abrami has worked with The Snowman composer Howard Blake on a new arrangement.", "A spokesperson for the royal couple says the newspaper profited off \"hate, violence and misogyny\".", "Argentina captain Lionel Messi reaches an \"agreement in principle\" to renew his contract at Paris St-Germain says BBC Sport's Guillem Balague.", "Lanez faces more than 20 years in jail for wounding the Grammy award-winning rapper in 2020.", "Protesters and police clash after what authorities say may have been a racially-motivated attack.", "The move further restricts women's education, after girls were already excluded from secondary schools.", "At least 10 people are killed and dozens injured in Russian air strikes on the recently liberated city.", "The charity campaigners now have more Christmas number ones than any other act in chart history.", "The newspaper says it regrets publishing the piece, in which Clarkson said he \"hated\" the duchess.", "The Santas, who were thought to be on a pub crawl, got wedged in a hedge in Cornwall.", "Father Christmas had an elfin hand from one of his festive team as he took part in a charity fundraiser.", "Plans to lower financial help for \"poorest and most vulnerable\" towards NHS glasses cost criticised.", "Former Royal Marine Mark Ormrod lost both his legs and his right arm in an Afghanistan bomb blast.", "Narges Mohammadi writes to the BBC with fellow inmates' accounts of physical and sexual abuse.", "Rishi Sunak phones diplomats, Royal Navy crew and other workers to thank them for their efforts.", "Crews were called to Hockley, Essex, on Christmas Eve and treated the dog and owner at the scene.", "Mother-of-three Heather Smedley was hit by a police car which was pursuing a suspected stolen vehicle.", "The Rugby League star's father says it happened while the family were out for a Christmas meal.", "President Zelensky urges his people to persevere as Russian attacks leave millions without power.", "At least 19 deaths are linked to the freeze, which has brought blizzards and floods to the US and Canada.", "Carter has his first pair of football boots, three years earlier than doctors thought he would walk.", "There are worries that gifting treatments could have a negative impact on people's mental health.", "Women in Afghanistan are protesting against the Taliban's ban on female students attending university.", "Protesters clash with police following Friday's shootings, which killed three people.", "Older people who have given up work could be offered a \"midlife MoT\" to entice them back into employment.", "Police say officers were called to a \"serious medical incident\" at the complex in Wiltshire.", "Thirty veterans with a range of sight problems will spend the festive period celebrating.", "Scientists discover the glass frog's \"superpower\" in its ability to pool blood to turn see-through.", "Specialist investigators have been called in to Betsi Cadwaladr health board in north Wales.", "After a widespread thaw caused burst pipes, the company says it is still fixing leaks.", "The dance musician, who was best known for singles including Insomnia and We Come 1, died on Friday.", "Joseph Jones passed information to his cleaner, with whom he had a brief sexual relationship.", "More than 200 million people are affected by the extreme cold and strong winds hitting a large swathe of North America.", "Welsh Water say an \"overwhelming majority\" of properties have had their water supply restored.", "The latest move by Afghanistan's Islamist rulers is condemned by the United Nations and the US.", "The partner of Gaby Hutchinson says \"someone must be held accountable\" for what happened that night.", "Trains will not run again until 27 December, as walkouts on the railways and other industries continue.", "Another six people are injured after the blaze in an unregistered property in the Siberian city of Kemerovo.", "Two months after the start of a nationwide \"warm bank\" initiative, more than 300 have been set up.", "A powerful Arctic winter storm moving across the US could bring the iciest Christmas in decades.", "Canadian Annick Ruedi wanted to spend Christmas on a Texas beach. Now its too cold to go outside.", "The Bear Inn near Burwash threw open its doors to those stranded and needing shelter for the night.", "Kyiv's forces hit a hotel used by the Russian mercenary group, a Ukrainian official says.", "Forecasters say the freezing conditions will bring more problems for travellers on Tuesday.", "After a 26-day flight around the Moon, Nasa's future astronaut ship parachutes into the Pacific.", "Abu Agila Masud is the first person charged on US soil in connection with the 1988 airline attack.", "Four other residents are still unaccounted for, police say.", "A search and recovery operation is in its third day after a huge explosion in Jersey.", "The dark comedy about feuding friends in 1920s Ireland leads the pack going into next year's awards.", "Passengers at Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick airports have seen their travel plans disrupted.", "A friend of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is among three women killed in Sunday's attack.", "Abi Agila Masud was allegedly a member of the Libyan intelligence services at the time of the atrocity.", "Thirteen-year-old Lissandro won with 203 points for his song Oh Maman! at the contest in Armenia.", "The government discusses contingency plans, including using the military to cover border staff.", "They pick an image from September's Highland Games for first festive card since Charles became King.", "No reason is given, but there is growing unease among Russians over the invasion of Ukraine.", "The Met Office says a temperature of minus 9.3 Celsius (15F) was recorded in Braemar, Aberdeenshire.", "The Libyan man is accused of making the bomb which destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie.", "Delivery driver hears distress call and rushes to rescue man who slips and injures himself.", "Walkouts will resume on Tuesday after RMT union members rejected what it called a \"substandard\" deal.", "Four people have been arrested over accusations Qatar bribed officials to try to win influence.", "Nurses across Wales are still set to strike after a failed meeting with Welsh government.", "The BBC's Sophie Madden is in Babbs Mill Park, where emergency services are at the scene of the incident.", "The author says Beira's Place in Edinburgh will fill \"an unmet need\" from female survivors of abuse.", "Ross McCullam admitted Megan Newborough's manslaughter but had denied murder.", "Majidreza Rahnavard was convicted of \"enmity against God\" and hanged just 23 days after his arrest.", "England captain Owen Farrell says the Rugby Football Union's decision to sack Eddie Jones as head coach was \"unbelievably disappointing\".", "Millions of people are experiencing travel disruption after snow blanketed large parts of the UK.", "Mr Lewis-Smith's surreal style of comedy influenced comedians like Sacha Baron Cohen.", "Seven of the nine people missing since the explosion are named by police.", "The chancellor says data showing the UK economy shrank by 0.3% reflects a \"challenging\" situation.", "BBC analysis finds 51,000 Ukrainians have reached the end of their six-month sponsorship in the UK.", "It's a further sign that Beijing is moving away from its controversial zero-Covid strategy.", "An officer tried to punch through the ice as emergency workers attempted to reach the children.", "Abu Agila Masud should not go on trial in the US or Scotland, according to campaigner Dr Jim Swire.", "Twitter will once again offer a blue tick badge and additional features for a monthly fee.", "Snow, ice and freezing fog sweep in over the weekend, with temperatures set to fall as low as -15C.", "The duo will make their fifth assault on the charts with a cover of Do They Know It's Christmas.", "The Three Lions couldn't bring home the World Cup, but they won't be returning empty-handed.", "Strikes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are set to go ahead on Thursday after talks fail.", "Viktor Bout, known as the \"merchant of death\", was last week exchanged in a high-profile US prisoner swap.", "The officers were responding to reports of a missing person in Wieambilla, 270km from Brisbane.", "The government changed the law in June in a bid to deter migrants from crossing the Channel.", "There is no update on their condition after the incident at Babbs Mill Park on Sunday.", "The Black Sea port of Odesa has resumed operations after Russian strikes against the city on Saturday.", "Health members of Unison and Unite accept an improved offer which ends the risk of strike action.", "Wales called on to follow England in issuing certificates for babies lost at any stage of pregnancy.", "National Grid stands down coal-fired units but will run a test to pay people to cut peak-time use.", "Russian troops have reportedly been locked up for refusing to fight in the invasion of Ukraine.", "Figures obtained by Labour through Freedom of Information requests reveal staff pressures in the NHS.", "About 40,000 rail workers are walking out in a series of strikes starting on Tuesday in a row about jobs and pay.", "Four were taken to hospitals, but police have not yet confirmed if two others are still missing.", "Grandson of the 14th Duke of Hamilton wants to honour the \"forgotten hero\" of a 1915 polar mission.", "But there is confusion over who is being blamed in the latest trailer of the Harry and Meghan series.", "Longstanding tensions between Kosovo's authorities and its Serb minority have risen again.", "Officials say the dogs were rescued as part of a crackdown on illegal puppy trafficking.", "The RMT union boss says \"a bit of goodwill\" is needed from all sides involved in the dispute.", "Everyone earning more than £43,662 will pay more next year as Scottish government looks to raise money for public services.", "The BBC Good Morning Ulster presenter took a plunge into an ice bath used by top sport stars.", "A woman died at the scene and two children, aged four and six, died later in hospital, police say.", "The child's loss on Wednesday follows the earlier deaths of three other boys pulled from icy water.", "The bitter cold is due to remain until Saturday, posing a risk to sports fixtures and park runs.", "Officers from West Midlands Police lay flowers near the scene on Tuesday.", "Sales saw a surprise fall last month as households continue to struggle with the cost-of-living crisis.", "The ex-Superman star and fan of the miniature wargame has called the move a \"dream come true\".", "Kharkiv suffers \"colossal\" damage as the latest wave of Russian strikes targets power supplies.", "One victim called Rhys Williams the most heartless man he'd known, whose \"evil\" soaked into lives.", "Senior figures fear the PM may be taking an overly cautious approach as the war enters a key phase.", "The 42-year-old from Fife had to buy cheap replacement clothes from a market on the five-star trip.", "The train company received bonuses last year, but has been criticised for poor service this year.", "Video from social media appears to show people trying to get past security at the venue's front door.", "Opposition leader Peter Dutton called Sharon Claydon \"Mr Speaker\" in parliament on Thursday.", "Labour increases its vote share in Stretford and Urmston, which it has held since the seat's creation.", "The basketball star speaks for the first time since her release from Russian custody last week.", "Ross McCullam strangled 23-year-old Megan Newborough before slashing her throat 14 times.", "Authorities have urged anyone suffering from a range of severe symptoms after eating it to go to hospital.", "Fifa is to reconsider the format of the 2026 World Cup following the success of the four-group format at the 2022 tournament, says president Gianni Infantino.", "The social media giant has also suspended the Twitter account of its new rival.", "Aaron Glover, 27, sustained severe brain damage when a car driven by his brother hit a lamppost.", "A Met Office yellow warning for snow is in place in parts of central Scotland and people are advised to travel with caution.", "About 1,700 properties are still cut off, despite dozens of staff being drafted in to fix the network.", "The prince says it was \"terrifying\" to have his brother shout at him during a meeting at Sandringham.", "Lady Susan Hussey has met Sistah Space founder Ngozi Fulani at Buckingham Palace.", "A man convicted after stabbing his victim 51 times in 2008 is on the run following temporary release.", "Children are among the at least 21 people killed after a landslide struck a holiday campsite.", "Four people are in a critical condition after the fire in an apartment block near Lyon.", "Dog walker Michael Cox spotted them on the Wharfe between Bolton Priory and Bolton Bridge.", "A gift the officer received from a senior Ukrainian official explodes at police headquarters in Warsaw.", "More than 98% of them backed strikes after an offer of a 50p per hour pay rise, the GMB union says.", "Local authority leaders say they are \"extremely disappointed\" by the government's spending plan.", "Further wintry conditions are forecast, with more weather warnings issued by the Met Office.", "Safety campaigners urge people to stay away from \"life-threatening\" frozen rivers, ponds and lakes.", "Police are investigating after two boys were found dead at a home in Dagenham, east London.", "Snow and ice are set to cause disruption over the next few days as the Met Office issues yellow warnings.", "The United Nations joins the EU in warning Elon Musk over a \"disturbing\" move to suspend journalists.", "Children who fled Ukraine have been learning Welsh to settle into life in their new homes.", "The pair, who were on a secret mission with a new bomb design, crashed in North Yorkshire in 1944.", "Tributes are paid to Jack Johnson, siblings Finlay and Samuel Butler and Thomas Stewart.", "Only six farms are prosecuted for pollution despite 300 river contaminations in one year.", "High levels of maghemite were found in some air samples but it is not known if they are harmful.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 9-16 December", "As four boys die after plunging into a frozen lake near Solihull, tales of community spirit emerge.", "The dispute could escalate in the new year with further industrial action, nursing union warns.", "The singer says \"the show must go on\" after accusing BA of losing her luggage on her way to Rome.", "The pilot scheme to encourage more people to travel by train will begin next year.", "The Rail Delivery Group says it is hopeful of finding a resolution, as union boss Mick Lynch says all parties need to show goodwill.", "The whole of Kharkiv has no electricity after fresh wave of missiles hits energy infrastructure.", "Travellers face disruption on the railways and roads on Friday - by the BBC’s Zoe Conway.", "Critics ask why the Swedish zoo shot the chimpanzees instead of tranquilising them.", "The victims in a triple murder inquiry are believed to be an NHS nurse and her two children.", "It is another reason for parents to get their children protected against flu, health officials say,", "A woman says she feared for her life during a crush at a gig where several people were badly hurt.", "The Hollywood icon says her doctor has told her she can stop her chemotherapy treatment.", "The airlines were asked by the airport to \"suppress demand\" as Border Force staff go on strike.", "The shadow health secretary says the NHS needs reform as he attacks left-wing critics of his ideas.", "President Zelensky and senior officials warn that Kyiv and its allies must guard against complacency.", "Two people are injured as the Berlin aquarium, containing a million litres of water, bursts open.", "Services across England and Wales affected, but life-threatening calls will be responded to.", "The CIA reiterates it \"never engaged\" the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, as over 13,000 files go online.", "The prime minister is refusing to bow to pressure from health leaders to increase the offer.", "Video shows gushing water and submerged platforms as Storm Efraín shuts forces several stations.", "Manager Robert Page says Wales need to use the \"hurt\" and \"disappointment\" of their World Cup exit to lift them to further major tournaments.", "The long-time lead characters of the anime series will bow out in January, as the show continues.", "Health bosses warn of \"extensive disruption\" as staff in England are set to walk out next week.", "Heavy shelling of critical infrastructure knocks out the power supply to the entire Ukrainian port.", "Countries are promising new funds to help protect 30% of the planet for nature but will it secure a deal?", "British Airways apologises to passengers left waiting in airports and on runways across the US.", "The former Love Island contestant told the BBC she wants the government to simplify laws in the UK.", "As nurses take part in the largest strike in NHS history, use our tool to see if your area is affected.", "The 70-year-old is already serving 23 years in jail after he was convicted two years ago.", "Will Quince also urges people not to make unnecessary car journeys during action by ambulance workers.", "The debris closed the Oban branch of the West Highland Line and initially shut a stretch of the A85.", "Here's a reminder of what happened on the historic day a mob stormed the Capitol.", "Notes featuring the King's portrait will enter circulation in mid-2024, says the Bank of England.", "The bank is fined for a disastrous IT change in 2018 that left customers unable to access accounts.", "The boys, aged two and five, were found dead at a home in east London on Friday afternoon.", "Kyiv fears a fresh Russian assault is on the horizon after President Putin travelled to Minsk.", "The magnitude 6.4 tremor north of San Francisco killed two people, damaging roads and buildings.", "While he could face jail if convicted, these are symbolic recommendations for now not formal charges.", "The Perseverance rover is set to make a store of rocks that can be brought home by a future mission.", "Tributes are paid to 10-year-old Jack Lis who died after being attacked by a dog.", "Scientists answer the question of time in revealing how to avoid a soggy splash down.", "One union member says they will strike for \"as long as it takes\" to ensure staff and patient safety.", "The scheme offers government backing to encourage lenders to offer low-deposit mortgages to buyers.", "The White House will announce a further $2bn in aid to Ukraine, including a Patriot air defence system.", "Steve Barclay is told by the mother that she is scared for \"the length\" of her daughter's life.", "\"Triggered lightning\" has left staff unable to leave platforms near Denmark since November.", "The Ukrainian president meets troops in a city badly damaged after months of fierce fighting.", "Human rights activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei has complained to the Tory Party over the incident.", "China has been experiencing a surge in Covid cases after restrictions were eased earlier this month.", "Environmental campaigners called the move to phase out the chemicals a \"win for public health\".", "The man tried to \"escape\" on one occasion and broke his arm in the process, a court hears.", "Three people are arrested after a woman suffers life-threatening injuries and another man is hurt.", "The family of Jack Lis say they are \"absolutely heartbroken\" and life will \"never be the same\".", "Holyrood is expected to sit late into the evening to consider about 150 amendments to the bill.", "World Cup winners Argentina are greeted by jubilant fans at Buenos Aires airport and a bank holiday is declared in the country.", "The French national team are met by thousands in Paris after losing to Argentina on Sunday.", "The prime minister faces questions from the Liaison Committee of senior MPs for the first time.", "As China deals with a new Covid wave, Ros Atkins looks at why it’s hard to assess its scale.", "A walk out by RMT members of Network Rail will hit ScotRail services over the festive period.", "Police were called to reports of an armed man threatening people at a home in Carlisle.", "The woman died from her injuries after being attacked by dog on 3 December.", "The first week of the new year will be marked by rail strikes as drivers take action over pay.", "The prime minister is under pressure to reopen nurses' pay talks, as ambulance workers prepare for walk outs.", "A Siberian city is marking Christmas with ice statues of soldiers. But not all locals back the war.", "The 79-year-old actor came downstairs in his dressing gown after he heard the commotion.", "Lionel Messi is named BBC Sports Personality's World Sport Star of the Year after inspiring Argentina to World Cup glory.", "Argentina's World Cup winners have to abandon an open-top bus and take a helicopter ride over the millions of fans celebrating in Buenos Aires.", "The music world pays tribute to The Specials frontman and how his group soundtracked British life.", "Irmgard Furchner, 97, who worked for a Nazi commandant, is convicted in Germany.", "The UN high commissioner for human rights has hailed the proposals as a \"significant step forward\".", "Scotland Yard says it received an online report from a man alleging he had been verbally racially abused.", "Kaylea Louise Titford, 16, was found dead at her Powys home in October 2020.", "Eleven men died when a jet crashed on to the A27 in West Sussex during the 2015 Shoreham Airshow.", "The BBC's Katy Watson was surrounded by fans when reporting on World Cup celebrations in Buenos Aires.", "The committee airs critical testimony by a Trump loyalist and criticises his daughter, Ivanka Trump.", "The move further restricts women's education, after girls were already excluded from secondary schools.", "Dennis McGrory is convicted after he raped, stabbed and strangled a teenager in Islington in 1975.", "The return of 22 Benin Bronzes is part of Germany's efforts to deal with a \"dark colonial history\".", "Social care workers earn about £8,000 a year less than NHS staff, a study suggests - with some relying on food parcels.", "Network Rail advises people to travel only if \"absolutely necessary\" due to strike action by the RMT.", "The effect of a weather phenomenon causing cooler temperatures is due to end next year.", "Gaby Hutchinson becomes the second person to die following Asake's gig at the Brixton Academy.", "Jude was in hospital for weeks and almost died after swallowing the popular mini magnets in August.", "An experimental treatment saves the life of baby Finley after he was born with a heart defect.", "The firm won contracts to supply protective equipment after being recommended by peer Baroness Mone.", "\"Another tragic loss of a beautiful soul,\" Charlatans singer Tim Burgess says about the keyboardist.", "A shortlist of six contenders is announced for the 2022 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.", "His distinctively dour voice can be heard on hits like Ghost Town, Gangsters and Too Much, Too Young.", "NHS bosses \"cannot guarantee patient safety\" during the strikes in England and Wales on Wednesday, according to the NHS Confederation.", "Police believe the man may have been killed as part of a cross-border drug-related feud.", "A woman who uses a wheelchair says she had to move from an upstairs flat due to mobility issues.", "Strep A is a bacterial infection that can be extremely serious, but is treatable.", "The Church of England's most senior cleric is visiting a war-torn city of Ukraine.", "The former chancellor and health secretary is the latest Tory MP to say they will quit Parliament.", "Joe Biden says he is willing to sit down with Vladimir Putin, but when might peace talks take place?", "Morocco end 36 years of World Cup hurt by progressing to the knockout stage - then set their sights on going all the way.", "A Commons committee says there should be \"significant\" punishments for ministers who break the rules.", "New York City is recruiting a director of rodent mitigation - or rat tsar - for its war on the pest.", "Scientists did the study for the government to better understand possible exposure to shoppers.", "The supermarket boss says there have been many changes to how people shop due to the cost of living.", "The first trailer comes amid a race row sparked by comments made to a black guest at a royal reception.", "The alleged serial killer was arrested for one murder in May. On Thursday police laid more charges.", "The G7 agrees a cap of $60 a barrel on exported Russian crude, after the EU gave its backing.", "The comedian gets emotional on stage in Manchester as he opens his first tour for 12 years.", "The estimates are the highest offered yet by a Western official on the months-long conflict.", "With food prices spiralling, experts share cooking tips and recipes to help you make the most of your food budget.", "Matthew George and John Muldoon physically and sexually attacked pupils at an Ayrshire residential school.", "Former Celtic and Scotland striker denies wrongdoing as Police Scotland make three arrests.", "EU airlines will be able to install equipment that lets them provide 5G on board planes by June 2023.", "A public vote chooses the late Queen's favourite riding pony for the accolade at the annual awards.", "South Korea's players are overwhelmed with joy, while Luis Suarez and Uruguay cried tears of disbelief following a dramatic conclusion to Group H.", "Christian Matheson invited an ex-staff member on a \"sexually motivated\" trip abroad, a report says.", "Germany's World Cup exit in the first round leaves them on the brink of joining football's 'B list', writes Phil McNulty.", "It is unacceptable that people's lives are being disrupted by a \"selfish minority\", says Rishi Sunak.", "Chris Dawson is sentenced for killing his wife Lynette Dawson, who disappeared in Sydney in 1982.", "Germany's elimination in the World Cup group stages for the second time in a row has led to a scathing reaction in the media at home.", "Latest tests on show 85 out of 106 swimming areas in Wales are ranked excellent.", "A Buckingham Palace reception is overtaken by a racism row that could scarcely have come at a worse time.", "With no images released to show why Japan's controversial winner against Spain was not ruled out, fans online have taken matters into their own hands.", "An inquiry is told police should have agreed a tactical plan for a \"managed and controlled intervention.\"", "Parts of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny were filmed in Glasgow in the summer of 2021.", "The Prince and Princess of Wales are in Boston to hand out awards for their Earthshot Prize.", "Cameroon are out of the World Cup despite securing a dramatic victory over Brazil at Lusail Stadium in their final Group G match.", "Kyiv says the missiles were fired with non-explosive warheads to deplete Ukrainian air defences.", "It was one of eight towns elevated to a city to mark the platinum jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.", "The regulator says it has found \"issues\" with the charity's governance and management.", "The pop star will headline the Pyramid Stage on Sunday 25 June, as he wraps up his farewell tour.", "Labour would win general election if Chester's new MP Sam Dixon's vote share was repeated nationally.", "Welsh government looks at sharing out office space as the Tories call for most staff to be in work.", "The Kremlin says the West's refusal to recognise its seizure of Ukrainian land makes talks harder.", "Residents say they need peep holes to see their tree after it was obscured by wood and a metal fence.", "The Prince and Princess of Wales have arrived their Earthshot Prize awards ceremony.", "Sight and Sound picks Chantal Akerman's 1975 film Jeanne Dielman as the greatest ever.", "The UK government is on course to miss its target for signing deals, as exporter numbers fall.", "Takeoff, youngest of the rap group Migos, was killed last month outside a Houston bowling alley.", "A retrial of Bruce Lehrmann - who denies rape - would endanger his accuser's life, prosecutors say.", "Ngozi Fulani tells the BBC her encounter with Lady Susan Hussey was like an \"interrogation\".", "The payout came from Fettes College in Edinburgh after allegations about a former teacher.", "Mahek Bukhari, her mother and six others have denied murdering two men who died in a crash.", "The weather in parts of Scotland has hit midge numbers but benefited ticks, according to experts.", "Formula 1 confirms the 2023 Chinese Grand Prix will not go ahead because of the country's \"ongoing difficulties\" with Covid.", "Elon Musk confirmed the rapper had violated Twitter's rules around inciting violence.", "BBC Sport and Opta analyse the 279 World Cup shootout penalties to see the best ways to score your kick.", "The pupil at St John's School, Ealing, is among six children to have died with the bug.", "Brit nominee Pa Salieu attacked a man in Coventry shortly after his best friend was stabbed to death.", "Western casualty estimates suggest about 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded.", "Leah Foster says the university went back on an earlier deal and she is now missing valuable teaching.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 25 November and 2 December.", "The ruling is a win for the US justice department, which is probing Mr Trump over classified documents.", "The parliament is set to pass a new law which would also outlaw pre-marital cohabitation.", "Germany crashed out of the Fifa World Cup on a remarkable night of drama despite victory over Costa Rica at Al Bayt Stadium.", "He was recently told to pay almost $1.5bn (£1.2bn) for claiming a 2012 school shooting was a hoax.", "A CD recording of live show which fell between shelves has been discovered during a tidy-up.", "The Netherlands survive a late scare against the United States to move into the World Cup quarter-finals with a ruthless display of finishing.", "Shahd says authorities told her to remove breast tissue that grew after she began taking oestrogen.", "Whistleblowers allege they were punished for raising concerns at one of England's worst performing trusts.", "The film tells the story of a bereaved father struggling to make Christmas special for his his son.", "Parents concerned about their child's symptoms are urged to seek medical advice.", "Christopher Mooney and Armagh man Kieran Hamill died at separate locations in County Monaghan.", "\"I must be brutally honest with you,\" Sanna Marin says. \"We would be in trouble without the US.\"", "Switzerland seal their place in the World Cup last 16 following an entertaining five-goal victory over Serbia to round off the group stage.", "Two boys are charged with murdering Kearne Solanke and Charlie Bartolo a mile apart in London."], "section": ["Wales", "Derby", "Scotland", null, "UK Politics", "Liverpool", "Bristol", "Wales", "Business", "Business", "Entertainment & Arts", "US & Canada", "Newsbeat", "Asia", "Scotland", "Berkshire", "Wales", "Entertainment & Arts", "Sussex", "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", "Entertainment & Arts", "Europe", "Business", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Scotland", "UK", "US & Canada", "US & Canada", "US & Canada", "Europe", "Business", "UK", "Business", "Derby", "UK", "US & Canada", null, "Scotland", "Technology", null, "Scotland", null, "UK Politics", "Newsbeat", null, "Europe", "Wales", "US & Canada", "London", "UK Politics", "Wales", "Europe", "Wales", "Health", "Technology", "US & Canada", "China", "Asia", "Africa", "Scotland", "Wales", "Scotland", null, "US & Canada", "Entertainment & Arts", "Derby", "Entertainment & Arts", "Scotland", null, "UK", "London", "London", "Latin America & Caribbean", "UK Politics", "Africa", "Europe", null, "UK", null, "Middle East", "Europe", "Scotland", "US & Canada", "UK Politics", "US & Canada", "Europe", "Bristol", null, "Middle East", "Business", "London", null, "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "Health", "Europe", "Entertainment & Arts", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Kent", "Europe", "Health", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Entertainment & Arts", "Coventry & Warwickshire", "Wales", "Technology", null, "Europe", null, "Wales", "Northern Ireland", "Europe", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Europe", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Wales", "US & Canada", "Europe", "London", null, null, "London", "US & Canada", "Australia", "UK", "Entertainment & Arts", "Northern Ireland", "Scotland politics", "Europe", "Asia", "Europe", "Latin America & Caribbean", "Health", null, "Wales", "Scotland", "Europe", "Newsbeat", "Europe", "Middle East", "Reality Check", "UK", "Northern Ireland", "London", "UK Politics", "London", "Entertainment & Arts", "Business", "Business", "UK", "Business", "Coventry & Warwickshire", "Europe", "Europe", "Scotland", null, "UK Politics", "Business", "Scotland", "UK", "Business", "Scotland", "Science & Environment", "Europe", "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "Jersey", "Business", "Devon", "UK", "Essex", "UK Politics", "Business", "Australia", "US & Canada", "Leicester", "UK", null, "Africa", null, "UK Politics", "Technology", "Northern Ireland", "Latin America & Caribbean", "US & Canada", "Northern Ireland", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Europe", "Kent", "Birmingham & Black Country", "US & Canada", "Entertainment & Arts", "Europe", "Health", null, "Business", "UK Politics", "Science & Environment", "UK", "UK", "Europe", "Wales", "Newsbeat", "UK Politics", "UK", "Europe", "Health", "Asia", "Asia", "US & Canada", "Jersey", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Scotland", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Business", null, "Health", "UK", "Cornwall", "Lincolnshire", "Northern Ireland", "Wales", "UK Politics", "Business", "Family & Education", "Suffolk", "Science & Environment", "UK Politics", "Derby", "Northern Ireland", "UK Politics", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", "US & Canada", "Northern Ireland", "Northern Ireland", "Cumbria", null, "UK Politics", "UK Politics", "Kent", "Scotland politics", "World", "Northern Ireland", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Wales", "UK", "US & Canada", "Latin America & Caribbean", "Wales", "US & Canada", null, null, "Wales", "Wales", "Health", "Europe", "UK", null, "Dorset", "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", "Essex", "China", "UK Politics", "Surrey", "Manchester", "Europe", "Scotland politics", "Europe", "UK", "N. Ireland Politics", "UK", "Business", "US & Canada", "Europe", "UK Politics", null, "Scotland", "Asia", "Business", "UK Politics", null, "London", "Europe", "Entertainment & Arts", "Wales", null, "Entertainment & Arts", null, "Liverpool", "Asia", "UK", "Liverpool", "Europe", "Europe", "UK", "US & Canada", "US & Canada", "Essex", "Leeds & West Yorkshire", "US & Canada", "Europe", "US & Canada", "UK", "Asia", "Europe", "UK", "Africa", "Europe", "Wiltshire", "Suffolk", "Wales", "UK", "Wales", "Liverpool", "Entertainment & Arts", "Asia", "Business", "Asia", "UK", "US & Canada", "Wales", "Asia", "Wales", "Derby", "Scotland", null, "Health", "Scotland", "Wiltshire", null, "Science & Environment", "Entertainment & Arts", "Wales", "Europe", "UK Politics", "US & Canada", "Scotland", "Wales", "Sussex", "Asia", "Business", "Family & Education", "Europe", "Business", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Northern Ireland", "Wales", "US & Canada", "Europe", "Wales", "Humberside", "Wales", "Entertainment & Arts", "Business", null, "US & Canada", "Europe", "Europe", "US & Canada", "US & Canada", null, "Business", "Wales", "Health", "London", null, "Scotland", null, "UK Politics", "Wales", "US & Canada", "US & Canada", "UK", "Business", "Leicester", "Europe", "Europe", "US & Canada", "China", "Somerset", "Wales", "UK", "Scotland", "Business", "UK", "Entertainment & Arts", "Scotland", "Scotland politics", "Wales", null, "Business", "Latin America & Caribbean", "Business", "Wales", "US & Canada", "Business", "Newsbeat", "Scotland", null, "UK", "Business", "Technology", "Science & Environment", "London", "Norfolk", "Wales", "UK", "Scotland", "England", null, "UK", "Essex", null, "UK Politics", "Australia", null, "Technology", "Business", "Science & Environment", "UK", "Scotland", "Business", "UK Politics", "Wales", "UK", "Birmingham & Black Country", null, "Technology", null, "Birmingham & Black Country", null, "Family & Education", "Gloucestershire", "Jersey", "Northern Ireland", "London", "Birmingham & Black Country", null, "UK", "Business", "UK Politics", "NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland", "China", "Wales", null, null, "Hampshire & Isle of Wight", "Northern Ireland", null, "Europe", "UK Politics", "Latin America & Caribbean", "Science & Environment", "Entertainment & Arts", "US & Canada", "UK", "UK", "Wales", "Health", "Leeds & West Yorkshire", "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", null, "Jersey", null, "UK", "UK", null, "Technology", "Health", "Wales", "UK", "Europe", "US & Canada", "Europe", "Europe", "China", "Entertainment & Arts", "Scotland politics", "Scotland", "York & North Yorkshire", "Science & Environment", null, "Asia", null, null, "US & Canada", "US & Canada", null, "UK", null, "Wales", "Highlands & Islands", null, "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Scotland politics", null, "UK", null, "UK", null, null, "London", "Europe", "Business", "Coventry & Warwickshire", null, "Sussex", null, null, "Jersey", "UK", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK", "UK", "UK Politics", null, "Wales", null, "Europe", "Wales", "UK", null, "Europe", "US & Canada", "Europe", "York & North Yorkshire", "UK", "Entertainment & Arts", "Africa", "Northern Ireland", null, "Northern Ireland", null, null, "Africa", "Europe", "Europe", "London", null, "Africa", null, "Business", null, "UK", null, null, "Scotland", "UK Politics", null, "Middle East", null, "Business", "Europe", "Europe", "Asia", "Europe", "Wales", "Scotland", "Europe", "UK Politics", "US & Canada", null, null, null, null, null, "Tayside and Central Scotland", "Latin America & Caribbean", "UK", null, "Europe", "Kent", "Health", "Wales", "Business", null, "UK", null, "UK", "Scotland", null, "Northern Ireland", null, null, "Asia", "Science & Environment", "Wales", "Europe", "London", "Entertainment & Arts", "Health", null, "Wales", "Middle East", "Liverpool", "Liverpool", "US & Canada", "UK", null, "US & Canada", "Kent", "Wales", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Europe", "UK", "Asia", "US & Canada", "Europe", "US & Canada", null, "Business", "Middle East", "Europe", "Scotland", "UK", "UK", "Jersey", "Europe", "Africa", "UK Politics", "Suffolk", "UK", "Wales", "Northern Ireland", "Asia", "Liverpool", "Jersey", "Lancashire", "Wales", "Asia", "UK", "China", "Middle East", "US & Canada", "In Pictures", "Wales", "Science & Environment", "Northern Ireland", "Northampton", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Europe", "Wales", null, "Europe", "UK", "England", null, "Gloucestershire", "UK", null, null, "Asia", "Africa", "Entertainment & Arts", null, "UK Politics", "Manchester", "Scotland", "China", "UK", "Highlands & Islands", "Middle East", "Europe", "UK", "Wales", "Reality Check", null, null, null, "Kent", "Entertainment & Arts", null, "Europe", "Middle East", "Northern Ireland", "Northern Ireland", "London", "Northern Ireland", null, "London", "Health", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Middle East", "Wales", null, "Scotland", "Europe", null, "Northern Ireland", "Health", "Newsbeat", "Northern Ireland", null, "Science & Environment", "Wales", "Wales", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK", "US & Canada", "Latin America & Caribbean", "US & Canada", "Business", "Business", "Leicester", "Northern Ireland", "Wales", null, "Europe", "US & Canada", "Science & Environment", "US & Canada", "Wales", "Home", "Technology", "Jersey", null, "Health", "Wales", "London", "Europe", "Middle East", "Health", "Australia", "Wales", "Northampton", null, "Europe", "Northern Ireland", "Scotland", "Cumbria", "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", "UK", "Entertainment & Arts", "Wales", "Wales", "UK Politics", null, "Northern Ireland", "UK", "UK Politics", "Bristol", "Health", "Health", "Latin America & Caribbean", "Entertainment & Arts", "Northampton", "Northern Ireland", "Business", "Health", "UK Politics", "Health", null, "Northampton", null, "Northern Ireland", "UK Politics", "UK Politics", "Europe", "N. Ireland Politics", "Northern Ireland", "UK", "Business", "US & Canada", "Science & Environment", "Northern Ireland", "Northern Ireland", "Northern Ireland", "UK", null, null, "UK Politics", null, "Europe", "Europe", "Europe", "Entertainment & Arts", "Wales", "Glasgow & West Scotland", null, "Europe", "Northern Ireland", "Northern Ireland", "Business", "UK", "Shropshire", "UK Politics", "Wales", "Science & Environment", "Wales", "Tees", "Hampshire & Isle of Wight", "Europe", "Entertainment & Arts", null, "UK", null, "Wales", "Latin America & Caribbean", "Northern Ireland", null, null, "Health", "Wales", "Latin America & Caribbean", "Business", "Entertainment & Arts", "Scotland", "Europe", "Europe", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK Politics", "Business", "NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland", "UK Politics", null, "UK", "UK", "Glasgow & West Scotland", null, "Africa", "Europe", "Business", "Scotland", "Tayside and Central Scotland", "Kent", "Europe", "Wales", "UK Politics", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Europe", "Wales", "Business", null, "Hereford & Worcester", "Europe", "Entertainment & Arts", "Family & Education", "Wales", "Liverpool", "Europe", "Wales", "Hampshire & Isle of Wight", "Asia", "US & Canada", "Business", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Wales", "Business", "Europe", "Asia", "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "US & Canada", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK Politics", "UK", "Europe", "Wales", "US & Canada", "UK", "Northern Ireland", "Lancashire", null, "China", "China", "Middle East", null, "Norfolk", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK", "Wales", "Europe", null, "Science & Environment", "Jersey", "Europe", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Wales", "Europe", "Scotland politics", "Wales", "Business", null, "Entertainment & Arts", null, "Science & Environment", "UK", "Wales", "UK Politics", "Scotland", null, "Hampshire & Isle of Wight", "Jersey", null, "Wales", null, "Scotland", "Glasgow & West Scotland", null, "UK", "Wales", "Jersey", "Entertainment & Arts", "Wales", "Europe", "Health", "Coventry & Warwickshire", "Jersey", "UK", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Entertainment & Arts", null, "Birmingham & Black Country", "Wales", "Wales", "Health", null, "Business", "Europe", "Europe", "US & Canada", "Scotland politics", "Nottingham", "Health", "Wales", "Newsbeat", "Northampton", "Birmingham & Black Country", null, "UK", null, "US & Canada", "London", "Manchester", "Scotland", "Europe", "Scotland", "Asia", "Scotland", "Health", "Business", "Scotland", null, "Manchester", "London", "Manchester", "UK", "Jersey", "UK", "NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland", "Wales", "Europe", "UK", "Business", "Business", "Australia", "York & North Yorkshire", "Europe", "UK", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Scotland politics", null, "Scotland", "Scotland", "UK", "Birmingham & Black Country", "London", "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "Business", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Newsbeat", null, "Northern Ireland", "UK Politics", "Wales", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK", "Family & Education", "UK", "Entertainment & Arts", "US & Canada", "Wales", null, "UK", "Europe", "Health", "Wales", "UK", "Europe", "Health", null, "UK", "US & Canada", "Essex", "London", "Hereford & Worcester", "Entertainment & Arts", "Health", "UK", "Europe", "Lincolnshire", "UK", "UK", "Health", "Entertainment & Arts", "Europe", "Scotland", "Derby", "Europe", "Entertainment & Arts", "Europe", "Cornwall", "Scotland", "US & Canada", "UK Politics", "Manchester", "Northern Ireland", "UK Politics", "Scotland", "Wales", "Scotland", null, "Science & Environment", "Lancashire", "Scotland", "Wales", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK", "Europe", "Scotland", "Wales", "US & Canada", "Scotland politics", "Business", "Business", null, "Asia", "US & Canada", "Business", "Cornwall", null, "Europe", "UK", "Business", "Sussex", "Northern Ireland", "Wales", "US & Canada", "Latin America & Caribbean", "UK", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK Politics", "Scotland", "Middle East", "Scotland", "UK", "US & Canada", "China", "Wales", "UK", "Technology", null, "Business", "Business", "Sheffield & South Yorkshire", "Scotland politics", "UK", "UK", "UK", "Africa", "Health", "Africa", "UK", "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "Wales", "Entertainment & Arts", "Wales", null, "Wales", "UK", "Europe", "UK Politics", "US & Canada", "London", "Asia", null, "Technology", "Australia", "Shropshire", "Scotland", "UK", null, "US & Canada", "Wales", "Middle East", "South Scotland", "Business", "Health", "Wales", "Family & Education", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Scotland politics", "Scotland", "Health", "UK", "Sussex", null, null, "Health", "Liverpool", "Science & Environment", "Technology", "Wales", "England", "US & Canada", "Wales", "Scotland", "Business", "Somerset", "UK", "Newsbeat", null, "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", "York & North Yorkshire", "Scotland", "London", "Entertainment & Arts", "US & Canada", "US & Canada", "UK Politics", "UK", "Highlands & Islands", "Scotland politics", "Shropshire", "Europe", "Sussex", "Wales", "US & Canada", "UK", "UK", "Europe", "Entertainment & Arts", "Europe", null, "Scotland", "Science & Environment", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK", null, "Health", "US & Canada", "Business", null, "Suffolk", "Europe", "Business", "London", "Scotland politics", "UK", null, "Jersey", null, "Europe", "Europe", "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", "Newsbeat", "Entertainment & Arts", "Scotland", "Business", "UK", "Wales", "Wales", "Entertainment & Arts", null, "UK", "UK Politics", "Wales", "Northern Ireland", "Liverpool", null, "Entertainment & Arts", "Europe", null, "Business", "US & Canada", "Northampton", "Business", "Family & Education", "Business", "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", "UK Politics", "UK", "Asia", "Europe", "Northern Ireland", "Europe", "UK", "Wales", "US & Canada", "Science & Environment", "Science & Environment", "Scotland", "Europe", null, "UK", "US & Canada", "US & Canada", "UK Politics", "Wales", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK", "Europe", "Northern Ireland", "Home", "Northern Ireland", "Africa", "Manchester", "Entertainment & Arts", "Scotland", "Northern Ireland", "Wales", "Europe", "Northern Ireland", "US & Canada", "Wales", "Wales", "Wales", "Northern Ireland", "Scotland", "China", null, "Lancashire", "US & Canada", "Highlands & Islands", "Europe", "Middle East", "South Scotland", null, "Northern Ireland", "UK", null, "UK Politics", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Manchester", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Europe", "US & Canada", "Technology", "Cumbria", null, "Africa", "Kent", null, null, null, "US & Canada", "Wales", "London", "Asia", "UK", null, "UK", "Business", "UK", "Northern Ireland", "London", "Business", null, "UK", "UK Politics", "Entertainment & Arts", "Business", "Wales", "Northern Ireland", "Scotland politics", null, "Scotland business", "Liverpool", "Europe", "Wales", "Business", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Business", "Business", "UK Politics", null, "Northern Ireland", "US & Canada", "UK Politics", "Northern Ireland", "London", "Business", "UK", null, "Entertainment & Arts", "Science & Environment", "Scotland", "Northampton", "Wales politics", "UK", "US & Canada", "Europe", "Essex", "UK Politics", "Scotland", "UK", null, "Technology", "Wales", "China", "Health", "London", "UK Politics", "Business", "Scotland", null, "US & Canada", "Middle East", "UK Politics", "York & North Yorkshire", "UK", "UK Politics", null, "UK Politics", "Asia", "UK", "Glasgow & West Scotland", null, "US & Canada", "Entertainment & Arts", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Europe", "US & Canada", "Northampton", "Technology", "Wales", "Health", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK", "Northern Ireland", "Europe", "UK Politics", "US & Canada", "Wales", "Middle East", null, null, "UK", "Essex", "Scotland", "London", "Wales", null, "Entertainment & Arts", null, "US & Canada", "Europe", "Asia", "Europe", "Entertainment & Arts", "Entertainment & Arts", "Cornwall", null, "Wales", "Devon", "Middle East", "UK Politics", "Essex", "Manchester", "Leeds & West Yorkshire", "Europe", "US & Canada", "Wales", "Wales", "Asia", "Europe", "Business", "Wiltshire", "Wales", "Science & Environment", "Wales", "England", "Entertainment & Arts", "Wales", "US & Canada", "Wales", "Asia", "London", "Business", "Europe", "Wales", "In Pictures", "US & Canada", "Sussex", "Europe", "UK", "Science & Environment", "US & Canada", "Jersey", "Jersey", "Entertainment & Arts", "Business", "Europe", "Scotland", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK Politics", "UK", "Europe", "UK", "Scotland", "Wales", "Business", "Europe", "Wales", null, "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "Leicester", "Middle East", null, "UK", "UK", "Jersey", "Business", "UK", "China", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Scotland", "Technology", "UK", "Entertainment & Arts", "Newsbeat", "UK Politics", "Europe", "Australia", "UK", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Europe", "Scotland", "Wales", "Business", "Europe", "Health", "Business", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "UK", "Europe", "Northern Ireland", "Business", "Scotland politics", null, "Northampton", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Northern Ireland", null, "Business", "Entertainment & Arts", "Europe", "Wales", "UK Politics", "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "Business", null, null, "Manchester", "US & Canada", "Leicester", "Australia", null, "Technology", "Northern Ireland", "Scotland", "NE Scotland, Orkney & Shetland", "UK", "UK", "Northern Ireland", "Asia", "Europe", "York & North Yorkshire", "Europe", "Coventry & Warwickshire", "Scotland", "Scotland", "Wales", "London", "UK", "Business", "Wales", "York & North Yorkshire", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Science & Environment", "London", "Scotland", "Birmingham & Black Country", "Health", "Wales", "Scotland", "UK", "Europe", "UK", "Europe", "Northampton", "Health", "London", "Entertainment & Arts", "Business", "UK Politics", "Europe", "Europe", "Health", "US & Canada", "Health", null, null, "Entertainment & Arts", "UK", "Europe", "Science & Environment", "Business", "Entertainment & Arts", "Health", "US & Canada", "UK Politics", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "US & Canada", "Business", "Business", "London", "Europe", "US & Canada", "Home", "Science & Environment", null, "Wales", "Wales", "Business", "Europe", null, "Scotland", "Europe", "UK Politics", "Asia", "Business", "Manchester", "Wales", "Wales", "Scotland", null, "Europe", "UK Politics", null, "Scotland", "Cumbria", "Wales", "Business", "UK Politics", "Europe", "US & Canada", null, null, "Entertainment & Arts", "Europe", "Scotland", "UK Politics", "Wales", "Sussex", null, "US & Canada", "Asia", "London", "Africa", "UK", "Business", "Science & Environment", "London", "Wales", "Bristol", "UK Politics", "Entertainment & Arts", null, "Entertainment & Arts", "Health", "Northern Ireland", "Northern Ireland", "Wales", "UK", "UK Politics", "Europe", null, "UK Politics", "US & Canada", "Health", "Business", "UK", "US & Canada", "Europe", "Entertainment & Arts", "Europe", "UK", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "Scotland", "Technology", "Berkshire", null, "Liverpool", null, "UK", "Australia", null, "Wales", "UK", null, "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "UK", null, "Europe", "Northern Ireland", "UK", "Entertainment & Arts", "UK Politics", "Wales", "Europe", "Glasgow & West Scotland", "UK", "Europe", "UK Politics", "US & Canada", "Australia", "UK", "Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland", "Leicester", "Highlands & Islands", null, "Business", null, "London", "Coventry & Warwickshire", "Europe", "Derby", "Scotland", "US & Canada", "Asia", null, "US & Canada", "Entertainment & Arts", null, "UK", "England", "Leeds & West Yorkshire", "Health", "Europe", "Europe", null, "London"], "content": ["Striking workers at Carmarthen Ambulance Station are among those calling for improved pay and conditions\n\nPoor pay is affecting the health and wellbeing of some ambulance workers and their ability to do the job, according to one worker.\n\nIan James, 59, said voting in favour of strike action was difficult, but necessary to improve conditions.\n\nGMB members of the ambulance service in Wales are striking on Wednesday in a dispute over pay.\n\nWales' health minister said people should only call 999 for serious emergencies during the strike.\n\nMr James is an emergency medical technician and has worked for the ambulance service for 30 years, as well as serving as a branch secretary for the union.\n\nHe cited examples of colleagues who at one time were able to have \"fresh vegetables and food on a regular basis to now having less quality foods - even to the point where some members of staff are having to use food banks\".\n\nIan James says the walkout is necessary to improve the situation for ambulance staff\n\n\"That does seriously impact on your ability to function at the highest level, which you need when dealing with patients, the public, drugs, driving,\" he added.\n\n\"All those things are impacted by your health and wellbeing.\"\n\nMembers of the GMB union - which makes up about a quarter of the ambulance service in Wales - are striking for 24 hours, ending at midnight on Wednesday.\n\nThe Welsh government has given workers an average pay rise of 4.75%, but with inflation running at more than 10%, unions say this represents a pay cut in real terms.\n\nUnison did not meet the threshold for industrial action in Wales, though it's expected to re-ballot its members in the new year, while the results of Unite's ballot is due later this week.\n\nIn England all three unions are taking action, though bosses in Wales are also preparing for non-GMB members to strike in support.\n\nCalls to the service will still be answered and the most urgent, life-threatening calls - roughly 15% of the total call volume - will be responded to.\n\nIn Llandudno 10 people set up a picket line at about 06:30 GMT\n\nThe expectation is that many patients - even those who are seriously ill - will simply not get an ambulance response.\n\nExemptions are also in place so that should the most urgent \"red calls\" come in, bosses can ask for striking crews to return to work, though staff can refuse.\n\nAt Pentwyn service station in Cardiff, all striking members were called away from the picket line on emergency calls.\n\nHandover delays are often lengthy, Mr James said.\n\n\"The public can be assured that no life or limb would be put in jeopardy from a patient being left on the back of an ambulance, that will not happen,\" he explained.\n\n\"We would hand over that patient as safe and securely as possible.\"\n\nGMB members from the Bassaleg picket line in Newport say turnout early on Wednesday was low as so many staff members attended \"red\" calls\n\nHe said the current pressures on the service meant there were reduced opportunities to mentally process what they deal with, which in turn is affecting how long staff stay in the service.\n\n\"People put a brave face on a lot of things they do, particularly with the ambulance service, where they are dealing with catastrophic incidents on a regular basis.\n\n\"It used to be that you would 'depressurise' on station, but now handovers are so difficult that as soon as you come through that door they're looking to cover jobs.\n\n\"So you're straight on the vehicle, checking your equipment and straight out that door. You don't get the 'depressurisation' that we used to have.\"\n\nCalls to the ambulance service will be answered on strike day\n\nSharon Thorpe, a relief paramedic for the Welsh Ambulance Service in Newport, called the action a \"necessity\" to preserve the service for patients.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast, she said: \"Actually putting that tick in that box for action was a massive decision for me.\n\n\"This is my 30th year in the ambulance service. We've had ballots before, and I've never ticked that box before, [but] there has been years of underfunding in the health service and its staff.\n\n\"To help people in their darkest times and then go home and possibly have to visit a foodbank to feed your children is unacceptable.\"\n\nMs Thorpe, a picket supervisor supporting striking colleagues, added: \"I don't think there is one of us here today who feels good about this, but it's a necessity. People in the NHS are the service, and the service will last as long as there are people to fight for it.\n\n\"The service that we give our patients is, at the moment, not fulfilling what we would want. Patient experience is dire, staff are struggling. Things have to change.\"\n\nRichard Collyer, an emergency medical technician and GMB Union lead in Carmarthenshire, added that the current wage was having \"a massive effect on ourselves and our families financially because we can't support them as well as we should be\".\n\n\"I get paid £11.24 an hour. For the work that we do and the lives that we save and the trauma and the horrific things that we see on a daily basis, £11.24 is not enough.\"\n\nHe added that the decision to walk out had been taken with \"a very heavy heart\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Welsh Ambulance This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nJason Killens, head of the Wales Ambulance Service, said about half of crews were working normally overnight and the other half were responding only to top tier emergencies or taking full strike action.\n\nHe added: \"Pressure on the service has been sustained and has been extreme for many months. Today, so far, we've seen activity perhaps be slightly kinder than we've seen in recent weeks.\"\n\nHe said while pleas for hospitals to free up ambulances quickly had been met, the impact was still significant.\n\n\"Patients are likely to continue to come to some degree of harm during the strike action. But the issue for us over the last few days has been planning as best we can for today to mitigate the impact of the action,\" he said.\n\nHe suggested that factors beyond pay, such as workplace environment, long handover delays outside hospitals and late finishes had influenced some workers' decisions and urged unions and ministers to \"get round the table\".\n\n\"I do have sympathy with them for the circumstances they're working in. It is deeply frustrating for them and for me because we can't provide the service that people need,\" he added.\n\nThe Welsh government said about 2,800 outpatient appointments and 250 planned operations were postponed in Wales on Tuesday.\n\nIt said that did not reflect the full impact on planned NHS care, as fewer operations and appointments were booked in than normal.\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan said people should not add extra pressure on services on strike days and consider carefully what activities they take part in.\n\n\"There's no doubt the two days of industrial action, following hard on the heels of action by nurses which have caused a delay in treatment for thousands of patients in Wales, are going to cause huge pressure on ambulance services. Ambulances will only be able to respond to the most urgent calls on strike days,\" she said.\n\n\"It's important to call 999 if you are in immediate danger, but we must all consider very carefully how we use ambulance services on these days.\"\n\nUse this form to tell us about your experiences:\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.", "Terri Harris (bottom left) and her children John Bennett (top left) and Lacey Bennett (bottom right) were found dead along with Lacey's friend Connie Gent (top right)\n\nA man who murdered his pregnant partner, her two children, and another child has been sentenced to a whole-life prison term.\n\nDamien Bendall killed his four victims with a claw hammer at a house in Derbyshire in 2021.\n\nHe pleaded guilty to murdering Terri Harris, 35, her son John Bennett, 13, daughter Lacey Bennett, 11, and Lacey's 11-year-old friend Connie Gent.\n\nHe also pleaded guilty to raping Lacey.\n\nBendall, 32, admitted the charges at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday, where he was sentenced by Mr Justice Sweeney.\n\nHe was given a whole-life order, meaning he will never be released from prison, except in exceptional compassionate circumstances.\n\nMr Justice Sweeney told him: \"As the prosecution have said, you carried out vicious, brutal and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman and three young children, during which you went around the house attacking them.\"\n\nMs Harris and the children were found dead at a house in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh, on 19 September, having been killed on the evening of 18 September.\n\n\"The defendant attacked them using a claw hammer which he used to hit them over the head and on the upper body,\" prosecution barrister Louis Mably KC told the court.\n\n\"It was perfectly clear none of the victims stood a chance.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Killamarsh murders: Footage shows arrest of man who murdered four\n\nMr Mably told the court Bendall and Ms Harris had been in a relationship, having met on a dating app after her relationship with her children's father ended.\n\nPolice arrived at the house on the morning of 19 September, having been alerted by Bendall's mother, as he told her he had stabbed himself.\n\nIn police bodycam footage played to the court, he could be seen speaking to officers outside the house, telling them calmly, \"I've murdered four people\", and \"I'm going back to prison\".\n\nPolice initially did not believe him, Mr Mably said, but an officer found all four bodies when he went inside.\n\nHe found John first, lying naked on the floor of the bathroom, as he had been due to have a shower before Bendall attacked him.\n\nHe then found Ms Harris and her daughter in the main bedroom. Terri was on the floor but Lacey was on the bed.\n\nForensic evidence indicates that Bendall attacked and raped Lacey downstairs before moving her upstairs, where he raped her again.\n\nHe also used some kind of ligature around her neck, and this contributed to her death along with the head injuries.\n\nConnie, who was stopping with Lacey for a sleepover that night, was found dead in another bedroom.\n\nBendall, who the court heard was under the influence of cocaine and cannabis, left the house after the murders, taking John's games console with him in order to sell it for drugs.\n\nHe was arrested and taken to hospital, but the wounds he had inflicted on himself only required stitches.\n\nHe was then interviewed by police, telling them: \"I used a hammer. I did not realise what I did until I walked into my room and saw my missus and my daughter.\"\n\nHe knew Ms Harris was pregnant when he killed her, because he also told police: \"Bet you don't usually get four murders in Killamarsh do you? Well I mean five 'cause my missus was having a baby.\"\n\nDamien Bendall admitted four murders and the rape of 11-year-old Lacey\n\nVictim personal statements from relatives of the victims were read to the court by the prosecution.\n\nAngela Smith, Ms Harris's mother, said: \"Terri, Lacey and John meant the world to me and were the most precious people in my life. Not being able to give them a kiss and a hug and tell them I love them breaks my heart.\"\n\nShe recalled her grandchildren telling her they were scared of monsters when they were younger.\n\n\"I told them there's no such thing as monsters, but how wrong I was,\" she said.\n\nJohn and Lacey's father, Jason Bennett, said he was living in a \"continual nightmare\"\n\nJason Bennett, John and Lacey's father, said their murders had \"destroyed and taken my life away\".\n\n\"I am living in a continual nightmare,\" his statement said. \"I have a story in my head of how they died, I live their trauma and feel their pain; it feels like a recurring punishment.\"\n\nHe recalled how Lacey and Connie had been selling sweets for charity on the day they died, describing his daughter as \"kind and caring\".\n\n\"John would not hurt a fly, literally. If he saw an insect he would carefully put it outside,\" he said.\n\nCharles Gent, Connie's father, said his daughter's murder had \"completely torn my life apart\".\n\n\"The man who carried out the crimes can only be described as truly evil and should never be free from incarceration, just like the families of the victims in this case will never be free from their life sentence as a result of the shocking and abhorrent crimes he committed on a defenceless woman and children,\" he said.\n\nConnie (front) had been stopping over at her friend Lacey's house when she was murdered\n\nDuring the sentencing hearing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) made representations that the whole-life tariff was necessary.\n\nThis was agreed by Bendall's defence barrister, and Bendall himself.\n\nDefence barrister Vanessa Marshall KC said: \"His instructions are clear that nothing but a whole-life order is warranted for taking, as he did, these four young lives away, and in such awful circumstances.\"\n\nBendall previously pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter but denied murder and rape, meaning he was due to stand trial for these offences before he changed his pleas.\n\n\"Bendall's defence put forward theories that his judgement was psychologically impaired,\" said Andrew Baxter, deputy chief crown prosecutor.\n\n\"Throughout the process, the CPS instructed its own medical experts to assess whether the arguments had merit, which they did not.\n\n\"When all medical angles had been exhausted, the evidence that he had murdered all four victims with no impairment to his actions was overwhelming and Bendall admitted all charges.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Scottish government spent more than £250,000 on the Supreme Court case about holding another independence referendum, new figures show.\n\nThe Supreme Court ruled in November that the Scottish government cannot hold an independence referendum without the UK government's consent.\n\nScottish government figures show £251,728.69 was spent on the court case.\n\nThe bulk of this outlay was on legal fees for the two-day hearing.\n\nThe Scottish government said the Supreme Court case had achieved its aim of bringing legal clarity on the issue of legal powers to hold a referendum.\n\nBut critics claim it was a waste of money.\n\nScottish Conservative constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said: \"Taxpayers will be appalled that this significant sum of their money has been frittered away by the SNP.\n\n\"The fact legal experts said they were destined to lose makes it all the worse.\n\n\"It is a disgraceful waste of public money at a time when Scots are grappling with the cost-of-living crisis and our NHS is totally overwhelmed.\"\n\nRallies were held in several towns and cities across Scotland on the day of the Supreme Court ruling\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon had set out plans to hold a referendum on 19 October next year.\n\nThe legal right to do this was tested by the Supreme Court and it ruled unanimously that she does not have the power to do so because the issue is reserved to Westminster.\n\nThe UK government has refused to grant formal consent for a referendum.\n\nThe bulk of the Scottish government's costs in the case went on external counsel (£222,869.45).\n\nTravel and subsistence for the case cost £19,711.25, while £8,049.99 was spent on \"professional services\".\n\nFiling fees for the Supreme Court were £350 and other costs for the court were £748.\n\nDuring the Scottish budget last week, Deputy First Minister John Swinney announced £20m earmarked for a second referendum next year would instead go towards tackling fuel poverty.\n\nA Scottish government spokeswoman said: \"As the first minister has previously set out, there has long been debate over whether the Scottish Parliament has the powers to legislate to hold a referendum.\n\n\"The Lord Advocate's reference of this question to the Supreme Court was intended to achieve legal clarity on this point, which it has done so.\n\n\"In light of majority support within the Scottish Parliament for an independence referendum, Scottish ministers remain ready to engage with the UK government at any point on delivering a referendum.\"", "In an Oval Office meeting at the White House, US President Joe Biden affirmed support for the Ukrainian people and called President Zelensky the 'Man of the Year' while confirming the delivery of the Patriot missile system.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Health Minister Will Quince: \"There will be disruption on the day (Wednesday)\"\n\nA health minister has suggested people should avoid contact sport and unnecessary car journeys during ambulance strikes on Wednesday.\n\nWill Quince said people should take \"extra care\" due to disruption, and he wouldn't go running on icy roads due to the additional risk.\n\nAround 750 armed forces staff are being drafted in to cover the walkouts in England and Wales.\n\nMr Quince said ambulances should still respond to the most serious calls.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast earlier, he said people should avoid \"risky activity\" during the strikes, without specifying what he was referring to.\n\nLabour MP Chris Bryant called the comments \"an admission of government failure\".\n\nPressed on his earlier comments in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Mr Quince said: \"If there is activity that people are undertaking tomorrow, whether it's - for example - contact sport, they may want to review that\".\n\nAsked if people should go running, he said this was not \"hugely risky\", but added: \"Would I go running tomorrow if it was still icy? No I wouldn't, because that would encompass additional risk\".\n\nBut Downing Street would not be drawn on a definition of \"risky activity\", with the PM's spokesman telling reporters \"I'm not going to get into a list\".\n\nHe added: \"We would never recommend anyone put themselves in harm's way on any given day.\"\n\nEarlier, Mr Quince said ministers wanted ambulances to respond to category 1 and 2 situations, including cardiac arrests and strokes, during the strikes. Health Secretary Stephen Barclay will meet unions later to discuss service levels.\n\nMr Quince said military staff would not be able to drive ambulances under blue lights, go through red lights or break the speed limit - but would help ambulance staff to get people to A&E more quickly.\n\nHealth chiefs have warned of \"extensive disruption,\" and urged hospitals to free up beds by safely discharging patients ahead of industrial action.\n\nMeasures should also be put in place to make sure ambulance patient handovers are kept to no more than 15 minutes, they advise.\n\nMr Quince added that for less serious categories, NHS trusts would be block-booking taxis to take people to hospital, and \"encouraging people wherever possible\" to find treatment by making journeys themselves.\n\nDr John Martin, president of the College of Paramedics, told MPs on Tuesday that using taxis could prove \"far less safe\" than ambulances for some patients.\n\nSpeaking at the Commons health committee, he said pain relief would not be available, and without an on-site medical assessment some people might be sent to hospital unnecessarily.\n\nAmbulance availability during the strikes will depend on local agreements between unions and NHS trusts.\n\nRachel Harrison, national secretary at the GMB, one of the striking unions, told the committee most of these deals have now been signed off.\n\nShe added that \"life and limb\" cover would be provided across the board, but warned services would vary by area.\n\nAlong with the GMB, Wednesday's action will also involve members of the Unison and Unite unions. GMB members are also due to on strike again on 28 December.\n\nUnions representing NHS staff in England and Wales are pushing for higher pay after being offered a below-inflation average 4.7% rise this year.\n\nUnison has said troops are \"no substitute for trained ambulance staff\" - and a rethink on NHS wages from the government could have averted action.\n\nThe strike will follow strikes from nurses on Tuesday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, who are taking their second day of action this month over pay.\n\nHave you been affected by the strike? Are you an ambulance worker? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Olivia died when a man with a gun opened fire after chasing convicted burglar Joseph Nee into her house in Dovecot\n\nA man has denied the murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel.\n\nOlivia died when a man with a gun opened fire after chasing convicted burglar Joseph Nee into her house in Dovecot, Liverpool, on 22 August.\n\nHer mother, Cheryl Korbel, 46, was also injured in the shooting.\n\nAppearing via video-link at Liverpool Crown Court, Thomas Cashman, 34, of Grenadier Drive, West Derby, entered not guilty pleas to murder, attempted murder and wounding with intent.\n\nMr Cashman also denied two counts of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.\n\nJudge Mrs Justice Yip adjourned the case to 17 February when a pre-trial review will be held.\n\nMr Cashman is due to stand trial at Manchester Crown Court on 6 March.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Gopal Clarke, Arthur Lazarus, and Henry Olohan have been jailed\n\nThree people have been jailed for their role in violence that broke out following a Kill the Bill protest.\n\nGopal Clarke, 25, Arthur Lazarus, 23, and Henry Olohan, 24, pleaded guilty to crimes during the Bristol riot on the 21 March 2021.\n\nClarke was sentenced to 18 months for violent disorder. Lazarus was jailed for 20 months for the same offence.\n\nOlohan, from Montpelier in Bristol, was jailed for eight months for affray and criminal damage.\n\nThousands of people gathered in Bristol city centre on the day of the riot to peacefully protest against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.\n\nBut later that evening the protest turned violent outside Bridewell Street police station in the city centre.\n\nPolice vehicles were set on fire and the windows of the police station were smashed\n\nThe three were sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Friday.\n\nClarke, of Kingswood, in Bristol, was recorded kicking officers on several occasions, as well as throwing an object at them from close range.\n\nHe took one of their batons with the help of another member of the public.\n\nThe footage also showed him using a police shield to ram officers and to strike several of them on the head with force.\n\nSentencing Lazarus, Judge James Patrick said: \"You arrived near the front of the protest and were abusive to police, targeting them at just before 18:00 BST, as they were trying to keep the situation under control.\n\n\"You were pushing the line and throwing liquid and you used a police shield to attack officers.\"\n\nA total of 26 people now have been jailed for offences committed during the riot, receiving a combined prison sentence of 85 years and one month, police said.\n\nDet Supt Int James Riccio said: \"This was a night of shameless and destructive violence and we welcome these latest sentences for the appalling crimes committed.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ryan Reynolds says Wrexham was home to a \"beautiful story\"\n\nHollywood star Ryan Reynolds described himself and Rob McElhenney as \"the luckiest guys on Earth\" after being awarded the freedom of Wrexham.\n\nThe Wrexham AFC owners were honoured by the county council for their help promoting the city.\n\nReynolds told a council meeting via video link: \"Wrexham is home to one of the most beautiful stories on Earth.\"\n\nHowever, one councillor questioned the timing of the award and whether other club stalwarts were more worthy.\n\nReynolds added: \"I recognise that this is to honour our contribution but I'd also say that the reverse holds true with this town, what it's given us is immeasurable.\n\n\"What it's given Wales and the rest of the world is immeasurable. Rob and I walked in with a pretty crazy idea a few years ago and Wrexham ran with that idea.\n\n\"Our goal is now and has always been to uphold the values of the community and this club.\"\n\nDeadpool actor Reynolds and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator McElhenney completed their takeover of the National League club for £2m in February 2021.\n\nSince then the club has reached the league play-offs and a FA Trophy Final at Wembley while their takeover has been charted by the Disney+ series Welcome to Wrexham.\n\nReynolds added: \"None of this works without the people of Wrexham, the players, the ground staff, everyone who makes this work in each and every nook and cranny of Wrexham.\n\nRyan Reynolds said Wrexham was home to a \"beautiful story\"\n\n\"Our goal is to keep growing Wrexham in the hearts and minds of folks all over the planet. We're eternally grateful - diolch.\"\n\nThe council voted to confer the freedom of the borough on Wrexham AFC in recognition of the club's long history as the third oldest club in the world as well as its recent impact.\n\nCouncillor Mark Pritchard said: \"These two Hollywood stars have had an incredible impact on both the football club and the community, and have helped catapult Wrexham onto the world stage.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla met Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney on Wrexham's pitch\n\nA Conservative councillor spoke out against the proposal after criticising Reynolds for liking an Instagram post by club striker Paul Mullin which contained a swear words directed at the Tories.\n\nFellow Conservative Beverley Parry-Jones asked whether there were more worthy recipients from the club's past who had \"given their lives\" to Wrexham AFC, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.\n\nShe said: \"We are not against Wrexham AFC and their new owners Rob and Ryan having the freedom of the borough. But is it the right time?\"\n\nShaun Harvey, advisor to the Wrexham AFC board, told councillors: \"The past will not be forgotten, it help us create what we're doing and our ambition is that people are proud to be from Wrexham.\"\n\nThe honour will be formally presented at a ceremony next year.", "Elon Musk has said he will resign as Twitter's chief executive officer when he finds someone \"foolish enough to take the job\".\n\nThe billionaire had promised to abide by the result of a Twitter poll which saw 57.5% of users vote \"yes\" to him quitting the role.\n\nHe says he will still run the software and servers teams after his replacement is found.\n\nChanges on the platform since his takeover have been much criticised.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Elon Musk This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSince Mr Musk bought the social media site in October, he has fired about half of its staff and attempted a rollout of Twitter's paid-for verification feature before putting it on pause. The feature was relaunched last week.\n\nCivil liberties groups have also criticised his approach to content moderation, accusing him of taking steps that will increase hate speech and misinformation.\n\nOn Friday, Mr Musk was condemned by the United Nations and European Union over Twitter's decision to suspend some journalists who cover the social media firm.\n\nThe UN tweeted that media freedom was \"not a toy\", while the EU threatened Twitter with sanctions.\n\nThis is the first time the multibillionaire has responded to the poll launched on Sunday asking if he should resign. More than 17.5 million users voted, with 42.5% voting no to Mr Musk stepping down.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Elon Musk This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFinding someone to take over the social media platform may be a challenge, according to Mr Musk. After laying off Twitter staff last month, the billionaire reportedly told remaining workers that the company he just bought could see \"net negative cash flow of several billion dollars\" in 2023 and \"bankruptcy is not out of the question\".\n\n\"No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive,\" he tweeted following this week's poll.\n\nSome people speculate Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey could also come back to run the company. He resigned as chief executive in November 2021.\n\nOther names mentioned as possible replacements include Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's former chief operating officer, Sriram Krishnan, engineer and close confidante to Mr Musk, and Jared Kushner, US former presidential adviser and son-in-law of Donald Trump.\n\nIn the past Mr Musk has obeyed Twitter polls. He is fond of quoting the Latin phrase vox populi, vox dei which roughly means \"the voice of the people is the voice of God\".\n\nBut on Tuesday, he confirmed Twitter would only allow paid subscribers with a blue tick to vote on changes to policy in future.\n\nIt came after one user claimed that so-called bots appeared to have voted heavily in the poll about Mr Musk's role at the firm. Mr Musk said he found the claim \"interesting\".\n\nElon Musk's tenure as Twitter chief executive may turn out to be short, but it certainly wasn't sweet.\n\nAt times it felt like we were watching a train come off its tracks.\n\nHe seemed to enjoy the circus he created. Did he get bored, did his investors pull him back, or did he finally listen to those telling him that Tesla, the electric car firm to which much of his wealth is linked, needs urgent attention from its CEO - also him - as its value continues to nosedive?\n\nGiven how open Mr Musk appears to be on Twitter, perhaps one day he will tell us.\n\nBut this is not the end of the Musk/Twitter show. He will still own the firm (nobody is likely to buy it off him any time soon, especially not at the price he paid), and he will undoubtedly still be a prolific and influential tweeter in his own right.\n\nPlus, he's got to find someone willing to take his place (and work with him) - and that position might prove a difficult one to fill.\n\nTwitter's paid-for verification feature was rolled out for a second time last week after its launch was paused. The service costs $8 per month, or $11 for people using the Twitter app on Apple devices, and gives subscribers a \"blue tick\".\n\nPreviously a blue tick was used as a badge of authenticity and was free.\n\nFor weeks, investors have called on Mr Musk to step down from running the social media platform, saying he has been distracted from properly running Tesla.\n\nShares in the the electric car company have plummeted more than 65% over the past year.\n\nMr Musk sold billions of dollars worth of Tesla shares to help fund his purchase, which helped to push the shares down.\n\n\"Finally a good step in the right direction to end this painful nightmare situation for Tesla investors,\" said Dan Ives from investment firm Wedbush Securities after Mr Musk's tweet on Tuesday.", "Government borrowing hit its highest November level on record last month, driven by the cost of supporting households with the rising cost of living and energy bills.\n\nBorrowing, the difference between spending and tax income, reached £22bn, a rise of £13.9bn on November 2021.\n\nInterest on government debt also surged by 50.1% to £7.3bn.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics (ONS) said inflation was the main factor behind the rise in borrowing.\n\nAs energy prices have soared, the government has stepped in with its Energy Bills Support Scheme, which provides a £400 non-repayable discount to all households in England, Scotland and Wales.\n\nIt has also launched the Energy Price Guarantee, which limits typical households' bills to £2,500 per year..\n\nThese costs were the main reason government borrowing had hit its highest level for the month since records began in 1993, ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner told the BBC's Today programme. The increase in borrowing came despite the government taking £2.2bn more in tax in November compared with the year before.\n\n\"Firstly, of course, as we know the cost of energy support for households and business, that's around £6.5bn extra spending a month,\" Mr Fitzner said.\n\n\"[It's also due to] higher debt interest payments, reflecting again, high inflation and interest rate payments and also higher pensions and benefits than a year ago.\"\n\nUK inflation, the rate at which prices rise, eased to 10.7% in the year to November, but the cost of living is still rising at its fastest pace in 40 years.\n\nIt means the UK is facing its biggest drop in living standards on record as the surging cost of living eats into people's wages.\n\nThe UK is already thought to be in recession which is when the economy shrinks for two three-month periods in a row.\n\nWhen a country is in recession, it's a sign that its economy is doing badly and companies typically make less money, the number of people unemployed rises and the government receives less money in tax to use on public services.\n\nThe government's decision to embark on much higher spending in the autumn as it subsidises energy bills is a big part of the explanation for the highest official borrowing figure in November since 1993.\n\nBut keep in mind it's a November figure - and is by no means the highest borrowing in a month. It's less than half what Rishi Sunak borrowed in March and April 2020 to support businesses and firms through lockdown in the onset of the pandemic.\n\nWhen you look at the less volatile figures for the financial year to date, the amount the government was officially deemed to have to borrow in the eight months to November was £105.4bn - £7bn less than in the same period of 2021.\n\nA big part of the reason borrowing came down was a surge in receipts from income tax and national insurance - up by £31.5bn to £251.4bn. As the wealth management firm Quilter points out, with tax thresholds frozen, this is likely to become a growing source of revenue for the chancellor as pay rises and millions are dragged over both the basic rate threshold and the one above for which you pay 40% income tax.\n\nConsumer prices have been rising this year as energy, fuel and food costs soar due to the war in Ukraine and Covid. Food prices are up 16.5%.\n\nBut the recent easing of inflation has led some analysts to predict that a turning point may have been reached.\n\nCommenting on the latest borrowing figures, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt blamed the \"twin global emergencies of a pandemic and Putin's war in Ukraine\" for driving up the government's costs.\n\n\"We have a clear plan to help halve inflation next year, but that requires some tough decisions to put our public finances back on a sustainable footing,\" he added.\n\nThe ONS said the government spent £1.9bn in November on the Energy Bills Support Scheme. Meanwhile, the Energy Price Guarantee helped drive a £4.7bn year-on-year rise in government spending on subsidies.\n\nTotal public sector spending struck £98.9bn in November, while day-to-day government expenditure increased by £13.5bn on the year to £82bn for November, the ONS said.\n\nThe increases were due to more cash being spent on helping households and businesses with the cost of living, but also because of higher interest rates, with the amount of interest on debt up 50.1% on the year.\n\nDivya Sridhar, economist at PwC, said: \"The latest data on the UK's public finances reflects the fiscal implications of continued energy bills support and higher inflation.\n\n\"Looking ahead, continued energy bills support and the ninth consecutive rise in interest rates announced by the Bank of England last week will continue to squeeze public finances.\"", "Lycett is one of the UK's most popular stand-up comics and has hosted The Great British Sewing Bee for BBC Two\n\nJoe Lycett has defended himself after being accused of hypocrisy over his criticism of David Beckham.\n\nThe comedian recently pretended to shred £10,000 in protest of Beckham's links with World Cup host country Qatar, where it is illegal to be gay.\n\nBut the Sun highlighted Lycett had been paid for gigs in the country himself earlier in his career.\n\nLycett argued he never tried to hide the shows and sarcastically referenced the \"spotless morality\" of the Sun.\n\nHe added he was paid \"a few hundred quid\" for the shows in 2015 by a UK comedy promoter, and said he would have reconsidered playing the gigs if an equivalent high-profile comedian had shredded money in protest.\n\nMany LGBTQ fans boycotted the recent Fifa men's World Cup over Qatar's treatment of gay people, as same-sex relationships are criminalised in the country.\n\nLast month, Lycett pretended to shred £10,000 in protest over Beckham's promotion of Qatar as an ambassador for the country. It was reported that the former England captain had signed a £10m deal with the World Cup hosts.\n\nThe comedian's publicity stunt was widely covered by news outlets and led to him presenting a programme on Channel 4 called Joe Lycett vs Beckham.\n\nBut on Thursday, the Sun said Lycett was at \"the centre of a hypocrisy storm\" after it emerged he previously did several performances in controversial Gulf states himself.\n\nThe comedian wrote about playing in Dubai, Abu Dhabi - both in the UAE - and Qatar in his autobiography, published in 2016.\n\nIn his statement, posted on Twitter, Lycett said: \"Oops! I've been caught out by The Sun! I did two gigs in Doha in 2015 and kept it entirely secret by writing about it in my own book and mentioning it in multiple interviews including with the NY Times!\n\n\"If you're interested, I was paid a few hundred quid (not by Qatar but by UK comedy promoters) but it was 2015 and that went a lot further back then. I reckon that if a popular comedian from those days (eg. Shane Ritchie) had shredded a few hundred quid to persuade me not to go, it would have made a difference. But who can say?\n\n\"I don't have the perfect hindsight and spotless morality of, to pick a completely random example, The Sun newspaper.\"\n\nDavid Beckham has been criticised for promoting Qatar as one of the country's ambassadors\n\nSome of Lycett's followers had contacted him via social media to draw attention to his gigs. \"You didn't seem to have a problem taking Qatari money that night?\" one said.\n\nIn a statement last week, a spokesman for Beckham said: \"We understand that there are different and strongly-held views about engagement in the Middle East, but see it as positive that debate about the key issues has been stimulated directly by the first World Cup being held in the region.\n\n\"We hope that these conversations will lead to greater understanding and empathy towards all people, and that progress will be achieved.\"\n\nYou may also be interested in:", "Two people have died and tens of thousands of households were left without power after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocked northern California.\n\nThe tremor, 215 miles (350km) north of San Francisco, has caused widespread damage to roadways.\n\n\"Anything that was on the walls broke off the walls,\" said JB Mathers, a resident of the coastal city of Eureka.\n\nAuthorities have closed several roads and warned the public to brace for aftershocks.\n\nThe quake struck at 02:34 PST (10:34 GMT) on Tuesday. It spawned up to 80 smaller quakes between magnitude 4.6 and 2.5, according to the US Geological Survey.\n\nHumboldt County Sheriff's Office said that 11 people had been injured, in addition to the two that died.\n\nThe tremor ruptured gas lines, causing leaks. One building caught fire and was quickly extinguished, while two other buildings collapsed.\n\nBy Tuesday evening local time, power was still out for over 32,000 customers, according to tracker Poweroutages.us.\n\nThe sheriff's office had said earlier said that no tsunami was expected after the quake, which occurred around two miles offshore.\n\nAuthorities are still assessing damage. Utility crews say they could take days to restore power in the remote, heavily forested area.\n\nThe California Highway Patrol has closed the Fernbridge, a 1,320ft (400m) concrete arch span crossing the Eel River, after discovering cracks in four places, according to CBS, the BBC's partner in the US.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Caroline Titus This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn the city of Fortuna, power was out and shattered glass littered the pavement.\n\nPeople in the area have been told by authorities to boil their water, due to the possibility that pipes have been contaminated by ground water.\n\nOn Saturday, a smaller 3.6 magnitude earthquake struck the San Francisco region, waking up thousands of people in the early hours and causing minor damage to infrastructure.", "Relatives said Gaby Hutchison (pictured with parents) was fiercely protective of their family\n\nThe family of a security contractor who died after being injured in a crush at Brixton O2 Academy have paid tribute to their \"selfless\" loved one.\n\nGaby Hutchinson was working at Afrobeats artist Asake's show on Thursday when a \"large number of people\" stormed the south London venue.\n\nThe 23-year-old, from Gravesend in Kent, died in hospital on Monday.\n\nFamily members said: \"Losing our beautiful Gaby is a pain that can't compare.\"\n\nPolice have established that Gaby and two other people were in the O2 Academy's foyer or entrance area when they were seriously hurt in the crush.\n\nRebecca Ikumelo, 33, from Newham, east London, died on Saturday from her injuries and a 21 year-old woman remains in a critical condition in hospital.\n\nIn a tribute shared with BBC Newsbeat by Gaby's sister Kelsey on behalf of the family, Gaby, who used \"they\" and \"them\" pronouns, is described as having been \"unapologetically themselves\".\n\n\"When Gaby loved you, it was with their whole heart,\" relatives said.\n\n\"Gaby has bought so much love, laughter and inappropriate jokes into our lives and will forever be our baby, our daughter, our sister, our man and our joy.\"\n\nThe family's statement signed off with \"three squeezes\", which was Gaby and their loved ones' way of saying \"I love you\"\n\n\"Getting 23 years of Gaby's life was a blessing and one we will never forget. Gaby will forever live on in our hearts.\n\n\"No-one should go to work and not come home.\n\n\"But Gaby protected those they loved fiercely and it was the same with Gaby's job.\"\n\nThey added that Gaby, who had been working as a security dog handler on the night of the gig, had \"always wanted to work with dogs\".\n\nGaby's partner Phoebie has launched a GoFundMe page to raise money towards funeral costs.\n\nPolice said cordons around the building had been removed but investigations inside were continuing\n\nThe Met Police say they are \"working hard to establish exactly what happened\" at Thursday's concert.\n\nOfficers describe the investigation as \"large and complex\" and the force has set up an online portal for people to submit information, images or footage.\n\nThe O2 Academy has offered \"heartfelt condolences\" to Gaby Hutchinson's family and friends.\n\n\"We continue to be devastated by this tragic situation and are fully supporting the ongoing situation,\" a statement said.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Female university students were stopped by Taliban security personnel in Kabul on Wednesday\n\nIt's an order that girls and women across Afghanistan had been dreading ever since the Taliban returned. On Wednesday, girls in their hijabs turned up to their university campuses to be blocked and turned away by Taliban guards.\n\nAfter excluding girls from most secondary schools these past 16 months, the Taliban this week also banned university education for women.\n\n\"They have destroyed the only bridge that could connect me with my future,\" one Kabul University student told the BBC.\n\n\"How can I react? I believed that I could study and change my future or bring the light to my life but they destroyed it.\"\n\nAuthorities issued the order on Tuesday - and by the following day other places of learning, including Islamic religious schools and private tuition colleges in several provinces, were also carrying out the ruling.\n\nSources from three provinces - Takhar in the north, Ghazni in the south-east and the capital Kabul - confirmed to the BBC that the Taliban had stopped girls from attending private education centres there.\n\nAll avenues of formal education for women are being shut down, it appears.\n\nIt led some women to dare to protest on Wednesday on the streets in Kabul - a dangerous act given the Taliban's record for detaining protesters. The small demonstrations were quickly shut down by Taliban officials.\n\nThis generation had thought they were the lucky ones - getting the education denied to their mothers, older sisters and cousins.\n\nInstead, they're seeing their future crumble.\n\nSome women protested against the ban in Afghanistan\n\nThe Taliban, which began as a hardline Islamist militant group, had promised to respect women's rights when they swept back to power in August last year - after the horrors of their previous rule from 1996-2001 when women couldn't work or study.\n\nBut their latest decree again strips away whatever scant freedoms and rights had been afforded to women after US-led forces withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban returned.\n\nYet only three months ago, the Taliban had conceded to allowing university entrance exams to go ahead.\n\nThousands of girls and women sat the tests in provinces across the country. Many had studied in secret - at home or risking venturing to hidden tutoring colleges set up for girls.\n\nThe danger was always present. During some of the exams bombers targeted schools, killing pupils.\n\nBut still the young women persisted.\n\nEven when the Taliban in November brought in last-minute restrictions on subjects - barring girls from courses like economics, engineering and journalism - they kept trying, many applying for teaching and medicine.\n\nAs another female student put it to the BBC: \"Why should we always be the victim? Afghanistan is a poor country. But women in this country have accepted poverty alongside every other problem and they still they have to suffer.\"\n\nGirls' schooling has long been a point of contention between conservative and more moderate factions in the Taliban.\n\nThe university ban now indicates a win by the more fundamentalist in the Taliban, whose supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada believes modern education - particularly for women and girls - is wrong in Islamic teachings.\n\nYet not everyone in the ruling movement thinks like him - and there were reports more moderate officials in cities like Kabul had wanted girls over the age of 12 to get an education.\n\nAs rights advocates have warned, the decision has an impact on the whole country's future. \"No country can thrive when half of its population is held back,\" US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned.\n\nWestern countries had insisted on women's education as a condition the Taliban would need to meet if they wanted global recognition. However the Taliban have ignored the criticism so far.\n\nThere have been numerous protests in Afghanistan demanding access to education since the Taliban return\n\nFor Afghan families, both in the country and around the world, seeing the future for their daughters slide back into the \"dark ages\" has ignited fear and anger.\n\nNews of the university ban prompted some Afghan women activists to post stories of their own university graduation days - in cap and gown.\n\nThe pushback against the Taliban since they seized power again has not been enough, they say.\n\nAnd it's part of a rising tide of restrictions on women's daily lives in recent weeks. In November, women in Kabul were also stopped from entering public places such as parks and gyms. Women are increasingly being confined to their homes in policies tantamount to imprisonment, says the UN.\n\nFor one law student, her higher education path seems over now. Her university term had ended for the winter break and wasn't due to recommence until March.\n\nBut now she's not allowed to step foot back onto campus - she has \"lost everything\". As a Sharia law scholar, she told the BBC she was struggling to make sense of it according to Islamic teachings.\n\n\"The Taliban have taken the rights that Islam and Allah have given to us,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"They have to go to other Islamic countries and see that their actions are not Islamic. According to what they say this is Sharia. But why do they want to practise it only on women? Why don't they apply it to men?\"\n\nOther religious scholars back up her point. Nawida Khurasani, one of the few female Afghan religious scholars, says the decree defies Islamic values. \"It has no place in Islam - because Islam commands both men and women to get an education,\" said Ms Nawida, who now lives in Canada.\n\nNawida has attended protests advocating for women to be in schools. She wrote \"Education is our right\" on a poster\n\nAnother religious scholar who the BBC spoke to - a male imam living inside Afghanistan - agreed that both men and women should be able to be educated under Islam.\n\nFor many Afghanistan watchers however - there's no point in trying to explain the Taliban's actions under supposed Islamic teachings. They say the university ban is just a continuation of the movement's aims to completely suppress women and erase the freedoms they'd had in the years between periods of Taliban rule.\n\nClosing the door on university education is the Taliban completing their control over women.\n\n\"Afghanistan is not a country for women but a cage for women,\" said Afghan academic and activist Humaira Qaderi, who lives in the United States.\n\n\"There's no social life left for Afghan women. The streets are now dominated by men.\n\n\"This was the last thing that the Taliban could do. But they did it.\"", "Members of two major NHS unions in Scotland have voted to accept an improved pay offer.\n\nThis ends the risk of strike action in the health service by members of Unite and Unison.\n\nBut ballots of GMB, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) and Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members are ongoing.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf welcomed the decision by Unite and Unison to accept the \"record pay offer\".\n\nLast month the Scottish government tabled an improved deal averaging 7.5% to health workers threatening industrial action.\n\nIt will see most NHS staff in Scotland get a rise of just over £2,200 a year.\n\nIt confirmed 64% of its health membership voted to accept the proposal which was tabled following talks involving unions, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and NHS Scotland.\n\nSharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: \"The improved offer for NHS Scotland workers which is worth over 11% for the lowest pay bands is a testament to the resolve of our members.\n\n\"They were prepared to take the difficult step in taking industrial action but only because they had no other option left.\n\n\"Unite makes no apologies for fighting for better jobs, pay and conditions in the health service because NHS Scotland workers should be fairly rewarded for the outstanding work that they do day in and day out.\"\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing has voted to take strike action\n\nUnison, Scotland's largest NHS union, announced that 57% of health members voted to accept the offer after a digital ballot closed at noon.\n\nThe union said negotiators would now work with the Scottish government, NHS employers and other unions to process the pay award as soon as possible.\n\nWilma Brown, chairwoman of Unison's Scotland's health committee said: \"Whilst this decision ends the immediate threat of industrial action, it is not a win for government - it is a warning.\n\n\"It was far from a unanimous decision and many of the NHS professional grades feel badly let down.\n\n\"Almost half of Unison NHS staff voted to reject this latest pay offer, and many who did vote to accept, did so reluctantly.\"\n\nUnison Scotland represents 50,000 NHS workers including nurses, midwives and support staff, such as domestics, porters and administrative workers.\n\nThe Scottish government will be hugely relieved that Unison and Unite members have accepted the latest pay offer.\n\nBut it does not mean the threat of industrial action in the NHS has gone.\n\nThe GMB will say on Wednesday whether its members have voted for the deal. A ballot by the Royal College of Nursing continues until next Monday.\n\nThe RCN result in particular is not a foregone conclusion.\n\nStill the pay deal accepted by Unison and Unite will be looked at closely by their colleagues in the rest of the UK.\n\nIt is likely to be a line in the sand for them - something they can judge their offers against.\n\nIt will also give negotiators an insight into the least amount that might be acceptable to their members.\n\nGMB Scotland last month suspended a 26-hour ambulance strike and has put the new deal to more than 4,000 members in a vote.\n\nSenior organiser Keir Greenaway said staff needed to be valued to \"tackle the chronic understaffing crisis across NHS front line services\" after a decade of cuts and the Covid pandemic.\n\nThe union is expected to announce the results of its ballot on 14 December.\n\nThe CSP's consultation will also close on Wednesday. It has recommended its members accept the pay offer.\n\nMeanwhile, the RCN, which has yet to confirm strike dates after members across the UK voted for action, said the new deal \"still does not meet our members' expectations\".\n\nIt had asked for at least 5% above inflation, which is currently 11.1%.\n\nThe RCN's ballot of its 30,000 NHS members closes on 19 December but it is not clear when the result will be announced.\n\nThe Scottish government previously said the new deal was an unprecedented pay deal for front-line employees, including nurses, paramedics, allied health professionals and healthcare support staff.\n\nAnnual pay rises under the latest deal would range from a flat rate payment of £2,205 for staff in Bands 1 to 4 and up to £2,660 for staff in Bands 5 to 7, backdated to April.\n\nThis represents an increase of 11.3% for the lowest paid workers and delivers an average uplift of 7.5%, a government spokesperson said.\n\nMr Yousaf said: \"We have engaged tirelessly with trade union representatives over recent weeks, leaving no stone unturned to reach an offer which responds to the key concerns of staff across the service.\n\n\"This offer of over half a billion pounds underlines our commitment to supporting our fantastic NHS staff.\"\n\nHe added that a newly qualified nurse would see a pay rise of 8.7%, and experienced nurses and would get uplifts of between £2,450 and £2,75.\n\nThe health secretary said: \"We are making this offer at a time of extraordinary financial challenges to the Scottish government to get money into the pockets of hard working staff and to avoid industrial action, in what is already going to be an incredibly challenging winter.\"", "Olly Stephens was stabbed to death in Emmer Green in Reading\n\nConcerns about a teenager's violent nature were repeatedly raised before he murdered a 13-year-old boy.\n\nThe boy was detained for the killing of Olly Stephens in Reading, along with two other teenagers who had plotted with him on social media to ambush Olly in January 2021.\n\nA review into the boy's contact with various agencies has now been finished.\n\nOlly Stephens, 13, died after being stabbed twice at Bugs Bottom fields in Reading in January 2021.\n\nThe BBC has now learned that one of his killers was well known to children's services and his schools had repeatedly flagged up concerns about his violent tendencies, and the danger he posed to others.\n\nA review into the boy's involvement with numerous agencies before the murder has been carried out by Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership.\n\nIt covers the local authority areas of Reading, West Berkshire & Wokingham.\n\nThe review makes eight recommendations for improvement, including better information sharing between agencies and a strengthening of policies and procedures.\n\nThe review states the boy was diagnosed with a 'developmental disability' at a young age. An earlier hearing at the Court of Appeal revealed it was a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome; a form of autism.\n\nHe had an Education and Health Care Plan but his disruptive and increasingly violent behaviour led to him being frequently excluded from school.\n\nAmong the concerns flagged up over time about the boy were:\n\nRecords state the boy's mother repeatedly \"declined\" support, resulting in raised issues repeatedly being \"closed\".\n\nHowever, she told the review body \"at no time did she withdraw consent\" for early help or say she did not need support.\n\nShe felt early interventions were \"ineffective\" and said the Specialist Education Needs (SEN) Service would \"not listen to her views\".\n\nThe review states the SEN service did not understand the boy's needs, and there was a \"lack\" of provision and capacity to support children with specialist needs.\n\nIn the months running up to Olly's murder, his 13-year-old killer was involved in three violent crimes against other young people. The investigations suffered delays though and were each carried out by a different police officer.\n\nOrganisations involved in a multi-agency strategy discussion were split over whether or not a more \"robust\" child protection response was needed, but ultimately it was left to Children's Services alone to take action and opportunities were \"missed\".\n\nThe partnership said in a statement there was a \"clear and detailed action plan in place\" which was being \"actively progressed\" and \"scrutinised\". For example, a new school \"exclusion\" prevention programme was now being trialled and assessed.\n\nTwo boys, both aged 14, were found guilty of murdering Olly Stephens following a trial at Reading Crown Court, and a girl, 14, admitted manslaughter and was given five years.\n\nThe boys were sentenced to life - with a minimum of 13 and 12 years in custody respectively - and the girl five years, in 2021.\n\nNone of those convicted can be identified for legal reasons.\n\nThis isn't the first time there have been calls for improvements in children's safeguarding procedures after a child has died or is killed in tragic circumstances. Sadly, it won't be the last.\n\nTime and again, safeguarding reviews have identified \"missed opportunities\" by various agencies tasked with protecting the youngest in our society.\n\nThis review paints a picture of an education system struggling to cope with an increasingly violent but also vulnerable child.\n\nAnd what of the risk this child posed to others? Olly Stephens was a child too; a child killed by children on a Sunday afternoon.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Amy from Strictly has said \"dance has definitely been my saviour\" in her battle with Crohn's\n\nPeople see me on Strictly with the most beautiful and glamorous dresses, fake tan, the best hair and make up and think what's she got to complain about?\n\nBut I deal with the impact of having Crohn's disease and have days when I go into hospital when I'm the furthest from the Amy you see on the telly.\n\nI have experienced body shaming. I take steroids and it makes me put on weight.\n\nI'm taking eight steroids a day to keep me out of hospital. When people online say \"she has thunder thighs\", it hurts.\n\nI've been dancing since I was eight years old and dance is part of who I am - but so too is Crohn's, which I've had since I was 11.\n\nAlthough the condition isn't visible from the outside, some of the symptoms and medication can have an effect on the way I look - it's something I've been body shamed about and that hurts.\n\nCrohn's is a lifelong invisible condition where parts of your digestive system become inflamed and I'll get really swollen eyes, terrible mouth ulcers, spots across my body and my skin.\n\nMy Crohn's flare-ups are frustrating and annoying without everybody else bringing it to your attention - and it's even worse when it's comments from people you don't know. It really sticks with me.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I was in hospital, the day after Strictly Come Dancing tour'\n\nI can remember doing a dance competition when I was about 19 or 20, I'd been on a really high dose of steroids and it bloated me a lot - and my face changed, I called it the guinea pig face. My costume was really tight. It took me a lot to get on the dancefloor.\n\nI remember walking onto the floor and this professional dancer shouted out \"she's got a fat bottom\" and a \"thick middle\" - well, that's the polite way of saying it. That comment has stayed with me for the rest of my life and when I go on steroids, it's the first thing I hear.\n\nShe didn't know what I'd been through and instead of dancing I just wanted to run off and cry. I got through the dance but that lady doesn't realise that line she said, I'm still talking about it now more than 10 years later.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by amy_dowden This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSometimes they can be ignorant or sceptical but when you get someone criticising the way you look because of your illness, it's even more hurtful.\n\nOne in five people in the UK have a disability - and the vast majority of those are said to be invisible.\n\nBody shaming is awful whether your illness is visible or invisible. Anyone with an invisible illness will be used to getting comments.\n\nAmy Dowden finished second in the 2019 edition of Strictly with TV presenter and actor Karim Zeroual\n\nWhen you have an invisible illness, we have to battle through so much on a day to day basis so we don't need any extra on top.\n\nImagine you had a piece of wood and you've put nails in it. Even if you took the nails out, there's still a dent left in that piece of wood. Every time you say a nasty comment to somebody, you're leaving a dent inside of them.\n\nFor my new BBC Sounds podcast, I wanted to speak with others with invisible illnesses and who have been body shamed to ask what impact it has had on them - and what's the best way to deal with it.\n\nBody positivity campaigner Harnaam Kaur told Amy \"people are so fixated on walking towards what is fake, anything that's real is seen as brave\"\n\nSomeone that knows this too well is Harnaam Kaur, who has polycystic ovary syndrome - one of the symptoms can be high levels of male hormones which can lead to excess body or facial hair.\n\n\"I was ostracised, discriminated against and I was bullied even more horrendously,\" Harnaam told me. \"I do get a lot of death threats, I get a lot of people being very horrid.\n\n\"I grew out my facial hair at 16 and it wasn't one of those things where I got up and I was like 'right, I'm going to face the world now'. No, it took real strength, real courage.\n\n\"I call myself brave and I see that within me but sometimes that can be really patronising 'Oh, you're so brave, you have a beard, you look different'. Well why wouldn't I just embrace my beard? Why is it brave?\n\n\"This world is hard and tough, people are horrible, people can be rude and cruel but when there is injustice, there will always be people like me to stand up and fight for what's right.\n\n\"With children, there's a lot of innocence. When it comes to adults, there's no excuse - it's more ignorance.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Amy says that 'dance has definitely been my saviour'\n\n\"It's affected my career as people will judge you on face value. So where interviews would have lasted an hour or an hour and a half only, they only lasted five minutes.\n\n\"This world will try and push you down and break you because they think that those that look different have low self esteem or no confidence. Well, you've messed with the wrong person if you're going to step to me like that.\"\n\nBut not all body shaming comes from online trolls and it can be far more subtle.\n\nI spoke to Mared Parry, who had to deal with scoliosis while growing up and faced a lot of teasing.\n\nMared Parry told Amy she gets body shaming comments \"every time I meet someone new and every time I'm on a night out\"\n\n\"I was relentlessly bullied, she told me. \"Kids will hop onto anything to rip at you. I got called every name under the sun. But I'm grateful for all the bullies in a weird way as it made me want to push and work even harder.\n\n\"I always get shouted at in the street by men 'someone has lost her balance in her heels tonight' or if I'm on a night out a bouncer might say 'you're drunk and can't walk properly in those heels'.\n\n\"I'm like 'actually babe I'm disabled and they usually shut up pretty quickly. But that's what I deal with all the time. People aren't mean on purpose, because I have an invisible disability, people don't know I have it.\"\n\nMared makes an interesting point as sometimes people aren't deliberately trying to offend or bully. People don't think before they speak. They make throwaway remarks, but they can be far from throwaway for those on the receiving end.\n\nThey can chip away at your self worth. Especially when you can be really low when you're in pain, that affects your emotions and how tired you are and the slightest comment then can tip you over the edge - and stress, for me, is the worst thing for my condition.\n\nWhat I have found refreshing about everyone I've spoken to is how open they are about their conditions and how they are trying to turn negative experiences into positive ones.\n\nThey have accepted their conditions, they haven't tried to change for the public and I think that's so important to anybody with a disability who just wants to be themselves.\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, the BBC Action Line has links to organisations which can offer support and advice.", "Bob Dylan could sing at an open mic night at the Rovers Return pub, Coronation Street producers suggested\n\nBob Dylan has been offered a cameo on Coronation Street after revealing he is a fan of the ITV soap.\n\nThe singer discussed his affection for the long-running ITV show in a rare interview with The Wall Street Journal.\n\nDylan said watching the programme makes him feel \"at home\".\n\nIn response, Coronation Street producer Iain MacLeod told The Daily Telegraph Dylan could sing karaoke with characters Ken Barlow and Rita Sullivan.\n\nMacLeod suggested the scene could be part of an open mic night at the Rovers Return pub if Dylan agreed to appear.\n\n\"To hear that Bob Dylan is a Coronation Street viewer blows my mind,\" MacLeod said.\n\n\"I would absolutely love the idea of him turning up in the Rovers Return one night.\n\n\"Maybe we could write in an open mic night and a mysterious singer could roll in out of the Manchester rain and do a turn.\"\n\nCoronation Street stars recently opened the fictional Weatherfield Precinct, a new set for the famous residents to visit\n\nDylan released his self-titled debut album in 1962, two years after the first episode of Coronation Street aired.\n\nMacLeod added: \"Both he and Coronation Street established their reputations in the 1960s, both have championed working class voices and causes, both tell stories with a particular sensibility and sense of humour.\"\n\nIn his interview with The Wall Street Journal, Dylan was asked what he had recently binge watched.\n\nHe replied: \"Coronation Street, Father Brown and some early Twilight Zones. I know they're old-fashioned shows but they make me feel at home.\n\n\"I'm no fan of packaged programmes or news shows. I never watch anything foul-smelling or evil. Nothing disgusting, nothing dog ass.\"\n\nFather Brown is a BBC detective series based on the short stories by GK Chesterton, while the Twilight Zone is a science fiction anthology.", "Sussex Police is investigating following the discovery at the West Sussex airport\n\nA man's body has been found in the undercarriage of a plane at Gatwick Airport.\n\nThe Tui flight had travelled from The Gambia's capital Banjul to the airport in West Sussex.\n\nSussex Police said the discovery was made at the airport at about 04:00 GMT on 7 December.\n\nA Gatwick Airport spokesperson said: \"This is terribly sad news and our thoughts go out to the family and friends of the deceased.\"\n\nA Tui spokesperson said: \"We can confirm that an investigation with authorities is under way after a body was discovered on a Tui flight from Gambia to London Gatwick Airport on December 7.\n\n\"We would like to express our sincere condolences.\"\n\nSussex Police said: \"Officers are investigating and a report will be prepared for HM Coroner.\"\n\nA spokesperson for The Gambia's government said the man was an unidentified black male.\n\nThe 2,760-mile (4,444 km) journey from The Gambia to the UK usually takes about six and a half hours on a direct flight.\n\nThere have been several cases of stowaways being found dead in the UK.\n\nIn 2001, the body of Mohammed Ayaz, 21, from Pakistan, was found in the car park of a branch of Homebase in Richmond, near Heathrow Airport. Four years earlier, another stowaway fell from a plane on to a gasworks near the store\n\nIn 2007 the body of a young man was found in the landing gear of a British Airways plane in Los Angeles.\n\nIn August 2012, a man's body was found in the undercarriage bay of a plane at Heathrow after a flight from Cape Town. The next month, Jose Matada, 26, from Mozambique, was found in a street in Mortlake, west London. He died of multiple injuries after falling from a plane travelling from Angola.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Home Secretary Suella Braverman has not ruled out using disused cruise ships to house asylum seekers, saying \"everything is on the table\".\n\nShe said it was \"unacceptable\" that housing asylum seekers in hotels costs the taxpayer more than £5m a day.\n\nShe told a House of Lords committee a range of alternatives are \"on the table\" and are being looked at.\n\nRishi Sunak raised the idea of using cruise ships during his summer Tory leadership campaign.\n\nAppearing before the Lords Justice and Home Affairs Committee, Ms Braverman suggested officials are in talks with ship companies.\n\nThe home secretary said she wanted to end the use of hotels \"as quickly as possible because it's an unacceptable cost to the taxpayer\".\n\nShe said the total cost of housing and supporting asylum seekers this financial year would rise to £3.5bn, of which £2.3bn would be spent on hotels.\n\nMs Braverman added: \"We will bring forward a range of alternative sites, they will include disused holiday parks, former student halls - I should say we are looking at those sites - I wouldn't say anything is confirmed yet.\n\n\"But we need to bring forward thousands of places, and when you talk about vessels all I can say is - because we are in discussion with a wide variety of providers - that everything is still on the table and nothing is excluded.\"\n\nThe home secretary said 117,000 asylum seekers were currently being accommodated - 57,000 by local authorities.\n\nThe aim was to increase the local authority figure to 100,000, but that was proving \"incredibly difficult\", she added.\n\nMr Sunak put forward the cruise ship idea in July, as part of a 10-point plan to tackle illegal immigration.\n\nLiberal Democrat spokesman Alistair Carmichael MP said the cost to taxpayers of the government's \"failed asylum policy has become simply astronomical\".\n\nHe also accused the home secretary of \"doubling down with the same failed approach\" by not creating safe and legal routes for refugees or dealing with the claims backlog.\n\nMr Carmichael described the cruise ship idea as \"ludicrous, ineffective and incredibly expensive\".\n\nMs Braverman told the committee that staff assessing asylum claims were each making one decision a week on average.\n\nShe said more than 100,000 asylum seekers are still awaiting a decision, and in some cases have been waiting longer than a year.\n\nThe need to improve the productivity of case workers was highlighted by the home secretary. She told the committee there would be greater use of digital technology and a move away from a paper-based system.\n\nMs Braverman was also asked if a new airline had been found to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nShe replied that there were \"ongoing discussions with several airlines\". Spanish carrier Privilege Style pulled out of the scheme in October under pressure from campaigners.\n\n\"We are returning people almost every week to various countries around the world... so we are in a variety of discussions with several airlines for a lot of different destinations,\" the home secretary added.\n\nEarlier this week Ms Braverman said she was committed to sending migrants to Rwanda as soon as possible after High Court judges ruled the plan to send some migrants who cross the Channel in small boats to the African country was lawful.", "A man has appeared in court in Belfast after the discovery of cannabis worth £1m that had been concealed inside divan beds.\n\nJames John Murphy, 33, of Dencourt in Liverpool, was charged with possessing a Class B drug and possession with intent to supply.\n\nThe drug was vacuum-packed into plastic pouches and hidden within the beds.\n\nThe packages were uncovered after a vehicle was stopped and searched at Belfast Harbour on Tuesday morning.\n\nAt Belfast Magistrates' Court on Wednesday morning, Mr Murphy confirmed that he understood the charges against him.\n\nNo application for bail was made on his behalf.\n\nA defence barrister told the court that he had advised Mr Murphy that it would be inappropriate to apply for bail at present because of the \"substantial haul of drugs\" involved.\n\nHe added: \"Police will want time to check out mobile phones and various searches have to be conducted.\n\n\"Therefore I've explained to him that the risk of interference with witnesses is high at the minute because police will want to verify all of that.\"\n\nMr Murphy is due to appear before the court again on 5 January for an update from the Public Prosecution Service on its position and any possible bail application.\n\nThe seizure of the cannabis was part of a joint operation involving the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the Border Force and the Belfast Harbour Police.", "Terry Hall (centre) with his bandmates Lynval Golding and John Bradbury in 2009\n\nThe Specials' frontman Terry Hall had been diagnosed with cancer shortly before his death this week at the age of 63, his bandmate has confirmed.\n\nBassist Horace Panter gave a moving account of his friend's final days revealing they had planned to record a new album in November before Hall was taken ill with a suspected stomach bug.\n\nIt later transpired to be pancreatic cancer, which had spread to his liver.\n\nInitial treatment went well, but Hall began to fade in December, Panter said.\n\n\"Reports are not good,\" he wrote. \"Terry has lost a lot of weight and is very frail.\n\n\"His friend Ian Broudie [of The Lightning Seeds] visits and phones manager Steve. He fears that Terry is slipping away.\"\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by Horace This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nHe continued: \"15th December and manager Steve drives up to London to visit. He calls me on his return journey and says things are not looking promising. Terry is dying. The next day he is put on morphine and is more-or-less unconscious for most of the time.\"\n\nPanter said he had planned to visit his friend in hospital, but was advised not to by Hall's wife Lindy, who arranged a phone call to say goodbye.\n\n\"It was tough,\" Panter said. \"Terry died around half past five the next evening, Sunday 18th December.\n\n\"The world has lost a unique voice and I have lost a good friend.\"\n\nSpeaking on LBC, Barry Ashworth, frontman of Dub Pistols, added that Hall's last words had been \"Love, love, love\" - the same phrase he often used to close shows.\n\n\"Never forget it,\" Ashworth told presenter Andrew Marr, adding: \"I've lost one of my heroes, but I've lost one of my dearest, dearest, dearest friends.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by LBC This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nTributes to Hall, who also fronted bands including Fun Boy Three and The Colourfield, poured in from across the music world on Tuesday, with friends and colleagues remembering his warmth and dry humour, as much as his music.\n\nPogues frontman MacGowan wrote that he was \"really [expletive] sad to hear about Terry Hall\", adding: \"He was a great guy and I am praying for his family and friends @thespecials.\"\n\nStone Roses singer Ian Brown called the musician \"a musical pioneer, a true original, one of the great frontmen, an inspiration and a lovely fella\".\n\nBlur's Damon Albarn, who has often described Hall as an inspiration, posted a moving piano cover of The Specials' Friday Night, Sunday Morning to social media, accompanied by the caption: \"Terry, you meant the world to me. I love you.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Damon Albarn This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMadness, who were also at the forefront of the 80s ska movement, shared a black and white picture of Hall on Twitter, writing: \"A terrible loss to all of us, way too young, RIP Terry Hall.\"\n\nAnd Billy Bragg recalled: \"The Specials were a celebration of how British culture was invigorated by Caribbean immigration but the onstage demeanour of their lead singer was a reminder that they were in the serious business of challenging our perception of who we were in the late 1970s.\"\n\nThe Specials were formed in Hall's home city of Coventry in 1977 by Jerry Dammers, Lynval Golding and Horace Panter - with Hall, Neville Staple, Roddy Byers and John Bradbury joining a year later.\n\nThe Specials were one of the biggest and most influential bands of their era\n\nThey scored seven consecutive top 10 hits with tracks like Gangsters, A Message To You Rudy, Too Much, Too Young and Ghost Town before Hall left to form Fun Boy Three in 1981.\n\nHe rejoined the band for a reunion tour in 2008; and they scored their first ever number one album with 2019's Encore.\n\nThe band announced his death following a \"brief illness\" on Monday night.\n\nIn a statement, they asked for privacy, adding: \"He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Ukraine's president was seen at a Polish train station ahead of his visit to the US\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is on his way to Washington, where he will meet US President Joe Biden.\n\nIt is his first foreign trip since Russia invaded in February.\n\nDetails of his travel are unlikely to be made public, given the security risks involved, but he was seen earlier at a Polish train station.\n\nThe US has confirmed it will supply Ukraine with a Patriot missile system, significantly increasing the country's air defence capability.\n\n\"On my way to the US to strengthen resilience and defense capabilities of Ukraine,\" Mr Zelensky wrote on Twitter.\n\nHe also said he would give a speech to Congress and hold a number of meetings.\n\nThe visit was, unsurprisingly, kept as a secret, with official confirmation coming only hours before it was due to start.\n\nThe US has been Ukraine's most important ally in the war, committing $50bn (£41bn) of humanitarian, financial and security assistance - far more than any other country.\n\nMr Zelensky has held regular phone calls with Western leaders since the start of the war. But by hosting him at the White House, President Biden will signal that Washington is committed to supporting the country for \"as long as it takes\", as has been repeatedly said.\n\nIn a speech to defence chiefs on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country was fighting against Nato forces in Ukraine.\n\n\"It's well known that the military potential and capabilities of almost all Nato's main countries is being actively used against Russia.\"\n\nIn its briefing ahead of Mr Zelensky's visit, the White House confirmed a new package of nearly $2bn of security assistance for Ukraine.\n\nThat includes a new Patriot missile system - a sophisticated air defence system that will help Ukraine to protect its cities from missiles and drones that Russia has fired at critical facilities.\n\nThe attacks, which officials here say are designed to break Ukrainian morale, have left millions without electricity and heating as temperatures across the country plummet below freezing.\n\nPresident Zelensky, however, is unlikely to receive the longer-range weapons he's been calling for, to hit Russian targets away from the front lines.\n\nIn his address to Congress on Wednesday, the Ukrainian leader will probably use the infrastructure strikes to plead for more weapons. There, he will find some Republicans who have voiced criticism about the level of US support, as Congress considers approving an extra $50bn in aid.\n\nThe monthly cost of defence for Ukraine is reportedly about $5bn (£4.1bn).\n\nThe visit to Washington comes a day after President Zelensky, dressed in combat khaki, was in Bakhmut, a front-line city in eastern Ukraine that has seen some of the fiercest battles in this war.\n\nHe met troops and handed out awards to soldiers, the presidency said.\n\nThe visit was a significant show of defiance - and a demonstration of support for Ukrainian forces on the front line.\n\nSoldiers gave Mr Zelensky a Ukrainian flag with their names signed on it and asked him to give it to President Biden and the US Congress, in a moment that was captured on camera.\n\nPresident Zelensky has vowed to take back all territory that's under occupation, including areas invaded before February. Before the visit, in his traditional evening address, he said Ukraine would do \"everything possible and impossible, expected and unexpected\" to get \"the results that all Ukrainians expect\".\n\nSince Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, the US military estimates that at least 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured, along with some 40,000 civilian deaths.\n\nThe UN has recorded 7.8 million people as refugees from Ukraine across Europe, including Russia. However, the figure does not include those who have been forced to flee their homes but remain in Ukraine.\n• None What weapons are being supplied to Ukraine?", "Firms are \"banging their heads against the wall\" two years after post-Brexit trading began, a new report suggests.\n\nThe British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said businesses were still grappling with EU trading arrangements and more red tape.\n\nIt comes as a separate report from the Centre for European Reform suggests Brexit may have reduced UK trade by around 7%.\n\nBut the government said Brexit \"opens new opportunities for UK businesses\".\n\nThe Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which was struck late on Christmas Eve 2020, meant goods and services could still flow between the UK and EU without tariffs after Brexit.\n\nThe British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) questioned 1,168 businesses and 514 said they traded overseas or were otherwise affected by the agreement.\n\nMore than half of these firms said they were struggling with the new rules which mean they have to deal with new forms, checks or other processes.\n\nOne retailer in Ayrshire said leaving the EU \"made us uncompetitive with our EU customers\". The retailer had to build a base in the EU or it would have lost its EU trade.\n\n\"This has cost our business a huge amount of money which could have been invested in the UK had it not been for Brexit,\" the retailer said.\n\nA manufacturer in Dorset, meanwhile, said that even importing parts to fix machines has been a \"nightmare\".\n\n\"Brexit has been the biggest ever imposition of bureaucracy on business,\" it said.\n\nAs businesses face the prospect of a likely recession, the BCC is urging the government to have \"an honest dialogue about how we can improve our trading relationship with the EU\" and look to reduce red tape even before the deal is reviewed in 2026.\n\nIt has made 24 recommendations - including reaching a swift agreement on the future of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the rules governing trading in Ireland.\n\nPolitical uncertainty surrounding that has, some economists have said, deterred investment in the UK.\n\nMeanwhile, the Centre for European Reform said that changes related to Brexit may have reduced UK trade by as much as 7% this summer - and damaged investment by even more: meaning that UK economic output is 5.5% smaller than it would otherwise have been.\n\nThat is a bigger impact than assumed by the government's official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which has said there will be a 4% hit to productivity.\n\nHowever, in March the OBR predicted that imports and exports would be 15% lower in the long run, and that new trade deals with the rest of the world would not make much difference to trade volumes.\n\nBusinesses that trade across the UK's borders have faced a triple whammy in the last few years: pandemic-related lockdowns around the world, a cost of living crisis heightened by the fallout from the war in Ukraine, and a change in trading arrangements with our biggest partner, the EU. Disentangling the impact of Brexit has been tricky.\n\nBut the report from the BCC underlines that the extra formalities, including paperwork and checks, are posing costly problems for some companies.\n\nAn earlier study from researchers at the London School of Economics found that the range of goods of exports being sent to the EU has shrunk, suggesting perhaps that the extra red tape may have deterred some smaller companies from exporting altogether.\n\nIt also claimed that cost of food from the EU has risen faster than that from elsewhere, bumping up grocery bills.\n\nEconomists disagree about the economic effects of Brexit.\n\nBut most would agree that the UK has failed to realise overall economic gains from leaving the EU - not yet, anyway.\n\nJohn Springfield, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, said that in the second quarter of 2022, Brexit meant the economy was £33bn smaller than it would have been had the UK voted to remain.\n\nHe added that Brexit's effect in stifling the economy meant the government had to raise taxes to find an extra £40bn to fund public services.\n\nOther economists dispute these numbers, saying that the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, heightened by the fallout from the war in Ukraine, has made assessing the impact of Brexit problematic.\n\nDavid Henig, a trade expert and director of the UK trade policy project at the European Centre for International Political Economy, said it is small traders who will be the hardest hit.\n\n\"What has happened is that it used to be pretty seamless to trade with the EU and it's now more like trading with anywhere else in the rest of the world. But that's not easy, particularly for those that trade particular goods and sensitive goods, especially things like chemicals, food and drink,\" he said.\n\n\"Smaller traders who perhaps aren't that experienced outside the EU are finding it a bit of a shock now, what they have to do to trade with the EU. And that is having an impact.\"\n\nThe government said that the Brexit trading deal was \"the world's largest zero-tariff, zero-quota free trade deal\".\n\n\"Despite difficult global economic headwinds, UK-EU trade is rebounding, with recent data showing that UK trade to both EU and non-EU countries is above pre-Covid levels,\" a spokesperson said, adding exporters had been provided with \"practical support\" with post-Brexit trading arrangements.\n\n\"We've also removed 400 trade barriers across 70 countries in the past two years, removed tariffs on £30bn worth of goods and cut £1bn business costs arising from current retained EU law,\" the spokesperson added.\n\nHowever, the food, farming and fisheries minister Mark Spencer admitted there was \"more we can do\" to cut UK-EU red tape.\n\n\"Of course, there's always more that we can do to try and ease the way for the passage of trade. We're very keen to do that,\" Mr Spencer told Times Radio.\n\n\"We're a free and open trading nation. We want to work closely with our EU colleagues, we want to try and reduce that red tape if there is any red tape on their side of the Channel, so of course we want to keep those channels of trade open in both directions.\"", "Mr Ali, in his Glasgow restaurant with the dish he is credited with inventing\n\nA Glaswegian chef credited with inventing the chicken tikka masala has died, aged 77.\n\nAli Ahmed Aslam is said to have come up with the dish in the 1970s when a customer asked if there was a way of making his chicken tikka less dry.\n\nHis solution was to add a creamy tomato sauce, in some versions of the story a can of tomato soup.\n\nHis death was announced by his Shish Mahal restaurant which closed for 48 hours as a mark of respect.\n\nKnown to friends and customers as \"Mr Ali\" he was born in Pakistan but moved with his family to Glasgow as a young boy before opening Shish Mahal in Glasgow's west end in 1964.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by Shish Mahal This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nIn an interview with the AFP news agency, he would later describe the moment he came up with one of Britain's favourite dishes.\n\n\"Chicken tikka masala was invented in this restaurant, we used to make chicken tikka, and one day a customer said, 'I'd take some sauce with that, this is a bit dry',\" he recalled.\n\n\"We thought we'd better cook the chicken with some sauce. So from here we cooked chicken tikka with the sauce that contains yogurt, cream, spices.\n\n\"It's a dish prepared according to our customer's taste, usually they don't take hot curry, that's why we cook it with yogurt and cream.\"\n\nWhile it cannot be proved with certainty that this is the origin of the dish, chicken tikka masala is widely regarded as a curry that has been adapted to suit Western tastes.\n\nFormer Glasgow MP Mohammad Sarwar once tabled a motion in the House of Commons calling for it to be recognised as a Glaswegian delicacy.\n\nHundreds of customers paid tribute to Mr Ali on social media, many recalling visits to his restaurant and describing him as a true gentleman.\n\nSurveys have often found chicken tikka masala to be Britain's favourite curry, although chicken korma has also tried to claim that mantle.\n• None Why is the Birmingham Balti unique?", "Hundreds of workers are unable to leave the Tyra II redevelopment project\n\nHundreds of offshore workers could spend Christmas in the North Sea after weather conditions cancelled more than 50 helicopter flights.\n\nAbout 300 staff, many of whom are Scottish, have been unable to leave platforms off Denmark as scheduled.\n\nFrench firm TotalEnergies said a phenomenon called \"triggered lightning\" was responsible for the disruption.\n\nThe company said it would never compromise with the safety of employees.\n\nIt also denied reports it was refusing to reschedule cancelled flights and put extra transport on to get workers home for Christmas.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"Helicopter transports during wintertime around the North Sea are always challenging due to ice, fog, wind speeds and other factors.\n\n\"This year has been particularly impacted by so-called \"triggered lightning\" which is caused by polar air passing over a warmer sea surface.\n\n\"This phenomenon has led to the cancellation so far of 52 flights in November and December 2022 which can be compared to zero cancellations caused by triggered lightning during the same period in 2021.\n\n\"Unfortunately, the phenomenon cannot be eliminated with de-icing systems, as has been mentioned in the media.\"\n\nThe company, which runs the Tyra Redevelopment Project, said manned offshore installations were normally serviced by helicopters.\n\nThey usually transport 130 people back and forth every weekday out of a total offshore staff of about 1,250.\n\n\"Since the flights have not been able to take place to the required extent, there are approximately 300 people who should have left and are now awaiting transport to shore,\" the spokeswoman said.\n\n\"We never compromise with the safety of our employees, neither on the platforms offshore nor during the transport back and forth between Esbjerg [Denmark] and the fields 250km out in the North Sea.\n\n\"We are in close dialogue with our supplier of flights, Offshore Helicopter Services Denmark, and other parties, so that we can best keep our employees informed and restore flights when it is safe. \"\n\nTotalEnergies has also called in helicopters from another supplier to increase the number of flights when weather allows them to resume.\n\nThe spokeswoman added: \"In addition, we have committed three boats at short notice, which can dock close to the platforms and establish a safe footbridge if the wave height is not too great. The first one left Esbjerg harbour the night between Saturday and Sunday, and new boat trips are planned for this week.\n\n\"We will do our outmost to bring all stranded people back before Christmas.\"", "More than 450 migrants were held at immigration removal centres, like Harmondsworth near Heathrow Airport\n\nHundreds of migrants were illegally detained at immigration removal centres, according to Home Office emails obtained by BBC News.\n\nThe detention centres were used to hold about 450 people - described in one email as \"overflow\" from the migrant processing facility at Manston.\n\nThe email said their detention was \"no longer legal,\" adding: \"We need to move them to hotels ASAP.\"\n\nThe Home Office said an unprecedented number of small boat arrivals had put \"huge pressure\" on the asylum system.\n\nThe department said it had a legal duty to house asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, and officials had worked \"worked tirelessly to move people into hotels or other accommodation as quickly as possible\".\n\nThe email was sent on 4 November, the day after Home Secretary Suella Braverman visited Manston amid pressure to get a grip on overcrowding at the site.\n\nAccording to a chain of emails, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the Home Office permanent secretaries - the department's most senior civil servants - were made aware of the concerns at the time.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the emails \"demonstrate the Home Office knew that they were breaking the law and lay bare how their chaotic failure to plan led to this situation\".\n\n\"Under [Ms Braverman's] direction the Home Office has lost control of the system and has created potential substantial legal costs for the taxpayer.\"\n\nThe Home Office site in Kent was intended to hold migrants for 24 hours, but some were detained there for weeks\n\nIn October, it was revealed about 4,000 people were being held in tents at Manston, leading to overcrowding and disease.\n\nBy early November, between 450 and 500 asylum seekers had been moved to immigration removal centres as \"Manston 'overflow'\", according to Home Office emails.\n\n\"Their detention is no longer legal as they can only be detained whilst their identity is locked down and then only for a maximum of 5 days,\" one email read.\n\n\"Most have been there for a number of weeks, longer than some Manston cases. We need to move them to hotels ASAP…\"\n\nManston was designed to quickly process and release migrants who arrive in the UK in small boats.\n\nBut inspectors have raised concerns about the number of people being held for long periods in \"cramped and uncomfortable conditions, often supervised by staff who have not been suitably trained\".\n\nThe home secretary is due to be questioned by a House of Lords committee on Wednesday about asylum accommodation and the backlog of unprocessed claims.\n\nOne man, who was held in Manston for 24 days, claims he was attacked by an official after what detainees described as a peaceful protest. Kent Police are investigating the allegations.\n\nBBC News has obtained photos taken by staff at the centre that show the man with a blood-stained face and swollen nose.\n\nAfter the protest was broken up by Home Office staff on 27 October, he said he was held around the neck by an official, and used \"whatever strength I had to remove his arm from choking me\".\n\n\"When I removed his hands, he pushed me and I fell backwards onto someone else. While I was on the floor, the same officer grabbed my head and used his knee to bash my head in and broke my nose. From this point onwards, I lost consciousness.\"\n\nPictures taken by staff at Manston show the man's face and hands covered in blood\n\nThe BBC has spoken to five other detainees who said they witnessed the alleged assault and corroborate the man's claims.\n\nThe Home Office said the allegations did not match its understanding of events.\n\n\"There is an ongoing investigation to establish what happened on this occasion and it would be inappropriate for us to comment further,\" it said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEight teenage girls have been charged with murder in the Saturday night stabbing of a 59-year-old man in downtown Toronto, authorities said.\n\nPolice said the girls, aged between 13 and 16, seem to have met online before meeting in person on the night of the attack, possibly for the first time.\n\nThey were arrested near the crime scene shortly after midnight on Sunday.\n\nThe man, who has not been named, had been living in a shelter for the homeless at the time of the assault.\n\n\"He does have a very supportive family in the area so I wouldn't necessarily call him homeless, maybe just recently on some hard luck,\" Toronto Police Detective Sergeant Terry Browne told reporters.\n\nOfficer Browne said the girls are believed to have assaulted and stabbed the victim in Toronto's downtown core, an area filled with high-end condominium towers and hotels, following an altercation. Police believe the man may have been preyed upon because he was spotted carrying alcohol.\n\nA group of bystanders flagged down emergency services after finding the man with stab wounds, Mr Browne said. The man was rushed to a nearby hospital with serious injuries and died shortly after. Police recovered several weapons, but did not say exactly which type.\n\nPolice said the teenagers \"swarmed\" the man, adding the attack was a prolonged \"back and forth\" on the victim involving all eight of the teenagers.\n\n\"The actual incident, proper, lasted almost three minutes long,\" Mr Browne said. \"So, walked away, walked toward, walked away, walked toward.\"\n\nThe attack came just hours before a mass shooting in Vaughn, Ontario, a small city just outside of Toronto. The sudden violence has unnerved some in Toronto ahead of the holidays.\n\nPolice have not called the teenage girls a gang. The \"anomaly\" of this attack, Detective Browne said, is that the girls all came from different parts of the city and did not appear to have met in person prior to the attack. Three of the girls had prior run-ins with police.\n\n\"We don't know how or why they met on that evening,\" he said.\n\nA female resident of a nearby homeless shelter told the CBC the victim was stabbed in the stomach after trying to protect her when the girls approached her for alcohol.\n\n\"I didn't know if they had a knife or what. I was just scared,\" the woman said, explaining how she walked away from the attackers and sought refuge in the shelter.\n\nIn a statement, Toronto Mayor John Tory said he was \"deeply disturbed\" by the case.\n\nThe accused will now spend Christmas in jail as they await a 29 December court appearance. None of the suspects can be identified under Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act but police said three of the suspects are 13 years old, another three are 14, and two are 16.\n\nInvestigators believe the girls may have got into other fights on Saturday evening and have appealed to the public for more information.", "Lamor Whitehead speaking at the funeral of rapper Biz Markie in 2021\n\nA US preacher who was robbed at gunpoint of more than $1m (£840,000) in jewellery during a livestreamed sermon in New York has been indicted on charges of fraud and extortion.\n\nLamor Whitehead had watches, diamonds and emeralds taken from him in July.\n\nNow he has been charged with a raft of crimes, court documents say.\n\nHe is accused of defrauding a parishioner out of her retirement savings, attempting to extort a businessman and lying to the FBI.\n\nMr Whitehead was arrested on Monday and will appear in federal court, the department of justice said in a press release.\n\nThe money allegedly taken from the parishioner - around $90,000 - was spent on \"luxury goods and clothing\", the documents say.\n\nThe charges against him could see him imprisoned for up to 20 years if he is convicted.\n\nOn Tuesday, he posted \"NOT GUILTY!\" on Instagram and directed followers to join his livestream.\n\nAfter being robbed in July, Mr Whitehead, dubbed the \"bling bishop\" by media in New York, vowed that the culprits would not \"get away with it\".\n\nAccording to the New York Post, items taken from him and his wife included Rolex and Cavalier watches, a $25,000 Episcopal ruby and diamond ring, a $25,000 pair of earrings and even his wedding band.\n• None Preacher robbed of $1m in jewellery during sermon", "Winston Churchill addresses the US Congress on 26 December 1941.\n\nIt was 26 December 1941, when Winston Churchill stood before the US Congress and delivered a 30-minute speech that would go down in history as one of the most important visits to Washington by a foreign leader.\n\nEighty-one years later, nearly to the day, Congress welcomed another high-profile wartime leader who had made a dangerous journey across the Atlantic to appeal directly to America's politicians for help.\n\nThere are major differences between World War Two and the current conflict in Ukraine, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, was keen to draw parallels between the visits.\n\n\"Another historic leader addresses the Congress in a time of war,\" she noted before his address, \"with Democracy itself on the line.\"\n\nWorld War Two had already elevated Mr Churchill to a global household name, synonymous with Britain's determined efforts to fend off Nazi Germany.\n\nWhen he arrived in Washington in December 1941, the conflict had just arrived on America's doorstep. Less than three weeks prior, Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt had declared war on the country, marking the US's belated entry into WW2.\n\nHis presence in Washington caused a flurry of excitement. He held a press conference with Mr Roosevelt and even participated in the lighting of the national Christmas tree. \"Americans have caught on to one of Winston Churchill's major characteristics - his ability to thrill a crowd,\" The Washington Post reported.\n\nBut the marquee event was his 26 December 1941 speech to Congress, which took place in a US Senate chamber overflowing with lawmakers, cabinet officials, and dignitaries (Mrs Pelosi's father, Representative Thomas D'Alesandro Jr, was serving in Congress at the time).\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAfter a hearty welcome, Mr Churchill took the dais, whipped out his spectacles, and began one of the most important speeches of his career. The prime minister offered words of flattery and friendship to the United States, invoking the strong relationship and cultural similarities between the two global powers. But he soon moved on to more sombre subjects.\n\n\"You do not, I am certain, underrate the severity of the ordeal to which you and we have still to be subjected,\" Mr. Churchill said. \"The forces ranged against us are enormous. They are bitter, they are ruthless.\"\n\nHe proceeded to paint a harsh picture of the Axis powers.\n\n\"The wicked men and their factions, who have launched their peoples on the path of war and conquest, know that they will be called to terrible account if they cannot beat down by force of arms the peoples they have assailed. They will stop at nothing,\" Mr. Churchill said. \"They have a vast accumulation of war weapons of all kinds. They have highly trained and disciplined armies, navies and air services. They have plans and designs which have long been contrived and matured. They will stop at nothing that violence or treachery can suggest.\"\n\nWhile he warned a \"time of tribulation was upon us,\" he sought to project optimism that the Allies, now with the help of the United States, could turn their fortunes around in the coming three years.\n\nOf their Axis enemies, Mr Churchill declared that \"they do not realise that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget.\" He had to pause his speech, due to raucous applause.\n\nThe speech came soon after the US entered World War Two following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.\n\n\"Here we are together,\" Churchill said, \"Defending all that to free men is dear.\"\n\nThe prime minister's speech received rapturous coverage the next day. \"CONGRESS THRILLED,\" declared the New York Times, which described \"wild bursts of enthusiasm and chuckles of mirth\" from the audience.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEight decades later, Mr Zelensky's visit to Washington generated a similar flurry of coverage and anticipation. In echoes of Mr Churchill's own itinerary, he first met with President Joe Biden before making his way across town to the US Capitol.\n\nWhen he addressed Congress later, he did not mention Winston Churchill directly, but ended his speech by drawing a comparison with World War Two.\n\n\"Standing here today, I recall the wars of the president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which are I think so good for this moment. The American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.\"\n\nLike Mr Churchill, Mr Zelensky's relentless public presence throughout Ukraine's war with Russia has made him a hero to those supporting his country's cause.\n\nBut he was appealing to a Congress far more divided than perhaps the one Mr Churchill encountered, with growing opposition from some Republicans to the United States' significant military and financial support to Ukraine.", "US President Joe Biden has said that the first batch of Abrams tanks will arrive in Ukraine \"next week\".\n\nThe US is by far the largest contributor of arms to Ukraine.\n\nPoland, which was also a major donor, recently said it would stop supplying it with weapons.\n\nIt is in a dispute with Ukraine about its exports of grain, which Poland says are flooding its market.\n\nThe amount of military aid given to Ukraine is tracked by the Kiel Institute, but the data only accounts for donations up until the end of July.\n\nThe US announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth up to $500 million.\n\nThe US has also confirmed it will provide cluster munitions, a controversial move which has caused unease among some Nato allies.\n\nUkraine has also received SCALP missiles from France - similar to the UK Storm Shadows missiles that were recently delivered.\n\nDozens of tanks have already been committed. Ukraine says they are urgently needed to defend its territory and to push out Russian troops.\n\nThe Leopard 2 is used by a number of European countries, and is considered to be easier to maintain and more fuel-efficient than most other Western tanks.\n\nDuring the first months following the invasion, Nato preferred member countries to supply Ukraine with older tanks - ones that had been used in the former Warsaw Pact.\n\nUkraine's armed forces know how to operate them, and how to maintain them, and had a lot spare parts for them.\n\nModern Western tanks are more complicated to operate and harder to maintain.\n\nRecent footage of a Ukrainian attack on Russian positions show that at least one Leopard tank and several Bradleys are already in use by Ukrainian forces.\n\nThe UK led the way in Nato by offering to provide the Challenger 2 - its main battle tank.\n\nThe Challenger 2 was built in the 1990s, but is significantly more advanced than other tanks available to Ukraine's armed forces.\n\nUkraine used Warsaw Pact designed T-72 tanks prior to the invasion, and since February 2022 has received more than 200 T-72s from Poland, the Czech Republic and a small number of other countries.\n\nAnnouncing the US decision to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, President Joe Biden described them as \"the most capable tanks in the world\".\n\nThe US and the UK are also providing depleted uranium rounds with the tanks they are donating, which are very effective at piercing armour.\n\nHowever, depleted uranium is slightly radioactive material and there are some concerns that the rounds could contaminate the soil.\n\nMilitary professionals point out that success on the battlefield requires a vast range of equipment, deployed in co-ordination, with the necessary logistical support in place.\n\nThe Stryker is one of the many armoured vehicles that have been donated to Ukraine. The US confirmed that 90 Strykers would be dispatched.\n\nAmong the other vehicles donated by the US were Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. They were used extensively by US forces in Iraq.\n\nIn December, the US also announced it was sending the Patriot missile system to Ukraine - and Germany and the Netherlands have followed suit.\n\nThis highly sophisticated system has a range of up to 60 miles (100km), depending on the type of missile used, and requires specialised training for Ukrainian soldiers, likely to be carried out at a US Army base in Germany.\n\nBut the system is expensive to operate - one Patriot missile costs about $3m.\n\nSince the start of the conflict, Ukraine has been using Soviet-era S-300 surface-to-air systems against Russian attacks.\n\nBefore the conflict began, Ukraine had about 250 S-300s and there have been efforts to replenish these with similar systems stockpiled in other former Soviet countries, with some coming from Slovakia.\n\nThe US has also provided Nasams (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) to Ukraine. The first Nasams arrived in Ukraine in November.\n\nIn addition, the UK has provided several air defence systems, including Starstreak, designed to bring down low-flying aircraft at short range.\n\nGermany has also provided air defence systems, including the IRIS-T air defence systems which can hit approaching missiles at an altitude of up to 20km.\n\nAmong the long-range rocket launchers sent to Ukraine by the US are the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System or Himars. Several European countries have also sent similar systems.\n\nHimars are believed to have been central to Ukraine's success in pushing Russian forces back in the south, particularly in Kherson in November.\n\nHimars systems are much more accurate have a longer potential range than the Smerch system used on the Russian side.\n\nIn the months following the invasion and Russia's retreat from Kyiv, much of the war centred on the east of the country where supplies of artillery to Ukraine were in heavy demand.\n\nAustralia, Canada and the US were among the countries to send advanced M777 howitzers and ammunition to Ukraine.\n\nThe range of the M777 is similar to Russia's Giatsint-B howitzer, and much longer than Russia's D-30 towed gun.\n\nNato countries say they are planning to ramp up their supply of shells, because Ukraine has been using them much at a faster rate than they are being delivered.\n\nThey are asking their domestic manufacturers to increase production.\n\nThousands of Nlaw weapons, designed to destroy tanks with a single shot, have also been supplied to Ukraine.\n\nThe weapons are thought to have been particularly important in stopping the advance of Russian forces on Kyiv in the hours and days following the invasion.\n\nDrones have featured heavily in the conflict so far, with many used for surveillance, targeting and heavy lift operations.\n\nTurkey has sold Bayraktar TB2 armed drones to Ukraine, while the Turkish manufacturer of the system has donated drones to crowd-funding operations in support of Ukraine.\n\nAnalysts say the Bayraktar TB2s have been extremely effective, flying at about 25,000 feet (7,600m) before descending to attack Russian targets with laser-guided bombs.\n\nThe US had repeatedly rebuffed Ukraine's pleas for fighter jets, instead focusing on providing military support in other areas.\n\nBut in May, President Joe Biden announced the US would support providing advanced fighter jets - including US-made F-16s - to Ukraine and also back training Ukrainian pilots to fly them.\n\nThe US endorsement also allowed other nations to export their own F-16 jets, as the US legally has to approve the re-export of equipment purchased by allies.\n\nDenmark and the Netherlands have since confirmed that they will supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets. Denmark has committed to sending 19 aircraft whilst it is anticipated that the Netherlands will provide more.\n\nAn initial delivery of several Danish F-16s is expected for near the end of 2023.\n\nA wider joint coalition of countries, including the UK, have also agreed to help train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s. In addition to the US, the joint coalition will also help train Ukrainian ground crew to maintain the aircraft.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer. Graphics by Gerry Fletcher and Sana Dionysiou.", "The Barn Pub has seen its energy bills soar, forcing it to make tough decisions, says head chef Ben Stead-Davis\n\nAt the Barn Pub near Rugby, the drinks are ready to be served, but unless lots of customers arrive, staff leave early.\n\n\"If no regulars come in, we close early,\" the chef says. \"It costs to keep this building heated.\"\n\nThe Barn Pub is not alone. A survey from the British Beer and Pub Association, seen by the BBC, suggested most pubs are thinking of cutting down trading hours over the winter.\n\nThe industry is grappling with energy bills and staff shortages.\n\nThe family-run Barn Pub was forced to shut altogether between April and September this year because of a lack of staff.\n\nAlthough it has now reopened, it's having to make some tough decisions due to rising bills.\n\nOn Mondays to Wednesdays, the pub now tends to close at 8pm rather than 10pm. On Thursdays, it's 10pm, rather than 11pm.\n\nFridays and Saturdays are unchanged, with the pub closing at its usual time of 11pm, although on Sunday it usually closes earlier now, at 8pm.\n\nIf no-one is there, and no regulars turn up, staff can close early, head chef Ben Stead-Davis told the BBC.\n\n\"At the end of the day, it does cost quite a bit of money to keep this building heated,\" he said.\n\nEnergy bills are the pub's biggest concern, with bills rising from £2,000 to £8,000 per month.\n\nBut other costs have also climbed, including food, he said.\n\nThe pub is looking forward to a busy Christmas, but might be forced to close for one day of the week from January.\n\nPubs across the UK are hoping for a busy festive period, after years of pandemic disruption.\n\nAs well as shorter opening hours, the Barn Pub has cut the hours it serves food to four days per week, including the weekend, down from seven.\n\nWhen the kitchen is open, it's serving up new items, including a vegan version of a carvery, to try to keep people coming in.\n\nSome local customers at the Barn Pub understand why the pub has made these decisions.\n\n\"It's very sad really, both for the customer and for the people that work here, that provide excellent service,\" one told the BBC.\n\n\"I understand why they're doing it, but you need a place to meet up, you need to get out, you need to participate with other people,\" another said.\n\nThe Barn Pub is one of many restaurants and pubs being forced to make tough decisions due to cost-of-living pressures.\n\nA majority (86%) of UK pubs are considering reducing opening hours over the winter, a survey of nearly 4,500 pubs by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) suggested.\n\nThe survey, which was shared exclusively with the BBC, suggested that almost the same number (85%) are thinking of closing altogether for one or two days a week.\n\nHowever, some businesses are having to consider closing their doors permanently.\n\nWhen a firm can't pay its bills, that is known as being insolvent.\n\nA BBC analysis found that 331 food service firms - restaurants, cafés, pubs and catering companies - announced that they were insolvent in November.\n\nThis is an increase of 57% compared with a year ago, and 62% more than in November 2019, before the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nIn total, 6,293 hospitality firms have started insolvency proceedings since 2020.\n\nFirms that can no longer pay debts must announce this by law in the Gazette, a newspaper of record.\n\nAlthough not all of these firms will go out of business - some may manage to restructure or renegotiate how they pay back debts - more insolvencies points to a decline in the financial health of a sector.\n\nIn north-east England, the cost-of-living crisis has been worse than Covid-19. In the first 11 months of 2022, the number of restaurants and pubs going bust in the region rose by 41%, compared with 2019.\n\nHospitality firm insolvencies rose 38% in the East Midlands, 31% in north-west England, and 30% in the east of England.\n\nNorthern Ireland was the only area where insolvencies were substantially lower than in 2019.\n\nAnd things may get worse before they get better.\n\nOfficial figures show that nearly half of hospitality businesses say their turnover has gone down in early December compared with November. This is more than in any other sector.\n\nTwo-thirds of businesses expect the amount of money coming in to decrease again in January 2023, while more than half say there's a risk they'll become insolvent in the near future.\n\nThe hospitality sector is not the only one struggling. Retailers, hairdressers, builders and retailers have all seen a surge in insolvencies\n\nAcross the entire economy, insolvencies were 42% higher in November compared to the same month in 2019.\n\nEarlier this week, the government announced it was extending the freeze on alcohol duty for another six months.\n\nHowever, a decision on extending help for businesses facing soaring energy bills will now not be made until the new year.\n\nThe British Beer and Pub Association said more needs to be done to support the industry.\n\nIts chief executive Emma McClarkin said pubs and brewers \"are doing whatever they can to make ends meet as costs on everything continue to rise\".\n\n\"Extending the freeze on beer duty will inject a much-needed flurry of festive cheer for our brewers and pubs but times are still incredibly tough,\" she said.\n\nSoaring inflation and a severe labour shortage mean firms \"are being pushed to breaking point\", she said.\n\nPublicans need extra support with energy bills, she added.\n\nThe government is \"firmly\" on the side of hospitality businesses at \"a difficult time\", a spokesperson said:\n\nThe Energy Bill Relief Scheme means some will pay less than half the predicted wholesale cost of energy this winter, and a business rates package worth £13.6bn over the next five years means falling rates bills, the spokesperson added.", "The UK scheme to settle millions of EU citizens risks creating illegal migrants overnight and is unlawful, the High Court has ruled.\n\nIn a highly critical judgment, the court said the scheme breached the UK's Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.\n\nThe watchdog for EU citizens' rights argued the scheme could strip people of rights if they don't register in time.\n\nThe Home Office said EU citizens are friends with clear protections and it will challenge the ruling.\n\nSince 2018, the Home Office has run a two-stage process for EU citizens who wanted to remain in the UK.\n\nThis scheme was set up because the EU's freedom of movement principle had meant many people from within the bloc had never needed permission to be in the UK under immigration laws that apply to other parts of the world.\n\nUnder the scheme, at least 2.2 million people currently have \"pre-settled status\". This is a limited right to live and work in the UK and expires if they don't re-apply for full settled status after five years.\n\nSome 200,000 people, who were part of the scheme's pilot in 2018, must register for full settled status by August 2023 - or they could lose their legal rights.\n\nThe Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA), the post-Brexit watchdog for EU citizens' rights, challenged these arrangements in the High Court, saying ministers were breaking the legal promises they had given to the European Union.\n\nIt argued huge numbers of people could become illegal immigrants overnight if they didn't apply for the second stage on time.\n\nThat would mean they would lose their right to live, work or study and their access to health services.\n\nThe risk of that happening, its lawyers argued, had never been intended in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.\n\nToday, the High Court agreed, ruling the scheme created so much uncertainty it breached the UK's deal with the EU.\n\nMr Justice Lane said a very large number of people could face serious uncertainty.\n\n\"The consequence... of limited leave coming to an end, without being followed by further leave, is extremely serious,\" said the judge.\n\n\"The person concerned becomes an overstayer, who from that point is in the United Kingdom unlawfully.\n\n\"A person who knowingly remains beyond the time limited by the leave commits a criminal offence. In my judgment, these consequences cannot be brushed aside as merely procedural matters.\"\n\nThe judge said that people who had not secured their full settled status would be at the mercy of the Home Office's decision-making.\n\n\"Someone who makes a belated application for further leave [to remain] will not know whether the defendant will accept the late application,\" he said.\n\nDr Kathryn Chamberlain, the head of IMA, said the watchdog had asked the court to give people clarity before the first tranche of EU citizens approach the August 2023 deadline.\n\n\"I am pleased that the judge has recognised the significant impact this issue could have had on the lives and livelihoods of citizens with pre-settled status in the UK,\" she said.\n\nBut junior Home Office minister Lord Murray said the government was disappointed and planned to appeal.\n\n\"EU citizens are our friends and neighbours, and we take our obligations to securing their rights in the UK very seriously,\" he said.\n\n\"The EU Settlement Scheme goes above and beyond our obligations under the Withdrawal Agreement, protecting EU citizens' rights and giving them a route to settlement in the UK.\"", "A senior Border Force official has warned airline and port passengers to expect disruption over Christmas due to planned strikes by staff.\n\nSteve Dann, chief operating officer, said he hoped to keep all airports and ports open as about 1,000 Border Force workers walk out over pay.\n\nStaff will strike on 23-26 and 28-31 December affecting arrivals to the UK.\n\nHeathrow, Gatwick, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff airports will be affected.\n\nStaff at the port of Newhaven will also strike. All strikers are members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) which balloted for strike action after it said the government had refused to increase a 2% pay rise offer.\n\n\"In anticipation of the strike action, Border Force has for a number of months undertaken extensive planning, and we've been working with the travel industry and continue to work closely with all UK ports to assess the impacts of the announcement on the travelling public,\" Mr Dann said.\n\n\"We do have robust plans in place to minimise delays to passengers, but we've been very clear from the start that people should be prepared for disruption and take action to plan ahead.\"\n\nEarlie this month, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said people should \"think carefully\" about their travel plans on strike days.\n\nMilitary personnel, civil servants and Home Office volunteers have been trained to check passports when Border Force staff walk out.\n\nBut there are fears that delays in checking the passports of arriving passengers could lead to long queues and even people being held on planes, disrupting subsequent departures.\n\nThe PCS has said the replacement workers in have not been given sufficient training.\n\nThe union said its officers get five weeks training to do their jobs yet many of the stand-in staff have been given one week.\n\nAnd it claimed civil servants from the National Crime Agency had been \"trained at the last minute\", with one day's training.\n\n\"You can't seriously expect people who have been trained for a day, or even a week, to do the job of officers with five weeks' training and many years experience,\" a PCS spokesperson said.\n\nBut Border Force managers believe they can maintain the same standards as normal for passport checks, and Mr Dann said safety and security at borders will be \"non-negotiable\".\n\nOfficials have refused to disclose the number of replacement staff or the length of training they have received.\n\nIt is the first Christmas since 2019 that airlines have been able to operate without Covid restrictions and up to two million passengers are expected to arrive between 23 and 31 December at the airports where the strikes will take place, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.\n\nIt has previously said more than 10,000 flights are scheduled to arrive at Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports during the period.\n\nTravel expert and commentator Simon Calder said he was concerned about whether staff will be able to cope with the rush of early morning passengers at Heathrow airport on Friday, as the Christmas getaway begins.\n\nMr Dann urged passengers to use the automated electronic passport gates at airports if possible.\n\nThe BBC understands that the Border Force asked airports that are expecting passenger numbers on strike days to be above 70-80% of 2019 levels to \"supress demand\".\n\nThe move led British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to stop selling new tickets for inbound flights to Heathrow on the strike days.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHollywood actor Johnny Depp has made a terminally ill boy's \"dreams come true\" by calling him on video and surprising him with a PlayStation 5 for Christmas.\n\nThe star also delighted Pirates of the Caribbean fan Kori, 11, by reprising the role of Captain Jack Sparrow for him in the 20-minute video call.\n\nKori has undergone two unsuccessful heart transplants and his family say they do not know how long he will live.\n\nHis mum Pixi said he was \"overwhelmed\" by Depp's gesture.\n\nThe family, from Ripley, Derbyshire, has discussed Kori's situation with doctors and decided not to put him through the trauma of further major surgery.\n\nDepp heard one of Kori's last wishes was to meet his idol Captain Jack - through the Make A Wish charity - after the youngster set up a new pirate-themed YouTube channel.\n\nThe actor pre-recorded a video message for Kori, but then followed it up with an unexpected call.\n\nJohnny Depp resumed his role of Captain Jack Sparrow to leave a special message for Kori before the \"unexpected\" video call\n\nKori's mother Pixi said: \"We were blown away by Captain Jack's message but then a big package arrived for Kori. There was no note or anything but there was a PS5 inside.\n\n\"I did a bit of calling round and spoke to one of Johnny's friends Jason, who has been keeping in touch with us, and he said 'yep, that's from JD himself'.\n\n\"Kori was totally overwhelmed - then came the call. Johnny was amazing.\n\n\"We are obviously having a really difficult time at the moment but Johnny has made Kori's dreams come true.\"\n\nKori - pictured here after his second transplant, which his family has learned was unsuccessful - is a huge Pirates of the Caribbean fan\n\nSurgeons gave Kori - who was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome - a new heart in 2018 but the organ was rejected.\n\nHe underwent a second transplant in January last year but after a traumatic and painful procedure, again his body did not accept the heart.\n\nHe has now gone into palliative care.\n\nKori has more than 200,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, including actor and wrestler Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson.\n\nAs well as the PlayStation, he has been sent more than 250 other presents by well-wishers from across the globe.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jeremy Clarkson is the star of Amazon Prime series Clarkson's Farm and hosts Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for ITV\n\nComments made by Jeremy Clarkson about the Duchess of Sussex in a column for the Sun have been described as \"awful\" by ITV's media and entertainment boss.\n\nKevin Lygo said there were no plans \"at the moment\" to replace him as host of gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?\n\nHe said Mr Clarkson's comments did not represent ITV's values.\n\nMore than 20,000 complaints have been made to the press regulator after Clarkson wrote on Friday that he \"hated [Meghan] on a cellular level\".\n\nThe column has now been removed from the Sun's website, at Clarkson's request, and replaced with a tweet in which he says he is \"horrified\" after \"causing so much hurt\".\n\nIn his message to followers, posted on Monday, he described a reference he made to a scene in Game of Thrones as \"clumsy\".\n\nSpeaking at a Broadcasting Press Guild event in London on Tuesday, Mr Lygo said he had \"no control\" over what Mr Clarkson wrote in his newspaper columns.\n\n\"We hire him as a consummate broadcaster of the most famous quiz on television, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?\" he said.\n\n\"So it's not quite in our wheelhouse but I don't know what he was thinking when he wrote that. It was awful.\"\n\nConservative MP Caroline Nokes has written to Sun editor Victoria Newton calling for action to be taken against Mr Clarkson, and for an \"unreserved apology\" to be issued to the duchess.\n\nThe letter has been signed by more than 60 MPs.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Caroline Nokes MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSNP MP John Nicolson, who sits on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, has written to chief executive of ITV Dame Carolyn McCall asking for Mr Clarkson to be removed as a host of the quiz show.\n\nMr Nicolson said he had also written to Amazon, which broadcasts Clarkson's Farm and The Grand Tour, where the presenter appears alongside James May and Richard Hammond.\n\nIn a call to Shelagh Fogarty's Monday show on LBC, the mother of late television presenter Caroline Flack condemned the comments.\n\nResponding to Mr Clarkson saying he would like to see the duchess humiliated, Christine Flack said it had \"upset her so much that Jeremy Clarkson was not only allowed to think that but to put it in print\".\n\nCaroline Flack's death in February 2020 was ruled a suicide by the coroner.\n\nAn inquest in August 2020 heard \"her trauma was played out in the national press\" and that was \"incredibly distressing for her.\"\n\nWriting in his original column, Clarkson said: \"At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her.\n\n\"Everyone who's my age thinks the same way,\" he added. \"But what makes me despair is that younger people, especially girls, think she's pretty cool. They think she was a prisoner of Buckingham Palace, forced to talk about nothing but embroidery and kittens.\"\n\nHis column followed the release of the last three episodes of Netflix's docuseries Harry & Meghan on Thursday.", "US federal drug agents say they seized enough fentanyl in 2022 to kill every American.\n\nThe Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says they intercepted 379m potentially deadly fentanyl doses, which is just two milligrams.\n\nThe DEA described the highly addictive substance, which is 50 times more powerful than heroin, as the deadliest drug threat facing the US.\n\nThe agency says most of the fentanyl is trafficked into the US from Mexico.\n\nThe DEA says it seized more than 10,000lb (4,500kg) of fentanyl, as well as over 50.6m fentanyl pills that were made to resemble different prescription painkillers.\n\nThat is more than double what they seized in 2021.\n\nMost of the drugs were mass-produced at secret factories in Mexico by the Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels, which use chemicals sourced in China, the agency said.\n\nThe drug is so powerful that a lethal dose is small enough to fit on the tip of a pencil.\n\nMore than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, and two-thirds were attributed to fentanyl. The amount of fentanyl seized this year was enough to kill all 330 million residents of the US, said the drug agency.\n\n\"DEA's top operational priority is to defeat the two Mexican drug cartels - the Sinaloa and Jalisco (CJNG) Cartels - that are primarily responsible for the fentanyl that is killing Americans today,\" DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said.\n\nIn addition to the fentanyl, the DEA also seized 131,000lb of methamphetamine, more than 4,300lb of heroin, and over 444,000lb of cocaine.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The deadly truth of new drugs cocktail", "As China deals with a new wave of Covid infections, BBC analysis editor Ros Atkins looks at why it’s hard to assess the scale of the outbreak.", "Members of the union representing midwives in Scotland have rejected the latest NHS pay offer.\n\nThe Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said 65% of members voted against it. The union will now consider next steps including possible industrial action.\n\nThe NHS offered an average pay increase of 7.5%. It was accepted by Unison and Unite members but rejected by the GMB.\n\nThe Scottish government has said the proposal was unprecedented at a time of \"extraordinary financial challenges\".\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing has also rejected the pay offer and said it would soon announce dates for strikes.\n\nJaki Lambert, RCM director for Scotland, said: \"Our members have spoken loud and clear - the latest pay offer by the Scottish government is simply not good enough. It goes nowhere near addressing the rising cost of living and would see many midwives actually worse off in real terms.\n\n\"Our members have been consistent throughout this process - they want a decent deal, and they are prepared to take industrial action to get one.\n\n\"No midwife wants to do this and it is for the Scottish government to make sure that they do not feel that they are left with no other option.\n\n\"While we acknowledge that the Scottish government has listened to some of the concerns regarding career opportunities and development, it has failed to meet our members' needs on pay.\"\n\nLast month, Holyrood ministers tabled an improved pay offer averaging 7.5% to health workers threatening industrial action.\n\nAnnual salary rises under the proposal would range from a flat rate payment of £2,205 for staff in Bands 1 to 4 and up to £2,660 for staff in Bands 5 to 7, backdated to April.\n\nThis represents an increase of 11.3% for the lowest paid workers and delivers an average uplift of 7.5%.\n\nUnite and Unison chose to accept the deal, however, the GMB union became the first to reject it last week.\n\nThe Scottish government said previously that the pay offer was unprecedented for front-line employees and would ensure NHS workers in Scotland remain the best paid in the UK.\n\nThe RCM is part of the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee (STAC), which negotiates pay deals with the Scottish government. STAC staff will meet with ministers on Thursday to share the outcomes of their respective consultations, the RCM said.", "Sharing passwords for online streaming services such as Netflix is against the law, according to a government agency.\n\nThe Intellectual Property Office (IPO) said on Tuesday the practice broke copyright law.\n\nIt is common in the UK for people who do not live together to share their streaming service passwords, despite this typically being against terms of service agreements.\n\nNetflix has never indicated it would take any legal action in such cases.\n\nThe IPO has since removed the reference to password sharing in its guidance on the government website. However, a spokesperson confirmed the legal position on password sharing had not changed - and nor has the IPO's guidance.\n\nIt said password sharing was both a criminal and civil matter.\n\n\"There are a range of provisions in criminal and civil law which may be applicable in the case of password sharing where the intent is to allow a user to access copyright-protected works without payment,\" it said.\n\n\"These provisions may include breach of contractual terms, fraud or secondary copyright infringement, depending on the circumstances.\n\n\"Where these provisions are provided in civil law, it would be up to the service provider to take action through the courts if required.\"\n\nThere is no evidence to suggest any of the major streaming video operators in the UK would do this.\n\nNetflix said it wanted to \"make it easy\" for people borrowing others' accounts to set up their own, to transfer their profile into a new account, as well as to create \"sub-accounts\" for people to pay extra for family or friends.\n\nIt said it would start rolling out these features \"more broadly\" in early 2023.\n\nThe BBC has also approached streaming service operators Amazon and Disney for comment.\n\nResearch firm Digital i estimates around a quarter of UK Netflix subscribers - around four million - are sharing their passwords.\n\nProduct manager Matt Ross told the BBC account sharing \"presents a major challenge\" to Netflix and other streaming services.\n\n\"Following on from the addition of the ad-supported tier, there is clearly an opportunity for Netflix to generate significant additional revenue by cracking down on account sharing and converting those who do into subscribers in their own right,\" he said.\n\n\"The question, however remains: what is motivating multiple households who share a premium account to do so?\"\n\nIn May, then-Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries revealed she was one of those sharing an account.\n\n\"My mum has access to my account, the kids do. I have Netflix but there are four other people who can use my Netflix account in different parts of the country,\" she told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee.\n\nWhen Netflix was growing in the UK, the streaming service joked in a tweet about password sharing being commonplace between friends and family.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Netflix This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSince then user growth has stalled and Netflix has tried to crack down on the practice, which is against its terms of service - but it has never taken legal action.\n\nInstead, it has introduced new price tiers to make the service seem more appealing, such as the £4.99 ad-supported price point, introduced in the UK in November.\n\nOne interesting part of the IPO's response is the reference to criminal law - suggesting that people could theoretically face prosecution from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for password sharing.\n\nThe CPS did not rule this out.\n\nA spokesperson told the BBC: \"Any decision to charge someone for sharing passwords for streaming services would be looked at on a case-by-case basis, with due consideration of the individual context and facts of each case.\n\n\"As with all cases, if they are referred to the CPS by an investigator for a charging decision, our duty is to bring prosecutions where there is sufficient evidence to do so and when a prosecution is required in the public interest.\"\n\nIn other words, before the CPS could take action, there would first need to be a police investigation.\n\nThere is no evidence to suggest any police forces in the UK would open an investigation into someone for sharing their password to a streaming service.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nPele's cancer has progressed, a statement from the Sao Paulo hospital where the 82-year-old Brazil legend is being treated has confirmed.\n\nThe three-time World Cup winner has been in hospital for three weeks.\n\nHis daughter wrote on Instagram that he would spend Christmas in the facility.\n\nA statement issued by the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein said Pele \"requires greater care related to renal and cardiac dysfunctions\" because of the \"cancer progression\".\n\nPele had a tumour removed from his colon in September 2021 and has since had regular treatment.\n\n\"Our Christmas at home has been suspended,\" wrote Pele's daughter, Kely Nascimento.\n\n\"We decided with the doctors that, for various reasons, it would be better for us to stay here with all the care that this new family at Einstein gives us.\"\n\nJust after he was admitted, a statement issued by the hospital said Pele \"had a good response to treatment for respiratory infection care\" and added he was undergoing a \"reassessment of chemotherapy treatment\".\n\nPele is Brazil's all-time leading men's scorer with 77 goals in 92 games and he helped his country win the World Cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970.\n\nBrazil players paid tribute to Pele after their last-16 win over South Korea during the 2022 World Cup, holding up a banner with his name and picture.", "MSPs have finally worked through all the amendments put forward on the bill.\n\nThe 150 amendments included failed attempts to restrict rights for sex offenders, add safeguards in women's prisons, protect of single sex services for vulnerable women and faith groups, along with measures for women's sport and commitments to data collection.\n\nBut we're not done yet.\n\nMSPs will start their Christmas holidays back in the chamber after First Minister's Questions on Thursday afternoon to conclude the debate and finally vote.\n\nJoin us for FMQs later, with our coverage starting just before 12:00.", "Last updated on .From the section Sports Personality\n\nEngland and Arsenal forward Beth Mead has been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2022.\n\nMead was the player of the tournament and top scorer at Euro 2022, where the Lionesses defeated Germany in the final at Wembley to win England's first major women's football trophy.\n\nThe 27-year-old becomes the first women's footballer to win the award.\n\nEngland cricket's Test captain Ben Stokes was second with Winter Olympics curling champion Eve Muirhead third.\n\nSeven-time snooker world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, gymnast Jessica Gadirova, who won the floor world title, and 1,500m athletics world champion Jake Wightman, were also shortlisted for the award by a panel of experts, with a public vote then deciding the winner.\n\n\"I'm incredibly honoured to win this award,\" said Mead. \"I wouldn't have done it without the girls. The team have backed me. Yes, I've won this accolade, I've scored a few goals but I wouldn't have done it without them.\n\n\"This is for women's sport and women's sport heading in the right direction. Let's keep pushing girls, let's keep doing the right thing.\"\n• None Sports Personality of the Year 2022 - how the evening unfolded\n• None Who were the winners at Sports Personality 2022?\n\nMead's stellar performances at Euro 2022 saw her named the player of the tournament as well as winning the Golden Boot with six goals and five assists.\n\nShe was also named Arsenal's player of the season, came second in the Ballon d'Or Feminin and won BBC's Women's Footballer of the Year award in 2022.\n\nHer international goal tally for the 2021-22 season was 20 in 19 matches, beating the record of 13 scored by Jimmy Greaves in 1960-61.\n\nEngland, who were unbeaten in the 20 matches they played in 2022 - scoring 72 goals and conceding seven in 16 wins and four draws - also won the Sports Personality Team of the Year award, while head coach Sarina Wiegman won the Coach of the Year accolade.\n\nHaving been left out of Team GB's squad for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Mead's success is all the more remarkable.\n\nShe scored in four of England's six games at the Euros, including a hat-trick against Norway in the group stage, pipping Germany's Alex Popp to the Golden Boot.\n\nShe has also helped England to qualify for next year's World Cup with a 100% record and without conceding a single goal.\n\nThe Euros was a first major trophy for the Lionesses and first for a senior England team since the men won the 1966 World Cup.\n\n50/29 - England caps and goals, after making her international debut in April 2018 20 - The age that Mead won the WSL Golden Boot, the youngest ever winner of the award 77 - Goals for former club Sunderland, coming in just 78 games 61 - Goals for Arsenal. She joined the Gunners in 2017 166 - Appearances for Arsenal in all competitions\n\nDomestically, Mead was in superb form for her club, Arsenal, before the tournament, scoring 14 goals and providing 19 assists in 40 appearances in the 2021-22 campaign, as the Gunners came agonisingly close to a first Women's Super League title since 2019 but finished second to Chelsea by one point.\n\nMead's 2022-23 campaign was shaping up to be just as prolific but has been cut short after she sustained an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury against Manchester United in November, putting her hopes of playing at next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in doubt.\n\nPresented by Gary Lineker, Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott, the Sports Personality of the Year 2022 was broadcast live from MediaCityUK, Salford.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Rishi Sunak is asked to give a personal message to NHS workers and others taking strike action\n\nRishi Sunak has insisted he will not back down against striking workers, as nurses walked out in England, Northern Ireland and Wales for a second day.\n\nNurses' union boss Pat Cullen has urged the prime minister to resolve the crisis before Christmas.\n\nBut there is no sign of a breakthrough between the sides.\n\nSpeaking to MPs, Mr Sunak argued the best way to help workers would be to reduce inflation as quickly as possible.\n\nThe UK is facing its biggest week of industrial strikes in recent history in the run up to Christmas, with ambulance workers, customs and immigration staff, bus drivers and postal workers all staging walk outs.\n\nThe armed forces have been drafted in to cover some jobs - but concern is growing about Wednesday's ambulance drivers strike in England and Wales, with a health minister warning people to avoid \"risky activity\".\n\nHead of the NHS confederation, and a former Labour adviser, Matthew Taylor has warned that hospital leaders cannot guarantee patient safety during the strikes.\n\nIn a letter to Mr Sunak, he said: \"It is clear that we have entered dangerous territory and we hope this warning from NHS leaders should serve to focus minds in government and in the unions that a swift resolution to this damaging dispute is needed.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Ambulance staff are tired of waiting outside hospitals with patients, says GMB\n\nMr Sunak is facing calls to reopen talks on nurses' pay and deal with the growing wave of strikes across the public services.\n\nConservative backbencher Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said that both sides \"need to get round the table and see what can be done.\"\n\nBut addressing the Liaison Committee of senior MPs Mr Sunak said: \"I've acknowledged it is difficult for everybody, because inflation is where it is.\n\n\"The best way to help them and help everyone else in the country is for us to get a grip and reduce inflation as quickly as possible.\"\n\nHe said sticking to the wage levels set by the pay review boards earlier this year was an important part of tackling high inflation.\n\nDespite the prime minister's insistence that he is holding firm, some Conservative MPs have said he will need to budge on nurses' pay.\n\nSo far only a handful have said so publicly, but others have expressed concern in private conversations with the BBC.\n\nOne former minister said the government would have to shift eventually and come up with more money,\n\nAnother suggested ministers should consider offering a slightly increased offer, albeit still well below the 19% being called for, or a one-off payment to help with rising prices.\n\nA third senior Conservative added: \"I'd be surprised if the pay offer as is on the table wins - unless they are prepared to carry this on for six months.\"\n\nHowever, even behind the scenes, government officials do not want to get into details about possible compromises.\n\nAnd some Tory MPs are urging the PM to maintain his stance, fearing any concessions would encourage future strikes.\n\n\"Give in to one group then the whole lot will cascade around him,\" said one former minister.\n\nEarlier, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing said she was \"truly sorry\" for every patient who would have their care disrupted.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Today programme, Ms Cullen said she would negotiate with the government, saying \"we won't dig in if they don't dig in.\"\n\n\"But we have no opportunity to do that because we can't get to a table to talk to government.\"\n\nShe has warned that if the government isn't \"prepared to do the right thing\" her union would have \"no choice\" but to continue striking in January.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing has called for a 19% pay rise (5% above the RPI inflation rate) but the government has said this is unaffordable.\n\nAmbulance staff - who are set to walk out on Wednesday - also want above-inflation pay rises, but have not set a specific figure.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay met unions ahead of the strike on Tuesday afternoon, however Unite representative Onay Kasab described the meeting as \"entirely pointless\" because Mr Barclay had refused to discuss pay.\n\nFollowing the meeting, Mr Barclay said the pay demands were \"unaffordable\" but added that he was open to \"engaging with unions on how to make the NHS a better place to work\".", "Justin Bieber said he didn't endorse the collection featuring images of him\n\nH&M has removed a Justin Bieber-inspired collection after it was branded \"trash\" by the singer.\n\nThe 28-year-old said he had not approved the collection, which included T-shirts, jumpers, tote bags and phone accessories.\n\nPosting on his Instagram Story, the Sorry singer urged people not to buy the items which he said were being sold without his permission or approval.\n\nThe company said proper procedures were followed but have now pulled the line.\n\n\"The H&M Merch they made out of me is trash and I didn't approve it,\" Justin wrote on his Instagram story on Tuesday. \"Don't buy it.\n\n\"I didn't approve any of the merch collection that they put up at H&M,\" he continued.\n\n\"All without my permission and approval. I wouldn't buy it if I were you.\"\n\nJustin slammed the collection on his Instagram story on Tuesday\n\nIn a statement, H&M defended the fashion line, which reportedly features images of the star.\n\n\"As with all other licensed products and partnerships, H&M followed proper approval procedures,\" a spokesperson for the fashion retailer said.\n\n\"But out of respect for the collaboration and Justin Bieber we have removed the garments from our stores and online.\"\n\nIt's not the first time a star has hit out at a brand for using their image without permission.\n\nIn 2015, Rihanna won a court case against Topshop - she successfully sued its parent company for £3.3m after it sold a sleeveless T-shirt with her photo on it.\n\nAnd in 2019, Ariana Grande brought action against Forever 21 after she claimed it published at least 30 \"unauthorised\" images and videos that suggested she had endorsed the brand.\n\nH&M said protocols had been followed but removed the collection \"out of respect\"\n\nJustin is currently on a break from touring after he revealed he was suffering from facial paralysis, after a diagnosis of Ramsay Hunt syndrome.\n\nRamsay Hunt syndrome is when a shingles outbreak affects the facial nerve near someone's ears, resulting in paralysis of parts of the face.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nArgentina's World Cup winners had to abandon an open-top bus parade in Buenos Aires and instead took a helicopter ride over the millions of ecstatic fans partying in the streets.\n\nThe squad showed off the trophy at the start of a planned eight-hour journey.\n\nBut the celebrations on packed roads became more chaotic, forcing a rethink.\n\n\"It was impossible to continue on the ground due to the explosion of joy,\" tweeted presidential spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti.\n\nSocial media videos appeared to show fans jumping onto the top deck of the bus carrying the players at one point when it passed underneath a bridge, with one fan falling off.\n• None Thousands gather for World Cup parade - as it happened\n\nThe Argentine government declared Tuesday would be a national holiday in the South American country after Lionel Messi and his team-mates beat France in Sunday's final.\n\nAbout four million people lined the streets of Buenos Aires, according to local estimates.\n\n\"Today Argentina experienced one of the most extraordinary parties in its history. There was only joy and gratitude during hours and hours of exciting togetherness,\" Cerruti added.\n\nAfter arriving home from Qatar in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the players left the Argentine Football Association (AFA) training complex on a 20-mile journey to the centre of Buenos Aires at 11:45 local time (14:45 GMT).\n\nThe journey was supposed to finish at the capital city's iconic Obelisk monument, where hundreds of thousands had gathered and created a party atmosphere, later that day.\n\nBut security forces would not let the bus continue to Plaza de la República - the public square where the Obelisk stands - after some of the celebrations became too chaotic.\n\n\"A thousand apologies on behalf of all of the champion players. [Such] a shame,\" tweeted AFA president Chiqui Tapia.\n\nWith the majority of the jubilant fans wearing the national team's blue and white colours, it was a sea of colour in Plaza de la República as they waited for the squad.\n\nBanners were held aloft of captain Messi and the late Diego Maradona - another iconic Argentina player, captain of the 1986 World Cup champions and regarded as one of the greatest players ever - while other fans played instruments or climbed lampposts.\n\nHundreds of fans lined the streets, with many riding scooters and running behind the bus on a motorway, as the parade made its way towards the Argentine capital.\n\n\"It's crazy, it's incredible, it's the best thing that can happen to you in life,\" said 25-year-old Matias Gomez, one of those gathered.\n\n\"It is an enormous joy to see all these happy people, all together, one with the other, holding hands, giving each other hugs, kisses. We are all one today.\"\n\nParis St-Germain forward Messi, who captained the side and cemented his place for many as the greatest footballer ever by lifting the World Cup, sat in the middle of a group of the squad on the top deck.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, he posted on Instagram showing him waking up alongside the trophy.\n\nArgentina has been in party mode since Sunday's dramatic penalty shootout win against France in Qatar, which gave the country its first World Cup win since Maradona lifted the trophy 36 years ago.\n\nMessi, 35, finally achieved his World Cup dream as La Albiceleste won their third crown in one of the greatest finals in the tournament's history.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The court ordered that pictures of Irmgard Furchner from the trial should be blurred\n\nA former secretary who worked for the commander of a Nazi concentration camp has been convicted of complicity in the murders of more than 10,500 people.\n\nIrmgard Furchner, 97, was taken on as a teenaged shorthand typist at Stutthof and worked there from 1943 to 1945.\n\nFurchner, the first woman to be tried for Nazi crimes in decades, was given a two-year suspended jail term.\n\nAlthough she was a civilian worker, the judge agreed she was fully aware of what was going on at the camp.\n\nSome 65,000 people are thought to have died in horrendous conditions at Stutthof, including Jewish prisoners, non-Jewish Poles and captured Soviet soldiers.\n\nFurchner was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murder of 10,505 people and complicity in the attempted murder of five others. As she was only 18 or 19 at the time, she was tried in a special juvenile court.\n\nAt Stutthof, located near the modern-day Polish city of Gdansk, a variety of methods was used to murder detainees and thousands died in gas chambers there from June 1944.\n\nThe court at Itzehoe in northern Germany heard from survivors of the camp, some of whom have died during the trial.\n\nWhen the trial began in September 2021, Irmgard Furchner went on the run from her retirement home and was eventually found by police on a street in Hamburg.\n\nStutthof commandant Paul-Werner Hoppe was jailed in 1955 for being an accessory to murder and he was released five years later.\n\nA series of prosecutions have taken place in Germany since 2011, after the conviction of former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk set the precedent that being a guard was sufficient evidence to prove complicity.\n\nThat ruling also meant that civilian worker Furchner could stand trial, as she worked directly to the camp commander, dealing with correspondence surrounding Stutthof detainees.\n\nIt took 40 days for her to break her silence in the trial, when she told the court \"I'm sorry about everything that happened\".\n\n\"I regret that I was in Stutthof at the time - that's all I can say,\" she said.\n\nHer defence lawyers argued she should be acquitted because of doubts surrounding what she knew, as she was one of several typists in Hoppe's office.\n\nAfter the war, Furchner married an SS squad leader called Heinz Furchstam whom she probably met at the camp.\n\nShe went on to work as an administrative worker in a small town in northern Germany. Her husband died in 1972.\n\nSurvivor and co-plaintiff Manfred Goldberg returned to Stutthof in 2017 with the Prince and Princess of Wales\n\nHistorian Stefan Hördler played a key role in the trial, accompanying two judges on a visit to the site of the camp.\n\nIt became clear from the visit that Furchner was able to see some of the worst conditions at the camp from the commandant's office.\n\nThe historian told the trial that 27 transports carrying 48,000 people arrived at Stutthof between June and October 1944, after the Nazis decided to expand the camp and speed up mass murder with the use of Zyklon B gas.\n\nMr Hördler described Hoppe's office as the \"nerve centre\" for everything that went on at Stutthof.\n\nDuring his evidence he read out evidence provided by Furchner's husband in 1954 when he said: \"At the Stutthof camp people were gassed. The staff at the commandant's HQ talked about it.\"\n\nPresiding judge Dominik Gross said it was \"beyond imagination\" that Furchner could not have noticed the smoke and stench of mass killing: \"The defendant could have quit at any time.\"\n\nJosef Salomonovic was persuaded by his wife to travel from Vienna to northern Germany to give evidence last December\n\nCamp survivor Josef Salomonovic, who travelled to the court to give evidence at the trial, was only six when his father was murdered by lethal injection at Stutthof in September 1944.\n\n\"She's indirectly guilty,\" he told reporters at the court last December, \"even if she just sat in the office and put her stamp on my father's death certificate.\"\n\nAnother Stutthof survivor, Manfred Goldberg, said his only disappointment was in the nature of the sentence.\n\n\"It's a foregone conclusion that a 97-year-old would not be made to serve a sentence in prison - so it could only be a symbolic sentence,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"But the length should be made to reflect the extraordinary barbarity of being found to be complicit in the murder of more than 10,000 people.\"\n\nFurchner's trial could be the last to take place in Germany into Nazi-era crimes, although a few cases are still being investigated.\n\nTwo other cases have gone to court in recent years for Nazi crimes committed at Stutthof.\n\nLast year a former camp guard was declared unfit for trial even though the court said there was a \"high degree of probability\" he was guilty of complicity.\n\nIn 2020, another SS camp guard, Bruno Dey, was given a two-year suspended jail term for complicity in the murder of more than 5,000 prisoners.", "About 200 households in west Wales are still without water\n\nHundreds of homes in west Wales are still without water after bad weather.\n\nWelsh Water said on Monday it hoped to restore water supply to about 4,500 Ceredigion homes before the end of Tuesday after several days of issues.\n\nBut on Wednesday night, about 200 households were still without water, with people having to travel to other towns with containers to fetch water.\n\nThe provider said it had made \"good progress\" overnight and would continue to work to fix remaining problems.\n\nProblems began on Saturday when properties near Cardigan and in Carmarthenshire lost their water supply.\n\nAnwen Francis, from Cenarth, Carmarthenshire, was still waiting to have her water turned back on earlier after going without since the weekend.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Cymru, she said: \"We can't shower, can't wash dishes, can't use the dishwasher or washing machine.\n\n\"We have horses and have to go to another village closer to Cardigan to get water, fill buckets and containers on a daily basis. I'm not critical of Welsh Water as it's a huge job they have, but it's Wednesday and I'm starting to worry about when we will get the supply back.\n\n\"The community is pulling together and helping others. I just wonder when it'll come back.\n\nAnwen Francis (left) says the lack of water is becoming a real worry for residents\n\nFacilities including some schools and leisure centres, have been forced to close.\n\nThe Ray Centre in Aberaeron said there had been a \"big impact\" on communities.\n\nManager Gill Byrne told Radio Wales Breakfast: \"We had to cancel all the activities this week, staff had to go home. We have a dementia support group and that's in jeopardy without water.\n\n\"Around us, we have elderly people living and they were without water, and their bathrooms are upstairs so [they] can't carry water up. It's had a big impact.\"\n\nShe added people feel there has been \"insufficient communication from Welsh Water\" with people not knowing \"what's happening day to day\".\n\nFree drinking water was being supplied to households in Ceredigion who have lost their water supply\n\nOn Wednesday night, Welsh Water said: \"Good progress has been made restoring supplies and we now have up to 200 properties which remain without water following the freeze-thaw which are proving particularly challenging due to issues identified as the water network has re-pressurised.\n\n\"Other supply issues in the area will mainly be linked to air locks in the system which can cause further temporary interruptions to supply. We have teams working around the clock to locate and fix any such issues.\n\n\"Some other areas of our operations may be affected by burst mains unrelated to the freeze thaw, which occur under normal circumstances.\n\n\"We continue to have bottled water stations at various locations in the affected areas as a precautionary measure.\"", "A US Patriot missile system used in a joint training mission with Israel in 2018\n\nUkraine will get an advanced US-built Patriot defence missile system to try to counter Russian missile and drone attacks, the White House has confirmed ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington on Wednesday.\n\nSince the start of the war in February, many Western air defences have been sent in - from man-portable Stinger shoulder-launched missiles, through to more advanced radar-guided and other heat-seeking systems. All provide a comprehensive level of protection against different threats.\n\nPatriots are another step on that same path - and one which will antagonise Moscow.\n\nThey're not a silver bullet, but they are extremely capable, effective and expensive. One Patriot missile costs around $3m - three times the cost of a missile in a NASAMS (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System). Two NASAM systems have been in operation in Ukraine for several weeks.\n\nThe new Patriot missile battery \"will be a critical asset to defend the Ukrainian people against Russia's barbaric attacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure\", the White House said in a briefing.\n\nPatriots were used against Iraq's Russian-made Scud missiles during the first Gulf War and have been continuously developed since by Raytheon Technologies. They come in batteries that include a command centre, a radar station to detect incoming threats - and launchers.\n\nRanges to target reportedly vary between 40km to 160km (100 miles), depending on the type of missile used. And they are what's termed \"point defence\" systems: generally designed to defend particular areas such as cities or important infrastructures - in other words high-value assets.\n\nThe US announcement refers to a single unit comprising a radar station, control system and, of course, the missile launchers.\n\nIt is likely to be placed around a high value asset or key city for additional protection. We will not know where, as once Western systems are in Ukrainian hands they effectively become Ukrainian property, under the command of the country's military.\n\nNo US or other Nato troops can operate these systems inside Ukraine, so like other Western weapons Ukrainian forces will have to be trained to use them - and that training will take place outside of their country. Such training could already be well under way and, more broadly, the US military has said it will expand its training for Ukrainian forces in Germany from January.\n\nMoscow has called any plans to deploy Patriots \"a provocation\" and a further expansion of the United States' military involvement in Ukraine. Russia indicated that such missiles would become what it called \"legitimate targets\" for missile strikes, something that has been said before in this war.\n\nThe decision to send a battery is a clear statement that Washington remains committed to doing what is required for Ukraine to try to protect itself. Iran's involvement in supplying Russia with attack drones and perhaps other weapons increases the concern. The net effect is more advanced Western systems into Ukraine, something Moscow did not want to happen.\n\nPrecisely what overall effect Patriot systems will have is difficult to say.\n\nThey will certainly provide an additional layer of protection, but their size and expense means that few units will be able to be sent.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The missiles Ukraine prosecutors say are being kept as evidence", "All 10 of the most expensive streets in England are in south and west London, according to Halifax.\n\nTop of the list is Phillimore Gardens in Kensington, west London, where the average house price is £23.8m.\n\nGrosvenor Square in Mayfair came second in the annual study at £23.5m, followed by Ilchester Place, near Holland Park, which costs £17.7m on average.\n\nThe only street outside London in the top 20 is Titlarks Hill in Ascot, where the average property costs £12.3m.\n\nIn the North East, Ramside Park in Durham took the top spot in the region at £1.6m for an average property in the street, while Warren Hill in Leicester is the most expensive street in the East Midlands, also at £1.6m for an average home.\n\nBroadway in Altrincham is the costliest in the North West at £3.2m for an average property, while in Yorkshire and the Humber the most expensive street was identified as Manor House Lane in Leeds, where an average home costs £2.4m.\n\nIn the West Midlands, Bakers Lane in Solihull is priciest, with houses costing an average of £2.3m while Lawrence Drive in Poole, Dorset, took the title for the South West at an average of £4.1m per home.\n\nChaucer Road in Cambridge was identified by Halifax as the most expensive street in the East of England at £4.2m per average home.\n\nBenar Headland in Abersoch was named as Wales's most expensive street, with an average price of £1.7m.\n\nIn Wales's capital city, Cardiff, the most expensive street is Westbourne Crescent, with homes on average costing £1m.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Video provided by activist Sayed Alwadaei shows his confrontation with Tory MP Bob Stewart\n\nPolice are investigating an allegation of racial abuse after Tory MP Bob Stewart told a human rights activist to \"go back to Bahrain\".\n\nScotland Yard said they had opened the case following a complaint from Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, who had a confrontation with the MP in central London.\n\nThe Beckenham MP also told the campaigner to \"get stuffed\".\n\nMr Stewart said he regretted the comments but insisted he was \"not being racist in any way\".\n\nMr Alwadaei, the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, challenged Mr Stewart on his connections with Bahrain outside an event to mark the National Day of Bahrain last Wednesday.\n\nFootage of the incident outside the Foreign Office's Lancaster House shows Mr Stewart responding: \"Bahrain's a great place. End of.\"\n\nHe later added: \"Go away, I hate you. You make a lot of fuss. Go back to Bahrain.\"\n\nAfter being repeatedly asked if he had accepted any money from the Bahraini government, Mr Stewart said: \"You're taking money off my country, go away!\"\n\nMr Stewart, a former Army officer who was stationed in Bahrain in the 1960s, later expressed contrition for his original remarks.\n\n\"The protesters persistently taunted me by saying I had taken money from Bahrain,\" he said.\n\n\"That deeply offended me. I certainly have not and told them so repeatedly.\n\n\"I admit I fell for the taunts and should not have responded which I regret. My comments were meant to tell them they could protest safely in Bahrain... Bahrain gets a very unfair press and I feel that strongly.\n\n\"I am sorry if anyone thought I was being racist in any way. Honestly I was not. I wish now I had not been drawn by the taunts (a mistake) but I was and I repeat, I apologise for that. The last thing I meant to be was racist as I have so many good Bahraini friends.\"\n\nMr Alwadaei fled Bahrain in 2011 after being arrested for taking part in anti-government protests and was able to claim political asylum in the UK in 2012.\n\nSpeaking following the incident with Mr Stewart. Mr Alwadaei said: \"I still have the scars from where the authorities kicked me in the head, and if I went back to Bahrain I would face further torture and imprisonment. My family members are still suffering from reprisals.\"\n\nHe added: \"I don't believe I would have been told to 'go back' to the country that violently tortured me if it weren't for the colour of my skin. No-one should be subjected to racial abuse.\"\n\nMr Alwadaei said he had also complained to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone and the Conservative party chairman Nadhim Zahawi.\n\nA Conservative Party spokesman said: \"We have an established code of conduct and formal processes where complaints can be made in confidence. This process is rightly confidential.\"", "A mother has admitted the manslaughter of her teenage daughter after letting her become morbidly obese.\n\nSarah Jane Lloyd-Jones, 39, pleaded guilty to the charge when she appeared at Mold Crown Court on 12 December.\n\nKaylea Louise Titford, 16, was found dead at her Powys home in October 2020.\n\nIt was alleged at an earlier hearing that her parents failed to meet Kaylea's dietary needs, leading to her obesity.\n\nAlun Titford and Sarah Jane Lloyd-Jones arriving at Mold Crown Court before an earlier hearing\n\nAlun Titford, 44, is due to go on trial in January. He denies manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable person.\n\nLloyd-Jones will be sentenced at a later date.", "President Putin said Russia would not militarise the country's economy\n\nVladimir Putin believes Russia is not to blame for the war in Ukraine, adding both countries are \"sharing a tragedy\".\n\nDuring a televised address with senior military officials, the Russian president said he continued to see Ukraine as a \"brotherly nation\".\n\nIn February, President Putin sent up to 200,000 troops into Ukraine sparking a war which has led to tens of thousands of deaths.\n\nHe argued the conflict was \"the result of the policy of third countries\".\n\nThe theory, which implies Western expansion is the cause, has been repeatedly dismissed outside Russia.\n\nDuring his address President Putin said the West had \"brainwashed\" post-Soviet republics, starting with Ukraine.\n\nHe said: \"For years, we tried to build good-neighbourly relations with Ukraine, offering loans and cheap energy, but it did not work.\"\n\nPresident Putin's longstanding concerns appear to stem from Nato's growth since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.\n\nNato's original goal was to challenge Russian expansion after World War Two, but the Kremlin has long argued Nato's acceptance of former Soviet allies as members threatens its security.\n\nTensions between the Kremlin and the West increased after the overthrow of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, following months of street protests.\n\nIn his address President Putin continued: \"There's nothing to accuse us of. We've always seen Ukrainians as a brotherly people and I still think so.\n\n\"What's happening now is a tragedy, but it's not our fault.\"\n\nRussia has launched more than 1,000 missiles and Iranian-made attack drones in a wave of strikes on Ukraine's power infrastructure which began on 10 October.\n\nThe attacks have plunged millions into darkness.\n\nMilitary officials vowed to continue the \"special military operation\" into 2023.\n\nWhen Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February, President Putin promised only professional soldiers would take part.\n\nBut by September that had all changed as he announced a \"partial mobilisation\", potentially drafting hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens into the armed forces.\n\nNow, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has proposed raising the age range for mandatory Russian military service.\n\nUnder the current law, Russians aged 18-27 can be called up for mandatory military service - Mr Shoigu is now proposing this covers citizens aged 21-30.\n\nMr Shoigu also announced plans to establish bases in two port cities - Berdyansk and Mariupol - seized during the Russian offensive.\n\nBut, in recent months Ukrainian forces have made a series of major advances, including retaking Kherson - the only regional capital captured by Russian forces since the invasion.\n\nThe address came as Ukrainian leader Volodmyr Zelensky arrived in Washington for his first visit outside of Ukraine since Russia invaded 10 months ago.", "Charles Breslin, David Powell, Philip Hill and Garry Jenkins died after water rushed into Gleision colliery\n\nA full inquest will be held into the deaths of four miners in a south Wales colliery disaster 11 years ago.\n\nCharles Breslin, 62, David Powell, 50, Phillip Hill, 44, and Garry Jenkins, 39, died when water flooded the Gleision drift mine, near Cilybebyll, Neath Port Talbot, in September 2011.\n\nTheir families have been calling for an inquest since last year.\n\nSenior Coroner Colin Phillips said there was a \"real prospect\" the deaths could have been avoided.\n\nFamilies said an inquest would help reveal \"many unanswered questions\", with Mr Breslin's widow, Mavis, saying she felt \"cheated\" of a husband and an inquest.\n\nReacting to the news, Ms Breslin said she was \"very grateful that at least we'll have conclusion on the matter and get some answers\".\n\nSpeaking at a hearing at Swansea Guildhall, Mr Phillips said mine manager Malcolm Fyfield, who was cleared of manslaughter charges in 2014, is \"the only one that opposes\" the reopening of the full inquest.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nigel Evans (left) and Jake Wyatt spoke about their \"survivors' guilt\" in 2011.\n\n\"Whilst I'm sympathetic, his ill health is not a sufficient reason to not resume inquest,\" he said.\n\n\"It's more than a suspicion that coal reserves were illegally used.\"\n\nThe disaster happened after routine blasting when thousands of gallons of water flooded into a tunnel where seven miners were working. Three of them escaped.\n\nIn October, Christian Howells, representing the families, said the Coal Authority and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) had failed to ensure plans of the workings of the mine were up-to-date, that precautions were taken, and that there was a second exit for the miners.\n\nHe also argued that the fact that more than 11 years had passed was not a reason for not resuming an inquest.\n\nThe families' call for the inquest came after a BBC Wales Investigates programme uncovered allegations authorities had failed to get to the bottom of the men's deaths.\n\nThe families of the four miners who died outside Swansea Guildhall\n\nMichael Imperato, representing the families, said they were \"really pleased, it's been a long fight for them\".\n\n\"The coroner actually said that there was evidence of failings by the state, systematic failings by the state, and these failings... there's evidence they led to the death of these men\".\n\nSenedd Member Sioned Williams said: \"I felt this personally as something that the community needs answers to - it's been extremely frustrating that their voices haven't been heard.\n\nA pre-inquest hearing will be held early in the new year.", "Talking about striking ambulance workers, the front page of this morning’s Daily Mail had the headline: “How will they live with themselves if people die today?”\n\nBut of course, people die every day and the question will be whether more people than usual have died as a result of the strikes.\n\nThat will be very difficult to work out - and particularly difficult to work out quickly.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics publishes figures for the number of people who have died in England and Wales every day, together with the average number of people who usually die on that day, but that data will not be published for December until late January.\n\nOnce we have that data, you could look for a spike in deaths on strike days, although people affected by the strikes would not necessarily die on that day.\n\nBut even if there is a big increase during the week of a strike, for example, it is very difficult to demonstrate that it is because of the industrial action, and not because of other things going on at that time.\n\nWe’ve just had a period of severe cold, which may be increasing the number of deaths, and Covid and flu are still having an impact.\n\nAnd, as the unions have been pointing out, we’ve been hearing about problems in the ambulance service for some time, with ambulances being forced to wait for hours outside hospitals, which means an increase in the amount of time some patients need to wait for emergency assistance.", "Mr Bankman-Fried was escorted by corrections officers to the Magistrates' Court in the Bahamas\n\nSam Bankman-Fried, the former boss of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has agreed to be extradited from the Bahamas to the US to face charges.\n\nUS authorities have accused Mr Bankman-Fried of committing \"one of the biggest financial frauds in US history\".\n\nFTX has filed for bankruptcy, leaving many people unable to withdraw funds.\n\nThe 30-year-old, who denies the allegations, has agreed to the extradition, according to an affidavit his defence lawyer read in court.\n\nThe affidavit, signed by Mr Bankman-Fried on 20 December, says he is agreeing to be extradited partly out of a \"desire to make the relevant customers whole\" - in other words, to try to help people get back some of their money.\n\nAccording to a court filing, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors a total of almost $3.1bn (£2.5bn).\n\nMr Bankman-Fried was arrested on 12 December and the date of his extradition is unclear.\n\nLast week, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York said Mr Bankman-Fried used \"tens of millions\" in ill-gotten gains for illegal campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans.\n\nThe Securities and Exchange Commission said the man formerly nicknamed the \"King Of Crypto\" had built a \"house of cards on a foundation of deception\".\n\nHowever, Mr Bankman-Fried has sought to distance himself from accusations of illegal activity.\n\nIn a BBC News interview before his arrest, he said: \"I didn't knowingly commit fraud. I don't think I committed fraud. I didn't want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky has been tethered to Ukrainian soil ever since Russia invaded his country nearly 10 months ago.\n\nWhile he has given multiple speeches to foreign leaders and assemblies, they've all been via video conference, usually with the Ukrainian leader sitting in a nondescript, windowless room, clothed in his trademark olive-green military garb.\n\nNow, Mr Zelensky has made his first trip abroad - to Washington - and while the attire was the same, the venue had all the regalia of American power.\n\nIn the run-up to war, Russia had tried to convince Ukrainians that the US was using their country as a geopolitical pawn - and that Americans would abandon them, as they did their Afghan allies.\n\nTen months and approximately $65bn in US aid later, US President Joe Biden and Mr Zelensky sat in the Oval Office, smiling and exchanging pleasantries, intent on proving those Russian insinuations had been - and would continue to be - false.\n\n\"This year has brought so much needless suffering and loss to the Ukrainian people,\" Mr Biden said at their joint press conference in the White House. \"But I want you to know, President Zelensky, the American people are with you every step of the way. And we will stay with you.\"\n\nThey were powerful words, but they belie a reality that is more complicated.\n\nUS allies are facing a long, hard winter of high energy prices and accompanying economic pain. And American public support for US aid to Ukraine, while still high, has eroded since the early days of the war. A third of Americans in a recent survey said they do not back continued US aid to Ukraine. And half said they wanted Ukraine to settle for peace \"as soon as possible\".\n\nWith this high-profile meeting in Washington, Mr Zelensky and Mr Biden are seeking to demonstrate to the Ukrainian and American people, to Western allies, to Russian President Vladimir Putin and to the world - that US support for Ukraine is strong and durable.\n\nThe pair joked at a joint news conference at the White House\n\nThroughout their joint press conference, Mr Biden and Mr Zelensky tried to characterise American aid as serving a larger purpose. The American president described Russia's attack on Ukraine as an attack on \"liberty and democracy and the core principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity\" - one that demanded a robust American response.\n\nMr Zelensky, for his part, mixed gravitas and humour as he spoke with Mr Biden and to the American people. Occasionally switching into serviceable English to accentuate the connection with his audience, he called the US aid to Ukraine an \"investment\" that will strengthen global security.\n\nIt was an interesting choice of words - and one he repeated in his address to Congress. American aid was not \"charity\", but money spent with a purpose and a potential for future return.\n\nThe future of the American \"investment\" in Ukraine, however, is not in Mr Biden's hands alone. And while the White House meeting was a pleasant photo opportunity, the real work for Mr Zelensky came in his address to Congress - to the legislators who hold the purse strings of American military and economic aid.\n\nOver the course of this year, Congress has approved approximately $67bn in economic and military and economic assistance to Ukraine. A 2023 spending package Congress is poised to pass this week includes an additional $45bn in Ukraine aid.\n\nSecuring further aid in the new year, however, could be a challenge.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn May, 57 Republicans in the 435-seat House of Representatives and 11 in the 100-seat Senate voted against a stand-alone aid package, and polls indicate Republican support for continued assistance has eroded since then. In a survey conducted in November, just over half of Republican voters supported aid to Ukraine - down from 80% in March.\n\nSome Republicans on the midterm election campaign trail last month openly wondered why the US was spending so much money on a distant country, instead of funding border security and fighting crime at home.\n\nThe midterms have brought in 86 new members of the House and seven new senators. Mr Zelensky's speech can also be viewed as an introduction to these new legislators and a pitch for their support. Coaxing further aid out of the House may prove the greater challenge - but in his speech to Congress he was willing to try.\n\n\"We have artillery. Is it enough? Not really,\" Mr Zelensky said, to some mutters from the congressional audience. \"For the Russian army to completely pull out, more guns and shells are needed.\"\n\nProspective House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has already expressed concern about any further \"blank cheques\" for Ukraine. And there was public incredulity among some House Republicans in Congress when Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that Ukraine aid was the \"number one priority\" for his party.\n\nMr Zelensky, Donald Trump Jr tweeted on Wednesday, was \"basically an ungrateful international welfare queen\" - summing up what is becoming an increasingly prevalent view among the former president's \"America first\" supporters.\n\nMr Zelensky doesn't need further aid to Ukraine to be at the top of Republican's to-do list in the new year, but his trip to Washington is a high-profile effort to ensure that it doesn't drop off the agenda entirely.", "China reported coronavirus-linked five deaths on Tuesday as Covid-19 cases spread\n\nHospitals in China appear to be filling up amid concerns about a fresh Covid-19 wave hitting the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.\n\nDr Michael Ryan says intensive care units (ICU) are busy despite officials saying numbers are \"relatively low\".\n\nChina figures show no-one died of Covid on Wednesday but there is scepticism about the disease's real impact.\n\nIn recent days hospitals in Beijing and other cities have been filling up as the latest Covid surge hits China.\n\nSince 2020, China has imposed strict health restrictions as part of its zero Covid policy.\n\nBut, the government ended most of those measures two weeks ago after landmark protests against the strict controls.\n\nThe number of cases has since soared, raising fears of a high mortality rate among the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable.\n\nDespite the rise, the official figures show only five people died from Covid on Tuesday and two on Monday.\n\nIt has led to WHO emergencies chief Dr Ryan urging China to provide more information about the latest spread of the virus.\n\nHe said: \"In China, what's been reported is relatively low numbers of cases in ICUs, but anecdotally ICUs are filling up.\n\n\"We've been saying this for weeks that this highly infectious virus was always going to be very hard to stop completely, with just public health and social measures.\"\n\nSpeaking during a weekly news conference in Geneva WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he is \"very concerned over the evolving situation in China\".\n\nHe appealed for specific data on disease severity, hospital admissions and intensive care requirements.\n\nDr Ryan added that \"vaccination is the exit strategy\" to coronavirus outbreaks.\n\nChina has developed and produced its own vaccines, which have been shown to be less effective at protecting people against serious Covid illness and death than the mRNA vaccines used in much of the rest of the world.\n\nHis comments come as the German government announced on Wednesday it had sent its first batch of BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to China.\n\nChancellor Olaf Scholz (L) pressed for German BioNTech vaccines to be made available to Chinese citizens\n\nThe German vaccines are to be administered initially to expats in China - estimated to be about 20,000.\n\nIt is the first foreign Covid-19 vaccine to be delivered to China, although no details have been released about the time or the size of the delivery.\n\nLast month during a visit to Beijing, Chancellor Olaf Scholz pressed for the vaccine to be made freely available to Chinese citizens as well.", "Female students in the capital - Kabul University and others reopened in the spring following the Taliban takeover\n\nThe Taliban have banned women from universities in Afghanistan, sparking international condemnation and despair among young people in the country.\n\nThe higher education minister announced the regression on Tuesday, saying it would take immediate effect.\n\nThe ban further restricts women's education - girls have already been excluded from secondary schools since the Taliban returned last year.\n\nSome women staged protests in the capital Kabul on Wednesday.\n\n\"Today we come out on the streets of Kabul to raise our voices against the closure of the girls' universities,\" protesters from the Afghanistan Women's Unity and Solidarity group said.\n\nThe small demonstrations were quickly shut down by Taliban officials.\n\nFemale students have told the BBC of their anguish. \"They destroyed the only bridge that could connect me with my future,\" one Kabul University student said.\n\n\"How can I react? I believed that I could study and change my future or bring the light to my life but they destroyed it.\"\n\nAnother student told the BBC she was a woman who had \"lost everything\".\n\nShe had been studying Sharia Islamic law and argued the Taliban's order contradicted \"the rights that Islam and Allah have given us\".\n\n\"They have to go to other Islamic countries and see that their actions are not Islamic,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThe United Nations and several countries have condemned the order, which takes Afghanistan back to the Taliban's first period of rule when girls could not receive formal education.\n\nThe UN's Special Rapporteur to Afghanistan said it was \"a new low further violating the right to equal education and deepens the erasure of women from Afghan society.\"\n\nThe US said such a move would \"come with consequences for the Taliban\".\n\n\"The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all in Afghanistan,\" said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement.\n\n\"No country can thrive when half of its population is held back.\"\n\nWestern countries have demanded all year that the Taliban improve female education if they wish to be formally recognised as Afghanistan's government.\n\nHowever in neighbouring Pakistan, the foreign minister said while he was \"disappointed\" by the Taliban's decision, he still advocated engagement.\n\n\"I still think the easiest path to our goal - despite having a lot of setbacks when it comes to women's education and other things - is through Kabul and through the interim government,\" said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.\n\nThe Taliban had promised a softer rule after seizing power last year following the US' withdrawal from the country. However the hardline Islamists have continued to roll back women's rights and freedoms in the country.\n\nThe Taliban's leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his inner circle have been against modern education - particularly for girls and women.\n\nThere has been opposition to this stance from more moderate officials, and analysts say this issue has been a point of factional division all year.\n\nYet on Tuesday, the education ministry said its scholars had evaluated the university curriculum and environment, and attendance for girls would be suspended \"until a suitable environment\" was provided.\n\nIt added that it would soon provide such a setting and \"citizens should not be worried\".\n\nHowever in March, the Taliban had promised to re-open some high schools for girls but then cancelled the move on the day they were due to return.\n\nThe crackdown also follows a wave of new restrictions on women in recent months. In November, women were banned from parks, gyms and public baths in the capital.\n\nA university lecturer and Afghan activist in the US said the Taliban had completed their isolation of women by suspending university for them.\n\n\"This was the last thing the Taliban could do. Afghanistan is not a country for women but instead a cage for women,\" Humaira Qaderi told the BBC.\n\nThe Taliban had just three months ago allowed thousands of girls and women to sit university entrance exams in most provinces across the country.\n\nBut there were restrictions on the subjects they could apply for, with engineering, economics, veterinary science and agriculture blocked and journalism severely restricted.\n\nPrior to Tuesday's announcement, universities had already been operating under discriminatory rules for women since the Taliban takeover in 2021.\n\nThere were gender segregated entrances and classrooms, and female students could only be taught by women professors or old men.\n\nHowever, women were still getting education. Unesco noted on Tuesday that from 2001 and 2018 - the period between Taliban rule - the rate of female attendance in higher education had increased 20 times.\n\nSeveral women have told the BBC they gave up after the Taliban regained rule because of \"too many difficulties\".\n\nThere has been speculation for over a month now that the Taliban government would ban university education for women.\n\nOne female student predicted it a few weeks ago. \"One day we will wake up and they will say girls are banned from universities,\" she had said.\n\nAnd so, while many Afghans might have expected that sooner or later this decision would be taken, it still comes as a shock.\n\nLast month women were barred from parks, gyms and swimming pools. In March this year, the Taliban government did not deliver on its commitment to open secondary schools for girls.\n\nFrom conversations with Taliban leaders over the past year, it is evident that there is disagreement within the Taliban on the issue of girls' education.\n\nOff the record, some Taliban members have repeatedly said they are hopeful and working to try and ensure girls get an education.\n\nGirls were allowed to sit for graduation exams for secondary schools two weeks ago, in 31 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, even though they haven't been allowed to be in school for more than a year.\n\nThat provided a glimmer of hope, which has now been extinguished.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Women in Afghanistan face an uncertain future following the Taliban's takeover", "Among the items returned were some of the ceremonial heads from the kingdom of Benin\n\nGermany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has handed 22 artefacts looted in the 19th Century back to Nigeria at a ceremony in the capital, Abuja.\n\nThe return of this set of Benin Bronzes follows a deal made earlier this year to transfer ownership of more than 1,000 of these precious objects.\n\nIn July, Nigeria said it was the first time a European country had entered into this kind of agreement.\n\nMs Baerbock said it was part of efforts to deal with a \"dark colonial history\".\n\nSpeaking in Abuja on Tuesday, she added that it was an opportunity to right some of the wrongs of the past.\n\n\"Officials from my country once bought the bronzes, knowing they had been robbed and stolen.\n\n\"After that, we ignored Nigeria's plea to return them for a very long time. It was wrong to take them and it was wrong to keep them,\" Ms Baerbock is quoted as saying by German broadcaster DW.\n\nAmong the objects returned were some of the famous ceremonial heads, an ivory carving, as well as a decorated plaque.\n\nMoves to return artefacts stolen in the colonial era have been gathering momentum in recent years as European countries and museums grapple with how they came into their possession.\n\nNigeria's Information Minister Lai Mohammed said at the handover ceremony that attitudes have changed quickly, DW reports.\n\n\"Twenty years ago, even 10 years ago, nobody could have anticipated these bronzes returning to Nigeria, because the obstacles to achieving repatriation were seemingly insurmountable,\" he added.\n\nThe term Benin Bronzes refers to thousands of metal sculptures, plaques and carvings made between the 15th and 19th Centuries and looted by British troops in 1897 from the West African kingdom of Benin, in modern-day Nigeria's Edo state.\n\nThe sculptures, prized for their beauty and technical artistry, are of spiritual and historical significance for the people from that part of Nigeria. Their theft still remains a point of pain for the descendants of those from the ancient Benin kingdom.\n\nAfter being shipped to the UK in the late 19th Century, many were auctioned off in London and some were bought by German collectors, Germany's foreign ministry has said.\n\nThe country has been holding around 1,100 of the estimated 5,000 that were taken, it added in a statement.\n\nOthers are in the archives of museums in the UK, including the British Museum, which has the largest single collection of around 900 objects. An act of parliament prevents the British Museum from returning them.\n\nBut last month, London's Horniman Museum, which is a private charity, handed back dozens of items including some Benin Bronzes to Nigerian ownership - making it the first museum in the UK to officially take such action on this scale.\n\nNigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments has issued formal repatriation requests to museums across the world.\n\nIn 2026, the government plans to open the Edo Museum of West African Art in Benin City, which is being designed by British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye, to house the largest collection of Benin Bronzes ever assembled.\n\nIn the colonial era Germany governed parts of West, East and Southern Africa until the end of World War One.\n\nLast year, it officially acknowledged committing genocide during its occupation of Namibia.\n\nGerman colonisers killed tens of thousands of Ovaherero and Nama people there between 1904 and 1908.\n\nIn recent years, Germany has returned human remains to Namibia, some of which were used in now-discredited research into racial classification.", "Nurses in Scotland are set to strike after voting down the latest pay offer for NHS workers.\n\nRoyal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland members rejected an average increase of 7.5%. The union said it was planning for industrial action and would announce dates early next year.\n\nRoyal College of Midwives (RCM) members also rejected the pay deal.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said he was disappointed but would continue negotiations with unions.\n\nIn the RCN ballot that closed on Monday, 82% voted against the offer.\n\nThe union, which has more than 30,000 NHS members in Scotland, had asked for an increase of at least 5% above inflation - which is currently 10.7%.\n\nJulie Lamberth, RCN Scotland board chair, said nurses had \"forcefully rejected\" the deal.\n\nShe added: \"Make no mistake - we do not want to go on strike. Years of being undervalued and understaffed have left us feeling we have been left with no option because enough is enough.\n\n\"The ball is in Scottish government's court if strike action is going to be avoided.\"\n\nNurses in Scotland are planning industrial action after rejecting the latest pay offer\n\nLast month, ministers tabled an improved pay offer averaging 7.5% to health workers threatening industrial action.\n\nAnnual salary rises under the proposal would range from a flat rate payment of £2,205 for staff in Bands 1 to 4 and up to £2,660 for staff in Bands 5 to 7, backdated to April.\n\nThis represents an increase of 11.3% for the lowest paid workers and delivers an average uplift of 7.5%.\n\nUnite and Unison chose to accept the deal, however, the GMB union became the first to reject it last week.\n\nThe deal was also rejected by 65% of midwives who voted in the RCM ballot. The union, which has about 3,000 members in Scotland, said it was considering industrial action.\n\nJaki Lambert, RCM director for Scotland, said: \"Our members have spoken loud and clear - the latest pay offer by the Scottish government is simply not good enough. It goes nowhere near addressing the rising cost of living and would see many midwives actually worse off in real terms.\n\n\"Our members have been consistent throughout this process - they want a decent deal, and they are prepared to take industrial action to get one.\n\n\"No midwife wants to do this and it is for the Scottish government to make sure that they do not feel that they are left with no other option.\"\n\nThe rejection of this pay offer by such a high proportion of RCN members will be a real blow for the Scottish government, which had billed it as the best and highest offer in the UK.\n\nIt will also be disappointing for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon after she had personally intervened, meeting nursing leaders to see if there was anything that could be done to get this deal over the line.\n\nIt now leaves a complicated picture here in Scotland because some other unions, including Unison, who also represent some of the nursing workforce, have accepted the offer. Others like GMB, who represent ambulance staff, have turned it down.\n\nI'm told there is a willingness on all sides to get back round the table and see if any more can be done, but it is hard to see where such negotiations can go.\n\nStrikes in the new year are still not inevitable, but it they are growing ever more likely.\n\nHumza Yousaf said the government had made its \"best and final pay offer\" to NHS staff.\n\nThe health secretary said: \"While I am naturally disappointed the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Nursing have rejected this offer, I respect the voice of their membership.\n\n\"We have engaged tirelessly with trade union representatives over recent weeks and months, leaving no stone unturned to reach a record pay offer which responds to the key concerns of staff across the service.\"\n\nThe minister said he would be meeting with trade unions on Thursday to continue \"meaningful dialogue\".\n\nHe added: \"We are making this offer at a time of extraordinary financial challenges to the Scottish government to get money into the pockets of hard working staff and to avoid industrial action, in what is already going to be an incredibly challenging winter.\n\n\"Constructive engagement is crucial, those unions who have rejected our pay offer have all said they want to avoid industrial action, we must collectively work toward avoiding strikes taking place this winter at a time of already significant pressure for our NHS.\"\n\nScottish Conservative health spokesperson, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, called on Mr Yousaf to \"immediately get back round the table\" with the RCN to prevent strike action going ahead.\n\nHe said: \"Scotland's NHS is on its knees due to the health secretary's mismanagement, so the last thing it can afford going into the peak winter period is industrial action.\"\n\nScottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said the health secretary should step down.\n\nShe said: \"Under the SNP, Scotland's heroic nursing staff have been pushed to breaking point. We are already in the midst of a full-blown winter crisis, with lives being risked on a daily basis.\n\n\"It's time that Humza Yousaf does the right thing and resigns.\"\n\nAnd Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: \"Nurses have gone above and beyond in recent years to keep all of us safe. They need a proper pay deal, better working conditions and safe staffing levels.\n\n\"Scottish ministers clapped for our NHS, now they need to get their hands in their pockets.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"There were two toadstools coming out of my walls\"\n\nA woman has said her flat is so cold and damp she sometimes goes to bed as early as six PM to stay warm.\n\nDenise Jones said there was persistent black mould in her bathroom and found toadstools growing in her kitchen.\n\nHer landlord, Bron Afon housing association, said it would \"continue to work\" with her to resolve any issues.\n\nThe Welsh government has written to social landlords \"seeking urgent assurance\" on how they monitor and respond to damp and mould issues.\n\nIt follows a coroner's conclusion that toddler Awaab Ishak from Rochdale died from a respiratory condition caused by exposure to mould in his home.\n\nCommunity Housing Cymru, which represents housing associations, said landlords do not \"underestimate the seriousness of the issue\" and are speeding up responses to reports of damp and mould.\n\nDenise, 56, from Blaenavon, Torfaen, shares a two-bedroom first floor flat with her son Robert, 34 and her 18-year-old daughter Abbie.\n\nDenise Jones shares the flat with her son Robert and daughter Abbie\n\nShe has lived there for 20 years but said she started having problems with damp and mould four-and-a-half years ago after a large amount of snow got into their loft.\n\nThe roof had been taken off to carry out improvement work when Storm Emma hit.\n\nDenise said that when the snow melted, water seeped into the flat and caused the ceilings to collapse.\n\nAlthough the initial damage was repaired, the family say the flat has felt colder and damper since.\n\nDenise said it does not feel like the home it used to be.\n\n\"I used to love it here but I'd move tomorrow if I had the chance.\"\n\nThey say there is persistent mould above the bathroom window despite keeping the room ventilated.\n\n\"We're painting it regularly, cleaning it with bleach, and other household cleaning products just to keep it at a minimum,\" Robert said.\n\n\"We all suffer with asthma, I find particularly this time of year that I suffer with a lot of chest infections.\n\nWork was being carried out on Scott Tanner's flat when Storm Emma hit in 2018\n\n\"It smells quite bad, particularly when it's warm or the heating's on.\n\n\"That leads to you feeling sick or not wanting to go into the bathroom.\"\n\nDenise said the damp and mould problems bring extra costs.\n\n\"You've got to open the window in this cold weather, we've got to have the vent open we've been told all year.\n\n\"It's costing me a fortune with paint, bleach.\"\n\nShe added that there has also been damp in the kitchen.\n\n\"A couple of weeks ago I was in the kitchen doing my housework and at the bottom of the radiator there was two toadstools.\"\n\nWith energy bills so high, having to put the heating on more is \"hitting her for six\".\n\n\"The amount of money I've got to pay out for bills, the electric, gas, it's hard. It's very hard.\n\n\"Some nights it's that cold I just go to bed. I'm in bed some nights by six o'clock just trying to keep warm.\n\n\"I live on biscuits some days just to make sure that my son and my daughter have got food. That's how hard it is.\"\n\nRobert says the family are continually battling mould in the bathroom\n\nRobert said he has been skipping meals too to save money and £20 on gas was lasting \"three or four days if you're lucky\".\n\nThey have called for Bron Afon to take action to make the home warmer but feel the housing association \"don't listen.\"\n\nTorfaen councillor Janet Jones told BBC Radio Wales \"quite a few families\" in the area have problems with damp and mould and she was worried about the health impact.\n\n\"In all fairness in the last two months I have seen a great improvement with social landlords taking on board the concerns of people and actually working very quickly to try and eradicate the problem,\" she said.\n\nScott Tanner, 31, lives opposite the family in a one-bed flat and has also had problems since the storm when he had snow in his loft and water running down the walls.\n\nHis bathroom became so damp that the paint and plaster began coming away.\n\nHe said it is \"very stressful\" having to put the heating on more as the flat is \"very draughty\".\n\n\"Last Wednesday I put £25 on the heating and I had to put another £20 on it yesterday (Tuesday).\"\n\nScott Tanner's bathroom had to be re-plastered because of damp problems\n\nCatherine Love from Bron Afon said the housing association had \"worked closely\" with Denise, Robert and Scott to \"resolve the issues they've reported to us for some time\".\n\n\"Our teams have attended to their homes to deal with any repairs reported in a timely way, and all outstanding repairs that were reported to us have been completed.\n\n\"We will continue to work with them to resolve any other issues and provide advice and support if and when they need it.\n\n\"At the time of the storm in 2018, we were working on these homes as part of a planned investment programme to improve the energy efficiency in a number of homes we had identified for improvement.\n\n\"The circumstances that led to the issues during the storm were outside of our control, but we responded quickly to deal with the immediate aftermath and then completed the work appropriately when the weather allowed.\"\n\nThe housing association added: \"We understand how difficult the cost of living is making it for many people to heat their homes. We provide all our customers with support and advice on the best ways to keep their homes warm and ventilated to prevent damp and mould.\"\n\nThe Welsh Government letter to social housing landlords calls for them to respond by 20 January over the following issues:\n\nStuart Ropke of Community Housing Cymru said: \"While the latest Welsh government statistics show that Welsh housing association homes continue to be brought up to a good standard by social landlords, we do not underestimate the seriousness of the issue.\n\n\"Housing associations are expediting their responses to reports of damp and mould on the ground, and we are also working with partners across the housing sector to ensure that this issue is properly addressed, and that tenants feel heard.\n\n\"If any housing association tenant has a damp or mould problem in their home, we encourage them to speak with their landlord as a priority.\"\n\nAndrea Lewis of the Welsh Local Government Association, which represents councils, said it takes the matter \"very seriously\" and would be responding to the Welsh government's request for information.\n\n\"Should any council tenant have any issues or concerns, we would advise them to get in touch with their local authority.\"", "Ellie Gomersall says gender identity should not be a matter for the state\n\nFollowing one of the most lengthy debates in the Scottish Parliament's history, MSPs have voted to approve a controversial bill which makes it easier for people to legally change their gender.\n\nHowever the UK government, which says it has concerns about safety of women and children, may seek to block the reform from Royal Assent and has not yet ruled out a legal challenge.\n\nHere we examine in more detail the two sides of the the debate.\n\nThe diamond grass of Cathkin Park is glinting in the winter sun as Ellie Gomersall reflects on something intensely personal - her identity.\n\nIt is a bitterly beautiful December day on the south side of Glasgow and Ms Gomersall, 23, is telling us about \"coming out\" as a woman.\n\nIt was, she says, \"a really happy, joyous moment\" thanks to the support of friends and family.\n\nBut the bureaucracy she then encountered was less enjoyable.\n\nMs Gomersall describes a lengthy - and continuing - wait to be seen at a gender identity clinic, and a struggle to accumulate the paperwork required to demonstrate to the world that she is not a man.\n\n\"I often joke that the hardest thing about being trans is the admin,\" she says with a wry smile.\n\nMs Gomersall is currently president of the National Union of Students Scotland, although she is speaking to BBC News in a personal capacity.\n\nNearly five years after \"coming out,\" she has been able to amend her passport and driving licence which now reflect her preferred identity, listing her sex as female. Her birth certificate, however, still records that she was born male.\n\nIf she were to marry or die any time soon the marriage or death certificates also would state that she was a man.\n\nThat means, she says, that at present \"I can't guarantee that I'll have dignity in death\".\n\nFor the past 17 years, the process for changing sex on a birth certificate has been set out in the Gender Recognition Act 2004, enacted by the Westminster parliament in April 2005.\n\nApplicants must first obtain a GRC, the criteria for which are detailed in the legislation.\n\nThe current requirements in UK law for a gender recognition certificate are:\n\nThe Scottish government - led by the Scottish National Party but also including ministers from the Scottish Green Party, of which Ms Gomersall is a member - wants to remove some of those hurdles, making the process quicker and easier.\n\nIf the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill becomes law, it would include these changes:\n\nMs Gomersall is a strong supporter of the legislation, which she says would make her life easier and more dignified.\n\nShe argues that gender identity should not be a matter for the state.\n\n\"I think ultimately the only person who can really describe my own identity, my own gender is me,\" she insists.\n\nShe explains that she has been unable to change her birth certificate because she has been unable to acquire a gender recognition certificate - because she has been unable to obtain an initial appointment, let alone a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or the required medical reports, at Glasgow's Sandyford gender identity clinic, one of four such facilities run by NHS Scotland.\n\nJK Rowling posted a picture of herself wearing a t-shirt that described Nicola Sturgeon as a \"destroyer of women's rights\"\n\nThe Scottish government has attempted to present the bill as an administrative tidying-up exercise designed to simplify and streamline the process in a manner which is \"more respectful of the privacy and dignity of trans men and women\".\n\nOpponents of the bill - led by the author JK Rowling - feel it goes much further than that.\n\nThe Harry Potter creator set out her concerns in detail two years ago in a 3,700-word post on her website.\n\nThe Scottish government's plans, she wrote, \"will in effect mean that all a man needs to 'become a woman' is to say he's one\".\n\nIn the article, Ms Rowling expressed sympathy with vulnerable trans people who \"need and deserve protection\", and said she wants trans women to be safe.\n\n\"At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe.\n\n\"When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he's a woman - and, as I've said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones - then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth.\"\n\nSupporters and opponents of the bill outside the Scottish parliament\n\nMs Gomersall disagrees, insisting \"all this process does is it changes your birth certificate - and no one checks someone's birth certificate before they access a single sex space. This legislation has no impact on single sex spaces.\"\n\nMs Rowling and her fellow critics of the bill are far from satisfied by such assurances.\n\nWhen, in October, the writer posted on Twitter a photograph of herself wearing a T-shirt which described First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as a \"destroyer of women's rights\" it was a reminder that two of Scotland's most successful women are now pitted against each other in one of the great moral debates of our time.\n\n\"I feel we're currently waging a cultural war between what I would see as authoritarians and liberals,\" Ms Rowling told her fellow feminist, the journalist Suzanne Moore, earlier this month.\n\nMs Sturgeon responded to the T-shirt criticism by urging respect and insisting that the bill neither gave any additional rights to trans people nor took any rights away from women.\n\n\"It is men who attack women and we need to focus on that, not on further stigmatising and discriminating against a tiny group in our society that is already one of the most stigmatised,\" she told BBC Radio Scotland.\n\n\"I say this as a passionate life-long feminist, and I have spent much of my life campaigning for women's rights.\"\n\nThe proposal has also been controversial within the SNP leader's own party leading to the resignation of community safety minister Ash Regan as part of the biggest rebellion since the party came to power at Holyrood.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon described herself as a life-long feminist\n\nMs Rowling's tweet criticising the SNP leader was in support of a organisation called For Women Scotland who describe themselves as \"working to protect and strengthen women and children's rights\".\n\nOver coffee in an Edinburgh café, the group's co-director Susan Smith told me she was particularly concerned about the potential effect of this \"massive social change\" on young people.\n\n\"In other countries, they are halting the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for people under 18 because we are starting to see some really severe physical side effects,\" she said.\n\nMs Smith said Scotland was going in the opposite direction, and warned about the impact of these treatments.\n\nShe said young people's perception of their gender was probably in flux until they were in their twenties.\n\nAnd she described the \"total acceptance of the premise that sex is not real and that it's a feeling\" as an \"extremist position\".\n\n\"I think that some of the ideas in this, especially about people having been born in the wrong body or having female brains... are profoundly sexist, because they suggest there's a way to be a woman and a way to be a man,\" she said.\n\nSusan Smith said she was concerned about the potential effect on young people\n\nEven the United Nations has now become embroiled in the debate, with two UN experts giving contradictory evidence to MSPs about the law's potential impact.\n\nReem Alsalem, the UN's special rapporteur on violence against women, told members of Holyrood's equalities committee that introducing gender self-identification could see violent men taking advantage of loopholes \"to get into women's spaces and have access to women\".\n\nBut Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, insisted there was \"no evidence\" that \"maintaining complexity in the process of recognition of gender identity would be an effective safeguard\".\n\nEven if the bill becomes law that may not be the end of the matter, as the UK government has been making noises about challenging the legislation.\n\nOne potential avenue for doing so is the interaction between gender recognition certificates issued in Scotland and equalities law, which is reserved to Westminster.\n\nEarlier this month Scotland's Court of Session ruled in favour of the Scottish government over its intention to include trans people in the definition of women in terms of female representation on public sector boards.\n\nLady Haldane concluded that for the purposes of the 2010 Equalities Act the meaning of sex was \"not limited to biological or birth sex.\"\n\nFor Women Scotland, which brought the case, says the ruling reveals that a gender recognition certificate effectively counts as a change of sex under the Equality Act. It says this could open up women-only spaces such as changing rooms and refuges to trans people, potentially putting women at risk.\n\nSupporters of the bill insist that is a misreading of the ruling.\n\nAnother potential challenge the UK government could mount would be to argue that recognising Scottish gender recognition certificates elsewhere in the UK could breach the Scotland Act 1998, which established devolution, if Holyrood were seen to be legislating beyond its borders.\n\nScotland's social justice secretary Shona Robison and the UK's women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch previously held a virtual meeting to discuss the British government's concerns.\n\nWhile acknowledging that there were very different views on the subject in London and Edinburgh, the UK government nonetheless described the discussion as \"constructive\" and the Scottish government said both sides had agreed to continue to work together.\n\nAileen McHarg, professor of public law and human rights at Durham University's Law School, said there was a third route which opponents of the bill might go down: a challenge under Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which codifies a right to respect for privacy.\n\nBut, said Prof McHarg, supporters of the bill could also mount a human rights challenge if there was a blanket refusal to recognise Scottish-issued gender recognition certificates elsewhere in the UK.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"This is going to be very messy whatever happens.\"\n\nHow do you feel about the Scottish gender bill being blocked? Share your thoughts by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Eddie Jones: Former England coach wants another international job Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nEddie Jones' last game in charge of England was the 27-13 defeat by world champions South Africa on 26 November Eddie Jones says he wants to continue coaching at international level and has not ruled out the possibility of taking the Australia job. Jones told BBC Radio 4's Today he sensed his sacking by England was imminent, saying there was a \"change in the wind\" at Twickenham. \"I wouldn't do anything differently,\" he added. Jones has been linked with a return to Australia as a replacement for under-pressure Wallabies boss Dave Rennie. Jones coached Australia between 2001 and 2005, leading them to the 2003 Rugby World Cup final on home soil where they lost in extra time to England. After his sacking by his home nation in 2005, an emotional Jones vowed to return, saying the job was the \"greatest honour and privilege you can have.\" Australia are a potential quarter-final opponent for England at next year's Rugby World Cup in France, but Jones denied that a desire to prove his previous employers wrong would motivate any return to Test rugby. \"It's not about coaching England's rivals, it's about adding to the game. I love the game and I love coaching,\" he added. Jones was sacked by England after a disappointing Six Nations, featuring defeats by France, Ireland and Scotland, and an autumn in which his team won only one of four Tests. However, his side did beat Australia 2-1 in a summer series between those two campaigns. After England's win in the decisive Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Jones angrily confronted a heckling home fan who called him \"a traitor\". Asked if he had spoken to Rugby Australia about a return, Jones laughed and said: \"Be a discerning reader, never believe what you read in the papers.\" The 62-year-old added: \"As you get a bit older, as I am, you just want to leave things in a better place. I just want to share the great experience I have had, particularly with coaching players and teams. \"What we want to see is great games of rugby and if you have the opportunity to be part of that you are extremely lucky.\"\n• None How Jones ran out of road as England boss Jones won 73% of his games in charge of England, claiming three Six Nations titles in his seven years in charge. He also led the team to the 2019 World Cup final, which they lost to South Africa, but was sacked earlier this month after only five wins from 12 Tests in 2022. Jones added: \"When you have been coaching for a while you feel when your support is starting to wane and I knew we had to have good results in the autumn. \"I continued on coaching as well as I could and we had a plan to peak at the 2023 World Cup, but unfortunately we didn't get the opportunity to finish that. \"There was a discussion but when boards make that decision, they already have it firmly in their mind. \"They made a decision that they didn't think I can do the job to the level they want and I'm in no position to argue with it. I will move into what I'm going to do next and I wish England rugby all the best.\" Some of Jones' former players have since come out in support of his coaching methods, including England captain Owen Farrell, who said Jones' sacking was \"unbelievably disappointing\". The Rugby Football Union have appointed Steve Borthwick as Jones' successor, and the Australian coach says he has \"great memories\" of leading England. \"I didn't think I was coaching poorly and that is all I could control,\" he said. \"The thing that is pleasing is the number of players who have come out and endorsed that, particularly when they cannot gain anything from that. But sometimes the results don't go your way and you pay for it and I know that as well as anyone. \"I received 40 odd texts from players in some way thanking me or sending their best wishes, which they don't need to do. \"I've got some great memories of the English players, they are a great bunch. They play hard and they train hard and they have a lot of pride in playing for England and I'm sure they will do well playing under Steve.\" Jones is philosophical about his dismissal, saying he felt the mood at Twickenham turn during the autumn series, and believes the call was made to sack him even before he presented his review of the campaign. However he says he has no regrets about any decisions he made towards the end of his tenure. He feels he was coaching as well as ever and has defended his strategy of prioritising the Rugby World Cup at all costs, a policy that has since been reversed by new coach Borthwick and the RFU. Jones adds that he is sad he wasn't able to see his England project through to completion but tellingly, at the age of 62, he believes he has one more big international head coach job left in him. It's likely Jones will continue to be a major player in world rugby for a few years yet.\n• None The gripping story of Sepp Blatter's rise and fall: Explore how football became synonymous with scandal\n• None She scammed the world, then vanished: The 'Cryptoqueen' who persuaded millions to join her financial revolution", "A brief history of the war in Ukraine\n\nLet's step away from the White House briefly, for a wider look at ten months of conflict. Russia sent up to 200,000 soldiers into Ukraine on 24 February - the biggest invasion in Europe since World War Two. It made unfounded claims of Nazis and genocide in the neighbouring country. It also opposed Ukraine joining the Western Nato military alliance. Its hope was to capture the capital Kyiv and depose the government in a matter of days. Its forces quickly captured big stretches of territory, but crucially they failed to take Kyiv. In the subsequent months, Moscow's troops were forced into a series of retreats, first in the north and then in the south. To date, they've lost more than half the territory seized at the start of the invasion. Putin, on the backfoot, announced a \"partial mobilisation\" of some 300,000 troops in September and declared four \"annexed\" Ukrainian regions as being Russian territory. Russian soldiers have been accused of numerous abuses during the fighting - which Ukraine has suggested amount to genocide. Moscow denies such allegations.\n• Read more background from our Europe editor Paul Kirby", "Martin Duffy (left) with Primal Scream bandmates Bobby Gillespie and Mani and their Q Award in 2006\n\nMartin Duffy, who played keyboards for Primal Scream and The Charlatans, has died at the age of 55.\n\nDuffy started out in cult 1980s indie band Felt before joining Primal Scream for their 1991 album Screamadelica.\n\nHe started performing with The Charlatans in 1996. Their singer Tim Burgess said his death was \"another tragic loss of a beautiful soul\".\n\nPrimal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie described Duffy as a \"soul brother\" and a \"very special character\".\n\nHe added: \"He had a love and understanding of music on a deep spiritual level. Music meant everything to him...\n\n\"Martin was the most musically talented of all of us. His style combined elements of country, blues and soul, all of which he had a God given natural feel for.\"\n\nThe singer continued: \"Martin was also in possession of a unique wit. He had a swift eye for the absurd, the surreal and the ridiculous.\n\n\"He lived to laugh and play music. He was loved by all of us in the Scream. A beautiful soul. We will miss him.\"\n\nThe group's bassist Simone Marie Butler added: \"No words x i miss u already Duff. This is the saddest day and i'm [in] tears writing this. So loved x\"\n\nBirmingham-born Duffy played on every Primal Scream album and also featured on songs by Oasis, the Chemical Brothers and Beth Orton.\n\nHe had joined Felt at the age of 18 after answering an advert placed by the group's frontman Lawrence that read: \"Do You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star?\"\n\nHe later became part of The Charlatans after their keyboardist Rob Collins died in a car crash, three weeks before they were due to be on the bill at Oasis' famous Knebworth concerts in 1996.\n\n\"Martin Duffy stepped in to save The Charlatans when we lost Rob,\" Burgess wrote.\n\n\"He played with us at Knebworth and was a true friend. He toured with me in my solo band too - he was a pleasure to spend time with. Safe travels Duffy.\"\n\nDuffy also released a solo album on Burgess' record label in 2014. He toured with Edwyn Collins and the Beta Band's Steve Mason, and last performed live in October in an impromptu appearance with US band Pere Ubu.\n\nSuper Furry Animals singer Gruff Rhys was among the others paying tribute. He tweeted: \"Martin Duffy's music has been with me since the 1980s - sending all the best to Primal Scream & all his friends and family on this very sad day - going to put some of his instrumental records on.\"\n\nA family statement posted on Twitter by Duffy's brother Steve, a BBC journalist, said: \"Everyone who knew Martin loved him; he was the real deal, our shining star.\"\n\nMartin suffered a brain injury after a fall and died peacefully surrounded by family including his beloved son Louie, they said.\n\n\"He was loved by his mother, brothers, wider family and close friends.\"\n\nThe message added: \"He had a gift with music but even more of one with people. Love you Martin, proud of what you did and all you were. We're with you brother xx\"", "Leah Foster said as she was breastfeeding, Emmett could not be left with parents or a childminder\n\nA student has been suspended by the University of Derby for taking her baby into lectures.\n\nLeah Foster, 35, is half way through a degree and said her tutor had agreed to her taking her son in on a short-term basis but this was overruled.\n\nAfter a warning Mrs Foster said she had no choice but to continue and was then told she could not attend campus.\n\nHer local MP has called on the university to reconsider but officials said it was a health and safety matter.\n\nMrs Foster is studying psychology and hopes to work supporting the mental health of new mothers.\n\nThe university suggested Leah Foster defer her studies for a year\n\nShe said she consulted with her tutor about taking her son Emmett with her and was told it would not be an issue but this decision was later reversed.\n\nAs she was breastfeeding, Mrs Foster said she felt she had no option but to continue and was suspended two weeks ago.\n\nShe said: \"I felt shock and disbelief. It felt so unfair that I am being discriminated against because I have had a baby but am trying to continue my studies.\n\n\"I understand that other people are paying to do their degree and the last thing they want is a crying baby in class.\n\n\"I would never, ever let him sit and cry or make noise or make it difficult to hear what the lecturer is saying.\"\n\nThe university suggested she defer her studies for a year but Mrs Foster said this would delay her getting a job and perhaps having another child.\n\nToby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield, said: \"I think to say to someone like Leah 'You have to step away for a year, we can't accommodate you in any way' - despite how far she has gone out of her way to make sure she wasn't disruptive.\n\n\"I think it sends the wrong message and I am really disappointed that Derby University have taken this approach.\"\n\nIn another two months Leah expects to stop breastfeeding which will mean her parents can look after Emmett.\n\nShe said she was worried about missing out on her studies but was hoping for a compromise for herself and anyone in the same position.\n\nThe University of Derby spokesperson said it did not comment on individual cases.\n\nThey added: \"We would not exclude a student because they wish to continue studying while breastfeeding or caring for children.\n\n\"We have many students who are combining studying with parenthood, and we support them in every way we can, including personal support plans tailored to the individual, as well as providing designated spaces for breastfeeding for those who would prefer to do so away from the more public areas on campus.\n\n\"However, babies and children cannot be brought into teaching sessions due to the potential risk of disruption to other students and to protect the health and safety of the parent, child and others.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Winslet tells Laura Kuenssberg there should be age blocks for social media sites\n\nThe government should make social media firms enforce age limits to help tackle their impact on children's mental health, actress Kate Winslet has said.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she said parents feel \"utterly powerless\" about how to help their children navigate social media.\n\nWinslet said security checks could be more rigorous and those in power \"should step up\" to protect children.\n\nShe was speaking ahead of the launch of her new Channel 4 film I Am Ruth.\n\nThe feature-length drama sees Winslet playing opposite her real-life daughter Mia Threapleton as the mother of a teenager whose mental health begins to suffer as she becomes increasingly consumed by the pressures of social media.\n\nWinslet said the decision to focus on children's mental health followed a conversation with the film's creator Dominic Savage about how parents can help \"when they can clearly see there's a problem\".\n\nBut she said that the drama had to be about more than a child obsessed with their phone.\n\nIt had to cover \"what's actually going on with that phone, how it impacts on their self-esteem, how it impacts on eating habits, their mental state in terms of thinking about things like self-harm,\" Winslet said.\n\nIn the two-hour drama, to be shown on Channel 4 on Thursday 8 December, Winslet plays Ruth who is a single mother of two, including 17-year-old Freya.\n\nThe film shows Freya becoming less communicative and falling behind at school as she retreats further into herself as her relationship with social media becomes increasingly destructive.\n\nThe world of social media is \"frightening to parents because we don't really know what's there\", Winslet said.\n\n\"We don't know really what's going on in their friendship groups anymore because so much of it is actually built on phones, inside phones.\n\n\"This world that you can burrow deeper and deeper into it, and it becomes darker and trickier and much, much harder for children to navigate.\n\n\"I think because people, young children, are having phones at a much earlier age, they're able to access things that emotionally they're just not equipped or sophisticated enough to know how to process.\"\n\nAsked whether she thought there should be more legal regulation of social media, Winslet said she struggled with social media and its impact on teenage mental health.\n\n\"I do wish that our government would crack down on it. I do wish that there would be certain platforms that were banned before a certain age. I wish that security checks would be much more rigorous,\" she said.\n\nShe said there should be \"more protection and accountability\" because parents \"are left flailing\".\n\n\"I just think that the people who know that they could do better to protect our children should just be doing that. Whoever those people are, they know who they are, they should just step up and do better,\" she said.\n\nWinslet's comment come as the government is accused of watering down legislation aimed at regulating internet content.\n\nIn the past week, ministers have dropped plans from the Online Safety Bill which would require technology firms to take down legal but harmful material.\n\nIan Russell, the father of teenager Molly Russell, who ended her life after viewing suicide and self-harm content online, said the bill had been watered down and the decision might have been made for political reasons to help it pass more quickly.\n\nIn a statement, Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan told BBC News that \"unregulated social media is hurting our children and it must end\".\n\nShe added that the \"strengthened Online Safety Bill\" she is bringing back to Parliament \"will allow parents to see and act on the dangers sites pose to young people\".\n\n\"Young people will be safeguarded, criminality stamped out and adults given control over what they see and engage with online,\" Ms Donelan said.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 25 November and 2 December.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nHere is the latest Your pictures of Scotland gallery - bright eyed and bushy tailed as ever. Thank you to Iain Donnachie, of Peebles, for his cheeky Morton Lochs red squirrel.\n\n\"It was worth enduring a temperature of -3 degrees cycling from Linn of Dee to Derry Lodge to witness a cloud inversion on top of Carn a'Mhaim,\" said Michael Curtis.\n\nRosie McGeachan's image of shipbuilding on the Clyde. She said: \"Work on HMS Glasgow as the sun goes down.\"\n\nMembers of a local astronomy club were treated to this view of the Northern Lights from across Thurso Bay. Gordon Mackie, who took this image, said: \"A fine way to end an evening observing the night sky.\"\n\nJim Macdonald, of Maryburgh, said of his picture: \"Strathpeffer emerging from the early morning mist.\"\n\nAngela Pearson said of her shot: \"Otterly adorable. Asian short clawed otters at Camperdown Wildlife Park.\"\n\nJim Smith's picture of Stonehaven harbour being battered by heavy seas, during recent easterly gales.\n\nStuart McMahon took this picture at Aubrey Park, Largs, when the local model boating club members were sailing some yachts on the pond in flat, calm conditions.\n\nFrankline Gituma sent in this image of Connel Bridge near Oban.\n\nMorag Burton's picture of a full moon from the Devorgilla Bridge, Dumfries, after heavy rain flooded the River Nith.\n\nAlexa Kershaw said of this shot: \"A beautiful, dancing aurora taken from Rubha nan Gall Lighthouse Cottages, Tobermory, Isle of Mull, looking towards Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula.\"\n\n\"Monikie Country Park, near Dundee, where the ducks formed an orderly queue to be fed,\" said Mhairi Irving, of Laurencekirk.\n\nClarke Elsby, who took this image in Lanark, said: \"It was eerily calm and all surrounding sounds seemed amplified.\"\n\nGerry Doherty's image of a stunning sunrise over the River Clyde at Dumbarton Rock and Castle.\n\nPauline Mills' picture of Loch Lubnaig. She said: \"The loch was so still after a weekend of torrential rain so it was lovely to spend some time in the quiet.\"\n\nSylvia Beaumont captured this scene. She said: \"Cows sharing a salt lick in a field at North Berwick. Such a long tongue.\"\n\n\"I took this photo of the Forth Bridge during haar on a bike ride to get chips in Queensferry,\" said Ewan MacNeilage.\n\nAn image of Emma McKie's family enjoying a beautiful display of the Aurora Borealis over the Moray Firth.\n\nWalter Baxter, of Galashiels, took this picture of sheep backlit by the sun at Dryburgh.\n\nRetired postman Gerry McGuire, from Dunfermline, captured this scene at the Queensferry Crossing. Gerry said: \"I was heading into North Queensferry to photograph a certain railway bridge when I saw the haar drifting down the River Forth. So I parked up, got out the camera and tripod to try to get something worthwhile.\"\n\nMist in the Tweed and Ettrick valleys in a picture taken from Lindean near Selkirk by Steven McLachlan.\n\nBill Cameron paused on his morning run to take this shot in Lochaber\n\nGillian Cross' view from her house over Loch Poulary, Invergarry.\n\nAeleen Campbell, of Spean Bridge, stopped on a cycle ride to snap this picture at Corpach Basin, Fort William.\n\n\"Sheep in the mist doesn't have the same ring to it as gorillas in the mist but this is as exotic as it gets in the fields around Falkirk,\" said Brian Colston.\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "Last updated on .From the section Boxing\n\nTyson Fury retained his WBC world heavyweight title, brutally stopping Derek Chisora to set up a potential undisputed bout with Oleksandr Usyk.\n\nFury, 34, maintained his unbeaten record in front of 59,769 people at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.\n\nFellow Briton Chisora, 38, was hurt repeatedly by the dominant champion and the referee waved off the one-sided contest in the 10th round.\n\nUsyk, holder of the IBF, IBO, WBO and WBA belts, was ringside in London.\n• None 2023 will be biggest year of my career, says Fury\n• None Heavyweight fights that could happen in 2023\n\nFor Chisora, it was the 13th loss of his 46-fight career and his fourth in the last five.\n\nEarlier this week, the pair shook hands and promised to stand toe-to-toe in the opening three minutes with Chisora promising \"the best first round the heavyweight game has ever seen\".\n\nAnd, in front of an incredible atmosphere - despite the cold conditions at an outdoor December night event in London - the two fighters tried to provide the entertainment they had promised.\n\nBut the fight did prove a mismatch as Fury was a level above his opponent and can now look forward to a potential undisputed heavyweight showdown with Ukrainian Usyk in 2023.\n\nFury, back in action after saying he would retire from boxing in April, has targeted at least three fights in 2023. In chaotic scenes afterwards, he challenged two rivals - Usyk and unbeaten Briton Joe Joyce - at the same time.\n\nAsked about taking on 35-year-old Usyk, Fury responded: \"Where's the rabbit?\"\n\nAs Usyk confronted him at the ropes, Fury added: \"Usyk, you're next, 15 stone little body building midget. I've done one Ukrainian, [Wladimir] Klitschko, let's get it on.\"\n\nAs Joyce then showed up, Fury said: \"I'm saying Joe Joyce, a brilliant fighter, he deserves a title fight. If the rabbit [Usyk] doesn't fight, we'll fight at Wembley.\"\n\nHowever, there could yet be an obstacle as Fury, in a later interview with ESPN, said he had problems with his hand and may need surgery on his right elbow \"which will take about 6-8 weeks to heal\".\n\nFury had beaten Chisora in a wide points victory in 2011 when they fought for the British and Commonwealth titles and again three years later when Chisora was retired by his corner at the end of the 10th round in a contest for the British and European belts.\n\nThere were hopes Chisora could produce a career-defining performance and defy the bookmakers, who had dismissed him as a 14-1 outsider.\n\nHowever, by the second round it became clear this fight was going to go the way of their first two meetings.\n\nChisora tried to force Fury back onto the ropes early on, with a number of punches to the body, but Fury landed a huge overhand right soon after and started to land at will from range.\n\nA Fury left hook in the second rocked back Chisora and he ended the round in the corner and in trouble.\n\nIn the third, both men ended up in a heap on the floor as they lost balance, but it did not matter as Fury took complete control.\n\nChisora, as he has done throughout his 15-year career, gave it everything but was simply outclassed by Fury, whose shot selection, power and ability helped him pick off the rounds with relative ease.\n\nTwo solid right hooks landed in the sixth and in the seventh as Chisora continued to take a lot of punishment - and the only question was if he could land a wonder shot of his own.\n\nHe could not - and a bad cut developed around his eye in the ninth, before a brutal Fury uppercut in the following round marked the beginning of the end.\n\nSpeaking to BT Sport, Fury praised Chisora and the fans as he said: \"I just want to say, what a crowd - 60,000 in Tottenham, I love every single one of you people. This is overwhelming, I want to say a massive thank you.\n\n\"I felt good, I needed some rounds, I haven't boxed since April. I was landing good punches, but take nothing from Del Boy [Chisora], it was a pleasure to fight tonight, he is a British folk hero.\n\n\"What a tough man. I hit him with shots that would have sparked anyone else out.\"\n\nFury then led the crowd in a chant of \"Oh, Derek Chisora\".\n\nChisora, whose own future will now be in doubt, was gracious in defeat as he added: \"Thank you Tyson, I really appreciate that. We are friends.\n\n\"There's a big fight coming, everyone wants to see one champion in the heavyweight division.\"\n\nEarlier, Britain's Daniel Dubois survived a huge scare, coming back after being knocked down three times in the first round to beat South Africa's Kevin Lerena and retain his WBA (regular) heavyweight belt.\n\nThe 25-year-old was facing a second defeat of his career and also suffered what appeared to be a knee injury in a horrendous opening three minutes.\n\nHowever, after regaining his composure in the second, Dubois, who has gained 18 of his 19 victories inside the distance, caught Lerena in the third, sending him to the canvas.\n\nLerena got up, but it was the signal for a barrage of punches from Dubois as the home favourite sensed this was his moment.\n\nA truly brilliant uppercut - which drew gasps from the fans when replayed on the stadium's four big screens - rocked Lerena's head back and the South African was on the verge of going down again when referee Howard Foster moved in to stop it.\n\nA loss for Dubois would not only have seen him lose his WBA regular belt, but end his hopes of fighting Usyk in the future.\n\nIt was a superb recovery as he showed great character to turn this fight around in such dramatic style.\n\n\"It was amazing. He caught me on the top of my head. I feel my knee went,\" Dubois told BT Sport Box Office.\n\n\"But I have the heart of a warrior, and I just thought, calm down.\n\n\"I was looking for shots that weren't there, I had to recover and come back out. I saw the opening, went for it and the rest is history.\n\n\"I felt a bit rusty, like I wasn't there in the first round, but at least I was able to land my shots.\n\n\"I've never boxed in front of as many people, hopefully many more to come.\"\n\nFind out how to get into boxing with our special guide.", "Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock says he was warned 820,000 people in the UK could die from Covid two months before the country went into lockdown.\n\nIn his new diaries on the pandemic, the MP says in January 2020 he was told by England's chief medical officer the toll was \"a reasonable case scenario\" if restrictions were not introduced.\n\nFigures show more than 200,000 people with Covid have died in the UK to date.\n\nThe government has set up an inquiry into its handling of the pandemic.\n\nIn his new book, Mr Hancock says that when he mentioned the projected death toll to other cabinet ministers, their reaction was \"somewhat 'shrug shrug' - essentially because they didn't really believe it\".\n\nHe wrote: \"I am constantly feeling that others, who aren't focused on this every day, are weeks behind what's going on.\"\n\nHe said that 11 days later, England's chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty also warned transmission would be so high that \"almost everyone would catch it\".\n\nMr Hancock wrote: \"In his characteristically understated way, sitting at the back peeling a tangerine, Chris Whitty quietly informed everyone that in the reasonable worst-case scenario as many as 820,000 people in the UK may die.... The whole room froze. We are looking at a human catastrophe on a scale not seen here for a century.\"\n\nMr Hancock's Pandemic Diaries: The Inside Story Of Britain's Battle Against Covid, is being serialised in the Daily Mail, with the West Suffolk MP set to donate all proceeds to NHS charities and causes supporting dyslexia.\n\nThe first extract was published in the paper on Saturday and comes shortly after Mr Hancock reappeared in Westminster following his controversial appearance on ITV's reality show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here.\n\nMr Hancock was criticised by MPs for his three-week stint in the jungle, where he placed third.\n\nHe was suspended from the parliamentary Conservative Party after joining the show, and now sits as an independent MP.\n\nIn the book, the former health secretary also defended his handling of one of the most controversial episodes of the pandemic - the decision to release care home residents from hospital without testing, which was blamed for thousands of deaths.\n\nA diary entry on 2 April 2020, notes: \"The tragic but honest truth is we don't have enough testing capacity to check anyway. It's an utter nightmare, but it's the reality.\"", "The victims have been named as Kearne Solanke (left) and Charlie Bartolo\n\nA third teenager has been charged with murdering two boys who were stabbed a mile apart in south-east London.\n\nKearne Solanke, 16, was found wounded in Titmuss Avenue in Thamesmead on Saturday 26 November.\n\nCharlie Bartolo, also 16, was discovered in Sewell Road, in Abbey Wood, on the same day.\n\nHussain Bah, 18, of south-east London, was arrested on Friday and will appear at Bromley Magistrates' Court later charged with the murders.\n\nPolice said previously that the killings were linked. Officers from the Metropolitan Police were called to reports people had been injured in two separate locations at about 17:10 GMT.\n\nTwo other teenagers, aged 15 and 16, attended Bexley Magistrates' Court on Friday, both also accused of murdering the two boys.\n\nThe pair were remanded in custody and are due to appear at the Old Bailey on 6 December.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The movement of the crown was kept a closely guarded secret\n\nThe St Edward's Crown has been removed from the Tower of London to be resized for the King ahead of the Coronation.\n\nThe historic centrepiece of the Crown Jewels was taken away to allow for its modification before the ceremony on 6 May, Buckingham Palace said.\n\nThe movement of the crown was kept secret until its safe delivery. Its current location has not been divulged.\n\nA version of it has been used during the coronations of English and British monarchs since the 13th Century.\n\nThis St Edward's Crown was made for King Charles II in 1661, as a replacement for the medieval crown that was melted down after the execution of his father in 1649.\n\nThe crown was last used by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953\n\nThe original is thought to date back to Edward the Confessor, the 11th Century royal saint who was the penultimate Anglo-Saxon king of England.\n\nIt is the 1661 St Edward's Crown that appears in the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, the Royal Mail logo and in badges of the British armed forces.\n\nIn a statement on Saturday, Buckingham Palace said: \"St Edward's Crown, the historic centrepiece of the Crown Jewels, has been removed from the Tower of London to allow for modification work to begin ahead of the Coronation on Saturday 6 May 2023.\"\n\nThe ceremony will take place in Westminster Abbey, eight months after the monarch's accession and the death of Queen Elizabeth II.\n\nOn one unusual occasion, at Westminster Abbey in 1533, the medieval St Edward's Crown was used to crown a Queen Consort, Anne Boleyn\n\nIt is understood the ceremony will include the same core elements of the traditional service, which has retained a similar structure for more than 1,000 years, while also recognising the spirit of 21st Century Britain.\n\nHowever, the Coronation is expected to be on a smaller scale and shorter, with suggestions that it could last just an hour - Queen Elizabeth II's lasted about three hours.\n\nIt is also expected to be more inclusive of multi-faith Britain than in the past, but will nonetheless be an Anglican service, with the Queen Consort being crowned alongside Charles III.\n\nGuest numbers will be reduced from the some 8,000 of 1953 to about 2,000, with peers expected to wear suits and dresses instead of ceremonial robes, and a number of rituals, such as the presentation of gold ingots, not being performed.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Viking Polaris seen anchored in Ushuaia, southern Argentina two days after being struck by the rogue wave.\n\nOne passenger was killed and four more injured after a \"rogue wave\" hit a cruise ship bound for Antarctica, travel company Viking has said.\n\nThe Norwegian-flagged Viking Polaris was caught in a storm as it sailed towards Ushuaia, Argentina on Tuesday.\n\nThe victim was a US woman who died after being struck by shattered glass, Argentinian media report.\n\nViking said it was investigating the incident and offered its \"deepest sympathies\" to the passenger's family.\n\n\"Our focus remains on the safety and wellbeing of our guests and crew, and we are working directly with them to arrange return travel,\" the company added in a statement issued on Friday.\n\nThe company did not reveal the name and nationality of the passenger.\n\nHowever, Argentine news agency Telam said the dead passenger was an American woman who \"received blows from a glass surface that collapsed in the middle of the storm\".\n\nThe 202m (662ft) ship - which was completed this year - arrived in Argentina on Wednesday and had sustained \"limited damage\" after being struck by the wave, Viking said.\n\nThe company has decided to cancel its scheduled voyage, which would have seen the ship sail towards Antarctica from 5-17 December.\n\nAccording to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, rogue waves can be double the size of surrounding waves. They often come unexpectedly from directions other than that of the prevailing wind.\n\nIn 2019, a study revealed that rogue waves are occurring less often but becoming more extreme, posing an increased risk to global shipping.", "Liz Truss took a \"Spinal Tap approach\" to government, with the volume turned up to 11, her former chief speechwriter has told the BBC.\n\nAsa Bennett said Ms Truss demanded \"fast action\" to put \"rocket boosters\" on the British economy.\n\nIt was a \"bitter regret\" that it \"didn't come off like that\", he added.\n\nMs Truss's government lasted just seven weeks after its mini-budget spooked financial markets, prompting Tory MPs to revolt and forcing her resignation.\n\nSpinal Tap are a spoof heavy metal group created by a team of comedians and musicians, who famously had amplifiers that were \"one louder\" than 10.\n\nMr Bennett, who had previously worked for Ms Truss when she headed the Department for International Trade and the Foreign Office, was interviewed by the BBC's Nick Robinson for a Radio 4 documentary, Liz Truss's Big Gamble.\n\nAsked whether she regretted her approach in Downing Street, Mr Bennett said: \"I think Liz felt that she's gambled before in her life and then she could gamble again on this.\n\n\"And yes, the stakes would be high, but the pay-off was worth it in the sense of taking that fast action.\n\n\"And at the same time Liz was someone who knew what she thought, known it for years, and so finally had the biggest chance yet to make her programme a reality.\n\n\"Of course, it will be no doubt a bitter regret for us all and her most of all that it didn't come off like that.\"\n\nHe said if Ms Truss had been made aware of the risks, she was generally someone who would have trusted her instincts.\n\n\"And so when she hears these things, she's someone who feels that she can have the courage of her convictions.\n\nShe's heard all the views. She was at the Treasury [as chief secretary] in the past, and she would be clear in her mind how to do things better.\"\n\nMr Bennett said the then-prime minister regarded the Treasury's approach to economic policy as \"this sort of tired, stale, status quo sort of thinking\".\n\n\"And that is why she felt it really was time to take the hard decisions and root it out by trying to break with the sort of consensus, the cosy consensus that meant that Britain had been flagging along with international competitiveness,\" he added.\n\nOn the decision to sack the Treasury's top civil servant, Sir Tom Scholar, Mr Bennett suggested Ms Truss saw him as a symbol of the \"senior Treasury civil servants who have presided in her mind over persistently low growth, chronically and persistently low productivity\".\n\nThe Treasury orthodoxy \"was something that just had to change because it was not able to unleash Britain's potential in her view\", he said.\n\nHe said Ms Truss had spent years sitting around the cabinet table and felt she knew what the solutions were to the country's economic problems. \"She also knew that this was the moment to put rocket boosters on the economy and get growth going.\"\n\nShe was, he said, \"someone who would always try and take things up a notch. I think she always liked to be the one that was ready to push the envelope and would only back down if there was good reason\".\n\n\"I think Liz was someone who would take this sort of Spinal Tap approach, turn it up to 11, and only if necessary, turn it down again,\" he added.\n\nMr Bennett said Ms Truss came to regard the nickname as \"a compliment, not an insult\".\n\n\"She's been dismissed and mocked by people in Westminster and the media over the years... and so she's found then that she could laugh these things off.\n\n\"She can embrace the jokes, and that's a part of her personality. Then she could see that she was bullet-proof as a result.\"\n\nSix days before Ms Truss announced she would be resigning as prime minister, she sacked her long-time political ally and friend, Kwasi Kwarteng, as chancellor.\n\nMr Bennett said that was very hard for her. \"Liz and Kwasi are very, very close friends, longstanding friends. They lived in the same area of London. They'd known each other for a while.\n\n\"They had written books together. They knew that they both thought the same way about what needed to be done.\n\n\"And so that's why it was such a hard decision, no doubt, for her to have to decide that he had to go at least to try and save her premiership.\"\n\nMost of the mini-budget's tax-cutting measures were then ditched.\n\nIn her farewell speech outside No 10, Ms Truss defended her low-tax vision, saying: \"We simply can not afford to be a low-growth country where the government takes up an increasing share of our national wealth.\"\n\nBut in an earlier interview, she said she took responsibility for going \"too far, too fast\" with the tax cuts in the mini-budget.\n\nLiz Truss's Big Gamble, the inside story of the UK's shortest-ever premiership, is available on BBC Sounds.", "Mr Ramaphosa is under pressure from his own party but his spokesman said he would seek a second term as ANC leader\n\nSouth Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa will not resign despite a scandal over money stolen from his farm, his spokesman says.\n\nThe row centres on claims he kept large sums of cash on his property then covered up its theft.\n\nA panel of legal experts concluded that he has a case to answer.\n\nOn Sunday and Monday, the top leadership bodies of the African National Congress (ANC) are due to meet to decide the party's next steps.\n\nBut Mr Ramaphosa's spokesman suggested he would fight on, and rather than quit would seek a second term as leader of his African National Congress party.\n\n\"President Ramaphosa is not resigning based on a flawed report, neither is he stepping aside,\" Vincent Magwenya said.\n\n\"It may be in the long-term interest and sustainability of our constitutional democracy, well beyond the Ramaphosa presidency, that such a clearly flawed report is challenged,\" he added.\n\nThe scandal erupted in June, when a former South African spy boss, Arthur Fraser, filed a complaint with police accusing the president of hiding a theft of $4m (£3.25m) in cash from his Phala Phala game farm in 2020.\n\nMr Ramaphosa admitted that money had been stolen, but said it was $580,000, not $4m.\n\nThe president said the $580,000 had come from the sale of buffalo, but the panel, headed by a former chief justice, said it had \"substantial doubt\" about whether a sale took place.\n\nThe panel's findings have been handed to parliament, which is set to examine them and decide whether or not to launch impeachment proceedings against the president.\n\nMr Ramaphosa is also under pressure from the opposition, as well as rivals from his governing ANC, to resign.\n\nThe scandal is especially damaging for Mr Ramaphosa because he came to power vowing to clear up the corruption which had dogged the country under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.\n\nThe ANC remains deeply divided between supporters of Mr Zuma and those who back Mr Ramaphosa.\n\nMr Ramaphosa will be challenged for the ANC's leadership by his former health minister Zweli Mkhize, who has also been accused of corruption. He denies the allegations.", "Thieves managed to cut a section from the wall to try and steal the Banksy mural in the town of Hostomel, near Kyiv region in Ukraine\n\nA mural by renowned graffiti artist Banksy remains intact after a group of people tried to steal it from the wall of a war-torn building in Ukraine.\n\nThe group cut off a section of board and plaster bearing the artwork of a woman in a gas mask, officials said.\n\nPolice said a number of people were arrested at the scene in Hostomel and the painting has been retrieved.\n\nIt was one of several works created by the anonymous British artist in Ukraine last month.\n\nThe graffiti is undamaged and police are protecting it, the governor of Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, said on Telegram.\n\n\"These images are, after all, symbols of our struggle against the enemy,\" he said. \"These are stories about the support and solidarity of the entire civilized world with Ukraine.\n\n\"We'll do everything to preserve these works of street art as a symbol of our victory.\"\n\nPolice published images of the yellow wall in Hostomel, with a large patch cut through to the brickwork.\n\nBanksy unveiled several artworks on buildings devastated by Russia's war on Ukraine\n\nBanksy released video footage of his artwork in Ukraine last month, showing works that feature people doing daily tasks on buildings devastated by shelling in Ukraine.\n\nThe towns in which the artwork is featured were among the worst hit at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including Hostomel, Horenka and Borodyanka.\n\nThe footage also shows a man's hand creating the art - but in true Banksy style, his face is never shown.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Banksy releases footage of his art in Ukraine\n\nOne mural shows a gymnast doing a handstand amid debris, in Borodyanka. Another depicts a Vladimir Putin lookalike being thrown to the floor by a child in a judo match.\n\nBanksy is one of the world's most famous artists, who rose to fame with stencilled designs around Bristol in the early 1990s, but despite a worldwide following, the artist's identity remains unknown.\n\nOften described as \"elusive\" and \"secretive\" by the press, the \"guerrilla street artist\" has a legion of fans that includes A-list celebrities.\n\nIt is not the first time a Banksy artwork has been targeted. In 2019, a hooded gang stole a Banksy artwork from an emergency door at the Bataclan music hall in Paris with angle grinders and it was later found in Italy.\n\nOther Banksy murals, for example some in the UK, have been covered in plastic sheets to protect against damage or vandalism.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nBrazil great Pele says he is \"strong with a lot of hope\" as he undergoes treatment in hospital in Sao Paulo.\n\nIn a statement released on Saturday he said messages of support as well as watching Brazil at the World Cup had given him \"energy\".\n\nEarlier the hospital had said he was \"still undergoing treatment and remains stable\".\n\nIt follows a report in Brazil that he was beginning end-of-life care after not responding to chemotherapy.\n\n\"My friends, I want to keep everyone calm and positive,\" he said in a statement on Instagram .\n\n\"I'm strong, with a lot of hope and I follow my treatment as usual. I want to thank the entire medical and nursing team for all the care I have received.\n\n\"I have a lot of faith in God and every message of love I receive from you all over the world keeps me full of energy. And watching Brazil in the World Cup too!\n\n\"Thank you so much for everything.\"\n\nThe 82-year-old three-time World Cup winner has been in hospital since Tuesday, and on Thursday night he said it was a \"routine monthly visit\".\n\nHe had a tumour removed from his colon in September 2021.\n\nThe statement from the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein on Saturday said Pele \"had a good response to treatment for respiratory infection care\". It added he was undergoing a \"reassessment of chemotherapy treatment\".\n\nThe legendary forward was diagnosed with a respiratory infection and on Friday the hospital had said he was in a stable condition.\n\nOn Saturday, the new statement said his condition has not worsened in the last 24 hours.\n\nMeanwhile, messages of support have been sent from across the world.\n\nSpeaking on Saturday, England captain Harry Kane said: \"We are very sad to hear news of him being ill but we wish him well, not just me but the whole England set-up. He's an inspiration, an incredible person.\"\n\nWorld Cup-winning former Germany forward Jurgen Klinsmann, speaking on BBC One's World Cup coverage on Saturday, said: \"Pele is just such a wonderful person. The outstanding personality of world football. We can just pray and hope for the best.\"\n\nFormer Argentina defender Pablo Zabaleta added on BBC One: \"It's very sad news to hear about Pele. He's been a true inspiration for all of us, on and off the pitch. He's always been a great man.\"\n\nWorld Cup host nation Qatar showed its support for Pele on Saturday, lighting up buildings with a \"Get well soon\" message.\n\nThe Lusail Stadium in Doha, which will host the World Cup final on 18 December, and the Aspire Tower next to the Khalifa Stadium, were adorned with pictures of Pele in his famous number 10 shirt.\n\nConcerns were initially raised on Wednesday when ESPN Brasil reported Pele had been admitted, with his daughter Kely Nascimento saying there was \"no emergency\" involved.\n\nPele thanked well-wishers on Friday for sending \"good vibes\" and said his stay in hospital was \"a routine visit\".\n\nThe former striker is Brazil's all-time leading scorer with 77 goals in 92 games and scored in four World Cup tournaments.\n\nSantos, his only Brazilian club, tweeted: \"It's the whole world wishing you well, King Pele\".\n• None Pele and 1970: How the greatest player of all time cemented his legend", "The head of the police watchdog has been forced to resign after becoming the subject of a police investigation, Home Secretary Suella Braverman says.\n\nIndependent Office for Police Conduct director general Michael Lockwood said on Friday that he was resigning for \"personal and domestic reasons\".\n\nBut on Saturday the home secretary said she had taken action after learning of the probe into a historical allegation.\n\nMr Lockwood was asked to either resign or be suspended, Ms Braverman said.\n\nShe said she had accepted the resignation, which came into immediate effect. No further information about the nature of the allegation was given.\n\nHome Office staff are now working with the IOPC to \"put in place temporary arrangements for the organisation's leadership\", Ms Braverman added.\n\nThe home secretary said in a statement: \"I took immediate action upon being made aware that Mr Lockwood was the subject of a police investigation... and instructed my officials to ask him to resign or face immediate suspension from his role.\"\n\nMr Lockwood was the first person appointed to lead the IOPC when it replaced the Independent Police Complaints Commission in 2018.\n\nIt handles the most serious complaints against police in England and Wales.\n\nIn his statement on Friday, Mr Lockwood said he was resigning with \"great sadness\", adding that it had been an \"enormous privilege\" to serve as the organisation's first director general.\n\nHe was previously chief executive of the London Borough of Harrow, north-west London.\n\nAfter the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, Mr Lockwood was asked by a government task force to lead the recovery and remediation work and liaise with the bereaved families and survivors, according to the IOPC website.\n\nA qualified accountant, he has also worked in central government at the National Audit Office, and for the Local Government Association as executive director for local government finance and policy.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nLionel Messi produced a moment of magic on his 1,000th career appearance as two-time champions Argentina beat Australia to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.\n\nMessi, 35, was winning his 169th cap for his country and they needed his brilliance to take them through to the next round and a tantalising tie against the Netherlands on Friday.\n\nArgentina had barely threatened in the first half but Paris St-Germain's Messi stroked in a delightful low finish to spark wild celebrations from their fans.\n\nIt was his 789th career goal, 94 of those coming for Argentina, and Messi is now the joint top goalscorer in Qatar.\n\nThe South American supporters had been on their feet singing all game and they had further delight when Julian Alvarez punished Mat Ryan's mistake to double their advantage.\n\nAustralia had offered very little but surprisingly pulled one back with 13 minutes remaining when substitute Craig Goodwin's strike took a huge deflection off Enzo Fernandez.\n\nThey could have levelled shortly after through Aziz Behich, whose incredible solo run took him past four players, but his shot was superbly blocked by Lisandro Martinez's sliding challenge as Argentina edged through.\n\nAustralia frustrated Argentina for 35 minutes, sitting deep and compact, allowing no space in behind - Alejandro Gomez's wild shot that flew way over was the only sniff they had.\n\nBut every time Messi got his left boot on the ball there was a buzz of excitement in the stadium, sharp intakes of breath anticipating something special.\n\nAnd the little magician showcased exactly why he is considered one of the greatest of all time in his landmark game, starting and finishing a move that had blue and white shirts dancing in the stands.\n\nMessi saw a free-kick from the left cleared but Argentina recycled the ball, Brighton's Alexis Mac Allister fizzing a pass into Nicolas Otamendi, who laid it off for Messi to take a touch to set himself before caressing a precise finish into the bottom corner.\n\nArms outstretched, Messi ran away to celebrate in front of his adoring faithful after converting his ninth World Cup goal - remarkably his first in a knockout-stage match - to move just one behind Gabriel Batistuta's Argentina record.\n\nA trademark jinking run then came to nothing, but thrilled those watching, who broke out with chants of \"Messi, Messi, Messi\".\n\nHe could have drawn level - or even surpassed Batistuta - in the second half, but slipped at the vital moment to scuff a shot straight at Ryan and fired another two efforts off target.\n\nRyan, the former Brighton keeper, had a moment to forget on his 10th World Cup appearance - the joint most for his country - when he took a heavy touch from a back-pass, allowing Manchester City's Alvarez to nip in, spin and score into an open net.\n\nFollowing their group-stage heroics, Australia were looking to spring another surprise and had hope courtesy of Goodwin's 20-yard drive that took a fortuitous deflection with 13 minutes remaining.\n\nThey could have taken the game to extra time when full-back Behich embarked on a mazy run to beat numerous defenders, but Martinez reacted in the nick of time.\n\nAn even better chance fell to the Socceroos in the 97th minute when Garang Kuol brought the ball down in the area but his shot on the turn was well kept out by Emiliano Martinez's reflex save.\n• None Attempt saved. Garang Kuol (Australia) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Craig Goodwin.\n• None Attempt missed. Lionel Messi (Argentina) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right.\n• None Attempt saved. Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Lionel Messi.\n• None Attempt blocked. Lionel Messi (Argentina) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Exequiel Palacios.\n• None Attempt blocked. Exequiel Palacios (Argentina) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt missed. Lionel Messi (Argentina) left footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses the top left corner. Assisted by Rodrigo De Paul.\n• None Attempt saved. Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Lionel Messi.\n• None Attempt missed. Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) right footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Lionel Messi following a fast break.\n• None Attempt missed. Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Rodrigo De Paul.\n• None Offside, Argentina. Exequiel Palacios tries a through ball, but Lionel Messi is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Ajdin Hrustic (Australia) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe family villa of Elnaz Rekabi - an Iranian climber who competed abroad with her hair uncovered - has reportedly been demolished.\n\nMs Rekabi, 33, broke Iran's mandatory dress code at the contest in South Korea - but later said her headscarf had fallen off \"inadvertently\".\n\nThe BBC was told her apology was forced.\n\nOpposition to the headscarf has fuelled protests that have swept Iran, with the climber being hailed as a hero.\n\nA video showing the ruins of a house with sports medals on the ground started circulating this week.\n\nDavood - Elnaz Rekabi's brother and also a top athlete - is seen crying in the video.\n\nAnti-government activists denounced it as an act of revenge against Ms Rekabi - although it is not clear when the footage was shot.\n\nNow, the semi-official Tasnim news agency has confirmed that the house has been demolished, but says this was due to the family not having a valid permit for its construction.\n\nIt said all this took place before Ms Rekabi competed without a headscarf in October.\n\nWomen in Iran are required to cover their hair with a headscarf, or hijab, and their arms and legs with loose clothing. Female athletes must also abide by the dress code when they are officially representing Iran in competitions abroad.\n\nA large crowd greeted Ms Rekabi at Tehran airport after the competition in South Korea, calling her a \"heroine\". She arrived at the airport without a headscarf, covering her hair with a black baseball cap and hoodie.\n\nThe next day she met the Iranian sports minister with the same clothes on, which raised suspicion that she had not been home during that time.\n\nThe source said Ms Rekabi was detained in a room at Iran's National Olympic Committee building with plainclothes agents present until she met the minister.\n\nThe day before returning to Iran, a post on Ms Rekabi's Instagram account apologised for \"getting everybody worried\".\n\n\"Due to bad timing, and the unanticipated call for me to climb the wall, my head covering inadvertently came off,\" it explained.\n\nHowever, the source said that authorities threatened to take her family's property if she did not make the statement.\n\nMeanwhile, a prominent Iranian film actress, Mitra Hajjar, has reportedly been released on bail after being arrested by Iranian authorities attempting to stem anti-government protests.\n\nA government critic for several years, Ms Hajjar previously condemned the execution of activist Ruhollah Zam, who documented online the mass demonstrations in 2019.", "Russia is consolidating its military presence in the captured port city of Mariupol by constructing a large army facility, satellite photos released from the Earth observation company Maxar appear to show.\n\nThe new, U-shaped compound sits near the centre of the city. On its roof, the red, white and blue star of the Russian army can be seen, with letters reading: \"For the people of Mariupol.\"\n\nMaxar says the building appears to be a military facility. However the BBC is unable to verify this or confirm what the new building is being used for.\n\nThe newly constructed Russian building in Mariupol suggests Russia is seeking to dig in in the city\n\nMoscow's forces laid siege to the city for almost three months earlier this year, and constant artillery barrages left much of it in ruins.\n\nUkrainian officials estimated last month that some 25,000 civilians were killed in the strikes, while the UN said it had confirmed the deaths of 1,348 civilians, but said the true death toll was \"likely thousands higher\".\n\nImages of the city's graveyard appear to show it being extended. Russian troops have reportedly been removing dead bodies from destroyed buildings in recent months and taking them away for burial. Last month, an analysis of images obtained by BBC Panorama suggested 1,500 new graves have been dug at the cemetery.\n\nPhotos of the Mariupol cemetery taken in March 2022\n\nImages of the cemetery taken in November show new graves being dug in the right foreground and the left foreground\n\nA large protective screen has also been erected around the remains of the city's theatre, where hundreds of people are believed to have died after Russian forces targeted it in a missile strike on 18 March. The attack - which Amnesty International called \"clear war crime\" by Russia - left the site in ruins.\n\nThe remains of the Mariupol theatre after a missile strike in March\n\nIn new images, a large screen can be seen around the theatre\n\nUkrainian officials estimate that up to 90% of the city's infrastructure was left in ruins by the Russian bombardment, and the new images suggest that Moscow has started to demolish many of the residential buildings that were left beyond repair.\n\nResidential buildings after being targeted by Russian strikes in March\n\nThe new images show the damaged buildings have been demolished in anticipation of reconstruction\n\nOther images show huge amounts of building supplies at the city shopping centre. During the Russian bombardment of Mariupol, many civilians could be seen waiting outside the centre for food and other necessities.\n\nThe images come amid reports that Russia is slowly building up its defensive positions in Mariupol, as Ukrainian counteroffensives in the south and east increasingly put the city under threat.\n\nLast month, UK defence officials said the Russian military was using two plants in occupied Mariupol to produce large numbers of \"dragon's teeth\" - concrete blocks designed to slow advancing enemy armour and other vehicles.\n\nThe city is strategically important for Russia, forming part of its \"land bridge\" linking Russia to annexed Crimea.", "Health officials have recorded more than 430 cases of Strep A in Scotland in two weeks.\n\nStrep A infections are usually mild, causing illness ranging from a sore throat to scarlet fever, but can develop into a more serious invasive Group A Strep (iGAS) infection.\n\nJim McMenamin, of Public Health Scotland (PHS), said the numbers were similar to the last surge in 2017/18.\n\nBut despite six deaths across the UK no children have died in Scotland.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency said the rise in Strep A cases is most likely due to high amounts of the bacteria circulating and increased social mixing.\n\nParents are being urged to look out for symptoms and to promptly contact their GP or NHS24 if they have any concerns.\n\nDr McMenamin told BBC Reporting Scotland there had been an increase in the seasonal expected numbers of Group A Strep (GAS) infections.\n\nThe epidemiologist said: \"Over the last couple of weeks we have respectively seen 207 and 230 cases, which is very similar to what we have seen reported in the 2017/18 season but just an awful lot earlier than we might have seen in the past.\"\n\nIn very rare occasions the bacteria can get into the bloodstream and cause an iGAS infection.\n\nPHS has received report of eight such cases in children under the age of 10 since September.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Jim McMenamin, of Public Health Scotland, details some of the symptoms associated with Strep A infections\n\nDr McMenamin, head of health protection (infection services) at PHS, said Covid restrictions over the past two years meant many children had not encountered the streptococcal infections that are now beginning to be reported.\n\nAmong the symptoms that can develop is a rough rash which is pink in colour.\n\nHe said other things for parents to look our for is their child going off food or becoming irritable.\n\nDr McMenamin highlighted the importance of early diagnosis as antibiotics were \"very effective\" and usually had a positive impact within 24 hours.\n\nBut he added some patients would require hospital treatment.\n\nHealth officials confirmed on Friday that six children had died with iGAS - including five under 10-year-olds in England and a girl from Wales since September.\n\nNo deaths have been confirmed in Scotland or Northern Ireland.\n\nOne pupil died at the Victoria Primary School in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency said the last time there was an intensive period of Strep A infection in 2017-18 there were four deaths in England in the equivalent time frame.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday, infectious diseases paediatrician Prof Beate Kampmann said there had been three times as much scarlet fever this year than was seen pre-pandemic:\n\nProf Kampmann said: \"It starts off with a high fever, very sore throat and very red tongue, which has this sort of papillae - eventually developing a rash which feels a bit like sandpaper.\n\n\"The rash starts in the elbows and behind the neck. It tends to then peel after about ten days because the disease is caused by a toxin that is produced by this bacterium.\"\n\nShe said children with a fever should be kept off school and added Group A Strep was \"very, very treatable\" with penicillin.\n\nVirologist Dr Chris Smith said the general rise in Strep A infections could be due to a drop in immunity following the pandemic.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast: \"There's something about the vulnerability of the population and particularly younger people.\n\n\"What has changed is that younger people have been through three years, almost, of relative isolation from each other.\n\n\"They haven't caught the normal infections at the normal rates and at the normal times that normal children of that sort of age bracket would have done.\n\n\"So, we wonder whether it is that we are seeing a big rash of cases all at once.\"\n\nUKHSA advises people to call 999 or go to A&E if:\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jones, who founded the conspiracy-laden Infowars website, argued for years that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged\n\nConspiracy theorist Alex Jones has filed for personal bankruptcy after he was ordered to pay almost $1.5bn (£1.2bn) for falsely claiming a 2012 school shooting was a hoax.\n\nJones was ordered to pay the damages to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting following a series of defamation trials earlier this year.\n\nThe most notable came in October when a jury ordered him to pay almost $1bn following a trial in Connecticut.\n\nJones has not commented on the filing.\n\nThe court documents - which were filed in Houston, Texas on Friday - say the Infowars host has between $1m and $10m of assets and between $1bn and $10bn of debt.\n\nThey also estimate that the 48-year-old has between 50 and 99 creditors, including the individually named relatives of the victims and an FBI agent who responded to the attack.\n\nHis show's parent company - Free Speech Systems - filed for bankruptcy in July.\n\nThe latest filing temporarily halts all proceedings in the Connecticut case, including a scheduled hearing examining how the families would receive the money and what assets could be included.\n\nIt could further delay payments as the case plays out in bankruptcy courts. It is unclear how much money the families will receive.\n\nFollowing the filing, a lawyer representing the families said \"the bankruptcy system does not protect anyone who engages in intentional and egregious attacks on others\".\n\n\"Like every other cowardly move Alex Jones has made, this bankruptcy will not work,\" Chris Mattei said in a statement.\n\nJones, who founded the conspiracy-laden Infowars website and talk show, argued for years that the Sandy Hook shooting was a \"staged\" government plot to take guns from Americans and that \"no-one died\".\n\nHe called the parents of the 20 children who died \"crisis actors\" and argued that some of them never actually existed.\n\nHe now acknowledges the attack was \"100% real\", a concession he made in August at a separate defamation trial in Texas.\n\nFamilies who lost loved ones in the shooting alleged Jones' lies led to years of death threats, intimidation and other forms of harassment from his followers.\n\nJones still faces a third defamation trial over the Sandy Hook shooting that begins in Texas later this year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sandy Hook dad: Trolls said I killed and dismembered my son", "Conor Burns said the allegations of misconduct \"felt and smelt like a stitch-up\"\n\nFormer government minister Conor Burns has been cleared of misconduct and will be readmitted to the Tory Party.\n\nMr Burns was sacked as trade minister in October amid allegations that he touched a man's thigh in a hotel bar during the Tory Party conference.\n\nThe MP for Bournemouth West consistently denied any wrongdoing.\n\nA Conservative Party spokesperson said it had reviewed \"all of the evidence available\" and concluded there was \"no basis on which to investigate further\".\n\n\"The matter is now closed and Mr Burns's membership will be reinstated at the nearest possible opportunity,\" the spokesperson said.\n\nIn an interview with the Bournemouth Echo on Saturday, Mr Burns - also a former minister of state for Northern Ireland - said the experience had been a \"living nightmare\".\n\nHe told the newspaper he had been \"thrown to the wolves\" and suggested his suspension was connected to his praise of International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who ran for the party leadership in the summer against Liz Truss, who was prime minister at the time of his sacking.\n\n\"It felt and smelt like a stitch up and that is what it was,\" he told the Bournemouth Echo.\n\n\"I knew I was innocent and the truth will out and it has,\" he said.\n\nAt the time of the incident in early October, an eyewitness claimed they had seen the Tory MP in the Hyatt Regency hotel bar in Birmingham with his hand on the young man's thigh.\n\nThe BBC has never spoken to, or heard the account of, the individual the ex-minister was allegedly seen with.\n\nA source close to Ms Truss dismissed Mr Burns's claim that the investigation had been a \"stitch up\". It's understood the former prime minister's team believed that it was right to launch an investigation and that they acted decisively.", "Takeoff, one-third of popular rap group Migos, was shot and killed on 1 November\n\nPolice have arrested a man and charged him with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of rapper Takeoff.\n\nThe 28-year-old, Grammy-nominated musician was shot and killed outside a bowling alley in Houston, Texas last month.\n\nHouston police said the shooting was over a game of dice, but the singer was \"an innocent bystander\".\n\nTakeoff was the youngest member of rap group Migos, and his death was mourned by fans and fellow musicians.\n\nAt a Friday press conference, Houston Police announced they arrested Patrick Xavier Clark, 33, with the help of surveillance footage that was obtained from the night of the shooting.\n\n\"[Clark] was there on the scene and he was in possession of a weapon,\" said Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.\n\nHe added that an investigation is still ongoing, and he has appealed for witnesses to come forward and share information with police.\n\n\"Don't let the fear paralyse you,\" Chief Finner said in his appeal. \"Step up and say something.\"\n\nMayor Sylvester Turner of Houston said he hopes the arrest will bring some comfort to the family of Takeoff.\n\nHe added that Takeoff was more than an entertainer, but also a \"son, brother, cousin and a friend, and a mentor to those in the music industry\".\n\nTakeoff, born Kirsnick Khari Ball, was one-third of the chart-topping Atlanta-based rap group Migos, who are known for several hits like Bad and Boujee and Stir Fry. They were nominated for two Grammy Awards - one for best rap album and one for best rap performance - in 2018.\n\nHis death was met with an outpour of tributes from fans and musicians like Drake, Kid Cudi, Dave and Rick Ross, who remembered Takeoff as \"young legend\" and a pioneer of a distinct style of rapping known as the \"Migos flow.\"\n\nThe 28-year-old musician was one of three people shot outside a downtown bowling alley in Houston at 02:30 local time (07:30 GMT) on 1 November, after a dispute erupted at the end of a private party after a dice game.\n\nSgt. Michael Burrow with the Houston homicide division said on Friday that Takeoff was not involved in playing the dice game or the argument that took place outside the alley, and he was not armed.\n\n\"He was an innocent bystander,\" Sgt. Burrow said.\n\nAnother man and a woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the shooting.\n\nCameron Joshua, 22, was also arrested in connection with the shooting on 22 November and charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon.", "A cap on the price of Russian oil will restrict Russia's revenues for its \"illegal war in Ukraine\", the US says.\n\nThe cap, approved by Western allies on Friday, is aimed at stopping countries paying more than $60 (£48) for a barrel of seaborne Russian crude oil.\n\nThe measure - due to come into force on Monday - intensifies Western pressure on Russia over the invasion.\n\nUkraine said the Western-proposed cap should be halved. Russia said it would not supply to countries enforcing it.\n\nThe price cap was put forward in September by the G7 group of industrialised nations (the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the EU) in a bid to hit Moscow's ability to finance the war in Ukraine.\n\nIn a joint statement, the G7, the European Union and Australia said the decision was taken to \"prevent Russia from profiting from its war of aggression against Ukraine\".\n\nUS Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the price cap would also further constrain Russian President Vladimir Putin's finances and \"limit the revenues he's using to fund his brutal invasion\", while avoiding disrupting global supplies which could send petrol prices soaring around the world.\n\n\"With Russia's economy already contracting and its budget increasingly stretched thin, the price cap will immediately cut into Putin's most important source of revenue,\" she said in a statement.\n\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would \"not accept\" the price cap, adding it was analysing the move, Russian news agencies reported.\n\nUK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the UK would not waver in its support for Ukraine and would continue to look for new ways to \"clamp down on Putin's funding streams\".\n\nThe agreement of a price cap comes just days before an EU-wide ban on Russian crude oil imported by sea comes into force, also on 5 December.\n\nThe price cap - which is meant to affect oil exports worldwide - is meant to complement that.\n\nCountries which sign up to the G7-led policy will only be permitted to purchase oil and petroleum products transported via sea that are sold at or below the price cap.\n\nUkraine's Western allies also plan to deny insurance to tankers delivering Russian oil to countries that do not stick to the price cap. This will make it hard for Russia to sell oil above that price.\n\nSenior Russian politician Leonid Slutsky told Tass news agency the EU was jeopardising its own energy security with the cap.\n\nThough the measures will most certainly be felt by Russia, the blow will be partially softened by its move to sell its oil to other markets such as India and China - which are currently the largest single buyers of Russian crude oil.\n\nBefore the war, in 2021, more than half of Russia's oil exports went to Europe, according to the International Energy Association. Germany was the largest importer, followed by the Netherlands and Poland.\n\nBut since the war, EU countries have been desperately trying to decrease their dependency. The US has already banned Russian crude oil, while the UK plans to phase it out by the end of the year.", "Dr Whiteside said the specimen had been simply labelled 'clevosaurus and one other reptile'\n\nA new discovery suggests lizards have existed for 35 million years longer than previously thought.\n\nThe University of Bristol took CT scans of fossilised remains of a reptile that sat in a Natural History Museum storage cupboard for decades.\n\nThey show the unknown reptile to be closely related to modern-day lizards.\n\nDr David Whiteside, who led the research, said the fossil was \"likely to become one of the most important found in the last few decades\".\n\nIt was thought lizards originated from the later Middle Jurassic period but the new findings show they lived in the Late Triassic period (237-201 million years ago).\n\nThe fossil impacts all estimates of the origin of lizards and snakes, together called the Squamata, and affects assumptions about their rates of evolution.\n\nIt was found in storage in a collection from the 1950s, including specimens from a quarry near Tortworth in South Gloucestershire.\n\nThe team has named its discovery Cryptovaranoides microlanius, meaning 'small butcher', in reference to its jaws, which are filled with sharp-edged slicing teeth.\n\nDr Whiteside, from Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, first spotted the specimen in a cupboard full of Clevosaurus fossils.\n\nHe explained: \"This was a common enough fossil reptile, a close relative of the New Zealand tuatara that is the only survivor of the group the Rhynchocephalia, that split from the squamates over 240 million years ago.\"\n\n\"As we continued to investigate the specimen, we became more and more convinced that it was actually more closely related to modern day lizards than the Tuatara group.\"\n\nModern technology enabled scientists to see the features that make the fossil a lizard\n\nThe university team made X-rays of the fossil, allowing them to reconstruct it in three dimensions and see the tiny bones hidden inside the rock.\n\nThey said Cryptovaranoides was clearly a squamate because it differed from the Rhynchocephalia in several key areas, including the braincase, in the neck vertebrae and in the shoulder area.\n\nDr Whiteside concluded: \"This is a very special fossil and likely to become one of the most important found in the last few decades.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nThe Netherlands survived a late scare against the United States to move into the Fifa World Cup quarter-finals with a ruthless display of finishing.\n\nThe US had the game's biggest early chance when Christian Pulisic was denied by the legs of Dutch goalkeeper Andries Noppert and the failure to take that opportunity proved highly expensive.\n\nLouis van Gaal's side responded in the finest Dutch traditions in the 10th minute when Memphis Depay crowned a magnificent 21-pass move by turning in Denzel Dumfries' cross.\n\nThe US battled hard but lacked a cutting edge and were punished in similar fashion with the final kick of the first half when Daley Blind arrived with perfect timing on the end of another Dumfries cut back.\n\nThe Dutch were given anxious moments when the US pulled a goal back in the 76th minute as Haji Wright's freak deflection from Pulisic's cross looped in at the far post.\n\nBut they restored their two-goal lead five minutes later when creator Dumfries turned scorer, side-footing in a volley at the far post from Blind's cross.\n\nVan Gaal has been over this course before with the Netherlands, when he guided them to a World Cup semi-final in Brazil in 2014, only to lose on penalties to Argentina after a goalless draw in Sao Paulo.\n\nAnd his vast experience means they cannot be under-estimated here as they set up a last eight meeting with their 2014 conquerors Argentina.\n\nNo-one would pretend this is a classic Dutch side but they have a sprinkling of quality in all areas and the beauty of their first goal, which would have delighted the purists in their homeland, was a graphic demonstration of their capabilities.\n\nVirgil van Dijk is the world-class defensive leader alongside Nathan Ake, while both full-backs Blind and Dumfries made crucial contributions.\n\nFrenkie de Jong brings control to midfield and there is real threat in the shape of Depay, who scored his first goal of this World Cup, and one of the break-out stars of this World Cup, Cody Gakpo.\n\nIt was a display that delighted the band of Dutch fans inside Khalifa International Stadium as Van Gaal's side march on.\n\nThe States' main man Christian Pulisic looked close to tears after the final whistle as he reflected on the chance that got away in those opening moments, an opportunity that might have made this a very different tie.\n\nPulisic was sent through on goal by Tyler Adams' clever delivery but the outstretched leg of Dutch keeper Noppert made the block. Pulisic should have scored and he knew it.\n\nThe US were soon in arrears and could never get close enough to the Netherlands, apart from Wright's goal, which was heavily laced with good fortune.\n\nThe left side of their defence was brutally exposed by the Dutch for all three goals and this, mixed with poor finishing, meant their World Cup ends in the first knockout round.\n\nThere is something for them to build on after getting out of the group stages here, but there will also be disappointment at the sense of a missed opportunity. They will depart Qatar and start their preparations for the Fifa World Cup 2026, which they will jointly host with Canada and Mexico.\n• None Attempt blocked. Yunus Musah (USA) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Giovanni Reyna with a headed pass.\n• None Attempt blocked. Giovanni Reyna (USA) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Brenden Aaronson.\n• None Frenkie de Jong (Netherlands) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt missed. Walker Zimmerman (USA) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Relatives mourn the death of Raed al-Naasan who was killed on Tuesday\n\nIsraeli troops had entered the village warning of plans to demolish a Palestinian home.\n\nFootage shows a group of men and teenagers throwing rocks - then pulling back - as two shots ring out.\n\nRaed al-Naasan runs around a corner and collapses, blood seeping into his top, fatally wounded.\n\nHe was killed on Tuesday - one of four Palestinians shot dead by Israeli troops during confrontations in different villages that day in the occupied West Bank.\n\nAnd now that footage of his killing is throwing a fresh spotlight on Israel's use of lethal force, as violence in the region reaches levels unmatched in years.\n\nIn the hours after his death the army said soldiers used live ammunition in response to a suspect \"spotted hurling Molotov cocktails [petrol bombs]\" at them.\n\nBut video evidence and eyewitnesses suggest this wasn't the case when he was struck.\n\nVideo footage shows Raed al-Naasan before he was shot\n\nThis year in the West Bank more than 140 Palestinians have been killed, nearly all by Israeli forces. The dead include civilians and armed militants. Meanwhile a series of Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis, as well as militant gunfire at troops during arrest raids, have killed more than 30 people including civilians and troops.\n\nThe United Nations' envoy to the region Tor Wennesland warned this week that the conflict and military occupation was \"again reaching a boiling point\".\n\nCampaigners from the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem are currently probing Mr Naasan's death, saying that a significant number of cases of protesters being shot dead this year amount to \"excessive use of force\".\n\nThe Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had acted to stop \"violent rioters\" and the incident was being \"examined\".\n\nTroops entered the village of al-Mughayyir on Tuesday to serve demolition orders against \"illegal construction\" - this happens when Israeli authorities plan to bulldoze Palestinian homes built without permits, even though these are often impossible to obtain.\n\nMr Naasan, 21, was shot dead after a group of around 20 young men and teenagers gathered and threw stones towards the jeeps and soldiers.\n\nRaed al-Naasan was one of four Palestinians shot dead on Tuesday\n\nUnder international law, the use of firearms by security forces against civilians is defined as a measure of last resort, and can only take place to stop an \"imminent threat of death or serious injury\".\n\nVideo given to the BBC filmed for nearly a minute before the shooting shows the group, including Mr Naasan, appearing to pick up stones from the street and throw them towards troops who are not visible in the footage. None can be seen throwing petrol bombs. Mr Naasan then stands in front of his family home apparently holding stones, when two gunshots can be heard. The second is thought to be the shot which left him fatally wounded.\n\nParamedic Mujahid Abu Aliya rushed to treat him at the scene.\n\n\"No-one threw a Molotov cocktail, I was here…. When I picked him up he was screaming: 'I will die, I will die',\" he said.\n\nMr Naasan's mother Fatma described how she ran after him moments later desperately trying to help.\n\n\"[The troops] are the ones who attacked us - they came towards the house in the confrontations and the young people participated,\" she told the BBC shortly after her son's funeral.\n\nRaed al-Naasan's mother, Fatma, rushed to him straight after the incident\n\nAnother eyewitness, Raghd Jehad, said: \"When they started shooting live ammunition, all the men dispersed except him, he was standing there.\"\n\n\"They have been raiding the village for a week now. This is an occupation and they come when they like,\" he added.\n\nMr Naasan had recently finished his studies and was training as an officer in the Palestinian Authority security services, the internationally-backed force that carries out internal policing in parts of the West Bank.\n\nIn a statement the IDF said: \"Only a portion of the event is depicted in the video. IDF soldiers encountered violent rioters… among them the deceased.\"\n\n\"The man hurled a Molotov cocktail at the forces, who opened fire in response. The circumstances of the event are being examined.\"\n\nThe village of Al-Mughayyir has witnessed years of confrontations with Israeli troops. It is close to some of the West Bank's most ideologically-driven Israeli settlements from where groups have tried to build outposts on land near the village.\n\nSettlements are seen as illegal under international law, and most outposts are also prohibited under Israeli laws.\n\nIsrael Defence Forces says the incident is being examined\n\nResidents of Al-Mughayyir said they feared a worsening situation.\n\nIsrael's incoming national security minister is set to be the far-right firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir - a staunch supporter of settlements who calls for stone-throwing Palestinians to be shot. He also wants Israeli soldiers to have immunity from prosecution in cases where Palestinians are killed.\n\nDror Sadot from B'Tselem, the human rights group, described 2022 as an \"extreme year\" in terms of Palestinian fatalities.\n\n\"There are many cases of protests where the Palestinians are using rocks, stones and sometimes other means, and Israel's army almost always uses disproportionate force,\" she said.\n\nThe IDF rejects this, routinely saying it carries out internal investigations into Palestinian fatalities. But human rights groups have described such inquiries as a \"whitewash\".\n\nAmid the worsening violence this week, an Israeli soldier was left seriously wounded when a Palestinian man - later shot dead - rammed his car into her near a West Bank settlement. Israeli forces are also still searching for suspects after a twin bomb attack in Jerusalem last week which killed two Israelis.\n\nSince the spring, Israel has carried out near nightly search and arrest raids in the West Bank, and says it will continue its operations to prevent the threat of further attacks.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Inevitable' people will spend less this Christmas - Tesco\n\nHouseholds are switching from buying fresh food to cheaper frozen goods as the cost of living bites into budgets, the boss of Tesco has said.\n\nKen Murphy, chief executive of the UK's largest supermarket, said some shoppers were also swapping pricier red meat for cheaper white protein to save money.\n\nHe added that people were using barcode scanners more when shopping to avoid being \"embarrassed\" at the tills.\n\nFood prices are rising at their fastest rate for 45 years.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC, Mr Murphy said shoppers were \"managing their budgets much more tightly\" and had changed their behaviour by \"trading down\" to cheaper food and own brand products.\n\nOther examples he said included seeking out cheaper frozen meat and vegetables instead of fresh produce, batch cooking meals and cutting back on eating out.\n\nThe Tesco boss said the hand-held barcode scanners allowed people to \"keep to a specific budget\" by being able to keep an eye on the running total, instead of being \"worried about being embarrassed at the till\" if it turned out they could not afford their shopping or were over budget.\n\nThe hand-held scanners allow shoppers to scan the barcodes on food and other goods as they pick it up - and keep an eye on the running total - instead of waiting until the checkout and potentially discovering they cannot afford their groceries.\n\nTesco said it has sold double the number of frozen turkeys this year compared to the amount in 2019, due to shoppers cutting back.\n\nThere has also been a huge spike in luxury frozen desserts, and searches for frozen food in general on Tesco's website are up 40% from last year.\n\nMr Murphy said that the UK was living in \"times of turbulence and times of change\" and people were worried about the \"affordability of life today\".\n\nBut he said he believed customers were \"really determined to enjoy Christmas this year\", with 2022 being the first festive period for three years without Covid restrictions.\n\nHe said shoppers had been spreading out the cost of Christmas by purchasing goods earlier and had also bought \"more modest gifts\".\n\n\"People will spend less. That is inevitable,\" he said.\n\nLatest official figures revealed food price inflation hit 16.2% in the year to October, up from 14.5% in September.\n\nInflation is the rate at which prices are rising. To calculate it the Office for National Statistics (ONS) keeps track of the prices of hundreds of everyday items, known as a \"basket of goods\".\n\nThe ONS said that food prices had risen sharply in October with milk, pasta, margarine, eggs and cereals all going up.\n\nHigher electricity and gas bills have left many households facing hardship heading into the festive season.\n\nAsked when he thought food price inflation would slow down, Mr Murphy said it depended on a \"number of factors\".\n\nHe said the global energy crisis was the main driver behind high food prices, but added the squeeze on goods since the pandemic was having an impact, as well as the pound's weakness against the US dollar.\n\nTesco has overhauled its \"reduced to clear\" line - which includes food approaching its use-by date - and created \"Reduced in Price, Just as Nice\" sections, which will be rolled out to 100 stores by the end of the year.\n\nThe supermarket has also launched its food collection drive in UK stores, asking customers to buy items needed for food banks.\n• None Why is UK inflation so high?", "More than 50 officers were involved in the operation at the businessman's London property\n\nA Russian businessman has been arrested at his multi-million-pound London home by officers investigating potential criminal activity by oligarchs.\n\nThe man, 58, was held on suspicion of money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the Home Office and conspiracy to commit perjury.\n\nA 35-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of money laundering.\n\nHe was also arrested for obstructing an officer when trying to leave with a bag containing thousands of pounds in cash.\n\nA third man, 39, who is the former boyfriend of the businessman's current partner, was arrested at his home in Pimlico, central London, for offences including money laundering and conspiracy to defraud.\n\nThe National Crime Agency (NCA) said more than 50 officers from its Combatting Kleptocracy Cell were involved in the operation at the businessman's property, where a number of digital devices and a significant quantity of cash was seized following a search.\n\nGraeme Biggar, director general of the NCA, said the unit, which was established this year, was having \"significant success investigating potential criminal activity by oligarchs\".\n\nHe added: \"We will continue to use all the powers and tactics available to us to disrupt this threat.\"\n\nAll three of the arrested men, who have not been named by the NCA, have been released on bail.\n\nThe NCA said it was the latest operation carried out as part of its efforts to disrupt the activities of corrupt international business figures and their enablers.\n\nAlmost 100 \"disruptions\" - actions that remove or reduce a criminal threat - have been carried out against Putin-linked elites and their enablers, including account freezing orders (AFOs) over accounts held by people closely linked to sanctioned Russians, according to the NCA.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sam Ryder appeared in Cardiff on Saturday afternoon playing live songs to fans and passers-by.\n\nHe said he was visiting different parts of the UK to promote his new album, and announced the performance at very short notice.\n\nDespite the low temperatures, he said the crowd's \"hearts were warm and in good spirits\".", "The inquiry is examining Mr Bayoh's death in police custody in 2015\n\nAn expert witness has criticised the tactics used by police before the confrontation which ended in Sheku Bayoh's death in Kirkcaldy.\n\nJoanne Caffrey said unarmed officers should not have been sent \"sporadically\" to the scene.\n\nInstead, she said the police should have agreed a tactical plan for a \"managed and controlled intervention\".\n\nMs Caffrey, an expert in safer custody, made the comments in a report to the public inquiry into Mr Bayoh's death.\n\nGiving evidence at the hearing in Edinburgh, she also said the approach taken by the first officers at the scene had fallen within the range of tactical options open to them.\n\nMembers of the public called 999 after spotting Mr Bayoh walking through Kirkcaldy on a Sunday morning in May 2015. He was said to have been carrying a knife, behaving erratically and chasing cars.\n\nThe first officers to find him could not see a knife but decided to approach him straight away because they believed he posed a danger to the public.\n\nOfficers Craig Walker and Alan Paton have told the inquiry that Mr Bayoh refused to comply with their commands and walked towards them.\n\nThey used CS and Pava irritant sprays to incapacitate Mr Bayoh but they had no effect and blew back into the officers' faces.\n\nTwo other officers, PC Nicole Short and PC Ashley Tomlinson, then arrived at the scene.\n\nMr Bayoh is alleged to have struck PC Short on the back of the head. Two of the officers have claimed that he stamped on her as she lay on the ground.\n\nThe stamping allegation has been disputed by a civilian eye witness and is so far unsupported by medical or forensic evidence.\n\nPC Tomlinson has said he believed Mr Bayoh had killed PC Short and decided to use potentially lethal force, striking him on the head with his baton.\n\nThe police said Mr Bayoh continued to struggle on the ground, with six officers involved in restraining him. He stopped breathing and later died in hospital. A knife was found near the scene after the incident.\n\nMs Caffrey's 352 page report was published on the inquiry's website after she completed her evidence at this week's public hearings.\n\nIn its executive summary, Ms Caffrey said: \"Unarmed officers should have been deployed to a RV (rendezvous) point to muster and observe until the tactical plan was agreed and a managed and controlled intervention agreed as the tactical plan.\n\n\"Unarmed officers should not attend sporadically as they did. Medical attendance from the outlet should have been considered. Staff should have deployed as a team.\"\n\nMs Caffrey said any use of force should be the minimum required to gain control quickly and place the detainee in a safe position.\n\nNo officer should lay over the torso of a restrained person as it could interfere with breathing, she added.\n\nIn her evidence at the public hearings, Ms Caffrey has also said that sending a dog unit was the best response to an incident involving a moving suspect thought to be armed with a knife.\n\nShe said the first officers at the scene could have monitored Mr Bayoh from a distance and waited for a dog unit to arrive.\n\nThe inquiry has heard that the nearest dog unit was in Edinburgh and would have taken 20 minutes to get there.\n\nIt was dispatched a minute after the first officers had found Mr Bayoh on Kirkcaldy's Hayfield Road.\n\nQuestioned by Roddy Dunlop KC, who is representing the Scottish Police Federation and two of the officers involved in the incident, Miss Caffrey agreed it would have been difficult to have prevented Mr Bayoh from moving away from the scene.\n\nShe also agreed the decision by the officers to approach Mr Bayoh immediately had fallen within the range of tactical options which they could have used.\n\nMr Dunlop asked her: \"If you've got gap closing, if you've got failure to respond to lawful commands, and if you are reasonably of the understanding that he's in possession of a knife, deployment of CS and Pava is a reasonable option open to a reasonable officer?\"\n\nMs Caffrey replied: \"It's one of the tactical options, yes.\"\n\nThe inquiry in Edinburgh is looking into the circumstances of Mr Bayoh's death after he was restrained by police in May 2015, and whether his race was a factor.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How common is Strep A and what are the symptoms to watch out for?\n\nSix children have died with an invasive condition caused by Strep A - including five under 10-year-olds in England since September - the UK Health Security Agency has said.\n\nA girl from Wales has also died. No deaths have been confirmed in Scotland or Northern Ireland.\n\nStrep A infections are normally mild but people can become seriously ill.\n\nParents concerned about their child's symptoms should seek medical advice, the UKHSA has advised.\n\nWhile still uncommon, there has been an increase in invasive Group A Strep cases this year, particularly in children under 10.\n\nA child from Ealing, west London, and another from Ashford in Surrey, are among those who have died after contracting the infection.\n\nA four-year-old boy, named as Muhammad Ibrahim Ali, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, also died last month.\n\nPrimary school pupil Hanna Roap, from Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, has also died from the infection.\n\nInfections caused by Group A Strep bacteria are usually mild with symptoms like a sore throat or skin infections.\n\nThe bug can also cause scarlet fever which can, in the majority of cases, be treated successfully with antibiotics and people make a full recovery.\n\nHowever, in a very small number of cases, Group A Strep infection can get deeper into the body - for example, into the lungs and bloodstream - causing an illness known as invasive Group A Streptococcus (iGAS), which is much harder to treat.\n\nThere are a range of symptoms which may be a sign of an invasive infection, including high fever, poor appetite, dehydration, altered behaviour and feeling very sleepy, according to Dr Colin Brown, deputy director of the UKHSA.\n\nHe has advised parents to be on the lookout for these signs and \"see a doctor as quickly as possible so that their child can be treated and we can stop the infection becoming serious\".\n\n\"Make sure you talk to a health professional if your child is showing signs of deteriorating after a bout of scarlet fever, a sore throat, or a respiratory infection,\" he added.\n\nDuring the last high season for invasive Group A Strep infection, in 2017-18, there were four deaths in children under 10, compared to the five this year during the same time period.\n\nThe latest increase is most likely related to high amounts of the bug circulating and increased social mixing, said the UKHSA.\n\nDr Elizabeth Whittaker, honorary clinical senior lecturer, at Imperial College London, said: \"During the first two years of the pandemic, we saw very little Group A Strep and it has started to circulate again in 2022 as restrictions have been lifted.\n\n\"Usually we see a high number of cases in late spring or early summer, often after chicken pox infections. High numbers at this time of year are unusual and probably occurring as normal seasonality has not yet returned.\n\n\"Tragically, when there are high numbers of infections, the severe cases will also occur. We are seeing more pneumonia than usual, most likely as group A strep infections are coinciding with the peak in winter respiratory viruses which are typical for this time of year.\"\n\nAs part of its investigations, the UKHSA is also examining reports of an increase in chest infections caused by Group A Strep resulting in severe illness over the past few weeks.\n\nThe total number of scarlet fever cases also continues to remain higher than would typically be seen at this time of year, according to the latest data.\n\nThere were 851 cases reported in the week of 14-20 November, compared to an average of 186 for the preceding years.\n\nDr Nathalie MacDermott, lecturer at King's College London, said: \"Prompt treatment of scarlet fever and Strep throat reduce the chances of a child developing invasive group A Strep and reduce the chances of the infection spreading to other children at school or household members.\"\n\nThe symptoms of scarlet fever include a sore throat, a swollen, red tongue, headache, and fever, along with a fine body rash with a sandpapery feel.\n\nOn paler skin, this may look pinkish or red but, on darker skin, it may not have the same colour change.\n\nWhile most children do recover quickly from scarlet fever, if they deteriorate further, parents are advised to trust their instincts and seek urgent medical advice.\n\nUKHSA advises people to call 999 or go to A&E if:\n\nThere have been 2.3 cases of the invasive Strep A per 100,000 children aged one to four in England this year, compared with an average of 0.5 in pre-pandemic seasons of 2017-19, the agency said.\n\nThere have also been 1.1 cases per 100,000 children aged five to nine, compared with a pre-pandemic average over the same period of 0.3.\n• None Strep A: What is strep A and what are the symptoms?", "The G7 group and its allies have officially approved a cap on the price of Russian oil.\n\nIn a joint statement, the G7 and Australia said the price cap would come into force on 5 December or \"very soon thereafter\".\n\nIt comes after the European Union agreed on the price cap after persuading Poland to back it.\n\nThe plan, which stops countries paying more than $60 (€57; £48) a barrel, needed the agreement of all EU states.\n\nPoland announced its support on Friday after being reassured the cap would be kept at 5% lower than the market rate.\n\nA price cap was put forward by the G7 group of nations in September and aims to stop Moscow profiting from oil exports while avoiding a price spike.\n\nIt had been reported that the EU wanted to set the cap at $65-70 but this was rejected by Poland, Lithuania and Estonia as too high.\n\nWarsaw had wanted the value to be as low as possible and had held out while it examined an adjustment mechanism which would keep the cap below the market rate as the price of oil changed.\n\nOn Friday, Russian Urals crude was trading at $64 a barrel.\n\nThe decision to impose a price cap was taken to \"prevent Russia from profiting from its war of aggression against Ukraine,\" the joint statement read.\n\nIt said the move aims to \"support stability in global energy markets and to minimise negative economic spillovers of Russia's war of aggression, especially on low-and middle-income countries, who have felt the impacts of Putin's war disproportionately\".\n\nThe agreement of a price cap comes just days before an EU-wide ban on Russian crude oil imported by sea comes into force, also on 5 December.\n\nThe price cap - which is meant to affect oil exports worldwide - is meant to complement that.\n\nCountries that sign up to the G7-led policy will only be permitted to purchase oil and petroleum products transported via sea that are sold at or below the price cap.\n\nUkraine's western allies plan to deny insurance to tankers delivering Russian oil to countries that do not stick to the price cap. This will make it hard for Russia to sell oil above that price.\n\nG7 finance ministers said in September that their plan to limit the price of Russian crude would reduce Moscow's oil revenues and its ability to \"fund its war of aggression\".\n\nWhite House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby welcomed the agreement of an EU price cap on Friday, saying it would slow Russian President Vladimir Putin's \"war machine\".\n\nRussia denounced the scheme, saying it would not supply those countries which enforced a price cap.\n\nBefore the war, in 2021, more than half of Russia's oil exports went to Europe, according to the International Energy Association. Germany was the largest importer, followed by the Netherlands and Poland.\n\nBut since the war, EU countries have been desperately trying to decrease their dependency. The US has already banned Russian crude oil, while the UK plans to phase it out by the end of the year.\n\nThough the measures will most certainly be felt by Russia, the blow will be partially softened by its move to sell its oil to other markets such as India and China - who are currently the largest single buyers of Russian crude oil.", "Peter Kay played the first of 42 nights at the Manchester Arena to kick off his 110-date tour\n\nComedian Peter Kay was moved to tears as he was given a standing ovation at the start of his first tour for 12 years.\n\nThe crowd chanted his name as he took to the stage at Manchester's AO arena.\n\nHe had to compose himself before telling fans: \"How am I supposed to do comedy now? You'll have me in bits... I can't believe you made me cry.\"\n\nIt was the first of 110 arena dates that the Bolton star will perform over the next two-and-a-half years.\n\nHe had been due to go on tour in 2018, but cancelled that due to \"unforeseen family circumstances\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Peter Kay talks to Zoe Ball: 'I should only be on the news if I'm dead!'\n\nOn Friday, he showed about 20,000 fans in Manchester that he was still the king of making us laugh at seemingly ordinary stuff that we all remember and recognise - and pointing out the ridiculous things about real life.\n\n\"It's stuff that people relate to, but he just makes it so daft. It's so funny,\" said Calum Burns, 23, from Manchester, who was seeing Kay in person for the first time.\n\nOlivia Matthews, also 23, added: \"There's nothing too serious. Everything's light-hearted. That's what we like about him.\n\n\"His last tour was 12 years ago and we were 10 or 11, so we're a new audience coming into it. I've always known him and always liked him, growing up. We've got to see his material, but never live.\"\n\nJill Fraser, 36, from Edinburgh said of Kay's appeal: \"He's got a style of comedy that's just nice and easy, it's inoffensive, it's funny. He's got a lot of energy, and it's just everything you want from a Friday night comedy show.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Fans in Manchester give their verdict on Peter Kay's performance\n\nPaul Stokes, 63, from Wigan, said afterwards: \"He was a little bit overwhelmed when he first came out, but he was excellent.\"\n\n\"He's genuine,\" added Deborah Evitt, 56, from Manchester. \"He's a genuine person. You could tell what he did on that stage, he did from the heart. That's why I enjoyed it.\"\n\nHis down-to-earth, cheeky stand-up style and everyday subject matter haven't changed much.\n\nThere were nostalgic jokes about childhood chocolate bars, TV theme tunes, bingo and baked beans, plus more of his favourite misheard pop lyrics - and a routine putting a clever new spin on his \"garlic bread\" catchphrase.\n\nThe march of tastes and technologies - and the bewilderment that causes among an older generation - have always provided him with rich material.\n\nBut while he's still ridiculing his befuddled elders, Kay is now also trying to get his head around the habits of his own children, with their reliance on devices and online deliveries.\n\nHe felt freshest when poking fun at both modern life and himself - whether that was highlighting the challenges of ordering from Just Eat, or the perils of taking intimate photos to send to a GP.\n\nHe became Britain's most popular stand-up comedian by being rude enough to avoid being bland, but not so offensive or controversial that he alienated people.\n\nThis time, there were occasions where he sailed close to political incorrectness, although he was at pains to claim he wanted to steer clear of cancel culture territory.\n\nHe didn't answer why he retreated from the spotlight - but we never expected, or really wanted him to, given the night's celebratory air. People were just glad to have him back.\n\nAnd a spectacular and big-budget (by stand-up standards) final act took his love of pop culture nostalgia and silliness to new crowd-pleasing heights.\n\nKay returned to the arena where he worked as a steward when it opened in 1995\n\nKay has made occasional live appearances since scrapping his last tour, but this set of dates is the first time most fans have seen him live for more than a decade.\n\nThe 49-year-old will play 41 more times at the Manchester venue, the biggest arena in the UK, culminating with his final scheduled tour date on 25 July 2025.\n\nThe tour will see him play 27 times at London's O2 arena - appearing there once a month between now and February 2025.\n\nHe will also visit cities including Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Belfast. The current 110-night total is only just short of the 113 dates he played in 2010-11, which broke the world record for the biggest-selling comedy tour ever, playing to more than 1.1 million people.\n\nThere was huge demand when tickets for these shows went on sale last month. He said he decided to keep the cost of the cheapest seats at £35 - the same as they were on his last tour - because of the cost of living crisis.\n\n\"You've got to meet people halfway. It's bad times, plus that's why people need a laugh,\" he recently told BBC Radio 2's Zoe Ball. The cost rises to £150, including fees, for the best seats.", "Glasgow was dressed up as 1960s New York for the latest Indiana Jones film\n\nScenes from the new Indiana Jones movie which was partly filmed in Glasgow have been broadcast for the first time.\n\nThe city was dressed up as an American street during filming for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in summer 2021.\n\nA new trailer shows action sequences, including 80-year-old Harrison Ford riding a horse through New York City and on to subway tracks.\n\nThe horseback chase was filmed in Glasgow where a body double for Ford was seen riding through a parade scene.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Lucasfilm This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nOther scenes in the trailer show a younger, de-aged version of the world-famous fictional archaeologist as well as high-speed car chases and multiple shoot-outs.\n\nFord has reprised his role as the iconic adventurer in the film, more than 40 years after playing the same character in Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981.\n\nThe cast also includes Mads Mikkelsen and Antonio Banderas, while Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays Indy's goddaughter Helena.\n\nGlasgow city centre was almost unrecognisable with star-spangled banners, bunting and vintage shop fronts on display throughout the filming.\n\nIn a set built over the course of month, its streets were transformed into 1960s New York.\n\nAnd there were hints to the plot visible to passers-by.\n\nOne sign read \"New York welcomes Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins\" - a reference to the Apollo 11 astronauts who were the first humans to land on the moon in 1969.\n\nOther vintage shop fronts could be seen with \"welcome home\" banners in the window.\n\nA body double for Harrison Ford was seen riding a horse through a parade in Glasgow\n\nIn the trailer, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is seen riding the horse\n\nThe film will be released on 30 June. It follows earlier sequels Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984); Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).", "Almost 20% of unaccompanied child migrants from Albania taken in by Kent County Council this year have disappeared, the BBC has found.\n\nThe local authority took in 197 Albanian children up to 31 October, 39 of whom have gone missing.\n\nEcpat UK, which campaigns to protect children from exploitation, said the figures were very concerning.\n\nThe council said it had worked closely with the Home Office and police to safeguard vulnerable children.\n\nThe figures were obtained by the BBC via a Freedom of Information request.\n\nThe council said 197 Albanian children processed at the Home Office's Kent Intake Unit came into its care between 1 January and 31 October.\n\nIt added that, as of 7 November, 39 were recorded as missing. However, it said some of those children would have since turned 18.\n\nA government spokesperson said it took the issue of missing children \"extremely seriously\".\n\nIt added that it works \"closely with local authorities to ensure vulnerable children are supported\".\n\nGovernment figures collated by the BBC show 44,122 people have crossed on small boats so far this year, compared with 28,461 who arrived in 2021.\n\nThis contributed to overcrowding at the Manston processing centre in Kent, which at one point was holding more than double its capacity, at about 4,000 people.\n\nThe rising number of diphtheria cases among asylum seekers who have recently arrived in the UK has also been a concern.\n\nMeanwhile, a government plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda is currently on hold as it faces a legal challenge.\n\nFor a local authority which is taking on the role of a child's guardian, just one young person going missing is one too many.\n\nFor Kent County Council, to not know the whereabouts of 39 of the Albanian children it was tasked with caring for must be extremely worrying.\n\nThe council says candidly that it can be very difficult to prevent some children from going missing.\n\nIt's trying to identify proactively those who might be at risk of exploitation, and, when missing children are found, it will carry out a debrief to see if lessons can be learned.\n\nIt has certainly felt under pressure in recent years over the number of asylum-seeking children it has been required to take on, at times refusing to accept any more, saying services were at breaking point.\n\nNow, more unaccompanied children are being dispersed around the country. But the challenge of protecting those children from potential harm remains very real.\n\nMore than 12,000 migrants from Albania have reached the UK by boat so far this year - an increase of almost 4,000% compared with 2021.\n\nThe issue has been highlighted by Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, who said that on some small boats 80% of those on board were from Albania.\n\nLaura Durán, head of policy, advocacy and research for Ecpat UK said this was a \"really high\" number of missing children.\n\nShe said: \"We're really concerned they are at risk of exploitation or have effectively been trafficked.\n\n\"They could be facing labour exploitation in different industries such as construction or car washes; they could be criminally exploited in drug distribution or in cannabis farms, or they could be sexually exploited.\"\n\nMigrants rest at an unnamed Home Office facility in Kent\n\nIn a statement, Kent County Council said it had seen a \"significant increase\" in the number of unaccompanied Albanian children referred to its services.\n\nIt said: \"Whilst all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are vulnerable to exploitation... research and experience evidences that some nationalities are particularly vulnerable and can go missing from local authority care very quickly.\n\n\"Kent County Council has used both established safeguarding protocols, including the National Referral Mechanism, and initiated multi-agency strategies to minimise the risks for these children as much as possible.\n\n\"The council continues to take a proactive role in safeguarding all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in its care.\"", "Finnish PM Sanna Marin has said Europe is \"not strong enough\" to stand up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on its own, and has had to rely on US support.\n\nDuring a visit to Australia, the leader of the pending Nato member said Europe's defences must be strengthened.\n\n\"I must be brutally honest with you, Europe isn't strong enough right now,\" she said. \"We would be in trouble without the United States.\"\n\nThe US is by far the largest provider of military assistance to Ukraine.\n\nSince the start of the war in February, it has committed $18.6bn (€17.7bn; £15.2bn) in support, a research briefing last month by the UK's House of Commons said.\n\nThe second largest donor is the European Union, followed by the UK, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy says. But their contributions are dwarfed by those of the US.\n\nAnd with European countries' military stocks depleting as they supply Ukraine, Ms Marin said more needed to be done to bolster European defences.\n\nSpeaking at the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney on Friday, Ms Marin said: \"The United States has given a lot of weapons, a lot of financial aid, a lot of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and Europe isn't strong enough yet.\"\n\nShe added that Europe must make sure it is \"building those capabilities when it comes to European defence, European defence industry, and making sure that we could cope in different kinds of situations\".\n\nWhile in office, US President Donald Trump regularly criticised European countries in Nato for not spending enough on defence.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In 2018, Donald Trump told Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg that Germany is \"totally controlled by Russia\"\n\nIn 2020, it was estimated the US spent just over 3.7% of its GDP on defence - while the average for Nato's European members (and Canada) was 1.77%.\n\nDuring her talk, Prime Minister Marin went on to criticise some European countries' attempts at building closer ties with Russia in recent decades.\n\n\"For a long time, Europe was building a strategy for Russia... to buy energy from Russia and to closen those economic ties, and we thought that this would prevent the war,\" she said.\n\nBut she said that mindset was \"proven entirely wrong\".\n\nEuropean countries should have listened to states like Poland and the Baltics, she said, who had warned that Russia does not \"care about their economic ties, they don't care about the sanctions, they don't care about any of that\" when it comes to invading Ukraine.\n\nWide-reaching sanctions have been introduced by the EU and the US, among others, with the aim of limiting the resources Russia has to continue the war.\n\nMany European Union and Nato member countries have also pledged to increase their defence spending following the start of the war.\n\nIn February, Germany announced an extra $113bn (£84bn) for its army, and a constitutional commitment to Nato's military spending target of 2% of GDP.\n\nIn June, the UK - under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson - said its defence spending would hit 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade.\n\nAll Nato members must commit to 2% to \"to ensure the alliance's military readiness,\" Nato says. And there have been recent calls on Nato members to increase their defence spending to 3% of GDP.\n\nFinland, which shares a long border with Russia, formally applied to join Nato in May. Accession protocols were signed in July, although they are yet to be ratified by all other members.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dean Burns, whose daughter Camila has Strep A, urged parents to get their children checked if they have concerns\n\nThe father of a four-year-old girl left fighting for her life in hospital after contracting Strep A has said they are \"hoping and praying for a miracle\".\n\nCamila Rose Burns, four, has been on a ventilator at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool since Monday.\n\nSix children have died with an invasive form of the Strep A bacterial infection in recent months.\n\nDean Burns urged parents with any concerns about their children's health to \"scoop them up\" and to get checked.\n\nExperts say there are more Strep A cases than usual this year.\n\nStrep A infections are usually mild, causing illness ranging from a sore throat to scarlet fever, but they can develop into a more serious invasive Group A Strep (iGAS) infection.\n\nHealth officials confirmed on Friday that six children had died with iGAS - including five under-10-year-olds in England - since September. Hanna Roap, a primary school pupil from Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, in Wales, has also died and her family said their hearts have been \"broken into a million pieces\".\n\nNo deaths have been confirmed in Scotland or Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Burns, from Bolton, told BBC News Camila was showing signs of improvement, but he fears \"anything could take her back the other way\".\n\nIn a message to other parents, he added: \"Any doubts, if they don't look right, just scoop them up and take them [to seek medical advice]. Get them checked out rapid.\"\n\nDean Burns said he has been in hospital by his daughter Camila's side since Monday\n\nMr Burns said Camila fell ill on Saturday and was taken to hospital in Bolton the following morning, after he realised she was hallucinating.\n\nHe said her condition had deteriorated so much by Monday morning that she had to be put on a ventilator, before being transferred to the specialist children's hospital for treatment - where her family have been by her bedside since.\n\nDescribing his daughter as \"our special little girl\", Mr Burns said the family \"just have to keep hoping and praying for a miracle so that she heals and comes back to us\".\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said the last time there was an intensive period of Strep A infection was in 2017-18, when there were four deaths in England in the equivalent time frame.\n\nThe rise in Strep A cases and deaths is most likely due to high amounts of the bacteria circulating and increased social mixing, it said.\n\nSpeaking earlier on Saturday, infectious diseases paediatrician Prof Beate Kampmann said parents should seek medical help if they were worried.\n\nShe explained Strep A caused \"an asymptomatic infection in the majority of people, then there is a sore throat, then scarlet fever, and in a very, very small minority will there be invasive Group A Strep\".\n\nShe said there had been three times as much scarlet fever this year than was seen pre-pandemic, adding: \"It starts off with a high fever, very sore throat and very red tongue, which has this sort of papillae - eventually developing a rash which feels a bit like sandpaper.\n\n\"The rash starts in the elbows and behind the neck. It tends to then peel after about 10 days because the disease is caused by a toxin that is produced by this bacterium.\"\n\nProf Kampmann said if children became really unwell, or if parents were in doubt, they should seek help. She also said children with a fever should be kept off school.\n\nShe continued: \"The good news is that Group A Strep is very, very treatable with penicillin.\"\n\nBut she added, \"if your child is deteriorating in any way, you feel that they're not eating, drinking, being quite flat and lethargic you need to take them to the doctors and to get them checked out\".\n\nThe latest data shows there were 851 cases of scarlet fever reported in the week of 14-20 November, compared to an average of 186 cases a week for the preceding years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How common is Strep A and what are the symptoms to watch out for?\n\nVirologist Dr Chris Smith said the general rise in Strep A infections could be due to a drop in immunity following the pandemic.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast: \"There's something about the vulnerability of the population and particularly younger people.\n\n\"What has changed is that younger people have been through three years, almost, of relative isolation from each other.\n\n\"They haven't caught the normal infections at the normal rates and at the normal times that normal children of that sort of age bracket would have done.\"\n\nThere have been 2.3 cases of the invasive Strep A disease per 100,000 children aged one to four in England this year, compared with an average of 0.5 in pre-pandemic seasons of 2017-19, the UKHSA said.\n\nThere have also been 1.1 cases per 100,000 children aged five to nine, compared with a pre-pandemic average over the same period of 0.3.\n\nUKHSA advises people to call 999 or go to A&E if:\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your thoughts and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Matthew George (left) and John Muldoon (right) were convicted after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow\n\nTwo men have been found guilty of a catalogue of physical and sexual abuse against vulnerable children over three decades at a former residential school.\n\nMatthew George and John Muldoon carried out their crimes while working at Kerelaw School in North Ayrshire.\n\nFormer art teacher George, 73, was convicted of 39 offences while Muldoon, 69, who worked in the school's secure unit, was found guilty of 16.\n\nThe High Court in Glasgow heard the pair targeted 28 victims.\n\nThe crimes were committed at the council-run school in Stevenston between 1975 and 2000. They will be sentenced next month.\n\nIt is the second time the pair have been convicted of offences at school\n\nThe new convictions followed a fresh investigation into how youngsters were treated at the school.\n\nJurors heard that physical and sexual attacks were \"rife\" with children too scared to report their ordeals at the time.\n\nDuring the trial victims spoke in person and through recorded evidence of being abused by George at the school and at his home in the seaside town of Largs.\n\nAs well as horrific sexual abuse, the court heard of physical violence which included children being put down holes while also being punched and hit.\n\nGeorge - who also taught physical education - was described by one victim as the \"leader of the boys\" and someone who liked to \"show off\" his karate moves.\n\nProsecutor Paul Kearney KC said: \"Evidence shows us that violence was rife and tolerated by staff.\"\n\nGeorge replied: \"Violence was not rife - absolutely not the case.\"\n\nGeorge also denied one of his \"methods\" was to lure victims to his home even though some who could vividly recall what it looked like.\n\nThe former teacher, who worked at Kerelaw for 29 years, was mainly convicted of indecent and physical assaults. His offences involved 21 boys and girls.\n\nMuldoon, of Irvine, committed crimes against nine children including the rape of two girls.\n\nHe also attacked one boy with a mallet and put a lit cigarette on one girl's arm.\n\nTwo of the victims were abused by both men.\n\nA number of the victims in the case have since died before they could see justice being served.\n\nA victim of abuse at Kerelaw school has told how his ordeal left him \"always scared\".\n\nThomas was 12 when he arrived at the council-run residential school in Stevenson, North Ayrshire, in June 1982.\n\nHe told BBC Scotland how he became a pupil after he began sniffing glue and engaging in minor criminality, such as shoplifting.\n\nHis family life had been blighted by alcoholism and, as he was small for his age, he became an immediate target for bullies.\n\nThomas' first interaction with Matt George came during a staff versus pupils football match.\n\nNow 53, he recalled how he put the ball through the teacher's legs, leading to George being mocked by other teachers and pupils.\n\nThomas said: \"He took it as a sign of disrespect and from then on, he launched a campaign of violence and hatred towards me.\"\n\nThomas' name has been changed to protect his identity. Read his story here\n\nThe judge Lady Drummond told the pair: \"You have been convicted of charges involving sexual and physical abuse on children in your care over decades.\n\n\"You will be sent to prison for a significant period of time.\"\n\nGeorge and Muldoon were previously jailed in 2006 for abuse at Kerelaw for 10 years and two-and-a-half years respectively.\n\nBut they both returned to the dock in 2017 amid new allegations.\n\nThis led to a two-month trial at the High Court in Glasgow, which saw jurors convict them again on Friday.\n\nThe pair had been on bail, but were remanded in custody ahead of sentencing next month in Livingston.\n\nThe school - run by Strathclyde Regional Council and then Glasgow City Council - closed in 2006.\n\nAfter the verdicts, Mr Kearney said eight victims had written statements about their ordeals for judge Lady Drummond to read.\n\nAfter the verdict Det Insp Ross Black thanked everyone who came forward.\n\nHe said: \"Their engagement, bravery and commitment helped secure the verdict today.\n\n\"We hope that people can now be confident in coming forward to police knowing that no matter the passage of time, justice like today's verdict has underpinned what can be achieved.\"\n\nDet Insp Black said the force was committed to bringing those responsible for such times to justice.\n\nHe added: \"We are, and will continue, to investigate all aspects of child abuse in these former residential care establishments and I would urge anyone who may have experienced abuse at the school but not yet come forward to police to do so.\"", "The classical Greek sculptures were removed and put on display in London's British Museum in the 19th Century\n\nAn agreement to return the Parthenon Sculptures - better known in the UK as the Elgin Marbles - is at \"an advanced stage\", according to a Greek newspaper.\n\nTa Nea reports that British Museum chair George Osborne, the former chancellor, has been holding secret talks with the Greek prime minister.\n\nGreece has called for the return of the iconic sculptures for decades.\n\nThe British Museum said it would \"talk to anyone, including the Greek government\" to find partnership.\n\nThe Parthenon Sculptures are arguably the most high-profile artworks in the increasingly contested debate about whether museums should return items to their countries of origin.\n\nThey were removed from the Parthenon temple in Athens in the early 19th Century by the British soldier and diplomat, Lord Elgin. The sculptures were then bought by the British government in 1816 and placed in the British Museum.\n\nThe marble figures are part of a frieze that decorated the 2,500-year old temple, made by the sculptor Phidias.\n\nThe Parthenon Gallery at the Acropolis Museum was built more than a decade ago to house the sculptures. The exhibition combines the original marble sculptures with plaster copies of those held in the British Museum and other foreign museums.\n\nThe sculptures were originally created as part of the iconic Parthenon temple in Athens\n\nAccording to the Ta Nea daily newspaper, behind-the-scenes meetings with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis first took place in London in November 2021.\n\nMr Osborne held \"exploratory talks\" with Mr Mitsotakis about the fate of the classical Greek sculptures at the Greek ambassador's residence in Mayfair. He has since met the Greek foreign minister and the Greek state minister.\n\nThe paper reports that this week, while Mr Mitsotakis was in London, he again met Mr Osborne - this time at London's Berkeley Hotel.\n\nA Greek insider has told the paper: \"An agreement is 90% complete, but a critical 10% remains unresolved. It's hard to get there, but it's not impossible. Significant progress has been made.\"\n\nIn June, Mr Osborne told LBC \"there is a deal to be done\" over the Parthenon Sculptures, if both Britain and Greece \"approach this without a load of preconditions, without a load of red lines\".\n\nThe works traditionally referred to as the Elgin Marbles are increasingly becoming known as the Parthenon Sculptures\n\nA British Museum spokesperson said it has previously \"publicly called for a new Parthenon Partnership with Greece\".\n\n\"We are seeking new positive, long-term partnerships with countries and communities around the world, and that of course includes Greece\".\n\nHowever, in what is clearly the biggest block to any deal, the British Museum also said \"we operate within the law and we're not going to dismantle our great collection as it tells a unique story of our common humanity\".\n\nEarlier this week, London's Horniman Museum and Gardens signed over ownership of 72 items in its collection - the so-called Benin Bronzes - to Nigeria. The artworks were looted from Benin city, in what is now modern-day Nigeria, by British troops in 1897.\n\nHead of the museum Nick Merriman said \"we're seeing a tipping point\" around restitution and museums acknowledging their colonial history.\n\nThe Horniman was able to act because, as a charity, it is bound by different rules from Britain's national institutions.\n\nThe British Museum is prevented by law from \"deaccessioning\" items in its collection. That would include its 900 Benin Bronzes as well as the Parthenon Sculptures.\n\nIn a poll, 54% of the British public said they thought the sculptures should be returned\n\nI reported in October about efforts by former culture minister Lord Vaizey to look at getting the law changed.\n\nThe UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has said: \"The British Museum is prevented by law from removing objects from its collections, except in some narrow circumstances. The government has no plans to change this act.\"\n\nLord Vaizey is now chair of the Parthenon Project, an organisation founded by the Greek businessman John Lefas.\n\nThis summer it commissioned a poll of nearly 2,000 people asking whether the Parthenon Sculptures should return to Greece. While 16% of the British public thought they should stay in Britain, 54% thought they should be returned.\n\nThe strongest reason for supporting the return was because they \"rightfully belong to Greece\".\n\nThe Parthenon Project is campaigning for a \"win-win\" solution over the sculptures. News of the talks, a spokesperson said, shows that \"a solution to this long-standing issue is finally within reach\".\n\nThe project wants \"a deal that is beneficial to both Greece and Britain, centred on a cultural partnership between the two countries\".\n\nTa Nea reports that such a partnership is at the heart of the negotiations. The suggestion is that the sculptures would go back to Greece, and, in return, the British Museum would host rotating exhibitions of Greek treasures never seen before outside the country.\n\nA key factor would be the terms of that return though. The newspaper says British officials have proposed that London and Athens could \"share\" the sculptures. A \"partial return\" has also reportedly been proposed.\n\nIt is unlikely, though, that anything other than an official, permanent return would be enough to satisfy the Greek government.", "Rapper Pa Salieu has been nominated for a Brit and was named the BBC's Sound of 2021\n\nAward-winning rapper Pa Salieu has been jailed for his part in \"mob\" violence shortly after the fatal stabbing of his best friend.\n\nThe artist was captured on CCTV using a tree branch to repeatedly hit a lone 23-year-old man in Coventry in 2018 who spent 10 days in hospital.\n\nSalieu previously admitted violent disorder and was jailed for 33 months.\n\nDuring wider violence, Fidel Glasgow - grandson of Specials singer Neville Staple - was stabbed to death.\n\nNobody has been charged with the 21-year-old's murder following a music event at Coventry's Club M in the early hours of 1 September 2018.\n\nSalieu, who was named the BBC's Sound of 2021, was cleared of a second count of violent disorder at Warwick Crown Court, relating to the mass brawl minutes earlier that led to Mr Glasgow's death.\n\nFidel Glasgow, 21, died in disorder in Coventry city centre in 2018\n\nThe 25-year-old from Hillfields, appearing in court under his full name Pa Salieu Gaye, was convicted of possessing a bottle as an offensive weapon after telling jurors he smashed and brandished it to defend himself.\n\nPassing sentence on Friday, Judge Peter Cooke said: \"Anyone harbouring the view that you are a young man being hard done by should pause to reflect that despite having a conviction for carrying a knife three years earlier - which resulted in a suspended sentence - in the course of these events you used two bottles and a stick.\n\n\"It was your intention to turn a bottle into a jagged weapon.\"\n\nFollowing his arrest, jurors heard that Salieu told police Mr Glasgow was his best friend and then exercised his right to silence.\n\nThe judge added that Salieu and others involved in the violence had acted like a \"mob\".\n\n\"The case illustrates the dangers for any young man of acting with a pack mentality and getting involved in mass disorder,\" he said.\n\n\"If you do that somebody is likely to end up seriously injured or dead.\n\n\"What happened to Fidel could have happened to anyone in that melee.\"\n\nSalieu was one of seven people sentenced at the court on Friday.\n\nProsecutor Oliver Weetch said Ikemefuna Okosisi-Ezeanyika, known as Bobby, was chased away from the scene of Mr Glasgow's murder by a group including Salieu.\n\nPa Salieu was sentenced at Warwick Crown Court on Friday\n\nCCTV showed the rapper using a piece of wood to strike him, before he was brought to the ground in nearby Queen Victoria Road, near Coventry's inner ring road.\n\nHe was also seen hurling a bottle and climbing railings as Mr Okosisi-Ezeanyika was pursued.\n\nMr Okosisi-Ezeanyika was treated in intensive care after suffering a brain injury and needed emergency surgery on a wound to his abdomen.\n\nIn mitigation, defence barrister Jonathan Woodcock said the death of Mr Glasgow was not the only time he had lost a friend.\n\nHe stopped another defendant attacking the victim and \"was not party to the most serious aspects of the violence,\" he added.\n\nThe attack on Mr Okosisi-Ezeanyika occurred after those \"running him to ground\" had witnessed him being attacked near Club M, the judge said.\n\nSalieu was sentenced to 27 months for violent disorder and six months to be served consecutively for possession of an offensive weapon.\n\nThe judge added: \"I want you to focus on getting your life back on track... coming out and making the most of your talents, which I trust you will be able to do.\"\n\nThe six other defendants, all from Coventry and Warwickshire, were jailed with sentences ranging from four years to 18 months.\n\nWest Midlands Police Det Insp Michelle Allen said: \"This violent disorder led to the tragic death of a young man. We are still actively investigating Fidel's murder and we remain in contact with his family to keep them fully updated with developments.\n\n\"Although these convictions are not in relation to the attack on Fidel, it is our dearest wish to hold someone to account for his death and we will follow any new leads.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Father Dominic Cawdell says his church's weekly community dinner is some people's only hot meal that week\n\nA vicar who has been brought to tears by the poverty in his community is one of hundreds of people in Wales providing free Christmas Day meals to those who may otherwise go without.\n\nSt Peter's in Holywell, Flintshire, hosts free meals every Monday and will feed about 80 on Christmas Day.\n\n\"It's heartbreaking,\" said its vicar Father Dominic Cawdell.\n\n\"I spend most Monday evenings in tears and I'm not a particularly soppy person.\"\n\n\"Lots were saying to me it was their only hot meal this week,\" he said.\n\n\"We had some horrendous stories of people, especially people with children, saying [the children] get the hot food and I get what's left.\n\n\"It's just heartbreaking to imagine that there are people in our town who just can't afford what you imagine to be the very basic level of what they need.\"\n\nThis year will be the church's eighth free Christmas Day lunch event following a two-year gap during the Covid pandemic when they offered a lunch delivery instead.\n\n\"We're booking up quicker than ever before for Christmas dinner and we've had requests for the first time ever from larger groups, from families that just simply can't imagine how they'll cook it themselves,\" Father Cawdell added.\n\nThe New Life Church in Cardigan provides a free Christmas Day lunch\n\nFather Cawdell said he looked forward to the Christmas Day three-course lunch which ends in a sing-song.\n\n\"What I love most about it is that it's a group of people that you would never get together in any of that sphere - you'll have tables of people that might have addiction problems that are really struggling, then the families that we work with every week, you might have elderly people who have nowhere else to go, people from church that wouldn't have anywhere else to be and the helpers who all eat together,\" he said.\n\nHe said pre-booking was helpful but no-one would be turned away on Christmas Day.\n\nPlumber Pete Humphreys is also running a free Christmas Day lunch event at Yellow and Blue community hub in Wrexham.\n\n\"People are scared,\" he said.\n\n\"They don't know how they're going to control their heating bills... a lot of people are choosing food over warmth.\"\n\nHe said he had witnessed people in his community \"going back to the very basics and trying to survive\", adding: \"It's getting scary out there.\"\n\nNewport brewery Tiny Rebel will be handing out hot drinks, mince pies and takeaway dinners\n\nPete set up the non-profit social enterprise in 2016 after losing his father to cancer saw him \"on a bit of a downwards spiral with my mental health\".\n\n\"I've gone through homelessness so I've got a bit of experience and an affinity with the people on the streets and in temporary housing,\" he said.\n\nThe hub's activities include a men's mental health group, a veteran's group, a community larder and it has also been collecting Christmas presents for the children of those in need.\n\n\"People are cutting down on anything that's enjoyable because they've got to get the basics right,\" he said.\n\nThe hub's free Christmas meal event is in its third year.\n\nTiny Rebel's Community Christmas Dinner project is in its third year\n\n\"I I look forward to Christmas Day now because of helping others, whereas I never used to look forward to Christmas Day before because I lost my dad,\" he said.\n\nHe said the event was open to everyone.\n\n\"We don't have any sort of labels attached, so if you're feeling lonely or isolated and you just want to spend Christmas with other people that care then we open up the doors.\"", "The first text message was sent to this model of phone - the Orbitel 901.\n\nThe text message is celebrating its 30th birthday - the first was sent to a mobile phone by a Vodafone engineer in Berkshire in the UK on 3 December 1992.\n\nIt was sent in order to test out the tech, and read \"Merry Christmas\".\n\nNeil Papworth sent it to one of the firm's bosses, Richard Jarvis, who was at a Christmas party. He did not get a reply.\n\nMr Jarvis's phone, a new-to-the-market Orbitel 901, weighed 2.1kg - roughly the same as 12 standard iPhone 14s.\n\nAt its peak, phone users exchanged billions of SMS - or Short Message Service - messages every year, and in 2010 the word \"texting\" entered the dictionary.\n\nThe service is still used, although internet-based, encrypted messaging platforms like WhatsApp and iMessage are far more popular.\n\nAccording to Statista, there were 40 billion SMS messages sent in 2021 in the UK, down from 150bn in 2012. By contrast, there are 100 billion WhatsApp messages sent worldwide every day.\n\nThe service is still used by the NHS to send out appointment reminders, and by some firms as a form of log-in authentication, where a number sequence is sent which has to be entered into its website.\n\nHowever, SMS messages are not end-to-end encrypted, and therefore not considered to be secure.\n\nOriginally, an SMS could only be text, up to 160 characters long. The concept was born in the early 1980s but it was almost 10 years before one would be sent to a mobile device.\n\nMost early phones had numeric keyboards, with two or three letters attached to each number - so for example to type the letter C, the number one key had to be pressed three times.\n\n\"Handset manufacturers didn't include proper QWERTY keyboards because mobiles were only for making telephone calls and receiving messages, but not sending them,\" said Nigel Linge, professor of telecommunications at the University of Salford.\n\nBen Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, recalled giving training sessions on how to send and receive text messages.\n\n\"It took off like wildfire and before long people were getting so fast at texting on phones, they could pretty much touch-type on a numeric keyboard,\" he said.\n\n\"These days people spend more time looking at their phones than talking into them. SMS was arguably the catalyst for that transition.\"\n\nYou can follow Zoe Kleinman on Twitter (@zsk).\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by BBC News This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nCameroon defeated a Brazil side resting a host of regulars but still saw their World Cup campaign ended after an entertaining encounter at Lusail Stadium.\n\nVincent Aboubakar header the winner in stoppage time but his joy immediately turned to disappointment as he was given a second yellow card for taking his shirt off.\n\nCameroon had acquitted themselves well throughout as Bryan Mbuemo brought an outstanding save from Manchester City's Ederson, deputising for Liverpool keeper Alisson, but Switzerland's victory over Serbia ended the African team's chances of reaching the last 16.\n\nWith his side having already qualified after their first two games, Brazil coach Tite made 10 changes and Arsenal's Gabriel Martinelli took the chance to impress with a fine performance in which he was thwarted on several occasions by Cameroon keeper Devis Epassy.\n\nThe pre-tournament favourites finished top of Group G despite the loss and now meet South Korea in the knockout phase after their dramatic late win against Portugal saw them edge out Uruguay, who beat Ghana, on goals scored.\n\nBrazil were in the comfort zone after winning their group games against Serbia and Switzerland, affording coach Tite the opportunity to shuffle his powerful squad while demonstrating the range of resources at his disposal.\n\nThey may have lost this game, but with qualification assured Tite may not be too disappointed at the defeat as it did not inflict any damage on their group standing, and he now has fresh legs for when the knockout stage starts.\n\nArsenal's 21-year-old Martinelli was Brazil's outstanding performer, with Cameroon keeper Epassy producing fine stops from an early header, and a shot destined for the top corner in the second half.\n\nMartinelli's tireless running combined with quality proved a thorn in Cameroon's side and made an eloquent case for his inclusion should Tite wish to make changes as the World Cup progresses.\n\nBrazil have shown enough in their two victories to justify the pre-tournament optimism surrounding their chances - now they will hope Neymar, who acclaimed the fans with his team-mates on the pitch after the final whistle, can recover from the ankle injury sustained against Serbia in time to make his expected contribution.\n\nCameroon may be out of the World Cup but Rigobert Song's side certainly added to the quality and excitement that has marked the group stages here in Qatar.\n\nBrazil had most of the chances at Lusail Stadium but Cameroon were always in the game and posed a threat, which came to fruition when the extrovert Aboubakar directed his header past Ederson during nine minutes of stoppage time.\n\nHe paid the price for ripping his shirt off in celebration as referee Ismail Elfath almost apologetically pulled out a second yellow card, followed by the red.\n\nGoalkeeper Epassy also distinguished himself, particularly at the expense of Martinelli, to earn the award as man of the match.\n\nCameroon were ultimately undone by their opening-game defeat against Switzerland but showed character and quality to fight back from 3-1 down to earn a 3-3 draw against Serbia, and then beat mighty Brazil in front of 85,986 fans here in Lusail.\n\n\"The Indomitable Lions\" may be going home but they have certainly had their moments in Qatar.\n• None Attempt missed. Bruno Guimarães (Brazil) right footed shot from very close range is too high. Assisted by Marquinhos.\n• None Attempt missed. Gabriel Martinelli (Brazil) header from very close range is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Marquinhos with a headed pass.\n• None Attempt saved. Bruno Guimarães (Brazil) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Marquinhos with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Pedro (Brazil) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Gabriel Martinelli with a cross.\n• None Second yellow card to Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon) for excessive celebration.\n• None Goal! Cameroon 1, Brazil 0. Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon) header from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Jerome Ngom Mbekeli with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Pedro (Brazil) left footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Raphinha.\n• None Bruno Guimarães (Brazil) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt blocked. Bruno Guimarães (Brazil) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is blocked. Assisted by Raphinha with a cross.\n• None Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Gabriel Martinelli (Brazil) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Christopher Wooh (Cameroon) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Karl Toko-Ekambi with a cross following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticised a price cap set by his Western allies on Russian oil exports, calling it \"weak\".\n\nThe cap, approved on Friday, is aimed at stopping countries paying more than $60 (£48) for a barrel of seaborne Russian crude oil.\n\nRussia says it will not accept a cap on prices for its oil exports.\n\nThe measure - due to come into force on Monday - intensifies Western pressure on Russia over the invasion.\n\nBut Mr Zelensky called the price cap \"a weak position\" and not \"serious\" enough to damage to the Russian economy.\n\n\"Russia has already caused huge losses to all countries of the world by deliberately destabilising the energy market,\" he said in his nightly address.\n\nIt is \"only a matter of time when stronger tools will have to be used\", he added.\n\nThe price cap was put forward in September by the G7 group of industrialised nations (the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the EU) in a bid to hit Moscow's ability to finance the war in Ukraine.\n\nIn a joint statement, the G7, the EU and Australia said the decision was taken to \"prevent Russia from profiting from its war of aggression against Ukraine\".\n\nOn Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow had prepared for the move but would \"not accept\" the cap.\n\nThough the measures will most certainly be felt by Russia, the blow will be partially softened by its move to sell its oil to other markets such as India and China - which are currently the largest single buyers of Russian crude oil.\n\nThe agreement of a price cap comes just days before an EU-wide ban on Russian crude oil imported by sea comes into force, also on 5 December.\n\nThe price cap - which is meant to affect oil exports worldwide - is meant to complement that.\n\nCountries which sign up to the G7-led policy will only be permitted to purchase oil and petroleum products transported via sea that are sold at or below the price cap.\n\nUkraine's Western allies also plan to deny insurance to tankers delivering Russian oil to countries that do not stick to the price cap. This will make it hard for Russia to sell oil above that price.\n\nBefore the war, in 2021, more than half of Russia's oil exports went to Europe, according to the International Energy Association. Germany was the largest importer, followed by the Netherlands and Poland.\n\nBut since the war, EU countries have been desperately trying to decrease their dependency. The US has already banned Russian crude oil, while the UK plans to phase it out by the end of the year.", "\"It's only three or four hours that we have electricity... can you help with finding a 60kw generator?\"\n\nA man's video plea is one of many coming from Ukraine, where Russia is bombing energy infrastructure as winter begins to bite.\n\nPeople in Bryn, Neath Port Talbot, have answered the call, collecting donations each Friday.\n\nWhen they gather enough, \"we load a van up and they go directly to Ukraine... to distressed families and two orphanages\", said Gaynor Bowen, from the the town's action group.", "The crash happened on St Helen's Road, Swansea, on Friday at about 20:00 GMT\n\nA motorcyclist has died and another motorist has been taken to hospital following a crash after an attempted police traffic stop.\n\nThe 19-year-old died at the scene in St Helen's Road, Swansea, on Friday at about 20:00 GMT.\n\nPolice watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), said it was investigating after South Wales Police referred itself to the organisation.\n\nThe force said its thoughts were with the man's family.\n\nThe IOPC said: \"The collision involved a motorcycle and another vehicle, both being driven by members of the public, following an attempted traffic stop by South Wales Police.\n\n\"The motorcyclist sadly died at the scene and the driver of the second vehicle was taken to hospital for treatment.\"\n\nIt said it was informed of the incident last night and sent investigators to the scene.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the bereaved family at this difficult time and we have been in touch with them to offer our condolences and explain our role,\" it said.\n\n\"We will also be in touch with the driver of the other vehicle involved. Our investigation is at a very early stage.\"\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said it sent an ambulance to the scene at about 20:10 along with an air ambulance doctor who attended in a car.\n\nSouth Wales Police said it was providing support to the dead man's family at \"this difficult time\".\n\n\"The matter has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and we are co-operating with their independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident,\" it added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The light needs to be right for this red star of Christmas - and remember, they don't like draughts!\n\nWherever there are Christmas decorations, the vibrant red poinsettia flower is likely to be found.\n\nAnd although the plant is native to Mexico, every year thousands are grown in Northern Ireland for the festive season.\n\nAt the Greenmount campus of the College of Agriculture Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), the plants are grown by horticulture students.\n\nBut timing them to bloom and colour in time for Christmas takes a lot of care.\n\nSecond year student Amy Copeland says poinsettias change colour when there is less light\n\n\"It is quite difficult in terms of the lighting they need,\" says second-year CAFRE student Amy Copeland.\n\n\"They change colour when there is lower light so trying to get that in time for Christmas is definitely a challenge.\n\n\"But it's a good crop to grow.\"\n\nJames Crawford, the horticulture manager at CAFRE, says the plant is very popular among students.\n\n\"They colour naturally at the end of November and beginning of December,\" says Mr Crawford.\n\nHorticulture technologist Lucile Gilpin says CAFRE is moving away from peat products in its plant growing\n\n\"They have these nice red bracts which remind people of Christmas and they've become a very popular Christmas plant.\"\n\nThe poinsettia grow all year round in their native Mexico, where they can reach heights of up to six feet (1.8m), according to Mr Crawford.\n\n\"They like the heat - their preferred temperature is around 20C which is a bit contradictory for a Christmas plant,\" he says.\n\nThe college has taken a more sustainable approach to growing the plants in recent years by moving away from using peat products.\n\nLucile Gilpin, a horticulture technologist at CAFRE, says the peat-free substrates used are showing impressive results.\n\n\"At the moment we are able to reproduce what we would have been able to with peat,\" she says.\n\nAlthough native to Mexico, every year thousands of poinsettia plants are grown in Northern Ireland ahead of the festive season\n\n\"Traditionally, our fathers and generations before us have grown with peat - so it was a massive challenge for our generation to be able to grow without peat,\" she says.\n\n\"We are successfully able to do it here but it is a different growing - it's a different method to what would have been used before.\"\n\nWhile the star-shaped flowers are perfect for Christmas, many don't last long into the new year. But student Amy Copeland says that with the right care, they could.\n\n\"You need to keep them in a draught-free area,\" Ms Copeland advises.\n\n\"Nowhere near a window or a door that opens and closes quite regularly. And you want to keep them in an area that is around 15-22C and you should get a few months out of them at least.\"", "Santino was one of the chimpanzees who were shot\n\nA zoo in Sweden has been criticised for shooting dead three chimpanzees and injuring another after they escaped their enclosure.\n\nThe zoo, in Furuvik, explained that attempting to tranquilise the animals instead of shooting them would have posed a threat to people's lives.\n\nAnother three chimpanzees have still not been secured back in their enclosure.\n\nThe animals were well known in Sweden, and their deaths have provoked anger.\n\nResearcher Mathias Osvath, who knew them for several years, insisted they posed no real danger. \"If I'd met them in the park my pulse would have risen but I wouldn't have been afraid for my life. It's a tragedy,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe incident began at around noon (11:00 GMT) on Wednesday when the chimpanzees got out of their enclosure and began roaming freely around the zoo.\n\nIt is not known how they escaped.\n\nThe zoo is currently closed for the season so members of the public were not present, but zoo officials said the escaped animals still posed a threat and staff were evacuated or ordered to stay indoors.\n\n\"Chimpanzees can be thought to be peaceful but they are extremely dangerous. They are fast, very strong and generally fearless,\" a company statement said on Facebook.\n\nFor this reason, the zoo said it was forced to shoot the animals rather than sedate them using tranquiliser darts which can only be fired from close range.\n\n\"This, combined with the fact that it can take up to 10 minutes before the anaesthesia appears, would pose great danger to human safety,\" the statement said.\n\nBut the decision to shoot the animals has been widely criticised. A former caretaker, who worked with the animals for 30 years, accused the zoo of acting unprofessionally.\n\nOn Friday, the zoo confirmed the identities of two of the dead chimpanzees, Linda and Torsten. A third was also confirmed dead and another feared dead - they were named as Santino and Manda.\n\nAfter years spent researching the chimpanzees, cognitive zoologists from the University of Lund have now suspended their co-operation with the zoo.\n\n\"I knew them personally, I would say. I've hugged Manda, I've kissed Linda and I've had tugs of war with Santino,\" said Mathias Osvath, who pointed out the chimpanzees had broken out of their enclosure many years ago, when there were visitors inside the zoo.\n\nSantino was well known beyond Sweden for his artistic skills and was reported to be a favourite of Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria.", "Hundreds turned up to the vigil\n\nA vigil has been held for four boys who died after falling into a frozen lake.\n\nHundreds of people, some of them in tears, turned out at Babbs Mill Park in Kingshurst, West Midlands, to pay tribute to the victims.\n\nThere was a two-minute silence, tributes were left, then there was applause and a choir sang.\n\nFinlay Butler, 8, his cousin Thomas Stewart, 11, and Jack Johnson, 10, died in hospital on Sunday. Finlay's brother Samuel Butler, 6, died on Wednesday.\n\nPeople at the vigil brought candles and laid tributes to the boys\n\nA minute's silence was broken by singing from a local choir\n\nMany of those at the vigil said it had caused them think of children in their own families.\n\nOne woman said: \"I think it's just important to show that even though we're not close to the community itself, that everybody's here for the families that are affected and that we can all come together in such a difficult time.\"\n\nLee Wotman, who travelled 140 miles (225km) from Southampton with his wife, said: \"We felt we needed to be here to support, and it really does feel that every single person makes a difference to the wider community.\"\n\nHe has friends who live in the area and added: \"Everything is tough enough at the moment, isn't it? So it's super important that we all pull together and show that solidarity.\"\n\nAnother, woman, who said she had 10 grandchildren of her own, added: \"My heart's breaking for the parents, I just think it's awful.\"\n\nOn Friday a minute's silence was held at a Birmingham City's match, in memory of the boys who died after falling into Babbs Mill Lake\n\nAn online fundraising page for the families of the boys has raised more than £66,000.\n\nTributes to the boys were also paid at football matches on Saturday and on Friday night.\n\nOn Monday morning an inquest into the deaths of the four boys is due to open.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A mother from Kryvyi Rih recalls helping her child to do homework when their building was hit\n\nRussia has enough missiles to carry out yet more heavy strikes against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, following a wave of Russian attacks.\n\nEngineers are continuing work to restore electricity after Friday's massive strikes using 76 missiles.\n\nThe attacks have targeted civilian infrastructure, as temperatures drop below zero in many regions.\n\nRussia's President Vladimir Putin has been consulting his military commanders about the future of the war.\n\nThe Kremlin says Mr Putin spent the whole of Friday at the headquarters of Russia's military operation.\n\n\"I would like to hear your suggestions on our immediate and medium-term actions,\" the Russian president said.\n\nThe defence minister and chief of the general staff were also at the meeting.\n\nKyiv has accused Moscow of using winter as a weapon by targeting essential facilities as temperatures drop. But Russia's president earlier this month vowed to continue to batter Ukraine's infrastructure, saying criticism of Russia's strikes would not interfere with its \"combat missions\".\n\nParts of the Ukrainian capital remained without power and heating on Saturday, the city's Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. But water supplies have now been fully restored in the city.\n\nPower has been restored in the country's second city of Kharkiv, authorities said, after it was left without electricity for hours following Friday's wave of strikes that targeted energy stations across the country.\n\nLocal officials said as many as nine power facilities were hit as Russian forces fired 76 missiles and carried out drone attacks.\n\nOne resident, Anastaisa, told the BBC the strikes began on Friday morning.\n\n\"In a matter of minutes, the lights started blinking,\" the mother of a two-month-old child said.\n\n\"Just 10 seconds later, we were out of power, everything just went still and that's it.\"\n\nAn intensive care nurse in Kharkiv, called Vlad, told the BBC that the staff at his hospital continued to work during the strikes on the city, because they were used to such attacks.\n\nFriday's attack on Kherson was the third in as many days on the southern city, a month after Russian forces retreated\n\nDefence Ministry adviser Yuriy Sak told the BBC on Friday that Russia's frequent attacks meant that repairing the damage to electricity infrastructure was getting harder.\n\nElsewhere, in the city of Kryvyi Rih, four people have been confirmed killed after a residential building was hit -a 64-year-old woman, a 30-year-old couple and a one-year-old boy, whose body was found overnight. Another person died in Kherson, authorities said.\n\nThe alarm was raised across Ukraine on Friday and Commander-in-Chief General Valeriy Zaluzhny said air defences had intercepted 60 of the 76 missiles fired, most of them cruise missiles.\n\nKyiv city officials said about 40 missiles had been fired at the capital alone - one of the biggest barrages since Russia's 24 February invasion.\n\nThirty-seven were brought down by air defences, the officials added.\n\n\"It's very stressful, but now I'm used to this,\" said 42-year-old Oksana, who lives in the capital. \"I don't want our children to live through this, to be in basements, shelters, I don't want this for them.\"\n\nRussia's attacks also cut power in the north-eastern Sumy region that borders Russia, and also in the central cities of Poltava and Kremenchuk.\n\nRussia has launched more than 1,000 missiles and Iranian-made attack drones since the wave of strikes began on 10 October.\n\nThe UK's Ministry of Defence says there has been an \"uptick\" in Russia's campaign of long-range strikes against Ukraine's critical infrastructure in recent days.\n\nUN human rights commissioner Volker Turk warned Thursday that more attacks on power facilities could \"lead to a further serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation and spark more displacement\".\n\n\"I'm angry,\" said Yelyzaveta, 21. \"They [Russia] are destroying our lives. We are used to it now. The most important thing is that Russia isn't here.\"\n\nAnd Anastasia said that life was becoming more difficult as winter sets in.\n\n\"When it's daytime it is still OK, it is tolerable and I can manage the situation, but when it's dark outside, this is when my problems begin because I need to see clearly, to measure baby formula and also to attend to the baby - those are stressful,\" she said\n\n\"And, of course, just the effect that we are out of power creates a lot of tension and lots of stress. So we just survive through the night and when the day breaks, it gets a bit better, but we cannot compare it to our normal day.\"", "A minute's silence was held in memory of the victims of tragedy at Babbs Mill Lake before Birmingham City's match at St Andrew's Stadium on Friday\n\nFootball fans at matches across the West Midlands are paying tribute to four boys who died after falling into an icy lake.\n\nA minute's silence was held at Birmingham City's match on Friday night against Reading, while similar plans are in place for Saturday's fixtures.\n\nBlues' players and staff also wore black armbands during their match.\n\nThe four boys, aged six, eight, 10 and 11, died after falling into water at Babbs Mill Park, near Solihull.\n\nTributes are paid to Jack Johnson, brothers Finlay and Samuel Butler and their cousin Thomas Stewart\n\nEight-year-old Finlay Butler, his cousin Thomas Stewart, 11, and Jack Johnson, 10, died in hospital on Sunday.\n\nOn Wednesday, police confirmed Finlay's six-year-old brother Samuel had also died.\n\nDuring the week, footballers including Tyrone Mings and his Aston Villa teammate John McGinn visited the scene to lay flowers.\n\nBirmingham City's head coach John Eustace also laid a wreath of flowers paying his respect on behalf of the club.\n\nWest Bromwich Albion said the deaths would be marked on the fourth minute of their fixture against Rotherham United on Saturday, while Birmingham City Women said they would also pay tribute when they hosted London City Lionesses.\n\nSolihull Moors Football Club said they would use the next two home matches to raise money for the families involved.\n\nA vigil for the boys is due to be held on Saturday at 16:00 GMT, with many people expected to attend.\n\nThe doors to local St Barnabas Anglican Church will be open at the same time \"for those who want to pay their own private tribute\", said the Rev Mandy Harris.\n\nA vigil will be held near the site on Saturday\n\nThe deaths will also be marked at the church's annual carol concert on Sunday.\n\n\"There's no way we could stand and sing carols when the deaths of the boys would weigh so heavy on the heart,\" she said.\n\nA silence will be held, prayers said and a candle lit, she added.\n\nEmil Kerekes, lead pastor at the Connection Church in Kingshurst, said the feeling among the local community was one of \"heartbroken spirit\".\n\n\"Once the vigil is over we can slowly move towards quietness and peace, and we will see how we can support the families and the community,\" he said.\n\nLocal businesses have been helping raise money to support the boys' families, with pubs donating more than £4,000 in cash, initially intended for a Christmas toy drive.\n\nA fundraising page set up for them has raised tens of thousands of pounds.\n\nOrganiser Sharon Doyle posted the kindness of people around the world had been \"absolutely amazing\".\n\n\"On behalf of the boys' families I would like to thank each and everyone of you for your kind heartfelt comments, your donations and your words of love for all four boys and their families,\" she wrote.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Christmas is supposed to be a magical time - but many children are facing up to having no present under the tree\n\nWhen children write their Christmas list to Santa, most ask for toys or books, not Calpol and baby wipes.\n\nHowever, parents are requesting everyday household items and clothing from a support group which is aiming to provide gifts for struggling families.\n\nThe Kindness Project in Cardiff is set to help hundreds of people this year.\n\nOrganiser Liam Schewitz said parents were not heating their homes and going without food to feed children, meaning presents are \"right on the backburner\".\n\n\"It's difficult to read, some things reduce you to tears,\" he admitted.\n\n\"We've had parents asking for Calpol, baby wipes, basic clothing for their children. Calpol. Calpol for Christmas.\n\n\"We've had a lady get in touch with us, saying her baby has a dermatological condition and the kid needs Dermacare wipes, that cost £3 or £4 instead of the normal £1. That's what she wants for Christmas for her kids.\"\n\nThe streets of Wales' capital are usually full of Christmas shoppers this time of year, but there are others who cannot afford gifts\n\nThe Kindness Project is a community group based in Cardiff, with parents able to ask for what they want for their children, such as games and toys, with these added to an Amazon Wishlist.\n\nIt was launched during what organisers believed would be the toughest Christmas for families - 2020, when the spread of Covid meant the country locked down the week before.\n\nWith many parents leaving present-buying until the last minute after their December pay cheque goes into their account, it left them facing a bleak time with all shops shut.\n\nThe group was able to help 900 children - with donations coming from businesses and the public providing them with gifts.\n\nIn 2021, the numbers dropped to 200, but a cost of living crisis in 2022 has seen demand go through the roof once again.\n\nIt is set to be a cold Christmas for many families this year, with fears over food and heating bills\n\n\"I'm writing to ask for your help as I've recently had to leave my job due to ill health,\" said one parent.\n\n\"I literally can't afford a single present for my three boys. I feel like a failure. The boys are very caring and help me a lot, I'd like to give them a little something.\"\n\nMr Schewitz said it was important children wake up on Christmas morning \"with their childhood intact\", with 50 families helped in two days, and another 200 awaiting support from the group.\n\nHe told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast offers of help from the public had been \"overwhelming\", but added: \"It's heartbreaking to see.\n\n\"We have parents where both are in work, and they can't afford to turn the heating on, can't afford to eat themselves.\n\n\"The food that comes into the house is for the children, and as a result, Christmas presents for their kids, that's right on the backburner.\"\n\nMr Schewitz said the situation made him angry as he feels children are baring the brunt of political issues, adding: \"The mental health toll on the parents who are struggling, I cannot even begin to imagine how hard it is.\"\n\nAn \"extremely generous donation\" received on Thursday \"saved Christmas for four children\", according to the group's Lois Ashcroft.\n\nHowever, she said she was being \"reduced to tears\" both by the stories of families struggling and the kindness of people who were helping.\n\nOne of these was a request for help from a woman who lost her partner and the father to her four children recently.\n\n\"My sons are age 11, seven and nearly two, and my eight-year old-daughter,\" she said.\n\n\"Since losing him, we have also lost our home and are currently living in temporary accommodation.\n\n\"After everything this year and waiting any day to start from scratch with nothing, I just want my kids to have a day where they can hopefully enjoy a day again and to see the excitement on their faces that Santa has been.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Cllr Andrew Morgan OBE This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe more people struggle, though, the more many others are willing to help - as was also illustrated in Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nA record 4,000 gifts were donated to the council's Christmas appeal, with leader Andrew Morgan saying: \"Care and compassion in the valleys shines brighter than ever at a time of need.\"\n\nPeople give their time as well as their money to help at what can be a difficult month - including at the NSPCC's Childline base in Prestatyn, Denbighshire.\n\nVolunteer Sandy Collyer, from Northop, Flintshire, said: \"Christmas can be such a hard time for so many children and young people, nothing like the happy, cosy, festive images they see on television.\"\n\nWith pressure on families, both financial and emotional, children call for a variety of reasons, including conflict in the home, missing a loved one or because they feel lonely, according to Abigail Mainon, from Bodelwyddan in Denbighshire.\n\nShe has volunteered her Christmas Day, and said: \"People associate Christmas with happy families, gifts and tables full of food, but that is not always the case for our young people.\n\n\"While I cannot fix these issues directly or give every child the Christmas they deserve, I can give them my time.\"", "Mr Trump spoke to the crowd shortly before a riot broke out\n\nThe congressional inquiry into last year's Capitol riot will reportedly recommend three criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.\n\nThe House of Representatives panel will seek an unprecedented charge of insurrection against a former US president, according to US media.\n\nThe criminal referrals to the justice department will be disclosed on Monday, along with most of the final report.\n\nThe department is already investigating Mr Trump's role in the unrest.\n\nTrump supporters stormed Congress on 6 January 2021 in a bid to stop Joe Biden's certification as president.\n\nThe justice department is not obliged to consider referrals from any congressional panel.\n\nMr Trump denies wrongdoing. On Friday his spokesman, Steven Cheung, said in a statement: \"The January 6th un-Select Committee held show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country's history.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch dramatic footage of police under attack at the Capitol riot\n\nIt's expected to be the committee's final meeting on Monday when any charging recommendations would be unveiled.\n\nAs well as insurrection, according to various media outlets, the panel will suggest Mr Trump be charged with obstructing an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States.\n\nThe nine panellists are expected to approve the final eight-chapter report, drawing on interviews with more than 1,000 witnesses, and submit it to the Department of Justice (DoJ).\n\nThe full report will be made public on Wednesday, said chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who is helming the select committee.\n\nCalifornia congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, another member of the panel, told CNN on Friday that the lawmakers have \"been very careful in crafting these [charging] recommendations and tethering them to the facts that we've uncovered\".\n\nThe House select committee has argued Mr Trump spread claims that he knew were false about the 2020 presidential election being stolen, before pressuring state officials, the justice department and his own vice-president to help subvert his defeat. The panel accuses him of inciting the Capitol riot in a last-ditch bid to remain in power.\n\nThe DoJ is already investigating the then-Republican president's actions surrounding the riot.\n\nSeven days after the raid on Congress, the House impeached Mr Trump for a second time on the grounds of incitement of insurrection.\n\nMr Trump, who is the only president to ever be impeached twice, was cleared by the US Senate.\n\nLast month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a former war crimes prosecutor to decide whether Mr Trump should be prosecuted.\n\nJack Smith is tasked with determining if the 2024 presidential candidate should be put on trial for mishandling classified files that were recovered during an FBI search of Mr Trump's Florida estate in August, or for encouraging the violent mob on 6 January 2021.\n\nDoug Jensen, who has been convicted over the riots, is pictured being confronted by Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman\n\nHundreds of people have been charged with crimes in relation to the mass invasion of Congress.\n\nDozens of those have been convicted, including Doug Jensen - described as a \"poster boy\" of the riots by prosecutors as one of the first to breach the Capitol - and Stewart Rhodes, leader of the far-right militia the Oath Keepers.", "A large diamond-encrusted breast bow was among the items stolen in 2019\n\nGerman police say they have recovered a number of 18th-Century treasures stolen from a Dresden museum during a €113m (£98m; $119m) heist in 2019.\n\nAuthorities returned 31 objects to the Green Vault museum after securing them overnight in Berlin.\n\nThe items were reportedly found after talks with the lawyers of six men currently on trial for the theft.\n\nAmong the items are a diamond-encrusted breast star and a richly-jewelled Heron Tail hat decoration.\n\nA diamond-encrusted breast star displaying the Polish Order of the White Eagle has been recovered\n\nThe thieves stole the treasures from part of a collection created in 1723 by Saxony's ruler, Augustus the Strong. They were housed in the vault, known in German as Dresden's Grünes Gewölbe, until the robbery 2019.\n\nGerman officials believe the heist was well-planned and professionally carried out. Before breaking into the museum, the thieves set fire to a circuit-breaker panel, plunging the streets around the museum into darkness.\n\nSeveral masked figures then broke into the gallery, before smashing a glass display case with an axe and retrieving the jewels with fishing twine.\n\nThey then escaped in an Audi getaway car, which police later found on fire in an underground car park. The entire operation is believed to have taken less than 10 minutes.\n\nThe returned items will now be examined by specialists in order to confirm the pieces' authenticity.\n\nThe Green Vault in 2019 before the robbery\n\nNot all of the items have been found, however. An epaulette which includes a precious stone known as the Dresden White Diamond is still missing.\n\nAuthorities have given little detail about how the jewels were secured.\n\nThe trial of the thieves, which started in January, is set to resume on Tuesday, AFP news agency reports.\n\nThe Green Vault collection is housed in eight ornate rooms in the Residenzschloss - a former royal palace.\n\nThree rooms were destroyed by Allied bombing in World War Two, but after the war the museum was restored to its previous glory.\n\nIt is called the Green Vault because some rooms were decorated with malachite-green paint.\n\nThere are about 3,000 items of jewellery and other treasures decorated with gold, silver, ivory and pearl.\n\nThe collection was founded by Augustus the Strong. He was Elector of Saxony - a German prince entitled to take part in the election of the emperor - and later king of Poland.", "The boys were found at an address on Cornwallis Road on Friday afternoon\n\nAn investigation has started after two boys were found dead at a home in Dagenham, east London, the Metropolitan Police said.\n\nA man and a woman have been arrested in connection to the incident.\n\nThe boys, aged two and five, were found at the property in Cornwallis Road by emergency services, and both were confirmed dead at the scene.\n\nPolice and London Ambulance Service crews attended after being called at about 14:00 GMT.\n\nOfficers said family had been informed about the boys' deaths and were being supported.\n\nThe arrested woman and man were known to both children, the police force said.\n\nThe area around the crime scene has been cordoned off\n\nOfficers said the woman was arrested after police were called to a disturbance at a residential address near to the scene.\n\nThe man was arrested near to the scene in connection with the incident, the Met said.\n\nDet Insp Sean Treweek said: \"This is clearly an extremely distressing incident with many unanswered questions, however at this very early stage, nobody else is sought in connection with the deaths.\n\n\"I want to thank local people for the assistance they have given officers as they begin work along with partner agencies to establish the full circumstances of these two tragic deaths.\n\n\"They will see additional officers in the area, and anyone with information or concerns should speak with those officers.\"\n\nCouncillor Elizabeth Kangethe, who lives a short distance from Cornwallis Road, said there was a \"heavy police presence\" on Friday evening.\n\n\"They are talking to the locals to reassure us and they have told people who they can contact if they have any concerns, because people will be traumatised,\" she said.\n\n\"It will be upsetting for everyone, not just the local community, anyone hearing this will be affected, everybody will be shocked, especially being so near Christmas.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Frankie Dettori: Jockey says he will ride for one final season before retiring Last updated on .From the section Horse Racing\n\nDettori performs one of his trademark flying dismounts from Stradivarius at Royal Ascot in 2019 Jockey Frankie Dettori has announced that 2023 will be his final season. The 52-year-old, one of the sport's best-known figures, has ridden more than 3,300 British winners since his first back in 1987. His wins also include 21 British Classic successes and three champion jockey titles. \"Next year, 2023, will be my final professional year as a jockey. It's something I've been thinking about for a while,\" he told ITV Racing. \"My heart wants to carry on riding but I have to use my brain. I want to stop at the top. It has been difficult, but I think it's the right time.\" The Italian-born jockey plans to start his final season at Santa Anita on 26 December, and his final rides could be at the same Californian track during the 2023 Breeders' Cup next November. He is still widely remembered for his Magnificent Seven achievement at Ascot in September 1996, where he went through the card, taking all seven races at odds of 25,051-1. In June 2000, he and fellow jockey Ray Cochrane survived a plane crash at Newmarket which killed the pilot Patrick Mackey. Cochrane pulled Dettori from the burning wreckage. Another challenging period was a six-month ban in late 2012 for failing a drug test, which he later admitted was a positive test for cocaine. Since 2015 he has worked as first jockey to John Gosden, who now trains alongside his son Thady. But last June there was a well-publicised split between jockey and trainer described as a \"sabbatical\", although Dettori was soon back riding for the Gosdens. Dettori's decision to call it a day is not one he has taken lightly. \"It is a very difficult decision because my heart wants to carry on riding, but I have had to use my brain and I've just turned 52 and next year I'll be 53,\" he said. \"I want to be competitive enough to do my owners and my horses justice next year, and I think I'm still in that bracket of being good. It was difficult, but it is the right time. \"I spoke to my dad at length. My dad stopped at 51, he is very supporting and I also had to speak to my wife and children who are delighted because they have barely seen me for 35 years. \"I've been thinking about it for a few weeks and I've decided with the firepower I have next year and the horses I have to ride I can finish my career on a big note. Fingers crossed I stay in one piece and we'll give it a good go next year. \"Look at Ronaldo, one day he was playing and he's on the bench the next. I don't want to end up like that and end up where I'm struggling to get rides in the big races. At the moment I still have good horses to ride and I want to finish like that.\" AP McCoy, the 20-time champion jump jockey who retired in 2015, was among those who paid tribute to Dettori. \"The hardest thing is knowing when to stop,\" said McCoy. \"It's about beating the clock - and Frankie is going out at the top. \"He's racing's Lionel Messi - you can't teach a kid to ride like Frankie Dettori.\" Frankie Dettori will leave a huge void in horse racing as one of the sport's most recognised, talented and charismatic individuals. He created headlines around the world with his Magnificent Seven at Ascot, one highlight in a career for which the word 'rollercoaster' is a perfect fit. That success led to television appearances as a presenter on Top of the Pops and captain on A Question of Sport. He even launched his own pizza range. In 2000, he was lucky to escape with his life in a plane crash at Newmarket. Dettori enjoyed widespread success as number one jockey for Sheikh Mohammed's powerful Godolphin stable before a split and six-month ban after testing positive for cocaine left his career at a crossroads in 2013. His reunion with old mentor John Gosden brought renewed success, including a second Derby win at Epsom for the jockey with Golden Horn and numerous big-race successes with the likes of Enable and Stradivarius. Dettori, who celebrated his 52nd birthday on Thursday, will now effectively go on a year-long farewell tour taking in the United States, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and the UK. And then there will be one final flying dismount for racing's greatest showman.\n• None From old pick-ups to the fastest car on the planet:\n• None The gripping story of Sepp Blatter's rise and fall: Explore how football became synonymous with scandal", "Video shows panicked guests at the MNKY HSE restaurant in London's Mayfair fleeing after Christmas decorations caught alight.\n\nLondon Fire Brigade said the fire had been extinguished before firefighters arrived on Friday night.\n\nThree people were taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Video from social media appears to show people trying to get past security\n\nThree women remain in a critical condition after being injured in a crush at a gig at the Brixton O2 Academy that left several others hurt.\n\nThe concert, by Afro-pop singer Asake, had to be abandoned part-way through. A \"large number of people\" tried to force their way inside, the Met Police said.\n\nOne of the crush victims said: \"I couldn't breathe and I completely passed out. I thought I was dead.\"\n\nThe woman, who was taken to hospital from the venue on Thursday night with suspected internal bleeding, said: \"I took my last breath and I could not get any more oxygen. I was so scared.\"\n\nAll three of those in critical condition are women, aged 21, 23 and 33 years, police said.\n\nTheir next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Video posted on social media shows police pushing a woman outside the Brixton O2 Academy\n\nVideos on social media show the crowd stretching from the road outside to the venue's doors.\n\nThe Met Police said more than 4,000 people were in attendance and it has urged those with relevant photos and videos to submit them.\n\nIn a statement outside Brixton police station on Friday afternoon, Cdr Colin Wingrove said officers were called by staff at the venue, \"following reports that a large number of people were attempting to force entry\".\n\nHe added: \"Some officers provided first aid and CPR to members of the public in order to save life.\"\n\nThe first officers were reported to be on the scene at 21:11 GMT, seven minutes after they were called.\n\nA woman has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.\n\nIn a separate incident footage on social media shows an officer pushing a woman from the steps.\n\nThe force said this had been assessed by the Directorate of Professional Standards and there was no evidence of misconduct.\n\nIt is also to review footage from cameras worn by officers at the scene.\n\nThe Met has also made a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which it said was standard practice following all incidents where police have been in attendance and members of the public have been seriously injured.\n\nThe concert was the final performance of three sold-out shows at the venue by Nigerian singer Asake, sometimes known as Mr Money. Before the gig, he had posted on Twitter asking fans not to try to gain entry unless they had tickets.\n\nIn a statement on his Instagram account, Asake said: \"My heart is with those who were injured last night and caused any form of discomfort. I pray you get well soonest.\"\n\nPolice said eight people were taken to hospital from the venue\n\nThe woman who passed out at the venue spoke to press agency UKNIP after being discharged from hospital. She said: \"I was trying to get up, people were stepping on my head, all over me. I had more than 10 people on top of me.\n\n\"A man pulled me out so when I woke up I was in the back of the ambulance.\"\n\nThe woman, from Battersea in south London, suffered skinned knees and a black eye. \"I'm just grateful that I've come away with no broken bones; they thought I had internal bleeding but thank God they did a CT scan and I'm good,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOne of the security staff working at the event, who wished to remain anonymous, said it initially seemed like many of the other events they have worked on, until people started arriving in large numbers just before Asake went on stage.\n\n\"The people that were coming had no tickets. At the first barrier we were saying to everyone, 'have your ticket ready, have your phone in the air, show it to us' and then they could walk through.\n\n\"But what you got was people from other directions trying to queue-jump.\"\n\nA member of security staff at the event said: \"One of my younger colleagues tried to save a girl, gave her CPR\"\n\nThey added: \"People were falling over. People were running in and trampling over people on the floor, there was blood everywhere.\n\n\"The defibrillators were gone - the emergency services were trying to save people's lives.\"\n\nAkin Oluwaleimu, 53, from Kirby Cross near Colchester, went to the gig with his daughter Elsie, 14, but decided to return home after things turned \"rowdy\" outside with \"a lot of pushing\".\n\n\"We didn't get inside. When we were leaving we were told the show had been stopped.\n\n\"Two ladies fainted and were carried up high away... I was not worried about myself but I was worried about my daughter's safety.\"\n\nAnother witness, Jay Taylor, 24, from Greenwich in south-east London, described how a minority of apparently ticketless fans tried to force their way into the venue.\n\nShe said: \"People were literally jumping on each other and even on to the police.\"\n\nFlorence Eshalomi, MP for Vauxhall, whose constituency includes Brixton, called the incident \"deeply concerning\".\n\nShe said: \"It is very clear ticketing and security procedures have not performed as they should have for this incident to have occurred.\n\n\"We need answers about exactly how this happened and safeguards against it in future.\"\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4 World at One, she added it was \"really important\" for professional standards to review police body-worn footage in relation to how officers responded.\n\nJames Hooker, director of operational management at AP Security, which worked at the gig, said: \"We are working with our lawyers, the operators of the premises and the authorities to provide all information that is needed.\n\n\"We will continue to work with all parties and are unable to provide any information at this time while those inquiries are completed.\"\n\nThe Academy, which has a standing capacity of nearly 5,000 people, is opposite Brixton police station\n\nSerious crushes at British gigs are very rare.\n\nIn 1974, a 14-year-old David Cassidy fan died at the pop singer's concert at the White City Stadium in west London, with another 700 people injured.\n\nAt the Monsters of Rock festival in 1988, two people lost their lives in a crowd surge when Guns N' Roses played at a muddy Castle Donington in Leicestershire.\n\nEarlier this year, the Liverpool M&S Bank Arena - where next year's Eurovision Song Contest will be held - launched an investigation after fans complained of overcrowding at a concert by local hero Jamie Webster, although no injuries were reported.\n\nIt has become common for artists to pause their shows if they suspect there may be a problem in the crowd, with heightened awareness of such dangers in the wake of the tragedy at Travis Scott's Astroworld festival, in Texas in November 2021, in which 10 people died.\n\nAsake is touring his debut album, Mr. Money With The Vibe\n\nAsake, whose real name is Ahmed Ololade, was nominated for BBC Radio 1's Sound of 2023 award.\n\nDescribed on the Brixton Academy website as \"one of the hottest breakout stars from Nigeria\", he is touring his debut album Mr. Money with the Vibe.\n\nBorn and raised in Lagos State, Asake's songs are part of the Nigerian street-pop subgenre that blends Afrobeats with Amapiano, pop melodies and street-smart rap lyrics.\n\nHe had a breakout hit in 2020 with his single Lady.\n\nWere you at the concert or in the area? If you'd like to get in touch you can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Angelina Jolie has carried out \"more than 60 field missions to bear witness to stories of suffering as well as hope and resilience\", the UNHCR says\n\nOscar-winning US actress Angelina Jolie says she is stepping down from her role as an ambassador for the UN refugee agency UNHCR after more than 20 years.\n\n\"I believe in many things the UN does, particularly the lives it saves through emergency relief,\" Jolie, 47, said.\n\nAnd she added: \"I will be working now with organisations led by people most directly affected by conflict, that give the greatest voice to them.\"\n\nThe UNHCR said she was one of the most influential refugee rights advocates.\n\nIn a post on her Instagram page, the Hollywood star wrote: \"After over 20 years, I am stepping down today from my work with the UN refugee agency.\n\n\"Refugees are the people I admire most in the world and I am dedicated to working with them for the rest of my life.\"\n\nJolie provided no details about the organisations she was planning to work with.\n\nMeanwhile, the UNHCR said in a statement that Angelina Jolie would \"engage on a broader set of humanitarian and human rights issues\".\n\nIn a statement, the refugee agency said \"Jolie has worked tirelessly, carrying out more than 60 field missions to bear witness to stories of suffering as well as hope and resilience\".\n\nJolie - who starred in a number of blockbusters including Mr and Mrs Smith and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - has worked with the UNHCR since 2001, becoming the agency's special envoy in 2012.\n\nIn recent months, she has met displaced people in the war-torn Ukraine, Yemen and also Burkina Faso.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The camels had been part of a nativity play at the Bridgeman Baptist Community Church\n\nThree camels that escaped their nativity scene enclosure, confusing drivers in the Australian city of Brisbane, have been returned safely to their owner.\n\nThe animals escaped by opening the gate of their pen at the Bridgeman Baptist Community Church, local media reported.\n\nThe trio was later caught after they stopped to eat some grass.\n\n\"Our camels got a bit lost on the way to Bethlehem!\" the Church posted on its Facebook page.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by 9News Queensland This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"I was surprised when I got the call, yeah,\" their owner, Whane Morris, told 9 News. He gave motorists credit for slowing down for the camels.", "Soldiers have been deployed to drive ambulances in the past - including during Covid\n\nAbout 1,200 members of the military and 1,000 civil servants are to be drafted in to cover for striking ambulance and Border Force staff over Christmas.\n\nThe government say the personnel will plug staffing gaps and keep front-line services running.\n\nSome 10,000 ambulance staff in England and Wales will strike on 21 and 28 December in a pay dispute.\n\nUnions say military staff are not \"sufficiently trained\" to taking on ambulance roles.\n\nBut Health Secretary Steve Barclay said his \"number one priority\" is keeping patients safe.\n\nHowever he declined to discuss \"political debates\", stressing that the military is directed by the government to \"serve the nation\".\n\nThe head of the armed forces has warned against viewing troops as \"the go-to\" option when it comes to covering strike action.\n\nSpeaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, said: \"We're not spare capacity. We're busy and we're doing lots of things on behalf of the nation - we've got to focus on our primary role.\".\n\nThe Welsh government has said the military will not be asked to drive ambulances in Wales.\n\nThe co-ordinated walkout was called by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite.\n\nAll three are taking action on 21 December. GMB union members will go on strike again on 28 December.\n\nMeanwhile, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members are due to walk out for a second time on 20 December in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, following action on 15 December.\n\nThe nursing union has said it will set a deadline of 48 hours after the strike ends for ministers to agree to discuss pay - otherwise more extensive action will be announced for the new year.\n\nThe government said pay rises for ambulance workers and nurses were decided by independent pay review bodies - which have recommended pay rises of around 4.75%.\n\nWith inflation running at more than 10% and many struggling with the rising cost of living, unions have said this represents an unaffordable real terms pay cut.\n\nCabinet minister Oliver Dowden said the government was determined to be \"resolute\", reiterating that a 19% increase for nurses was \"simply not affordable\".\n\nUrging the unions to call off the strikes, he told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: \"We are trying to be reasonable, we are trying to be proportionate, we are trying to be fair.\"\n\nIndustrial action has also been taken by rail workers, Royal Mail staff and other sectors in recent weeks over pay disputes as the rising cost of living rises.\n\nThe government has announced it will publish a new \"resilience framework\" on Monday, aimed at improving how the UK prepares for and responds to critical issues like strikes.\n\nThe framework will \"bring together all levels of government, critical national infrastructure operators, the private sector, charities and the public to bolster our national preparedness to these risks\", the Cabinet Office said.\n\nThe Chief of the Defence Staff's words are carefully calibrated.\n\nWhen asked about the strikes, he does not criticise the government for calling in the armed forces, nor those who're taking industrial action.\n\nAdmiral Sir Tony Radakin knows the armed forces must stay out of politics and he makes clear the military is there to serve the nation, whatever the task.\n\nBut his words do reflect some of the frustration within the armed forces at once again being called out to do someone else's job. It's by no means the first time.\n\nThey were heavily relied on during the Covid pandemic. In 2012 they had to provide security for the London Olympics.\n\nWhen asked about the strike action, the head of the armed forces reminds the public that's not their primary role - it's to defend the nation.\n\nBeing pulled away to fulfil other roles can often have an impact on training, although it will not affect military operations.\n\nAdmiral Radakin's comments do reflect frustration, rather than anger over what they're being asked to do. He also knows that when the armed forces help out most people are grateful.\n\nThe ambulance strikes will affect non-life threatening calls only. Hospitals have been warned by NHS bosses to prepare for \"extensive disruption\" during the walkouts, and to free up beds to make it easier to move people through A&E and get paramedics quickly back on the road.\n\nHowever, doctors' leaders warned this would be very difficult to achieve.\n\nThe government said the health service will put into place \"tried and tested\" plans to reduced risks to patient safety and disruption, while individual NHS trusts will work with unions to agree on a safe level of cover.\n\nBut chief executive of the NHS Confederation Matthew Taylor said there was \"no question\" strikes would pose risks to patients.\n\n\"We're in the middle of winter and we have a health service which, even on an ordinary day without industrial action, is finding it difficult to cope,\" he said. \"So there are going to be risks to patients. There's no question about that.\"\n\nSara Gorton, head of health at Unison, said during a strike day there was \"unfortunately more risk\" to patients, but she said \"every single day patients are being put at risk because of the staffing crisis\".\n\nUnison says there are 133,000 vacancies across the health service.\n\nTroops from the Army, Navy and RAF will be deployed. Some 600 members of the armed forces are due to take on ambulance driving roles and 150 personnel will provide logistical support.\n\nCommunity first responders will also be used to help manage demand for medical care.\n\nMr Barclay described the decision to go ahead with strikes as \"deeply regrettable\", repeating the government's position that the striking unions' demands are \"not affordable\" - but he also said that he was \"open to further discussions\".\n\n\"My number one priority is to keep patients as safe as possible and we are stepping up preparations across government and the NHS, including making best use of the armed forces, volunteers and freeing up capacity to mitigate disruption and ensure safe staffing levels,\" he added.\n\nUnite accused ministers of \"hollowing out\" the health service, describing those taking strike action as \"trying to save\" the NHS.\n\nGMB and Unison blamed ministers for opting to \"dig in their heels\" on pay while the NHS is \"already on its knees\", adding that disruption now appears \"inevitable\".\n\nSara Gorton, Unison's head of health, also warned the military is \"no substitute\" for trained ambulance staff, adding: \"The hours spent on contingency planning could have been better used trying to prevent the strikes from taking place.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the main union representing Border Force staff is set to walk out for eight days between 23 and 31 December, with significant disruption for people travelling over Christmas expected.\n\nThe government said civil servants will join military personnel helping \"minimise disruption for passengers\" by checking documents and passports.\n\nAbout 1,000 Border Force staff who work in passport control will walk out on 23-26 and 28-31 December at Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester airports as well as at the Port of Newhaven.\n\nAbout 75% of Border Force staff are members of the Public and Commercial Services union, which balloted for strike action after it said the government had refused to increase a 2% pay rise offer.\n\nAs a result, some airlines have stopped selling new tickets for inbound flights to Heathrow on the days Border Force staff strike over Christmas, the BBC understands.\n\nThe Home Office has previously said it was \"extremely disappointed\" with the PCS union's decision, warning it would cause a \"significant inconvenience\" to travellers over Christmas and \"passengers should be prepared for disruption and take action to plan ahead\".\n\nThe PCS has accused Home Secretary Suella Braverman of \"scrambling around\" to get \"anyone she can\" to cover for border staff, as well as echoing the ambulance unions' concern that military staff and other civil servants are not \"sufficiently trained\".\n\nWill you be taking part in strike action in the coming days? Tell us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Ukraine has chosen pop duo Tvorchi as its act for next year's Eurovision Song Contest in a live broadcast from a Kyiv bomb shelter.\n\nTvorchi's entry Heart of Steel is the first song to be confirmed for the 2023 competition in Liverpool.\n\nShocked band member Andrew Hutsuliak said: \"We will try to do everything to present Ukraine with dignity.\"\n\nUkraine's Kalush Orchestra won this year's contest, but the UK will host in 2023 because of the war.\n\nA metro station in Kyiv was transformed into a TV studio for Saturday's selection show.\n\nThe underground stop has been in use as a bomb shelter since Russia invaded in February.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Євробачення Україна | Eurovision Ukraine official This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video by Євробачення Україна | Eurovision Ukraine official\n\nDuring Tvorchi's performance, dancers wore gas masks as nuclear warning signs appeared on screens over lyrics like: \"Don't be scared to say just what you think.\"\n\n\"I just want to say thank you Ukraine,\" vocalist Jeffery Kenny told viewers of Ukraine's Eurovision selection contest, known as Vidbir, which was streamed online.\n\nHutsuliak added: \"We didn't think we'd win but we want to say thank you to everyone who supported us, who listens to our music and who are fighting on the front line.\"\n\nBand members Andrew and Jeffrey formed Tvorchi in 2018 and have tried to represent Ukraine at Eurovision before\n\nThe upbeat entry beat a handful of ballads, with lyrical references to war, in the four-hour show.\n\nTvorchi will hope to repeat the success of compatriots Kalush Orchestra, who won this year's contest in May.\n\nThe winning country normally hosts the following year's event, but organisers decided it is too dangerous to stage Eurovision in Ukraine in 2023. Liverpool was instead chosen to put on the show, on behalf of Ukraine.\n\nUkraine will be hoping for a fourth Eurovision win with Tvorchi\n\nSince Ukraine's first involvement in the song contest in 2003, it has won three times and finished outside the top 10 only six times, making it one of the more continually successful countries in the competition.\n\nThis year, broadcaster UA:PBC received almost 400 songs from 299 participants who were hoping to make it to the final 10 acts in Saturday's TV selection show.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News beforehand, Ukraine's head of delegation at Eurovision Oksana Skybinska said: \"We did everything possible to hold this Vidbir in full swing, and once again unite Ukrainians around this important choice for the biggest music stage in Europe.\n\n\"The decision to go underground was the first one taken. It made us feel sure that the show itself could go on uninterrupted because no matter if we have air raid alerts the work could continue.\"\n\nViewers could hear trains passing by during certain parts of the show, but otherwise it looked like any other TV studio.\n\nMore than 160 million watched Kalush Orchestra win the Eurovision Song Contest in Italy in May\n\nKalush Orchestra told BBC News they are confident Ukraine can win for a fourth time in Liverpool.\n\nSince their win in Italy, the band have been promoting their music and raising money for Ukraine across Europe.\n\n\"It is very important to us to represent our country and to show our Ukrainian culture and to some extent revive it,\" lead singer Oleh Psiuk explained.\n\n\"I can help my nation by raising donations, and when I go back I explain what I did for my country, how many donated and who supported us.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTvorchi are the fifth act to be revealed for next year's Eurovision.\n\nCyprus, Israel, the Netherlands and Slovenia have also chosen their acts to send to Liverpool, but have not yet released the songs they will perform.\n\nThe 37 countries taking part have until the end of March to confirm their songs and artists for the competition.\n\nThe 2023 Eurovision Song Contest grand final will take place on 13 May.", "The compensation was approved at the High Court in Belfast\n\nA man who suffered \"catastrophic\" injuries when a car driven by his brother crashed into a lamppost is to receive more than £9m in compensation.\n\nAaron Glover, 27, sustained severe brain damage in the incident on Hillhall Road near Lisburn, County Antrim, in December 2014.\n\nHe was treated in intensive care and spent nearly a year in hospital.\n\nThe money, to cover damages and future care arrangements, was approved at the High Court in Belfast on Friday.\n\nMr Glover had been the front seat passenger when his brother, Curtis Glover, lost control of the car and collided with a lamppost.\n\nA passing doctor who provided help at the scene had probably prevented him from dying, the court heard.\n\nIn an action brought through his mother, Mr Glover sued over the alleged negligence of his brother's driving.\n\nThe case included claims for damages, loss of earnings, adaptions to the family's home near Belfast and the cost of providing care for the rest of his life.\n\nUnder the terms of a settlement reached, a compensation package was endorsed by Mr Justice McAlinden.\n\nDuring the hearing he met with Mr Glover and his parents before paying tribute to the love and care they have shown.\n\n\"It's a very sad case, a life living with very, very severe injuries,\" he said.\n\n\"I am at a loss for words in terms of admiration for them in their dedication towards their son.\"\n\nOutside court, the family's solicitor, Lynn Day, confirmed the scale of the settlement.\n\n\"We are very pleased to have reached a settlement which will be in excess of £9 million pounds in this tragic case,\" she said.\n\n\"This settlement now allows his family the financial security to enable them to continue to provide the continuous 24-hour attention they have unstintingly provided since he was released from hospital into their care and which he will require for the rest of his life.\"", "Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed an event will go ahead in spring 2023\n\nThe SNP will hold a special conference in March to decide \"the way forward to secure independence\", the party has announced.\n\nThe event is billed as an opportunity to set out a \"clear pathway\" on Scotland's constitutional future.\n\nIt follows a UK Supreme Court ruling that Holyrood does not have the power to stage another referendum.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the SNP will fight the next general election as a de facto referendum.\n\nConfirming next year's conference, she tweeted: \"The SNP Special Conference to discuss and decide the way forward to secure independence following UK Supreme Court decision will take place in Edinburgh on 19 March.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Nicola Sturgeon This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSNP business convener Kirsten Oswald announced that the event would be held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.\n\nShe said: \"The SNP's Democracy Scotland Conference in March will set out a clear pathway to Scotland being able to express their view on our nation's constitutional future.\n\n\"The Supreme Court verdict has galvanised the Yes movement right across Scotland. More and more people recognise independence not just as desirable but necessary.\"\n\nShe cited the five most recent polls on independence, all of which have recorded majority support for Yes once undecided voters are removed.\n\n\"This surge in support will be terrifying the Westminster establishment,\" Ms Oswald said. \"People know that to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, escape Brexit, invest in the NHS and pay public sector workers a fair wage the Scottish Parliament needs the full powers of independence.\n\n\"The more that [Prime Minister Rishi] Sunak and [Labour leader Sir Keir] Starmer tell us we have no right to decide our own future, the more people in Scotland will stand up and demand that basic democratic right.\"\n\nThe UK government has consistently refused to countenance the prospect of another vote on independence, or a de facto referendum.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"People in Scotland want both their governments to be concentrating on the issues that matter most to them - like growing our economy, getting people the help they need with their energy bills and supporting our NHS.\n\n\"As the prime minister has been clear, we will continue to work constructively with the Scottish government to tackle our shared challenges.\"\n\nHe said: \"The timing will jar with Scots worried about their household finances.\n\n\"The nationalists are tired after 15 years in power and are merely looking for the next constitutional lily pad to hop on to.\"\n\nScottish Labour's constitution spokeswoman Sarah Boyack said: \"The SNP are desperately scrambling for relevance because they know only Labour can kick the Tories out of government and deliver the change we need.\"\n\nNicola Sturgeon first mooted the idea of trying to turn the next election into a substitute referendum on independence back in June.\n\nAt that time, she said if indyref2 was blocked, the SNP would \"fight the UK general election on this single question: should Scotland be an independent country?\"\n\nIn a BBC interview, she made clear a majority of votes would need to be secured for her to claim a mandate.\n\nThat still left lots of questions. Would there need to be a majority for the SNP or for independence-supporting parties collectively? If they won, would they seek to negotiate independence, the means to hold a referendum or something else?\n\nThere is further debate in the \"yes\" movement about whether the next Westminster or Holyrood election would be the best test.\n\nI'm told the special conference will debate and choose between options on the way forward, none of which are likely to persuade UK supporting parties to accept an election result as a verdict on independence.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Scenes of devastation after tank explosion at Berlin hotel\n\nA giant aquarium containing a million litres of water in the lobby of the Radisson Blu in Berlin has burst, flooding the hotel and nearby streets.\n\nThe \"AquaDom\" - home to 1,500 fish - is 15.85m high (52 ft) and was described as the largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium in the world.\n\nTwo people were injured by falling glass after the blast.\n\nPolice said there had been \"incredible\" damage. Video showed an empty tank with water pouring into the hotel lobby.\n\nGuests have been moved out of the hotel following the incident at 05:50 (04:50 GMT).\n\nA spokesman for Berlin's fire brigade told the BBC the vast majority of the fish had died, while the cold weather had made rescue attempts more difficult. The tank had contained more than 100 different species.\n\nHowever, fire brigade official James Klein later told local media that \"several dozen\" fish had been found alive in places where residual water had collected. He said they were being rehoused in other aquariums.\n\nAlso, the Associated Press quoted officials as saying they were working to rescue another 400-500 fish in smaller tanks under the hotel lobby which had been deprived of oxygen because of the disaster.\n\nOutside the Radisson Blu, a pile of debris lay in front of what were the front doors, which now hang into the street - twisted at an angle by the force of the exploding tank.\n\nMore than 100 fire fighters were in attendance at the incident in Berlin on Friday morning\n\nPaul Maletzki was staying on the fourth floor with his girlfriend.\n\nHe described being woken up by a loud bang and shaking. When he looked down into the lobby, he saw water flowing across it. They and other guests were later escorted out of the hotel by armed police.\n\nThe Mayor of Berlin Franziska Giffey went to the hotel to see the damage and described the tank burst as being like a tsunami.\n\nShe expressed relief it had happened so early in the morning - saying an hour or so later, and the lobby and street outside would have been busy with visitors, many of them children.\n\nSandra Weeser, a member of the German federal parliament who had been staying at the hotel, told local television that she had been woken up by \"a kind of shock wave\" and described the scene outside the hotel as a \"picture of devastation\".\n\nShe said fish which may have been saved had frozen to death and recalled seeing a \"large parrotfish lying on the ground, frozen\".\n\nThe aquarium was modernised two years ago, and there is a clear-walled lift built inside for use by visitors. Some of the rooms in the hotel are advertised as having views of it.\n\nBerlin's fire brigade said more than 100 firefighters were sent to the scene and it was not clear what caused the break.\n\nIt said it used rescue dogs to check the area inside the hotel for anyone potentially injured, with nobody found.\n\nPolice said \"massive amounts\" of water were flowing into nearby streets and people in the area should drive cautiously.\n\nThe AquaDom in Berlin contained about 1,500 fish and over a million litres of water\n\nA police source told local media there is no evidence the break was the result of a targeted attack.\n\nBut there has been speculation that freezing temperature - which dropped as low as -6C overnight - may have caused a crack in the tank.\n\nBerlin's public transport authority said Karl-Liebknecht street outside the hotel had been closed off due to \"an extreme amount of water on the road\". Trams service in the area was also stopped.\n\nAquaDom was opened in December 2003 and was given the Guinness World Record for being the world's largest cylindrical aquarium.\n\nAccording to reports at the time of its construction, it cost about €12.8m (£11.2m) to build.", "Students pictured in a school classroom in Shanghai in 2020\n\nChina's largest city, Shanghai, has ordered most of its schools to take classes online as Covid cases soar.\n\nNurseries and childcare centres will also shut from Monday, according to Shanghai's education bureau.\n\nRestrictions were eased by Chinese authorities earlier this month following a wave of protests targeting China's zero-Covid strategy.\n\nBut the easing of strict lockdown measures has led to growing concerns over the spread of Covid in China.\n\nSignificant changes in the country's Covid testing and reporting systems have made it difficult to know just how widespread the virus has become, with data for the week ending 11 December showing a fall in the total number of new infections across the country after peaking the previous week.\n\nBut prior to the change in data collection, the number of cases was higher than that of the last Covid wave in April.\n\nHospitals and medical facilities have come under increasing strain, with temporary health centres and intensive care facilities being set up across the country.\n\nIn Shanghai, it has been reported that an extra 230,000 hospital beds have been made available.\n\nSome schools in the city have also already stopped in-person classes because teachers and staff are ill.\n\nIn a statement posted on Chinese social media site WeChat on Saturday, Shanghai's education bureau announced that most year groups in primary and secondary schools would move to online learning from Monday.\n\nStudents and children who do not have alternative childcare arrangements can apply to attend school.\n\nThe statement said the measures were being put in place in order to protect the health of teachers and students in line with current coronavirus prevention measures.\n\nThe decision means that schools in the country's financial hub will be closed for in-person learning until the end of term on 17 January, when the Lunar New Year holiday starts.\n\nSome Chinese social media users praised the decision, agreeing that it was best that students stay at home. Others complained about the efficacy of online learning in relation to in-person teaching and the extra strains put on working parents.\n\nFollowing its abandonment of its zero-Covid strategy, there has been an explosion of self-reported cases across the country, with many cities eerily quiet as large numbers of people isolate at home, either sick with Covid or trying to avoid becoming infected, reports the BBC's Celia Hatton.\n\nThere are concerns that China's health infrastructure is not prepared to cope with a rapid increase in patients - especially as Covid spreads among the elderly, many of whom are not fully vaccinated.", "Ireland has a new taoiseach (prime minister) - Leo Varadkar - as he and Micheál Martin swap roles.\n\nEighty-seven TDs in the Dáil (Irish Parliament) voted to elect Mr Varadkar, while 62 were against his nomination.\n\nMr Varadkar takes over from Mr Martin as government leader, while Mr Martin takes on his role as tánaiste (deputy prime minister).\n\nMr Martin will also be minister for foreign affairs as Simon Coveney moves to the Department of Enterprise.\n\nThe rotation of power between the Irish parties was laid down in the coalition agreement of June 2020.\n\nThe deal brought together Mr Varadkar's Fine Gael party, Mr Martin's Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in a historic compromise.\n\nMr Varadkar, a qualified medical doctor, previously served as taoiseach and minister of defence from 2017 to 2020.\n\nThe handover is a first for the Republic of Ireland's political system and takes place between two parties which dominated Irish politics as bitter rivals for almost a century.\n\nThis swap-at-the-top has never happened before.\n\nIn the past, a coalition between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would have been thought to be as unlikely as Labour and the Conservatives going into government together in London.\n\nNow, the Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has handed over the most important job in Ireland to his Fine Gael counterpart, Leo Varadkar.\n\nThe parties agreed the deal after a general election in 2020, when Sinn Féin surged to win the most first-preference votes.\n\nThe leader of the opposition - Mary Lou McDonald - was predictably scathing in her attacks on Mr Varadkar during the parliamentary proceedings.\n\nPolls suggest she is in line to replace Mr Varadkar as taoiseach in the next Dáil election, due by early 2025.\n\nDomestic politics in the next two years are set to be dominated by housing, healthcare, and the cost of living.\n\nMr Varadkar's relations with Rishi Sunak will be particularly important, as the UK and the EU continue to negotiate on Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.\n\nThere is another interesting moment in history today - Britain and its nearest neighbour, Ireland, are now both led by men of Indian heritage.\n\nAddressing the Dáil following his appointment on Saturday, Mr Varadkar said his mission would be to build on the achievement of 100 years ago and work on what needs to done for this generation and the next.\n\nHe said he wanted to provide \"new hope and new opportunities for all our citizens\" and to see \"housing, economic opportunity and a fair start for all\".\n\nThe new taoiseach said there were many challenges.\n\n\"Ireland has never been a failed state,\" he said, \"and it is grotesque and dishonest to claim that we are or we were.\n\n\"But we are failing some of our citizens, and it is essential to our success as a country that we put this right.\"\n\nMr Varadkar reaffirmed the Irish commitment to stand with fellow Europeans through this \"harsh winter\".\n\n\"Dreams of a better future are not built on stalemate and the status quo,\" he added.\n\n\"I want to work with all parties in this house and in Northern Ireland, as well as with the British government and our partners in the European Union, to make progress on the protocol and restore the institutions of the agreement.\"\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he wished Mr Varadkar well and said the relationship between the UK and Ireland is \"so valuable\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chris Heaton-Harris MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn the new line-up, Stephen Donnelly is to remain as health minister, Simon Harris will be justice minister as well as leading in further and higher education, research, innovation and science for a period and Charlie McConalogue will hold on to his role as agriculture minister.\n\nThe coalition agreement originally specified that the handover would be on 15 December but this was changed in order to allow Mr Martin to participate in the final EU leaders' summit of the year in Brussels this week.\n\nMr Martin then offered his resignation to President Higgins, automatically dissolving the government.\n\nWhile addressing the Dáil, Mr Martin referenced Northern Ireland during his speech.\n\n\"If we genuinely believe in an Ireland which includes and serves all, then we must be prepared to build new bridges,\" he said.\n\nLeo Varadkar (left) replaces Micheál Martin as taoiseach in line with a coalition agreement\n\n\"We must be prepared to reach across divides and to do the hard work of learning to understand and respect each other far more than we have in the past.\n\n\"We must stop making assumptions about each other and get to know each other,\" he added.\n\nWhen Leo Varadkar first became taoiseach in 2017, he was seen internationally as a symbol of a new and much changed Ireland.\n\nA gay man of Indian heritage, he was certainly a break with the past.\n\nHe takes the reins for a second time as issues over the Brexit-related Northern Ireland Protocol remain unresolved between the EU and the UK.\n\nUnionist opposition to the protocol means no government at Stormont.\n\nAnd that casts a shadow over planned celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 deal designed to end 30 years of bloody conflict in Northern Ireland.\n\nWhen he meets Rishi Sunak, another prime minister of Indian heritage, resolving difficulties over the protocol will be the key priority.\n\nInevitably the responsibility of being in government takes the sheen off most politicians who come to power promising something new.\n\nDomestically, Mr Varadkar and his fellow ministers in the three-party coalition will have to convince a sceptical electorate that they are delivering on housing, heath and the cost of living.\n\nOtherwise there is likely to be a Sinn Féin government in two-and-a-half years time with Mary Lou McDonald replacing him as taoiseach.\n\nMary Lou McDonald accused the coalition of being \"out of touch, out of ideas and out of time\"\n\nSpeaking in the Dáil on Saturday, the Sinn Féin leader said Ireland needed a general election, not a rotation of leader.\n\nMs McDonald accused the coalition of being \"out of touch, out of ideas and out of time\" and questioned Mr Martin's assertion that the government was delivering.\n\nShe also challenged his claim that there were no easy answers to Ireland's problems.\n\n\"You all say that there are no easy answers, but I don't think that's an acceptable response to those mothers frantic because their children wait and wait for vital surgery, for essential services, for assessment of needs, to families distressed because they can't pay the latest bill, the mortgage repayment or afford the rent, to a child growing up in a B&B or a hotel room,\" she said.\n\nMr Varadkar is also vacating his post as minister for enterprise, trade and employment.\n\nIt took four months to negotiate the coalition agreement following the February 2020 election. Under the deal, six senior ministerial posts were each allocated to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and three to the Green Party.\n\nFine Gael and Fianna Fáil, for decades the largest parties in the Republic of Ireland, trace their origins to the opposing sides in the Irish Civil War of the early 1920s.\n\nThe 2020 election saw a rise in popularity for the left-leaning republican party, Sinn Féin, which won the most first-preference votes and ran a close second to Fianna Fáil in the number of seats taken.\n\nRecent opinion polls have suggested that support for Sinn Féin currently stands well ahead of the coalition parties and has done for some time.\n\nA former minister for health, Mr Martin's time as taoiseach has been dominated by Covid, the war in Ukraine and the stand-off between the European Union and the UK over the Northern Ireland Protocol.", "Supporters of impeached President Pedro Castillo have been blocking major roads across Peru\n\nPeru's President Dina Boluarte has ruled out resigning, saying it would not solve the political crisis sparked by the ousting of her predecessor, Pedro Castillo.\n\nPresident Boluarte renewed her call for Congress to approve early elections, as a way to curb the street protests that have claimed more than 20 lives.\n\nDemonstrators backing Mr Castillo want Ms Boluarte to go - as well as early elections and the closure of Congress.\n\nPeru has been through years of political turmoil, with the latest crisis coming to a head when Mr Castillo announced he was dissolving Congress and introducing a state of emergency.\n\nBut Congress proceeded to vote overwhelmingly to impeach him.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A border between Peru and Bolivia is blocked by protesters\n\nMr Castillo, who is currently in detention, is being investigated on charges of rebellion and conspiracy. He denies all the accusation, insisting that is still the country's legitimate president.\n\nOn Friday, Congress voted against a proposal to bring elections forward to next year.\n\nThe latest call for elections by President Boluarte follows high-level talks by Peruvian politicians and Church leaders.\n\nThe Council of State, the body made up of representatives of all branches of power, and Church leaders had a three-hour meeting in the capital, Lima.\n\nAfter the meeting on Friday evening, the head of the National Board of Justice, José Ávila, called on Peruvians to avoid violence and engage in peaceful dialogue with the authorities.\n\nHe said government ministers would be travelling to the areas where people were protesting, in order to promote such a dialogue.\n\nClashes on Thursday between the army and Castillo supporters in the central Ayacucho region left at least eight people dead, health authorities said. Footage on social media showed protesters blocking main roads and airports.\n\nJust hours later, Education Minister Patricia Correa said she was stepping down. In a Twitter post on Friday, she wrote that the \"death of compatriots has no justification\", and that \"state violence cannot be disproportionate and cause death\".\n\nThe protests are also affecting the country's tourism industry. The mayor of Cusco told AFP news agency that about 5,000 tourists are stranded in the city after the airport there closed when protesters tried to storm the terminal.\n\nThe city is the gateway to Macchu Picchu, an ancient Inca citadel which is visited by hundreds of thousands of people a year.\n\nAbout 800 tourists are also stuck in the small town at the foot of the mountain where the citadel stands, because the railway line which serves it has stopped running.\n\nSome mostly American and European tourists have reportedly left the town on foot along the train tracks in an attempt to return to Cusco.", "Ambulance staff across most of England and Wales will go on strike on 21 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nThe coordinated walkout by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls only.\n\nBut it could mean people who have had trips and falls not being responded to.\n\nMembers of GMB, which represents nearly a third of the 50,000-strong workforce, will then follow that up with another walkout on 28 December.\n\nIt comes as Royal College of Nursing members are also preparing to go on strike on 15 and 20 December in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe impact of the first ambulance walkout will be patchy as Unison, which is the largest union in the sector, only has a strike mandate for half of England's 10 regional services for the 21 December walkout.\n\nThe walkouts will involve paramedics as well as control room staff and support workers, with the military on standby to help out.\n\nThe start times and lengths of the walkouts vary between unions and services, but all will last between 12 hours and 24 hours.\n\nThe only service which will be completely unaffected, however, is the East of England.\n\nThe full extent of the cover striking staff will provide has yet to be decided - detailed negotiations will take place between local ambulance bosses and unions ahead of the walkout.\n\nUnder trade union rules, life-preserving care has to be provided so the two highest category calls - covering everything from heart attacks and strokes to major trauma - will still be responded to.\n\nBut Matthew Taylor, of the NHS Confederation, which represents health managers, said he was worried the action would \"undoubtedly\" affect patient care and how quickly ambulance services could respond and may even deter people from seeking help.\n\n\"The prospect of industrial action over Christmas is very concerning,\" he added.\n\nLast month the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives warned patients were dying because of the \"crippling delays\" that ambulance crews faced when arriving at A&E.\n\nUnison head of health Sara Gorton said: \"The government will only have itself to blame if there are strikes in the NHS before Christmas.\n\n\"Ambulance staff and their health colleagues don't want to inconvenience anyone. But ministers are refusing to do the one thing that could prevent disruption - that's start genuine talks about pay.\n\n\"Wages are too low to stop health workers quitting the NHS. As more and more hand in their notice, there are fewer staff left to care for patients. The public knows that's the reason behind lengthy waits.\"\n\nAll the unions have asked for above-inflation pay rises.\n\nBut the governments in England and Wales have given NHS staff an average rise of 4.75%, with staff guaranteed a minimum of £1,400.\n\nEngland Health Secretary Steve Barclay said paying what was being asked for was \"unaffordable\" and he has pointed out the award met the requirements of the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body.\n\nJust over two thirds of ambulance staff are thought to be members of one of the three unions.\n\nThe last time ambulance staff were involved in strike action was in 2014.\n\nAre you an ambulance worker, or a patient affected by the strike? Please email us and let us know how you feel about the industrial action: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Last updated on .From the section Australian A-League\n\nThe A-League Melbourne derby has been abandoned after a player and the referee were injured by a spectator during a pitch invasion. Fans ran on to the pitch in the 22nd minute of the match between Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory. Referee Alex King was trying to shield City goalkeeper Tom Glover when both suffered cuts to their faces after being hit by a metal bucket. Glover had several stitches before being taken to hospital for scans. A City statement said Glover, 24, went for \"further follow up checks\" after being assessed by the club doctor. A TV cameraman was also injured by a flare. In a statement, Victory said the club was \"devastated\" and \"unequivocally condemns\" the \"appalling behaviour\" of fans at Saturday's game at AAMI Park, which the two clubs share. \"The actions that occurred, that saw spectators enter the pitch and injure a Melbourne City FC player, an official and a Network 10 cameraman, are not acceptable under any circumstance and have no place in football,\" it continued. Supporters had been protesting before and during the game, which was initially suspended then abandoned on player safety grounds. The Australian Professional Leagues (APL) announced last week that it had sold the A-League Grand Final rights to Sydney for the next three years , and protests were planned at several A-League games this weekend as a result. Fans of both Victory and City planned a walk-out on the 20-minute mark but the protest escalated after flares were thrown on to the pitch by both sets of supporters. City were leading 1-0 when Glover appeared to throw a flare back towards the crowd, according to Melbourne newspaper The Age. Victoria Police said approximately 150-200 Victory fans then ran on to the pitch, and Glover and referee King were struck by a bucket used to dispose of flares, covering them both in powder and smoke. The players, including former Portugal and Manchester United winger Nani, were immediately ushered from the field and Football Australia said the game was called off \"to protect the integrity of the match\". A Football Australia statement said \"strong sanctions\" would be handed down after the \"shocking scenes\". \"Such behaviour has no place in Australian football, with a full Football Australia investigation to commence immediately,\" it added. An APL statement said: \"The Australian Professional League is co-ordinating with Football Australia regarding the ramifications of these events.\"\n• None Sydney United 58 fined and sanctioned for fans' Nazi salutes during Australia Cup final Victoria Police are also investigating the incident, which has been widely criticised on social media. \"I can't believe what has happened,\" said former Australia midfielder Robbie Slater. \"Not the way to protest. Very sad that it has come to this.\" Former Australia goalkeeper Clint Bolton added that \"I've never felt as embarrassed and as empty as I feel right now.\" \"That is an absolute disgrace from the Melbourne Victory fans,\" wrote Western United left-back Ben Garuccio. \"Not what football in this country needs and I hope whoever threw that bucket is banned from ever attending another A-League match.\" Newcastle Jets supporters also staged a walk-out protest 20 minutes into Friday's home game with Brisbane Roar. Central Coast Mariners fans did the same during Saturday's match against Sydney FC, while a group of Sydney FC fans boycotted the game in Gosford altogether. Newcastle Jets supporters also protested at their game on Friday\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Wales has been warned to expect heavy rain from Sunday evening\n\nWales has been warned to expect heavy and persistent rain from Sunday evening until early on Tuesday.\n\nThe Met Office said there would be between 35-50mm (1.3-2in) in many areas, and 70-90mm (2.7-3.5in) is possible on high ground.\n\nThe warning is for south-east Wales, and Swansea, Carmarthenshire and Powys from 18:00 GMT on Sunday until 06:00 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nThe rain alert follows an earlier one for icy conditions.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said it was experiencing high call demand, especially with people having fallen.\n\nThe service said some patients had to wait for \"many hours\" for an ambulance or a call-back from a clinician via the 111 helpline due to demand.\n\n\"Extreme weather, coupled with a high call volume which are mostly reporting falls and breathing issues, has limited our capacity to respond safely and timely,\" said Sonia Thompson, assistant director of operations.\n\nAn ice warning, as seen here in Crumlin, Caerphilly county, covered all Wales until 14:00 GMT on Sunday\n\n\"We are sorry to everyone who has waited longer for their calls to be answered, and subsequently wait longer for an ambulance to arrive.\"\n\nSouth Wales Police had earlier advised people to \"only drive if it's necessary\" due to \"extremely poor\" road conditions.\n\nCrashes were reported by Gwent Police and North Wales Police, along with road closures due to ice.", "Just 12 ScotRail routes are operating as Network Rail workers continue industrial action\n\nChristmas nights out across Scotland face disruption this weekend as strikes cripple the rail network.\n\nScotRail is only running 12 routes in the central belt, Fife and the Borders until Sunday after RMT members at Network Rail rejected the latest offer from their employers.\n\nHospitality bosses have warned the industrial action is harming firms at a crucial time of year for business.\n\nUnion leaders the public have shown\"phenomenal support\" to workers.\n\nThe RMT members at Network Rail walked out on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday as part of a long running UK-wide dispute over pay with the track operator.\n\nMany of the staff taking part in the strike do safety-critical jobs which means it is not possible for ScotRail, which is not involved in the dispute, to run the majority of its services.\n\nNetwork Rail has advised people not to travel on trains unless it is absolutely necessary.\n\nThe RMT has scheduled further strike action from 18:00 on Christmas Eve until 06:00 on 27 December, while members of the smaller TSSA union will walk out at three train companies between 26 and 29 December.\n\nColin Wilkinson, managing director for the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA), said the strikes were having a \"major impact\" on businesses in the last weekend before Christmas and beyond.\n\nHospitality firms have raised fears about a lack of business over the festive period\n\n\"It's certainly not the bumper season our operators were looking for, we're hearing trade is down by around 30%,\" he told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland (GMS) programme.\n\nMr Wilkinson pointed out there were a range of issues affecting hospitality firms, with consumers struggling with the high cost of living.\n\n\"There's problems with a shortage of taxis, late-night public transport, lack of staff, so it's a very difficult season for the trade but definitely the rail strikes are having a major impact,\" he said.\n\nHospitality bosses expect to generate about 30% of annual turnover over the festive season, the SLTA chief said. \"That's certainly not going to be the case now.\n\n\"We're certainly seeing a major drop and a lot more cancellations coming in.\"\n\nMr Wilkinson added: \"It's not only for nights out that we're seeing increases in cancellations for, it's short-stay vacations, family gatherings, particularly because of rail travel concerns.\"\n\nHe said the SLTA was also \"bitterly disappointed\" by the Scottish budget after calls for a 75% rates relief package for businesses were not implemented.\n\nThe SLTA chief said: \"In our 140 year history ... I've never seen anything like this before. It's it's actually worse than Covid because we don't have the support.\"\n\nThe Scottish government said its budget, which included a freeze on non-domestic rates, would save business tax rate payers £308m compared with an inflationary increase.\n\nLouise Maclean, business development director at the Signature Pub Group, said the company's bars were £50,000 down on last week as a mixture of limited train services and bad weather have been keeping customers away.\n\n\"In general, last week was absolutely fantastic,\" she told BBC Scotland. \"So we were really gearing up, staffing up, for a fantastic festive week, and this week has been very, very disappointing.\"\n\nThe hospitality chief said cancellations had come \"thick and fast\", with city centre locations more badly affected.\n\nShe added: \"They're not cancelling days and days in advance, but at the last minute the phones are ringing off the hook with cancellations both due to bad weather and due to the unfortunate timing of these train strikes.\"\n\nGordon Martin, RMT regional organiser, told BBC Scotland: \"The last thing we want to do is inconvenience the public.\"\n\nRMT members have been on the picked line in Glasgow\n\nHe said the public had shown the union \"phenomenal support\" throughout the dispute, which began in June.\n\n\"The public know what's at stake, because other groups of workers are on strike,\" Mr Martin said.\n\n\"Whether it's rail workers, postal workers, NHS staff. We are all members of the public and the only people that are out of touch with public opinion is the unelected prime minister and an out-of-touch right-wing government in Westminster.\"\n\nHe said that as well as pay, the union had concerns about cuts to maintenance work that he said could endanger lives.\n\nThe RMT chief added: \"Nobody wants to be on strike. We want a negotiated settlement to get our members back to work as soon as possible.\n\n\"And we hope that the government, either between now and the new year or shortly after the new year, will realise that they need the railways as a driver of economic growth.\"\n\nBusiness Secretary Grant Shapps told Radio 4's Today that while he supported the right to strike \"people should also have the right to go about their lives\".\n\nHe said: \"Some of the people most affected by strikes, particularly on the railways, are not people who can sit at home behind their computer but the hospital porter, the cleaner, who have to physically go to work.\"\n\nSaturday is the fourth day of strikes this week and the 12th since the RMT union voted for industrial action in the summer. Disruption is also likely on Sunday, a non-strike day, due to morning services starting later.\n\nDavid Simpson, ScotRail service delivery director, said: \"We're advising customers to seek alternative means of transport and to only travel if they really need to on the days of strike action.\n\n\"Customers should check their journey in advance to make sure your train is running.\"\n\nScotRail said the railway would only be operational between 07:30 and 18:30 on Saturday.\n\nThe services that will run are:\n\nEdinburgh - Glasgow via Falkirk High: Two trains per hour\n\nEdinburgh - Glasgow via Shotts: One train per hour\n\nFinal services will depart well before 18:30, and customers are being urged to plan ahead to ensure they know when their last train will run.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A mother from Kryvyi Rih recalls helping her child to do homework when their building was hit\n\nUkraine's second city of Kharkiv was for hours left without power after the latest wave of Russian strikes targeted energy stations across the country.\n\nLocal officials said as many as nine power facilities were hit as Russian forces fired 76 missiles and carried out drone attacks on Friday.\n\nKharkiv's mayor said the city suffered \"colossal\" damage. By the evening, 55% of residents had electricity back.\n\nOne resident, Anastaisa, told the BBC the strikes began on Friday morning.\n\n\"In a matter of minutes, the lights started blinking,\" the mother of a two-month-old child said. \"Just 10 seconds later, we were out of power, everything just went still and that's it.\n\n\"At the moment, there is also no water because the pumping stations cannot work when there's no power in the city, so technically, what we have now is a city without power and water supply.\"\n\nIn the evening, Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv's regional administration, said electricity supplies had been restored to 55% of city residents and 85% of those living in the north-eastern region. He added that energy sector employees were working to restore full power by midnight.\n\nHowever, Ukraine's power grid operator, Ukrenergo, warned that the scale of the damage could mean it will take longer to restore supplies.\n\nThe body said in a statement that the energy system had lost more than half of its capacity because of the latest strikes, adding that priority would be given to \"critical infrastructure - hospitals, water supply facilities, heat supply facilities, sewage treatment plants\".\n\nDefence Ministry adviser Yuriy Sak told the BBC that emergency services were working to restore electricity supplies, but the situation was \"still difficult\". Russia's frequent attacks mean that repairing the damage is getting harder.\n\nElsewhere, three people were killed and 13 more injured when a residential building was hit in Kryvyi Rih and a third died in Kherson. In the capital, Kyiv, the city's metro was left at a standstill.\n\nThe alarm was raised across Ukraine on Friday and Commander-in-Chief General Valeriy Zaluzhny said air defences had intercepted 60 of the 76 missiles fired, most of them cruise missiles.\n\nKyiv city officials said about 40 missiles had been fired at the capital alone - one of the biggest barrages since Russia's 24 February invasion. Thirty-seven were brought down by air defences, the officials added.\n\n\"It's very stressful, but now I'm used to this,\" said 42-year-old Oksana, who lives in the capital. \"I don't want our children to live through this, to be in basements, shelters, I don't want this for them.\"\n\nUkraine has accused Russia of \"weaponising winter\" by striking essential facilities, as temperatures in much of the country are below freezing.\n\nFriday's attack on Kherson was the third in as many days on the southern city, a month after Russian forces retreated\n\nRussia's attacks also cut power in the north-eastern Sumy region that borders Russia, and also in the central cities of Poltava and Kremenchuk.\n\nFifteen rockets were reportedly fired at Zaporizhzhia in the south, while Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said several areas of the capital were hit. Damage to energy infrastructure had affected its water supplies, while city metro lines were for the moment not running, he said.\n\nRussia has launched more than 1,000 missiles and Iranian-made attack drones since the wave of strikes began on 10 October, although most of them have been intercepted by air defences. The biggest barrage, in mid-November, involved more than 100 missiles and drones.\n\nUN human rights commissioner Volker Turk warned on Thursday that further attacks on power facilities could \"lead to a further serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation and spark more displacement\".\n\nPrime Minister Denys Shmyhal described the latest wave of strikes as \"another attempt to commit genocide against the Ukrainian people\".\n\nIn some areas, electricity is available for just a few hours a day.\n\n\"I'm angry,\" said Yelyzaveta, 21. \"They [Russia] are destroying our lives. We are used to it now. The most important thing is that Russia isn't here.\"\n\nAnd Anastasia said that life was becoming more difficult as winter sets in.\n\n\"When it's daytime it is still OK, it is tolerable and I can manage the situation, but when it's dark outside, this is when my problems begin because I need to see clearly, to measure baby formula and also to attend to the baby - those are stressful,\" she said\n\n\"And, of course, just the effect that we are out of power creates a lot of tension and lots of stress. So we just survive through the night and when the day breaks, it gets a bit better, but we cannot compare it to our normal day.\"\n\nThe strikes came as the EU announced a ninth wave of sanctions against Russian officials and businesses. Almost 200 individuals and entities were added to an asset freeze and visa ban blacklist.\n\nAmong those sanctioned was Larisa Falkovskaya - head of Russia's Department of State Policy for the Protection of Children's Rights - who was accused of \"the illegal transportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and their adoption by Russian families\".\n\nSeveral Russian regional governors were sanctioned on identical charges. The EU said the officials had been involved in the forced deportation and adoption of more than 2,000 Ukrainian children since the war began.\n\nUkrainian officials say the deportations amount to a war crime under Article 49 of the Geneva Convention.\n\nMeanwhile, Russian-backed proxy officials in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region accused Ukrainian forces of shelling a town and a village overnight in the Luhansk region. Details of the deaths could not be confirmed.", "Angel Lynn was 19 years old when she fell out of a van travelling at 60mph\n\nA 22-year-old left brain-damaged by her ex-boyfriend's botched kidnap attempt could be back home for good by next Christmas, her family says.\n\nAngel Lynn was 19 when Chay Bowskill bundled her into a van after an argument. She fell out of the vehicle at 60mph and was badly injured.\n\nShe has needed 24-hour care since and her parents have been fundraising to revamp their home to meet her needs.\n\nWork has now started, and they hope it could be completed next year.\n\nAt the moment Angel, who is unable to walk, talk or feed herself, lives in a specialist home but is allowed supervised four-hour visits every day.\n\nMum Nikki and dad Paddy want to add a downstairs bedroom, wet room and carers' room to their house in Leicestershire.\n\nThey hope doing this will allow Angel to be cared for permanently in one place with her family nearby.\n\nTaking shape: Work has finally begun on extending the Lynn family's home so they can welcome Angel back full-time\n\nAngel's kidnapper Bowskill recently had his original seven-year jail sentence increased to 12 years.\n\nHe was caught on CCTV grabbing Angel and dragging her towards a van driven by his accomplice Rocco Sansome in September 2020.\n\nThe judge who increased Bowskill's prison term said Bowskill had been controlling and \"vile\" towards Angel during their relationship.\n\nNikki and Paddy say their daughter's made \"quite a lot of progress\" in the last two years.\n\n\"We don't worry as much as we used to,\" says Paddy.\n\n\"She's more aware of what's going on around her,\" says Nikki.\n\n\"She's using her iPad now [to communicate] - she's got pictures of her family on there so she can point to the family members.\"\n\nThe couple have spoken before about the support they've received from their local community and how it's helped them to realise their dream.\n\nAnd Jimi King - project manager on the family's big build - agrees.\n\n\"It's absolutely huge - all the equipment we're using we've had for free, even rental companies giving us things at cost just to help us out,\" he says.\n\n\"We're saving a fortune on raw materials at the moment - it's really quite incredible.\"\n\nNikki looks forward to spending Christmas with Angel at home\n\nPaddy says the family are \"well excited\" as the result of Project Angel - their name for their fundraising campaign - begins to take shape.\n\n\"It's just the mess you've got to put up with,\" he says.\n\nAnd for Nikki, the dream of having her daughter back at home is a step closer to becoming a reality.\n\n\"She is the strongest person I've ever, ever met.\n\n\"To come through all that... we were told daily that Angel won't wake up, she won't make it.\n\n\"I want her to have the best life possible, obviously, and I'll make sure I'll do that whatever.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Russian President Vladimir Putin has met his military chiefs on the same day his forces launched another wave of missiles at Ukraine's infrastructure.\n\nMr Putin spent most of Friday at the headquarters of the \"special military operation\" discussing ideas for what Russia's next move should be.\n\nIt comes as some Ukrainian military officials claimed Russia was planning an offensive, perhaps early next year.\n\nRussian attacks on Ukraine's power grid have plunged millions into darkness.\n\nFootage from Friday's meeting showed Mr Putin flanked by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Armed Forces Chief Valeriy Gerasimov.\n\n\"We will listen to the commanders in each operational direction, and I would like to hear your proposals on our immediate and medium-term actions,\" the Kremlin leader was seen telling military officials on state TV.\n\nGen Gerasimov's presence ends rumours circulating online that he had been dismissed from his position. The 67-year-old has been the target of intensive criticism from hawkish commentators, who have accused him of being too cautious.\n\nAir Force general Sergei Surovikin - who was appointed as Russia's commander in Ukraine in October - was also present at the meeting, photos released by state media showed.\n\nUkrainian forces have made a series of major advances in recent months, including retaking Kherson - the only regional capital captured by Russian forces so far.\n\nAnd the collapse of Moscow's forces in eastern Ukraine earlier this year saw military bosses come in for sustained criticism from pro-Kremlin media figures.\n\nThere had been reports that Armed Forces Chief Valeriy Gerasimov (R) had been dismissed\n\nThe meeting followed claims by the commander of Ukraine's military, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, that Moscow could seek to launch a new offensive in early 2023. He warned that Russia was preparing around 200,000 troops for the attack.\n\n\"I have no doubt they will have another go at Kyiv,\" he added. \"I know how many combat units I have right now, how many combat units I have to create by the end of the year - and, most importantly, not to touch them in any way now. No matter how hard it is.\"\n\nHe added that the attack could originate \"in the direction of Kyiv\" and may be launched from Belarus.\n\nIn February, Russian troops advanced towards the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after crossing the border from Belarus.\n\nWhile the country's leader Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly denied that his forces will join in the invasion, thousands of Russian troops are currently in the country taking part in what Moscow's defence ministry called \"intensive combat training\".\n\nMr Putin will visit his Belarusian counterpart in Minsk on Monday.\n\nBut analysts have questioned Russia's ability to launch a new offensive on the Ukrainian capital, and White House spokesperson John Kirby said that US intelligence officials \"aren't seeing any indication that there's an imminent move on Kyiv\".\n\nSenior US defence officials told Reuters news agency that Russia had been forced to use decades-old ammunition with high failure rates as it burns through its supplies.\n\nThey added that \"the rate of fire that Russia has been using its artillery and rocket ammunition\" could see them run out of reliable munitions by early 2023.\n\nMeanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that power had been restored to nearly six million people after the latest wave of Russian strikes to hit the country's energy grid.\n\nKyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city's metro system had restarted and the water supply had been restored.\n\nHe also posted photos on Telegram of a large Christmas tree that has been adapted to meet the constraints of a wartime winter. The tree will be lit with energy-saving bulbs run off a generator, he said.\n\nPower has also been restored in the country's second city of Kharkiv, authorities said, after it was left without electricity for hours following Friday's wave of strikes that targeted energy stations across the country.\n\nRussia has launched more than 1,000 missiles and Iranian-made attack drones since the wave of strikes on power infrastructure began on 10 October. International leaders - including French President Emmanuel Macron - have said the strikes amount to a war crime.\n\nThe UK's Ministry of Defence says there had been an \"uptick\" in Russia's campaign of long-range strikes against Ukraine's critical infrastructure in recent days.\n\nKharkiv's mayor said the city suffered \"colossal\" damage after the latest barrage of strikes", "Iranian authorities have arrested one of the country's best known actresses, after she expressed solidarity with anti-government demonstrators.\n\nTaraneh Alidoosti was detained on charges of \"spreading falsehoods\" about the protest movement that has gripped the country, state media said.\n\nIn an Instagram post last week, she condemned the execution of a man over his involvement with the protests.\n\nMs Alidoosti is best known for her role in the Oscar-winning film The Salesman.\n\nIn her post, the 38-year-old took aim at some international organisations for not speaking out against the execution of Mohsen Shekari.\n\nHe was hanged by authorities after they accused him of being a \"rioter\" who blocked a main road in Tehran in September and wounded a member of a paramilitary force with a machete.\n\n\"His name was Mohsen Shekari. Every international organisation who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action, is a disgrace to humanity,\" she wrote.\n\nAccording to a post on the state news agency IRNA's Telegram account, she was arrested by police for failing to provide \"any documents in line with her claims\".\n\nHer Instagram account, which has more than eight million followers, was recently taken down.\n\nThe 38-year-old is one of Iran's most successful actresses. She starred in The Salesman, which won an Academy Award in 2016 for the Best International Feature Film.\n\nBut since the outbreak of the protest movement she became a vocal critic of the Iranian government's attempts to clamp down on the nationwide unrest, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September.\n\nIn November, she attracted attention after posting an image of herself on Instagram without a headscarf to signal solidarity with the demonstrations.\n\nThe protest movement has become one of the most serious challenges to the Iranian regime since it came to power in the 1979 revolution.\n\nAuthorities have already executed two men after they were found guilty of \"moharebeh\" - roughly translated as \"enmity against God\". Under Iranian law, the crime is defined as \"creating public insecurity\" by threatening lives or property with a weapon.", "NHS nurses are on strike across the UK\n\nSpeaking about nurses striking over pay, Health Minister Maria Caulfield said that it would cost the government £700m to increase pay by 1%.\n\nMs Caulfield made the claim on BBC Breakfast and Radio 4's Today programme in relation to nurses in England, with health being a devolved matter. But was it accurate?\n\nWhen discussing the nurses' strike, Health Minister Maria Caulfield told presenter Nick Robinson on Today \"for every per cent we would have to put pay up that's £700m we would have to find\".\n\nThis is not correct when applied solely to the nurses' pay dispute.\n\nThe £700m figure comes from the NHS pay review report that describes how much money would be needed to fund a pay rise for a much larger group of NHS workers in England and not just nurses.\n\nIn it, the Department of Health and Social Care said that each additional 1% of pay for the \"non-medical workforce\" costs around £700m per year.\n\nThe \"non-medical workforce\" in the NHS includes nurses, but it covers a much larger group of workers including scientists, porters, administrative staff, physiotherapists, radiographers, ambulance staff and management.\n\nChanges to their pay is set as part of what is called the \"Agenda for Change\" - a system which aligns pay and career progression among these groups, meaning pay rises apply to everyone under this contract.\n\nThere are about 320,000 nurses in England.\n\nNHS data on staff in England shows that non-medical staff - excluding nurses - make up about 378,000 people working in hospitals and communities.\n\nSo the cost of a 1% pay rise quoted by Ms Caulfield does not apply to nurses' pay alone but covers more than twice as many staff in the NHS in England.\n\nIn the same interview, Ms Caulfield also said that a 1% pay rise would cost £800m but the Department for Health and Social Care later clarified that she misspoke.\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: \"We are sympathetic to our hard-working NHS staff and realise these are challenging economic times.\n\n\"Each additional 1% of pay for all Agenda for Change staff, which includes nurses, would cost around £700m - as the minister said.\n\n\"Nurses cannot be given a pay rise without also uplifting pay for every worker on the Agenda for Change contract.\"\n\nOn the pay dispute with nurses, Health Secretary Steve Barclay said that \"we have accepted the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body in full to give nurses a pay rise of at least £1,400 - on top of a 3% pay rise last year when wider public sector pay was frozen.\n\n\"Further pay increases would mean taking money away from frontline services at a time when we are tackling record waiting lists as a result of the pandemic.\"", "Lady Susan Hussey has given a personal apology to Ngozi Fulani, after asking her where she was \"really from\" at a Palace reception.\n\nLady Susan, a former lady in waiting, met black British charity boss Ms Fulani at Buckingham Palace on Friday.\n\nShe offered her \"sincere apologies for the comments... and the distress they caused\", said Buckingham Palace.\n\nA statement said Ms Fulani had accepted the apology and recognised the comments had not been malicious.\n\nMs Fulani, founder of the Sistah Space charity, was a guest at a Buckingham Palace reception last month when she described Lady Susan moving her hair to see her name badge, and challenging her to explain where she was \"really from\".\n\nLady Susan, a godmother to Prince William, asked what part of Africa Ms Fulani was from, despite Ms Fulani explaining that she worked in London and had been born in the UK.\n\nMs Fulani felt that she had been \"interrogated\" at the reception hosted by the Queen Consort for those working to tackle domestic abuse.\n\nFollowing the controversy, Lady Susan, aged 83, stepped down from her honorary palace role.\n\nThe row prompted Prince William's spokesman to say that \"racism has no place in our society\".\n\nIn a joint statement issued with Ms Fulani, Buckingham Palace described Friday's reconciliation between the two women as \"filled with warmth and understanding\".\n\nLady Susan has \"pledged to deepen her awareness of the sensitivities involved\" and the Royal Households would continue to \"focus on inclusion and diversity\", the statement said.\n\nThe Royal Households also made a commitment to training programmes, including \"examining what can be learnt from Sistah Space\".\n\nThere was recognition that Ms Fulani had \"unfairly received an appalling torrent of abuse on social media\".\n\nLast week the Sistah Space domestic abuse charity said it had ceased many of its operations because of concerns over safety.\n\nThe statement on Friday said both Lady Susan and Ms Fulani wanted their meeting to show that \"resolution can be found with kindness, co-operation and the condemnation of discrimination wherever it takes root\".\n\nBuckingham Palace will have wanted to draw a line under what had been an embarrassing row. And King Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, were said to have been kept informed and welcomed the outcome.", "Glen Allen was jailed for 14-and-a-half year in 2010 for the murder of William Meek in 2008\n\nA convicted murderer is at large after failing to return to Maghaberry Prison following temporary release.\n\nGlen Allen, 34, was jailed for 14-and-a-half years in 2010 for the murder of William Meek.\n\nMr Meek was stabbed 51 times in the head, face and neck in June 2008.\n\nThe Department of Justice said Allen went missing on Wednesday. He is described as being about 5ft 9in tall and of medium build, with dirty fair hair and blue eyes.\n\nHe also has scars on his right hand, left finger and knee.\n\nThe police said that despite searches to arrest Allen, they have so far been unable to find him.\n\nThey have appealed for anyone who has seen him or knows where he is to get in contact.\n\nThe police also appealed directly to Allen to hand himself in.\n\nThe Department of Justice has appealed for anyone with information to contact the police.", "Fire crews led 24 people to safety after two water mains burst, causing flooding to homes\n\nDozens of people have been evacuated from their flooded homes and thousands have been left without water after two water mains burst in north London.\n\nAbout 60 firefighters were called to Belsize Road in Camden at about 02:50 GMT when homes were deluged with about 50cm (1.6ft) of water.\n\nLondon Fire Brigade (LFB) said 24 people were led to safety and a hub was set up at Swiss Cottage Library.\n\nThames Water apologised after multiple postcodes were left without water.\n\nTwenty people were rescued from basement flats and three adults and a child from properties.\n\nThe fire service said in total about 100 properties were affected by \"significant\" flooding.\n\nVideo footage on social media shows firefighters evacuating residents in the flood, including people in pyjamas carrying pets.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by George 🎗 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOne fire officer is heard alerting colleagues to a pregnant woman.\n\nCody Dolcy-Grant, who lives in Hilgrove Road, at the end of Belsize Road, said she woke up to scenes \"like the river Thames\" outside her home.\n\nThe 27-year-old said: \"I wasn't aware of the situation until 07:00 when I went to the toilet, realised the toilet wasn't flushing and no water was coming out of the taps.\n\n\"My road was flooded... when I opened the front door it was like a horror scene.\n\n\"Fire engines up my whole road, police, ambulance, and then I looked to my left and it was like the river Thames outside,\" she added.\n\nMs Dolcy-Grant lives on the second floor of her building so her home was not flooded but she said she had no running water on Saturday.\n\nStefano Calcagni and the two dogs he was caring for were evacuated from a property\n\nStefano Calcagni was dogsitting for a friend in a first and second-floor property in Belsize Road when he woke to a text telling him about the floods on Saturday morning.\n\nThe 48-year-old was evacuated by boat with the dogs on Saturday afternoon.\n\nMr Calcagni said: \"The water level was halfway up the door to the basement flat.\n\n\"It's owned by a couple, I saw them leave through the window as they couldn't get out the door,\" he added.\n\nLFB said crews would remain at the scene of the flooding for a number of hours and significant road closures were in place.\n\nIt said one main had been isolated but a smaller main was still leaking. Crews advised people to avoid the area.\n\nThames Water said houses in north-west London, in the postcodes of NW2, NW6, NW8 and NW10 were affected, with homes left with no or low water.\n\nMultiple postcodes in London were left without water after the mains burst\n\nBy Saturday evening the company said water pressure in the area was starting to return and will continue to do so overnight.\n\nIt said staff were visiting homes in the Belsize Road area to see if there was anything else it could do to help.\n\nIt added loss adjustors were in the area to assess damage and help residents.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"If your home has been flooded, we're so sorry, we know this must be very distressing,\" adding that \"getting water supplies back on is our top priority\".\n\nThames Water said it was supporting the most vulnerable people and was sending bottled water to them.\n\nTemperatures plummeted to lows of -7C (19F) in parts of London on Saturday morning, the Met Office reported.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Military chiefs believe the war in Ukraine has reached a stalemate\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has asked for an assessment of the progress of the war in Ukraine, BBC Newsnight has learnt.\n\nSenior figures fear the PM may be taking an overly cautious approach as the war enters a key phase.\n\nOne Whitehall source likened the exercise to a \"Goldman Sachs dashboard\" examination of the war and how UK military supplies are used.\n\nDowning Street insists that Mr Sunak is strongly supportive of Ukraine.\n\nIn a tweet, Mr Sunak said the UK was with Ukraine \"all the way\" during a visit to the country last month, his first overseas trip as prime minister.\n\nA Downing Street source added that it was not true that Sunak was being overly cautious and that \"the UK government's support for Ukraine is unwavering\".\n\nBut the request has raised alarm bells in some corners of Whitehall as military chiefs say weapons supplies to Ukraine may prove decisive in the winter months ahead.\n\nThe Whitehall source said: \"Wars aren't won [by dashboards]. Wars are won on instinct. At the start of this it was Boris (Johnson) sitting down and saying: 'Let's just go for this.' So Rishi needs to channel his inner Boris on foreign policy though not of course on anything else.\"\n\nThe source said the audit, known as a data-driven assessment, is designed to assess the progress of the war and the significance of the UK's military contributions to Ukraine. The source said: \"This is about looking at what we have put in, what we have got out.\"\n\nThe UK has been one of the biggest suppliers of military aid to Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces invaded the country in February.\n\nBBC Newsnight has been told that Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, is aware of the debate within the UK and is encouraging Mr Sunak to maintain strong military support for his country.\n\n\"President Zelensky has sensed what is going on,\" the source said. \"So he has been talking to Rishi. He is trying to inspire him, saying the UK are the great liberators, the great fighters. We need you. Rise to that.\"\n\nThe proposed assessment of the war comes at a crucial point in the conflict. Key figures in Whitehall believe that Ukraine and Russia have fought themselves to a standstill.\n\nThe only way, they say, for one side to pull ahead is by substantially increasing their supply of weaponry. Russia has effectively run out of supplies. Ukraine can only resupply weapons with the help of the US and the main military powers in Europe, led by the UK.\n\nWhitehall sources say that Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, delivered that message in diplomatic terms in a lecture this week.\n\nSir Tony made clear the Russian military \"cupboard is bare\" and he appeared to issue a rallying cry for continued support for Ukraine.\n\nThe chief of the defence staff told the Royal United Services Institute: \"Extraordinary times call for an extraordinary response. This explains why Russia is losing. And the free world is winning… Providing we maintain our cohesion and resolve, the real victory within our grasp is much more significant.\"\n\nUkraine also made an appeal this week for more weaponry. General Valery Zaluzhny, the head of the Ukrainian armed forces, told the Economist: \"I know that I can beat this enemy. But I need resources. I need 300 tanks, 600-700 ifvs [infantry fighting vehicles], 500 Howitzers.\"\n\nThe US Congress gave the Pentagon approval in principle earlier this month to buy substantial weaponry for Ukraine. But the Economist reported that this may not arrive in time for a spring offensive next year.\n\nSome in Whitehall see this approach as a sign of the innate caution on Ukraine by US President Joe Biden who is understood to be concerned about provoking a wider global conflict. There are some fears in Whitehall that Mr Sunak may end up encouraging Mr Biden's caution.\n\nThe source told Newsnight: \"We have stiffened the US resolve at all levels - pressure from us but always friendly. We don't want Rishi to reinforce Biden's caution. We want him to pushing in the way Boris did.\"\n\nYou can watch Nicholas Watt's full report on Newsnight at 22:30 GMT on BBC Two", "Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, from Newham, east London, died in hospital on Saturday morning\n\nA woman has died after being injured in a crush at a gig at London's Brixton O2 Academy that left several others hurt.\n\nThe concert, by Afro-pop singer Asake, had to be abandoned part-way through after a \"large number of people\" tried to force their way inside on Thursday, the Met Police said.\n\nMother-of-two Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, from Newham, east London, died in hospital on Saturday morning, the Met said.\n\nHer family said she was a nursing graduate known for \"care and kindness\".\n\nTwo other women aged 21 and 23 remain in a critical condition, police added.\n\nAsake said he was \"overwhelmed with grief\" and \"devastated\" by her death.\n\nThe artist said he had spoken to Ms Ikumelo's family and asked people to \"keep them in our prayers\".\n\nIn a statement released through the Met, her family said Ms Ikumelo was an \"adorable mother of two children who loved working with kids\".\n\nThey said: \"She was well respected in the family for her care, kindness and love.\n\n\"Her parents call her Tosin (short for Oluwatosin) meaning 'Lord is Worthy'.\"\n\nAcademy Music Group, which owns and runs the venue, said in a statement: \"All at O2 Academy Brixton and Academy Music Group are deeply saddened by the news of the tragic death of Rebecca Ikumelo.\n\n\"We send our heartfelt condolences to Rebecca's family and friends, and our thoughts are with everyone affected by this devastating news at this extremely difficult time.\"\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan also wrote in a tweet he was \"heartbroken\" by the death.\n\nHe said it was \"vital that the investigation into what happened concludes as soon as possible\" and added that City Hall was working with authorities \"to ensure nothing like this happens again\".\n\nThe crush happened after a \"large number of people\" tried to force their way inside the Brixton O2 Academy, the Met Police said\n\nVideos on social media showed the crowd stretching from the road outside to the venue's doors.\n\nSpeaking at the scene on Friday, Ch Supt Colin Wingrove said: \"I'd like to extend my sympathies to all those who have been affected.\n\n\"Having seen some of the really upsetting images on social media our thoughts are with them,\" he added.\n\nThe force said more than 4,000 people were in attendance at the gig and it has set up a website for people to submit relevant photos and videos.\n\nThe Met Police said more than 4,000 people were at the gig and it urged witnesses to contact officers\n\nIn a statement outside Brixton police station on Friday afternoon, Mr Wingrove said officers were called by staff at the venue \"following reports that a large number of people were attempting to force entry\".\n\nHe added: \"Some officers provided first aid and CPR to members of the public in order to save life.\"\n\nFlorence Eshalomi, Labour MP for Vauxhall whose constituency includes Brixton, tweeted on Saturday: \"I visited the site this morning and I've been dreading this news ever since the incident and hoping it would never never come.\n\n\"My thoughts and prayers to Rebecca Ikumelo's family and friends. Such a tragic loss of a young 33yr with so much life ahead of her.\"\n\nThe first officers were reported to be on the scene at 21:11 GMT, seven minutes after they were called.\n\nThe concert was the final performance of three sold-out shows at the venue by singer Asake\n\nThe concert was the final performance of three sold-out shows at the venue by Nigerian singer Asake, sometimes known as Mr Money.\n\nBefore the gig, he had posted on Twitter asking fans not to try to gain entry unless they had tickets.\n\nIn a statement published on Twitter on Saturday, Asake said: \"I am overwhelmed with grief and could never have imagined anything like this happening.\n\n\"My team and I are still awaiting the full debrief back from the venue management and the police to determine what exactly led to all the disruption caused and ultimately to Rebecca's passing.\"\n\nHe urged anyone with information to contact police.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n• None What happened at the Brixton Academy crush?\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ash and Pikachu in the first Pokemon movie in 1998\n\nPokemon main man Ash Ketchum and his loyal Pikachu are set to leave the anime series after 25 years.\n\nProducers said on Friday that a new adventure featuring fresh faces will begin in April 2023.\n\nActress Sarah Natochenny, who has provided the English voice for Ash and other characters since 2006, said it had been \"an extraordinary privilege\".\n\n\"No matter what lies beyond his final chapter, he'll live forever in the hearts of many generations to come.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sarah Natochenny This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Japanese anime show, which has also spawned several movies, has followed Ash in his quest to become a Pokemon master trainer since 1997, when the character met electric mouse creature Pikachu on his 10th birthday.\n\nAnd last month, he finally completed his quest when he won the Pokemon World Championship.\n\nFrom next spring, viewers will be introduced to two new protagonists - a young girl named Liko and a boy named Roy, who will be accompanied by three Paldea starter Pokemon.\n\n\"It will represent everything [fans] love about Pokemon animation, including action, adventure, friendship and Pokemon,\" the producers said.\n\nBefore that, on 13 January, an 11-episode epilogue series to the current run, titled Pokémon Journeys in the West, will tell the final chapter of Ash and Pikachu's story.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by The Official Pokémon YouTube channel This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video by The Official Pokémon YouTube channel\n\nResponding to Natochenny, who took over Ash's vocal duties from Veronica Taylor at the end of series eight, fans have been paying their tributes online.\n\n\"I've been a fan of this anime since it came to the US when I was in fifth grade,\" posted one.\n\n\"As a lifelong fan, I am truly grateful for your dedication to a character that defines many of our childhoods. Thank you for being such an excellent role model.\"\n\n\"Thanks for all the adventures you and Veronica Taylor have given us through seven regions,\" wrote another.\n\n\"For the countless Pokemon you've voiced alongside Ash, and for giving a voice to a character that is as iconic as Goku is to DBZ. Ash has realised his dream of becoming a Pokémon master and champ.\"\n\nThe Pokemon franchise has grown to include Pokemon Go, a landmark mobile game using online maps and augmented reality to place the characters in real world locations.\n\nThe latest Pokemon video games for the Nintendo Switch have already sold more than 10 million copies since their release at the end of last month.", "Avanti West Coast was awarded millions of pounds worth of taxpayers' money in performance bonuses last year, new figures show.\n\nThe train operator has been criticised by passengers over delays and poor service this year.\n\nBut the government handed the firm more than £6.5m in 2021 for \"operational performance\" and \"customer experience\".\n\nThe government said the performance fee was \"based on data from before the current period of disruption\".\n\nBut Labour has called the payments a \"scandalous\" waste of taxpayers' funds.\n\nDetails of the Department for Transport's (DfT) payments to passenger rail operators show that the bonuses related to Avanti's performance between April and September 2021.\n\nIt was rewarded for \"operational performance, customer experience, financial performance and management fees\".\n\nHowever during some of that period, between July and September 2021, Avanti train services fell by 21.1% and its trains were punctual only 55.8% of the time.\n\nIt also received 9,000 complaints over the same period, the highest of any train operator.\n\nSince then, Avanti has come under fire for slashing its timetables in August, with trains between London and Manchester the worst affected.\n\nServices were cut from seven trains per hour to a minimum of four and ticket sales were suspended, blaming \"severe staff shortages\".\n\nThe company's contract had been due to expire on 16 October but the government has given it until 1 April to improve its performance.\n\nThe operator launched a new timetable this month with an increased number of trains.\n\nShadow transport secretary Louise Haigh accused ministers of rewarding \"abject failure\" and \"handing over millions of pounds in performance bonuses and fees to this failing operator\".\n\n\"Rather than hold operators to account for shambolic performance, ministers are doling out taxpayer-funded bonuses,\" she said.\n\nThe DfT said that the performance score was independently assessed and Avanti was being held to account for the operations and delivery that falls within its control.\n\n\"We have put Avanti on a short term, six month contract, as they roll out vital improvements and service upgrades and continue to monitor the situation closely,\" a statement said.\n\nAvanti referred press queries about the payments to the Department for Transport.", "Train passengers are facing further disruption on the last weekend before Christmas as rail workers continue strike action on Saturday.\n\nMost services are affected as RMT union members stage the second day of their latest 48-hour walk out.\n\nNetwork Rail has advised people not to travel on trains unless it is absolutely necessary.\n\nThe strikes come as shops and hospitality businesses look to boost trade in the key Christmas period.\n\nThousands of rail workers have already staged strikes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday this week as part of a long-running row over jobs, pay and conditions.\n\nSaturday is the fourth day of strikes this week and the 12th since the RMT union voted for industrial action in the summer. Disruption is also likely on Sunday, a non-strike day, due to morning services starting later.\n\nMick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, the UK's largest rail union, said on Friday that both sides involved in the dispute needed to \"work quickly\" to end the strikes.\n\nHe said there had been \"an exchange of views\", but it was important that employers, ministers and unions were getting together.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, said it was hopeful a resolution could be found between the parties, saying talks had been a \"painstaking process\", but \"constructive\".\n\nThe RMT is involved in two negotiating battles, one with Network Rail, where it represents around 20,000 signallers and maintenance workers, and the other with the Rail Delivery Group, where it represents a similar amount of workers at 14 train companies.\n\nRail workers have called for pay rises to match the rising cost of living and for better working conditions.\n\nBut rail bosses have said companies need to save money after the pandemic hit the industry hard and have argued reforms need to be agreed to afford pay increases and modernise the railway.\n\nMr Lynch praised members for showing \"enormous dignity and rock-solid fortitude\" after the strikes earlier this week.\n\n\"They have shown how important their work is to the functioning of the economy and wider society,\" he said.\n\nWarnings of further snow and ice may bring more travel disruption, forecasters have warned.\n\nThe Met Office has issued yellow warnings for snow and ice in the majority of Scotland, Wales, and much of England for Sunday.\n\nSevere weather in recent days has already led to difficult travel conditions with snow and ice affecting main roads and causing airport runway closures, leading to flight delays and cancellations.\n\nThe strikes by railway workers are among a wave of industrial action being carried out by various sectors.\n\nBusiness Secretary Grant Shapps told Radio 4's Today that while he supported the right to strike \"people should also have the right to go about their lives\".\n\nHe said: \"Some of the people most affected by strikes, particularly on the railways, are not people who can sit at home behind their computer but the hospital porter, the cleaner, who have to physically go to work.\"\n\nHe warned against a \"1970s cycle\" of strikes and inflation, adding industrial action is happening \"because of Putin, because he invaded a country which pushed up energy prices, which pushed up inflation which has pushed up wage expectations to a point which, unfortunately if we were to pay it all we couldn't afford it. Putin has made us all a bit poorer I'm afraid\".\n\nPhil, a market trader in London, said this week was the \"most important\" one of the whole year.\n\n\"This is when we take our real proper money.\"\n\nOn Friday on Portobello Road \"we probably had half the footfall that we'd normally have\", he told the BBC.\n\nRetail data company Springboard, which analyses footfall in shops, suggested the rail strikes on Monday and Tuesday had affected the number of people shopping on High Streets and other retail destinations.\n\nFrom Monday to Wednesday, Springboard said footfall was 5.2% lower on all UK High Streets compared with the same days in 2021.\n\nThe company said footfall over those three days this week was 15.1% lower on High Streets than the same days last week.\n\nDiane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at the company, said under normal circumstances footfall would have risen this week \"as this is last full trading week before Christmas Day and so would be the peak shopping week, with footfall higher than last week\".\n\nShe added that \"clearly footfall is affected by a number of reasons\", but highlighted a drop in footfall on the days of the strikes, particularly in central London.\n\nOther impacts on footfall might include the colder weather, the rising cost of living or more people shopping online.\n\nBut Ms Wehrle said during the same week in the two years prior to the pandemic, footfall rose from the week before, by 10.2% in 2018 and by 7.2% in 2019.\n\nThe next RMT industrial action is scheduled from 18:00 GMT on Christmas Eve until 06:00 on 27 December, while members of the smaller TSSA union will walk out at three train companies between 26 and 29 December.\n\nMore RMT strikes are planned for early January.\n\nHow are you affected by the rail strike? Are you taking part in the strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Hospitals should free up beds to prepare for \"extensive disruption\" caused by ambulance staff strikes in England, NHS bosses have urged.\n\nThey said patients need to be safely discharged where possible to enable ambulance staff to hand over patients.\n\nAmbulance staff are to walk out on 21 and 28 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nDr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said freeing up more beds would be very difficult for hospitals to achieve.\n\n\"We don't hold up ambulances for fun,\" he told Radio 4's Today. \"It really is difficult. We always want ambulances to return to the front line as quickly as possible and we've been struggling to do this in the last three years.\"\n\nAsked what the solution was, he said it was not just provision of social care to enable elderly people to be discharged from hospital.\n\n\"We run our hospitals very tight compared to our European comparators,\" he said, adding: \"It's not just about social care but about making sure our hospitals are big enough to cope.\"\n\nThe strike by ambulance staff on 21 December comes the day after a nurses' strike.\n\n\"It's something that makes everyone who works in this sector pretty anxious,\" said Dr Boyle\n\nThe co-ordinated walkout in England and Wales by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls only.\n\nUnison, Unite and GMB are taking action on 21 December. GMB union members will go on strike again on 28 December.\n\nThe walkouts will involve paramedics as well as control room staff and support workers.\n\nIn a letter addressed to hospital bosses, NHS chiefs in England have called for patients who complete emergency medical care to be moved out of emergency departments as quickly as possible.\n\nMeasures, such as placing additional beds in hospitals and creating \"observation areas\" should be put in place to ensure that patients arriving by ambulance are handed over to A&E in less than 15 minutes, they said.\n\nSir David Sloman, NHS England's chief operating officer, wrote in the letter co-signed by national medical director for England Professor Sir Stephen Powis and chief nursing officer for England Dame Ruth May that plans should be in place by Monday, 19 December.\n\nSome outpatient appointments could be cut back to allow senior medical staff to be redeployed to emergency departments. But NHS chiefs say \"every effort\" should be made to maintain urgent cancer diagnostics or cancer treatment, with rescheduling to be considered as a last resort.\n\nAmbulance handover delays in England have hit a new high, according to recent NHS data. Last week, one in six patients waited for more than an hour to be passed on to A&E teams.\n\nNHS Providers' interim chief executive Saffron Cordery also said reducing handover delays would be \"incredibly difficult to implement\" because of factors including staff absences and rising flu admissions.\n\nMs Cordery said: \"We understand why ambulance staff have voted for industrial action but it's vital that the government and unions talk urgently to find a way to prevent this and further strikes from happening.\"\n\nThe letter sent to NHS trusts and Integrated Care Boards said bosses should create and co-ordinate plans on how to handle strike days by 19 December.\n\nStaff have been offered an average rise of 4.75%, with a guaranteed minimum of £1,400 - but the unions have asked for above-inflation pay rises.\n\nBusiness Secretary Grant Shapps said pay rises for ambulance workers and nurses were decided by independent pay review bodies.\n\nAsked on Radio 4's Today how the government could afford to increase state pensions in line with inflation, but not NHS staff pay, Mr Shapps said: \"Nurses and ambulance workers would have a pay rise that was recommended independently which I think is the right way to do this.\"\n\nHe said expectations for pay increases were greater since energy prices began rising and the subsequent high inflation rates, but people will \"all end up much worse off\" if ministers award inflation-busting pay rises.\n\nMr Shapps added that following the advice of the pay review bodies was \"right and proper\".\n\nIt is clear that NHS leaders are very concerned about the possible impact of the ambulance strikes planned for Wednesday 21 December and a more limited walkout a week later.\n\nThe letter to hospitals urging rapid preparations, including moving as many medically fit patients as possible out, is evidence of that - with references to a \"very challenging period\" and involving \"extensive disruption\".\n\nA senior NHS England official Sir Jim Mackey has said that action by ambulance teams represented a completely different order of magnitude of risk compared to nurses strikes. Tuesday's second nurses strike will see thousands more appointments and procedures cancelled.\n\nThe letter from health leaders suggests there may have to be more postponements of appointments on Wednesday when ambulance staff go on strike in order to allow senior doctors to be redeployed to emergency departments. All this with no sign of ministers and unions being in any hurry to start pay talks.\n\nFollowing an emergency Cobra meeting on Monday, the prime minister's official spokesman said the number of ambulances available to attend calls would be reduced \"significantly\".\n\nArmed forces could be deployed to hospital trusts ahead of the strikes, Downing Street has confirmed.\n\nThe Police Federation has also suggested police officers may also be called upon to drive ambulances.\n\nNurses took strike action on Thursday in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland in a dispute over pay.\n\nFigures released by NHS trusts in England and Northern Ireland show at least 19,000 patients had their surgeries and appointments postponed because of strike.\n\nMinisters had predicted that a larger number of around 70,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries would be lost.\n\nRoyal College of Nursing members are expected to walk out for a second time on 20 December\n\nNHS England bosses have warned of \"extensive disruption\" ahead of ambulance strikes\n\nIf you work for the ambulance service do you plan to go on strike or not? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Since buying the social media platform, Elon Musk has changed many of its moderation practices\n\nBillionaire businessman Elon Musk says several journalists he suspended from his social media company, Twitter, will have their accounts reinstated.\n\nReporters for the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post were among those locked out of their accounts, after Mr Musk accused them of sharing location data about him.\n\nBut amid mounting criticism, he asked Twitter users what to do next.\n\nAnd 59% of the 3.6 million who took part voted to lift the ban immediately.\n\n\"The people have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now,\" he tweeted.\n\nThe ban was condemned by the EU and UN.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Elon Musk This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHowever, one notable account, @ElonJet, remains suspended. The account's owner Jack Sweeney, 20, used publicly available flight-tracking information to tweet every time Mr Musk's jet took off and landed.\n\nMr Musk had blamed the account for an incident involving \"a crazy stalker\" who he said had accosted his son while travelling in a car.\n\nOn Thursday, Mr Musk said legal action was being taken against Mr Sweeney and others.\n\nTwitter's privacy policy was also updated to say that users \"may not publish or post other people's private information without their express authorization and permission\".\n\nSome of the journalists suspended on Twitter had reported on the incident involving the jet tracking account.\n\nFollowing the suspensions, bodies such as the EU and the UN, as well as governments and journalists, condemned the move.\n\n\"Media freedom is not a toy,\" the UN's under secretary general Melissa Fleming said. \"A free press is the cornerstone of democratic societies and a key tool in the fight against harmful disinformation.\"\n\nEU commissioner Vera Jourova had threatened Twitter with sanctions under Europe's new Digital Services Act which she said requires \"the respect of media freedom and fundament rights\".\n\nSince taking the helm at Twitter, Mr Musk has made a host of changes to its moderation practices.\n\nHe has restored a handful of previously banned accounts, including former President Donald Trump's profile, which was banned following the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.\n\nThe Tesla CEO has also slashed the social media company's staff and has reportedly stopped paying rent for some of Twitter's offices, including the company's San Francisco headquarters, according to the New York Times.", "GMB senior organiser Amanda Gearing said workers should be applauded for their determination\n\nAmazon workers at the company's warehouse in Coventry have voted to take strike action in what is believed to be a UK first.\n\nThe GMB union said hundreds of workers voted to walk out over a 50 pence per hour pay offer.\n\nA majority of more than 98% of workers voted to strike on a ballot turnout of more than 63%, the union said.\n\nAmazon has previously said it offered \"competitive pay\" and gave workers \"comprehensive benefits\".\n\nThe company said it was 178 people who had voted to walk out and that it was 98% of union members at the site who voted to strike, not of the 1,400 total workforce.\n\nA spokesperson said it was proud to offer competitive pay which starts at a minimum of between £10.50 and £11.45 per hour, depending on location.\n\n\"This represents a 29% increase in the minimum hourly wage paid to Amazon employees since 2018,\" the spokesperson added.\n\n\"On top of this, we're pleased to have announced that full-time, part-time and seasonal frontline employees will receive an additional one-time special payment of up to £500 as an extra thank you.\"\n\nThe ballot shut on Friday, but any industrial action is likely to take place in the new year. Workers had wanted their hourly pay to rise from £10 an hour to £15.\n\nAmanda Gearing, GMB Senior Organiser, said the workers were making history by being the first Amazon workers in the UK to take part in a formal strike.\n\n\"The fact that they are being forced to go on strike to win a decent rate of pay from one of the world's most valuable companies should be a badge of shame for Amazon,\" she said.\n\n\"Amazon can afford to do better. It's not too late to avoid strike action; get round the table with GMB to improve the pay and conditions of workers.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Poland's highest ranking police officer has confirmed to local media that he accidentally set off a grenade launcher given to him as a gift by Ukraine.\n\nJaroslaw Szymczyk suffered minor injuries on Wednesday after opening the present at his Warsaw offices.\n\nA civilian member of staff was also hurt.\n\nGeneral Szymczyk has now spoken to a Polish broadcaster about the unusual incident - the first time specific details have been given.\n\nHe told RMF FM radio he received the present during his recent visit to Ukraine.\n\n\"When I was moving the used grenade launchers, which were gifts from the Ukrainians, there was an explosion,\" General Szymczyk told the broadcaster. \"The explosion was powerful - the force of the impact went through the floor and damaged the ceiling.\"\n\nThe BBC has requested confirmation of the facts in the General's interview from Polish police but has yet to receive a response.\n\nThe only official information made available so far about Wednesday's incident was a brief statement from Poland's interior ministry, which said that one of the gifts the police chief was given by a senior Ukrainian official during a working visit to Ukraine on December 11-12 had exploded. The ministry did not say what the gift was.\n\nKyiv has not yet made a public statement on the incident.\n\nRMF FM's report also cited anonymous sources, which said the two armour-penetrating grenade launchers were supposed to be an \"unusual war gift\" from the Ukrainians.\n\nThe report claims the Ukrainians said both launchers had already been used and did not contain explosives, which meant they could be taken across the border back to Poland. One of them is understood to have been turned into a loudspeaker for playing music.\n\nFollowing reports of Wednesday's incident, opposition politicians have questioned General Szymczyk's suitability to lead the police force.\n\nTomasz Siemoniak, a former defence minister and current deputy leader of the main opposition party, Civic Platform, wrote on Twitter that the incident is \"indefensible\".\n\n\"Heads must roll of those responsible for this situation and endangering life. And the commander has lost his capacity to lead the police.\"\n\nMeanwhile, mocking videos and images have appeared on social media, all on the theme of explosive mishaps.\n\n\"It is true we will not win the World Cup but thanks to the commander @PolishPolice we are favourite for the Darwin award,\" Poland's former foreign minister and current MEP, Radoslaw Sikorski, tweeted in reference to the football competition being held in Qatar.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Scenes of devastation after tank explosion at Berlin hotel\n\nBerlin police say they are not seeking suspects following the explosion of the \"AquaDom\" aquarium on Friday, warning the public about what they say is a fake tweet suggesting they are.\n\nThe explosion in the Radisson Blu hotel spilled one million litres of saltwater, flooding the hotel and nearby streets.\n\nHundreds of fish died and two people were injured by falling glass.\n\nInspectors have now declared the building safe.\n\nA police source told local media on Friday there was no evidence the blast in the 15.85m high (52 ft) aquarium was the result of a targeted attack.\n\nThey have also taken to social media to debunk a tweet from a copycat account that is asking for the public's help in tracking down suspects linked to the incident.\n\nA tweet from the real Berlin police account says that they \"expressly dissociate\" themselves from the fake post and have asked people not to recirculate it.\n\nAn investigation into the exact cause of the explosion is ongoing but there has been speculation that the freezing temperatures - which dropped as low as -6C overnight on Friday - may have caused a crack in the tank.\n\nBerlin's Interior Senator, Iris Spranger, told the DPA news agency that first signs suggest that the cause was \"material fatigue\".\n\nUS company Reynolds Polymer Technology, which was involved in the building of the tank, has said it will send a team to investigate the rupture but that it is too early to determine the cause.\n\nThe authorities in Berlin are still investigating the exact cause of the AquaDom explosion\n\nAquaDom was opened in December 2003 and was given the Guinness World Record for being the world's largest cylindrical aquarium.\n\nAccording to reports at the time of its construction, it cost about €12.8m (£11.2m) to build. It was last refurbished in 2020.\n\nThere has reportedly been extensive damage to the lobby at the Radisson Blu hotel from Friday's explosion, with a spokesman for the local fire department telling German broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg that it \"looks like a battlefield\".\n\nFriedrich Engel, a spokesperson for the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, which assists in emergencies, has said that the building has been classified as safe and handed back to the owners.\n\nA spokesman for the owner, Union Investment, has told the media that the building is not in danger of collapsing.\n\nThe hotel has been closed indefinitely and its guests have been relocated.\n\nOther businesses in the building complex are also reported to have suffered damage.\n\nThe AquaDom in Berlin contained about 1,500 fish and over a million litres of water\n\nWhile the majority of the 1,500 fish kept in the aquarium were killed in the explosion, some managed to survive and have been taken elsewhere.\n\nHundreds more fish that were kept in the basement for breeding purposes were also at risk from the power cut that followed the incident but they have also now been moved to safety.\n\nThe animal rights group Help for Animals in Need has started an online petition urging against the installation of a new aquarium.", "Heavy snow on the A9 towards Perth\n\nThe wintry weather is set to continue across much of Scotland, with warnings of further snow and ice.\n\nFollowing sub-zero conditions in some areas on Saturday, more snow is likely on Sunday.\n\nThe Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings for the whole country that are in place until 21:00 on Sunday.\n\nIt comes after heavy snow fell across central Scotland on Friday, causing disruption for commuters.\n\nSome of the worst conditions were seen on the A9 around Dunblane and the A83 and A85 in Argyll and Bute.\n\nPolice received numerous reports of vehicles getting stuck on the A82 and A85 near Crianlarich due to the conditions.\n\nA rest centre was set up at Crianlarich Village Hall and 58 people stayed there overnight.\n\nThe roads were later cleared and vehicles freed, allowing those at the rest centre to return home on Saturday morning.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Andreas G. Wolff, MA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nInsp Barbara Hughes, of Stirling Police Station, said: \"Thanks to the hard work of our officers and our partners we have been able to clear the roads and allow those people whose vehicles were stuck on the A82 and A85 last night to return home.\n\n\"I would also like to thank the local volunteers who assisted those at the village hall for their kindness in supplying resources and refreshments.\"\n\nShe reminded everyone to plan ahead and have sufficient fuel and supplies such as warm clothing, food, water, and a fully charged mobile phone.\n\nAt some points on Friday, the M73, M80, M8 and M90 were also affected affected by snow and ice.\n\nPolice issued a travel warning for the whole of Scotland and advised people to travel with caution.\n\nThere were tricky conditions for commuters on the M80 northbound on Friday\n\nBBC Weather Watcher Nellington woke up on Friday to a blanket of snow in Methven\n\nAll Megabus and Scottish Citylink services northbound from Glasgow and Edinburgh were temporarily suspended until the A9 and M90 reopened at midday.\n\nGlasgow Airport's runway was closed on Friday until 11:30 while it was cleared of snow and ice. Some flights were severely delayed or cancelled.\n\nSome schools were closed in the Highlands, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Aberdeenshire, Orkney, and Perth and Kinross.\n\nMelissa Kelly said travelling to work was a struggle\n\nMelissa Kelly, a nurse at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, told BBC Scotland that road conditions on her way to work were \"absolutely horrendous\".\n\nShe said some staff have not been able to get in for their shift.\n\nTransport bosses said 240 gritters were deployed from 40 depots across the country.\n\nA major incident was declared in Shetland earlier in the week when thousands were left without power, while more than 100 schools were closed in Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Highlands.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nCroatia's third top-three finish at the World Cup has a \"golden layer\", said boss Zlatko Dalic after his side clinched a play-off victory over history-makers Morocco.\n\nDalic's side were runners-up to France four years ago and confirmed their status as one of the elite footballing nations with another third-place finish to go alongside that secured in their competition debut in 1998.\n\nIn a frantic opening, Josko Gvardiol gave Croatia the lead on seven minutes with a superb diving header but Achraf Dari levelled just two minutes later by nodding home from close range.\n\nMislav Orsic curled in a sumptuous second for Croatia via the post three minutes before half-time and struck a thumping, deflected drive into the side-netting after the break.\n\nThe second half could not match the energy of a thrilling opening period and Morocco failed to find an equaliser as a fruitful campaign ended in back-to-back defeats.\n\nDalic said: \"We won the bronze medal and it has a golden layer, it is like we have won the gold medal tonight.\n\n\"Fighting for the third place play-off and losing would have been a disaster. This is the end of a cycle, end of a journey. My players spared no efforts and these are what we work for.\"\n\nIt's the game no team wants to be involved in but in the end Croatia, a country with a population under four million, will be highly satisfied with another outstanding showing on the global stage.\n\nAt the heart of the team is influential skipper Luka Modric, running the show once again at the age of 37 on his 162nd cap, though this could well be his final appearance at a World Cup.\n\n\"This is the last World Cup for some of my players due to their age,\" said Dalic. \"But we have young players in our team and there is a great hope for Croatia. We have many young players on the bench. The older players instil confidence in them.\n\n\"Croatia has nothing to fear for the future. Is this the end of an era? I believe not, we have the Nations League and European Championship in 2024. I believe Croatia has a fascinating future.\"\n\nCroatia's opener was straight off the training ground, Ivan Perisic flicking on a free-kick that was latched on to by Gvardiol's brilliant finish, flying through the air to head into the far corner.\n\nBut Morocco levelled immediately courtesy of Dari, a looping ball falling into his path to convert from a few yards out and spark rowdy celebrations in the stands.\n\nTeenage midfielder Bilal El Khannouss, making his Morocco debut at 18, showed confident touches but was culpable for Croatia's second goal, giving the ball away deep in his own half and ultimately handing over victory.\n\nMarko Livaja laid the ball off for Orsic, who curled a glorious first time finish past the despairing reach of goalkeeper Yassine Bounou and into the net via the post.\n\nSevilla striker Youssef En-Nesyri had Morocco's best chances for an equaliser, forcing knockout round penalty hero Dominik Livakovic into a sharp save from close range and heading on to the roof of the net in injury time.\n\nWalid Regragui's men made history by becoming the first African side to reach the semi-finals and their passionate players and supporters have lit up this tournament.\n\nTheir following sang and banged their drum for the entirety of this game and, despite being beaten in the last four by defending champions France and here by Croatia, they will look back on their achievements at this tournament with fond memories.\n\nRegragui said: \"The doubts were in the minds of everyone before this tournament but we have gone further than expected and it is not enough. That needs to set the example for the future.\n\n\"Something that has touched me is when I see the pictures of children because football makes people dream. We have allowed children to dream, we have kept those dreams alive.\n\n\"Children in Morocco and around the world dream of winning the World Cup and that means more to me than winning any game at the World Cup.\n\n\"We have made a fantastic achievement but we want to do that again. If we can keep reaching the semi-final or quarter final regularly, one day we will win the World Cup.\"\n• None Attempt missed. Youssef En-Nesyri (Morocco) header from the centre of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Yahya Attiat-Allah with a cross.\n• None Offside, Morocco. Sofyan Amrabat tries a through ball, but Youssef En-Nesyri is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Hakim Ziyech (Morocco) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Azzedine Ounahi.\n• None Attempt blocked. Youssef En-Nesyri (Morocco) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Achraf Hakimi with a cross.\n• None Offside, Morocco. Sofyan Amrabat tries a through ball, but Anass Zaroury is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Mateo Kovacic (Croatia) left footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Mislav Orsic.\n• None Selim Amallah (Morocco) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Labour has said it would \"fast-track\" asylum applications from countries considered safe, to help clear a mounting backlog of claims.\n\nThe party says it would cut the number of Albanians put up in hotels after crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nLess than 1% of Albanian applications in the past year have been decided.\n\nThe asylum backlog has ballooned in recent years, with the number of people awaiting an initial decision on their application standing at 143,377.\n\nThe government has not ruled out setting up a fast-track system for Albanians, similar to what is being proposed by Labour.\n\nThe asylum process allows people to apply to live in the UK to escape war, persecution and human rights abuses in their home countries.\n\nMinisters are under pressure to speed up the claims process, because the backlog has led to a multimillion-pound daily bill to put them up in hotels whilst their claims are heard.\n\nLabour says it would fast-track applications from countries designated safe - a list including countries like India and Brazil as well as Albania.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said this would mean \"clearly unfounded\" cases could be decided quickly as a way of clearing the backlog.\n\nShe told the BBC that \"more complex\" cases would require further consideration.\n\n\"But we also know there are very straightforward cases that should be able to be decided very swiftly,\" she added.\n\nThe party has not provided detail of how the fast-tracking would work, but said it would be based on similar schemes in Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.\n\nIt points out that the UN's refugee agency has said an accelerated process for clearly unfounded claims can comply with international refugee law, as long as certain safeguards are met.\n\nCurrently, asylum claims from designated safe countries are normally considered unfounded - unless the person applying can show otherwise.\n\nIf that fails, they generally do not have the right to appeal. They can, however, try to argue the decision was unlawful on procedural grounds.\n\nLabour introduced a fast-track scheme for safe countries when it was last in power in 2002, which involved detaining applicants at a former army barracks near Cambridge whilst their applications were processed.\n\nThat scheme was mired in legal challenges, however, and was eventually suspended in 2015.\n\nMs Cooper said the \"existing system\" would apply to asylum applicants waiting for a decision under Labour's latest proposals, suggesting the party is not looking to replicate detention in its new plan.\n\nShe said her party wanted to \"properly resource\" the asylum system, as part of a broader package of measures to grip the \"chaotic\" backlog in claims.\n\nThe Home Office says it has increased the number of asylum caseworkers, and is increasingly digitising the process to speed up case handling.", "Elon Musk is no longer the world's richest man after a sharp drop in the value of his shares in electric car company Tesla this year.\n\nAccording to both Forbes and Bloomberg, Mr Musk has been overtaken at the top spot by Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of luxury goods group LVMH.\n\nMr Musk is chief executive and the largest shareholder in Tesla, with a reported stake of about 14%.\n\nHe completed a $44bn takeover of social network Twitter in October.\n\nAccording to Forbes, Mr Musk is now worth about $178bn (£152bn).\n\nMeanwhile, Bernard Arnault has a value of $188bn.\n\nBernard Arnault has overtaken Elon Musk as world's richest man, according to Forbes\n\nMr Musk's Twitter deal was only completed after months of legal wrangling, and some have cited the distraction of the takeover as one of the factors behind Tesla's share price fall.\n\nAfter building a stake in Twitter at the start of the year, Mr Musk made his $44bn offer in April, although many considered this offer to be too high.\n\nIn July, he pulled out of the deal, citing concerns over the number of fake accounts on the platform.\n\nEventually Twitter executives took legal action to hold Mr Musk to his offer.\n\nDan Ives from investment firm Wedbush Securities said the \"circus\" surrounding the Twitter deal has weighed on Tesla's share price.\n\n\"Musk has gone from a superhero to Tesla's stock, to a villain in the eyes of the Street, as the overhang grows with each tweet,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"The Twitter circus show has hurt the Musk brand and it's a major overhang on Tesla's stock. Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk.\"\n\nMr Musk sold billions of dollars worth of Tesla shares to help fund his purchase, which helped to push the shares down.\n\nInvestors have also been concerned that demand for the company's electric cars may slow, as the economy weakens, higher borrowing costs discourage buyers and other companies boost their electric vehicle offerings.\n\nTesla has also been hit by recalls, as well as government probes of crashes and its autopilot feature.", "The faults have been caused by snow and ice sticking to overhead power lines, weighing them down and causing them to break\n\nThe power cuts in Shetland have been declared a major incident.\n\nSSEN Distribution is working to restore supplies to about 2,800 homes but Keith Brown, lead minister for resilience, said it was clear that many properties would face days without power.\n\nExtra engineers are due to arrive on the ferry from Aberdeen on Wednesday morning to help restore power.\n\nGenerators will also be sent and a helicopter will be used to assess damage to overhead lines.\n\nAll Shetland's schools will be closed for a second day.\n\nMeanwhile there has been heavy snow across much of north-east Scotland overnight.\n\nAberdeenshire Council says most of its roads network has been affected by heavy snow, and a number of schools in Aberdeenshire and Moray will be closed.\n\nBus company Stagecoach Bluebird says its services have been affected, with many cancelled, delayed or diverted.\n\nThe Met Office has extended a yellow warning for snow and ice for northern Scotland until 12:00 on Friday.\n\nIt covers the north and north-east of Scotland, Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles.\n\nMr Brown urged residents in Shetland to stay at home and check on neighbours, family and friends.\n\nHe said he had chaired a Scottish government resilience room with multi-agency partners to make sure every effort was being made to restore power to households.\n\nThe power cuts have been caused by \"line icing\", where snow and ice sticks to overhead power lines, weighing them down and causing them to break.\n\nSSEN Distribution said local teams described conditions as the worst they had seen in 20 years.\n\nSSEN Distribution is working to restore supplies to about 2,800 homes\n\nThe company has mobilised additional support from the mainland, with about 70 members of staff travelling to Shetland.\n\n\"While all efforts are focused on restoring customer supplies as soon as possible, full restoration remains likely to extend to the end of this week,\" the firm said.\n\nMae Jamieson told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime she lost power at 17:00 on Monday.\n\n\"It's white everywhere, it's still snowing, the roads are like a couple of inches of snow and ice, it's crazy,\" she said.\n\nShe added that she was quite well prepared with a gas stove, candles and head torches but would not be able to go anywhere.\n\nMeanwhile, the body of a woman has been found in Shetland following a search involving a coastguard helicopter and rescue teams from Hillswick, Lerwick and Sumburgh..\n\nPolice Scotland confirmed that the body was recovered near an outbuilding in the Ollaberry area.\n\nIt is not yet known if the death is related to the weather conditions.\n\nMr Brown urged residents to stay at home and check on neighbours, family and friends\n\nPower was restored to about 1,000 properties in Unst, Gutcher and parts of Yell on Tuesday by repairing the main 33 kilovolt network.\n\nAbout 2,800 customers remain without power in Voe, Whalsay, Brae, Yell and the West Mainland.\n\nMr Brown said: \"Our utmost priority must be to ensure that people, especially the most vulnerable, are safe and warm.\n\n\"SSEN have contacted all priority customers and Shetland Islands Council has identified vulnerable people who may need extra support.\n\n\"It is also considering how buildings such as community centres could be used to provide respite centres if needed.\"\n\nMore SSEN engineers are expected to arrive early on Wednesday morning\n\nHe also urged people to stay at home, find ways to stay warm and check in on neighbours, family and friends, while listening to local radio or following social media for updates.\n\nMark Macdonald, head of region at SSEN Distribution, said damage to the network was \"considerable\" and \"particularly extensive\" across the west of mainland Shetland.\n\nHe added: \"We'd like to thank NorthLink Ferries and Loganair for their ongoing support in getting our engineers to the islands as quickly as possible.\n\n\"I'd like to reassure customers we're working to restore supplies as quickly as possible, liaising closely with our resilience partners to support the joint welfare effort.\"\n\nCustomers in a vulnerable position should get in touch on the power cut helpline. A further update is expected will be provided mid-morning on Wednesday.", "Cheap Christmas tree lights could pose a risk, Which? says\n\nIllegal and dangerous Christmas lights have been listed for sale on online marketplaces including Amazon and eBay, according to Which?\n\nTesting by the consumer group on lights from four retailers found 10 out of 12 sets failed to meet UK electrical equipment safety regulations.\n\nAll the lights tested were purchased online and cost £15 or less.\n\nBoth Amazon and eBay have said they take safety seriously and have removed the items from their websites.\n\nTwo sets from both retailers failed compliance checks. They were missing key markings or failed to come with instructions.\n\nWhich? also tested items from online retailers AliExpress and Wish - both companies said they had also removed the products found to be illegal for sale.\n\nThe consumer group is calling for online marketplaces to be forced to take legal responsibility to stop illegal products from being sold.\n\nSue Davies, head of consumer protection policy at Which? said cheap Christmas lights might be tempting amid the cost-of-living crisis - but consumers could be \"putting themselves in danger\" because online marketplaces are \"failing to take safety seriously\".\n\n\"The government must make online marketplaces legally responsible for dangerous and illegal products sold through their sites so that people are better protected,\" she said.\n\nAn eBay spokesperson told the consumer group: \"We take the safety of our users very seriously, and we have removed the listings that Which? flagged to us.\n\n\"Our close working relationships with stakeholders and regulators are an important part of our global product safety strategy for keeping our platform safe.\"\n\nAn Amazon spokesperson told Which?: \"Safety is a top priority at Amazon and we require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws and regulations.\n\n\"We have proactive measures in place to prevent non-compliant items from being listed and we continuously monitor our store so customers can shop with confidence.\"\n\nOne set of lights bought from retailer Wish, costing only £13, had multiple failings, Which? said.\n\nA broken plastic lights controller on an item sold by Wish\n\nWires from a set of Fairy LED string lights sold by Wish were easily exposed, the consumer group said, and the item posed both an electric shock risk and a fire hazard.\n\nIt was also advertised as waterproof but Which? found no evidence to support this claim.\n\nWish, in response to the findings, said that product safety was their \"top priority\".\n\n\"We have clear policies in place that prohibit the listing or sale of items on our platform that violate local or other applicable laws, regulations, and/or safety standards.\n\n\"As soon as we were made aware of these unsafe items being listed on our platform, we took immediate steps to take them down and conduct monitoring over certain other identical merchant listings.\"\n\nWhich? recommends that people buy Christmas lights from the high street or a retailer that they recognise.\n\nAround 60% of house fires start through electric faults, according to Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service.", "About four million UK households will face higher mortgage payments next year, the Bank of England has said, with the typical payment up by £250.\n\nThe average monthly mortgage bill would go up from £750 to £1,000, the Bank's Financial Stability Report said.\n\nThe rising cost would cause severe financial difficulties for another 220,000 households, the Bank said.\n\nBusinesses would also be under \"significant pressure\" owing to rising prices and borrowing costs, it added.\n\n\"Falling real incomes, increase in mortgage costs and higher unemployment will place significant pressure on household finances and weigh on their ability to service debt,\" Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said in a letter to the Treasury.\n\nThe Bank also warned of an increased danger of global financial risks. However, it said that households, businesses and banks were more resilient than before the global financial crisis of 2008 and the recession of the 1990s.\n\nFixed-rate mortgage deals have a set interest rate during the term of the deal. Most run for two or five years, but longer deals are available.\n\nAnyone coming to the end of their fixed-rate deal and looking for a new one, or first-time buyers taking out their first mortgage, have seen these loans become much more expensive than they had probably expected or planned for.\n\nRates on new fixed-rate deals have climbed throughout this year, as the Bank put up interest rates to fight inflation, but they shot up following the mini-budget, peaking at 6.65%.\n\nHowever, they stabilised then fell slightly in the run-up to, and after, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement which calmed the markets and, in turn, eased uncertainty for lenders and borrowers.\n\nVariable or tracker rate mortgages can change at any time, usually in response to decisions made by the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee on the benchmark Bank rate.\n\nThrough the different forms of home loan, an estimated four million households would see their mortgage costs rise next year, the Bank said.\n\nA further two million would see higher costs by 2025, adding to headwinds facing the housing market. Within three years, 70% of mortgage holders would see their payments increase.\n\nMeanwhile, property prices have fallen for three months, the sharpest downturn since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.\n\nThe Bank said buy-to-let investors were particularly vulnerable, as about 85% of mortgages to landlords were interest only, making them highly sensitive to rising borrowing costs.\n\nIt warned that landlords would either raise rents for tenants or sell off their properties, causing a deeper fall in house prices.\n\n\"Were landlords to seek to offset the projected rise in buy-to-let mortgage costs, it was estimated they would need to increase their rental income by around 20%,\" the Bank's report said. \"This would increase the cost of housing for renters.\"", "On Monday night, 40 vehicles near Tresta were unable to move due the road conditions\n\nSome homes in Shetland could be without power until the end of the week as engineers face \"extremely challenging conditions\", a energy firm has warned.\n\nAbout 3,800 households are without power after snow and ice caused \"extensive damage\" to overhead cables.\n\nSSEN Distribution said local teams described conditions as the worst they had seen in 20 years.\n\nThey hope to restore energy on Yell and Unst on Tuesday but customers in outlying islands face a longer wait.\n\n\"We expect to make progress today in restoring customers on Yell and Unst through repair of the main network, but due to the extent of damage, significant travel restrictions and continued issues accessing fault locations, full restoration of customers is likely to extend to the end of this week,\" the firm said.\n\n\"This is particularly the case for outlying islands and localised faults and further information will be shared once all faults are assessed.\"\n\nSSEN Distribution said it was trying to identify people who might need extra help, and to help make welfare arrangements.\n\nA man walks a dog in Braemar, where a temperature of -17.3C was recorded on Monday night\n\nThe power cuts are currently affecting homes in Voe, Whalsay, Brae, Tumblin, Yell and Unst.\n\nThey have been caused by \"line icing\", where snow and ice sticks to overhead power lines, weighing them down and causing them to break.\n\nMark Macdonald, head of region at SSEN Distribution, said engineers had been out since first light to continue restoration efforts despite the conditions.\n\nHe added: \"We've seen extensive damage to the overhead power lines connecting homes and businesses, including multiple points of damage caused by snow and ice accretion which was not forecast.\n\n\"Our local teams have described the conditions as the worst they've seen in over 20 years.\n\n\"We're moving engineers from the mainland to Shetland to assist with restoration efforts and have multiple teams ready to travel, pending improvements in the current travel situation.\n\n\"We're also working with resilience partners to look at all alternative travel options.\"\n\nCustomers in a vulnerable position should get in touch on the power cut helpline. A further update is expected at 17:30.\n\nRescue teams used their 4x4 vehicles to reach stranded motorists in Shetland\n\nWintery conditions affected the A9, south of Inverness, with traffic stuck at Drumossie Brae\n\nMeanwhile, Shetland's Sumburgh Airport has announced that it is currently only operating emergency flights due to the power outages.\n\nThe airport told passengers to contact their airline to check flight status.\n\nAll schools on the islands will remain closed on Wednesday due to the uncertainty over travel and power.\n\nHeavy snow has also caused chaos on the islands' roads, where about 40 vehicles were stuck on a hill at Weisdale on Monday.\n\nCoastguard rescue teams were called in to help the stranded motorists, and it took seven hours to clear.\n\nNeil Hutchison, from Shetland Islands Council's road department said on Tuesday morning that it could take several hours to clear the islands' roads.\n\nSnow covered the road and the hills at Eela Water in Shetland\n\n\"The first thing we'll be doing today is clearing the main roads,\" he told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland.\n\n\"That may take a bit of time given the amount of snow on them. And then of course we're moving on to the side roads - that'll be much later in the day, I'm afraid.\n\n\"I think the main problem is there's quite a lot of vehicles stuck in various places on the road network and that meant other vehicles weren't able to get past.\n\n\"Once we got those cleared people were able to move on. Unfortunately that took quite a while - that took into the early evening in some places.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ann Cleeves This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nShetland author Ann Cleeves has tweeted that she lost her laptop \"in the blizzard\" on Monday.\n\nShe has offered a reward, saying there is half a novel saved on the computer.\n\nThe wintry weather looks set to continue as a Met Office yellow weather warning for snow and ice has been extended until 12:00 on Friday.\n\nIt covers the north and north-east of Scotland, Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles.\n\nForecasters say snow showers and icy surfaces will bring some travel disruption.\n\nA temperature of -17.3C was recorded in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, early on Tuesday morning, making it the coldest night of the year so far.\n\nA van came off the road near Uig in Skye due to the icy conditions\n\nThe Braemar met office which recorded the coldest temperature of the year on Monday night\n\nElsewhere in Scotland, some schools have been shut in Highland, Moray and Dumfries and Galloway due to the effects of the weather.\n\nPolice in Dumfries and Galloway have warned young people not to play on the ice, after receiving multiple calls from the public.\n\nSnow has caused disruption to travel on the A9 near Inverness, and in Skye one driver had a lucky escape after his van came off the road near Uig.\n\nA newly erected fence stopped his vehicle from going down a steep slope.\n\nMeanwhile Aberdeen City Council has reported issues with buttons on traffic lights freezing due to the cold weather.\n\nIt said that engineers will be de-icing the units but warned they may freeze again.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Aberdeen City Council This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A daylight launch which also despatched two telecommunications satellites\n\nThe most important European satellite of 2022 has just gone into orbit.\n\nMeteosat-12 rode out of the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana on an Ariane rocket to initiate a new era in weather forecasting.\n\nThe spacecraft will image the atmosphere over the European continent, the Middle East and Africa.\n\nThe data it acquires with its next generation technologies promises to greatly enhance our ability to track the emergence of violent storms.\n\n\"Look at the storm that impacted in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium last year where over 200 people lost their lives. These events are tragic,\" said Phil Evans, the director general of Eumetsat, the inter-governmental organisation that manages Europe's weather satellites.\n\n\"More accurate, frequent and relevant observations from space are absolutely essential to provide better forecasts and warnings which help us reduce and mitigate the impacts of these severe weather events.\"\n\nThe Ariane's lift-off from Kourou occurred at 17:30 local time (20:30 GMT), with Meteosat-12 ejected just over half an hour later.\n\nIt will take some time to get it properly into position 36,000km above the equator, and it will be a year before its observations are fully integrated into forecasting models.\n\nBut once this is achieved, the benefits should become obvious.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nEurope has had its own meteorological spacecraft sitting high above the planet since 1977. The new imager that's just gone up is the third iteration in the series.\n\nMeteosat-12 will return a full picture of the weather below it every 10 minutes, five minutes faster than is currently the case. It will be able to see even smaller features in the atmosphere, down to 500m across, and view them in more wavelengths of light.\n\nNational forecasting agencies such as the UK Met Office and Meteo France will see a big jump in the amount of data they receive.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC Weather presenter Matt Taylor: \"We can see the whole globe\"\n\nArtwork: The near-4 tonne satellite will sit 36,000km above the equator\n\nOne of the major innovations is the inclusion of a camera to detect lightning. The agencies believe this will be a boon to what they call \"nowcasting\" - the ability to track and forewarn of imminent, hazardous events. That's because lightning is a tracer for violent wind gusts, heavy precipitation and hail.\n\nIt's long been possible to track lightning from its radio frequency emissions, but these are largely air to ground strikes, and 90% of lightning is air-to-air, or intra-cloud.\n\n\"The new Meteosat instrument is set to be a game-changer,\" said Simon Keogh from the UK Met Office. \"It will give us a much better handle on total lightning. That's something we need to know if we're forecasting for helicopter operations in the North Sea, for example. Likewise, if there are hazardous materials being unloaded from aircraft, even passengers, we need to know if there is a lightning risk,\" he told BBC News.\n\nA full disc image of the Earth will be returned every 10 minutes\n\nThe new generation system will eventually see three spacecraft working in unison.\n\nA second imager will go up in 2026 to acquire more rapid - every 2.5 minutes - pictures of just Europe. Before that, in 2024, a \"sounding\" spacecraft will launch to sample the temperature and humidity down through the atmosphere.\n\nWith replacement satellites already ordered for the first working trio, Europe is guaranteed coverage well into the 2040s.\n\nThis capability doesn't come cheap. Member states of the European Space Agency (Esa) have funded the research and development to the tune of €1.4bn (£1.2bn). Eumetsat nations are picking up the ongoing costs expected to be €2.9bn (£2.5bn).\n\nThe inclusion of a lightning imager is set to be a game-changer\n\n\"It's a long process with trade-offs,\" said Paul Blythe, who's steered the Meteosat development for Esa.\n\n\"Some of the detector elements and the optical elements that we have on board have taken six, seven, eight years to bring to fruition from the initial setting of the requirements through lots of development work and finally getting the product to build into the satellite. After that, we have to qualify the whole system. It isn't a quick activity.\n\n\"We will benefit from an economy of scale by buying six satellites at once. If you only buy three or four then it's clear the next generation will cost even more.\"\n\nIf €4.3bn (£3.7bn) still sounds like a lot of money, it is worth recognising the returns that stem from good weather forecasting.\n\nIn giving the public the confidence to go about their daily lives, in helping to reduce accidents on the roads, or enable sectors such as aviation and shipping to operate more efficiently - there is a clear added value to the economy that repeated analyses have judged to be worth billions every single year.\n\nSix satellites have been procured in bulk. It means one or two will stay in storage for perhaps 10 years", "Demonstrators hold images of the 16 year old killed in the police shooting\n\nA Roma teenager who was shot in the head by Greek police as he fled a petrol station last week, allegedly without paying, has died.\n\nThe 16-year-old was left in a critical condition after officers opened fire following a short chase in Greece's second biggest city of Thessaloniki.\n\nDoctors at the Hippocrates hospital said the boy died at 10:10 local time (08:10 GMT) on Tuesday.\n\nThe officer involved has been arrested and placed under investigation.\n\nThe shooting is the latest in a spate of similar incidents in Greece and has reignited a debate around police violence in the country.\n\nIn last week's shooting, the teenager was accused of filling up his car with €20 (£17) of petrol, before fleeing from the station without paying.\n\nCCTV released on Tuesday revealed that four policemen were inside the petrol station at the time.\n\nThe boy drove away chased by police on motorbikes and a 34-year-old officer said he opened fire after the teenager turned his vehicle towards them with the aim of ramming into them.\n\nAccording to local media, the officer has been released under house arrest pending a judicial decision as to whether he should be held in custody.\n\nHe has already appeared in court accused of attempted homicide and other offences.\n\nCivil Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos - who has responsibility for Greece's security services - wrote on Twitter that he was \"deeply saddened\" by the boy's death.\n\n\"The case is being investigated by the court, which is the only one competent to assess the facts and judge the responsibilities,\" he added.\n\nThe incident sparked days of widespread protests among members of Greece's Roma population.\n\nThe Roma is the country's largest minority group, said to number some 270,000 people mostly living in makeshift accommodation.\n\nDemonstrators in Thessaloniki burned tyres and rubbish bins in the west of the city before throwing petrol bombs at police, local media reported.\n\nProtests also took place in several other cities, including in the capital Athens. On Friday, some demonstrators chanted: \"It wasn't the petrol, it wasn't the money, the cops shot because he was Roma.\"\n\nPanagiotis Sabanis, head of the Roma Federation of Central and Western Macedonia, has called for \"justice\" for the killing.\n\n\"There is racism against us in Greece. It's not the first incident of a police shooting against a Roma just because he is a Roma,\" he said last week.", "Police are warning drivers not to leave their cars while defrosting them following the theft of two vehicles in West Lothian.\n\nThe drivers had left their cars after switching them on to let the heaters defrost windows.\n\nOn Sunday, a black Volkswagen Passat was stolen from Loganlea Road, Addiewell, at 08:20.\n\nThen at 09:20 the same day a white Vauxhall Corsa was taken from Dick Gardens, Whitburn.\n\nThe man who owned the Corsa, registration SD72 GPZ, was knocked to the ground and hit by the vehicle during the robbery.\n\nHe was treated at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.\n\nThe attacker was a man aged 20-30, of medium build. He was wearing a light blue beanie style hat and a black top.\n\nThe Volkswagen Passat was later recovered on the B7015 between West Calder and Stoneyburn.\n\nDet Con David McDougall, of Police Scotland, said: \"Our inquiries are ongoing into these incidents and I am appealing for anyone with any information which may assist us to contact us.\n\n\"The owners of both of these vehicles had only momentarily left them unattended while the engine was running in order to defrost the car.\n\n\"With temperatures to remain low I would urge residents not to leave their cars unattended as it only takes seconds for an opportunist to take the vehicle.\n\n\"I would encourage people to use other options including covering windscreens at night or using manual scrapers or de-icing products.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ken and Jane Ralph are the last of nine people missing since the explosion\n\nThe last two people feared dead after an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey have been named.\n\nKen Ralph, 72, and Jane Ralph, 71, are among nine people missing since the blast, said Jersey police.\n\nOn Monday, the force named the other victims as Peter Bowler, 72, Raymond Brown, 71, Romeu de Almeida, 67, Louise de Almeida, 64, Derek Ellis, 61, Sylvia Ellis, 73, and Billy Marsden, 63.\n\nSeven deaths have been confirmed as the recovery operation continues.\n\nEmergency services are not expecting to find any survivors.\n\nTop row, left to right: Derek and Sylvia Ellis, Romeu and Louise de Almeida. Bottom row, left to right: Raymond Brown, Billy Marsden and Peter Bowler\n\nThe explosion happened at the three-storey Haut du Mont residential block on Pier Road, St Helier, on Saturday at about 04:00 GMT.\n\nDuring a press conference earlier, Jersey Chief of Police Robin Smith said: \"The families are being supported by specially trained family liaison officers.\n\n\"The fatalities have not yet been formally identified. The Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) process must be carefully considered and managed in a dignified and compassionate way.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jersey Chief of Police Robin Smith: \"We currently have 20 full-time detectives looking at the investigation\"\n\nThe Viscount's Office has confirmed inquests will only be opened once the DVI process has been fully completed.\n\nAn appeal by the Bailiff is expected to be set up in the coming days for islanders to donate aid to people affected by the explosion and also those impacted by the three fishermen missing after a collision at sea.\n\nBooks of condolence will be available at parish and public halls and a vigil will be held on Wednesday at the Town Church.\n\nFloral tributes have been left on the steps of Ordnance Yard, near to the site\n\nMr Smith said the force's investigation would be led by Jersey's head of CID, but would call on \"national experts in advising us on what is a very complex investigation, a very complex scene\".\n\nThe fire service confirmed it attended the flats just after 20:30 GMT on Friday after the smell of gas was reported.\n\nChief Fire Officer Paul Brown said firefighters handed the scene over to Island Energy at 21:01.\n\nHe said the investigation into the cause of the explosion \"will be complex and long\".\n\nMr Brown said normally the fire service investigates all fires in the island - hundreds of times a year - but \"on this occasion we will commission independent investigators.\"\n\nChief Ambulance Officer Peter Gavey said: \"Most ambulance activity is now in business as usual and we thank islanders for only calling in a real emergency.\"\n\nNearby buildings were damaged by the blast with windows blown out\n\nIan Gallichan, chief executive of Andium Homes, said: \"There was a redundant Island Energy supply at Haut du Mont but as Island Energy have confirmed, no gas was being consumed on site either by us or our residents.\"\n\nHe said the company asked for the redundant supply to be disconnected from the mains network in September.\n\nIsland Energy said in a statement: \"We can confirm that, in line with Andium's statement, there was a redundant Island Energy supply at Haut du Mont but there was no gas being consumed by either Andium or their residents.\n\n\"Outside of this, we are unable to comment on any details regarding works carried out on the property last week as this is part of an investigation and, as such, it would be inappropriate to discuss any information at this time.\"\n\nEarlier the gas supplier said engineers were safety testing the network and \"no issues had been detected\" so far.\n\nChief executive officer Jo Cox previously said it would \"work with emergency services and the various channels to ensure we are providing the data needed to understand exactly what happened\".\n\nSome of the 42 residents who were evacuated from their homes returned home on Monday after the cordon around the Haut du Mont site was reduced.\n\nThe rest have been housed elsewhere by Andium Homes, which runs the residential block.\n\nMr Smith said it was not likely all the displaced residents would be able to return home in time for Christmas but emergency services were working with them on ways of safely securing belongings.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The gap between wage growth in the public and private sector is near a record high, official figures show.\n\nWorkers in the private sector saw their average pay rise by 6.9% between August and October, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\n\nThat compares to wage growth of just 2.7% for public sector employees.\n\nThousands of workers are set to go on strike this week, including nurses who expect to stage their first-ever nationwide walkout on Thursday.\n\nThe 4.2% difference between pay growth in the public and private sectors is just below the 4.4% gap seen between July and September. The figures do not include distortions caused by the pandemic.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that overall, regular pay grew by 6.1% in the three months to October. But taking rising prices into account, wages fell by 2.7%.\n\nWorkers across the public and private sectors have seen their wages fail to keep up with inflation, which measures how prices change over time. It currently stands at 11.1%, a 40-year high.\n\nStrike action due to take place over pay and working conditions includes:\n\nThe ONS said that 417,000 working days were lost to strikes in October - the highest since November 2011.\n\nSam Beckett, head of economic statistics at the Office for National Statistics, said that the sectors that have been hardest hit by strike action are transport and storage as well as information and communications.\n\n\"That's been largely driven by the rail and mail strikes,\" she told the BBC's Today programme.\n\nMs Beckett said it was difficult at this stage to assess how industrial action has affected the wider economy.\n\n\"We haven't really seen the influence of that in our GDP statistics yet. It is too early to say how it will hit the economy more broadly,\" she said.\n\nOverall, the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%. The number of job vacancies also fell, down 65,000 in September to November, which was the fifth consecutive fall for this measure.\n\nMs Beckett said the decline was a sign the jobs market \"could be starting to soften a little\" and an indication that some businesses were \"were starting to pull some of their vacancies because they are reducing activity\".\n\nHowever, despite the fall, the ONS said job vacancies still remained close to historically high levels, with nearly 1.2 million roles available.\n\nPerhaps the most interesting statistic in these job numbers - and the most telling for the future of industrial relations - is the enormous gap between public and private sector wage growth.\n\nThat will add tension to pay disputes where the government is the employer or sets the parameters for pay discussions.\n\nPrivate companies can afford to slim down their ambitions and pay fewer people more - which is not an option in the NHS.\n\nThe numbers bear this out. Vacancies in hospitality are down 11%, whereas vacancies are almost unchanged in public administration and have gone up in education.\n\nThis elastic band must surely break at some point. More workers will leave the public sector, jeopardising key services or the government will have to buckle and agree to higher pay awards. It feels like something's got to give at some point.\n\nThere was also a decline in the number of people classed as economically inactive, which is those who are not in employment and have not sought work in the past few weeks. The most notable drop was among those aged between 50 and 64.\n\nJack Kennedy, UK economist at recruitment firm Indeed, said there was \"evidence of some people returning to the labour force from retirement\".\n\n\"That may be an early sign of cost-of-living pressures prompting some people to rethink their plans,\" he said.\n\nBut overall, inactivity remains more than 560,000 higher than pre-pandemic levels and continues to fuel recruitment challenges across a range of sectors, said Mr Kennedy.\n\nKai Clarke, who works at Purple Jay Nurseries' branch in Lambeth, said she was grateful for the 16% pay rise the firm had managed to provide for its workers - although it has quickly been absorbed.\n\nNursery worker Kai Clarke says she is grateful her pay has risen but so have her everyday bills\n\n\"I would say that I'm happy and I'm grateful but the excitement has worn off because I've noticed it is all going into the bills. Even simple things like juice, milk and butter have gone up.\"\n\nWhile the manager of the nursery, Jarrod Ayling, told the BBC that putting wages up would have a big impact on his costs too, he said it was \"needed because of the supply and demand situation\" and the struggle to find recruits.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A study is examining whether ketamine can help alcoholics stay off alcohol for longer\n\nA programme of therapy involving the drug ketamine will be made available to alcoholics in a research project.\n\nThe University of Exeter-led trial, with funding of £2.4m, will go ahead at seven NHS sites across the UK.\n\nThe trial will look into whether a combination of ketamine and therapy could help alcoholics stay sober for longer.\n\nProf Celia Morgan, the academic behind the research, said there was an \"urgent need\" for new treatments.\n\nThe research will go ahead after a phase two trial showed ketamine and therapy treatment was safe and tolerable for heavy drinkers.\n\nAn earlier study found participants who had ketamine combined with therapy stayed completely sober, representing 86% abstinence in their six month follow-up.\n\nThe Ketamine for Reduction of Alcohol Relapse (KARE) trial will now move to the next step of drug development, with the aim of rolling it out into the NHS if it proves effective.\n\nProf Celia Morgan says ketamine therapy could save the NHS money\n\nProf Morgan, from the University of Exeter, said: \"More than two million UK adults have serious alcohol problems, yet only one in five of those get treatment.\n\n\"Three out of four people who quit alcohol will be back drinking heavily after a year.\"\n\nShe said alcohol-related harm was estimated to cost the NHS around £3.5bn every year, and around £40bn to the wider UK society.\n\n\"Alcohol problems affect not only the individual but families, friends and communities, and related deaths have increased still further since the pandemic,\" she added.\n\n\"We urgently need new treatments.\"\n\nKetamine is a licensed medical drug, widely used as an anaesthetic and in pain relief.\n\nIt is also used as a recreational drug and is classified as a Class B banned substance by the Home Office.\n\nThe University of Exeter is leading the trial into the use of ketamine\n\nThe trial will recruit 280 people with alcohol problems who will be randomly split into two groups.\n\nHalf will be given ketamine at the dose used in the first clinical trial with psychological therapy.\n\nThe other half will be given a very low dose of ketamine and a seven-session education package about the harmful effects of alcohol.\n\nResearchers will look at whether the ketamine and therapy package reduces harmful drinking.\n\nMoney for the trial is coming from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care.\n\nAdditional funding is coming from Awakn Life Sciences, a biotechnology firm specialising in addiction treatments.\n\nThe new trial will recruit participants across Imperial College London; Oxford Health NHS Trust; Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Trust; Northern, Eastern, and Western Devon CCG; South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust; the Exeter Clinical Trials Unit; Mersey Care NHS Trust; University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; NHS Forth Valley; Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust.\n\nRecruitment is due to start mid-way through 2023.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Top Gear presenter Andrew \"Freddie\" Flintoff has been hurt in an accident while filming for the BBC show.\n\nHe received medical care at the scene before being taken to hospital for further treatment.\n\nThe incident happened at Top Gear's test track at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey on Tuesday.\n\nHis injuries are not thought to be life-threatening and a BBC spokesperson said details would be confirmed \"in due course\".\n\nIt is understood that the accident did not happen at high speed.\n\nOn Tuesday, a BBC spokesperson said: \"Freddie was injured in an accident at the Top Gear test track this morning - with crew medics attending the scene immediately.\n\n\"He has been taken to hospital for further treatment and we will confirm more details in due course.\"\n\nIn a statement on Wednesday, the BBC said: \"Our primary concern is and has been for the welfare of Freddie - as well as the Top Gear team. All health and safety procedures were followed on site and the incident is now being fully investigated, in line with standard policy and practice.\"\n\nThe BBC has to report such incidents to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), a non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions\n\nA spokesperson for the HSE said it was \"making inquiries\".\n\nFreddie Flintoff walked away from the Time Bandit Trike unharmed when he crashed it during a drag race\n\nComedian Jason Manford, who recently appeared with Flintoff in camping show Two Men in a Tent, told BBC Breakfast he didn't know \"the ins and outs\" of the accident, but said he was \"thankful it's not life-threatening and he can get over the injuries that he has\".\n\nManford said: \"Like with any of these things, it is the recovery and the mental health afterwards that people need help with. Friends and family will be around.\"\n\nHe went on to describe Flintoff as a \"robust\" and \"inspiring\" character. \"From the cricket, from the boxing, just from from life... he's pretty inspiring actually. He's a guy who has got a lot of get up and go and yeah, he'll be good.\"\n\nIt is not the first accident Flintoff has suffered since he first began presenting the show.\n\nThe former England cricketer, who is a father of four, crashed into a market stall in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire in February 2019.\n\nIn September of the same year, he crashed during a drag race while he was filming at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire, but walked away unharmed.\n\nFormer Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was involved in a serious crash at Elvington Airfield in 2006, leaving him in a coma.\n\nFlintoff joined Top Gear as a host in 2019 and co-stars in the show with Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris.\n\nHe's better known to many as an international cricketer - he retired from the sport in 2009 having played 79 Tests, 141 one-day internationals and seven T20s for England.\n\nHe played a key role in England's Ashes successes of 2005 and 2009.\n\nAfter initially retiring from all forms of the game in 2010, Flintoff had one professional bout as a boxer.\n\nHe's also been on the Australian version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! - where he was crowned king of the jungle.\n\nHe took to acting - appearing in BBC drama Love, Lies and Records in 2017 - and singing, in Fat Friends The Musical.\n\nTop Gear has been running under different presenters since 2002 and is one of the BBC's most successful and exported programmes.", "Stephen Bear had previously arrived in court in a white, chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce\n\nA reality TV contestant has been found guilty of disclosing a private sexual film after a video of him having sex with a woman was published on OnlyFans.\n\nStephen Bear, 32, shared a CCTV video of himself and Georgia Harrison, 27, effectively selling it for money.\n\nBear, of Bryony Close in Loughton in Essex, denied voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photographs and films.\n\nMs Harrison said she had been through \"absolute hell\" since 2020.\n\nThe 2016 Celebrity Big Brother winner was found guilty of all charges after more than eight and half hours of deliberation.\n\nThe jury reached unanimous verdicts on both counts of disclosing private sexual photos and films with intent to cause distress. It returned a majority verdict of 10 to two on the count of voyeurism.\n\nBear and Ms Harrison were recorded on CCTV in his garden in August 2020, the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard.\n\nMs Harrison, who has appeared on reality shows The Only Way Is Essex, Love Island and Olivia Meets Her Match, said she did not know they were being filmed.\n\nGeorgia Harrison, who waived her right to anonymity, said she had felt \"ashamed, hurt, violated, even broken at times\"\n\nShe said that when Bear showed her the footage she told him \"never to send\" it to anyone and \"made it plain how upset she would be if he did\", said prosecutor Jacqueline Carey KC.\n\nMs Harrison, who has waived her right to anonymity, also said she saw Bear send the footage to someone on WhatsApp and later became aware of it circulating online.\n\nMs Carey said the defendant uploaded the footage \"either himself or had it uploaded to OnlyFans and profited financially\".\n\nBear had told jurors he deleted the video in August 2020 and had not sent it to others.\n\nIn a statement issued after the verdicts via Essex Police, Ms Harrison said the last two years had been \"absolute hell\".\n\n\"Bear's behaviour was completely unacceptable and those who choose to commit such crimes should and will be prosecuted,\" she said.\n\n\"I hope me taking a stand gives other men and women who have fallen victim to revenge porn the courage to seek justice and most importantly show them that they have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.\n\n\"I have felt ashamed, hurt, violated, even broken at times but today I stand here feeling empowered, grateful and a huge sense of unity with all of those who have reached out to support me throughout this ordeal.\"\n\nAfter the verdicts, Stephen Bear said it was \"never a fair trial\"\n\nBear has been bailed until 31 January to return to the same court for sentencing after a report has been prepared about him.\n\nAfter the verdicts were returned he told the court he thought it was \"never a fair trial, what the press said against me\".\n\n\"I was fighting a losing battle and it is what it is,\" he said.\n\nJudge Christopher Morgan told the defendant: \"Thank you for that observation.\"\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Rachel Nolan praised Ms Harrison for her bravery throughout the case\n\nAssistant Chief Constable of Essex, Rachel Nolan, said: \"This man thought he could treat women and girls like they were on a reality show. He thought he could commit appalling crimes in Essex and get away with it. He was wrong.\n\n\"You can't try to shame and manipulate people to satisfy yourself. You can't pretend that taking intimate videos and sharing them without consent is OK. It's not. And if you try to get away with it in Essex, you won't, regardless of who you are.\"\n\nShe thanked Ms Harrison for her bravery.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "For as long as Rishi Sunak has been prime minister, whenever I've spoken to him or his senior team, the issue of small boat crossings has often been mentioned.\n\nBefore the Autumn Statement, the budget in all but name last month, I was told the prime minister was devoting more time to it than anything else but the statement.\n\nQuite something, given the range of issues that cross a prime minister's desk.\n\nThe government is desperate to get a grip on what Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said has been a failure to control the UK's borders.\n\nThey want to cut the numbers crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nThey want to deport asylum seekers whose claims are rejected much more quickly.\n\nAnd they want to house asylum seekers whose cases are being worked on more cheaply.\n\nBecause they have concluded it's a big deal for millions of people, and, having candidly pointed out the failure of Conservative governments over the last 12 years to sort it out, or even adequately manage it, they now need to show they are up for it.\n\nLet's be blunt: this is an incredibly difficult and complex issue to resolve, whatever resolution even means on this.\n\nTake a look at this from more than 20 years ago, when Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett was promising a crackdown, including making the asylum process quicker.\n\nTwo decades later, Mr Sunak is promising exactly the same. How the issue presents itself varies.\n\nBack then it was about the Red Cross refugee camp at Sangatte near Calais and migrants trying to cross by climbing into the back of lorries or get through the Channel Tunnel.\n\nNow, it is small boats and a particular influx from Albania.\n\nIn a world where you're only a smartphone scroll away from knowing how rich some places are compared to home, let alone if you're also fleeing persecution, the lure of a country like the UK will always be there.\n\nBut let's unpack what the prime minister is promising.\n\nFirstly, that issue that has dogged successive governments: making the asylum process quicker.\n\nMr Sunak said \"we expect to abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions by the end of next year\". But when he said \"abolish the backlog\" he didn't mean all of the backlog.\n\nDowning Street later acknowledged this meant making an initial decision in all cases that were outstanding at the end of June this year, when the system for processing cases was changed.\n\nWhat happened at the end of June was the Nationality and Borders Act became law.\n\nSince then it has been an offence to arrive on the shores of the UK without permission and so officials are now able to differentiate claims depending on whether people arrived through legal or illegal routes.\n\nWhat ministers are actually committing to is clearing the backlog of 92,601 initial asylum decisions relating to cases made in June of this year or earlier.\n\nAs of September this year, there were around 117,000 unresolved asylum cases awaiting a decision, relating to around 143,000 people (a case can relate to more than one person because of families).\n\nSo that is around 24,000 cases that could still be unresolved in a year's time, on top of additional cases between now and then, that wouldn't count against the prime minister's definition of abolishing the backlog.\n\nAnd as he acknowledged to me when I interviewed him, reaching an initial decision is often not the end of the matter, because people can appeal \"and we're not in control of the pace of those appeals\".\n\nMr Sunak is also promising a new law \"to make unambiguously clear that if you enter the UK illegally you should not be able to remain here\".\n\nBut what isn't clear is whether he would contemplate the UK leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, or be willing to ignore any adverse rulings from its court.\n\nAnd one other thing in the package of ideas that caught my eye: the government's promise to cut in half the current cost of housing asylum seekers, often currently in hotels.\n\nThe current approach currently runs up a bill of £5.5m a day.\n\nInstead, Mr Sunak wants people to be housed in disused military facilities, old holiday parks and former student digs.\n\nBut when I asked him where, he couldn't tell me, saying I wouldn't expect him \"to comment on commercial negotiations\".\n\nI wouldn't - but if such negotiations are still ongoing, it's not nailed down that the necessary alternative accommodation will be available.\n\nAnd that's before the huge political rows about the sites that are chosen, when there is a very good chance of strong local opposition.\n\nSo what about Labour's approach to all this, as they seek to present themselves as an alternative government?\n\nLeader Sir Keir Starmer pointed to what he sees as persistent Tory failure on the issue, as well as what he called the \"unworkable gimmicks\" that ministers have suggested and remain committed to, such as deporting some asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nBut his response was notably short and he himself will want to appear robust on the issue, given how much it matters to so many people, particularly in seats Labour needs to win back to form a government.\n\nThis prime minister and his successors, whoever they are, will continue to wrestle with asylum and illegal immigration.\n\nIt's a challenge history suggests governments can only ever hope to manage, rather than solve.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe boss of the UK's biggest rail union has accused the BBC of showing bias in its coverage of the rail strikes, insisting support for the walkouts amongst its members is not dropping.\n\nIn a heated exchange on the Today programme, Mick Lynch refused to answer how much pay union members had lost through strike action.\n\nHe accused the BBC of \"parroting\" the right-wing press.\n\nPresenter Mishal Husain defended the questions, as more strikes take place.\n\nAbout 40,000 rail workers are walking out on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday as part of a long-running row over jobs, pay and conditions.\n\nDuring the interview, Mr Lynch was asked what was the average amount of pay lost by union members through strike action.\n\nHe replied that it depended on what shift they were working, what rate of pay they earned and how many occasions they walked out, adding that his members were \"making a considerable sacrifice\".\n\nHe went on: \"What I do find annoying Mishal is that you put these lines that are directly taken from the propaganda from the other side.\n\n\"You never show any admiration for the fight that working people are putting up for our country, for the rebalancing of society. You never criticise the super-rich for what they're doing to nurses, what they're doing to postal workers, and you never seem to take an impartial view on the way this society is balanced at the moment with the complete lack of distribution of wealth in our society.\"\n\nHusain repeated her question, asking: \"You've said your members are making a sacrifice. What's wrong with putting a number on it?\"\n\n\"Why do you need that number?\" Mr Lynch replied, before criticising the line of questioning.\n\n\"Why are you pursuing an editorial line I could read in The Sun or The Daily Mail or any of the right-wing press in this country, and you're not pursuing the fact that working people - millions of them - are being impoverished and some of them being made destitute by the attitude of this government and by their employers?\n\n\"I find this a shocking stance that the BBC will take - you're just parroting the most right-wing stuff you can get hold of on behalf of the establishment, and it's about time you showed some partiality towards your listeners, to working-class people in this country who are being screwed to the floor by the attitudes and policies of this government.\"\n\nHusain concluded the interview by saying: \"They're called questions.\"\n\nThe BBC declined to comment on the exchange.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mark Harper asked if he insisted on driver-only operation as part of any union deal\n\nEarlier in the interview, Mr Lynch had called for the government \"to facilitate a settlement that says 'let's get real and let's put some stuff to the RMT they can cope with and deal with'\".\n\nBut the government has said it will not back down, despite the \"damage\" done.\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper told the BBC he was \"very disappointed\" that the RMT had rejected the latest pay offer \"out of hand\" and that isn't \"a bottomless pot\" of money.\n\n\"A fair and reasonable offer has been made. We do also need to see reform agreed at the same time,\" he added.\n\nMost train companies across Britain are likely to be affected by this week's strikes, and Network Rail has urged passengers to \"only travel if absolutely necessary\".\n\nTravellers are advised to check their train-operating company's website before setting out, with delays and cancellations also likely on the days around the strikes.\n\nThere are likely to be no services early in the morning or late at night, with only one in five services operating between 07:30 and 18:30 GMT.\n\nThe RMT has held a series of strikes since the summer that have shut much of the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales and threaten to hit businesses in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nIt comes as workers in many other industries down tools, with bus drivers, Royal Mail workers, nurses and highways workers and baggage handlers also striking this week.\n\nRail workers are calling for better conditions and pay rises to match the pace of inflation, with the cost of living rising at its fastest rate for more than 40 years.\n\nBut the government has ruled out inflation-linked wage increases, and rail bosses say big changes are needed to modernise the railway.\n\nOn Monday, Network Rail, which operates the UK's rail infrastructure, said the union was causing \"misery\" after its members rejected a fresh pay deal.", "Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow had only recently started their policing careers\n\nSix people, including two police officers, have been fatally shot after a suspected ambush at a remote Australian property.\n\nPolice said they had been searching for a missing person in Wieambilla - 270km (168 miles) west of Brisbane, Queensland - when they were fired upon.\n\nAfter a lengthy siege, three suspects were fatally shot by police. A motive remains unclear, authorities said.\n\nFour police officers - who are armed in Australia - initially went to the property on Monday afternoon local time, after a request from New South Wales police.\n\nConstables Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, were shot dead as they approached the property. Another officer suffered a \"bullet graze\" and the fourth escaped without physical injury, police said.\n\nA neighbour, 58-year-old Alan Dare, was killed by the suspects after going to the property to investigate.\n\nThe siege involved \"many weapons\" and continued for hours, before the suspects - two men and a woman - were shot by specially trained officers, authorities said.\n\nOne was identified as Nathaniel Train, 46, a former school principal and the missing person police had been sent to check on.\n\nThe others were his brother Gareth Train, 47, and Gareth's wife Stacey Train, 45, who co-owned the property.\n\nQueensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll described the attack as an \"unimaginable tragedy\" and the force's largest loss of life in a single incident in many years.\n\n\"Those officers did not stand a chance. The fact that two got out alive is a miracle,\" she said after visiting the scene on Tuesday.\n\nThe uninjured officer - a rookie sworn in only weeks ago - managed to find cover and call for help.\n\nThe suspects had then tried to draw her out by lighting a fire, said Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers.\n\n\"She did not know whether she was going to be shot, or [if] she was going to burnt alive,\" he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).\n\n\"I do know she was sending messages to loved ones, saying she was at a point where she thought it was her time. What was going through her mind, one cannot comprehend.\"\n\nSpecialist police later arrived and took over the operation.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Wieambilla: Crime scene established after six killed in Australian shooting\n\nMr Arnold and Ms McCrow were relatively new to the police force but were much loved, said Ms Carroll.\n\n\"Both under 30 years of age. Both had wonderful careers and lives ahead of them,\" the visibly emotional commissioner told reporters.\n\nMs Carroll said she couldn't comment on a possible motive or say if police were lured to the property, citing the ongoing investigation.\n\nSeveral media outlets reported that Gareth Train appeared to have contributed often to online forums which promoted conspiracy theories. In posts he had expressed a distrust of police and wrongly claimed the country's deadliest mass shooting was a government ploy to disarm Australians, The Guardian reported.\n\nAustralia introduced some of the world's strictest gun regulations after 35 people were killed in a massacre by a lone gunman at Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996.\n\nSince then, there have been only three mass shootings - defined in Australia as those resulting in at least four deaths, excluding perpetrators.\n\nMr Albanese said Monday's shooting was devastating \"for everyone who loved these Australians\" and \"our hearts go out to those in the grip of terrible grief\".\n\nHe noted it would be a \"rough day indeed\" for all police officers and their families. \"This is not a price that anyone who puts on the uniform should ever pay,\" he said.\n\nLocal MP David Littleproud said it had left his community \"numb\".\n\n\"[These] are small country towns where this sort of thing just doesn't happen,\" he told the ABC.\n\nThe deaths will be investigated by the coroner and the police response will be examined by the force's ethical standards command, in line with standard practice.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Richmond, Virginia, removes its final symbol of the confederacy\n\nThe city of Richmond, Virginia, former seat of the pro-slaveowning Confederacy, has removed its last statue honouring rebels from the American Civil War.\n\nThe statue of General AP Hill was taken down, but crews will be back on Tuesday to remove his remains, which are interred in the monument's base.\n\nSome Confederate tributes remain in the city, but on state land.\n\nMost of the monuments were erected during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation, which began in 1877 and lasted until the civil rights movement began in the mid-1950s.\n\nSince the police murder of George Floyd in Minnesota in 2020, the US movement to purge all remaining symbols of the Confederacy has gathered momentum.\n\nRichmond has already removed statues honouring rebel military commander Robert E Lee and Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy.\n\nThe statue was taken away by a lorry\n\n\"We now continue the work of being a more inclusive and welcoming place where ALL belong,\" Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney tweeted on Monday.\n\nBut John Hill, a descendant of AP Hill, who drove overnight from Ohio to see the 130-year-old statue removed, said it was \"a tough day\".\n\n\"His remains are underneath that monument. I just want to make sure they're removed respectfully,\" Mr Hill told a local TV station.\n\nA city official told the New York Times that the statue would be brought to the city's black history museum.", "Ross McCullam strangled Megan Newborough in the living room of his home\n\nA man who strangled his girlfriend and cut her throat 14 times before dumping her body has been convicted of murder.\n\nRoss McCullam, a lab technician, attacked Megan Newborough, 23, at his home in Coalville, Leicestershire, on 6 August 2021. The pair had met at work.\n\nHe had admitted manslaughter but denied murder.\n\nThe 30-year-old was found guilty at Leicester Crown Court and is due to be sentenced before the same court on Friday.\n\nMs Newborough's family said she \"was the most generous, loving and caring person\"\n\nMcCullam invited Ms Newborough to his home in Windsor Close - where he lived with his family - when his parents were out.\n\nHe attacked her, throttling her to death before fetching a carving knife to cut her throat.\n\nThe defendant claimed he had not intended to harm Ms Newborough, from Nuneaton, but lost control of himself in what he said was \"blind rage\".\n\nHe said this was due to an episode of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which he claimed was caused by sexual abuse he himself had suffered as a child.\n\nIt took the jury just 90 minutes to find him guilty of murder.\n\nAfter murdering Ms Newborough, McCullam bundled her body into her own Citroen C3 and drove her to Charley Road, near Woodhouse Eaves, where he dumped her in undergrowth behind a stone wall.\n\nHe then abandoned her car in a car park in Loughborough before hailing a taxi home.\n\nHe continued to send Ms Newborough's phone messages and voicemails - including one telling her he loved her - to make it look like he thought she was still alive.\n\nBut he had thrown her phone into bushes by the roadside on the way to dump her body.\n\nMs Newborough's family reported her missing to police at lunchtime the following day after she did not return.\n\nThey tracked her phone down using a GPS app prompting police to launch a kidnap inquiry.\n\nMcCullam, who had searched on the internet for pornography and serial killers in the hours after the attack, was then arrested.\n\nHe told the arresting officers he had killed Ms Newborough, whom he had met some six weeks earlier at the Ibstock Brick factory where they both worked, and told them where her body was.\n\nShe was found in the early hours of 8 August, 2021.\n\nOfficers said McCullam had chosen such a secluded spot to hide her that, if he had not disclosed her location, she might have been undetected for weeks or months.\n\nPolice searched McCullam's house finding evidence that Ms Newborough had fought for her life, including her Fitbit watch that had been ripped from her wrist and was discovered on the living room floor.\n\nThere was also evidence that he had cleaned up bloodstains on the carpet - telling his parents a damp patch was caused by a spilled cup of coffee.\n\nThe court heard McCullam had boasted about what he had done to Ms Newborough to fellow prisoners while on remand awaiting his trial.\n\nAfter the verdict Ms Newborough's family said their lives had been \"well and truly ripped apart\" by her death and that, despite the support of those close to them, they were \"still living in a nightmare\".\n\nIn a statement, released by Leicestershire Police, they paid tribute to her saying: \"Megan shone like a star to everyone she came into contact with. She excelled at work and was an enthusiastic dancer, teaching children of all ages.\n\n\"She had a bright future ahead of her.\"\n\nThey added: \"She was an incredibly good judge of character. She knew who she could and couldn't trust. She left home that night in a very happy mood. The thought of what happened to her just hours later - and the evil facing her - is something we can't escape.\n\n\"The same thoughts constantly go around in our heads - should we have known? Is there anything we could've done? We're still overcome with guilt for not protecting her.\n\n\"Everything still doesn't seem real and when we're at home, we still expect Megan to walk through the front door. It's an expectation we don't think will ever leave us.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Alina Zagorska moved to the UK with her 11-year-old son under the Homes for Ukraine scheme\n\nAbout 51,000 people who came to the UK under the Homes For Ukraine scheme have now reached the end of their six-month sponsorship period, the BBC has found.\n\nUK sponsors agreed to house Ukrainians for a minimum of six months - and BBC analysis suggests almost half of those who arrived under the scheme have now reached the end of their sponsorship.\n\nCouncils say some are already homeless after leaving their sponsors' homes.\n\nThe government says it is working to ensure they all have somewhere to live.\n\nThe scheme, which was launched in March, allowed Ukrainians who were fleeing the war with Russia to come to the UK - if a sponsor agreed to provide accommodation for at least six months.\n\nAs that period ends for many Ukrainians, some councils have increased the £350-a-month payment sponsors have received to encourage more households to keep housing Ukrainians.\n\nBut it is not a national policy. And many hosts and their guests aren't sure what the plan is at the end of six months.\n\nIt comes as the latest figures - up until 18 November - show more than 2,000 Ukrainian families with children, as well as 900 individuals, have registered with local councils as having no where to live.\n\nSome are homeless because sponsorships have broken down, others because they have been in the UK for more than six months and don't have anywhere else to go. The figure is likely to be an underestimate, as not all councils provided figures.\n\nLiz Robinson recently hosted two Ukrainians and their children\n\nLast Christmas, Alina Zagorska was in Kyiv, but she moved to the UK with her 11-year-old son under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, in May.\n\nLike many Ukrainians who came to Britain her sponsorship should have finished and she's struggling with what happens next. She has a job and can afford the monthly rent but, without a guarantor, she is finding it difficult to even be allowed to view properties.\n\n\"I can't find the accommodation because the agents don't want to show me the property because I don't earn enough money, so they said I need to earn more to just show me the property. So this is not very fair.\"\n\nShe says she needs someone who will guarantee she will pay her rent, adding: \"But I don't have it here because I'm alone with my son…I want to be an independent person, this is my dream.\"\n\nIgor and his two daughters - 23-year-old Viktoria and 11-year-old Svitlana - have registered as homeless after the relationship with their sponsor broke down.\n\nThey told the BBC that they could not find a new sponsor with more than one room available, and have been forced to move between temporary accommodation organised for them by a charity.\n\n\"We are tied to this area because of schooling\", they told the BBC. \"We've been to hotels twice already. The problem with them is that there is no kitchen. We then have to eat out.\"\n\nIn Buckinghamshire, Liz Robinson recently hosted two Ukrainian women and their children. It was a positive experience, she says, but again they hit problems when her guests tried to find their own flat.\n\n\"There was no way that they were going to give it to her without me as the guarantor,\" Liz says. So she offered to be the guarantor. She felt she could trust her guest, but admits she has some worries about the financial implications - especially if they suddenly decided to return home.\n\nThe Local Government Association, which represents hundreds of councils in England and Wales, said it was \"deeply concerned\" about the situation, adding: \"We anticipate more families needing to present as homeless in the coming weeks without urgent intervention.\"\n\nThe Department for Levelling Up said the \"vast majority of sponsors want to provide support for longer than six months\".\n\n\"We are working closely with councils to ensure all those who have fled Putin's war have a safe place to live and, in the minority of cases where family or sponsor relationships break down, councils have a duty to ensure families are not left without a roof over their head.\"", "In September, 85-year-old Keith Royles broke his hip and was forced to wait seven hours for an ambulance, and then had to wait outside the hospital until the early hours of the morning.\n\nHis daughter, Tina Royles, said that it was \"absolutely despicable\".\n\nMr Royles, who lives in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, worked as a nurse, along with his wife and their daughter said they were \"quite disgusted\".\n\nThey understand the pressures on the NHS, but the system is broken.\n\nDespite the long wait, Ms Royles said the staff who looked after her dad were amazing.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said it was deeply sorry about Mr Royles' experience, describing the seven-hour wait as \"unacceptable\".", "Mother Halima Cissé (R) was pictured with two of the nine babies shortly after they arrived back in Mali\n\nThe world's only nonuplets - nine babies born at the same time - have safely returned home to Mali after spending the first 19 months of their lives in Morocco.\n\nThe babies broke the Guinness World Record for the most children delivered in a single birth to survive.\n\nAhead of the birth in May 2021, the mother Halima Cissé, now 27, was flown to Morocco for specialist care.\n\nBefore returning they had been living with medical support in Casablanca.\n\nAfter arriving back in the Malian capital, Bamako, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the father Abdelkader Arby thanked the Malian government which he said had been helping the family financially.\n\n\"It's a lot of work but Allah, who gave us this blessing, will help us in their upbringing and taking care of them,\" he added.\n\nHealth Minister Diéminatou Sangara said the government will continue to support the family.\n\nThe babies - five girls and four boys - were born by Caesarean section at 30 weeks, according to the Malian authorities last year.\n\nThe girls - named Kadidia, Fatouma, Hawa, Adama and Oumou - and the boys - named Mohammed VI, Oumar, Elhadji and Bah - weighed between 500g and 1kg (1.1lb and 2.2lb) at birth, Prof Youssef Alaoui, medical director of the clinic where they were born, told the AFP news agency.\n\nThere were risks that they could have developed health problems due to their premature birth and they spent the first months of their lives in hospital.\n\nThey were then moved to an apartment where they received round-the-clock care from the Ain Borja clinic.\n\nEarlier this year, on their first birthday, their father said that each one has a unique personality.\n\n\"They all have different characters. Some are quiet, while other make more noise and cry a lot. Some want to be picked up all the time. They are all very different, which is entirely normal.\"\n\nMr Arby also said that they had become famous in Mali and people were \"very keen to see the babies with their own eyes\".\n\nThe family showed the certificate from Guinness World Records when they arrived in Mali\n\nThe nonuplets were photographed on their first birthday in May\n• None Nonuplets 'in perfect health' on first birthday", "Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, has suffered from heavy Russian shelling and air strikes since the start of the war in February.\n\nOfficials there told the BBC they have been collecting the remains of Russian munitions fired at the city, including fragments of missiles and rockets.\n\nLocal prosecutors say the missiles caused the deaths of hundreds of civilians and hope the casings can serve as evidence in any future court action against Russia.", "Talks to avert strike action by nurses have failed, with the union accusing the health secretary of \"belligerence\".\n\nThe head of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Pat Cullen, said strikes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland would now go ahead on Thursday, after Steve Barclay refused to discuss pay.\n\nThe government said it would continue to engage on non-pay related issues.\n\nThe union is calling for a pay rise of 19.2% but ministers say this is unaffordable.\n\nThe Department of Health said Mr Barclay had \"again listened to the RCN's position on pay and reiterated the government has agreed to the recommendations of the independent pay review body\".\n\nA spokesperson said the health secretary had told Ms Cullen that any further pay increase would mean taking money away from frontline services and tackling the post-Covid backlog.\n\nMs Cullen said she was \"extremely disappointed at the belligerence shown\" in a meeting with the health secretary earlier.\n\nShe said pay was \"fundamental\" to the dispute and not discussing it was \"nothing short of being disrespectful to our profession\".\n\nMs Cullen had said she was \"optimistic\" ahead of the meeting but \"they closed their books and walked away from the nursing profession this afternoon\".\n\n\"We haven't come out with one single brown penny,\" she added.\n\nThe union leader has previously said the strikes could be paused if the health secretary \"seriously\" negotiated over pay.\n\nThe RCN has also failed to reach an agreement with the Welsh government, which said it could not make an increased pay offer without additional funding from the UK government or risking a reduction in services.\n\nMore walkouts are planned for 20 December.\n\nRCN members in Northern Ireland are also part of the strike action. Health sector workers from Unison, Nipsa and GMB in Northern Ireland have already been striking this week over pay and conditions.\n\nThe union is calling for a pay rise of 5% above the RPI inflation rate, which in October was 14.2%, but no UK nation has offered close to that.\n\nThe RCN says its pay demands follow years of squeezes on nurses' salaries, which have not kept up with the rising cost of living.\n\nShadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a Labour government would not be able to afford such a rise but added that it \"would be willing to meet and negotiate\" to avoid a strike.\n\nHe accused ministers of a \"stubborn refusal to engage\" and of blaming NHS staff for the challenges \"that are the direct fault and responsibility of 12 years of Conservative mismanagement\".\n\nMeanwhile, in Scotland, members of two major NHS unions, Unite and Unison, have voted to accept an improved pay offer, averaging 7.5%.\n\nHowever, ballots of GMB, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and RCN members in Scotland are ongoing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe country is facing a wave of strikes this month, including from paramedics, rail workers, and Border Force staff.\n\nUnions are calling for bigger pay increases to help their members cope with rising prices, but the government has warned this could make inflation worse.\n\nEarlier, ministers and civil servants held an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss contingency plans for the upcoming industrial action, including using the military to cover Border Force staff.\n\nArmed forces will also be sent to hospital trusts to familiarise themselves with vehicles ahead of an ambulance worker strike in England and Wales on 21 and 28 December.\n\nDowning Street has warned there will still be \"serious disruption\".\n\nCabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden, who chaired the meeting, urged unions to call off the strikes.\n\nHe said ministers were \"straining every sinew\" to minimise the risks from walkouts but it would never be able to eliminate them.", "US authorities have charged Sam Bankman-Fried with \"one of the biggest financial frauds in US history\" in the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.\n\nThe former FTX boss was arrested on Monday.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried built a \"house of cards on a foundation of deception\", Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler said.\n\nOfficials have also accused him of violating campaign finance laws.\n\nMr Gensler added that the charges for alleged fraud were a warning for other platforms to comply with US laws.\n\nThe US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also announced charges against Mr Bankman-Fried in parallel actions.\n\nAt a news conference on Tuesday, Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that the fraud Mr Bankman-Fried is accused of is among the largest in US history.\n\nIn addition to accusing Mr Bankman-Fried of defrauding lenders, investors and customers, Mr Williams accused him of using \"tens of millions\" in ill-gotten gains for illegal campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans alike.\n\n\"All this dirty money was used in service of Bankman-Fried's desire to buy bipartisan influence and impact the direction of public policy in Washington,\" Mr Williams said.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News earlier this month, Mr Bankman-Fried sought to distance himself from accusations of illegal activity.\n\n\"I didn't knowingly commit fraud. I don't think I committed fraud. I didn't want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was,\" he told BBC News cyber reporter Joe Tidy.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried also denied allegations he must have been aware that FTX's affiliated trading company, Alameda Research, was using FTX customer funds.\n\nHe was once viewed as a young version of legendary US investor Warren Buffett. As recently as late October, he had a net worth estimated at more than $15bn (£12.1bn).\n\nA well-known political donor, he was arrested in the Bahamas and is being held there in custody pending extradition to the US. He said on Tuesday he would fight the extradition.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sam Bankman-Fried denies claims he knew FTX customer money was used for risky financial bets\n\nMeanwhile, the firm's new chief executive, John Ray, told a US congressional committee that FTX's collapse appeared to be the result of it being controlled by a small group of \"grossly inexperienced, non-sophisticated individuals\".\n\nHe said he had seen \"an utter lack of record-keeping - no internal controls whatsoever\".\n\nLast month, FTX filed for bankruptcy in the US, leaving many users unable to withdraw their funds.\n\nAccording to a court filing last month, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors almost $3.1bn.\n\nThe FTX exchange allowed customers to trade normal money for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.\n\nCryptocurrencies are not currencies in the traditional sense, but are stored online and act more like investment vehicles or securities - often with a high degree of volatility.\n\nTheir anonymity means they have been favoured for criminal activities such as drug dealing and ransomware attacks, but their supporters say there is huge potential for innovation - and independence from governments.\n\nSince 2019, Bahamas-based FTX had raised more than $1.8bn from equity investors, the SEC said, including approximately $1.1bn from about 90 US-based investors.\n\nIt is alleged that while Mr Bankman-Fried promoted FTX as a \"safe, responsible crypto asset trading platform\", in reality he \"orchestrated a years-long fraud\" to conceal from FTX's investors the diversion of FTX customers' funds to Alameda Research LLC, his privately held crypto hedge fund.\n\nThe SEC also alleges that he concealed FTX's exposure to Alameda's significant holdings of overvalued FTX-affiliated tokens.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried is also accused of \"co-mingling\" FTX customers' funds at Alameda to make \"undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations\".\n\nIn what has turned out to be one of his last interviews before arrest, Mr Bankman-Fried seemed extremely confident - telling me he would not be arrested and was innocent of any criminal wrongdoing.\n\nThe 30-year-old turned up in his trademark shorts and scruffy T-shirt, seeming surprisingly calm.\n\nBut he did admit he was not getting much sleep since his empire collapsed and he became crypto public enemy number one.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried spoke to us not in his home, but in an apartment still owned by FTX, in the luxury Albany complex about 30 minutes from the Bahamian capital, Nassau.\n\nBefore we started recording, we were told not to take any shots of the multimillion pound yachts or manicured gardens in the marina.\n\nWe were also warned not to film his apartment building, which he has had to vacate for \"safety reasons\".\n\nOnce we began the interview, Mr Bankman-Fried spoke for 35 minutes with no topic or question ruled out.\n\nAs in other recent interviews, he admitted to mismanaging his FTX empire but tried to distance himself from any criminal wrongdoing.\n\nHe also said he did not think he would be arrested and, off-camera, heavily hinted details would soon emerge to make the public more believing of his version of events.\n\n\"FTX operated behind a veneer of legitimacy Mr Bankman-Fried created,\" said Gurbir S Grewal, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.\n\n\"But as we allege in our complaint, that veneer wasn't just thin, it was fraudulent.\"\n\nHe added that FTX's collapse highlighted the risk unregistered crypto asset trading platforms can pose to consumers and investors.\n\nThe SEC charged Mr Bankman-Fried with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.\n\nIn New York, Mr Williams vowed that authorities \"are not done\" with the investigation and called on \"anyone who participated in wrongdoing\" to come forward.\n\n\"Come see us before we come and see you,\" he said.\n\nRobert Greenall and Bernd Debusmann Jr also contributed to this article", "Schools in Northern Ireland have been left in an \"impossible position\" by the recent education budget.\n\nThat is according to a letter to the secretary of state from the president of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).\n\nThe Northern Ireland Office said the budget, set by the secretary of state in the absence of executive ministers, prioritised health and education.\n\nThe basic funding for schools was reduced by about 0.5% in the Stormont budget.\n\nHowever, they are getting some extra money to help with existing staff salary agreements and rising energy costs.\n\nThe Education Authority (EA), though, is also faced with saving around £100m from its block grant in 2022-23.\n\nIt pays for things like support for children with Special Educational Needs, school transport, meals and maintenance.\n\nASCL is a union which represents many post-primary school principals and senior leaders in Northern Ireland.\n\nIt is currently the only teachers' union in Northern Ireland not taking industrial action.\n\nThe other five unions are taking action short of strike after rejecting a pay offer as \"inadequate\" in February.\n\nNI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris set out a budget for Stormont departments in November\n\nTeaching unions in Northern Ireland have asked for a pay settlement for 2022-23 of inflation plus 2%.\n\nInflation is currently at 11% - the fastest rate in the rise of the cost of living for decades.\n\nIn his letter to Chris Heaton-Harris, Mr Montgomery, who is also the principal of the Royal School Armagh, called the education budget \"a retrograde step\".\n\n\"The additional funding allocated for energy costs and incremental pay awards is offset by a reduction to the aggregated schools budget which represents a significant real terms cut overall and leaves schools in an impossible position,\" he wrote.\n\n\"It is very likely that this will necessitate staffing reductions that will in turn lead to larger class sizes, reduced curriculum options and less individualised support for students who need extra help.\"\n\nMr Montgomery also referred to previous analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which suggested that less is spent on each school pupil's education in Northern Ireland than any other part of the UK.\n\n\"Further real terms cut to school funding will worsen this situation and set Northern Ireland even further behind the rest of the UK,\" his letter continued.\n\n\"You and those responsible for government in Northern Ireland must make it a priority to review and address this situation as a matter of urgency.\n\n\"It is imperative that there is an improved settlement which allows school leaders to plan their budgets with the confidence that they will be able to sustain the high quality of education that children and young people need and deserve.\"\n\nThe Northern Ireland Office said the pressures affecting the Department of Education demonstrated the \"pressing need to have locally accountable political leaders in place\".\n\n\"The budget, set by the secretary of state in the absence of executive ministers, prioritises spending in health and education and has an overarching objective of protecting the most vulnerable during a time of particular economic hardship,\" a spokesperson said.\n\n\"The budget position set out still delivers an increase to education spending of just under £300m.\n\n\"The Department for Education was projecting significant overspend which has resulted in difficult decisions needing to be made.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAnti-government protesters blocked roads and stormed the international airport in Peru's second city Arequipa as deadly unrest intensified on Monday.\n\nSupporters of leftist former President Pedro Castillo took to the streets in anger at his impeachment and arrest.\n\nDina Boluarte, his successor and former deputy, proposed bringing general elections forward by two years to April 2024 in response to the protests.\n\nAt least seven people have now died in clashes with the security forces since protests erupted over the impeachment of Mr Castillo last Wednesday.\n\nHe was accused of corruption and detained for attempting to dissolve the opposition-controlled Congress, just hours before it was due to vote on his impeachment.\n\nIn a handwritten letter that he tweeted on Monday, he called Ms Boluarte a \"usurper\", and said he had been \"kidnapped\" and humiliated.\n\nThere were running battles in the streets of the capital\n\nSupporters of Mr Castillo argue that Ms Boluarte was not elected by the people. They are demanding that Peru hold new elections, with some also calling for Congress to be shut down and Mr Castillo released.\n\nProtesters blocked roads and set fire to vehicles on Monday, and an estimated 2,000 stormed the airport in the southern city of Arequipa, blocking the runway and forcing flights to be suspended for several hours. Police finally dispersed them with tear gas.\n\nIn a televised address to the nation earlier in the day, Ms Boluarte - the first woman to lead Peru - said she would submit a bill to Congress to hold elections in April 2024, instead of April 2026.\n\nMs Boluarte said she would also propose constitutional reforms to achieve \"a more efficient, transparent and participatory system of government\", but did not go into detail about those reforms.\n\nThe move represents an about-turn. Ms Boluarte, who was sworn in as president on Wednesday, said on taking office that she would serve out the remainder of Mr Castillo's five-year term in office in full.\n\nThe city of Arequipa saw serious clashes on Monday\n\nLast week a court ordered that Mr Castillo be held in preliminary detention for seven days while an investigation is carried out into whether he should be charged with rebellion.\n\nHow Ms Boluarte deals with the protests is seen as a key test for her presidency and whether she will be able to hold on to power until April 2024.\n\nPeru's politics have suffered from instability for years, with the legislature and executive almost constantly at loggerheads.\n\nMs Boluarte is the sixth president to hold power in as many years.", "A man accused of making the bomb that downed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, 34 years ago was told he would not face the death penalty as he appeared in a US court.\n\nThe US alleges that Abu Agila Masud was a Libyan intelligence operative and played a key role in the 1988 attack, which left 270 people dead.\n\nScottish and US officials announced on Sunday that Mr Masud was in US custody.\n\nHe is the first person charged on US soil in connection with the attack.\n\nA device on board the Boeing 747 exploded as the flight was flying over the English-Scottish border, killing 243 passengers, six crew and 11 local residents on the ground - including a family of four.\n\nThe dead were citizens of 21 different countries, including 190 Americans and 43 Britons.\n\nIt remains the deadliest terrorist incident to have taken place on British soil.\n\nAt Monday's hearing, US Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather elected to delay the formal reading of charges until after Mr Masud secures legal representation for his trial. He did not enter any plea.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Jim Swire said the trial should not take place in the US or Scotland\n\nHe spoke his full name into the record, and was informed by the judge that a translator was present to interpret court proceedings into Arabic for him. He was ordered to remain in custody at least until a detention hearing on 27 December.\n\nMr Masud is facing multiple charges, including destruction of aircraft resulting in death. Prosecutors said at Monday's hearing that they would not seek the death penalty and Mr Masud could face life imprisonment if convicted.\n\nWearing a teal prison jumpsuit, he lightly limped into court with a medical mask covering his white beard.\n\nAs the judge read out the three charges, he interrupted to say in Arabic: \"I can't talk until I've spoken to my attorney.\"\n\nHe is currently seeking legal counsel, which the judge said was his right after Mr Masud rejected the offer of free representation from the public defender's office.\n\nSome of the families of the victims were in court - they told the BBC beforehand they were nervous. They sat silently as the hearing got under way.\n\nEach of the charges he faces include a possible sentence of life in prison, the death penalty or a fine of up to $250,000 (£203,000).\n\nBut US prosecutors told the court they would not seek death, as they believe the punishment was not legally available at the time of his alleged crime.\n\nThe US justice department first announced criminal charges against Mr Masud in December 2020. At the time, US prosecutors alleged that he had worked for Libyan intelligence in a number of roles between 1973 and 2011, including as an explosives expert.\n\nThe case against Mr Masud partly rests on an interview he gave to Libyan officials in 2012 after he was taken into custody following the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi's government. In the interview, he admitted building the bomb used in the attack and setting its timer to explode while the aircraft was in flight. Mr Masud also claimed that Gaddafi had thanked him and two co-conspirators \"for their successful attack\" on the US.\n\nA number of observers have voiced concerns that the confession may have been coerced in the chaotic months following the regime's fall, when Libya did not have a fully functioning legal system.\n\nThe Pan Am flight was bombed just days before Christmas\n\nAt a news conference on Monday, Victoria Cummock - whose husband John died in the bombing - called the US prosecution a \"major milestone\" for the families of the victims.\n\nShe added that the apprehension of Mr Masud was the \"first tangible step\" by US authorities to hold anyone accountable for the bombing after what she described as a \"decades-long miscarriage\" of justice.\n\nIt remain unclear how Mr Masud came to be in US custody. In late November, it was reported that he had been kidnapped by armed militia members in Tripoli.\n\nIn 2001, one of the other co-conspirators identified by US and Scottish officials - Abdelbaset al-Megrahi - was convicted by a Scottish court convened in the Netherlands for his role in the attack. The Scottish government released him on compassionate grounds in 2009, and he died in Libya three years later.\n\nTo date, Megrahi - who always maintained his innocence - has been the only person convicted in connection with the attack.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Newsnight's Kirsty Wark recalls arriving at Lockerbie on the night of 21 December 1988\n\nScotland's Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, who is the most senior Scottish law officer in the government, said in a statement that she would travel to Washington DC next week to meet prosecutors and attend commemoratives events with victims' families.\n\nIn a statement on Monday, she called the US prosecution of Mr Masud a \"legal breakthrough\", adding that Scottish authorities welcomed the American inquiry.\n\n\"The recent developments demonstrate that there can be no time limits placed on the pursuit of justice,\" Ms Bain said.\n\nWith additional reporting from Max Matza and Bernd Debusmann in Washington DC", "Food bank users in Northern Ireland are being targeted by paramilitary loan sharks, a BBC NI Spotlight investigation has learned.\n\nVictims of illegal money lenders told the programme how they faced a cycle of spiralling debt and intimidation.\n\nOne man who spoke to the programme anonymously said loan sharks cold-called him and gave him a £500 loan after seeing him at a food bank.\n\nA month later he was told he owed them £1,300.\n\nA representative of the UK's largest food bank charity said similar accounts had been relayed to him of people who have been using their services because of hardship being approached by loan sharks.\n\nJonny Currie, the head of the Trussell Trust in Northern Ireland, said: \"That's certainly something that food banks and the network have reported back to us - folks that are referred to them have said they are part of that illegal system.\n\n\"These are illegal money lenders, criminal gangs, paramilitary organisations, whatever you want to call them, in those local communities, that are preying on people who are in crisis.\"\n\nMr Currie said more people were turning to the illegal money lenders for small loans to cover basic essentials including weekly energy top-ups and groceries.\n\n\"It could be £50, it could be £100. So small amounts of money that are really part of what is your essential week to be able to get by,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Victims of illegal money lenders tell BBC NI Spotlight how they faced a cycle of spiralling debt and intimidation.\n\nThe man who spoke to Spotlight said he had turned to a local food bank after he had lost his job and his benefits were cut.\n\nHe spoke anonymously to the programme out of fear for his personal safety.\n\n\"I got a knock at the door, there's these two young men telling me things that they shouldn't have been able to tell me,\" he said.\n\n\"They knew I needed money, they knew I was struggling and they knew when I got paid my universal credits, they knew the dates of when I'd be paid, and they said they could help me out.\"\n\nThe man recognised one of the loan sharks. He said he had seen him sitting in a car outside the food bank as he and others queued up to get help.\n\nHe reported the incident to the police who investigated it and took a statement.\n\nDet Supt Emma Neill said victims who came to the police had done the right thing\n\nHe said he was advised by friends that local loyalist paramilitaries were best placed to sort out the problem since the loan sharks had been identified as coming from outside the community.\n\nHe told Spotlight: \"It's their area, they control it and somebody else had walked in and done this. I was told in no uncertain terms: 'Keep your mouth shut. This is sorted. You have to pay the £500.'\n\nDet Supt Emma Neill, from the Organised Crime branch, said: \"I can understand your victim's concern for his safety and he did the right thing in reporting the matter to the police.\n\n\"Absolutely I would encourage anybody to come forward. But by engaging in that type of arrangement, what you are doing is perpetuating the coercive control that these paramilitary organised crime groups have on our community.\"\n\nClergyman Brian Anderson from East Belfast Mission runs services to help people who have become victims of loan sharks\n\nThe BBC Spotlight programme also features a woman from a loyalist area who said vulnerable women in her community were being coerced into criminality because they were being forced to pay off loans using their own prescription drugs as well as cash.\n\n\"They're paying with their medication. It's almost like well you've got a bit of an asset and we want it. It's a criminal offence, but yeah, they are desperate,\" she said.\n\nSecurity and community sources told Spotlight that paramilitary loan sharks exist in all communities where there is poverty - but they say the problem is most widespread and acute in loyalist urban areas.\n\nClergyman Brian Anderson is chairman of the East Belfast Mission, which runs services to help people who have become victims of paramilitary loan sharks.\n\n\"People are struggling to make ends meet,\" he said.\n\n\"I would notice particularly that the benefits that would last a fortnight, are now only lasting a week to 10 days.\n\n\"We will help them with food, with gas and electricity and we'll do all we can to provide places where you can come and be warm and spend time with us.\n\n\"But that's utter pressure. That's a mental pressure to live with day in daily.\"\n\nYou can watch BBC NI Spotlight's Loan Sharks and Paramilitaries on BBC iPlayer", "Tributes have been left near Babbs Mill Park, in Kingshurst, where the boys fell into a lake\n\nFamilies of three young boys who died after being pulled from an icy lake are suffering unimaginable pain, a family member has said.\n\nThe children, aged eight, 10 and 11, died after emergency calls to Babbs Mill Park, near Solihull, on Sunday.\n\nThe 10-year-old has been named as Jack Johnson but the identities of the other two boys are yet to be confirmed, as mourners leave tributes near the lake.\n\nAnother boy, six, rescued from the water remains in a critical condition.\n\nSearches of the lake continued throughout Tuesday but police stressed there was no suggestion anybody else was missing.\n\nOn Monday night, mourners gathered for a candle-lit vigil, leaving flowers, soft toys and balloons.\n\nMourners gathered throughout Tuesday at the site\n\nThroughout the day, people were standing in shock not knowing what to do or say - and so remained quiet.\n\nJack's aunt Charlotte McIlmurray thanked the local community on social media for their support.\n\nShe described the boys' deaths as a nightmare, saying the pain of losing them was \"unimaginable\".\n\nMessages of love and support have been left for the boys and their families along with flowers and soft toys.\n\nOne tribute, in a child's writing, read: \"Rest in peace, I'm going to miss you forever.\"\n\nA floral wreath from Birmingham City FC was laid near where the boys were found\n\nJohn Eustace, head coach at Birmingham City FC, was among those to lay flowers at the lakeside.\n\nThe blue and white arrangement held a card which read: \"Sending our deepest condolences and love to those affected by this tragedy.\n\n\"You are in our thoughts. From everyone at Birmingham City Football Club.\"\n\nHe then stood for a moment in silence before leaving.\n\nOnlookers applauded when a group of 21 police officers from the Chelmsley Wood neighbourhood policing team marched to the memorial spot.\n\nThey held a two-minute silence and on Twitter they thanked the community for the kindness shown towards the police force.\n\nSchoolchildren and classmates came to pay tribute after lessons on Tuesday\n\n\"The support from residents for our staff and other emergency services that attended the incident has been overwhelming,\" they said.\n\nShaun Gordon, 45, told the BBC how he had had to break the news to his daughter, a classmate of Jack's.\n\n\"It was heart-breaking,\" he said. \"As a parent, it's just tragic.\"\n\nThe family came to lay flowers on Tuesday which Mr Gordon said helped ease his daughter's pain.\n\nSome of Jack's other classmates also came to lay flowers at the end of the school day.\n\nThe community here knows all the boys who have died but out of respect for the families they are waiting for their names to be formally confirmed by police.\n\nInstead, on candles and notes they refer to them as little soldiers, three kings and the Babbs Mill Boys.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA neighbour of one of the boys was distraught when she opened the door to reporters earlier. She said what had happened was a \"complete and utter tragedy\".\n\nMembers of the public and police officers initially went into the water to try to get the children, before they were reached by specialist water rescue-trained firefighters.\n\nWest Midlands Police said one of its officers had to punch through the ice to try to rescue the boys.\n\nThe force is being guided by the families as to how much information is made available to the media, Supt Richard Harris said, adding it was doing \"everything we possibly can to support them\".\n\nDozens of tributes, including soft toys and flowers, have been left for the \"Babbs Mill Boys\"\n\n\"People have said it feels like being in a movie,\" said Reverend Mandy Harris, from the nearby St Barnabas Church.\n\n\"This is what happens everywhere else, this doesn't happen in Kingshurst.\"\n\nShe said some of the boys' classmates had come to the church \"not knowing where to turn or give voice to their grief\".\n\nShe spoke of the strength of community spirit in the area as people pull together to mourn.\n\nThe chair of governors at Jack's school, St Anthony's Catholic Primary, said the community was \"very, very close-knit\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by St Anthony's Primary This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"We've got families that have been here for five generations,\" Marcus Brain told BBC Radio 5 Live. \"Everybody knows everybody else.\n\n\"Everybody I've spoken to... are in an utter state of shock.\"\n\nThe school shut on Monday after the incident and reopened on Tuesday morning.\n\nSpeaking in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his sympathies to the families of the children who had died.\n\nOne resident, Dan, said he had heard sirens from his flat that overlooks the lake after the children got into trouble on Sunday afternoon.\n\nHe said he had grabbed jackets and towels which were given to the boys when they were pulled from the water.\n\n\"Then 15 minutes later I am back in my flat and they'd brought them up on stretchers,\" Dan said.\n\nSpecially trained police divers continued to search the lake on Tuesday\n\nOfficers have been breaking up ice on parts of the lake that remain frozen\n\nAnother vigil for the boys is due to be held on Sunday.\n\nA local Rotary club has cancelled its annual Santa sleigh charity event which had been due to go around Kingshurst on Wednesday and Thursday.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hold his traditional big year-end news conference, the Kremlin has said, for the first time in 10 years.\n\nBut spokesman Dmitry Peskov said \"we hope the president will after all find an opportunity to talk\" to the media.\n\nNo reason was given for the cancellation, but it comes amid growing unease among Russians over Mr Putin's decision to invade Ukraine in February.\n\nRussian troops have suffered a series of painful reverses since then.\n\n\"Regarding the big press conference, yes, it won't happen before the New Year,\" Mr Peskov told reporters on Monday.\n\nBut he added that Mr Putin could find a way to talk to the media, stressing that \"he does it regularly\".\n\nOver the past 10 years, the carefully choreographed annual press conferences attended by dozens of journalists - both Russian and foreign - usually lasted for hours in Moscow.\n\nMr Putin went to great lengths to be seen on national TV as a leader directly involved with ordinary Russians, patiently answering a wide range of questions - from regional reporters about fixing poor roads in remote villages and publicly castigating local officials, to the world of grand geopolitics.\n\nBut a number of opposition Russian experts have said that - in the absence of press freedom - such gatherings resembled staged shows, where pro-Kremlin reporters were reduced to asking the country's all-powerful ruler mostly flattering questions.\n\nThey said the fact a handful of independent journalists were also present - but not always given a chance to ask questions - did not change the overall picture.\n\nStill, such conferences were closely monitored by politicians around the world, who were trying to gauge the direction the Kremlin leader was keen to take Russia.\n\nIn June the Kremlin also postponed President Putin's annual televised marathon phone-in with members of the public - and did not set a new date for it.\n\nThe Kremlin leader is also required by the constitution to make an annual State of the Union speech to parliament by the end of the year. Mr Peskov said this issue was under review.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAn eight-year-old boy who has had both legs amputated was forced to wait hours for his wheelchair to be returned at Gatwick Airport.\n\nPaula Hudgell said she was \"appalled\" that no help was offered after her son Tony was left stranded at 03:00 GMT.\n\nTony lost his limbs following abuse by his birth parents, who were jailed for 10 years in 2018.\n\nGatwick Airport has apologised for the distress caused but said it experienced significant disruption on Sunday night.\n\nMs Hudgell, from King's Hill in Kent, told the BBC the family had been travelling back from a \"magical\" trip to Lapland.\n\nShe tweeted a picture of a downcast Tony at the airport, and said she had received no support from staff as they waited.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Tony Hudgell BCyA BEAR This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMs Hudgell said they initially sat on the aircraft to wait for the wheelchair while the captain tried to help find it.\n\nWhen it did not arrive, they were given assistance to get off the plane and waited at baggage reclaim.\n\nShe said: \"We weren't bothered about our baggage. We could have come back the next day. But we could not leave the airport because we didn't have Tony's wheelchair.\"\n\nShe said Tony was tired, thirsty and hungry, and that he was forced to sit on the floor.\n\n\"It was just absolutely horrendous,\" Ms Hudgell added.\n\nThe wheelchair finally came through four-and-a-half hours later.\n\nTony Hudgell was so badly abused as a baby he needed to have both legs amputated\n\nA Gatwick Airport spokesman said: \"We are aware of this awful situation and apologise for the distress caused to the Hudgell family.\n\n\"This is unacceptable and we have picked it up as a matter of urgency with the airline, Jet2, and their ground handler, Menzies.\n\n\"We experienced significant disruption last night and had to close the airport for a two-hour period for safety reasons.\"\n\nJet2 has also apologised to the Hudgell family for the delay, which it said was due to the airport's temporary closure.\n\n\"The baggage handler experienced severe delays offloading luggage. Unfortunately, this included Mr Hudgell's wheelchair,\" it said in a statement.\n\n\"This should not be the experience that our customers receive.\"\n\nBaggage handler Menzies has also been approached for a comment.\n\nTony's adoptive family successfully campaign for a change in the law to allow for tougher sentencing of child abusers.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Teddies, flowers and candles have been left at a tree near the lake in Kingshurst, Solihull\n\nChristmas lights twinkling on one side, blue police tape on the other. The lake in between the scene of utter devastation just weeks before Christmas.\n\nThree boys aged eight, 10 and 11 were playing on the icy water at the beauty spot near Solihull in the West Midlands on Sunday afternoon when they fell in.\n\nHeroic actions from the public and emergency services - they raced down on foot and jumped into the freezing water, and one police officer tried to punch through the ice - were sadly not enough.\n\nAfter being pulled from Babbs Mills Lake, the children later died. A fourth boy, aged six, died days later in hospital.\n\nBut what has become apparent in the midst of this tragedy is a tight-knit community pulling together to help one another.\n\nAbout nine miles to the east of Birmingham, Kingshurst is an area that has faced hardship - financial and food insecurities have been cited by some - but at the heart of it is a thriving community spirit, with families from as many as five generations living here.\n\nHeartwarming tales have emerged of centres, churches and the local scout hut opening their doors and residents offering food and hot drinks to the emergency services as they worked into the night searching the water.\n\nComfort Konfor says her children go to the same school as the boys who died and are similar ages\n\nMother-of-four Comfort Konfor said she had found out what had happened late on Sunday night via her children's school, and was at the Connection Church Centre in Kingshurst on Monday.\n\nNew to the area, she praised the local community for coming together.\n\n\"It's a very wonderful community. People are lovely, they are friendly,\" she said.\n\n\"Here, it's not been empty since, people are walking in and out. Everybody is concerned and taking it personally and taking ownership of the whole thing.\"\n\nTalking about the tragedy, she added: \"It's a sickening situation. The moment I heard of it I got dizzy, almost fainting because the first thing that came to mind was 'they could be my children'. It's a big shock.\n\n\"I couldn't sleep last night. I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of the parents, what must they be going through right now?\n\n\"It's really a sad situation. Was it foreseeable, could it have been avoided? How many children have gone, just like that? Something could be done to stop this happening again in future.\"\n\nA woman lays flowers among the tribute left near the park in Kingshurst\n\nA vigil was held on Monday night for the boys who died\n\nChurch Pastor Emil Kerekes was quick to open their doors to the community on Sunday.\n\nHe said: \"It was a heavy atmosphere [on Sunday night]. Everyone was shocked to hear what was happening. Knowing there were some children involved you can imagine the feeling.\n\n\"I woke up and thought 'why not open the church for the community' and if they want to come and have a chat about what's happening, have a drink and be a support for them. People are feeling down and want to talk to somebody.\n\n\"We need each other and we need to stand up for each other.\"\n\nDozens of local people, including many schoolchildren, placed bunches of flowers and balloons in tribute to the three boys at the base of a tree near the northern entrance to Babbs Mill nature park.\n\nMother-of-four Katie O'Driscoll, who was accompanied by her five-year-old daughter, said: \"Anyone that has got kids can really relate to that; we feel heartbroken as a community. The whole community cares - they will be kids that we know because we are a close-knit community.\n\n\"It's affected everybody. It's devastating and it's sad.\"\n\nAmie Hopkins was at the church to offer her support to the local community\n\nAmie Hopkins was also at the church offering support to those who needed it.\n\nShe said: \"I've got a 12-year-old boy myself that probably would have done something similar as well. It really hits home when you hear they're children of similar ages to your own that have lost their lives so close to Christmas as well.\n\n\"It's a tragic loss to the community and something you wouldn't expect to happen from children having some harmless fun.\n\n\"It's heartbreaking, the loss of such young children from the community and in such a tragic way.\"\n\nJo Cole has lived in Kingshurt for 27 years and has run projects in the area to raise awareness of some of the issues it is facing, such as food insecurity and financial insecurity.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio WM, she said: \"One of the marvellous things about Kingshurst is that it's so tight as a community. We have got quite a lot of difficulties around us that we're dealing with.\n\n\"We're sending out all our love as a community. We pull together and we work together. We're a good bunch over here.\"\n\nBorough councillor for Kingshurst Marcus Brain said the whole community was in \"absolute shock\" and devastated.\n\n\"It's going to take a long time to sink in. We are all in a complete state of shock,\" he said.\n\nHe described Kingshurst as a very close-knit community where everyone knew everybody and with families who had been there for five generations.\n\nHe added: \"The local community has rallied around amazingly and supported the emergency services as best they can.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "FTX was an exchange that made money by charging people to buy, sell, hold and lend cryptocurrencies, as well as make other kinds of trades.\n\nIt filed for bankruptcy last month after people who had lodged their crypto holdings on the exchange rushed to pull their funds, after reports sparked fears about its finances.\n\nNow the company is struggling to come up with the money to repay everyone. It is reportedly missing about $8bn (£6bn), raising questions about where the money went – and whether those gaps arise from violating any laws.\n\nWe already know that some of the funds went to Alameda, a hedge fund that was also founded by Sam Bankman-Fried.\n\nThat firm made risky bets in crypto, exposing FTX client funds to losses, according to testimony from FTX’s current leaders.\n\nThe company also spent $1bn on loans and other payments to “insiders”.\n\nAnother roughly $5bn went to other crypto firms, after the company went on what was described as a “spending binge” to bail out other struggling firms in the sector. Many of those investments are likely “worth a fraction” of what was paid.", "Shake It Off is one of the biggest-selling singles of Swift's career\n\nA US lawsuit alleging that Taylor Swift stole lyrics for her hit song Shake It Off has been dismissed by a judge.\n\nSongwriters Sean Hall and Nate Butler had claimed the pop star lifted lyrics in her song's chorus from their own hit Playas Gon' Play. Swift denied being aware of the song prior to the lawsuit.\n\nHowever, court filings show a judge dismissed the copyright lawsuit \"in its entirety\" on Monday.\n\nThe case had been due to go to trial on 17 January.\n\nSwift said she had drawn from her own experiences and \"commonly used phrases and comments\" she had heard throughout her life for the track and that the lyrics had been written \"entirely by me\".\n\nUS trade publication Variety reported the two parties had \"reached an agreement\" and jointly asked for the case to be dismissed.\n\nThe terms of the settlement were not clear; however, the song's writing credits remain the same at the time of writing.\n\nPlayas Gon' Play, the song written by Hall and Butler, was released in 2000 and performed by US girl group 3LW.\n\nGirl group 3LW - short for three little women - released Playas Gon' Play in the early noughties\n\nBoth that song and Shake It Off feature variations of the phrases \"players gonna play\" and \"haters gonna hate\".\n\nThe judge, Michael Fitzgerald, had previously rejected the case, saying the lyrics were too \"banal\" to be copyrighted.\n\nIn his original ruling, the judge cited 13 earlier songs that featured similar phrases, including Playa Hater by The Notorious B.I.G. and Dreams by Fleetwood Mac.\n\nHall and Butler appealed against the ruling and a federal appeals court reversed his decision, which sent the case back to Judge Fitzgerald.\n\nHowever, a court filing obtained by the PA news agency showed Judge Fitzgerald had dismissed the lawsuit earlier this week.\n\n\"Pursuant to the parties' Stipulation, this action is hereby dismissed, in its entirety and with prejudice, Plaintiffs and Defendants to bear their respective attorney's fees and costs,\" the filing read.\n\nSwift, 33, previously said she had \"never heard\" of the 3LW song prior to the lawsuit.\n\n\"The lyrics to Shake It Off were written entirely by me,\" she said, in a sworn declaration also obtained by PA.\n\n\"Shake It Off is about independence and 'shaking off; negative personal criticism through music and dance.\n\n\"In writing the lyrics, I drew partly on experiences in my life and, in particular, unrelenting public scrutiny of my personal life, 'clickbait' reporting, public manipulation, and other forms of negative personal criticism which I learned I just needed to shake off and focus on my music.\n\n\"Prior to writing Shake It Off I had heard the phrases 'players gonna play' and 'haters gonna hate' uttered countless times to express the idea that one can or should shrug off negativity.\"", "Police investigators at the scene near the heavy truck that drove into crowds in Nice in 2016\n\nAll eight defendants have been found guilty over the July 2016 lorry attack in the southern French city of Nice in which 86 people were killed.\n\nSeven men and a woman were sentenced by a special court in Paris to jail terms ranging from two to 18 years.\n\nThree were convicted of association with a terrorist, while five others were found guilty of supplying weapons.\n\nThe attacker, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, was shot dead after driving a lorry into crowds on Bastille Day.\n\nThe 31-year-old Tunisian ploughed through a crowd of some 30,000 people who had been enjoying a fireworks display for France's national day on 14 July.\n\nCareering through the coastal city's seafront boulevard Promenade des Anglais for more than 2km (1.2 miles), Lahouaiej-Bouhlel's victims included 15 children.\n\nHundreds of people were injured in the massacre - one of the worst attacks in Europe in recent years.\n\nThe verdicts were announced on Tuesday, following a lengthy trial at the special courtroom in the French capital.\n\nMohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud, both Tunisian nationals who were friends of the killer, were handed the heaviest sentences of 18 years in jail. The two men had denied any wrongdoing.\n\nRamzi Arefa, another defendant, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for providing weapons to the attacker.\n\nThe three men had received texts and Facebook messages from the killer in the run-up to the attack. None was charged with being part of the conspiracy, but the court ruled that they did know in a general way of the attacker's terrorist inclinations.\n\nThe five other defendants, four Albanian nationals and a Tunisian, were given jail terms from two to eight years on weapons trafficking charges or criminal conspiracy.\n\nThe Islamic State (IS) militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, but French investigators never found any proof that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had links with them.\n\nThe two-month trial was a chance for survivors and families of victims to testify about their memories of a night which has left deep scars on the city of Nice, the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris reports.\n\nThe trial took place at the historic Palais de Justice in Paris, in the same purpose-built courtroom that hosted the hearings for the November 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people died - the worst peace-time attack France has ever seen.", "Researchers say they have successfully completed a trial of a personalised cancer vaccine that uses the same messenger-RNA technology as Covid jabs.\n\nThe experimental vaccine, made by Moderna and MSD, is designed to prime the immune system to seek and destroy cancerous cells.\n\nDoctors hope work such as this could lead to revolutionary new ways to fight skin, bowel and other types of cancer.\n\nModerna and MSD called it \"a new paradigm\" moment.\n\nOther pharmaceutical companies are looking to run similar studies.\n\nBut this is the first phase-IIb randomised clinical trial to test the investigational mRNA vaccine in patients.\n\nPatients taking Keytruda for advanced melanoma were less likely to die, or have the skin cancer reoccur, if they also had the jab, mRNA-4157/V940, Moderna and MSD said.\n\nThe findings, in 157 patients, have not yet been scrutinised by independent experts or regulators.\n\nMore trials will be needed to check how effective the treatment might be.\n\nModerna's chief medical officer Paul Burton said: \"This is a significant finding. It's the first randomised-trial testing of an mRNA therapeutic in cancer patients.\n\n\"It's shown a 44% relative reduction in the risk of dying of cancer or having your cancer progress. That's an important finding and I think it has the potential to be a new paradigm in the treatment of cancer patients.\"\n\nTailormade to match each patient's cancer, the vaccine is very expensive to make - although, the company has not named a price.\n\nProf Alan Melcher from The Institute of Cancer Research said: \"There's no question, this is very exciting. These results show the feasibility of making and delivering personalised vaccines to treat cancer, and that the vaccine can add benefit to current treatments.\n\n\"These results establish the principle that this complex technology is doable.\"\n\nConsultant colorectal surgeon at the University of Birmingham Mr Andrew Beggs said: \"Although early data, it is very encouraging that this is a likely effective treatment option in the future.\n\n\"This advance is likely to have important implications for metastatic cancer patients in the future and opens a new therapeutic avenue for these patients.\"\n\nDr Sam Godfrey from Cancer Research UK, said: \"There is unlikely to be a single cure for cancer and we must focus on ways to tailor treatment for patients. These results are grounds for optimism that the science which helped get us out of the pandemic could add another powerful treatment option for cancer in the future.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nA dazzling performance from Lionel Messi led Argentina to their sixth World Cup final with victory over Croatia at Lusail Stadium.\n\nMessi now gets one last chance to win the piece of silverware that has eluded him in his trophy-laden career, but Manchester City's 22-year-old striker Julian Alvarez also shone as Argentina ensured they will return here on Sunday to face either France or Morocco.\n\nMessi looked to be struggling with a hamstring problem early on but Argentina's little genius recovered enough to break the deadlock from the penalty spot after 34 minutes following Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic's foul on the marauding Alvarez.\n\nAlvarez doubled Argentina's lead five minutes later when he took Messi's header just inside Croatia territory and embarked on a slaloming run, aided by fortunate bounces off Josip Juranovic and Borna Sosa, before beating Livakovic.\n\nThere was no fortune involved in a brilliant third after the break as Messi mesmerised Croatia's excellent defender Josko Gvardiol on the byeline before playing in Alvarez for the finish.\n\nMessi will now have the opportunity to make amends for the bitter disappointment of losing the 2014 World Cup final to Germany in Rio's iconic Maracana.\n• None This will be my last World Cup - Messi\n• None Is Qatar 2022 on the brink of becoming Messi's World Cup?\n• None 'Best ever' & 'magic' - reaction to 'the true Messi'\n\nWhen Messi stretched and clutched the top of his left hamstring 19 minutes into this World Cup semi-final, there was a fear the dream for Argentina and their iconic number 10 might have the nightmare ending.\n\nInstead, Messi recovered after a spell at walking pace to inspire Argentina as they go in search of a third triumph in the tournament following victories in 1978 and 1986.\n\nAnd what a far cry it was from when Argentina were the victims of what is still the biggest shock of this World Cup in Qatar when they lost their opening game 2-1 to Saudi Arabia, despite Messi putting one of the pre-tournament favourites in front.\n\nIt was in 1990 that Argentina were stunned in similar fashion by Cameroon in their first game and went on to reach the final, losing 1-0 to West Germany.\n\nNow they have the chance to go one better as the World Cup reaches its climax. And Messi can finally claim the crown in his final tournament.\n\nArgentina used this meeting with the stubborn, resilient and talented 2018 finalists Croatia to produce their most convincing performance of this World Cup, suggesting Lionel Scaloni's side are hitting their peak at the perfect time.\n\nMessi, inevitably, was at the heart of it all and involved in every goal, but Alvarez has shown in Qatar that he has, barring accidents, a wonderful career ahead of him.\n\nMuch has been made of Manchester City's big spending over the years, but what a coup it was to sign Alvarez from River Plate for the bargain price of £14.1m.\n\nCroatia were undone, like so many before them, by the brilliance of Messi - as well as his young partner Alvarez - after making a confident and composed start to this World Cup semi-final.\n\nTheir defence was exposed in uncharacteristic fashion for Argentina's first two goals and there was little even their outstanding young defender Gvardiol could do about Messi's twisting run that set up the third.\n\nCroatia, however, have had an outstanding tournament once more as the country with a population of only four million followed up their appearance in the final in Russia in 2018 with a place in the last four in Qatar.\n\nIf Argentina have Messi, then Croatia have their own master footballer in Luka Modric and he received warm applause from all parts of Lusail Stadium when he was substituted with nine minutes left.\n\nHe, like Messi, had his sights set on a World Cup triumph after experiencing the same pain of final defeat, but it was not to be.\n\nCroatia coach Zlatko Dalic and his players can be proud of their efforts, despite being well beaten here, and in 20-year-old RB Leipzig defender Gvardiol they have unearthed one of the break-out stars of this World Cup who will serve them well for many years and is already a serious target for Europe's elite clubs.\n• None Attempt missed. Dejan Lovren (Croatia) left footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Mislav Orsic.\n• None Attempt missed. Nikola Vlasic (Croatia) left footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Mateo Kovacic.\n• None Attempt saved. Lovro Majer (Croatia) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Mateo Kovacic.\n• None Attempt missed. Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina) right footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Paulo Dybala following a set piece situation.\n• None Attempt missed. Mislav Orsic (Croatia) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses the top right corner. Assisted by Ivan Perisic. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Most train companies are likely to be affected, and Network Rail advises to \"only travel if absolutely necessary\"\n\nTrain passengers are braced for major disruption this week, as a series of strikes is set to bring the UK's rail network to a standstill.\n\nAbout 40,000 rail workers are walking out on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday as part of a long-running row over jobs, pay and conditions.\n\nIt comes after members of the UK's biggest rail union, the RMT, rejected fresh pay offers and vowed to fight on.\n\nBut the government says it will not back down, despite the \"damage\" done.\n\nMost train companies across Britain are likely to be affected, and Network Rail has urged passengers to \"only travel if absolutely necessary\".\n\nTravellers are advised to check their train-operating company's website before setting out, with delays and cancellations also likely on the days around the strikes.\n\nThere are likely to be no services early in the morning or late at night, with only one in five services operating between 07:30 - 18:30 GMT.\n\nThe RMT has held a series of strikes since the summer that have shut much of the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales and threaten to hit businesses in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nIt comes as workers in many other industries down tools, with bus drivers, Royal Mail workers, nurses and highways workers and baggage handlers also striking this week.\n\nRail workers are calling for better conditions and pay rises to match the pace of inflation, with the cost of living rising at its fastest rate for more than 40 years.\n\nBut the government has ruled out inflation-linked wage increases, and rail bosses say big changes are needed to modernise the railway.\n\nOn Monday, Network Rail, which operates the UK's rail infrastructure, said the union was causing \"misery\" after its members rejected a fresh pay deal.\n\nThe Transport Secretary Mark Harper meanwhile said that the strikes by rail workers will be \"very damaging\".\n\nMr Harper told the BBC he was \"very disappointed\" that the RMT had rejected the latest pay offer \"out of hand\" and that isn't \"a bottomless pot\" of money.\n\n\"A fair and reasonable offer has been made, we do also need to see reform agreed at the same time,\" he added.\n\nBut Mr Lynch said the government was doing nothing to stop the walkouts and effectively wanted to ban such action with tough new anti-strike laws.\n\n\"Our members, along with the entire trade union movement will continue their campaign for a square deal for workers, decent pay increases and good working conditions,\" he said.\n\nEmma Godivala, who runs the York Gin distillery, said the strikes were hitting her business ahead of the vital Christmas trading period.\n\nThe company has closed one of its shops in York railway station as they didn't think there would be any customers, and bookings for tasting events this week have been cancelled too.\n\n\"Lots of independent traders make most of their trade at Christmas time, so it's having a disproportionately large effect because of the time of year,\" she told the BBC.\n\nSarah Czarnecki, vice chair of the Hospitality Association York, said some hotels in the city had seen bookings, conferences and meetings cancelled \"because of the nervousness around getting here and getting back\".\n\n\"This happening in the week before Christmas is obviously going to hurt because everybody's trying to bolster their bank balance in order to deal with the first quarter of next year,\" she said.\n\nThe RMT is involved in two negotiating battles, one with Network Rail, where it represents around 20,000 signallers and maintenance workers, and the other with the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), where it represents about 20,000 workers at 14 train companies.\n\nLast week, the union rejected an offer from the Rail Delivery Group which would allow for a 4% pay rise this year and another 4% next year, arguing it did not meet its criteria for pay or conditions.\n\nAmong other changes it would have seen ticket offices closed or repurposed, more Sunday working and greater use of part-time contracts.\n\nBut Mr Lynch said it would mean \"the loss of thousands of jobs\" and the use of \"unsafe practices\".\n\nMeanwhile, 63.6% of RMT members at Network Rail who voted rejected a deal on Monday that would have given them a 5% pay rise this year and a 4% rise in 2023.\n\nThe union said the offer was \"substandard\" and depended on big changes to working practices, as well as 1,900 job losses, although Network Rail insisted the cuts could be achieved voluntarily.\n\nAfter this week's walkouts, RMT members at both groups will strike again on 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nIn addition, members at Network Rail will go on strike from 18:30 on Christmas Eve until 06:00 on 27 December.\n\nMr Lynch has called on the prime minister to meet him to attempt to resolve the dispute.\n\nBut on Monday Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said: \"We are not seeking to impose government over and above either the independent pay review process or ongoing discussions between employers and the unions.\n\n\"We won't be changing the process.\"\n\nOn Monday, ministers discussed contingency plans for upcoming strikes, including using the military and civil servants to cover Border Force staff, at an emergency Cobra meeting.\n\nThe armed forces will also be deployed to hospital trusts ahead of an ambulance strike, the government says.\n\nBut Downing Street warned there would still be serious disruption and added that the country is facing \"a challenging number of days\".\n\nHow are you affected by the rail strike? Are you taking part in the strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has become a figurehead of the trade union movement\n\nOne is a cynical grump whose cold-hearted plot to steal Christmas dampens the festive mood.\n\nThe other is Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).\n\nWhen he announced a blitz of winter rail strikes last month, Mr Lynch denied being the mean-spirited green monster. \"I'm not the Grinch, I'm a trade union official, and I'm determined to get a deal,\" he said.\n\nIn unflattering media coverage, the bogeymen comparisons veer from the Grinch to the Hood, the bald-headed, bushy-eyebrowed baddie from the 1960s puppet TV series Thunderbirds.\n\nWelcome to the world of Mick Lynch, where adoring fans and outspoken critics form orderly queues to take selfies with or pot shots at the union boss.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Metro This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSeeking a deal on jobs, pay and working conditions, the RMT has escalated its industrial action, bringing the total number of strike days to 12 over the festive period.\n\nAs the RMT's top official, Mr Lynch is the chief spokesman and negotiator for the union, which represents about 80,000 members from the transport industry. Some of those members elected Mr Lynch to that position in May 2021, giving him a mandate to protect and further their interests.\n\nIn a year of heightened industrial strife, this influential role in a critical sector has become a matter of national interest, along with the personality of the career trade unionist who wields its power.\n\nKnown for his meme-friendly tirades in front on TV cameras, Mr Lynch has the kind of name recognition unattainable to most union leaders.\n\nFor those who haven't heard of him, his warm reception at a recent rally for postal workers would give you few clues as to why he was once labelled \"one of the most hated men in Britain\" by the Daily Mail newspaper.\n\nIn a packed Parliament Square, hand-shakers and selfie-takers are sucked into his orbit. Their problems are ours, says Mr Lynch, whose dad was a postal worker.\n\nNever mind the Grinch \"nonsense\", he says. Seen through his lens, Mr Lynch is supporting workers in their struggle against an exploitative government and a greedy super-rich.\n\n\"I'm a working-class bloke who's elected by the ordinary men and women of the railway to articulate their case and represent them,\" he tells the BBC.\n\nEnergised by a friendly crowd, Mr Lynch saves his most venomous invective for his stump speech, delivered after walking on stage to chants of \"RMT, RMT\".\n\n\"All the right-wing media, all the commentators, they all hate us,\" he says. \"Why do they hate us? Because they're scared of us.\"\n\nThem-versus-us has been a common theme in Mr Lynch's life. The son of Irish-Catholic parents, he grew up in London during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the industrial discord of the 1970s. His parents moved to the capital during World War Two and he was raised on a council estate in Paddington, in what he's described as \"rented rooms that would now be called slums\".\n\nAt 16, he left school and trained to be an electrician, before finding work in construction.\n\nAs industrial action ebbed and flowed in the 1980s, Mr Lynch became involved in a breakaway union with a mark against its name. He was secretly blacklisted by constructions companies, leaving him struggling to find work for years.\n\nWhen the blacklist was exposed decades later, Mr Lynch was compensated with a cheque for £35,000, a copy of which hangs framed on his office wall today.\n\nIn the meantime, Mr Lynch found work on the railways with Eurostar and founded an RMT branch for its employees. From there, his rise to the top of the RMT was \"almost an accident of history\", says Gregor Gall, a professor of industrial relations.\n\nMick Cash (C) retired after six years as general secretary of the RMT\n\nWith the RMT riven by factionalism, Mr Lynch's predecessor as general secretary, Mick Cash, retired in 2020 after six years in the job, blaming a \"campaign of harassment\" by elements of the membership. Mr Lynch was appointed acting general secretary, but soon stood down himself, accusing senior union members of \"bullying\" and creating \"an intolerable, toxic atmosphere\".\n\nDespite this, Mr Lynch returned and won election to the role permanently in May 2021.\n\n\"The executive is now united around him,\" says Professor Gall.\n\nMr Lynch was elected with the support of Broad Left, a socialist group in the union.\n\nConservative MP Chris Loder, who was an RMT member when he worked in the rail industry, says Mr Lynch has a \"dependency\" on the group, which is \"egging him on\" to take a more militant line on strikes.\n\nWell-paid RMT officials like Mr Lynch - who says he earns £84,000 a year - are \"leading the charge for ideological reasons\", Mr Loder says. He says Mr Lynch is \"between a rock and a hard place\" because \"most sensible members of the RMT do not agree with the level of strike action he's taking\".\n\nMeanwhile, there have been signs of waning public support. Last month, a YouGov poll found some of the RMT's winter rail strikes were opposed by 47% and supported by 41% of those surveyed.\n\nFormer shadow transport secretary and Labour MP Andy McDonald doesn't think so. Whenever they crossed paths, Mr Lynch \"struck me as a rock-solid, working-class fella who was very clear about what he believed\", Mr McDonald says.\n\nHe says he had a positive experience working with him and others on plans to nationalise the railways under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party. Like the left-wing MP, Mr Lynch is seen as straightforward and authentic by his admirers, a working-class firebrand for the TikTok age.\n\nNow Sir Keir Starmer has shifted Labour to the right, Mr Lynch has filled a void on the left. \"There's clearly a constituency for that,\" says Professor Gall.\n\nAt the Parliament Square rally, My Lynch appeals directly to that constituency, as Mr Corbyn watches on backstage.\n\n\"I'm saying to Starmer and Reeves and anyone else who seeks to represent working people: whose side are you on?\"\n\nMr Lynch challenged the Labour leader to join him on the picket line\n\nPointing indignantly to Parliament over the road, My Lynch challenges the Labour leader to \"come over here and get on our picket line\".\n\nMr Lynch is channelling the disaffection felt among workers, just as it was during the 1978-79 Winter of Discontent. Then as now, widespread strikes paralysed the economy, as the government wrestled with high inflation.\n\nFrom one perspective, it was a time of chaos, made worse by muscular trade unions with too much power.\n\nNot so in Mr Lynch's world.\n\n\"We had a more balanced society,\" he says. \"The bosses couldn't get away with whatever they wanted.\"\n\nRaising his voice to be heard over the din of angry strikers, he adds: \"We need that now.\"\n\nFind out more about why so many people are striking and if industrial action can work.\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only).", "The interior of the target chamber at LLNL, where nuclear fusion takes place\n\nA major breakthrough has been announced by US scientists in the race to recreate nuclear fusion.\n\nPhysicists have pursued the technology for decades as it promises a potential source of near-limitless clean energy.\n\nOn Tuesday researchers confirmed they have overcome a major barrier - producing more energy from a fusion experiment than was put in.\n\nBut experts say there is still some way to go before fusion powers homes.\n\nThe experiment took place at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California.\n\nLLNL director Dr Kim Budil said: \"This is a historic achievement… over the past 60 years thousands of people have contributed to this endeavour and it took real vision to get us here.\"\n\nNuclear fusion is described as the \"holy grail\" of energy production. It is the process that powers the Sun and other stars.\n\nIt works by taking pairs of light atoms and forcing them together - this \"fusion\" releases a lot of energy.\n\nIt is the opposite of nuclear fission, where heavy atoms are split apart. Fission is the technology currently used in nuclear power stations, but the process also produces waste that continues to give out radiation for a long time. It can be dangerous and must be stored safely.\n\nNuclear fusion produces far more energy, and only small amounts of short-lived radioactive waste. And importantly, the process produces no greenhouse gas emissions and therefore does not contribute to climate change.\n\nBut one of the challenges is that forcing and keeping the elements together in fusion requires very high temperatures and pressures. Until now, no experiment has managed to produce more energy than the amount put in to make it work.\n\nThe amount of energy they've generated in this experiment is tiny - just enough to boil a few kettles. But what it represents is huge.\n\nThe promise of a fusion-powered future is one step closer. But there's still a long way to go before this becomes a reality.\n\nThis experiment shows that the science works. Before scientists can even think about scaling it up, it needs to be repeated, perfected, and the amount of energy it generates will have to be significantly boosted.\n\nThis experiment has cost billions of dollars - fusion does not come cheap. But the promise of a source of clean energy will certainly be a big incentive for overcoming these challenges.\n\nThe National Ignition Facility in California is a $3.5bn (£2.85bn) experiment.\n\nIt puts a tiny amount of hydrogen into a capsule the size of a peppercorn.\n\nThen a powerful 192-beam laser is used to heat and compress the hydrogen fuel.\n\nThe laser is so strong it can heat the capsule to 100 million degrees Celsius - hotter than the centre of the Sun, and compress it to more than 100 billion times that of Earth's atmosphere.\n\nUnder these forces the capsule begins to implode on itself, forcing the hydrogen atoms to fuse and release energy.\n\nOn announcing the breakthrough Dr Marvin Adams, deputy administrator for defense programs at the US National Nuclear Security Administration, said that the laboratory's lasers had input 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy to the target, which had then produced 3.15 MJ of fusion energy output.\n\nDr Melanie Windridge, CEO of Fusion Energy Insights, told the BBC: \"Fusion has been exciting scientists since they first figured out what was causing the Sun to shine. These results today really put us on the path to the commercialisation of the technology.\"\n\nJeremy Chittenden, professor of plasma physics and co-director of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London, called it \"a true breakthrough moment\".\n\n\"It proves that the long sought-after goal, the 'holy grail' of fusion, can indeed be achieved,\" he said.\n\nThis has been the sentiment echoed by physicists globally, who praised the work of the international science community.\n\nProf Gianluca Gregori, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, said: \"Today's success rests upon the work done by many scientists in the US, UK and around the world. With ignition now achieved, not only fusion energy is unlocked, but also a door is opening to new science.\"\n\nOn the question of how long before we could see fusion being used in power stations, Dr Budil, the LLNL director, said there were still significant hurdles but that: \"with concerted efforts and investment, a few decades of research on the underlying technologies could put us in a position to build a power plant\".\n\nThis is progress from when scientists used to say 50-60 years in answer to that question.\n\nOne of the main hurdles is getting costs down and scaling up the energy output.\n\nThe experiment was only able to produce enough energy to boil about 15-20 kettles and required billions of dollars of investment. And although the experiment got more energy out than the laser put in, this did not include the energy needed to make the lasers work - which was far greater than the amount of energy the hydrogen produced.\n\nClarification January 9, 2023 : This article was updated to remove that 'a lot' of nuclear waste is produced by Fission. The context around this paragraph was removed pre-publication therefore requiring this clarification.\n• None US lab takes further step towards fusion goal", "\"They were happy to lie to protect my brother, they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us,\" says Prince Harry in the latest trailer for the Harry and Meghan series on Netflix.\n\nAhead of the second half of the series, the trailer shows the couple saying why they stepped down from royal duties.\n\n\"I wasn't being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves,\" says Meghan.\n\nBut there is some confusion about the most controversial and headline-grabbing moment in the trailer, with its reference to lying to protect Prince William.\n\nThe commentary from Prince Harry claims: \"They were happy to lie to protect my brother\", but without saying who \"they\" were or the context in which Prince William was being protected.\n\nAgainst a backdrop of Buckingham Palace, one version of the trailer accuses \"they\" of lying without specifying who\n\nIn another version, the accusation is aimed at the \"British media\"\n\nBut another version of the same Netflix trailer seems to suggest an explanation - with a different subtitle for the same commentary that says: \"The British media are happy to lie to protect my brother.\"\n\nThe voiceover doesn't change, but it might suggest that the context is going to be a more generalised attack on the press, rather than a more damaging accusation against an individual or the Royal Family.\n\nNetflix has been approached for a response about the differences in this key moment between the two trailers, one on YouTube and the other on the Netflix website.\n\nLater the version of the trailer on Netflix showed a message that it wasn't available and it then appeared to have been taken down.\n\nThe tone of the latest trailer suggests some more hard-hitting claims, after the first half of the documentary series had fewer bombshells or specific revelations than expected.\n\nThe trailer suggests allegations of a campaign against the couple, \"gaslighting\" them and leaving them feeling unsafe.\n\n\"I said, 'We need to get out of here,'\" says Prince Harry in the trailer for the final three episodes being released on Thursday.\n\n\"I wonder what would have happened to us had we not got out when we did?\" says Prince Harry, who now lives with Meghan in California.\n\nMeghan speaks of security worries - and a clip shows Prince Harry saying they were on a \"freedom flight\", suggesting that this was their departure away from the pressure they felt around them in the UK.\n\nThe couple have started a new life in California\n\nAlso appearing in the trailer was Christopher Bouzy, who set up a tech company that researches abuse and misinformation on social media. He says: \"They were actively recruiting people to disseminate disinformation.\"\n\nThere are clips of the couple enjoying their new life in the sunshine, but Prince Harry adds: \"To move to the next chapter, you've got to finish the first chapter.\"\n\nBuckingham Palace has so far not commented on the Netflix series and has not responded to these latest clips.\n\nAfter so much hype, the first three episodes drew mixed reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, with questions about how much of the information was new.\n\nAudience figures in the UK on the launch day of the first part of the series showed 2.4 million viewers watched the first instalment, episode two had 1.5 million viewers on the first day, and the third part attracted 800,000.\n\nThese were higher audience figures than for The Crown, but below the 3.5 million who watched that evening's episode of the soap opera Coronation Street.", "Wintery weather which has caused road, rail and air travel disruption across the UK is set to continue on Tuesday, forecasters say.\n\nProvisional Met Office figures show Monday was the coldest day in the UK since December 2010 with -9.3 Celsius (15F) seen at Braemar, Aberdeenshire.\n\nYellow warnings for snow and ice are in place for northern Scotland, Orkney, Shetland and north-east England.\n\nThere is also a yellow warning for ice in south-east England.\n\nAs the cold snap continues parents are being warned to tell their children about the dangers of playing near frozen lakes after three boys died in the West Midlands.\n\nThe children, aged 8, 10 and 11, died after falling into the lake at Babbs Mill Park, Kingshurst, on Sunday. A fourth boy, aged six, is in a critical condition in hospital after being pulled from the water.\n\nMet Office spokesman Oli Claydon said there will be heavy snow again on Tuesday in parts of Britain, with as much as 15-20cms (6-8ins) accumulating on higher ground.\n\n\"In terms of temperature, we could see another very cold night, especially in parts of Scotland where we've got that lying snow,\" he said, adding that \"widespread freezing conditions\" were expected.\n\nMr Claydon urged commuters across the UK to \"leave a little bit more time\" if driving and to travel with \"a bit of extra caution\".\n\nTravel will also be affected by a strike on the railways after the RMT union rejected a pay offer from Network Rail.\n\nIndustrial action is expected to affect much of the rail network on Tuesday and Wednesday, with more travellers expected to take to the roads.\n\nMotoring organisation the RAC said it had received more than 9,000 calls from drivers needing roadside assistance - about eight breakdowns every minute - which was \"50% more than we'd expect on a typical Monday in December\".\n\nIt said people should only drive if conditions allow and if they feel confident to do so, warning drivers to prepare for extremely slippery conditions.\n\nIt also urged motorists to carry a blanket and a fully-charged mobile phone when travelling.\n\nTraffic Scotland said ice was affecting driving conditions in the Strathclyde, Lothian and Borders, Central, Tayside, Fife, and South-West regions of the country.\n\nOn Monday, many airports around the UK were affected by the weather, with more than 140 flights cancelled because of ice and snow.\n\nLondon airports - Stansted, Gatwick, Luton and London City - were among the worst affected, while flights from elsewhere in the country were also cancelled due to poor weather conditions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nSteven Facer, from Rutland, told the BBC he and other passengers were left sitting on a Barcelona-bound flight from Stansted for several hours on Sunday night before it was eventually cancelled.\n\nMr Facer then had a \"long drive home in the snow arriving back at 02:00\".\n\nAs temperatures drop below freezing councils are urging people to check on vulnerable neighbours, particularly as the cost of living crisis has made it too expensive for some to heat their homes.\n\nThe Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, said that while deaths do rise during normal winter periods, some people were more exposed to the cold this winter.\n\nIt said those most at risk were the elderly and people with respiratory conditions, circulatory diseases and dementia, adding that many councils were using libraries or other local venues to provide warm spaces for those who need them.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "Eva Kaili was arrested on Saturday and has had her assets frozen\n\nGreek MEP Eva Kaili has denied involvement in an alleged bribery scandal involving World Cup host Qatar at the European Parliament.\n\nShe is one of four suspects charged after Belgian investigators found €1.5m (£1.3m) in two homes and a suitcase.\n\nMEPs have voted - by 625 to one - to strip Ms Kaili of her role as one of its 14 vice-presidents.\n\nParliament leader Roberta Metsola has spoken of \"difficult days for European democracy\".\n\n\"[Eva Kaili] declares her innocence and that she has nothing to do with bribery from Qatar,\" her lawyer, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, told Greek TV on Tuesday.\n\nThere was uncontested evidence, he added in a later statement, that \"every move, contact and statement made by Eva Kaili regarding Qatar was made in execution and application of the official policy of the European Union\".\n\nProsecutors carried out a string of searches over several days and said cash worth about €600,000 had been found at the home of one suspect, €150,000 at the flat of an MEP and €750,000 in a suitcase in a Brussels hotel room.\n\nBelgian police released a photo on Tuesday showing piles of notes in €200, €50, €20 and €10 denominations.\n\nBelgian police published a photo of the cash they had found\n\nSources said the €150,000 was found at Ms Kaili's flat. Asked if that was true, her lawyer said: \"I have no idea if any money was found or how much was found.\"\n\nThe suspects arrested by Belgian police have been charged with \"participation in a criminal organisation, money-laundering and corruption\", prosecutors said on Sunday. They will appear before a pre-trial court on Wednesday.\n\nThe allegations have cast a shadow over the role of lobby groups at the European Parliament. A recommendation to allow visa-free travel to the EU for Qataris was set to be voted on by MEPs this week, but has now been shelved.\n\nSearches have taken place in Italy as well as in Brussels. Since Friday, the IT resources of 10 parliamentary employees have been \"frozen\" to prevent the disappearance of data necessary for the investigation.\n\nParliament, sitting in Strasbourg, voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to strip Ms Kaili of her role as vice-president. The door to her office in the parliament building was sealed with a notice saying \"access forbidden\".\n\nShe has also been suspended from the parliament's Socialists and Democrats Group and expelled from the Greek centre-left Pasok party.\n\nGreek authorities have frozen assets belonging to her, her husband and immediate family members.\n\nThe activities of a property company set up about two weeks ago by the MEP and her partner in Athens have also been frozen.\n\nParliament President Roberta Metsola said there would be no impunity or \"sweeping under the carpet\"\n\nSix people were detained on Friday as part of the investigation into allegations that Qatar bribed EU officials to win influence. Two were later released.\n\nThe three others accused are all Italian citizens. Ms Kaili's partner, Francesco Giorgi, who is a parliamentary assistant, is among those reportedly charged.\n\nFormer MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, who now runs human rights group Fight Impunity, is also among the four, sources say. His wife and daughter were also reportedly arrested. Mr Giorgi had formerly worked for him as a parliamentary assistant.\n\nThe other suspect, according to Italian news agency Ansa, is Niccolò Figa-Talamanca. He runs lobby group No Peace Without Justice, which is housed in the same building in Rue Ducale in Brussels' European quarter.\n\nThe head of the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, Luca Visentini, was questioned and later released. He said later he had been able to answer all questions put to him.\n\nBBC Brussels correspondent Jessica Parker says details released by Belgian authorities in the last few days left many people's jaws on the floor in EU circles.\n\nMEPs who spoke to our correspondent said they were shocked by both the scale and blatancy of the accusations.\n\nMs Metsola said ahead of the vote to strip Ms Kaili of her leading role at the Parliament that \"European democracy is under attack and our free and democratic societies are under attack\". She and the Parliament would do everything they could to fight corruption, she added on Tuesday: \"There will be no impunity, there will be no sweeping under the carpet.\"\n\nWatchdogs and MEPs said the bribery investigation could represent one of the biggest corruption scandals in the parliament's history.\n\nProsecutors said they suspected a Gulf state had been influencing economic and political decisions of the parliament for several months, especially by targeting aides.\n\nAlthough reports widely named the state as Qatar, the Qatari government said any claims of misconduct were \"gravely misinformed\".\n\nThe World Cup in Qatar is proof, actually, of how sports diplomacy can achieve a historical transformation of a country with reforms that inspired the Arab world.\n\nLast month, while other colleagues drew attention Qatar's human rights violations, she gave an effusive speech to the parliament praising Qatar for hosting the World Cup and for its role as a \"frontrunner in labour rights\".\n\nAddressing a debate in the Parliament on Tuesday, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said there was an initial presumption of innocence but this was now a serious criminal investigation: \"To anyone accepting payoffs kickbacks, bribes, I say shame on you... for violating the trust of the people of Europe.\"\n\nGreen MEP Daniel Freund, who heads a cross-party anti-corruption group, told the BBC that the parliament had \"reasonably good lobby transparency rules\" but that third countries like Qatar were excluded from them: \"So I think these third countries should go on the lobby register.\"\n\nThe European Parliament is the EU's only directly elected institution. Some 705 members of parliament, elected by voters in the 27 nations which make up the EU, meet to scrutinise proposed legislation and vote through European law.\n\nMEPs generally enjoy immunity from prosecution, but not in cases where \"a member is found in the act of committing an offence\", the parliament says.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Keith Royles lived over the road from the Ysbyty Glan Clwyd hospital\n\nPatients being treated in chairs, staff in tears and an 18-hour wait for transfer from an ambulance.\n\nThese are some of the extreme pressures experienced by the Royal Glamorgan Hospital's emergency department.\n\nDr Amanda Farrow was called in early to a recent shift at the site serving much of the south Wales valleys because the nurse in charge felt it was \"unsafe\".\n\nOn arrival, the number of patients awaiting beds was far higher than trollies available.\n\nMeanwhile, six ambulances were queuing outside, unable to hand over their patients and, as a result, also unable to respond to other emergency calls.\n\nDr Farrow, the lead consultant at the A&E department of the hospital near Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said: \"She has never rung me before so I know when I get that phone call that I just need to get up and come in.\n\n\"We have 16 trolleys and we had 28 patients waiting for beds in the morning. Our resuscitation room was full and we had some very, very sick patients that all arrived at a similar time.\n\n\"Patients who are not on trollies are obviously sat in chairs, which is not a good experience. We also have a finite number of chairs in the clinical space.\n\n\"A number of members of staff were in tears.\"\n\nDr Amanda Farrow says she has recently had to go into work early because the department was \"unsafe\" on low staff\n\nThe knock-on effect was soon felt outside the hospital's front door, with ambulances stacking up outside.\n\nAs a result the ambulance service was struggling to respond to urgent 999 calls in the community.\n\n\"In extreme cases the department can receive an immediate release request, calling on them to admit a patient and release the ambulance as soon as possible to attend an extremely urgent call,\" said Dr Farrow.\n\n\"Yesterday during my shift we had two calls for an immediate release, because there was an unwell baby and there was a lady in labour.\"\n\n\"[With] the first one we did manage to bring the patient in, with a view to getting one of our patients out, But the [call] later in the day we were unable to accommodate.\"\n\nShe continued: \"It is a lot of responsibility for the staff - none of us wants to be making these decisions. We're all doing our best and there is concern around the impact this is having on staff because that does cause moral injury.\n\n\"It's not just patients arriving in the ambulance. The majority of our patients actually self-present to the hospital.\n\n\"We are having to pull them out of the boot of cars, they're coming by fire engine, with the police. We have to try and find somewhere to manage that and it's just a constant challenge.\"\n\nIn September, Keith Royles, 85, broke his hip and was forced to wait seven hours for an ambulance, and then had to wait outside the hospital until the early hours of the morning.\n\nHis daughter Tina Royles told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast that her parents were \"horrified\".\n\n\"My parents put their whole lives into nursing and they're quite disgusted, they understand the pressures on the NHS staff, but the system is broken.\n\nShe said as a former police officer she knows how busy A&E gets, but it was never like it is now.\n\nDespite the long wait, Ms Royles said the staff who looked after her dad were amazing.\n\nLee Brooks, executive director of operations at the Welsh Ambulance Service, said he was deeply sorry about Mr Royles' experience, describing the seven-hour wait as unacceptable.\n\n\"It will take a system-wide effort to resolve a system-wide issue and we continue to play our part to alleviate the pressure by treating more patients over the phone and at home and referring them to more appropriate areas of the NHS, negating the need for a trip to the emergency department.\"\n\nEleven ambulances were seen queuing up outside Royal Glamorgan Hospital on Thursday evening\n\nDr Farrow stressed that being \"supportive to all of our staff\" is extremely important to the department.\n\n\"We're a very close-knit team and we do try, at the end of the shift, [to] go around and chat to the staff just to make sure that everyone's OK,\" she said.\n\nDuring the shift, the department was escalated to its highest level of alert - level 4/20 - meaning staff from across departments worked together to try to free up beds on the wards to ease the pressure in A&E.\n\nThis resulted in a decision to open dozens of beds as part of \"surge capacity\", including opening an unused ward. This in itself was difficult due to staff shortages.\n\nThere is also a dedicated team who try to identify patients, who, given the right care and support might be able to leave without being admitted.\n\nStaff at Royal Glamorgan hospital are feeling the pressure of shortages\n\nGladly by the next morning the situation had stabilised.\n\n\"We had good supportive response from the rest of the sites... so this morning it's really quite pleasant which is a change but yesterday was extremely challenging.\"\n\nBut Dr Farrow said she worried about what lies ahead this winter as a result of staff shortages, the potential re-emergence of respiratory viruses like flu and the added demand of chronically ill patients who may have stayed away during Covid coming back into the system.\n\n\"It is quite scary to be honest.\n\n\"I think every winter in recent years has been challenging and I think we're fearful this is going to be even worse.\"", "Megan Thee Stallion was injured after a Hollywood party in July 2020\n\nTory Lanez told Megan Thee Stallion to \"dance\" as he shot at her feet during an argument, a jury has been told.\n\nProsecutors said the rappers got into a row as they drove away from a pool party at Kylie Jenner's house.\n\nJurors in Los Angeles heard Megan, 27, insulted Mr Lanez and demanded to be let out of their luxury car before he fired five rounds at her.\n\nLanez, 30, real name Daystar Peterson, denies multiple charges relating to a 2020 dispute with the Savage artist.\n\nMegan - real name Megan Pete - left a trail of blood at the scene, before getting back into the vehicle, which was subsequently stopped by police.\n\nA gun that was still warm to the touch was found on the floor near where Lanez had been sitting, prosecutor Alexander Bott said.\n\nMinutes after the shooting, a female friend texted Megan Thee Stallion's security detail, saying: \"Help... Tory shot meg.\"\n\nIn a later phone call, Lanez \"profusely apologised for his actions\" and claimed he was \"just too drunk,\" jurors were told.\n\nTory Lanez has denied shooting Megan after the party\n\nTory Lanez's lawyer George Mgdesyan said the jury needed to keep an open mind and this was a \"case about jealousy\".\n\nHe told the court he would prove the accusations were lies.\n\nEarlier hearings have been told that Megan Thee Stallion initially told doctors her injured feet had been cut on broken glass.\n\nShe initially denied Lanez had shot at her, but later said she had done so for fear he would get into trouble.\n\nSeveral bullet fragments were removed from her feet, but some remain and she told investigating officers that she had difficulty walking in certain shoes.\n\nMegan Thee Stallion then posted a video to Instagram Live in which she said \"Tory shot me. You shot me and you got your publicist and your people... lying... Stop lying.\"\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRishi Sunak has promised more staff to help clear the UK's backlog of asylum claims by the end of next year.\n\nDowning Street later said the pledge was not to abolish current backlog of initial decisions - only claims made up to the end of June.\n\nUnder a plan unveiled by the prime minister, a dedicated unit of 400 specialists will be set up to handle claims from Albanians.\n\nThe asylum backlog has ballooned in recent years, with 117,000 outstanding claims, relating to 143,377 people, who are waiting for an initial decision on their application and unable to work. Of these, nearly 100,000 people have been waiting more than six months.\n\nIn the Commons, Mr Sunak said the government expected to \"abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions by the end of next year\".\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman later said this pledge only related to claims made before 28 June, when the Nationality and Borders Act came into force. He said this consists of 92,601 initial asylum claims.\n\nLabour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Mr Sunak's pledge was \"already falling apart just hours after he made it\".\n\nWith pressure building on the Home Office to tackle the issue, Mr Sunak has labelled the small boats crisis a priority for his premiership.\n\nMore than 40,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year - the highest number since figures began to be collected in 2018.\n\nThere has been a rapid increase in the number of Albanians crossing the Channel and this nationality now make up 35% of arrivals.\n\nMinisters have singled out Albanian migrants, accusing many of exploiting the system by pretending to be victims of modern slavery.\n\nUnder the government's plans, asylum case workers will be given new guidance making it clear Albania is a safe country and requiring evidence of modern slavery when considering a claim.\n\nAs a result of the plans, Mr Sunak said the vast majority of claims from Albanians could be declared \"clearly unfounded\", which would see \"thousands\" returned home in the coming months.\n\nUK border officials will also be posted at Albania's main airport, under a new deal with the country.\n\nThe other measures announced by Mr Sunak in the Commons include:\n\nWhile he welcomed the announcement of additional staff, he said there had so far been a \"total failure of any co-ordinated response\" to criminal trafficking gangs.\n\nLabour MP Dame Diana Johnson, who chairs the Commons Home Affairs Committee, questioned whether there were enough staff to clear the backlog.\n\nBut in an interview with the BBC, Mr Sunak insisted tripling the productivity of staff was \"realistic\", by removing paperwork and streamlining asylum interviews.\n\nThe prime minister's ambition to clear the backlog within a year will be welcomed by many, as will the resources to speed up claims, with a doubling in the number of caseworkers. But we have heard such promises before without seeing the results.\n\nFaster processing risks poorer decisions and more successful appeals. It is skilled and sensitive work.\n\nCurrently, a caseworker makes fewer than two decisions a week, but the Home Office hopes to more than double that.\n\nRecruiting and training staff will take time and resources. The home secretary had already announced an increase of 500 caseworkers by March next year but accepted that a 46% attrition rate meant this would only increase the total by around 300 to 1,300.\n\nIt is also notable that the prime minister did not use his statement to respond to a renewed call today from his Migration Advisory Committee that asylum seekers be allowed to work.\n\nMr Sunak also pledged to \"significantly raise the threshold someone has to meet\" to be considered a victim of modern slavery.\n\nBut former Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May warned modern slavery was \"a very real and current threat\".\n\nShe urged Mr Sunak not to \"diminish our world-leading protections for the victims of this terrible, horrific crime\".\n\nThe prime minister denied he was watering down the definition of modern slavery and told the BBC he wanted to stop the system being \"clogged up by people making spurious claims\".\n\nThe UN's refugee agency welcomed measures to address the asylum backlog but said plans to limit access to asylum to those arriving through \"safe, legal routes\" went against the principles of the 1951 Refugee Convention.\n\nThe UNHCR said the announcements marked \"a troubling step away\" from the UK's \"commendable humanitarian tradition\".\n\nTim Naor Hilton, chief executive of charity Refugee Action, criticised the government for failing to commit to creating new safe routes for people to come to the UK, which he said \"could end most small boat crossings overnight\".\n\n\"Most of these changes are cruel, ineffective and unlawful and will do nothing to fix the real problems in the system,\" he said.\n\nThe Refugee Council said treating people \"who come to the UK in search of safety as illegal criminals\" was \"deeply disturbing and flies in the face of international law\".\n\nThe charity said it was \"very simplistic\" to label Albania safe \"when in reality it has serious problems with criminal and sexual exploitation of women and children\".", "The Prince and Princess of Wales have released their official Christmas card image - showing them hand-in-hand with their children in the countryside.\n\nPrince William and Catherine are pictured walking with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis on a sunny day in Norfolk this year.\n\nThe children are in short sleeve tops and shorts while their parents are casually dressed in jeans and trainers.\n\nThey were snapped by Matt Porteous, who has documented the family in the past.\n\nOther publicly-released family pictures have been taken by the Duchess of Cambridge, a keen photographer.\n\nIt has become an annual tradition for the royals to reveal which of their favourite photographs they have chosen for the cards they send out each Christmas.\n\nThe King and the Queen Consort released their card on Sunday.\n\nKing Charles and Camilla's photo was taken at the Braemar Royal Highland Gathering on 3 September, when he was still the Prince of Wales. The Queen passed away five days later, aged 96.\n\nIt is not known exactly when this year Prince William and Catherine's photo was taken.\n\nPorteous took the official picture of Prince George - who is second in line to the throne - on his fifth birthday, as well as photos of the family at the Chelsea Flower Show.\n\nHis other commissions include behind the scenes moments from Prince Louis's christening, and the family's 2020 Christmas card image, which was taken at Anmer Hall, their home on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.\n\nLast year's Christmas photo showed Prince William and Catherine with their family on a visit to Jordan.\n\nThis year's comes at a time of renewed scrutiny of Prince William's relationship with his brother, Harry, amid the release of the controversial Netflix series Harry and Meghan this month.\n\nA trailer released this week attracted controversy, with Harry shown saying: \"They were happy to lie to protect my brother, they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.\"\n\nAlthough not clear who the \"they\" referred to, many inferred that it was a reference to the Royal Family.\n\nHowever, another version of the same trailer offers another explanation - with a different subtitle of the same commentary that says: \"The British media are happy to lie to protect my brother.\"", "Eva Kaili was arrested on Saturday and has reportedly had her assets frozen\n\nThe president of the European Parliament has warned that \"European democracy is under attack\", following allegations that Qatar bribed EU officials to win influence.\n\nRoberta Metsola said that \"open, free, democratic societies are under attack\".\n\nBelgian police have arrested four people, among them European Parliament Vice-President Eva Kaili.\n\nThe four have been charged with corruption and money-laundering. Qatar has denied wrongdoing.\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the accusations were \"very serious\" and called for the creation of a new ethics body to oversee the bloc.\n\nThe BBC's Brussels correspondent, Jessica Parker, says details released by Belgian authorities in the last few days left many people's jaws on the floor.\n\nMEPs who spoke to our correspondent say they are shocked by both the scale and blatancy of the accusations.\n\nBelgian police seized cash worth about €600,000 ($632,000; £515,000) in 16 searches in Brussels on Friday. Computers and mobile phones were also taken.\n\nNo suspects have been publicly named, but Ms Kaili is understood to be among those who have been indicted.\n\nMs Kaili - an MEP for eight years - was suspended from her duties as one of 14 vice-presidents by Metsola.\n\nShe has also been suspended from the parliament's Socialists and Democrats Group and expelled from the Greek centre-left Pasok party.\n\nProsecutors in Greece have reportedly frozen all of Ms Kaili's assets.\n\nSince Friday, IT-resources of 10 parliamentary employees have been \"frozen\" to prevent the disappearance of data necessary for the investigation.\n\nWatchdogs and opposition MEPs said the bribery investigation could represent one of the biggest corruption scandals in the parliament's history.\n\nHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose country is a member state but who has frequently clashed with the bloc, mocked the EU after the allegations surfaced.\n\nTweeting a photo of former US presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush that is often used as a meme, he referred to the European Commission's recommendation to freeze billions of euros in funds earmarked for Hungary.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Orbán Viktor This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nProsecutors said they suspected a Gulf state had been influencing economic and political decisions of the parliament for several months, especially by targeting aides.\n\nLocal media has named the state as Qatar, although the Qatari government said any claims of misconduct were \"gravely misinformed\".\n\nMs Kaili's responsibilities as vice-president include the Middle East. She has been a defender of Qatar in the past.\n\nThe European Parliament is the EU's only directly elected institution. Some 705 members of parliament, elected by voters in the 27 nations which make up the EU, meet to scrutinise proposed legislation and vote through European law.", "Ambulance staff across most of England and Wales will go on strike on 21 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nThe coordinated walkout by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls only.\n\nBut it could mean people who have had trips and falls not being responded to.\n\nMembers of GMB, which represents nearly a third of the 50,000-strong workforce, will then follow that up with another walkout on 28 December.\n\nIt comes as Royal College of Nursing members are also preparing to go on strike on 15 and 20 December in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe impact of the first ambulance walkout will be patchy as Unison, which is the largest union in the sector, only has a strike mandate for half of England's 10 regional services for the 21 December walkout.\n\nThe walkouts will involve paramedics as well as control room staff and support workers, with the military on standby to help out.\n\nThe start times and lengths of the walkouts vary between unions and services, but all will last between 12 hours and 24 hours.\n\nThe only service which will be completely unaffected, however, is the East of England.\n\nThe full extent of the cover striking staff will provide has yet to be decided - detailed negotiations will take place between local ambulance bosses and unions ahead of the walkout.\n\nUnder trade union rules, life-preserving care has to be provided so the two highest category calls - covering everything from heart attacks and strokes to major trauma - will still be responded to.\n\nBut Matthew Taylor, of the NHS Confederation, which represents health managers, said he was worried the action would \"undoubtedly\" affect patient care and how quickly ambulance services could respond and may even deter people from seeking help.\n\n\"The prospect of industrial action over Christmas is very concerning,\" he added.\n\nLast month the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives warned patients were dying because of the \"crippling delays\" that ambulance crews faced when arriving at A&E.\n\nUnison head of health Sara Gorton said: \"The government will only have itself to blame if there are strikes in the NHS before Christmas.\n\n\"Ambulance staff and their health colleagues don't want to inconvenience anyone. But ministers are refusing to do the one thing that could prevent disruption - that's start genuine talks about pay.\n\n\"Wages are too low to stop health workers quitting the NHS. As more and more hand in their notice, there are fewer staff left to care for patients. The public knows that's the reason behind lengthy waits.\"\n\nAll the unions have asked for above-inflation pay rises.\n\nBut the governments in England and Wales have given NHS staff an average rise of 4.75%, with staff guaranteed a minimum of £1,400.\n\nEngland Health Secretary Steve Barclay said paying what was being asked for was \"unaffordable\" and he has pointed out the award met the requirements of the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body.\n\nJust over two thirds of ambulance staff are thought to be members of one of the three unions.\n\nThe last time ambulance staff were involved in strike action was in 2014.\n\nAre you an ambulance worker, or a patient affected by the strike? Please email us and let us know how you feel about the industrial action: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Jin, pictured with his new buzzcut, is going to be sorely missed by his many fans\n\nJin, the oldest member of K-pop mega-band BTS, has entered military service - the first of the group to do so.\n\nThe 30-year-old posted a photo of himself with his new military haircut before enlisting on Tuesday. \"It looks cuter than I expected,\" he said.\n\nAs South Korea is still technically at war with its hostile neighbour North Korea, all able-bodied men are required to serve in the army.\n\nJin has begun five weeks' training at a bootcamp near the North Korean border.\n\nAfter this, he will reportedly be assigned to a frontline unit. This news sent his millions of adoring fans into a frenzy.\n\nBTS have been the world's best-selling artists in recent years\n\nSo, what can Jin expect from his time on the frontline?\n\nAt the Yeoncheon bootcamp, where Jin has enrolled, recruits sleep on mats on the floor, in rooms with 30 people. They are taught how to handle weapons and fire live ammunition before being put through demanding wartime scenarios.\n\nCadets told us that the most challenging tasks they faced were being sealed in a gas chamber, to experience the effects of CS gas, and having to detonate a live grenade.\n\n\"I was pretty nervous to hold the grenade and shocked to learn how powerful it was,\" said 22-year-old Yang Su-yeon, who completed his training at Yeoncheon last year.\n\n\"It was physically demanding, but mentally it was okay. The drill sergeants were all friendly,\" Yang said.\n\nAfter training, Jin will reportedly be stationed near the North Korean border, with a frontline unit.\n\nNorth and South Korea are separated by a 4km (2.5-mile) wide strip of land, which runs along the length of their border, known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Both sides are fenced off with barbed wire and heavily armed.\n\nYang spent his service as an out-post guard at the DMZ, with the 5th Infantry Division, which is one of the most frontline positions. He would keep watch through the night, constantly surveying the North Korean soldiers on the other side, using thermal imaging equipment.\n\nThe DMZ is one of the most heavily fortified strips of land in the world\n\n\"A few times I saw the North Korean soldiers being beaten, either kicked or slapped in the face,\" he said.\n\n\"They had to do manual labour because they didn't have nice equipment like us to help them.\"\n\nYang said watching the North Korean soldiers made him feel grateful for his own experience. \"When I saw what they had to do, I realised, 'Wow, I am so much more comfortable.' I would feel sorry for them.\"\n\nBut BTS's Jin will have to contend with the cold winter approaching. Yang recalled days spent shovelling snow as temperatures fell below -20C.\n\n\"When we went outside, our eyelashes would freeze,\" he said.\n\nYang praised the culture of his unit: \"Because we carried guns loaded with ammunition, we had to remain calm, so there was no harassment or beatings.\"\n\nYang volunteered to be deployed as a frontline guard, as this position comes with perks, including more time off base.\n\nIt is more likely Jin will be sent to a base set further back from the DMZ, like 26-year-old Heo Sungyoung, who spent his service with the 6th Corps Command Centre from 2018 to 2020.\n\nHeo Sungyoung worked in logistics with the 6th Corps Command Centre\n\nFor the first six months he guarded the entrance to the command centre.\n\n\"It was so long and boring. I had nothing to do but stare at the sky,\" Heo said. From there, he was moved on to the logistics team, where he was responsible for ordering supplies such as tissues and socks.\n\nSouth Korea's compulsory military service is a source of grievance for many young men, who begrudge it for taking them away from their studies, work and friends.\n\nFor months it was rumoured that the government might allow the members of BTS to skip the service, on the basis they had already served their country by earning it billions of dollars, and it would be more beneficial to allow them to carry on doing so.\n\nBut in October, the members of BTS announced they were all planning to enlist, with Jin, as the oldest, going first.\n\nEven so, the reports he was being sent to the front line surprised some fans, who had assumed he would be given a less risky role.\n\nThere used to be a special unit for celebrities, where they could continue to work as entertainers and were given privileges. But there was public outcry when some were found abusing the system, by leaving their barracks more often than allowed. In 2013, the two-tier system was abolished.\n\n\"If I said it didn't feel like a waste of time, I'd be lying,\" said Yang who was stationed at the guard post. \"If I had the choice again, I wouldn't do it. I could have learnt so much more in 18 months in the real world.\n\n\"My advice to Jin is to just bide his time and pray it passes quickly.\"\n\nBut Heo, from the logistics team, had better memories. Initially he said he questioned, like many men in their 20s, why he needed to be there, but ended up learning some valuable lessons.\n\n\"At school, I had only mixed with people from the same background, but in the army, everyone was so different. I realised how much bigger and more diverse the world was.\"\n\nHis advice for Jin is to enjoy this experience. \"As a top star, he will not have had much opportunity to meet normal people. This will be good for him, I think.\"\n\nOnline, tens of thousands of fans have already messaged Jin to offer their own advice and tell him how terribly they will miss him.\n\n\"Please take care and bring enough warm clothes and medicine,\" wrote Maliah Leah. \"I hope your colleagues treat you well. We will be waiting patiently for your comeback.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern caught on mic insulting MP in parliament\n\nNew Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has apologised for insulting a political rival in parliament.\n\nThe offensive comment was picked up by microphones following a question by David Seymour, leader of the opposition ACT party.\n\nMr Seymour objected to the remark and asked the House of Representatives Speaker to have it withdrawn.\n\nMs Ardern - whose party has fallen behind in polls in the past 12 months - later said she had apologised.\n\nIn a lively debate on Tuesday, the prime minister took issue when Mr Seymour asked her to give an example of her \"making a mistake, apologising for it properly, and fixing it\".\n\nMs Ardern said there had been a number of occasions where her Labour administration had acknowledged there had not been \"perfect responses\", including a key element of the country's Covid response.\n\n\"We have openly said, for instance, that [managed isolation and quarantine] was something that was very difficult at the time and that there were people that were affected by it and that we would do things differently if we were ever confronted with it again.\"\n\nShe added that she stood by the work of her government over its term in office.\n\n\"We've always made decisions that we believe to be in the best interest of New Zealand at the time,\" she said.\n\nAfter sitting down, Ms Ardern could be heard quietly saying: \"Such an arrogant prick.\"\n\nA spokesperson from the prime minister's office confirmed that Ms Ardern had since apologised to Mr Seymour.\n\nThe prime minister received international praise for her strict response to the Covid pandemic, and has enjoyed high approval ratings for much of her two terms in office.\n\nBut with New Zealand expected to go to the polls in late 2023, Ms Ardern is coming under increasing political pressure.\n\nLatest opinion polls have the Labour Party trailing opposition party National by around five percentage points.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: New Zealand and Finland PMs shoot down age question from reporter", "Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kawānanakoa, Hawaii's so-called \"last princess\", has passed away aged 96.\n\nThe royal, known to her friends as Kekau, was one of the last living links to the royal family and was celebrated for her philanthropic support of traditional Hawaiian culture.\n\nThe heiress died peacefully at home in Honolulu on Sunday with her wife by her side, according to a statement released by Iolani Palace, the historic home of the royal family - and America's only royal residence.\n\n\"Abigail will be remembered for her love of Hawaii and its people,\" said her wife, Veronica Gail Kawānanakoa. \"I will miss her with all of my heart.\"\n\nNo cause of death has yet been given.\n\nAbigail Kawānanakoa was born in Honolulu in 1926 and later attended school in Shanghai and California.\n\nHer great wealth, which is estimated to be $215m (£175m) and was held in trust, came from her great-grandfather, James Campbell, an Irish businessman who owned a sugar plantation.\n\nHis daughter married Prince David Kawānanakoa, who was third in line for the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii when the royal family was overthrown by American businessmen in 1893.\n\nAt the time, the role of US nationals in the coup was controversial, and President Grover Cleveland describing their involvement in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy an \"embarrassment\".\n\nAfter the prince's death in 1908, his widow adopted their grandchild through the traditional Hawaiian custom of \"hānai\", which strengthened Abigail's claim to the informal title of princess.\n\nWhile some genealogists claimed that Princess Kawānanakoa had the strongest royal ties to Hawaii, a separate offshoot of the former royal family claims that Princess Owana Ka'ohelelani is the rightful head of the modern-day dynasty.\n\nMrs Kawānanakoa herself admitted in a 2021 interview with Honolulu Magazine that had the monarchy survived, her cousin Edward Kawānanakoa would have been in line to rule ahead of her, based on the rules of succession.\n\n\"Of course I would be the power behind the throne, there's no question about that,\" she joked in the interview.\n\nAmong her acts of philanthropy, Mrs Kawānanakoa funded scholarships for indigenous Hawaiians and contributed to the upkeep of Iolani Palace, which is now a museum.\n\nThe Abigail KK Kawananakoa Foundation, which was set up in 2001, put aside $100m (£81m) of her wealth to support native Hawaiian causes upon her death, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.\n\nFriends also praised her sense of mischief, and she was known to test religious leaders for offering them large sums of money - sometimes in exchange for outrageous demands.\n\nJim Wright, who was her personal lawyer from 1998, recalled that she once agreed to a request from the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu of $100,000 (£81,281).\n\nShe agreed to make the payment - but only if she could get a photo of Pope Benedict XVI accepting her cheque.\n\nHawaii's governor, Josh Green, was among those to pay tribute to Mrs Kawānanakoa, saying he and his wife were \"deeply saddened\" by the loss.\n\n\"Abigail bore the weight of her position with dignity and humility, enriched the lives of everyone she touched, and like so many Aliʻi who came before her, she has left a legacy dedicated to her people in perpetuity.\"\n\nHe had ordered that flags be flown at half mast for the rest of Sunday in her honour.\n\nHowever, Hawaiian activist Walter Ritte has told local media that her impact on indigenous culture was minimal.\n\n\"We didn't quite understand what her role was and how she could help us,\" he is quoted as saying.\n\nBut Senator Jarrett Keohokalole and Representative Daniel Holt, leaders of the Native Hawaiian caucus in the state legislature, hailed her generosity and contributions, which they said had greatly aided the island's culture and community.\n\nIn a court appearance in 2019 over the management of her wealth, she told the judge that \"heritage dictates that I must take care of the Hawaiian people\".", "Top row, left to right: Derek and Sylvia Ellis, Romeu and Louise de Almeida. Bottom row, left to right: Raymond Brown, Billy Marsden and Peter Bowler\n\nSeven of the nine people feared dead or missing after an explosion that destroyed a block of flats in Jersey have been named by police.\n\nThey are Peter Bowler, 72, Raymond Brown, 71, Romeu de Almeida, 67, Louise de Almeida, 64, Derek Ellis, 61, Sylvia Ellis, 73, and Billy Marsden, 63.\n\nJersey police said the families of the seven had agreed to the release.\n\nIt said the other missing islanders would be named at a later date.\n\nNine people were believed to have been in the flats when they exploded. Jersey police said four of them were still missing and at least five people were known to have died. They warned they did not expect to find survivors.\n\nThe explosion happened at the three-storey Haut du Mont residential block on Pier Road, St Helier, on Saturday at about 04:00 GMT.\n\nTony Palmer said he knew Peter Bowler through his judo club, and that the news of what had happened had \"knocked him for six\".\n\nA recovery operation has continued at the blast scene throughout Monday\n\nHe said: \"He was only a white belt, he was just starting out, but he was such a lovely nature...\n\n\"He was calming and he'd get on with what he was doing but he'd have a laugh... I'd never see him lose his temper, he was so placid... One of those nice guys.\"\n\nGas supplier Island Energy confirmed the flats had not been on the island's gas network, but added that engineers were safety testing the network and that \"no issues had been detected\" so far.\n\nJo Cox, chief executive officer, said on Monday: \"I want to reassure people we believe that this was an isolated incident and not an issue with our gas network.\n\n\"We will work with emergency services and the various channels to ensure we are providing the data needed to understand exactly what happened.\"\n\nTony Palmer said Peter Bowler had started judo aged 71 and was \"very outgoing\"\n\nDerek Shearer who lives at the Haut du Mont site said he had been rehomed until he was able to go back.\n\n\"Terrible, when you're that close to people that have been killed,\" he said.\n\nMr Shearer said he did not know his neighbours \"that well\" but that they were \"all nice people\".\n\nHe said he had told it would likely be \"weeks\" before he could return home.\n\n\"We may not be able to go back into those places... just because ours is still standing doesn't mean to say there's no structural problems in there,\" he said.\n\nDerek Shearer said it was \"terrible\" knowing his neighbours had died so suddenly\n\nIslanders have been paying respects to those involved in the blast by leaving floral tributes on the steps of Ordnance Yard.\n\nPeople gathered for a minute's silence at 11:00 GMT on Monday and flags will be flown at half-mast until sunset on 23 December, the Government of Jersey said.\n\nBooks of condolence are also being made available at parish and public halls and a vigil will be held on Wednesday at Town Church.\n\nA spokesperson for Andium Homes which runs the residential block, said their thoughts and prayers were with those who lost their lives in the \"devastating incident\".\n\nThey said 42 residents had to relocate from the site, the majority of which it had provided with alternative accommodation.\n\nThey said they received no reports of leaks or smells of gas the day before the incident or at any other time and added that they had not been carrying out any significant maintenance works at Haut du Mont.\n\nFirefighters and a gas engineer had been to the flats on Friday evening after a smell of gas had been reported and Island Energy said standard procedures had been followed.\n\nThe explosion happened just two days after three local fishermen went missing after a crash between their fishing boat and a ferry.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Officer tried to punch through ice to get boys - police\n\nThree boys aged eight, 10 and 11 have died after falling into an icy lake near Solihull.\n\nA police officer tried to punch through the ice as he and others attempted to rescue the children in Babbs Mill Park, Kingshurst, on Sunday.\n\nA fourth boy, aged six, remains in a critical condition in hospital after being pulled from the water.\n\nFamily members affected by the tragedy are \"absolutely devastated\", said Supt Richard Harris of West Midlands Police.\n\nSupt Harris said all police who went to the scene had entered the water with no regard for their own safety or with any special clothing - some going in waist-deep.\n\n\"One of my officers was trying to punch through the ice to actually rescue the children themselves,\" he said.\n\n\"That officer, as a result of that, had some mild hypothermia yesterday. I'm pleased to say he's now been released from hospital and he's absolutely fine.\"\n\nSearches are continuing at the lake and Supt Harris said teams wanted to be \"100% certain that there is no-one else possibly in the water at this time\".\n\n\"It's important to stress though that we've had no contact from anybody suggesting that there is anybody else missing.\"\n\nA search is continuing to make \"100% certain\" no others are in the water, police said\n\nSupt Harris added officers were still trying to work through all the details of the incident and could not say how long the boys had been in the water before emergency services arrived.\n\nHowever, he said officers had arrived within minutes of the first call, which came in at about 14:30 GMT.\n\nPolice were being guided by the families as to how much information was made available to the media, he said, and they were doing \"everything we possibly can to support them\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Firefighters lay flowers for boys who died after falling in icy lake\n\nMembers of the public and police officers initially went into the freezing water to try to get the boys out, before the children were reached by specialist fire crews.\n\nFirefighters from Sheldon fire station - about five miles away from the park - were among those who had tried to rescue the boys.\n\nOn Monday, they laid flowers alongside a growing number of tributes at the scene and were applauded by onlookers.\n\nTemperatures are thought to have plunged to 1C (34F) in the area at the time of the incident, falling to -3C (26F) overnight.\n\nAfter their rescue, the children were rushed to Birmingham Children's Hospital and Heartlands Hospital, but police said they could not be revived.\n\nA mass of flowers, balloons, toys and messages is growing just outside the police cordon, a few hundred metres from where the boys fell through the ice on the partially frozen lake.\n\nFamilies continue to come to pay their respects, many of them in tears, hugging their small children and lighting candles.\n\nIt's often a cliché to talk about close-knit communities, but Kingshurst feels like a place where that description holds true.\n\nIt's a story that's struck a nerve here after a tough 24 hours during which we learned three young lads lost their lives and another, the youngest of all, is still in a critical condition.\n\nSt Anthony's Primary School, in Kingshurst, closed to pupils on Monday but said it would reopen on Tuesday \"to support our children and families the best we can\".\n\n\"Never has our motto being (sic) more meaningful,\" it tweeted, \"actions speak louder than words\".\n\nThe BBC understands at least one of the boys went to the school.\n\nAnother school, Park Hall Academy, in Castle Bromwich, also said it was aware of the tragic event at Babbs Mill lake and that thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved.\n\n\"Please rest assured that anyone affected will be supported,\" it said.\n\nPolice said their thoughts were with the families and friends of the boys \"at this deeply devastating time\" and they would have specialist officers on hand to support them.\n\nRichard Stanton, West Midlands Fire and Rescue Area Commander, described the deaths as \"a tragedy beyond words\".\n\nHe said the incident served as a reminder of the dangers of frozen water.\n\n\"It can look picturesque but can be lethal,\" he said. \"Please help avoid this from happening again.\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said his thoughts were with the families.\n\nHe spoke to Meriden MP Saqib Bhatti, who was visiting the scene, and said it was particularly hard thinking about the case as a father of two young daughters.\n\nMr Bhatti said the community had been left in shock.\n\n\"It's just hard to put into words right now what I'm feeling... as a parent. The whole community's going to be feeling this and my heart goes out to the families of those young children and my thoughts and prayers are with them.\"\n\nNish Chauhan, from BBC Radio WM, spoke to one resident. Dan, who told him how he had heard the sirens and had seen people running down to the site. He grabbed his jacket and ran down to see if he could help.\n\n\"It's shocking, I haven't really been able to sleep to be honest,\" he said.\n\nSupt Harris said there were a number of witnesses officers still wanted to speak to and appealed for anyone with information to contact the force.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Emma Caldwell's body was found in May 2005\n\nThe man accused of murdering Emma Caldwell is facing charges against a further 27 women, court papers reveal.\n\nIain Packer, 50, has been charged with her murder and 45 other offences, including 11 rapes, over a 26-year period. His lawyer lodged a not guilty plea on his behalf at the High Court in Edinburgh.\n\nHer body was found five weeks later in a remote part of South Lanarkshire.\n\nA preliminary hearing before Lord Beckett was allowed to proceed in Mr Packer's absence on Tuesday due to a delay transporting the accused to court.\n\nA trial date was set for January 2024, with proceedings expected to last 11 weeks.\n\nMr Packer is alleged to have raped and murdered Ms Caldwell on 5 April 2005.\n\nHe is accused of strangling her in an area called Limefield Woods in South Lanarkshire.\n\nHe is further charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice by disposing of her naked body and possessions \"by means to the prosecutor unknown\".\n\nEmma Caldwell's body was found in a wooded area more than 30 miles from Glasgow\n\nSeveral of the other alleged crimes are also said to have taken place at Limefield Woods.\n\nAs well as rape, the charges include cases of alleged abduction, indecent assault and sexual assault involving a number of women.\n\nThe 46 charges are alleged to have taken place between 1990 to 2016.\n\nMr Packer is accused of \"indecent and libidinous practices\" towards a girl aged between 14 and 15 from July 1990 to October 1991.\n\nHe is also accused of a series of sexual offences which are alleged to have taken place until 2016.\n\nMr Packer is also accused of assaulting three men between February 2008 and October 2011, as well as punching a 15-year-old boy in the head between June 1992 and June 1993.", "The garden of a home in Clarence Road is being searched by police\n\nDetectives have begun searching a property's garden for human remains after reports of a child's death.\n\nThe hunt follows information given to police suggesting a death in 2020 at a house on Clarence Road in Handsworth, Birmingham.\n\nA man, 40, and a woman, 41, have been charged with neglect and are on bail after arrests on suspicion of causing or allowing the death of a child.\n\nWest Midlands Police said the man had been remanded after appearing in court.\n\nThe investigation is not connected to the current occupants of the address\n\nThe pair were arrested on Friday and the man appeared at Birmingham Magistrates' Court the same day.\n\nThe woman was due to appear before the same court on Tuesday.\n\nPeople who currently live at the searched property are not connected to the investigation, the force says.\n\nA man and woman were arrested on Friday after reports of the death of a child\n\nDet Insp Joe Davenport said: \"We have acted swiftly on information and our inquiries are ongoing to establish exactly what has happened.\n\n\"I understand that this will come as a shock to the local community but I would ask you not to speculate on the circumstances.\"\n\nAnyone with information is urged to get in touch with police.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been arrested in The Bahamas, the country's attorney general has said.\n\nHe is scheduled to appear on Tuesday in a magistrates' court in the Caribbean country's capital, Nassau.\n\nPolice said Mr Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested for \"financial offences\" against laws in the US and The Bahamas.\n\nLast month, FTX filed for bankruptcy in the US, leaving many users unable to withdraw their funds.\n\nAccording to a court filing, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors almost $3.1bn (£2.5bn).\n\nAmong the most serious allegations against Mr Bankman-Fried is that he used billions of dollars of customer funds to prop up his investment trading company, Alameda.\n\nIt is unclear how much people who have funds in the exchange will get back at the end of bankruptcy proceedings - though many experts have warned it may be a small fraction of what they deposited.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sam Bankman-Fried denies claims he knew FTX customer money was used for risky financial bets\n\nSpeaking to the BBC earlier this month, Mr Bankman-Fried acknowledged that mistakes were made at the firm, but sought to distance himself from accusations of illegal activity.\n\n\"I didn't knowingly commit fraud, I don't think I committed fraud, I didn't want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was,\" he told the BBC.\n\nHe also denied allegations that he must have been aware that Alameda was using FTX customer funds.\n\n\"No that's not true,\" Mr Bankman-Fried said, while going on to acknowledge that as chief executive he was ultimately responsible for any mishandling of funds. \"That's on me, one way or another,\" he said.\n\nThe FTX exchange allowed customers to trade normal money for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.\n\nCryptocurrencies are not currencies in the traditional sense, but are stored online and act more like investment vehicles or securities - often with a high degree of volatility.\n\nTheir anonymity means they have been favoured for criminal activities such as drug dealing and ransomware attacks, but their supporters say there is huge potential for innovation - and independence from governments.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried was once viewed as a young version of legendary US investor Warren Buffett, and as recently as late October had a net worth estimated at more than $15bn.\n\nBefore FTX's collapse he seemingly delighted in giving his Twitter followers an insight into his lifestyle, which involved playing League of Legends while on phone calls, even while attempting to woo investors, and sleeping on a beanbag next to his desk in the office.\n\nHe had become well known in Washington DC as a political donor, mostly to Democratic politicians or groups, supposedly supporting pandemic prevention and improved crypto regulation.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried will be held in custody \"pursuant of our nation's Extradition Act,\" the Attorney General of the Bahamas said in a statement.\n\n\"Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the US Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY [Southern District of New York]. We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,\" the US Attorney's office in Manhattan said in a tweet.\n\nWall Street regulators also said that they would be taking action against Mr Bankman-Fried.\n\n\"We commend our law enforcement partners for working to secure the arrest of Mr Sam Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas on federal criminal charges,\" US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official Gurbir Grewal said in a statement.\n\n\"The Securities and Exchange Commission has separately authorised charges relating to Mr. Bankman-Fried's violations of our securities laws, which will be filed publicly tomorrow in the Southern District of New York,\" he added.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried had been due to testify about the collapse of FTX before the US Congress on Tuesday.\n\nHowever, he will now be unable to testify, according to Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who said in a statement that she was surprised to hear that he had been arrested.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried's lawyer did not immediately reply to a BBC request for comment.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Latrae L. Rahming (DOC)🇧🇸 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFTX, the owner and operator of the FTX.COM cryptocurrency exchange, was founded in 2019 by Mr Bankman-Fried, a former Wall Street trader, and ex-Google employee Gary Wang.\n\nIt became the second largest crypto exchange in the world, trading about $10bn of cryptocurrencies a day.\n\nBut on 11 November FTX filed for bankruptcy protection after users pulled $6bn from the platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal. At the same time, Mr Bankman-Fried resigned as FTX's chief executive.\n\nThe collapse of FTX came during a tumultuous year for the cryptocurrency industry. This year Bitcoin has lost more than 60% of its value, while other cryptocurrencies have also slumped.", "Azeem Rafiq says he has \"been driven out of the country\" by \"threats and abuse\" since \"opening his heart out\" about racism at Yorkshire.\n\nSpeaking to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, as he did at the end of 2021, Rafiq said media coverage had fuelled threats to his family.\n\nThe 31-year-old spoke of a man \"defecating\" in his garden as well as abuse received in the street.\n\n\"At times I've walked down the street fearing for my life,\" Rafiq said.\n\nThe former Yorkshire spinner told MPs in 2021 that English cricket was \"institutionally\" racist, having said in 2020 that abuse at the club had left him close to taking his own life.\n\nIn October, Rafiq said \"a never-ending, co-ordinated campaign of lies\" had \"caused serious risk\" to his family's safety after he was accused of anti-Semitism and homophobia in a Daily Mail report.\n\nIn his latest appearance at a parliamentary committee hearing, Rafiq said he now receives \"24/7 security\" from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and spoke about how the Yorkshire Post's coverage of the story \"should be held responsible for\" the abuse he and his family have experienced since.\n\n\"Every time there's an article it's created a wave of online abuse,\" he said.\n\n\"I don't feel like at any point they [the Yorkshire Post] have had any balance. If I was to pick one reason why all this has happened, unfortunately I would have to say it is the Yorkshire Post's writing.\n\n\"Moving abroad is not an easy thing, especially when you've got ill parents.\"\n\nThe Yorkshire Post told BBC Sport in a statement that it \"applied the same rules of objectivity, impartiality and professionalism in seeking to tell all sides of the story\".\n\nThe ECB said the evidence heard in the committee hearing \"demonstrates why widespread change in cricket is needed\" adding that it is \"committed\" to \"lasting cultural change\".\n\nSince Rafiq spoke out there have been changes in Yorkshire's leadership, with several current and former players and coaches reprimanded.\n\nRafiq suggested an independent regulator was needed for cricket, saying the ECB had \"been involved in the leaking and planting\" of stories about him, adding that the governing body \"has tried to discredit\" his experiences.\n\nHe said that \"it all feels very superficial at the top\" and that \"cricket is in denial\", adding: \"There is still a group of people out there that feel like cricket is the victim in this.\n\n\"The way I have been attacked and abused - why would you speak out?\"\n\nEarlier in October, Rafiq was among five current and former players reprimanded by the ECB for historical social media posts of a racist nature. Rafiq had previously apologised for a Facebook exchange from 2011 containing anti-Semitic messages.\n\n\"I have made mistakes in my life,\" he said.\n\n\"One of the things that came out was anti-Semitic messages I have made. I did exactly what I have asked others to do, which is to apologise and admit, try and make some learnings as to why I made those comments.\"\n\nIn a lengthy statement, the Yorkshire Post's editorial director James Mitchinson said: \"The scurrilous and unfounded allegations made to today's DCMS select committee, referring to myself, The Yorkshire Post and my staff in relation to Mr Rafiq's experiences of racist bullying whilst playing for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, I reject absolutely.\n\n\"From the moment Mr Rafiq blew the whistle on the racist abuse he was unquestionably subjected to - The Yorkshire Post has repeatedly acknowledged as much - whilst playing for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, we have applied the same rules of objectivity, impartiality and professionalism in seeking to tell all sides of the story, including, but not limited to, the experiences of those individuals who were dismissed, accused of being racists, who remain intent on clearing their names. That is what our readers expect of us, and that is what we will continue to do.\n\n\"I am pleased Mr Rafiq acknowledged that during the course of documenting this scandal, I picked up the phone to him in order to ensure I had taken every possible step to understand personally his experience and reflected it in our coverage.\n\n\"From a personal perspective, one that I was not afforded the privilege of airing to the DCMS, I know I will be able to look back with absolute conviction that on every step of the way, we as a team have sought to tell everyone's truth when others have not given them that opportunity.\n\n\"I have to say, I am disappointed - but not surprised - that The Yorkshire Post's brand of fearless journalism, editorially courageous even in the face of deeply contentious and complex issues, has been attacked by powerful people today.\n\n\"Those who believe in a free press, empowered to always get to the truth, should be deeply worried by the unsuccessful attempt to undermine The Yorkshire Post.\n\n\"Finally, I want to reassure Mr Rafiq that I could not have taken more ownership of nor applied more due diligence to editing this story, and I remain committed to listening to and telling all sides of it with honesty, integrity and impartiality.\"\n\nYorkshire chairman Lord Patel, who was appointed last year after Roger Hutton resigned over the club's response to the racism scandal, read out a racist letter the club had received and said he has a \"bag full\" of similar correspondence sent since Rafiq first spoke out.\n\nSince Lord Patel took over, an independent whistleblowing hotline for victims of discrimination has been opened and structural reforms at the club have meant Headingley can now host internationals again.\n\nBut Lord Patel said his job has felt \"relentless\" since taking over, adding: \"I don't get where Azeem gets the strength to carry on.\n\n\"The way things are needs to change. This is sport - it's something we enjoy and it brings people together.\n\n\"This has been a very concerted attack - I don't think people understand it. I don't think the ECB have got it. We've got to look at the whole culture of cricket and get under the skin.\n\n\"We're on a very long journey. A lot of people are going to have to get off the bus on the way. The way things are needs to change.\"\n\nThe ECB said it was \"appalled at the level of racist abuse\" received by Lord Patel and that it recognises \"the pain this has caused him\".\n\nLord Patel also said women have been \"forgotten\" within Yorkshire.\n\n\"Our women's team don't have their own changing room - that's going to change,\" he added.\n\nAzeem Rafiq maintains this was never meant to be about him, and that the purpose of him blowing the whistle on his own experiences of racism was to try to improve the game - but his testimony made clear the ongoing personal impact this has had on him.\n\nAll the while, 13 months on from his last appearance before the committee, he is still not convinced that what he considers to be 'structural problems' within cricket are being properly addressed, particularly when he believes there are still some in the sport who deny any problem exists.\n\nHe appears to have little confidence in the game-wide initiatives brought in by the ECB or the governance changes.\n\nBut it wasn't all negative - Lord Patel said Yorkshire have drastically improved the diversity of their pathway programmes by offering free coaching and free kit, and that despite costing the county £500,000 to introduce, it has attracted new sponsors.\n\nSo perhaps having been the centre of the crisis, the county might become a template to follow in the future.", "An NHS midwife protesting against working conditions in November 2021.\n\nMidwives in Wales have voted for strike action over a \"disappointing and unacceptable\" pay award worth around 4% this year.\n\nBut action in England will not go ahead after the numbers taking part in the ballot fell short of the 50% needed.\n\nMidwives in England said the vote result exposed the flaws in the law around industrial action.\n\nThe Welsh government said it recognises the strength of feeling in the NHS.\n\nIn Wales, 55% of Royal College of Midwives (RCM) members responded to the ballot, with 91% voting in favour of strike action.\n\nIn England, the RCM said 47% of its 28,500 members voted in the ballot.\n\nOf those that did take part, 88% voted in favour of strike action.\n\nAny decision to take industrial action must be approved by the RCM's elected board. The union said it will now look at the result of the ballot and consider the next steps.\n\nJulie Richards, director for Wales at the RCM, said: \"Midwives in Wales are exhausted. The disappointing and unacceptable 4% pay offer simply reinforced their feelings of being overlooked and undervalued.\"\n\nShe added: \"Taking industrial action is always a last resort, and the decision taken by our members today shows just how desperate they are for policy makers to listen.\n\n\"The Welsh Government must now do so to get maternity services in Wales back on track, and to stop the inevitable exodus of demoralised staff.\"\n\nA spokesman for the Welsh Government said it recognises the \"anger and disappointment\" felt by public sector workers.\n\n\"We are unable to increase our pay offer without additional funding being made available by the UK government,\" he said.\n\n\"NHS Wales organisations are exploring all options to ensure there will be a safe level of staffing, with life-saving and life-maintaining care being provided during any industrial action.\"\n\nIn a separate announcement, physiotherapy staff in over half of NHS trusts in England and every health board in Wales also voted to take strike action, in their first ever ballot on pay.\n\n\"We are short-staffed, overworked, exhausted,\" said Jill Taylor, a physiotherapist and chair of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's pay committee.\n\n\"We need to attract people to the NHS and we need to keep people in the NHS. We simply cannot do this until the government gives NHS staff a fairer pay award.\"\n\nThe Westminster government has said it was disappointed NHS staff were taking industrial action but further pay rises were unaffordable in the current economic climate.", "Of course, we haven't just been covering the weather disruption today.\n\nElsewhere in the UK train services have been severely disrupted after rail workers walked out in the first of a series of 48-hour strikes.\n\nThere has been no service on around half of Britain's rail lines with only a limited number of trains operating between 07:30 and 18:30 elsewhere.\n\nMany places have no services, including most of Scotland and Wales.\n\nSimilar disruption is expected on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday as members of the RMT union at Network Rail and 14 train companies continue their industrial action in a bitter row over jobs, pay and conditions.\n\nRMT general secretary Mick Lynch apologised for the impact of rail strikes on passengers.\n\n\"We don't like disrupting the public and we apologise for the disruption that's being caused,\" he said.\n\n\"I believe we could have worked towards a settlement a couple of weeks ago until that was undermined by the stance that certain people have taken.\"\n• You can read about how strike action will affect you in the coming days.", "The diver found a number of rings, pendants and a bracelet\n\nA haul of jewellery found at the bottom of a river and handed in to police is believed to be worth about £10,000.\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police said a diver contacted them after making the discovery in the Helford river near Falmouth.\n\nThe haul included a number of rings and pendants and officers are hoping to reunite them with their owner.\n\nPC Victoria Swan said: \"Some of the rings and pendants are very distinctive.\n\n\"We are hoping to find the owner as it is clear the jewellery is of huge sentimental value.\"\n\nA pearl necklace was among the items found\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Beth Foreman was told to take 11-month-old Clio to hospital after calling NHS 111 on Friday\n\nThe mother of a baby who had scarlet fever says she was left terrified after being sent on a fruitless late-night antibiotics hunt.\n\nBeth Foreman attended Lincoln County Hospital with baby Clio on Friday and left with a penicillin prescription.\n\nShe was told it was \"imperative\" her 11-month-old daughter took it that night, but all nearby pharmacies told her they did not have any in stock.\n\nThe government said there was \"no supplier shortage\" of antibiotics.\n\nMs Foreman said she called NHS 111 after her daughter became \"poorly and lethargic\" with a bright red rash on her face.\n\n\"You could have literally fried eggs on her cheeks, she was irritable, crying and she'd waited for five to six hours in the hospital until she'd been seen.\"\n\nMs Foreman said they left hospital at 23:45 GMT on Friday \"having been told they didn't have penicillin\".\n\n\"Off I went in minus two degrees with my 11-month-old baby on my own, with my partner working away, in search of penicillin somewhere in Lincoln.\"\n\nBeth Foreman, pictured with baby Clio and her father Dean Wain, says she was left hunting for \"non-existent\" antibiotics in Lincoln in the middle of the night\n\nShe said all overnight pharmacies told her they did not have any supplies, with parents, family and friends all encountering the same problem while attempting to help.\n\n\"It was very scary, I spent the whole night very concerned about my daughter and literally searching for what appeared to be a non-existent medication that was very important to her health.\"\n\nShe said she was advised by the overnight pharmacies to return to the hospital for further advice.\n\n\"After some persuasion and a lengthy discussion at the hospital they did manage to find us the penicillin from an inpatient ward, and claimed it was the last bottle in the building,\" she said.\n\nClio's father Dean Wain, a lorry driver who was working at the time, said: \"I was worried and upset, I'd been told my daughter's in hospital and my girlfriend was out trying to source medication.\n\n\"How can a hospital say you need a medication, and not be able to give it you - where do you go hunting for it at midnight, with a screaming baby?\"\n\nMs Foreman added: \"It's the thought that your child might potentially need this to stop what is initially a minor illness from developing into something very serious, it's terrifying.\"\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said there was \"no supplier shortage of antibiotics available to treat strep A\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"We sometimes have surges for products and increased demand means some pharmacies are having difficulties obtaining certain antibiotics.\n\n\"We rely on competition to drive down the prices of generic medicines which generally results in lower prices for the NHS - this means prices can fluctuate, but no company should use this as an opportunity to exploit the NHS.\n\n\"Where companies are found to be abusing their dominant position by charging excessive and unfair prices, the Competition and Markets Authority can take action against businesses and individuals engaged in anti-competitive conduct.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The stabbings happened at a house outside Larne\n\nA County Antrim woman has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years for the murder and attempted murder of her two sons.\n\nIn what the judge described as a \"savage attack\", the 42-year-old stabbed her two-year-old son to death on 2 March 2020.\n\nShe also attempted to kill his 11-month-old brother.\n\nThe children were given the names \"John\" and \"Gerard\" to protect the surviving child's identity.\n\nThe court heard the children would have felt \"severe pain and distress\" despite their mother placing morphine patches on both infants before the attack.\n\nIt happened at a house on the outskirts of Larne, County Antrim.\n\nThe woman received an automatic life sentence for the murder charge.\n\nNoting that the youngest child would also have died if it had not been for the intervention of the emergency services, Judge Patricia Smyth also imposed a life sentence for the attempted murder.\n\nThe judge told the woman she would spend a minimum of 20 years in prison before she could be considered for release.\n\nThe court previously heard that the victims were found by their father in a master bedroom upstairs with their mother.\n\nHe had returned from work and called an ambulance after a series of text messages from his partner, which ended with her texting she had killed the boys and that she was dying too.\n\nThe woman originally pleaded not guilty to the offences and put forward a defence of diminished responsibility at a trial earlier this year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police said the family had been left heartbroken\n\nWhen that medical defence proved unsustainable after examination by medical experts, she changed her pleas to guilty on both counts.\n\nPSNI Det Insp Michelle Griffin said it was a case that would never be forgotten.\n\n\"A young and innocent life was taken, leaving a loving father and family distraught and truly heartbroken.\n\n\"Unfortunately, there is nothing - no words - that can undo this loss or ease their pain. And today, first and foremost, our thoughts are with them,\" she added.\n\nThe judge also rejected the woman's claim that she had been previously subjected to emotional abuse by the children's father.\n\n\"This tragic case also brought to light an underlying element of domestic abuse.\n\n\"Throughout the case, the father of the children, along with a previous husband of the defendant, spoke of the controlling behaviour and emotional abuse that both had suffered at the hands of the defendant.\n\n\"Their distress was added to by allegations by the defendant herself that she had been the subject of domestic abuse, which were unsubstantiated.\"\n\nDet Insp Griffin also said: \"Domestic abuse is not just physical. It can happen to anyone and there shouldn't be any stigma surrounding male victims.\n\n\"I want to encourage anyone who is being threatened, abused, controlled or intimidated by someone they live with, or are in a relationship with, to come forward.\"\n• None 'A case that will never be forgotten' Video, 00:00:55'A case that will never be forgotten'", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hayley Ryan's son Zaiyan was stillborn after a report found she has been inappropriately discharged from hospital\n\nA grieving mother's two-year wait for a report into failings when she had a stillborn baby caused \"trauma and anger\", she has said.\n\nHayley Ryan lost her son Zaiyan at 30 weeks after being admitted to Merthyr Tydfil's Prince Charles Hospital.\n\nA Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board report said her discharge from hospital in 2020 was \"inappropriate\", but Hayley said the findings have come \"too late\".\n\nThe health board has apologised for \"delays and miscommunication\".\n\nHayley, from Aberdare, Rhondda Cynon Taf, went to hospital on 9 June 2020 with vomiting and abdominal pain and was discharged the next day, despite not wanting to leave.\n\nShe said she \"knew something was wrong\" but felt \"brushed off\" by medical staff.\n\nZaiyan was stillborn when she returned to hospital two days later.\n\n\"I was just asking what happened to my son and why did it happen,\" she said.\n\nHayley spent 13 days in intensive care after her son was stillborn\n\nTwo years on, an internal report has found Hayley's discharge was \"inappropriate\", as was leaving her medical review to a community midwife.\n\nIt said she should have been advised to return to hospital for an obstetric review and repeated blood tests.\n\nThe case also showed \"unclear clinical medical leadership\" of a high-risk pregnancy because nothing was done about abnormal blood test results.\n\nIt concluded one of the \"root causes\" of the stillbirth was a missed diagnosis of acute fatty liver in pregnancy.\n\nHayley feels the wait for that information had \"added to my trauma and my anger\".\n\n\"We were phoning the hospital, we went over the hospital... but no phone calls back, no letters... like they didn't care,\" she told Wales Live.\n\nThe long wait for answers about why her baby was stillborn left Hayley feeling like the hospital did not care\n\nThe health board apologised for the length of time the report has taken and for \"miscommunication throughout the process\".\n\n\"There has been a delay due to clinical commitments by the clinicians to undertake the review which was exacerbated due to Covid,\" it said in its report.\n\nIt also said getting external input took time.\n\nDirector of midwifery, Suzanne Hardacre, said: \"The loss of a baby is deeply tragic, and we apologise to Hayley and her family for any anguish caused by delays in communication.\n\n\"Our maternity and neonatal services teams have undertaken a period of significant improvement in recent years, but we acknowledge that there is always still more work to be done.\n\n\"We continue to encourage Hayley and her family to make contact with us directly so that we are able to discuss their concerns further.\"\n\nThe health board's maternity service was taken out of special measures last month.\n\nNew legislation proposed by the Welsh government would introduce a \"duty of candour\" on NHS organisations designed to \"promote a culture of openness and transparency\".\n\nWhen patients \"suffer harm\", the health minister Eluned Morgan said at the launch of a consultation, \"it is vital people receive a timely apology, receive an honest explanation about what happened, and action is undertaken to find out why that harm happened\".\n\nAbout 13% of NHS cases looked at by the ombudsman for Wales Michelle Morris involve complaint handling\n\nThe public services ombudsman for Wales, Michelle Morris, welcomed the new legislation, which she said would allow staff to bring forward an issue even when patients had not complained.\n\n\"It allows the trust or the health board to identify things which may have gone wrong and to try and put them right earlier on, not just wait for a complaint to come in.\"\n\nShe added that a two-year wait for a report was \"at the extreme\" and said delays had a broader impact as well as causing distress for people.\n\n\"The longer it takes to conclude a complaint, the longer it takes for the learning to be embedded in working practices.\"\n\nHayley said she hoped measures were put in place so patients are \"listened to more\".", "Mr Hancock came third in the reality TV show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here\n\nEx-Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he will not be standing as an MP at the next general election.\n\nHis announcement came as some local party members said he was \"not fit to represent\" them.\n\nIn a letter, the West Suffolk Conservative Association president urged Chief Whip Simon Hart not to re-admit Mr Hancock as a Tory MP.\n\nMr Hancock was suspended from the party for joining the I'm A Celebrity show and is currently an independent MP.\n\nAnnouncing his decision not to stand at the next election, Mr Hancock said he had \"discovered a whole new world of possibilities which I am excited to explore\".\n\nHe added that politicians need to find \"new ways to reach people\" outside Parliament.\n\nHe concluded his letter by saying it had been \"an honour to serve in Parliament and represent the people of West Suffolk\".\n\n\"I will play my part in the debate about the future of our country and engage with the public in new ways,\" he said.\n\nMr Hancock had been a minister in successive Conservative governments since 2013 and served as health secretary during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nIn June 2021, he was forced to resign from the role after he breached social distancing guidelines by kissing colleague, Gina Coladangelo, who later became his partner.\n\nDespite supporting Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership campaign, Mr Hancock wasn't given a role in government when the prime minister entered Downing Street.\n\nThe MP subsequently joined the cast of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here - a decision that attracted criticism from his fellow MPs and local Conservative association, who accused him of \"abandoning his constituency\".\n\nIn a letter sent to Chief Whip Simon Hart on 1 December and published on the group's website on 7 December, association president Terry Wood said \"a vote was taken that ruled that the Officer Group had no confidence in Matt Hancock our sitting MP, and we would request that the whip is not restored to him\".\n\n\"This vote was brought about following feed-back from the constituents in West Suffolk, advising that by virtue of recent events, they consider Matt Hancock not fit to represent this constituency.\"\n\nA political ally of Matt Hancock said: \"This letter is irrelevant. It hasn't been sent on behalf of the Association, and the chief whip told Matt he was going to get the whip back.\n\n\"Matt had already decided not to stand again when it came to light.\"\n\nMr Hancock has previously defended his decision to appear on I'm A Celebrity saying reality TV was a \"powerful tool\" to reach young people.\n\nAs health secretary, Mr Hancock led the UK's response to the Covid pandemic\n\nAnnouncing his decision to quit Parliament, Mr Hancock said: \"There was a time when I thought the only way to influence the public debate was in Parliament, but I've realised there's far more to it than that.\n\n\"I have increasingly come to believe that for a healthy democracy we must find new ways of reaching people - especially those who are disengaged with politics.\n\n\"The revival of modern conservatism over the next decade will I suspect take place as much outside Parliament as in it.\"\n\nHe said he looked \"forward to championing the issues that are dear to my heart, including better support for dyslexia children\".\n\nIn his letter, he also said the chief whip had told him he would be re-admitted into the Conservative parliamentary party \"in due course\", but Mr Hancock said \"that is now not necessary\".\n\nMr Hancock is the latest in a string of MPs who have announced their decision not to stand in the next election, which has to take place before January 2025.\n\nLast week Sajid Javid - another former health secretary - said he would be leaving Parliament.\n\nOther Conservatives quitting include Levelling Up Minister Dehenna Davison and backbenchers William Wragg and Chloe Smith.\n\nThe West Suffolk constituency, which Mr Hancock has represented since 2010, currently has a large Conservative majority of over 23,000.\n\nResponding to the news, the Liberal Democrats said Mr Hancock should stand down as an MP immediately.\n\n\"He's clearly not interested in the job anymore and would rather make money on reality TV shows than represent the people of West Suffolk - his constituents deserve better than a part-time MP chasing fame and fortune.\"", "A BrewDog advert has been banned for suggesting its fruit-flavoured beers counted as \"one of your five-a-day\".\n\nThe brewer said the email was \"tongue-in-cheek\" but the advertising watchdog said it risked misleading consumers.\n\nBrewDog's adverts often court controversy, but some campaigns have backfired.\n\nLast month it was heavily criticised for launching an \"anti-sponsorship\" World Cup campaign while continuing to show matches at its bars.\n\nGovernment guidelines recommend people eat five portions of fruit and vegetables a day to remain healthy, however this does not include alcoholic drinks, even if they have a high fruit content.\n\nThe Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said that many consumers would not have known that for sure when BrewDog sent them a marketing email in July with the five-a-day claim in the subject line.\n\nBrewDog argued that the email was only sent to existing customers who had opted in to email alerts and would have been aware of its playful marketing style.\n\nBut the regulator said the advert cannot appear again in its current form and warned BrewDog not to repeat the claim.\n\nA BrewDog spokesman said: \"We respect the Advertising Standards Authority's decision and are happy to confirm that beer is not a fruit or a vegetable. We hope that sorts it out\".\n\nThis is not BrewDog's first run-in with the ASA.\n\nLast year, the Scottish brewer offered shoppers the chance to find a gold can worth £15,000 hidden in cases sold from its online store.\n\nBut some winners complained to the ASA after they discovered the cans were not solid gold, but were gold-plated instead.\n\nThe regulator banned the adverts with BrewDog boss James Watt admitting the firm had got the campaign \"wrong\".\n\nLast month, the brand also faced a backlash after it said it would screen World Cup games at its bars while also running a marketing campaign criticising Qatar's human rights record.\n\nThe pub and brewery chain promised that profits made from sales of one lager during the tournament would go to \"causes fighting human rights abuses\".\n\nBut critics on Twitter accused it of a \"PR stunt\", arguing it would still profit from all the other beers sold. Responding at the time, BrewDog said the campaign had \"struck a nerve\" and raised awareness of human rights abuses in Qatar.\n\nThe last few years have been stormy for the brewer, which built a loyal following for its independent craft beers before becoming a mainstream hit on supermarket shelves.\n\nLast summer it faced a flood of allegations about its \"toxic\" workplace culture, which led to an independent review of the organisation.\n\nMr Watt apologised to former staff and said their complaints would help make him a better chief executive.\n\nIn June this year fresh claims about his conduct emerged in the US, with former staff accusing him of inappropriate behaviour.\n\nLawyers for Mr Watt said the allegations were false and he denied behaving inappropriately.", "The government removed a chunk of its own bill in the summer after criticism in the House of Lords\n\nA bill designed to \"raise education standards\" in England has been dropped, the education secretary has said.\n\nThe Schools Bill included plans for a register of children not in school and measures to help with plans for all schools to join multi-academy trusts.\n\nIt has hit hurdles since it was introduced this year.\n\nGillian Keegan said parts of the government's plan did not need legislation and were being implemented.\n\nA head teachers' union said it hoped a register for children could still be introduced.\n\nSpeaking to MPs, she confirmed that the bill \"will not progress\" to its third reading in the House of Lords.\n\nMs Keegan said \"parliamentary time has definitely been reprioritised\" to focus on tackling the rising cost of living, \"because of the pandemic aftershocks but also the war in Ukraine\".\n\nHowever, she said ministers \"remain committed\" to the objectives of the Schools Bill, and would be \"prioritising some aspects of the bill as well to see what we can do\".\n\n\"A lot of the Schools White Paper is being implemented and didn't require legislation in many cases,\" she said - referring to a policy document that set out the government's vision for education this year, some of which was meant to be achieved through the Schools Bill.\n\nMs Keegan said a register of children who are not in school was \"definitely a priority\". Robin Walker, chairman of the education committee of MPs, said he wanted to hear how that would be legislated for instead.\n\nThe Schools White Paper, published in March, included plans for a minimum week length and higher English and maths targets.\n\nThe government wanted to use the Schools Bill to legislate on issues such as the structure and regulation of academies, school attendance, and school funding.\n\nBut the legislation has hit hurdles since it was introduced this year, with peers in the House of Lords calling proposals on academies a \"power grab\" that gave the government too much control.\n\nIn June, the government gutted its own bill, removing 18 clauses relating to the regulation of academies.\n\nIt had been due to come back with new proposals - until now.\n\nThe scrapping of the bill is likely to disappoint Conservative MPs who had hoped to use it to overturn a ban on new grammar schools.\n\nNational Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman said it was \"inevitable\" the government would \"eventually have to scrap\" the bill.\n\nHe was \"pleased to see it won't go ahead in its current form\".\n\nBut it was \"a shame that the sensible and necessary elements of the bill that we did support have been thrown into the long grass alongside the others\".\n\n\"The introduction of a register of children not in school, for example, is something we believe is important to improve safeguarding for children, as is the crackdown on illegal schools,\" Mr Whiteman said.\n\n\"We hope these elements of the bill won't be lost entirely.\"\n\nJulie McCulloch, of the Association of School and College Leaders, said proposals in the White Paper such as the minimum school-week length now appeared \"to be in limbo\".\n\nLabour's shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said the bill had been the government's \"priority\". The Conservative Party had \"no idea how to improve education\" but Labour would end tax breaks for private schools to \"deliver thousands more teachers, professional careers advice, and mental-health guidance\".", "The remnants of the Z1 naval scaffolding is currently visible at low tide at RSPB Minsmere on the Suffolk coast\n\nIn 1940 the British high command became increasingly fearful of a German invasion by sea. In the months that followed, some of England's most beautiful beaches were turned into battlefields that would never see action. In recent days, a slice of that wartime history has re-emerged thanks, in part, to the easterly winds which have caused temperatures to drop.\n\nToday, the reserve at RSPB Minsmere on the Suffolk coast is a 2,500-acre habitat for more than 6,000 species.\n\nEighty years ago, Minsmere was a very different place.\n\nAs with many other beaches along the East Anglian coast, it had a minefield, concrete blocks intended to slow advancing tanks, trenches and a huge scaffolding structure that was meant to rip through the hulls of advancing landing barges.\n\nThe installation of sea defences at Minsmere followed the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940\n\nIn recent days, the remnants of that scaffolding, which once stood 3m (10ft) high, has re-emerged from the sand.\n\nAccording to warden Dave Thurlow, the reappearance of parts of the Z1 naval scaffolding is largely down to the easterly winds which have shifted away some of the shingle.\n\nIt is not the first time Minsmere's World War Two history has been unearthed. A similar thing happened in 2013 before the tides and the wind covered the scaffolding remains once again.\n\n\"It is pretty rare to see it, having survived in this form,\" said warden Dave Thurlow\n\n\"It is pretty rare to see it, having survived in this form,\" said Mr Thurlow.\n\n\"I think when they cleared the scaffolding away after the war they just sawed it away. A lot of the scaffolding that was taken down could not be reused because it had been exposed to the elements, so they just buried it.\n\n\"When I've been looking out over the beach here, I've had the occasional curious person asking me about it and what it is.\n\n\"Most of the time, it is completely buried but when you get certain tides and the easterly winds, it will strip of all the shingle and this is what you see.\"\n\nProf Robert Liddiard, of the University of East Anglia, said the types of defences put up at Minsmere followed the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940.\n\n\"Once the Netherlands fell, there were concerns about ports in the low countries, such as Antwerp, being used as the base for an invasion,\" he said.\n\nThe British, he said, did not know whether such an invasion force would land on the south coast at Kent or Sussex, or on the East Anglian coastline.\n\n\"They started to go into something of a panic mode and you start getting pillboxes, barbed wire, minefields and the flooding of the marshes.\"\n\nThe scaffolding and so-called \"dragon's teeth\" (steel spikes set in concrete) quickly followed.\n\nThe East Anglian coast was felt to be particularly vulnerable because of the wide beaches and low-lying land surroundings which, said Prof Liddiard, were \"good landing territory\" for tanks.\n\n\"By late 1941, the area has become a prepared battlefield.\"\n\n\"When the Admiralty tested the defences they found it did its job reasonably well,\" said Prof Liddiard\n\nWould these various defences have worked?\n\n\"That's the $64,000 question,\" Prof Liddiard said. \"The intention here was to slow and disrupt and, to that end, I think they would have worked.\n\n\"How long they would have been held up for? We just don't know. What we do know is that the British troops had specific orders not to withdraw. They would have fought until the end.\n\n\"We tend to laugh at this stuff because it is a bit Dad's Army - it was not like that at the time.\n\n\"When the Admiralty tested the defences, they found it did its job reasonably well.\n\n\"However, it is an irony that a German invasion by sea was most likely to have taken place in June 1940 when the coast was at its most vulnerable. Once Germany had invaded Russia in June 1941, it [the invasion of the UK] is not going to happen.\"\n\nHad Nazi Germany invaded, would they have landed on the east coast?\n\nNot according to Prof Liddiard.\n\nThe evidence, he said, was that a German invasion, had it come, would have been on the south coast.\n\nThe soldiers sent to install the sea defences \"absolutely hated it\", according to Prof Liddiard\n\nProf Liddiard, who, with David Sims, wrote A Very Dangerous Locality: The landscape of the Suffolk Sandlings in the Second World War, said the soldiers sent to install the scaffolding did not enjoy the experience.\n\n\"The troops absolutely hated it,\" he said. \"They were in the water, it was long hours and it was cold, hard, manual labour.\"\n\nGaps were left in the sea defences, he said, for fishermen to use.\n\nCalled \"fishermen's gaps\", these channels were sometimes used by brave locals who used them to take a swim in the sea.\n\n\"I once spoke to an elderly lady at Sizewell who did just that,\" said Prof Liddiard. \"She remembers her mother telling her not to leave the path because of the minefield.\"\n\nThe minefields of the East Anglian beaches were extremely dangerous.\n\n\"They were horrible,\" said Prof Liddiard. \"The sea would move them around the place, sometimes the sea would set them off and there were cases of soldiers, civilians and, sometimes dogs, inadvertently setting them off.\"\n\nWhen World War Two ended, cadets were sent out to clear the mines.\n\nThe purpose of the Z1 scaffolding was to stop German invasion barges at high water or to stall tanks during low tide\n\nAnd while the remnants of the sea defences might continue to arouse curiosity from visitors to Minsmere, they are also a sign that the military clear up was not as thorough as it was on popular beaches such as Southwold and Aldeburgh.\n\n\"Places like Aldeburgh and Felixstowe, which were established coastal resorts, were desperate to get their tourism trade back,\" he said. \"They needed the money.\n\n\"The minefields were cleared first followed by the barbed wire and the rest.\n\n\"They did a pretty good job of it and, by 1950, most of the big stuff had gone.\"\n\nAt Minsmere, the flooding of the marshes as part of the war effort has had a lasting legacy. It meant Minsmere had about 400 acres of watery pools with extensive reedbeds.\n\nThe defence of the United Kingdom had accidentally created a haven for wild birds which eventually became the reserve as it is known today.\n\nAs for the remnants of the scaffolding, it is already beginning to be reclaimed by the shingle and will soon disappear once more.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n• None The brothers who fled Nazi occupation in a kayak\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Researchers found genetic traces of the plants and animals that once lived in the north of Greenland\n\nThe most ancient DNA ever sequenced reveals what the Arctic looked like two million years ago when it was warmer.\n\nToday the area in North Greenland is a polar desert, but the genetic material, extracted from soil, has uncovered a rich array of plants and animals.\n\nThe scientists found genetic traces of elephant-like mastodons, reindeer and geese that roamed among birch and poplar trees, and of marine life including horseshoe crabs and algae.\n\nThe research is published in Nature.\n\nProf Eske Willerslev, who carried out the study, from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Cambridge said that this mixture of Arctic and temperate species living side by side has no modern equivalent.\n\nThe soil samples were collected from a desolate environment in northern Greenland\n\nThe research was conducted in an area called the Kap København Formation, which is in the northernmost part of Greenland.\n\nUntil now, it's been hard to turn back the clock and see what this region was like two million years ago. Animal fossils from this period are extremely rare there.\n\n\"In fact, from the Kap København, the only animals that have ever been discovered through macro fossils are a hare's tooth and a dung beetle. So people had no idea what kind of fauna was there back then,\" explained Prof Willerslev.\n\nInstead, the team turned to environmental DNA - or eDNA. This is genetic material that is shed from plants and animals - for example, from skin cells or droppings - and accumulates in their surroundings.\n\nIt's a technique that's now widely used in conservation. For example, studying the DNA found in a drop of sea water can reveal all of the creatures that have lived in a patch of ocean, even if you can't see the individual animals yourself.\n\nIn Greenland, the team used ancient soil samples to look back in time at the biology of the Early Pleistocene Epoch.\n\nThey found a forest ecosystem, with Arctic shrubs, herbs, ferns and mosses growing among the trees.\n\nAmong the discovery of DNA from creatures like rodents, reindeer and geese, the unearthing of mastodon DNA was a surprise - Prof Willerslev told the BBC no one had found the elephant-like creatures in Greenland before.\n\nTwo million years ago, North Greenland was much warmer than it is now. The average annual temperatures were about 11-19C hotter.\n\n\"What it really tells us is that the plasticity of biological organisms - in terms of where they can live and the plants or animals that can live together - is way larger than what we thought,\" he said.\n\nThe team was not sure if DNA would survive for so many years\n\nExtracting and sequencing the DNA from the soil wasn't easy - it took the team years to work out the best technique to use. They even thought it might not be possible for genetic material to survive this long.\n\nProf Willerslev said: \"I wrote a paper in 2005, where I said I thought DNA would not survive for more than a million years, and here we are with DNA that's two million years old.\"\n\nHe thinks a chemical reaction between the DNA and the soil slowed any degradation.\n\n\"DNA is electrically charged molecules, and many of the minerals we see in the soil are also electrically charged. Therefore, the DNA will basically bind to solid minerals, and when it does this, it reduces the rate of spontaneous degradation.\"\n\nIf more environmental DNA is found to survive at other sites, the discovery could change the way we view the ancient world.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "If given the go-ahead, the coalmine in Whitehaven would be the UK's first deep coalmine in 30 years\n\nA decision on whether to go ahead with a new coal mine in Cumbria has been delayed for a third time.\n\nThe decision was expected by 8 November, but it has been pushed back until after next week's COP27 climate summit in Egypt.\n\nThe Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said it would now be made \"on or before 8 December 2022\".\n\nThe Planning Inspectorate's report has been with the government since April.\n\nIf given the go-ahead, it would be the first deep coal mine in the UK for more than 30 years - the government says it needs more time to consider the case.\n\nThe former Marchon chemical works on the outskirts of Whitehaven is the site of the proposed mine\n\nThe proposed mine at Whitehaven would remove coking coal from beneath the Irish Sea for the production of steel - it would not be used for power generation.\n\nA public inquiry was held by the Planning Inspectorate into whether West Cumbria Mining could mine coking coal at the former Marchon chemical works site.\n\nOpponents of the development say a new coalmine contradicts the government's commitment to net zero and decarbonising all sectors.\n\nTony Bosworth of Friends of the Earth said: \"Reintroducing the fracking ban was a good first step, but if Rishi Sunak is to really keep his pledge to make climate change a priority his government must leave coal in the ground.\n\n\"The run-up to next week's climate summit was an ideal chance for the government to rebuild its battered green credentials by rejecting this damaging and unnecessary coal mine. It's a shame they didn't seize the opportunity\"\n\nSupporters claim it will create jobs and reduce the need to import coal for steelmaking.\n\nThe Conservative mayor of Copeland, Mike Starkie, said there was \"no excuse\" for the delay.\n\n\"I am extremely disappointed that this decision has yet again been delayed,\" he said.\n\n\"This is a huge private investment for my area that will significantly contribute towards the levelling up agenda without costing the government a penny.\"\n\nThe original deadline for the decision was 7 July, and it is believed the then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson was scheduled to be in Cumbria on that day.\n\nHowever, in a twist of fate, it was the same day Mr Johnson announced he was to stand down as leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister.\n\nA second deadline for a decision was set for 17 August - that was pushed back to 8 November, and now that too has been deferred until 8 December.\n\nIn the space of four months, the position of Levelling Up Secretary of State changed hands three times.\n\nOpponents of the mine have previously protested outside the Home Office in London as well as at the site in Whitehaven\n\nFrom July, the secretary of state was Michael Gove, followed by Greg Clark, Simon Clarke, and then Mr Gove again.\n\nThe mine was approved to operate until 2049 by Cumbria County Council in October 2020, but four months later the authority suspended its decision.\n\nWest Cumbria Mining previously said exploratory works led it to estimate there were about 750m tonnes of \"excellent quality\" coking coal in the area.\n\nHowever, planning conditions would limit the company to producing no more than 2.78 million tonnes a year.", "Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service said the blaze could have been much worse\n\nFirefighters have warned people not to follow a TikTok trend for building makeshift heaters from tealights and pots following a flat fire.\n\nAbout 50 people had to be evacuated from their homes when the blaze broke out at Prosperity House in Gower Street, Derby, but nobody was injured.\n\nIt emerged the fire had been caused by tealights being used to heat terracotta pots.\n\nThe fire service said it strongly discouraged the money-saving \"hack\".\n\nThe instructional videos have become popular on the social media app over recent months.\n\nContent creators have claimed the homemade devices are a cheap way to heat homes.\n\nHowever experts have criticised their effectiveness, while fire services have strongly warned against their use.\n\nThe videos give instructions about how to build the makeshift heaters\n\nDerbyshire Fire and Rescue Service said in the case of the 30 November fire at Prosperity House, heat released from the base of the tea lights had weakened the terracotta plates they were placed on, causing the homemade heater to collapse and melted wax to ignite.\n\nStation manager Barclay Masterson said: \"Although these hacks may look like a good way to save money on heating bills, they are very dangerous and we would urge people not to follow the videos posted online.\n\n\"Luckily, in this instance, the occupiers witnessed the failure of the homemade device and evacuated the flat safely before calling 999 - but it could have been very different, and I would therefore like to remind everyone of the dangers that DIY heaters pose.\n\n\"Candles and tealights increase the risk of fire in your home and should not be used for anything other than their intended purpose.\"\n\nAbout 50 people had to be evacuated from neighbouring properties\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Stormont has had no ministers in post since October\n\nNorthern Ireland's ministers left office at the end of October and since then Stormont's nine government departments have been left in the hands of senior civil servants.\n\nBut, who are the officials running Northern Ireland?\n\nWith no ministers in place, the powers of civil servants are severely limited.\n\nThey can only implement policies previously agreed by politicians and their ability to react to changing circumstances is negligible.\n\nIn a statement to BBC News NI, The Executive Office (TEO) outlined how Northern Ireland is currently being run.\n\n\"Departments will continue to deliver services as far as possible and business as usual will continue for the majority of services in the immediate future,\" said a spokesperson.\n\nThe statement spelled out the limitations faced by civil servants.\n\n\"The courts have made clear what departments can do in the absence of a minister. The Court of Appeal confirmed in July 2018 that the role of the civil servant is to advise ministers and be accountable to them.\n\n\"The court also stated that any matter, which as a matter of convention or otherwise would normally go before the minister for approval, lies beyond the competence of a department in the absence of a minister.\"\n\nSo who are Northern Ireland's top civil servants?\n\nMs Brady became Head of the Civil Service in June 2021 and leads a workforce of 23,000 civil servants.\n\nUnlike most top Stormont officials she was appointed from outside the civil service having previously worked as Belfast City Council's digital innovation commissioner.\n\nShe holds an MBE for Services to Economic Development in Northern Ireland and describes herself as \"an engineer at heart\".\n\nAddressing the current challenge facing senior officials Ms Brady said: \"There is no doubt that what we are faced with is very difficult but we will continue to do our best to serve citizens.\"\n\nThe NI Civil Service offers a salary of up to £166,000 for its top job.\n\nThe role of Permanent Secretary at the Executive Office (TEO) previously included the function of head of the civil service. This changed when Jayne Brady was appointed.\n\nThe role was divided and long-term civil servant Denis McMahon became the leading official at TEO.\n\nIn normal times, it is the department at the heart of government and headed by the first and deputy first ministers.\n\nTEO's official role includes \"the effective operation of the institutions of government in the delivery of an agreed programme for government\" - a tough job given the absence of an executive, or a programme for government.\n\nMr McMahon was previously permanent secretary at the Department of Agriculture and began his career as a statistician.\n\nHis many jobs have included a spell as principal private secretary to former first minister Ian Paisley.\n\nResponsibility at the head of the remaining eight executive departments transferred to their individual permanent secretaries when the politicians lost their ministerial posts.\n\nSome of them have been civil servants for all of their working lives, others have experience working in business, academia and the voluntary sector.\n\nMr Boyle was appointed to the top job at the department in April 2022.\n\nHe had previously been interim permanent secretary in the Department of Finance.\n\nThe role of the Department for Communities includes responsibility for the social welfare system, housing and support for local government.\n\nMs Godfrey is an experienced senior civil servant, having spent three years as permanent secretary at the Department for Infrastructure.\n\nShe's the first woman to fill the top job at the Department of Agriculture.\n\nIn addition to her Stormont duties, the permanent secretary is a visiting professor at Ulster University where she teaches on the Masters in Public Administration course.\n\nMr Gibson was the chief economist for Ireland in the consultancy firm EY before becoming permanent secretary in the department that holds Northern Ireland's purse strings.\n\nHe replaced Sue Gray, who had been highly tipped for the post of head of the civil service but subsequently returned to a career in Whitehall.\n\nNeil Gibson is also a visiting professor of Economic Policy at Ulster University.\n\nMr Browne is a familiar figure at Stormont having spent 36 years in the civil service.\n\nHe started out as a statistician in the Department of Finance in 1985.\n\nMr Browne was appointed permanent secretary at the education department in March 2021 having previously served as deputy secretary in TEO since 2013.\n\nMr May took the helm at the department in May following a job swap with Richard Pengelly, who took over his position at the Department of Justice.\n\nHe has had a long civil service career at a senior rank. In addition to his period with the Justice Department, he previously held the top job at the Department for Infrastructure and the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure.\n\nMr May recently grabbed the headlines for comments he made regarding the future of Northern Ireland health service.\n\n\"Ultimately, we get the health service we pay for,\" he said.\n\n\"Without sustained investment, we will need as a society to recalibrate our expectations of what our health and social care system can deliver.\"\n\nRichard Pengelly is the top civil servant in the Department for Justice\n\nRichard Pengelly became the top official at the Justice Department in May following a stint of eight years as permanent secretary at the Department of Health.\n\nHis time at health coincided with the Covid pandemic when he worked alongside then Health Minister Robin Swann.\n\nMr Pengelly started out as a chartered accountant in private practice and worked in the Northern Ireland Audit Office before joining the Department of Finance and Personnel in 1998.\n\nHe is married to the Lagan Valley MLA, Emma Little-Pengelly.\n\nMs Harrison worked in a number of jobs outside the civil service before her appointment as deputy secretary in the Department of Justice in 2020.\n\nShe assumed the top job at infrastructure in April, where she heads a department employing 3,000 people.\n\nMs Harrison previously served as Northern Ireland chair and UK board member of the National Lottery Community Fund.\n\nMike Brennan took on the top job at economy in December 2020 having spent much of his civil service career at the Department of Finance.\n\nHe served as deputy secretary in the EU Exit Policy Group.\n\nPrior to joining the civil service, Mr Brennan was an economist at the Northern Ireland Economic Council.", "Tory peer Michelle Mone is to request a leave of absence from the Lords \"to clear her name\", amid allegations she benefitted from a company she recommended for a Covid contract.\n\nIt means she would not attend sittings of the House, vote on any proceedings or be able to claim any allowance.\n\nBaroness Mone has been linked to PPE Medpro, which won government contracts during the pandemic.\n\nHer spokesman said the allegations had been \"unjustly levelled against her\".\n\nIt was Baroness Mone's decision to seek a leave of absence, her spokesman added.\n\nHer request could be rejected by the Lords authorities - but if it is approved she does not have to register any changes to her financial interests.\n\nA House of Lords spokesman said a decision would be made once a formal request had been received.\n\nBaroness Mone, who joined the House of Lords in 2015, has not taken part in a vote since April this year and has not spoken in a debate since March 2020.\n\nOn Tuesday, Labour won a vote calling on the government to release correspondence, documents and advice relating to government contracts awarded to PPE Medpro. Conservative MPs were instructed to abstain from the vote.\n\nLabour want the documents to be released to the Public Accounts Committee.\n\nThe vote committed the government to publishing the documents, although ministers may argue they can be redacted for legal reasons or because of commercial sensitivity.\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was \"too weak\" to remove the whip from Baroness Mone - which would mean she was expelled from the parliamentary party - and had left her \"to finally read the writing on the wall\".\n\nSpeaking in the House of Commons, Ms Rayner said \"the public needs answers\" about the government's \"shameful dealings\" with companies that received contracts through the VIP fast track procurement process during the pandemic. Releasing documents would be the \"first step in restoring faith\", she added.\n\nLiberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper also called for Mr Sunak to suspend the whip from Baroness Mone, adding: \"This is more proof if any were needed that Sunak's pledge of integrity has been reduced to dust.\"\n\nHealth Minister Will Quince said the government is \"committed to releasing information when all investigations are concluded,\" but added it was \"engaged in commercially sensitive mediation with\" PPE Medpro.\n\nThe government would work with the Public Accounts Committee \"on the terms in which information may be shared\", Mr Quince added.\n\nHe defended the government's action in the height of the pandemic, claiming \"the public would never have forgiven us\" if they hadn't changed procurement rules to secure PPE.\n\nDowning Street would not comment on Baroness Mone's decision because of an ongoing mediation process between PPE Medpro and the Department of Health.\n\nA No 10 spokesman said it was a matter for the whips whether she should be expelled from the parliamentary Conservative party.\n\nLabour's Angela Rayner has been critical of how contracts were awarded during the pandemic\n\nBetween May and June 2020, PPE Medpro was awarded two government contracts worth £203m to supply masks and medical gowns.\n\nUnusually, the company was only a few weeks old when it signed the first of these agreements.\n\nIn December 2020, BBC News reported that millions of medical gowns the firm supplied, worth £122m, had never been used.\n\nPPE Medpro said at the time that it had delivered 100% of the contract to the terms specified and that it had supplied equipment \"fully in accordance with the agreed contract, which included clear terms as to technical specification and performance criteria of the products\".\n\nAn investigation in the Guardian based on leaked documents alleged Baroness Mone had financially benefited from the company.\n\nGlasgow-born businesswoman Baroness Mone is being investigated by the Lords commissioners for standards over her \"alleged involvement\" in procuring contracts for the company.\n\nHowever, the commissioners says he is unable to finalise or publish his report because \"the matter is under investigation by the police or another agency as part of a criminal investigation\".\n\nProperties linked to the company were searched by the National Crime Agency earlier this year.\n\nEmails released under Freedom of Information laws show Baroness Mone referring the company to a government minister during the pandemic.\n\nAsked in December 2020 about reports she was linked to the company, Baroness Mone's lawyers told BBC News she \"had no role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro\".\n\nThe Department of Health said: \"Due diligence was carried out on all companies that were referred to the department and every company was subjected to the same checks.\n\n\"We acted swiftly to procure PPE at the height of the pandemic, competing in an overheated global market where demand massively outstripped supply.\"\n\nThe department is currently in mediation with PPE Medpro over what it has described as an \"underperforming contract\" and said it was unable to comment on specifics.\n\nSeparately, Matt Hancock has accused Baroness Mone of being aggressive and threatening when trying to secure another government contract for Covid tests.\n\nIn his book, Pandemic Diaries, Mr Hancock claimed she had demanded \"urgent help\" to secure contracts in an email in June 2021, when he was health secretary.\n\nHe said he was later told the tests had not won any contracts because they had not passed the standards required and he chose not to reply to the \"extraordinarily aggressive email\".\n\nMr Hancock did not name the company but The Guardian claims it is LFI Diagnostics, which the newspaper believes is linked to Baroness Mone's husband Douglas Barrowman.\n\nThe BBC has not been able to verify this report yet.\n\nPPE Medpro is the majority shareholder in LFI Diagnostics, which was formed in February last year, according to documents filed with Companies House.\n\nBaroness Mone and her husband have previously denied various claims about their involvement in PPE contracts.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We are visible people!\" Veronica Ryan accepts the award\n\nSculptor Veronica Ryan, who made the UK's first permanent public artwork to honour the Windrush generation, has won this year's Turner Prize.\n\nFor her Windrush memorial, Ryan placed giant sculptures of Caribbean fruits on a street in Hackney, east London.\n\n\"Power! Visibility!\" she shouted after her name was announced at the ceremony.\n\nRyan, 66, became the oldest winner in the prestigious art award's 38-year history when she picked up the £25,000 cheque at the event in Liverpool.\n\n\"Better late than never,\" she said afterwards, telling BBC culture editor Katie Razzall it was \"overwhelming\" to win.\n\nRyan wore her late father's hat to the ceremony\n\nRyan was born on Monserrat before moving to the UK as a toddler, and her art uses the fruits, seeds and even volcanic ash from her home island.\n\nHer winning works included the custard apple, breadfruit and soursop sculptures that were unveiled in Hackney in October 2021 in tribute to those who moved from the Caribbean to the UK after 1948.\n\nHer career has been \"an incredible struggle\" at times, she explained. \"There were 20 years, almost, when no-one was paying attention to my work.\"\n\nBut she credited her upbringing in a thrifty family for giving her an attitude that enabled her to make art in lean times with whatever materials she had to hand.\n\nShe thanked people \"who've looked out for me when I wasn't visible and I was making work from rubbish\", adding: \"But actually some of the rubbish [works] are some of the most important works, I think.\"\n\nRyan's marble and bronze fruit sculptures were inspired by her memories of visiting Hackney's Ridley Road Market as a child\n\nShe also won for an exhibition in Bristol last year that featured cocoa pods, avocado stones and orange peel.\n\nCrocheted bags made from fishing line were included, as well as tea-stained medical pillows that were made during the pandemic to reflect acts of care and nurturing.\n\nRyan wore her father's hat as she accepted the award and paid tribute to her family, including three late siblings, on stage. \"They were fantastic people and I think they're looking at us right now, and they're proud,\" she told the audience.\n\nTurner Prize judges praised Ryan's \"really poetic\" art, which uses \"things that normally are thrown away or lost\"\n\nRyan's Turner Prize exhibits include long crocheted sacks made from fishing lines, containing avocado stones, drift seeds and other items\n\n\"It obviously means a huge amount, in her dad's hat up there, having been overlooked for a long, long time,\" she said.\n\n\"She is a great, great artist, and she really works with stuff, and she makes stuff speak.\"\n\nTate Britain director Alex Farquharson, who co-chaired this year's jury, said Ryan's work had \"a quiet but very compelling presence\".\n\n\"There's a kind of subtle autobiographical component to the work, and the jury feel that she's extending the language of modern contemporary sculpture in new and subtle ways,\" he said.\n\nAt 66, Veronica Ryan is the oldest winner of the Turner Prize\n\nRyan's was \"perhaps the most abstract and elusive work\" of this year's four nominees, he added.\n\n\"But it's quite insistent. And it's ultimately really poetic as a sculptural practice - but you're aware that this poetry is a result of working with the most humble forms, things that normally are thrown away or lost.\n\n\"There's a sense of beachcombing to how the materials are found, kept and brought back to life. And I think that is something that people can relate to.\"\n\nThe prize comes a year after Ryan was made an OBE for services to art. Farquharson said the Turner was not intended as a \"lifetime achievement award\", noting that her work had taken \"a very interesting turn over the last year or two\".\n\nRyan's work at the Turner exhibition in Liverpool is probably the least immediately relatable of the four artists vying for this prize.\n\nThat's not to say her mysterious sculptures aren't quietly beautiful.\n\nBut they don't have the more obviously understandable themes explored by her fellow nominees around identity, the environment, racism, gay rights. Or their larger, bolder scale.\n\nVisitors to Tate Liverpool have been encouraged to use plastic tokens to vote for their favourite artist. On the day I visited, other nominees Ingrid Pollard and Heather Phillipson had the most tokens by far. Tate wouldn't reveal who won that \"public vote\".\n\nTate Britain boss Alex Farquharson told the BBC that Ryan's appeal may be \"a case of slow burn\".\n\nBut she has also been judged on her sculptures in east London - the first ever to honour the Windrush generation. They alone make her a worthy winner.\n\nRyan received the trophy from Frankie Goes To Hollywood frontman Holly Johnson at Liverpool's St George's Hall on Tuesday.\n\nThe three other nominees - Heather Phillipson, Ingrid Pollard and Sin Wai Kin - will receive £10,000 each.\n\nBefore announcing the winner, Johnson referred to the fact that there were three women nominated, with the fourth contender being non binary.\n\n\"It's about time, after the years of misogyny in the art world where women were only good for baring their breasts and reclining on couches, it's about time they were nominated and held in high esteem,\" he told the audience.\n\nThe Turner Prize is Britain's most well-known - and often most controversial - award for contemporary art, and Liverpool is the first city outside London to host the ceremony and accompanying exhibition more than once.\n\nRyan is the first individual artist to pick up the award since 2018.\n\nIn 2019, all five nominees asked to share it rather than having one winner; in 2020, the pandemic meant it was replaced with 10 artist bursaries; and last year all the nominees were collectives who helped to \"inspire social change through art\".\n\nThe Turner Prize exhibition runs at Tate Liverpool until 19 March.", "Labour MP Conor McGinn has been suspended from the party pending an investigation, the BBC has been told.\n\nMr McGinn, who has represented the St Helens North constituency since 2015, will now sit as an independent MP.\n\nDetails of the nature of the inquiry have not yet been confirmed.\n\nIn a statement given to The Guardian, Mr McGinn said \"I strongly reject any suggestion of wrongdoing and I look forward to the matter being resolved quickly.\"\n\n\"I have not been told the details of the complaint but I am confident that it is entirely unfounded.\"\n\n\"The Labour party has informed me that it is automatically required to apply a temporary procedural suspension while a complaint is investigated.\"\n\nMr McGinn - who has previously served as an opposition whip and the party's deputy national campaign co-ordinator - is the latest Labour MP to be suspended under the party's new complaints process.\n\nThe system was set up last year in the wake of controversy over how anti-Semitism allegations were handled.\n\nA 2020 Equalities and Human Rights Commission report into how the claims were handled recommended that the party put in place \"long-term arrangements for independent oversight of the complaint handling process\".\n\nParty members backed creating this new system at its annual conference in 2021.\n\nUnder the rules, Mr McGinn's suspension from Labour Party membership will lead to automatic precautionary suspension from the Parliamentary Labour Party.", "Data shows that 49 probationary constables quit in the last financial year\n\nResignations among newly-recruited Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers have doubled in two years, prompting the force to carry out a review.\n\nOne constable told BBC News NI pay was a major issue - he was earning £11.91 an hour and had a second job outside his police shifts.\n\n\"I'm about to work my 16th day in a row between the two jobs,\" he said.\n\n\"If I had a mortgage to pay I would be finished.\"\n\nRecruits undergo a 23-week training programme before spending two years as a probationary constable.\n\nData shows 49 probationary constables quit in the past financial year - up from 25 during the previous 12 months.\n\nThe PSNI spent more than £1m training them.\n\nThe numbers are in sharp contrast to the picture 10 years ago, when eight officers quit in the period after training.\n\nStarter pay is just over £21,000 - about £7,000 less than in Scotland - although increments can eventually push a constable's salary to around £40,000 over time.\n\nAfter completing training, officers are also paid a £3,500 allowance in acknowledgement of the additional security threat faced by police in Northern Ireland.\n\nBut the cost-of-living crisis appears to have created big problems amongst new joiners.\n\nThe Police Federation, which represents officers, put BBC News NI in contact with a number of officers who spoke on condition of anonymity.\n\nThe constable with the second job is in his early 20s.\n\n\"I had to get clearance to do the other job and more are going down that route,\" he said.\n\n\"I've seen people resign but I haven't considered it as it's what I always wanted to do.\n\n\"The stress is a lot more than people realise, especially with there being a security threat.\"\n\nA constable with six years' experience - and higher up the pay ladder - said: \"You are seeing one or two resignations a week.\"\n\nHe said things are \"pretty dire\", with the PSNI's squeezed budget having impacted on officer overtime.\n\n\"We pay quite heavily into our pension. But people are opting out of it as they can't afford the £300-400 a month.\n\n\"That's going to effect their long-term futures.\"\n\nThe issue has been discussed between PSNI commanders and the Policing Board.\n\nUlster Unionist Party board member Mike Nesbitt said: \"Some attrition is inevitable. There is always the odd recruit finding 'it's not for me'.\n\n\"But my concern is around pay. It is not attractive especially when you think officers are subject to a terrorist threat.\n\n\"Pay is the most significant fact in the rise in attrition rates.\"\n\nIn response to the figures, which were disclosed under a Freedom of Information request, the PSNI said it was reviewing the situation.\n\n\"Once this work is completed, we will be in a position to identify what, if any, specific actions are required by us as an organisation to reduce attrition rates,\" a spokesperson said.", "A self-proclaimed prophet in the US had more than 20 wives, some of them younger than 18, the FBI has said.\n\nSamuel Rappylee Bateman claimed it was God's will for him to engage in sexual acts with his wives, the FBI said.\n\nBateman, 46, was charged in September with destroying records and obstructing justice in an investigation into whether children were being transported across state lines for sexual activity.\n\nThe details come from an FBI affidavit filed on Friday.\n\nBateman was a former member of a branch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church) - a breakaway sect of the Mormon church - until he left to start his own splinter group.\n\nThe FBI said that Bateman was supported financially by male followers who also gave up their own wives and children to be Bateman's wives.\n\nHe punished followers who did not treat him as a prophet, the FBI said.\n\nIn August, Bateman was arrested when he was discovered hauling a trailer with three young girls aged between 11 and 14.\n\nHe posted bond but was later arrested on the charges of destroying records and obstructing justice.\n\nEarlier this year, nine girls were removed from Bateman's care by Arizona child services, and placed in group homes. In November, eight of them ran away from the group homes.\n\nWashington state authorities tracked them down when an officer reportedly spotted a vehicle driven by one of Bateman's wives, according to the affidavit.\n\nThe driver and two other of Bateman's wives have been accused of kidnapping in an ongoing criminal case, the FBI said.\n\nThe driver has said that she became one of Bateman's wives when she was under 18, the FBI said.\n\nShe gave birth seven months after she turned 18, according to the affidavit.\n\nIn interviews with the FBI, none of the nine girls placed in homes mentioned sexual abuse by Bateman, but in journals, they referenced intimate interactions with him, the affidavit said.\n\nThe FLDS Church has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.\n\nIn 2011, an FLDS leader was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting two underage followers he took as brides.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lisa's sister Joanne urges those who know what happened to tell the police and take the £20,000 reward\n\nA £20,000 reward is being offered for information on the disappearance and murder of Lisa Dorrian.\n\nThe 25-year-old shop assistant vanished after attending a party at a caravan park in Ballyhalbert, a seaside village in County Down, in 2005.\n\nIt is presumed that Ms Dorrian, who was from Bangor, was murdered.\n\n\"After nearly 18 years, we've waited long enough as a family - Lisa doesn't deserve to be out there alone,\" her sister Joanne told BBC News NI.\n\n\"We've begged and pleaded with people to come forward and if money is what it will take to get Lisa back, we'd pay anything.\"\n\nMs Dorrian was last seen on the night of 27 February 2005 and police believe she was murdered that night or in the early hours of the following morning.\n\nNo-one has ever been convicted of her murder and her body has never been found.\n\n\"I always try to put myself in their shoes,\" said Joanne.\n\n\"I try to do that because I think what is keeping them from telling us? What more could we do?\n\n\"We have put our souls on the line and in public for almost 18 years.\n\n\"The person who killed Lisa knew Lisa. The person who disposed of Lisa's body knew her was with her that weekend.\n\n\"They just need to think back to the lovely, funny person she was.\n\n\"She was caring to everyone she met, that's undeniable.\n\n\"There's no doubt that the people who were in her company that weekend felt that love and warmth from her.\"\n\nThe reward of up to £20,000 is being offered by the charity Crimestoppers.\n\nIt will be given for information leading to either the arrest and conviction of those responsible or the recovery of her body, which Det Supt Eamonn Corrigan said was \"especially noteworthy and indeed unusual\".\n\nAnyone who provides information to Crimestoppers can remain anonymous and the charity will not ask for or store any personal details, including internet addresses.\n\nThe family has also raised £65,000 which it can award for the right information.\n\n\"Money means nothing to us, Lisa means everything,\" said Joanne.\n\n\"If this is enough to motivate them then I'd beg them to do that.\"\n\n\"Nearly 18 years without Lisa has completely shaped our lives,\" says Joanne Dorrian\n\nJoanne said her family \"couldn't speak more highly of the dedication of the PSNI\" and they would never give up the hope of giving Lisa a Christian burial.\n\nOn Wednesday, they will attend the Irish National Missing Persons Day event in Dublin.\n\n\"I constantly worry that I'm going to forget what [Lisa's] laugh sounds like,\" said Joanne.\n\n\"In 2005, we didn't have the technology we have now.\"\n\nBut Joanne says the family talk about Lisa every day and will always keep her memory alive.\n\nDet Supt Corrigan urged those responsible to \"please search your conscience and come forward\".\n\n\"They are denying this family the most basic of rights and that's the right to lay their loved one to rest,\" he said.\n\n\"It is not too late to do the right thing and to help bring some form of closure to years of torment.\"", "A bill to ban anti-abortion protests at Northern Ireland health clinics does not \"disproportionately interfere\" with protesters' rights, the Supreme Court has ruled.\n\nFormer assembly member Clare Bailey developed the bill to set up so-called safe access zones outside clinics where abortions are carried out.\n\nIt was voted through the assembly in March by a majority of parties.\n\nIt was delayed from becoming law after the attorney general intervened.\n\nNorthern Ireland is the first part of the UK to bring such legislation into place.\n\nAttorney General Dame Brenda King referred the bill to the UK's highest court, asking judges there to determine whether part of the bill disproportionately interfered with the rights of people protesting against abortion.\n\nIt was the first time a piece of Northern Ireland legislation had been referred to the Supreme Court in this way.\n\nThe legislation can now go on to become law, but it is not clear how long it will take to implement.\n\nThe bill would make it an offence to protest against abortion within the zones, directly argue or harass people who may be attending the clinics or to obstruct access to the premises in question.\n\nDame Brenda King had asked the court to determine whether the bill was within the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly.\n\nHer concerns related to the omission of what is known as the \"reasonable excuse\" defence from the bill.\n\nOn Wednesday, Supreme Court President Lord Reed said judges had unanimously agreed that the legislation was within the assembly's competence.\n\nHe said the bill had a \"legitimate aim\" and while it restricted the exercise of protesters' rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, the restrictions could be justified.\n\n\"It seeks to ensure women have access to advice and treatment relating to lawful termination of pregnancy under conditions which respect their privacy and dignity, and are not driven instead to less safe alternatives,\" said Lord Reed.\n\nHe said the legislation also protected staff working at health clinics from being intimidated, harassed or abused.\n\n\"The right to access healthcare and pursue employment are protected by article eight of the convention,\" Lord Reed said.\n\nThe court found the legislation balanced competing rights, concluding that as drafted the bill was \"justifiable\".\n\n\"The restrictions imposed are required to protect the rights of women seeking treatment or advice, and are also in the interests of the wider community, including other patients and staff of clinics and hospitals,\" Lord Reed added.\n\nIn October, MPs backed similar proposals for England and Wales but they are still going through Parliament.\n\nIn Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the government will support plans to outlaw such protests outside health clinics.\n\nChief commissioner Alyson Kilpatrick said it was a \"positive affirmation of women and girls' rights to protection from harassment\" when accessing abortion services.\n\nSinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill described the judgement as a step forward to protect patients and health workers.\n\nAlliance Party MLA Paula Bradshaw also said the judgement was a welcome step for women's rights and safe access to healthcare services was a fundamental right.\n\nBut the campaign group Abolish Abortion NI condemned the move.\n\n\"Today's Supreme Court judgement is nothing new,\" it said.\n\n\"Abortion clinic ministry has already saved lives in Northern Ireland and will continue to in spite of today's judgement.\"\n\nMs Bailey, who began developing the legislation when she was first elected as a Green Party MLA in 2016, said the ruling came as a great relief.\n\n\"It's the best Christmas present ever,\" she said.\n\n\"We've been waiting for months in trepidation on the Supreme Court judgement on this bill and I think they've made the right judgement.\n\nThe Department of Health said it had worked closely with Ms Bailey and welcomed the Supreme Court decision.\n\nIt said once the bill became law it would work with health trusts to ensure they could implement the new rules.", "West Cumbria Mining says the scheme would bring about 500 jobs to the Whitehaven area\n\nA proposed new coal mine in Cumbria has been branded \"absolutely indefensible\" by the chairman of the government's official advisors on climate change.\n\nLord Deben, chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), was speaking at the launch of the annual report on the UK's progress in tackling greenhouse gases.\n\nA decision on planning permission for the mine near Whitehaven to source coal for steel-making is expected soon.\n\nEnvironmentalists have warned that demand for coking coal is declining.\n\nLord Deben, who leads the independent advisory committee, said Russia's invasion of Ukraine meant the government should be looking to protect energy supplies.\n\nHe acknowledged that the UK had done so with a focus on renewables and nuclear.\n\n\"As far as the coal mine in Cumbria is concerned, let's be absolutely clear, it is absolutely indefensible,\" he said.\n\n\"First of all, 80% of what it produces will be exported, so it is not something largely for internal consumption.\n\n\"It is not going to contribute anything to our domestic needs in the terms we're talking about, the cost of energy and the rest.\"\n\nHe said the mine's backers claimed it would provide metallurgical coal, which is currently imported, but it would not reduce the amount of coal being produced - largely in the USA.\n\nDuring Prime Minister's Questions on 22 June, Boris Johnson appeared to hint that the mine may be given the go-ahead when he said that \"plainly it makes no sense to be importing coal, particularly for metallurgical purposes, when we have our own domestic resources.\"\n\nThe mine was approved by Cumbria County Council in October 2020, but the decision was suspended weeks later following guidance from the CCC and then the Planning Inspectorate was tasked with examining the arguments.\n\nIts report was handed to the government earlier this year and a deadline of 7 July was set for a decision by the Communities Secretary Michael Gove.\n\nWoodhouse Colliery could be the UK's first new deep mine for three decades\n\nHowever, Lord Deben warned its approval would damage the UK's leadership on climate change and \"create another example of Britain saying one thing and doing another\".\n\nHe said the government should find a way of ensuring the jobs that might have been created by the mine be replaced by alternative green jobs.\n\nLord Deben said he was not concerned about keeping a coal-fired power plant open longer than planned this winter to shore up energy supplies, despite a commitment to end UK coal power by October 2024.\n\n\"We are under serious threat because of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russians, and in those circumstances the government has to make sure that we keep the lights on,\" he added.\n\nFriends of the Earth energy campaigner Tony Bosworth said Lord Deben was \"right\" and the case against a new coal mine was \"overwhelming in climate terms\".\n\nHe said the \"market for its coal is declining before it even opens\", adding: \"Saying no to this mine should an open-and-shut case for a government serious about the climate crisis.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A 100-million-year-old plesiosaur fossil has been found by a group of friends in the Australian outback. Scientists say the complete fossil is a rare and exciting discovery.", "In his letter to Sunak, Hancock said he was \"very grateful\" for his conversation with the chief whip last week \"in which he made clear he would restore the whip in due course, but that is now not necessary\".\n\n\"It has been a huge honour to serve as Member of Parliament for West Suffolk over the past 12 years,\" he said adding that he was \"very proud of what we achieved\".\n\nHe goes on to list some of his highlights from his nine years in government, including \"restoring the nation's finances\" and \"support for the NHS with record numbers of doctors and nurses\" and the response to the pandemic.\n\nHe closes his letter saying he wants \"to do things differently\", and that he's \"discovered a whole world of possibilities which I am excited to explore - new ways for me to communicate with people of all ages and from all backgrounds\".\n\nHe says he wants to champion issues \"dear to my heart\", including better support for dyslexic children \"who get a raw deal from the education system\".", "The mine would be near Whitehaven in Cumbria\n\nMichael Gove has approved the first new UK coal mine in 30 years despite concern about its climate impacts among Conservative MPs and experts.\n\nThe proposed mine in Cumbria would dig up coking coal for steel production in the UK and across the world.\n\nCritics say the mine would undermine climate targets and demand for coking coal is declining.\n\nBut supporters claim the mine, near Whitehaven, will create jobs and reduce the need to import coal.\n\nThe fate of the West Cumbria Mining project had been hanging in the balance for two years after the local county council initially approved the mine in 2020.\n\nThe project's approval was suspended in early 2021, ahead of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, after the government's climate change adviser said it would increase carbon emissions.\n\nThe government's advisory Climate Change Committee (UKCCC) pointed out that 85% of the coal produced by the mine would be exported.\n\nLord Deben, chairman of the CCC, described the proposal as \"absolutely indefensible\" and said its approval would damage the UK's leadership on climate change.\n\nPlanning authorities reviewed the original decision and sent a report to the secretary of state of communities to review and make a final judgement.\n\nA letter outlining the decision said Mr Gove - the communities and levelling-up secretary - agreed with the planning inspector's recommendation to approve the mine.\n\nThe letter says Mr Gove was \"satisfied that there is currently a UK and European market for the coal\".\n\nThe secretary of state agrees with the assessment that the effects of the development on carbon emissions \"would be relatively neutral and not significant\", the letter says.\n\nThe department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the decision was consistent with the government's policies on curbing carbon emissions.\n\nBut opposition parties and environmental groups condemned the decision as harmful for the climate and the UK's transition to a greener economy.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kellingley Colliery miners talk about their way of life\n\nFriends of the Earth said the decision was a \"misguided and deeply damaging mistake that flies in the face of all the evidence\".\n\n\"The mine isn't needed, will add to global climate emissions, and won't replace Russian coal,\" said Friends of the Earth campaigner Tony Bosworth.\n\nCoal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, producing almost twice the emissions of natural gas.\n\nWest Cumbria Mining says the coking coal it produces will be used for steelmaking in the UK and Europe.\n\nThe local council had granted permission to dig for coking coal until 2049, with the mine expected to create about 500 jobs.\n\nBut the two companies that still make steel using coal in the UK - British Steel and Tata - say they plan to move to lower carbon production methods.\n\nSteel industry expert Chris McDonald estimates that, at best, they will use less than 10% of the output of the mine and, by the mid-2030s, none at all.\n\nThat means the new mine will export virtually all the coal it produces.\n\nThe former Marchon chemical works on the outskirts of Whitehaven is the site of the proposed mine\n\nShadow climate secretary Ed Miliband said the mine was \"no solution to the energy crisis\" and \"does not offer secure, long-term jobs\".\n\nThe Green Party suggested the decision had been \"cynically delayed\" until after the UK's presidency of COP ended and had left the government's environmental credentials \"in tatters\".\n\nThe decision could expose divisions within the Conservative Party, whose greener MPs have spoken out against the plans.\n\nSenior Conservatives - including the former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and COP President Alok Sharma - had argued the mine would conflict with the UK's climate targets.\n\nBut some Northern Tory MPs had campaigned for the mine on the basis it would provide jobs and investment.\n\nIn a tweet, former Conservative Party chairman Jake Berry said the decision was \"good news for the North and for common sense\".\n\nWhere does this leave Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's green credentials?\n\nOnly earlier this week he caved to pressure from his own Tory MPs to relax planning rules for new onshore wind farms in England, having previously wanted to keep the de facto ban on them.\n\nCritics argue burning more coal is the antithesis of such plans to boost green energy sources.\n\nSupporters of the mine say it would support the government's pledge to level up and reduce regional inequality.\n\nBut Labour say that doesn't have to conflict with net zero commitments - arguing the government should invest in jobs in renewable energy, insulation and nuclear power instead.\n\nThe mine has also divided opinion in Cumbria, with some in favour of the jobs it would bring, but others warning of the risks of climate change.\n\nChris Whiteside, a local Conservative councillor, welcomed the decision, saying that UK coking coal was \"less damaging to the planet than importing coal from USA or Russia\".\n\nBut ahead of the decision, South Lakes Action on Climate Change - a Cumbria campaign group that opposes the mine - suggested the project epitomised the UK's \"lack of meaningful action on the climate and ecological emergency\".", "David Fuller pleaded guilty to the murders of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce during his previous trial\n\nA former hospital worker who abused female corpses has been sentenced for carrying out further \"depraved\" acts.\n\nDavid Fuller is already serving two whole-life tariffs for murdering Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in 1987.\n\nHe was also previously sentenced for sexual offences against 78 dead women and girls between 2008 and 2020.\n\nFuller, 68, from Heathfield in East Sussex, appeared at the Old Bailey earlier where he was sentenced to four years for abusing a further 23 women.\n\nThe former electrician abused the women over a 13-year period at hospitals in Kent and Sussex.\n\nLast month he admitted 12 counts of sexual penetration of a corpse and four counts of possession of extreme pornography between 2007 and 2020.\n\nSentencing Fuller earlier, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said he had no regard for the dignity of the dead, having habitually abused the trust placed in him as a hospital worker.\n\nHis victims' relatives had had their memories \"sullied and stolen\", she said.\n\n\"They have been left in a dark place. They have expressed the outrage and revulsion that the women you abused would have felt at your objectivisation of them.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFuller filmed himself abusing corpses in the mortuaries at the Tunbridge Wells Hospital and the former Kent & Sussex Hospital. He would go into the morgues when other staff had left, often \"visiting the same bodies repeatedly\", his previous trial was told.\n\nThe daughter of one of his victims described to the court earlier how she felt when she found out about the abuse of her mother, saying: \"The pain and emotional upset seared through my body like a knife.\"\n\nAddressing Fuller directly, she said: \"David, I want you to know how much damage you have caused, how your sick and twisted behaviour has damaged families like mine.\n\n\"I'm pleased you are now being held accountable for what you did only seven hours after she died.\"\n\nFuller worked in electrical maintenance at hospitals since 1989, and was at the Kent and Sussex Hospital until it closed in September 2011.\n\nHe was transferred to the Tunbridge Wells Hospital at Pembury, where the offences continued until his arrest in 2020.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nKent Police said an investigation had led to evidence relating to a total of 101 victims and the latest charges related to the 23 remaining victims, all of whom were deceased adult women. Ten have not been identified.\n\nDuring his initial trial, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said Fuller \"systematically and repeatedly sexually abused\" the bodies of the dead women and girls.\n\nHe said they included a nine-year-old girl, two 16-year-olds and a woman aged 100.\n\nWendy Knell and Caroline Pierce were murdered in 1987\n\nFuller was given two whole-life terms after beating and strangling Ms Knell and Ms Pierce before sexually assaulting them in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells.\n\nHe was arrested after advances in DNA testing - and a huge police operation costing £2.5m - linked him to the double killings, dubbed \"the Bedsit Murders\".\n\nFollowing his arrest for the murders, a search of Fuller's home revealed he had hoarded millions of indecent images and videos of children and extreme pornography on hard drives, floppy discs, DVDs and memory cards in his loft and spare room.\n\nTwo of the drives were hidden in a box, which was screwed to the back of a chest of drawers and placed inside a wardrobe. On these drives officers found footage Fuller had recorded of himself abusing corpses in the morgues.\n\nFuller hid hard drive evidence of his offending in a box, stuck to a chest of drawers, hidden in a wardrobe\n\nLibby Clark from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: \"Fuller's actions were depraved, disgusting and dehumanising, on a scale that has never been encountered before in legal history.\"\n\nDet Supt Ivan Beasley from Kent Police said: \"Today's sentencing will mean little to this abhorrent individual, who throughout our investigation has demonstrated no remorse and only a capacity for self-pity.\"\n\nHe said there was no evidence linking Fuller to any other mortuary offences.\n\nThe government announced an independent inquiry into how Fuller went undetected until being arrested.\n\nMrs Justice Cheema-Grubb highlighted the victims' achievements in life, saying one had been a talented skier, one had worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, and others had worked as teachers or in the NHS.\n\nFuller sat impassively in the dock throughout the hearing and did not react to calls of \"scum\" from the public gallery as he was sent down.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Stephen Flynn says he will push the impact of the cost of living and Scotland's right to choose its future\n\nStephen Flynn has been elected as the SNP's new Westminster leader following the resignation of Ian Blackford.\n\nThe Aberdeen South MP defeated Alison Thewliss - who is seen as being closer to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon - by 26 votes to 17 in a vote of the party's MPs.\n\nMr Blackford announced last week that he was standing down amid rumours that Mr Flynn was plotting to replace him.\n\nMr Flynn will face Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.\n\nHe has already said that he will appoint Mhairi Black as his deputy.\n\nMr Flynn, 34, had initially been expected to be the only candidate to replace Mr Blackford, who was also regarded as being a close ally of Ms Sturgeon.\n\nBut Ms Thewliss unexpectedly threw her hat in the ring after sources close to Mr Flynn were quoted in the media as saying he intended to replace much of the party's front bench team in the Commons.\n\nThere had also been speculation that he could return Joanna Cherry - an outspoken critic of Ms Sturgeon - to a prominent role.\n\nBut she posted on social media that her position as chairwoman of the UK Parliament Human Rights Committee made a return to the SNP front bench \"impossible\".\n\nAlison Thewliss is seen as being closer to SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon than Mr Flynn\n\nMr Flynn had been the party's business, energy and industrial strategy spokesman.\n\nHe told the BBC that he aimed to \"build on the legacy\" of Mr Blackford, who he described as being a \"giant of the Scottish independence movement\", and pledged to work closely with Ms Sturgeon.\n\nBut he said he and Ms Black could offer a \"fresh approach here at Westminster that people in Scotland will certainly buy into\".\n\nMr Flynn added: \"We have a lot to do. We have to make that positive, decisive case for Scottish independence and our democratic right to choose.\n\n\"But also to hold the Conservative UK government's feet to the fire on the fact that we have a cost of living crisis and people in Scotland are struggling\".\n\nMs Sturgeon tweeted that Mr Flynn and Ms Black would make a \"truly formidable team\" and said she was looking forward to working with them both.\n\nThe SNP is currently the third-largest party in the House of Commons with 44 MPs.\n\nSeveral SNP MPs were angry at Mr Blackford's support for former SNP chief whip Patrick Grady, who was suspended for sexual misconduct\n\nMr Blackford announced last Thursday that he was stepping down after five years in the role but insisted he had not been pressured to do so despite reports that Mr Flynn had gathered enough support among the party's MPs to defeat him in a vote at the Westminster group's AGM.\n\nHe has said he will continue as the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber and has also accepted a new role as a business ambassador for the SNP's independence campaign.\n\nMany SNP MPs were said to have been angry at Mr Blackford urging them to give \"absolute full support\" to former chief whip Patrick Grady, who was suspended from the party and the Commons for sexual misconduct earlier this year.\n\nOnly last month, Stephen Flynn said he had no intention of standing for the SNP group leadership when he was first linked to efforts to oust Ian Blackford.\n\nHaving now successfully secured the post, he faces an immediate test - questioning the prime minister in the Commons on Wednesday.\n\nHis supporters expect a robust performance in parliament and in the media but the job is much bigger than that.\n\nPerhaps his biggest challenge will be to manage a fractious group of MPs and tensions with party HQ and the leadership team in Edinburgh.\n\nAlison Thewliss is widely seen as being closer to Nicola Sturgeon than Stephen Flynn is and he may have work to do to build that relationship.\n\nThe new Westminster leader has been installed just a fortnight after the Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish government cannot hold a second independence referendum without the UK government's consent.\n\nMs Sturgeon had wanted to hold a vote next October but now says she will use the next general election as a \"de facto referendum\". - a move that is said to have unsettled some SNP MPs.\n\nScottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said the defeat of Ms Thewliss - widely assumed to be Ms Sturgeon's preferred candidate - was a \"personal humiliation\" for the first minister and \"lays bare the deep splits within the SNP\".\n\nHe added: \"It is clear that the first minister's once-iron grip on her party is slipping.\n\n\"This result is sure to lead to increased tensions between the SNP leaders at Westminster and Holyrood, not least over oil and gas policy, where Mr Flynn - a serial flip-flopper on this issue - is, for the moment, at odds with Ms Sturgeon.\"\n\nIan Murray, Labour's shadow Scottish secretary, described the election of Mr Flynn as a \"two finger salute to Nicola Sturgeon\" by her own MPs, adding: \"The fact is that this is nothing more than shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic.\"\n\nScottish Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said: \"Stephen Flynn takes over a divided Westminster group obsessed with completely the wrong priorities.\"\n\nMr Flynn will face Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday\n\nMr Flynn was born in Dundee and raised in the city and in nearby Brechin.\n\nHe studied politics at Dundee University before moving to Aberdeen - although he still travels back down the A90 to support Dundee United.\n\nHis hip gave way when he was a teenager, and he spent 17 years in \"constant pain\" and facing a \"daily physical and mental battle\" until eventually having replacement surgery in September 2020.\n\nHe was elected to Aberdeen City Council in a by-election in 2015, and served as the SNP's group leader from 2016 until he became an MP in 2019 when he took Aberdeen South from the Conservatives.\n\nMhairi Black, the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, will be Mr Flynn's deputy leader\n\nMr Flynn's maiden speech in the Commons saw him warn Conservative members that \"we will not forget, and we will not forgive this government\", adding: \"Scotland rejects your austerity and Scotland rejects your Brexit, just as Scotland rejected your prime minister.\"\n\nHe became a prominent member of the so-called Tuesday Club of male SNP MPs who regularly meet for five-a-side football, beer and curry nights.\n\nMr Flynn has previously opposed imposing an windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas firms - a policy enthusiastically backed by party leader Nicola Sturgeon - over the potential impact on jobs in Aberdeen.\n\nHe had been linked to the leadership role for some time, with newspaper reports claiming he was \"on manoeuvres\" to oust Mr Blackford - which he denied at the time.\n\nHowever Ms Sturgeon has insisted that the change of leadership at Westminster was \"not a coup\".", "Time Magazine has named Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and \"the spirit of Ukraine\" as its 2022 Person of the Year.\n\nThe award goes to an event or person deemed to have had the most influence on global events over the past 12 months.\n\nOther finalists included protesters in Iran, China's leader Xi Jinping and the US Supreme Court.\n\nThe magazine's editor said the decision was \"the most clear-cut in memory\".\n\n\"In a world that had come to be defined by its divisiveness, there was a coming together around this cause, around this country,\" Edward Felsenthal wrote.\n\nHe added that the \"spirit of Ukraine\" referred to Ukrainians around the world, including many who \"fought behind the scenes\". This includes people like Ievgen Klopotenko, a chef who provided thousands of free meals to Ukrainians and medic Yuliia Payevska who was captured, then released after three months in Russian captivity.\n\nThe magazine said Mr Zelensky had inspired Ukrainians and was recognised internationally for his courage in resisting the Russian invasion.\n\n\"Zelensky's success as a wartime leader has relied on the fact that courage is contagious,\" it said.\n\nBritish trauma surgeon David Nott, who went into Ukraine to help those injured in the war, is one of several others who feature on the magazine's cover.\n\nWomen in Iran were Time's 2022 Heroes of the year and the K-pop band Blackpink were recognised as Time's Entertainer of the year.\n\nAmerican baseballer Aaron Judge has been recognised as the Athlete of the Year and Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh is the Icon of the Year.\n\nElon Musk, who was last year's winner, was again listed as a finalist. In 2021, his electric car company, Tesla, became the most valuable carmaker in the world.\n\nThe tradition began in 1927 - although back then it was the Man of the Year.\n\nOther past winners have included the former dictator of Germany, Adolf Hitler in 1938, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was 2007's Person of the Year.", "Applications for the scheme went live on the council website on Tuesday after a series of delays\n\nMore people have applied for a hardship fund to help with home heating bills than Derry City and Strabane Council can afford.\n\nPeople can apply for payments of up to £100 from the £258,000 fund, which will be paid directly to energy providers.\n\nApplications for the scheme went live on Tuesday after a series of delays.\n\nThe council website began accepting referrals at 09:30 GMT, but shut about eight hours later after thousands applied.\n\nThe funding is only available to oil and electricity customers in the council area and not to gas customers.\n\nThe council said the programme formed part of the its response to the cost of living crisis and was designed for emergency situations when a householder was not able to pay fuel bills or buy a top-up.\n\nIt estimated it could support about 2,405 households in the district.\n\nPeople Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin told BBC Radio Foyle the number of applications exceeded the available funding.\n\n\"The fact that so many people applied for this tells us so much about the scale of need in the district,\" Mr Harkin said.\n\n\"We are happy to move this out and get this out for people who needed it, but the fact that this went way past what was available so quickly tells us there are a lot of people who are desperate for help.\"\n\nMr Harkin said councillors would receive a report later on Wednesday from council officers with more details on the exact number of people who applied.\n\nCouncil says the scheme is aimed at helping 2,405 households in the district\n\nThe scheme is being run on a referral basis, which can be made by any local support organisation, school, church or charity.\n\nAdvice North West and Resource Centre Derry in Carnhill was appointed by the council to undertake the eligibility checks, with the Bryson Charitable Group providing payments to successful applicants.\n\nPeople were also able to refer themselves using an application that was made available on the council's website.\n\nSuccessful applicants for the scheme must meet certain eligibility criteria, the council has said.\n\nMr Harkin said the council estimated successful applicants would start seeing payments being made by the beginning of next week.\n\nA council spokesperson said the council and their advice service partners would now work to review all the paperwork.\n\nThey added that given the scale of the cost-of-living crisis and the response to the referral scheme, the funding would only reach a small proportion of those who applied.\n\nA UK-wide scheme to help people with their energy bills has still not been delivered in Northern Ireland.", "A Scots beautician has called the baby she lost her \"guardian angel\" after a miscarriage led to the diagnosis of an aggressive breast cancer.\n\nAfter the joy of discovering she was pregnant, Laura Strathearn and her husband Fraser suffered the heartbreaking blow of losing the baby.\n\nWhile recovering she discovered she had a type of cancer that would have grown and thrived on one of the major hormones in pregnancy - oestrogen.\n\nShe told BBC Scotland's The Nine programme: \"Our baby saved my life.\"\n\nThe 35-year-old said: \"The type of tumour I had grew on oestrogen so if I hadn't been pregnant at that time it wouldn't have accelerated the growth of the tumour.\n\n\"It was devastating at the time but looking back, the words that resonated with me were my consultant's. If I had had a viable pregnancy, I wouldn't have been here.\"\n\nLaura became pregnant in September 2020. In December, at her 12-week check-up, it was discovered her baby did not have a heartbeat. Days later she miscarried.\n\nLaura, who had always been career-orientated had taken some time off work to recover. It was during this time she noticed a prominent blue vein on her right breast.\n\nPutting it down to hormones, she waited until after Christmas to see her GP and was surprised to be referred to the breast clinic at Gartnavel Hospital in Glasgow.\n\nShe was sent for an ultrasound in January 2021, but she still was not too concerned.\n\nLaura was not too worried about her referral to the hospital\n\n\"They didn't think anything sinister was there. There was a shadow, but they didn't think it was anything untoward,\" Laura said.\n\nBut when she returned to the hospital for her results, Laura's world was turned upside down.\n\nShe said: \"It was during the pandemic. My husband waited outside and I thought I was going to be quick trip in. But it turned into bad news which I wasn't expecting.\n\n\"I remember the consultant coming out to the waiting toom. I just picked up right away that it wasn't good news. She escorted me into the room and said: 'There is no easy way to say this Laura, you have got breast cancer'.\n\n\"My world collapsed at that point.\"\n\nMRI and CT scans showed that the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes but was localised.\n\nLaura's tumour was too big to be operated on initially, so she began chemotherapy and completed six rounds over an 18-week period. A 10-hour operation followed and finally, after an anxious wait for pathology test results, the couple got the news they had hoped for.\n\nLaura said: \"It was a stage three cancer but all the cancer had been removed from my body and I was told that my baby saved my life.\n\n\"I thought the symptoms were to do with the baby - a hormonal change.\"\n\nLaura and Fraser now think of the baby as a guardian angel. The cancer could have gone undetected without the pregnancy.\n\nLaura's treatment was intensive, and she found support through the Maggie's cancer care centre in Glasgow.\n\nLaura found it hard to look at herself in the mirror while undergoing treatment\n\nNow she is doing her bit to give something back to them.\n\nA qualified beautician and makeup artist, Laura takes referrals and helps women to relax and feel better about themselves during treatment.\n\n\"Maggie's was fantastic. I remember walking through the doors and feeling I could breathe. The staff are angels on earth. I used to get a skip in my step going in there.\n\n\"I could sit and talk with people going through similar. They used to ask me how I did my brows, my eyes. And that got me thinking.\"\n\nLaura gives her Maggie's clients permanent make up - tattoo eyebrows.\n\nShe said: \"I know personally from losing my hair that it disrupts you. Having an eyebrow is life-changing. I look on it as a wellbeing service. They can come and get the brow treatment, an Indian head massage, facial, choose their treatment.\n\n\"It's a very difficult time, being faced with your own mortality but going through a gruelling time with a cancer diagnosis, looking in the mirror and not recognising the person staring back at you is very difficult.\"\n\nLaura helps her aunt with her makeup\n\nShe now encourages women to look after their health and question anything that feels wrong.\n\n\"Anyone who looks at themselves and feels there is something different there, a lump a vein, an ache or a pain. If something is different or not feeling or looking right, I would encourage them to get it checked out.\"\n\nLaura will keep checking herself and go for yearly mammograms. And she hopes for a small miracle when she is fully recovered.\n\n\"It is important for me to get back to full health. Chemotherapy is difficult and your body takes such a hit. But my husband and I would love a family in the future.\"", "Demand for antibiotics used to treat suspected cases of Strep A has led to a shortage in some pharmacies in Wales.\n\nA seven-year-old girl from Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, is among nine children to have died across the UK from invasive Group A Streptococcal disease (iGAS) since September.\n\nPharmacist Ross Carpenter said there was \"a lot of worry\" among parents.\n\nThe Welsh government said it was working with the UK government to procure more antibiotics.\n\nHealth Minister Eluned Morgan said: \"We're confident that suppliers are working to address any supply issues and if people find difficulty obtaining a prescription locally, they may need to visit a different pharmacy.\n\n\"If they're still not able to then they can go back to the GP and they can prescribe an alternative treatment.\"\n\nUpdated UK guidance on scarlet fever outbreaks (which are caused by Strep A) in October, says antibiotics can be used to help stop new cases of Strep A in settings such as schools but a decision should be taken with local outbreak control teams on \"a case-by-case basis\".\n\nMr Carpenter, who runs Resolven Pharmacy in Neath Port Talbot, said he had a \"sufficient\" but \"limited\" stock of antibiotics and there was difficulty getting hold of more.\n\n\"Lots of people coming in asking questions, lots of phone calls from worried parents…. there's definitely an increase in demand of our time at the moment,\" he said.\n\n\"I think you just have to be aware when they are going downhill, when they are looking dehydrated, when they've got a sustained temperature, looking out for the rash,\" added Mr Carpenter.\n\n\"When normal measures of giving them say paracetamol and ibuprofen and they're just not responding, they're the times then we need to get them obviously to the GP then.\"\n\nOne mum who was worried her child had caught Strep A said she had to call seven pharmacies before finding one that offered a test after being given \"incorrect information\" by 111.\n\nHazel Rocke, from Senghenydd, Caerphilly, said it \"upset\" her how difficult it was to find help for her nine-year-old daughter Ffion, who ended up having only mild tonsillitis.\n\nHazel Rocke said it was \"concerning and frustrating\" trying to get a test for Ffion\n\n\"We all worry about how we're going to find that help and the info we need... it's very concerning and also very frustrating,\" added Ms Rocke.\n\nThe minister added that the number of strep A cases were \"fairly low\", but it was a worrying time for parents.\n\nStrep A can cause a range of illnesses. Most cases are mild: a sore throat or skin infection easily treated with antibiotics.\n\nSome people develop scarlet fever, which causes a skin rash that feels like sandpaper, and flu-like symptoms including a high temperature.\n\nVery rarely, strep A can cause invasive Group A streptococcal infection (iGAS), which can be deadly.\n\nInvasive disease happens when the bacteria breaches the body's immune defences.\n\nAccording to Public Health Wales about 20 children each year develop iGAS in Wales, but the majority will recover with treatment.\n\nDr Jennifer Evans, a consultant paediatrician in Cardiff, advised parents to be \"vigilant\" and look out for danger signs, despite most children only suffering mild symptoms.\n\n\"If you are having trouble breathing, feel sleepy or irritable or have a baby under three months with a fever you need to see your GP much sooner,\" she told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.\n\n\"There are a lot of viruses around at the moment so if your child responds well to paracetamol they should be able to carry on fine at home.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Forecaster Simon King says cold weather is expected to last into next week\n\nThousands of people on the lowest incomes in over 300 postcode districts will receive a £25 Cold Weather Payment as temperatures plunge below zero.\n\nTemperatures went as low as -9.1C (15F) in the Scottish Highlands and -8.9C in Cumbria, overnight figures showed.\n\nA cold weather alert for England will run until 09:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nIt is issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) when the weather is cold enough to be likely to affect people's health.\n\nAs parts of the UK are hit by freezing conditions, a fuel poverty charity has called on the government to provide more support for \"those at greatest peril\".\n\nThe government has triggered Cold Weather Payments for eligible people across large parts of England and Wales. It is paid once in a seven-day period and people can check if they will receive it online.\n\nThe payments will be made in parts of Cumbria, North East and North West England, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Coventry, Staffordshire and Brecon.\n\nIn Scotland, those on low incomes and benefits may receive a one-off Winter Heating Payment, but this is not tied to temperatures.\n\nCurrent forecasts predict unseasonable temperatures - well below average for the time of year - in many places, with the cold weather continuing into next week.\n\nHeavy snow has been causing traffic disruption across the north east of Scotland, with reports of vehicles becoming stuck on some routes.\n\nThe wintry weather also caused delays to flights at Aberdeen Airport, with bus services also facing disruption.\n\nNational Energy Action says people are struggling to heat their homes as a result of \"impossibly high prices\" and they now face \"dreadful consequences\".\n\nCEO Adam Scorer said \"millions have been dreading the onset of winter\" and people are choosing between \"either huge debt or an unheated home\".\n\n\"Despite the current programme of support, the government must step in with more help for those at greatest peril this winter,\" he said.\n\nWintry scenes near Bassetts Pole on the Warwickshire-Staffordshire border\n\nThe Met Office has several weather warnings in place - including across the western and eastern coasts of England and Wales, parts of Northern Ireland and northern Scotland/\n\nMore widely, temperatures dipped to about -6C and -7C across much of the UK overnight.\n\nBBC Weather presenter Chris Fawkes said the cold weather would last well into next week as the high pressure over Greenland continues to push cold Arctic air across the country.\n\n\"Snow showers will continue to affect north and east Scotland\" on Thursday afternoon, he said.\n\nA few centimetres of snow is also expected to accumulate in the north east of England.\n\nTemperatures could plummet to -10C on Thursday night, with a risk of slippery surfaces caused by hard frost, following the quick drop in temperature.\n\nThe Met Office has warned people to take care on the ice, with the risk of injuries and slips on icy surfaces heightened on Thursday morning.\n\nIn Sheffield, hundreds of homes are still without a gas supply after water leaked into the mains six days ago.\n\nJosh, 30, who lives with his girlfriend and two children in Stannington, is one of those affected.\n\nAs he tucked his four-year-old son into bed on Tuesday, Josh wrapped him in five quilts. By midnight he said the house felt \"as cold as Iceland\" and he spent an hour with a tiny electric heater trying to warm the boy's room.\n\n\"Still that wasn't enough,\" Josh said. \"He woke up at half five this morning, crying, cold. What more can we do?\"\n\nThere are concerns the situation could last until the end of this week and \"maybe longer\" before gas is restored to everyone.\n\nResidents in Stannington, Sheffield, are using electric heaters to keep warm after their gas supply was cut off\n\nThe UKHSA has reiterated its long-standing advice for people who cannot heat every room - saying they should warm the living room during the day and bedrooms just before going to sleep, ideally to at least 18C.\n\nThe cold weather alert for England also requires health care providers to activate special plans, such as arranging gritting services to allow access to critical services and to cover pedestrian hotspots.\n\nBut many local councils in England and Wales - who have collectively stockpiled 1.4 million tonnes of salt for this winter - said they were struggling to attract and retain gritter drivers.\n\nMotorists are being advised to keep warm clothes, blankets and flasks of tea in their vehicles. The RAC said people driving in frosty, icy conditions should prepare to keep warm in the event of breakdowns, which are expected to surge this week.\n\nAn emergency protocol in London has been activated to provide extra accommodation for rough sleepers.\n\nHow are you keeping warm? Will you be receiving a cold weather payment? Please share your experiences, tips and questions by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Sunny Balwani was convicted on 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July\n\nRamesh \"Sunny\" Balwani, the business partner of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, has been sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison.\n\nBalwani was convicted in July of 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in the failed blood-testing start-up.\n\nTheranos executives falsely claimed the product could diagnose illnesses with a few drops of blood from a finger prick.\n\nHolmes was sentenced to over 11 years (135 months) in prison last month.\n\nBalwani did not speak as he was sentenced to 155 months in prison at the end of a nearly four-hour sentencing hearing on Wednesday. His lawyers say that like Holmes, he plans to file an appeal.\n\nUnlike Holmes, he was found guilty of defrauding patients who used the blood tests. Holmes was convicted of four counts of fraud.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes\n\nOnce hailed as the \"next Steve Jobs\", she launched Theranos after dropping out of Stanford University at age 19. The company's value rose sharply after it claimed it could bring about a revolution in disease diagnosis.\n\nBalwani, the company's former president and chief operating officer, served as her second-in-command and had direct oversight over the company's labs.\n\nThough the two were originally charged together, their trials were separated after Holmes accused Balwani of emotional and physical abuse during their romantic relationship, which occurred during their time at Theranos. She argued that his alleged manipulation of her was controlling and affected her business decisions.\n\nBalwani, who is 19 years her senior, has denied those allegations.\n\n\"Mr Balwani is not the same as Elizabeth Holmes,\" his lawyers wrote in a memo to the judge before the sentencing, adding that Holmes \"was dramatically more culpable\" for the scam.\n\n\"He actually invested millions of dollars of his own money; he never sought fame or recognition; and he has a long history of quietly giving to those less fortunate.\"\n\nThe sentence was read in the same court in San Jose, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, where Holmes learned her fate less than three weeks earlier.\n\nBalwani's trial was sparsely attended compared to Holmes'. For her 18 November sentencing, crowds formed a queue five hours before the court opened, but there was no line to see him.", "Dina Boluarte said she would govern until 2026\n\nPeru has a female president for the first time, after ex-president Pedro Castillo was impeached - hours after he tried to dissolve parliament.\n\nDina Boluarte - previously the vice-president - was sworn in after a dramatic day in Lima on Wednesday.\n\nEarlier in the day, Mr Castillo had said he was replacing Congress with an \"exceptional emergency government\".\n\nBut lawmakers ignored this, and in an emergency meeting impeached him. He was then detained and accused of rebellion.\n\nReports in local media say he was heading to the Mexican embassy in the capital when he was arrested.\n\nMs Boluarte, a 60-year-old lawyer, said she would govern until July 2026, which is when Mr Castillo's presidency would have ended.\n\nSpeaking after taking the oath of office, she called for a political truce to overcome the crisis which has gripped the country.\n\n\"What I ask for is a space, a time to rescue the country,\" she said.\n\nWednesday's dramatic chain of events began with President Pedro Castillo giving an address on national television in which he declared a state of emergency.\n\nHe announced that he would dissolve the opposition-controlled Congress, a move which was met with shock both in Peru - several ministers resigned in protest - and abroad.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Three dramatic moments from the day Peru's president was ousted\n\nThe head of the constitutional court accused him of launching a coup d'etat, while the US \"strongly urged\" Mr Castillo to reverse his decision.\n\nPeru's police and armed forces released a joint statement in which they said they respected the constitutional order.\n\nMr Castillo tried to dissolve Congress just hours before it was due to start fresh impeachment proceedings against him - the third since he came to office in July 2021.\n\nIn his televised address he said: \"In response to citizens' demands throughout the length and breadth of the country, we have decided to establish an exceptional government aimed at re-establishing the rule of law and democracy.\"\n\nHe said that \"a new Congress with constituent powers to draw up a new constitution\" would be convened \"within no more than nine months\".\n\nBut Congress, which is controlled by parties opposed to Mr Castillo, convened an emergency session and held the impeachment vote Mr Castillo had been trying to prevent.\n\nThe result was overwhelming: 101 voted in favour of impeaching him, with only six against and 10 abstentions.\n\nFormer President Pedro Castillo seen inside a police car in Lima\n\nThere were skirmishes between police and angry Castillo supporters in the capital Lima\n\nAfter the impeachment, Mr Castillo was seen on police premises.\n\nIn the photos - which were shared by police on Twitter but subsequently deleted - he could be seen sitting, seemingly relaxed, and chatting to others. Footage was then released of Mr Castillo signing papers with prosecutors.\n\nHe was later detained and accused of rebellion for breaking the constitutional order.\n\nPeru has been going through a rocky political period, with multiple presidents ousted from office in recent years. In 2020, it had three presidents within the space of five days.\n\nMr Castillo, who is a left-wing former school teacher, was elected in June 2021 in a polarising election in which he defeated his right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori.\n\nHe had recently been fighting allegations of corruption, which he said were part of a plot to oust him.", "Keith Edmonds was caught when one of his victims taped his confession\n\nA paedophile has been jailed for 21 years after two of his victims secretly taped his confession.\n\nAt Cardiff Crown Court a judge told Keith Edmonds, 86, he had no sympathy for the fact he would die in prison.\n\nEdmonds, of Taff's Well, Rhondda Cynon Taf, did not realise one of his victims was recording him on a mobile phone when he apologised to them.\n\nA jury found him guilty of 11 charges of sexual assault against four children under 13 between 2001 and 2015.\n\nIn the recording, Edmonds could be heard saying: \"I'm sorry. I wish I could turn back the clock then I wouldn't have done it.\"\n\nThe tape was handed to police, but the father-of-two denied the charges, claiming he was tired and wanted to go to bed when he confessed.\n\nHe told the court: \"I didn't do anything to them. I just told them what they wanted to hear so they would go away.\"\n\nKeith Edmonds was jailed for 21 years at Cardiff Crown Court\n\nHis four victims, now adults, told how they were left suffering from panic attacks, flashbacks and suicidal thoughts after years of abuse.\n\nOne told the court: \"I was cheated out of a happy childhood. The constant dark cloud that has hung over me ever since has never diminished.\"\n\nThe court heard Edmonds has declining health and is under the care of a cardiologist.\n\nJudge Michael Fitton KC told him: \"I recognise that it is inevitable that you will die in prison. That is a matter that moves me to not a shred of sympathy for you.\n\n\"You are a man who is morally bankrupt and have shown no remorse. You ruined the childhood of four children, bringing shame, pain and emotional turmoil on them.\"\n\nKeith Edmonds was told he would die in prison\n\nEdmonds was told he will spend two-thirds of his sentence in prison, meaning he will be 100 by the time he is eligible for parole.\n\nHe was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order and told to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.\n\nJudge Fitton praised Edmonds' victims for their \"commendable and extraordinary courage\" in bringing him to justice.", "People were Googling the game - and searching the answers\n\nAmericans dug for new word definitions in Google this year, looking up terms like tacit, cacao and foray, driven by a nearly singular pursuit - Wordle.\n\nThe word Wordle itself crowned the top spot as Google's most searched term globally and in the US in 2022.\n\nThe searches were revealed by the tech giant in their annual Year in Search report.\n\nReleased by software engineer Josh Wardle in 2021, the daily word game's simplicity has found mass appeal.\n\nUsers are given a maximum of six attempts to guess the word of the day. It's always a five letter word and the word is the same for everyone.\n\nWordle became so popular that Google searches from desperate players looking for answers affected other top Google search trends. Seven of the top 10 searched-for word definitions in 2022 were Wordle answers including cacao, homer, canny, foray, trove, saute and tacit.\n\nMajor events also made an impact in online searches.\n\nThe death of Queen Elizabeth II in September made the top five for overall global search interest. Ukraine was the third most widely searched term.\n\nAs far as celebrities go, Johnny Depp topped the search-interest charts among actors, following his defamation case against Amber Heard over the summer.\n\nDepp was followed by Will Smith, who made headlines after slapping comedian Chris Rock live onstage in front of millions tuned into the Academy Awards.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Will Smith acknowledges that Oscar slap was wrong\n\nTennis icon Serena Williams appeared as the number two most-searched athlete in the US, flung into the spotlight by the announcement of her retirement and the media storm trailing Williams' final moments of her last US Open.\n\nAnd Googlers in the US showed a keen interest in getting rich quick. Lottery games Mega Millions and Powerball numbers were high in the top 10 search-interest spots in the US and globally.\n\nThe Google trend report also made note of the interesting ways in which users searched for information, like snapping a photo, speaking into the phone and - humming.\n\nPhones today use algorithms to solve that common conundrum of \"what's this song\"? And users can hum, whistle or sing 10-15 seconds of a melody into their phone to figure out what song that might be stuck in their heads.\n\nThese trending lists, according to Google, are based on the terms that had the highest spike in search in 2022 when compared to previous years.", "Moroccan fans in Doha and elsewhere are celebrating a historic win, after the north African team reached the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time.", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nIn one of the most nerve-shredding scenarios World Cup football is capable of presenting a player with, the whole of Morocco needed their star man to deliver the telling blow to Spain.\n\nAfter 120 minutes of knife-edge football and two successful penalties the pressure moment fell to Achraf Hakimi, the Spanish-born ex-Real Madrid right-back, who may well have lined up for the country of his birth had things panned out differently.\n\nBut the 24-year-old had opted for his heritage and now had the weight of responsibility for a nation on his young shoulders, knowing that scoring would take his side through to their first World Cup quarter-final.\n\nThe defender stepped up and nonchalantly delivered a dink down the middle of the goal to spark scenes of wild jubilation - before emotionally celebrating the 3-0 shootout victory with his mother in the stands.\n\nMorocco become just the fourth African team - and the first Arab nation - to reach the last-eight stage after Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010. None of these sides has ever gone further.\n\nAfter the match, Morocco manager Walid Regragui said: \"It is a tremendous achievement and they were all patched up, they all showed tremendous determination.\n\n\"We knew we had tremendous support behind us and we drew from that the energy to give that performance tonight.\"\n\nSuch was their achievement, Regragui received a phonecall from the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, after the game.\n\n\"It's extraordinary for a Moroccan to receive that call,\" Regragui said. \"He always encourages us and he gives us advice and he calls on us to give our all.\n\n\"His message is always the same, he is proud of the players and he is proud of us and as a result we want to go even further and do even better the next time.\"\n\nHakimi's telling blow was outrageous, a cool 'Panenka' which left Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon on one knee as the ball sailed past him in slow motion.\n\nBut the Paris St-Germain full-back would not have had the opportunity to make himself a hero had goalkeeper Yaccine Bounou not saved two penalties and Pablo Sarabia hit the post, with Abdelhamid Sabiri and Hakim Ziyech converting to put their country 2-0 ahead.\n\nMorocco had schooled Spain on spot-kicks and then the celebrations followed, players wildly running around the pitch, Chelsea's Ziyech lifted onto the shoulders of a team-mate.\n\nPopular coach Regragui, appointed only in September, was thrown into the air by his beaming players.\n\n\"I think it is impossible you do that without these fans,\" said Regragui. \"They are coming to the hotel, wanting tickets, a lot of fans came to Qatar to support the team, from America, from Europe and Morocco.\n\n\"They love the country and what I can tell them is we have done nothing. I need them for the quarter-finals but I am very proud of my fans and of my people.\"\n• None Quiz: Test your knowledge of the World Cup last 16\n\nMorocco were big underdogs in this game and they knew it.\n\nThey stuck to their gameplan by sitting back with a resolute and compact defence which allowed only one Spain shot on target, though Luis Enrique's side tried to play the opposition into submission with over a thousand passes attempted.\n\nRegragui's men were pushed on by their vociferous following, vastly outnumbering the Spanish with chanting, dancing and jeering for the entire 120 minutes.\n\nThe pocket of Spanish fans behind the goal will not only leave with their hearts broken, but with their eardrums ringing for the rest of the night.\n\nSkipper Romain Saiss epitomised Morocco's spirit, playing on with a pulled hamstring. West Ham's Nayef Aguerd was immense before he hobbled off injured, while midfielder Sofyan Amrabat hassled and harried the entire game.\n\nRegragui added: \"[Spain are] one of the best teams in the world, if not the best. We couldn't play too high up the pitch because that was what they wanted us to do.\n\n\"We were patient and knew if we got there we had a chance with one of the best goalkeepers in the world. We fought for it.\"\n\nFormer Scotland winger Pat Nevin said on BBC Radio 5 Live: \"You can't argue Morocco don't deserve it. The fight, the spirit, and then the guts during that penalty shootout.\n\n\"What a historic moment. You can see and feel how much it means to this nation. No-one would have thought they could get this far.\"\n\nJoyous Morocco fan Azam, celebrating outside the stadium, told BBC Sport: \"No-one believed, we believed. We believe we can win again as well.\n\n\"This team are heroes. We love them and they can get to the semi-finals, then the final, then they can lift the world cup. We were not scared of Spain. They have the ball, we have the win.\n\n\"The celebrations in Morocco will be as you have never seen. It will be incredible. Like the celebrations here.\"\n\nAnd he was right. There were jubilant scenes in the capital of Rabat as they look forward to another shock on Saturday when they come up against 2016 European champions Portugal.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Doreen Morris lived with her two dogs in her home, Penrhyn Uchaf, on the outskirts of Holyhead\n\nThe daughter of a woman killed at her home 28 years ago turned detective to try find out how her mother died, an inquest has heard.\n\nDoreen Morris, 64, was found dead in her burned out bungalow on Mill Lane, Holyhead on Anglesey, in the early hours of 25 March 1994.\n\nA man was found not guilty her murder in 1995 and the case remains unsolved.\n\nAudrey Fraser told an inquest into her mother's death how she \"vociferously\" followed leads over three decades.\n\n\"Someone killed my mother and destroyed my family home\", she told the hearing in Caernarfon, Gwynedd.\n\nJoseph Carl Westbury was found not guilty of Ms Morris's murder and has since died, the inquest heard.\n\nMs Morris's family spent years campaigning for an inquest, wanting a way to establish the facts of how she died.\n\nDetectives believe she disturbed burglars in her remote bungalow, called Penrhyn Uchaf.\n\nHer daughter told the hearing petrol was poured over her mother's body before it and the building were set on fire.\n\n\"I can't understand why someone would kill for a portable TV and a couple of pieces of hi-fi,\" she said.\n\nMrs Fraser said she contacted police on several occasions with leads that seemed to generate new information.\n\nShe wrote a letter to Mr Westbury's wife to see if she was able to help and worked with a Facebook group called Justice for Doreen Morris.\n\nHer mother her a \"wicked sense of humour\" she said, living in a bungalow her parents had built after retiring from farming.\n\nFollowing the death of her father, John Henry Morris, in 1990 there were strained relationships between Mrs Fraser's mother and her brother Andrew.\n\nShe said her brother \"was keeping bad company\" and some of those friends may have spotted Mrs Morris's home as a potential burglary target.\n\n\"Andrew did not kill my mother, but he's attracted those people to Penrhyn Uchaf,\" she said.\n\nA High Court judge denied a previous bid for an inquest in 2010, saying it was not inevitable the hearing would result a finding of unlawful killing.\n\nThe inquest is scheduled to last for two weeks.", "Brynaman Primary School has 30 cases of scarlet fever among its pupils\n\nThree cases of invasive strep A have been identified in an outbreak of scarlet fever at a primary school.\n\nCarmarthenshire's Brynaman Primary School has seen 30 reported cases of scarlet fever in its pupils.\n\nTwo children were admitted to hospital - one of them to Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales - it is not known if they had invasive strep A.\n\nPublic Health Wales (PHW) said the 30 cases occurred over six weeks and were more than would normally be expected.\n\nSion Lingard, a consultant in health protection for PHW, said: \"Invasive Group A Streptococcal disease (iGAS) is a rare complication which usually affects fewer than 20 children in Wales each year.\n\n\"Although iGAS is concerning, the majority of these children will recover with proper treatment.\n\n\"Parents of children at the school have been reminded of the symptoms of scarlet fever and what actions they should take, including keeping unwell children away from school and seeking medical advice if needed.\"\n\nNine children in the UK have died with rare but severe bacterial strep A infections since September.\n\nMr Lingard added that while parents were likely to be worried, cases of iGAS remained rare in Wales, and children have a low risk of contracting the disease.\n\n\"We remind the public that cold and flu-like symptoms are also very common at this time of year, especially in children,\" he said.\n\n\"Most will have a common seasonal virus, which can be treated by keeping the child hydrated and with paracetamol.\n\n\"We've seen an increase, of 50% for the whole year. What is different this year is that the season's slightly different.\n\n\"Scarlet fever circulates every year, usually we get the peak around April/May time, but obviously now we're getting it around November/December time.\"\n\nHe urged anyone whose eligible for their flu vaccine to get vaccinated.\n\nCouncillor Glynog Davies said five Carmarthenshire schools had scarlet fever cases, adding that head teachers were given a briefing on Monday and sent a letter from PHW outlining guidelines for schools.\n\nHe also said a letter had been sent to parents and carers in the county and if they had concerns about their child's health, they should contact their GP, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.\n\nThe cases at the 305 pupil-school comes as the Welsh government said the increase in demand for antibiotics used to treat suspected cases of strep A had led to a shortage in some pharmacies.\n\nIt said it was working with the UK government to ensure pharmacies have the antibiotics they need to treat suspected cases of strep A.\n\nHealth minister Eluned Morgan said: \"We're confident that suppliers are working to address any supply issues and if people find difficulty obtaining a prescription locally, they may need to visit a different pharmacy.\"\n\nOn Wednesday, the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children postponed all routine procedures due to the pressures caused by a rise in bacterial and viral infections.\n\nIt is caused by a bacteria group called streptococcus, also known as strep A.\n\nThe rash of scarlet fever often begins with small spots on the body which then spread to the neck, arms and legs. It is often sandpaper-like to touch, but is not itchy.\n\nYour child may also have a:\n\nIt is a notifiable disease, meaning health professionals must inform health protection teams of suspected cases. This is so they can be treated quickly and possible outbreaks brought under control.\n\nIf a parent or carer suspects scarlet fever or invasive strep A infection, they should call their GP or NHS 111 as prompt treatment with antibiotics can prevent serious illness and stop infections spreading.", "Rishi Sunak says he will tackle NHS backlogs in England\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to leave no stone unturned in the government's attempts to tackle mounting problems in the NHS.\n\nWith the backlog in hospital treatment rising and delays in A&E and ambulance response times worsening, Mr Sunak said he would get on top of the challenges.\n\nIt comes as a taskforce has been set up to make more use of the private sector and reduce waiting lists.\n\nMr Sunak told BBC News: \"What people want is action.\"\n\nHe said: \"What people want from their politicians is action to make a difference to their lives - and I am here to tell you we are going to make that difference.\"\n\nMr Sunak highlighted the extra money being made available - a £500m winter fund is being distributed to hospitals - to increase bed capacity and provide more support in the community.\n\nThis would help reduce the problems in emergency care, including waiting times for ambulances, he said.\n\nAnd tackling the backlog in routine treatment - more than seven million people are currently waiting for treatment in England - was a key priority.\n\nThe government is setting up 19 more diagnostic centres in communities across England to help tackle the Covid backlog.\n\nNinety one are already open and have delivered more than 2.4 million tests, checks and scans since last summer, ministers say.\n\nIt is hoped the centres will speed up access to services for patients, thereby reducing waiting times.\n\nAlthough the number of people waiting longer than two years for routine operations in England has fallen dramatically since January, health experts say there is still a mountain to climb to reduce the numbers waiting more than a year.\n\nWinter is likely to bring more delays and pressure, particularly with strikes by NHS nurses and ambulance workers also planned in December.\n\nA taskforce, made up of academics and health experts, has been set up to help reduce reduce waiting times by unlocking space in private hospitals. It met for the first time at 10 Downing Street on Wednesday.\n\nGPs can refer patients to community diagnostic centres so that they can access life-saving checks and scans, and be diagnosed for a range of conditions, without travelling to hospital.\n\nSome are located in football stadiums and shopping centres and can offer MRI and CT scans, as well as x-rays.\n\nIn September, according to the government, the hubs delivered 11% of all diagnostic activity - and its ambition is for 40% to be achieved by 2025.\n\nThe government wants to eliminate 18-month waits by April 2023, and waits of longer than one year by March 2025.\n\nIt has committed to investing an extra £8bn into health and social care in 2024-25.\n\nNHS England's national director of elective recovery, Sir James Mackey, said NHS staff were working \"incredibly hard\" to tackle the Covid backlog, adding that it was important to continue to use the independent sector to get waiting lists down.", "A satellite image shows strategic bomber aircraft at Russia's airfield in the Saratov region that was reportedly attacked on Monday\n\nWashington has \"neither encouraged nor enabled\" Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.\n\nHe was speaking shortly after Moscow accused Kyiv of carrying out drone attacks on three Russian airfields, two of them hundreds of miles from Ukraine.\n\nUkraine has not commented on the issue.\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned the US and its allies not to cross \"red lines\" by supplying long-range weapons to Ukraine.\n\nThe US-led Nato military alliance has ruled out providing such arms to Kyiv, amid concerns that this could lead to a major escalation with a nuclear-armed Russia that invaded Ukraine on 24 February.\n\nTwo Russian airfield explosions were reported on Monday, in the Ryazan and Saratov regions. The sites house strategic bombers used to carry out regular missile attacks on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure.\n\nRussia said there was another attack on Tuesday, in the Kursk region that borders Ukraine.\n\nRussia's latest missile attack on Ukraine was on Monday, when 70 rockets were fired on targets across the country. Four people were killed, local officials said.\n\nMillions of people across the country are now without electricity and running water, raising fears people may die of hypothermia in sub-zero temperatures.\n\nAt a briefing on Tuesday, Mr Blinken accused Russia of \"trying to take out the civilian infrastructure that is allowing people to have heat, to have water, to have electricity\".\n\nHe said Moscow was now \"weaponising winter\" and \"that is the daily and nightly reality in Ukraine\".\n\n\"We have neither encouraged nor enabled the Ukrainians to strike inside of Russia, but the important thing is to understand what Ukrainians are living through every day with the ongoing Russian aggression against their country.\"\n\nHe said he was determined that Ukrainians have \"the equipment that they need to defend themselves, to defend their territory, to defend their freedom.\"\n\nSpeaking alongside him, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin stressed that the US would not prevent Ukraine from developing its own long-range strike capability.\n\n\"The short answer is no. We are absolutely not doing that,\" Mr Austin said, adding that Washington had already given Ukraine more than $19bn (£16bn) in security assistance.\n\nIn other developments on Tuesday:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The last remaining families in Bakhmut", "The King was ushered away from the crowd by close protection officers while meeting members of the public in Luton\n\nA 28-year-old man has been charged with a public order offence after an egg was allegedly thrown at the King during a walkabout in Luton.\n\nBedfordshire Police did not name the man over the incident which happened outside Luton Town Hall on Tuesday.\n\nHe has been bailed to appear at Luton Magistrates' Court in January.\n\nThe King was initially steered away from crowds by protection officers during the incident, but continued the visit shortly after.\n\nIt came just weeks after a 23-year-old student was arrested after eggs were thrown at the King and Queen Consort during a visit to York.\n\nThe BBC's royal correspondent Sean Coughlan, who was in Luton, described a flurry of activity outside the town hall when the apparent egg throwing happened.\n\nWhile he did not see the egg, our correspondent said the King had been undertaking one of his trademark walkabouts \"friendly, close up and with lots of handshakes and a sea of camera phones\".\n\nThe King went on to meet community leaders, including from the Ghana Society, the Royal British Legion and the Luton Town football academy, as well as officially opening the Guru Nanak Gurdwara temple.\n\nLater, he boarded the DART (Direct Air-Rail Transit) - a new airport shuttle which will connect people travelling from Luton Airport Parkway station to the nearby terminal.\n\nKing Charles appeared in jovial form as he undertook one of his trademark walkabouts in Luton", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nKyle Walker says he will \"not roll out a red carpet\" for Kylian Mbappe and England will have more concerns than just one player in their World Cup quarter-final against holders France.\n\nEngland face France in the last eight in Qatar on Saturday (19:00 GMT) in the first knockout match between the two nations at a major tournament.\n\nMbappe, 23, is the tournament's leading scorer with five goals in four games.\n\n\"I understand what I need to do and that is to stop him,\" Walker, 32, said.\n\n\"It's easier said than done but I don't underestimate myself,\" the England right-back added.\n\n\"He is a fantastic player in great form. It is not going to be an easy task, but as a professional footballer you want to play against the best and I think he is one of the best, if not the best, in the world at the moment.\"\n• None End of the road for England? Sutton's World Cup quarter-final predictions\n\nMbappe did not train with the rest of the France squad on Tuesday, instead having a recovery session, and France defender Ibrahima Konate said there was \"nothing to worry about\".\n\n\"We haven't really spoken about it at all. He was just resting,\" the Liverpool centre-back said.\n\n\"Walker and Mbappe are two very great players. Walker is one of the best right-backs in the world, I can't wait to see this battle.\"\n\n'Neither team is the underdog or the favourite'\n\nWalker is familiar with Mbappe, having come up against the Paris St-Germain forward with Manchester City in the previous two Champions League campaigns.\n\nCity won two and lost one of the three meetings in which both players featured - and Mbappe has admitted he found facing Walker challenging.\n\nOn the Frenchman's comments, Walker said: \"That's nice to hear because he had a tough game against me. I know he's a top player but we're not playing tennis. It's not a solo sport, it's a team game.\n\n\"You have to give him respect but not too much. Yes, it will be a tough game but a team cannot just be about one person,\" he added.\n\n\"I'm not going to roll out a red carpet for him and tell him to score. It's a World Cup, it's do or die.\"\n\nThe Three Lions defeated Senegal 3-0 in their last-16 match, while France also progressed smoothly with a 3-1 win over Poland.\n\nMbappe scored twice in that French victory and the forward has now been involved in his team's last seven World Cup goals.\n\n\"When we've played Paris St-Germain in the Champions League, we're not just thinking of Mbappe and it's the same on Saturday,\" Walker said.\n\n\"Yes he's a tool in their armoury - and a very good one - but you can't underestimate their other players.\"\n\nEngland have kept three successive clean sheets - one shy of their national record at a World Cup achieved in both 1966 and 1982.\n\nAt the other end of the pitch, the Three Lions have scored 12 goals in four games - equalling their highest tally at a single World Cup.\n\nHaving reached the last four in Russia in 2018, and the European Championship final in 2021, Walker believes there is no favourite as Gareth Southgate's side prepare to face the defending champions.\n\n\"We're playing the world champions but we are two good teams that will go toe-to-toe,\" Walker said.\n\n\"We have great talent. In my eyes, neither team is the underdogs or the favourites.\"\n• None Alan Shearer column: Show fear? Let everyone else be afraid of England\n• None And put yourself in Southgate's shoes - who should start for England?\n\nEngland midfielder Jack Grealish says the team enjoy trying to \"prove wrong\" the doubters as they gear up for their biggest test yet against France.\n\nAfter England's 3-0 win over Senegal in the last 16, midfielder Declan Rice said he did not think the team received the credit they deserved and Grealish agrees with his team-mate.\n\n\"I don't think we ever do [get enough recognition] but sometimes it is nice to be, not underdogs, but where people just don't really give you credit and you can keep proving them wrong,\" the Manchester City forward told BBC Sport.\n\n\"People were saying things about us when we played the USA and we didn't score.\n\n\"But we have been scoring goals, keeping clean sheets and controlling games, so we will go into the [France] game full of confidence.\"\n• None We really believe we can win World Cup - Maguire\n\nAfter runs to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and Euro 2020 final, Grealish says this England team has a \"special bond\" with the fans and thinks Three Lions supporters now have a belief that had been previously lacking.\n\n\"The fans are going into each game thinking this team can win whoever they play against,\" he said.\n\n\"No doubt this game [against France] will be biggest test yet but you're never going to get to a World Cup final without playing the best.\n\n\"But we know if we do everything right and play the way we have been then we can beat anyone on our day and I think we have proven that in the last few games.\"\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Paul Silva said a doctor suspected his son Joseph had a viral infection or milk allergy\n\nA one-year-old boy nearly died after doctors failed to spot a severe strep A infection, his family has said.\n\nPaul Silva, from West Parley, Dorset, said his son Joseph was diagnosed with less serious conditions by both a GP and Bournemouth Hospital in November.\n\nHowever the boy was later placed in an induced coma on 21 November due to sepsis, Mr Silva said.\n\nUniversity Hospitals Dorset NHS Trust has begun an investigation but declined to comment.\n\nThe one-year-old was placed in an induced coma at Poole Hospital, his father said\n\nMr Silva said his son was taken to a GP three times in the three weeks before his hospital admission, with symptoms including repeated fevers, a rash and breathing problems.\n\nHe said: \"He had a raspy chest rattle. He would sit on my lap just breathing... like you had a little motorbike on you.\"\n\nThe GP listened to Joseph's chest which was clear and suspected a viral infection or milk allergy, Mr Silva said.\n\nJoseph is now recovering at home\n\nOn 20 November Joseph was sent to Bournemouth Hospital as an \"amber sepsis risk\" by the NHS 111 line, his father added.\n\nHowever the hospital performed no blood test or scan, he said.\n\nThe family was sent home with a leaflet about bronchiolitis, a viral chest infection.\n\nMr Silva said Joseph was taken by ambulance the following day to Poole Hospital, which diagnosed sepsis and placed the boy in an induced coma.\n\nHe was then transferred to Southampton General Hospital which confirmed a strep A infection and drained fluid from his chest.\n\nThe UK Sepsis Trust said a strep A infection could led to sepsis\n\nMr Silva said: \"It was a truly horrific and harrowing experience and doctors could not confirm if he would live or die.\n\n\"His whole traumatic experience would have been completely avoided if [the] GP or [Bournemouth] hospital had run a simple blood test and chest scan.\n\n\"It was a complete misdiagnosis. We have lost faith in the health service.\"\n\nThe toddler is now recovering at home.\n\nIn a private email seen by the BBC, Bournemouth Hospital said it had opened an inquiry.\n\nHowever both the hospital and the GP service, Barcellos Family Practice, declined to comment publicly, citing patient confidentiality.\n\nSepsis - an infection leading to organ failure - is often diagnosed by testing temperature, heart and breathing rates, or blood, while imaging can determine the type of infection and where it is located, according to an NHS website.\n\nThe UK Sepsis Trust said a streptococcus A infection could lead to sepsis.\n\nIt said it would be \"reasonable\" for doctors to order blood tests or scans where parents were worried and children looked \"very unwell\", although a clear chest would not warrant a scan.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The former Marchon chemical works on the outskirts of Whitehaven is the site of the proposed mine\n\nGoverning is about difficult choices; confronting seemingly irreconcilable demands - and making a decision.\n\nSo here's the scenario: Coal that is used to make steel is under the Irish Sea off the west Cumbrian coast, one of England's most isolated spots, desperate to attract more private sector jobs, particularly ones that pay well and have a future.\n\nThe government is committed to what it calls levelling up, and has won seats in the area long held by Labour.\n\nThe government is also committed to being a champion of tackling climate change, and was wrestling with this decision about the coal mine at exactly the same time as hosting the COP climate summit in Glasgow a year ago.\n\nAnd saying yes then, however comfortable they are with their arguments for doing so, would have looked… awkward.\n\nWell, another climate summit, the recent one in Egypt, has come and gone while ministers have been making their minds up on what to do in Whitehaven.\n\nThey asked the Planning Inspectorate to take a look at the whole idea.\n\nMeanwhile, war in Ukraine broke out.\n\nUntil then, 40% of the coal needed to make steel in the UK, metallurgical coal, the stuff this new mine will dig up, came from, you guessed it: Russia.\n\nSince then, alternative suppliers have been found, but nonetheless the issue of energy security is a salient one.\n\nMeanwhile plenty are saying it is bonkers to be digging coal out of the ground in 2022, let alone opening a brand new mine to do so.\n\nHow on earth do you incentivise finding alternative ways of making steel if you carry on relying on the black stuff?\n\nSo, you're the minister, what do you do?\n\nWell, prevaricate — and they did.\n\nAnd every expectation it will be appealed.\n\nLabour say it proves Rishi Sunak is a \"fossil fuel prime minister in a renewable age.\"\n\nBut would a Labour government shut the mine or stop it opening in a part of the world they are desperate to win back?\n\nThe government is arguing their decision is in keeping with their emissions obligations because the alternative would be importing the coal, and alternatives to using coal are a long way off.\n\nAnd plenty of people in west Cumbria are delighted.\n\nBut not before an almighty row that is only just beginning.", "The NI secretary is set to cut the pay of assembly members - who have not legislated since May - by 27%\n\nA fifth attempt to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland since May's assembly election has failed.\n\nThe attempt to elect a speaker was blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party as part of its ongoing protest against Brexit trading arrangements.\n\nNI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he would implement new powers to cut assembly members' salaries \"very soon\".\n\nIrish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has suggested that pay cut would take effect from January.\n\nMr Heaton-Harris confirmed he would implement a 27% cut \"very, very soon\", after a law giving him the power to cut Stormont salaries came into effect on Tuesday night.\n\nMr Coveney told Evening Extra: \"I hope that the decision around that - which won't take effect until January - will be very short lived because we have to find a way to get devolved institutions back up and running again, which will make salary a non issue.\"\n\nThe new law also means the NI secretary is under a new legal obligation to call a fresh Stormont election, which would take place no later than 13 April if the institutions are not restored by mid-January.\n\nThe legislation also clarifies the limited decision-making powers provided to civil servants while there is no Northern Ireland Executive in operation.\n\nThe assembly sat on Wednesday after a Sinn Féin recall request - a move backed by the Alliance Party and the Social Democratic and Labour Party.\n\nThe motion called on the DUP to end its boycott of power-sharing to help deal with the cost-of-living crisis.\n\nBut the DUP again refused to vote for any of the candidates for Speaker - a position that must be filled before any other business can be heard.\n\nNorthern Ireland has been without a functioning government since February, when the DUP walked out of the first minister's role in protest against the protocol.\n\nSinn Féin won the largest number of seats in May's election, but no new power-sharing executive could be formed due to the DUP's ongoing boycott.\n\nUnionist politicians argue the post-Brexit trading arrangement undermines Northern Ireland's position in the UK.\n\nIt keeps Northern Ireland aligned with some EU trade rules to ensure goods can move freely across the Irish land border.\n\nNegotiations between the UK government and the EU to resolve differences over the protocol are continuing.\n\nThe last failed recall was in October, ahead of a deadline to restore power-sharing.\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday, Sinn Féin's would-be first minister, Michelle O'Neill, accused the DUP of abandoning the public \"to a Tory government intent on inflicting cuts and austerity in society\".\n\n\"We do not have months to ponder, but rather weeks to take action and create stability and certainty for society, businesses and politics,\" she said.\n\nThe DUP's Gordon Lyons said the recall was \"nothing more than a farce\".\n\n\"Devolution needs a firm foundation to succeed and that foundation will never be in place as long as the issues around the protocol are unresolved,\" he said.\n\nThe plot followed a familiar path with much the same script lines building to the same anti-climatic conclusion.\n\nFor the fifth time assembly members (MLAs) tried and failed to elect a speaker to restore the assembly as the DUP refused to end its Stormont boycott.\n\nMindful of those suffering to pay their bills, the exchanges were full of passion and at times anger.\n\nBut there was no hint of a DUP climbdown any time soon as Gordon Lyons doubled down on his party's stand-off with some stinging digs at the Sinn Féin benches - digs which Sinn Féin dismissed as \"dead cat\" distractions.\n\nThe only note of remorse came from Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie when he apologised after being accused of making a misogynistic remark.\n\nMLAs left the chamber as they entered it - no closer to restoring the Stormont institutions and braced for a pay cut.\n\nThe Alliance Party's Kellie Armstrong said she did not expect the DUP to end its boycott.\n\n\"I expect every household in Northern Ireland to face a cold winter without the same level of help that is being provided to others across the UK,\" she said.\n\nThe SDLP's Matthew O'Toole accused the DUP of \"always shirking, always deflecting, it's always somebody else's fault\".\n\n\"The tragedy is that the DUP are addicted to power but hate responsibility,\" he said.\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie landed himself in hot water with some of his comments\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie described the recall of the assembly as gesture politics which was born out of frustration.\n\n\"The reality is this, like three years before with Sinn Féin, the DUP simply do not care\", he said.\n\nHe accused the DUP and Sinn Féin as \"two sides of the same damn coin\".\n\nBut Mr Beattie faced criticism after accusing some DUP members of screaming and \"whinging like a girl from the side lines\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Doug Beattie under fire for 'whine like a girl' remarks\n\nLagan Valley assembly member Emma Little-Pengelly tweeted that she was proud \"of the many strong girls and women\" she knows.\n\nA new law giving the Irish language official status, also received Royal Assent on Tuesday.\n\nThe culture, language and identity bill will allow the use of Irish in courts and see the appointment of Irish and Ulster Scots/Ulster British commissioners.", "Stephen Bear denies voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photographs and films\n\nA reality TV personality doubled his OnlyFans fee after posting a \"revenge porn\" video, a trial has been told.\n\nStephen Bear is accused by ex-partner Georgia Harrison of uploading secretly filmed footage of them having sex to his page without her consent.\n\nShe told Chelmsford Crown Court the video posting had \"ruined my life\".\n\nMr Bear, 32, of Bryony Close, Loughton, Essex, denies one count of voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photographs and films.\n\nGiving evidence on Wednesday, 27-year-old Ms Harrison, who has waived her right to anonymity, said: \"After this happened I was in the worst state of my life.\n\n\"I can't explain the shame I felt. I did not want to leave my room. Instead of apologising, he put his subscription price up from £25 to £50.\"\n\nThe trial has heard how Mr Bear met with Ms Harrison for lunch on 2 August 2020 before engaging in \"consensual sexual intercourse in his garden\".\n\nThe court was told Mr Bear, who appeared in the MTV show Ex On The Beach, showed Ms Harrison the footage afterwards and uploaded it later that year.\n\nProsecutors said 273 people paid £8.15 to watch it.\n\nMs Harrison said to the court she asked Mr Bear not to share it with anyone and told him she would report him to the police if he did.\n\nBut jurors were told Mr Bear claimed to police that she laughed at the footage.\n\nMs Harrison has appeared on TV shows The Only Way Is Essex, Love Island and also The Challenge with Mr Bear in 2018.\n\nGemma Rose, defending, asked her: \"You used the term 'revenge porn'. Are you only saying that now because of these charges?\"\n\n\"I am 100% confident that's what it is,\" replied Ms Harrison.\n\n\"It upset me. It ruined my life. I thought he had respect for me. There was a time when I really did love him and he took me round saying he respected me, he loved me, and at the time I thought he had a promising career on television and he would not do what he did.\n\n\"But looking back, I was an absolute idiot.\"\n\nMs Harrison's mother, Nicola, also gave evidence, and said her daughter was \"crying\" when she phoned her the day after being filmed.\n\nProsecutor Jacqueline Carey KC described to jurors the moment Mr Bear was arrested at Heathrow Airport, having returned from Dubai, on 15 January 2021.\n\nShe said he claimed not to know what his suitcase looked like at arrivals, only for a pink bag with his name labelled on to appear on the carousel moments later.\n\nAn officer statement, read by Ms Carey, accused Mr Bear of trying to prevent police from recovering his mobile phone, which the court was told was never found.\n\nDuring a police interview, recounted for jurors, Mr Bear claimed Ms Harrison \"laughed about\" the video and said he \"put in a good performance\".\n\nThe court was told the defendant repeatedly claimed his Instagram account was hacked, but answered \"no comment\" when asked specific questions.\n\nThe trial is due to continue on Thursday.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "China has scrapped its harshest rules after protests against its zero-Covid policy\n\nChina is lifting its most severe Covid policies - including forcing people into quarantine camps - just a week after landmark protests against the strict controls.\n\nPeople with Covid can now isolate at home rather than in state facilities if they have mild or no symptoms.\n\nThey also no longer need to show tests for most venues, and can travel more freely inside the country.\n\nCitizens have expressed relief but also concern about the sudden changes.\n\n\"Finally! I will no longer worry about getting infected or being taken away as a close contact,\" one person wrote on Chinese social media.\n\nAnother said: \"Can anyone explain to me what's happening? Why is the change all of a sudden and so major?\"\n\nThe sweeping changes indicate China is finally moving away from its zero-Covid policy and looking to \"live with the virus\" like the rest of the world.\n\nThis country is grappling with its biggest wave of infections - over 30,000 each day.\n\nSome users online have questioned the accelerated opening-up - \"The medical system will be overwhelmed and many elderly would be infected. It [a major wave of infections] begins now,\" one user wrote.\n\nBut many others rejoiced at the loosening of a policy that had controlled their lives for nearly three years.\n\nUntil now, China had forced people with Covid and anyone who was a close contact to go to quarantine camps.\n\nThis policy had been deeply unpopular because it separated families and removed people from their homes. Some of the centres were also reported to have poor living conditions and inadequate staff.\n\nVideos all year have shown guards dragging people out of their homes after they refused to go. Viral footage from Hangzhou last week showed a man fighting off officials.\n\nChina's National Health Commissioned announced a swathe of other new freedoms on Wednesday. They said:\n\nThe new guidelines also included a strict ban on blocking fire exits and doors. That follows reports of people being locked into their homes during an earthquake, and buildings being sealed under lockdown measures.\n\nThe recent protests were triggered by a deadly fire in the western Xinjiang region - critics said the victims had been unable to escape the building because of lockdown measures, but Beijing denies this.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThere have also been repeated reports of delays to emergency medical care for people in locked down areas.\n\nOn Wednesday, authorities also stressed the need to accelerate the vaccination of elderly people.\n\n\"All localities should adhere to.... focus on improving the vaccination rate of people aged 60-79, accelerating the vaccination rate of people aged 80 and above, and making special arrangements,\" the National Health Commission said.\n\nSince the protests on 24-26 November, Chinese authorities began to release some cities from lockdown. Officials had also begun to tone down language around the dangers of Covid.\n\nThe country's vice-premier, Sun Chunlan, flagged last week that China was entering \"a new situation\" in the pandemic and said the virus's ability to cause disease was weakening.\n\nExperts have warned any easing of zero-Covid in China would have to be done slowly - as the country of 1.4 billion people could see a huge jump in cases that could overwhelm its healthcare system.\n\nSpeeding up vaccination of its elderly population is key, health experts say.\n\n\"The main way for China to exit Covid with the least damage is via vaccination and three doses of vaccination is a must,\" Prof Ivan Hung at Hong Kong University told the BBC earlier this week.\n\n\"Hopefully before Chinese New Year [in January 2023] as there will be a large movement of the population travelling and returning home,\" he added.\n\nChina's international borders also remain closed to most foreigners, however some analysts say this rapid change shows the country could re-open next year.", "Julian Knight has been suspended as a Conservative MP after a complaint was made to the Metropolitan Police, a party spokeswoman has said.\n\nShe declined to comment on the nature of the complaint as it is now under investigation.\n\nMr Knight, who has been an MP since 2015, chairs the culture committee in the House of Commons.\n\nHe represents the Solihull constituency in the West Midlands, but will now sit as an independent.\n\nA spokeswoman for Chief Whip Simon Hart said: \"Following a complaint made to the Metropolitan Police this evening, we have removed the whip from Julian Knight MP with immediate effect.\"\n\nThe chief whip is in charge of discipline within the parliamentary party. He also has the power to remove the whip from an MP, meaning they can no longer sit in Parliament as a Conservative MP.\n\nMr Knight becomes the fifth MP to currently have the Conservative whip removed.\n\nAs chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, Mr Knight has previously commented on drafts of the online safety bill.", "Raheem Sterling was left \"shaken\" by the burglary, according to his spokesperson\n\nPolice investigating a break-in at the home of England star Raheem Sterling are not linking it to another attempted burglary in the same village.\n\nSurrey Police said earlier it was looking into whether the two raids in Oxshott were linked - but is now ruling that out \"at this time\".\n\nJewellery reported to be worth £300,000 was stolen from the player's home.\n\nPolice said no arrests had been made in connection with the burglary at Mr Sterling's property.\n\nIn a statement, the force said two men, who remain in custody, were arrested on suspicion of attempted burglary on 6 December in the Oxshott area.\n\nThe Chelsea winger, 27, left the England World Cup squad in Qatar and returned to the UK after the burglary.\n\nIt is thought Mr Sterling's fiancée, Paige Milian, returned to the couple's home to discover that there had been a break-in.\n\nThe footballer is said to have been shaken and concerned about the wellbeing of his children following the incident.\n\nThe Football Association offered extensive security guidance to players before leaving for Qatar and has an experienced security team on hand to advise and provide support.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Liam Smith, 38, was described as a \"devoted dad\" by his family\n\nA man who had been shot and was found dumped in a street had been doused in an acid and an alkali, police said.\n\nLiam Smith's body was discovered on Kilburn Drive in Shevington, Wigan, at about 19:00 GMT on 24 November.\n\nGreater Manchester Police (GMP) said the alkaline and acidic substances found on the 38-year-old's body were at opposite ends of the pH scale.\n\nDetectives are investigating whether the combination was an attempt to destroy evidence or part of the attack.\n\nThe body was found on a patch of rough ground between houses which leads to a dirt track and open fields.\n\nLiam Smith's body was found on Kilburn Drive in the Shevington area\n\nThe hazardous substances were not believed to pose any further harm or risk to the public and have been contained, GMP said previously.\n\nMr Smith was described by his family as the \"most devoted dad\" and \"the life and soul of the party\".\n\nDet Ch Insp Gina Brennand previously said the \"shocking murder of a much-loved family man\" was the first fatal shooting in the area for more than two years.\n\nShe urged anyone who had seen \"anything unusual or out of the ordinary near to the victim's home\" on Thursday to contact police.\n\n\"We are determined to recover the weapon and find Liam's killer,\" she said.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Germany is Europe's largest economy and the most populous country in the European Union.\n\nAchieving national unity later than other European nations, Germany quickly caught up economically and militarily, before defeats in World War One and World War Two left it shattered, facing the difficult legacy of Nazism and divided between Europe's Cold War blocs.\n\nAfter 1949, West Germany rebounded to become the continent's economic giant and a prime mover of European cooperation. Franco-German cooperation was central to European economic integration in the 1980s and 1990s.\n\nWith the end of the Cold War, the two parts of the country were once again united, although the economy of the former east continues to lag behind the rest of the country.\n\nSince reunification, Germany has taken a more active role in the European Union, signing the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and the Lisbon Treaty in 2007 and co-founding the Eurozone.\n\nThe 63-year-old former finance minister defied earlier expectations by winning the September 2021 election.\n\nHe formed a coalition with the Greens and business-friendly Free Democrats in December, becoming the first Social Democrat chancellor since 2005.\n\nHe took over from the Christian Democrat Angela Merkel, Germany's first female chancellor, who governed for 16 years in coalition with either the Free Democrats or the Social Democrats.\n\nMr Scholz was her vice-chancellor as well as finance minister in 2018-2021.\n\nDespite having a much more restrained and cautious response than that of other Western countries to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Scholz oversaw an increase in Germany's defence budget, weapons shipments to Ukraine and a discontinuance of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.\n\nScholz set out the principles of a new German defence policy in his \"Zeitenwende\" speech to parliament immediately after the invasion.\n\nScholz described the attack as a \"historic turning point\" and announced that in response his government would use a €100bn fund to significantly increase military spending, reversing Germany's previously cautious defence policy.\n\nFormer foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected federal president in February 2017, succeeding Joachim Gauck.\n\nHe was reelected in February 2022 for a second five-year term as Germany's president. Although largely ceremonial post, he has been seen as a symbol of consensus and continuity.\n\nHis lenient policies toward countries such as Russia and China have earned him criticism both in Germany and internationally.\n\nGermany has a lively newspaper scene, based on regional centres but read nationwide\n\nGermany's competitive television market is the largest in Europe, with more than 38 million TV households.\n\nRegional and national public broadcasters vie for audiences with powerful commercial operators.\n\nGermans are avid newspaper readers and the non-tabloid press is a trusted news source.\n\nInternet use is near-universal. Facebook is the most popular social network,\n\nGermany's parliament is housed in the historic Reichstag building in the capital Berlin\n\n800 - Emperor Charlemagne, Frankish ruler of France and Germany is crowned Roman emperor by Pope Leo III.\n\n843 - Break-up of the Frankish empire; Germany emerges as separate realm.\n\n962 - German King Otto I is crowned Roman emperor after gaining control of northern Italy; beginning of what becomes known as Holy Roman Empire centred on Germany.\n\n1250 - Death of Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen marks the virtual end of central authority and the acceleration of empire's collapse into independent princely territories.\n\n1438 - Election of Albert I marks beginning of Habsburg dynasty based in Austria.\n\n1517 - Martin Luther proclaims Ninety-Five Theses against traditional church practices; start of Protestant split from the Catholic Church.\n\n1618-1648 Thirty-Years' War: The failure of Habsburg emperors' attempt to restore Catholic dominance and imperial authority against the opposition of Protestant princes.\n\n1648: The Treaty of Osnabruck, along with the Treaty of Munster, ends the Thirty Years War\n\n1648 - Peace of Westphalia - the collective name for two peace treaties signed in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster - ends the war. The Peace of Westphalia has traditionally being seen as the origin of principles crucial to modern international relations.\n\n1806 - Napoleon's armies impose French rule over much of Germany; Francis II declares abolition of Holy Roman Empire and adopts title of emperor of Austria.\n\n1813 - Defeat of Napoleon at Battle of Leipzig.\n\n1848 - Year of Revolutions: Liberals fail in an attempt to unite Germany under democratic constitution; start of period of rapid industrialisation.\n\n1866 - Austro-Prussian War: Prussia defeats Austria in seven-week war. Part of wider rivalry between Austria and Prussia and results in Prussian dominance over other German states.\n\n1871 - Otto von Bismarck achieves unification of Germany under leadership of Prussia. The new German Empire's authoritarian constitution creates an elected national parliament but gives emperor extensive powers.\n\n1888 - William II becomes emperor: start of colonial expansion and build-up of German navy to compete with Britain's Royal Navy.\n\nShips of the Imperial German Navy: Germany's bid to challenge Britain's Royal Navy was one of the contributory factors to increasing diplomatic tensions prior to the outbreak of war in 1914\n\n1914-1918 - World War One. Germany is defeated and becomes a republic. Emperor William II abdicates and goes into exile.\n\n1919 - Treaty of Versailles: Germany loses colonies and land to neighbours, pays large-scale reparations.\n\nBeginning of the Weimar Republic, based on a new constitution. Its early years are marked by high unemployment and rampant inflation.\n\n1923 - Adolf Hitler, head of the National Socialist German Workers' (Nazi) Party, leads an abortive coup in a Munich beer hall.\n\nFrance, Belgium occupy the Ruhr over failed reparation payments. Hyperinflation leads to economic collapse.\n\n1933 - Hitler becomes chancellor. Weimar Republic gives way to a one-party state. Systematic persecution of Germany's Jews escalates. Hitler proclaims the Third Reich in 1934.\n\nKristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) sees orchestrated attacks on Jews and their property as well as synagogues.\n\n1939-1945 - Invasion of Poland triggers World War Two. Millions of people of all ages, mostly Jews but also large numbers of Gypsies, Slavs and other races, the disabled, homosexuals and religious dissenters, die as the Nazis implement an extermination policy in the death camps of eastern Europe.\n\n1945 - Germany defeated, Hitler commits suicide. Allies divide Germany into occupation zones. Berlin - in the Soviet zone - is itself divided into US, UK, Soviet and French zones.\n\n1947 - US and UK merge their two zones into one economy, the Bizone. It is a recognition of the breakdown of cooperation between the four occupying powers and the first indication the division of Europe into two Cold-War blocs.\n\n1948 - The Bizone is extended to include the French zone.\n\n1948-49 - Berlin Blockade: Amid worsening East-West relations and the introduction of the new Deutschmark currency in western zones, Soviet authorities block road and rail access from western Germany to West Berlin. The Western allies respond with the Berlin Airlift - a massive air operation to keep West Berlin supplied - until the Soviets abandon the blockade.\n\n1949 - The US, French and British zones in the west become the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD); the Soviet zone in the east becomes the communist German Democratic Republic (DDR).\n\nKonrad Adenauer, of the Christian Democrats is West Germany's first chancellor. East Germany is led by Walter Ulbricht.\n\n1955 - West Germany joins Nato. USSR responds by forming its own military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, comprising Soviet bloc countries including East Germany.\n\n1957 - West Germany is a founding member of the European Economic Community, along with France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The French protectorate of Saarland joins West Germany after voters reject the idea of establishing it as an independent state.\n\nAugust 1961: East German border guards at the Brandenburg Gate as the DDR builds the Berlin Wall\n\n1961 - The DDR builds the Berlin Wall to stop the flight of East Germans to the increasingly prosperous West.\n\n1969 - Social Democrat Willy Brandt becomes chancellor and seeks better ties with the Soviet Union and East Germany under Ostpolitik (eastern policy).\n\n1971 - Walter Ulbricht is succeeded in East by Erich Honecker.\n\n1974 - Brandt resigns after spy revelations surrounding one of his aides.\n\n1989 - Mass exodus of East Germans as Soviet bloc countries relax travel restrictions. Berlin Wall is torn down.\n\n1990 - Chancellor Helmut Kohl reunites Germany as a single state. East and West Berlin are united into a single city and eventually becomes the capital of a reunited Germany.\n\n2015-2016 - Government allows more than a million asylum seekers from the Middle East and beyond to stay, raising public concerns about crime and public services that far-right groups exploit.\n\n2021 - Devastating floods hit parts of western Europe. Over 100 die in Germany and 22 in Belgium.\n\nThe fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 marked a pivotal moment in Germany's modern history\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Flynn (sitting alongside new deputy leader Mhairi Black) was elected as the SNP's Westminster leader at the group's AGM on Tuesday evening\n\nReports of deep divisions within the SNP are a \"complete fiction\", a senior MP has insisted.\n\nStewart Hosie was responding to claims that Stephen Flynn's victory over Alison Thewliss in the party's Westminster leadership contest showed the party was now split.\n\nMr Hosie said \"not one word of that is true\" and he had \"no idea where these stories have come from\".\n\nMs Thewliss is seen as being a close ally of Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nBut she lost by 26 votes to 17 to Mr Flynn in a ballot of the party's 44 MPs on Tuesday evening, with one member not taking part.\n\nMr Flynn questioned Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister's Questions for the first time as group leader on Wednesday, where he highlighted a new opinion poll which suggests support for independence is at 56% - higher than other recent polls which have tended to show a narrow majority in favour of remaining in the UK.\n\nHe asked Mr Sunak whether \"increasing energy bills\" in Scotland will \"cause those poll numbers to rise or to fall\", with the PM responding by pointing to the £55bn in energy bill support his government is providing this winter.\n\nThe SNP's political opponents have claimed that the defeat of the candidate widely assumed to have been the first minister's preferred choice was a \"personal humiliation\" for Ms Sturgeon and \"lays bare the deep splits within the SNP\".\n\nBut Mr Hosie told the BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that the SNP was \"absolutely united\" by their goal of achieving independence and by the \"fantastic leadership of Nicola Sturgeon\".\n\nMr Hosie, a former deputy leader of both the party and its Westminster group, added: \"With Stephen Flynn at the helm in Westminster I think we'll see closer working than we've ever done.\"\n\nMr Flynn was elected as leader after the resignation of Ian Blackford, who was also close to Ms Sturgeon.\n\nThere had been reports for several months that many SNP MPs were increasingly unhappy with Mr Blackford's leadership, particularly after he urged them to give their full support to former chief whip Patrick Grady.\n\nMr Grady was suspended from the party and the Commons earlier this year for sexual misconduct.\n\nMr Flynn denied just two weeks ago that he was plotting to oust Mr Blackford alongside colleagues from the so-called Tuesday Club - a group of male SNP MPs who are said to hold regular five-a-side football, beer and curry nights.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Stephen Flynn says he will push the impact of the cost of living and Scotland's right to choose its future\n\nWhen Mr Blackford subsequently confirmed he was standing down, Mr Flynn was initially expected to be the only candidate to replace him before Ms Thewliss unexpectedly announced that she was also standing in the contest.\n\nMr Hosie, who backed Mr Flynn in the vote, said the new leader would bring a \"different tone\" to Mr Blackford, and would be \"snappier and more vibrant\".\n\nHe added: \"I think he will bring a great deal to the table and a great deal to the independence cause as we hold this government to account.\n\n\"I think Stephen has a rare gift of being able to communicate difficult things in a really effective way and I am looking forward to seeing it deployed particularly when we get to Prime Minister's Questions\".\n\nHe also dismissed suggestions that the party's MPs were now split between \"Sturgeon loyalists and Sturgeon sceptics\" - with Mr Flynn a sceptic - as untrue.\n\nMr Hosie said: \"I have to say I did see some of these stories over the past few days and on a couple of occasions I nearly spat out my coffee with laughter.\n\n\"Not one word of these divisions is true. I have no idea where these stories have come from.\"\n\nMs Sturgeon tweeted shortly after the vote that Mr Flynn and his new deputy Mhairi Black would make a \"truly formidable team\" and that she was looking forward to working with them both.\n\nBut Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said the result of the leadership contest showed that \"the first minister's once-iron grip on her party is slipping\" and that it \"lays bare the deep splits within the SNP\".\n\nAnd Ian Murray, Labour's shadow Scottish secretary, claimed Ms Sturgeon had been given a \"two finger salute\" by SNP MPs who chose to back Mr Flynn over Ms Thewliss.\n\nAlison Thewliss is seen as being closer to SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon than Mr Flynn is\n\nThe new Westminster leader has been installed just a fortnight after the Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish government cannot hold a second independence referendum without the UK government's consent.\n\nMs Sturgeon had wanted to hold a vote next October but now says she will use the next general election as a \"de facto referendum\" - a move that is said to have unsettled some of the party's MPs.\n\nWhen asked if all 44 SNP MPs would get behind that plan, Mr Hosie replied: \"Yes. This is the plan which we have. It is likely to be the next election.\n\n\"It is the one where we can put forward in a manifesto that a vote for the SNP means we're moving towards independence.\n\n\"That is the clearest and most legal and constitutional way of doing it\".\n\nHe also played down reports of a difference of opinion between Mr Flynn and Ms Sturgeon over the future of the North Sea.\n\nMs Sturgeon opposes drilling for new oil and gas fields, while Mr Flynn - whose Aberdeen South constituency is at the heart of the industry - is said to have a different view.\n\nMr Hosie insisted that there was \"no policy division whatsoever\" over the issue, adding: \"He is very much in favour of making sure that transition funding is put in place, so that all of those highly skilled, highly talented people in the north east of Scotland can be deployed in a renewable future\".\n\nStephen Flynn was chosen by the SNP's MPs to lead them in the Commons in part because they hoped he would be a punchy presence at big events like Prime Minister's Questions.\n\nHe may have been given a warmer welcome than the man he is replacing was used to - Ian Blackford was generally greeted with a chorus of jeers from the government benches.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The new Westminster leader of the SNP Stephen Flynn takes part in his first Prime Minister's Questions\n\nBut the 34-year-old is clearly planning on taking an adversarial approach to the Conservatives and Labour, aiming barbs at both parties.\n\nThe bigger job for Flynn may be bringing his party's fractious group together in the wake of a leadership contest which was not the coronation he had hoped for.\n\nWith the SNP planning to use the next general election as a single-issue campaign on the issue of independence, those MPs could find themselves on the very frontline of the debate over Scotland's future.", "Security has been stepped up at Ukraine's embassy in Madrid, Spain\n\nSuspicious or threatening packages sent to Ukrainian diplomatic missions all had the same sender address - a Tesla dealership in Germany - Ukraine's foreign minister says.\n\nDmytro Kuleba added that 31 Ukrainian embassies and consulates in 15 countries received the packages.\n\nThey were sent from post offices with no surveillance, he said, and senders took care to hide their identity.\n\nSecurity was boosted after the first of the packages was sent last week.\n\nUkraine said at the time that bloody packages containing animal eyes had been sent to eight embassies in Europe, but more have been affected since.\n\nThe Tesla dealership in question is in the town of Sindelfingen, in southwestern Germany.\n\nHowever, the Associated Press quoted Spanish officials as saying the packages received there were sent from inside Spain, a fact that appears to be borne out by a photo of one of them.\n\nMr Kuleba said the perpetrators were careful to conceal their identities\n\n\"Usually, the shipment was made from post offices that were not equipped with video surveillance systems,\" Mr Kuleba wrote in a Facebook post.\n\n\"Criminals also took measures not to leave traces of their DNA on the packages. This, in particular, indicates the professional level of implementation.\"\n\nHe said six packages were sent to Poland, five to Spain, four to Italy, two each to Portugal, Romania, Hungary and the Czech Republic, and one each to Austria, the Vatican, Denmark, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, the US, France and Croatia.\n\nThe most recent of the attacks were in the past two days, he added.\n\nThe incidents followed a letter bomb blast at Ukraine's embassy in Madrid a week ago which injured an employee. More bombs sent to other locations in Spain were defused.\n\n\"I don't remember any instance in history that so many embassies and consulates of one country have been subjected to such mass attacks in such a short period of time,\" said Mr Kuleba.\n\nHe added that Ukraine's \"enemies\" would not be able to intimidate it, and that Kyiv would continue to \"work for victory\" in its war against Russia.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex joked their trip to NYC was a \"date night\"\n\n\"We know a ripple of hope can turn into a wave of change,\" the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have said, after winning an award for their racial justice and mental health work.\n\nPrince Harry and Meghan received the Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR) organisation at a gala in New York.\n\nThe two also spoke about their \"belief of courage over fear and love over hate\".\n\nThe RFKHR is a human rights advocacy organisation that focuses on issues such as mass incarceration, racial justice and gender-based violence.\n\nIt says that it honours those who have demonstrated \"an unwavering commitment to social change and worked to protect and advance equity, justice and human rights\".\n\nDuring the ceremony, Harry and Meghan announced a new collaboration between their Archewell Foundation and the RFKHR - the Archewell Foundation Award for Gender Equity in Student Film.\n\n\"Our hope with this award is to inspire a new generation of leadership in the arts, where diverse up-and-coming talent have a platform to have their voices heard and their stories told,\" the couple said in a statement.\n\n\"The values of RFK Foundation and the Archewell Foundation are aligned in our shared belief of courage over fear, and love over hate.\n\n\"Together we know that a ripple of hope can turn into a wave of change.\"\n\nSpeaking on stage with Ms Kennedy during the event, Harry joked: \"I'll be honest with you, Kerry - I just thought we were just going on a date night, so I found it quite weird that we're sharing the room with 1,500 people.\n\n\"We don't get out much these days because our kids are so small and young, so this is completely unexpected.\n\n\"But it's nice to share date night with all of you, so thank you for coming,\" he added to laughter from the audience.\n\nThe ceremony was hosted by actor Alec Baldwin, who last year was involved in a deadly shooting on the set of a Western movie when a gun that Baldwin was using during rehearsal killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Last October, Baldwin reached a settlement with Hutchins' family.\n\nUkrainian President Volodymr Zelensky and Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan also received awards.\n\nRFKHR President Kerry Kennedy said the royal couple had been \"incredibly brave\" in addressing the issues of mental illness and racial justice.\n\n\"For Meghan to get out there on national television and normalise discussion of mental health, at this point, is incredibly important and very brave,\" Ms Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F Kennedy, told US outlet Extra.\n\nHarry and Meghan's new show will be released on Netflix on Thursday.\n\nIn the second of two trailers, Prince Harry spoke of the \"leaking\" and \"planting of stories\" as part of a \"dirty game\".\n\nHowever, the trailers have been criticised for allegedly using footage and photos in misleading ways.\n\nMeghan and Harry have long discussed their mental health struggles. Speaking in a TV interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Meghan said she found life within the Royal Family so difficult that at times she \"didn't want to be alive anymore\".\n\nIn the revealing interview, Meghan also said Prince Harry was asked by an unnamed family member \"how dark\" their son Archie's skin might be.\n\nLast week, the outgoing Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner said the duchess received \"disgusting and very real\" threats while she was a working royal.\n\nPrince Harry has also said he had to step back from royal duties to protect himself and his family from the \"toxic\" situation created by the UK press.\n\nThe duke told TV chat host James Corden that it was \"destroying my mental health\" and he \"did what any husband [or] father would do\".", "That's all from today's assembly sitting - for the fifth time, members have failed to elect a Speaker and the Northern Ireland Assembly stays in the deep freeze.\n\nA breakthrough to the political stalemate appears no closer but whatever political developments occur, you can get the latest on BBC News NI online as well as via BBC Newsline and BBC Radio Ulster.\n\nWe'll see you next time - most likely for the sixth assembly recall. Until then, thanks for joining us.", "After a blaze of publicity and controversy, Netflix's Harry & Meghan series is beginning on Thursday with three episodes.\n\nIt promises to reveal the inside story of how the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down from royal duties.\n\nTrailers refer to a \"war against Meghan\", with Prince Harry speaking of the \"leaking and... planting of stories\" as part of a \"dirty game\".\n\nBuckingham Palace has not responded to the Sussexes' claims.\n\nThere will be intense scrutiny of the series.\n\nA \"behind-closed-doors\" view of Palace life has been promised, with Prince Harry speaking of the \"pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution\", in an apparent reference to his wife, Meghan, and mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.\n\nThe trailers suggest the TV documentary will reveal the love story of how the \"clandestine\" relationship between Prince Harry and Meghan developed.\n\nBut it will also show their account of a changing relationship with the media and the public.\n\nThis will be their version of events - and the rest of the Royal Family might be watching to see how far the claims go, if there is any evidence and whether they should officially respond.\n\nThe Netflix series promises an inside story of the couple's relationship\n\n\"We know the full truth,\" Prince Harry says, introducing a series with a 15 rating and a warning it deals with \"discrimination\".\n\nBut questions have been raised about some of the images used.\n\nA scene of a press scrum is said to have been taken from an appearance at Crawley Magistrates' Court by TV personality Katie Price, rather than a royal engagement.\n\nOn Tuesday, at a New York event where the prince and Meghan received a human rights award, the couple faced awkward questions from reporters: \"Are you putting money before family?\" and \"Are you harming your family, Harry?\".\n\nBut the dramatic tone of the trailers shows no sign of offering any olive branches, instead suggesting a collision course with the Royal Family.\n\nAnd the new year will bring the publication of Prince Harry's \"unflinching\" memoir.\n\nThe series is being released in two sections of three episodes, on 8 and 15 December, at 08:00 GMT.", "UK house prices saw their biggest drop in 14 years in November, falling 2.3%, reflecting \"volatility\" in the market, according to mortgage lender Halifax.\n\nNovember marks the third month in a row during which prices have fallen with potential buyers playing safe by delaying purchases.\n\nThe average UK house price in November was £285,579.\n\nHigher mortgage rates, economic uncertainty, and the rising cost of living are all affecting the market.\n\nThe annual rate of growth in property prices has now dropped from 8.2% to 4.7%.\n\nKim Kinnaird, director of Halifax Mortgages, said: \"While a market slowdown was expected given the known economic headwinds - and following such extensive house price inflation over the last few years, this month's fall reflects the worst of the market volatility over recent months.\n\n\"Some potential home moves have been paused as homebuyers feel increased pressure on affordability and industry data continues to suggest that many buyers and sellers are taking stock while the market continues to stabilise.\"\n\nHowever, she said that the falls should be put into context, given the rapid increase in property prices in the last few years.\n\nProperty prices were up more than £12,000 compared with this time last year, and £46,403 higher than in March 2020 when the Covid pandemic began.\n\nThe Halifax said Wales and the South West of England had recorded particularly sharp slowdowns in annual house price growth.\n\nBoth had been at the forefront of house price inflation during the pandemic, when the so-called race for space among buyers boosted demand for rural or coastal properties.\n\nThe Halifax survey, based on the lender's own data, comes shortly after the rival Nationwide Building Society said prices fell 1.4% from October to November - the largest month-on-month fall since June 2020.\n\nMortgage rates are much higher than at any time during the last decade, although earlier this week, the average rate on a new, fixed-rate two or five-year deal fell below 6% for the first time for two months.\n\nTomer Aboody, director of property lender MT Finance, said: \"With another fall in property prices in November, buyers and sellers are clearly demonstrating more caution due to higher mortgage rates and the ever-rising cost of living.\n\n\"As with any fall in pricing, buyer sentiment and confidence is key. But considering the macro-economic and seasonal factors affecting all consumers, along with the month-on-month increases seen over the past 18 months or so, the decline needs to be put into context as it is still minimal.\"\n\nA modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection is required to view this interactive. How much could my mortgage go up by? How much are you borrowing? If you have an existing mortgage enter the outstanding balance left to pay. If not, enter the total you are looking to borrow. How long will you take to pay it back? If you have an existing mortgage enter the total number of years remaining. If not, enter the total number of years you are looking to borrow over. What is your current... For those with a mortgage enter the rate for your current fixed term. For those without a mortgage enter an interest rate from another source, such as a bank's mortgage rate calculator. At this rate, your payments could change by… The information you provided on your monthly payments would not be sufficient to pay off your mortgage within the number of years given.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Voters in Georgia decide hard-fought run-off election for the final US Senate seat.\n\nDemocrats have cemented their control of the US Senate by winning a bitterly fought seat in Georgia, according to projections.\n\nRaphael Warnock fended off Republican challenger Herschel Walker in a race that had been left undecided after last month's midterm elections.\n\nPresident Joe Biden's party now holds the upper chamber of Congress by 51-49.\n\nThe result caps a disappointing round of midterm election results for the Republicans.\n\nThe party underperformed expectations last month by winning only a slender majority in the US House of Representatives, Congress' lower chamber.\n\nMr Walker, an American football legend and political newcomer, joins a string of defeated candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who is currently seeking the Republican White House nomination again in 2024.\n\nGeorgia's contest had to be settled by a run-off election because no candidate passed the 50% mark in November, although Mr Warnock had led Mr Walker by 37,000 votes cast.\n\nMr Warnock - who became the first black senator in the Deep South state when he first won his seat in January 2021 - told his victory party at an Atlanta hotel ballroom: \"It is my honour to utter the four most powerful words ever spoken in a democracy: the people have spoken!\"\n\nThe 53-year-old southern Baptist preacher, whose Atlanta church was once led by civil rights leader Martin Luther King, gave a special thank you to his mother.\n\nHe said she had grown up in the 1950s \"picking someone else's cotton\" in Georgia. Tonight, he said, she had \"helped pick her youngest son to be a United States senator\".\n\nMr Warnock's projected win came by a narrow margin. With 99% of the estimated vote counted, he secured 50.8% to Mr Walker's 49.2%, according to Edison Research.\n\nMr Walker did not explicitly concede as he took to the stage to address supporters at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.\n\nBut he said: \"There's no excuses in life, and I'm not going to make any excuses now because we put up one heck of a fight.\"\n\nMr Walker's campaign was dogged by claims - which he denies - that he paid for two former girlfriends' abortions, despite his calls for the procedure to be outlawed.\n\nThe 60-year-old also had to acknowledge during the campaign that he had fathered three children he had not mentioned publicly, after having long railed against absentee fathers.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRepublicans, meanwhile, ran an attack ad reminding voters of an allegation by Mr Warnock's ex-wife that he ran over her foot in a car during a March 2020 domestic dispute.\n\nVoting numbers in Georgia on Tuesday alone reached 1.4 million, election official Gabriel Sterling said after polls closed, adding there had been \"record turnout across the board\".\n\nA record 1.9 million Georgians had already cast early or postal ballots.\n\nMr Warnock's campaign enjoyed a big fundraising advantage, spending about $170m (£140m), compared with Mr Walker's nearly $60m, according to federal filings.\n\nBoth President Biden, who has had low approval ratings, and Mr Trump largely avoided wading into the race.\n\nSenator Raphael Warnock thanked God and his family at his victory party in Atlanta\n\nMr Walker's Senate bid was the last Republican opportunity to flip a Senate seat after Trump-backed candidates lost in New Hampshire, Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania. Other Senate contenders Mr Trump championed won in Ohio, Wisconsin and North Carolina.\n\nTuesday night's victory means that although most legislation will still need Republican support, it will be slightly easier for Mr Biden to appoint judges and members of his administration.\n\nIf Democrats had lost Georgia, the party's control of a 50-50 Senate would have depended on US Vice-President Kamala Harris' tiebreaking vote.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Everything went black': Passenger describes events as trains collided\n\nAt least 155 people have been injured after two trains collided on the outskirts of Barcelona, emergency services have said.\n\nThe crash, which occurred around 07:50 (06:50 GMT), took place at a station in Spain's north-eastern Catalonia region.\n\nLocal media reported that the trains had been travelling in the same direction and collided while one was parked at the station.\n\nCatalan police are investigating how the incident occurred.\n\nThe crash happened at the Montcada i Reixac - Manresa station, about 12km (7 miles) from the city centre.\n\nEmergency services official Joan Carles Gomez told reporters at the scene that 155 people had been injured in the collision, with 14 passengers transferred to a local medical centre for further treatment.\n\n\"We're talking about many bruises and some head injuries, but nothing serious,\" he said, adding that the passengers were being examined to \"rule out any fractures\".\n\nMr Gomez said the train was moving \"very slowly (when the collision occurred) but people who were standing up fell over and hurt themselves\".\n\nA spokesman for the regional fire service said the moving train had collided with \"the back part\" of a stationary train at the station.\n\nTrain traffic was briefly disrupted on several lines due to the accident, the regional government said.\n\nDescribing the moment of the collision, one passenger told the Ser Catalunya outlet that she had experienced \"a tremendous blow\" and said that \"people were screaming\".\n\nAnother passenger told the BBC that she had seen \"people with blood on them, because they had suffered a gash from the blow\".\n\nSpanish Transport Minister Raquel Sánchez said she was closely monitoring the situation and wished a \"speedy recovery\" to the injured.\n\nThere have been several accidents on Catalonia's regional train system in recent years, with regional officials blaming them on a lack of rail funding from the central government.\n\nThe president of the Catalan regional government, Pere Aragonès i Garcia, called for urgent \"explanations\" into the causes of the crash from the rail operator Renfe and the Spanish government.\n\nAnd the speaker of the regional assembly, Laura Borràs, said it was \"imperative\" that the incident was not repeated.\n\nShe wrote on Twitter that \"Catalans deserve safe\" rail transportation.", "Rail workers are among those set to strike in the coming weeks\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he is working on \"new tough laws\" to protect people from strike disruption.\n\nHe told MPs if \"union leaders continue to be unreasonable, then it is my duty to take action to protect the lives and livelihoods of the British public\".\n\nBut Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer pointed to comments from the transport secretary suggesting new laws would not help with current industrial action.\n\nNurses, paramedics and rail staff are among those set to strike this winter.\n\nThe latest strikes to be announced are by Border Force staff at several airports, who are walking out over Christmas in a row over pay, jobs and conditions.\n\nA bill has been introduced to Parliament which would ensure minimum service levels on transport networks during strikes but it is yet to be debated by MPs and peers.\n\nDowning Street said the legislation would be extended to other services but would not specify what these would be and no timescale was given.\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said work was \"ongoing\" on other options for mitigating future industrial action.\n\nPressed repeatedly, he refused to rule out a ban on strike action by emergency services.\n\nAsked by the BBC if he would consider banning strikes in emergency services, the prime minister said the \"government is always going to be reasonable\" but refused to rule it out.\n\nMr Sunak said: \"My priority is making sure that I keep people safe, and that I minimise the disruption on their lives, and I will do what is required to do that.\"\n\nEarlier, Transport Secretary Mark Harper told MPs the bill currently before Parliament \"may well improve the service passengers receive on strike days\" in the future but it would not \"help with the industrial action that we face today\".\n\nHe added that his \"priority\" was to resolve the industrial dispute with rail unions \"so that passengers don't have strike days\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDuring Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Sunak called on Sir Keir to \"stand up for working people\" and support the minimum service levels legislation.\n\nHe accused Labour Party of refusing to back workers and businesses who would be affected by the strikes.\n\nBut Sir Keir said the prime minister \"should stop grandstanding, stop sitting on his hands, get round the table and resolve these issues\".\n\nTUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: \"Rather than attempting cheap political pot shots, the government should be getting around the table and negotiating with unions about pay.\"\n\nLabour has said it would oppose the \"unworkable\" minimum service levels legislation, but a spokeswoman said she could not commit to repealing it if the party took power as the laws had not yet been brought in.\n\nAsked what action Labour would take on strike laws, she said the party would repeal the \"archaic\" legislation introduced under the Conservatives in 2016.\n\nThe 2016 Trade Union Act does not allow online ballots for strikes and brought in higher thresholds for industrial action in key public services.\n\nUnions are calling for pay rises to keep up with the cost of living.\n\nInflation - the rate at which prices rise - is currently running at 11.1%, the highest level for 40 years.\n\nBut the government says increasing pay with inflation is unaffordable in the current economic climate.\n\nMr Sunak insisted the government had been \"reasonable\" and had accepted the recommendations of independent pay review bodies for public sector workers.\n\nThe long-running dispute with rail unions is also about job cuts and changes to terms and conditions.\n\nIt has already caused many days of disruption this year, bringing much of the network to a standstill on strike days, with more walkouts planned over Christmas.\n\nMeanwhile, ambulance staff across most of England and Wales are also going on strike on 21 December in a dispute over pay, while nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will walk out for two days in December.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay said he was \"ready to work with trade unions\" on issues like staffing levels and conditions.\n\nHowever, asked if he was willing to improve his pay offer to NHS staff, Mr Barclay told the BBC that was a matter for the independent pay review body.\n\nMeanwhile, Sir Keir also used PMQs to attack Mr Sunak as weak, describing him as a \"blancmange prime minister\".\n\nHe accused the prime minister of \"crippling\" housebuilding by watering down targets for local councils in the face of a rebellion from Conservative MPs.\n\nMr Sunak defended the move as giving people a say on building decisions in their area.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nFriday's two World Cup quarter-finals will be shown live on BBC television.\n\nCroatia v Brazil (15:00 GMT) and Netherlands v Argentina (19:00) will be broadcast on BBC One and the BBC iPlayer.\n\nITV will show both of Saturday's matches - England v France (19:00) after Morocco v Portugal (15:00).\n\nRadio commentary of all four matches will be available in the UK on BBC Sounds, with live text coverage on the BBC Sport website and app.\n• None Star names set for heavy-hitting World Cup last eight\n\nHere's everything you need to know before the quarter-finals...\n\nBrazil made their journey into the quarter-finals look easy as they scored four first-half goals to beat South Korea 4-1. They will be heavy favourites against 2018 runners-up Croatia, who needed penalties to overcome Japan.\n\nCroatia play Brazil on Friday, 9 December at the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan at 15:00 GMT - 18:00 local time in Qatar.\n\nBBC One is showing the match live with highlights and clips on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.\n\nIs Croatia v Brazil on the radio?\n\nCroatia and Brazil's quarter-final is on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds, with build-up beginning at 14:00 GMT.\n\nHow else can I follow Croatia v Brazil?\n\nThe BBC Sport website will have live text commentary of Croatia v Brazil. There will also be a live text providing pre-match news throughout the day.\n\nLouis van Gaal's Netherlands moved into the World Cup quarter-finals with a 3-1 victory over the United States, while Argentina, helped by a moment of magic from Lionel Messi on his 1,000th career appearance, beat Australia 2-1.\n\nFriday's game will be a rematch of the 2014 semi-final, when Argentina beat the Dutch on penalties after a goalless draw.\n\nThe Netherlands play Argentina on Friday, 9 December at Lusail Iconic Stadium in Lusail at 19:00 GMT - 22:00 local time in Qatar.\n\nBBC One is showing the match live with highlights and clips also on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.\n\nIs Netherlands v Argentina on the radio?\n\nThe Netherlands and Argentina's last-eight tie is on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds. Coverage begins at 14:00 GMT and includes commentary on Friday's earlier quarter-final between Croatia and Brazil at 15:00.\n\nHow else can I follow Netherlands v Argentina?\n\nThe BBC Sport website will have live text commentary of Netherlands v Argentina. There will also be a live text providing pre-match news throughout the day.\n\nMorocco reached the last eight of a World Cup for the first time as they dumped out 2010 champions Spain on penalties, while Goncalo Ramos scored a hat-trick to give Portugal a 6-1 win over Switzerland.\n\nMorocco play Portugal on Saturday, 10 December at Al Thumama Stadium in Doha at 15:00 GMT - 18:00 local time in Qatar.\n\nITV are showing the match live with highlights and clips on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.\n\nIs Morocco v Portugal on the radio?\n\nMorocco's last-eight tie against Portugal on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds, with World Cup build-up beginning at 14:00 GMT.\n\nHow else can I follow Morocco v Portugal?\n\nThe BBC Sport website will have live text commentary of Morocco v Portugal. There will also be a live text providing pre-match news throughout the day.\n\nEngland will meet France in a mouth-watering quarter-final after beating Senegal 3-0, while the reigning champions coasted past Poland in their last-16 tie.\n\nIt will be the first time the two sides have met in the knockout round of a men's major tournament.\n\nEngland play France on Saturday, 10 December at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor at 19:00 GMT - 22:00 local time in Qatar.\n\nITV are showing the match live with highlights and clips on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.\n\nIs England v France on the radio?\n\nEngland's quarter-final against France is on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds. Coverage begins at 12:00 GMT and includes commentary on Saturday's earlier quarter-final between Morocco and Portugal at 15:00.\n\nHow else can I follow England v France?\n\nThe BBC Sport website will have live text commentary of England v France. There will also be a live text providing pre-match news throughout the day.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Union leaders have said they are \"very sorry\" as thousands of pupils across Scotland face another unscheduled day off due to teacher strikes.\n\nMembers of the SSTA and NASUWT unions are taking part in a second day of industrial action, claiming they have no other option amid a pay dispute.\n\nUnions have warned there could be further strikes if they do not receive a \"significantly improved\" offer.\n\nThe Scottish government said the pay demands were \"not affordable\".\n\nIt follows the EIS strike which saw almost all schools close on 24 November and the rejection of the latest pay proposal.\n\nUnions were offered a rise of between 5% and 6.85% but the EIS is asking for 10%.\n\nOn Tuesday the NASUWT said it was seeking a fully funded rise of 12% for 2022/23.\n\nUnion members in 17 local authorities boycotted classes on Wednesday, with action in the other 15 council areas on Thursday - resulting in the partial closures of many schools.\n\nIain Glennie, assistant general secretary with the SSTA union, said he expected further strike action in January unless the proposal from employers was \"significantly improved\".\n\nThe SSTA and the NASUWT are the latest unions to strike after the EIS walked out on 24 November\n\nHe insisted the latest pay offer was \"barely better\" than the previous offer which was rejected.\n\nSpeaking on a picket line outside a school in Glasgow, Mr Glennie said: \"These members don't want to be on a picket line, they are teachers, they came into this profession to teach, it is a vocation.\n\n\"They want to teach, they are being stopped from doing this. This is what we have to do in order to make our case.\n\n\"So we are very sorry for the disruption it causes, but if the Scottish government aren't going to make a material difference to the offer this is what is going to happen.\"\n\nMr Glennie said unions were willing to restart talks with both the government and the local government body Cosla - adding that no discussions had taken place since 22 November.\n\nEducation Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said the pay demands were not affordable\n\nOn Wednesday, industrial action took place in: Argyll and Bute; Dumfries and Galloway; East Ayrshire; East Dunbartonshire; East Renfrewshire; Eilean Siar; City of Glasgow; Highland; Inverclyde; North Ayrshire; North Lanarkshire; Orkney; Renfrewshire; Shetland; South Ayrshire; South Lanarkshire; West Dunbartonshire.\n\nThe local authorities affected on Thursday are: City of Aberdeen; Angus; Aberdeenshire; Clackmannanshire; Dundee City; City of Edinburgh; East Lothian; Falkirk; Fife; Midlothian; Moray; Perth and Kinross; Scottish Borders; Stirling; West Lothian.\n\nDisruption is expected in most areas through either partial or full closures of schools.\n\nAlthough mainly limited to secondary schools, some primaries are affected. About a third of councils said they expected \"significant\" disruption.\n\nWith prelim exams taking place in many schools, older pupils are being prioritised and younger pupils are being given the day off.\n\nThe latest pay offer from the Scottish government was formally rejected last Wednesday.\n\nThe NASUWT said that a typical teacher in Scotland is almost £50,000 worse off as a result of their pay failing to keep pace with inflation since 2010, a loss they say will be further compounded by the current below-inflation pay offer.\n\nThe union also confirmed that following this week's strikes, members would begin a programme of ongoing action, including a refusal to cover for absent colleagues and attendance at only one meeting per week outside pupil sessions.\n\nThere was a picket line at Smithycroft Secondary School in Glasgow on Wednesday morning\n\nMike Corbett, NASUWT National Official Scotland, told the PA news agency that members were \"angered\" after being asked to take a \"significant, real terms pay cut\" for the second year in a row amid rampant inflation.\n\nHe warned that the dispute is likely to continue unless employers and the Scottish government make an improved offer for all teachers.\n\nMr Corbett said: \"There was a revised offer tabled on November 22 but that revised offer, although it was an improvement for those at the lowest end of the salary scale, was exactly the same offer for all experienced classroom teachers and for some in promoted posts it was actually a worse offer.\n\n\"So that was immediately rejected by all of the teacher trade unions and I think until employers and government come back with what is an improved offer for all teachers then I fear the dispute might continue.\"\n\nHe added: \"Our members do not want to be on strike, they do not want to be disrupting children's education in any way, but their hope is that this, the ultimate thing they can do, actually brings an end to the dispute by bringing a revised and improved offer.\"\n\nEducation Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: \"Strike action is in no-one's interest, least of all learners, parents and carers. We remain committed to a fair, sustainable settlement for Scotland's teachers and will continue to engage teaching unions and Cosla constructively.\n\n\"It is very disappointing that the teaching unions have rejected the latest offer - the fourth which has been put to unions - which mirrors the deal accepted by other local government workers.\n\n\"The request for a 10% increase for all teachers - even the highest paid - is not affordable within the Scottish government's fixed budget.\n\n\"While councils are responsible for managing the impact of industrial action, I expect schools to remain open wherever possible, so that disruption can be minimised. Any closures would follow risk assessments made in individual areas.\"\n\nThe pay offer made by employers before the EIS strike a fortnight ago has not been improved or amended.\n\nSo is this dispute now deadlocked? Or will a new offer be made in time to avert the next wave of strikes after Christmas?\n\nThe Scottish government has made it clear that a bigger pay rise would mean tougher cuts and savings elsewhere.\n\nThe other potential difficulty is that teachers - who are employed by councils - could end up with a bigger pay rise than other local authority staff, including those on significantly lower salaries.\n\nThe council unions would almost certainly consider this when they submit their next pay claim.\n\nBut the spectre of regular school strikes is something nobody wants.\n\nThe teachers' unions will have noted how an improved pay offer was made to NHS staff amid the threat of strikes.\n\nSolving industrial disputes usually involves compromising. It is rare for one side to get everything it wants. But one side usually has to blink first.\n\nMeanwhile the EIS has said its members should not cover for striking colleagues in the two other unions.\n\nIt said: \"The EIS position is that no member should engage in any duty which is normally carried out by members of another union who are on strike action.\n\n\"We are aware that some local authorities are attempting to exert pressure on teachers to provide cover, but the EIS believes that it is unreasonable for our members to be instructed to strike break for colleagues of another trade union carrying out official industrial action in a common dispute.\n\n\"The EIS will offer its full support to any member who is subjected to this type of intimidation by their employer.\"\n\nMore strikes have already been announced.\n\nThe EIS says its members in primary school members will take part in a national strike on 10 January, while those in secondary schools will walk out the following day.\n\nSixteen additional days of strikes in January and February have also been announced by the union.\n\nWill you be affected by the strike action? Are you a senior student, a parent or a teacher involved in the dispute? If you would be willing to discuss its impact on you, fill in the form below and we could be in touch.\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit it on the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question.\n• None Teachers say 'we don't want to be on strike'", "A man convicted of murder was shot by his victim's father in the Taliban's first public execution since their return to power in Afghanistan.\n\nA Taliban spokesperson said the man was killed at a crowded sports stadium in south-western Farah province.\n\nThe father of the victim shot the man three times during the execution, a later statement from the Taliban spokesperson said.\n\nDozens of the group's leaders attended the shooting.\n\nIt comes weeks after judges were instructed to fully enforce Sharia law.\n\nThe Taliban's supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada issued the edict last month, ordering judges to impose punishments that may include public executions, public amputations and stoning.\n\nHowever, the exact crimes and corresponding punishments have not been officially defined by the Taliban.\n\nWhile several public floggings have been carried out recently - including that of a dozen people before a crowded football stadium in Logar province last month - it marks the first time the Taliban have publicly acknowledged carrying out an execution.\n\nAccording to their spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, the execution was attended by several Supreme Court justices, military personnel and senior ministers - including the justice, foreign and interior ministers.\n\nMohammad Khaled Hanafi, charged with imposing the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic law as minister for vice and virtue, was also present. However, Prime Minster Hasan Akhund did not attend, the statement said.\n\nAccording to the Taliban, the executed man named Tajmir, a son of Ghulam Sarwar and a resident of Herat province, had stabbed a man named Mustafa about five years ago.\n\nHe was subsequently convicted by three Taliban courts and his sentence was approved by Mullah Akhundzada.\n\nBefore the execution, a public notice was issued publicising the event and \"asking all citizens to join us in the sport field\".\n\nThe murdered man's mother told the BBC that Taliban leaders had pleaded with her to forgive the man, but she had insisted upon his execution.\n\n\"Taliban came to me and begged me to forgive this infidel,\" she said. \"They insist me to forgive this man in sake of God, but I told them that this man must be executed and must be buried the same as he did to my son.\n\n\"This could be a lesson to other people,\" she added. \"If you do not execute him he will commit other crimes in the future.\"\n\nUN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed \"deep concern\" about the execution, according to spokeswoman Stephanie Tremblay.\n\n\"We call for a return to the moratorium on the death penalty\" in Afghanistan, she said.\n\nDuring their rule from 1996-2001, the Taliban were condemned for regularly carrying out punishments in public, including executions at the national stadium in Kabul.\n\nThe Taliban vowed that they would not repeat the brutal repression of women. Since they seized power, women's freedoms have been severely curbed and a number of women have been beaten for demanding rights.\n\nAt present, no country has recognised their new government and the World Bank has withheld around $600m (£458m), after the Taliban banned girls from returning to secondary schools.\n\nThe US has also frozen billions of dollars held by Afghanistan's central bank in accounts around the world.", "Train passengers are to be told to only travel next week if it is absolutely necessary, even if rail worker strikes are called off at the last minute.\n\nWorkers at the UK's biggest rail union, the RMT, will walk out on 13-14 and 16-17 December causing major disruption.\n\nIt is part of a long-running dispute between unions, operators and Network Rail over pay, jobs and conditions.\n\nDisruption will be inevitable even if strikes are aborted because of how long it takes to restore a normal timetable.\n\nNetwork Rail, which owns and maintains Britain's railway infrastructure, said 50% of the railways will be shut down on strike days, regardless of whether the walkouts go ahead.\n\nOnly 20% of services will operate between the hours of 07:30 and 18:30 GMT, it added.\n\nDelays and cancellations are also expected on non-strike days during the week, because trains will be in the wrong places and staff shift patterns mean it takes time for all workers to return to work.\n\nThe RMT has staged a series of strikes since the summer involving about 40,000 rail workers employed by Network Rail and 14 train companies.\n\nFurther action is planned with Network Rail workers set to strike from 18:30 on Christmas Eve until 27 December.\n\nThey will then be joined by workers at the train companies for strikes on 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nBusinesses, particularly those in hospitality, have raised concerns over the impact of the strikes during the busy festive period, with industry experts suggesting more than £1.5bn of trade could be lost.\n\nSeveral meetings between unions bosses, train companies and Network Rail have so far failed to prevent strikes on the railways, which have been happening on and off for months.\n\nThe RMT is involved in two negotiating battles, one with Network Rail, where it represents signallers and maintenance workers, and the other with the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents the 14 train companies.\n\nThe union has rejected an RDG offer which included a 4% pay rise both this year and next.\n\nIt has decided to put Network Rail's offer, which includes a 5% pay rise this year and a 4% rise next year, to its members in an electronic referendum, but has called for it to be rejected.\n\nAs things stand, next week's strikes will go ahead.\n\nEven if they are cancelled, significant disruption now looks inevitable. Network Rail had said Monday night was the deadline for action to be called off, to give time to switch back to a normal timetable.\n\nAs with previous national RMT strikes, very few trains will run and some places will have none at all. A key reason is the involvement of Network Rail's signalling staff across Britain.\n\nThe organisation and ministers have long called for the RMT to let workers decide whether to accept a proposed offer. The union's members at Network Rail - unlike those at train companies - are now getting a vote.\n\nBut we won't know the result of that electronic referendum until Monday afternoon, the eve of the first 48-hour strike.\n\nEven if the deal was accepted (against the recommendation of the RMT), it would be too late to reinstate normal services on Tuesday.\n\nThe rail industry is not the only sector facing strike action, with postal workers, bus drivers, teachers and nurses all set to walk out this month. Ambulance staff across many parts of England and Wales are also set to strike on 21 and 28 December.\n\nWorkers are demanding better conditions and pay rises that match inflation, as the cost of living rises at its fastest rate for 41 years.\n\nOn Wednesday, Transport Secretary Mark Harper told a committee of MPs that he was \"very disappointed\" that the RMT had turned down the pay offers.\n\nHe said the dispute was not just about pay, but about reforming the railways, as fewer people were using trains compared to before the pandemic.\n\n\"The taxpayer has put £31bn of support into the rail industry over the past two years,\" he said. \"That's equivalent to over £1,000 per household in the country. That is the context about why we need reform.\"\n\nHe added commuter traffic was about 60% of what it was pre-pandemic, due to more people working remotely.\n\nRMT general secretary Mick Lynch has said he regrets the inconvenience caused by the strikes but added that the government is ultimately to blame. \"They are running the playbook and the strategy for the railway companies and directing what's going on,\" he said.\n\nHow will you be affected by the rail strikes? Are your Christmas plans being disrupted? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n• None Rail union told not to hold country 'to ransom'", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Starmer: How did Baroness Mone get taxpayers' money?\n\nRishi Sunak said he was \"shocked\" to read allegations about Baroness Mone, adding it was \"absolutely right\" that she is no longer attending the Lords.\n\nThe peer is taking a leave of absence amid claims she benefited from a firm she recommended for a Covid contract.\n\nAsked about the allegations at Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Sunak said she \"no longer has the Conservative whip\".\n\nA spokesperson for the peer said: \"Baroness Mone's legal team are dealing with this witch-hunt situation.\"\n\nDowning Street said not having the Tory whip was an automatic consequence of her requesting a leave of absence from the House of Lords.\n\nBaroness Mone has been linked to PPE Medpro, which won government contracts worth £203m to supply masks and medical gowns during the pandemic, after she recommended it to ministers.\n\nAn investigation in the Guardian based on leaked documents alleged Baroness Mone had financially benefited from the company.\n\nAt PMQs, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer asked Mr Sunak: \"How did his colleague Baroness Mone end up with nearly £30m of taxpayers' money in her bank account?\"\n\nMr Sunak told him: \"The one thing we know about him is he is a lawyer, he should know there is a process in place. It is right that that process concludes. I hope that it is resolved promptly.\"\n\nHe added: \"Like everyone else I was absolutely shocked to read about the allegations.\n\n\"It's absolutely right that she is no longer attending the House of Lords and therefore no longer has the Conservative whip.\"\n\nBaroness Mone's spokesman said on Tuesday she was taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords \"in order to clear her name of the allegations that have been unjustly levelled against her\".\n\nThe Lords' standards watchdog is investigating the peer over her alleged involvement in procuring contracts for PPE Medpro, although this has been paused \"while the matter is under investigation by the police or another agency as part of a criminal investigation\".\n\nBaroness Mone has consistently denied any \"role or function\" in the company, and her lawyers have previously said she is \"not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity\".\n\nThe government has committed to releasing documents to MPs surrounding the award of contracts to the PPE Medpro firm, after Labour won a vote in the Commons on Tuesday.", "Tottenham manager Antonio Conte has suggested he will only select players who were not involved in the World Cup for his side's Boxing Day match at Brentford.\n\nThe Premier League resumes on Monday, just eight days after the World Cup final in Qatar.\n\nConte has already said his players who were involved in the final - France's Hugo Lloris and Argentina's Cristian Romero - will not face the Bees.\n\n\"I am not really happy,\" Conte said.\n\n\"In one hand, you are happy because for my club, Tottenham, to have 12 players at the World Cup it means that we are in the right way to try to be competitive and to try to win something.\n\n\"But it is normal that when you have so many players play a tournament like this, especially during the season, that now it is not easy because the physical condition is not at the top.\n\n\"It is impossible to give them a lot of rest and for sure with the players that didn't play the World Cup and we work for four weeks, now they are in a great physical condition.\n\n\"We worked a lot on the tactical aspect and physical aspect. Now they are at a level that is better than the players who finished the World Cup.\n\n\"For this reason I think I have to make the best decision for the game against Brentford. On one side I have players who I worked with for four weeks really well and on the other side, I have players who worked at the World Cup and are not at the top at the moment.\"\n\nRodrigo Bentancur will miss Monday's lunchtime kick-off due to suspension but has also been nursing a minor hamstring issue.\n\nThe same injury will sideline Richarlison for a month - he picked it up playing for Brazil in Qatar - and Lucas Moura's problem with his tendon continues.\n\nConte said of Moura: \"He is struggling a lot to find a solution.\n\n\"It's a difficult situation, because I have a good player in my squad, but he's never available. It's like you don't have him.\n\n\"It's a pity because we are talking about a good player, a good guy, but he is struggling a lot to solve this problem. I don't know what in the future happens about him.\"", "Police did not pursue the car, which did not stop for officers\n\nA man has been arrested after a woman was killed in a crash in the early hours of Christmas Day.\n\nAt about 03:45 GMT, patrolling Met police officers in a marked car indicated for a car to stop in Hendon Way, Edgware, north London.\n\nThe car drove off and police did not pursue it. The car was then involved in a crash with another vehicle and hit a lamp-post.\n\nThe 22-year-old, who was a passenger in the second car, died from her injuries.\n\nThe driver of the second car - a man - suffered a non-serious head injury.\n\nPolice said the occupants of the car that did not stop for officers fled the scene on foot.\n\nA 29-year-old man was subsequently arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and remains in custody.\n\nRoad closures are in place and inquiries are continuing to trace other occupants of the car, the force added.\n\nAnyone with information or dashcam footage is asked to contact police.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "All ten members of a group of skiers caught in an avalanche near the resort of Lech-Zuers in western Austria on Sunday have been rescued, police say.\n\nHelicopters, searchlights and avalanche dogs were used in the operation to locate the missing people after initial fears they had been buried in the snow.\n\n\"According to our current information, it can be assumed that no more people are missing,\" police said later.\n\nNo details were given of the nationalities of the skiers.\n\nThe avalanche happened at about 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT) at an altitude of 2,700m (8,858ft).", "Former bandmate Sister Bliss said he died \"peacefully in his sleep\" in his south London home on Friday night\n\nThe music world has been paying tribute to the lead singer of British dance act Faithless with one British DJ hailing him as \"an incredible talent\".\n\nMaxi Jazz, whose real name was Maxwell Fraser, died \"peacefully in his sleep\" on Friday night.\n\nThe musician and DJ was a core member of Faithless - a band best known for its club classic Insomnia.\n\nDutch trance legend Armin van Buuren hopes Jazz's music keeps on \"inspiring others\".\n\nVarious aspects of the music industry have continued to pay tribute to Jazz since his death was announced.\n\nIndependent label Rough Trade Records said the 65-year-old played a \"pivotal role in the world of British electronica\".\n\nBritish DJ Judge Jules described Jazz as an \"incredible talent and a complete gent\", while DJ and radio presenter Mistajam remarked that Jazz's \"words and performances touched so many of us\".\n\nJazz headlined the MTV stage at V Festival in 2016\n\nJazz was a huge fan of Crystal Palace Football Club and became an associate director in 2012.\n\nCrystal Palace's first team will walk out to Faithless as they take on Fulham at Selhurst Park in the Premier League on Boxing Day, the club's chairman wrote on Twitter.\n\nSteve Parish added: \"Desperately sad to hear the news that we lost Maxi this morning. He was such a huge talent, a massive supporter of the club in every way and just a wonderful kind-hearted man.\n\n\"He made the world dance, sing and laugh and someone I was privileged to call a friend. RIP Maxi.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Crystal Palace F.C. This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBorn in Brixton, south London, Jazz also fronted a band called Maxi Jazz & The E-Type Boys and released music with the group Soul Food Cafe.\n\nDJ David Pearce said Faithless became an \"iconic force in UK dance music from the mid-90s and touched so many lives\". He said Jazz was \"dance music's poet\" and a \"warm, cool, friendly soul\".\n\nFaithless formed in 1995 and were pioneers of stadium dance music. They headlined some of the world's biggest festivals including Glastonbury, taking to the Pyramid stage in 2002. They were nominated for Best UK Dance Act at the Brit Awards in 1999 and 2002.\n\nThe band split in 2011 but returned to release a new studio album almost a decade later, during the Covid pandemic. However, they weren't joined by Jazz, who had formed another band, Maxi Jazz & The E-Type Boys.\n\nThe guitar band marked a new sound for Jazz, who began writing the material in 2013, during Faithless's hiatus.\n\nOn their website, the band described their sound as incorporating \"melodic funk and blues mixed with reggae beats, dub baselines [and] Jamaican melodies\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"It's an outrage that we're dependant on food banks\"\n\nWales' Anglican and Catholic archbishops have mourned the loss of Queen Elizabeth II in a first joint Christmas message.\n\nAndrew John, Archbishop of Wales, and Archbishop of Cardiff Mark O'Toole also noted the many struggles faced in 2022.\n\nThey highlighted the people still grappling with Covid-19, conflicts abroad and the cost-of-living crisis.\n\nThe archbishops also spoke of the kindness shown and friendships formed throughout a year of many hardships.\n\nBoth of Wales' archbishops are relatively new to their roles, with Mr John having been elected last December and Mr O'Toole selected by the Pope in April.\n\nWales Anglican and Catholic archbishops have issues a joint Christmas message for the first time\n\n\"Over the past year we have met many challenges. People are still grappling with the effects of the coronavirus. We mourned the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,\" said the pair.\n\n\"Conflicts rage on in many countries across the world. Compounding this, the cost-of-living crisis is pushing many deeper into poverty as they struggle with day-today living costs.\"\n\nHowever, despite the moments of \"difficulty and despair\", they said there had been \"flickers of light in the darkness\".\n\n\"The kindness of a neighbour continuing friendships that grew out of the pandemic, buying groceries for someone down the road. Millions of people honouring the memory of a selfless and dedicated Queen.\n\nArchbishop Mark O'Toole met King Charles III on his first visit to Wales as monarch in September\n\n\"Schools, churches and other community organisations welcoming refugees with open arms into their places of sanctuary.\n\n\"Here in Wales especially we want to be known as a place of sanctuary, a land of peace.\n\n\"A Happy and Blessed Christmas to you all.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nThe last we saw of the Premier League was on Sunday, 13 November, with Manchester United snatching an injury-time winner at Fulham.\n\nSix weeks have passed, during which we have been glued to events in Qatar, where Wales fell at the group stage and England suffered penalty woe again, before Argentina lifted the 2022 World Cup.\n\nOn 26 December the English top flight returns, and just in case you had forgotten how we left it, BBC Sport will bring you up to speed.\n\nThe view from the top\n\nArsenal are out in front after a superb first 14 games of the campaign.\n\nThey have amassed 37 points, dropping them in just two fixtures so far - their only defeat coming at Manchester United in early September.\n\nAfter their best Premier League start, this is the first time they will be top at Christmas since the 2007-08 season.\n\nAll seven teams to win 12 of their first 14 games have won the Premier League title.\n\nAnother good omen for the Gunners is the team that topped the table on Christmas Day have been champions in 10 of the past 13 seasons.\n\nIn their first game back they face West Ham at Emirates Stadium.\n\nWith second-placed Manchester City not playing until 28 December - at Leeds - victory would take the Gunners eight points clear of the champions.\n\nNewcastle - the surprise challengers at the top end of the table - are at Leicester on 26 December and will want to pick up where they left off. A sixth consecutive win would move them above Manchester City and into second.\n\nThere are a few teams in the top half who will probably have appreciated the chance to take stock during the World Cup before going again.\n\nTottenham beat Leeds before the break, but had lost three of the previous four. They get us under way on Monday with an away game at Brentford (12:30 GMT).\n\nGraham Potter's Chelsea have not won in five Premier League games and spent the World Cup break in eighth.\n\nDown at the bottom\n\nOn the evidence of the first 14 or so games, this season's relegation battle could be wide open.\n\nJust nine points separate the bottom 12 sides in the division, with Wolves propping everybody up.\n\nOnly six teams have ever been bottom at Christmas and stayed up - with half of those in the first three Premier League campaigns - but Wanderers will be looking to buck that trend with a new man at the helm.\n\nJulen Lopetegui took charge on 14 November and is already targeting big improvements, including in his squad, with the Spaniard wanting six new signings when the transfer window opens on 1 January.\n\nSouthampton also made a managerial switch shortly before the break, with Nathan Jones arriving from Luton to replace the sacked Ralph Hasenhuttl at St Mary's. The Saints have lost their past three games and are 19th, two points from safety.\n\nIt is perhaps surprising to see no more clubs opt to make a change, with the World Cup effectively providing a mid-campaign mini pre-season.\n\nEverton have stuck by manager Frank Lampard despite sitting 17th off the back of two consecutive defeats, and David Moyes remains West Ham boss even though they have lost three on the trot and sit just a point above the bottom three.\n\nThe impact of the World Cup\n\nAn intense, mid-season World Cup always carried the risk of fatigue and injuries to players.\n\nLeaders Arsenal could well be the worst impacted as a result of a serious knee injury picked up by Brazil striker Gabriel Jesus.\n\nIt could well be late February before we see him in action again after what had been an impressive start to his time with the Gunners, albeit one that had seen him fail to score in six league games before the break.\n\nIn contrast, despite having the most players of any club at the World Cup with 16, Manchester City currently have no injuries to report.\n\nThe majority of their representatives in Qatar were out of the tournament by the semi-finals, with only Argentina's Julian Alvarez making it beyond the last eight.\n\nIn addition, the Premier League's top scorer Erling Haaland has been able to rest for five weeks, ready to return and try to add to his remarkable tally of 18 goals in 13 games. The Norway striker played his first match for City since November's defeat by Brentford in a 2-0 friendly win against Girona on 17 December, and scored, as did Belgium's Kevin de Bruyne.\n\nKeen interest will be paid towards which players who were injured before the World Cup will be ready for action again.\n\nThe likes of Reece James and Wesley Fofana at Chelsea, Newcastle striker Alexander Isak and Everton's Dominic Calvert-Lewin could all return, although Liverpool striker Luis Diaz has had knee surgery and faces a further three months out.\n\nIn order to incorporate the World Cup into the domestic season, matches will now be played regularly so all fixtures can be fulfilled in a timely fashion.\n\nBetween now and the end of January there are five rounds of English top-flight fixtures. These all come after some clubs have featured in the Carabao Cup fourth round, with those games having taken place on 20-22 December.\n\nIn addition, the FA Cup third round will be played 6-9 January, before some teams return to European action in mid-February.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have criticised the Sun's apology over a column by Jeremy Clarkson as \"nothing more than a PR stunt\".\n\nThe column, in which Clarkson said he hated Meghan \"on a cellular level\", received more than 20,000 complaints.\n\nA spokesperson for the couple accused the Sun of profiting off and exploiting \"hate, violence and misogyny\".\n\n\"A true apology would be a shift in their coverage and ethical standards for all,\" they said.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we're not holding our breath.\"\n\nThe spokesperson described Clarkson's comments as \"dangerous\", adding: \"The fact that the Sun has not contacted The Duchess of Sussex to apologise shows their intent. This is nothing more than a PR stunt.\"\n\nOn Friday, the Sun said it regretted publishing the broadcaster's column and was \"sincerely sorry\".\n\nIt said columnists' opinions were their own, but, as a publisher, \"with free expression comes responsibility\".\n\nThe piece became the Independent Press Standards Organisation's (Ipso) most complained-about article. Clarkson asked for it to be removed from the Sun's website.\n\nIpso said it had received more than 17,500 complaints by 09:00 GMT on Tuesday - which rose to 20,800 by 17:00.\n\nIn place of the article, the Sun's website now has a copy of a tweet from Clarkson in which he said he was \"horrified to have caused so much hurt\" and \"would be more careful in future\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jeremy Clarkson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nClarkson's column, published on 16 December, was widely criticised on social media and his daughter, Emily, said she stood against everything her father wrote about the duchess.\n\nKevin Lygo, ITV's media and entertainment boss, described the comments made by Clarkson as \"awful\" but said there were no plans to replace him as a host of the gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.\n\nThe column came after the release of Prince Harry and Meghan's Netflix six-part series, in which the couple talked about their relationship with the UK media.\n\nIn the original column, Clarkson said: \"At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her.\n\n\"Everyone who's my age thinks the same way,\" he added. \"But what makes me despair is that younger people, especially girls, think she's pretty cool. They think she was a prisoner of Buckingham Palace, forced to talk about nothing but embroidery and kittens.\"\n\nIn his tweet following the criticism, Clarkson said he had made a \"clumsy\" reference to a scene in Game of Thrones which \"has gone down badly with a great many people\".\n\nElsewhere in the column, Clarkson had also compared his hatred of the Duchess of Sussex with his feelings towards Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and serial killer Rose West.\n\nIn response, Ms Sturgeon said Clarkson's comments about Meghan were \"deeply misogynist and just downright awful\".", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nArgentina captain Lionel Messi has reached an \"agreement in principle\" to renew his contract at Paris St-Germain, says BBC Sport's Guillem Balague.\n\nMessi, 35, who led Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar, is out of contract at the French club in June 2023.\n\nEarlier this week Barcelona president Joan Laporta said he \"would love\" Messi to return to the Spanish club where he spent 21 years.\n\nBut Balague says Barca have not approached Messi about a return.\n\nHe will sign a one-year deal with the option of another year and the agreement has come after four months of talks between PSG director of football Luis Campos and Messi's father Jorge.\n\nThat was followed by a key meeting in Doha with PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi.\n\n\"It is practically all agreed with PSG,\" says European football expert Balague. \"Barcelona have not approached him or his dad to offer anything.\n\n\"So it is not that Messi does not want to return to Barcelona. He has not been asked the question.\n\n\"Messi is happy with it all and when back from his holidays the agreement will speed up.\n\n\"His life in Paris is balanced, happy, everybody is enjoying it and he has a real possibility of winning the Champions League again. Plus, it will help him be a candidate again for the Ballon d'Or.\"\n\nThe seven-time Ballon d'Or winner was named player of the tournament at the World Cup as Argentina won the title for the third time with a penalty shoot-out victory over France.\n\nAfter leaving Barcelona, Messi signed a two-year contract as a free agent, with the option of a third year, in 2021.\n\nHe has made 53 appearances for the Ligue 1 side so far, scoring 23 goals in all competitions.\n\nThe Argentine has now won one World Cup, four Champions League titles, one Copa America, 10 La Liga trophies with Barcelona and a Ligue 1 crown in France with PSG.\n\nConsidered one of the greatest players of all time, he scored a record 672 goals in 778 games for Barcelona, the club he joined as a 13-year-old.\n\nHe ended his association with the Catalan club in 2021, when they could no longer afford to honour the new contract they agreed with him because of La Liga's salary limit.", "Police officers remained at the scene on Sunday morning\n\nPolice hunting a gunman who killed a woman at a pub in Merseyside on Christmas Eve have appealed for help over the \"callous shooting\".\n\nFour other people were injured but police do not believe the 26-year-old victim, who was celebrating with her sister and friends, was targeted.\n\nOfficers said the shooter fired towards the front entrance of The Lighthouse in Wallasey Village, Wirral, at about 23:50 GMT on Saturday.\n\nThe woman had been shot in the head.\n\nShe died after being taken to Arrowe Park Hospital.\n\nFour men were also injured, one of whom - a 28-year-old from Beechwood - is in a critical condition.\n\nA 22-year-old, also from Beechwood, sustained injuries to his legs, a 24-year-old, from Wallasey, suffered an injury to his hand while a 33-year-old suffered a wrist injury.\n\nThe woman was taken to hospital but was later pronounced dead\n\nOfficers said the pub was a \"busy venue full of young people\" and that the gunman's actions \"were totally and utterly reckless\".\n\nSpeaking at a press conference, Merseyside Police Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims said: \"Our investigation will rely heavily on information we receive from the public, and I urge members of the public and the local community who have any information which could help us, to come forward, so we can bring those responsible for this horrific murder of a young woman at Christmas to justice.\n\n\"She should have had the rest of her life to look forward to. Instead, her family can now only think of what might have been.\n\n\"These people need to be caught.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Merseyside police ask the public to help identify the gunman\n\nDet Supt Sue Coombs added: \"Her family have been informed and today, which should be a day with friends celebrating, they are coming to terms with this tragic loss.\n\n\"It's very early stages of the investigation but we do not believe that the victim in this case has been targeted.\n\n\"She was out enjoying Christmas with her sister and friends at what should have been a peaceful time.\n\n\"What her family are now going through is incomprehensible.\n\n\"At this stage of the investigation, we are trying to establish the motive and circumstances surrounding this callous shooting.\n\n\"We know that minutes later, a dark-coloured vehicle - possibly an A-Class Mercedes - was seen to leave the pub car park, so we are particularly keen to speak to that male and anybody who knows anything about that vehicle.\"\n\nEvidence markers were found near a pub advertising board at The Lighthouse\n\nIn a statement, The Lighthouse pub said staff were \"completely shocked\", adding that it was a \"tragedy beyond any words\".\n\nWirral Council leader Janette Williamson described the shooting as \"nothing less than despicable\", while Wallasey MP Dame Angela Eagle said it was \"heartbreaking\" and appealed for anyone with information to contact police.\n\nIn a joint statement, Wallasey ward councillors Ian Lewis, Lesley Rennie and Paul Hayes said: \"Taking weapons into a crowded, family pub on Christmas Eve shows that the person or people responsible are without conscience.\"\n\nThey joined calls for people with information to contact police, and added: \"Do not leave it to others to help take those responsible, and their weapons, off our streets.\"\n\nAfter some high-profile gun deaths in Merseyside in the past year, the government allocated £350,000 for the roll-out of a pilot scheme across the region to cut gun and knife crime.\n\nAmong those killed was nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, who was shot when a gunman chased a man into her home in Liverpool in August.\n\nShe died a day after council worker Ashley Dale was fatally shot in her back garden in Liverpool. The 28-year-old was not believed to have been the intended target of the attack.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Female students in the capital - Kabul University and others reopened in the spring following the Taliban takeover\n\nThe Taliban have banned women from universities in Afghanistan, sparking international condemnation and despair among young people in the country.\n\nThe higher education minister announced the regression on Tuesday, saying it would take immediate effect.\n\nThe ban further restricts women's education - girls have already been excluded from secondary schools since the Taliban returned last year.\n\nSome women staged protests in the capital Kabul on Wednesday.\n\n\"Today we come out on the streets of Kabul to raise our voices against the closure of the girls' universities,\" protesters from the Afghanistan Women's Unity and Solidarity group said.\n\nThe small demonstrations were quickly shut down by Taliban officials.\n\nFemale students have told the BBC of their anguish. \"They destroyed the only bridge that could connect me with my future,\" one Kabul University student said.\n\n\"How can I react? I believed that I could study and change my future or bring the light to my life but they destroyed it.\"\n\nAnother student told the BBC she was a woman who had \"lost everything\".\n\nShe had been studying Sharia Islamic law and argued the Taliban's order contradicted \"the rights that Islam and Allah have given us\".\n\n\"They have to go to other Islamic countries and see that their actions are not Islamic,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThe United Nations and several countries have condemned the order, which takes Afghanistan back to the Taliban's first period of rule when girls could not receive formal education.\n\nThe UN's Special Rapporteur to Afghanistan said it was \"a new low further violating the right to equal education and deepens the erasure of women from Afghan society.\"\n\nThe US said such a move would \"come with consequences for the Taliban\".\n\n\"The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all in Afghanistan,\" said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement.\n\n\"No country can thrive when half of its population is held back.\"\n\nWestern countries have demanded all year that the Taliban improve female education if they wish to be formally recognised as Afghanistan's government.\n\nHowever in neighbouring Pakistan, the foreign minister said while he was \"disappointed\" by the Taliban's decision, he still advocated engagement.\n\n\"I still think the easiest path to our goal - despite having a lot of setbacks when it comes to women's education and other things - is through Kabul and through the interim government,\" said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.\n\nThe Taliban had promised a softer rule after seizing power last year following the US' withdrawal from the country. However the hardline Islamists have continued to roll back women's rights and freedoms in the country.\n\nThe Taliban's leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his inner circle have been against modern education - particularly for girls and women.\n\nThere has been opposition to this stance from more moderate officials, and analysts say this issue has been a point of factional division all year.\n\nYet on Tuesday, the education ministry said its scholars had evaluated the university curriculum and environment, and attendance for girls would be suspended \"until a suitable environment\" was provided.\n\nIt added that it would soon provide such a setting and \"citizens should not be worried\".\n\nHowever in March, the Taliban had promised to re-open some high schools for girls but then cancelled the move on the day they were due to return.\n\nThe crackdown also follows a wave of new restrictions on women in recent months. In November, women were banned from parks, gyms and public baths in the capital.\n\nA university lecturer and Afghan activist in the US said the Taliban had completed their isolation of women by suspending university for them.\n\n\"This was the last thing the Taliban could do. Afghanistan is not a country for women but instead a cage for women,\" Humaira Qaderi told the BBC.\n\nThe Taliban had just three months ago allowed thousands of girls and women to sit university entrance exams in most provinces across the country.\n\nBut there were restrictions on the subjects they could apply for, with engineering, economics, veterinary science and agriculture blocked and journalism severely restricted.\n\nPrior to Tuesday's announcement, universities had already been operating under discriminatory rules for women since the Taliban takeover in 2021.\n\nThere were gender segregated entrances and classrooms, and female students could only be taught by women professors or old men.\n\nHowever, women were still getting education. Unesco noted on Tuesday that from 2001 and 2018 - the period between Taliban rule - the rate of female attendance in higher education had increased 20 times.\n\nSeveral women have told the BBC they gave up after the Taliban regained rule because of \"too many difficulties\".\n\nThere has been speculation for over a month now that the Taliban government would ban university education for women.\n\nOne female student predicted it a few weeks ago. \"One day we will wake up and they will say girls are banned from universities,\" she had said.\n\nAnd so, while many Afghans might have expected that sooner or later this decision would be taken, it still comes as a shock.\n\nLast month women were barred from parks, gyms and swimming pools. In March this year, the Taliban government did not deliver on its commitment to open secondary schools for girls.\n\nFrom conversations with Taliban leaders over the past year, it is evident that there is disagreement within the Taliban on the issue of girls' education.\n\nOff the record, some Taliban members have repeatedly said they are hopeful and working to try and ensure girls get an education.\n\nGirls were allowed to sit for graduation exams for secondary schools two weeks ago, in 31 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, even though they haven't been allowed to be in school for more than a year.\n\nThat provided a glimmer of hope, which has now been extinguished.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Women in Afghanistan face an uncertain future following the Taliban's takeover", "The Archbishop of Canterbury delivered his Christmas sermon at Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday morning\n\nIn his first Christmas sermon since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the Archbishop of Canterbury praised the late monarch's life of service.\n\nThe Queen \"put her interest after those of the people she served\", Justin Welby said.\n\nHis sermon also remembered those suffering \"immense\" hardship in the UK's cost-of-living crisis.\n\nAnd despite darkness around the world, there is \"unconquerable hope\" in the birth of Jesus Christ, he said.\n\nThe archbishop referenced the \"desperate struggles of hospital wards\" as well as those who make journeys in small boats to reach the UK, as he delivered his annual Christmas Day message.\n\nMr Welby said the late Queen \"in obedience to the Christ-child lived a life of service and put her interest after those of the people she served.\"\n\nIn his sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, he praised those who have acted with love and service towards others over the past year - including a 10-year-old girl he met volunteering at a food bank in Canterbury, people who have welcomed refugees into their homes, NHS staff and life-boat crews.\n\nThe archbishop expressed concern for those struggling with \"immense anxiety and hardship\" during the UK's cost-of-living crisis.\n\nHe said: \"In Jesus Christ, God reaches out to each one of us here; to those who like his family have no resources, into the dark cells of prisons, into the desperate struggles of hospital wards, to those on small boats, to the despairing...and says: 'Take me into your heart and life, let me set you free from the darkness that surrounds and fills you, for I too have been there.\n\n\"And God says in me there is forgiveness, hope, life and joy, whoever and wherever you are, whatever you have done.\"\n\nHe appealed to South Sudan and Russia to end their respective wars, and said that \"the world does watch, does care and will hold rulers responsible for justice\".\n\nHe said: \"Even where the world forgetfully turns a blind eye to injustice and suffering, pays no attention to a war, God is present through Jesus in the world... God does not give up on us.\"\n\n\"We are conscious of darkness\" he said as he recalled standing next to a mass grave in a church yard in Bucha, Ukraine in the spring.\n\n\"Even in Bucha, among all the horror, the darkness does not overcome the light.\"\n\nSeparately in a joint Christmas message, Wales' Anglican and Catholic archbishops honoured \"the memory of a selfless and dedicated Queen\".\n\nAt Christmas Eve Mass in the Vatican, Pope Francis condemned human \"hunger for wealth and power\" in what appeared to be a reference to the Ukraine war and other conflicts.\n\nHe said \"How many wars have we seen!\" where the main victims were \"the weak and the vulnerable\".", "Police officers remained at the scene on Sunday morning\n\nPolice are hunting for a gunman after a woman was fatally shot at a pub on Merseyside on Christmas Eve.\n\nThree other men are being treated for gunshot wounds in hospital after the attack in The Lighthouse in Wallasey Village, Wirral at about 23:50 GMT on Saturday.\n\nA number of other people were also injured, police added.\n\nOfficers are appealing for information after the gunman fled in a dark vehicle, believed to be a Mercedes.\n\nMerseyside Police said the woman died after she was rushed to hospital following the shooting, which happened in a \"busy venue full of young people\".\n\nA police cordon is in place near the scene\n\nThe incident was described as \"despicable\" by Chief Constable Serena Kennedy and \"heartbreaking\" by the area's MP, Dame Angela Eagle.\n\nDet Supt David McCaughrean said: \"We have a number of officers at Wallasey Village who are carrying out extensive inquiries to understand exactly what has taken place and take immediate action.\"\n\nThe woman's family has been informed and is being supported by specially trained officers.\n\nIn a statement, The Lighthouse pub said they were \"completely shocked\", adding: \"This is a tragedy beyond any words.\n\n\"All our thoughts are with the friends and family of our customers and in particular our hearts go out to the family of our customer who has lost her life.\n\n\"We have provided the police with CCTV footage and our priority is supporting everyone who has been impacted.\"\n\nA spokesman said anyone who had Christmas Day bookings were being contacted and given a refund.\n\nLocal resident Jenny Hough said she heard the shots but assumed they were fireworks for Christmas.\n\nThe 77-year-old described the shooting as \"a complete shock\".\n\nShe said: \"My sister's garden had been broken into. We suspect it was people trying to get out of the pub and trying to climb over the wall and into her garden to get out.\"\n\nThe woman was taken to hospital but was later pronounced dead\n\nNot too long ago this pub was bustling and busy, it was full of young people.\n\nThe televisions are still on - it looks like the aftermath of a party. There are bottles that are still strewn across the table as people were celebrating Christmas.\n\nIt's absolutely devastating to any family and any friends at any time, but especially at Christmas.\n\nPolice want any witnesses with footage and information to contact them.\n\nJeffrey Hughes, minister of the United Reformed Church in Wallasey Village, said the pub was central to the community.\n\nHe described the area as \"fairly lively\", adding: \"It's a nice part of Wallasey.\"\n\n\"We've got a lot of young people, families in that area,\" he said.\n\n\"When we first heard the news this morning that there'd been a shooting in Wallasey, Wallasey Village is the last place you would think of.\"\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The Pope rebukes people who are 'ravenous' for wealth and power\n\nPope Francis has condemned human \"hunger for wealth and power\" at Christmas Eve Mass in the Vatican, seemingly referring to the war in Ukraine and other conflicts.\n\n\"How many wars have we seen!\" he said, adding that the main victims were \"the weak and the vulnerable\".\n\n\"I think above all of the children devoured by war, poverty and injustice,\" the pontiff added.\n\nHe was addressing worshippers at St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.\n\nFrancis, 86, entered the church in a wheelchair, and sat at the site of the altar for most of the Mass on Saturday evening.\n\n\"While animals feed in their stalls, men and women in our world, in their hunger for wealth and power, consume even their neighbours, their mothers and sisters,\" he said.\n\nHe did not specifically mention the Russian-Ukraine war during the service.\n\nDuring the early stages of Russia's full-scale invasion launched on 24 February, the Argentine pontiff was widely criticised in Ukraine for making what many Ukrainians saw as cautious comments, without blaming Russia directly.\n\nIn June, he suggested that the war was \"somehow either provoked or not prevented\".\n\nBut the Pope later denounced what he described as atrocities committed by Russian troops.\n\nOn Sunday, Francis is due to deliver his traditional Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) blessing and message from St Peter's Basilica's balcony to Catholics in the square below and around the world.\n\nIn the UK, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is expected to say that despite war and conflicts around the world, as well as the cost of living crisis at home, there is \"unconquerable hope\" in the birth of Jesus Christ.\n\nReflecting on his recent visit to Ukraine, and looking ahead to his forthcoming visit to South Sudan with the Pope and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion is also expected to appeal to the leaders of both South Sudan and Russia to bring an end to violence and \"bring hope to millions\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Pope Francis' Christmas plea for 'immediate end to senseless war in Ukraine'\n\nPope Francis has said the world is suffering from a \"famine of peace\", in his annual Christmas Day message from the Vatican.\n\nHe called for a end to the \"senseless war\" in Ukraine, condemning what he said was the use of \"food as a weapon\" of war.\n\nUkraine shipped about 30% of the world's wheat and prices have jumped since the Russian invasion in February.\n\nIt was Pope Francis' 10th Christmas Day address since he assumed the papacy.\n\nWhile the war in Ukraine occupied much of his 10-minute speech, he spoke of \"a grave famine of peace also in other regions and other theatres of this Third World War\".\n\nHe singled out conflicts and humanitarian crises in the Middle East, Myanmar, Haiti, and the Sahel region of Africa.\n\nThe pontiff also prayed for \"reconciliation\" in Iran, where mass anti-government protests have swept the country for more than three months. The protests there have been met by a crackdown, with more than 500 people, including 69 children, killed, human rights groups say.\n\nSpeaking from a balcony at the basilica overlooking St Peter's Square, the 86-year-old Pope lamented the human cost of war. He urged not to forget those \"who go hungry while huge amounts of food daily go to waste and resources are being spent on weapons\".\n\n\"The war in Ukraine has further aggravated this situation, putting entire peoples at risk of famine, especially in Afghanistan and in the countries of the Horn of Africa,\" he said.\n\n\"We know that every war causes hunger and exploits food as a weapon, hindering its distribution to people already suffering.\"\n\nThe Pope said \"those who hold political responsibilities\" should lead the way to make food \"solely an instrument of peace\".\n\nHis message was followed by the customary Urbi et Orbi (To the City and to the World) blessing, recited in Latin and traditionally in many other languages as well.", "King Charles III has given his first Christmas Day message as monarch. Here is the full text of the speech:\n\n\"I am standing here in this exquisite Chapel of St George at Windsor Castle, so close to where my beloved mother, the late Queen, is laid to rest with my dear father.\n\n\"I am reminded of the deeply touching letters, cards and messages which so many of you have sent my wife and myself and I cannot thank you enough for the love and sympathy you have shown our whole family.\n\n\"Christmas is a particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones.\n\n\"We feel their absence at every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition.\n\n\"In the much-loved carol O Little Town Of Bethlehem we sing of how 'in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light'.\n\n\"My mother's belief in the power of that light was an essential part of her faith in God, but also her faith in people and it is one which I share with my whole heart.\n\n\"It is a belief in the extraordinary ability of each person to touch, with goodness and compassion, the lives of others, and to shine a light in the world around them.\n\n\"This is the essence of our community and the very foundation of our society.\n\n\"We see it in the selfless dedication of our Armed Forces and Emergency Services who work tirelessly to keep us all safe, and who performed so magnificently as we mourned the passing of our late Queen.\n\n\"We see it in our health and social care professionals, our teachers and indeed all those working in public service, whose skill and commitment are at the heart of our communities.\n\n\"And at this time of great anxiety and hardship, be it for those around the world facing conflict, famine or natural disaster, or for those at home finding ways to pay their bills and keep their families fed and warm, we see it in the humanity of people throughout our nations and the Commonwealth who so readily respond to the plight of others.\n\n\"I particularly want to pay tribute to all those wonderfully kind people who so generously give food or donations, or that most precious commodity of all, their time, to support those around them in greatest need, together with the many charitable organizations which do such extraordinary work in the most difficult circumstances.\n\n\"Our churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and gurdwaras, have once again united in feeding the hungry, providing love and support throughout the year.\n\n\"Such heartfelt solidarity is the most inspiring expression of loving our neighbour as our self.\n\n\"The Prince and Princess of Wales recently visited Wales, shining a light on practical examples of this community spirit.\n\n\"Some years ago, I was able to fulfil a life-long wish to visit Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity.\n\n\"There, I went down into the Chapel of the Manger and stood in silent reverence by the Silver Star that is inlaid on the floor and marks the place of our Lord Jesus Christ's birth.\n\n\"It meant more to me than I can possibly express to stand on that spot where, as the Bible tells us, 'The light that has come into the world' was born.\n\n\"While Christmas is, of course, a Christian celebration, the power of light overcoming darkness is celebrated across the boundaries of faith and belief.\n\n\"So, whatever faith you have, or whether you have none, it is in this life-giving light, and with the true humility that lies in our service to others, that I believe we can find hope for the future.\n\n\"Let us therefore celebrate it together, and cherish it always.\n\n\"With all my heart, I wish each of you a Christmas of peace, happiness and everlasting light.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nMore than one million Americans and Canadians are facing Christmas Day without power as a massive winter storm continues to pummel North America.\n\nA bomb cyclone, when atmospheric pressure plummets, has brought snow, strong winds and freezing temperatures.\n\nNearly 250 million are affected, and at least 19 deaths have been linked to the storm that extends more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) from Quebec to Texas.\n\nThousands of flights have been cancelled during the festive period.\n\nThe western US state of Montana is the worst hit by the cold, with temperatures dropping to -50F (-45C).\n\nNear white-out conditions have been reported in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan. In the city of Buffalo, New York state, the US National Weather Service (NWS) reported \"zero mile\" visibility.\n\nIn the Pacific Northwest, some residents ice-skated on frozen streets in Seattle and Portland.\n\nCoastal flooding has been seen in America's north-eastern New England region, inundating communities and downing power lines.\n\nThis man in Minneapolis, Minnesota state, clearly struggled to clear a passage from heavy snow\n\nThis restaurant in Hamburg, New York state, was covered in ice from the spray of Lake Erie waves\n\nIn Canada, a number of motorists have had to abandon their vehicles in blizzards in the province of Ontario\n\nEven the usually milder southern states of Florida and Georgia are experiencing hard-freeze warnings.\n\nThe only region that has largely been spared the cold weather is California where continental mountain ranges are helping to protect the Golden State.\n\nIn Canada, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec were bearing the brunt of the Arctic blast.\n\nMuch of the rest of the country, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, was under extreme cold and winter storm warnings.\n\nA number of the storm-related fatalities have involved road traffic accidents, including a 50-car pile-up in Ohio that killed four motorists. Another four died in separate crashes in the state.\n\nTravel problems across the country were being exacerbated by a shortage of snowplough operators, with low pay rates being blamed.\n\nThe NWS says more than 100 daily cold temperature records could be tied or broken over the next few days.\n\nHave you been affected by the severe weather in the US and Canada? Please email us: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAt least 38 deaths have now been linked to a severe Arctic freeze that continues to pummel the US and Canada.\n\nOfficials say 34 people died across the US, with the worst-hit area being the city of Buffalo, in New York state.\n\nFour fatalities occurred in Canada when a bus rolled over on an icy road near the town of Merritt, in the western province of British Columbia.\n\nThe scope of the winter storm has been unprecedented, stretching from Canada as far south as the Rio Grande.\n\nForecasters say the storm will ease off in the next few days, but the advice remains to avoid travelling unless essential.\n\nThe storm has wreaked havoc for days, but power has been steadily restored after earlier blackouts.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Thaw on the way to US cold spots\n\nFewer than 200,000 customers were without power as of Sunday afternoon EDT, down from a peak of 1.7 million, the Associated Press reports.\n\nThousands of flights have been cancelled, preventing many people from reaching their families at Christmas.\n\nMore than 55 million Americans remained under wind chill alerts on Sunday.\n\nThe \"bomb cyclone\" winter storm - which occurs when atmospheric pressure plummets, causing heavy snow and winds - has disrupted travel across the US.\n\nNew York State Governor Kathy Hochul - a native of Buffalo - said : \"This will go down in history as Buffalo's most devastating storm.\"\n\n\"It is [like] going to a war zone and the vehicles along the sides of the roads are shocking,\" she told reporters on Sunday evening.\n\nResidents still faced a \"very dangerous life-threatening situation\" and anyone in the area should remain indoors, she said.\n\nTwelve deaths were confirmed in Erie County, with some victims found dead in cars or snow banks.\n\nStorm-related deaths were also reported in Vermont, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Colorado. South Florida's temperatures dropped so low, that iguanas froze and fell from trees.\n\nThe western US state of Montana is the worst hit by the cold, with temperatures dropping to -50F (-45C).\n\nIn Canada, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec are bearing the brunt of the storm.\n\nIn Quebec almost 120,000 customers were without electricity on Sunday. Officials say it could take some days for some households to be reconnected.\n\nHave you been affected by the severe weather in the US and Canada? Please email us: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Firefighters have encouraged people to ensure electrical items are unplugged after use\n\nA dog is believed to have caused a fire in a house on Christmas Eve after accidentally turning a hairdryer on.\n\nEssex Fire Service said crews were called to Hockley, Essex, following reports of a smoke-filled house.\n\nFirefighters worked quickly to extinguish the fire after locating it in the bedroom.\n\nThe dog was waiting by the front door when the homeowner returned and both were treated for smoke inhalation, the service said.\n\nCrews were called to Hawkwell Road, Hockley, on Christmas Eve at 18:43 GMT\n\nWatch manager Gary Shinn said: \"The homeowner was out and came back to find her house full of smoke.\n\n\"We believe the fire started because a hairdryer was left plugged in and on a bed.\n\n\"We think the dog may have then jumped on the bed and turned the hairdryer on, eventually causing it to catch alight to the bedding and mattress.\n\n\"Once you've finished with any electrical appliances such as hairdryers and straighteners please take a moment to unplug them.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The van, which allows Rob Burrow to travel in his wheelchair, was damaged on Friday night\n\nRugby league star and motor neurone disease fundraiser Rob Burrow's wheelchair accessible van was vandalised while his family were out for a Christmas meal, his father has said.\n\nGeoff Burrow said his son had been out in Castleford, West Yorkshire, on Friday when the vehicle was targeted.\n\n\"They made quite a lot of deep scratches on the back of the van where we wheel Rob in on the ramp,\" he said.\n\nHe described the culprits as \"cowards\".\n\nThe family had been out for an evening meal at the Rockello restaurant in the Glasshoughton area and found the damage at about 21:00 GMT.\n\nFollowing a tweet sent by Rob's father, the family said they have been inundated with offers to pay for the repairs and businesses willing to carry out the work for free.\n\nThe vehicle, pictured in March, now has \"deep scratches\" on the rear door\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Mr Burrow said: \"How anybody can do anything like that, it clearly had a disability sign on it and Rob's disability badges on the front.\n\n\"The outpouring of kindness shows you that there's more nice people than scumbags like this person, but we could have done without it - we're going through enough without having to deal with this.\"\n\nHe said the vehicle was parked near the restaurant and was not obstructing any driveways or on any yellow lines.\n\n\"It spoilt a good night out, they're cowards,\" he said.\n\n\"How could someone do it to a disability van, how they sleep is their problem I suppose.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Geoff Burrow This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police has been asked to comment.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "More than 50 people were taken to hospital by emergency services following the crash (file photo)\n\nFour people died and dozens were injured after an intercity coach crashed in the Canadian province of British Columbia on Christmas Eve.\n\n\"Extremely icy road conditions\" are believed to have caused the vehicle to roll over near the town of Merritt on Saturday, police say.\n\nTemperatures had dropped to -3.9C in the area, about 220 miles (360km) from the provincial capital, Victoria.\n\nProvincial premier David Eby expressed shock and sadness at the news.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with those impacted by the crash, their loved ones, and the first responders and health-care workers giving their all to treat people and keep them safe,\" he said.\n\nThe westbound coach had been travelling from Kelowna to Vancouver when it crashed on the Okanagan Connector, part of Highway 97, shortly after 18:00 (02:00 GMT Sunday), Global News reports.\n\nA total of 52 people were sent to hospital as a result and 36 required treatment, health officials say. As of Sunday afternoon local time, eight people were still in hospital, two in serious condition.\n\nPolice said their investigation into the crash, which involved no other vehicle, was continuing.\n\nAll railway services between Canada's two biggest cities, Toronto and Montreal, were cancelled for Christmas Day after a train derailed in poor weather conditions.", "Central areas of Kherson were devastated in the Russian attack on Saturday morning\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged his people to persevere in the face of Russian attacks as the country celebrates Christmas.\n\nIn a defiant speech on Saturday, he said: \"Freedom comes at a high price. But slavery has an even higher price.\"\n\nRussia's missile and drone attacks have left millions of Ukrainians without power, heating and running water.\n\nEarlier on Saturday, Russian air strikes killed 10 people in Ukraine's southern Kherson city, officials said.\n\nThe regional authorities said another 68 people were injured and called on local residents to urgently donate blood.\n\nDescribing Russia as a \"terrorist country\", Mr Zelensky accused Russian troops of \"killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure\".\n\nIn a post on social media, he showed pictures of streets strewn with bodies and burning cars, saying \"the world must see and understand what absolute evil we are fighting against\".\n\nKherson, the only regional capital captured by Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion on 24 February, was liberated by Ukraine last month.\n\nSince then it has been frequently targeted by Russian forces positioned on the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro river.\n\nMoscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in its attacks. However, President Vladimir Putin has recently admitted that Russian troops have been hitting Ukraine's critical energy facilities.\n\nMost Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians, and mark Christmas Eve - the main day of the festive season in the country - on 6 January.\n\nHowever, a growing number of worshippers have been celebrating the day on 24 December, in line with the majority of Christians around the world.\n\nPresident Zelensky: \"We will not wait for a miracle. After all, we create it ourselves\"\n\nIn a video address to the nation late on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said: \"We endured at the beginning of the war. We endured attacks, threats, nuclear blackmail, terror, missile strikes. Let's endure this winter because we know what we are fighting for.\n\n\"We will celebrate our holidays! As always. We will smile and be happy. As always. The difference is one. We will not wait for a miracle. After all, we create it ourselves.\"\n\nFor many Ukrainians, Christmas will be in the dark and in the cold, says the BBC's Hugo Bachega in Kyiv.\n\nBut Ukrainians say the hardships have only made them stronger, as the war enters its 11th month, our correspondent adds.\n\nOn Saturday, fierce fighting continued in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region where Russian troops attacked the strategic town of Bakhmut.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNearly 250 million Americans and Canadians are feeling the icy grip of a massive winter storm linked to at least 19 deaths ahead of the holiday weekend.\n\nMore than 1.5 million people lost power and thousands of flights have been cancelled since Thursday.\n\nThe vast storm extends more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) from Texas to Quebec.\n\nA bomb cyclone, when atmospheric pressure plummets, has brought blizzard conditions to the Great Lakes on the US-Canada border.\n\nNear white-out conditions have been reported in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Buffalo, New York, where the US National Weather Service (NWS) reported \"zero mile\" visibility.\n\nIn Canada, Ontario and Quebec were bearing the brunt of the Arctic blast, with power cut to hundreds of thousands.\n\nMuch of the rest of the country, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, was under extreme cold and winter storm warnings.\n\nTemperatures in Elk Park, in the US state of Montana, dropped to -50F (-45C), while the town of Hell, Michigan, has frozen over.\n\nIt was 1F (-17C) in the snow-covered community on Friday night. Emily, a bartender at Smitty's Hell Saloon, told the BBC: \"It's pretty cold here, but we're having a hell of a time.\"\n\nIn South Dakota, snowed-in Native Americans burned clothes for warmth after running out of fuel, said tribal officials.\n\nHeavy snowfall was forecast in areas of Pennsylvania and Michigan.\n\nMore than eight million people remained under blizzard warnings, said the NWS.\n\nCoastal flooding has been seen in New England, New York and New Jersey, inundating communities and downing power lines.\n\nCows walk in the snow following a blizzard in Sturgis, South Dakota\n\nIn the Pacific Northwest, some residents ice-skated on frozen streets in Seattle and Portland.\n\nEven the usually milder southern states of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Georgia were experiencing hard-freeze warnings.\n\nA number of the storm-related fatalities have involved road traffic accidents, including a 50-car pile-up in Ohio that killed four motorists. Another four died in separate crashes in the state.\n\nTravel problems across the country were being exacerbated by a shortage of snowplough operators, with low pay rates being blamed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Nick Miller has the latest weather forecast for North America\n\nMore than 5,900 US flights were cancelled on Friday, according to the tracking site FlightAware, as flyers battled to make it home for Christmas. Another 1,600 Saturday flights have already been cancelled.\n\nHundreds of thousands of people across the US have been without power since Friday, according to PowerOutage.us.\n\nUtilities throughout the Tennessee Valley were implementing rolling blackouts to save power.\n\nThe NWS says more than 100 daily cold temperature records could be tied or broken over the next few days. Decades-old records have already been matched:\n\nHave you been affected by the severe weather in the US and Canada? Please email us: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Bargain hunters have been told to expect traffic around shopping centres as rail strikes see train services disrupted on Boxing Day.\n\nA small number of services usually operate on 26 December, but no trains will run in the UK today.\n\nA walkout by RMT union members started on Christmas Eve and is set to end at 06:00 GMT on 27 December.\n\nThe AA expects 15.2 million cars on the roads throughout Monday.\n\nAn AA spokesperson said: \"Traffic is likely to build around shopping centres as lots of people seek a bargain in the sales, meanwhile football fans will travel to see their teams.\"\n\nThe RAC also highlighted two stretches of the M25 as likely hotspots for traffic - including from junction 7 to 16 clockwise, and from junction 4 to 1 anti-clockwise.\n\nPeople planning to jet off for a festive getaway will need to find other ways of getting to and from the UK's airports as transfer services including the Heathrow Express and Stansted Express are also affected.\n\nInstead, people can travel on Megabus or National Express bus services if they need public transport, as they run on Christmas Day and Boxing Day each year.\n\nTell us how you're being affected by the strike action. Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The Taliban have used a water cannon to disperse a group of women protesting against the ban on female students in Afghanistan attending university.\n\nVideo on social media shows women taking cover in a lane in the city of Herat to escape a stream of water.\n\nDozens of women holding a protest march could be heard shouting slogans including: \"Education is our right\".\n\nIn one clip, women could be heard shouting: \"The Taliban are cowards.\"\n\nWomen have also been banned from working for national and international NGOs, confirmed Abdel Rahman Habib, spokesman for the ministry of economy.\n\nHe said a letter had been sent to NGOs imposing a ban \"until further notice\" and offered the reason that women were not following Sharia law with respect to their wearing of the hijab.\n\nEarlier this week, the Taliban's ban on female students attending higher education triggered an international outcry.\n\nThe Taliban said women had not been wearing appropriate Islamic attire at university and had been interacting with their male counterparts.\n\nThe new ban was implemented with immediate effect by Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem on Tuesday, with public and private universities ordered to bar women from attending.\n\nMr Nadeem said female students had been \"dressing like they were going to a wedding\".\n\nThe Taliban arrested five women taking part in a protest in the Afghan capital, Kabul, earlier this week. Three journalists were also arrested.\n\nGuards stopped hundreds of women from entering universities on Wednesday, a day after the ban was announced.\n\nGirls in Afghanistan have already been excluded from most secondary schools.\n\nThe Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after being removed from power by a US-led military coalition.\n\nWomen protesters attended a march against the Taliban's ban on female students attending university", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Firefighters extinguish burning cars following a day of unrest in Paris\n\nParis has witnessed a second day of violent unrest after Friday's deadly attack on the city's Kurdish community.\n\nProtesters who gathered on Saturday overturned cars, setting some on fire, and hurled objects at police. Officers responded by firing tear gas.\n\nThree people were killed in Friday's attack, which took place at a Kurdish cultural centre and a restaurant.\n\nThe suspect, who has reportedly described himself as racist, has been transferred to a psychiatric facility.\n\nThe 69-year-old was released from custody for health reasons following an examination on Saturday, prosecutors said. He is yet to appear before a judge.\n\nIn the wake of the shootings, the suspect said he hated foreigners, a police source earlier told the AFP news agency.\n\nThe same source said the gunman launched his attack with a \"much-used\" pistol and was found with a box of at least 25 cartridges and \"two or three\" loaded magazines.\n\nWitnesses said the attacker - tall, white and elderly - shot dead two men and a woman in the city's 10th district.\n\nThree others were injured, one of whom remains in a critical condition.\n\nThree places came under fire - the Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish centre, as well as a nearby restaurant and a hairdresser - before the gunman was arrested without a fight.\n\nThe suspect, a retired train driver, was detained on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, and was later also charged with acting with a racist motive.\n\nHe has a history of weapons offences and it has emerged that he was released on bail just days before the assault.\n\nLast year, he was charged with racist violence over a sword attack at a migrant camp elsewhere in the French capital.\n\nUnrest began soon after Friday's shootings. Footage showed people starting fires in the streets and smashing car windows.\n\nPolice used tear gas as the protesters attempted to break through a security cordon.\n\nSaturday's renewed violence unfolded after hundreds of Kurds gathered peacefully in the Place de la République to pay tribute to the three victims. It was not clear what sparked the clashes.\n\nPolice said 31 officers and one protester had been injured, and 11 arrests were made.\n\nIn the aftermath of the shootings, Kurds have called for better protection from the French authorities. Community leaders met the Parisian police chief on Saturday.\n\nFriday's attack came almost 10 years after the murder of three Kurdish women activists in the French capital - an unresolved crime.\n\nThe community was again \"afraid\", having been \"traumatised\" by January 2013 murders, said a lawyer for the Kurdish democratic council in France (CDK-F).\n• None Paris shooting leaves three dead and three injured", "Prince George and Princess Charlotte during the 'Together at Christmas' carol service at Westminster Abbey\n\nPrince George and Princess Charlotte have been singing at a carol service to honour Queen Elizabeth II.\n\nThey joined 1,800 people at the Westminster Abbey event hosted by their mother the Princess of Wales.\n\nKing Charles will later deliver his first Christmas Day message since the death of his mother.\n\nIt will be the first time they have spent Christmas at Sandringham since 2019 and the royal standard will fly above the private Norfolk estate.\n\nActress Catherine Zeta-Jones narrated the Westminster Abbey carol service dedicated to the late Queen.\n\nIntroducing the programme, which was aired on ITV1, Kate said she was \"thrilled\" to return to the abbey for a second year.\n\nReflecting, she remarked that this year will be the first Christmas without the Queen, who died in September at the age of 96.\n\nShe added: \"Her Majesty held Christmas close to her heart, as a time that brought people together and reminded us of the importance of faith, friendship and family, and to show empathy and compassion.\n\n\"This year, we've invited hundreds of inspiring individuals to the service.\"\n\nIn her introduction, the Princess of Wales said the late Queen \"held Christmas close to her heart\"\n\nDuring the service, images of the Queen through the ages appeared on a grand piano during an instrumental version of In The Bleak Midwinter.\n\nThe service was attended by many members of the royal family including King Charles III and the Queen Consort, the Countess of Wessex, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie as well as Zara and Mike Tindall.\n\nKate was seen at one point with a comforting arm around Charlotte's shoulder, while the Prince of Wales placed a guiding hand on his son George's back.\n\nKing Charles III will be delivering his first Christmas Day message\n\nA Christmas tree in the abbey was decorated with small Paddington Bear decorations - a nod to the Queen's famous Jubilee sketch.\n\nGuests were greeted with atmospheric snowflakes from a snow machine as they arrived at the entrance.\n\nAmong the performers were the Westminster Abbey choir, singer Craig David and Alfie Boe and Melanie C who sang a duet, while William and Dame Kristin Scott Thomas delivered readings.\n\nIt is the first royal carol service since the Queen died in September\n\nThe service was aired on Christmas Eve but took place on 15 December - just hours after the final part of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's controversial documentary dropped on Netflix.\n\nElsewhere, the Archbishop of Canterbury is expected to say in his Christmas sermon that the Queen \"in obedience to the Christ-child lived a life of service and put her interest after those of the people she served.\"\n\nThe loss of the Queen has also been reflected by the Anglican and Catholic archbishops of Wales in a first joint Christmas message.", "Al-Shabab militants have been active in Somalia for more than 15 years\n\nFourteen Iranian fishermen have returned home after years in captivity by al-Shabab militants in Somalia.\n\nThey were freed after \"lengthy negotiations with government officials, tribal chiefs and Somali elders,\" Iranian news agency ISNA reports.\n\nThey were flown back to Iran late on Saturday before being taken to their hometown of Chabahar, in the south.\n\nSome of them had been held for as long as eight years after being kidnapped in international waters close to Somalia.\n\nThe fishermen were freed almost a month after Somali police said they had found 20 foreigners - 14 Iranians and six Pakistanis - near land controlled by militants.\n\nAccording to the AFP news agency, police said at the time that some of the fishermen had been seized by al-Shabab in 2014 and others had been kidnapped in mid-2019.\n\nThe group of fishermen was welcomed by family members in a ceremony at the main international airport in Tehran on Saturday night.\n\nThe Islamist militant group al-Shabab has carried out several attacks in Somalia in recent months, including twin car bomb explosions in the capital Mogadishu in October, in which 120 people died.\n\nThe government has launched a large-scale offensive against al-Shabab, working together with local clan militia.\n\nAl-Shabab militants have been active in Somalia for more than 15 years, have control over large rural areas and continue to mount attacks in urban centres.", "This is a war where Ukrainian fathers and sons serve on the same front lines. And this was how it was for 22-year-old Eugene Gromadskyi - at least, at the very beginning.\n\nOn the first day of the invasion he stood shoulder to shoulder with his father, Oleg, on the outskirts of Kharkiv, as column after column of Russian men and armoured vehicles sought to capture their city.\n\nIn those crucial first hours he was in command of a unit which, outnumbered and outgunned, attacked and destroyed Russian vehicle columns and captured prisoners. For this, Eugene would earn the country's highest military honour. His father would face a different fate.\n\nEugene has been in the thick of it for almost the entire war. He started out as a lieutenant in the National Guard. Now he's a senior lieutenant in the army's 92nd Mechanized Brigade, which is named after Ivan Sirko, a 17th-Century Cossack military leader. The intelligence platoon Eugene commands describe themselves as Sirko's Rowdy Boys - their motto is \"Revenge for all\". \"They are my family,\" he tells me\n\nIt is a December morning in Kupyiansk, some 120km (75 miles) south-east of Kharkiv, and the temperature is -7C, even before the howling wind hits you and finds its way into every inch of loose clothing or exposed skin. It is mostly open ground - there is no cover from the wind, nor from the Russians who, in places, are within rifle range. Lines of trees, which in the summer provided camouflage, are now stark and bare. There is nowhere to hide.\n\nBut Eugene glows with vitality. He explains that the early days of the war were frustrating. Ukrainian forces took back a village or two, there was little momentum. They were on the defensive and under-prepared, then a summer stalemate set in. But in September, a co-ordinated counter-offensive began, starting from Balakliya and going all the way down to Kupyiansk.\n\nEugene was awarded the country's top military honour by President Zelensky\n\nI first met him in early March. He had recently graduated from university and was full of courage but fresh to conflict and on the defensive. What he didn't tell me at the time was how he and his comrades, under his command, had captured the Russian prisoners. His bravery a matter for record, he was later awarded the country's top military honour, Hero of Ukraine, Order of the Gold Star.\n\nEugene has countless missions under his belt, and like the landscape around him, bears the scarred lessons of conflict.\n\nWar toughens the heart, and death is its companion. Eugene has lost many men close to him, so I ask, given the high casualty rate - Ukraine says 13,000 of its soldiers have been killed so far in the war - does he fear death?\n\n\"Death is one of [war's] problems. Death loves brave ones. And courage must be used cleverly. There is no need to be afraid of death,\" he says. But he reconsiders for a moment, and continues: \"The person who is not afraid is already dead… I don't think about mortality, I think only about life, about life of my comrades and the life of my unit.\"\n\nWe ride inside one of his platoon's armoured personnel carriers (APC). The noise is deafening, even before its 30mm cannon opens fire on some farm buildings where they suspect Russians are hiding. Condensation drips from the metal roof, two dim lights emit a pale-green glow and the vehicle's eight sturdy wheels slip and slide through the mud, swaying us from side to side. I feel as if I'm in a submarine.\n\nEugene with the APC that has stalled in mud\n\nAbove the din, Eugene explains why the September operation was key. \"It was really important for the boys that we were able to accomplish a counter-offensive. Everyone was very motivated. They were taking back their own territory, taking back homes of their own families. It was really needed.\" As if to underscore this point, in the front seat of the APC is Sasha. He only recently joined the platoon after his village was liberated from the Russians.\n\nA black-and-white targeting screen offers the only view of the road ahead. It is a quagmire - there are few obstacles as fiendish, or varied, as Ukrainian mud. One moment it's a deep, sucking soup, the next a thick putty clogging machinery, weighing down boots, and gumming up everything. We drive past one soldier who is hammering frozen chunks of it off his stranded truck with a mallet.\n\nSmall wonder, then, that in these conditions, and in the face of stiff resistance from enemy forces, the counter-offensive is bogged down here. And so are we - the APC can go no further. It doesn't pay to be trapped out here in open ground, so we turn around. Days later another Ukrainian vehicle would become stuck at the same spot. A Russian helicopter attacked, causing significant casualties.\n\nInside the APC, despite the din, Eugene falls into a deep sleep. He had only two hours' rest the night before, and he remains sound asleep until the vehicle makes it back to base and the heavy steel handle by his ear clunks open.\n\nThe unit, which has its own Instagram page, is crammed into a few rooms in an abandoned house. A huge pot filled with potatoes and pork sits atop a wood-burning stove. Eugene eats standing.\n\nThe counter-offensive has taken its toll on Ukrainian equipment and men along this front. A punishing winter lies ahead. But Eugene, as ever, is optimistic.\n\n\"I think it will be very difficult but we will manage,\" he says. \"Our reserves of troops are growing, the ones who were getting trained abroad. They will be additional reserves, additional forces who will help us with further offensives. For now, there are difficulties especially with the weather. But it doesn't stop us because we are taking back our land step by step, corner by corner.\"\n\nUkraine's defence had an improvised and precarious feel at the start. The country was underprepared. Before the invasion President Volodymyr Zelensky had dismissed talk of war, saying that the country should keep calm, it would celebrate Easter in April and come May, the country would be occupied with sun, holidays and BBQs, not war.\n\nA week into the war, Kharkiv was still in turmoil. At a marshalling point on the city's eastern edge, busloads of reinforcements arrived, then quickly disappeared again, pushed forward to halt the Russians who were still trying to force their way into the city. It was freezing cold, but the air was electric with a desperate, hurried energy. But the lieutenant was cool-headed, \"Call me Eugene,\" he said, in English, with a smile.\n\nEugene Gromadskyi at the beginning of the war\n\nI saw a very young man - surely too young to be in command - who like his country was battling against the odds in a war with Russia. He lacked a winter uniform and army boots, instead he was wearing trainers. \"I can move fast in these,\" he joked.\n\nWe jumped into one of the few armoured vehicles around and headed to the front, a fur Russian army hat from a captured soldier swinging from the ceiling as we bumped along rutted, snow-covered roads.\n\nThe snows thawed, spring became summer, and Ukraine held on. Eugene and I kept in touch, and he would send videos of him and his men in battle. In one, he's smiling broadly while riding atop a tank. We met again in late April on a warm afternoon in Kharkiv. There had been no holidays nor BBQs for him.\n\nHe was still fighting, though now well beyond the city limits. His uniform was filthy, and he stayed only a short while, before heading back to the front. A patch on his uniform read, \"Stop: no touch, no talk, no eye contact\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe was in good spirits, grinning as ever. And despite the hardships of battle, he was clearly in his element. He still believed Ukraine could win. By then Russia's military inadequacies had been exposed and Western military aid was beginning to make a difference, though a large-scale push against the invading Russian forces still hadn't happened. There were questions over whether it ever would.\n\nEugene Gromadskyi needs little reminder of what Russian aggression has cost him - it's there every time he looks in the mirror. On the left side of his face a deep red scar is still healing.\n\nWe had lost touch in May. It's not unusual for soldiers to go offline, but 10 days went by and still he was out of reach. Eventually, he reappeared and sent a selfie as way of an explanation. He was in hospital, his face swollen and barely recognisable. It looks like he is trying to smile, but he can't, so instead gives a defiant hand gesture.\n\nAt the Kupyiansk front, he told me what had happened. \"Me and my comrade were on a combat mission,\" he explains.\n\n\"We came under fire and a shell exploded near me and shrapnel hit my face, near my lip and apparently came out at my temple. [In hospital] an operation was performed, I was put back together, they didn't need to use metal plates.\"\n\nEugene was wounded when a shell exploded in front of him\n\nHe checked himself out of hospital after only 10 days and returned to the front with a broken jaw. \"It wasn't nice,\" he says and smiles broadly.\n\nBut Eugene had suffered an even greater wound on the first day of the war.\n\nIn the early hours of 24 February, he had been commanding a small unit of National Guardsmen in the village of Pyatikhatky, when he was joined by his father, Oleg.\n\nOleg had been asleep in the family apartment on the edge of Kharkiv when he was awoken by his wife Natalia, who said she could hear Russian Grads nearby. The former army officer had trained hundreds of young recruits in battlefield care, so she knew her artillery.\n\nDuty and service to their country runs through the veins and history of the family - seven generations have served in the Ukrainian and Soviet military. Ukraine was under attack, and Oleg, an army veteran who had retired at the rank of colonel, would answer the call.\n\nHe posted a message on Facebook, rallying friends and former servicemen to gather weapons and equipment to defend the city, and went to join his son.\n\nSome Russian forces had already made it into Kharkiv but were driven back. The fighting was intense - Oleg manned a machine gun, while his son gave support with an automatic grenade launcher. They were outgunned and had to retreat. Oleg stayed behind to gather weapons, and father and son planned to regroup further back. But as he left his position, Oleg's car was caught in a rocket attack.\n\nNatalia had been sheltering in a city metro station, when she was told her husband had died. During breaks in the shelling, she headed to the area where she had been told Oleg had been killed. She discovered his body on the city's outskirts.\n\nNatalia was about to celebrate 25 years of marriage to her husband Oleg\n\n\"I picked up my husband and took him to the morgue. It was just me and him. I said goodbye over there. I conducted a body examination to make sure it was him.\"\n\nEugene was in the midst of battle when he learned of his father's death. He would later return home and bury Oleg alone. But for the moment, he set aside grief and took charge of another combat unit of 20 men. Cut off from their command, they destroyed more Russian vehicles, killing and capturing enemy soldiers.\n\n\"To this day, [my father's] friends and comrades who served with him write to me,\" Eugene tells me. \"They say, 'We are proud we served with your father because he was a man of honour and as he said, so he did.' He always kept his officer's word.\"\n\nOn 24 September, at a ceremony in Kyiv, President Zelensky made Eugene a Hero of Ukraine, bestowing on him the country's highest military order for bravery in the early defence of Kharkiv. His father's close friend, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, looked on as he received his medals.\n\nEugene was so nervous he forgot his own name.\n\nIn this country of 44 million people, only 652 have received the medal since the honour was created in 1998.\n\nEugene's medals now sit in a suitcase in the family apartment. Shortly after Oleg died, Natalia left Kharkiv as Russian attacks intensified. She returned in the early summer, but precious items remain packed, ready for her to leave again if necessary.\n\nNatalia's kitchen is full of home-made Christmas decorations, and an 11-year-old pekingese businka is at her feet. It is dark - there is no power, no water or light, because of Russia's continuing missile attacks.\n\nShe tells me how much she misses Oleg. \"He was a patriot. He is a real patriot of our country. A Ukrainian. Fun, friendly, people loved him a lot,\" she says. The couple were about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary when he was killed.\n\nI ask Natalia if she ever imagined she would have to sacrifice so much. \"I gave my husband; my son is there. And I devoted my youth to Ukraine as well - to my country.\"\n\nShe makes me tea and serves home-made cookies, and tells me that I should visit again.\n\n\"When did you last see Eugene,\" I ask. She looks towards the door, remembering - perhaps expecting. \"A month ago,\" she replies. \"For two minutes at the door.\" And she starts to cry.\n\nThe following day I am travelling back to the front, and so I ask Natalia if there is anything I could take to her son - even just a message.\n\nShe wipes away a tear, and says: \"My son, you should know that I'm always waiting for you. Always. In any weather, any time, day or night.\" She pauses, then insists she will wait, \"until victory, only with victory\".", "Wiltshire Police were called to the resort in Longleat Forest\n\nA four-year-old boy has died after a \"serious medical incident\" at a Center Parcs holiday resort, police have said.\n\nThe BBC has been told the incident happened in a swimming pool.\n\nWiltshire Police said officers attended the leisure complex at Longleat Forest in Wiltshire in support of the South Western Ambulance Service at about 11:00 GMT.\n\nThe force added the boy's death was not believed to be suspicious and its thoughts were with the child's family.\n\nNo further information about the nature of the incident was disclosed.\n\nA spokesman from Center Parcs said: \"We are deeply saddened by the tragic news that a young guest has passed away.\n\n\"We are offering our support to the family and to our employees who provided immediate assistance.\n\n\"Our thoughts remain with the family at this very difficult time.\"\n\nA holidaymaker staying at the Center Parcs site for Christmas told PA News agency there was a temporary barrier across the entrance to the pool.\n\nThe mother-of-five, from the Midlands, said the resort had made public announcements that the Subtropical Swimming Paradise water park would remain closed for Christmas Eve.\n\n\"If I hadn't been on the group or seen the announcement on the news, I'd have been none the wiser,\" she said.\n\n\"It's very quiet though... it does say there'll be an announcement later on today re the pool.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Swimmers braved the chilly water to enter the sea in Lowestoft, as large crowds looked on\n\nHundreds of people - many in festive fancy dress costumes - braved icy waters as Christmas Day dips were held along the Suffolk coast.\n\nSwimmers raised money for various charities as they entered the North Sea in Felixstowe, Lowestoft and Southwold.\n\nThe dips had not taken place over recent years due to a combination of the Covid pandemic and extreme weather.\n\nEvent organisers praised the hundreds who took part and the large crowds that looked on.\n\nMany people taking part in the Lowestoft event wore festive-themed fancy dress\n\nThe Everyone Active 2022 Lowestoft Christmas Day Swim - the 43rd time the event has been held - raised money for the James Paget Charity Trust, the Lowestoft Volunteer Lifeguard Corps, Lowestoft Lions, Dementia UK, St John Ambulance and the Brian Gallagher Football Fund.\n\nThe Felixstowe dip - the 18th time it has been held - was in aid of St Elizabeth Hospice, while the Southwold event raised funds for the Southwold RNLI, the Klondyke Skate Park project and the East Anglian Air Ambulance.\n\nThe Christmas Day swim in Felixstowe was the 18th time the event had been held\n\nDonna Taylor, Everyone Active's general manager at Waterlane Leisure Centre, in Lowestoft, said: \"We are delighted to have played our part in this special event, which is of such importance to the local community and fantastic charitable causes.\n\n\"It was great to welcome everyone this morning, not just the participants but also the people of all ages who came down to cheer them on. There were some fantastic costumes on display and our congratulations go to those who took part.\"\n\nThe event in Felixstowe raised money for the St Elizabeth Hospice\n\nNichola Whymark, of St Elizabeth Hospice, said: \"Massive well done to all our dippers for their fantastic efforts and to everyone who came out and supported this morning.\n\n\"It was brilliant to be able to hold the dip on Felixstowe beach, on Christmas Day in its traditional format once more.\n\n\"There was a brilliant atmosphere and such a great range of festive outfits being worn, it really is the perfect way to start your Christmas Day.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Flanagan said his sister in law was told the water would be back yesterday afternoon\n\nSome homes in south-east Wales were left without water on Christmas Day.\n\nSeveral villages south of Monmouth were affected, including Trellech and Llandogo.\n\nPeople Llandogo have said their water had been off for more than 24 hours and were \"appalled\".\n\nWelsh Water apologised and said the issues were caused by \"air locks\" in the network as it re-pressurises and its teams had been working throughout the night.\n\nIt was not clear how many houses were affected.\n\nRob Flanagan, 68, from Warwick, had intended to stay in Monmouthshire until Wednesday, but said he may leave early because of the lack of water.\n\n\"We were told it would be back yesterday afternoon, then this morning and now they are saying this afternoon,\" he said.\n\nRob Flanagan's family have had to get buckets of water in order to flush the toilet\n\n\"My sister-in-law's partner has had to fill buckets of water down from the village to flush the toilet, there are seven of us in the house, including a five-year-old, it is just not on.\"\n\nHe added his wife had gone to Monmouth to fetch bottled water, and hoped that they could have their Christmas dinner as planned.\n\n\"We're hopeful we will be able to cook, but no one will be able to shower - we will just have to smell together.\"\n\nRob Flanagan's family were told the water would be back on on Christmas Eve, they are still without water on Christmas Day\n\nMatthew Browning, 62, also from Llandogo, said he and his wife have had no water for almost two days and were \"desperate\" for a shower.\n\nTheir son picked them up some water supplied by Welsh Water and Mr Browning said he was taking water from their outside swimming pool by the bucket load for the toilets.\n\nHe said: \"It's not Christmas as usual, you can't do the usual things that you want to do, like a shower and a shave.\n\n\"Happy smelly Christmas as my wife told everyone in the village\".\n\nWelsh Water said it was \"extremely sorry\" for the inconvenience caused and said bottled water was being delivered to priority customers.\n\nIt added a bottled water station at Premier Inn on Portal Road in Monmouth had been replenished.\n\nMatthew Browning said he been grabbing a few litres of water from the swimming pool to pour into the cistern so people can use the toilet\n\nMatthew Dickens, 36, from near Tintern, said he held off going to get any water as he was told supplies would be restored on Christmas Eve.\n\n\"We went urgently to get water late last night, and it's a good thing we did, otherwise we wouldn't have had any water this morning,\" he said.\n\n\"We're lucky we've got a stream across the road, so we use that for the toilet.\"\n\nMatthew Dickens said his family were trying to use the bottled water to cook Christmas dinner\n\nMr Dickins said his parents were visiting his family for Christmas.\n\nHe said: \"We are having problems, we're trying to use all the bottled water to cook and have a normal Christmas as possible, but it's getting tricky with the toilet, and washing hands in the tap.\n\n\"You don't realise how many times you use water, until something like this happens.\"\n\nThe problems in Monmouthshire follow separate issues in mid and west Wales, where thousands of people were left without water after pipes burst.\n\nWelsh Water said a \"handful\" of homes in Ceredigion were still without water on Christmas Eve.\n\nAre you without water this Christmas? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nKing Charles has greeted crowds at Sandringham after attending a Christmas Day church service for the first time as monarch.\n\nThe King and Camilla, the Queen Consort were joined by the Prince and Princess of Wales, their children and other senior royals at the Norfolk estate.\n\nCrowds gathered outside St Mary Magdalene Church from the early hours.\n\nIt is the first time members of the Royal Family have spent Christmas at Sandringham House since 2019.\n\nThe royal standard is flying above the house, marking a return to traditional royal festivities.\n\nHundreds of people turned up to catch a glimpse of the Royal Family on Sunday. Some had even camped out overnight at the gates, sitting in camp chairs and wrapped in blankets, while others brought bunches of flowers and gifts to hand to the royals.\n\nThe King and his family made the short walk from Sandringham House to the church just before 11:00 GMT.\n\nAfter the 45-minute service, the King and Queen Consort, as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales, spoke to several people in the crowd.\n\nPrince Louis joined his parents at the Christmas Day church service for the first time.\n\nThe Earl and Countess of Wessex, and their children, as well as Princess Beatrice and Eugenie, were also at Sandringham.\n\nTheir father, the Duke of York, was also there. Prince Andrew is not often seen in public with the Royal Family since stepping down as a working royal in 2019 following the controversy surrounding his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex who last celebrated Christmas at Sandringham in 2018 were not there.\n\nPrincess Charlotte and Prince Louis were seen leaving the church behind the King and Queen Consort\n\nIt is the first year the King has hosted the Royal Family's traditional gathering at the Norfolk estate since the death of his mother.\n\nQueen Elizabeth II hosted 32 Christmases at Sandringham but was forced to cancel her annual festivities in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.\n\nLater this afternoon the King's first Christmas Day message will be broadcast. It was recorded on 13 December in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, where the late Queen was buried in September.\n\nSandringham House has been the private home of British monarchs for more than 160 years.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales and their children greeting crowds at Sandringham\n\nIt was the first Christmas Day visit to church at Sandringham for four-year-old Prince Louis\n\nThe group of senior royals greeted crowds on their way to church on Sunday\n\nPrince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis walked with their parents\n\nPrince Louis showed no sign of feeling the cold in his short trousers\n\nPrince Andrew was also at the service, pictured here with his son-in-law Jack Brooksbank, the husband of Princess Eugenie\n\nEarlier, the Prince and Princess of Wales issued an image of Prince George's painting of a stag alongside their Christmas message on Instagram.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by princeandprincessofwales This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Lorna has helped bring Lemn Sissay's Christmas dinner concept to Wales for the first time\n\nMatching pyjamas, board games that never end, family politics, and food that we never want to see for another year is traditionally the epitome of Christmas Day.\n\nBut what does it look like for those that do not have a family?\n\nAfter growing up in care, award-winning author Lemn Sissay set up an annual Christmas dinner event to make sure people in the system never have to spend Christmas Day alone.\n\nThe concept started in 2013 in Manchester but quickly snowballed into multiple dinners across the rest of England.\n\nNow, volunteers are changing their traditions on 25 December to give care leavers in Cardiff a special day to remember.\n\n\"Young people we speak to every day often say, 'well I'm just going to be sat at home microwaving something from Iceland on my own in a mouldy bed and breakfast',\" said Lorna Stabler, who has helped bring the concept to Wales for the first time.\n\nThe volunteer and associate at Cardiff University's children's social care research centre, CASCADE, said that was the reality for many young care experienced people over the holidays.\n\nShe said her experiences growing up in care fuelled her desire to bring Sissay's model to Wales.\n\nFood delivered by big supermarkets like Waitrose has been packaged up for the young people\n\n\"Even if you have a really nice foster home, it feels like it's never really your home.\n\n\"You kind of know that foster carers paid are an allowance to look after you, they have to write everything down about your behaviour... you know, it's not a normal family environment.\"\n\nAfter months of planning, Lorna and her colleagues have helped coordinate dinner, presents, activities and company for about 25 people mainly aged 16 to 25 who would otherwise be spending Christmas alone.\n\nMore than 500 people or organisations have offered their support, with huge sums of donations pouring in from law frim Ascot Lloyd, Bad Boy Brownies, barbers, cinemas, chefs and other independent businesses.\n\nLorna, originally from Newcastle, said the goal for volunteers was to shine a light on \"some really difficult circumstances\" faced by young people and to ensure they have a \"great time\".\n\nShe said the team knows the day might not be \"a barrel of laughs for everyone\" given the fact that some young people's idea of Christmas has been \"shattered\" by their experience of growing up in care.\n\n\"There'll be people who have experienced parent abuse, sexual abuse and exploitation as well.\n\n\"What it'll mean [the day] is it'll give young people an example of what a supportive, safe, healthy Christmas could be. And that that doesn't mean you have to smile all the time.\"\n\nCheyenne (l), a care leaver, wants to help others who have not been as fortunate as herself\n\nCare leaver Cheyenne said she \"can't wait to help others\" on Christmas Day. \"I've been telling everyone I'm doing it.\"\n\nThis year, the 21-year-old moved out of her foster mother's home and will be spending part of the day with other young care experienced people at the venue at Spark|Sbarc.\n\nShe has helped prepare for the day on 21 December because she wants care leavers to know that \"there are people out there to support you in situations that you are going through... we are there to help\".\n\nUnfortunately for her, while the playlist she has sorted will not be filled with drill music, she has had an active part in collating tunes for the day and arranging colour schemes.\n\nBusy preparations under way on 21 December\n\nFifteen-year-old Ffion could not resist getting involved when she heard her mother Louise Roberts talking about the project over the phone.\n\n\"I find it quite upsetting to think that young people would be spending Christmas alone and I just wanted to be a part of something that would make people happy,\" she said.\n\nLouise (l) and her daughter Ffion are rearranging their Christmas Day to help out\n\nThe pair, from Bridgend, have been wrapping presents and helping pick up food donated by Waitrose.\n\nFfion said her family's Christmas Day is usually \"big\" but would rather rearrange her day for another to be a part of the event.\n\n\"I don't see a reason why we shouldn't be there because for us, we can have Christmas whenever, and for these people it's going to be really difficult,\" she said.\n\nLouise, who has been involved in the project every step of the way, said \"it's been a massive undertaking\".\n\n\"I think we all underestimated how huge it would be, but it's been a really fabulous experience.\"\n\nVolunteers were also at Spark|Sbarc preparing the table for dinner on Christmas Eve\n\nFfion spent the afternoon on 21 December wrapping presents that'll be given to young care experienced people on Sunday\n\nWhen Rachel Vaughn got asked by a young person who just left care if they could spend Christmas with her, she said she hated not being able to provide.\n\nShe said she thought about that moment a lot, which was part of her drive to get on board with Cascade's project.\n\nThe engagement manager from Cardiff said a few people told her they were \"really excited they have somewhere to go\", adding: \"No one should have to spend Christmas alone.\"\n\n\"I hope that they feel happy, supported and safe.\n\n\"And an idea that Christmas isn't always what you see on TV and all the kind of media ideas of what a family is. It can be a community as well. So that's what I hope to get out of it.\"\n\nRachel and the team have been planning the the big day since the summer\n\nFormer children's commissioner for Wales, Sally Holland has met many young people who have grown up in care.\n\n\"Young people and young adults are actually among the most lonely group, often in our population,\" she said.\n\n\"We're really keen that they feel looked after and welcomed on Christmas Day, and they can take it at any pace they want with us.\"\n\nIt may be the first time an event like this is being launched in Wales, but it is just the start.\n\nThe team hopes to hold a Christmas dinner in each city or hub in Wales over the next five years.\n\nAn arcade machine is on offer as well as other activities on Christmas Day\n\nYoung care experienced people have been given presents personal to them", "Rachael Moore was described by her family as a \"caring friend to many\"\n\nThe family of a woman who died when she was hit by a police car on Christmas Eve has described her as a \"cherished daughter\".\n\nRachael Moore was struck while walking in Sheil Road, Liverpool, at about 20:10 GMT on Saturday.\n\nThe 22-year-old died at the scene and her family is being supported by specially-trained officers, Merseyside Police said.\n\nIn a statement, Ms Moore's family said she was a \"caring friend to many\".\n\n\"She will be greatly missed by all those whose lives she touched. The family requests their privacy be respected at this devastating time,\" they added.\n\nDet Sgt Kurt Timpson, from Merseyside Police, said officers were providing assistance to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which has launched an investigation into the circumstances.\n\nHe said: \"Our sincere and thoughts and condolences are with Rachael's family who have been left devastated by this tragic incident.\"\n\nPolice are appealing for witnesses and those with relevant CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage to contact them.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Maxi Jazz, the lead singer of British dance act Faithless, has died aged 65.\n\nThe musician and DJ, whose real name was Maxwell Fraser, was a core member of the group which is best known for its club classic Insomnia.\n\nFormer bandmate Sister Bliss said he died \"peacefully in his sleep\" in his south-London home on Friday night.\n\n\"Sending love to all of you who shared our musical journey. Look after each other y'hear,\" she said on Twitter.\n\nFaithless were known for singles including We Come 1, which reached top three in the charts in 2001 and dance hit Insomnia, which reached third in 1996.\n\nReggae band UB40, who toured with Jazz in 2017, paid tribute to the singer with a reference to the Insomnia single: \"A lovely guy, again who has gone too soon, but finally Maxi you can get some sleep.\"\n\nA statement shared on Jazz's Instagram and signed by his former bandmates said: \"He was a man who changed our lives in so many ways. He gave proper meaning and message to our music.\n\n\"He was also a lovely human being with time for everyone and a wisdom that was both profound and accessible. It was an honour and, of course, a true pleasure to work with him.\n\n\"He was a brilliant lyricist, a DJ, a Buddhist, a magnificent stage presence, car lover, endless talker, beautiful person, moral compass and genius.\"\n\nBorn in Brixton, Jazz also fronted a band called Maxi Jazz & The E-Type Boys and released music with the group Soul Food Cafe.\n\nDJ David Pearce said Faithless became an \"iconic force in UK dance music from the mid 90s and touched so many lives\". He said Jazz was \"dance music's poet\" and a \"warm, cool, friendly soul\".\n\nJazz headlined the MTV stage at V Festival in 2016\n\nFaithless formed in 1995 and were pioneers of stadium dance music. They headlined some of the world's biggest festivals including Glastonbury, taking to the Pyramid stage in 2002. They were nominated for Best UK Dance Act at the Brit Awards in 1999 and 2002.\n\nThe band split in 2011 but returned to release a new studio album almost a decade later, during the Covid pandemic. However, they weren't joined by Jazz, who had formed another band, Maxi Jazz & The E-Type Boys.\n\nThe guitar band marked a new sound for Jazz, who began writing the material in 2013, during Faithless's hiatus.\n\nOn their website, the band described their sound as incorporating \"melodic funk and blues mixed with reggae beats, dub baselines [and] Jamaican melodies\".\n\nJazz was a huge fan of Crystal Palace FC, becoming an associate director of the football club in 2012.\n\nThe premier league club said the \"legendary musician\" was a regular at Selhurst Park, and the team would walk out to Faithless on Boxing Day in tribute to the late singer.", "The latest edict comes after women were banned from attending universities - which is being enforced by armed guards\n\nAn order by the Taliban banning women from working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has been condemned by the United Nations, which said the move violated fundamental rights.\n\nThe Islamist rulers justified the move by saying female NGO staff had broken dress codes by not wearing hijabs.\n\nThe decree comes just days after female students were banned from universities.\n\nThe US Secretary of State also criticised the move saying it would be \"devastating for the Afghan people\".\n\nFemale Afghan NGO workers acting as the main earners in their household told the BBC of their fear and helplessness.\n\nOne asked: \"If I cannot go to my job, who can support my family?\" Another breadwinner called the news \"shocking\" and insisted she had complied with the Taliban's strict dress code.\n\nA third woman questioned the Taliban's \"Islamic morals\", saying she would now struggle to pay her bills and feed her children.\n\n\"The world is watching us and doing nothing,\" said another female interviewee. The BBC is not publishing the women's names in order to protect them.\n\nSaturday's order came in a letter from the Ministry of Economy to both national and international NGOs. It threatened to cancel the licence of any organisation that did not swiftly comply.\n\nBy way of explanation, it said women were breaking Sharia law by failing to wear the hijab.\n\nThe move has sparked international outrage, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying he was deeply concerned, adding that it \"will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions\".\n\n\"Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people,\" Mr Blinken said.\n\nIt was also described as a \"clear breach of humanitarian principles\" by a senior United Nations official.\n\nUN agencies have a significant presence in the country, carrying out relief and development work. An urgent meeting of the Humanitarian Country Team was planned for Sunday to respond to the news.\n\nAn employee of Save the Children told BBC News the organisation was planning to meet Taliban authorities, saying that if women were not allowed to work then some NGOs would have to close.\n\nIt is also feared that Afghan women could be left unable to receive aid directly, if organisations are only allowed to employ men. Taliban rules prevent men from working with women.\n\nFemale employees were \"essential\" for reaching other women and girls, explained Melissa Cornet from Care International.\n\nShe added: \"Without them, the humanitarian situation might deteriorate rapidly, in a situation where most of the country is already facing life-threatening levels of hunger.\"\n\nThe South Asian branch of Amnesty International described the ban as \"yet another deplorable attempt to erase women from the political, social and economic spaces\" of Afghanistan.\n\nOne doctor working in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and nearby remote villages said she was \"sad and devastated\" at the development.\n\nShe predicted \"great difficulty\" for women trying to access medical treatment, as they \"can't fully tell their problems to men\".\n\nMeanwhile, one imam - whose identity is again being protected by the BBC - said the Taliban were \"not committed to any Islamic value\".\n\nHe explained: \"Islam has not said that men can educate and women cannot. Or men can work and women cannot. We are confused about this decision.\"\n\nA ban on women attending Afghan universities earlier this week met similar criticism. It triggered protests - including in Herat on Saturday - which were rapidly suppressed by the Taliban.\n\nSince seizing back control of the country last year, the group has steadily restricted women's rights - despite promising its rule would be softer than the regime seen in the 1990s.\n\nAs well as the ban on female university students - now being enforced by armed guards - secondary schools for girls remain closed in most provinces.\n\nWomen have also been prevented from entering parks and gyms, among other public places.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Students in Afghanistan protest for the education of women after university ban", "Christmas Eve commuters rush to get trains at Waterloo Station in London\n\nRail passengers scrambled to catch the last trains as further strikes ended Christmas Eve services.\n\nSome roads were hit with congestion as rail services stopped ahead of a 18:00 GMT walkout by RMT union members.\n\nBut the AA said disruption was \"not as bad as expected\" as people headed home for the festive period.\n\nPostal workers and Border Force staff also took part in the latest walkouts over pay in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nServices to Crewe, Manchester Piccadilly, Glasgow Central and Birmingham International from Euston were among those delayed because of a limited staff presence.\n\nAround 1,000 Border Force workers began strike action on Friday at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports, as well as the Port of Newhaven.\n\nBorder disruption has been minimal, with military personnel and civil servants being drafted in to cover strikers.\n\nHeathrow Airport said operations were running smoothly on Saturday. A spokesperson added: \"The immigration halls are free flowing with Border Force and the military contingency providing a good level of service for arriving passengers.\"\n\nTraffic on the A13 in London as people make their Christmas Eve getaway journeys\n\nBorder Force personnel will be striking until the end of the year - with the exception of 27 December - but there are warnings strikes could last for months unless a new pay deal is negotiated.\n\nMeanwhile industrial action at Network Rail, which maintains the UK's rail system, will continue until 06:00 on 27 December.\n\nThe last train times on major routes on Christmas Eve included the 09:45 from Leeds to London, the 11:22 from London to Edinburgh, and the 12:48 from London to Manchester.\n\nFamilies at London's Paddington Station told BBC News they felt anxious over the strikes.\n\nLeela, Richard and their baby Kalinda said they were on their way to Bristol to spend their first Christmas with family since the pandemic, but had been \"checking all week that the trains were not going to be cancelled\".\n\nMeanwhile a couple of miles away at Euston Station, Kartik Aggarwal's train has been cancelled. The 24-year-old student said he faced missing a Christmas party in Birmingham.\n\n\"It's been really bad,\" he said. \"We were planning for a long time only to have two trains get cancelled with no notification.\"\n\nLeela and her family at Paddington Station on Saturday morning\n\nElsewhere, Ollie Smith, 29, was travelling from Reading to Stockport to spend Christmas with his brother, but said his train got held up outside Birmingham New Street over limited capacity at the station due to engineering works.\n\nHe said the train was then reversed back to Birmingham International and cancelled - while he was still on board.\n\nJack Couzens, head of roads policy at the AA, said traffic on the roads was moving fairly well so far on Saturday but added that rail strikes had led to more people \"jumping into their cars\".\n\n\"There have been pockets of congestion on the A13, the M25, the M5... but as things stand traffic is moving okay,\" he said at lunchtime.\n\nThe railway strikes come at a time of widespread industry walkouts, as staff across a range of sectors are involved in disputes over pay, jobs and working conditions as the cost of living soars.\n\nElsewhere, ambulance drivers, nurses and driving examiners are all set to strike at various points over the festive period and into the new year.\n\nPrevious rail strikes caused major disruption and the RMT is due to hold further walkouts on 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nUnion members have rejected offers in a dispute over pay, job security and working conditions.\n\nThe RMT said it remained available for talks. Network Rail said the deal it has put forward is \"fair and affordable\".\n\nThe government said it had facilitated talks and ensured a reasonable offer was put forward.\n\nThe number of working days lost to strike action was the highest since November 2011 in October, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\n\nWatch Make Sense of Strikes on iPlayer and find out more about why people are striking and whether industrial action works.\n\nHow are you affected by the Christmas Eve rail strikes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The aid groups say the ban on female staff is a direct threat to their lifesaving work\n\nFive top non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have halted work in Afghanistan after women were banned from working for them by the Taliban government.\n\nCare International, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and Save the Children said they could not continue their work \"without our female staff\".\n\nThe International Rescue Committee also suspended services while Islamic Relief said it was stopping most of its work.\n\nThe latest edict on NGOs came just days after the Taliban banned women from attending university.\n\nAbdel Rahman Habib, spokesman for the Taliban's ministry of economy, accused female workers at the foreign aid groups of breaking dress codes by not wearing hijabs.\n\nThe Taliban threatened to cancel the licence of any organisation that did not swiftly comply with the ban.\n\nA number of aid groups have since spoken out, demanding that women should be allowed to continue working for them.\n\nThe leaders of Care, the NRC and Save the Children said in a joint statement the organisations \"would not have jointly reached millions of Afghans in need since August 2021\" were it not for their female staff.\n\n\"Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our programmes, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan,\" their statement added.\n\nSeparately, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) - which employs 3,000 women across Afghanistan - said its ability to deliver services relied on \"female staff at all levels of our organisation\" and if women could not be employed, they could not deliver to \"those in need\".\n\nIslamic Relief said it had taken the \"difficult decision to temporarily suspend non-lifesaving activities in Afghanistan\" including \"projects that support impoverished families to earn a living as well as education and some healthcare projects\". Life-saving healthcare, it added, would continue.\n\n\"Islamic Relief is calling on the Afghan authorities to immediately lift the ban on female NGO workers,\" the organisation said.\n\n\"The ban will have a devastating humanitarian impact on millions of vulnerable men, women and children across the country. We are dismayed that this ruling comes just a few days after increased restrictions on Afghan girls' access to education.\"\n\nRamiz Alakbarov, the United Nations' top humanitarian coordinator, said the UN was trying to get the ban reversed and that it was a \"red line for the entire humanitarian community\".\n\nThe United Nations could stop humanitarian aid delivery in Afghanistan if the Taliban authorities do not reverse their edict banning women aid workers, the official told the BBC.\n\nBut Mr Alakbarov said it was still unclear what the Taliban meant by its edict.\n\nHe said the Taliban's minister of health had told the UN the agency should continue its health-related work and women could \"report to work and discharge their services\".\n\nOther ministries had also contacted the UN directly to say work in the areas of disaster management and emergencies should continue, he added.\n\nJan Egeland of the NRC said nearly 500 of the aid group's 1,400 workers were women, and that female staff had been operating \"according to all traditional values, dress code, movement, [and] separation of offices\".\n\nHe said he hoped the decision would be \"reversed in the next few days\" and warned that millions would suffer if NGOs' work was obstructed.\n\nNGOs also expressed concern about the effect the ban would have on jobs \"in the midst of an enormous economic crisis\".\n\nFemale Afghan NGO workers acting as the main earners in their household previously told the BBC of their fear and helplessness following the ban.\n\nOne asked: \"If I cannot go to my job, who can support my family?\" Another breadwinner called the news \"shocking\" and insisted she had complied with the Taliban's strict dress code.\n\nThe ban triggered international outcry, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning it would \"disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions\".\n\nSince seizing back control of the country last year, the Taliban have steadily restricted women's rights - despite promising its rule would be softer than the regime seen in the 1990s.\n\nAs well as the bans on NGO workers and female university students - in the case of students, now being enforced by armed guards - secondary schools for girls remain closed in most provinces.\n\nWomen have also been prevented from entering parks and gyms, among other public places.\n• None Taliban ban women from working at NGOs 'over hijab'", "The King delivered his Christmas message from St George's Chapel, Windsor\n\nKing Charles has used his first Christmas message to reflect on the cost-of-living crisis.\n\nHe spoke of the \"great anxiety and hardship\" for those struggling to \"pay their bills and keep their families fed and warm\".\n\nThere were images of food banks and help for the homeless alongside the speech, recorded by the King in St George's Chapel, Windsor.\n\nHe paid tribute to his mother Queen Elizabeth, who is buried in the chapel.\n\nThe late Queen pioneered the televised royal Christmas Day address, and used what was to become her final message last year to speak of \"passing the baton\" to the next generation.\n\nThe themes of the King's speech touched on some of his causes and beliefs - concern for the disadvantaged, the importance of public service and supporting a multi-faith approach to religion.\n\nOnly \"working royals\" appeared on screen in the King's broadcast, including the Queen Consort, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Earl of Wessex and the Princess Royal.\n\nThat meant that Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, were not mentioned. The Duke of York was also not included.\n\nAt a time of industrial strife and financial pressures, the King's message focused on those supporting people in need.\n\n\"I particularly want to pay tribute to all those wonderfully kind people who so generously give food or donations, or that most precious commodity of all, their time, to support those around them in greatest need,\" said the King.\n\nThe message was accompanied by pictures of charities giving food to the homeless and volunteers helping at a food bank.\n\nBuckingham Palace has said funds donated after the death of the late Queen were being given to a charity helping those unable to pay energy bills.\n\nThe King has gathered with other senior royals at Sandringham, Norfolk, for Christmas, and earlier attended the traditional Christmas Day service for the first time as monarch.\n\nLast year the Queen spoke of \"passing the baton\" to the next generation\n\nThe King praised the emergency services who \"worked tirelessly to keep us all safe\", teachers and health and social care staff.\n\nLast year proved to be the late Queen's last Christmas message, and the King remembered the \"love and sympathy\" that followed her death in September.\n\n\"Christmas is a particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones. We feel their absence at every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition,\" said the King.\n\nStanding \"close to where my beloved mother, the late Queen is laid to rest with my dear father\", he spoke of his mother's faith in God and also her \"faith in people\".\n\nThe message highlighted the community work of faith groups, and the King, as well as asserting his own Christian belief, extended this to other religions.\n\nHe spoke of the \"heartfelt solidarity\" shown by \"churches, synagogues, mosques and gurdwaras\".\n\nThe King described how moved he had been to go to the birthplace of Christ in Bethlehem: \"It meant more to me than I can possibly express to stand on that spot.\"\n\nThe King's speech continues a tradition going back 90 years, with the first royal Christmas broadcast delivered on the radio in 1932 by George V. The first televised broadcast was presented by Elizabeth II in 1957.\n\nIn terms of changes in style, the King delivered his first message standing up, rather than a formal address from behind a desk, and his themes addressed more current social issues.\n\nBut there was much that was traditional. This was a Christmas Day message delivered in a chapel with a choir singing, touching on themes of faith, hope and the importance of serving others.\n\nThe choir finished, as it had last year for the Queen's last message, singing the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, with the King highlighting its message of \"light overcoming darkness\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUkraine is \"alive and kicking\" and will never surrender, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, in a defiant address to US lawmakers on his first foreign trip since Russia's invasion.\n\nUS military aid to Ukraine was not charity, but an investment in security for the future, Mr Zelensky said.\n\nHis appeal comes amid signs US support is likely to face greater scrutiny by Republican lawmakers in Congress.\n\nBut President Joe Biden vowed to stick by Ukraine \"for as long as it takes\".\n\nMr Biden pledged a new $2bn (£1.7bn) aid package and promised another $45bn.\n\nAt a joint news conference, Mr Biden told reporters he was \"not at all worried\" about holding the international coalition together.\n\nAmid concerns that some allies may be feeling the strain of the conflict's cost and disruption to global food and energy supplies, the US president said he felt \"very good\" about the solidarity of support for Ukraine.\n\nAs Ukraine's most important ally, the US has already committed $50bn (£41bn) of humanitarian, financial and security assistance - far more than any other country.\n\nMr Zelensky - wearing his trademark combat-green sweatshirt and boots - expressed hope that Congress would pass an extra $45bn in aid to Ukraine - currently before the US Senate - to \"help us to defend our values and independence\".\n\nRepublicans - who will take control of the House of Representatives in January - have warned they will not write a \"blank cheque\" for Ukraine.\n\nIn fact, Republican support for continued assistance has been eroding. In a survey conducted in November, just over half of Republican voters supported aid to Ukraine - down from 80% in March.\n\nBut Mr Zelensky, who travelled on a US Air Force jet from the Polish city of Rzeszow, said that \"regardless of changes in the Congress\", he believed there would be bipartisan support for his country.\n\nAnd he made his plea in emotive terms before a joint session of Congress - a speech that was interrupted 18 times with standing ovations by nearly all members of Congress, with the exception of some Republican lawmakers who did not clap.\n\nSpeaking in English, he told them his country was still standing \"against all odds\" and predicted \"a turning point\" in the conflict next year.\n\nTo illustrate the brutality of the war, Mr Zelensky evoked US troops fighting the Nazis during World War Two.\n\n\"The Russians' tactic is primitive. They burn down and destroy everything they see. They sent convicts to the front lines, to the war. They threw everything against us, similar to the other tyranny, which in the Battle of the Bulge threw everything it had against the free world.\n\n\"Just like the brave American soldiers who held their lines and fought back Hitler's forces during the Christmas of 1944, brave Ukrainian soldiers are doing the same to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's forces this Christmas,\" he said. \"Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender.\"\n\nConcluding his speech, Mr Zelensky presented Congress with a battle flag signed by the defenders of Bakhmut, a frontline city in the east of Ukraine that he visited on the eve of his Washington trip.\n\nThe package of security assistance announced by Washington on Wednesday includes a new Patriot missile system, which is expected to help Ukraine protect its cities from missiles and drones that Russia has fired at critical facilities.\n\nRussia's foreign ministry has said the delivery of the advanced surface-to-air missile system will be considered a provocative step.\n\nEarlier on Wednesday, Mr Putin said he believed his country was not to blame for the war in Ukraine, adding both countries were \"sharing a tragedy\".\n\nHis spokesman said no calls for peace had been heard during Mr Zelensky's visit to Washington.\n\n\"This indicates that the United States continues its line of de facto and indirectly fighting with Russia to the last Ukrainian,\" Dmitry Peskov said.\n\nSince Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, the US military estimates that at least 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured, along with some 40,000 civilian deaths.\n\nThe UN has recorded 7.8 million people as refugees from Ukraine across Europe, including Russia. However, the figure does not include those who have been forced to flee their homes but remain in Ukraine.", "Valeriia and Anastasiia hope to bring some of their Ukrainian Christmas traditions to Wales this year\n\nFor two Ukrainian women Christmas will be very different this year.\n\nAnastasiia Patiuk and Valeriia Pivensay are studying in Wales and will be celebrating the festivities with friends rather than family, in Lampeter, Ceredigion.\n\nThe two women from Kyiv said it was their dream to return home, and help \"rebuild the future Ukraine\".\n\nThe pair intend to bring some of their Ukrainian Christmas traditions to Wales.\n\nBoth Anastasiia and Valeriia arrived in Wales in October, after receiving a scholarship from University of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD), that enables students from Ukraine to study the postgraduate award in global citizenship and sustainable leadership.\n\nAnastasiia said: \"Christmas this year isn't as magical as usual.\n\n\"My boyfriend is on the frontline as a medical doctor, I do hope they will be able to come together for a meal on Christmas Day, so that they can get some Christmas spirit.\"\n\nValeriia said that this Christmas will be very different not just for her but for all the people of Ukraine.\n\nShe added: \"Christmas is different this year, Ukrainian people are strong people, and they will be celebrating Christmas anyway, but this year it will be celebrating with a taste of bitter loss, and a glimpse of hope for the future.\"\n\nThe university had been advising and supporting the women before they left Ukraine, and prepared them for their arrival at the UK, and life on campus at Lampeter.\n\nThe girls said they think of the international team that provided them with a welcome pack when they arrived as their fairy godmothers\n\nThe welcome they received when they arrived in Lampeter made a huge impression on them.\n\nAnastasiia said where she comes from in Ukraine is very similar to Lampeter and that helped her feel at home.\n\n\"Everything her is calm, and the people are very nice and supportive,\" she said.\n\nUWTSD has a long record of working with refugees and asylum seekers.\n\nInternational regional manager, Kath Griffiths said the university strives to be a haven for students who are displaced.\n\nThough far from home, Anastasiia and Valeriia follow the war in Ukraine very closely, and hope to go back to see their families and friends as soon as they can.\n\nEvery day they meet up to watch the daily message given by President Volodymyr Zelensky, which they said makes them very emotional and homesick.\n\n\"It is really hard being away from home, I do hope that things will change before long,\" said Anastasiia.\n\nAnastasiia and Valeria will continue with their studies at Lampeter for the next two years, but both say they want to go home to Ukraine\n\nValeriia said coming to the UK to study was something her family had been dreaming about.\n\n\"My mother studied in Bath many years ago, and she fell in love with the UK, her dream was for me to come and study here too,\" she said.\n\nThe two friends plan to bring some festive fair and intend on bringing some Ukrainian Christmas traditions to Lampeter.\n\nValeriia added: \"Our main dish for Christmas is Kutya, a sweet porridge made out of wheat or rice and dried fruits, and we usually place a garlic glove on each corner of the table to protect us from bad spirits.\n\n\"We hope to introduce our traditions to our friends at Lampeter this year.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern caught on mic insulting MP in parliament\n\nA signed copy of a transcript of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern insulting an opposition leader has sold for more than NZ$100,000 ($63,200).\n\nThe offensive comment was picked up by microphones following a heated exchange with ACT party leader David Seymour.\n\nMs Ardern later apologised for the remark before Mr Seymour proposed they join forces to raise money for New Zealand's Prostate Cancer Foundation.\n\nThe PM thanked everyone who bid after the charity auction ended on Thursday.\n\nDuring a lively parliamentary debate last week, Ms Ardern took issue when Mr Seymour, leader of the right-wing libertarian ACT party, asked her to give an example of her \"making a mistake, apologising for it properly, and fixing it\".\n\nMs Ardern defended her Labour government's record before sitting down and quietly muttering: \"Such an arrogant prick.\"\n\nThe remark was picked up by her microphone and preserved in the official parliamentary record, Hansard, after Mr Seymour asked for an apology.\n\nBut the pair, normally at odds with each other politically, decided to turn the affair into something positive. Both signed a copy of a transcript of the official parliamentary record which included the comment before it was framed and auctioned online.\n\nThe man who won the charity auction told local media he would have to take a loan out to help pay for the NZ$100,100 (£52,200) winning bid.\n\nJulian Shorten told 1News he was happy with his purchase and said: \"This is a moment in New Zealand political history.\"\n\nIn a statement, Mr Seymour said: \"The interest was greater than anyone dreamed.\n\n\"When I suggested this to her, she immediately agreed,\" he added. \"I have been blown away by the kindness of bidders who are helping pricks everywhere with their generosity.\"\n\n\"Can't say I expected this,\" Ms Ardern posted on Facebook before thanking Mr Seymour for \"being a good sport\".\n\nMs Ardern's Labour Party won a landslide victory in the country's general election in 2020 and the prime minister has enjoyed high approval ratings for much of her two terms in office.\n\nBut with New Zealand expected to go to the polls in late 2023, Ms Ardern is coming under increasing pressure. Latest opinion polls have her Labour Party trailing the main opposition National Party.", "Andrew Nicholas's family said he was a \"wonderful\" son and champion golfer at his local club\n\nA man who killed a golfer with a single punch has been sentenced to four years in youth detention.\n\nMorgan Wainewright, of Mid Summer Way, Monmouth, was 19 when he attacked Andrew Nicholas from Poole, Dorset, in the early hours of 26 June.\n\nThe 43-year-old had been visiting the town on a golfing weekend.\n\nWainewright, who had been drinking since 16:00 the previous afternoon and had taken ketamine, admitted manslaughter at Newport Crown Court.\n\nHe had initially been charged with wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, but was charged with manslaughter when Mr Nicholas died four days after the attack.\n\nThe court heard Wainewright had been out in Monmouth with a group of friends.\n\nCCTV footage played to the court showed him inside the Kings Head pub arguing with fellow drinkers and at one point, he had to be pulled away from another man.\n\nEyewitnesses said he appeared \"wound up\" and one of the pub's doormen said he \"seemed like he wanted to fight anyone of any age for any reason\", the court heard.\n\nMonnow Street in Monmouth was closed while police attended the scene\n\nAfter Wainewright was asked to leave the pub, CCTV footage from two cameras on Monnow Street showed a fight breaking out between the defendant and his friends, and the group of men from inside the pub.\n\nLater, CCTV showed him talking to Andrew Nicholas for a few minutes before the fatal punch was thrown - the court heard \"neither knew each other\" before that night.\n\nProsecutor James Wilson said Wainewright went to a local skatepark and swapped his top with a friend, although he later swapped it back and handed himself into police.\n\nMr Nicholas was taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff but never regained consciousness.\n\nA post-mortem examination gave his cause of death as \"blunt head injury\".\n\nWainewright, now, 20, will serve his sentence in youth detention\n\nIn an impact statement, Mr Nicholas' mother Karin Nicholas said her son's death made no sense.\n\n\"A weekend of golf with his club, just going for something to eat and he will never come home,\" she said.\n\n\"I am left destitute, heartbroken, in total disbelief, how can this be real?\n\n\"I feel totally vulnerable and afraid without my son, he lived with me after losing my husband three years ago and did so much to help and I now don't know how I can cope with our home and how I can go forward without him.\"\n\nShe described him as \"the most loving, caring son any mother could have\", adding: \"I have such pride in the man he became, loved and respected by so many.\n\n\"Losing my son in this unacceptable, atrocious manner has completely devastated me.\"\n\nDefending Wainewright, Sarah Jones said her client was sorry and the incident \"lived in Morgan Wainewright's thoughts before he sleeps -and he knows that it should\".\n\nSenior investigating officer Det Supt Nick Wilkie of Gwent Police said: \"The circumstances of Mr Nicholas's death should act as a warning to others as to how a senseless act of violence can have devastating consequences.\"", "Terri Harris (bottom left) and her children John Bennett (top left) and Lacey Bennett (bottom right) were found dead along with Lacey's friend Connie Gent (top right)\n\nA man who murdered his pregnant partner, her two children, and another child has been sentenced to a whole-life prison term.\n\nDamien Bendall killed his four victims with a claw hammer at a house in Derbyshire in 2021.\n\nHe pleaded guilty to murdering Terri Harris, 35, her son John Bennett, 13, daughter Lacey Bennett, 11, and Lacey's 11-year-old friend Connie Gent.\n\nHe also pleaded guilty to raping Lacey.\n\nBendall, 32, admitted the charges at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday, where he was sentenced by Mr Justice Sweeney.\n\nHe was given a whole-life order, meaning he will never be released from prison, except in exceptional compassionate circumstances.\n\nMr Justice Sweeney told him: \"As the prosecution have said, you carried out vicious, brutal and cruel attacks on a defenceless woman and three young children, during which you went around the house attacking them.\"\n\nMs Harris and the children were found dead at a house in Chandos Crescent, Killamarsh, on 19 September, having been killed on the evening of 18 September.\n\n\"The defendant attacked them using a claw hammer which he used to hit them over the head and on the upper body,\" prosecution barrister Louis Mably KC told the court.\n\n\"It was perfectly clear none of the victims stood a chance.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Killamarsh murders: Footage shows arrest of man who murdered four\n\nMr Mably told the court Bendall and Ms Harris had been in a relationship, having met on a dating app after her relationship with her children's father ended.\n\nPolice arrived at the house on the morning of 19 September, having been alerted by Bendall's mother, as he told her he had stabbed himself.\n\nIn police bodycam footage played to the court, he could be seen speaking to officers outside the house, telling them calmly, \"I've murdered four people\", and \"I'm going back to prison\".\n\nPolice initially did not believe him, Mr Mably said, but an officer found all four bodies when he went inside.\n\nHe found John first, lying naked on the floor of the bathroom, as he had been due to have a shower before Bendall attacked him.\n\nHe then found Ms Harris and her daughter in the main bedroom. Terri was on the floor but Lacey was on the bed.\n\nForensic evidence indicates that Bendall attacked and raped Lacey downstairs before moving her upstairs, where he raped her again.\n\nHe also used some kind of ligature around her neck, and this contributed to her death along with the head injuries.\n\nConnie, who was stopping with Lacey for a sleepover that night, was found dead in another bedroom.\n\nBendall, who the court heard was under the influence of cocaine and cannabis, left the house after the murders, taking John's games console with him in order to sell it for drugs.\n\nHe was arrested and taken to hospital, but the wounds he had inflicted on himself only required stitches.\n\nHe was then interviewed by police, telling them: \"I used a hammer. I did not realise what I did until I walked into my room and saw my missus and my daughter.\"\n\nHe knew Ms Harris was pregnant when he killed her, because he also told police: \"Bet you don't usually get four murders in Killamarsh do you? Well I mean five 'cause my missus was having a baby.\"\n\nDamien Bendall admitted four murders and the rape of 11-year-old Lacey\n\nVictim personal statements from relatives of the victims were read to the court by the prosecution.\n\nAngela Smith, Ms Harris's mother, said: \"Terri, Lacey and John meant the world to me and were the most precious people in my life. Not being able to give them a kiss and a hug and tell them I love them breaks my heart.\"\n\nShe recalled her grandchildren telling her they were scared of monsters when they were younger.\n\n\"I told them there's no such thing as monsters, but how wrong I was,\" she said.\n\nJohn and Lacey's father, Jason Bennett, said he was living in a \"continual nightmare\"\n\nJason Bennett, John and Lacey's father, said their murders had \"destroyed and taken my life away\".\n\n\"I am living in a continual nightmare,\" his statement said. \"I have a story in my head of how they died, I live their trauma and feel their pain; it feels like a recurring punishment.\"\n\nHe recalled how Lacey and Connie had been selling sweets for charity on the day they died, describing his daughter as \"kind and caring\".\n\n\"John would not hurt a fly, literally. If he saw an insect he would carefully put it outside,\" he said.\n\nCharles Gent, Connie's father, said his daughter's murder had \"completely torn my life apart\".\n\n\"The man who carried out the crimes can only be described as truly evil and should never be free from incarceration, just like the families of the victims in this case will never be free from their life sentence as a result of the shocking and abhorrent crimes he committed on a defenceless woman and children,\" he said.\n\nConnie (front) had been stopping over at her friend Lacey's house when she was murdered\n\nDuring the sentencing hearing the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) made representations that the whole-life tariff was necessary.\n\nThis was agreed by Bendall's defence barrister, and Bendall himself.\n\nDefence barrister Vanessa Marshall KC said: \"His instructions are clear that nothing but a whole-life order is warranted for taking, as he did, these four young lives away, and in such awful circumstances.\"\n\nBendall previously pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter but denied murder and rape, meaning he was due to stand trial for these offences before he changed his pleas.\n\n\"Bendall's defence put forward theories that his judgement was psychologically impaired,\" said Andrew Baxter, deputy chief crown prosecutor.\n\n\"Throughout the process, the CPS instructed its own medical experts to assess whether the arguments had merit, which they did not.\n\n\"When all medical angles had been exhausted, the evidence that he had murdered all four victims with no impairment to his actions was overwhelming and Bendall admitted all charges.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Scottish government spent more than £250,000 on the Supreme Court case about holding another independence referendum, new figures show.\n\nThe Supreme Court ruled in November that the Scottish government cannot hold an independence referendum without the UK government's consent.\n\nScottish government figures show £251,728.69 was spent on the court case.\n\nThe bulk of this outlay was on legal fees for the two-day hearing.\n\nThe Scottish government said the Supreme Court case had achieved its aim of bringing legal clarity on the issue of legal powers to hold a referendum.\n\nBut critics claim it was a waste of money.\n\nScottish Conservative constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said: \"Taxpayers will be appalled that this significant sum of their money has been frittered away by the SNP.\n\n\"The fact legal experts said they were destined to lose makes it all the worse.\n\n\"It is a disgraceful waste of public money at a time when Scots are grappling with the cost-of-living crisis and our NHS is totally overwhelmed.\"\n\nRallies were held in several towns and cities across Scotland on the day of the Supreme Court ruling\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon had set out plans to hold a referendum on 19 October next year.\n\nThe legal right to do this was tested by the Supreme Court and it ruled unanimously that she does not have the power to do so because the issue is reserved to Westminster.\n\nThe UK government has refused to grant formal consent for a referendum.\n\nThe bulk of the Scottish government's costs in the case went on external counsel (£222,869.45).\n\nTravel and subsistence for the case cost £19,711.25, while £8,049.99 was spent on \"professional services\".\n\nFiling fees for the Supreme Court were £350 and other costs for the court were £748.\n\nDuring the Scottish budget last week, Deputy First Minister John Swinney announced £20m earmarked for a second referendum next year would instead go towards tackling fuel poverty.\n\nA Scottish government spokeswoman said: \"As the first minister has previously set out, there has long been debate over whether the Scottish Parliament has the powers to legislate to hold a referendum.\n\n\"The Lord Advocate's reference of this question to the Supreme Court was intended to achieve legal clarity on this point, which it has done so.\n\n\"In light of majority support within the Scottish Parliament for an independence referendum, Scottish ministers remain ready to engage with the UK government at any point on delivering a referendum.\"", "In an Oval Office meeting at the White House, US President Joe Biden affirmed support for the Ukrainian people and called President Zelensky the 'Man of the Year' while confirming the delivery of the Patriot missile system.", "Ambulance staff in five areas of England are to stage two further strikes in January, union leaders say.\n\nThe industrial action on 11 and 23 January is likely to heap more pressure on emergency care, which is already under serious strain.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay said further strike action was in no one's best interest.\n\nUnison leaders say the action is a direct result of the government's refusal to negotiate over pay.\n\nLife-threatening calls to 999, as well as the most serious emergency calls, will still be responded to, they say.\n\nServices in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West will take action over pay and staffing.\n\nThe January strikes will each last for 24 hours from midnight, Unison says, and will involve all ambulance employees - not just 999 response crews.\n\nAmbulance staff, including paramedics, call handlers and technicians, staged a strike in England and Wales on Wednesday, and are set to strike again on 28 December.\n\nThree unions - Unison, Unite and the GMB union - were involved in the strike action.\n\n\"We are disappointed that some union members have chosen to take further strike action,\" said Mr Barclay.\n\nHe said the pay demands the unions were making \"would mean taking money away from frontline services and cause further delays to treatment\" and called for further strikes to be reconsidered.\n\nEven before Wednesday's strike, a quarter of ambulances were delayed for more than an hour outside A&E, according to the latest NHS England statistics.\n\nSaffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts in England, said the prospect of prolonged strikes by more health unions in January was \"incredibly worrying\".\n\n\"There are no winners in this situation. Serious talks must take place between health ministers and unions, and fast.\"\n\nUnison general secretary Christina McAnea said no health workers wanted to go out on strike but holding talks was the only way the dispute would end.\n\nShe said accusing NHS staff of making a conscious decision to inflict harm on the public by taking action this week \"was not the health secretary's finest hour\".\n\n\"Neither was it a particularly smart move for Steve Barclay to falsely accuse health unions of failing to deliver a national emergency cover plan,\" she added.\n\n\"It's time [he] stopped with the insults and fibs and called the unions in for proper talks about improving NHS pay.\"\n\nThe health secretary has repeatedly said that ambulance workers have already been given a pay rise recommended by an independent pay review body and that any further increase was unaffordable.\n\nMr Barclay is said to be keen to focus on settling next year's pay deal for NHS staff in England, from April 2023, but the unions say strikes are about this year's pay offer, which he is refusing to negotiate on.\n\nThe average earnings for ambulance staff in England were £46,643, figures from NHS Digital for April 2021 to March 2022 show.\n\nOf this, £13,854 came from extra payments for things like shift work and overtime.\n\nWorkers classed as support staff - such as ambulance technicians and non-emergency ambulance drivers - had average pay of £29,139, of which £7,842 came from extra payments.", "People are being urged to reconsider whether they need an ambulance, before calling 999 over Christmas.\n\nThis week has seen calls to the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) up 25% on the same period in previous years.\n\nIt is believed to be a result of recent bad weather, a rise in flu cases and limited resources from a Covid backlog.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said efforts were being made to address ambulance waiting times.\n\nHealth workers were providing help over the phone or in their homes to help alleviate pressure on emergency departments.\n\nLast week, one in 10 ambulances in Ayrshire and Arran waited over four hours outside an emergency department to hand over a patient.\n\nAnd the SAS recently apologised after a patient was airlifted to Glasgow Airport when no ambulance was available for a 300 yard transfer from the helipad at Crosshouse Hospital in East Ayrshire.\n\nChief executive of the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) Pauline Howie told BBC Scotland the service was \"extremely busy\".\n\n\"Demand over the last week has been up 25% on what we would normally expect, which is often a very, very busy time of year,\" she said.\n\n\"We suspect that that is due to a combination of the bad weather, an increase in respiratory illnesses, and a backlog due to Covid.\n\n\"We are trying our very best to do what we can to prioritise patients and focus our limited resources on those that have got the most time-critically unwell conditions.\"\n\nPauline Howie said the ambulance service was very busy\n\nPeople are being asked to consider whether speaking to their GP, NHS 24 or a community pharmacist might be a better option for their condition.\n\nMs Howie said: \"We have also developed an integrated clinical hub here within the Scottish Ambulance Service.\n\n\"So if your condition isn't a time critical emergency, we might offer a consultation with one of our clinicians to try to find a pathway that's right for you at that time, which often is not going to the emergency department.\"\n\nShe said a recruitment campaign had taken on more staff than ever before.\n\nMs Howie told BBC Scotland that SAS recruited 540 new ambulance workers last year and 488 this year.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said the service was working to improve turnaround times.\n\n\"We'll do everything we can to give people the best possible service, but of course we know that there's far too many people waiting too long for treatment and care,\" he said.\n\nMr Yousaf told BBC Scotland that the service was seeing a spike in respiratory viruses, with flu cases in particular.\n\n\"Given the pressures that's on the system, this is going to be the most challenging time,\" he added.\n\n\"That's going to have an impact on the staff and equally no doubt it will have an impact on the care that we're able to provide for patients.\"\n• None No ambulance to meet helicopter patient at hospital", "A large crowd gathered at the prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain\n\nCelebrations have been taking place at Stonehenge to mark the winter solstice.\n\nThousands of people watched the sun come up at the ancient Neolithic monument after the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.\n\nEnglish Heritage allows people near to the stones to mark key occasions.\n\nThe event is thought to be more important in the pagan calendar than the summer solstice because it marks the \"re-birth\" of the sun for the new year.\n\nIt was the shortest day of the year on Wednesday and so people gathered to celebrate the days getting longer.\n\nPeople celebrated the start of the days getting longer\n\nDespite a forecast of cloud and rain, a large crowd of pagans and druids were among those to visit the site and were rewarded with a pink sky when the weather lifted.\n\nLaura and Richard Parker travelled to Stonehenge from Nottingham and told BBC Radio Wiltshire the event was like new year for them.\n\nMs Parker said: \"This is our new year, we don't celebrate on the first of January.\n\n\"It's been the shortest day of the year and we come to celebrate with like-minded people. It's a fantastic atmosphere and you can really let yourself go and be one with everyone.\"\n\nVisitors are not usually allowed so close to the stones\n\nAround 4,500 people were at the site for the event, with a further 100,000 watching the sunrise online around the world.\n\nScott Ashman from English Heritage said: \"It was an enjoyable and peaceful celebration despite the damp and misty weather and it was great to see so many families enjoying themselves around the monument.\n\nUsually a barrier prevents people from touching the stones but rules are relaxed on celebration dates\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A couple, who were diagnosed with cancer within months of each other, have praised the consultant who helped get their baby here safely.\n\nJames was diagnosed first and then months later his wife Bethany was diagnosed while she was pregnant.\n\nBethany's treatment at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital had to take place during her pregnancy with daughter Heidi.", "The first sample is down. Nine more tubes will be dropped at Three Forks\n\nThe Perseverance rover has begun gathering the evidence that may answer the question of whether there is life on Mars.\n\nIt has dropped its first rock sample down on to the planet's surface to await retrieval and return to Earth.\n\nIt's a key moment in the decades-long quest to bring materials home from another planet for study in the lab.\n\nIt's thought that only by studying rock and soil samples on Earth can the question of life there be resolved.\n\nThe finger-sized sample tube was ejected from the robot's belly and was later photographed to make sure it had fallen correctly to the ground.\n\nThe American and European space agencies plan to fetch samples in 2030.\n\nThey may not be the ones now being deposited at the location known as Three Forks, in Mars' Jezero Crater. Indeed, it's more likely to be the rocks Perseverance will be carrying at that time, when the robot might be driving way beyond the crater rim.\n\nBut scientists can't risk the prospect of the rover breaking down in the meantime with its rock collection stuck inside, and that's prompted them to build an insurance depot now.\n\nThe Three Forks store guarantees something is available to pick up when the retrieval mission arrives.\n\nThe first sample tube to go into the depot is a volcanic, or igneous, rock dubbed \"Malay\". Three further examples of this type of rock will follow. Their chemistry would help researchers age Jezero Crater and the broader geological history of Mars.\n\n\"There's also a variety of sedimentary rocks that record different depositional environments, such as a river delta, or the bottom of an ancient lake,\" Perseverance mission scientist Meenakshi Wadhwa said. \"Some of these environments could have been habitable, and some of these rocks could preserve evidence of ancient microbial life.\"\n\nThere will be three sedimentary cylinders.\n\nIn addition, Perseverance will drop samples of soil and atmosphere, along with a special tube that's been recording conditions inside the rover, including any contaminants given off from the vehicle.\n\nNasa hopes Perseverance and its scout drone, Ingenuity, will stay operational for a long time to come\n\nIf the nightmare happens and Perseverance dies, the fetch mission will be directed straight to Three Forks.\n\nIt will have two drones, equipped with claws, to grab the tubes and take them to the rocket system that will then blast them off Mars for the journey home.\n\nTo date, Perseverance has been drilling two examples of every rock it's sampled. This practice will end with the construction of the Three Forks store.\n\n\"We've had this paired sample strategy to ensure that we had one tube to put down in the depot and one tube to carry with us,\" explained Katie Stack Morgan, the deputy project scientist on Perseverance.\n\n\"Once we've constructed the depot, we will be able to move beyond this strategy and focus on single-sample acquisition. That's freeing in a lot of ways for the science team, because we can think about more locations and more types of rocks to sample,\" she told reporters.\n\nThe Malay rock core immediately after drilling and before encapsulation in its sample tube\n\nCome January, Perseverance will have completed its basic mission in Jezero. But with all robotic systems healthy and so much science still in prospect, Nasa officials have already agreed to fund extended operations.\n\nThe vehicle, along with its scout drone, Ingenuity, will soon climb on to the delta mound that dominates the west of the crater.\n\nA delta is a structure built up from the silt and sand dumped by a river as it slows on entry into a wider body of water.\n\nIt's the kind of feature that might just have trapped evidence of past microbial organisms.\n\nPerseverance will investigate what appears to be evidence of flood activity, judging from the large size of some of the boulders scattered across the top of the delta.\n\nThe robot will then move to the edge of the crater where satellite imagery indicates there are carbonate-type sedimentary rocks. These again will be a good place to look for traces of ancient biology.\n\nPerseverance still has more than 20 sample tubes waiting to be filled.\n\nThe sample-retrieval mission, comprising a landing platform, helicopters, a robotic arm and a return rocket is scheduled to leave Earth for Mars in mid-2028, with a roughly two-year cruise time.\n\nThe sample tubes it acquires - either from the Three Forks store or directly from Perseverance at another location - would be brought home on a European freighter, due back in 2033.", "Lycett is one of the UK's most popular stand-up comics and has hosted The Great British Sewing Bee for BBC Two\n\nJoe Lycett has defended himself after being accused of hypocrisy over his criticism of David Beckham.\n\nThe comedian recently pretended to shred £10,000 in protest of Beckham's links with World Cup host country Qatar, where it is illegal to be gay.\n\nBut the Sun highlighted Lycett had been paid for gigs in the country himself earlier in his career.\n\nLycett argued he never tried to hide the shows and sarcastically referenced the \"spotless morality\" of the Sun.\n\nHe added he was paid \"a few hundred quid\" for the shows in 2015 by a UK comedy promoter, and said he would have reconsidered playing the gigs if an equivalent high-profile comedian had shredded money in protest.\n\nMany LGBTQ fans boycotted the recent Fifa men's World Cup over Qatar's treatment of gay people, as same-sex relationships are criminalised in the country.\n\nLast month, Lycett pretended to shred £10,000 in protest over Beckham's promotion of Qatar as an ambassador for the country. It was reported that the former England captain had signed a £10m deal with the World Cup hosts.\n\nThe comedian's publicity stunt was widely covered by news outlets and led to him presenting a programme on Channel 4 called Joe Lycett vs Beckham.\n\nBut on Thursday, the Sun said Lycett was at \"the centre of a hypocrisy storm\" after it emerged he previously did several performances in controversial Gulf states himself.\n\nThe comedian wrote about playing in Dubai, Abu Dhabi - both in the UAE - and Qatar in his autobiography, published in 2016.\n\nIn his statement, posted on Twitter, Lycett said: \"Oops! I've been caught out by The Sun! I did two gigs in Doha in 2015 and kept it entirely secret by writing about it in my own book and mentioning it in multiple interviews including with the NY Times!\n\n\"If you're interested, I was paid a few hundred quid (not by Qatar but by UK comedy promoters) but it was 2015 and that went a lot further back then. I reckon that if a popular comedian from those days (eg. Shane Ritchie) had shredded a few hundred quid to persuade me not to go, it would have made a difference. But who can say?\n\n\"I don't have the perfect hindsight and spotless morality of, to pick a completely random example, The Sun newspaper.\"\n\nDavid Beckham has been criticised for promoting Qatar as one of the country's ambassadors\n\nSome of Lycett's followers had contacted him via social media to draw attention to his gigs. \"You didn't seem to have a problem taking Qatari money that night?\" one said.\n\nIn a statement last week, a spokesman for Beckham said: \"We understand that there are different and strongly-held views about engagement in the Middle East, but see it as positive that debate about the key issues has been stimulated directly by the first World Cup being held in the region.\n\n\"We hope that these conversations will lead to greater understanding and empathy towards all people, and that progress will be achieved.\"\n\nYou may also be interested in:", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mikael Boukhari alleges he was punched and hit by a member of Gwent Police\n\nAn officer accused of attacking a man has been referred by the police watchdog to the Crown Prosecution Service.\n\nThe Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) passed on the Gwent constable's details to the CPS to consider assault charges against him.\n\nHe is said to have used excessive force while arresting two men in Newport.\n\nOne was on 9 July 2021, at Livale Court, Bettws, when Mikael Boukhari said an officer with a baton hit him.\n\nHe was filmed appearing to be struck by a Gwent Police officer in a garden, after which Mr Boukhari said he needed hospital treatment for injuries, including a broken hand.\n\nHe said he needed hospital treatment for injuries, including a broken hand.\n\nThe other was in Malpas Road on 8 May 2021.\n\nAn IOPC spokesman said: \"The IOPC's investigation began after complaint referrals from Gwent Police in July and August last year.\n\n\"We have a responsibility to refer any case to the CPS where there is an indication that a criminal offence may have been committed.\n\n\"A referral to the CPS does not mean that criminal charges will necessarily follow.\n\n\"At the end of our investigation, we also submitted our report to Gwent Police with our views on future disciplinary proceedings against the officer.\"\n\nGwent Police said it had supported the IOPC with its investigation and continued to offer its full co-operation.\n\n\"We will also continue to work with our local community to build their confidence in us upholding the high standards the public rightly expect from our officers,\" a spokesman said.\n\n\"We await a decision from the CPS and will take appropriate action in response to the IOPC report once received.\"\n\nGwent Police is currently at the centre of two probes over claims of corruption, racism, misogyny and homophobia.\n\nFour officers have been suspended after messages were found on the phone of retired policeman Ricky Jones, who killed himself in 2020.", "Art historian Eike Schmidt, 54, has run the Uffizi since 2015\n\nAfter seven years running Italy's flagship museum the Uffizi, its director has clearly had enough of inappropriate punctuation.\n\nEike Schmidt has laid out his rules for email etiquette in a message to staff.\n\nBold characters are out, although underlining is still acceptable where suitable for words or salient phrases.\n\n\"You should also avoid whole sentences in capitals,\" Mr Schmidt says.\n\nThere was no reference to emojis but, judging from the tone of the circular, complete with its culture ministry heading, there would be little room for them either.\n\n\"It was the conversation of the day for many employees in the corridors, at the water cooler or in the café,\" Uffizi Galleries spokesperson Tommaso Galligani told the BBC by email, with no hint of a character out of place.\n\nAs staff at the Uffizi in Florence turned their thoughts to Christmas, this was a reminder that they were representing a ministry of culture institution in the city of Dante, considered the father of the Italian language.\n\nMr Schmidt's main bugbear is excessive punctuation, not unlike UK politician Thérèse Coffey who objected to the so-called \"Oxford comma\".\n\n\"Where punctuation is concerned it is necessary to avoid altogether, as ever only where possible, exclamation marks, while with both question marks and exclamation marks only one is necessary at the end of a sentence with no repetition.\"\n\nHis circular may have lacked Dante's style but the sentiment was clear:\n\nThe entire staff of the Uffizi galleries is asked to abide scrupulously by these above-mentioned rules for best practice in writing\n\nMr Galligani said that most staff loved the circular and many colleagues smiled, but he also believed there were some who did not have much to laugh about.\n\n\"The tendency to consider email exchanges as something totally informal, like a chat on WhatsApp, and as a direct outlet for emotions of all kind is now rampant, and I believe it was the director's intention to contain this problematic trend.\"\n\nFor Benjamin Weissman, lecturer in cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US, Eike Schmidt's recommendations are an attempt to resist a gradual integration of elements that have made text-based communication closer to the way people speak.\n\n\"It amounts to telling people they can only speak in monotone or with a neutral expression. In addition to any general issues of employers controlling the way employees communicate, this appears to restrict their expressive flexibility,\" he told the BBC via email.", "Sir Laurie Magnus has been the chairman of Historic England since 2013\n\nRishi Sunak has appointed veteran banker Sir Laurie Magnus as his new adviser on ministerial behaviour.\n\nThe prime minister has been facing pressure to fill the role, which has been empty since the previous holder quit six months ago.\n\nSir Laurie, who also chairs Historic England, has been appointed to a non-renewable five-year term.\n\nHe will be responsible for advising Mr Sunak on whether ministers are complying with their conduct rulebook.\n\nHowever, the prime minister will retain the power to decide whether ministers have broken the code, and on any subsequent punishments.\n\nBoris Johnson's ethics adviser Lord Geidt quit in June after conceding Mr Johnson may have himself broken ministerial rules over Partygate.\n\nHis predecessor, Sir Alex Allan, quit in 2020 after Mr Johnson overruled him over a report into alleged bullying by Home Secretary Priti Patel.\n\nMr Sunak's predecessor as prime minister Liz Truss signalled during the summer Tory leadership she would not appoint anyone to the role, telling party members \"I don't think you can outsource ethics to an adviser\".\n\nBut Mr Sunak said filling the role was a priority when he took office in October, promising to restore \"integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level\".\n\nSir Laurie will not lead the ongoing investigation into deputy PM Dominic Raab, who is facing eight complaints about his behaviour in previous government roles.\n\nA senior lawyer, Adam Tolley KC, was appointed to lead that probe last month, when the PM's adviser role was still unfilled. Mr Raab faces allegations he bullied staff, which he denies.\n\nOpposition parties and the Committee on Standards in Public Life, an anti-sleaze watchdog, have long called for the PM's adviser role to be beefed up.\n\nThey argue the role is ineffective because the adviser cannot decide to launch their own investigations, and the PM decides whether the ministerial code has been broken.\n\nMr Sunak, however, has decided that Sir Laurie should keep the same remit and powers as the previous holders of the role.\n\nDeputy Labour leader Angela Rayner criticised Mr Sunak for keeping the \"rotten ethics regime he inherited from his predecessors\".\n\n\"This weak prime minister is failing to deliver the integrity he promised, and instead has installed yet another toothless watchdog,\" she added.\n\nDave Penman, the boss of the FDA union representing senior civil servants, said Mr Sunak had missed an opportunity to \"reset the relationship\" between ministers and officials.\n\n\"Instead of that, he's followed exactly the same path as Boris Johnson did. So essentially he's continuity Johnson when it comes to the ministerial code,\" he added.\n\nHistoric England, a public body, is responsible for caring for and listing historic buildings and sites.\n\nAs chairman, Sir Laurie oversaw the body's response to the toppling of a statue of 17th Century slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol in 2020 - which prompted a debate about the public commemoration of figures linked to the slave trade.\n\nLater that year, Sir Laurie told MPs that Historic England's preference was to keep \"contested\" statues standing in public places - but to \"re-contextualise and reinterpret\" them through actions like updated inscriptions and artistic installations.\n\n\"If we do not do that, our collective past is going to be torn away slowly, piece-by-piece,\" he added.\n\n\"If we start tampering with the historic fabric associated with our collective past because things are contentious, we start changing the basis on which we can understand it.\"\n• None Truss signals she would not appoint ethics adviser", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC forecaster Susan Powell looks in detail at the storm path\n\nNearly 1.5 million people are without power across several states as a powerful Arctic winter storm sweeps through the US and Canada.\n\nLarge parts of both countries are under winter weather alerts that stretch from coast-to-coast and as far south as the US-Mexico border.\n\nThe storm has brought damaging winds and freezing temperatures that can quickly lead to frostbite.\n\nAt least six storm-related deaths have been reported in the US.\n\nMajor airports have cancelled thousands of flights as the storm intensifies.\n\nAs of Friday morning, more than 1,400,000 people from Texas to Maine had no electricity as intense winds damaged power lines.\n\nPower outages have also been reported in Canada, affecting 317,900 people in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario.\n\nThe US National Weather Service said that over 200 million people - or roughly 60% of the US population - are under some form of winter weather advisory.\n\nMuch of Canada, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, is also under extreme cold and winter storm warnings. Several school boards in Ontario, including Toronto, have cancelled classes.\n\nThis storm is set to bring the iciest Christmas in decades, say forecasters.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Blizzard and bitter cold in North and South Dakota\n\nThe National Weather Service (NWS) said temperatures of -50F (-45C) and even -70F were possible.\n\nIn the US, the bad weather has been linked to several deaths. Three fatal car crashes have been reported in the state of Kansas due to poor road conditions.\n\nAt least three others have died in Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear said on Friday - two were killed in car accidents and another person described as \"housing insecure\" has died.\n\nIn Fort Worth, Texas, a man who was thought to be homeless died after being found outside in the bitter cold.\n\nThe Arctic air mass is projected to bring strong wind gusts and temperature of 15F (-9.4C) to El Paso, Texas, where newly arrived undocumented migrants are sleeping rough on city streets.\n\nMeteorologists have described the winter storm as a bomb cyclone, a term given to an explosive storm that intensifies rapidly, with its central air pressure dropping by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.\n\n\"This is not like a snow day, when you were a kid, this is serious stuff,\" President Joe Biden said in a White House briefing on Thursday.\n\nThe NWS has described the storm, which began in the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday, as a \"once-in-a-generation\" winter weather event, saying that more than 100 daily cold temperature records could be tied or broken over the next few days.\n\nEven Florida, a famously warm state, is projected to see its coldest Christmas in 30 years. Here's what other regions have seen so far:\n\nSeveral US states, including New York, West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Oklahoma have declared a state of emergency, while Wisconsin declared an \"energy emergency\".\n\nSome interstate highways have closed due to dangerous driving conditions, including in Western New York and South Dakota.\n\nThe storm has also brought flooding to parts of the US east coast on Friday, shutting down rail services on the Long Island Rail Road, while Lake Ontario on the US-Canada border may see waves up to 37 feet.\n\nOhio governor, Mike DeWine, called the weather a \"unique and dangerous situation\", particularly as people travel to be with loved ones over Christmas.\n\nThe storm has already wreaked havoc from Colorado to Kansas to Wyoming, and north in Minnesota.\n\nOn Wednesday, Wyoming Highway Patrol received 787 calls for help and recorded 104 crashes in just 12 hours.\n\nIn Ontario, Canada, police reported around 100 collisions due to freezing rain, heavy snow and ice pellets that have hit the region since Friday morning.\n\nMore than 6,900 flights in the US have been cancelled on Thursday and Friday, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware.\n\nIn Canada, WestJet alone has cancelled 266 flights on Friday.\n\nIn anticipation of travel disruptions, major airlines including United, Delta and American have offered to waive fees for travellers who wish to reschedule their flights.\n\nTravellers at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport have been met with flight delays and cancellations on Thursday\n\nHave you been affected by the severe weather in the US and Canada? Please email us: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The bill voted on by the Scottish Parliament will make it easier for people to change gender - but what happens now?\n\nOnce the bill has passed at Holyrood, attention will turn to how the UK government reacts and the passage of the bill does not necessarily mean it has a straight route on to the statute book.\n\nScottish Secretary Alister Jack can legally challenge the law if he believes it impacts on the UK, while private groups are also able to take legal action should they wish.\n\nUK equalities minister Kemi Badenoch has previously voiced her concerns about legal divergence between Scotland the rest of the UK.\n\nBut her meeting with Scotland's social justice secretary Shona Robison on Monday was described as constructive, with both sides agreeing to continue to work together.\n\nHowever, any dispute between the two governments could end up in court.\n\nOpponents of the bill could also lodge a challenge under Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which codifies a right to respect for privacy.\n\nConversely, supporters of the bill could also mount a human rights challenge if there was a blanket refusal to recognise Scottish-issued gender recognition certificates elsewhere in the UK.\n\nIn the absence of any challenge, the bill would receive royal assent, and become law.", "The survey found two-thirds of doctors would be willing to take some form of industrial action\n\nDoctors in Wales are considering going on strike for the first time.\n\nAlmost two-thirds of hospital doctors surveyed by the British Medical Association (BMA) Cymru said they would be willing to take some form of industrial action.\n\nThe BMA's Welsh Council chairwoman, Dr Iona Collins, said the result of the survey was \"upsetting to all\".\n\nThe Welsh government said it understands the strength of feeling among doctors about the pay offer.\n\nBMA Cymru Wales said the starting salary is £26,000, with junior doctors in training programmes for between five and 11 years if they are training full-time, or longer if training less-than-full-time or with breaks.\n\nDr Iona Collins added that it was \"gut-wrenching for doctors to consider walking away from work\".\n\n\"Without action now, patients will continue to suffer as a direct consequence of an under-funded NHS with insufficient direct clinical care.\"\n\nThe announcement comes after a week of walkouts by nurses and ambulance staff across the country calling for better wages and conditions.\n\nIndustrial action may include strike action over their current pay and conditions.\n\nThe BMA announced in October that a ballot for industrial action by junior doctors in England - who received a 2% pay increase this year - would open on 9 January.\n\nThe union said that over the past 15 years, junior doctors' take-home pay has been cut in real terms by more than a quarter.\n\nJust under 1,000 doctors in Wales responded to the questionnaire seeking views on the latest pay award from the Welsh government of 4.5%, with 78% of those who answered saying they want a pay rise that matched or exceeded inflation.\n\nA previous survey undertaken by the BMA in August found that 52% of members who responded were more likely to leave the Welsh NHS as a result of the below inflation pay rise.\n\nDr Iona Collins said: \"Doctors have been quietly quitting the NHS for years, by reducing their contracted hours or leaving altogether. The financial incentive to remain in the NHS has eroded over the last decade.\n\n\"Without action now, patients will continue to suffer as a direct consequence of an under-funded NHS with insufficient direct clinical care,\" said Dr Collins\n\n\"A change in NHS pension taxation has seen senior doctors who have worked overtime in good faith punished for propping up the NHS by paying more than the overtime pay back as pension tax.\n\n\"No other healthcare system devalues their doctors like this, so there is little wonder that so many doctors leave the NHS to work elsewhere.\"\n\nDr Collins said she had called for an urgent meeting with Wales' health minister Eluned Morgan to discuss the survey and \"need for immediate action\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Wales, Dr Collins said: \"Junior doctors are having to pay their tuition fees - it's a long course, the medical course. The tuition fees alone are upwards of £9,200 alone a year and you've got to keep yourself fed and watered.\n\n\"Doctors are tired, they are overworked. Staff are having to work under tremendous pressure.\n\n\"Then you have lovely encouraging adverts from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Middle East saying 'why don't you come and work with us? We will pay you so much better with a work force and a workplace being such a less challenging environment'.\"\n\nIn Llandudno 10 people set up a picket line on Wednesday\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"We understand the strength of feeling among doctors about the pay offer and the pressures all public sector workers are under due to the cost-of-living crisis.\n\n\"We will continue to work to bring together trade unions, employers and government to deliver the best possible outcomes for workers, while continuing to call on the UK government to use the funding it has to provide a fair pay offer to NHS staff and enable us to do the same in Wales.\"\n\nIt comes as GMB members of the ambulance service in Wales took part in a strike on Wednesday in a dispute over pay.\n\nExecutive medical director at Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board, Dr Nick Lyons, said he thought his staff managed \"better than expected\" as a result of the strikes.\n\n\"It's been a really tough three days here. We faced incredible pressures on the system last weekend and declared a critical incident on Monday,\" he said.\n\n\"There's been two days of incredible hard work by 19,000 staff looking after our patients for Christmas.\"", "Sussex Police is investigating following the discovery at the West Sussex airport\n\nA man's body has been found in the undercarriage of a plane at Gatwick Airport.\n\nThe Tui flight had travelled from The Gambia's capital Banjul to the airport in West Sussex.\n\nSussex Police said the discovery was made at the airport at about 04:00 GMT on 7 December.\n\nA Gatwick Airport spokesperson said: \"This is terribly sad news and our thoughts go out to the family and friends of the deceased.\"\n\nA Tui spokesperson said: \"We can confirm that an investigation with authorities is under way after a body was discovered on a Tui flight from Gambia to London Gatwick Airport on December 7.\n\n\"We would like to express our sincere condolences.\"\n\nSussex Police said: \"Officers are investigating and a report will be prepared for HM Coroner.\"\n\nA spokesperson for The Gambia's government said the man was an unidentified black male.\n\nThe 2,760-mile (4,444 km) journey from The Gambia to the UK usually takes about six and a half hours on a direct flight.\n\nThere have been several cases of stowaways being found dead in the UK.\n\nIn 2001, the body of Mohammed Ayaz, 21, from Pakistan, was found in the car park of a branch of Homebase in Richmond, near Heathrow Airport. Four years earlier, another stowaway fell from a plane on to a gasworks near the store\n\nIn 2007 the body of a young man was found in the landing gear of a British Airways plane in Los Angeles.\n\nIn August 2012, a man's body was found in the undercarriage bay of a plane at Heathrow after a flight from Cape Town. The next month, Jose Matada, 26, from Mozambique, was found in a street in Mortlake, west London. He died of multiple injuries after falling from a plane travelling from Angola.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Students in Afghanistan protest for the education of women after university ban\n\nThe Taliban have arrested five women taking part in a protest in the Afghan capital, Kabul, against the ban on women attending universities.\n\nThree journalists were also arrested. Protests are also understood to have taken place in the Takhar province.\n\nGuards stopped hundreds of women from entering universities on Wednesday - a day after the ban was announced.\n\nIt is the latest policy restricting women's education since the Taliban returned to power last year.\n\nGirls have already been excluded from most secondary schools.\n\nThe new ban was implemented with immediate effect by the higher education minister on Tuesday, with public and private universities ordered to bar women from attending.\n\nThe education ministry said its scholars had evaluated the university curriculum and environment, and attendance for girls would be suspended until \"a suitable environment\" was provided.\n\nLater, the Taliban minister of higher education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem, said on state television that women were banned from university for not following the dress code.\n\n\"They were dressing like they were going to a wedding.\"\n\nFootage shared on social media on Thursday showed about two dozen Afghan women dressed in hijabs marching through the streets of Kabul, raising banners and shouting slogans.\n\nThe group had initially planned to gather in front of Kabul University, the country's largest and most prestigious educational institution, but changed location after the authorities deployed a large number of security personnel there.\n\nSeveral women involved in the protest have told the BBC they were beaten or arrested by female Taliban officers.\n\nOne of the protesters told the BBC she was \"beaten badly\", but just managed to evade being taken into custody.\n\n\"There were too many Taliban female members among us,\" the woman said under the condition of anonymity.\n\n\"They beat some of our girls and arrested some others. They were about to take me too, but I managed to escape. But I was beaten badly.\"\n\nAnother protester said two people had been released since being arrested, but several remained in custody.\n\nSome men have responded with acts of civil disobedience in solidarity with the protesters. About 50 male university professors at public and private institutions have resigned their positions, while some male students have reportedly refused to sit their exams.\n\nThe Taliban had promised a softer rule after seizing power in August 2021, following the US withdrawal from the country. However, the hardline Islamists have continued to roll back women's rights and freedoms in the country.\n\nWomen-led protests have become increasingly rare in Afghanistan since their return. Participants risk arrest, violence and social stigma for taking part.\n\nBefore Tuesday's announcement, universities had already been operating under discriminatory rules for women.\n\nThere were gender-segregated entrances and classrooms, while female students could only be taught by women professors or old men. They were also only allowed to apply for a limited range of subjects.\n\nWomen were blocked from studying engineering, economics, veterinary science and agriculture, while journalism was severely restricted.\n\nThe UN's education and culture organisation, Unesco, says that the rate of female attendance in higher education had increased 20 times between 2001 - the year the Taliban were ousted by the US intervention - and 2018.", "A trend of moving to rural and coastal areas is fading and affordable towns are becoming more of a draw, according to property website Zoopla.\n\nDemand for larger, more remote homes surged during the pandemic as people looked to live and work out of town.\n\nBut the property portal suggested that trend had run out of steam.\n\nHigher mortgage rates were leaving potential buyers with an affordability challenge, it said, which would push down house prices in general.\n\nMortgage lenders the Halifax and the Nationwide are predicting UK house prices will fall next year, by 8% and 5% respectively.\n\nHowever, Zoopla said that the smallest falls were likely to be seen in more \"affordable\" urban areas, and among flats.\n\n\"House prices are going to come under the most pressure in the most expensive markets, because with higher mortgage rates it just hits buying power that much harder,\" Richard Donnell, executive director of research at Zoopla, told the BBC.\n\n\"I think London and the South East are going to bear the brunt of price falls next year... but actually in many parts of the North, the Midlands, rural Wales, housing is not fundamentally overvalued... so you're not going to see as big a fall in those markets.\"\n\nIn recent years, Covid lockdowns led homeowners to reassess where and how they wanted to live.\n\nThe pandemic accelerated a shift towards remote working, and brought big savings for some parts of society. Government support through stamp duty holidays and the historically low mortgage rates at the time led to a rapid increase in the number of buyers looking to move to larger, more rural properties.\n\nProperty prices in areas of the Yorkshire Dales, the Derbyshire Dales, North Norfolk, and the Cotswolds all shot up.\n\nIn recent months, the partial return to the office and the soaring cost of living caused the picture to change for many people.\n\nChris Druce, senior research analyst at estate agent Knight Frank, said: \"After a frenetic period for the country market, city living has come back strongly as workers have returned to the office, and the lifting of pandemic restrictions has boosted the appeal of urban living.\"\n\nZoopla's research suggested that places such as Bradford, Swindon, Coventry, Crewe, Southend and Milton Keynes were seeing above-average demand for homes.\n\nAnother UK property portal, Rightmove, said that London was cementing its position again as the area which is most searched by users.\n\nDuring various months last year, Cornwall had overtaken the city as the subject of most searches.\n\nHowever, this year, London - which has the biggest population - was clearly at the top and had stretched its lead. Cornwall remained in second on the list, followed by Devon, Bristol and Glasgow, Rightmove said.\n\nUltimately, 2023 is expected to see falling prices and fewer transactions, according to analysts.\n\nThe Nationwide Building Society said that squeezed incomes and economic upheaval would have a significant impact on the housing market.\n\n\"But there is still a good chance that we can achieve a relatively soft landing next year with activity stabilising modestly below pre-pandemic levels and house prices edging lower,\" its chief economist, Robert Gardner, said.\n\nIain McKenzie, chief executive of The Guild of Property Professionals, said: \"The overall picture remains mixed as we finish the year as house prices are expected to fall, but that readjustment could spur demand as buyers search for a good deal.\"", "More pupils have been off school ill in recent weeks than at the start of term\n\nAbsence rates across schools in England rose sharply at the start of December as more pupils missed class due to illness, official figures suggest.\n\nThe proportion of children off sick rose to 7.5% in the week commencing 5 December - up from 6.1% the previous week and 2.6% at the start of the term.\n\nOverall absence rates up to that week surpassed the whole of the 2021 autumn term, when Omicron was taking hold.\n\nA head teachers' union said it was \"concerning\" for health and education.\n\nThe increase in absence has been driven by illness, the Department for Education said, and is \"in line with recent increases in rates of seasonal flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses\".\n\nThe illness absence rate for the whole autumn term up to the week commencing 5 December was 4.3%.\n\nThis is slightly lower than the 4.4% recorded across the 2021 autumn term - although it is expected to rise in the data for the final week of term, to be released in the New Year.\n\nHowever, the overall absence rate recorded for the 2022 autumn term up to the week commencing 5 December was 7.3% - higher than the 6.9% recorded across the whole of the autumn term in 2021.\n\nThat is partly due to all types of unauthorised absence having increased this term, compared with both pandemic and pre-pandemic levels.\n\nCases of flu have been on the rise in recent weeks, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), while the increase in cases of Covid has been \"modest\".\n\nFlu was most prevalent among those aged between five and 14 in the week commencing 5 December, the UKHSA said in its most recent report.\n\nGeoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said staff had worked hard in the run-up to Christmas to keep attendance levels high.\n\n\"This has been especially challenging in recent weeks, however, with illnesses including Strep A and Covid-19 affecting attendance alongside flu and winter colds,\" he said.\n\n\"While schools have managed this situation as best they can, the rise in absence rates is concerning from both a health and education point of view.\"\n\nAbsence due to illness remained relatively stable - between 2.5% and 2.9% - from 2016 to 2019. But schools faced massive disruption due to Covid in the autumn term of 2020.\n\nIn Wales, attendance statistics released on Wednesday showed a higher rate of overall absence than in England, with 10.3% of school sessions missed so far this academic year.", "Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington on a US Air Force plane\n\nThe extraordinary measures taken to transport Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Ukraine to the US capital are a sign of just how crucial the relationship is for both countries.\n\nAfter visiting the front line in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky's journey to Washington DC began with an overnight train journey to Poland before boarding a US Air Force plane, reportedly supported by a Nato spy-plane and an F-15 fighter jet.\n\nReports of the visit to Washington began circulating early this week, but it wasn't confirmed until early on Wednesday morning, when US officials felt certain that Ukraine's leader was safely en route to the US capital.\n\nThe visit had been discussed for months but the final preparations were made quickly - the two presidents spoke about it on 11 December and an invitation was extended to Mr Zelensky three days later. Only once the visit had been confirmed could final plans be put into action.\n\nUnsurprisingly, no official information about the journey was released - security is tight around presidential visits even during peacetime, but for a wartime leader the risks are greater still.\n\nWith the threat of Russian missiles making air travel over Ukraine too risky, Mr Zelensky appears to have taken a secretive train ride through Ukraine to Poland, where he was spotted early on Wednesday at a railway station in the border town of Przemysl.\n\nPictures from Polish TV showed an entourage including Mr Zelensky walking along a platform with a blue-yellow Ukrainian train in the background. The group then got into a convoy of waiting cars, including black Chevrolet Suburbans - a favourite model of the US government.\n\nMany Western leaders and officials have travelled by train to visit Mr Zelensky in Kyiv, but this was his first time abroad since Russia's war began.\n\nPresident Zelensky was filmed at a railway station in Poland\n\nNot long afterwards, flight data showed a US Air Force Boeing C-40B - thought to be transporting Mr Zelensky - taking off from Rzeszow airport some 80km (50 miles) to the west.\n\nThe plane headed northwest towards the United Kingdom, but before it entered the airspace above the North Sea, a Nato spy-plane scanned the area. The sea is known to be patrolled by Russian submarines.\n\nAnd a US F-15 fighter jet, which took off from a base in England, escorted Mr Zelensky's flight for part of its journey.\n\nFinally, around noon in Washington - nearly 10 hours after take-off and many more hours of travel for the Ukrainian president - the plane landed near Washington.\n\nOn arrival, he was given Secret Service protection - as is the case for all visiting heads of state - but Mr Zelensky's status as leader of a country at war with Russia meant security officials were being extra-vigilant.\n\n\"We are very cognisant that Russia has assets in this country and might try to do something,\" one senior official told ABC News. \"We know what is at stake.\"\n\nDespite the concerns, the visit appeared to pass smoothly. On Thursday he stopped briefly in Poland on his way home to meet his counterpart, Andrzej Duda. And by Friday he was back at his desk in Kyiv, posting a short video on Telegram: \"We are working towards victory,\" he said.", "Firms are \"banging their heads against the wall\" two years after post-Brexit trading began, a new report suggests.\n\nThe British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said businesses were still grappling with EU trading arrangements and more red tape.\n\nIt comes as a separate report from the Centre for European Reform suggests Brexit may have reduced UK trade by around 7%.\n\nBut the government said Brexit \"opens new opportunities for UK businesses\".\n\nThe Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which was struck late on Christmas Eve 2020, meant goods and services could still flow between the UK and EU without tariffs after Brexit.\n\nThe British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) questioned 1,168 businesses and 514 said they traded overseas or were otherwise affected by the agreement.\n\nMore than half of these firms said they were struggling with the new rules which mean they have to deal with new forms, checks or other processes.\n\nOne retailer in Ayrshire said leaving the EU \"made us uncompetitive with our EU customers\". The retailer had to build a base in the EU or it would have lost its EU trade.\n\n\"This has cost our business a huge amount of money which could have been invested in the UK had it not been for Brexit,\" the retailer said.\n\nA manufacturer in Dorset, meanwhile, said that even importing parts to fix machines has been a \"nightmare\".\n\n\"Brexit has been the biggest ever imposition of bureaucracy on business,\" it said.\n\nAs businesses face the prospect of a likely recession, the BCC is urging the government to have \"an honest dialogue about how we can improve our trading relationship with the EU\" and look to reduce red tape even before the deal is reviewed in 2026.\n\nIt has made 24 recommendations - including reaching a swift agreement on the future of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the rules governing trading in Ireland.\n\nPolitical uncertainty surrounding that has, some economists have said, deterred investment in the UK.\n\nMeanwhile, the Centre for European Reform said that changes related to Brexit may have reduced UK trade by as much as 7% this summer - and damaged investment by even more: meaning that UK economic output is 5.5% smaller than it would otherwise have been.\n\nThat is a bigger impact than assumed by the government's official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which has said there will be a 4% hit to productivity.\n\nHowever, in March the OBR predicted that imports and exports would be 15% lower in the long run, and that new trade deals with the rest of the world would not make much difference to trade volumes.\n\nBusinesses that trade across the UK's borders have faced a triple whammy in the last few years: pandemic-related lockdowns around the world, a cost of living crisis heightened by the fallout from the war in Ukraine, and a change in trading arrangements with our biggest partner, the EU. Disentangling the impact of Brexit has been tricky.\n\nBut the report from the BCC underlines that the extra formalities, including paperwork and checks, are posing costly problems for some companies.\n\nAn earlier study from researchers at the London School of Economics found that the range of goods of exports being sent to the EU has shrunk, suggesting perhaps that the extra red tape may have deterred some smaller companies from exporting altogether.\n\nIt also claimed that cost of food from the EU has risen faster than that from elsewhere, bumping up grocery bills.\n\nEconomists disagree about the economic effects of Brexit.\n\nBut most would agree that the UK has failed to realise overall economic gains from leaving the EU - not yet, anyway.\n\nJohn Springfield, deputy director of the Centre for European Reform, said that in the second quarter of 2022, Brexit meant the economy was £33bn smaller than it would have been had the UK voted to remain.\n\nHe added that Brexit's effect in stifling the economy meant the government had to raise taxes to find an extra £40bn to fund public services.\n\nOther economists dispute these numbers, saying that the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, heightened by the fallout from the war in Ukraine, has made assessing the impact of Brexit problematic.\n\nDavid Henig, a trade expert and director of the UK trade policy project at the European Centre for International Political Economy, said it is small traders who will be the hardest hit.\n\n\"What has happened is that it used to be pretty seamless to trade with the EU and it's now more like trading with anywhere else in the rest of the world. But that's not easy, particularly for those that trade particular goods and sensitive goods, especially things like chemicals, food and drink,\" he said.\n\n\"Smaller traders who perhaps aren't that experienced outside the EU are finding it a bit of a shock now, what they have to do to trade with the EU. And that is having an impact.\"\n\nThe government said that the Brexit trading deal was \"the world's largest zero-tariff, zero-quota free trade deal\".\n\n\"Despite difficult global economic headwinds, UK-EU trade is rebounding, with recent data showing that UK trade to both EU and non-EU countries is above pre-Covid levels,\" a spokesperson said, adding exporters had been provided with \"practical support\" with post-Brexit trading arrangements.\n\n\"We've also removed 400 trade barriers across 70 countries in the past two years, removed tariffs on £30bn worth of goods and cut £1bn business costs arising from current retained EU law,\" the spokesperson added.\n\nHowever, the food, farming and fisheries minister Mark Spencer admitted there was \"more we can do\" to cut UK-EU red tape.\n\n\"Of course, there's always more that we can do to try and ease the way for the passage of trade. We're very keen to do that,\" Mr Spencer told Times Radio.\n\n\"We're a free and open trading nation. We want to work closely with our EU colleagues, we want to try and reduce that red tape if there is any red tape on their side of the Channel, so of course we want to keep those channels of trade open in both directions.\"", "Mr Ali, in his Glasgow restaurant with the dish he is credited with inventing\n\nA Glaswegian chef credited with inventing the chicken tikka masala has died, aged 77.\n\nAli Ahmed Aslam is said to have come up with the dish in the 1970s when a customer asked if there was a way of making his chicken tikka less dry.\n\nHis solution was to add a creamy tomato sauce, in some versions of the story a can of tomato soup.\n\nHis death was announced by his Shish Mahal restaurant which closed for 48 hours as a mark of respect.\n\nKnown to friends and customers as \"Mr Ali\" he was born in Pakistan but moved with his family to Glasgow as a young boy before opening Shish Mahal in Glasgow's west end in 1964.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by Shish Mahal This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nIn an interview with the AFP news agency, he would later describe the moment he came up with one of Britain's favourite dishes.\n\n\"Chicken tikka masala was invented in this restaurant, we used to make chicken tikka, and one day a customer said, 'I'd take some sauce with that, this is a bit dry',\" he recalled.\n\n\"We thought we'd better cook the chicken with some sauce. So from here we cooked chicken tikka with the sauce that contains yogurt, cream, spices.\n\n\"It's a dish prepared according to our customer's taste, usually they don't take hot curry, that's why we cook it with yogurt and cream.\"\n\nWhile it cannot be proved with certainty that this is the origin of the dish, chicken tikka masala is widely regarded as a curry that has been adapted to suit Western tastes.\n\nFormer Glasgow MP Mohammad Sarwar once tabled a motion in the House of Commons calling for it to be recognised as a Glaswegian delicacy.\n\nHundreds of customers paid tribute to Mr Ali on social media, many recalling visits to his restaurant and describing him as a true gentleman.\n\nSurveys have often found chicken tikka masala to be Britain's favourite curry, although chicken korma has also tried to claim that mantle.\n• None Why is the Birmingham Balti unique?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. CCTV footage shows a man leaving Natalie McNally's street on the night she was killed\n\nPolice investigating the stabbing of Natalie McNally have released CCTV footage of a suspect seen entering her street on the night she was killed.\n\nThe 32-year-old was 15 weeks pregnant when she was stabbed to death in her home in Lurgan on Sunday night.\n\nThe CCTV footage shows a man entering Silverwood Green at 20:52 GMT on Sunday. He leaves at 21:30.\n\nA 32-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder was released on police bail on Thursday night.\n\nThe charity Crimestoppers has offered a £20,000 reward for information about Ms McNally's killing.\n\nPolice previously said she may have known her killer.\n\nNatalie McNally was 32 and was expecting a child when she was killed\n\nShe was stabbed a number of times and some of her wounds appeared to have been inflicted as she tried to defend herself.\n\nDet Ch Insp John Caldwell said: \"The person on the CCTV is a suspect - I believe that is the person who has murdered Natalie McNally.\"\n\nThe man in the CCTV footage was carrying a rucksack when he arrived in Silverwood Green.\n\nHe appeared to be wearing white footwear, which Mr Caldwell said were possibly trainers.\n\nOn Thursday Ms McNally's youngest brother Niall appealed to her killer to \"do the decent thing and confess to her murder\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Natalie's brother Niall McNally appeals for her killer to confess to police\n\nHe said the family were devastated and he could not put into words the heartache they were experiencing.\n\n\"I really can't believe we will never see her beautiful smile or hear her infectious laugh again,\" he said.\n\n\"Nats really was the best sister ever and such a lovely person.\n\n\"To add to our unbearable heartache we are devastated that we will never meet Natalie's baby.\n\n\"We were all looking forward to welcoming the family's first grandchild.\n\n\"The killer has denied Nats the opportunity of being a mummy.\"\n\nHer uncle John McStravick said she came from one of the most caring families he had ever met.\n\n\"Natalie was a gorgeous, kind, generous girl who went the extra mile for her friends and family,\" he said.\n\nNatalie's's brother Niall (left) and uncle John McStravick (centre) joined Det Ch Insp John Caldwell for a press conference on Thursday\n\nA man in his 30s who was arrested on suspicion of murder was released on bail on Tuesday pending further inquiries.\n\nHe is not the same man who was arrested on Wednesday and released on Thursday.\n\nMs McNally worked as part of the marketing team at public transport provider Translink.\n\nIn posts on social media, friends described her as \"one of the best\".\n\nPolice were called to Ms McNally's house in Silverwood Green at 22:00 on Monday.\n\nShe was pronounced dead when the emergency services arrived.\n\nMr Caldwell said there were no signs of a break-in at the property.\n\nHe said he wanted information from people who may have driven along the Kiln Road in Lurgan between 20:45 and 21:45 on Sunday.", "Emmett Morrison, 38, admitted manslaughter but was convicted of murder\n\nA man who murdered his neighbour has been given a life sentence with a minimum 28-year term.\n\nTimothy Dundon, 66, was left to bleed to death after a \"sustained\" attack at his home in Heol Catwg on the Caewern estate in Neath, Neath Port Talbot, on 27 April.\n\nEmmett Morrison, 38, of Heol Catwg, Neath, admitted manslaughter but was convicted of murder on 9 December.\n\nHe claimed he had \"lost control\" after his victim sexually assaulted him.\n\nThis was dismissed by Judge Paul Thomas KC, who said this was \"wholly false\" and made up to defend himself.\n\n\"You not only killed him, you tried to blacken his name in death to save your own skin,\" said Judge Thomas.\n\nIn her victim statement, Mr Dundon's daughter Karen said the last eight months had been \"incredibly difficult\".\n\n\"One phone call from the police turned our world upside down,\" she said.\n\nSwansea Crown Court heard Morrison befriended Mr Dundon and \"milked him\" for money and alcohol.\n\n\"There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Emmett Morrison targeted Timmy believing that he was just a means for him to get whatever he wanted,\" said Ms Dundon.\n\nThe trial was told Mr Dundon was found faced down on the floor of his living room, underneath a wooden cabinet.\n\nHe had suffered multiple head injuries and injuries to his neck and torso.\n\nForensic experts told the jury blood splatters in the flat suggested it had been a sustained attack.\n\nThey said there had been a pause during the assault before it began again and a cabinet was pushed on top of Mr Dundon.\n\n\"He was entirely at your mercy, you showed him none whatsoever,\" said Judge Thomas.\n\nMorrison left him to die before walking to Llygad-Yr-Haul, Neath.\n\nHe went to see Antonio Aprea, 74, and told him he needed Valium tablets because he had killed someone.\n\nTimothy Dundon's body was discovered at a property in Neath\n\nHe then attacked the pensioner with a knife and tried to gouge his eyes.\n\nThe judge said it was clear from police bodycam footage Morrison, also found guilty of grievous bodily harm (GVH), was \"totally out of control, almost feral\" on the night of the attacks.\n\nMorrison, who appeared by videolink from Swansea Prison, stormed out of the room and shouted as he was told he would serve a minimum of 28 years for murder and GBH.\n\nHe won't be eligible for parole until 2050.\n\nAfter the hearing, the family described Mr Dundon as a vulnerable man who lived alone.\n\n\"He was befriended by Emmett Morrison who financially exploited him,\" they said.\n\n\"Timmy paid the ultimate price for this so-called friendship, when Emmett Morrison viciously murdered him in April 2022.\n\n\"Hearing every detail of the savage attack on Timmy will forever haunt us. We are just glad that we have got justice for Timmy.\"\n\nSouth Wales Police's Huw Griffiths, who was in charge of the case, dubbed the death \"senseless\".\n\n\"I am satisfied that we have brought this case to court to establish the truth as to what happened to Timothy Dundon,\" he said.\n\n\"Additionally, the attack on the vulnerable 74-year-old man was despicable and totally unwarranted.\n\n\"Thankfully he has recovered well from his physical injuries but the trauma of the incident will take much longer to heal.\"", "Winston Churchill addresses the US Congress on 26 December 1941.\n\nIt was 26 December 1941, when Winston Churchill stood before the US Congress and delivered a 30-minute speech that would go down in history as one of the most important visits to Washington by a foreign leader.\n\nEighty-one years later, nearly to the day, Congress welcomed another high-profile wartime leader who had made a dangerous journey across the Atlantic to appeal directly to America's politicians for help.\n\nThere are major differences between World War Two and the current conflict in Ukraine, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, was keen to draw parallels between the visits.\n\n\"Another historic leader addresses the Congress in a time of war,\" she noted before his address, \"with Democracy itself on the line.\"\n\nWorld War Two had already elevated Mr Churchill to a global household name, synonymous with Britain's determined efforts to fend off Nazi Germany.\n\nWhen he arrived in Washington in December 1941, the conflict had just arrived on America's doorstep. Less than three weeks prior, Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt had declared war on the country, marking the US's belated entry into WW2.\n\nHis presence in Washington caused a flurry of excitement. He held a press conference with Mr Roosevelt and even participated in the lighting of the national Christmas tree. \"Americans have caught on to one of Winston Churchill's major characteristics - his ability to thrill a crowd,\" The Washington Post reported.\n\nBut the marquee event was his 26 December 1941 speech to Congress, which took place in a US Senate chamber overflowing with lawmakers, cabinet officials, and dignitaries (Mrs Pelosi's father, Representative Thomas D'Alesandro Jr, was serving in Congress at the time).\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAfter a hearty welcome, Mr Churchill took the dais, whipped out his spectacles, and began one of the most important speeches of his career. The prime minister offered words of flattery and friendship to the United States, invoking the strong relationship and cultural similarities between the two global powers. But he soon moved on to more sombre subjects.\n\n\"You do not, I am certain, underrate the severity of the ordeal to which you and we have still to be subjected,\" Mr. Churchill said. \"The forces ranged against us are enormous. They are bitter, they are ruthless.\"\n\nHe proceeded to paint a harsh picture of the Axis powers.\n\n\"The wicked men and their factions, who have launched their peoples on the path of war and conquest, know that they will be called to terrible account if they cannot beat down by force of arms the peoples they have assailed. They will stop at nothing,\" Mr. Churchill said. \"They have a vast accumulation of war weapons of all kinds. They have highly trained and disciplined armies, navies and air services. They have plans and designs which have long been contrived and matured. They will stop at nothing that violence or treachery can suggest.\"\n\nWhile he warned a \"time of tribulation was upon us,\" he sought to project optimism that the Allies, now with the help of the United States, could turn their fortunes around in the coming three years.\n\nOf their Axis enemies, Mr Churchill declared that \"they do not realise that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget.\" He had to pause his speech, due to raucous applause.\n\nThe speech came soon after the US entered World War Two following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.\n\n\"Here we are together,\" Churchill said, \"Defending all that to free men is dear.\"\n\nThe prime minister's speech received rapturous coverage the next day. \"CONGRESS THRILLED,\" declared the New York Times, which described \"wild bursts of enthusiasm and chuckles of mirth\" from the audience.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEight decades later, Mr Zelensky's visit to Washington generated a similar flurry of coverage and anticipation. In echoes of Mr Churchill's own itinerary, he first met with President Joe Biden before making his way across town to the US Capitol.\n\nWhen he addressed Congress later, he did not mention Winston Churchill directly, but ended his speech by drawing a comparison with World War Two.\n\n\"Standing here today, I recall the wars of the president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which are I think so good for this moment. The American people, in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.\"\n\nLike Mr Churchill, Mr Zelensky's relentless public presence throughout Ukraine's war with Russia has made him a hero to those supporting his country's cause.\n\nBut he was appealing to a Congress far more divided than perhaps the one Mr Churchill encountered, with growing opposition from some Republicans to the United States' significant military and financial support to Ukraine.", "US President Joe Biden has said that the first batch of Abrams tanks will arrive in Ukraine \"next week\".\n\nThe US is by far the largest contributor of arms to Ukraine.\n\nPoland, which was also a major donor, recently said it would stop supplying it with weapons.\n\nIt is in a dispute with Ukraine about its exports of grain, which Poland says are flooding its market.\n\nThe amount of military aid given to Ukraine is tracked by the Kiel Institute, but the data only accounts for donations up until the end of July.\n\nThe US announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth up to $500 million.\n\nThe US has also confirmed it will provide cluster munitions, a controversial move which has caused unease among some Nato allies.\n\nUkraine has also received SCALP missiles from France - similar to the UK Storm Shadows missiles that were recently delivered.\n\nDozens of tanks have already been committed. Ukraine says they are urgently needed to defend its territory and to push out Russian troops.\n\nThe Leopard 2 is used by a number of European countries, and is considered to be easier to maintain and more fuel-efficient than most other Western tanks.\n\nDuring the first months following the invasion, Nato preferred member countries to supply Ukraine with older tanks - ones that had been used in the former Warsaw Pact.\n\nUkraine's armed forces know how to operate them, and how to maintain them, and had a lot spare parts for them.\n\nModern Western tanks are more complicated to operate and harder to maintain.\n\nRecent footage of a Ukrainian attack on Russian positions show that at least one Leopard tank and several Bradleys are already in use by Ukrainian forces.\n\nThe UK led the way in Nato by offering to provide the Challenger 2 - its main battle tank.\n\nThe Challenger 2 was built in the 1990s, but is significantly more advanced than other tanks available to Ukraine's armed forces.\n\nUkraine used Warsaw Pact designed T-72 tanks prior to the invasion, and since February 2022 has received more than 200 T-72s from Poland, the Czech Republic and a small number of other countries.\n\nAnnouncing the US decision to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, President Joe Biden described them as \"the most capable tanks in the world\".\n\nThe US and the UK are also providing depleted uranium rounds with the tanks they are donating, which are very effective at piercing armour.\n\nHowever, depleted uranium is slightly radioactive material and there are some concerns that the rounds could contaminate the soil.\n\nMilitary professionals point out that success on the battlefield requires a vast range of equipment, deployed in co-ordination, with the necessary logistical support in place.\n\nThe Stryker is one of the many armoured vehicles that have been donated to Ukraine. The US confirmed that 90 Strykers would be dispatched.\n\nAmong the other vehicles donated by the US were Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. They were used extensively by US forces in Iraq.\n\nIn December, the US also announced it was sending the Patriot missile system to Ukraine - and Germany and the Netherlands have followed suit.\n\nThis highly sophisticated system has a range of up to 60 miles (100km), depending on the type of missile used, and requires specialised training for Ukrainian soldiers, likely to be carried out at a US Army base in Germany.\n\nBut the system is expensive to operate - one Patriot missile costs about $3m.\n\nSince the start of the conflict, Ukraine has been using Soviet-era S-300 surface-to-air systems against Russian attacks.\n\nBefore the conflict began, Ukraine had about 250 S-300s and there have been efforts to replenish these with similar systems stockpiled in other former Soviet countries, with some coming from Slovakia.\n\nThe US has also provided Nasams (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) to Ukraine. The first Nasams arrived in Ukraine in November.\n\nIn addition, the UK has provided several air defence systems, including Starstreak, designed to bring down low-flying aircraft at short range.\n\nGermany has also provided air defence systems, including the IRIS-T air defence systems which can hit approaching missiles at an altitude of up to 20km.\n\nAmong the long-range rocket launchers sent to Ukraine by the US are the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System or Himars. Several European countries have also sent similar systems.\n\nHimars are believed to have been central to Ukraine's success in pushing Russian forces back in the south, particularly in Kherson in November.\n\nHimars systems are much more accurate have a longer potential range than the Smerch system used on the Russian side.\n\nIn the months following the invasion and Russia's retreat from Kyiv, much of the war centred on the east of the country where supplies of artillery to Ukraine were in heavy demand.\n\nAustralia, Canada and the US were among the countries to send advanced M777 howitzers and ammunition to Ukraine.\n\nThe range of the M777 is similar to Russia's Giatsint-B howitzer, and much longer than Russia's D-30 towed gun.\n\nNato countries say they are planning to ramp up their supply of shells, because Ukraine has been using them much at a faster rate than they are being delivered.\n\nThey are asking their domestic manufacturers to increase production.\n\nThousands of Nlaw weapons, designed to destroy tanks with a single shot, have also been supplied to Ukraine.\n\nThe weapons are thought to have been particularly important in stopping the advance of Russian forces on Kyiv in the hours and days following the invasion.\n\nDrones have featured heavily in the conflict so far, with many used for surveillance, targeting and heavy lift operations.\n\nTurkey has sold Bayraktar TB2 armed drones to Ukraine, while the Turkish manufacturer of the system has donated drones to crowd-funding operations in support of Ukraine.\n\nAnalysts say the Bayraktar TB2s have been extremely effective, flying at about 25,000 feet (7,600m) before descending to attack Russian targets with laser-guided bombs.\n\nThe US had repeatedly rebuffed Ukraine's pleas for fighter jets, instead focusing on providing military support in other areas.\n\nBut in May, President Joe Biden announced the US would support providing advanced fighter jets - including US-made F-16s - to Ukraine and also back training Ukrainian pilots to fly them.\n\nThe US endorsement also allowed other nations to export their own F-16 jets, as the US legally has to approve the re-export of equipment purchased by allies.\n\nDenmark and the Netherlands have since confirmed that they will supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets. Denmark has committed to sending 19 aircraft whilst it is anticipated that the Netherlands will provide more.\n\nAn initial delivery of several Danish F-16s is expected for near the end of 2023.\n\nA wider joint coalition of countries, including the UK, have also agreed to help train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s. In addition to the US, the joint coalition will also help train Ukrainian ground crew to maintain the aircraft.\n\nAdditional reporting by Thomas Spencer. Graphics by Gerry Fletcher and Sana Dionysiou.", "The union Unite will announce strike dates early next year\n\nWelsh ambulance workers are set to strike again after they voted by 88% for industrial action.\n\nAbout 1,000 paramedics, medical technicians and call handling staff are among those expected to take action.\n\nThe Unite union will announce strike dates early next year after GMB members went out on Wednesday.\n\nAmbulance staff in five areas of England are to stage two further strikes on 11 and 23 January, union leaders say.\n\nUnite members in Wales said where they might have once seen 10 patients a day, they now might only deal with one because ambulances could spend whole days outside A&E.\n\nUnite general secretary Sharon Graham said: \"Unite's ambulance service members in Wales are striking because they see first-hand every day how the NHS is collapsing.\n\n\"They are dedicated life-saving professionals and are taking this step because they know the NHS itself needs saving.\n\n\"The Welsh government must put a better offer on the table to help resolve the recruitment and retention crisis that is crippling the service.\"\n\nShe blamed the UK government for \"years of destruction\" inflicted on the NHS and called upon it to meet with unions to urgently address staff and pay levels.\n\nUK government Health Secretary Steve Barclay has repeatedly said ambulance workers have already been given a pay rise recommended by an independent pay review body and any further increase was unaffordable.\n\nUnite said nearly one in 10 posts - 132,000 positions - were now vacant and that October was the worst on record for meeting NHS targets.\n\nWales Ambulance Service's Unite members said many of the most serious calls were not being responded to fast enough and sometimes not at all.\n\nUnite's regional officer, Richard Munn, said: \"The last thing our Welsh Ambulance Service workers want to do is strike.\n\n\"But they know they have to take a stand to prevent the NHS from total collapse.\"\n\nHe said life and limb cover would be provided and workers would be ready on the picket line to respond to calls if needed.\n\nThe Welsh government has given workers an average pay rise of 4.75%, but with inflation running at more than 10%, unions say this represents a pay cut in real terms.\n\nThe Welsh government said it recognised why ambulance workers voted the way they did and understood the anger and disappointment many public sector workers felt.\n\nA spokesman said: \"We believe our emergency services should be fairly rewarded for their important work but our current financial settlement falls far short of what is needed to meet the very significant challenges faced by our public services and workers across Wales.\n\n\"We value social partnership and we continue to meet the trade unions to discuss a range of issues affecting the workforce.\"", "The diphtheria infection is spread by coughs and sneezes and can prove potentially fatal\n\nA \"small number\" of diphtheria cases have been confirmed among asylum seekers at a hotel in the Humber region, officials have said.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) told the BBC the risk posed to the wider public \"remains very low\".\n\nHotels across the country are being used by the Home Office to house asylum seekers.\n\nThe Home Office said it was aware of people requiring \"health interventions\" and was liaising with UKHSA officials.\n\nIn a statement, UKHSA said: \"Whilst we continue to see a very small number of diphtheria cases amongst asylum seekers in the region, the risk of diphtheria to the wider public remains very low as there is a high uptake of the diphtheria vaccine in this country.\"\n\nDiphtheria vaccination programmes protect most people in the UK\n\nDiphtheria is a highly contagious and potentially fatal infection that can affect the nose and throat, and sometimes the skin.\n\nIt can lead to difficulty breathing, heart failure and paralysis.\n\nThe infection is spread by coughs and sneezes, or by sharing items such as cups, cutlery, clothes or bedding with an infected person.\n\nIt is rare in the UK, because babies and children have been routinely vaccinated since the 1940s.\n\nThere is a small risk of catching the disease while travelling in some parts of the world.\n\nA Home Office spokesperson added: \"We are aware of reports of some people requiring health interventions at accommodation being provided in the Humber area. Home Office and UKHSA officials are working with the local services and the accommodation provider to offer all the appropriate support measures.\"\n\nEarlier this month it was revealed a migrant who died at the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Hospital in Margate on 19 November had diphtheria.\n\nHussein Haseeb Ahmed, 31, who arrived in the UK on a small boat seven days earlier, was being held at the Manston processing centre in Kent.\n\nHussein Haseeb Ahmed was processed at the Manston centre in Kent after arriving in the UK on a small boat\n\nAn inquest into Mr Ahmed's death was opened and adjourned until 30 May next year, when a pre-inquest review is expected to take place. The medical cause of death was described in court as unascertained.\n\nThe Home Office had initially said that there was no evidence he had died from an infectious disease, although a follow-up test for diphtheria later produced a positive result.\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Caroline Duddridge says she charges to \"have a bit of help\" with covering Christmas food costs\n\nA grandmother is charging her family for Christmas dinner to help cover costs.\n\nCaroline Duddridge, 63, from Fairwater in Cardiff, said she makes the adults fork out up to £15 and her youngest grandchildren £2.50.\n\n\"There's a few out there who think I'm a bit of a Scrooge but my friends think it's quite a good idea,\" she said.\n\nResearch suggests cooking a traditional festive feast for a family-of-four is £5 pricier than last year.\n\nShe said the idea came about when her husband died in 2015 and she had to halve her income.\n\n\"I said to my children, 'right, it costs a lot of money, I'm going to do a little kitty jar so you can put £2 away starting in September',\" she said.\n\n\"It sounds good, doesn't it? But of course it all got a bit shambolic, trying to keep track of them and there were a few stragglers.\"\n\nCaroline will be hosting Christmas for her family this year\n\nThat is when Caroline gave the orders to have her family transfer the money straight into her bank account.\n\nThis year Caroline charged her two sons £15, her three daughters £10, her four grandchildren over five £5 and her two three-year-old grandchildren £2.50.\n\nShe charges her sons more because they are full-time workers and her daughters who work part-time also have families.\n\nAbout £90 of her £180 or so levy goes towards meat which she admits she \"doesn't even eat!\".\n\nWhen speaking to 5 Live on Thursday morning she joked: \"If you don't pay by 1 December, you're not coming.\"\n\n\"Obviously there were a few moans and grumbles saying I've got a few children, but at the end of the day that's not my problem really, is it?\"\n\nBut is it worth it? For the teaching assistant, it is a no-brainer given the full festive spread she puts on from 24 to 26 December.\n\nOn Saturday Caroline will make a mini buffet of sandwiches before a turkey dinner with all the trimmings and drinks on Christmas Day. A nut roast is also on the menu with a choice of four desserts.\n\nAll that is followed by a full buffet on 26 December. The festive spread over the three days costs Caroline about £300.\n\nCaroline admits there were a few \"moans and grumbles\" when she told her family about the charge\n\nShe said she explained how rocketing food and energy costs was another reason for the charge.\n\nResearch by Kantar revealed a dinner for four including frozen turkey, carrots, cauliflower, potatoes and Christmas pudding rose to £31 this year - up from £24.67 in 2021.\n\nShe said in the past she \"always ended up with hundreds of sausage rolls and bags of potatoes but not much else\" as her relatives would bring food over.\n\n\"At least this way I've got a bit of autonomy over what I can buy,\" she added.\n\n\"It saves on food waste which is another important thing.\"\n\nAs she mulled over the idea about charging for dinner, she settled firm in her belief, saying: \"Why should the host hold the full financial burden?\"\n\nShe also hopes her grandchildren will see her new tradition as the norm when they are older.\n\n\"I'm hoping that people won't think it's a terrible thing and think 'hmm that is a good idea'.\n\n\"It's very fair. I'm not out to make a profit, I'm doing it just to have a bit of help with the cost of it.\"", "Journey's Neal Schon (left) and Jonathan Cain, pictured in 2006, are due to go back on tour in January\n\nA member of the band Journey has served a bandmate with a cease and desist order after he performed their hit Don't Stop Believin' for Donald Trump.\n\nGuitarist Neal Schon said keyboardist Jonathan Cain \"has no right to use Journey for politics\".\n\nCain, whose wife Paula White is an advisor to the former president, played the group's anthem at an event at Mr Trump's estate in Florida last month.\n\nCain argued that Schon was the one who had been damaging Journey's reputation.\n\nThe pair are already in a legal battle over spending on the band credit card.\n\nDon't Stop Believin' was first released in 1981 but enjoyed a resurgence after being used in TV shows The Sopranos and Glee.\n\nIt was written by Cain and Schon in collaboration with singer Steve Perry, who left the band in 1998.\n\nLast month, it was revealed to be the most-streamed song from 1981 in the UK.\n\nIn his letter, reported by Variety, Schon said his bandmate's performance at the America First Policy Institute's Experience and Gala at Mar-A-Lago was a \"harmful use of the brand\".\n\nSchon (right) said the group \"will lose fans\" if they become political\n\nThe America First Policy Institute is run by former senior Trump White House officials and has been described as an \"administration in waiting\" should he be re-elected. Paula White-Cain was Mr Trump's spiritual advisor during his presidency and chairs the AFPI's Center for American Values.\n\nSchon's letter said: \"Although Mr Cain is free to express his personal beliefs and associations, when he does that on behalf of Journey or for the band, such conduct is extremely deleterious to the Journey brand as it polarizes the band's fans and outreach. Journey is not, and should not be, political.\"\n\nThe letter continued: \"His politics should be his own personal business. He should not be capitalizing on Journey's brand to promote his personal political or religious agenda to the detriment of the band.\"\n\nSchon later tweeted about the matter, saying: \"You just don't go there as you will lose fans.\"\n\nIn a statement, Cain said Schon \"should look in the mirror when he accuses me of causing harm to the Journey brand\".\n\nHe accused his bandmate of taking or threatening legal action against numerous people connected with the band; of sending \"bullying, toxic\" emails; and of \"recklessly\" spending Journey's money.\n\n\"If anyone is destroying the Journey brand, it is Neal - and Neal alone,\" Cain concluded.\n\nIn November, it was reported that Schon claimed he had been denied access to the group's American Express card and its records, while Cain accused his bandmate of putting more than $1m (£827,000) in \"improper personal expenses\" on the card.\n\nTheir current acrimony may make for frosty relations when they go back on tour in January with singer Arnel Pineda, who joined the group in 2007.", "Former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried will face home detention while awaiting trial in the US on charges that he defrauded customers and investors of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange.\n\nA US judge said the 30-year-old former billionaire could be released to his parents on a $250m (£207m) bond.\n\nAt the hearing, Mr Bankman-Fried did not admit or deny guilt.\n\nHe has previously distanced himself from the charges, which have shaken the entire crypto industry.\n\n\"I didn't knowingly commit fraud. I don't think I committed fraud. I didn't want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was,\" he told the BBC, shortly before his 12 December arrest in the Bahamas, where he lived, and FTX was based.\n\nTwo of Mr Bankman-Fried's closest colleagues pleaded guilty to fraud on Wednesday and are helping with the investigation.\n\nFederal prosecutors in New York have accused Mr Bankman-Fried of unlawfully using customer deposits made at FTX to fund his other crypto firm, Alameda Research, buy property and make millions of dollars in political donations.\n\nIn a press conference last week, they described it as \"one of the biggest financial frauds in US history\" announcing eight criminal charges, including wire fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations. Financial regulators have also brought civil charges.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried spent nine days in prison in the Bahamas weighing his choices before telling the Nassau magistrates' court on Wednesday that he would not fight extradition, which could have sparked a long legal fight.\n\nAt Thursday's court hearing in New York, assistant US Attorney Nick Roos said prosecutors would not oppose releasing Mr Bankman-Fried on bail, despite a \"fraud of epic proportions\", pointing to his decision to return to the US voluntarily and his much diminished financial state.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried's release requires him to surrender his passport and submit to location monitoring and detention at his parents' home in California. He also agreed to regular mental health treatment. His parents will co-sign the $250m bond, Mr Bankman-Fried's attorney, Mark Cohen said.\n\nThe son of two Stanford University professors, Mr Bankman-Fried founded FTX in 2019.\n\nKnown to his legions of fans as SBF, the curly-haired MIT graduate was a hero in the crypto world, nicknamed the 'King of Crypto' and known for bailing out struggling firms and making massive donations to charity.\n\nThe collapse of his firm, which was once valued at more than $30bn (£25bn), has unsettled the wider industry, sparking bankruptcy filings at other firms and further declines in crypto values.\n\nThe firm declared bankruptcy in November, after customers and investors rushed to pull their funds from the firm amid reports that its finances were shaky.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried, who stepped down as chief executive the same day, has previously denied deliberate wrongdoing, and said he is focused on restoring funds to customers.\n\nAt Thursday's arraignment, Mr Bankman-Fried spoke only once, when asked if he understood the conditions of his release, and that he could be charged with an additional crime if he fails to show up to court.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nFifa is investigating how celebrity chef Salt Bae and a number of other people gained \"undue access\" to the pitch at the end of the World Cup final in Qatar.\n\nSalt Bae, the Turkish chef whose real name is Nusret Gokce, was pictured holding and kissing the World Cup trophy while celebrating with Argentina players after their win over France.\n\nFifa rules state the trophy can only be held by a \"very select\" group of people, including tournament winners, Fifa officials and heads of state.\n\nIn a statement to BBC Sport, a Fifa spokesperson said: \"Following a review, Fifa has been establishing how individuals gained undue access to the pitch after the closing ceremony at Lusail stadium on 18 December.\n\n\"The appropriate internal action will be taken.\"\n\nSalt Bae owns a chain of luxury steakhouses and rose to fame in 2017 after his technique for preparing and seasoning meat became an internet meme.\n\nMany current and former footballers, including Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham, have eaten at Salt Bae's restaurants.\n\nIn November, during the World Cup, he posted a video of himself embracing Fifa president Gianni Infantino, with whom he was later pictured in the VIP seats at a game with Brazil legends Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Cafu.\n\nMessi appeared to ignore Salt Bae in the hectic scenes after Argentina's win as the chef tried to get his attention.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUkraine is \"alive and kicking\" and will never surrender, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, in a defiant address to US lawmakers on his first foreign trip since Russia's invasion.\n\nUS military aid to Ukraine was not charity, but an investment in security for the future, Mr Zelensky said.\n\nHis appeal comes amid signs US support is likely to face greater scrutiny by Republican lawmakers in Congress.\n\nBut President Joe Biden vowed to stick by Ukraine \"for as long as it takes\".\n\nMr Biden pledged a new $2bn (£1.7bn) aid package and promised another $45bn.\n\nAt a joint news conference, Mr Biden told reporters he was \"not at all worried\" about holding the international coalition together.\n\nAmid concerns that some allies may be feeling the strain of the conflict's cost and disruption to global food and energy supplies, the US president said he felt \"very good\" about the solidarity of support for Ukraine.\n\nAs Ukraine's most important ally, the US has already committed $50bn (£41bn) of humanitarian, financial and security assistance - far more than any other country.\n\nMr Zelensky - wearing his trademark combat-green sweatshirt and boots - expressed hope that Congress would pass an extra $45bn in aid to Ukraine - currently before the US Senate - to \"help us to defend our values and independence\".\n\nRepublicans - who will take control of the House of Representatives in January - have warned they will not write a \"blank cheque\" for Ukraine.\n\nIn fact, Republican support for continued assistance has been eroding. In a survey conducted in November, just over half of Republican voters supported aid to Ukraine - down from 80% in March.\n\nBut Mr Zelensky, who travelled on a US Air Force jet from the Polish city of Rzeszow, said that \"regardless of changes in the Congress\", he believed there would be bipartisan support for his country.\n\nAnd he made his plea in emotive terms before a joint session of Congress - a speech that was interrupted 18 times with standing ovations by nearly all members of Congress, with the exception of some Republican lawmakers who did not clap.\n\nSpeaking in English, he told them his country was still standing \"against all odds\" and predicted \"a turning point\" in the conflict next year.\n\nTo illustrate the brutality of the war, Mr Zelensky evoked US troops fighting the Nazis during World War Two.\n\n\"The Russians' tactic is primitive. They burn down and destroy everything they see. They sent convicts to the front lines, to the war. They threw everything against us, similar to the other tyranny, which in the Battle of the Bulge threw everything it had against the free world.\n\n\"Just like the brave American soldiers who held their lines and fought back Hitler's forces during the Christmas of 1944, brave Ukrainian soldiers are doing the same to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's forces this Christmas,\" he said. \"Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender.\"\n\nConcluding his speech, Mr Zelensky presented Congress with a battle flag signed by the defenders of Bakhmut, a frontline city in the east of Ukraine that he visited on the eve of his Washington trip.\n\nThe package of security assistance announced by Washington on Wednesday includes a new Patriot missile system, which is expected to help Ukraine protect its cities from missiles and drones that Russia has fired at critical facilities.\n\nRussia's foreign ministry has said the delivery of the advanced surface-to-air missile system will be considered a provocative step.\n\nEarlier on Wednesday, Mr Putin said he believed his country was not to blame for the war in Ukraine, adding both countries were \"sharing a tragedy\".\n\nHis spokesman said no calls for peace had been heard during Mr Zelensky's visit to Washington.\n\n\"This indicates that the United States continues its line of de facto and indirectly fighting with Russia to the last Ukrainian,\" Dmitry Peskov said.\n\nSince Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, the US military estimates that at least 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured, along with some 40,000 civilian deaths.\n\nThe UN has recorded 7.8 million people as refugees from Ukraine across Europe, including Russia. However, the figure does not include those who have been forced to flee their homes but remain in Ukraine.", "Dmitry Rogozin who lost his job as head of Russia's space agency in July is known for his anti-Western rhetoric\n\nA well-known figure who ran Russia's space agency and was deputy prime minister has said he was wounded in an Ukrainian attack on a hotel.\n\nDmitry Rogozin said he was hit near the shoulder blade in Donetsk city, in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine.\n\nThe head of Russia's proxy authority in Donetsk was also hurt while another man was reportedly killed.\n\nElsewhere, in southern Ukraine, Russian-installed authorities said a car bomb killed a local official.\n\nUkrainian forces were blamed for the attack on Andrei Shtepa in a village on the left bank of the River Dnipro in Kherson region.\n\nRussia retreated from the right bank in November, but continues to occupy the rest of the southern region. Kherson was one of four Ukrainian regions that Vladimir Putin declared part of Russia, despite failing to control any of them fully.\n\nDmitry Rogozin said he was wounded on Wednesday evening after someone leaked details that he and others were having dinner at the Shesh-Besh hotel, on the southern outskirts of Donetsk. An aide told Russian media the hotel had been targeted by precision-guided munitions, probably fired by a French-made howitzer.\n\n\"It was a business meeting with a close circle of associates after returning from one of the volunteer units,\" he posted on social media on Thursday. \"We've been staying in this hotel all these months and in eight years, the enemy never shelled this place.\"\n\nHe later posted that he had a piece of metal embedded above his right shoulder blade.\n\n\"There will have to be an operation. Several people close to me were also hit,\" he said.\n\nMr Rogozin is widely known for his anti-Western rhetoric and his support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He turned 59 on Wednesday, but denied reports that he was celebrating his birthday at the time.\n\nHe was replaced as Roscosmos space agency chief in the summer, following suggestions that the Kremlin would give him a key role in Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine. Instead, he appears to lead a volunteer unit called Tsar's Wolves that provides support to Russia's proxy forces in the east.\n\nSince 2014, Donetsk has been controlled by Russia's proxy authorities, who have repeatedly accused Ukrainian forces of targeting the city.\n\nRussia's armed forces chief, Gen Valery Gerasimov, said on Thursday that the main focus was now to take over the entire Donetsk region. Although they have seized southern parts of the area since the February invasion, the front line has barely moved beyond Donetsk city.", "This is a war where Ukrainian fathers and sons serve on the same front lines. And this was how it was for 22-year-old Eugene Gromadskyi - at least, at the very beginning.\n\nOn the first day of the invasion he stood shoulder to shoulder with his father, Oleg, on the outskirts of Kharkiv, as column after column of Russian men and armoured vehicles sought to capture their city.\n\nIn those crucial first hours he was in command of a unit which, outnumbered and outgunned, attacked and destroyed Russian vehicle columns and captured prisoners. For this, Eugene would earn the country's highest military honour. His father would face a different fate.\n\nEugene has been in the thick of it for almost the entire war. He started out as a lieutenant in the National Guard. Now he's a senior lieutenant in the army's 92nd Mechanized Brigade, which is named after Ivan Sirko, a 17th-Century Cossack military leader. The intelligence platoon Eugene commands describe themselves as Sirko's Rowdy Boys - their motto is \"Revenge for all\". \"They are my family,\" he tells me\n\nIt is a December morning in Kupyiansk, some 120km (75 miles) south-east of Kharkiv, and the temperature is -7C, even before the howling wind hits you and finds its way into every inch of loose clothing or exposed skin. It is mostly open ground - there is no cover from the wind, nor from the Russians who, in places, are within rifle range. Lines of trees, which in the summer provided camouflage, are now stark and bare. There is nowhere to hide.\n\nBut Eugene glows with vitality. He explains that the early days of the war were frustrating. Ukrainian forces took back a village or two, there was little momentum. They were on the defensive and under-prepared, then a summer stalemate set in. But in September, a co-ordinated counter-offensive began, starting from Balakliya and going all the way down to Kupyiansk.\n\nEugene was awarded the country's top military honour by President Zelensky\n\nI first met him in early March. He had recently graduated from university and was full of courage but fresh to conflict and on the defensive. What he didn't tell me at the time was how he and his comrades, under his command, had captured the Russian prisoners. His bravery a matter for record, he was later awarded the country's top military honour, Hero of Ukraine, Order of the Gold Star.\n\nEugene has countless missions under his belt, and like the landscape around him, bears the scarred lessons of conflict.\n\nWar toughens the heart, and death is its companion. Eugene has lost many men close to him, so I ask, given the high casualty rate - Ukraine says 13,000 of its soldiers have been killed so far in the war - does he fear death?\n\n\"Death is one of [war's] problems. Death loves brave ones. And courage must be used cleverly. There is no need to be afraid of death,\" he says. But he reconsiders for a moment, and continues: \"The person who is not afraid is already dead… I don't think about mortality, I think only about life, about life of my comrades and the life of my unit.\"\n\nWe ride inside one of his platoon's armoured personnel carriers (APC). The noise is deafening, even before its 30mm cannon opens fire on some farm buildings where they suspect Russians are hiding. Condensation drips from the metal roof, two dim lights emit a pale-green glow and the vehicle's eight sturdy wheels slip and slide through the mud, swaying us from side to side. I feel as if I'm in a submarine.\n\nEugene with the APC that has stalled in mud\n\nAbove the din, Eugene explains why the September operation was key. \"It was really important for the boys that we were able to accomplish a counter-offensive. Everyone was very motivated. They were taking back their own territory, taking back homes of their own families. It was really needed.\" As if to underscore this point, in the front seat of the APC is Sasha. He only recently joined the platoon after his village was liberated from the Russians.\n\nA black-and-white targeting screen offers the only view of the road ahead. It is a quagmire - there are few obstacles as fiendish, or varied, as Ukrainian mud. One moment it's a deep, sucking soup, the next a thick putty clogging machinery, weighing down boots, and gumming up everything. We drive past one soldier who is hammering frozen chunks of it off his stranded truck with a mallet.\n\nSmall wonder, then, that in these conditions, and in the face of stiff resistance from enemy forces, the counter-offensive is bogged down here. And so are we - the APC can go no further. It doesn't pay to be trapped out here in open ground, so we turn around. Days later another Ukrainian vehicle would become stuck at the same spot. A Russian helicopter attacked, causing significant casualties.\n\nInside the APC, despite the din, Eugene falls into a deep sleep. He had only two hours' rest the night before, and he remains sound asleep until the vehicle makes it back to base and the heavy steel handle by his ear clunks open.\n\nThe unit, which has its own Instagram page, is crammed into a few rooms in an abandoned house. A huge pot filled with potatoes and pork sits atop a wood-burning stove. Eugene eats standing.\n\nThe counter-offensive has taken its toll on Ukrainian equipment and men along this front. A punishing winter lies ahead. But Eugene, as ever, is optimistic.\n\n\"I think it will be very difficult but we will manage,\" he says. \"Our reserves of troops are growing, the ones who were getting trained abroad. They will be additional reserves, additional forces who will help us with further offensives. For now, there are difficulties especially with the weather. But it doesn't stop us because we are taking back our land step by step, corner by corner.\"\n\nUkraine's defence had an improvised and precarious feel at the start. The country was underprepared. Before the invasion President Volodymyr Zelensky had dismissed talk of war, saying that the country should keep calm, it would celebrate Easter in April and come May, the country would be occupied with sun, holidays and BBQs, not war.\n\nA week into the war, Kharkiv was still in turmoil. At a marshalling point on the city's eastern edge, busloads of reinforcements arrived, then quickly disappeared again, pushed forward to halt the Russians who were still trying to force their way into the city. It was freezing cold, but the air was electric with a desperate, hurried energy. But the lieutenant was cool-headed, \"Call me Eugene,\" he said, in English, with a smile.\n\nEugene Gromadskyi at the beginning of the war\n\nI saw a very young man - surely too young to be in command - who like his country was battling against the odds in a war with Russia. He lacked a winter uniform and army boots, instead he was wearing trainers. \"I can move fast in these,\" he joked.\n\nWe jumped into one of the few armoured vehicles around and headed to the front, a fur Russian army hat from a captured soldier swinging from the ceiling as we bumped along rutted, snow-covered roads.\n\nThe snows thawed, spring became summer, and Ukraine held on. Eugene and I kept in touch, and he would send videos of him and his men in battle. In one, he's smiling broadly while riding atop a tank. We met again in late April on a warm afternoon in Kharkiv. There had been no holidays nor BBQs for him.\n\nHe was still fighting, though now well beyond the city limits. His uniform was filthy, and he stayed only a short while, before heading back to the front. A patch on his uniform read, \"Stop: no touch, no talk, no eye contact\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe was in good spirits, grinning as ever. And despite the hardships of battle, he was clearly in his element. He still believed Ukraine could win. By then Russia's military inadequacies had been exposed and Western military aid was beginning to make a difference, though a large-scale push against the invading Russian forces still hadn't happened. There were questions over whether it ever would.\n\nEugene Gromadskyi needs little reminder of what Russian aggression has cost him - it's there every time he looks in the mirror. On the left side of his face a deep red scar is still healing.\n\nWe had lost touch in May. It's not unusual for soldiers to go offline, but 10 days went by and still he was out of reach. Eventually, he reappeared and sent a selfie as way of an explanation. He was in hospital, his face swollen and barely recognisable. It looks like he is trying to smile, but he can't, so instead gives a defiant hand gesture.\n\nAt the Kupyiansk front, he told me what had happened. \"Me and my comrade were on a combat mission,\" he explains.\n\n\"We came under fire and a shell exploded near me and shrapnel hit my face, near my lip and apparently came out at my temple. [In hospital] an operation was performed, I was put back together, they didn't need to use metal plates.\"\n\nEugene was wounded when a shell exploded in front of him\n\nHe checked himself out of hospital after only 10 days and returned to the front with a broken jaw. \"It wasn't nice,\" he says and smiles broadly.\n\nBut Eugene had suffered an even greater wound on the first day of the war.\n\nIn the early hours of 24 February, he had been commanding a small unit of National Guardsmen in the village of Pyatikhatky, when he was joined by his father, Oleg.\n\nOleg had been asleep in the family apartment on the edge of Kharkiv when he was awoken by his wife Natalia, who said she could hear Russian Grads nearby. The former army officer had trained hundreds of young recruits in battlefield care, so she knew her artillery.\n\nDuty and service to their country runs through the veins and history of the family - seven generations have served in the Ukrainian and Soviet military. Ukraine was under attack, and Oleg, an army veteran who had retired at the rank of colonel, would answer the call.\n\nHe posted a message on Facebook, rallying friends and former servicemen to gather weapons and equipment to defend the city, and went to join his son.\n\nSome Russian forces had already made it into Kharkiv but were driven back. The fighting was intense - Oleg manned a machine gun, while his son gave support with an automatic grenade launcher. They were outgunned and had to retreat. Oleg stayed behind to gather weapons, and father and son planned to regroup further back. But as he left his position, Oleg's car was caught in a rocket attack.\n\nNatalia had been sheltering in a city metro station, when she was told her husband had died. During breaks in the shelling, she headed to the area where she had been told Oleg had been killed. She discovered his body on the city's outskirts.\n\nNatalia was about to celebrate 25 years of marriage to her husband Oleg\n\n\"I picked up my husband and took him to the morgue. It was just me and him. I said goodbye over there. I conducted a body examination to make sure it was him.\"\n\nEugene was in the midst of battle when he learned of his father's death. He would later return home and bury Oleg alone. But for the moment, he set aside grief and took charge of another combat unit of 20 men. Cut off from their command, they destroyed more Russian vehicles, killing and capturing enemy soldiers.\n\n\"To this day, [my father's] friends and comrades who served with him write to me,\" Eugene tells me. \"They say, 'We are proud we served with your father because he was a man of honour and as he said, so he did.' He always kept his officer's word.\"\n\nOn 24 September, at a ceremony in Kyiv, President Zelensky made Eugene a Hero of Ukraine, bestowing on him the country's highest military order for bravery in the early defence of Kharkiv. His father's close friend, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, looked on as he received his medals.\n\nEugene was so nervous he forgot his own name.\n\nIn this country of 44 million people, only 652 have received the medal since the honour was created in 1998.\n\nEugene's medals now sit in a suitcase in the family apartment. Shortly after Oleg died, Natalia left Kharkiv as Russian attacks intensified. She returned in the early summer, but precious items remain packed, ready for her to leave again if necessary.\n\nNatalia's kitchen is full of home-made Christmas decorations, and an 11-year-old pekingese businka is at her feet. It is dark - there is no power, no water or light, because of Russia's continuing missile attacks.\n\nShe tells me how much she misses Oleg. \"He was a patriot. He is a real patriot of our country. A Ukrainian. Fun, friendly, people loved him a lot,\" she says. The couple were about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary when he was killed.\n\nI ask Natalia if she ever imagined she would have to sacrifice so much. \"I gave my husband; my son is there. And I devoted my youth to Ukraine as well - to my country.\"\n\nShe makes me tea and serves home-made cookies, and tells me that I should visit again.\n\n\"When did you last see Eugene,\" I ask. She looks towards the door, remembering - perhaps expecting. \"A month ago,\" she replies. \"For two minutes at the door.\" And she starts to cry.\n\nThe following day I am travelling back to the front, and so I ask Natalia if there is anything I could take to her son - even just a message.\n\nShe wipes away a tear, and says: \"My son, you should know that I'm always waiting for you. Always. In any weather, any time, day or night.\" She pauses, then insists she will wait, \"until victory, only with victory\".", "Conservationists have argued the wall is a threat to local wildlife\n\nAuthorities in the US state of Arizona have agreed to remove a wall made of shipping containers at the Mexican border following protests.\n\nThe state's Republican governor, who had the barrier installed, argued that it would halt migrants crossing into America.\n\nBut critics who filed legal challenges have questioned this.\n\nThe wall is made out of more than 900 containers and cost at least $80m (£66m) of taxpayer money.\n\nArizona shares a 600km (370 mile) border with Mexico. Fences have been built along large stretches of it since 2017, when Donald Trump became president.\n\nGovernor Doug Ducey began building the barrier in the Coronado National Forest earlier this year in response to what his office described as an \"ominous increase\" in the number of migrant crossings.\n\nFigures show there has been a surge in the number of undocumented people attempting to cross into the US via the southwestern border in the past year.\n\nHowever, the US government sued Mr Ducey last week, claiming the 7km (4 mile) wall was trespassing on federal land because the proper authorisation hadn't been sought.\n\nIn an agreement reached on Wednesday with the federal government, Mr Ducey's administration said it would \"remove all previously installed shipping containers and associated equipment, materials, vehicles, and other objects\" by early January.\n\nThe Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that operates locally, had also filed two lawsuits against the wall.\n\nIt claimed that the container fence divides an important conservation area that is home to vulnerable species, blocking access to waterways and migration routes.\n\nRuss McSpadden, a member of the organisation, told the news agency AFP that the cameras he used to track local wildlife had never captured migrant traffic and that he believed the wire fence there previously was an adequate deterrent.\n\n\"It's an incredibly wild valley,\" he said. \"There's no real urban population anywhere nearby. It's a very difficult part of the border for migrants to cross.\"\n\nPresident Joe Biden has faced increasing criticism over his administration's handling of border issues, with hundreds of thousands of people detained in recent months while attempting to cross the border.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRussia has strongly criticised the visit to Washington by Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, accusing the US of fighting an indirect war against it.\n\nPresident Joe Biden has pledged $1.85bn (£1.45bn) of military aid for Ukraine - including an advanced missile system to help guard against Russian attacks.\n\nIn a defiant address to US lawmakers, Mr Zelensky welcomed the assistance.\n\nBut Russia's US ambassador said these \"provocative actions\" would lead to an escalation with severe consequences.\n\nAnatoly Antonov told Russian state media that Moscow was \"trying to appeal to common sense at all levels\", but talk of delivering the Patriot missile system to Kyiv was \"deeply disturbing\".\n\nPatriot missiles are capable, effective and expensive. The White House says they will help defend Ukrainians against \"Russia's barbaric attacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure\".\n\nMoscow has complained that no calls for peace were heard during President Zelensky's trip to Washington - with spokesman Dmitry Peskov describing this as proof that the US was fighting a proxy war with Russia.\n\nMr Peskov added that delivering Patriot missiles would not prevent Russia from \"achieving its goals during the special military operation\".\n\n\"The talks in Washington have shown that neither Ukraine nor the United States is seeking peace. They are simply intent on continuing the fighting,\" said Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.\n\nRussian commentators have echoed this - repeatedly accusing the US of \"pumping Ukraine full of weapons\".\n\nSome media reports from Moscow ridiculed the Ukrainian leader - with state TV's Channel One comparing him to a stripper begging for money. On Wednesday, he was likened to a toilet brush.\n\nMarking his first foreign trip since the start of the invasion, Mr Zelensky told Congress his country was \"alive and kicking\" and would never surrender to Moscow.\n\nAs well as the $1.85bn package that has already been announced, another $45bn of US emergency assistance is currently before the Senate.\n\nMr Zelensky expressed hope this extra funding would be approved, to \"help us to defend our values and independence\".\n\nBut there are signs that US support is likely to face greater political scrutiny. Republican support for continued assistance has been eroding.\n\nIn a survey conducted in November, just over half of Republican voters supported aid to Ukraine - down from 80% in March.\n\nThe party, which will take control of the House of Representatives in January, has warned it will not write a \"blank cheque\" for Ukraine.\n\nBut President Biden has vowed to stick by Ukraine \"for as long as it takes\".\n\nMr Zelensky, who travelled on a US Air Force jet from the Polish city of Rzeszow, said that \"regardless of changes in the Congress\", he believed there would be bipartisan support for his country.\n\nHe made his plea in emotive terms before a joint session of Congress - a speech that was interrupted 18 times with standing ovations by nearly all members of Congress, with the exception of some Republican lawmakers who did not clap.\n\nSpeaking in English, he told them his country was still standing \"against all odds\" and predicted \"a turning point\" in the conflict next year.\n\nTo illustrate the brutality of the war, Mr Zelensky evoked US troops fighting the Nazis during World War Two.\n\n\"The Russians' tactic is primitive. They burn down and destroy everything they see. They sent convicts to the front lines, to the war. They threw everything against us, similar to the other tyranny, which in the Battle of the Bulge threw everything it had against the free world.\n\n\"Just like the brave American soldiers who held their lines and fought back Hitler's forces during the Christmas of 1944, brave Ukrainian soldiers are doing the same to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's forces this Christmas,\" he said. \"Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender.\"\n\nConcluding his speech, Mr Zelensky presented Congress with a battle flag signed by the defenders of Bakhmut, a frontline city in the east of Ukraine that he visited on the eve of his Washington trip.\n\nMr Zelensky's visit to Washington was his first foreign trip since the start of Russia's invasion\n\nAt a joint news conference, Mr Biden told reporters he was \"not at all worried\" about holding the international coalition together.\n\nDespite concerns some allies may be feeling the strain of the conflict's cost and disruption to global food and energy supplies, the US president said he felt \"very good\" about the solidarity of support for Ukraine.\n\nAs Ukraine's most important ally, the US has already committed $50bn (£41bn) of humanitarian, financial and security assistance - far more than any other country.\n\nOn his way home from Washington, Volodymyr Zelensky stopped in Poland where he met Polish President Andrzej Duda, one of his strongest allies.\n\nThe two discussed the US visit as well as their \"strategic plans for the future\", Mr Zelensky said.\n\nSince Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, the US military estimates that at least 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured, along with some 40,000 civilian deaths.\n\nThe UN has recorded 7.8 million people as refugees from Ukraine across Europe, including Russia. However, the figure does not include those who have been forced to flee their homes but remain in Ukraine.", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nA countdown timer on scrums and kicks at goal will be introduced in January to help speed up the game, says World Rugby.\n\nThe 'shot clock' means players will have 90 seconds to take a conversion and a minute for penalties, or the kick will be disallowed.\n\nNew rules also state scrums have to be started within 30 seconds and line-outs formed without delay, with penalty kicks to be given for timewasting.\n\nThe rules come into place on 1 January.\n\nA clock for kicks at goal is already in operation in France's Top 14.\n\nBBC rugby union correspondent Chris Jones first reported the proposals in November, when the sport's key stakeholders met.\n\nWorld Rugby's director of rugby, Phil Davies, said: \"World Rugby, member unions and competitions will work with broadcasters and match hosts to implement on-screen [stadia and broadcast] shot clocks for penalties and conversions to ensure referees, players and fans can view the countdown, mirroring what happens in the LNR [French national league] and sevens.\"\n\nWorld Rugby hopes the changes will improve the flow of the game and reduce the reliance on Television Match Official reviews, which adds to stoppages in the action.\n\nWater carriers will also only be permitted to enter the field of play when a try is scored.\n\n\"Only in a game with no tries, should a natural stoppage be used,\" added Davies.", "More than one million households with pre-payment meters did not redeem their monthly energy support vouchers during the cold weather snap in December.\n\nFirms where prepayment customers can cash vouchers said postal strikes may have delayed some voucher deliveries.\n\nThe Energy Support Scheme provides £400 to all households in Britain and those on pre-payment meters are sent vouchers each month.\n\nThe government said energy suppliers had promised to improve processes.\n\nMost homes get the £400 government energy bill support automatically, with about £66 of credit being added to their energy accounts each month, if they pay by direct debit.\n\nBut about two million energy customers get energy support for pre-payment meters via vouchers.\n\nThey can be redeemed at the Post Office or cashed at stores in the PayPoint network, with roughly half redeemed at each.\n\nVouchers are sent by post to three quarters of the eligible people using Paypoint, while a quarter are sent via email.\n\nFor October, Paypoint said 80% of the vouchers were redeemed, while that figure was 73% in November.\n\nBut figures seen by the BBC show that only about 27% of December's vouchers had been cashed at PayPoint stores by 18 December, despite the recent cold snap which gripped much of the UK.\n\n\"December vouchers issued by email have already seen high levels of redemption, though December postal voucher redemptions are lower than we would expect, which could be linked to strike action in the UK causing delayed delivery,\" said Steve O'Neill, director of corporate affairs at PayPoint.\n\nThe Post Office, which is the other provider processing the vouchers, also said Royal Mail strikes may have led to delays in customers receiving their vouchers.\n\nThe Post Office said 70% of vouchers had been claimed for October and November by the 19th day of those months, but 63% had been claimed by 19 December.\n\nWith average temperatures hitting zero or below for large swathes of the country over a two-week period, many people on pre-payment meters were struggling to afford to top up, charities told the BBC.\n\nCitizens Advice said it made more referrals for emergency energy vouchers and charitable support than ever before in the first week of the cold snap. More than 4,300 referrals were made between 5 and 12 December, which was 1,200 more than the previous week.\n\nThe Fuel Bank Foundation is Britain's only national charity to provide emergency help to people living without heat, light and power in their homes. Between the 5 and 12 December it issued vouchers totalling £350,000, the most it has ever processed.\n\nThe foundation only provides help after a referral from an advice agency, a charity or a food bank where a household is unable to access the cash needed to pre-pay for energy. It mostly sends voucher codes by text or email to enable people to top up meters immediately.\n\nMatthew Cole, head of Fuel Bank Foundation, said although payments must always be secure, the system of sending out vouchers in the post was placing unnecessary barriers for people who often needed the heating most.\n\n\"We've helped about 700,000 people to date and [only] about 27 of those have been by post,\" he said.\n\n\"If the government was to repeat this programme there needs to be some real thought about how you make sure that meters are topped up automatically rather than requiring someone to go to the corner shop to redeem something. Every step you add to a process there's a chance that things may go slightly wrong,\" he added.\n\nTake-up of the vouchers was not as quick as it could have been in October and November, with concerns that old addresses were being used, as well as a distrust by many for anything that looks like it could be a scam.\n\nAndrew Goddard, head of payments at Post Office, said people needed to get in touch with their energy provider to ensure their details are up to date.\n\n\"We have been able to reissue 40,000 vouchers in October and November to people who got in touch with their energy provider, update their address details and are now receiving the monthly vouchers they are entitled to,\" he said.\n\nGillian Cooper, head of energy policy at Citizens Advice, called on the government and suppliers to make it a priority to fix any issues with people getting the support they're entitled to.\n\n\"People should be able to easily contact their supplier to get the help they need,\" she said. \"Energy companies must reissue vouchers that haven't been received and check customers are getting support in the most suitable format - be it text, post or email.\"\n\nThe government said that since an initial BBC report about vouchers not being claimed, energy minister Graham Stuart has met the chief executives of the energy firms and received assurances that improvements were being made.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"The UK government has stringent compliance and enforcement measures in place with all suppliers for the Energy Bills Support Scheme, and we require them to report to us on a monthly basis on their delivery.\"", "Ninety per cent of GMB's almost 1,500 Welsh Ambulance Service members backed strike action in a consultative ballot\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service faces a strike vote as one union representing them launches a formal industrial action ballot.\n\nParamedics and ambulance staff were angry over the government's imposed 4% pay award.\n\nGMB Union is calling on the UK and Welsh governments to uplift the pay for \"hard pressed\" staff.\n\nThe Welsh government said without extra funding from Westminster there were limits in how far it could go.\n\nBallot dates will be announced in the coming days.\n\nThe vote comes following a consultative ballot which saw 90% of GMB's almost 1,500 Welsh Ambulance Service members voted in favour of a walk out.\n\nGMB organiser, Kelly Andrews, said: \"Unfortunately, 4% is like a sticking plaster on an open wound - it's not going to help.\n\n\"Ambulance staff are at the forefront of our emergency services, and already underpaid and undervalued for the work they do.\n\n\"The UK and Welsh governments need to come back to the table with something that recognises their hard work, plain and simple.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said it has accepted the independent pay review body's recommendations in full, but without additional funding from the UK government, there were \"inevitably limits\" to how far we can go in Wales.\n\n\"We continue to press the UK government to pass on the necessary funding for full and fair pay rises for public sector workers,\" said a spokesperson.\n\n\"We have committed to continue to explore a range of other issues raised as part of our discussions with trade unions.\"", "Molnupiravir is the first antiviral pill licensed for treating Covid in the UK\n\nAn antiviral drug tested by more than 25,000 vaccinated Covid patients has been found to reduce recovery time from the disease.\n\nMolnupiravir was given to people twice a day, for five days at home, while they had the Omicron variant of Covid.\n\nThose chosen were at a higher risk of death or hospitalisation from Covid due to age or underlying health conditions.\n\nDespite aiding recovery, the drug did not decrease death rates or hospital admissions.\n\nParticipants taking the antiviral drug while having Covid were compared with those receiving standard care who also had the infection.\n\nThe trial was conducted to see whether it backed up previous studies on molnupiravir, which had suggested it was effective at reducing hospital admissions among patients with mild-to-moderate Covid.\n\nHowever, those trials were conducted on unvaccinated patients, before the emergence of the Omicron wave.\n\nResearch in this latest study showed the treatment reduced recovery time by around four days and also reduced the viral load - the level of infection.\n\nThe findings suggest this drug would not be suitable for the entire population but in extreme circumstances could reduce pressure on the NHS.\n\nMolnupiravir, which is made by Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD), is very expensive- a seven-day course costs around £577.\n\nIt was the first antiviral drug studied as a treatment for Covid in the community - which means it was taken at home rather than in a medical setting.\n\nChris Butler, who is a professor of primary care in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, says: \"Finding effective, safe and scalable early treatments for Covid-19 in the community is the next major frontier in our research response to the ongoing worldwide pandemic.\n\n\"It is in the community where treatments could have a massive reach and impact.\n\n\"But decisions about who to treat should always be based on evidence from rigorous clinical trials that involve people who would most likely be prescribed the drugs.\"\n\nTo participate in the trial, people had to be within five days of the start of symptoms and either healthy and over 50 or 18-50 with underlying health conditions that made them more vulnerable to Covid.\n\nFormer deputy chief medical officer for England, Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, who is pro-vice-chancellor for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham and study co-author, said: \"While molnupiravir was originally found to work well to reduce hospitalisation in patients with Covid, these were unvaccinated patients.\n\n\"This latest research has repeated the exercise in the highly vaccinated population, demonstrating that the vaccine protection is so strong that there is no obvious benefit from the drug in terms of further reducing hospitalisation and deaths.\n\n\"However, symptom duration and virus shedding are both markedly reduced, and we have to wait much longer to know if there will be any discernible effects on long Covid.\"\n\nThe findings are published in The Lancet journal.", "The south London venue was evacuated last Thursday night\n\nThe Brixton 02 Academy's licence has been suspended as it emerged concerns were raised about the strength of the front doors nearly three years before a fatal crush at a concert last week.\n\nAfro-pop singer Asake's gig was cut short when a large number of people tried to enter the foyer on Thursday.\n\nRebecca Ikumelo, 33, died on Saturday, while Gaby Hutchinson, 23, died on Monday.\n\nThe south London venue's licence has been suspended until 16 January.\n\nLambeth councillors met earlier and decided to take the \"interim decision\" to suspend the academy's licence following the \"severity of events\" and \"risks to public safety\" from \"a lack of crowd control at the front doors\", until a full hearing takes place on 16 January.\n\nDuring the council meeting, the Metropolitan Police said there had been a similar crush on 2 February 2020 when concerns were raised about the strength of the front doors during a concert by Naira Marley, another Afrobeats singer.\n\nThe police force wanted Lambeth Council's licensing sub-committee to suspend the licence throughout the its investigation. The owners instead had offered to remain closed for 28 days.\n\nOne show has already been postponed and another, on New Year's Eve, has been cancelled. Five more shows due to take place between now and 16 January will be postponed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAt the meeting, a lawyer representing the police said the owner's offer to temporarily close was \"inappropriate and wrong\".\n\n\"It is not right, I suggest, to leave a decision as serious as this one in the hands of the licencee,\" said Gerald Gouriet KC.\n\nHe added: \"Whilst what happened last Thursday of course was exceptional, no one should begin to think that it was unique or could not happen again.\"\n\nPolice were seen bagging items for evidence outside the venue on Friday\n\nStephen Walsh KC, representing the Academy Music Group, told councillors: \"It is clearly far too early, as the police have accepted, to draw any conclusions about the causes of the tragedy, let alone to point the finger of blame at any party or parties.\"\n\nHe said: \"The O2 Academy Brixton recognises the gravity of the events which occurred on the night of 15 December, and expresses its sincere condolences to the families of those who died during the tragic incident, and its genuine concerns for anyone affected by it.\n\n\"The licence holder, Academy Music Group Limited, is committed to ensuring that vital lessons are learned through its own detailed internal investigation.\"\n\nThe third sold-out concert in a week by Asake had to be cut short when a large number of people tried to enter the venue.\n\nGaby Hutchinson, 23, from Gravesend in Kent, who died following the crush, was a security contractor working at the venue. Nursing graduate Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, from Newham, east London, who also died in the following days, was a mother of two children.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA summary review is a fast-track review process brought by the police when they consider that the premises concerned is involved in serious crime, serious disorder or both.\n\nIt allows the licensing authority to take interim steps where it considers it necessary, pending a full review.\n\nCouncillor Fred Cowell said of the interim suspension: \"Given the severity of events of the 15 December, the risks to public safety as a consequence of, in particular, serious disorder rising from a lack of crowd control at the front doors of the venue remain high if the venue were able to operate as before.\"\n\nMet Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley told the BBC on Wednesday a team of detectives was investigating the fatal crush to determine \"if there are any criminal liabilities involved\".\n\nA statement on the Lambeth Council website said: \"We are shocked and saddened by the devastating incident in Brixton on Thursday night, and are working to support our communities in the wake of this tragedy.\"\n\nDuring 2022, a total of 173 shows took place at the venue which can hold up to 4,921 people.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nPele's cancer has progressed, a statement from the Sao Paulo hospital where the 82-year-old Brazil legend is being treated has confirmed.\n\nThe three-time World Cup winner has been in hospital for three weeks.\n\nHis daughter wrote on Instagram that he would spend Christmas in the facility.\n\nA statement issued by the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein said Pele \"requires greater care related to renal and cardiac dysfunctions\" because of the \"cancer progression\".\n\nPele had a tumour removed from his colon in September 2021 and has since had regular treatment.\n\n\"Our Christmas at home has been suspended,\" wrote Pele's daughter, Kely Nascimento.\n\n\"We decided with the doctors that, for various reasons, it would be better for us to stay here with all the care that this new family at Einstein gives us.\"\n\nJust after he was admitted, a statement issued by the hospital said Pele \"had a good response to treatment for respiratory infection care\" and added he was undergoing a \"reassessment of chemotherapy treatment\".\n\nPele is Brazil's all-time leading men's scorer with 77 goals in 92 games and he helped his country win the World Cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970.\n\nBrazil players paid tribute to Pele after their last-16 win over South Korea during the 2022 World Cup, holding up a banner with his name and picture.", "MSPs have finally worked through all the amendments put forward on the bill.\n\nThe 150 amendments included failed attempts to restrict rights for sex offenders, add safeguards in women's prisons, protect of single sex services for vulnerable women and faith groups, along with measures for women's sport and commitments to data collection.\n\nBut we're not done yet.\n\nMSPs will start their Christmas holidays back in the chamber after First Minister's Questions on Thursday afternoon to conclude the debate and finally vote.\n\nJoin us for FMQs later, with our coverage starting just before 12:00.", "Last updated on .From the section Sports Personality\n\nEngland and Arsenal forward Beth Mead has been voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2022.\n\nMead was the player of the tournament and top scorer at Euro 2022, where the Lionesses defeated Germany in the final at Wembley to win England's first major women's football trophy.\n\nThe 27-year-old becomes the first women's footballer to win the award.\n\nEngland cricket's Test captain Ben Stokes was second with Winter Olympics curling champion Eve Muirhead third.\n\nSeven-time snooker world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan, gymnast Jessica Gadirova, who won the floor world title, and 1,500m athletics world champion Jake Wightman, were also shortlisted for the award by a panel of experts, with a public vote then deciding the winner.\n\n\"I'm incredibly honoured to win this award,\" said Mead. \"I wouldn't have done it without the girls. The team have backed me. Yes, I've won this accolade, I've scored a few goals but I wouldn't have done it without them.\n\n\"This is for women's sport and women's sport heading in the right direction. Let's keep pushing girls, let's keep doing the right thing.\"\n• None Sports Personality of the Year 2022 - how the evening unfolded\n• None Who were the winners at Sports Personality 2022?\n\nMead's stellar performances at Euro 2022 saw her named the player of the tournament as well as winning the Golden Boot with six goals and five assists.\n\nShe was also named Arsenal's player of the season, came second in the Ballon d'Or Feminin and won BBC's Women's Footballer of the Year award in 2022.\n\nHer international goal tally for the 2021-22 season was 20 in 19 matches, beating the record of 13 scored by Jimmy Greaves in 1960-61.\n\nEngland, who were unbeaten in the 20 matches they played in 2022 - scoring 72 goals and conceding seven in 16 wins and four draws - also won the Sports Personality Team of the Year award, while head coach Sarina Wiegman won the Coach of the Year accolade.\n\nHaving been left out of Team GB's squad for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Mead's success is all the more remarkable.\n\nShe scored in four of England's six games at the Euros, including a hat-trick against Norway in the group stage, pipping Germany's Alex Popp to the Golden Boot.\n\nShe has also helped England to qualify for next year's World Cup with a 100% record and without conceding a single goal.\n\nThe Euros was a first major trophy for the Lionesses and first for a senior England team since the men won the 1966 World Cup.\n\n50/29 - England caps and goals, after making her international debut in April 2018 20 - The age that Mead won the WSL Golden Boot, the youngest ever winner of the award 77 - Goals for former club Sunderland, coming in just 78 games 61 - Goals for Arsenal. She joined the Gunners in 2017 166 - Appearances for Arsenal in all competitions\n\nDomestically, Mead was in superb form for her club, Arsenal, before the tournament, scoring 14 goals and providing 19 assists in 40 appearances in the 2021-22 campaign, as the Gunners came agonisingly close to a first Women's Super League title since 2019 but finished second to Chelsea by one point.\n\nMead's 2022-23 campaign was shaping up to be just as prolific but has been cut short after she sustained an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury against Manchester United in November, putting her hopes of playing at next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in doubt.\n\nPresented by Gary Lineker, Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott, the Sports Personality of the Year 2022 was broadcast live from MediaCityUK, Salford.", "Health Secretary Steve Barclay would like to ensure the process for deciding next year's pay deal for NHS staff in England is not dragged out.\n\nSources close to Mr Barclay say he wants no delay in getting pay levels set for the year from April 2023.\n\nBut the unions say strikes are about this year's pay offer, which Mr Barclay is refusing to negotiate on.\n\nThey are urging him to do \"the sensible, grown-up thing\" and talk about pay now.\n\nUnions have also questioned the independence of the pay review body, arguing it is appointed by the government, which sets the parameters of the review, including the NHS budget.\n\nThe GMB union, which represents some ambulance workers, has said it will not engage with the process next year.\n\nThe UK is facing a wave of strike action over pay, including by nurses and ambulance workers, who have both walked out for one day this week.\n\nA recommendation from the pay review body would usually come in April, with any pay rise being implemented from August.\n\nMr Barclay's desire for the process not to be dragged out was first reported by the Telegraph.\n\nSources close to the health secretary said sometimes it could take time for NHS staff to see the benefit of any pay rise in their wages.\n\nThey said he would seek to encourage those involved in the process to ensure this did not happen.\n\nHowever, they stressed that Mr Barclay was not in control of the process and its timing, with the pay review body, the unions and other parts of government also playing a role.\n\nSara Gorton, head of health at the Unison union, said the pay review process was \"no longer delivering for NHS staff or the government\" and called for \"direct talks with ministers\" over pay.\n\nShe said NHS staff in England and Wales had to wait until September to get a pay rise which was due in April and accused the government of deliberately holding back the review's findings until after the increase was due.\n\nA GMB spokesperson said: \"The government needs to talk pay now - not kick the can down the road into an already discredited process.\"\n\nIn a letter to the chairwoman of the NHS Pay Review body in November, Mr Barclay said the government was hoping to \"expediate the process as much as possible\" for the coming year.\n\nIf the body did report earlier next year, Matthew Taylor, head of the NHS Confederation, which represents the healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said this could help make negotiations easier.\n\nAt that point he said the situation could be \"more benign\", with inflation hopefully coming down.\n\nWhile he said this would not help the current dispute, Mr Taylor told the BBC: \"Next year, the situation could be better. So can the government and the trade unions find some kind of compromise to avoid further industrial action this winter?\"\n\nThe NHS pay review body takes evidence from government departments, unions and experts before making a recommendation, which is not legally binding.\n\nMartin Williams, who used to lead the Office of Manpower Economics, a part of the civil service which feeds into the pay review bodies, said the government could speed up the process by producing evidence promptly and publishing the body's recommendations more quickly.\n\nNurses also took strike action earlier this week\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is calling for a 19% pay rise, which it says would make up for years of real-terms pay cuts.\n\nAmbulance unions also want pay increases to keep up with the rising cost of living but have not asked for a specific figure.\n\nInflation, the rate at which prices rise, is currently 10.7% - a near 40-year high.\n\nBut no UK nation has offered NHS pay increases at this level, with ministers arguing this would be unaffordable and make inflation worse.\n\nOn Wednesday, paramedics, ambulance control room staff and support workers, who are members of the Unison, GMB and Unite unions, walked out across much of England and Wales.\n\nMore strike action is planned for 28 December.\n\nA bitter war of words between the two sides has escalated, after Mr Barclay said ambulance unions had \"taken a conscious choice to inflict harm on patients\", which Unite branded \"a blatant lie\".\n\nHospitals were quieter than normal during Wednesday's ambulance strikes, with many appearing to heed warnings to only call 999 in an emergency.\n\nBut health bosses have warned Thursday is likely to be \"very challenging\" as people who have put off treatment during strikes turn up at hospitals.\n\nThe RCN is also involved in an ongoing industrial dispute over pay and has staged two days of walkouts in England, Northern Ireland and Wales in December.\n\nUnions have warned of more strikes in the new year if the government does not agree to negotiate on pay.", "Carter was asked to be a mascot in September by Wrexham striker Paul Mullin\n\nA boy whose parents were told he would not walk until he was seven has defied the odds and is playing in his first pair of football boots, aged four.\n\nCarter was diagnosed with a form of cerebral palsy called spastic diplegia when he was 18 months old.\n\nNow, three years earlier than doctors predicted, he is enjoying a kickabout in his first pair of football boots.\n\nThe Wrexham season ticket holder hopes to use his new boots to \"play just like\" his hero, striker Paul Mullin.\n\nHis mother Alison Murphy, 26, said her son could not wait to get his new boots on when he got them this week: \"We tried them on him and as soon as he got them on he got a little ball in the house and started kicking it about.\"\n\nMs Murphy said being able to give her son his new boots has \"made her Christmas\".\n\n\"When I take him to school they've got a little goal there and he has to play football before he goes in,\" she said.\n\n\"He's now been tackling his friends in school and coming home covered in mud - which is making me very happy because I know he's happy.\"\n\nCarter was absolutely delighted with his new football boots\n\nShe described a \"difficult few months\" trying to get her son football boots as the splint he wears means he has to wear a pair \"three or four sizes\" too big to accommodate them.\n\n\"We went into a shop on the off chance that we would find some that would possibly fit his splints. We took them home, and they fit him perfectly.\"\n\nEarlier this season, Carter was personally invited by Wrexham striker Mullin to be his mascot.\n\n\"I make quite a few TikToks about Carter because there's quite a few other parents who don't have support or anybody else to talk to,\" said Ms Murphy.\n\n\"I put one on Twitter and Paul Mullin saw it - he messaged me in August and asked for Carter to be his mascot in September a week after his birthday.\"\n\n\"We go to watch Wrexham every week,\" said Carter's mum\n\nMs Murphy is now looking for ways for Carter to put his new boots into action.\n\n\"He's been offered to go to a football club in Oldham - they have a cerebral palsy football team. So we are thinking about that,\" she said.\n\n\"He wants to go and practice his football now - so we're going to take him to a field by where we live.\n\n\"His dad practises with him - he passes him the ball for him to score the goal.\"\n\nCarter got some trainers to wear as a Wrexham mascot which are specifically designed for children with cerebral palsy", "A brief history of the war in Ukraine\n\nLet's step away from the White House briefly, for a wider look at ten months of conflict. Russia sent up to 200,000 soldiers into Ukraine on 24 February - the biggest invasion in Europe since World War Two. It made unfounded claims of Nazis and genocide in the neighbouring country. It also opposed Ukraine joining the Western Nato military alliance. Its hope was to capture the capital Kyiv and depose the government in a matter of days. Its forces quickly captured big stretches of territory, but crucially they failed to take Kyiv. In the subsequent months, Moscow's troops were forced into a series of retreats, first in the north and then in the south. To date, they've lost more than half the territory seized at the start of the invasion. Putin, on the backfoot, announced a \"partial mobilisation\" of some 300,000 troops in September and declared four \"annexed\" Ukrainian regions as being Russian territory. Russian soldiers have been accused of numerous abuses during the fighting - which Ukraine has suggested amount to genocide. Moscow denies such allegations.\n• Read more background from our Europe editor Paul Kirby", "A US Patriot missile system used in a joint training mission with Israel in 2018\n\nUkraine will get an advanced US-built Patriot defence missile system to try to counter Russian missile and drone attacks, the White House has confirmed ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington on Wednesday.\n\nSince the start of the war in February, many Western air defences have been sent in - from man-portable Stinger shoulder-launched missiles, through to more advanced radar-guided and other heat-seeking systems. All provide a comprehensive level of protection against different threats.\n\nPatriots are another step on that same path - and one which will antagonise Moscow.\n\nThey're not a silver bullet, but they are extremely capable, effective and expensive. One Patriot missile costs around $3m - three times the cost of a missile in a NASAMS (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System). Two NASAM systems have been in operation in Ukraine for several weeks.\n\nThe new Patriot missile battery \"will be a critical asset to defend the Ukrainian people against Russia's barbaric attacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure\", the White House said in a briefing.\n\nPatriots were used against Iraq's Russian-made Scud missiles during the first Gulf War and have been continuously developed since by Raytheon Technologies. They come in batteries that include a command centre, a radar station to detect incoming threats - and launchers.\n\nRanges to target reportedly vary between 40km to 160km (100 miles), depending on the type of missile used. And they are what's termed \"point defence\" systems: generally designed to defend particular areas such as cities or important infrastructures - in other words high-value assets.\n\nThe US announcement refers to a single unit comprising a radar station, control system and, of course, the missile launchers.\n\nIt is likely to be placed around a high value asset or key city for additional protection. We will not know where, as once Western systems are in Ukrainian hands they effectively become Ukrainian property, under the command of the country's military.\n\nNo US or other Nato troops can operate these systems inside Ukraine, so like other Western weapons Ukrainian forces will have to be trained to use them - and that training will take place outside of their country. Such training could already be well under way and, more broadly, the US military has said it will expand its training for Ukrainian forces in Germany from January.\n\nMoscow has called any plans to deploy Patriots \"a provocation\" and a further expansion of the United States' military involvement in Ukraine. Russia indicated that such missiles would become what it called \"legitimate targets\" for missile strikes, something that has been said before in this war.\n\nThe decision to send a battery is a clear statement that Washington remains committed to doing what is required for Ukraine to try to protect itself. Iran's involvement in supplying Russia with attack drones and perhaps other weapons increases the concern. The net effect is more advanced Western systems into Ukraine, something Moscow did not want to happen.\n\nPrecisely what overall effect Patriot systems will have is difficult to say.\n\nThey will certainly provide an additional layer of protection, but their size and expense means that few units will be able to be sent.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The missiles Ukraine prosecutors say are being kept as evidence", "Last year crowds gathered for the ceremony which took place during the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee\n\nThe Princess of Wales and Queen Consort have been given ceremonial military roles as part of plans for the King's first Trooping the Colour.\n\nThe parade marks the monarch's official birthday and will be on 17 June next year.\n\nThey will be watched by Catherine, who is now the Colonel of the Irish Guards, and Camilla, who replaces Prince Andrew as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards.\n\nThe Col of the Grenadier Guards role has been vacant since the Duke of York was stripped of his military titles following the fallout over sexual assault allegations, claims he made no admission of liability for and has always denied.\n\nThe role now held by the Princess of Wales was previously held by her husband.\n\nWilliam takes on the role previously held by his father of Colonel of the Welsh Guards.\n\nThe ceremony will come weeks after the King's coronation on 6 May.\n\nThe pageantry of Trooping the Colour has marked the monarch's official birthday for more than 260 years.\n\nMore than 1,400 soldiers will parade, with 200 horses and hundreds of army musicians taking part in a ceremony marked by military precision, horsemanship and fanfare.\n\nThe parade takes place at Horse Guards Parade, before the royal party return up The Mall for a Royal Air Force fly-past they will watch from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.\n\nLast year, the King, then the Prince of Wales, took the salute and inspected guards on behalf of his mother, the late Queen, in the ceremony which fell during her Platinum Jubilee Celebrations.\n\nThe Princess of Wales has been named the new Colonel of the Irish Guards\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Sam Bankman-Fried was led in handcuffs to the plane\n\nSam Bankman-Fried, former boss of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has arrived by plane in New York from the Bahamas to face fraud charges.\n\nThe 30-year-old was extradited on suspicion of committing \"one of the biggest financial frauds in US history\", US authorities have said.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried, who denies the allegations, may appear in court later on Thursday morning.\n\nTwo of his former associates have pleaded guilty to related charges.\n\nFTX co-founder Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, former head of cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research, were both charged with \"roles in the frauds that contributed to FTX's collapse\", Damian Williams, attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced.\n\nThey are both now co-operating with the Southern District of New York, he said in a video as court documents were released.\n\nA lawyer for Mr Wang said his client had accepted responsibility for his actions and took seriously his obligations as a co-operating witness.\n\n\"Samuel Bankman-Fried is now in FBI custody and is on his way back to the United States,\" Mr Williams said. \"He will be transported directly to the Southern District of New York and he will appear in court before a judge in this district as soon as possible.\"\n\n\"If you participated in misconduct at FTX or Alameda, now is the time to get ahead of it,\" he added. \"We are moving quickly and our patience is not eternal.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by US Attorney SDNY This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by US Attorney SDNY\n\nMs Ellison and Mr Wang face separate charges from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).\n\nLast week, Mr Bankman-Fried was also charged with \"orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX\". The SEC said the man who was formerly nicknamed the \"King Of Crypto\" had built a \"house of cards on a foundation of deception\".\n\n\"As alleged, Mr. Bankman-Fried, Ms. Ellison, and Mr. Wang were active participants in a scheme to conceal material information from FTX investors, including through the efforts of Mr. Bankman-Fried and Ms. Ellison to artificially prop up the value of FTT [FTX's in-house token], which served as collateral for undisclosed loans that Alameda took out from FTX pursuant to its undisclosed, and virtually unlimited, line of credit,\" according to Sanjay Wadhwa, deputy director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.\n\n\"By surreptitiously siphoning FTX's customer funds onto the books of Alameda, defendants hid the very real risks that FTX's investors and customers faced.\"\n\nFTX has filed for bankruptcy, leaving many people unable to withdraw funds.\n\nAccording to a court filing, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors almost $3.1bn (£2.5bn).\n\nAmong the most serious allegations against Mr Bankman-Fried is that he used billions of dollars of customer funds to prop up Alameda.\n\nLast week, Mr Williams said Mr Bankman-Fried was accused one of the largest frauds in US history.\n\nThe FTX founder was also accused of using \"tens of millions\" in ill-gotten gains for illegal campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans alike, Mr Williams said.\n\nFTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was once nicknamed the \"King of Crypto\"\n\nHowever, Mr Bankman-Fried has sought to distance himself from accusations of illegal activity and in a BBC News interview before his arrest said: \"I didn't knowingly commit fraud. I don't think I committed fraud. I didn't want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Are crypto-currencies the future of money?\n\nMr Bankman-Fried has also denied allegations he must have been aware that Alameda was using FTX customer funds.\n\nThe FTX exchange allowed customers to trade normal money for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.\n\nCryptocurrencies are not traditional currencies, but are stored online and act more like investment vehicles or securities - often with a high degree of volatility.\n\nFTX had an estimated 1.2 million registered users who were using the exchange, but many have been left wondering if they will ever get back their cash trapped in FTX's digital wallets.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried was once viewed as a young version of legendary US investor Warren Buffett, and as recently as late October had a net worth estimated at more than $15bn.", "The council said trees were planted to commemorate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee earlier this year\n\nA council has condemned the vandalism of a memorial installed in a park for the late Queen Elizabeth II.\n\nNorth West Leicestershire District Council said it planted some trees in Coalville Park to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee this year before the monarch's death in September.\n\nA spokesperson said the trees and a memorial plaque had now been destroyed.\n\nAnyone with any information on the vandalism has been asked to contact police.\n\nThe trees were planted in May as part of the work to commemorate the Queen's 70-year reign, and improve the north-eastern corner of the park.\n\nThe council said it had cleared the damage, installed more security cameras and reported the vandalism to police.\n\nThe authority's community services spokesman Andrew Woodman described the damage as \"an abhorrent act of vandalism.\"\n\nThe council said more than eight trees, planters and benches in the park had been damaged or stolen across the year, costing it more than £1,200 in repairs.\n\nLeicestershire Police said it had received a report of criminal damage which is believed to have happened on Sunday and inquiries had been carried out by local officers.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Seán Rooney's mother Natasha says he is a national hero and gave her a sense of purpose\n\nThe death of an Irish soldier killed on a UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has \"pierced the hearts of his family\", mourners at his funeral were told.\n\nPte Seán Rooney was in an armoured vehicle that came under fire while travelling to Beirut on 14 December.\n\nHis funeral was held on Thursday in the Church of the Holy Family in Dundalk, County Louth.\n\nFollowing the service, the coffin travelled to Aiken Barracks in County Louth, where he had been stationed.\n\nThe funeral cortège then travelled to Newtowncunningham, County Donegal, for the burial ceremony.\n\nThe coffin, carried by members of 27 Infantry, in which Pte Rooney served, was transferred from the hearse to a gun carriage.\n\nA lone piper played as the procession made its way to the cemetery at All Saints Catholic Church.\n\nThe funeral of Pte Rooney was held in County Louth on Thursday morning\n\nIrish President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar were among the mourners present earlier at the funeral service in County Louth\n\nIrish Defence Minister Micheál Martin, chief of staff of the Irish Defence Forces Lt Gen Seán Clancy and colleagues of Pte Rooney from Lebanon were also in attendance.\n\nPriest Fr Derek Ryan told mourners, including Pte Rooney's mother Natasha, father Paul, grandparents and fiancée Holly McConnellogue, the UN soldier was \"immersed in family life\".\n\nHe was \"wise beyond his years\", Fr Ryan added.\n\n\"When Sean was killed last week, it really did pierce the heart of his family and this close-hearted community, and even the town of Dundalk.\n\n\"It's not talked about a lot but families who have sons and daughters serving abroad, they know the risks and dangers that are always present in regions of conflict.\"\n\nMembers of the Irish Defence forces were among those to attend the funeral in Dundalk\n\nPte Rooney's mother Natasha said her son was kind and loving had done wonderful things in his short life.\n\nShe said there were no words \"strong or great enough to express the love I have for Sean and how proud I was\".\n\n\"He is a national hero,\" she said.\n\nIn a statement read by Fr Ryan, Ms McConnellogue said Pte Rooney, who was 24, would have become a \"fantastic husband and father\".\n\nThe couple had been due to marry next year.\n\n\"Seán always encouraged me in my work and my studies and everything in life,\" she said.\n\n\"He believed I could do anything - he made me feel I could do anything,\" she said.\n\nPresident of Ireland Michael D Higgins was among the mourners\n\nEarlier, hundreds of people lined the streets as Pte Rooney's coffin was carried the short distance from his grandparents' home in Dundalk.\n\n\"No-one in this community would ever have thought that your walk across Hoey's Lane to come to your beloved church would be such a difficult walk,\" Fr Ryan said.\n\nThe soldier's body will be taken to All Saints Catholic Church in Colehill, County Donegal, for a burial service with full military honours later on Thursday.\n\nThe cortege crossed the border from the Republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland on its way to Donegal\n\nIrish broadcaster RTÉ reported that dispensation had been given for the Irish Defence Forces to wear uniforms while accompanying Pte Rooney's coffin as it makes its way through Northern Ireland towards County Donegal.\n\nPte Rooney was repatriated to Ireland on Monday following a UN ceremony to honour him in Beirut the previous day.\n\nThree separate investigations are being conducted into the incident by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, Lebanese authorities led by a military prosecutor and the Irish Defence Forces.\n\nBoth the Irish and UN flags were used to cover Pte Rooney's coffin\n\nIt is understood the vehicle was surrounded by a mob and fired on while travelling to Beirut at about 21:00 on 14 December.\n\nAnother soldier who was seriously injured in the same attack was returned home to the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday.\n\nTrooper Shane Kearney, who suffered a head injury, was flown by a medical aircraft from Beirut Airport to Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, then taken to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.\n\nTrooper Kearney is in a stable condition, the Irish Defence Forces have said.", "President Putin said Russia would not militarise the country's economy\n\nVladimir Putin believes Russia is not to blame for the war in Ukraine, adding both countries are \"sharing a tragedy\".\n\nDuring a televised address with senior military officials, the Russian president said he continued to see Ukraine as a \"brotherly nation\".\n\nIn February, President Putin sent up to 200,000 troops into Ukraine sparking a war which has led to tens of thousands of deaths.\n\nHe argued the conflict was \"the result of the policy of third countries\".\n\nThe theory, which implies Western expansion is the cause, has been repeatedly dismissed outside Russia.\n\nDuring his address President Putin said the West had \"brainwashed\" post-Soviet republics, starting with Ukraine.\n\nHe said: \"For years, we tried to build good-neighbourly relations with Ukraine, offering loans and cheap energy, but it did not work.\"\n\nPresident Putin's longstanding concerns appear to stem from Nato's growth since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.\n\nNato's original goal was to challenge Russian expansion after World War Two, but the Kremlin has long argued Nato's acceptance of former Soviet allies as members threatens its security.\n\nTensions between the Kremlin and the West increased after the overthrow of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, following months of street protests.\n\nIn his address President Putin continued: \"There's nothing to accuse us of. We've always seen Ukrainians as a brotherly people and I still think so.\n\n\"What's happening now is a tragedy, but it's not our fault.\"\n\nRussia has launched more than 1,000 missiles and Iranian-made attack drones in a wave of strikes on Ukraine's power infrastructure which began on 10 October.\n\nThe attacks have plunged millions into darkness.\n\nMilitary officials vowed to continue the \"special military operation\" into 2023.\n\nWhen Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February, President Putin promised only professional soldiers would take part.\n\nBut by September that had all changed as he announced a \"partial mobilisation\", potentially drafting hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens into the armed forces.\n\nNow, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has proposed raising the age range for mandatory Russian military service.\n\nUnder the current law, Russians aged 18-27 can be called up for mandatory military service - Mr Shoigu is now proposing this covers citizens aged 21-30.\n\nMr Shoigu also announced plans to establish bases in two port cities - Berdyansk and Mariupol - seized during the Russian offensive.\n\nBut, in recent months Ukrainian forces have made a series of major advances, including retaking Kherson - the only regional capital captured by Russian forces since the invasion.\n\nThe address came as Ukrainian leader Volodmyr Zelensky arrived in Washington for his first visit outside of Ukraine since Russia invaded 10 months ago.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky has been tethered to Ukrainian soil ever since Russia invaded his country nearly 10 months ago.\n\nWhile he has given multiple speeches to foreign leaders and assemblies, they've all been via video conference, usually with the Ukrainian leader sitting in a nondescript, windowless room, clothed in his trademark olive-green military garb.\n\nNow, Mr Zelensky has made his first trip abroad - to Washington - and while the attire was the same, the venue had all the regalia of American power.\n\nIn the run-up to war, Russia had tried to convince Ukrainians that the US was using their country as a geopolitical pawn - and that Americans would abandon them, as they did their Afghan allies.\n\nTen months and approximately $65bn in US aid later, US President Joe Biden and Mr Zelensky sat in the Oval Office, smiling and exchanging pleasantries, intent on proving those Russian insinuations had been - and would continue to be - false.\n\n\"This year has brought so much needless suffering and loss to the Ukrainian people,\" Mr Biden said at their joint press conference in the White House. \"But I want you to know, President Zelensky, the American people are with you every step of the way. And we will stay with you.\"\n\nThey were powerful words, but they belie a reality that is more complicated.\n\nUS allies are facing a long, hard winter of high energy prices and accompanying economic pain. And American public support for US aid to Ukraine, while still high, has eroded since the early days of the war. A third of Americans in a recent survey said they do not back continued US aid to Ukraine. And half said they wanted Ukraine to settle for peace \"as soon as possible\".\n\nWith this high-profile meeting in Washington, Mr Zelensky and Mr Biden are seeking to demonstrate to the Ukrainian and American people, to Western allies, to Russian President Vladimir Putin and to the world - that US support for Ukraine is strong and durable.\n\nThe pair joked at a joint news conference at the White House\n\nThroughout their joint press conference, Mr Biden and Mr Zelensky tried to characterise American aid as serving a larger purpose. The American president described Russia's attack on Ukraine as an attack on \"liberty and democracy and the core principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity\" - one that demanded a robust American response.\n\nMr Zelensky, for his part, mixed gravitas and humour as he spoke with Mr Biden and to the American people. Occasionally switching into serviceable English to accentuate the connection with his audience, he called the US aid to Ukraine an \"investment\" that will strengthen global security.\n\nIt was an interesting choice of words - and one he repeated in his address to Congress. American aid was not \"charity\", but money spent with a purpose and a potential for future return.\n\nThe future of the American \"investment\" in Ukraine, however, is not in Mr Biden's hands alone. And while the White House meeting was a pleasant photo opportunity, the real work for Mr Zelensky came in his address to Congress - to the legislators who hold the purse strings of American military and economic aid.\n\nOver the course of this year, Congress has approved approximately $67bn in economic and military and economic assistance to Ukraine. A 2023 spending package Congress is poised to pass this week includes an additional $45bn in Ukraine aid.\n\nSecuring further aid in the new year, however, could be a challenge.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nIn May, 57 Republicans in the 435-seat House of Representatives and 11 in the 100-seat Senate voted against a stand-alone aid package, and polls indicate Republican support for continued assistance has eroded since then. In a survey conducted in November, just over half of Republican voters supported aid to Ukraine - down from 80% in March.\n\nSome Republicans on the midterm election campaign trail last month openly wondered why the US was spending so much money on a distant country, instead of funding border security and fighting crime at home.\n\nThe midterms have brought in 86 new members of the House and seven new senators. Mr Zelensky's speech can also be viewed as an introduction to these new legislators and a pitch for their support. Coaxing further aid out of the House may prove the greater challenge - but in his speech to Congress he was willing to try.\n\n\"We have artillery. Is it enough? Not really,\" Mr Zelensky said, to some mutters from the congressional audience. \"For the Russian army to completely pull out, more guns and shells are needed.\"\n\nProspective House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has already expressed concern about any further \"blank cheques\" for Ukraine. And there was public incredulity among some House Republicans in Congress when Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that Ukraine aid was the \"number one priority\" for his party.\n\nMr Zelensky, Donald Trump Jr tweeted on Wednesday, was \"basically an ungrateful international welfare queen\" - summing up what is becoming an increasingly prevalent view among the former president's \"America first\" supporters.\n\nMr Zelensky doesn't need further aid to Ukraine to be at the top of Republican's to-do list in the new year, but his trip to Washington is a high-profile effort to ensure that it doesn't drop off the agenda entirely.", "China reported coronavirus-linked five deaths on Tuesday as Covid-19 cases spread\n\nHospitals in China appear to be filling up amid concerns about a fresh Covid-19 wave hitting the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.\n\nDr Michael Ryan says intensive care units (ICU) are busy despite officials saying numbers are \"relatively low\".\n\nChina figures show no-one died of Covid on Wednesday but there is scepticism about the disease's real impact.\n\nIn recent days hospitals in Beijing and other cities have been filling up as the latest Covid surge hits China.\n\nSince 2020, China has imposed strict health restrictions as part of its zero Covid policy.\n\nBut, the government ended most of those measures two weeks ago after landmark protests against the strict controls.\n\nThe number of cases has since soared, raising fears of a high mortality rate among the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable.\n\nDespite the rise, the official figures show only five people died from Covid on Tuesday and two on Monday.\n\nIt has led to WHO emergencies chief Dr Ryan urging China to provide more information about the latest spread of the virus.\n\nHe said: \"In China, what's been reported is relatively low numbers of cases in ICUs, but anecdotally ICUs are filling up.\n\n\"We've been saying this for weeks that this highly infectious virus was always going to be very hard to stop completely, with just public health and social measures.\"\n\nSpeaking during a weekly news conference in Geneva WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he is \"very concerned over the evolving situation in China\".\n\nHe appealed for specific data on disease severity, hospital admissions and intensive care requirements.\n\nDr Ryan added that \"vaccination is the exit strategy\" to coronavirus outbreaks.\n\nChina has developed and produced its own vaccines, which have been shown to be less effective at protecting people against serious Covid illness and death than the mRNA vaccines used in much of the rest of the world.\n\nHis comments come as the German government announced on Wednesday it had sent its first batch of BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to China.\n\nChancellor Olaf Scholz (L) pressed for German BioNTech vaccines to be made available to Chinese citizens\n\nThe German vaccines are to be administered initially to expats in China - estimated to be about 20,000.\n\nIt is the first foreign Covid-19 vaccine to be delivered to China, although no details have been released about the time or the size of the delivery.\n\nLast month during a visit to Beijing, Chancellor Olaf Scholz pressed for the vaccine to be made freely available to Chinese citizens as well.", "Worthy 87.7 FM has been found to have breached Ofcom rules\n\nOfcom has ruled the on-site radio station for Glastonbury Festival breached rules for playing a song which contained racially offensive language.\n\nThe regulator decided Worthy 87.7 FM breached standards for playing an unedited version of Miss Understood by rap artist Little Simz.\n\nThe track was played on 23 June this year at 18.41 BST.\n\nThe station apologised for the error but not immediately after the song was played, as presenters missed it.\n\nThe song contained two words, one of which was deemed to be \"racially offensive\" and another deemed to be \"the most offensive\" language.\n\nThe lack of on-air apology was deemed a \"heightened\" factor in Ofcom's ruling - issued on 19 December - that the words would cause offence.\n\nIt judged the song used \"offensive language, including the most offensive language\" and was \"broadcast at a time when children were particularly likely to be listening and when listeners of all ages would not expect to hear it\".\n\nOfcom also ruled the use of \"racially offensive language was not justified by the context\" and was therefore in breach.\n\nOfcom said rules 1.14, 1.6 and 2.3 were breached.\n\nPresenters were not aware they were not playing the radio-safe version of the song by Little Simz, pictured\n\nThe licensee, Joanne Schofield, apologised during Ofcom's investigation and accepted \"a mistake was made in playing\" the song.\n\nThe station only plays music from artists who are appearing or have appeared at the festival.\n\nThe mistake occurred when presenters wanted to promote Little Simz headline slot and searched the radio's computer, not realising it searched all tracks - not just safe-for-radio ones.\n\nThe song had not been in the playout library and was in a \"non-compliant electronic folder of tracks containing bad language\".\n\nBut presenters believed they were searching Worthy FM's music folder and not the whole computer, so thought the track was safe to play.\n\nThe radio team were then busy greeting the next guests, and did not realise the song contained bad language, therefore missing the opportunity to \"fade it down immediately and apologise on air\", Ofcom said.\n\nWorthy FM's licensee told Ofcom changes would be made, including the strengthening of compliance controls in light of the incident, the computer only containing safe songs and the studio being treated as a closed set to minimise presenter distraction.\n\nThey added the broadcast desk will not have access to the internet to ensure only broadcasting content is played, and only authorised people can add content to the computer with daily reminders of controls given to crews.\n\nOfcom acknowledged the song was played in error and the radio station has taken steps to ensure the mistake is not repeated.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n• None Standards Decision - Get Your Glasto On, Worthy 87.7 FM The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Christmas is especially difficult for students with children, according to University of Wales Trinity St David\n\nMeal deals and extra support for mental health are part of a university's response to higher living costs.\n\nUniversity of Wales Trinity St David (UWTSD) has seen a \"significant increase\" in the number of applications for hardship funds.\n\nThe university, in south-west Wales, said Christmas was especially difficult for students with children.\n\nThe Welsh government said it offered the \"most generous student support in the UK\".\n\nOne student said the higher costs were limiting opportunities to socialise and take part in trips and clubs.\n\nThe students' union at UWTSD's Carmarthen campus has also seen more people coming to them for advice about money.\n\nFfion Anderson is in her final year of a primary education degree and said money was a big topic of conversation with friends.\n\nMs Anderson said money was a big topic of conversation with friends\n\nMs Anderson lives at home but said her friends had struggled to pay rent and opted out of social activities with friends.\n\n\"It limits the freedom students have to enjoy, to go on nights out and trips with the university - it limits a lot,\" she said.\n\nTaya Gibbons, president of the students' union, said it was a \"scary time\".\n\nRent for university accommodation has been frozen this year, but Ms Gibbons said students living in private rentals had struggled.\n\n\"We've got students coming to us who've only got £50 when they've paid all their bills.\"\n\nMs Gibbons said students have little money left after they have paid their bills\n\nMs Gibbons said going out and socialising should not be considered a luxury and was \"something that students should be able to do\".\n\nBoth Ms Gibbons and Ms Anderson said maintenance support from the government was not sufficient to cover costs.\n\nA high proportion of students at the university, which has three main campuses in Lampeter, Carmarthen and Swansea, are older and many have families.\n\nThe university's Rhys Dart says says Christmas is a pinch point as students wait until January for their next instalment of finance\n\n\"We've seen an increase in stress and anxiety, which is easy to understand if you're struggling to pay your bills and if you're struggling to feed your family,\" said Rhys Dart, the university's director of student service.\n\nThe university has expanded its wellbeing services and more students are applying for bursaries.\n\n\"Lots of our students are mature, so they've got the same pressures that we've got in terms of family life and heating and feeding the family, and then pressures of study on top as well.\"\n\nIn the university canteens, a new deal offering soup and a roll for £1 has been introduced.\n\nThe university has opened up a food hub and is offering soup and a roll for £1 for students and staff\n\nA food hub offers items for free for students or staff who need it, \"no questions asked\".\n\n\"We know that if students are going to lectures hungry they're not going to get the best out of their lectures, and we want to do all we can to support them,\" said Kelly Williams, who is in charge of facilities.\n\nUniversities Wales said institutions across Wales were \"proactively\" helping struggling students through financial and practical support such as \"financial education workshops, warm spaces, and the provision of free food and grocery items\".\n\nDirector Amanda Wilkinson said it was a particularly difficult time for students \"from low-income backgrounds with caring responsibilities or estranged families\".\n\nThe Welsh government said it understood the extra cost of living pressures on students.\n\nIt said grants and loans increase each year in line with the National Living Wage and universities had put extra help in place.\n\n\"Anyone who's struggling financially should contact their students' union or student support services,\" it added in a statement.", "It is the week when families across the UK gear up for Christmas - but before settling down to turkey and sprouts there will be further industrial action to deal with first.\n\nIn the coming days, ambulance drivers, nurses, driving examiners and highway workers will all be striking.\n\nThen a fresh walkout by postal workers will disrupt last-minute deliveries of cards and presents - while further stoppages on the railways from Christmas Eve will make travelling home a challenge for many.\n\nThis is a bumper edition of my latest strike briefing, with lots of useful information on what is happening - and how it might affect you.\n\nSo what is the week ahead looking like?\n\nAcross England, Wales and Northern Ireland, nurses from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union are walking out on Tuesday 20 December.\n\nThe strike will involve staff in about a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all health boards in Northern Ireland and all but one in Wales.\n\nUnder trade union laws, life-preserving care has to be provided - so all nursing staff are expected to work in services such as intensive and emergency care.\n\nBut the action will affect routine services, such as planned operations, district nursing and mental health care.\n\nWatch Make Sense of Strikes on iPlayer and find out more about why people are striking and whether industrial action works.\n\nAmbulance staff across most of England and Wales will go on strike on Wednesday 21 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nThe co-ordinated walkout by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls only.\n\nHowever, it could mean people who have had trips and falls not being responded to.\n\nNational Highways traffic officers in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) working in London and the south-east of England will stop work from 22 to 25 December.\n\nThe strike will involve control centre staff. Traffic officers who work in the aftermath of accidents will also stop work.\n\nPCS says its rolling programme of strike action \"will have a significant impact\". However, National Highways says no roads will be closed and it has \"well-rehearsed resilience plans in place\".\n\nThe next strikes by Royal Mail staff are due to take place on 23 and 24 December - some of the busiest days for pre-Christmas deliveries.\n\nOn strike days Royal Mail says it will not be able to deliver first and second-class letters.\n\nHowever, it will deliver as many parcels and Special Delivery letters as possible.\n\nRoyal Mail delivery offices and customer service points will be closed. Letters will not be collected from post boxes.\n\nBorder Force staff are going on strike for eight days over Christmas at Heathrow and Gatwick airports.\n\nBirmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Manchester airports, as well as the port of Newhaven, will also be affected.\n\nThe strike will take place from 23-26 and 28-31 December.\n\nHeathrow has warned passport checks may take longer on strike days. The government says travellers could face \"serious disruption\".\n\nAnd if you're thinking about booking a last-minute flight, here is an extra spanner in the works - British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have stopped selling new tickets for inbound flights to Heathrow on the days of the Border Force strikes.\n\nThe RMT rail workers' union has announced further strikes from 18:00 GMT on Saturday 24 until 06:00 GMT on Tuesday 27 December.\n\nPrevious strikes by the RMT have had a major impact on services throughout England, Scotland and Wales.\n\nNetwork Rail says passengers should check their train-operating company's website and only travel if absolutely necessary.\n\nDrivers in south and west London who are in the Unite union and work for operator Abellio will walk out on 24 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nCivil servants in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) - including driving examiners and some job centre workers - are striking most days until early January.\n\nBut the industrial action is regional - with different areas affected each week. This week, until 24 December, the walk-outs will be in north-west England and Yorkshire and the Humber.\n\nSome vehicle testing and enforcement services might also be unavailable.\n\nCheck out our full rundown of all the December and January strikes.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Nurses in Scotland are set to strike after voting down the latest pay offer for NHS workers.\n\nRoyal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland members rejected an average increase of 7.5%. The union said it was planning for industrial action and would announce dates early next year.\n\nRoyal College of Midwives (RCM) members also rejected the pay deal.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said he was disappointed but would continue negotiations with unions.\n\nIn the RCN ballot that closed on Monday, 82% voted against the offer.\n\nThe union, which has more than 30,000 NHS members in Scotland, had asked for an increase of at least 5% above inflation - which is currently 10.7%.\n\nJulie Lamberth, RCN Scotland board chair, said nurses had \"forcefully rejected\" the deal.\n\nShe added: \"Make no mistake - we do not want to go on strike. Years of being undervalued and understaffed have left us feeling we have been left with no option because enough is enough.\n\n\"The ball is in Scottish government's court if strike action is going to be avoided.\"\n\nNurses in Scotland are planning industrial action after rejecting the latest pay offer\n\nLast month, ministers tabled an improved pay offer averaging 7.5% to health workers threatening industrial action.\n\nAnnual salary rises under the proposal would range from a flat rate payment of £2,205 for staff in Bands 1 to 4 and up to £2,660 for staff in Bands 5 to 7, backdated to April.\n\nThis represents an increase of 11.3% for the lowest paid workers and delivers an average uplift of 7.5%.\n\nUnite and Unison chose to accept the deal, however, the GMB union became the first to reject it last week.\n\nThe deal was also rejected by 65% of midwives who voted in the RCM ballot. The union, which has about 3,000 members in Scotland, said it was considering industrial action.\n\nJaki Lambert, RCM director for Scotland, said: \"Our members have spoken loud and clear - the latest pay offer by the Scottish government is simply not good enough. It goes nowhere near addressing the rising cost of living and would see many midwives actually worse off in real terms.\n\n\"Our members have been consistent throughout this process - they want a decent deal, and they are prepared to take industrial action to get one.\n\n\"No midwife wants to do this and it is for the Scottish government to make sure that they do not feel that they are left with no other option.\"\n\nThe rejection of this pay offer by such a high proportion of RCN members will be a real blow for the Scottish government, which had billed it as the best and highest offer in the UK.\n\nIt will also be disappointing for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon after she had personally intervened, meeting nursing leaders to see if there was anything that could be done to get this deal over the line.\n\nIt now leaves a complicated picture here in Scotland because some other unions, including Unison, who also represent some of the nursing workforce, have accepted the offer. Others like GMB, who represent ambulance staff, have turned it down.\n\nI'm told there is a willingness on all sides to get back round the table and see if any more can be done, but it is hard to see where such negotiations can go.\n\nStrikes in the new year are still not inevitable, but it they are growing ever more likely.\n\nHumza Yousaf said the government had made its \"best and final pay offer\" to NHS staff.\n\nThe health secretary said: \"While I am naturally disappointed the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Nursing have rejected this offer, I respect the voice of their membership.\n\n\"We have engaged tirelessly with trade union representatives over recent weeks and months, leaving no stone unturned to reach a record pay offer which responds to the key concerns of staff across the service.\"\n\nThe minister said he would be meeting with trade unions on Thursday to continue \"meaningful dialogue\".\n\nHe added: \"We are making this offer at a time of extraordinary financial challenges to the Scottish government to get money into the pockets of hard working staff and to avoid industrial action, in what is already going to be an incredibly challenging winter.\n\n\"Constructive engagement is crucial, those unions who have rejected our pay offer have all said they want to avoid industrial action, we must collectively work toward avoiding strikes taking place this winter at a time of already significant pressure for our NHS.\"\n\nScottish Conservative health spokesperson, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, called on Mr Yousaf to \"immediately get back round the table\" with the RCN to prevent strike action going ahead.\n\nHe said: \"Scotland's NHS is on its knees due to the health secretary's mismanagement, so the last thing it can afford going into the peak winter period is industrial action.\"\n\nScottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said the health secretary should step down.\n\nShe said: \"Under the SNP, Scotland's heroic nursing staff have been pushed to breaking point. We are already in the midst of a full-blown winter crisis, with lives being risked on a daily basis.\n\n\"It's time that Humza Yousaf does the right thing and resigns.\"\n\nAnd Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: \"Nurses have gone above and beyond in recent years to keep all of us safe. They need a proper pay deal, better working conditions and safe staffing levels.\n\n\"Scottish ministers clapped for our NHS, now they need to get their hands in their pockets.\"", "Rail passengers are being warned to avoid travel on Christmas Eve when further strike action over pay and conditions is due to take place.\n\nThe planned walkout by RMT members on 24 December will have a severe impact on services, said Network Rail.\n\nIt advised passengers to travel only if \"absolutely necessary\" or consider travel on another day.\n\nMost people should try to complete their journeys by 15:00, ahead of union members walking out at 18:00, it added.\n\nThe strike by RMT workers will continue until 06:00 on 27 December.\n\nNetwork Rail added that some rail companies will be unable to run any services on Christmas Eve, with further \"significant impacts\" between Christmas and New Year.\n\nAndrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail said: \"I am so sorry that our passengers are having to bear the brunt of the RMT's needless strike when a fair [pay] offer is on the table.\"\n\nPrevious strikes by the RMT have had a major impact on services throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Union members have rejected offers in a dispute over pay, job security and working conditions.\n\nThe RMT has announced further strikes for 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nNetwork Rail said the industrial action meant some rail companies would be unable to run any services on 24 December, with \"very limited\" services on Boxing Day also.\n\nChief executive Mr Haines added that the strikes over the busy Christmas period were \"causing needless misery\" to the railway and to the country's economy.\n\nBut RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has described Network Rail's pay offer to workers as \"substandard\".\n\n\"Our members, along with the entire trade union movement will continue their campaign for a square deal for workers, decent pay increases and good working conditions,\" Mr Lynch said in a statement last week, adding that members were prepared to take further strike action \"in pursuit of a negotiated settlement\".\n\nThe railway strikes come at a time of widespread industry walkouts, including those by ambulance drivers, nurses, driving examiners and highway workers who will all be striking over the festive period.\n\nThousands of postal workers also walked out last week in a dispute over pay and working conditions, with further strikes by Royal Mail workers belonging to the CWU due to take place on 23 and 24 December - some of the busiest days for pre-Christmas deliveries.", "In her introduction, the Princess of Wales says the late Queen \"held Christmas close to her heart\"\n\nThe Princess of Wales has paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth in a special broadcast set to air on Christmas Eve.\n\nCatherine said the Queen had \"held Christmas close to her heart\" as a time that \"reminded us of the importance of faith, friendship and family\".\n\nPeople recognised for showcasing community values were invited to the service at Westminster Abbey.\n\nIt is the first royal carol service since the Queen died in September.\n\nThe Together at Christmas event was held on 15 December, and was supported by the Royal Foundation, a charity founded and run by the Prince and Princess of Wales.\n\nAmong those celebrated at the event was Inna Hryhorovych, headmistress of St Mary's Ukrainian School in London.\n\nThe school has more than doubled its intake of pupils since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.\n\nPupils from the school performed at the event in Westminster Abbey and Ms Hryhorovych was sent a letter from the princess commending her work.\n\nIn it, she writes the school is \"a lifeline for the whole community\" and only possible \"because of your tireless work and dedication\".\n\nSt Mary's Ukrainian School in London has doubled its intake since the start of the war\n\nThe princess's comments are among end-of-year dedications to the late Queen, with other tributes from the Royal Variety Performance and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.\n\nThe service will be broadcast on ITV1 at 19:00 GMT on Christmas Eve as part of Royal Carols: Together At Christmas, a programme which will be narrated by actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.\n\nThe service also featured musical performances from the Westminster Abbey choir, Craig David, Alexis Ffrench, Alfie Boe and Melanie C. Readings were delivered by the Prince of Wales, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas, and Nicola Adams.\n• None Royal carol concert offered to ITV instead of BBC", "The singer thanked his family and loved ones \"for their continued support\"\n\nRex Orange County has had sex assault charges against him dropped, shortly before he was due to stand trial.\n\nThe chart-topping singer-songwriter, real name Alexander O'Connor, from Surrey, had faced six charges of touching a woman without consent.\n\nBut on Thursday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the evidence \"no longer met\" its test for a prosecution.\n\nO'Connor, who denied the allegations, said it had been \"a difficult time for everyone involved\".\n\nIn a statement on Instagram, he wrote: \"Today, all charges against me have been dropped.\n\n\"The Crown Prosecution Service reviewed the evidence and decided that there is no merit in this case going to trial. Not guilty verdicts were entered to all the charges.\n\n\"I have always denied these allegations and am grateful that the independent evidence has cleared me of any wrongdoing.\n\n\"I have never assaulted anyone and I do not condone violence or abusive behaviour of any kind.\"\n\nHe also addressed \"inaccuracies\" that he said had circulated about his case.\n\n\"I was wrongly accused of touching someone one evening on their leg, neck, back, and bottom,\" he said.\n\n\"That led to six charges of sexual assault. The only evidence against me was the individual's account.\n\n\"However, CCTV footage obtained by the police contradicted their version of events. Their partner was also present throughout the evening in question and gave a statement to the police, which did not support the allegations against me.\n\n\"It's been a difficult time for everyone involved and I'd like to thank the people who have helped me through it, as well as my family and loved ones for their continued support.\"\n\nA CPS spokesperson said: \"CPS prosecutors have a duty to keep each case under review. Having carefully considered all the evidence, our legal test for a prosecution was no longer met and so we will not be continuing a prosecution.\n\n\"We will always seek to prosecute sexual offences, where our legal test is met, no matter how challenging.\"\n\nRex Orange County's third studio album went to number one in the UK this March.\n\nHe cancelled tour dates in July, saying, \"due to unforeseen personal circumstances, I am having to spend some time at home this year\", and news of the charges emerged in October.", "Ellie Gomersall says gender identity should not be a matter for the state\n\nFollowing one of the most lengthy debates in the Scottish Parliament's history, MSPs have voted to approve a controversial bill which makes it easier for people to legally change their gender.\n\nHowever the UK government, which says it has concerns about safety of women and children, may seek to block the reform from Royal Assent and has not yet ruled out a legal challenge.\n\nHere we examine in more detail the two sides of the the debate.\n\nThe diamond grass of Cathkin Park is glinting in the winter sun as Ellie Gomersall reflects on something intensely personal - her identity.\n\nIt is a bitterly beautiful December day on the south side of Glasgow and Ms Gomersall, 23, is telling us about \"coming out\" as a woman.\n\nIt was, she says, \"a really happy, joyous moment\" thanks to the support of friends and family.\n\nBut the bureaucracy she then encountered was less enjoyable.\n\nMs Gomersall describes a lengthy - and continuing - wait to be seen at a gender identity clinic, and a struggle to accumulate the paperwork required to demonstrate to the world that she is not a man.\n\n\"I often joke that the hardest thing about being trans is the admin,\" she says with a wry smile.\n\nMs Gomersall is currently president of the National Union of Students Scotland, although she is speaking to BBC News in a personal capacity.\n\nNearly five years after \"coming out,\" she has been able to amend her passport and driving licence which now reflect her preferred identity, listing her sex as female. Her birth certificate, however, still records that she was born male.\n\nIf she were to marry or die any time soon the marriage or death certificates also would state that she was a man.\n\nThat means, she says, that at present \"I can't guarantee that I'll have dignity in death\".\n\nFor the past 17 years, the process for changing sex on a birth certificate has been set out in the Gender Recognition Act 2004, enacted by the Westminster parliament in April 2005.\n\nApplicants must first obtain a GRC, the criteria for which are detailed in the legislation.\n\nThe current requirements in UK law for a gender recognition certificate are:\n\nThe Scottish government - led by the Scottish National Party but also including ministers from the Scottish Green Party, of which Ms Gomersall is a member - wants to remove some of those hurdles, making the process quicker and easier.\n\nIf the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill becomes law, it would include these changes:\n\nMs Gomersall is a strong supporter of the legislation, which she says would make her life easier and more dignified.\n\nShe argues that gender identity should not be a matter for the state.\n\n\"I think ultimately the only person who can really describe my own identity, my own gender is me,\" she insists.\n\nShe explains that she has been unable to change her birth certificate because she has been unable to acquire a gender recognition certificate - because she has been unable to obtain an initial appointment, let alone a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or the required medical reports, at Glasgow's Sandyford gender identity clinic, one of four such facilities run by NHS Scotland.\n\nJK Rowling posted a picture of herself wearing a t-shirt that described Nicola Sturgeon as a \"destroyer of women's rights\"\n\nThe Scottish government has attempted to present the bill as an administrative tidying-up exercise designed to simplify and streamline the process in a manner which is \"more respectful of the privacy and dignity of trans men and women\".\n\nOpponents of the bill - led by the author JK Rowling - feel it goes much further than that.\n\nThe Harry Potter creator set out her concerns in detail two years ago in a 3,700-word post on her website.\n\nThe Scottish government's plans, she wrote, \"will in effect mean that all a man needs to 'become a woman' is to say he's one\".\n\nIn the article, Ms Rowling expressed sympathy with vulnerable trans people who \"need and deserve protection\", and said she wants trans women to be safe.\n\n\"At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe.\n\n\"When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he's a woman - and, as I've said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones - then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth.\"\n\nSupporters and opponents of the bill outside the Scottish parliament\n\nMs Gomersall disagrees, insisting \"all this process does is it changes your birth certificate - and no one checks someone's birth certificate before they access a single sex space. This legislation has no impact on single sex spaces.\"\n\nMs Rowling and her fellow critics of the bill are far from satisfied by such assurances.\n\nWhen, in October, the writer posted on Twitter a photograph of herself wearing a T-shirt which described First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as a \"destroyer of women's rights\" it was a reminder that two of Scotland's most successful women are now pitted against each other in one of the great moral debates of our time.\n\n\"I feel we're currently waging a cultural war between what I would see as authoritarians and liberals,\" Ms Rowling told her fellow feminist, the journalist Suzanne Moore, earlier this month.\n\nMs Sturgeon responded to the T-shirt criticism by urging respect and insisting that the bill neither gave any additional rights to trans people nor took any rights away from women.\n\n\"It is men who attack women and we need to focus on that, not on further stigmatising and discriminating against a tiny group in our society that is already one of the most stigmatised,\" she told BBC Radio Scotland.\n\n\"I say this as a passionate life-long feminist, and I have spent much of my life campaigning for women's rights.\"\n\nThe proposal has also been controversial within the SNP leader's own party leading to the resignation of community safety minister Ash Regan as part of the biggest rebellion since the party came to power at Holyrood.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon described herself as a life-long feminist\n\nMs Rowling's tweet criticising the SNP leader was in support of a organisation called For Women Scotland who describe themselves as \"working to protect and strengthen women and children's rights\".\n\nOver coffee in an Edinburgh café, the group's co-director Susan Smith told me she was particularly concerned about the potential effect of this \"massive social change\" on young people.\n\n\"In other countries, they are halting the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for people under 18 because we are starting to see some really severe physical side effects,\" she said.\n\nMs Smith said Scotland was going in the opposite direction, and warned about the impact of these treatments.\n\nShe said young people's perception of their gender was probably in flux until they were in their twenties.\n\nAnd she described the \"total acceptance of the premise that sex is not real and that it's a feeling\" as an \"extremist position\".\n\n\"I think that some of the ideas in this, especially about people having been born in the wrong body or having female brains... are profoundly sexist, because they suggest there's a way to be a woman and a way to be a man,\" she said.\n\nSusan Smith said she was concerned about the potential effect on young people\n\nEven the United Nations has now become embroiled in the debate, with two UN experts giving contradictory evidence to MSPs about the law's potential impact.\n\nReem Alsalem, the UN's special rapporteur on violence against women, told members of Holyrood's equalities committee that introducing gender self-identification could see violent men taking advantage of loopholes \"to get into women's spaces and have access to women\".\n\nBut Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, insisted there was \"no evidence\" that \"maintaining complexity in the process of recognition of gender identity would be an effective safeguard\".\n\nEven if the bill becomes law that may not be the end of the matter, as the UK government has been making noises about challenging the legislation.\n\nOne potential avenue for doing so is the interaction between gender recognition certificates issued in Scotland and equalities law, which is reserved to Westminster.\n\nEarlier this month Scotland's Court of Session ruled in favour of the Scottish government over its intention to include trans people in the definition of women in terms of female representation on public sector boards.\n\nLady Haldane concluded that for the purposes of the 2010 Equalities Act the meaning of sex was \"not limited to biological or birth sex.\"\n\nFor Women Scotland, which brought the case, says the ruling reveals that a gender recognition certificate effectively counts as a change of sex under the Equality Act. It says this could open up women-only spaces such as changing rooms and refuges to trans people, potentially putting women at risk.\n\nSupporters of the bill insist that is a misreading of the ruling.\n\nAnother potential challenge the UK government could mount would be to argue that recognising Scottish gender recognition certificates elsewhere in the UK could breach the Scotland Act 1998, which established devolution, if Holyrood were seen to be legislating beyond its borders.\n\nScotland's social justice secretary Shona Robison and the UK's women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch previously held a virtual meeting to discuss the British government's concerns.\n\nWhile acknowledging that there were very different views on the subject in London and Edinburgh, the UK government nonetheless described the discussion as \"constructive\" and the Scottish government said both sides had agreed to continue to work together.\n\nAileen McHarg, professor of public law and human rights at Durham University's Law School, said there was a third route which opponents of the bill might go down: a challenge under Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which codifies a right to respect for privacy.\n\nBut, said Prof McHarg, supporters of the bill could also mount a human rights challenge if there was a blanket refusal to recognise Scottish-issued gender recognition certificates elsewhere in the UK.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"This is going to be very messy whatever happens.\"\n\nHow do you feel about the Scottish gender bill being blocked? Share your thoughts by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "There were celebratory scenes in parliament when the bill was passed\n\nScotland has approved a self-identification system for people who want to change their legal gender.\n\nThe new rules lower the age that people can apply for a gender recognition certificate (GRC) to 16, and removes the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.\n\nIt's the only nation in the UK to simplify the process of transitioning.\n\nBut the Westminster government says it has concerns about the legislation and could yet prevent it from becoming law.\n\nThe Scottish Parliament backed the controversial proposals by 86 to 39 in a vote on Thursday afternoon.\n\nThere were shouts of \"shame on you\" from protesters in the public gallery as the result was announced.\n\nBut there were also louds cheers and a standing ovation in the chamber from supporters of the reforms.\n\nThe UK government says it has concerns about the legislation and could seek to prevent it becoming law by blocking Royal Assent - when the Bill gets formal agreement by the King and becomes an Act of the Scottish Parliament.\n\nWomen and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said its impact on the Equality Act raised questions, and the Scottish government had not addressed the full implication of it in the bill.\n\nShe said in a statement on Twitter: \"The UK government is now looking at provisions that can prompt reconsideration and allow MSPs to address these issues.\"\n\nHowever, a Scottish government spokesman said \"any attempt by the UK government to undermine the democratic will of the Scottish Parliament will be vigorously contested\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Conservative MSP Russell Findlay says the gender reform bill lets down women across Scotland\n\nPeople in Scotland have been able to change their legal gender from male to female or female to male since 2005.\n\nThe Scottish government believes the existing process can be intrusive and distressing and put people off applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate.\n\nThe new rules, which are expected to come into force sometime next year, will mean applicants will now only need to have lived in their acquired gender for three months - or six months if they are aged 16 and 17 - rather than two years.\n\nThere will be also be a three-month \"reflection period\" during which they can change their minds and it will be a criminal offence to make a false declaration or false application for a GRC, with anyone who does so potentially facing up to two years in prison.\n\nIt will be possible to de-transition by going through the process again.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shona Robison says evidence from other countries shows trans rights have no negative impact on other people\n\nCampaigners say a move to make trans peoples' lives easier is long overdue, and will allow them to \"live with the dignity and recognition that everyone deserves.\"\n\nScottish Trans manager Vic Valentine said the change in the law would mean that trans men and women would be able to show a birth certificate \"that reflects who they are\" at important moments in their lives such as starting a job or giving notice to be married.\n\nBut critics including author JK Rowling have raised concerns about the potential impact on women-only services, spaces and legal protections.\n\nThey have argued that there are insufficient safeguards to protect women and girls from predatory men who they say could seek to change their gender in order to gain access to facilities such as women's prisons.\n\nProtestors against the reforms fear they will impact on women's rights and single-sex spaces\n\nSpeaking ahead of the vote, Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison said: \"Trans rights are not in competition with women's rights, and as so often before, we can improve things for everyone when those discriminated against act as allies, not opponents.\"\n\nAnd First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would \"never apologise for trying to spread equality, not reduce it, in our country.\"\n\nThe UK government has not ruled out mounting a legal challenge, with Scottish Secretary Alister Jack saying it \"shares the concerns that many people have regarding certain aspects of this Bill, and in particular the safety issues for women and children\".\n\nThe government is understood to be concerned about the potential impact of people with gender recognition certificates moving from Scotland to other parts of the UK, where a different system will still be in place, and on things like passports, pensions and some benefits.\n\nUnder UK law, it can apply to have Scottish laws struck down by arguing they would conflict with UK-wide equalities legislation. This power has never been used before.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The passing of controversial gender reform laws receive mixed reaction in the Scottish Parliament\n\nEfforts by some MSPs to keep the minimum age at 18 were voted down, as was an attempt by Conservative MSP Russell Findlay to prevent convicted sex offenders being allowed to change their gender.\n\nThe reforms were backed by most SNP, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green MSPs but opposed by the majority of Conservatives, who accused the government of attempting to avoid proper scrutiny of the legislation by rushing it through before Christmas.\n\nNine SNP MSPs voted against the government - the biggest rebellion since the party came to power in 2007.\n\nScottish Conservative equalities spokeswoman Rachael Hamilton said the party supported trans rights - but it should not come \"at the expense of the safety of women and girls, and their hard-won rights\".\n\nShe added: \"For a majority of MSPs to vote against an amendment that would have prevented convicted sex offenders from applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate will astonish and outrage most Scots.\"\n\nThe Bill, which was previously shelved by the government, has been been one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in the history of the Scottish Parliament, with Community Safety Minister Ash Regan resigning in October after saying she could not support the proposals.\n\nThe moment the bill passed was an emotional one at Holyrood.\n\nThere were big cheers from trans-rights campaigners and cries of \"shame\" from women's rights campaigners in the public gallery.\n\nTwo thirds of MSPs backed the bill with opinion divided in the three largest parties.\n\nThe MSP who resigned as an SNP minister to protest against the law, Ash Regan told me she was \"ashamed\" of the Scottish Parliament, while one of only three Tories to support the bill, Jamie Greene said he was \"proud\" of what had been decided.\n\nThe epic debate and vote on the gender recognition reform is not the end of the story.\n\nIt is likely to face a legal challenge from somewhere and the UK government is reserving the right to block the legislation, if they decide it could negatively impact on UK law.\n\nThe minister who fronted the reforms, Shona Robison, told me the legislation was \"robust\" and that she intends to put it into effect as soon as possible.\n\nSpeaking after the vote, Ms Regan told BBC Scotland she was \"ashamed\" of what the parliament had done.\n\nMSPs considered more than 150 proposed amendments to the proposals in two marathon sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday - with the latter not finishing until 01:15 on Thursday.\n\nThe Conservatives were accused of attempting to delay the legislation by proposing numerous points of order and forcing almost all amendments to votes that were sometimes not required.\n\nNine other European countries have already adopted self-declaration systems for legal gender recognition, including Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland.\n\nAlso on Thursday, Spain passed a bill bringing it a step closer to allowing people to change their officially registered gender by filling in a form.", "The Welsh Ambulance Service is experiencing high demand on its services due to the cold weather\n\nWales' health minister has said she was \"hopeful\" ambulances would get to the most serious calls when paramedics plan to strike on Wednesday.\n\nEluned Morgan said red category life-threatening calls would be prioritised but people \"need to consider\" pressure on other calls \"will be even greater\".\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said it had been experiencing high call demand as a result of the icy weather.\n\nIt has called on people to only dial 999 in a life-threatening emergency.\n\nThe UK government has made arrangements to deploy 1,200 members of the military and 1,000 civil servants in England during Wednesday's strike.\n\nMs Morgan said the army had a role to play but soldiers would not be driving ambulances in Wales.\n\n\"We will not be using the army to transport people, but we are going to be using the army for logistics,\" she told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement.\n\nEluned Morgan said NHS Wales would be \"under immense\" pressure this week with separate strikes by ambulance workers and nurses\n\n\"That is making sure we use the capacity we do have to its maximum effect.\n\n\"We have discussed that with trade unions and they seem to be comfortable with that particular use of the services.\"\n\nMs Morgan said NHS Wales would be \"under immense\" pressure this week with separate action by ambulance workers and a nurses' strike on 20 December.\n\nAsked if she was confident people in with red category calls would get an ambulance during the strike, Ms Morgan said: \"We're hopeful they will if they are in that category on Wednesday.\n\n\"But that means the pressure on those not in that category will be even greater, that's something people need to consider.\n\n\"And, obviously, it's important that people seek clinical advice.\"\n\nShe said people calling the NHS Wales 111 advice line and the 999 service would be directed to the most appropriate help.\n\n\"And there will be occasions when you'll be encouraged to try and get yourself to hospital if it is genuinely difficult and not that life-threatening situation,\" she said.\n\nMembers of the RCN on the picket line outside the University Hospital Wales in Cardiff\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service recorded its worst-ever performance in October, latest figures have shown, responding to less than half of red category calls within eight minutes.\n\nSome 10,000 ambulance staff are striking across most of Wales and England on 21 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nMeanwhile, Helen Whyley, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) director in Wales, said there will \"absolutely\" be more nursing strikes in the new year.\n\nWelsh Conservative health spokesman Russell George called it \"totally disingenuous\" for the first minister to say he could do nothing.\n\n\"I am also surprised that the health minister is so candid, only being hopeful that ambulances will actually reach the most serious situations,\" Mr George said.\n\n\"However, that seems to be the case even when there isn't a strike on, with Wales recording its slowest response times on record in October.\n\n\"Labour need to get a grip on the NHS.\"", "A hunt saboteur has been found guilty of assaulting an elderly man.\n\nAlexandra Dennis denied one count of assault by beating of an 81-year-old man in Holnest, Dorset, on 18 December last year.\n\nThe 39-year-old appeared on trial at Weymouth Magistrates' Court, during which a video was shown of Dennis striking the man over the head with a video camera lens.\n\nOn behalf of the victim, Blackmore and Sparkford Vale Hunt described the attack as \"shocking\".\n\n\"While he has recovered physically, the elderly victim understandably remains emotionally scarred by the violent actions of Alexandra Dennis,\" it said.\n\nDennis was fined £225, as well as ordered to pay costs of £600 and a victim surcharge of £34. She was also ordered to pay compensation of £100.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.", "Regulated rail fares in England will rise by up to 5.9% from March, the Department for Transport has announced.\n\nThe rise is being capped at a level well below inflation, \"to help reduce the impact on passengers\", the transport secretary said.\n\nLabour called the hike - which is still the second highest on record - \"a sick joke\", while a watchdog said passengers were not getting value for money.\n\nBefore the Covid pandemic, fares were raised in January each year, based on the retail prices index (RPI) measure of inflation from the previous July.\n\nInflation is the rate at which prices rise, and the normal formula for fares is RPI plus 1%.\n\nHowever, the government said that \"for this year only\" rail fare increases for 2023 would be capped at 5.9%, well below July's RPI figure of 12.3%.\n\nLike last year, the government is also freezing fares for January and February, so that passengers have more time to buy tickets at the existing prices.\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper said the rise represented a \"fair balance\" between passenger and taxpayer needs, and described the move as \"the biggest ever government intervention in rail fares\".\n\n\"It has been a difficult year and the impact of inflation is being felt across the UK economy. We do not want to add to the problem,\" he said.\n\nHowever, the increase to fares will be the largest since a 6.2% jump in 2012, according to the Office of Rail and Road.\n\nLabour said average fares had risen by 58% since 2010, twice as fast as wages.\n\n\"This savage fare hike will be a sick joke for millions reliant on crumbling services,\" said shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh.\n\n\"People up and down this country are paying the price for 12 years of Tory failure.\"\n\nPrices are going up rapidly - and wages are not keeping up. People are getting poorer.\n\nMeanwhile, anyone who has tried to use a train in the past couple of weeks will be well aware that the industry is not in good shape.\n\nSome networks are better than others, but industrial action has caused disruption across the country.\n\nSo just imagine if you had to tell people right now they would have to pay 13% more for their tickets next year.\n\nBecause under the normal, RPI-linked formula, that's the magnitude of the increase we would be seeing. Obviously, it would cause uproar.\n\nCapping the rise to 5.9% - a figure that is linked to earnings - might avoid that kind of political carnage.\n\nBut it is still the biggest increase in more than a decade, and some commuters will see their travel costs rise by hundreds of pounds.\n\nAnd let's not forget - these are the regulated tickets. Unregulated fares may go up by a lot more.\n\nTransport Focus warned that more needed to be done to improve the experience of passengers on the railways.\n\n\"After months of unreliable services and strike disruption, it's clear that too many passengers are not getting a value for money service,\" said its director, David Sidebottom.\n\n\"Capping fares below inflation and the delay until March is welcome and will go some way to easing the pain, but the need for reform of fares and ticketing in the longer-term must not be forgotten.\"\n\nRegulated fares cover about 45% of fares, including season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long distance journeys and anytime tickets around major cities.\n\nThe rise affects England, and mainline services from England into Wales.\n\nIt does not apply to Transport for Wales trains, but their changes tend to match those made across the border.\n\nFares for rail services in Northern Ireland are set by state-owned operator Translink, which does not use RPI. The Scottish government has not announced its plan for next year yet, though it has said that peak fares on the publicly-owned operator ScotRail will be suspended for six months.\n\nThe pandemic saw a steep drop in the number of train passengers, as more people worked from home, and numbers have remained well below pre-Covid levels.\n\nRail passengers have also faced disruption due to a wave of strikes, with further industrial action planned over Christmas and in early January.\n\nWorkers are demanding pay rises that reflect the soaring cost of living, while also trying to stop job cuts and changes to working conditions.", "A court in Argentina has sentenced a former policeman who worked at one of the most notorious torture centres during the country's military rule to 15 years in prison.\n\nMario Sandoval, 69, was found guilty of abducting and torturing left-wing student Hernán Abriata, who disappeared in 1976 and is presumed dead.\n\nSandoval fled Argentina after the end of military rule and settled in France, where he became a university lecturer.\n\nHe was extradited in 2019.\n\nSandoval has been accused of participating in the disappearance and torture of hundreds of left-wing activists during Argentina's military rule from 1976 to 1983.\n\nBut the trial only dealt with one case: that of architecture student Hernán Abriata who was dragged from his home by police in 1976.\n\nHernán Abriata was 24 when he was seized by police and taken to a clandestine detention centre\n\nThe left-wing activist was taken to the Navy Higher School of Mechanics, known as Esma for its initials in Spanish.\n\nIt is estimated that more than 5,000 men and women who opposed the military junta were taken there. Only about 100 survived.\n\nDetainees were interrogated and tortured. Many of them were later drugged and thrown from planes into the sea.\n\nSurvivors say Mario Sandoval was one of the most notorious torturers to have worked at Esma.\n\nThey accuse him of tying prisoners to metal bedframes and torturing them with a cattle prod.\n\nSandoval moved to France two years after Argentina's military junta fell.\n\nThere, he became a consultant on defence and security, became a French citizen, and went on to teach for six years as an external lecturer at the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Sorbonne, one of France's top universities.\n\nIt was not until 2008 that Sandoval the lecturer was identified as the former policeman suspected of having abducted and tortured hundreds of left-wing activists.\n\nAfter a long legal battle, France's top administrative court ruled that he could be extradited to his home country because the crime he stood accused of had been committed in Argentina when he did not yet hold French citizenship.\n\nHis trial in Buenos Aires started in September.\n\nSandoval maintained to the end that he was not the man who had seized Hernán Abriata in 1976 and showed little emotion when he was convicted.\n\nHernán Abriata's wife, Mónica Dittmar, was present at the trial\n\nIt is still not known what exactly happened to Abriata after he was held captive. He is one of the approximately 30,000 people who disappeared under Argentina's military rule.\n\nSix years ago, his initials and a message from him to his wife Mónica Dittmar were found scrawled on the walls of a cell at Esma, which is now a museum and memorial. It reads: \"Mónica te amo\" (Mónica, I love you).", "The UK economy shrank by more than first thought in the three months to September, revised figures show.\n\nThe economy contracted by 0.3%, compared with a previous estimate of 0.2%, as business investment performed worse than first thought, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.\n\nGrowth figures for the first half of 2022 have also been revised down.\n\nThe UK is forecast to fall into recession in the final three months of the year as soaring prices hit growth.\n\nA country is considered to be in recession when its economy shrinks for two three-month periods - or quarters - in a row. Typically companies make less money, pay falls and unemployment rises, leaving the government with less money in tax to use on public services.\n\nDarren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: \"Our revised figures show the economy performed slightly less well over the last year than we previously estimated\", with manufacturing \"notably weaker\".\n\nHe added that household incomes, when accounting for rising prices, continued to fall, and household spending \"fell for the first time since the final Covid-19 lockdown in the spring of 2021\".\n\nThe ONS said that gross domestic product (GDP) - the measure of the size of the economy - was now estimated to be 0.8% below where it was before the pandemic struck, downwardly revised from the previous estimate of 0.4% below.\n\nThe economy has been hit as surging energy and food prices push inflation - the rate at which prices rise - to its highest level in 40 years.\n\nIt means that consumers are spending less and businesses are cutting investment.\n\nAlong with its revision for the July-to-September period, the ONS said the economy also grew less than first estimated in the first half of the year - expanding by 0.6% in the first quarter and 0.1% in the second quarter.\n\nThe ONS has previously said growth stood at 0.7% and 0.2% in those quarters respectively.\n\nIt is not unusual for the ONS to revise its growth estimates. It produces a first estimate of GDP about 40 days after the quarter in question, at which point only about 60% of the data is available, so the figure is revised later as more information comes in.\n\nWe already knew the UK economy shrank in the third quarter of the year while other economies grew. But now the disparity between the UK and the rest of the world looks starker than previously thought.\n\nAn economy that remains 0.8% smaller than its pre-pandemic level is in marked contrast to the eurozone - up 2.2% at the last count - or Canada - up by 3%.\n\nThe Paris-based think tank the OECD recently forecast in 2023, the UK economy would continue shrinking by more than the rest of the G7, while other economies returned to growth.\n\nThere's now a growing body of evidence that some of that underperformance is due to Brexit.\n\nLast week, figures from the ONS indicated that the economy shrank by 0.3% over the August-to-October period.\n\nThe government's independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), has warned that the UK will fall into a recession \"lasting just over a year\".\n\nThe OBR has predicted that the economy will shrink by 1.4% in 2023 before growth gradually picks up again.\n\nAs a result it expects the unemployment rate to rise and house prices to fall sharply as the Bank of England puts up interest rates to control soaring prices.\n\nLast week, the Bank raised its key rate to 3.5%, the highest level for 14 years, which is pushing up repayment costs for people with mortgages and loans.\n\nThe UK is not the only country seeing its economy slow down, with the US and eurozone also expected to fall into recession next year.\n\nHowever, Gabriella Dickens from Pantheon Macroeconomics said she expected the UK to \"suffer the deepest recession among major advanced economies in 2023\".\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt blamed Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine for the economic difficulties.\n\n\"High inflation driven by Putin's invasion of Ukraine is slowing economic growth across the world. No country is immune, least of all Britain,\" he said.\n\nBut responding to the latest ONS figures, Labour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves accused the government of losing control over the economy.\n\n\"GDP data has been revised down, leaving the UK with the worst growth in the G7 in the last quarter,\" she tweeted.\n\n\"The Tories have lost control of the economy and are leaving millions of working people paying the price.\"", "Relationship education will be compulsory in the new curriculum\n\nParents have lost a legal challenge against the teaching of Relationships and Sexuality Education at schools in Wales.\n\nCampaigners launched a judicial review in the High Court against the Welsh government's new relationships and sexuality education (RSE) curriculum.\n\nIt was launched in September and sees the mandatory teaching of these topics to pupils from the age of three.\n\nThe legal challenge was rejected but claimants plan to appeal.\n\nIt follows a two-day legal hearing in November at the Civil Justice Centre in Cardiff.\n\nThe claimants were five parents of children of school age living in Wales who objected on religious and or philosophical grounds to their children being taught the subjects.\n\nMrs Justice Steyn said: \"Teaching should be neutral from a religious perspective, but it is not required to be value neutral.\"\n\nIt referenced sex education that aims to encourage \"tolerance between human beings irrespective of their sexual orientation and identity\" and enables children to deal critically with influences from society.\n\nThe policy is the statutory guidance for headteachers, governing bodies and local education authorities\n\nThe court found the introduction of mandatory RSE had been \"the product of a process of careful consideration\".\n\nAll five claimants have \"moral and philosophical objections\" to the curriculum and wanted to exercise rights of excusal on behalf of their children to the classes, said Paul Diamond representing them.\n\n\"The proposed teaching of RSE in Wales is specifically constructed to be value-laden since much of the teaching, particularly that regarding LGBTQ+, will concern not facts of a scientific nature but highly contentious theories relating to moral and behavioural choices made by individuals,\" he added.\n\n\"Were it to be taught as a stand-alone class and subject to a right of excusal, there would clearly not be any possibility of indoctrination.\n\n\"At stake in the present case is the question of whether there is any limit to what can be taught to children in schools or, ultimately, any place including the home and whether the state is to endorse the values of modern, liberal democracy or adopt instead a form of ideological totalitarianism.\"\n\nHowever, Jonathan Moffett, representing the Welsh government, rejected the language used by the claimants.\n\nHe described \"such hyperbolic rhetoric\" as \"unhelpful\", adding the claimants had failed to identify \"what allegedly unlawful teaching\" the new curriculum would adopt and instead \"resort to broad assertions\".\n\n\"The claimants have not pointed to any passages in the code or the guidance that authorise or positively approve teaching that advocates or promotes any particular identity or sexual lifestyle over another, or that encourage children to self-identify in a particular way,\" he added.\n\nIn the judgement, Mrs Justice Steyn said: \"Openness to a plurality of ideas and the ability to engage sensitively, critically and respectfully with such debates, which RSE seeks to encourage and develop, fully accords with the aim of pluralism in a liberal and democratic state.\"\n\nWelcoming the judgment, education minister Jeremy Miles said he was \"appalled by the misinformation that has been purposefully spread by some campaigners\".\n\nHe added: \"Parents can expect schools to engage with them about their plans for teaching RSE and to be able to raise any constructive questions or anxieties they have about those plans.\n\n\"We will work closely with schools and communities to ensure that they are heard and they are clear about what their children will and will not be taught.\"\n\nKim Isherwood, one of the claimants and spokeswoman for the campaign, said: \"We asked the High Court to recognise the overreach of power by the government, we asked the court to help us protect our children from future emotional, physical, and psychological harm.\n\n\"The evidence we provided to the court referenced and highlighted concerning levels of betrayal, deceit and false claims made by the government, but it appears as though the judge agrees with them - not only do we parents not have rights, but they were never there to begin with.\"\n\nHe added that the team plans to appeal the ruling to \"fight harder to protect our children from a dangerous woke agenda gone off the rails\".", "Proud Boy Enrique Tarrio said his group didn't like the far-right Oath Keepers militia\n\nInfighting among some of America's most well-known far-right groups was revealed in a series of transcripts released by the congressional committee investigating the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.\n\nThey had a shared love of Donald Trump, but not so much for each other.\n\nOath Keepers and Proud Boys were among those who gathered at the Capitol that day, but leaders of the two groups criticised each other in sworn testimony.\n\nTheir disagreements revolved around the involvement of white nationalists in groups and protest movements in the years before the riot.\n\nAlthough many of former President Donald Trump's most fervent far-right supporters refused to engage with the committee, citing constitutional protections against self-incrimination, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes answered a number of questions over hours of testimony earlier this year.\n\nHe said his group defended peaceful protesters and aided people of many different backgrounds. During protests in Berkeley, California, in 2017, when right-wing protesters clashed with anti-fascist groups, he said he told white nationalists to \"take a hike\".\n\n\"We would not let them in,\" he told the committee. \"They could not get their moment of fame.\"\n\nContrasting Oath Keepers with Proud Boys, he said members of his group were \"quiet professionals\". And he accused Proud Boys of failing to adequately vet its members.\n\n\"Look, I don't believe the Proud Boys are white nationalists,\" he told investigators. \"I think they've been sloppy and let white nationalists infiltrate their group.\"\n\nEnrique Tarrio, a Florida man of Afro-Cuban ancestry who led the Proud Boys at the time of the riot, was also subpoenaed by the committee and described an argument that he had with Rhodes.\n\n\"I didn't like Stewart Rhodes. I still don't like Stewart Rhodes,\" he said during testimony.\n\nStewart Rhodes faces decades in jail after being convicted for his role in the Capitol riot\n\nThe animosity between the two stems from a 2019 demonstration in Portland, Oregon, one of a number of far-right protests in the city. Oath Keepers were providing security for the event, but Rhodes says he heard that a white nationalist was part of the group, and he pulled his members out. Mr Tarrio was furious.\n\n\"After that event in Portland, I didn't want to… have anything to do with Oath Keepers or militias or anything like that,\" Mr Tarrio told the investigators.\n\nThe pair were shown in video footage meeting in an underground car park on the night before the Capitol riot, but Mr Tarrio said he only shook hands with Rhodes to be polite.\n\nRhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the Capitol riot last month, and faces a lengthy jail sentence. Mr Tarrio is currently on trial for seditious conspiracy and other charges. He was not in Washington on 6 January 2021, but prosecutors allege he was directing Proud Boys from nearby Maryland.\n\nMegan Squire, deputy director of data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, says that fractious relations are common among extremist groups.\n\n\"These groups devolve into infighting, mismanagement and bickering more than they stay together,\" she says.\n\nSince the riot, increased scrutiny and criminal cases have hampered some of the country's most well-known far-right organisations.\n\n\"On the whole, it's not been a great year for these groups,\" Squire says.", "Elon Musk is no longer the world's richest man after a sharp drop in the value of his shares in electric car company Tesla this year.\n\nAccording to both Forbes and Bloomberg, Mr Musk has been overtaken at the top spot by Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of luxury goods group LVMH.\n\nMr Musk is chief executive and the largest shareholder in Tesla, with a reported stake of about 14%.\n\nHe completed a $44bn takeover of social network Twitter in October.\n\nAccording to Forbes, Mr Musk is now worth about $178bn (£152bn).\n\nMeanwhile, Bernard Arnault has a value of $188bn.\n\nBernard Arnault has overtaken Elon Musk as world's richest man, according to Forbes\n\nMr Musk's Twitter deal was only completed after months of legal wrangling, and some have cited the distraction of the takeover as one of the factors behind Tesla's share price fall.\n\nAfter building a stake in Twitter at the start of the year, Mr Musk made his $44bn offer in April, although many considered this offer to be too high.\n\nIn July, he pulled out of the deal, citing concerns over the number of fake accounts on the platform.\n\nEventually Twitter executives took legal action to hold Mr Musk to his offer.\n\nDan Ives from investment firm Wedbush Securities said the \"circus\" surrounding the Twitter deal has weighed on Tesla's share price.\n\n\"Musk has gone from a superhero to Tesla's stock, to a villain in the eyes of the Street, as the overhang grows with each tweet,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"The Twitter circus show has hurt the Musk brand and it's a major overhang on Tesla's stock. Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk.\"\n\nMr Musk sold billions of dollars worth of Tesla shares to help fund his purchase, which helped to push the shares down.\n\nInvestors have also been concerned that demand for the company's electric cars may slow, as the economy weakens, higher borrowing costs discourage buyers and other companies boost their electric vehicle offerings.\n\nTesla has also been hit by recalls, as well as government probes of crashes and its autopilot feature.", "Nurses at some NHS Trusts are due to strike on two days in December\n\nWith nurses set to go on strike on two days in December, not all who support the action are able to take part.\n\n\"It's not a political choice, it's a financial one,\" says Lizzie*.\n\nShe wishes she could join her colleagues on the picket lines but says union membership fees mean she can't afford it.\n\nAnd even if she could, Lizzie says, losing two days' pay during the biggest walkout in NHS history would cause her real problems.\n\n\"My team know that I would have voted yes and I'm supportive of my colleagues,\" says Lizzie.\n\n\"I'm not in a union because I can't afford it.\"\n\nNevertheless, many nurses around England, Wales and Northern Ireland will go on strike.\n\nWhether they walk out or not will depend on who they work for.\n\nSo, in some cases, even if you wanted to strike you wouldn't be able to if most of the colleagues in your trust voted not to.\n\nThe dispute centres on nurses' pay, working conditions and patient safety\n\nIt costs £16.40 a month to join nurses' union the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), although it's cheaper for students and newly registered nurses.\n\nThe union says the fees entitle members to benefits including confidential advice and support as well as workplace representation.\n\nStriking workers aren't paid for days on the picket line and Lizzie, from Hampshire, says union membership fees are also out of her reach.\n\nAll workers can take part in legal, official strike action, even if they're not in a union, and still have the same rights as their unionised colleagues.\n\nLizzie, 34, is a single mum of two and says she takes home about £1,800 a month and relies on Universal Credit to top up her wages.\n\nShe spends more than half her income on rent and says she can't justify union fees once she's paid for things like childcare and her car.\n\n\"Once everything's paid, I haven't got enough to live off,\" Lizzie says. \"So at the end of the day, being in a union is the least of my priorities.\"\n\nThe RCN announced strikes on 15 and 20 December in its pay dispute with the government. Emergency care will continue but routine services will be hit.\n\nIt wants a 19% pay rise for nurses, however the government has said that is \"unaffordable\" and it has met independent recommendations on nurses' pay.\n\nJade Adam is unable to strike after her Trust did not support action\n\n\"I know it's going to be really difficult to be working both of those days knowing that I should be out there with everyone else taking a stand,\" says 24-year-old nurse Jade Adam.\n\nShe works for the East London Foundation Trust, where the threshold for strike action was not met and so she won't be able to walk out.\n\n\"I was absolutely gutted,\" she says.\n\n\"I'm working on both of the strike days so I can't go and support my colleagues who are on the picket lines.\"\n\nJade is a mental health nurse and now works in police custody. Even though she's still early in her career, she voted for strike action over her concerns about understaffing and pay.\n\n\"Nursing is not an attractive profession anymore,\" she says.\n\n\"I voted to strike because it needs to change or the NHS is just going to crumble and I can't just kind of stand back and watch that happen.\"\n\nAlthough she can't join the picket line, Jade is doing her best to support her striking colleagues in any way she can.\n\n\"If you can strike, do it, take a stand for the rest of us that can't,\" she says.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch this video quiz to test your knowledge of nurses' pay\n\nAlex*, is unable to strike next month at the hospital in London where she works due to her shift pattern.\n\nShe resents the missed opportunity to withdraw her labour because she will be on a day off anyway.\n\n\"It feels like less of a message has been sent,\" the 22-year-old says. \"I think it would be more effective if I was on shift.\"\n\nShe's an RCN member and as a newly qualified nurse she pays a bit less for her membership.\n\nShe voted yes to strike action, despite only being a few months into the job, and still plans to support her colleagues who will be walking out.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nLike Jade, Alex trained during the pandemic and describes challenging situations and having to pick up extra work while colleagues were off ill or isolating.\n\n\"I didn't want to have to stay in the in the profession if things were not going to change, or if there wasn't the start of change at least,\" she says.\n\nThe RCN says members are entitled to a number of benefits and membership is about more than striking\n\nAlthough there has been criticism of the decision to strike, Lizzie says she's grateful to her colleagues who are \"taking that hit because I can't afford to\".\n\nGoing into work on those days will mean crossing the picket for Lizzie. However, the RCN says staff won't face any criticism for going to work.\n\n\"I'll walk past them and wish I could be striking with them I think,\" she says.\n\n*Names have been changed in this article to protect identities.\n\nClarification 21 December: This article was updated to include that non-union members are able to take part in legal, official industrial action.\n\nIf you're a nurse taking part in the strikes, or a patient who has been affected by them, we'd like to hear from you. Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The faults have been caused by snow and ice sticking to overhead power lines, weighing them down and causing them to break\n\nThe power cuts in Shetland have been declared a major incident.\n\nSSEN Distribution is working to restore supplies to about 2,800 homes but Keith Brown, lead minister for resilience, said it was clear that many properties would face days without power.\n\nExtra engineers are due to arrive on the ferry from Aberdeen on Wednesday morning to help restore power.\n\nGenerators will also be sent and a helicopter will be used to assess damage to overhead lines.\n\nAll Shetland's schools will be closed for a second day.\n\nMeanwhile there has been heavy snow across much of north-east Scotland overnight.\n\nAberdeenshire Council says most of its roads network has been affected by heavy snow, and a number of schools in Aberdeenshire and Moray will be closed.\n\nBus company Stagecoach Bluebird says its services have been affected, with many cancelled, delayed or diverted.\n\nThe Met Office has extended a yellow warning for snow and ice for northern Scotland until 12:00 on Friday.\n\nIt covers the north and north-east of Scotland, Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles.\n\nMr Brown urged residents in Shetland to stay at home and check on neighbours, family and friends.\n\nHe said he had chaired a Scottish government resilience room with multi-agency partners to make sure every effort was being made to restore power to households.\n\nThe power cuts have been caused by \"line icing\", where snow and ice sticks to overhead power lines, weighing them down and causing them to break.\n\nSSEN Distribution said local teams described conditions as the worst they had seen in 20 years.\n\nSSEN Distribution is working to restore supplies to about 2,800 homes\n\nThe company has mobilised additional support from the mainland, with about 70 members of staff travelling to Shetland.\n\n\"While all efforts are focused on restoring customer supplies as soon as possible, full restoration remains likely to extend to the end of this week,\" the firm said.\n\nMae Jamieson told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime she lost power at 17:00 on Monday.\n\n\"It's white everywhere, it's still snowing, the roads are like a couple of inches of snow and ice, it's crazy,\" she said.\n\nShe added that she was quite well prepared with a gas stove, candles and head torches but would not be able to go anywhere.\n\nMeanwhile, the body of a woman has been found in Shetland following a search involving a coastguard helicopter and rescue teams from Hillswick, Lerwick and Sumburgh..\n\nPolice Scotland confirmed that the body was recovered near an outbuilding in the Ollaberry area.\n\nIt is not yet known if the death is related to the weather conditions.\n\nMr Brown urged residents to stay at home and check on neighbours, family and friends\n\nPower was restored to about 1,000 properties in Unst, Gutcher and parts of Yell on Tuesday by repairing the main 33 kilovolt network.\n\nAbout 2,800 customers remain without power in Voe, Whalsay, Brae, Yell and the West Mainland.\n\nMr Brown said: \"Our utmost priority must be to ensure that people, especially the most vulnerable, are safe and warm.\n\n\"SSEN have contacted all priority customers and Shetland Islands Council has identified vulnerable people who may need extra support.\n\n\"It is also considering how buildings such as community centres could be used to provide respite centres if needed.\"\n\nMore SSEN engineers are expected to arrive early on Wednesday morning\n\nHe also urged people to stay at home, find ways to stay warm and check in on neighbours, family and friends, while listening to local radio or following social media for updates.\n\nMark Macdonald, head of region at SSEN Distribution, said damage to the network was \"considerable\" and \"particularly extensive\" across the west of mainland Shetland.\n\nHe added: \"We'd like to thank NorthLink Ferries and Loganair for their ongoing support in getting our engineers to the islands as quickly as possible.\n\n\"I'd like to reassure customers we're working to restore supplies as quickly as possible, liaising closely with our resilience partners to support the joint welfare effort.\"\n\nCustomers in a vulnerable position should get in touch on the power cut helpline. A further update is expected will be provided mid-morning on Wednesday.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nGrant Wahl died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm while working at the World Cup in Qatar, says his widow.\n\nThe journalist collapsed in a World Cup press box during the Argentina-Netherlands quarter-final on Friday.\n\nThe 48-year-old American had described feeling pressure in his chest in the days leading up to the game.\n\nHis wife Celine Gounder said an autopsy performed by the New York City Medical Examiner's Office concluded there was nothing untoward in his death.\n\n\"Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium,\" she said on Wednesday.\n\nA ruptured aortic aneurysm is when a bulge or swelling in the main artery that carries blood away from your heart tears, stopping blood being pumped around the body.\n\n\"The chest pressure he experienced shortly before his death may have represented the initial symptoms, \" added Gounder, who is herself a doctor.\n\n\"No amount of CPR or shocks would have saved him. His death was unrelated to Covid. His death was unrelated to vaccination status.\n\n\"There was nothing nefarious about his death.\"\n\nGounder thanked the world of sport for the tributes to her late husband.\n\nHis death prompted messages from various leading figures in American sports, including some of the United States team he had been covering in Qatar.\n\n\"While the world knew Grant as a great journalist, we knew him as a man who approached the world with openness and love,\" Gounder added.\n\n\"Grant was an incredibly empathetic, dedicated, and loving husband, brother, uncle, and son who was our greatest team-mate and fan. We will forever cherish the gift of his life; to share his company was our greatest love and source of joy.\"\n\nEarlier in the tournament Wahl said he was stopped from entering the United States' group match against Wales because he was wearing a T-shirt in support of same-sex relationships, which are illegal in Qatar.\n\nHe had also accused Qatari organisers of apathy and indifference over migrant worker deaths around the tournament. The rights and welfare of migrant workers in Qatar have been the focus of international criticism, with differing claims over the number of deaths.\n\nWahl wrote in the earlier part of last week that he had been to a hospital in Qatar and been told it was likely he had bronchitis.\n• None Did he find the real man beneath the tough-guy exterior?", "One family in service accommodation shared photos of mould in their utility room.\n\nDozens of military personnel and their families say they're having to live in damp, mould-infested housing without heating.\n\nSome say they've been waiting days or sometimes weeks for repairs.\n\nOne mother who has a nine-month-old baby told the BBC there was \"black mould everywhere\".\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said it was unacceptable that some military families were not receiving the level of service they deserved.\n\nIt said it was working with its contractors to improve the service.\n\nAs temperatures have dropped, some of the military personnel have turned to social media to highlight the problem - a rare step for members of the armed forces.\n\nIt comes at a time that some military personnel are being asked to step in to cover striking workers, including ambulance staff.\n\nThe BBC has been contacted by families in military accommodation in Sandhurst who have lived without heating for most of the past week.\n\nIn a joint statement, they said: \"We're at breaking point and something has to change. The system is broken.\n\n\"Calls go unanswered, and even if they are picked up, you're told there are no appointments for days.\"\n\nThey added that they were \"scared for our children living in unsafe homes with black mould that has not been dealt with for months.\"\n\nOne family shared photos of their utility room with the BBC.\n\nA family living in Sandhurst shared photos from inside their home.\n\nThe mother of the nine-month-old baby said that \"basic living requirements are not being met, and families are suffering in freezing, damp and sometimes dangerous living conditions\".\n\n\"I say dangerous, because we had a black mould everywhere, and it comes with an awful toxic smell,\" she said.\n\n\"We couldn't use our downstairs loo for months and we were so worried about our baby's lungs,\" she added.\n\nYasmine, who lives in different armed forces accommodation with young children, said there was mould in every room, and shared a photograph of one room with the BBC. \"Just very disappointing and makes you feel sad in your own home,\" she said.\n\nA woman living in different armed forces housing said she had mould in every room\n\nServing soldiers have spoken out in a rare show of public frustration.\n\nCaptain Will Matthews tweeted: \"Tired of living like this. Cupboards unusable due to never ending damp/mould. Drafty windows. No loft insulation, cold house all the time.\"\n\nHe filmed what his family, including young children, have to live with.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Capt Will Matthews RE This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Capt Will Matthews RE\n\nThe garrison commander at Aldershot, a major garrison in south-east England, also criticised the system. In a now deleted tweet, Lt Col Nick Burley said he recently had a meeting with contractors to discuss repairs and \"a litany of failures\".\n\nThe original tweet ended with \"…our people deserve better than this\".\n\nAnother military wife complained that a fellow service family had been without hot water since October.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Wendy Faux FRSA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMilitary accommodation is overseen by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation. Several contracts have been awarded to manage the defence estate - with no one company having overall responsibility for the service delivered.\n\nBetween April 2021 and May 2022, service families made 6,729 complaints about their accommodation. Some believe the system is getting worse.\n\nIn April this year, the Ministry of Defence awarded a national contract worth £144m to a property management provider - Pinnacle Group. It has also awarded four regional contracts.\n\nPinnacle is the main contact point for families living in 49,000 military properties across the country.\n\nThe company says it is not responsible for repairs but fields the calls and schedules the work. Urgent repairs are meant to be dealt within 48 hours.\n\nIt said the Ministry of Defence is responsible for decisions around upgrade works to improve the conditions of the buildings.\n\nTwo other companies - VIVO and Amey - carry out the property maintenance. Pinnacle says it has no contractual relationship with VIVO or Amey.\n\n\"At present there is a high demand for urgent appointments, which the repairs providers are struggling to meet, and our call handlers are unable to appoint a significant minority within the target timeframe of 48 hours as appointments are just not available,\" Pinnacle said in a statement.\n\n\"We are very sorry for the inconvenience this is undoubtedly causing to military families,\" it said.\n\nLabour has accused the government of failing the armed forces at a time when some are being asked to sacrifice their Christmas.\n\nShadow armed forces minister, Luke Pollard, said that \"basic failings with repairs and heating are far too common and aren't getting fixed\".", "About four million UK households will face higher mortgage payments next year, the Bank of England has said, with the typical payment up by £250.\n\nThe average monthly mortgage bill would go up from £750 to £1,000, the Bank's Financial Stability Report said.\n\nThe rising cost would cause severe financial difficulties for another 220,000 households, the Bank said.\n\nBusinesses would also be under \"significant pressure\" owing to rising prices and borrowing costs, it added.\n\n\"Falling real incomes, increase in mortgage costs and higher unemployment will place significant pressure on household finances and weigh on their ability to service debt,\" Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said in a letter to the Treasury.\n\nThe Bank also warned of an increased danger of global financial risks. However, it said that households, businesses and banks were more resilient than before the global financial crisis of 2008 and the recession of the 1990s.\n\nFixed-rate mortgage deals have a set interest rate during the term of the deal. Most run for two or five years, but longer deals are available.\n\nAnyone coming to the end of their fixed-rate deal and looking for a new one, or first-time buyers taking out their first mortgage, have seen these loans become much more expensive than they had probably expected or planned for.\n\nRates on new fixed-rate deals have climbed throughout this year, as the Bank put up interest rates to fight inflation, but they shot up following the mini-budget, peaking at 6.65%.\n\nHowever, they stabilised then fell slightly in the run-up to, and after, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement which calmed the markets and, in turn, eased uncertainty for lenders and borrowers.\n\nVariable or tracker rate mortgages can change at any time, usually in response to decisions made by the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee on the benchmark Bank rate.\n\nThrough the different forms of home loan, an estimated four million households would see their mortgage costs rise next year, the Bank said.\n\nA further two million would see higher costs by 2025, adding to headwinds facing the housing market. Within three years, 70% of mortgage holders would see their payments increase.\n\nMeanwhile, property prices have fallen for three months, the sharpest downturn since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.\n\nThe Bank said buy-to-let investors were particularly vulnerable, as about 85% of mortgages to landlords were interest only, making them highly sensitive to rising borrowing costs.\n\nIt warned that landlords would either raise rents for tenants or sell off their properties, causing a deeper fall in house prices.\n\n\"Were landlords to seek to offset the projected rise in buy-to-let mortgage costs, it was estimated they would need to increase their rental income by around 20%,\" the Bank's report said. \"This would increase the cost of housing for renters.\"", "Sam Bankman-Fried leaving court in Nassau, The Bahamas after being denied bail\n\nSam Bankman-Fried, founder of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been denied bail by a judge in the Bahamas.\n\nUS authorities charged Mr Bankman-Fried with \"one of the biggest financial frauds in US history\" on Tuesday.\n\nThe ex-FTX boss built a \"house of cards on a foundation of deception,\" Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler said.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried has indicated that he will fight extradition to the US.\n\nBahamas Chief Magistrate JoyAnn Ferguson-Pratt denied the petition for his release on bail, citing a \"great\" risk of flight, and ordered that he be kept on remand at a correctional facility until 8 February.\n\nHe was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday.\n\nLast month, FTX filed for bankruptcy in the US, leaving many users unable to withdraw their funds. According to a court filing, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors almost $3.1bn (£2.5bn).\n\nAmong the most serious allegations against Mr Bankman-Fried is that he used billions of dollars of customer funds to prop up his investment trading company, Alameda.\n\nIt is unclear how much people who have funds in the exchange will get back at the end of bankruptcy proceedings - though many experts have warned it may be a small fraction of what they deposited.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried faces eight criminal charges in the US, including wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to defraud. He also faces civil charges including misleading investors who put more than $1bn into the company.\n\nOfficials have also accused him of violating campaign finance laws.\n\nAt a news conference on Tuesday, Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, described the fraud Mr Bankman-Fried is accused of as among the largest in US history.\n\nBesides accusing Mr Bankman-Fried of defrauding lenders, investors and customers, Mr Williams alleged he had used \"tens of millions\" in ill-gotten gains for illegal campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans alike.\n\n\"All this dirty money was used in service of Bankman-Fried's desire to buy bipartisan influence and impact the direction of public policy in Washington,\" Mr Williams said.\n\nIn previous media interviews, the crypto tycoon has admitted to mistakes, but denied intent to defraud his customers.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried also denied allegations he must have been aware that FTX's affiliated trading company, Alameda Research, was using FTX customer funds.\n\nHe was once viewed as a young version of legendary US investor Warren Buffett. As recently as late October, he had a net worth estimated at more than $15bn (£12.1bn).\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sam Bankman-Fried denies claims he knew FTX customer money was used for risky financial bets\n\nMeanwhile, the firm's new chief executive, John Ray, told a US congressional committee that FTX's collapse appeared to be the result of it being controlled by a small group of \"grossly inexperienced, non-sophisticated individuals\".\n\nHe said he had seen \"an utter lack of record-keeping - no internal controls whatsoever\".\n\nThe FTX exchange allowed customers to trade normal money for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.\n\nCryptocurrencies are not currencies in the traditional sense, but are stored online and act more like investment vehicles or securities - often with a high degree of volatility.\n\nTheir anonymity means they have been favoured for criminal activities such as drug dealing and ransomware attacks, but their supporters say there is huge potential for innovation - and independence from governments.", "A daylight launch which also despatched two telecommunications satellites\n\nThe most important European satellite of 2022 has just gone into orbit.\n\nMeteosat-12 rode out of the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana on an Ariane rocket to initiate a new era in weather forecasting.\n\nThe spacecraft will image the atmosphere over the European continent, the Middle East and Africa.\n\nThe data it acquires with its next generation technologies promises to greatly enhance our ability to track the emergence of violent storms.\n\n\"Look at the storm that impacted in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium last year where over 200 people lost their lives. These events are tragic,\" said Phil Evans, the director general of Eumetsat, the inter-governmental organisation that manages Europe's weather satellites.\n\n\"More accurate, frequent and relevant observations from space are absolutely essential to provide better forecasts and warnings which help us reduce and mitigate the impacts of these severe weather events.\"\n\nThe Ariane's lift-off from Kourou occurred at 17:30 local time (20:30 GMT), with Meteosat-12 ejected just over half an hour later.\n\nIt will take some time to get it properly into position 36,000km above the equator, and it will be a year before its observations are fully integrated into forecasting models.\n\nBut once this is achieved, the benefits should become obvious.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nEurope has had its own meteorological spacecraft sitting high above the planet since 1977. The new imager that's just gone up is the third iteration in the series.\n\nMeteosat-12 will return a full picture of the weather below it every 10 minutes, five minutes faster than is currently the case. It will be able to see even smaller features in the atmosphere, down to 500m across, and view them in more wavelengths of light.\n\nNational forecasting agencies such as the UK Met Office and Meteo France will see a big jump in the amount of data they receive.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC Weather presenter Matt Taylor: \"We can see the whole globe\"\n\nArtwork: The near-4 tonne satellite will sit 36,000km above the equator\n\nOne of the major innovations is the inclusion of a camera to detect lightning. The agencies believe this will be a boon to what they call \"nowcasting\" - the ability to track and forewarn of imminent, hazardous events. That's because lightning is a tracer for violent wind gusts, heavy precipitation and hail.\n\nIt's long been possible to track lightning from its radio frequency emissions, but these are largely air to ground strikes, and 90% of lightning is air-to-air, or intra-cloud.\n\n\"The new Meteosat instrument is set to be a game-changer,\" said Simon Keogh from the UK Met Office. \"It will give us a much better handle on total lightning. That's something we need to know if we're forecasting for helicopter operations in the North Sea, for example. Likewise, if there are hazardous materials being unloaded from aircraft, even passengers, we need to know if there is a lightning risk,\" he told BBC News.\n\nA full disc image of the Earth will be returned every 10 minutes\n\nThe new generation system will eventually see three spacecraft working in unison.\n\nA second imager will go up in 2026 to acquire more rapid - every 2.5 minutes - pictures of just Europe. Before that, in 2024, a \"sounding\" spacecraft will launch to sample the temperature and humidity down through the atmosphere.\n\nWith replacement satellites already ordered for the first working trio, Europe is guaranteed coverage well into the 2040s.\n\nThis capability doesn't come cheap. Member states of the European Space Agency (Esa) have funded the research and development to the tune of €1.4bn (£1.2bn). Eumetsat nations are picking up the ongoing costs expected to be €2.9bn (£2.5bn).\n\nThe inclusion of a lightning imager is set to be a game-changer\n\n\"It's a long process with trade-offs,\" said Paul Blythe, who's steered the Meteosat development for Esa.\n\n\"Some of the detector elements and the optical elements that we have on board have taken six, seven, eight years to bring to fruition from the initial setting of the requirements through lots of development work and finally getting the product to build into the satellite. After that, we have to qualify the whole system. It isn't a quick activity.\n\n\"We will benefit from an economy of scale by buying six satellites at once. If you only buy three or four then it's clear the next generation will cost even more.\"\n\nIf €4.3bn (£3.7bn) still sounds like a lot of money, it is worth recognising the returns that stem from good weather forecasting.\n\nIn giving the public the confidence to go about their daily lives, in helping to reduce accidents on the roads, or enable sectors such as aviation and shipping to operate more efficiently - there is a clear added value to the economy that repeated analyses have judged to be worth billions every single year.\n\nSix satellites have been procured in bulk. It means one or two will stay in storage for perhaps 10 years", "A sexual predator branded a \"danger to any woman\" has been jailed for at least 38 years for murdering Zara Aleena as she walked home from a night out.\n\nJordan McSweeney, 29, admitted killing and sexually assaulting the 35-year-old law graduate in Ilford, east London, in a late-night attack in June.\n\nShe was savagely kicked and stamped on by McSweeney, who had followed a number of other women that night.\n\nHis refusal to be in the dock showed \"no spine whatsoever\", the judge said.\n\nJordan McSweeney had only recently been released from prison when he murdered the law graduate\n\nIn a televised sentencing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the Old Bailey that McSweeney - who would not come up from the court's cells - had carried out the attack with \"sickening deliberation\".\n\nZara Aleena was killed walking back from a night home by a sexual predator, only recently released from prison, labelled a \"danger to any woman\".\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)\n\nGiving him a mandatory life sentence, the judge said she did not believe McSweeney's actions on the night of the killing were an \"aberration\". She described him as a \"pugnacious and deeply violent man\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment McSweeney is sentenced for Zara Aleena's murder\n\nMrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said of the attack: \"It was a steep and sudden escalation of violence that had simmered in his life for many years.\"\n\nMcSweeney was also given a four-year term for sexual assault, a sentence that will run concurrently.\n\nThe defendant, from Dagenham in east London, had only recently been released from prison when he carried out the attack.\n\nHe had 28 convictions for 69 crimes, dating back to 2006, ranging from burglary to assaulting the police and including racially motivated offences.\n\nIn 2010, when he was a teenager, McSweeney was convicted over an attack on a young woman he had left with a swollen eye. Eleven years later, he was made the subject of a restraining order that barred him from contacting another female victim.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. McSweeney was caught on CCTV following other women before attacking Ms Aleena\n\nThe Old Bailey heard how Ms Aleena was discovered by a couple on a driveway on Cranbrook Road in the aftermath of the 26 June assault, which began at about 02:15 BST. She was partially naked and struggling to breathe, having sustained 46 separate injuries in the nine-minute beating.\n\nThe 35-year-old received medical treatment for more than an hour on the street before she was taken to the Royal London Hospital. She died later the same morning.\n\nPrior to the killing, McSweeney had been caught on CCTV drunkenly lurching in the street after being ejected from a pub for pestering a female member of staff.\n\nHe went on to follow three women and confronted a fourth before he targeted Ms Aleena.\n\nSpeaking outside the Old Bailey, Ms Aleena's aunt Farah Naz said McSweeney's sentence would protect the public from a man who \"cannot and must not live freely in the world\".\n\nShe added that his \"extreme indifference\" to her niece's life and the law made him a \"very dangerous man\".\n\nMs Naz said: \"Today, like every day, we live with the horror that she faced.\n\n\"We are deeply touched by the kindness we have felt from so many and this is testament to the power of Zara's spirit.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Zara was the light in our family,\" says aunt Farah Naz\n\nThe Old Bailey was shown CCTV footage of the attack - McSweeney's reason for not appearing in court was that he did not \"want to relive\" what happened that night, his defence barrister George Carter-Stephenson KC said.\n\nMs Aleena's family left the courtroom while footage of her final moments was shown.\n\nThe Old Bailey heard how after the fatal assault, McSweeney took away some of Ms Aleena's clothes, keys, phone and purse - possessions he later discarded.\n\nProsecutor Oliver Glasgow KC said McSweeney had \"treated Zara Aleena's belongings with the same appalling disdain with which he had treated her life\", casting them away like \"any other insignificant piece of rubbish\".\n\nMs Aleena's family described her as \"a carefree spirit, with the most caring heart\"\n\nAfter the sentencing hearing, Det Ch Insp Dave Whellams described McSweeney as \"not a sophisticated criminal\".\n\nThe detective, who led the murder investigation, said: \"This was a ferocious and repetitive attack that shocked even experienced murder detectives.\n\n\"He attacked Zara out in the open on a residential street and, other than a clumsy effort to hide a bag containing his belongings, he did not try to cover his tracks.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The 340-year-old Gloucester warship was discovered after a cannon was spotted by divers on the seabed\n\nItems from a shipwreck hailed as one the UK's most important maritime finds will go on display next year.\n\nThe discovery of the Gloucester, which sank off the coast of Norfolk in 1682 and almost killed a future king, was made public in June.\n\nNorwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery will host the exhibition from 25 February.\n\nMargaret Dewsbury, from Norfolk County Council, said the museum was \"incredibly excited\".\n\nBottles from the shipwreck were found covered in barnacles\n\nThe Gloucester's exact whereabouts were a mystery until it was discovered 15 years ago half-buried in the seabed 28 miles (45km) out to sea, having sunk while navigating treacherous sandbanks.\n\nThe disaster, in which hundreds of passengers and crew died, threatened to change the course of history.\n\nHowever, the then Duke of York fled the sinking ship with moments to spare and went on to become King James II of England - the Catholic heir to the Protestant throne in an era marked by religious and political unrest.\n\nNorfolk brothers Julian and Lincoln Barnwell, together with their late father, friend James Little and another unnamed friend, spent four years on diving expeditions to find the Gloucester's watery grave.\n\nKept secret for years while objects were removed from the sea, it was hailed as the most important maritime find since the Mary Rose.\n\nA number of personal items were found in the wreck, including a comb, which have been restored\n\nObjects on display will include the Gloucester's bell, personal possessions of the passengers and crew, and the ship's navigation tools.\n\nVisitors will also see how the wreck was discovered and the ongoing research into the ship by the University of East Anglia (UEA).\n\nAmong the items found were pair of spectacles and the wooden case\n\nMuseums in Britain and Europe will loan key paintings, documents and objects associated with the maritime, political, cultural and social history of the period for the exhibition.\n\nConservative councillor Ms Dewsbury, the county council's cabinet member for communities, said: \"Norfolk is home not only to the most remarkable heritage, but also the expertise needed to research this heritage and display it for the public to experience and enjoy.\"\n\nThe exhibition will run until 10 September 2023.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Tomasz Waga was found dead in Cardiff last year\n\nTwo men have been found guilty of murdering a man whose body was found in a Cardiff street.\n\nJosif Nushi, 27, Mihal Dhana, 29, both from Cardiff, killed Tomasz Waga, 23, after he tried to steal drugs from a cannabis factory in a house.\n\nNewport Crown Court heard Mr Waga's body was found in a street in Penylan, Cardiff, on 28 January 2021.\n\nHysland Aliaj, 31, of no fixed abode, was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury.\n\nTwo other defendants, Gledis Mehalla and Mario Qatoand, had previously been cleared of murder.\n\nEarlier this month, Mr Justice Cotter directed a jury to clear Mr Mehalla as there was not enough evidence against him, while in November Mr Qato was cleared of murder and of taking part in organised crime.\n\nIn a statement, Mr Waga's family said: \"Tomasz paid too great a price for the events that unfolded the night he lost his life.\n\n\"We do not wish for such tragedy to be experienced by any other family and urge individuals to consider the choices they make and the impact of their involvement, wilful or coerced, on their close ones.\n\n\"He will remain in our hearts forever.\"\n\nMihal Dhana (left) and Josif Nushi have been convicted for the murder of Tomasz Waga\n\nThe court previously heard Mr Waga was killed after he and another man, Carl Davies, had travelled from London and tried to steal cannabis crop worth £120,000.\n\nAn organised crime gang responsible for the factory, in a house on Newport Road in Cardiff, then \"descended\" on the scene and attacked the burglars.\n\nMr Waga was beaten with a baseball bat, a bamboo cane and half a house brick before being dragged out of the house and thrown into a car.\n\nHe suffered 25 injuries to his head and mouth, bruising to his chest and damage to his ribs, arms and a degree of swelling and bruising to his brain.\n\nAfter his death, he was dumped in Westville Road and later found by a passer-by the same evening.\n\nThe cause of death was given as obstruction to the airways by blood.\n\nA member of the public found 23-year-old Tomasz Waga's body, in Penylan, Cardiff\n\nProsecutor Greg Bull KC told the jury that the defendants did not intend to kill Mr Waga, but to \"do serious harm and teach him a lesson\".\n\n\"In 2020, an organised criminal gang of Albanian nationals established a commercial cannabis-growing factory in a residential area of Cardiff,\" he said.\n\n\"It was a well-run, organised, and profitable enterprise. It was so successful and profitable that members of the gang were prepared to protect it, if necessary, at all costs.\"\n\nFollowing the killing, Nushi, Dhana and Aliaj fled to Albania but were eventually extradited back to the UK before standing trial.\n\nNushi, of Ninian Road, Roath, and Dhana, of Colum Road, Cathays, were also found guilty of wounding with intent, in respect to Carl Davies, while Aliaj, of no fixed abode was found guilty of unlawful wounding.\n\nMr Justice Cotter remanded all three defendants in custody to appear for their sentencing on 10 January 2023.\n\nSouth Wales Police said it was one of the most complex investigations ever undertaken by them, with inquiries across UK and Europe and arrests made in Albania, France and Germany.", "We’re ending our live coverage soon, but here’s a recap of events at the Old Bailey today, where Jordan McSweeney was jailed for at least 38 years for the “brutal, sexually motivated” murder of Zara Aleena in east London last summer.\n\nIn a televised sentencing, Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the killer was “wholly aware” of what he was doing when he attacked Aleena, and said he had “no spine whatsover” for failing to appear in court to be sentenced today.\n\nMcSweeney’s defence barrister George Carter-Stephenson KC earlier told the court his client refused to be in the dock because he did not “want to relive” what happened that night.\n\nProsecutor Oliver Glasgow KC told the court how McSweeney had prowled the streets of Ilford the same night he killed Aleena, and attendees at the court were shown CCTV footage of him following multiple women, as well as of the brutal attack on Aleena.\n\nZara Aleena’s grandmother Rashida Parveen sobbed as she gave a victim impact statement to the court, saying she felt “completely broken” by the death of her first grandchild and hoped the killer \"would never find peace\".\n\nAleena’s aunt Farah Naz said the family had some retribution in the killer’s sentencing, but no peace after her killing and that every day “we live with the horror that she faced”.\n\nDetective Chief Inspector Dave Whellems of the Met police, who also attended the hearing, said the lengthy sentence “reflected the seriousness of the crime”.", "These are the latest efforts by SSEN to return power to 2,800 homes in Shetland Image caption: These are the latest efforts by SSEN to return power to 2,800 homes in Shetland\n\nEven getting to Shetland has been difficult with snow closing the runways at both Aberdeen and Sumburgh airports.\n\nWith the plane having to abort its landing, I thought at one point that we might end up back where we started.\n\nMy five hour delay perhaps gives you an idea of how difficult it’s been getting engineers here from the mainland.\n\nThis plane and some others was carrying workers from SSE who are being sent here to tackle the faults.\n\nAt the south end of Shetland, there’s barely any snow but further north and it’s quickly gets thicker with quite a few cars abandoned at the side of the road.\n\nGangs of workers can be seen busy up poles trying to get the cables re-strung.\n\nIn Voe, which has had no power since Monday, a community hall has finally been provided with a spare generator from the wind farm being built in Shetland and local people are rallying their neighbours to take refuge there.\n\nThere is some anger but a lot of quiet resignation that this is not going to be over quickly.", "The men had in one year alone bought 750 tickets for Ed Sheeran events\n\nTwo internet ticket touts who resold tickets for events by artists including Ed Sheeran have been ordered to repay more than £6m.\n\nPeter Hunter, 53, and David Smith, 68, were convicted in 2020 of three counts of fraudulent trading and one of possessing articles for fraud.\n\nThe pair benefited from their crimes by almost £9m, Leeds Crown Court was told.\n\nThey have been given three months to repay £6,167,522.02 or face an extra eight years in prison.\n\nIn February 2020, Hunter was jailed for four years and Smith for two-and-a-half years.\n\nThey were the UK's first successful convictions against a company fraudulently reselling tickets on a large scale, National Trading Standards said.\n\nIts lengthy investigation and a complex financial investigation conducted by the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Economic Crime Unit (RECU) had found the pair benefited from their crimes by £8,750,732.00.\n\nA confiscation hearing at Leeds Crown Court ordered the men to repay more than £6m\n\nRuth Andrews, from National Trading Standards, said the \"landmark\" case showed buying large numbers of tickets and reselling them at inflated prices was \"an unacceptable, illegal and fraudulent practice\".\n\nRamona Senior, unit head at RECU, said it resulted in the public turning to a secondary market \"forcing them to pay significantly inflated prices\".\n\n\"Today's orders indicate that those making large profits from an illegal activity can expect the full weight of the law to be applied to them,\" she added.\n\nHunter and Smith, both from north London, had been prosecuted in February 2020 following an investigation by the National Trading Standards eCrime Team, which is hosted by North Yorkshire County Council and the City of York Council.\n\nThe pair ran BZZ Limited, between May 2010 and December 2017, which they used to buy and resell hundreds of tickets at inflated prices for high-profile events and concerts by artists such as Ed Sheeran, Madness, McBusted and other mainstream acts.\n\nAt their trial, it emerged in one year alone they bought more than 750 tickets for Sheeran events.\n\nThey used at least 97 different names, 88 postal addresses and more than 290 email addresses to evade platform restrictions on multiple purchases.\n\nAn appeal against their conviction was rejected by the Court of Appeal in November 2021.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nArgentina captain Lionel Messi says Sunday's final will be the last World Cup game of his career.\n\nThe 35-year-old forward scored his fifth goal of Qatar 2022 and helped set up two others in Tuesday's 3-0 semi-final win over Croatia.\n\nPlaying in his fifth World Cup, Messi has never won the game's biggest prize.\n\n\"I am very happy for finishing my journey in World Cups in a final, to play the last game in a final. That is really very gratifying,\" he said.\n\n\"Everything I lived in this World Cup has been emotional, seeing how much it has been enjoyed in Argentina.\n\n\"There are a lot of years from this year to the next one. I don't think I will be able to do that. To finish this way is brilliant.\"\n\nArgentina will play France or Morocco, who meet on Wednesday at 19:00 GMT, in the final, when Messi is set to make a record 26th appearance in a men's World Cup.\n\nThe 2026 World Cup will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.\n• None 'Qatar 2022 on brink of becoming Messi's World Cup'\n• None 'Best ever' and 'magic' - reaction to the 'true' Messi\n\nMessi has won the Ballon d'Or - awarded to the world's best player - a record seven times and been named Fifa Best Men's Player once.\n\nOther honours include four Champions Leagues, 11 top-flight titles and Copa America glory with Argentina in 2021.\n\nThe World Cup is the one glaring omission, Argentina having lost to Germany in the 2014 final in Brazil.\n\n\"We are going to do our best, as we have done up until now, so that this time it really happens - we really win it,\" said Messi, who retired from international duty in June 2016 before reversing his decision two months later.\n\n\"I have been enjoying it the past few years, being with the national side. I am really enjoying everything that is happening to us.\n\n\"To get the Copa America, to reach the World Cup with 36 games unbeaten, and to finish all that trajectory in a final is just incredible.\n\n\"I hope the people in Argentina enjoy themselves and what we are doing. They shouldn't doubt we are giving absolutely everything.\"\n\nMessi, who plays for French giants Paris St-Germain, is one of only six men to have appeared in five World Cups, along with German Lothar Matthaus, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, and Antonio Carbajal, Andres Guardado and Rafael Marquez of Mexico.\n\nCurrently leading the Golden Boot race in Qatar alongside France's Kylian Mbappe, Messi became the first Argentina player to score in four World Cups and also became their record World Cup scorer with 11 goals.\n\nHe made his Argentina debut at the age of 18 in 2005 and has scored 97 goals in 172 games.\n\nIf you are viewing this page on the BBC News app please click here to vote.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Top Gear presenter Andrew \"Freddie\" Flintoff has been hurt in an accident while filming for the BBC show.\n\nHe received medical care at the scene before being taken to hospital for further treatment.\n\nThe incident happened at Top Gear's test track at Dunsfold Park Aerodrome in Surrey on Tuesday.\n\nHis injuries are not thought to be life-threatening and a BBC spokesperson said details would be confirmed \"in due course\".\n\nIt is understood that the accident did not happen at high speed.\n\nOn Tuesday, a BBC spokesperson said: \"Freddie was injured in an accident at the Top Gear test track this morning - with crew medics attending the scene immediately.\n\n\"He has been taken to hospital for further treatment and we will confirm more details in due course.\"\n\nIn a statement on Wednesday, the BBC said: \"Our primary concern is and has been for the welfare of Freddie - as well as the Top Gear team. All health and safety procedures were followed on site and the incident is now being fully investigated, in line with standard policy and practice.\"\n\nThe BBC has to report such incidents to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), a non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions\n\nA spokesperson for the HSE said it was \"making inquiries\".\n\nFreddie Flintoff walked away from the Time Bandit Trike unharmed when he crashed it during a drag race\n\nComedian Jason Manford, who recently appeared with Flintoff in camping show Two Men in a Tent, told BBC Breakfast he didn't know \"the ins and outs\" of the accident, but said he was \"thankful it's not life-threatening and he can get over the injuries that he has\".\n\nManford said: \"Like with any of these things, it is the recovery and the mental health afterwards that people need help with. Friends and family will be around.\"\n\nHe went on to describe Flintoff as a \"robust\" and \"inspiring\" character. \"From the cricket, from the boxing, just from from life... he's pretty inspiring actually. He's a guy who has got a lot of get up and go and yeah, he'll be good.\"\n\nIt is not the first accident Flintoff has suffered since he first began presenting the show.\n\nThe former England cricketer, who is a father of four, crashed into a market stall in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire in February 2019.\n\nIn September of the same year, he crashed during a drag race while he was filming at Elvington Airfield in Yorkshire, but walked away unharmed.\n\nFormer Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond was involved in a serious crash at Elvington Airfield in 2006, leaving him in a coma.\n\nFlintoff joined Top Gear as a host in 2019 and co-stars in the show with Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris.\n\nHe's better known to many as an international cricketer - he retired from the sport in 2009 having played 79 Tests, 141 one-day internationals and seven T20s for England.\n\nHe played a key role in England's Ashes successes of 2005 and 2009.\n\nAfter initially retiring from all forms of the game in 2010, Flintoff had one professional bout as a boxer.\n\nHe's also been on the Australian version of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! - where he was crowned king of the jungle.\n\nHe took to acting - appearing in BBC drama Love, Lies and Records in 2017 - and singing, in Fat Friends The Musical.\n\nTop Gear has been running under different presenters since 2002 and is one of the BBC's most successful and exported programmes.", "Stephen Bear had previously arrived in court in a white, chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce\n\nA reality TV contestant has been found guilty of disclosing a private sexual film after a video of him having sex with a woman was published on OnlyFans.\n\nStephen Bear, 32, shared a CCTV video of himself and Georgia Harrison, 27, effectively selling it for money.\n\nBear, of Bryony Close in Loughton in Essex, denied voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photographs and films.\n\nMs Harrison said she had been through \"absolute hell\" since 2020.\n\nThe 2016 Celebrity Big Brother winner was found guilty of all charges after more than eight and half hours of deliberation.\n\nThe jury reached unanimous verdicts on both counts of disclosing private sexual photos and films with intent to cause distress. It returned a majority verdict of 10 to two on the count of voyeurism.\n\nBear and Ms Harrison were recorded on CCTV in his garden in August 2020, the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court heard.\n\nMs Harrison, who has appeared on reality shows The Only Way Is Essex, Love Island and Olivia Meets Her Match, said she did not know they were being filmed.\n\nGeorgia Harrison, who waived her right to anonymity, said she had felt \"ashamed, hurt, violated, even broken at times\"\n\nShe said that when Bear showed her the footage she told him \"never to send\" it to anyone and \"made it plain how upset she would be if he did\", said prosecutor Jacqueline Carey KC.\n\nMs Harrison, who has waived her right to anonymity, also said she saw Bear send the footage to someone on WhatsApp and later became aware of it circulating online.\n\nMs Carey said the defendant uploaded the footage \"either himself or had it uploaded to OnlyFans and profited financially\".\n\nBear had told jurors he deleted the video in August 2020 and had not sent it to others.\n\nIn a statement issued after the verdicts via Essex Police, Ms Harrison said the last two years had been \"absolute hell\".\n\n\"Bear's behaviour was completely unacceptable and those who choose to commit such crimes should and will be prosecuted,\" she said.\n\n\"I hope me taking a stand gives other men and women who have fallen victim to revenge porn the courage to seek justice and most importantly show them that they have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.\n\n\"I have felt ashamed, hurt, violated, even broken at times but today I stand here feeling empowered, grateful and a huge sense of unity with all of those who have reached out to support me throughout this ordeal.\"\n\nAfter the verdicts, Stephen Bear said it was \"never a fair trial\"\n\nBear has been bailed until 31 January to return to the same court for sentencing after a report has been prepared about him.\n\nAfter the verdicts were returned he told the court he thought it was \"never a fair trial, what the press said against me\".\n\n\"I was fighting a losing battle and it is what it is,\" he said.\n\nJudge Christopher Morgan told the defendant: \"Thank you for that observation.\"\n\nAssistant Chief Constable Rachel Nolan praised Ms Harrison for her bravery throughout the case\n\nAssistant Chief Constable of Essex, Rachel Nolan, said: \"This man thought he could treat women and girls like they were on a reality show. He thought he could commit appalling crimes in Essex and get away with it. He was wrong.\n\n\"You can't try to shame and manipulate people to satisfy yourself. You can't pretend that taking intimate videos and sharing them without consent is OK. It's not. And if you try to get away with it in Essex, you won't, regardless of who you are.\"\n\nShe thanked Ms Harrison for her bravery.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A woman who is believed to be the first Zumba instructor in the UK with Down's syndrome has landed her dream job teaching in a gym.\n\nHannah Payton, from Atherton, has started running her first classes after securing a job at Pure Gym in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester.\n\nThe 25-year-old, who qualified as an instructor last year led a class attended by Joe Wicks as part of a Children In Need event in November.\n\nShe said she wanted to inspire other people with disabilities to pursue their dreams and \"have some fun and just be yourself\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "For as long as Rishi Sunak has been prime minister, whenever I've spoken to him or his senior team, the issue of small boat crossings has often been mentioned.\n\nBefore the Autumn Statement, the budget in all but name last month, I was told the prime minister was devoting more time to it than anything else but the statement.\n\nQuite something, given the range of issues that cross a prime minister's desk.\n\nThe government is desperate to get a grip on what Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said has been a failure to control the UK's borders.\n\nThey want to cut the numbers crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nThey want to deport asylum seekers whose claims are rejected much more quickly.\n\nAnd they want to house asylum seekers whose cases are being worked on more cheaply.\n\nBecause they have concluded it's a big deal for millions of people, and, having candidly pointed out the failure of Conservative governments over the last 12 years to sort it out, or even adequately manage it, they now need to show they are up for it.\n\nLet's be blunt: this is an incredibly difficult and complex issue to resolve, whatever resolution even means on this.\n\nTake a look at this from more than 20 years ago, when Labour Home Secretary David Blunkett was promising a crackdown, including making the asylum process quicker.\n\nTwo decades later, Mr Sunak is promising exactly the same. How the issue presents itself varies.\n\nBack then it was about the Red Cross refugee camp at Sangatte near Calais and migrants trying to cross by climbing into the back of lorries or get through the Channel Tunnel.\n\nNow, it is small boats and a particular influx from Albania.\n\nIn a world where you're only a smartphone scroll away from knowing how rich some places are compared to home, let alone if you're also fleeing persecution, the lure of a country like the UK will always be there.\n\nBut let's unpack what the prime minister is promising.\n\nFirstly, that issue that has dogged successive governments: making the asylum process quicker.\n\nMr Sunak said \"we expect to abolish the backlog of initial asylum decisions by the end of next year\". But when he said \"abolish the backlog\" he didn't mean all of the backlog.\n\nDowning Street later acknowledged this meant making an initial decision in all cases that were outstanding at the end of June this year, when the system for processing cases was changed.\n\nWhat happened at the end of June was the Nationality and Borders Act became law.\n\nSince then it has been an offence to arrive on the shores of the UK without permission and so officials are now able to differentiate claims depending on whether people arrived through legal or illegal routes.\n\nWhat ministers are actually committing to is clearing the backlog of 92,601 initial asylum decisions relating to cases made in June of this year or earlier.\n\nAs of September this year, there were around 117,000 unresolved asylum cases awaiting a decision, relating to around 143,000 people (a case can relate to more than one person because of families).\n\nSo that is around 24,000 cases that could still be unresolved in a year's time, on top of additional cases between now and then, that wouldn't count against the prime minister's definition of abolishing the backlog.\n\nAnd as he acknowledged to me when I interviewed him, reaching an initial decision is often not the end of the matter, because people can appeal \"and we're not in control of the pace of those appeals\".\n\nMr Sunak is also promising a new law \"to make unambiguously clear that if you enter the UK illegally you should not be able to remain here\".\n\nBut what isn't clear is whether he would contemplate the UK leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, or be willing to ignore any adverse rulings from its court.\n\nAnd one other thing in the package of ideas that caught my eye: the government's promise to cut in half the current cost of housing asylum seekers, often currently in hotels.\n\nThe current approach currently runs up a bill of £5.5m a day.\n\nInstead, Mr Sunak wants people to be housed in disused military facilities, old holiday parks and former student digs.\n\nBut when I asked him where, he couldn't tell me, saying I wouldn't expect him \"to comment on commercial negotiations\".\n\nI wouldn't - but if such negotiations are still ongoing, it's not nailed down that the necessary alternative accommodation will be available.\n\nAnd that's before the huge political rows about the sites that are chosen, when there is a very good chance of strong local opposition.\n\nSo what about Labour's approach to all this, as they seek to present themselves as an alternative government?\n\nLeader Sir Keir Starmer pointed to what he sees as persistent Tory failure on the issue, as well as what he called the \"unworkable gimmicks\" that ministers have suggested and remain committed to, such as deporting some asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nBut his response was notably short and he himself will want to appear robust on the issue, given how much it matters to so many people, particularly in seats Labour needs to win back to form a government.\n\nThis prime minister and his successors, whoever they are, will continue to wrestle with asylum and illegal immigration.\n\nIt's a challenge history suggests governments can only ever hope to manage, rather than solve.", "The discovery of the clitoris in snakes suggest there could be seduction and pleasure in the mating process\n\nScientists have discovered that snakes do have clitorises, shattering a long-held assumption that the females didn't have a sexual organ.\n\nResearch published Wednesday provides the first proper anatomical descriptions of female snake genitalia.\n\nSnake penises - hemipenes - have been studied for decades. They are forked and some are embedded with spikes.\n\nBut the female sex organ had been \"overlooked in comparison\", researchers said.\n\nIt wasn't necessarily that it was elusive - rather, scientists weren't really looking for it.\n\n\"There was a combination of female genitalia being taboo, scientists not being able to find it, and people accepting the mislabelling of intersex snakes,\" said Megan Folwell, a doctoral candidate and lead researcher.\n\nHer co-authored paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B Journal this week locates the clitoris in a female snake's tail.\n\nSnakes have two individual clitorises - hemiclitores - separated by tissue and hidden on the underside of the tail. The double-walled organ is composed of nerves, collagen and red blood cells consistent with erectile tissue, researchers said.\n\nMs Folwell said she started looking for it because the literature she had read about snake's female sexual organs - that they didn't have them or had been bred out through evolution - \"just didn't quite sit right with me,\" she said.\n\n\"I know it [the clitoris] is in a lot of animals and it doesn't make sense that it wouldn't be in all snakes,\" she said.\n\n\"I just had to have a look, to see if this structure was there or if it's just been missed,\" she said.\n\nShe started on a death adder and found the clitoris - a structure in the shape of a heart - pretty immediately, near the snake's scent glands which are used in attracting mating partners.\n\n\"There was this double structure that was quite prominent in the female, that was quite different to that of the surrounding tissue - and there was no implication of the [penis] structures I've seen before.\"\n\nHer team then checked this in a variety of snakes - dissecting a total of nine species including the carpet python, puff adder and cantil viper. The hemiclitores varied in size but were distinct.\n\nThe finding now allows for new theories about snake sex - which could involve female stimulation and pleasure.\n\nUntil now, scientists believed snake sex was \"mostly about coercion and the male snake forcing the mating,\" says Ms Folwell.\n\nThis was because male snakes were typically quite physically aggressive during mating while the female was more \"placid\".\n\n\"But now with the finding of the clitoris we can start looking more towards seduction and stimulation as another form of the female being more willing and likely to populate with the male,\" she said.\n\nIt also casts a new light on hypothesised snake foreplay. Male snakes will often wrap around their partner's tail - where the clitoris is located - and pulse.\n\n\"There's a lot of behaviour potentially signalling they might be there to stimulate the female.\"\n\nMs Folwell said there had been a positive reception to the finding in the snake science world - \"a bit of shock that it's been missed for so long, but also surprise because it makes sense that it exists\".\n\nShe noted that in some snake species, the clitoris is fragile and particularly small - less than a millimetre.\n\nThere had also been a prevailing belief that female snakes had a smaller version of the male hemipene, as is the case in monitor lizards. As such, in some studies of intersex snakes, scientists had mislabelled a hemipenes as a hemiclitores.\n\nOne of the other researchers on the project, Associate Prof Kate Sanders at the University of Adelaide, said the discovery wouldn't have happened if not for Ms Folwell's \"fresh perspective\".\n\n\"This discovery shows how science needs diverse thinkers with diverse ideas to move forward.\"", "The musical stars belt out the hits to mark the enactment of the Respect for Marriage Act.\n\nPresident Joe Biden signed the bill in front of thousands of guests on the White House's South Lawn.", "Facebook's algorithm helped fuel the viral spread of hate and violence during Ethiopia's civil war, a legal case alleges.\n\nAbrham Meareg, the son of an Ethiopian academic shot dead after being attacked in Facebook posts, is among those bringing the case against Meta.\n\nThey want a $2bn (£1.6bn) fund for victims of hate on Facebook and changes to the platform's algorithm.\n\nMeta said it invested heavily in moderation and tech to remove hate.\n\nA representative said hate speech and incitement to violence were against the platform's rules.\n\n\"Our safety-and-integrity work in Ethiopia is guided by feedback from local civil society organisations and international institutions,\" the representative said.\n\nThe case, filed in Kenya's High Court, is supported by campaign group Foxglove.\n\nHundreds of thousands of people have died in the conflict between the Ethiopian government and forces in the northern Tigray region, with 400,000 others living in famine-like conditions.\n\nAbrham Meareg wants an apology from Facebook\n\nLast month, a surprise peace deal was agreed - but recently, there has been an upsurge in ethnically motivated killings between Amhara- and Oromo-speaking communities.\n\nLast year Mr Meareg's father became one the casualties of the country's violence.\n\nOn 3 November 2021, Prof Meareg Amare Abrha was followed home from his university by armed men on motorbikes and shot at close range trying to enter the family home.\n\nThreats from his attackers prevented witnesses coming to his aid as he lay bleeding, his son says. He died lying on the ground seven hours later.\n\nBefore the attack, Facebook posts slandered and revealed identifying information about him, his son says.\n\nDespite repeated complaints using Facebook's reporting tool, the platform \"left these posts up until it was far too late\".\n\nOne was removed after his father's killing.\n\nAnother, which the platform had committed to remove, remained online as of 8 December 2022.\n\n\"If Facebook had just stopped the spread of hate and moderated posts properly, my father would still be alive,\" Mr Meareg said.\n\nHe wanted to ensure no family suffered as his had, he said, and \"a personal apology\" from Meta.\n\nIn a sworn statement filed with the court, Mr Meareg alleges Facebook's algorithm promotes \"hateful and inciting\" content because it is likely to draw more interaction from users.\n\nHe also claims Facebook's content moderation in Africa, is \"woefully inadequate\", with too few moderators who deal with posts in key languages Amharic, Oromo and Tigrinya.\n\nMeta - which owns Facebook - told BBC News: \"We employ staff with local knowledge and expertise and continue to develop our capabilities to catch violating content in the most widely spoken languages in the country, including Amharic, Oromo, Somali and Tigrinya.\"\n\nIt maintains Ethiopia is a high priority - although, less than 10% of the population uses Facebook - and says the steps it has taken include:\n\nThis is a significant development, an attempt to legally take to task a social-media company over its actions during the conflict in Ethiopia.\n\nCritics say Meta and other social-media companies do too little to prevent the sharing and spread of disinformation and content promoting hate and incitement against various ethnic groups. And in some cases, it takes too long for content to be removed, mostly after people report it.\n\nOthers claim the company has been unfair in its crackdown on hateful content, targeting posts written in some languages disproportionally.\n\nMeta has always insisted it does a lot and has heavily invested in capacity to catch hateful and inflammatory content in the languages spoken most widely in the country.\n\nIt does have content moderators conversant with the main local languages but also relies on artificial intelligence and local partners to flag content. And how many moderators work with Meta focusing on Ethiopia has never been clear.\n\nBut this is not the first time Facebook has been accused of doing too little to stop the spread of content promoting ethnic hate and violence in Ethiopia.\n\nIn 2021, whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former employee, told the US Senate the platform's algorithm was \"fanning ethnic violence... picking up the extreme sentiments, the division\" as those posts attracted high engagement, while Facebook could not adequately identify dangerous content, and lacked sufficient expertise in many local languages - including some spoken in Ethiopia.\n\nOther plaintiffs in the case include the Katiba Institute and Fisseha Tekle, who alleges Facebook's moderation failures made his human-rights reporting on the conflict, for Amnesty International, impossible - and risked his family's lives.\n\nThey are asking the court to order Facebook to take steps to remedy the situation, including:", "When we visited Toys Galore in Edinburgh, the owner of the shop, Donald Nairn told us he has never known business to be as tough as it is now.\n\n\"If you'd asked me in 2019 what the next few years would be like I could not have possibly imagined in my wildest dreams it would have been as challenging as it has been,\" he said.\n\nThat's because toys have gone up in price due to rises in production and global shipping costs as well as the pound being weaker, he explains.\n\nBut he says there's a limit to how much he can put up prices for his customers.\n\n\"There have been some products where we have simply decided not to sell it anymore because we think the price has gone up so much that it's no longer sellable,\" he said.\n\nAnd he's noticed his customers are being a lot more cautious in their spending.\n\n\"Most people are struggling because they've seen all the costs go up - interest, fuel, food and yet their wages just haven't kept up so everything's squeezed.\n\n\"Although they will still buy a toy for a birthday or Christmas present they will buy a smaller toy or there might not be a trip to a toy shop on a Saturday.\n\n\"I think people try to do their best to make Christmas as normal as possible but undoubtedly people will be cutting back a bit.\"", "HSBC has announced it will stop financing new oil and gas fields, as part of its efforts to drive down global greenhouse gas emissions.\n\nEnvironment groups said the move sends \"a strong signal\" to fossil fuel giants that investment is waning.\n\nEurope's largest bank said it made the decision after receiving advice from international energy experts.\n\nIt comes following previous criticism of HSBC for funding oil and gas projects despite its green pledges.\n\nJeanne Martin, head of the banking programme at ShareAction, a charity that campaigns for reducing investment for fossil fuels like oil and gas, said: \"HSBC's announcement sends a strong signal to fossil fuel giants and governments that banks' appetite for financing new oil and gas fields is diminishing.\"\n\nThe charity called on other banks to follow suit - saying this move sets a \"a new minimum level of ambition\" for the sector.\n\nIn 2020, HSBC made a pledge to be \"net zero\" - which means not adding to greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere - and investing and loaning up to $1 trillion (£806bn) in green projects.\n\nHowever, the bank came under criticism earlier this year when it was revealed it had invested an estimated $8.7bn (£6.4bn) into new oil and gas in 2021, according to ShareAction.\n\nIn the update to its energy policy, the bank said the decision had been made \"follow[ing] consultation with leading scientific and international bodies\" who had estimated that current oil and gas fields would meet any demand in 2050 under a \"net-zero\" scenario.\n\nUnder the 2015 Paris Agreement, 197 countries agreed to try to keep temperature rises \"well below\" 1.5C to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.\n\nExperts say that to achieve this, net zero must be reached by 2050.\n\nHSBC follows Lloyds bank - Britain's biggest domestic bank - which announced a similar decision in October.\n\nTony Burdon, chief executive at climate finance campaign Make My Money Matter, said: \"it's another nail in the coffin for fossil fuel expansion, and a massive signal to other UK banks that the game is up on new oil and gas.\"\n\nIn October, the UK government announced a new round of North Sea oil and gas licences\n\nIt is not yet clear if this is the beginning of a trend across the sector, but it comes just months after the UK government announced a new round of licensing for oil and gas production in the North Sea.\n\nHSBC has said it will continue to keep its investments already in oil and gas fields as it \"recognises that fossil fuels, especially natural gas, have a role to play in the transition, even though that role will continue to diminish\".\n• None Big banks fund new oil despite net zero pledges", "Meghan makes fresh accusations against Buckingham Palace in the latest trailer for the Harry & Meghan Netflix documentary\n\nBuckingham Palace conducted \"a real kind of war against Meghan\", the duchess's lawyer has claimed.\n\nJenny Afia said she had \"seen evidence that there was negative briefing against Harry and Meghan by the Palace to suit other people's agendas\".\n\nShe makes the claim in the latest trailer for the couple's Netflix series Harry & Meghan ahead of the release of the second instalment on Thursday.\n\nBuckingham Palace has so far not commented on the series.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Netflix This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPrince Harry said on Tuesday that \"they were happy to lie to protect my brother\", without specifying who he was talking about, and has previously spoken of the \"leaking and... planting of stories\" as part of a \"dirty game\".\n\nBut Meghan goes further in the new trailer, claiming the Palace strategically targeted website homepages and newspaper front covers with stories.\n\n\"You would see it play out,\" she says in the trailer.\n\n\"A story about someone in the family would pop up for a minute, and they'd go, 'We gotta make that go away.'\n\n\"But there's real estate on a website homepage, there is real estate on a newspaper front cover, and something has to be filled in there about someone royal,\" she says.\n\nNeither Meghan nor anyone else in the trailer offers evidence for the claims.\n\nLater in the trailer, Ms Afia, of Schillings law firm, says that the \"barrage of negative articles\" about the breakdown of the relationship between Meghan and her father, Thomas Markle, was part of a campaign of \"nasty\" coverage about Meghan.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home video of Archie features in Harry and Meghan documentary\n\nShe does not specifically say that stories about Meghan and her father were planted by the Palace.\n\nA friend of Meghan, Lucy Fraser, adds in the trailer: \"Meg became this scapegoat for the Palace. And so they would feed stories on her whether they were true or not to avoid other less favourable stories being printed.\"\n\nThe final three episodes of the documentary will release on Netflix at 08:00 GMT on Thursday.", "A man understood to be from Scotland has died following an incident on an offshore oil platform in Qatar.\n\nThe incident, which was not work-related, involved three British nationals all believed to be Scottish.\n\nOne of the men was also injured and is believed to be heading home to the UK after treatment. A third man has been detained by the Qatari authorities.\n\nThe men were working for the part Qatari state-owned North Oil Company.\n\nAll three were contracted to Film-Ocean and were on the platform when one of the men was \"fatally wounded\", at about 01:40 Arabia Standard Time on Monday.\n\nThe Ellon-based company said it was liaising with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and others to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident.\n\nQatar's Ministry of Interior confirmed one person had died and another received hospital treatment but was later released.\n\nA spokesman for the UK FCDO said: \"We are supporting the family of a British man who has died and a man who has been injured in Qatar and are in contact with the local authorities.\"", "Lucy Bryant supports the strikes, but says they have made it more difficult to get her art to customers\n\nFirms have warned of the hit to Christmas sales as postal workers squeezed by rising costs fight for higher pay and better conditions.\n\nRoyal Mail workers walked out again on Wednesday, marking the third of six strike days across the festive season.\n\nLucy Bryant, who sells art products, uses Royal Mail for deliveries and says it's frustrating for her and customers when they don't arrive on time.\n\nThe warning comes as rail workers and driving examiners walk out too.\n\nPostal worker walkouts coincide with the busiest time of year for Royal Mail when people and businesses are sending Christmas cards and presents.\n\nLucy Bryant, who runs her small business Haus of Lucy from Brighton, says she supports the strikers as \"everyone has a right to fair pay\".\n\nHowever, because she relies \"so heavily on the post\" to get products from suppliers and to send her art to customers, she says it \"has made my life very hard this Christmas season\".\n\nSome artworks are getting through, and some aren't. \"There's almost no logic to what is getting through,\" she says.\n\nLucy had to re-order prints that didn't arrive at a cost to the business \"that is quite a big hit for me to take,\" she says.\n\n\"I'm not Banksy - yet,\" she adds.\n\nWatch Make Sense of Strikes on iPlayer and find out more about why people are striking and whether industrial action works.\n\nPip Haywood, managing director of online card company Thortful, has calculated that each day of action is costing the firm up to £50,000 a day.\n\n\"It's meant we've had to staff up to protect our customers,\" she told the BBC, with three times as many requests for advice on delivery windows from shoppers than usual.\n\n\"So it's not just hitting revenue, it's adding cost and also causing brand damage.\"\n\nWith the company relying on Royal Mail for about 80% of its business, she says the strikes mean the firm will miss its sales target for the year.\n\nSome parcel companies claim the walkouts are having a knock-on effect, and forcing them to delay next-day deliveries as people and firms seek alternative ways to send their post.\n\nDPD Group said: \"We are experiencing short delays to our next-day delivery service in a small number of locations, as a result of the industrial action at the Royal Mail, which has had a huge knock-on effect across the entire industry.\"\n\nEvri, the delivery company formerly known as Hermes, said that severe weather, Royal Mail strikes and staff shortages are causing \"some localised delays\".\n\nWhile Yodel also said that deliveries are taking longer to some areas but did not specify why.\n\nAs well as holding strikes this week, 115,000 Royal Mail workers from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will also take industrial action on 23 December and Christmas Eve.\n\nThe dispute has been going on since the summer and like all the industrial action across rail, the NHS, teachers, border staff and driving examiners, pay is a key issue.\n\nA spokesman for Royal Mail said the company had made a \"best and final pay offer worth up to 9% over 18 months\".\n\n\"Instead of working with us to agree on changes required to fund that offer and get pay into our posties' pockets, the CWU has announced plans to ballot in the New Year for further strike action.\"\n\nBut a spokesman for the CWU said that Royal Mail has offered workers a 3% pay rise this year, 3% next year as well as an additional 2% if employees agree to \"the absolute destruction\" of terms and conditions.\n\nThe union has said the strikes are partly about the \"Uberisation\" of the postal service, including \"widespread changes... introducing Uber-style owner-drivers, mail centre closures and changes to Sunday working\".\n\nRoyal Mail workers voice their anger over pay and conditions\n\nMany workers are seeking wage rises as the cost of living soars. The rate at which prices are rising, known as inflation, is running at nearly 11%, which remains close to a 40-year high.\n\nOn Tuesday, a separate set of figures from the ONS revealed that the gap between wage growth in the public and private sector is near a record high.\n\nThe average pay rise for workers in the private sector was 6.9% between August and October. That compares to wage growth of just 2.7% for public sector employees.\n\nTuesday's walkout by rail staff left services running at about a fifth of capacity, on a day when snow, ice and fog hampered road and air travel.\n\nAround half of rail lines are shut again on Wednesday, with no services at all in most of Scotland and Wales.\n\nThe first-ever nationwide strike by nurses is also expected to go ahead this week.\n\nAnd on Friday, rail workers, buses, baggage handlers, highway workers and driving examiners will walk out.\n\nThe government's emergency Cobra committee will hold its second meeting of the week later to discuss how to minimise the impact of the wave of industrial action.\n\nAlong with the rail industrial action on Tuesday and Wednesday, there will also be train strikes on Friday and Saturday.\n\nThis is part of a long-running dispute between unions, rail firms, the government and Network Rail over pay, job cuts and changes to terms and conditions.\n\nBut the rail industry was hit by a drop-off in passenger numbers during the Covid pandemic, and it's under pressure to save money. Bosses say reforms need to be agreed, to afford pay increases and modernise the railway.\n\nNetwork Rail wants to cut 1,900 jobs as part of changes to the way its maintenance teams work - although it insists most of this could be achieved by people leaving voluntarily.\n\nThe RMT disagrees with some of the changes and wants a guarantee of no compulsory job losses.", "Talks to avert strike action by nurses have failed, with the union accusing the health secretary of \"belligerence\".\n\nThe head of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Pat Cullen, said strikes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland would now go ahead on Thursday, after Steve Barclay refused to discuss pay.\n\nThe government said it would continue to engage on non-pay related issues.\n\nThe union is calling for a pay rise of 19.2% but ministers say this is unaffordable.\n\nThe Department of Health said Mr Barclay had \"again listened to the RCN's position on pay and reiterated the government has agreed to the recommendations of the independent pay review body\".\n\nA spokesperson said the health secretary had told Ms Cullen that any further pay increase would mean taking money away from frontline services and tackling the post-Covid backlog.\n\nMs Cullen said she was \"extremely disappointed at the belligerence shown\" in a meeting with the health secretary earlier.\n\nShe said pay was \"fundamental\" to the dispute and not discussing it was \"nothing short of being disrespectful to our profession\".\n\nMs Cullen had said she was \"optimistic\" ahead of the meeting but \"they closed their books and walked away from the nursing profession this afternoon\".\n\n\"We haven't come out with one single brown penny,\" she added.\n\nThe union leader has previously said the strikes could be paused if the health secretary \"seriously\" negotiated over pay.\n\nThe RCN has also failed to reach an agreement with the Welsh government, which said it could not make an increased pay offer without additional funding from the UK government or risking a reduction in services.\n\nMore walkouts are planned for 20 December.\n\nRCN members in Northern Ireland are also part of the strike action. Health sector workers from Unison, Nipsa and GMB in Northern Ireland have already been striking this week over pay and conditions.\n\nThe union is calling for a pay rise of 5% above the RPI inflation rate, which in October was 14.2%, but no UK nation has offered close to that.\n\nThe RCN says its pay demands follow years of squeezes on nurses' salaries, which have not kept up with the rising cost of living.\n\nShadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a Labour government would not be able to afford such a rise but added that it \"would be willing to meet and negotiate\" to avoid a strike.\n\nHe accused ministers of a \"stubborn refusal to engage\" and of blaming NHS staff for the challenges \"that are the direct fault and responsibility of 12 years of Conservative mismanagement\".\n\nMeanwhile, in Scotland, members of two major NHS unions, Unite and Unison, have voted to accept an improved pay offer, averaging 7.5%.\n\nHowever, ballots of GMB, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and RCN members in Scotland are ongoing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe country is facing a wave of strikes this month, including from paramedics, rail workers, and Border Force staff.\n\nUnions are calling for bigger pay increases to help their members cope with rising prices, but the government has warned this could make inflation worse.\n\nEarlier, ministers and civil servants held an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss contingency plans for the upcoming industrial action, including using the military to cover Border Force staff.\n\nArmed forces will also be sent to hospital trusts to familiarise themselves with vehicles ahead of an ambulance worker strike in England and Wales on 21 and 28 December.\n\nDowning Street has warned there will still be \"serious disruption\".\n\nCabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden, who chaired the meeting, urged unions to call off the strikes.\n\nHe said ministers were \"straining every sinew\" to minimise the risks from walkouts but it would never be able to eliminate them.", "Strep A can cause a range of symptoms and one is scarlet fever, which mostly affects young children and needs antibiotics\n\nLinks with the invasive group A streptococcal disease (iGAS) are being investigated after the death of a child in Powys, health experts have said.\n\nPublic Health Wales is working with local health officials and the council following a possible link to a \"very rare complication\" of the disease.\n\nPHW's Dr Ardiana Gjini said people \"identified for public health action have already been contacted\".\n\n\"We remind parents to be vigilant for signs and symptoms,\" she said.\n\nMost often, symptoms are mild - a sore throat or a skin infection that can be easily treated with antibiotics.\n\nBut strep A can cause a range of symptoms and one is scarlet fever, which mostly affects young children and, again, needs antibiotics.\n\nVery rarely, strep A can also cause invasive group A streptococcal infection or iGAS which happens when the bacteria gets past the body's immune defences.\n\nHanna Roap died within 24 hours of being taken ill\n\nNHS Wales' 111 phone service took more than 18,000 calls on the weekend - more than double that of the same period last year - amid concern about strep A symptoms.\n\nThere have been 15 confirmed deaths of children with strep A since September, including Hanna Roap, seven, from Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan.\n\nHer father, Hasan Roap, 37, has previously told BBC Wales how his family had been \"traumatised\" and \"devastated\" by her death within 24 hours of being taken ill.\n\nDr Gjini, a consultant in communicable disease control, said: \"While we understand that parents are likely to be worried, cases of invasive group A streptococcal infection (iGAS) remain rare in Wales, and children have a very low risk of contracting the disease.\"\n\nPHW has made a symptom checker for parents with a traffic light system to help them decide when to get medical help.\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by Public Health Wales This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nReferring to the child's death in Powys, Dr Gjini said: \"We offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and all those affected.\n\n\"A multi-agency incident management team is following normal processes, and investigating links to invasive group A streptococcal disease (iGAS), a very rare complication of group A streptococcal infection.\n\n\"People identified for public health action have already been contacted and provided with appropriate treatment and advice.\n\n\"Individuals who have not been contacted do not need to take any specific action.\n\n\"However we remind parents to be vigilant for signs and symptoms of scarlet fever and iGAS.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nChina has removed six officials from Britain - including one of its most senior UK diplomats - two months after violence at its Manchester consulate.\n\nThe UK had requested the officials waive their right to diplomatic immunity to allow detectives to question them about October's incident.\n\nForeign Secretary James Cleverly expressed his disappointment that none of the six would now face justice.\n\nPro-democracy protester, Bob Chan, a Hongkonger, was injured after being dragged onto the consulate grounds and beaten by men on 16 October.\n\nMr Zheng, who was effectively in charge of China's Manchester outpost, denied attacking Mr Chan after he was identified in photographs, and accused of doing so by a senior Conservative MP.\n\nBut he later told reporters he had been trying to protect his colleagues, adding that Mr Chan was \"abusing my country, my leader. I think it's my duty\".\n\nChina's decision to remove the diplomats is seen by some as an attempt to de-escalate the dispute and avoid further tit-for-tat exchanges between it and the UK.\n\nHowever, the spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said on Wednesday the UK had failed to protect its staff, adding it had launched its own representations with Britain over the incident.\n\nIt said Mr Zheng had returned to China under a \"normal rotation of Chinese consular officials\" after completing a term of office.\n\nUK officials made clear the embassy was fully aware that if the diplomats did not agree to take part in the police investigation, then there would be consequences.\n\nThis is likely to have included the men being declared persona non grata and expelled from the UK.\n\nInstead, China has chosen to avoid that outcome by recalling the diplomats themselves.\n\nMr Cleverly said China's removal of Mr Zheng and five other officials demonstrates the seriousness of the UK's response to the incident.\n\n\"We will continue on the world stage and domestically to abide by the rule of law and we expect others to do likewise,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe added in a written statement to the House of Commons: \"I am disappointed that these individuals will not be interviewed or face justice.\n\n\"Nonetheless, it is right that those responsible for the disgraceful scenes in Manchester are no longer - or will shortly cease to be - consular staff accredited to the UK.\"\n\nThe UK government had informed China the six officials needed to waive their right to diplomatic immunity, a status reserved for foreign diplomats, by this week.\n\nIt followed a request by Greater Manchester Police, Mr Cleverly said.\n\nMr Chan said of the officials' departure: \"It has been two months since I was attacked in Manchester by staff members of the Chinese Consulate.\n\n\"Today, I hear that some members from that consulate have been sent back to China. While it may have taken two months for this to happen, I believe this is one way of solving this complicated diplomatic problem.\n\n\"I relocated to this country with my family to live freely. What happened on 16 October 2022 was unacceptable and illegal, and the withdrawal of these Chinese diplomats gives me a sense of closure.\"\n\nIn theory, diplomatic immunity means officials and their families cannot be arrested or prosecuted for any crime or civil case.\n\nChina had initially claimed that there had been attempts to illegally enter the consulate grounds.\n\nA still from a video shows a scuffle outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester\n\nPolice said at the time that up to 40 protesters had gathered outside the consulate - a smaller diplomatic office that is UK territory but cannot be entered without consent.\n\nGreater Manchester Police said a group of men \"came out of the building and a man was dragged into the consulate grounds and assaulted\".\n\n\"Due to our fears for the safety of the man, officers intervened and removed the victim from the consulate grounds,\" a statement said.\n\nFormer Conservative Party leader, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, said the UK should have formally declared the diplomats persona non grata.\n\n\"The flagrant assault on a peaceful democracy campaigner in Manchester needs more than allowing those responsible to leave the UK uncharged and with their heads held high. Letting China take them back isn't justice,\" he said.\n\n\"We should have kicked them out weeks ago.\"", "Hundreds of floral tributes have been left for the boys near the scene\n\nA six-year-old who was one of four boys to fall into an icy lake near Solihull has died, police have said.\n\nThe three others, aged eight, 10 and 11, who have also died were with the younger child at Babbs Mill Park, in Kingshurst, on Sunday.\n\nWest Midlands Police said it was with \"heartfelt sadness\" it had to report the six-year-old in hospital had \"lost his fight for life\".\n\nHundreds of floral tributes and toys have been left at a site near the lake.\n\nWest Midlands Fire Service, which was also involved in the effort to rescue the boys, said it was \"devastated\" to hear the news.\n\nIt added: \"We wish the family strength and comfort in these tragic circumstances.\"\n\nThe 10-year-old has been named locally as Jack Johnson, but the identities of the other three boys are yet to be confirmed.\n\nSpecialist diving teams were in the water until Tuesday, although police have stressed they have not had reports of anyone else missing.\n\nThey added all searches had now been completed and the cordon would be lifted.\n\nThe 10-year-old boy who died has been named locally as Jack Johnson\n\nOn Wednesday, police said their deepest sympathies were with the families and friends of the children.\n\n\"We cannot comprehend the enormity of the pain they must feel and our hearts go out to them,\" a statement said.\n\nA family member of Jack said all the families involved in the tragedy were suffering \"unimaginable pain\".\n\nHis aunt Charlotte McIlmurray thanked the local community on social media for their support.\n\nMembers of the public and police officers initially went into the water to try to get the children, before they were pulled out by specialist water rescue-trained firefighters. One policeman punched through ice to try to reach the boys.\n\nMourners have continued to visit Kingshurst, with hundreds of cards and gifts left by the community and people paying their respects at a site near Babbs Mill Lake.\n\nOn Wednesday, England footballer Tyrone Mings and his Aston Villa teammate John McGinn went to the scene to lay flowers.\n\nThe footballers visited the growing memorial by Babbs Mill Lake\n\nMings said it was a \"personal decision\" to pay their respects and said: \"I think it's impacted the whole city [of Birmingham].\n\n\"Sometimes, as we've seen with other things that have happened across the city, there are things more important than football,\" he said.\n\n\"We felt it was important to come down here, show our respects and show we were thinking about everything that has happened and the parents that are affected by it.\n\nThe players had been at the club's mid-season training camp in Dubai before returning to the UK ahead of Thursday night's home friendly against Spanish side Villareal.\n\nClub captain McGinn said: \"We were in Dubai when we heard the news and I thought of my nieces and nephews, and the players thought about their kids.\n\n\"It was certainly moving for us.\"\n\nBirmingham City's head coach John Eustace laid a wreath at the memorial on behalf of the team on Tuesday.\n\nSearches took place on Tuesday but have now been completed\n\nThe community in Kingshurst was praised at Prime Minister's Questions earlier, as well as emergency services staff who responded.\n\nSaqib Bhatti, Conservative MP for Meriden, told the Commons the people who he represents had suffered \"an unimaginable tragedy\" and the families were in his thoughts and prayers.\n\nHe asked the prime minister to join him in paying tribute to the community that had \"come together and is supporting each other to get through this tragedy\".\n\n\"And will you recognise the heroic efforts of the emergency services, including the police officer who used his bare hands to try and break through the ice and then jumped in the water with fire service personnel, without the PPE, risking their own lives to save the young children?\" he said.\n\nRishi Sunak sent his condolences to the families and friends of the boys and paid tribute to the emergency services for \"their incredibly selfless actions\".\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nFrance were pushed all the way by World Cup wildcards Morocco before the holders sealed a place in Sunday's final against Argentina.\n\nThe first African side to reach a World Cup semi-final refused to buckle, despite suffering the early blows of losing key defender Nayef Aguerd to injury after he was named in the starting line-up, and then going behind to Theo Hernandez's scrambled fifth minute goal.\n\nFor all Morocco's endeavour and spirit, France were more clinical and substitute Randal Kolo Muani ensured they will defend their crown against Argentina and Lionel Messi at Lusail Stadium on Sunday when he turned in Kylian Mbappe's deflected shot 11 minutes from time.\n\nMorocco also lost the clearly unfit Romain Saiss to injury before half-time but, roared on by their fanatical support, they came close to drawing level, especially when Jawad El Yamiq's overhead kick was tipped on to the post by France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.\n\nFrance, with Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate outstanding, kept their composure in the hothouse atmosphere of Al Bayt Stadium and had chances of their own, Olivier Giroud striking the post in the first half.\n\nDidier Deschamps' side always threatened on the break and so it proved as the lurking Muani finally broke Morocco's resistance late on with his first touch, 44 seconds after coming on, for his maiden France goal.\n• None 'France win sets up the final and Messi-Mbappe duel many wanted'\n• None 'No tears just pride' as Moroccan dreams shattered\n• None World Cup Daily podcast: All the analysis after France beat Morocco to set up Argentina final\n\nFrance needed to keep their nerve to stay on course to become the first country to retain the World Cup for 60 years, following Brazil's triumphs in 1958 and 1962.\n\nThey faced a wall of sound from Morocco's support, with ear-splitting whistles every time they had possession - and while it was not a classic performance, France remained organised and got the job done to set up a final of two giants to conclude this Qatar World Cup.\n\nKonate, in for Dayot Upamecano, who was short of match fitness, epitomised French solidity and coach Deschamps will be hard pushed make a change in that crucial defensive position on Sunday.\n\nAnd, of course, the narrative of Mbappe against Messi will come to a climax on Sunday as France try to repeat their 2018 triumph, when they beat Croatia in the final in Moscow.\n\nThe understated Deschamp has put together a France team spearheaded by the brilliant Mbappe, and they rode their luck at times.\n\nFrance, however, are in another World Cup final and the 54-year-old Deschamps, who captained them when they claimed the crown on home soil in 1998, now has the chance to become only the second coach to win the tournament twice.\n• None His World Cup record is little known - and now under threat\n\nMorocco's players and coaching staff were given a huge and prolonged ovation from their supporters, who have been a real highlight of this World Cup, when they went towards them to take the acclaim after the final whistle.\n\nAnd it was completely deserved after yet another performance of talent and character which showed exactly why they have been such a glorious surprise package at this World Cup.\n\nMorocco coach Walid Regragui could have been forgiven for feeling the fates were against them after losing crucial players before and shortly after kick-off, as well as going behind.\n\nNot a bit of it.\n\nInspired by the magnificent Sofyan Amrabat, Morocco redoubled their efforts and were so close to restoring parity when El Yamiq's effort was pushed on to the post.\n\nMorocco also had a clear penalty appeal waved aside in the first half when goalscorer Hernandez flattened Sofiane Boufal in the area. Not only was the spot-kick not given, but Boufal was mystifyingly shown a yellow card.\n\nStill Morocco pushed after the break, but they wasted opportunities with a reluctance to shoot, a failing that left them vulnerable to a second France goal, which duly came.\n\nMorocco may have finally been beaten but what a ride this has been for the World Cup and for African football as they beat Belgium, Spain and Portugal - three of the global game's elite - on the way to the last four.\n\nThis is a wonderful platform to build on and Morocco have given their fans World Cup memories they will treasure for ever after this campaign in Qatar.\n• None Offside, Morocco. Hakim Ziyech tries a through ball, but Zakaria Aboukhlal is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Abderrazak Hamdallah (Morocco) left footed shot from very close range is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Azzedine Ounahi (Morocco) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Abdessamad Ezzalzouli.\n• None Attempt blocked. Azzedine Ounahi (Morocco) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Azzedine Ounahi (Morocco) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Abdessamad Ezzalzouli (Morocco) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.\n• None Offside, Morocco. Azzedine Ounahi tries a through ball, but Zakaria Aboukhlal is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Zakaria Aboukhlal (Morocco) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Yahya Attiat-Allah with a cross.\n• None Abderrazak Hamdallah (Morocco) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! France 2, Morocco 0. Randal Kolo Muani (France) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt blocked. Kylian Mbappé (France) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Marcus Thuram. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "US authorities have charged Sam Bankman-Fried with \"one of the biggest financial frauds in US history\" in the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.\n\nThe former FTX boss was arrested on Monday.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried built a \"house of cards on a foundation of deception\", Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler said.\n\nOfficials have also accused him of violating campaign finance laws.\n\nMr Gensler added that the charges for alleged fraud were a warning for other platforms to comply with US laws.\n\nThe US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also announced charges against Mr Bankman-Fried in parallel actions.\n\nAt a news conference on Tuesday, Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said that the fraud Mr Bankman-Fried is accused of is among the largest in US history.\n\nIn addition to accusing Mr Bankman-Fried of defrauding lenders, investors and customers, Mr Williams accused him of using \"tens of millions\" in ill-gotten gains for illegal campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans alike.\n\n\"All this dirty money was used in service of Bankman-Fried's desire to buy bipartisan influence and impact the direction of public policy in Washington,\" Mr Williams said.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News earlier this month, Mr Bankman-Fried sought to distance himself from accusations of illegal activity.\n\n\"I didn't knowingly commit fraud. I don't think I committed fraud. I didn't want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was,\" he told BBC News cyber reporter Joe Tidy.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried also denied allegations he must have been aware that FTX's affiliated trading company, Alameda Research, was using FTX customer funds.\n\nHe was once viewed as a young version of legendary US investor Warren Buffett. As recently as late October, he had a net worth estimated at more than $15bn (£12.1bn).\n\nA well-known political donor, he was arrested in the Bahamas and is being held there in custody pending extradition to the US. He said on Tuesday he would fight the extradition.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sam Bankman-Fried denies claims he knew FTX customer money was used for risky financial bets\n\nMeanwhile, the firm's new chief executive, John Ray, told a US congressional committee that FTX's collapse appeared to be the result of it being controlled by a small group of \"grossly inexperienced, non-sophisticated individuals\".\n\nHe said he had seen \"an utter lack of record-keeping - no internal controls whatsoever\".\n\nLast month, FTX filed for bankruptcy in the US, leaving many users unable to withdraw their funds.\n\nAccording to a court filing last month, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors almost $3.1bn.\n\nThe FTX exchange allowed customers to trade normal money for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.\n\nCryptocurrencies are not currencies in the traditional sense, but are stored online and act more like investment vehicles or securities - often with a high degree of volatility.\n\nTheir anonymity means they have been favoured for criminal activities such as drug dealing and ransomware attacks, but their supporters say there is huge potential for innovation - and independence from governments.\n\nSince 2019, Bahamas-based FTX had raised more than $1.8bn from equity investors, the SEC said, including approximately $1.1bn from about 90 US-based investors.\n\nIt is alleged that while Mr Bankman-Fried promoted FTX as a \"safe, responsible crypto asset trading platform\", in reality he \"orchestrated a years-long fraud\" to conceal from FTX's investors the diversion of FTX customers' funds to Alameda Research LLC, his privately held crypto hedge fund.\n\nThe SEC also alleges that he concealed FTX's exposure to Alameda's significant holdings of overvalued FTX-affiliated tokens.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried is also accused of \"co-mingling\" FTX customers' funds at Alameda to make \"undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations\".\n\nIn what has turned out to be one of his last interviews before arrest, Mr Bankman-Fried seemed extremely confident - telling me he would not be arrested and was innocent of any criminal wrongdoing.\n\nThe 30-year-old turned up in his trademark shorts and scruffy T-shirt, seeming surprisingly calm.\n\nBut he did admit he was not getting much sleep since his empire collapsed and he became crypto public enemy number one.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried spoke to us not in his home, but in an apartment still owned by FTX, in the luxury Albany complex about 30 minutes from the Bahamian capital, Nassau.\n\nBefore we started recording, we were told not to take any shots of the multimillion pound yachts or manicured gardens in the marina.\n\nWe were also warned not to film his apartment building, which he has had to vacate for \"safety reasons\".\n\nOnce we began the interview, Mr Bankman-Fried spoke for 35 minutes with no topic or question ruled out.\n\nAs in other recent interviews, he admitted to mismanaging his FTX empire but tried to distance himself from any criminal wrongdoing.\n\nHe also said he did not think he would be arrested and, off-camera, heavily hinted details would soon emerge to make the public more believing of his version of events.\n\n\"FTX operated behind a veneer of legitimacy Mr Bankman-Fried created,\" said Gurbir S Grewal, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.\n\n\"But as we allege in our complaint, that veneer wasn't just thin, it was fraudulent.\"\n\nHe added that FTX's collapse highlighted the risk unregistered crypto asset trading platforms can pose to consumers and investors.\n\nThe SEC charged Mr Bankman-Fried with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.\n\nIn New York, Mr Williams vowed that authorities \"are not done\" with the investigation and called on \"anyone who participated in wrongdoing\" to come forward.\n\n\"Come see us before we come and see you,\" he said.\n\nRobert Greenall and Bernd Debusmann Jr also contributed to this article", "'Ice pancakes' have formed on a Glasgow river after days of freezing weather.\n\nSteven McCann spotted the discs floating next to a waterfall in the city's Linn Park.\n\nThe pancakes form when foam floating on a river surface freezes. The chunks then become rounded as they bump into each other.", "The 10-year-old boy who died has been named locally as Jack Johnson\n\nFamilies are calling for better safety at a lake where three boys died after being pulled out of the icy water.\n\nThe children, aged eight, 10 and 11, were playing at Babbs Mill Park, in Kingshurst, near Solihull, on Sunday.\n\nA fourth boy rescued from the lake is still in hospital where his condition remains critical, police said.\n\nThe community has suggested having a fence around the lake and more signage, Shesh Sheshabhatter, a councillor on Solihull Borough Council said.\n\nHe and fellow councillors are going to try to push the council for improved safety measures, he added.\n\nPutting cameras in the area was another suggestion from the community.\n\nThe community in Kingshurst was praised at Prime Minister Questions (PMQs) earlier, as well as the emergency services who responded to the tragedy.\n\nThe carpet of flowers, balloons, soft toys and messages of love near the lake is growing by the hour. A vigil was held at the site on Monday evening.\n\nFamily members of one of the boys have visited the scene to look at the tributes.\n\nThere is a continuing atmosphere of shock and grief touching everyone who visits the impromptu memorial.\n\nOne person told the BBC it did not seem real and the sight of the growing collection of toys and tributes to the \"Babbs Mill boys\" made it a very sad reality.\n\nA growing number of flowers and tributes are being put near the lake\n\nSaqib Bhatti, the Conservative MP for Meriden, said at PMQs the people of Kingshurst who he represents had suffered \"an unimaginable tragedy\" and the families were in his thoughts and prayers.\n\nHe asked the prime minister to join him in paying tribute to the community that had \"come together and is supporting each other to get through this tragedy\".\n\n\"And will you recognise the heroic efforts of the emergency services, including the police officer who used his bare hands to try and break through the ice and then jumped in the water with fire service personnel, without the PPE, risking their own lives to save the young children,\" he said.\n\nRishi Sunak sent his condolences to the families and friends of the boys who died and paid tribute to the emergency services for \"their incredibly selfless actions\".\n\nThe Kingshurst community was praised in the Commons on Wednesday\n\n\"This whole event has completely shocked the local community,\" added Mr Sunak.\n\nThe aunt of the 10-year-old who died, named locally as Jack Johnson, thanked residents on social media for their support.\n\nCharlotte McIlmurray said the pain of losing the boys was a \"nightmare\".\n\nHis school, St Anthony's Catholic Primary, shut on Monday but reopened the following day. It issued a statement saying a difficult day had been made easier by an amazing community of staff, children and family members.\n\nOfficers laid flowers and stood in silent tribute near the scene\n\nEmergency services were called to Babbs Mill Park on Sunday afternoon after reports of children who had been on the ice getting into difficulties.\n\nSearches of the lake continued throughout Tuesday although police stressed there was no suggestion anybody else was missing.\n\nA group of 21 police officers from the Chelmsley Wood neighbourhood team stood silent for two minutes when visiting the site on Tuesday and thanked the community for the kindness shown towards the force.\n\nA wreath from Birmingham City Football Club was laid at the scene\n\nBirmingham City manager John Eustace also laid a wreath on behalf of the football club.\n\nLeroy Moss, who runs a kickboxing gym in the area, said the atmosphere was \"eerie\".\n\n\"You can tell something's happened here, it's not a nice feeling, it's a sad feeling,\" Mr Moss said.\n\nAnother vigil is due to be held at the weekend.\n\nSearches continued on Tuesday but the police stressed no-one else has been reported missing\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nA security guard at the Lusail Stadium has died after falling from the World Cup venue in Qatar after Argentina's quarter-final win over the Netherlands.\n\nKenyan John Njau Kibue was initially said to be in a stable but critical condition - however, he died after three days in hospital.\n\nQatari organisers say they \"are investigating the circumstances leading to the fall as a matter of urgency\".\n\nThe 24-year-old's sister told CNN they have not been given an explanation.\n\n\"We want justice. We want to know what caused his death. They have never sent us a picture to show where he fell from or given us any other information,\" Ann Wanjiru said.\n• None World Cup 2022: How many migrant workers have died?\n\nKibue's family told CNN he moved to Qatar in November to work on a contract with a local security firm.\n\nKibue is the second migrant worker reported to have died since the start of the World Cup on 20 November. A Filipino national fell to his death while carrying out repairs at a resort used as a training base by the Saudi Arabian team, The Athletic reported.\n\nWhile the tournament's supreme committee stressed that that death happened on property outside its jurisdiction, it said it offered \"sincere condolences\" to Kibue's family, colleagues and friends.\n\nA report by the Guardian newspaper last year said 6,500 migrant workers had died in Qatar since the country was awarded the World Cup in 2010.\n\nThat has been denied by the Qatari authorities, who say there have been three work-related deaths in construction related directly to the tournament, and a further 37 non work-related deaths. They say that figure increases to between 400 and 500 when all infrastructure projects needed to support the tournament are factored in.\n• None Did he find the real man beneath the tough-guy exterior?", "Alishah, whose parents told us they could afford only one hot lunch a week, inspired many donors\n\nA primary school is offering every pupil free lunches for the rest of the school year, after it was flooded with donations following a BBC News report.\n\nFamilies at Dixons Marchbank Primary, in Bradford, last month told BBC News they were cutting back on children's hot lunches - because of rising bills.\n\nSince then, the school has received almost £50,000 in donations - which will pay for lunches until the summer.\n\n\"The kindness of people has been unbelievable,\" the head teacher said.\n\nTwo donors wanted to give extra help to the family of Alishah, who featured in the online report, as well as on BBC Breakfast, BBC News at One and Six, BBC radio and regional news programmes.\n\nThe eight-year-old will now receive free hot meals for as long as she remains at the school.\n\nHead teacher Helen Haunch said staff had been crying as they had received hundreds of emails and calls from the UK and abroad offering to donate.\n\nThe kindness was \"just lovely\", she told BBC News. \"It restores your faith in humanity.\"\n\nThe cash will save families that take up the offer £280 per child.\n\nAmong those to have given money are pensioners, some raised in poor families themselves, and one man who had just lost his job.\n\nAlishah's father, Ali Raza, told us the kindness had made him \"really emotional, because it's a very hard time now\".\n\nWith rising food prices going up, even working parents were \"just surviving\" and he was pleased the school could now help many families.\n\nThe school has written to parents to offer all pupils free meals\n\nAmy Ismay, from Cumbria, told BBC News the Raza family's financial struggles had resonated with her own childhood memories of seeing her parents finding it hard to provide.\n\n\"The situation now, with a cost-of-living crisis, is even worse. You can be working but still really struggle with the basics, which a lot of us can relate to,\" she said.\n\nLots of people in work might not have much but would support others having the basics, Miss Ismay said.\n\nShe would be giving up a few coffees and lunches at work, as an auditor, to do something \"more important\" and had offered her local primary similar support.\n\nSome big companies have also offered Dixons Marchbank donations over several years. So instead of scaling back its breakfast club because of rising costs, it will double the number who attend - and make it free.\n\nDixons Marchbank Primary can now expand its breakfast club too\n\nMrs Haunch said the donations offered some security for working families who are not eligible for free school meals because of the \"extremely low\" threshold.\n\n\"It's unbelievable that in this day and age, in a country that is full of riches, that children are still living in this situation,\" she said.\n\nAnd while she would rather the school did not have to rely on donations from the public, she was \"blown away\" and wanted to say \"an unbelievably massive thank you\" to the BBC News audience for providing her pupils a reprieve that would make a difference to their education and long-term health.", "Pupils are being challenged to put their codebreaking skills to the test in a festive brainteaser set by the UK's intelligence agency GCHQ.\n\nThe puzzle features on a Christmas card sent by Sir Jeremy Fleming, director of the Cheltenham-based spy agency.\n\nSecondary schools across the country are trying to crack the code, intended to test problem-solving skills.\n\n\"Puzzlers need to combine a mix of minds to solve the seemingly impossible,\" said Sir Jeremy.\n\nThe Christmas card features seven \"fiendish\" puzzles and is aimed at testing schoolchildren's knowledge of key subjects and their ability to work as a team.\n\n\"The puzzles are based on the seven disciplines of languages, engineering, codebreaking, analysis, maths, coding and cybersecurity - all key skills needed at GCHQ to help keep the country safe,\" a spokesman said.\n\nBut this year's challenge comes with an added twist, as once all the puzzles are solved, schoolchildren will then need to use the design on the front of the card to assemble the answers in order to form three locations.\n\nJoining those place names together will reveal the final answer.\n\nThe intelligence agency said pupils would need to employ all their skills of lateral thinking, ingenuity and perseverance to be successful.\n\n\"From breaking Enigma to harnessing the latest cutting-edge technology, our brilliant people have worked together throughout our history to help keep the country safe,\" said Sir Jeremy.\n\n\"This year's GCHQ Christmas Card Challenge gives an insight into the skills we need every day as part of our mission,\" he added.\n\nSchools interested in taking part can find a resource pack on the GCHQ website.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Specialist teams have been on site since Saturday morning\n\nAn eighth person has been confirmed dead following an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey, police said.\n\nOfficers believe there is still one resident unaccounted for from the blast on Saturday morning.\n\nThe fatalities have not yet been formally identified but the names of nine people have been released.\n\nThe police said the families of those involved have been kept informed of developments.\n\nSearch and recovery teams are continuing to work at the site of the Haut du Mont residential block on Pier Road in St Helier.\n\nThe three-storey building collapsed on Saturday at about 04:00 GMT.\n\nPolice released the following names: Ken Ralph, 72, Jane Ralph, 71, Peter Bowler, 72, Raymond Brown, 71, Romeu de Almeida, 67, Louise de Almeida, 64, Derek Ellis, 61, Sylvia Ellis, 73, and Billy Marsden, 63.\n\nThey said the Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) process must be \"carefully considered and managed in a dignified and compassionate way\" before formal identification can happen.\n\nTop row, left to right: Derek and Sylvia Ellis, Romeu and Louise de Almeida. Bottom row, left to right: Raymond Brown, Billy Marsden and Peter Bowler\n\nKen and Jane Ralph were the last of nine people missing since the explosion to be named by police\n\nThe Viscount of Jersey's Office has confirmed inquests will only be opened once the DVI process has been fully completed.\n\nThe explosion happened two days after another tragedy in Jersey, when a fishing boat collided with a freight ferry and sank off the coast, with three people missing.\n\nPeople have been leaving flowers in respect to the victims of both tragedies\n\nPeople have been leaving flowers and signing books of condolence, with a vigil for the victims of both tragedies planned for Wednesday evening.\n\nAn investigation into circumstances surrounding the explosion is being led by the head of Jersey's CID, with the help of national experts.\n\nThe fire service confirmed it attended the flats just after 20:30 on Friday after the smell of gas was reported.\n\nNearby buildings were damaged by the blast with windows blown out\n\nChief Fire Officer Paul Brown said firefighters handed the scene over to Island Energy at 21:01.\n\nHe said the independent investigators will be appointed for a process that \"will be complex and long\".\n\nIan Gallichan, chief executive of Andium Homes who are responsible for the building, said: \"There was a redundant Island Energy supply at Haut du Mont but as Island Energy have confirmed, no gas was being consumed on site either by us or our residents.\"\n\nHe said the company asked for the redundant supply to be disconnected from the mains network in September.\n\nIsland Energy said in a statement: \"We can confirm that, in line with Andium's statement, there was a redundant Island Energy supply at Haut du Mont but there was no gas being consumed by either Andium or their residents.\n\n\"Outside of this, we are unable to comment on any details regarding works carried out on the property last week as this is part of an investigation and, as such, it would be inappropriate to discuss any information at this time.\"\n\nChief executive officer Jo Cox previously said the company would \"work with emergency services and the various channels to ensure we are providing the data needed to understand exactly what happened\".\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.", "Food bank users in Northern Ireland are being targeted by paramilitary loan sharks, a BBC NI Spotlight investigation has learned.\n\nVictims of illegal money lenders told the programme how they faced a cycle of spiralling debt and intimidation.\n\nOne man who spoke to the programme anonymously said loan sharks cold-called him and gave him a £500 loan after seeing him at a food bank.\n\nA month later he was told he owed them £1,300.\n\nA representative of the UK's largest food bank charity said similar accounts had been relayed to him of people who have been using their services because of hardship being approached by loan sharks.\n\nJonny Currie, the head of the Trussell Trust in Northern Ireland, said: \"That's certainly something that food banks and the network have reported back to us - folks that are referred to them have said they are part of that illegal system.\n\n\"These are illegal money lenders, criminal gangs, paramilitary organisations, whatever you want to call them, in those local communities, that are preying on people who are in crisis.\"\n\nMr Currie said more people were turning to the illegal money lenders for small loans to cover basic essentials including weekly energy top-ups and groceries.\n\n\"It could be £50, it could be £100. So small amounts of money that are really part of what is your essential week to be able to get by,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Victims of illegal money lenders tell BBC NI Spotlight how they faced a cycle of spiralling debt and intimidation.\n\nThe man who spoke to Spotlight said he had turned to a local food bank after he had lost his job and his benefits were cut.\n\nHe spoke anonymously to the programme out of fear for his personal safety.\n\n\"I got a knock at the door, there's these two young men telling me things that they shouldn't have been able to tell me,\" he said.\n\n\"They knew I needed money, they knew I was struggling and they knew when I got paid my universal credits, they knew the dates of when I'd be paid, and they said they could help me out.\"\n\nThe man recognised one of the loan sharks. He said he had seen him sitting in a car outside the food bank as he and others queued up to get help.\n\nHe reported the incident to the police who investigated it and took a statement.\n\nDet Supt Emma Neill said victims who came to the police had done the right thing\n\nHe said he was advised by friends that local loyalist paramilitaries were best placed to sort out the problem since the loan sharks had been identified as coming from outside the community.\n\nHe told Spotlight: \"It's their area, they control it and somebody else had walked in and done this. I was told in no uncertain terms: 'Keep your mouth shut. This is sorted. You have to pay the £500.'\n\nDet Supt Emma Neill, from the Organised Crime branch, said: \"I can understand your victim's concern for his safety and he did the right thing in reporting the matter to the police.\n\n\"Absolutely I would encourage anybody to come forward. But by engaging in that type of arrangement, what you are doing is perpetuating the coercive control that these paramilitary organised crime groups have on our community.\"\n\nClergyman Brian Anderson from East Belfast Mission runs services to help people who have become victims of loan sharks\n\nThe BBC Spotlight programme also features a woman from a loyalist area who said vulnerable women in her community were being coerced into criminality because they were being forced to pay off loans using their own prescription drugs as well as cash.\n\n\"They're paying with their medication. It's almost like well you've got a bit of an asset and we want it. It's a criminal offence, but yeah, they are desperate,\" she said.\n\nSecurity and community sources told Spotlight that paramilitary loan sharks exist in all communities where there is poverty - but they say the problem is most widespread and acute in loyalist urban areas.\n\nClergyman Brian Anderson is chairman of the East Belfast Mission, which runs services to help people who have become victims of paramilitary loan sharks.\n\n\"People are struggling to make ends meet,\" he said.\n\n\"I would notice particularly that the benefits that would last a fortnight, are now only lasting a week to 10 days.\n\n\"We will help them with food, with gas and electricity and we'll do all we can to provide places where you can come and be warm and spend time with us.\n\n\"But that's utter pressure. That's a mental pressure to live with day in daily.\"\n\nYou can watch BBC NI Spotlight's Loan Sharks and Paramilitaries on BBC iPlayer", "The view of \"Kristina\" from the window from Lexington Street\n\nPolice broke into an art gallery to help an unconscious person inside, only to discover it was an art installation.\n\nTwo officers saw a woman slumped over a table and forced entry to Soho's Laz Emporium in central London.\n\nBut the \"woman\" was actually made of packing tape and foam filler, as commissioned by Banksy's former agent.\n\nThe lifelike sculpture is a depiction of gallery owner Steve Lazarides' sister, Kristina, with her head in a bowl of soup.\n\nHe commissioned the piece from his friend, US artist Mark Jenkins, who makes \"provocative street sculptures\".\n\nKristina features in the gallery window \"to make people smile\", says owner Steve Lazarides\n\nJenkins previously made a floating body sculpture in an Amsterdam canal which also prompted various emergency service callouts, the gallery owner said.\n\nThe Laz Emporium sculpture was commissioned to adorn or give an \"art sprinkle\" to a table in the gallery.\n\nMr Lazarides said: \"I didn't want to have a £20,000 table without something funny or distressing to complement it.\n\n\"It's there to make people smile or to horrify, to get a reaction and to grab people's attention. People always stop and stare at the piece and it's great because they linger and come into the shop.\"\n\nHe added that his shop assistant, who was on site at the time of the police visit, had gone upstairs to make a cup of tea and was shocked to find two confused police officers and an unhinged door.\n\nA Met Police spokesperson said the force was called on 25 November to \"concerns for the welfare of a person at a locked business premises\" on Lexington Street.\n\n\"At approximately 17:57 GMT, officers forced entry to the address where they uncovered that the person was, in fact, a mannequin.\n\n\"The Met has a duty of care to respond when there are welfare concerns.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Tributes have been left near Babbs Mill Park, in Kingshurst, where the boys fell into a lake\n\nFamilies of three young boys who died after being pulled from an icy lake are suffering unimaginable pain, a family member has said.\n\nThe children, aged eight, 10 and 11, died after emergency calls to Babbs Mill Park, near Solihull, on Sunday.\n\nThe 10-year-old has been named as Jack Johnson but the identities of the other two boys are yet to be confirmed, as mourners leave tributes near the lake.\n\nAnother boy, six, rescued from the water remains in a critical condition.\n\nSearches of the lake continued throughout Tuesday but police stressed there was no suggestion anybody else was missing.\n\nOn Monday night, mourners gathered for a candle-lit vigil, leaving flowers, soft toys and balloons.\n\nMourners gathered throughout Tuesday at the site\n\nThroughout the day, people were standing in shock not knowing what to do or say - and so remained quiet.\n\nJack's aunt Charlotte McIlmurray thanked the local community on social media for their support.\n\nShe described the boys' deaths as a nightmare, saying the pain of losing them was \"unimaginable\".\n\nMessages of love and support have been left for the boys and their families along with flowers and soft toys.\n\nOne tribute, in a child's writing, read: \"Rest in peace, I'm going to miss you forever.\"\n\nA floral wreath from Birmingham City FC was laid near where the boys were found\n\nJohn Eustace, head coach at Birmingham City FC, was among those to lay flowers at the lakeside.\n\nThe blue and white arrangement held a card which read: \"Sending our deepest condolences and love to those affected by this tragedy.\n\n\"You are in our thoughts. From everyone at Birmingham City Football Club.\"\n\nHe then stood for a moment in silence before leaving.\n\nOnlookers applauded when a group of 21 police officers from the Chelmsley Wood neighbourhood policing team marched to the memorial spot.\n\nThey held a two-minute silence and on Twitter they thanked the community for the kindness shown towards the police force.\n\nSchoolchildren and classmates came to pay tribute after lessons on Tuesday\n\n\"The support from residents for our staff and other emergency services that attended the incident has been overwhelming,\" they said.\n\nShaun Gordon, 45, told the BBC how he had had to break the news to his daughter, a classmate of Jack's.\n\n\"It was heart-breaking,\" he said. \"As a parent, it's just tragic.\"\n\nThe family came to lay flowers on Tuesday which Mr Gordon said helped ease his daughter's pain.\n\nSome of Jack's other classmates also came to lay flowers at the end of the school day.\n\nThe community here knows all the boys who have died but out of respect for the families they are waiting for their names to be formally confirmed by police.\n\nInstead, on candles and notes they refer to them as little soldiers, three kings and the Babbs Mill Boys.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA neighbour of one of the boys was distraught when she opened the door to reporters earlier. She said what had happened was a \"complete and utter tragedy\".\n\nMembers of the public and police officers initially went into the water to try to get the children, before they were reached by specialist water rescue-trained firefighters.\n\nWest Midlands Police said one of its officers had to punch through the ice to try to rescue the boys.\n\nThe force is being guided by the families as to how much information is made available to the media, Supt Richard Harris said, adding it was doing \"everything we possibly can to support them\".\n\nDozens of tributes, including soft toys and flowers, have been left for the \"Babbs Mill Boys\"\n\n\"People have said it feels like being in a movie,\" said Reverend Mandy Harris, from the nearby St Barnabas Church.\n\n\"This is what happens everywhere else, this doesn't happen in Kingshurst.\"\n\nShe said some of the boys' classmates had come to the church \"not knowing where to turn or give voice to their grief\".\n\nShe spoke of the strength of community spirit in the area as people pull together to mourn.\n\nThe chair of governors at Jack's school, St Anthony's Catholic Primary, said the community was \"very, very close-knit\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by St Anthony's Primary This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"We've got families that have been here for five generations,\" Marcus Brain told BBC Radio 5 Live. \"Everybody knows everybody else.\n\n\"Everybody I've spoken to... are in an utter state of shock.\"\n\nThe school shut on Monday after the incident and reopened on Tuesday morning.\n\nSpeaking in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his sympathies to the families of the children who had died.\n\nOne resident, Dan, said he had heard sirens from his flat that overlooks the lake after the children got into trouble on Sunday afternoon.\n\nHe said he had grabbed jackets and towels which were given to the boys when they were pulled from the water.\n\n\"Then 15 minutes later I am back in my flat and they'd brought them up on stretchers,\" Dan said.\n\nSpecially trained police divers continued to search the lake on Tuesday\n\nOfficers have been breaking up ice on parts of the lake that remain frozen\n\nAnother vigil for the boys is due to be held on Sunday.\n\nA local Rotary club has cancelled its annual Santa sleigh charity event which had been due to go around Kingshurst on Wednesday and Thursday.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nLionel Messi's last dance will continue until the music stops in Qatar on Sunday as he now stands just 90 minutes away from the ultimate accolade of having a World Cup forever attached to his name.\n\nJust like Diego Maradona stamped himself indelibly on Argentina's 1986 win in Mexico and Brazil striker Ronaldo wrote a redemption story in Yokohama in their 2002 triumph, this will be known as Messi's World Cup if he inspires victory against either France or Morocco in the final.\n\nArgentina's campaign in Qatar opened with the ignominy of what is still this World Cup's biggest shock, when they lost to Saudi Arabia.\n\nBut the manner in which the master Messi and his apprentice Julian Alvarez swept aside Croatia in their 3-0 semi-final win delivered an ominous warning that they are reaching the sort of perfect crescendo their fans were still hitting in Lusail Stadium long after the final whistle.\n\nSo it is all back to the space-age Lusail on Sunday to see if Argentina can win a third World Cup in their sixth final, and whether the player some label the greatest the game has ever seen can finally get his hands on the prize that has remained tantalisingly out of his reach.\n• None This will be my last World Cup - Messi\n• None 'Best ever' & 'magic' - reaction to 'the true Messi'\n\nIt seemed, for a while at least, that the perfect ending the romantics and those who support Argentina crave would be transformed into a nightmare as a grimacing Messi bent over in the 19th minute, stretching and feeling the top of his left hamstring.\n\nMessi, who equalled Lothar Matthaus' World Cup record of 25 matches played, moved at walking pace, which the 35-year-old does quite a lot in his current mode of operation, clearly feeling discomfort.\n\nBut he received the biggest tonic of all after 34 minutes when he lashed the opener past Dominik Livakovic from the penalty spot after Croatia's keeper had fouled Alvarez.\n\nAlvarez then took Messi's header just inside the Croatia half five minutes later before embarking a long and winding road to goal, aided by rebounds off Josip Juranovic and Borna Sosa, before beating Livakovic.\n\nThe high point of this duo's masterclass came after 69 minutes when Messi, the magician from Rosario, more or less made one of the tournament's outstanding defenders disappear.\n\nMessi looked to be trapped by the touchline but a twist and sleight of foot took him away from Josko Gvardiol, now regarded as an 'A-List' defender and touted for a £70m move away from RB Leipzig, to set up the predatory Alvarez.\n\nIn that moment, Messi did not just mesmerise Gvardiol once, but on a couple more occasions for good measure.\n\nIt was pitched as Messi for Argentina against Luka Modric for Croatia, two magnificent players who have World Cup history stretching back to Germany in 2006.\n\nIt was not to be Modric's night. He will not have the chance to make amends for defeat by France in the 2018 final in Moscow, but received warm applause from all around the stadium when he was substituted with nine minutes left.\n\nAt the final whistle, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni slumped tearfully into Messi's arms in a gesture of thanks for the performance that has taken them both to the brink of the crowning glory of their careers.\n\nThe Messi story goes on to Sunday, when he will have the opportunity to finally erase the memories of his very obvious distress and disappointment when he failed to stop Argentina losing 1-0 to Germany in Rio's iconic Maracana in 2014.\n\nAnd as an indicator of his longevity and enduring talent, his contribution against Croatia meant he has become the first player to score and assist in four separate World Cup matches since 1966 - against Serbia in 2006 and Mexico, the Netherlands and Croatia here in Qatar.\n\nArgentina have scored 12 goals at this World Cup. Messi has netted five and assisted three - he was not given another assist for the header which set Alvarez on his way to goal to double Argentina's lead.\n\nHe has 11 goals at World Cups in total, which is the Argentina record.\n\nAnd Messi is now level with Kylian Mbappe in the race for the Golden Boot at Qatar with five goals. Could that contest also be settled on the biggest global sporting stage of all on Sunday?\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nBBC Sport pundit and former England captain Alan Shearer suggests Argentina lifting the World Cup on Sunday could have a wider significance when it comes to the argument of who is the greatest footballing product from that country - Messi or Maradona?\n\nShearer said: \"What a story it would be if Argentina win the World Cup. Would it put an end to the debate of Messi or Maradona?\n\n\"We said if Messi wins the World Cup here it might have to be him. That has been the difference [in the past], that has been the splitting point - Maradona has won the World Cup. If Messi were to win it here my view would change.\"\n\nFor club and country, Messi has won it all and done it all - except for winning the World Cup.\n\nCould that moment of destiny arrive at Lusail Stadium on Sunday? If it does this will always be known as Lionel Messi's World Cup.\n\nIf you are viewing this page on the BBC News app please click here to vote.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Bilal and Imran Uzbakzai, by their mother's grave. They cannot remember her now. Image: Julian Busch/BBC\n\nWhen British special forces raided a family home in Afghanistan in 2012, they killed two young parents and gravely wounded their infant sons. A BBC investigation has revealed that special forces command didn't refer the incident to military police and it was never investigated, until now. In Afghanistan, a family is still trying to heal.\n\nLate on the evening of 6 August 2012, in the courtyard of a family home in Afghanistan, Abdul Aziz Uzbakzai sat down for the last dinner he would ever have with his son. At the table were Abdul Aziz and his wife, four of their five children, and two of their young grandchildren. It was the 18th night of Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims fast. The family lived together in a modest home in a village called Shesh Aba in Nimruz province.\n\nThat day had begun like any other - a shared pre-dawn breakfast, before sunrise brought the fasting hours and family members went to work. Abdul Aziz's eldest son, Hussain, opened the small grocery shop he ran. Hussain's wife Ruqqia cared for their two young boys and began her work in the home. A goat was slaughtered by a neighbour in anticipation of evening meals that would break the day's fast.\n\nThe only thing out of the ordinary, according to the family's account, was the arrival of two unknown male visitors. In rural Afghanistan, it is not uncommon to receive unexpected guests, and tradition dictates that they are shown hospitality. But Abdul Aziz felt himself becoming wary of the two men, he said, and he called Hussain to close the shop early and come home.\n\nAfter sunset, the two guests were given food and ate separately and they left without incident at 10pm, Abdul Aziz said. It was a hot summer night in Shesh Aba, so the family ate outside. At the end of the meal, Abdul Aziz stood up and said he was tired and would go to bed. He said \"Goodnight Hussain Jan\" - a term of loving affection - to his son, \"Goodnight daughter\" to Ruqqia, and \"Goodnight boys\" to the boys.\n\nAbdul Aziz at the family home in Shesh Aba. Image: Julian Busch/BBC\n\nThe boys were young then - Imran three and his brother Bilal just one and a half. They do not remember anything now about what would unfold later that night, and the family has tried to shield them in the decade since from the worst of the horror. They know that before bedtime, their father had pulled their mattresses out into the courtyard, because the heat had made their shared room stifling, and that they had fallen asleep with their parents, for the last time, under the stars.\n\nBy that point, in 2012, coalition forces had been waging war in Afghanistan for a little over a decade. Elite special forces units from leading coalition countries were regularly carrying out so-called \"Deliberate Detention Operations\", also known as \"Kill/Capture missions\". Troops typically flew in by helicopter after dark and launched fast-moving assaults against suspected Taliban targets. For the UK, these night-time raids were usually executed by the SAS or SBS, the highly-respected special forces units of the British Army and Royal Navy.\n\nBut unknown to the British public at that time, SAS operatives were already suspected at the highest levels of UK Special Forces of illegally killing Afghan men who had surrendered and been detained, and later covering up the killings with fabricated reports. A BBC Panorama investigation published earlier this year revealed that one SAS squadron killed 54 people in suspicious circumstances in one six-month tour. The pattern led one of the highest-ranking special forces officers in the UK to warn in a secret memo to the head of special forces that there could be a \"deliberate policy\" in effect to kill detainees, \"even when they did not pose a threat\".\n\nOne of these \"Kill/Capture\" raids was about to be executed on Abdul Aziz's family home. At about 3am, British military helicopters descended through the dark sky over Nimruz and landed outside the village. Special forces operatives dropped to the ground and moved towards where the family were sleeping. Abdul Aziz was woken by the first gunshots, and within minutes foreign soldiers were in his room, he said, pushing him on the ground, handcuffing and blindfolding him.\n\n\"I pleaded with them to let me go to where my son and daughter-in-law and their children were sleeping,\" Abdul Aziz said. \"I could hear my two daughters screaming and pleading for help. No one was helping them. I could not do anything for my children.\"\n\nThe family lives in a small village made up of traditional mud homes, in Nimruz province. Image: Julian Busch/BBC\n\nChaos had descended on the rural family home. According to his account, Abdul Aziz was blindfolded, beaten and interrogated. The foreign soldiers asked him about the visitors who came to the house earlier that day, he said. He would be kept inside, blindfolded, for the duration of the raid.\n\nThe special forces operatives had also gone to the house next door, where a widower called Lal Mohammad lived with his six sons and three daughters. One of his sons, Mohammad Mohammad, who was 12 at the time, told the BBC that he and his brothers were brought outside and detained by the assault team. He was blindfolded and - possibly because of his young age - taken separately to Hussain's home and held there for the rest of the raid.\n\nIt was only after the troops left the village, hours later, that Abdul Aziz was able to take off his blindfold and go out into the morning light to the place where Hussain and Ruqqia and the boys had been sleeping. \"There was blood everywhere\", he said, \"blood soaked into the sheets and the mattresses.\" According to members of both families who saw Hussain and Ruqqia's bodies, both had been shot in the head. Imran and Bilal's bloody bedclothes lay there, but the boys were gone.\n\nMohammad Mohammad ran back next door to his family home, where he had last seen his older brothers detained by the soldiers. He found Mohammad Wali, who was 26, and Mohammad Juma, who was 28, inside the home, dead with gunshot wounds to the head, he said. Other family members said that the two were shot at close range in the head, and an image of Mohammad Wali's body seen by the BBC appears to show a head wound.\n\nMohammad Mohammad's account appears to mirror the pattern of killings that had already raised suspicions among senior special forces officers.\n\n\"I swear to God, my brothers were farmers,\" he said. \"They worked from dawn until night. They were neither with the Taliban nor with the government. They were killed for no reason.\"\n\nAccording to the accounts of Abdul Aziz and other family members who saw Hussain and Ruqqia's bodies, their eyes were closed and their jaws had been bound shut with cloth tied under the jaw and around the head, maybe to allow the assault team to accurately photograph their faces - a standard procedure after a fatal shooting.\n\nThe young parents appeared to have been killed in their bed, the family said. It was not clear if they had woken up before they died. At first, the family assumed Imran and Bilal were dead too. But the boys had been airlifted out with the special forces, one-year-old Bilal with bullet wounds to his face and shoulder, three-year-old Imran with a gunshot wound in his abdomen, fighting for his young life.\n\nIn the aftermath of the raid, a British military commander had a decision to make. Under UK law, commanders are obliged to inform military police if there is any possibility that a Schedule 2 offence has been committed by a person under their command. Schedule 2 offences are serious offences like unlawful killing and grievous bodily harm. The guidance for commanding officers says that the circumstances must only \"indicate to a reasonable person that a Schedule 2 offence may have been committed\" in order to legally oblige them to refer the incident to the military police. It is considered a low bar.\n\nIn Shesh Aba, a woman was among the dead and two infant boys had been shot. An Afghan newswire report published the day of the raid quoted the local governor as saying that the foreign forces had \"killed and wounded six civilians\", including \"two children\". A former investigator from the Royal Military Police told the BBC that, based on the available information, there was \"no question in my mind that this incident should have been referred to military police\".\n\nBut the BBC has discovered that the raid was never referred to military police and never investigated by anyone outside of UK Special Forces. The Royal Military Police (RMP) told us that they did not appear to have been informed of the Shesh Aba raid at the time, and are now reviewing the incident \"as a direct result\" of our inquiries.\n\nWhen asked by the BBC, the Ministry of Defence confirmed that British forces were involved in the raid and that a Serious Incident Review, or SIR (an internal review undertaken automatically after an operation goes wrong in a serious way) had been carried out, but that the commanding officer had decided against referring the incident to military police.\n\nThe MoD said: \"There is a comprehensive MOD policy in place for actions to be taken in the event of possible civilian casualties.\n\n\"Following a review by senior Army lawyers, it was decided by the Commanding Officer, in accordance with the Armed Forces Act 2006 and MoD policy, that the circumstances did not require a referral to the Service Police.\"\n\nGeneral Sir Mark Carleton-Smith was head of UK Special Forces at the time of the Shesh Aba raid in 2012.\n\nThe BBC asked both the MoD and RMP to reveal the rank of the commanding officer who made the decision, but both declined to say. The BBC has obtained a secret internal special forces document laying out the protocol for deciding on referrals to the military police. It appears to show that once an SIR has been completed, it has to go to the Director Special Forces - the highest-ranking special forces officer in the UK - for a decision on whether to refer the incident.\n\nDirector Special Forces at the time of the Shesh Aba raid was General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith, who went on to become the head of the British Army, before stepping down earlier this year. Asked by the BBC about the Shesha Aba raid, General Carleton-Smith said he could not recall whether he was briefed on the \"specific tactical detail of the operation\", but that he was in no doubt he would have been \"guided by the advice of the in-theatre commanders\", as well as the legal judgement of a senior Army lawyer that no referral to military police was necessary.\n\nHe said the recommendation to him at the time from the commanding officer in Afghanistan was that there was no evidence of a criminal offence, that the Rules of Engagement hadn't been broken, and that \"the circumstances of the operation justified the lethal use of force\". He added: \"And I certainly never saw or read any evidence or advice that suggested unlawful behaviour\".\n\nGeneral Carleton-Smith told the BBC it remains his view that \"the Rules of Engagement were correctly observed despite the occasionally tragic outcomes that are sadly inevitable during war\".\n\nThe Rules of Engagement that applied to this raid dictated that lethal force could only have been used against someone who posed an imminent threat to life. There has been no suggestion from the Ministry of Defence that any weapons were found at Hussain and Ruqqia's home or that they were armed when they were shot.\n\nImran and Bilal play marbles in the courtyard, a few feet from a mulberry tree planted in the spot where their parents were killed. Image: Julian Busch/BBC\n\nSIR reports were intended in part to help commanding officers make a decision about whether a referral to military police was necessary. But a former senior RMP officer who served at the time of the raid in Shesh Aba, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, said there were \"serious problems\" across the Armed Forces with the use of the reports.\n\n\"Instead of getting to the bottom of what happened and correcting any criminal behaviour, SIRs became a way of cleansing an incident of any wrongdoing,\" he said. \"Some senior officers were using SIRs as a tool to prevent scrutiny. It seemed they were deciding on non-referral and then writing the SIR to justify the decision.\"\n\nThe problem was \"widespread\", the senior officer said, but UK Special Forces was \"notable in its lack of referrals\". The BBC has identified at least three other occasions when an SIR was completed by UK Special Forces but not referred to the RMP. \"In Special Forces, it's easier to keep it 'in house',\" the former senior officer said. \"There's a lot less oversight.\"\n\nA former RMP investigator who spoke to the BBC said he was \"not surprised\" that the Shesha Aba raid was not referred. \"I'm afraid, given my experience of these kinds of cases, I'm not surprised that the commanding officer decided not to inform the police,\" he said. \"But it's clear it should have been looked into.\"\n\nA spokesperson for the RMP said that its current review, prompted by the BBC's inquiries, \"should in no way be taken as implying that the incident was unlawful or that the British Armed Forces had improperly failed to make the Service Police aware, although these are factors that will be considered by our review team as a matter of course\".\n\nThe MoD said that it was \"the long-standing policy of successive governments not to comment on matters relating to Special Forces\" and that all British military operations were \"conducted in accordance with UK and international law, including the Law of Armed Conflict\".\n\nThe BBC asked the MoD if anyone had ever been officially disciplined over the Shesh Aba raid, but they declined to respond.\n\nAs dawn broke over Nimruz that day, the helicopters that had brought the troops flew back to base bearing the wounded Imran and Bilal. The special forces had also taken Hussain's youngest brother, Rahmat Ullah, who was 12.\n\nRahmat had been detained during the raid and he had no idea what had happened. When his blindfold was finally removed, aboard the helicopter, he saw his young nephews. Imran was conscious, crying. \"He looked like he was in severe pain,\" Rahmat recalled. \"He asked me for water, but I didn't have any.\"\n\nThe boys were sent to separate military bases. The family was not allowed to go to where Imran was so, aged just three, he spent the first part of his recovery alone. Eventually he was transferred, and it fell to Abdul Aziz and their grandmother Mah Bibi to comfort the boys and try to explain that their parents were gone.\n\n\"They were just too small to understand,\" Abdul Aziz said. \"Imran would cry more, maybe because of the pain, but maybe because he could sense that his mother was no longer alive.\"\n\nImran stands by his parents' graves. \"I wish our mother and father were with us today,\" he said. Image: Julian Busch/BBC\n\nAbdul Aziz was offered some compensation at the military hospital for the boys' injuries but he refused the money, he said. \"I refused to benefit from the murderers at that time, they had destroyed our world,\" he said.\n\nWhen the boys were discharged, their grandparents took them home to the village. They have lived there since, with their older sister Hajira, in the home where they were shot. They don't remember anything about that night, or the weeks that followed, but after they came home Imran began to scream in his sleep and sleepwalk outside during the night. \"I don't know why I do it,\" he said. \"I am asleep when it happens, and my grandfather or grandmother brings me home.\"\n\nImran and Bilal doing their homework together. The boys look out for one another, Abdul Aziz said. Image: Julian Busch/BBC\n\nImran is 13 now. He has a long surgical scar down the front of his torso and a scar on the left of his belly, and more scar tissue across his lower back. He has bullet fragments inside his torso - including a large fragment embedded in his spine. \"Running causes me pain, and I feel pain in my stomach,\" he said, pointing gently to the scars on his belly and back. \"I also feel more pain in the winter and when the summer comes I'm relieved.\"\n\nBilal is 11. He has a scar on his face from a bullet that hit him millimetres from his left eye and a scar on his shoulder where another round hit him and left a bullet fragment inside his bone. He gets pain in his arm when he uses it a lot, he said, and the position of the scar on his face is a permanent reminder of how close he came to death.\n\nScars on Imran's abdomen show the damage from the bullet wound as well as his surgical incision. Image: Julian Busch/BBC\n\nBoth boys have bullet fragments inside them. Imran has a large fragment lodged in his spine. Image: Julian Busch/BBC\n\nThe boys go for a few hours in the mornings to a religious school, but there is no proper school nearby that they can attend for full time education. Imran enjoys the lessons, particularly reading. Bilal is less keen. \"I don't like school,\" he said, with a smile. He likes playing with his older brother. On a cool afternoon in October, the two of them played marbles in the courtyard of their home, and they looked as though they were in their own little world. A few feet away, there was a Mulberry tree in the place where their parents were killed. Either side of the Mulberry tree were two thin Jujube trees, planted by Imran and Bilal, for Mohammad Wali and Mohammad Juma, their neighbours who were killed.\n\nImran and Bilal do not talk much about their parents. They have no memory of Hussain and Ruqqia, so their loss is defined by a general sense of absence. \"I wish our mother and father were with us today,\" Imran said, \"so we could go to the city to walk around and enjoy ourselves, as other children can.\"\n\nThe family is poor, and the boys have had limited access to medical care since they were discharged a decade ago. Recently, they travelled to the trauma hospital in the city of Lashkar Gah, about six hours' drive from the village, for a medical examination arranged by the BBC. X-rays showed the bullet fragments still lodged in their bodies. It was the first time the boys had ever seen them. The doctors said that nothing could be done to safely remove the fragments from Imran's torso, so he will have to live with them. \"He is lucky to be alive,\" the surgeon said.\n\nAs the boys were examined, Abdul Aziz sat quietly alongside them and held their hands, just as he had sat with them 10 years ago, in another hospital, when they were much smaller, knowing that they were his responsibility now.\n\nImran sits in a hospital in Lashkar Gah, where the boys were examined in October. Image: Julian Busch/BBC\n\nAbdul Aziz has raised the boys since the night of the raid. Image: Julian Busch/BBC\n\nHussain and Ruqqia were married on a hot summer's day in 2006, in Zahedan, Iran, where Ruqqia's family lived. Excitement had been building in the village in Afghanistan, and when the appointed day came Abdul Aziz and about 100 members of the wider family set out across the border for the ceremony.\n\nWhen they returned a few days later with the new bride and groom, there were celebrations to rival the festival of Eid. Livestock was slaughtered to make rich meals for the family and their neighbours. Those who had new clothes wore them. Those who didn't have new clothes wore the best clothes they had. \"It was a joyous moment for everyone,\" Abdul Aziz recalled. \"From then on, I called Ruqqia my daughter.\"\n\nHussain opened a small grocery shop in the village. Ruqqia was a 'Hafiz Quran', a memoriser of the Muslim holy book, and she taught local children. Shortly after the wedding, their daughter Hajira was born, and then Imran, and a year and a half later Bilal. Hussain took on a new role as the head of the family and the financial provider. He doled out pocket money to his siblings, paid for their schooling and later their weddings. \"He was our strength and power,\" said his younger brother, Mansour. \"We didn't worry about a thing when he was alive.\"\n\nThe boys help with work in the fields. \"I am getting older, it is harder to work,\" Abdul Aziz said. Image: Julian Busch/BBC\n\nWhen Hussain was killed, it forced Abdul Aziz back to work. Now, at 55, he spends his days digging irrigation canals for 200 Afghani - less than £2 - per day. He regrets turning down the offer of compensation for the boy's injuries. If it came again today he would accept. \"I am getting older, and it is harder to work and harder to feed the children,\" he said.\n\nAt one time, Abdul Aziz would set off every day after work, under the burning sun or through bracing cold, to the cemetery where his son and daughter-in-law are buried. Hussain's mother, Mah Bibi, often walked with him. Eventually, her sadness overtook her and became a depression that she has not recovered from, and now she cannot go as often. Abdul Aziz suffers too. He is physically tired. But every Friday he walks a kilometre along the dusty track that leads from the village to the graves. They lie in a small, walled off area of the cemetery reserved for those killed by the foreign soldiers. There are eight graves there in total. Two belong to Hussain and Ruqqia. Two to Mohammad Wali and Mohammed Juma.\n\nLast Friday, Abdul Aziz set out for his weekly visit. For half an hour, as the sun set, he sat still by the graves and said prayers for Hussain and for Ruqqia. He spoke to his son. \"I told him that I missed him, and that I could still remember him when he was just a little boy,\" Abdul Aziz said afterwards. He had not uttered a word by the grave. \"I do not speak to him aloud,\" he said. \"I speak to him in my heart.\"\n\nKiyya Baloch and Ahmad Naveed Nazari contributed to this report\n\nDo you have information about this story that you want to share?\n\nGet in touch using SecureDrop, a highly anonymous and secure way of whistleblowing to the BBC which uses the TOR network.\n\nOr by using the Signal messaging app, an end-to-end encrypted message service designed to protect your data.\n\nPlease note that the SecureDrop link will only work in a Tor browser. For information on keeping secure and anonymous, here's some advice on how to use SecureDrop.", "By the second week of December, Royal Mail's sorting office in central London should be one of the busiest places on earth.\n\nWith the festive season fast approaching, 1.3 million letters and parcels would normally be tumbling through Mount Pleasant Mail Centre each day - with some, perhaps, on their way to underneath a Christmas tree.\n\nOn Friday, however, Royal Mail's cavernous sorting centre was deserted.\n\nInstead of the 1,000 people usually found bustling around the company's biggest site, just 100 workers turned up.\n\nThe rest were out on strike for the 13th day of industrial action by CWU union members since the beginning of the year - and there are five more days to come.\n\nOne of those who chose to work is Joy, a Royal Mail veteran of 28 years, who was feeding armfuls of letters into a vast, automated sorting machine.\n\nFor Joy, who is a manager at the plant, it is important \"to keep moving the mail\" even if it doesn't leave the centre until striking posties return to work.\n\nFirms are worried about business following Covid, he told the BBC. \"They need their letters and their mail ASAP.\"\n\nOutside in the cold, Nick is one of the 115,000 Royal Mail workers across the UK who are taking industrial action.\n\nLike Joy, he has worked for the company for decades, but a dispute over pay, looming redundancies and what Nick believes are unfair changes to working conditions mean that strike action is the only option for him.\n\nAlthough he has walked out during previous strikes in years gone by, he says that the gulf between management and unions appears to be wider this time around.\n\n\"It seems to me there's not really a negotiation,\" he said. \"It is a take it or leave it deal where they are attacking our terms and conditions.\"\n\nBoth Joy and Nick were happy to be interviewed, but did not wish to give their last names or be pictured. Industrial action can stir up strong feelings.\n\nDespite their differences though, both men are proud to work for an institution that has been around for more than 500 years.\n\n\"It is a good job and you have a bit of pride,\" said Nick. \"You're servicing customers and you do feel like you're valued.\"\n\nThe industrial action taken by Royal Mail workers also appears to be curiously genteel, especially compared to the violence that sometimes marked the miners' strikes of the early 1980s.\n\nThe early morning gathering of strikers outside Mount Pleasant might have been loudly chanting \"Thompson out\" in reference to Royal Mail chief executive Simon Thompson, but they respect the rights of people to work during industrial action.\n\n\"If people want to come to work, they come to work,\" said Nick. \"People go in, we don't say a word to them. We're here fighting for everybody.\"\n\nBut Jay Brooks, Royal Mail's plant manager at Mount Pleasant, believes it is difficult for some people who choose to work on strike days.\n\nJay Brooks is the plant manager at Royal Mail's Mount Pleasant sorting centre\n\nInstead of working at their own office on a strike day, they will volunteer to travel to another site to help process the mail, where they join agency workers who are employed by Royal Mail at this busy time of the year, he said.\n\n\"I think that there are some people who are concerned about crossing a picket line in terms of what that will mean for their relationships with other people within their offices, which is probably why we sometimes see people prefer to go to a neighbouring office,\" said Brooks.\n\n\"It is obviously a personal choice. We will say to people on site it is their own personal decision if they plan to come to work or not. We have to respect that either way.\"\n\nFor now, there are five more strike dates to come,on 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24 December.\n\nAs a result, people and businesses have had to post earlier this year, likely leading to frustration for some.\n\n\"I completely sympathise and I completely understand people's frustrations with this,\" said Brooks. \"Ultimately, we all want this dispute to come to an end. From my perspective I want to be excited about the future of Royal Mail.\"\n\nNote: 5 January 2023: After feedback from readers, this article was amended to make clear that those at work were not necessarily breaking the strike.", "Back to the topic of rail strikes.\n\nRMT union leader Mick Lynch says he's due to meet a government minister tomorrow - without specifying which one - alongside \"the heads of the industry, from Network Rail and from the train operating companies\".\n\nLych tells BBC Radio 4's World At One programme that there's a chance the long-running dispute can be resolved - if the government allows the industry to make \"revised offers we can cope with\".\n\nAt the moment, Lynch says, the government is \"torpedoing\" solutions by giving instructions it knows the RMT can never accept - including changes to workers' contracts which he says would mean thousands of job losses.\n\nNetwork Rail denies planning any compulsory redundancies - and for the government's part, it says it's not involved in the negotiations.\n\nLynch also disputes suggestions from the government that higher pay offer would fuel inflation - saying the railways are a profitable, regulated monopoly, so there is no need to increase prices.", "Work to restore power is under way on Shetland\n\nTeams of engineers worked into the night in Shetland in a bid to restore power to about 2,800 homes.\n\nHeavy snowstorms disrupted supplies, with many facing days without power.\n\nFifteen crews arrived in Lerwick by ferry on Wednesday to help with reconnection efforts, which are being hampered by continuing poor weather.\n\nEnergy firm Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said more crews would leave for Shetland throughout the course of the day.\n\nThe situation in Shetland has been declared a major incident, with residents urged to stay at home.\n\nSSEN vans arrived off the overnight ferry from Aberdeen on Wednesday morning.\n\nSSE said engineers were still at work after 21:00 and would stay as long as it was operationally safe before being stood down for the night.\n\nThe firm said it would ensure workers were back out at first light on Thursday with additional crews arriving on the morning ferry.\n\nMeanwhile, SSEN said progress was expected over the next 24 hours, but it remained likely that for some customers full restoration would not be until the end of the week.\n\nThis has been blamed on \"significant\" network damage caused by line icing, where snow and ice accumulate on overhead power lines and the additional weight causes them to break.\n\nMark Macdonald, head of region at SSEN Distribution, said: \"We're getting teams, equipment, and large-scale generation on the island now to help us enact our restoration plan and make continued progress in restoring power to our customers.\n\n\"We've had 15 power line crews arrive on the first ferry this morning, with another 15 crews leaving tonight and many more expected to arrive by plane and helicopter to support our local teams.\n\n\"Now that it's safe to fly, we're organising helicopter patrols to fly our overhead lines and assess the extent of the damage, which will help us better target our restoration strategy.\"\n\nCustomers are entitled to claim up to £30 per person for every 24 hours they are without power.\n\nEven getting to Shetland has been difficult with snow closing the runways at both Aberdeen and Sumburgh airports.\n\nWith the plane having to abort its landing, I thought at one point that we might end up back where we started.\n\nMy five hour delay perhaps gives you an idea of how difficult it's been getting engineers here from the mainland.\n\nThis plane and some others was carrying workers from SSE who are being sent here to tackle the faults. They're a welcome sight.\n\nAt the south end of Shetland, there's barely any snow but further north and it's quickly gets thicker with quite a few cars abandoned at the side of the road.\n\nGangs of workers can be seen busy up poles trying to get the cables re-strung.\n\nIn Voe, which has had no power since Monday, a community hall has finally been provided with a spare generator from the wind farm being built in Shetland and local people are rallying their neighbours to take refuge there.\n\nThere is some anger but a lot of quiet resignation that this is not going to be over quickly.\n\nMatt Davenport has used duvets to keep warm at night\n\nMatt Davenport, 41, lost power at the family home in Upper Voe, Shetland, at the start of the week.\n\nAfter two days, his wife and their nine-year-old son went to stay with her sister who does have power.\n\nHowever Mr Davenport, a supervisor with Lerwick Engineering and Fabrication (LEF), has remained at home.\n\nHe has borrowed a camping stove for food - with his nearby work at Sullom Voe offering the chance of warmth and the ability to recharge his phone.\n\n\"We have oil-fired central heating and there's no power,\" he said of their modern three-bedroom single-storey detached house.\n\n\"Luckily I got a camping stove from a neighbour, so last night I heated up a tin of beans.\"\n\nMatt Davenport's home is now surrounded by heavy snow\n\nHe explained: \"I had a couple of duvets on the bed and wrapped up warm - I slept no bother actually. The house was cold but under blankets was OK.\n\n\"There is obviously no shower, so I put on a pan of water and had a quick wash and a coffee.\n\n\"We have power here at work, so I have charging and communication.\n\n\"Power lines have come down so it's not going to be a two-minute job. They are doing their best. The power might be back on tomorrow. You just have to make the best of it.\"\n\nBBC Weather Watcher AndyMoe2101 sent us this picture of a snow day in Scousburgh, Shetland\n\nEmma Macdonald, the leader of Shetland Islands Council, who took five hours to make a 25-minute car journey on Monday during a blizzard, said the weather was unusual.\n\n\"The community is very resilient, as an island we have to be, and we have seen a lot of community support, everyone pulling together to do what they can.\n\n\"There is a lot of snow, a lot of wet snow and it is sticking on the lines which is the issue.\n\n\"It is very unprecedented, I don't think it can be blamed on the electricity company.\"\n\nHeavy snow affected Aberdeen Airport and the rest of north east Scotland\n\nMeanwhile there has been heavy snow across much of north-east Scotland overnight.\n\nAberdeenshire Council said most of its roads network had been affected by heavy snow and drivers faced disruption on the A90 after a bus and lorry crashed near Glenbervie, at about 17:00.\n\nMore than 200 schools and nurseries in Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Highlands are closed.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ben Philip This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA power cut affecting seven postcodes in Stonehaven was fixed by 13:00.\n\nA school bus left the road at Tankerness, Orkney. Three children were reported to have been on board at the time but they all made it safely to school by other means. No-one was hurt.\n\nAberdeen has also seen significant snowfall and bus company Stagecoach Bluebird says its services have been affected, with many cancelled, delayed or diverted.\n\nThe Met Office has extended a yellow warning for snow and ice covering northern Scotland until 23:59 on Thursday.\n\nIt covers the north and north-east of Scotland, Shetland, south-west Scotland, the Lothians, Scottish Borders and Orkney.\n\nA Met Office yellow warning for strong winds is in force between 07:00 - 14:00 in Shetland, where gusts of up to 60-65mph will accompany blustery wintery showers, especially for northern areas.\n\nHow have you been affected by power cuts? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A man outside a hospital in Beijing - the healthcare system is under huge strain as Covid restrictions ease\n\nChina's hospitals are already under so much pressure, following the country's rapid 180-degree shift in Covid policy, that doctors and nurses could be infecting patients.\n\nIt seems frontline medical workers are being told to come in even if they have the virus themselves because of staff shortages.\n\nA Chinese professor specialising in health policy has been monitoring the crisis in his home country from Yale University in the United States.\n\nChen Xi told the BBC that he has been speaking to hospital directors and other medical staff in China about the massive strains on the system right now.\n\n\"People who've been infected have been required to work in the hospitals which creates a transmission environment there,\" he said.\n\nChina's hospitals have hastily increased their fever ward capacity to meet a huge influx of patients, but these have been filling up quickly, in part because the message is still not getting through that it is all right to stay at home if you catch the virus.\n\nMedical staff move a patient into a fever clinic at Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing\n\nProf Chen says much more needs to be done to explain this to people.\n\n\"There is no culture of staying at home for minor symptoms,\" he said. \"When people feel sick they all go to hospitals, which may easily crash the healthcare system.\"\n\nA rush on pharmacies has led to significant nationwide shortages of medicine used to treat a cold or the flu. Home testing kits for Covid are also hard to come by.\n\nIn Beijing, though restaurants are allowed to open again, they have very few customers and the streets are quiet.\n\nCompanies are telling employees they should return to the office, but many don't want to.\n\nThis all makes sense when you consider that, just weeks ago, the government was saying that there will be no swerving from zero-Covid, that those infected must go to centralised quarantine facilities and that lockdowns were necessary.\n\nThe queue outside a hospital's fever clinic in Beijing on Monday\n\nThe coronavirus was something to fear and Chinese people were lucky to live here because the Communist Party would not sacrifice them on the altar of opening up.\n\nNow the goal of returning each outbreak to zero cases has been abandoned, Covid is spreading like wildfire and the line from the government is that catching this disease is not something to worry about.\n\nChina's easing of Covid restrictions was expected to unfold more slowly, much more gradually.\n\nThen came street protests, in city after city, with demonstrators demanding their old lives back. They wanted to be free to move around again. There were clashes with police and the chant was going up for China's leader Xi Jinping to resign and for the Communist Party to give up power.\n\nThis was the straw that broke zero-Covid's back.\n\nAn empty shopping street in Beijing this week\n\nAccording to Prof Chen, this meant that the timing of China's re-opening was \"not ideal\" but they had to do it.\n\nHe said countries like Singapore and New Zealand made their changes when infections were at bay. However, China has moved with full-blown outbreaks under way in cities like Beijing.\n\nThe government \"heard the voice of the protesters\", he said, but added that this was not the ideal choice for them in terms of timing.\n\nSo the protesters may have won, but the speed of the cave-in from the government has left elderly people afraid to leave their homes.\n\nOne woman we met going for a walk with her grandson said she would stay clear of crowded places, that she would keep wearing a mask and continue to wash her hands regularly.\n\nYet a reluctance to be in places where infection is more likely permeates all groups in society.\n\nThe impact on Beijing has been great.\n\nAnother reason restaurants are empty is that the city government still requires a negative PCR test result within 48 hours to dine inside. However, the majority of results are not coming through to health code phone apps.\n\nDelivery services of food and groceries are still seeing high demand as Beijing residents remain cautious on venturing outside\n\nThis seems to be because the labs have been swamped with work now that Covid is spreading so rapidly.\n\nA 34-year-old woman, who is isolating at home after catching Covid, told the BBC that the experience, so far, has been surprisingly smooth.\n\nShe said her symptoms have not been as bad as she had expected them to be and that she has everything she needs.\n\nShe also said she was much happier to have the option of recovering at home with her husband rather than in a crowded quarantine centre.\n\nHowever, she too worries. She has a sister with young children, parents living alone in their hometown and a grandmother who all have to get through this period.\n\nDoctors are taking to social media in an attempt reassure people that it is fine for them to remain at home after they catch Covid.\n\nOfficials have also started to transform China's Covid isolation centres into temporary hospital facilities, to cope with an explosion of infections.\n\nIn just one day this week, 22,000 people in Beijing tried to get into a fever clinic.\n\nWhy didn't the government prepare for this earlier, with an expansion of hospital ICU capacity?\n\nWhy has it taken so long to make this switch when countries around the world had already done it?\n\nWhy did Xi Jinping's administration allow the zero-Covid approach to cause so much damage to the economy more broadly and people's livelihoods more specifically?\n\nA renewed vaccination push has started but it too should have come before China reached this stage.\n\nThe government says it is the virus which has changed, that newer strains are less dangerous and that this has meant the time was right to alter the response.\n\nEither way, there is much more optimism now.\n\nA group of overseas Chinese have set up a special chat on the Wechat app so that people living in other countries can share their experiences of having Covid with users in China.\n\nFor sure, the next couple of months are going to be tough here. Millions of people are going to get sick and there will be many deaths.\n\nHowever, the old approach was clearly unsustainable and, at last, people can see a way out.", "More than two thirds of vacancies are in social work with children\n\nThe negative perception of social workers needs to change to recruit more into the profession, it has been claimed.\n\nBBC Wales research shows three councils in Wales had social worker vacancy rates of more than 30%.\n\nThere are also calls to improve pay and terms and conditions.\n\nThe Welsh government said it was \"working incredibly hard to respond to a complex range of ongoing and significant challenges\".\n\nAilsa Stephens says the experience was mostly really positive\n\nAilsa Stephens, a senior social worker for Carmarthenshire children's services who has been qualified for nearly 13 years, said some people still believed social workers were only there to remove children from families and that they were paid extra to do so.\n\n\"I have to tell people - we're not on commission,\" she said. \"I can't just remove children, we don't get bonuses for it and we don't get promotions. People still think that and I can't believe it.\"\n\nShe said that social workers were always mentioned when things went wrong, even when other agencies or professionals were involved.\n\n\"There's a lot of bad press. We don't get to hear about all the wonderful things that happen.\"\n\nShe said there were \"dark moments\" in social work but on the whole it was \"really positive\".\n\n\"It can get exhausting but for me it comes back to the young people and children I work with - you get those special moments. And the families when you're able to bring about change with them.\"\n\nShe said people needed to be accountable for bad practice, but it was frustrating people did not hear about the good things social workers do.\n\n\"Being a social worker is the best thing I've ever done. The positives far outweigh the bad parts of social work. I'm proud to be a social worker.\"\n\nThere are about 485 vacancies in social work in 17 of Wales' 22 local authorities, responses to a BBC Wales Freedom of Information request show.\n\nMore than two-thirds of those were in children's social services.\n\nNewport, Bridgend and Ceredigion all had vacancy rates of more than 30%.\n\nWe need to change the perception of the job and help people understand that it is a fantastic and rewarding career\n\nFormer Children's Commissioner for Wales Sally Holland, now a professor of social work at Cardiff University, said that while there was a recruitment problem across the public sector, the negative press around social work contributed to high vacancy rates.\n\n\"We hear about the very tragic things that happen but we don't often hear about the very positive stories. Every day many people are helped to live full and safe lives in the community by social workers but we're very unlikely to hear about those,\" she said.\n\n\"We need to change the perception of the job and help people understand that it is a fantastic and rewarding career that you can have working with people.\"\n\nSocial workers have to deliver many statutory services - services that, by law, have to be delivered.\n\nIf there are not enough social workers to deliver those services, agency workers are used.\n\nProf Holland said it was hard for families to develop confidence and trust if social workers changed regularly.\n\nCouncillor Llinos Medi is a social services spokesperson for the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and said more must be done to attract new social workers.\n\n\"We've seen what happens even in [child protection] cases when they've had support. We've seen these tragedies when everyone has done everything they can. But when you add the risk of not enough manpower - I dread to think,\" she said.\n\nThe numbers of students signing up for social work degree courses in Wales has been variable.\n\nIn 2016-17, 260 students started the social work degree, but that dipped to 202 in 2018 before increasing to 242 in 2020-21, according to Social Care Wales.\n\nDr Michelle Culwick, course leader for the social work programme at the University of South Wales, said the profession had not always been understood.\n\n\"I think we're not seeing enough positive press about what social work and the rewards of the job and what it can bring. We need to start raising the profile as a meaningful and worthwhile profession. We can't live without social workers.\"\n\nErica Hughes said she's wanted to be a social worker for a long time after working with children and families for a number of years\n\nErica Hughes is in her third year of the Social Work BSc in University of South Wales, and as a single mum of three, she said the bursary was not enough. She had to save and work hard to fund her studying.\n\n\"I'm grateful for the help I've received but it could be a bit more,\" she said.\n\nThe Welsh government recently announced a £10m package of support for social work students as part of its work to recruit more social workers and first year student Mya Clare is one of those to benefit from it.\n\nShe feels passionately about being a social worker, having cared for her mum who has Crohn's disease but said more funding would help.\n\n\"Financially, it's been really hard. The cost of living is like a punch to the face but the bursary and loans really help. It should be more though - especially if you're in a severely low income house it can get hard,\" she said.\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"We are working with the sector to improve recruitment and retention of social workers including through actions set out in the recently published social work workforce plan.\"", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nation:Dates:Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nAn Argentine pop song has become the unofficial World Cup anthem for Lionel Messi and company.\n\n\"Muchachos, ahora nos volvimo' a ilusionar\" - a song by Argentine nine-piece band, La Moscas - has been ringing out in stadiums across Qatar during the tournament and it's caught fire in the dressing room too.\n\nThe band's signature sound is a heady mix of ska, rock and pop and the title of their hit roughly translates as \"Boys, We Have Our Hopes Up Again\".\n\nIt has become a rallying cry for the two-time World Cup-winning nation and their 40,000-strong following in Qatar.\n\nAccording to AFP news agency, Argentina's embassy in Doha reported that between 35,000 and 40,000 Argentines have travelled to Qatar in the hope of seeing their team lift the World Cup for the first time in 36 years, in what may also be 35-year-old Messi's last tournament.\n\nAlong with South American rivals Brazil and fellow semi-finalists Morocco, Argentina's fans have helped to create a carnival atmosphere throughout the tournament.\n\nThe anthem that has become their rallying cry is actually a re-work of a 2003 song that was originally titled \"Muchachos, Esta Noche Me Emborracho\" (\"Boys, Tonight I'll Get Drunk\"). That version was all about heartbreak. Not so rousing.\n• None Argentina v Croatia - Lionel Messi and Luka Modric battle for last final\n• None 'Emotion driving Argentina more than ever in Qatar' - Pablo Zabaleta\n\nHowever, the band's lead singer, Guillermo Novellis has explained that a fan called Fernando Romero wrote new lyrics celebrating Argentina's road to the final of the 2021 Copa America. Novellis and his band then recorded that version and released it before the World Cup.\n\nThe opening line in the new edition explicitly references Argentina's two biggest footballing icons: \"I was born in Argentina, land of Diego and Lionel, of the kids from the Falkland Islands, whom I'll never forget.\"\n\nIt's no wonder then that Messi and his team-mates are fans. Messi himself claimed earlier this year on Argentine television this was his favourite football chant.\n\nFollowing Argentina's victory over Mexico in Group C, the squad were captured dancing around the dressing room, chanting La Moscas' anthem at the top of their lungs.\n\nWhen Argentina subsequently progressed past Australia in the last 16, La Moscas posted a video to their own Instagram account, showing fans at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium blaring out their song.\n\nAnd these were the scenes in the Argentina dressing room after that fixture.\n\nArgentina face Croatia on Tuesday for a semi-final tie at the Lusail Iconic Stadium. They haven't won a World Cup since Maradona inspired his nation to victory in 1986.\n\nIf they do manage to go all the way this time, we already know what the soundtrack will be.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "French football fans were seen celebrating across the country after their 2-0 World Cup semi-final win over Morocco.\n\nThe mood was a lot more sombre among supporters of the North African side.\n\nFrance, the reigning champions, will face Argentina in the final on Sunday.", "The family of a boy who died of an invasive form of strep A have said they sought medical help three times before he was admitted to hospital.\n\nJax Albert Jefferys, who attended Morelands Primary School in Waterlooville, Hampshire, died on 1 December, aged five.\n\nHis family said they were initially told he had flu.\n\nSince September, UK Health Security Agency figures show 15 UK children have died after invasive strep A infections.\n\nPaying tribute to their \"darling son\", Jax's family said they had sought medical advice on three occasions during the four days leading up to his death and were told that he was suffering with influenza A.\n\n\"We then followed the recommended course of action: to administer a proprietary paracetamol-based medication in the prescribed dosage,\" they said in a statement.\n\nHowever, they said on the fourth day Jax's condition \"deteriorated so much\" they \"rushed him to hospital\" and he later died.\n\n\"Only after his death was it confirmed that the cause was [strep A],\" the family said.\n\n\"We would dearly like to express our deepest thanks to all the hospital staff who did their utmost to save Jax.\n\n\"We sincerely ask that people respect our privacy at this time.\"\n\nEarlier this month, Alison Syred-Paul, head teacher at Morelands Primary School, urged parents to know the signs of the strep A bacterial infection.\n\nAccording to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) the infection usually causes a sore throat, scarlet fever or skin rash and is passed by physical contact or through droplets from sneezing or coughing.\n\nBut in \"very rare occasions\" the bacteria causing scarlet fever could get into the bloodstream and cause an illness which can be \"very serious\", UKHSA warns.\n\nAccording to the World Health Organization, influenza A is one of four types of seasonal influenza viruses.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.", "A police officer told the court Mr Love's DNA profile had been found on a number of items from the scene\n\nA 28-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of two police officers in a bomb attack in County Tyrone.\n\nCharlie Love, of Bridge Street, Strabane, is charged with two counts of attempted murder as well as charges of causing an explosion and possessing explosives.\n\nThe charges are in connection with an attack on police in Strabane on 17 November.\n\nMr Love has been remanded into custody.\n\nAt Dungannon Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, a detective inspector told the court he could connect the accused to the charges.\n\nMr Love spoke only to confirm he understood the charges.\n\nThe court heard that at 22:58 GMT on 17 November, a police patrol in Strabane experienced \"a large flash and a loud bang\" as their vehicle passed through the Mount Carmel area of the town.\n\nThe detective told the court that officers discovered a crater at a building site during follow up searches.\n\nThey heard that further forensic tests showed that a military grade explosive was used.\n\nA command wire leading to what police believe was a firing point close to a tree stump was also found, the officer said.\n\nA drill and wiring, which detectives believed to be the trigger mechanism, were also discovered, the court was told.\n\nThe detective inspector also told the court there was CCTV evidence of a figure wearing dark clothing running away after the explosion and down an alleyway.\n\nPolice forensics officers searched the area close to where the explosion happened\n\nMr Love was arrested on 18 November and his mobile phone seized.\n\nThe detective said Mr Love made no comment during several interviews and was later released.\n\nThe court was told that forensic testing of several items - including the trigger of the firing mechanism, the drill, the command wire closest to the firing mechanism and a metal post at the site of the explosion -all revealed a DNA profile matching that of Mr Love.\n\nA barrister for the accused challenged the DNA connection and asked was it not the case that \"DNA is a very transmittable product and that a sample can be taken and planted?\"\n\nThe detective inspector answered that he was not a forensic scientist and the question was not something he could answer.\n\nDistrict Judge Alanah McSorley ruled the test for connection had been made.\n\nThe detective opposed an application for bail.\n\nHe said police believed Mr Love could continue \"to engage in terrorist activity\" and added that people in Strabane were afraid to help with the investigation into the attack.\n\nThe court heard Mr Love was a \"vulnerable adult\" who had been accompanied during police interviews by an appropriate adult.\n\nThe 28-year-old was arrested again on 13 December.\n\nThe detective inspector told the court Mr Love was \"an extremely dangerous individual\" who was involved with the political party Saoradh - which police believe is the political wing of the New IRA.\n\nHe had taken part in a protest outside Strabane police station on 25 November, the court was told.\n\nThe detective said the New IRA said it carried out the attack in Strabane.\n\nJudge McSorley said that there was a risk of further offending and refused bail.\n\nThe accused was remanded in custody to appear again on 5 January.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nA dazzling performance from Lionel Messi led Argentina to their sixth World Cup final with victory over Croatia at Lusail Stadium.\n\nMessi now gets one last chance to win the piece of silverware that has eluded him in his trophy-laden career, but Manchester City's 22-year-old striker Julian Alvarez also shone as Argentina ensured they will return here on Sunday to face either France or Morocco.\n\nMessi looked to be struggling with a hamstring problem early on but Argentina's little genius recovered enough to break the deadlock from the penalty spot after 34 minutes following Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic's foul on the marauding Alvarez.\n\nAlvarez doubled Argentina's lead five minutes later when he took Messi's header just inside Croatia territory and embarked on a slaloming run, aided by fortunate bounces off Josip Juranovic and Borna Sosa, before beating Livakovic.\n\nThere was no fortune involved in a brilliant third after the break as Messi mesmerised Croatia's excellent defender Josko Gvardiol on the byeline before playing in Alvarez for the finish.\n\nMessi will now have the opportunity to make amends for the bitter disappointment of losing the 2014 World Cup final to Germany in Rio's iconic Maracana.\n• None This will be my last World Cup - Messi\n• None Is Qatar 2022 on the brink of becoming Messi's World Cup?\n• None 'Best ever' & 'magic' - reaction to 'the true Messi'\n\nWhen Messi stretched and clutched the top of his left hamstring 19 minutes into this World Cup semi-final, there was a fear the dream for Argentina and their iconic number 10 might have the nightmare ending.\n\nInstead, Messi recovered after a spell at walking pace to inspire Argentina as they go in search of a third triumph in the tournament following victories in 1978 and 1986.\n\nAnd what a far cry it was from when Argentina were the victims of what is still the biggest shock of this World Cup in Qatar when they lost their opening game 2-1 to Saudi Arabia, despite Messi putting one of the pre-tournament favourites in front.\n\nIt was in 1990 that Argentina were stunned in similar fashion by Cameroon in their first game and went on to reach the final, losing 1-0 to West Germany.\n\nNow they have the chance to go one better as the World Cup reaches its climax. And Messi can finally claim the crown in his final tournament.\n\nArgentina used this meeting with the stubborn, resilient and talented 2018 finalists Croatia to produce their most convincing performance of this World Cup, suggesting Lionel Scaloni's side are hitting their peak at the perfect time.\n\nMessi, inevitably, was at the heart of it all and involved in every goal, but Alvarez has shown in Qatar that he has, barring accidents, a wonderful career ahead of him.\n\nMuch has been made of Manchester City's big spending over the years, but what a coup it was to sign Alvarez from River Plate for the bargain price of £14.1m.\n\nCroatia were undone, like so many before them, by the brilliance of Messi - as well as his young partner Alvarez - after making a confident and composed start to this World Cup semi-final.\n\nTheir defence was exposed in uncharacteristic fashion for Argentina's first two goals and there was little even their outstanding young defender Gvardiol could do about Messi's twisting run that set up the third.\n\nCroatia, however, have had an outstanding tournament once more as the country with a population of only four million followed up their appearance in the final in Russia in 2018 with a place in the last four in Qatar.\n\nIf Argentina have Messi, then Croatia have their own master footballer in Luka Modric and he received warm applause from all parts of Lusail Stadium when he was substituted with nine minutes left.\n\nHe, like Messi, had his sights set on a World Cup triumph after experiencing the same pain of final defeat, but it was not to be.\n\nCroatia coach Zlatko Dalic and his players can be proud of their efforts, despite being well beaten here, and in 20-year-old RB Leipzig defender Gvardiol they have unearthed one of the break-out stars of this World Cup who will serve them well for many years and is already a serious target for Europe's elite clubs.\n• None Attempt missed. Dejan Lovren (Croatia) left footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Mislav Orsic.\n• None Attempt missed. Nikola Vlasic (Croatia) left footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Mateo Kovacic.\n• None Attempt saved. Lovro Majer (Croatia) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Mateo Kovacic.\n• None Attempt missed. Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina) right footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Paulo Dybala following a set piece situation.\n• None Attempt missed. Mislav Orsic (Croatia) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses the top right corner. Assisted by Ivan Perisic. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUkrainian officials say they shot down over a dozen drones during a Russian attack on the capital city of Kyiv early on Wednesday morning.\n\nExplosions rocked the central Shevchenkivskyi district as air defences shot down what were said to be Iranian-made Shahed drones.\n\nRussia has repeatedly targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure since October with missiles and drones.\n\nAnd Kyiv Governor Oleksiy Kuleba accused Russia of \"continuing its energy terror against our country\" with the latest wave of drone attacks.\n\nBut the national energy grid manager Ukrenergo said that Wednesday's strikes did not damage any energy facilities and hailed the \"brilliant work of the air defence forces\" in a post to its Telegram account.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had shot down 13 Shahed drones, which he said amounted to all those launched by Russia on Wednesday.\n\nGovernor Kuleba said a drone fragment had hit an administrative office in the city and four residential buildings. But a spokesperson for the city emergency services told Ukrainian media that no victims had been reported in the strike.\n\nOne witness, named Svetlana, told the BBC that the first strike took place at 06:30 (04:30 GMT) local time.\n\n\"The rumble was like from a moped, such was the sound it made,\" she said. \"It fell behind the houses and then there was a strong roar, an explosion.\"\n\nShe added: \"Winter is coming, how can people survive? Lord, what do they want from us? They do not let Ukrainians live.\"\n\nAnother Kyiv resident, Anton, told the BBC that falling glass shattered by the explosions had narrowly missed his sleeping children.\n\n\"Let this Putin die,\" he said. \"I didn't do anything to him, but he does this to me.\"\n\nThe strikes happened as UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths was in Kyiv, after visiting the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson. He told the BBC they were a reminder of how Ukraine was \"still suffering from the war right across the country, not just on the front lines\".\n\nThe urgent need was to help Ukraine restore energy supplies, including by providing generators to the country, as \"electricity is the gateway to life\", Mr Griffiths added. \"If you don't have electricity, you don't get warm, you don't get hospital treatment, you don't get to go to school, you don't get to have transport.\"\n\nUkraine has accused Iran of supplying Russia with \"kamikaze\" drones used in deadly attacks on 17 October, which Tehran initially denied.\n\nIran later admitted sending Moscow a limited number of drones \"many months\" before the war.\n\nIn response, Ukraine's President Zelensky said this was a lie and that many more Iranian drones were being used.\n\nRussia has been targeting the country's energy grid in recent months in what Ukraine says is a bid to demoralise its population. Temperatures across Ukraine have dropped below freezing, but Martin Griffiths said there were no indications of a big new wave of Ukrainians fleeing their homes or their country.\n\nGlobal leaders have said the strikes on civilian infrastructure amount to a war crime, but last week Russian President Vladimir Putin defended the attacks and said they were in response to a blast on the Russian bridge to annexed Crimea on 8 October.\n\nThe strikes come amid reports that the US is preparing to arm Ukraine with its state-of-the-art Patriot air defence system. Senior defence officials told the Reuters news agency that the announcement could come as soon as Thursday.\n\nThe system is among the most advanced in the world and is usually in short supply. Due to its long-range capability it could potentially shoot down Russian missiles and drones before they come within range of Ukrainian cities.\n\nBut unlike Ukraine's existing air defence systems, Patriot systems require large crews to operate them, and it could take several months to train Kyiv's forces to use it effectively.\n\nRussia would likely view any attempt to arm Ukraine with Patriot defences as an escalation. Former president Dmitry Medvedev - who is now deputy chairman of the national security council - warned against the move last month.\n\nMeanwhile, Ukraine says it has secured the release of 64 troops who were captured by Russia during fighting in the eastern Donbas region earlier this year.\n\nPresident Zelensky's head of office Andriy Yermak also said officials had secured the release of US citizen Suedi Murekezi.\n\nMr Murekezi was arrested by Russian troops while they occupied the southern city of Kherson in July, where he had been living for more than two years.\n\nHe was released from Russian custody in October, but prevented from leaving Donetsk province by Moscow's officials as he did not have identity papers.", "Boris Johnson was paid £215,000 to give a speech at a summit in Lisbon\n\nBoris Johnson has made more than £1m from giving speeches since leaving No 10, parliamentary records show.\n\nThe former prime minister was paid £754,000 for three speeches in America, India and Portugal last month, according to the latest register of MPs' interests.\n\nIt comes on top of £276,000 he made from a speech in October.\n\nThe records also show he and his family have continued to receive accommodation from Tory donor Lord Bamford.\n\nMr Johnson registered a further £3,500 in accommodation from the JCB boss and his wife Carole for November and December.\n\nThat was in addition to the £37,000 for accommodation he had previously registered from the couple since leaving office in September.\n\nThe couple donated £23,853 towards a summer wedding celebration for Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie, who married last year.\n\nA previous entry specified it covered the cost of hiring a marquee, portable toilets, waiting staff, flowers, a South African BBQ and an ice cream van.\n\nAccording to the latest update to the register, Mr Johnson was paid £277,723 by New York-based investment banking firm Centerview Partners for a speech on 9 November.\n\nHe then received £261,652 from the Hindustan Times for a speech on 17 November, and £215,275 from Portuguese TV station Televisao Independente for a speech on 23 November during the CNN Global Summit in Lisbon.\n\nMr Johnson was replaced as prime minister by Liz Truss in September, after his resignation in June.\n\nHis downfall followed a mass revolt by ministers over controversies including his handling of sexual misconduct allegations against former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher.\n\nMr Johnson faced criticism for being too slow to suspend Mr Pincher from the parliamentary party, following allegations he had groped two men in a private members' club.\n\nMr Pincher stepped down from his government job in July, when he apologised for drinking \"far too much\" and embarrassing \"myself and other people\".\n\nThe MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip attempted a surprise comeback in October, when he emerged as a possible replacement for Ms Truss after she resigned.\n\nBut he later ruled himself out of the leadership race, saying it was not possible to govern effectively without a united party.\n\nThere had been suggestions Mr Johnson would stand down from Parliament after he was ousted as prime minister but he has told his local Conservative Party he will stand again as an MP at the next general election.", "The High Court in Barbados has struck out their laws that criminalised gay sex.\n\nThe previous laws from 1992, while rarely invoked, demanded a life sentence for those found guilty of having consensual same-sex relations.The High Court in Barbados has struck out their laws that criminalised gay sex.\n\nThe previous laws, while rarely invoked, demanded a life sentence for those found guilty of having consensual same-sex relations.\n\nBarbados is the third Caribbean nation to make similar reforms this year.\n\nActivists and members of the LGBTQ+ community who have fought for the change welcomed this week's ruling, saying it promoted privacy and freedom.\n\nLocal advocacy group Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (Ecade) said on Twitter the ruling \"consolidates the rights of all Barbadians to privacy and freedom of expression, and impacts LGBTQ+ people across the eastern Caribbean\".\n\nTwo LGBTQ+ advocates in Barbados filed the case, in partnership with local organisations, including Ecade.\n\nIn a statement, Barbados attorney general Dale Marshall said Justice Michelle Weekes issued the ruling on Monday, concluding that two sections of the 1992 Sexual Offences Act were unconstitutional.\n\n\"In short, [the ruling means] we can no longer prosecute persons under these two sections,\" he said, adding that charges for offences relating to consensual gay sex could no longer be maintained.\n\nWritten reasons for the decision in the case were not expected for a few weeks, Mr Marshall said.\n\n\"This is a huge win for the community and for Barbados. This has been years of work and that work still continues,\" Rene Holder-McLean Ramirez, who helped bring forward the claim, said.\n\nEarlier this year, courts in the Caribbean have found similar laws to be unconstitutional in Antigua and St. Kitts and Nevis.\n\nThe previous laws in Barbados were inherited from the UK when the Caribbean island was a British colony. Barbados gained its independence in 1966.\n\n\"We are very pleased with the result of this case, which is a result of years of advocacy efforts by the community organizations as well as the litigants,\" Michael Rapley, a member of the NGO Equals, told Reuters.\n\n\"This is a step in the right direction for the protection of LGBTQ+ people in Barbados as we continue to ensure stigma-free access to services and positive inclusion in society.\"\n\nThis \"historic\" ruling was described as \"a significant step towards protecting the human rights and dignity of LBGT people in Barbados,\" according to Luisa Cabal, of the joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS.\n\nShe added that it \"will also strengthen the country's HIV response by helping to reduce stigma and discrimination faced by LGBT people and increasing the uptake of HIV testing, treatment and prevention services\".\n\nAt least 66 countries in the world still criminalise gay sex, according to Human Rights Watch.\n\nClarification January 11: This article was edited to clarify that the laws, which were recently repealed, were not from the country's colonial past but were introduced in 1992.", "The interior of the target chamber at LLNL, where nuclear fusion takes place\n\nA major breakthrough has been announced by US scientists in the race to recreate nuclear fusion.\n\nPhysicists have pursued the technology for decades as it promises a potential source of near-limitless clean energy.\n\nOn Tuesday researchers confirmed they have overcome a major barrier - producing more energy from a fusion experiment than was put in.\n\nBut experts say there is still some way to go before fusion powers homes.\n\nThe experiment took place at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California.\n\nLLNL director Dr Kim Budil said: \"This is a historic achievement… over the past 60 years thousands of people have contributed to this endeavour and it took real vision to get us here.\"\n\nNuclear fusion is described as the \"holy grail\" of energy production. It is the process that powers the Sun and other stars.\n\nIt works by taking pairs of light atoms and forcing them together - this \"fusion\" releases a lot of energy.\n\nIt is the opposite of nuclear fission, where heavy atoms are split apart. Fission is the technology currently used in nuclear power stations, but the process also produces waste that continues to give out radiation for a long time. It can be dangerous and must be stored safely.\n\nNuclear fusion produces far more energy, and only small amounts of short-lived radioactive waste. And importantly, the process produces no greenhouse gas emissions and therefore does not contribute to climate change.\n\nBut one of the challenges is that forcing and keeping the elements together in fusion requires very high temperatures and pressures. Until now, no experiment has managed to produce more energy than the amount put in to make it work.\n\nThe amount of energy they've generated in this experiment is tiny - just enough to boil a few kettles. But what it represents is huge.\n\nThe promise of a fusion-powered future is one step closer. But there's still a long way to go before this becomes a reality.\n\nThis experiment shows that the science works. Before scientists can even think about scaling it up, it needs to be repeated, perfected, and the amount of energy it generates will have to be significantly boosted.\n\nThis experiment has cost billions of dollars - fusion does not come cheap. But the promise of a source of clean energy will certainly be a big incentive for overcoming these challenges.\n\nThe National Ignition Facility in California is a $3.5bn (£2.85bn) experiment.\n\nIt puts a tiny amount of hydrogen into a capsule the size of a peppercorn.\n\nThen a powerful 192-beam laser is used to heat and compress the hydrogen fuel.\n\nThe laser is so strong it can heat the capsule to 100 million degrees Celsius - hotter than the centre of the Sun, and compress it to more than 100 billion times that of Earth's atmosphere.\n\nUnder these forces the capsule begins to implode on itself, forcing the hydrogen atoms to fuse and release energy.\n\nOn announcing the breakthrough Dr Marvin Adams, deputy administrator for defense programs at the US National Nuclear Security Administration, said that the laboratory's lasers had input 2.05 megajoules (MJ) of energy to the target, which had then produced 3.15 MJ of fusion energy output.\n\nDr Melanie Windridge, CEO of Fusion Energy Insights, told the BBC: \"Fusion has been exciting scientists since they first figured out what was causing the Sun to shine. These results today really put us on the path to the commercialisation of the technology.\"\n\nJeremy Chittenden, professor of plasma physics and co-director of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London, called it \"a true breakthrough moment\".\n\n\"It proves that the long sought-after goal, the 'holy grail' of fusion, can indeed be achieved,\" he said.\n\nThis has been the sentiment echoed by physicists globally, who praised the work of the international science community.\n\nProf Gianluca Gregori, Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford, said: \"Today's success rests upon the work done by many scientists in the US, UK and around the world. With ignition now achieved, not only fusion energy is unlocked, but also a door is opening to new science.\"\n\nOn the question of how long before we could see fusion being used in power stations, Dr Budil, the LLNL director, said there were still significant hurdles but that: \"with concerted efforts and investment, a few decades of research on the underlying technologies could put us in a position to build a power plant\".\n\nThis is progress from when scientists used to say 50-60 years in answer to that question.\n\nOne of the main hurdles is getting costs down and scaling up the energy output.\n\nThe experiment was only able to produce enough energy to boil about 15-20 kettles and required billions of dollars of investment. And although the experiment got more energy out than the laser put in, this did not include the energy needed to make the lasers work - which was far greater than the amount of energy the hydrogen produced.\n\nClarification January 9, 2023 : This article was updated to remove that 'a lot' of nuclear waste is produced by Fission. The context around this paragraph was removed pre-publication therefore requiring this clarification.\n• None US lab takes further step towards fusion goal", "Boss was a DJ, dancer and choreographer, as well as an actor and TV presenter\n\nStephen \"tWitch\" Boss, best known as the dancing DJ and sidekick on The Ellen Show, has died by suicide at 40.\n\nConfirming the news to People magazine, the TV star's wife Allison Holker Boss said he was \"the backbone of our family, the best husband and father, and an inspiration to his fans\".\n\nBoss became an integral part of Ellen DeGeneres' US talk show from 2014, until it finished earlier this year.\n\nDeGeneres tweeted on Wednesday to say she was \"heartbroken\" at the news.\n\nShe described the American freestyle hip-hop dancer and actor as \"pure love and light\". \"He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart,\" she wrote. \"I will miss him.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ellen DeGeneres This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to the BBC that its West Valley Division officers responded to an \"ambulance death investigation\" radio call at a motel on Ventura Boulevard on Tuesday.\n\nThere were no signs of foul play and the case has been handed the over to the Los Angeles County Coroner's office.\n\nAfter appearing as a dancer in movies like Blades of Glory and Hairspray, Boss first found fame as a runner-up on So You Think You Can Dance in 2008.\n\nOne of his dances was nominated for an Emmy for best choreography and he later returned to the show as a judge.\n\nThe Alabama-born entertainer went on to work as an actor, featuring in the Step Up film series and later Magic Mike XXL, and was also made an executive producer on The Ellen Show in 2020.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by TheEllenShow This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nBefore the long-running show ended in May, DeGeneres surprised him with a special tribute: \"Over a decade ago, I met someone who changed my life, and our show... And I'm talking about you tWitch.\"\n\n\"I love you so much,\" she told him, noting how \"you always make me smile and laugh\" with a dance or a song.\n\nAn emotional Boss replied: \"I love you and also I love the family that we've gained, and something that I'll always remember was you gave me a place where I can just be myself.\n\nThe TV personality pictured dancing with Hillary Clinton and Ellen DeGeneres on the show in 2015\n\n\"I came here to dance one time, to do a dance course for you, and now I've gained a family.\"\n\n\"And whether I was a real DJ or not...\" he added, jokingly. \"I always felt at home!\"\n\nPaying tribute on Wednesday, his wife, a fellow dancer with whom he co-hosted Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings, said: \"Stephen lit up every room he stepped into.\"\n\nShe added: \"He valued family, friends and community above all else and leading with love and light was everything to him.\"\n\n\"Stephen, we love you, we miss you, and I will always save the last dance for you.\"\n\nThe couple pictured last week at the Critics Choice Association's Celebration of Black Cinema & Television\n\nThe couple, who met on an all-star season of So You Think You Can Dance, had three children - and the family appeared together on the The Ellen show.\n\nActor Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson urged them all to \"stay strong\", posting online that he was \"so sorry to hear the heart-breaking news\".\n\n\"I've lost a lot of friends to the struggle,\" he said. \"You never know what's happening between the ears.\"\n\nFor information and support about any issues raised in this story contact the BBC Action Line.", "The rapper seen arriving at the courthouse on Tuesday\n\nMegan Thee Stallion has described in emotional courtroom testimony her \"shock\" as fellow rapper Tory Lanez allegedly opened fire on her.\n\n\"I can't believe I have to come here and do this,\" she told a jury in Los Angeles.\n\nThe Grammy-winning rapper said she was shot in the feet after leaving a pool party at Kylie Jenner's house.\n\nJurors heard she insulted the accused and demanded to be let out of a luxury car before he fired five rounds at her.\n\nThe rapper, whose real name is Megan Pete, 27, testified that her alleged attacker became enraged after she disparaged his musical talent.\n\nShe said the 30-year-old defendant, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, had told her to \"dance\" before opening fire in the incident in the Hollywood Hills on 12 July 2020.\n\nHe denies multiple gun and assault charges relating to a dispute with the Savage artist. If found guilty, he faces up to 23 years in prison.\n\n\"I'm in shock. I'm scared. I hear the gun going off, and I can't believe he's shooting at me,\" she told the court on Tuesday, the second day of the trial, according to the LA Times.\n\nShe became tearful on the witness stand, expressing regret for ever having come forward about the incident.\n\n\"I wish he would've just shot and killed me if I knew I was going to have to go through this torture,\" she told the court.\n\nTory Lanez has denied shooting Megan after the party\n\nThe WAP rapper left a trail of blood at the scene, before getting back into the vehicle, which was stopped minutes later by police.\n\nA gun that was still warm to the touch was found on the floor near where Mr Peterson had been sitting, prosecutor Alexander Bott said in his opening statement.\n\nMegan Thee Stallion testified that the Canadian hip-hop artist had offered her $1m to keep quiet about the attack because he claimed to be on probation for a weapons offence.\n\nShe initially said to police that she had cut her feet on glass.\n\nBut she told the court on Tuesday she had lied because of concerns about how the police would react, especially amid nationwide racial justice unrest in the summer of 2020.\n\n\"At the time, we are at the height of police brutality,\" she testified, \"I felt like if I said this man has just shot me, they might shoot first and ask questions later.\"\n\nMinutes after the shooting, a female friend who was in the car texted Megan Thee Stallion's security detail, saying: \"Help... Tory shot meg.\"\n\nSeveral bullet fragments were removed from her feet, but some remain and she told investigating officers that she had difficulty walking in certain shoes.\n\nIn a phone call, Mr Peterson had \"profusely apologised for his actions\" and claimed he was \"just too drunk\", prosecutors said.\n\nHis lawyer, George Mgdesyan, said the jury needed to keep an open mind and he would prove the accusations were lies.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFour people have died after a migrant boat got into difficulties crossing the English Channel on a freezing night.\n\nA fishing crew spotted the dinghy sinking in cold waters between Kent and France just after 03:00 GMT.\n\nThe skipper pulled his boat alongside and his crew hauled 31 people to safety in a dramatic rescue operation, the BBC has been told.\n\nFootage filmed from the boat showed some dressed only in T-shirts and thin lifejackets screaming for help.\n\nThe video - shared by the owner of the fishing trawler, Ben Squire - showed crew members pulling people up out of the water and the boat with ropes.\n\nPeople can be heard panicking and shouting as water appears to fill the inflatable boat.\n\nIn the night sky, helicopter lights shine down and airlift people away, as lifeboats arrive at the scene to continue rescuing people.\n\nPeople rescued from the dinghy said they had each paid £5,000 to cross the English Channel, the BBC has been told.\n\nA government spokesman said authorities were alerted at 03:05 GMT to a small boat in difficulty off the coast of Dungeness, 30 miles west of Dover.\n\nMr Squire, who was not on the boat for the rescue, said the skipper Ray Strachan told him they saved 31 people.\n\nAfter hauling them to safety, the crew gave them hot showers, their own clothes and fed them to help warm them up.\n\nMr Squire said the sea was quite cold and the conditions were \"a little bit rough\".\n\nTemperatures dropped to 1C overnight on Tuesday, with it likely to have been colder out at sea. A yellow weather warning for ice was in place across Kent at the time.\n\nIt was a horrific incident, he said, but the crew did a \"cracking job\".\n\n\"They did brilliantly getting that many people on board the boat\", Mr Squire told the BBC.\n\nLifeboat crews tried to resuscitate some survivors on the quayside in Dover and a helicopter took one adult to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford where he later died, according to the BBC's Mark Easton.\n\nAnother adult victim, thought to have also received treatment, has since been discharged.\n\nA lifeboat returns to the Port of Dover during the rescue operation\n\nForensic tents were erected at the RNLI station at the Port of Dover\n\nA French organisation, Utopia 56, which helps migrants in Calais, said it was contacted at 01:53 GMT - with a voice message and a location - by a boat in distress in the English Channel.\n\nNikolai Posner from the organisation said the voice message stated there were people in the water and families on board.\n\n\"It was clearly an emergency, he was calling for help,\" he told PA News.\n\n\"It was like 'help us, help us, help us, we need help',\" said Mr Posner, who added that babies could be heard \"screaming\" in the background of the message.\n\nHowever the organisation said it was not possible to verify whether this distress call was from the boat in question.\n\n\"Our hearts go out to all those affected by this tragic event,\" said Home Secretary Suella Braverman and French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin in a joint statement.\n\nThey added that the incident was a \"stark reminder of the urgent need to destroy the business model of smugglers\".\n\n\"These are the days that we dread,\" Ms Braverman said.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier expressed his sorrow at the \"tragic loss of human life\".\n\nThe boat is likely to have been carrying migrants risking the crossing from France, a day after Mr Sunak announced new measures to \"stop the boats\".\n\nIn those plans, the PM promised more staff to help clear some of the UK's backlog of asylum cases by the end of next year.\n\nThe UK coastguard, the French Navy, the RNLI and an air ambulance were all sent to help with the rescue operation.\n\nCoastguard helicopters from Lydd and Lee on Solent were also involved.\n\nSouth East Coast Ambulance Service said it was called following reports of the incident, and sent crews to Dover, in Kent, to help with the follow-up operation.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was \"heartbreaking\" that there have been more deaths in the Channel, and Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said she was \"very saddened\" to hear of the tragedy.\n\nIt follows a fatal incident in November 2021, when at least 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK from France.\n\nSome 460 people made the journey from France to Kent in small boats between Friday and Sunday, the BBC's Simon Jones said.\n\nNearly 45,000 people have made the journey this year so far.\n\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury said he was \"praying for the victims of today's terrible events\", tweeting that debates about asylum seekers \"are not about statistics, but precious human lives\".\n\nTim Naor Hilton, from the charity Refugee Action, said the tragedy was predictable and inevitable, and more people would die trying to reach safety if the government did not create more routes for people to claim asylum.\n• None How is the UK stopping Channel crossings?", "The Prince and Princess of Wales have released their official Christmas card image - showing them hand-in-hand with their children in the countryside.\n\nPrince William and Catherine are pictured walking with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis on a sunny day in Norfolk this year.\n\nThe children are in short sleeve tops and shorts while their parents are casually dressed in jeans and trainers.\n\nThey were snapped by Matt Porteous, who has documented the family in the past.\n\nOther publicly-released family pictures have been taken by the Duchess of Cambridge, a keen photographer.\n\nIt has become an annual tradition for the royals to reveal which of their favourite photographs they have chosen for the cards they send out each Christmas.\n\nThe King and the Queen Consort released their card on Sunday.\n\nKing Charles and Camilla's photo was taken at the Braemar Royal Highland Gathering on 3 September, when he was still the Prince of Wales. The Queen passed away five days later, aged 96.\n\nIt is not known exactly when this year Prince William and Catherine's photo was taken.\n\nPorteous took the official picture of Prince George - who is second in line to the throne - on his fifth birthday, as well as photos of the family at the Chelsea Flower Show.\n\nHis other commissions include behind the scenes moments from Prince Louis's christening, and the family's 2020 Christmas card image, which was taken at Anmer Hall, their home on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk.\n\nLast year's Christmas photo showed Prince William and Catherine with their family on a visit to Jordan.\n\nThis year's comes at a time of renewed scrutiny of Prince William's relationship with his brother, Harry, amid the release of the controversial Netflix series Harry and Meghan this month.\n\nA trailer released this week attracted controversy, with Harry shown saying: \"They were happy to lie to protect my brother, they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.\"\n\nAlthough not clear who the \"they\" referred to, many inferred that it was a reference to the Royal Family.\n\nHowever, another version of the same trailer offers another explanation - with a different subtitle of the same commentary that says: \"The British media are happy to lie to protect my brother.\"", "Their families described David and Margaret Edwards as well known and respected members of the community\n\nThe families of a couple who died in a house fire have said they were devoted to each other for 35 years.\n\nDavid Edwards, 60, and his wife Margaret, 55, died in the blaze at Church Lane, St Dogmaels, Pembrokeshire, at about 01:30 GMT on Sunday.\n\nAbout 11 residents were evacuated from their homes during the incident.\n\nIn a joint statement, issued through Dyfed-Powys Police, their families described their sorrow at the deaths.\n\nThey said: \"We are distraught by our loss of Margaret and David Edwards, who were devoted to each other, having been together for 35 years and were well known and respected members of the St Dogmaels community.\n\n\"We would like to thank everyone for their support at this horrific time, it has meant so much to both families.\n\n\"We would now like time to grieve and would ask to be given privacy in which to do so.\"\n\nFloral tributes have been left at the scene following Sunday's fire at St Dogmaels, Pembrokeshire\n\nThe investigation into the cause is continuing with Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service and Dyfed-Powys Police.\n\nLocal councillor Mike James said the community had united to provide support to neighbours \"under very sad circumstances\".\n\nHe added: \"The village came together. They wanted to support as much as they could.\"", "An NHS midwife protesting against working conditions in November 2021.\n\nMidwives in Wales have voted for strike action over a \"disappointing and unacceptable\" pay award worth around 4% this year.\n\nBut action in England will not go ahead after the numbers taking part in the ballot fell short of the 50% needed.\n\nMidwives in England said the vote result exposed the flaws in the law around industrial action.\n\nThe Welsh government said it recognises the strength of feeling in the NHS.\n\nIn Wales, 55% of Royal College of Midwives (RCM) members responded to the ballot, with 91% voting in favour of strike action.\n\nIn England, the RCM said 47% of its 28,500 members voted in the ballot.\n\nOf those that did take part, 88% voted in favour of strike action.\n\nAny decision to take industrial action must be approved by the RCM's elected board. The union said it will now look at the result of the ballot and consider the next steps.\n\nJulie Richards, director for Wales at the RCM, said: \"Midwives in Wales are exhausted. The disappointing and unacceptable 4% pay offer simply reinforced their feelings of being overlooked and undervalued.\"\n\nShe added: \"Taking industrial action is always a last resort, and the decision taken by our members today shows just how desperate they are for policy makers to listen.\n\n\"The Welsh Government must now do so to get maternity services in Wales back on track, and to stop the inevitable exodus of demoralised staff.\"\n\nA spokesman for the Welsh Government said it recognises the \"anger and disappointment\" felt by public sector workers.\n\n\"We are unable to increase our pay offer without additional funding being made available by the UK government,\" he said.\n\n\"NHS Wales organisations are exploring all options to ensure there will be a safe level of staffing, with life-saving and life-maintaining care being provided during any industrial action.\"\n\nIn a separate announcement, physiotherapy staff in over half of NHS trusts in England and every health board in Wales also voted to take strike action, in their first ever ballot on pay.\n\n\"We are short-staffed, overworked, exhausted,\" said Jill Taylor, a physiotherapist and chair of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's pay committee.\n\n\"We need to attract people to the NHS and we need to keep people in the NHS. We simply cannot do this until the government gives NHS staff a fairer pay award.\"\n\nThe Westminster government has said it was disappointed NHS staff were taking industrial action but further pay rises were unaffordable in the current economic climate.", "Will got the red carpet treatment at the series premiere in London\n\nA child actor from Halifax who beat leukaemia is playing Prince Harry in the latest series of The Crown.\n\nAged just 21 months, Will Powell was diagnosed with the blood cell cancer.\n\nNow, after 27 operations, the 13-year-old is realising his acting dreams, playing the young prince in series five of the hit Netflix drama.\n\nHis father Andy said: \"We binge-watched until we had seen all of Will's scenes.\"\n\nWill received years of treatment at Sheffield Children's Hospital, supported by his father and mother Michelle.\n\nAndy said: \"Throughout everything, he was a superstar. Our little boy never complained once.\"\n\nWill receiving treatment for leukaemia at Sheffield Children's Hospital\n\nWill's mother spotted a casting call from The Crown for an actor to play Prince William. She said although she did not have a William, she might just have a Harry waiting in the wings.\n\nAndy said: \"Will was asked to provide a self-tape at first. He got to the last four, then two, and then finally he had an interview with the casting director via Skype. The next day we got the news that he'd been successful.\"\n\nAndy described how his family had been \"bursting with excitement\" as they eagerly awaited the series launch.\n\n\"The premiere was incredible,\" he said. \"We were treated like royalty. We mixed with the stars of stage and screen, and Will took it all in his stride. He even signed his first autographs.\"\n\nThe family said they have never forgotten the excellent care Will received and remain lifelong supporters of Sheffield Children's Hospital. Over five years, the family - along with a team of volunteers - collected used Christmas trees, raising £52,000 for The Children's Hospital Charity.\n\nAndy added: \"It is highly likely that without the unwavering determination and care of the people at Sheffield Children's, Will might not be here to enjoy this incredible life experience. We, as a family, thank the team from the bottom of our hearts. They are such an incredible group of people.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Five further complaints about Dominic Raab's behaviour as a minister are being investigated, No 10 has said.\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said the claims related to Mr Raab's previous tenure as justice secretary.\n\nIt means a total of eight complaints are now being investigated by senior lawyer Adam Tolley KC.\n\nMr Raab, who was reappointed by Rishi Sunak as justice secretary and deputy prime minister in October, has denied allegations of bullying.\n\nAppearing in front of Parliament's Joint Human Rights Committee on Wednesday, Mr Raab said he had \"behaved professionally throughout\".\n\nHe told MPs he welcomed the investigation so he could deal with claims \"transparently\", rather than through \"tittle tattle that's anonymously leaked to the media\".\n\nThe MP for Esher and Walton previously served as justice secretary and deputy prime minister under Boris Johnson.\n\nA close ally of Mr Sunak, Mr Raab was sacked from those roles when Liz Truss became prime minister in September.\n\nThe three complaints already under investigation related to his time as foreign secretary and Brexit secretary, as well as at the Ministry of Justice.\n\nA spokesman for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was \"pretty shocking\" that no action had been taken against Mr Raab and called for him to be suspended.\n\nHe said it was \"a consequence of having a weak prime minister\" that Mr Raab continued to serve in government while complaints about his behaviour were investigated.\n\nThe Liberal Democrats also called for Mr Raab to step down as justice secretary while the complaints were investigated.\n\nDeputy leader Daisy Cooper said: \"The trickle of allegations about Dominic Raab has turned into a flood and his position is becoming increasingly untenable.\"\n\nAsked how Mr Raab could remain in his cabinet role considering the allegations against him, the prime minister's official spokesman said: \"We think it's right there is an independent process, that the investigator looks into these claims thoroughly before coming to a view.\"\n\nHe added that the investigation would be concluded \"swiftly\".\n\nMr Tolley, a commercial and employment law specialist, was appointed by the prime minister to investigate complaints against Mr Raab in November.\n\nHe was chosen to lead the investigation because the role of adviser on ministers' interests has been vacant since Lord Geidt's resignation in June.\n\nThe lawyer will report to Mr Sunak, who will make the final judgement on whether Mr Raab's conduct breached the ministerial code and should be sacked.", "The stabbings happened at a house outside Larne\n\nA County Antrim woman has been jailed for a minimum of 20 years for the murder and attempted murder of her two sons.\n\nIn what the judge described as a \"savage attack\", the 42-year-old stabbed her two-year-old son to death on 2 March 2020.\n\nShe also attempted to kill his 11-month-old brother.\n\nThe children were given the names \"John\" and \"Gerard\" to protect the surviving child's identity.\n\nThe court heard the children would have felt \"severe pain and distress\" despite their mother placing morphine patches on both infants before the attack.\n\nIt happened at a house on the outskirts of Larne, County Antrim.\n\nThe woman received an automatic life sentence for the murder charge.\n\nNoting that the youngest child would also have died if it had not been for the intervention of the emergency services, Judge Patricia Smyth also imposed a life sentence for the attempted murder.\n\nThe judge told the woman she would spend a minimum of 20 years in prison before she could be considered for release.\n\nThe court previously heard that the victims were found by their father in a master bedroom upstairs with their mother.\n\nHe had returned from work and called an ambulance after a series of text messages from his partner, which ended with her texting she had killed the boys and that she was dying too.\n\nThe woman originally pleaded not guilty to the offences and put forward a defence of diminished responsibility at a trial earlier this year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police said the family had been left heartbroken\n\nWhen that medical defence proved unsustainable after examination by medical experts, she changed her pleas to guilty on both counts.\n\nPSNI Det Insp Michelle Griffin said it was a case that would never be forgotten.\n\n\"A young and innocent life was taken, leaving a loving father and family distraught and truly heartbroken.\n\n\"Unfortunately, there is nothing - no words - that can undo this loss or ease their pain. And today, first and foremost, our thoughts are with them,\" she added.\n\nThe judge also rejected the woman's claim that she had been previously subjected to emotional abuse by the children's father.\n\n\"This tragic case also brought to light an underlying element of domestic abuse.\n\n\"Throughout the case, the father of the children, along with a previous husband of the defendant, spoke of the controlling behaviour and emotional abuse that both had suffered at the hands of the defendant.\n\n\"Their distress was added to by allegations by the defendant herself that she had been the subject of domestic abuse, which were unsubstantiated.\"\n\nDet Insp Griffin also said: \"Domestic abuse is not just physical. It can happen to anyone and there shouldn't be any stigma surrounding male victims.\n\n\"I want to encourage anyone who is being threatened, abused, controlled or intimidated by someone they live with, or are in a relationship with, to come forward.\"\n• None 'A case that will never be forgotten' Video, 00:00:55'A case that will never be forgotten'", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nThree previous African sides had reached the quarter-finals of the competition - but could not take that step further.\n\nThis time, it was different.\n\nMarvellous Morocco have lit up this World Cup - and their fans got their reward by witnessing their side becoming the first from their continent to reach the semi-finals.\n\nCristiano Ronaldo and Portugal were sent home, and the Atlas Lions go roaring on courtesy of Youssef En-Nesyri's first-half headed winner.\n\n\"We are becoming a team everyone loves because we are showing what we can achieve,\" said victorious boss Walid Regragui.\n\n\"If you show the passion, heart and belief, you can succeed and my players have shown that. It is not a miracle - those in Europe might say it is, but we have beaten Portugal, Spain, Belgium and drawn against Croatia without conceding. That is the result of hard work.\n\n\"African and Arab teams work hard but we have made our people happy and proud. The whole continent is proud. When you watch Rocky Balboa, you want to support him and we are the Rocky of this World Cup.\"\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nCameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010) had all fallen at the quarter-final hurdle but Morocco broke the glass ceiling to cause pandemonium at Al Thumama Stadium.\n\nHaving whistled each touch of the ball from the Portuguese, the watching supporters' jeers turned to a cacophony of cheers as substitutes piled on to the pitch at full-time.\n\n\"Seer, seer, (go, go),\" chanted the fans. \"Dima Maghrib (Forever Morocco),\" screamed others.\n\nBoss Regragui, who has masterminded this run, was hoisted into the air by his players, who then sprinted towards their supporters behind the goal with arms aloft.\n\nFormer Scotland winger Pat Nevin said on BBC Radio 5 Live: \"The noise in this stadium is incredible. I am trying to think of when such a shock as this has happened in the World Cup.\n\n\"They deserve it, not only for the skill and effort but that noise just keeps on turning up.\"\n\nMorocco had become not just the first African side, but also the first Arab one from a country with a Muslim majority, to reach the last four of the biggest competition in world football.\n\nThe team have displayed their Islamic beliefs, reciting passages of the Quran in their huddle before their success on penalties over Spain in the previous round.\n\nAs they had done then too, players and staff bowed down for sujud (prostration) in front of their fans after victory over Portugal.\n\nMeanwhile, substitute Achraf Dari celebrated by draping himself in a Palestine flag, Paris St-Germain's Achraf Hakimi found his mum again to kiss her while ex-Southampton winger Sofiane Boufal danced with his mum.\n\nRegragui was one of the last to leave the pitch at the end, clearly emotional after such a significant victory.\n\nHe was applauded into the post-match news conference once more alongside goalkeeper Bono and said his team \"Alhamdulillah (thanks to God)\" had a chance of winning the World Cup and that all of the world was now with Morocco \"Inshallah (if God wishes).\"\n\nHe added: \"It is the first time I have cried at the end of a match. I have to be an example and show I am mentally strong but sometimes it is too much for you.\n\n\"Getting to the semi-finals of the World Cup, the emotions just pour out. I would be lying if we thought we would get to this stage, I just could not control the tears.\"\n\nMorocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, the player of the match, added: \"We are here to change the mentality and get rid of the inferiority. Morocco is out to face anyone in the world, beyond the semi-finals and anything else.\n\n\"We have changed this mentality and the generation coming after us will know Moroccan players can create miracles.\n\n\"I have great players with me and they are all fantastic. When anyone faces Morocco now, they know they can play at the highest level.\"\n\nThere were more tears, this time from Cristiano Ronaldo, who trudged down the tunnel at full-time knowing at the age of 37, his dream of lifting the World Cup may well be over.\n\nThis is a mammoth sporting moment and is the best performance in this team's history but it goes beyond football. This is a much-needed moment of collective joy and pride for a whole region and a continent. Fans have travelled from across the Arab world to be here in Doha.\n\n\"Now I can tell my kid I was there when my team made history,\" one fan told me.\n\nThe three words I've heard most Moroccan fans have been \"proud\", \"belief\" and \"confidence\".\n\nAs one fan put it: \"This is a moment of confidence that we can stand head to head with the giants.\"\n\nTonight, there is one more word to add to Morocco's 2022 World Cup tale. History.\n\nMorocco are a solid, well-organised outfit - but were without key defenders. West Ham's Nayef Aguerd and Bayern Munich's Noussair Mazraoui were injured, while captain Romain Saiss taken off on a stretcher in the second half.\n\nIt did not matter.\n\nTheir replacements showed the battling spirit needed to drag them through.\n\nMorocco are unbeaten in eight games under Regragui, who was appointed only in September, and they have kept seven clean sheets - conceding only an own goal against Canada in the group stages.\n\nRegragui said: \"This is the most difficult tournament. We have played some of the best teams, but it is true we could have conceded against Portugal.\n\n\"But if you put in the heart, desire and humility you make your own luck. The energy from the African and Arab people gave us good vibes.\n\n\"Everyone was behind us and we have made this fantastic achievement and got into the history books. We are into the best four in the world. These are tremendous players and deserve all the plaudits they get.\n\n\"We have shown people African teams can get to the semi-final, even the final. Earlier in the tournament, I was asked if we can win the World Cup - why not? Why shouldn't we dream?\n\n\"If you don't dream, you don't get anywhere and dreams don't cost anything. European teams are used to winning the World Cup. Now we have to get in there and go beyond ourselves.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "People reported hearing a loud bang and smoke could be seen coming from the area\n\nOne person has died after an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey.\n\nAbout a dozen people are missing and two are being treated in hospital after the explosion on Pier Road in St Helier just before 04:00 GMT.\n\nSearches are under way and Chief of Police Robin Smith said he expected it to take \"a number of days\".\n\n\"It is a pretty devastating scene... the scene is a very dangerous one for all of our staff,\" he said.\n\nHe said: \"I don't know the exact number of the flats destroyed, but we have a three-storey building that has completely collapsed.\n\n\"Described as, from a demolition point of view, probably as a pancake that has just dropped almost sort of straight down.\"\n\nMr Smith confirmed the fire service had attended the scene on Friday night after the smell of gas was reported.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chief of Police Robin Smith: \"It is a pretty devastating scene\"\n\nEmergency services said a fire caused by the explosion had been extinguished and the police force said it was using specialist resources to find \"anybody trapped in the rubble\".\n\nHowever, Jersey Fire & Rescue said \"pockets of fire\" had been discovered in the area.\n\nIt confirmed that the South West Hazardous Area Response Team had arrived in the island, alongside an Urban Search and Rescue Team from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service.\n\nA Chinook helicopter, typically used for military operations, was expected to land at Jersey airport at about 16:00 GMT with specialist equipment on board, the Government of Jersey said.\n\nAnthony Abbott described finding debris in his flat\n\nAnthony Abbott told the BBC how the flat he shares with his wife had been severely damaged by the explosion.\n\n\"We heard an explosion at about four o'clock this morning, we got up and we found it [debris] in the flat, all the windows had been put in, the staircase had been damaged and there was fire everywhere outside,\" he said.\n\n\"It was very, very distressing.\n\n\"There was young children in the flat, we helped them out and we got them down... the housing and everyone's been very good to us at the moment... helping us.\"\n\nMr Abbott added: \"I'm a little bit shocked but we are lucky we're OK.\"\n\nThe flats at Haut De Mont are shown as they appear following the explosion and as they were prior to the blast\n\nAnother resident described being woken up by what she thought was an earthquake at about 03:50.\n\n\"The bed started to shake and there was this massive bang,\" she said.\n\n\"I checked online for news about an earthquake or lightning, I had no idea what it was.\"\n\nLuis, who was rescued from his flat with his nephew, said his doors and windows had been \"blown off\" by the explosion.\n\nHe said he felt \"pretty shaken up but OK, it's traumatising\".\n\nDaniel Hunt, 19, from St Helier, tweeted pictures of the fire from his flat.\n\nHe said: \"Everything shook, my windows were shaking, the whole room shook.\n\n\"You could feel the shockwave through your bedroom almost.\n\n\"In the moment you think, what was that?\"\n\nThe government has repurposed its Covid helpline for those who need support following the incident.\n\nJersey Fire and Rescue said the fire had been put out but work was ongoing\n\nBBC Jersey reporter Chris Craddock, who was near the scene earlier, said: \"You could see glass, you could see rocks, you could see stones strewn across the area both on the pavement and on the road.\n\n\"Police have cordoned off the area and are diverting traffic.\"\n\nChief Minister Kristina Moore said the island had seen \"what amazing strength we have within our emergency services\", with 21 police officers, nine paramedics and 19 firefighters deployed to the scene.\n\n\"I wanted to offer my heartfelt thanks this morning to all of the emergency services who have attended,\" she said.\n\n\"Everybody wants to help, we're really grateful for support.\"\n\nMs Moore said it had already been \"a difficult week for islanders\", after the captain and two crew members of a fishing boat went missing following a collision with a Condor ferry on Thursday.\n\nIsland Energy said it was working with the fire service to understand what happened\n\nThe Government of Jersey has asked islanders not to go to the Emergency Department \"unless absolutely necessary\".\n\nAbout 20 to 30 people were being cared for at St Helier Town Hall which was closed later with people accommodated elsewhere, the parish authority said.\n\nThe States owned housing company Andium Homes is responsible for the flats, and said its \"focus at the moment is on supporting our residents on that estate\".\n\nIsland Energy said it was working with the fire service to \"understand exactly what has happened\".\n\n\"We are co-operating fully with the emergency services following the serious incident in St Helier this morning,\" it said.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the residents of the area and anyone who has been affected.\"\n\nThe town church will be open from 17:00 GMT for islanders to light candles and pay their respects.\n\nThe Bailiff of Jersey, Sir Timothy Le Cocq, said the island's response to recent events had been honourable.\n\n\"My thoughts at this time are with all involved, either those who have suffered loss or those working so hard since the early hours to help those affected.\n\n\"But, in particular, with the families who are waiting for information on family members who are unaccounted for,\" he said.\n\nJersey Bulls FC held a minute's silence before the team's match against Horley, marking the \"terrible tragedies\" which had taken place in Jersey during the week.\n\nPier Road, Pier Road car park and South Hill have all been cordoned off and the police have asked people to avoid the area.\n\nMeanwhile Fort Regent is also closed.\n\nDid you witness this incident? If it is safe to do so please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Three killed in 'devastating' blast in Jersey", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nFrom the games room of the luxurious Al Messila Resort in Doha, you can hear the laughter from far away.\n\nThere are eight France players sat round a large rectangular table, Uno cards in their hands approaching the end of a game - and it is tense. Youssouf Fofana and Aurelien Tchouameni look like they could win but Dayot Upamecano is in a strong position too. One card and everything can change.\n\nThis was the scene two days before the World Cup quarter-final against England, yet it is an evening like any other in the France camp.\n\nWhether it is Uno, poker, piano, pool or PlayStation, the players enjoy their downtime. This squad is a happy one, and you don't feel any nerves before facing their old rivals.\n\nFrance and England's men's teams have never met in the knockout stages of a major tournament. The last time they played each other in the World Cup was in 1982 in the group stage in Spain, when England won 3-1 and Bryan Robson scored after 27 seconds.\n• None Why fine margins matter when you are marking Mbappe - Ferdinand\n• None England 'have got credibility now', says manager Southgate\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nThere are no secrets between the two sides. Hugo Lloris will brief Raphael Varane and Upamecano about Tottenham team-mate Harry Kane's habits and strengths.\n\nManchester United's Varane will discuss Luke Shaw with Ousmane Dembele. Olivier Giroud knows John Stones and Harry Maguire well. All the current Premier League players - and even former - will talk about Kyle Walker to Kylian Mbappe. It is the same in the England camp, of course.\n\nThe mood is good among the France players. When they get to a big game like this, you see their concentration and focus change.\n\nIt is when they are big favourites that they struggle to not become complacent. They know this England side will be tough to beat. They are maybe slight favourites because they have Mbappe, but it will still take a huge collective effort to reach the World Cup semi-finals.\n\nMbappe is feeling great. He was amused by the English media's reaction after he missed training on Tuesday - he had a recovery session indoors instead, but it sent rumours flying.\n\nThere was nothing to worry about but it showed the obsession with him. Kylian is happy, he is cool and he cannot wait for the game to start - and his battle with Walker.\n\nAt the start of the tournament, when Karim Benzema joined the ranks of injured France players alongside Paul Pogba, N'Golo Kante, Presnel Kimpembe, Mike Maignan and Christopher Nkunku, Mbappe stepped up to take full leadership.\n\nThis was becoming his World Cup, his stage, and he felt he had to carry his team. He always says that he is born for it, born to be the star, to be the key player. So far he has delivered, but his biggest test, like France's, will be on Saturday.\n\nEven with the Paris St-Germain striker in this mood, Didier Deschamps had to rebuild his starting XI because of all the absentees.\n\nHe had a big jigsaw in front of him with pieces everywhere and had to make them fit together again. Before the start of the tournament there was a lot of scepticism back home about this France side and how far they could go.\n\nWith solid performances against Australia and Denmark in the group stage, and Poland in the last 16, they have shown their level, talent and cohesion.\n\nThe reinvention of Antoine Griezmann as a number eight, patrolling midfield to run games, has been a great move by Deschamps. He saw in his number seven all the ability to shine in this new role, and the Atletico Madrid player did not disappoint.\n\nHe has been outstanding, creating more chances than anybody else in this World Cup so far, while recovering an average of five balls per game. Working hard and being impactful is Griezmann's job and he is doing it well.\n\nSo the scepticism left and the optimism replaced it. The French could occasionally be over-confident, but not this time.\n\nEngland - their attacking power, their Jude Bellingham, their set-piece threat - are keeping France on their toes at least until kick-off on Saturday.\n\nAfter that, it will be a game won or lost on a detail. The France players are hoping they will afford themselves more time to play passionate games of Uno.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "If you're reading this in a cold house in the UK with a woolly hat on your head, if you've winced at the cost of filling up the car, if you've taken in Ukrainian refugees, then your life has been changed by Vladimir Putin's decision to wage war against an independent country.\n\nAs one diplomat puts it, in 2022 \"foreign policy has come home to roost\".\n\nBut beyond supporting Ukraine against Russia's aggression, what makes up Rishi Sunak's foreign policy? That's something to ask Foreign Secretary James Cleverly when he is on our show this Sunday.\n\nWhile Mr Sunak has a ghastly set of problems to attend to at home, part of being an effective prime minister is wielding influence abroad.\n\nBut, as one senior former minister laments, there's been little sign of a grand vision, with \"demoralisation left, right and centre\" instead.\n\nLike any leader, there are some things they have no choice but to do. When it comes to foreign policy, for Mr Sunak, there is the UK's commitment to Ukraine.\n\nUnlike Boris Johnson, he's hardly likely to have Ukrainian streets named after him. But his commitment is as solid as a rock, the right thing to do and politically a no-brainer.\n\nDespite the impact on our fuel bills, there's no sign of the public expecting anything but full-throated support for Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.\n\nAnd when it comes to the issue of people arriving in the UK in small boats, efforts are being put into repairing the relationship with France's President Emmanuel Macron.\n\nThis was \"essentially broken with Boris\", according to one Whitehall source, and a better relationship with Paris could bring a resolution to that problem.\n\nThere's also been a visible effort by the government to move towards a solution on the Northern Ireland protocol - the trickiest hangover from the Brexit deal minted by Mr Johnson.\n\nLong gone is the tough talk and sabre rattling, with one EU ambassador saying Mr Sunak's government has \"completely changed the mood\".\n\nThe determination is to play nice, for now, but resolving the long-standing dispute over implementing extra rules for Northern Ireland, which kept closer ties with the EU than the rest of the UK, needs more than a friendly conversation, it needs one or both sides to budge.\n\nOne former diplomat warns there will be a \"showdown moment\" ahead of next year's 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement which brought peace to Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Sunak faces the same dilemma as the other post-Brexit prime ministers. He could compromise and get an agreement but risk a giant row with his party - or refuse to budge and trigger a massive fight with our biggest trading partner.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rishi Sunak meets President Zelensky in Kyiv for the first time as prime minister\n\nThe tone of government policy is different, but as one ambassador tells me: \"The big question is do we see any willingness to make a deal?\"\n\nThere's been unavoidable pressure too on the prime minister to turn up the heat on China - not least because of the noisy demands from his backbenches - as President Xi Jinping's increasingly hard-line tactics have become more obvious.\n\nMr Sunak stepped along a careful line in his white tie and tails speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet. \"Not as soft and squishy\" as David Cameron was on China, one former diplomat said, \"but not quite as hawkish as Liz Truss\".\n\nGovernments can't ignore China if they want to solve issues like climate change, but they cannot also cut themselves off from an evolving mega power.\n\nIt is hard so far to see how Mr Sunak's government will manage these unavoidable problems differently.\n\nYet this week we may see the foreign secretary fill in some of the blanks in Mr Sunak's foreign policy.\n\nOn Monday, Mr Cleverly will make his pitch to focus on new friends - \"future partnerships\" around the world - essentially building better relationships with countries who are neither the global bad guys nor Britain's traditional allies.\n\nMr Cleverly will argue for closer ties with countries like Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil whose influence is growing.\n\nThe idea is to lengthen the UK's list of global friends - it's described as the \"really smart and obvious thing to do\".\n\nBut one senior Conservative MP worries the government's foreign policy will be \"devoid of any meaningful depth but heavy on flirtation with cameras\", adding that it's time to spell out its objectives and \"show some grit when it comes to threats from autocratic states\".\n\nMr Sunak said foreign policy would go through an \"evolutionary leap\". But when you look down the list of challenges it's hard to see, so far, anything that matches that grand language.\n\nIt's not Theresa May's \"Global Britain\", David Cameron's \"golden era\" with China or Tony Blair's \"ethical foreign policy\" - much maligned though they all came to be.\n\nAnd on the world stage, as one former senior official says, Mr Sunak \"is the junior guy at the table\" and world leaders are not sure after years of the Tories knocking lumps out of each other whether he has control or they should be working out what Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer would do instead.\n\nMr Sunak is a pragmatist prime minister - not a foreign philosopher. His backers would argue that's exactly what's required right now.\n\nBut he is boxed in by an unhappy party which disagrees with itself on policy towards China or the EU.\n\nAnd his detractors claim his political personality is dwarfed by the scale of the challenge.\n\n\"The more he talks, the less he says,\" a Labour source tells me.\n\n\"Both at home and abroad he is in danger of being the Incredible Shrinking Prime Minister - the man who got smaller in office.\"\n\nThe world stage can provide huge opportunities for prime ministers, but Mr Sunak's chance of turning things round for his struggling party starts with confronting problems at home.", "Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng says he \"got carried away\" when he announced a huge package of ill-fated tax cuts alongside former PM Liz Truss.\n\nMr Kwarteng told the Financial Times his biggest regret was being \"too impatient\" with the mini-budget.\n\nThe plans sparked turmoil in the markets, eventually leading to Mr Kwarteng and Ms Truss's resignation.\n\n\"There was a brief moment and the people in charge, myself included, blew it,\" he said.\n\nReflecting on his time in office, the MP for Spelthorne said there had been \"no tactical subtlety whatsoever\".\n\n\"People got carried away, myself included,\" he said.\n\nAs chancellor, Mr Kwarteng set out a package to abolish the top rate of income tax for the highest earners, axe the cap on bankers' bonuses, and provide an expensive and long-running energy support package.\n\nThe plans would have required more than £70bn of increased borrowing, but most of the measures were torn up by his successor, Jeremy Hunt.\n\nThe pound fell to a record low against the dollar after the announcement, requiring intervention from the Bank of England and increasing mortgage rates for homeowners.\n\nTwo days later, Mr Kwarteng signalled more tax cuts were coming, causing more market uncertainty.\n\nHe was sacked from the position after just 38 days, becoming Britain's second shortest-serving chancellor, with Ms Truss's time as prime minister coming to a chaotic end shortly afterwards.\n\nMr Kwarteng, who is a long-time ally of Ms Truss, previously said he told her it was \"mad\" to sack him, saying he urged her to \"slow down\".\n\nHis comments come after Ms Truss's former chief speech writer, Asa Bennett, said she took a \"Spinal Tap approach\" to government and demanded the volume \"was turned up to 11\".\n\nSpinal Tap are a spoof heavy metal group created by a team of comedians and musicians, who famously had amplifiers that were \"one louder\" than 10.\n\nMr Bennett said the former prime minister was determined to put \"rocket boosters\" under the economy when she arrived in Downing Street.", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nHarry Kane equalled England's scoring record with his 53rd goal - but his night ended in anguish with a 2-1 World Cup quarter-final defeat by France.\n\nBut the 29-year-old spurned the chance to surpass Rooney when he missed a second spot-kick later in the game.\n\n\"It's tough to take for me personally and the team,\" Kane told BBC Sport. \"It will be something I have to live with and take on the chin.\"\n\nHe added: \"I couldn't be prouder of the boys. We had better spells, better chances but football comes down to small details - as the captain and the one who missed the penalty, I take responsibility for that.\n\n\"I can't fault my preparation or the details before the game. I felt confident taking it, just didn't execute it the way I wanted to.\"\n\nThe Tottenham striker scored his first England goal 79 seconds into his debut in 2015 - the year before Rooney netted his last.\n\nKane has achieved his tally at a remarkable rate, with his latest coming in just his 80th appearance.\n\nAgainst France, Kane coolly drilled the first penalty into the bottom corner from 12 yards to make it 1-1.\n\nBut with England trailing 2-1, he blazed a second opportunity over the bar in the 84th minute.\n\n\"We know how many penalties Harry has scored for us, how many goals he has contributed to even get us here,\" said team-mate Jordan Henderson.\n\n\"He will be stronger for this in the future. He is a world-class striker and our captain. He will bounce back.\"\n\nEngland boss Gareth Southgate added: \"As you would expect, Harry is very, very low, but he has nothing to reproach himself for. We are in the position we are because of his leadership and goals.\n\n\"We win and lose as a team. He's been incredible for us and reliable in those situations; we wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for him.\"\n\nFormer England striker Chris Sutton said on BBC Radio 5 Live: \"I really feel for Harry Kane. He's a brilliant goalscorer.\n\n\"I think there are people out there who think he shouldn't have taken the second penalty. I think he should have. That will live with him forever.\"\n\nKane has been in stellar form for England since March 2021, scoring 21 times in 29 games, including seven in the space of four days in World Cup qualifiers against Albania and San Marino in November last year.\n\nHe now jointly leads a group of six Englishmen to have scored more than 40 goals for the Three Lions.\n\nEllen White is England's leading women's scorer, having netted 52 goals in 113 appearances before she retired after they won Euro 2022.\n\nWith 49 goals to his name, Sir Bobby Charlton held the men's record for 45 years until he was surpassed by Rooney in 2015.\n\nKane had just three England goals when Rooney broke Charlton's record, but has scored at a phenomenal rate since.\n\nOf the six players to notch 40 or more goals for England, only Jimmy Greaves has done so at a faster rate - one every 1.3 games compared with Kane's 1.5.\n\nHis record haul includes six at the World Cup in Russia in 2018, making him only the third Englishman to win a Golden Boot at a major tournament, along with Gary Lineker at the 1986 World Cup and Alan Shearer at the European Championship in 1996.\n\nHe has also broken a number of other England records, including scoring an unparalleled 16 goals for his country in a calendar year in 2021.\n\nShearer empathised with Kane, telling BBC Radio 5 Live: \"That's the life of a centre-forward.\n\n\"You put yourself in those positions and it will haunt Harry for the rest of his life.\"\n\nKane still has some way to go if he is to challenge the global record for international goals, which is held by Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored 118 goals in 196 Portugal appearances.\n\nHis international achievement comes in the middle of what is shaping up to be another prolific club season, with his 13 goals in 22 games in 2022-23 taking his tally of Spurs goals to 261 in 408 matches.\n\nHis 195 league goals means he is third in the list of Premier League all-time scorers, 65 behind record-holder Shearer.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Disgraced crypto boss Sam Bankman-Fried says he hopes to start a new business to make enough money to pay back victims of the FTX collapse.\n\nThe 30-year-old faces several federal investigations into his former company's handling of funds.\n\nSpeaking in a luxury complex in the Bahamas, the former billionaire denies fraud but says he was \"not nearly as competent as I thought I was\".\n\nHe admits worrying about possible arrest while \"ruminating at night\".\n\nThe FTX crypto exchange allowed customers to trade normal money for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.\n\nIt was the second largest in the world, trading about $10bn of crypto coins every day.\n\nBut last month it was revealed that FTX and Mr Bankman-Fried's separate company - Alameda Research - were financially unstable.\n\nIn just eight days everything came crashing down and bankruptcy was filed.\n\nIt is estimated that more than a million FTX users are locked out of their crypto wallets and cannot access their funds.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried invited the BBC to the residential complex in the Bahamas where he still lives and said he hopes to find a way to pay back FTX users.\n\n\"I'm going to be thinking about how we can help the world and if users haven't gotten much back, I'm going to be thinking about what I can do for them. And I think at the very least I have a duty to FTX users to do right by them as best as I can,\" he told me.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sam Bankman-Fried denies claims he knew FTX customer money was used for risky financial bets\n\nAsked if he planned to start a new business venture to earn the money to pay investors back, he said: \"I would give anything to be able to do that. And I'm going to try if I can.\"\n\nBankruptcy lawyers have described the FTX scandal as \"one of the most abrupt and difficult collapses in the history of corporate America\".\n\nThey accuse Mr Bankman-Fried of running the company as \"his own personal fiefdom\".\n\nThe US Senate Banking Committee wants the former CEO to testify at next week's hearings into the collapsed exchange, and he said on Friday that he would attend.\n\n\"Mostly I sleep on a beanbag,\" Mr Bankman-Fried once told his Twitter followers\n\nAt the top of a long list of alleged failings, there are allegations that Mr Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research hedge fund was using FTX customers' money to make risky financial bets.\n\nA former senior FTX employee who worked with Mr Bankman-Fried has told the BBC he thinks the former CEO must have been aware that Alameda Research was using FTX customer funds.\n\nHe accused Mr Bankman-Fried of lying when he said in recent interviews that he did not know about the flows of cash and cryptocurrencies between the companies.\n\n\"No that's not true,\" Mr Bankman-Fried said, while going on to acknowledge that as CEO he was ultimately responsible for any mishandling of funds. \"That's on me, one way or another,\" he said.\n\nAsked whether he was fraudulent or incompetent, he replied: \"I didn't knowingly commit fraud, I don't think I committed fraud, I didn't want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was.\"\n\nMr Bankman-Fried is meeting reporters at a luxury apartment owned by FTX\n\nThe American has conducted nine lengthy self-critical interviews in the last six days.\n\nHis team say they've had to relocate to an unknown location in the luxury resort where he lives, because of \"security concerns\".\n\nReporters have taken pictures of him in his apartment with telescopic lenses from the sea, and at least two YouTubers have managed to sneak into the complex to film videos.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried, who comes from a wealthy family, claims to be concerned about his own personal finances with no access to his bank accounts and \"less than $100K left\".\n\nWhen asked if he is preparing for the possibility of arrest and prison, he said: \"There's some time at night ruminating, yes, but when I get up during the day, I try and focus, be as productive as I can and ignore things that are out of my control.\"", "There are more than seven million people on a hospital waiting list in England - one in eight of the nation's entire population.\n\nMany have spent months waiting to be seen.\n\nBut who are these people and what is the impact on their lives? The BBC has been investigating the backlog to find out.\n\nJane Probyn has spent much of the past three years on an NHS waiting list. She has osteoarthritis and was referred for a hip operation in October 2020.\n\nBefore surgery could be completed, however, came the fallout from the Covid pandemic, meaning nearly all routine hospital treatment was stopped. It was March 2022 by the time Jane had her right hip replaced.\n\nBy that point, her left hip had deteriorated so badly that it needed replacing too. She is still waiting for that operation.\n\nJane Probyn has been on an NHS waiting list for more than two years\n\n\"I am in constant pain,\" says the 66-year-old, from Cambridge. \"It's all-consuming and is overshadowing every aspect of my life.\n\n\"I can't walk properly and have to rely on a walker and mobility scooter to get around.\n\n\"I can't look after my grandchildren. It is spoiling my retirement.\n\n\"The most frustrating thing is not really knowing when I will get treated. My life is on hold.\"\n\nJane is not alone. Nearly 800,000 people require hip, knee and joint-related orthopaedic treatments. Close to half of them have been waiting longer than 18 weeks, which is not just the target waiting time but supposedly a patient right, written into the NHS Constitution.\n\nDeborah Alsina, chief executive of the charity Versus Arthritis, says these long delays are having a \"devastating\" effect, both physically and mentally, as many of the patients her charity supports end up clinically depressed.\n\nAmong the waiting backlog are a broad range of patients needing a wide variety of care.\n\nThere are 640,000 waiting to see eye specialists - many will have declining eyesight with its obvious consequences on their daily lives - and there are more than 500,000 waiting for gynaecological care and another 500,000 waiting for ear, nose and throat (ENT) treatments.\n\nNot all of them will need to have an operation: fewer than a quarter of patients on the waiting list end up undergoing surgery - with medication and care, such as physiotherapy, more common when patients are finally diagnosed.\n\nNonetheless, Prof Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, says the situation has left his members feeling they are letting down patients. \"Their health may be worsening by the day; their independence being slowly eroded and quality of life deteriorating while they wait.\"\n\nThe backlog is often referred to as a waiting list for routine, or non-urgent, treatment. But it does include more than 300,000 people with heart-related problems - a third of whom, currently, have waited more than 18 weeks.\n\nSome are waiting for tests, such as CT scans and echocardiograms, or procedures - such as stents and balloons to open blocked arteries, as well as pacemakers. Others need heart surgery, such as transplants or a bypass.\n\nGarry Cogan is one of more than 300,000 people waiting for heart-related treatment\n\nGarry Cogan, 62, from Essex, is one of them. He needs a triple heart bypass after having a heart attack last year. He hopes to undergo surgery early next year, but says the wait has been agonising.\n\n\"I'm constantly living in fear, worried I could have another heart attack at any point. I can't go on holiday and have had to cut back how many days I work, which is difficult financially.\"\n\nBritish Heart Foundation associate medical director Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan says the delays are a real risk for patients like Garry. \"Tragically, we've already seen tens of thousands of extra deaths involving heart disease since the pandemic began - and disruption to heart care has likely contributed.\n\n\"We can't afford to let long waits for heart care become the status quo because heart disease can't wait. Delays can result in avoidable heart failure, or even death.\"\n\nThere will also be thousands of yet-to-be diagnosed cancer cases. Around a fifth of cancer cases are diagnosed through routine referrals where the disease is not suspected by a GP, but subsequent tests given while patients are on the general waiting list reveals cancer is present.\n\nAn analysis by NHS data experts Insource has estimated there could be as many as 25,000 people on the waiting list with cancer who are not aware of it yet. The longer it takes to get through the backlog, the poorer their chances of survival will be.\n\nAlso on the list are more than 360,000 children. They are waiting for an assortment of treatment, from surgery for growth-related problems and major dental work through to tests for abdominal pain and breathing difficulties.\n\nThe numbers are rising all the time - in the past 18 months the overall number of children waiting has risen by 50%.\n\nThe Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health is very worried about their plight. Dr Mike McKean says, in the worst cases, children are having to miss school: \"We need to do something to protect children, young people and their families from lasting consequences.\"\n\nBut it is not just the fact the backlog is growing. The number of patients facing long waits is also rising, despite government efforts to address the issue.\n\nWhile the NHS has managed to eliminate two-year waits almost entirely, the number of patients who spend more than a year on hospital lists, such as Garry, is continuing to rise.\n\nThere are now more than 400,000, among the 7.2 million people waiting in England, in this position - a rise of a third over the past year. Before the pandemic, fewer than 2,000 patients were waiting more than a year.\n\nThe NHS's 18-week target now appears a distant dream. Currently 40% of patients have spent longer than that on waiting list.\n\nBut there is a huge variation between hospitals. Where you live in the country can make a big difference too.\n\nIt is a similar story across the rest of the UK: in Scotland more than 25% are waiting longer than 18 weeks, in Wales - where there is a 26-week target instead of 18-week - nearly half of patients are waiting longer.\n\nIn Northern Ireland the situation is even worse - more than half of patients there have waited over a year.\n\nFaced with such long waits, some patients are simply giving up. Those that can afford it pay to go private - a trend that appears to be becoming increasingly common.\n\nBut there are others that have dropped off the waiting list, and are left struggling with their health issues.\n\nThat is the case for Jane Nandi, from Nottingham. She has a non-cancerous lump on her tongue, known as a lymphatic malformation. It is the size of a small plum and prevents her eating foods which require a lot of chewing.\n\n\"If I catch it or bite it, it bleeds really easily,\" says the 56-year-old. \"I can't eat an apple, or crisps, or foods like that.\"\n\nSince the condition is not common, the treatment she needs is not available at every hospital. The service that was due to treat her informed her earlier this year they could no longer carry out the treatment.\n\nShe has not sought a referral elsewhere: \"You just lose the fight.\n\n\"I'm just putting up with it for now and will maybe try again next year. Perhaps things will be a bit better then.\"", "Andrew Tate was a contestant in TV show Big Brother in 2016 and later removed from the house\n\nWill is like many 15-year-old boys. He likes sport, hanging out with mates and spending time on social media, but his mum fears he has been \"radicalised\".\n\nJane took a call from her son's school to say Will had been involved in an \"incident\" involving a female teacher.\n\nShe said Will, and some other boys, had been repeating the views of controversial online influencer Andrew Tate to make the teacher \"squirm\".\n\nSome teachers are worried as they've seen a rise in boys quoting Mr Tate.\n\nOne leading child protection expert said the Online Safety Bill, which aims to police the internet and could become UK law next year, should protect \"impressionable men\" from \"misogyny\".\n\nJane said Will - not their real names - continued to push the teacher at his school in north Wales even when she told him Mr Tate's views could be described as extreme.\n\n\"He sees a man that is strong and powerful and has made lots of money,\" said Jane of her only son.\n\nMr Tate is a former kickboxer who rose to fame in 2016 when he was removed from TV show Big Brother over a video which appeared to depict him attacking a woman.\n\nAt the time of his removal from the Big Brother house, Mr Tate said the controversial video had been edited, calling it \"a total lie trying to make me look bad\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Who is Andrew Tate, the former reality TV star turned influencer with \"radical\" views?\n\nHe went on to gain notoriety online, with Twitter banning him for saying women should \"bear responsibility\" for being sexually assaulted.\n\nMr Tate has been banned from other social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, with TikTok also removing him, saying \"misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated\".\n\nHis posts on other online sites promote misogyny and target women and have millions of views, with the BBC's disinformation and social media correspondent Marianna Spring saying earlier this year his content had \"raised concerns about the real-world effect it could have\".\n\nMr Tate, who has been approached by the BBC for a comment, told Piers Morgan in a recent interview that his views had been \"misunderstood\".\n\nHe has previously said his comments had been \"taken out of context and amplified\" to present \"false narratives\" about him.\n\nJane said her son believes \"everything Mr Tate says is taken out of context and used to make him look bad\".\n\nAfter the incident in school, she said she felt relieved the teacher knew the family well enough to understand the view that Will was expressing did not match the values he had been brought up with.\n\n\"I was trying to say 'don't you realise how sexist and horrible that is?',\" recalled Jane.\n\n\"It worries me because you hear him speaking and I just think I'd never want anyone from his school to think that we think like that or believe in that sort of thing.\n\n\"It's sad because you instil values in children from when they're born. The power of social media sadly outweighs years of good parenting.\n\n\"He just gets such a kick out of it. He's always been a wind-up merchant but not by using unkind things to upset people.\"\n\nWill even showed his mum videos by Mr Tate in an attempt to explain his views.\n\n\"I'd like to think long-term, when he's got his own family, this will just be a blip,\" reflected Jane.\n\n\"But equally it feels like radicalisation.\"\n\nTeachers have expressed concern about the rise of children, particularly boys, sharing radical views that they've seen online\n\nJane says she listens to Will's views in an attempt to disarm any extreme views in a calm way.\n\n\"I don't want to make it something he can't talk about, because then you have no clue,\" added Jane.\n\nTeachers have expressed concern as they've seen a rise in boys quoting Mr Tate. When asked to write about their idols, some secondary school boys wanted to write about Mr Tate.\n\n\"The amount of knowledge we have access to is both amazing and overwhelming,\" said a secondary school teacher in south Wales, who did not want to be identified.\n\n\"These kids turn onto the wrong corner of the internet and suddenly they're in a very, very radical place. They read it as gospel.\"\n\nAnother teacher from south Wales has also had experience of boys repeating Mr Tate's views and said they are engaging with his content because of his \"image\" of a \"self-made millionaire\".\n\nOne teacher has said some schoolboys are drawn to the fact that Andrew Tate portrays himself as a \"self-made millionaire\"\n\n\"That's what is initially drawing those boys in,\" added the secondary school teacher, who also did not want to be named.\n\n\"They were aspiring to be a millionaire with loads of cars and [who] has an air of authority that they wished that they had.\n\n\"It wasn't until later that the content they've been interacting with gradually developed into his more extreme views.\n\n\"It was then that we started realising that actually his content was radicalising these young boys to adopt similar views.\"\n\nA third teacher also experienced schoolboys repeating Mr Tate's views at his secondary school.\n\n\"This isn't a school problem, this is a general teaching training problem where you aren't taught how to deal with sexism within the classroom,\" said the south Wales-based teacher, who also did not want to be named.\n\nThey fear that because the comments are \"low-level\" and \"generally non-threatening\", they \"aren't necessarily being taken seriously, not just in schools, but in society in general\".\n\nPsychologist Dr Nia Williams added Mr Tate's views could make boys and young men feel disenfranchised and unfairly treated by the rest of society.\n\n\"During your teenage years, you are finding yourself, developing who you are, your morals and what you stand for,\" said Dr Williams, a lecturer at Bangor University's school of education and human development.\n\nDr Nia Williams has said it is important for parents to talk to their children and challenge any potentially radical views\n\n\"He is on the social media sites that appeal to these young people. However, the messages he's giving out is having a detrimental impact on the youth today. That can have a lifelong impact on the type of person that you will become.\"\n\nDr Williams is concerned the young boys who share extreme views \"don't think about the consequence and impact\" on others or their future careers.\n\nBut she warned it was vital that equality was not just for women but men as well because \"it is still skewed towards women\", which could \"brainwash frustrated\" young men.\n\n\"I think it's really important that the message we give is that society is equal,\" she said.\n\n\"It's important for males to feel protected and it could be we're still working on that equality for young men.\"\n\nThe NSPCC has said self-regulation of social media and online content platforms had \"entirely failed\" and called on the UK government to \"protect\" people.\n\nHannah Ruschen of the NSPCC says online platforms are struggling to react and remove inappropriate content\n\n\"These people are not keeping on top of their responsibilities to protect users from harm online, so we need legislation put in place by the government,\" said Hannah Ruschen, senior policy officer at NSPCC.\n\n\"It's very, very difficult for companies to keep on top of snowballing content and we're seeing the videos and images shared in the millions.\n\n\"Companies are finding it very difficult to keep up with that kind of reactionary approach to content to removing content after it's been identified as being harmful.\n\n\"So what we need to see is a proactive approach and understanding what materials could be harmful and making sure that they actually remove that.\"\n\nLeading child protection expert Dai Davies, a former head of Royal Protection, has said children should be protected against \"this kind of viral aspect of misogyny\" and also called for stricter government laws online.\n\nFormer head of Royal Protection Dai Davies says misogyny online was dangerous for women\n\n\"What worries me about Mr Andrew Tate is that he seems now to be able to almost print and say things which I would regard as misogyny and detrimental to the safety of females,\" said Mr Davies, a former Met Police divisional commander.\n\n\"When are we going to realise in this country, politicians and public opinion, unless you stop this kind of attitude, this kind of issue on the web, where young, impressionable men can actually think it's OK to regard women as inferior beings, I don't think he and that kind of misogyny can be tolerated.\n\n\"Where is the moral compass of these companies? Where are the ethics of those who just want to make money. I would've hoped there will be some legislation.\"\n\nControversial measures which would have forced big technology platforms to take down legal but harmful material have recently been removed from the Online Safety Bill that is currently going through Parliament.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The UK culture secretary had previously accused tech firms of prioritising profits over children\n\nBut the UK government said when the bill becomes law tech companies would need to prevent children from being exposed to illegal content and harmful or age-inappropriate material.\n\n\"We are putting a stop to unregulated social media causing harm to our children,\" said a spokesperson for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.\n\n\"Under the Online Safety Bill, tech platforms will need to prevent under-18s from being exposed to illegal content and other harmful or age-inappropriate material, including violent content or face huge fines.\"\n\nIf you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, the BBC Action Line has links to organisations which can offer support and advice.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSir Elton John has become the latest celebrity to leave Twitter since its acquisition by Tesla boss Elon Musk.\n\nThe singer, a headline act for next year's Glastonbury Festival, blamed the platform's \"change in policy\" around misinformation without elaborating.\n\nTwitter stopped taking action against accounts spreading misleading information about Covid-19 last month.\n\nIn response to Sir Elton's announcement, Mr Musk said he hoped the star would be back.\n\nIn what could be his last ever tweet, the Rocket Man singer wrote: \"All my life I've tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world.\n\n\"I've decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked.\"\n\nTwitter's controversial CEO, who began referring to himself as the company's Chief Twit after buying it, replied to the post saying: \"I love your music. Hope you come back. Is there any misinformation in particular that you're concerned about?\"\n\nSince Mr Musk completed his $44bn (£38.1bn) Twitter takeover in October, there has been controversy over the Covid policy roll-back, as well as other moves such as reinstating some previously suspended accounts and charging users for their \"blue tick\".\n\nA slew of famous faces have, in the aftermath, signed out of Twitter for good, citing its new leader as their main reason for leaving.\n\nActors Jim Carrey and Whoopi Goldberg, supermodel Gigi Hadid and White Stripes musician Jack White are among those to have quit the social media website.\n\nIn Ms Hadid's announcement, she referred to Twitter under Mr Musk as a \"cesspool of hate and bigotry\".\n\nAccording to Twitter's website, it stopped taking action against tweets breaching its former coronavirus rules on Wednesday 23 November.\n\nIt had previously reported suspending more than 11,000 accounts for misinformation about the virus as of September this year.\n\nUnder its Covid-specific policy, Twitter operated a \"five-strike system\" for accounts posting \"demonstrably false or misleading\" content that might \"lead to significant risk of harm\" - such as exposure to Covid or damage to public health systems.\n\nNo action would be taken against accounts tweeting disinformation once. But repeat offenders could be suspended for a matter of hours, days or even indefinitely, if they received five strikes against their account.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Yan Rachinsky from Memorial: \"In today's Russia no-one's personal safety is guaranteed\"\n\nThe Russian co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize has said Kremlin authorities told him to turn down the award.\n\nYan Rachinsky, who heads Memorial, said he was told not to accept the prize because the two other co-laureates - a Ukrainian human rights organisation and jailed Belarusian rights defender - were deemed \"inappropriate\".\n\nMemorial is one of Russia's oldest civil rights groups, and was shut down by the government last year.\n\nThe Russian Foreign Ministry has been contacted for comment.\n\nIn an exclusive interview with the BBC's HARDtalk programme, Mr Rachinsky said his organisation had been advised to decline the award, but \"naturally, we took no notice of this advice\".\n\nDespite threats to his safety, Mr Rachinsky said the work of Memorial remained essential.\n\n\"In today's Russia, no-one's personal safety can be guaranteed,\" he said. \"Yes, many have been killed. But we know what impunity of the state leads to… We need to get out of this pit somehow.\"\n\nIts first chairman - Arseny Roginsky - was sent to Soviet labour camps for the so-called \"anti-communist\" study of history.\n\nAnnouncing the prize winners, the Nobel Committee said that Memorial was founded on the idea that \"confronting past crimes is essential in preventing new ones\".\n\nMr Rachinsky called the committee's decision to award the prize to recipients in three different countries \"remarkable\".\n\nHe said it was proof \"that civil society is not divided by national borders, that it is a single body working to solve common problems\".\n\nUkrainian Oleksandra Matviichuk refused to be interviewed alongside one of her co-winners, Russian Yan Rachinsky\n\nBut the decision to include a Russian recipient has been controversial.\n\nThe woman who runs Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties - another of the prize-winners - refused to be interviewed alongside Mr Rachinsky. The BBC spoke to them separately in Oslo.\n\nWhen asked why she wanted to do the interview separately, Oleksandra Matviichuk told HARDtalk: \"Now we are in a war and we want to make the voice of Ukrainian human rights defenders tangible.\n\n\"So I am sure that regardless that we are doing separate interviews, we transmit and deliver the same messages.\"\n\nThe Center for Civil Liberties was recognized for its work promoting democracy in Ukraine and investigating alleged Russian war crimes in the country.\n\nDespite refusing to speak beside her co-winner, Ms Matviichuk praised Mr Rachinsky's work and described Memorial as \"our partner\".\n\nMemorial had helped the Ukrainian group for years, she said, adding she had \"huge respect for all [her] Russian human rights colleagues\" who work in difficult conditions.\n\nShe also warned that without proper accounting for Russian crimes, peace would not come to Eastern Europe.\n\nMs Matviichuk called for a new international tribunal to hold President Vladimir Putin and other Russians accountable for their actions in Ukraine, describing the current system as insufficient.\n\n\"The question is, who will provide justice for hundreds of thousands of victims of the war crimes?\" she asked.\n\nShe also accused Russia of using the war as a tool to achieve its geopolitical aims - and committing war crimes in order to win the conflict.\n\nThe third Nobel winner, Belarusian human rights defender Ales Bialiatski, has been in prison without trial in his home country since July last year.\n\nHe is the founder of the country's Viasna (Spring) Human Rights Centre, which was set up in 1996 in response to a brutal crackdown of street protests by Belarus's authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.\n\nMr Bialiatski previously spent three years in prison and was released in 2014.\n\nMs Matviichuk described her co-laureate as \"an extremely brave person, so he will continue this battle even in prison\".\n\nWatch HARDtalk on the BBC News Channel (UK) at 14:30 GMT on 10 December, 00:30 on 11 December, or 00:30 or 04:30 on 12 December.\n\nOr view the programme on BBC World News at 01:30 or 08:30 GMT on 11 December, or 04:30, 09:30, 15:30 or 19:30 on 12 December.\n\nThis year's third Nobel winner, Ales Bialiatski (pictured in 2020), is in prison in Belarus", "Police have not publicly identified any suspects in the murders.\n\nPolice in Idaho have been swamped with a flurry of tips as they search for a white car seen near the house where four students were found murdered.\n\nNo arrests have been made or suspects identified in the stabbings.\n\nPolice have said the Hyundai Elantra was seen near the home the day of the murders and its occupants may have \"critical information to share regarding this case\".\n\nThe FBI is now helping local police process the thousands of incoming tips.\n\nThe four victims - Xana Kernodle, Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen - were all students at the University of Idaho in the town of Moscow, Idaho, which is about 80 miles (130km) south of Spokane, Washington.\n\nThey were found stabbed to death in their beds on Sunday 13 November in an off-campus rental home they shared with some housemates in the college town.\n\nEarlier this week, Moscow Police announced they were searching for a white 2011 to 2013 Hyundai Elantra \"with an unknown licence plate\" that had been observed \"in the immediate area\" of the crime scene during the timeframe of the murders.\n\nIn the latest operational update on Thursday from Moscow police, they said they believed that the one or more occupants of the car might have \"valuable information\" in the case.\n\nAfter being inundated with tips about the vehicle, Moscow police began redirecting calls to an FBI call centre, which the department said \"has the resources to take those calls, categorise them and send them on to investigators so they can utilise those tips in the investigation\".\n\nAdditionally, Fox News reported that US Customs and Border Protection had been tasked with searching for the car at crossing points on the US-Canada border.\n\nTo date, detectives working on the investigation have received over 2,770 calls with tips, as well as nearly 2,700 emails and more than 1,000 \"digital media\" submissions.\n\nThe slow pace of the investigation has prompted criticism from some family members of the victims, who have complained about the police response and a perceived lack of transparency.\n\nPolice have said that \"only vetted information that does not hinder the investigation\" will be released to the public.\n\nThe case has also attracted the interest of tens of thousands of amateur web detectives, and dozens of Facebook groups and Reddit threads have been created dedicated to sharing the latest updates and videos and pictures about the case.", "Ines and Chaimae say the Moroccan team have captured the imagination in Brussels\n\n\"They are making history, they're making us so proud!\" Ines and Chaimae are looking forward to Morocco's World Cup quarter-final against Portugal.\n\nDraped around us, a red Moroccan flag with a green star is on display.\n\nWalk through this part of central Brussels on a sunny morning and you could just as well be in Rabat or Tangiers.\n\nIn this Moroccan neighbourhood in the heart of the Belgian capital, you pass men sipping mint tea and families filling the many fish restaurants. The atmosphere is undoubtedly Moroccan as you head down the main street towards Midi train station.\n\nThe delicious smell of traditional Moroccan crepes, M'semen, fills the air.\n\nFive million Moroccans live abroad, most of them in Europe. They make up large minorities in France, Spain, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHere in Brussels and surrounding regions, they number 400,000.\n\nAnd just like their compatriots at home, they have been celebrating their national team's successes in the World Cup.\n\n\"It's been a great party, people were singing and dancing, all the cars were beeping their horns, we had a great time,\" says Chaimae.\n\nBut it has not all been partying. Some of the images that spread on social media after Morocco's victories showed celebrations turning ugly in several European cities.\n\nIn places, celebrations turned to street battles involving young Morocco fans and police.\n\nThis was the scene on Boulevard Lemonnier as Moroccans celebrated victory over Belgium\n\nSome of the pictures were taken on Boulevard Lemonnier, where Ines and Chaimae are standing.\n\n\"They've damaged our reputation; that was way out of place; this is not how we celebrate!\"\n\nRight-wing politicians across Europe were quick to spread pictures of the clashes and the resulting damage, suggesting it was a sign of failed integration.\n\nIn Spain, where most Moroccans are first-generation migrants, the partying passed off peacefully, even after Morocco beat Spain on penalties last Tuesday.\n\nBut celebrations were tainted by trouble in cities in France and the Netherlands, where Moroccan communities are well-established.\n\nYoung fans who clashed with police were largely from second- or third-generation families.\n\nIn France, 13 police officers were hurt in clashes in Lille on Tuesday night, and there was unrest in Rennes and Brest. Disturbances were also reported in the Dutch cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague.\n\nHicham Achrayah had a front-row seat from the windows of his Brussels café, Le Tetouan, when clashes erupted after Morocco defeated Belgium 2-0 two weeks ago.\n\nHicham Achrayah says local Moroccans suffered most from rioting fans\n\n\"I tried to speak to them, to calm them down, but they weren't listening. They were small in number, around 200 of them, and they were very young - kids really. All they wanted was to fight with police.\"\n\nHicham says those who came to riot felt hate towards the police and wanted to show off in front of their friends. But it was the residents who suffered.\n\n\"We are the first victims of these young thugs, one of my clients' car was burned down. The police protected the city centre and the Christmas market, but here nothing. Our shops were not protected.\"\n\nAfter the unrest, many in the Belgo-Moroccan community decided to help calm the youths down.\n\nFor each game, young adults and neighbours now form a human chain between the young fans and the police.\n\nSince Morocco beat Belgium, members of the community have tried to ensure things do not get out of hand\n\nMany from the community spoke out on the street and on social media, appealing to young people to celebrate peacefully.\n\nAhead of Saturday's quarter-final, Hicham is no longer worried: \"The atmosphere is going to be incredible and we'll form a human chain again to avoid trouble.\"\n\nInes and Chaimae are looking forward to the game too. For Chaimae, whatever happens on Sunday, Morocco's national team has already won her heart.\n\n\"Even if they lose against Portugal, this is a great moment and we are proud. I just hope that if we lose, those kids won't make trouble and ruin the party.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Ukraine has accused Iran of sending drones to Russia, which the Middle Eastern country denied then later admitted\n\nRussia and Iran's relationship has warmed to a fully fledged defence partnership, the US has said.\n\nRussia is giving an unprecedented level of military support, says US national security council spokesman John Kirby.\n\nThe US has seen reports that the two countries are considering joint production of lethal drones, he adds.\n\nIt comes after Ukraine accused Iran of supplying Russia with \"kamikaze\" drones used in deadly attacks on 17 October, which Tehran initially denied.\n\nThe Middle Eastern country later admitted sending Moscow a limited number of drones, \"many months\" before the war.\n\nIn response, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said this was a lie and that many more Iranian drones were being used.\n\nThe Ukrainian air force said it downed 10 of 15 such drones used to attack southern regions in the early hours of Saturday.\n\nThe strikes left more than 1.5 million people without power in Odesa, Mr Zelensky said in his evening address, adding it could take days for electricity to be restored.\n\nEarlier, Australia announced it was sanctioning three Iranians and one Iranian business for supplying Russia with drones to use against Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking on Friday, Mr Kirby said that a partnership between Iran and Russia to produce drones would be harmful to Ukraine, Iran's neighbours and the international community.\n\n\"Russia is seeking to collaborate with Iran in areas like weapons development, training,\" he said, adding that the US fears that Russia intended to \"provide Iran with advanced military components\" including helicopters and air defence systems.\n\n\"Iran has become Russia's top military backer...\" he said. \"Russia's been using Iranian drones to strike energy infrastructure, depriving millions of Ukrainians of power, heat, critical services. People in Ukraine today are actually dying as a result of Iran's actions.\"\n\nIn response to Mr Kirby's comments, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that Iran had become one of Russia's main military supporters and that the relationship between them was threatening global security.\n\nThe \"sordid deals\" between the two countries have seen Iran send hundreds of drones to Russia, he said.\n\n\"In return, Russia is offering military and technical support to the Iranian regime, which will increase the risk it poses to our partners in the Middle East and to international security,\" he added.\n\nHe said the UK agreed with the US that Iranian support for the Russian military would grow in the coming months as Russia tried to get hold of more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles.\n\nRussia's war on Ukraine continues to affect many cities and regions, including Bakhmut in the Donbas\n\nOn Saturday, Penny Wong, Australia's foreign minister, said in a statement: \"The supply of drones to Russia is evidence of the role Iran plays in destabilising global security. This listing highlights that those who provide material support to Russia will face consequences.\"\n\nShe also announced measures against 19 other people and two entities, including Iran's Morality Police, for the brutal treatment of anti-government protesters following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody earlier this year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Operating on a baby in the dark after missiles hit Kyiv", "Jimmy Lai, the billionaire Hong Kong media tycoon, has been sentenced to almost six years in prison for fraud.\n\nA judge said Lai, found guilty of illegally subletting office space in October, felt no remorse.\n\nThe 75-year-old recently served time for taking part in a banned vigil last year for victims of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.\n\nHis son stressed it was \"disappointing\" the UK was not doing more to help Lai, who holds British nationality.\n\nIn a separate statement, Sebastian Lai said his father done nothing wrong and had already spent time in prison for \"standing up for human rights\".\n\nLai faces the prospect of life behind bars due to a separate trial on national security charges.\n\nThose proceedings had been due to begin on 1 December but were postponed at the request of Hong Kong leader John Lee Ka-chiu.\n\nChina has enforced its wide-ranging national security law on the city of Hong Kong, making it easier to prosecute protesters.\n\nThe law has led to the arrests of many prominent democracy activists.\n\nHong Kong, a former British colony, returned to China's rule in 1997.\n\nAs well as being sentenced to five years and nine months, Lai was fined 2m Hong Kong dollars (£209,535).\n\nThe leader of Mr Lai's international legal team, Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, said Lai was the victim of \"lawfare\".\n\nShe said the multiple cases were \"all designed to silence and discredit [Lai] and send a clear message to others that they should not dare to criticise the Chinese or Hong Kong authorities\".\n\nJimmy Lai has been in custody since December 2020. On Thursday, he celebrated his 75th birthday in prison. Under the national security law he could face the rest of his life in jail.\n\nHe had long been considered the number one target of the Beijing-imposed law. But that case has not even begun.\n\nToday's judge told the court that the sentence of five years and nine months was for a \"simple case of fraud\".\n\nBut critics say the legal system has become a weapon to silence the political opposition.\n\nSome say that the introduction of the national security law has spelt the end of the rule of law in Hong Kong.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jimmy Lai in 2021: The Hong Kong billionaire becomes emotional as he faces prison", "Sam Ryder now avoids surfing, in case it brings his music career to an untimely end\n\nSam Ryder - Eurovision runner-up, human ray of light and possessor of pop's most piercing falsetto - is a man who emanates serious surfer vibes.\n\nFrom his long blonde locks and laid-back demeanour to his tie-dye shirts and total lack of cynicism, he seems like he'd be perfectly at home performing a cutback or hanging 10 on the crest of a wave.\n\nAnd that was true until four years ago, when he was almost killed in a wipeout.\n\n\"I was surfing in Hawaii and my board snapped. Then I got hit by a wave and I very nearly drowned,\" he says.\n\n\"It pushed me down so far into the water. And the turbulence of the water, the power, is incredible. Fighting against it, you feel like you've been hit by a bus.\"\n\nWith his muscles pummelled and his body battered, it took Ryder a week of bed rest to recover. Time in which he re-evaluated his life.\n\n\"Obviously, the golden rule in surfing is 'never underestimate the sea', but until it goes wrong, you can't fathom it,\" he says. \"You're like, 'I am insignificant in this body of water'.\n\n\"But that day was important to me because I wanted to be very good at surfing and ride the big waves - but [the accident] put me back on my true purpose.\n\n\"I was like, 'You can't do the thing you love most, which is music and singing, if you're at the bottom of the sea'.\"\n\nThe singer has toured all over Europe since his near-victory at Eurovision\n\nThe rest of the story you probably know. Ryder built an army of 14 million fans on TikTok during lockdown, thanks to his covers of Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan and Britney Spears.\n\nHe was promptly signed by Parlophone Records, then selected by Dua Lipa's management team to represent the UK at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.\n\nHis song, Space Man, written in just 10 minutes, recalled the classic 1970s rock sounds of Queen and Sir Elton John, and ultimately earned the UK its best position at Eurovision since 1998.\n\n\"Eurovision was like being in a church,\" he recalls. \"In that arena, there was so much joy and togetherness.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Eurovision Song Contest This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nSuccess came relatively late in life. At 33, Ryder is older than chart contemporaries like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift, but he has been making music for just as long.\n\n\"When I think back now to those years, I'm flabbergasted,\" he says of his pre-fame days. \"What the hell was keeping me going? The crumbs of hope were so few and far between.\"\n\nHe made his debut in 2006 as the singer with rock band The Morning After, whose '80s-indebted power chord anthems arrived just as the music industry pivoted away from the rock revivalism of The Darkness and towards the R&B-infused pop of Justin Timberlake and Rihanna.\n\nWhen The Morning After split in 2010, he became a stand-in guitarist for Christian rock group Blessed By A Broken Heart, then joined US hardcore band Close Your Eyes (as Sam Robinson), replacing original singer Shane Raymond.\n\n\"I joined them, I think, because I wanted my friends to see that I was still doing something cool. Like, 'Don't worry about me, I'm still almost making it in music. Look, I'm on tour in America. That's impressive, right?'\"\n\nBut his heart wasn't truly in it. While he had been a fan of bands like Sum 41 and Good Charlotte as a teenager, he began to realise he had outgrown the music.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by closeyoureyesVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nDeflated, he went back home and joined his father's carpentry business - helping to lay the floor at Wembley Stadium, instead of singing under its famous arches.\n\nAfter his surfing accident, he quit construction to set up a vegan cafe with his girlfriend Lois, and started singing in wedding bands, \"initially because I wanted to earn some money, if I'm being completely honest\".\n\nIt was a decision that changed his outlook on music forever.\n\n\"I remember the first time I did one [wedding], I was singing Whitney Houston and I had my eyes closed, and in my head I was telling myself, 'I'm smashing this song'.\n\n\"Then it ended, and I opened my eyes and no-one even realised I'd started the song, let alone finished it. It took me aback, like, 'Did I do something wrong?'\n\n\"But I quickly realised, of course, no-one cares about you. They're there for their family. You're there to provide the atmosphere.\n\n\"And that was crucial because, at that point, I stopped linking music with the perception of my friends and I started doing it from my heart.\"\n\nThe singer has been with his partner, Lois Gaskin-Barber, for 11 years\n\nWhen the UK entered Covid lockdown in 2020, his diary emptied overnight. Undeterred, he started posting videos on TikTok, reckoning that \"singing into my phone brought me the same amount of happiness as a live show\".\n\nThe clips were simple - a man, his beard, a green lamp and an incredible voice - but there was something infectious about his joy in performing, whether he was blasting through Adele's Set Fire To The Rain or turning Aretha Franklin's Respect into an anthem about the great toilet paper shortage of 2020.\n\nPretty soon, stars like Alicia Keys, Sia and Justin Bieber were reposting his videos. As was the man who became his manager, David May.\n\n\"I was absolutely blown away by what I heard,\" he says. \"His voice is... intimidating isn't the right word, but it's definitely impactful when you're stood next to him and it just comes out.\n\n\"It really does take you by surprise, how skilled he is.\"\n\nThe singer's infectiously sunny demeanour is part of his appeal\n\nThis time last year, Ryder was deep into recording his debut album when the invitation to Eurovision came through.\n\nIt was by no means a simple decision, especially given the UK's recent woeful track record in the contest, but the singer's hard-earned experience paid off. This time, when he opened his eyes, everyone had noticed after all.\n\nThe experience put a rocket under his career and crystallised the theme of his debut album, There's Nothing But Space Man, which is out this week.\n\n\"I wanted to focus on the tenets of hope and faith and how to retain those things,\" he says.\n\n\"I've been making music since I was 13 years old, and it was always foot on the gas, full belief, full faith - even though I was absolutely bombarded with failure.\n\n\"You start asking yourself, 'What's gonna happen? Maybe I'm finished?' All these stupid thoughts that I know we all have.\n\n\"But now sitting here, looking back, I'm thinking, 'Wow, you should have been so excited.' I had no idea what was around the corner. And therein lies the lesson, I suppose. To remain hopeful over a long period of time.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 3 by Sam Ryder This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nOn his album, Ryder's story manifests as a lyrical obsession with stormy weather.\n\nRain falls, tempests rage and people are dragged under the surface - but the singer always finds the light, whether it's through the sheer force of self-belief (Tiny Riot) or the support of family and friends (Put A Light On Me, whose fleet-footed dance beats are a perfect foil for Ryder's booming voice).\n\nIt's not what you would call an unassuming record. Ryder is seizing his moment with both hands - and who can blame him?\n\nThis time last year, he says, he was still plagued with doubts about his career. But since coming second at Eurovision, he's sung at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, toured Europe with Lewis Capaldi, and performed with Queen at Wembley Stadium - where he laid floorboards 15 years ago.\n\nRyder performed Somebody To Love with Queen at the tribute concert for Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins\n\nLater this month, he will ring out 2022 by hosting BBC One's New Year's Eve concert, accompanied by Mel C, Sigrid and Justin Hawkins from The Darkness.\n\nThe whole year has been \"absolutely bonkers\", he admits. \"My feet have just about touched the ground, but not quite.\"\n\nYou could say he's still floating in space, man.", "Stephen Flynn made his first appearance at PMQs as the SNP Westminster leader this week\n\nThe SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has announced a front bench reshuffle following the resignation of three prominent MPs.\n\nPete Wishart, Chris Law and Stewart McDonald stepped down after the 34-year-old took over from Ian Blackford.\n\nStewart Hosie, previously spokesperson for the Cabinet Office, now takes over the economy brief.\n\nMeanwhile David Linden takes social justice, Dave Doogan takes defence and Chris Stephens takes levelling up.\n\nIt follows reports of divisions in the SNP, which Mr Hosie has dismissed as \"complete fiction\".\n\nIn his resignation letter, Mr McDonald said the SNP was at its best \"when we collaborate as a united party\" and urged the new leadership to \"keep this at the forefront of their mind and work in that spirit across the party\".\n\nMr Flynn said his team were \"entirely focused on standing up for Scotland's interests\".\n\nReferring to three recent opinion polls which suggested there is majority support for independence, he said members were ready to \"harness that momentum\".\n\nHe said: \"Scotland continues to face the cost of living crisis, made worse by Tory 'wreckonomics', and we are still being hit with the disastrous impacts of leaving the EU.\"With the Tories and Labour both backing Brexit and denying democracy by standing in the way of a Scottish independence referendum, only the SNP is truly standing up for the people of Scotland. \"Support for independence is growing because people know that it is the only route back to the EU, and the only way to escape the broken Westminster system. The SNP Westminster team will work hard to make it happen.\"\n\nMr Flynn (sitting alongside new deputy leader Mhairi Black) was elected as the SNP's Westminster leader at the group's AGM on Tuesday evening\n\nMr Flynn had initially been expected to be the only candidate to replace Ian Blackford, who was regarded as being a close ally of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nBut Alison Thewliss unexpectedly threw her hat in the ring after sources close to Mr Flynn were quoted in the media as saying he intended to replace much of the party's front bench team in the Commons.\n\nThe Aberdeen South MP defeated Ms Thewliss - who is also seen as being closer to Ms Sturgeon - by 26 votes to 17 in a vote of the party's MPs.\n\nPreviously Mr Flynn had been the party's business, energy and industrial strategy spokesman.\n\nMs Thewliss, who is now the party's home affairs spokesperson, was previously the Treasury spokesperson.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTemperatures have sunk to the lowest level of the year in Scotland as many cut back on spending to stay warm.\n\nForecasters recorded -9.2C at Eskdalemuir in Dumfries and Galloway on Friday night.\n\nSnow and ice weather warnings have been extended to most parts of the country this weekend.\n\nIt comes as almost half of households in Scotland have had to cut back spending due to rising energy bills, according to a charity.\n\nCitizens Advice Scotland analysed polling data from YouGov, in which 1,002 adults were questioned.\n\nIt suggested 9% - equivalent to 198,854 people - have reduced spending on hobbies and leisure activities for their children, such as after-school clubs, parties and school trips.\n\nCAS chief executive Derek Mitchell called the findings \"heartbreaking\", adding: \"That is a horrible situation for any parent to be in, and we would encourage anyone worried about energy bills and the cost of living to seek advice from the CAB network.\"\n\nThe charity National Energy Action has also warned that millions around the UK will struggle to stay warm.\n\nA Met Office yellow weather warning in northern Scotland has been extended until noon on Sunday. An alert across central and southern areas took effect on Saturday morning.\n\nMeanwhile a further warning for ice and snow affecting coastal areas in the north and west as well as Orkney and Shetland will take effect from 12:00 on Sunday until 12:00 on Monday.\n\nBBC Scotland Weather reporter Kirsteen Macdonald said the cold spell was expected to last for 10 days, making it the coldest December in over a decade.\n\nShe said: \"Tomorrow night is looking even colder with the mercury set to dip to -10C to -12C.\n\n\"Cold weather isn't at all unusual for the time of year, but, given that we experienced a record-breaking mild November, this continued cold spell may come as a shock to people, at a time of great worry regarding energy bills and the cost of living crisis.\"\n\nMotorists have been urged to drive with care as Arctic air brings treacherous conditions.\n\nForecasters said up to 5cm of snow is possible at lower levels, with up to 15cm in areas above 200m - especially across the North Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire.\n\nHeavy snow has already caused traffic disruption across the north east, with reports of vehicles becoming stuck on some routes.\n\nTraffic Scotland said snow gates were closed on the A939 at Cock Bridge and the B974 at Cairn O'Mount in Aberdeenshire.\n\nAberdeenshire Council urged people to plan ahead if they are travelling over the weekend. Police in Dumfries and Galloway also warned drivers to be braced for the freezing temperatures.\n\nMotorists have been urged to drive with extra care this weekend\n\nNetwork Rail said a normal train service was planned, but with cold temperatures expected into next week, a meeting would be held to assess the forecast in detail.\n\nBBC Scotland weather presenter, Joy Dunlop, said that while there will be treacherous conditions in the warning areas, it will be a dry and sunny winter weekend for many.\n\nShe said: \"Despite the sunshine, it's going to feel cold, with a very cold night ahead - especially on Sunday, when we could see lows of -10C or even lower.\n\n\"This cold feel with remain into next week, with snow showers developing more widely by the end of the week.\"\n\nThe charity National Energy Action has said millions of people will struggle in the cold. It said people faced a \"vicious choice\" between a cold home and falling into debt.\n\nChief executive Adam Scorer said: \"Millions will have been dreading the onset of winter.\n\n\"Impossibly high prices and now cold weather will leave millions struggling to stay warm and safe at home.\"\n\nAn abandoned shopping trolley on a frozen pond in Robertson Park, Renfrew\n\nMeanwhile, families are being urged to keep their pets away from frozen water due to the risk of falling through ice.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) teamed up with Park Rangers from Pentland Hills Regional Park to highlight the dangers.\n\nJonathan Honeyman, a fire investigation officer, said: \"While ice can look and feel solid, it can suddenly crack and cause a person or a dog to fall through and potentially become trapped under the ice.\"\n\nHe said pets should be kept on leads and owners should avoid throwing objects onto the ice for them to retrieve.\n\nMr Honeyman added: \"If anyone does get into difficulty on the ice, do not attempt to rescue them.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Zef Eisenberg, pictured in July 2017, had previously survived a high-speed crash at the same airfield\n\nA fitness firm founder who was killed attempting a land speed record had taken one hand off the wheel to deploy a parachute, an inquest has heard.\n\nMillionaire Zef Eisenberg died during the attempt in a Porsche 911 Turbo at Elvington Airfield, near York, in 2020.\n\nHe may have also braked then deployed the parachute, causing the car to take off, the hearing was told.\n\nMr Eisenberg suffered fatal injuries in the crash after his car barrel-rolled and spun end over end.\n\nThe inquest was told the Maximuscle founder's modified Porsche was fitted with a parachute which required him to take his left hand off the steering wheel to deploy it using a lever.\n\nSteve Gardner, a collision investigator for North Yorkshire Police at the time, said an alternative method was to deploy a button mounted on the steering wheel, but that was not fitted to the vehicle.\n\n\"The movement to deploy the parachute was quite substantial,\" he said.\n\nFootage from inside the car also showed a \"minimal\" but \"noticeable\" twitch on the steering wheel in the moments before the loss of control, Mr Gardner added.\n\nFamily members had also expressed concerns about whether he was correctly strapped into the Porsche.\n\nBut Jamie Champkin, from Motorsport UK - the body which provided Mr Eisenberg, who lived on Guernsey, with a permit for the record attempts, said the forces involved in the crash were huge, and could not have been survived.\n\n\"The car became airborne very quickly, it travelled 513 metres before coming to a rest,\" he said.\n\nWe know it barrel-rolled, but it had also tumbled, he said, adding: \"There came a point in that tumble that the car came down nose first.\n\n\"Our estimates were it was probably still doing 150mph, but it hit the ground and our very basic calculations would suggest an impact force 218 times Mr Eisenberg's body weight.\n\n\"This incident was not survivable in that context,\" he added.\n\nMr Eisenberg had amassed more than 90 land speed records on two wheels and four\n\nCoroner Jon Heath said he would make a report aimed at preventing future deaths, asking Motorsport UK to consider its regulations about the strength of the chassis at which point harnesses are mounted.\n\nHowever, he said that was not a factor in Mr Eisenberg's case.\n\nMr Eisenberg, who was from north London, had previously survived a motorcycle crash at the same airfield in North Yorkshire in 2016 when his turbine-powered motorbike failed to stop at the end of the runway.\n\nHe returned to racing in 2017, despite concerns he would never walk again, and in 2018 became the fastest biker to ever ride on sand, recording a speed of 230mph (370km/h).\n\nIn 2019, Mr Eisenberg set the record for the \"flying mile\" at Pendine Sands in Wales.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The dugong is said to have inspired ancient legends of mermaids\n\nA \"sea cow\" that evoked tales of mermaids is being driven to the edge of extinction, conservation experts warn.\n\nAccording to an update of the official extinction list, the dugong is almost wiped out in some parts of the world.\n\nScientists have also sounded alarm over the loss of other marine creatures, including exotic coral and shellfish.\n\nThey said humans had created a \"perfect storm\" that threatens marine life across the globe.\n\nThe International Union for Conservation for Nature (IUCN), which compiles the official Red List of endangered species, revealed the latest findings at the UN biodiversity conference, COP 15.\n\n\"We simply cannot afford to fail,\" said Dr Bruno Oberle, head of the IUCN.\n\nHe warned of the urgent need to address the linked climate and biodiversity crises, or \"risk losing the crucial benefits the oceans provide us with\".\n\nThe latest update to the list, which has now assessed more than 150,000 species, revealed \"a perfect storm of unsustainable human activity decimating marine life around the globe,\" he said.\n\nThe pillar coral is one of 26 corals in the Atlantic Ocean listed as critically endangered\n\nCountries are meeting in Montreal, Canada, to try to agree targets for addressing the loss of nature amid an extinction crisis threatening a million species on Earth. High on their agenda is a plan to protect 30% of land and sea for nature across the globe by 2030.\n\nEnvironmental groups say progress in the first week has been slow and are calling for a step change in both pace and ambition.\n\n\"We will continue to see threats to marine life and our whole natural world unless we secure an ambitious deal,\" said Bernadette Fischler Hooper of WWF.\n\nThe latest extinction list highlights risks to a type of pillar coral that forms finger-like structures found throughout the Caribbean. It is now classed as critically endangered. The coral is dying due to disease, climate change and pollution.\n\nMeanwhile, many species of abalone, the world's most expensive seafood, are threatened with extinction, due to poaching and unsustainable harvesting, made worse by disease, pollution and climate change.\n\nMarine biologist, Prof Amanda Vincent, of the University of British Columbia, Canada, said the \"awful status\" of these species should shock us and engage us for urgent action.\n\n\"These magical marine species are treasured wildlife, from the wonderful abalone to the charismatic dugong and the glorious pillar coral, and we should safeguard them accordingly,\" she added.\n\nTwenty of the world's 54 abalone species are threatened with extinction\n\nDugongs belong to the Sirenia, an order of aquatic mammals sometimes known as \"sea cows\". The Sirenia family also includes manatees.\n\nIn 2015, the IUCN classified dugongs as vulnerable to extinction worldwide due to a myriad of threats, including being caught up in fishing gear or struck by boat propellers, ocean pollution and the loss of the sea grasses on which they graze.\n\nThey are now particularly concerned about two populations. One, living in waters off Mozambique, is down to just 250 individuals and is regarded as critically endangered. The other, in New Caledonia, east of Australia, is deemed endangered.\n\nThe dugong grazes on sea grasses in shallow coastal waters\n\nThere are still dugongs living in the waters off around 40 countries. Australia has the world's largest population of dugongs today, largely thanks to having a sparsely populated coast with lots of sea grasses.\n\nEarlier this year the dugong was declared functionally extinct in China. \"Functional extinction\" means that even if some dugongs are still alive off China's coast, their numbers are too small to maintain a viable population.", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEighteen months ago, I walked in to England's media centre at their St George's Park training base for the very first time as England reporter, not really sure what to expect.\n\nThe journey that group went on to the Euros final was remarkable. Now we are here in Qatar, in a different continent, a different season and a whole different tournament (not to mention a few indifferent results in between), and it's clear that despite so much changing, among the players very little has.\n\nThis is still a squad very much together, very much focused and very much determined to make a statement against France on Saturday.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nEngland are based in Al Wakrah, which is just over 10 miles from the centre of Doha, with a seafront hotel just minutes away from their training base at a local sports complex.\n\nIt's very outside based, so they spend a lot of time in the communal areas, and especially by the pool and on the basketball court.\n\nYou may have seen the scenes when they returned from their last-16 win against Senegal, the carnival-like atmosphere the staff created - reportedly worked on prior to the players' return, with Jack Grealish telling us that they too have become honorary England fans.\n\nEach day after watching 15 minutes of training, we then get an exclusive interview with a player in our BBC Sport interview room in the media centre.\n\nWhile we've had Mason Mount telling us about meeting his young niece out here for the first time, Callum Wilson admitting to ignoring a text from Alan Shearer, and Phil Foden revealing his hair dyeing attempts at last summer's Euros ruined his hair, I'm not sure any of our wide-ranging interviews have failed to mention Wolf.\n\nNo this isn't another camp pet like Dave the cat that John Stones and Kyle Walker have adopted - this is the card game that the players play.\n\nLuke Shaw gave us an extensive description into how it's played - it seems to be a game based on deception, with players pretending to be villagers and the wolves having to hide their identity.\n\nJames Maddison told us about 20 of the players playing it one night this week, Kalvin Phillips has admitted he doesn't usually partake but enjoys watching the noises/reactions that come from the group, while Mason Mount has given himself the title of most improved. They will hope they are as able to deceive the France defence in a similar way on Saturday.\n\n(And in case you were wondering, some of the players have confirmed they do love real life animals too and they hope that Dave the cat will somehow be able to return to England with them, though who has cat custody has yet to be confirmed).\n\n'Let me entertain you'\n\nLast summer it was Ed Sheeran who serenaded the squad - this year it's Robbie Williams. The huge Port Vale fan and former Take That band member played in Doha this week and stopped by the players' hotel the night before as a surprise.\n\nFormer Three Lions captain David Beckham also popped by during the group stages too - the footage of Bukayo Saka asking him for a photo has done the rounds but we're told he wasn't the only member of the squad to do so.\n\nThere isn't an England conversation at the moment that doesn't involve Jude Bellingham and it's the same at the training ground.\n\nHe was one of the first players we interviewed as part of our Iran build-up. He said he was saving his goal and duly delivered by scoring England's tournament opener - but he clearly has the banter too.\n\nJack Grealish told us that shortly after he had done his worm dance celebration to fulfil a promise to young fan Finlay that Bellingham tried to trick him into believing he was offside.\n\nHe's also been heard vociferously sticking up for midfield partner Jordan Henderson - with Henderson laughing that aged 32, he's got a 19-year-old sticking up for him.\n\nThe way the teenager has become central to a team that had previously reached a semi-final and final speaks volumes, and shows, again, the special atmosphere inside this England camp.\n\nThis time around though there isn't just hope, but more belief, that collectively they can make a statement against the World Cup holders this weekend.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "\"I was treated like an animal in a zoo. I was permanently blindfolded - the only time they removed my handcuffs from behind my back was to eat.\"\n\nBangladeshi journalist Shafiqul Islam Kajol, known as Kajol, says he was held in an underground cell for 53 days, where he alleges he was tortured.\n\n\"Sometimes they would beat me before they took me for an interrogation. I can't put into words how painful it was.\n\n\"They'd asked me about the stories I had written. I had to face a lot of torture. I still struggle to speak about it.\"\n\nThe BBC is unable to independently verify Kajol's account.\n\n\"There are no human rights in this country,\" the 54-year-old says, speaking to us from a secret location. \"I live in continuous fear.\"\n\nKajol chose to talk to us in the same week security forces clashed with members of the opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) in the capital Dhaka, and a mass anti-government rally was held on Saturday - the country's Human Rights Day.\n\nThe BNP had urged people to take to the streets to demonstrate against the government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party. Among their main concerns are calls for free and fair elections, worries over the rising cost of living, and reports of human rights abuses.\n\nIn the run-up, opposition officials were detained by police, in what critics say was a direct attempt to crush any form of dissent.\n\nBangladesh's government denies it is cracking down on freedom of expression.\n\nA massive crowd of opposition supporters gathered in the capital Dhaka on Saturday to demand new elections\n\nIn an interview with the BBC, the country's Foreign Minister Abdul Momen dismissed suggestions his government was stifling free speech, stressing that his nation, formed in 1971 after a war with Pakistan, was founded \"to uphold democracy, human rights, and justice\".\n\nWhen Kajol went missing in March 2020, the United Nations was among the organisations which voiced concerns. In a statement it said \"the targeting of investigative journalists like Shafiqul Islam Kajol raises serious questions about Bangladesh's commitment to a free and independent media\".\n\nThe day before he disappeared Kajol had published an article detailing allegations of a sex-trafficking ring involving politicians. Soon after, his lawyer said a member of the ruling Awami League party filed a case against him and others over the story.\n\nThe next day, after dropping his son home from school, as he left his office on his motorbike he says he was followed by a group of eight to 10 men on their bikes. Kajol says he was shoved into a minivan and taken to the underground cell.\n\nDuring his interrogations, Kajol says he was tied to a chair. \"They asked me why I wrote about the scandal. It went on for five to six hours at a time. It was a horrible experience.\"\n\nIn a statement, Bangladesh's home minister told the BBC that Kajol had been arrested for editing photos of some girls and publishing them on social media as a form of harassment. \"Those girls made a complaint to the security forces against Shafiqul Islam Kajol. Then the security forces arrested Kajol and produced him before the court the next day according to law.\"\n\nThe minister also denied that Kajol was held in an underground cell for more than 50 days.\n\nHuman Rights Watch says it has heard evidence of the existence of secret detention sites in Bangladesh, and has called on the government to investigate these allegations and release anyone still being held at them.\n\n\"We have heard they are often underground, with very little natural light. Some people have said they can hear other people being tortured. It's very disturbing,\" Meenakshi Ganguly, the organization's South Asia director told the BBC.\n\nFamilies hold photos of their missing loved ones\n\nMonths later, having been moved to two other cells in the same location, this time not underground, Kajol says he was dumped in a field close to India, still tied up and blindfolded. There, he was picked up by border officials and taken to a jail where he spent a further 237 days before, after 13 appeals, he was released on bail in December 2020.\n\nWhile he was in jail, Kajol was charged with defamation under Bangladesh's digital security act (DSA), a law critics say is draconian and criminalises any sort of dissent online - including sharing a Facebook post that might be considered critical. Since it came into law in 2018, thousands have been charged.\n\nHuman Rights Watch says Kajol's ordeal is typical of tactics used by security forces to silence criticism of the government.\n\nAccording to Bangladeshi human rights groups nearly 600 men have been victims of \"enforced disappearances\" by the Bangladeshi security forces since 2009.\n\nThe United Nations working group report published in August 2022 said there were 72 victims of enforced disappearances, who remain missing in the country.\n\nForeign Minister Momen dismissed these numbers, claiming that the figures collected by the UN came from \"some quarters who are politically motivated\". He accused local groups who collate the figures of \"magnifying\" and \"doctoring\" information.\n\nBut the families of those who are still waiting for their relatives to return say the stories they are living through are very real.\n\nOpposition activist Sajidul Islam Shumon has been missing for nine years\n\nSajidul Islam Shumon, a local party organiser for the opposition Bangladesh National Party, was last seen in December 2013.\n\nWith a general election just weeks away in January 2014, fearing intimidation from the Awami League government, he temporarily moved away from home for the safety of his family.\n\nOne day they heard from witnesses that Sajidul had been rounded up, handcuffed and blindfolded by security forces from the elite paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), before being shoved onto a bus with a group of men.\n\nHis sister Sanjida had seen him a few days earlier, when he popped home to see the family, in particular his one-year-old daughter Arwa.\n\n\"It was cold as it was December, so I gave him a light blue hoodie to wear outside,\" Sanjida said, recounting their final hug goodbye.\n\n\"That's the last thing I gave to him. I don't even know if he was able to wear it or not.\"\n\nArwa (centre) hasn't seen her father since she was one\n\nArwa is now 10 years old, and every time Sanjida shows her a photo of her father, she kisses the glass frame, asking when her daddy will return.\n\nSanjida now runs a support network, Mayer Daak, for the dozens of other women who say they have also lost their brothers, husbands, sons and fathers to enforced disappearances.\n\nMany of the families have lost their sole breadwinner, and are struggling with poverty on top of their personal pain.\n\nSome, including Sanjida, said they would take to the streets of Dhaka this weekend to join the anti-government protests, as they continue to seek justice.\n\nSanjida and other relatives say they have tried to file cases for their missing relatives at the police station, but were turned away unless they removed any mention of the involvement of government security forces.\n\nHer mother - now in her seventies and unwell - used to go to the police station every week to try to file a case for her son.\n\nThe family refuse to give up hope.\n\n\"Until we know what happened with him we can't decide if he is alive or not.\"", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nFrance forward Kylian Mbappe is \"ignoring the talk about him\" before Saturday's World Cup quarter-final against England, says Hugo Lloris.\n\nMbappe, 23, is the leading scorer in the tournament with five goals.\n\nA lot of the pre-match talk from ex-players has centred around how England and right-back Kyle Walker will deal with the threat posed by Mbappe.\n\nBut Lloris stressed: \"He is focused on his objectives and seems very happy, as he has since the tournament began.\"\n\n\"He is preparing very well and he is ignoring the talk about him.\"\n• None Why fine margins matter when you mark Mbappe\n• None The key battles that may decide England v France\n\nFrance are unbeaten in Mbappe's 13 starts at major tournaments - winning all nine at the World Cup - and he has been directly involved in 12 goals in those fixtures, with the Paris St-Germain forward either scoring or assisting France's past seven World Cup goals.\n\nHe leads his team's statistics in a host of offensive metrics including shots (20), open play attacking sequence involvements (36) and opposition penalty area touches (46) at this year's World Cup in Qatar.\n\nManchester City's Walker and Mbappe have faced each other three times at club level, with the England defender winning two of those games.\n\n\"England will have prepared for Kylian, but he is in a position to make the difference,\" said France coach Didier Deschamps, who led his side to 2018 World Cup glory.\n\n\"Even in his last match he wasn't at his best, not in top form, but he was still decisive [scoring twice in a 3-1 win against Poland].\n\n\"We have other players, but Kylian is Kylian and he always will be.\"\n\nDeschamps, who is out of contract after the tournament, also said England boss Gareth Southgate is a \"very good coach\".\n\n\"I very much like Gareth,\" said Deschamps. \"We have met on a number of occasions and have talked about a number of things.\n\n\"Not everyone appreciates him so much in his own country, that isn't because he wasn't a good footballer himself - he had a long and distinguished career and he is also a very good coach.\"\n\nThe game will see Lloris come up against his Tottenham Hotspur team-mate and England captain Harry Kane.\n\nThe striker scored his first goal of the tournament in England's 3-0 last-16 win over Senegal, and Lloris said \"very often he makes the difference\".\n\n\"I only have positive things to say,\" said Lloris. \"He's a very important player for the club and indeed for the England team as well.\n\n\"He's a real leader, an example for his team-mates and he is a top player. He's been decisive for his club and very often he makes the difference.\n\n\"Harry is known all over the world so I can't really add much. But he'll be an opponent. We'll both be representing our countries so our focus will be on that.\"\n\nThe two Spurs players could face each other in a penalty shootout should the game finish all-level and Lloris was asked about whether he would be confident against Kane because of their time together.\n\n\"You know better than me that Harry has the ability to shoot anywhere,\" said Lloris. \"He's one of the best probably at this aspect of the game.\n\n\"Obviously for Harry or the other English players, they will be analysing their penalties. Then, it is all about feeling, all about instinct that you get during the match.\n\n\"Before you get to a penalty shootout, it is the time to make the difference on the pitch. We'll see. Anything can become decisive in what will be a big game.\n\n\"We have to be ready for every scenario.\"\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nMorocco became the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final and ended the hopes of Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal.\n\nStriker Youssef En-Nesyri scored the winning goal in the first half, leaping highest to beat goalkeeper Diogo Costa to the ball and heading in to spark pandemonium at Al Thumama Stadium.\n\nThe north African side's supporters populated most of the venue and joyously celebrated their breakthrough moment on the global stage.\n\nRonaldo came off the bench in the 50th minute to equal the men's all-time appearance record of 196 in international matches, but he could not drag his side back into the contest.\n\nMorocco, who will face England or France in the last four, were happy to play on the counter and grabbed the opener just before the break when En-Nesyri headed in from Yahya Attiyat-Allah's cross.\n\nPortugal skipper Bruno Fernandes came agonisingly close to levelling just minutes later but a brilliant individual effort struck the crossbar.\n\nDecimated by injuries, Morocco sat back for the majority of the second half and Yassine Bounou brilliantly tipped over Joao Felix's drive - the closest they came to an equaliser.\n\nMorocco striker Walid Cheddira was sent off for a second yellow card in eight minutes of additional time but Portugal could not find the equaliser as their last-four hopes were dashed.\n\nThree African sides had previously reached this stage of the World Cup but none had progressed any further. Until now.\n\nThe marvellous Moroccan players and fans rejoiced as En-Nesyri's header on 42 minutes proved to be the pivotal moment.\n\nFans whistled and jeered every pass the Portuguese players made and then the rowdiest section behind the goal seemed to suck the ball into the net.\n\nWalid Regragui's side were missing West Ham's Nayef Aguerd, Bayern Munich's Noussair Mazraoui and lost captain Romain Saiss to injury early in the second period.\n\nBut they defended resolutely and frustrated Portugal to keep their seventh clean sheet in eight games under their boss and have conceded just once in this tournament.\n\nMorocco are a tough proposition and buoyed on by a partisan crowd in Doha, they will present a difficult challenge to whoever they face in the last four on Wednesday.\n\nGoalkeeper Bounou, earning his 50th cap, pushed away a header from Felix early on and a deflected strike flew narrowly over.\n\nMorocco had carved out the better opportunities on the break but En-Nesyri sent two free headers off target and Sofiane Boufal's curler was straight at Costa.\n\nIn his desperation for an equaliser, Fernando Santos sent on Ronaldo early in the second half but the 37-year-old - who equalled Kuwait striker Bader Al-Mutawa's international caps record - found it difficult to make any impact.\n\nHaving seen rival Lionel Messi reach the semi-finals on Friday, Ronaldo could not do the same with his side on what is likely to be his final World Cup appearance, trudging down the tunnel in tears at full-time as his dream was over.\n• None Attempt missed. Pepe (Portugal) header from the right side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Rafael Leão with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Zakaria Aboukhlal (Morocco) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Yahya Attiat-Allah.\n• None Second yellow card to Walid Cheddira (Morocco) for a bad foul.\n• None Walid Cheddira (Morocco) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt saved. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Bruno Fernandes with a through ball.\n• None Offside, Morocco. Sofyan Amrabat tries a through ball, but Walid Cheddira is caught offside.\n• None Vitinha (Portugal) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "J Alexander Kueng was one of four police officer involved in the May 2020 arrest of George Floyd\n\nA former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on George Floyd's back has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for his role in Mr Floyd's death.\n\nJ Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in October.\n\nHe was one of four officers involved in the arrest, filmed by bystanders, of the 46-year-old.\n\nMr Floyd was killed by police in May 2020 while lying prone and handcuffed.\n\nHis death sparked global outrage and a wave of demonstrations against racial injustice and police use of force.\n\nKueng will serve his new sentence for state charges concurrently with a previous federal sentence for violating Mr Floyd's civil rights.\n\nIn April 2021, former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on state murder and manslaughter charges for kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes and sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in jail. He is serving that sentence concurrently with a 20-year sentence on federal civil rights charges, for which he pleaded guilty in December 2021.\n\nIn February, Kueng, along with two other responding officers, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, were also found guilty on federal civil rights charges. The officers were charged with showing \"deliberate indifference to [Mr Floyd's] serious medical needs\" during the attempted arrest.\n\nVideo footage of the arrest shows Kueng and Lane assisting Chauvin by helping to hold Mr Floyd down. Thao, meanwhile, kept concerned bystanders away. Chauvin was a field training officer to both Lane and Kueng.\n\nAs well as Chauvin, the other officers involved were given sentences of varying lengths for the federal charges:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What role did these police have in Floyd’s death?\n\nSpeaking in court ahead of the sentencing, prosecutor Matthew Frank said that Kueng \"was not simply a bystander in what happened that day\", but instead played an \"active part\".\n\nWhile Kueng declined to address the court directly, his defence attorney, Thomas Plunkett, argued that city and police officials had \"failed\" Mr Floyd, Kueng and the community alike.\n\nAttorneys representing George Floyd's family said that the sentencing represented \"yet another piece of justice for the Floyd family\".\n\n\"While the family faces yet another holiday season without George, we hope that moments like these continue to bring them a measure of peace, knowing that George's death was not in vain,\" they added.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: \"Do you know where you're going?\"\n\nThe US and Russia say they are open to more prisoner swaps, a day after an American basketball star was exchanged for a notorious arms dealer.\n\nBrittney Griner is back in the US following 10 months in a Russian jail.\n\nThe White House is under pressure to free ex-US Marine Paul Whelan, who has been in a Russian jail for four years.\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin said more swaps were \"possible\" - a rare example of US-Russian co-operation amid Moscow's war with Ukraine.\n\nWhen asked at a summit in Kyrgyzstan on Friday whether other US-Russia prisoner exchanges could take place, Mr Putin responded: \"We aren't refusing to continue this work in the future.\"\n\nHe added that \"everything is possible\" and noted that \"compromises\" had been found to clear the way for Thursday's swap.\n\nGriner, who was arrested in February for possessing cannabis oil at a Moscow airport, was traded for convicted weapons trafficker Viktor Bout, who was flown back to Russia after 12 years.\n\nThe American athlete was taken for evaluation to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, upon landing in the US on Friday.\n\nIt is unclear how long the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) star will remain at the facility.\n\nThe White House's John Kirby told US TV network MSNBC on Friday morning that the two-time Olympic gold medallist was in \"good spirits\" and \"good health\".\n\nUS President Joe Biden's administration has faced a backlash for not managing to bring home Whelan along with Griner.\n\nThe Michigan native was sentenced by a Russian court to 16 years in prison in 2018 on spying charges.\n\nThere will be \"discussions going forward\" on how to get Whelan back home, US state department spokesperson Ned Price said on Friday.\n\n\"Our message to him has been the same,\" he told MSNBC.\n\n\"We are coming for you. Keep the faith. We're going to bring you home just as soon as we can.\"\n\nPaul Whelan was convicted of espionage in 2018\n\nWhelan and his family have welcomed Griner's release, but the ex-Marine told CNN on Thursday by phone from the remote penal colony where he is being held that he was disappointed more had not been done to free him.\n\nAt the White House on Thursday, Mr Biden maintained efforts were continuing to bring Whelan home.\n\n\"While we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release we are not giving up,\" he said.\n\nRepublican lawmakers have led criticism of the White House, arguing that freeing such a high-profile prisoner as Bout should have warranted the release of two Americans.\n\nIncoming House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul said the Biden administration \"got played\".\n\n\"We should be very careful, because if we don't negotiate these exchanges properly, it can end up in more detentions, false detentions of really innocent Americans in Russia,\" said the Texas Republican congressman.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How did Brittney Griner get here?\n\nBout - known as the Merchant of Death - was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the US after his arrest in Thailand.\n\nSince Griner's release, more details have emerged on US-Russia prisoner exchange negotiations.\n\nThis summer, Russia told the US it would be willing to swap Whelan for Vadim Krasikov, a former colonel from Russia's domestic spy organisation who is in German custody, according to a US official.\n\nRussian state TV showed images of Bout being reunited with his family in Russia\n\nMoscow wanted a \"spy for a spy\", the official said.\n\nThe US appealed to the German government to try to include Krasikov - who was convicted of killing a Georgian citizen in Berlin in 2019 - but the country denied this request, the official said.\n\nThe US proposed several other options to the Russian government to try to secure Whelan's release, including Alexander Vinnik, a Russian citizen who is accused of money laundering, hacking and extortion, according to CNN. But those options failed, the outlet reported.\n\nThe swap is the second with Russia of Mr Biden's presidency. In April former US Marine Trevor Reed, who was convicted for attacking Russian officers during a drunken night in Moscow, was traded for convicted Russian drug smuggler Konstantin Yaroshenko.", "Second Test, Multan (day two of five)\n\nEngland took control of the match and series thanks to a dramatic Pakistan collapse on day two of the second Test in Multan.\n\nThe home side lost eight wickets for 60 runs, at one stage including three for no runs, to slide to 202 all out.\n\nAfter Babar Azam was bowled by Ollie Robinson for 75, Jack Leach took three wickets for an overall 4-98, while Joe Root and Mark Wood nipped in with two each.\n\nWhen Leach had Saud Shakeel superbly caught by James Anderson for 63, it marked the left-arm spinner's 100th wicket in Test cricket.\n\nEngland's growth of a first-innings lead of 79 was led by opener Ben Duckett, who was on course for a second century in as many matches before being bowled by Abrar Ahmed for 79.\n• None Quiz: Name England bowlers to take 100+ Test wickets since 2000\n\nThat was leg-spinner Abrar's third of the innings and 10th of the match, the first Pakistan debutant to achieve such a feat for 16 years.\n\nEngland sloppily lost Ollie Pope to a run out before the close, but Harry Brook remains on 74, the tourists 202-5.\n\nWith a lead of 281 on a pitch offering so much to the spinners, England probably already have enough. It would take a huge effort for Pakistan to win from here.\n\nEngland were made to work so hard for their thrilling first-Test win, yet here have been gifted a dominant position by the Pakistan implosion.\n\nAs a result, this is likely to be the decisive day in the match and the series, with England closing in on a first triumph over Pakistan outside the UK for 22 years.\n\nThat is not to say England do not deserve their advantage. Intelligent, defensive field placements aided Leach and selecting three specialist pace bowlers on a pitch favouring the spinners was vindicated by the wickets taken by Robinson and Wood.\n\nIt was expected that England would build on their lead by blazing away in the afternoon, but instead built steadily at their slowest scoring rate of the series so far.\n\nAbrar, who took seven wickets in the first innings, once again carried the fight, having a hand in all five wickets to fall.\n\nAs well as the three of his own, Abrar ran out Zak Crawley and was the bowler when Pope was dismissed. His spectacular effort on debut is set to count for nothing.\n\nDuckett was recalled for the first time in six years for the first Test and already seems to have made the opener's spot his own.\n\nA hundred in Rawalpindi was followed by 63 in the first innings here. This time he helped himself with trademark sweeps and pulls.\n\nAfter Crawley was run out for three by Abrar's direct hit from mid-on and Will Jacks, promoted to give Pope rest after keeping wicket, was bowled, Duckett and Root added 54 for the third wicket.\n\nA sweeping Root was brilliantly held by Abdullah Shafique at short leg, but Duckett seemed destined for a century, especially when Babar dropped the simplest catch at mid-wicket with the opener on 69.\n\nThe left-hander was only bowled by one that Abrar got to scuttle low. It gave Abrar his 10th, ended a partnership of 68 with Brook and, more importantly, showed how difficult it will be for Pakistan to chase a target on the deteriorating surface.\n\nAs the light faded, Pope was run out in a mix-up with Brook, who himself eased past 50 for the third time this series and will return on Sunday in the company of captain Ben Stokes.\n\nWhen Pakistan moved from their overnight 107-2 to 142-2, the game hung in the balance. Babar and Shakeel were set and England's first-innings 281 was being closed down.\n\nBut Robinson, who did not bowl on day one, needed only two deliveries to make a telling intervention. In the seventh over of the day, Robinson produced a beauty that jagged back to bowl Babar between bat and pad.\n\nLeach was struggling to make an impact until Shakeel attempted a loft down the ground. Anderson, running back from mid-on took a fine catch, made harder by the fact there was danger of a collision with Jacks, to give Leach his 100th wicket.\n\nAnd, after Leach produced a ripping delivery to bowl Mohammed Rizwan - pitching on leg and hitting middle and off - Pakistan folded in meek fashion.\n\nMohammad Nawaz poked Leach to mid-off, then Salman Agha patted to mid-wicket and Mohammad Ali was caught at slip, both in the same Root over.\n\nWood, bowling at high pace, pinned Zahid Mahmood in front and had Faheem Ashraf clip to deep square leg for his first Test wickets since March.\n\n'I am getting better and better in Test cricket' - reaction\n\nEngland spinner Jack Leach to Test Match Special on reaching 100 Test wickets: \"It is a nice little milestone but I just really want to keep winning games with England and let the rest take care of itself. I feel I am getting better and better in Test cricket. I am learning all the time. I just want to keep pushing on.\"\n\n\"I don't think we put a number on a lead. I'd love 500 but if they have to score the highest total of the game in the fourth innings we will feel pretty confident.\"\n\nPakistan batter Saud Shakeel: \"We are in a 50-50 situation but we are confident. We have chased down 350 in Galle on a turning pitch on day five so we can chase anything down around 320 or 330.\n\n\"The pitch is getting better day by day. It is spinning but it is slow spin. So if we can get a few partnerships we can do anything.\"\n\nFormer England spinner Vic Marks: \"England were quite measured today. Once Babar was gone, they realised they didn't need to be over aggressive and just had to keep the pressure on.\n\n\"Even while batting, they didn't play extravagant shots. I really liked England's approach. The momentum is just with them.\"\n\nFormer Pakistan fast bowler Waqar Younis: \"Pakistan are way behind in this game. They threw it away in the morning. They didn't know how to bat, they were worried and went into their shell. That's dangerous against a team that's full of confidence.\"\n• None Dive into the action behind the scenes of the epic drama", "A hospital trust has apologised to a woman for failing to admit a surgeon had been responsible for a massive haemorrhage that almost killed her after a Caesarean section.\n\nFor seven years, East Kent Hospitals Trust maintained the size of Louise Dempster's baby was to blame.\n\n\"It was just continuous lies,\" the 34-year-old told BBC News.\n\nLouise Dempster gave birth in May 2015 but the surgeon's error only emerged during an inquiry into poor maternity care at East Kent Hospitals Trust which reported this year.\n\nIt was Louise's first pregnancy and had been uneventful, until she developed two potentially dangerous conditions in the days before she was due to give birth.\n\nA scan showed excessive growth of her baby, and that Louise had pre-eclampsia and a liver condition, which put her at risk of bleeding after birth.\n\nShe went into her local hospital, The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in Margate, part of the East Kent Hospitals Trust, to be induced.\n\nIn October, an inquiry by Dr Bill Kirkup found at least 45 babies who died at the Trust's maternity services between 2009 and 2020 could have survived with better treatment.\n\nWhen Louise's labour stalled, she was taken for a Caesarean section and her son was born large and healthy.\n\nLouise was left by staff in the recovery room with her family, but her mother, Linda, noticed she appeared to be losing consciousness: \"I was talking to her and I just saw her drift away and her eyes roll back.\"\n\nThe 61-year-old lifted her daughter's sheets and found \"blood from head to toe\".\n\nLinda is a senior nurse who has worked nationally on quality and infection control. It didn't require her level of expertise to realise her daughter was in serious trouble.\n\n\"I tried to pull the emergency buzzer… but it didn't work,\" she remembers.\n\nLouise says she thought she was dying: \"All I remember is my mum screaming for help. And her stroking my hair and telling me she loved me. I knew that something was wrong\".\n\nLouise was taken back to surgery. After her operation the surgeon told her the bleeding had happened because her uterus hadn't shrunk back to its normal size after birth.\n\nHe inserted an instrument called a Bakri balloon to stop the bleeding - but a few hours later Louise was rushed back to surgery after Linda again spotted she was still losing a lot of blood.\n\nHer original surgeon called in another surgeon, a cancer specialist, to help. Louise needed an extensive blood transfusion, but eventually recovered after several days in hospital.\n\nThe family felt there must have been something wrong with Louise's treatment and set about getting all her documents together and speaking to the clinicians involved.\n\nBut they felt like they hit a brick wall. All the notes confirmed her original surgeon's version of events. The Trust didn't consider what happened to be a serious incident and the investigation stopped.\n\nLouise says she was told she was lucky to have a baby, and she should just \"get on with it\".\n\nBut the psychological impact was significant: \"I think my mental health has probably been affected by it. I also feel like I've never had the opportunity to have another baby, which I really wanted to. I have lots of triggers from that time and lots of flashbacks I have to deal with,\" she says.\n\nIn 2020 Louise and her mother gave evidence to the Kirkup inquiry.\n\nA few weeks before the findings were made public, inquiry chairman, Dr Bill Kirkup, asked to meet them.\n\nHe said he had discovered a document that had not been disclosed to the family, which showed Louise's bleeding had been caused by a surgical error, not by the size of her son as they had been led to believe.\n\nLouise was furious her suspicions about what happened to her had been confirmed.\n\n\"They had so many points, they could have told me what actually happened. And they didn't,\" she says. \"I spent so much time after the birth, visiting professionals trying to find out what happened.\"\n\nThe Kirkup report found evidence of staff \"omitting key details in accounts given to families as well as to official bodies\" and \"the effect... was to cover up the truth.\"\n\nThe Trust says it is determined to improve clinical practice and will review Louise's care.\n\nIts chief executive Tracy Fletcher said: \"We apologise unreservedly to Louise and her family for the mistakes in her care and for failing in our duty to explain what went wrong, which falls far short of the standards and compassion patients should expect and deserve.\"", "The World Cup's first temporary stadium will soon be dismantled after hosting seven matches in two weeks at Qatar 2022.\n\nStadium 974 - named after Qatar's international dialling code and the number of shipping containers used in its construction - was one of seven grounds built for the tournament, while an eighth was extensively redeveloped.\n\nThe entire steel structure of Stadium 974 can be repurposed for another World Cup or major sporting event as either a venue of the same size or several smaller facilities.\n\nQatar called the stadium its \"beacon of sustainability\" as part of its pledge to deliver the first carbon neutral World Cup.\n\nAs well as seven new stadiums, Qatar has a new airport, metro system, roads and about 100 new hotels - but has faced intense scrutiny and criticism over the way it has treated the tens of thousands of migrant workers used to build the infrastructure.\n\nStadium 974 will be used for a fashion show and concerts in the coming days with a Qatar 2022 organising committee spokesperson saying the \"precise timeline for the full dismantling and repurposing\" is not yet finalised.\n\nSo how sustainable is the Stadium 974 project? And where and when will the stadium be reused?\n\nThe 44,089-capacity Stadium 974 - on Doha's waterfront - features a modular steel frame and multicoloured shipping containers, which can be seen from outside the stadium and house toilets and food and drink stalls.\n\nIt was the only stadium built for the World Cup without air conditioning, so hosted only evening matches, culminating in Brazil's last-16 victory over South Korea on 5 December.\n\nThe use of shipping containers and recycled steel helped reduce waste generated and construction time compared to the other new venues.\n\nQatar and designers Fenwick Iribarren Architects said they aimed to avoid building a \"white elephant\" - a venue unused or rarely used after a tournament, as has proven the case following the three previous World Cups in Russia, Brazil and South Africa.\n\nEnvironmental watchdog group Carbon Market Watch said if reusing existing dismountable structures could be widely replicated, it could make bidding for major sporting events \"more accessible to developing countries\" because costs would be shared between several countries hosting different editions.\n\nA report into Stadium 974 commissioned by Fifa and delivered by emission reduction experts also pointed to that benefit, and added it could allow stadiums to be built in more central and \"easily accessible\" locations, reducing \"intra-city fan travel\" during tournaments.\n\nOrganisers have also said they will donate 170,000 seats from other stadiums to developing countries to try to make them more sustainable and avoid them becoming underused in future. However, Carbon Market Watch said \"no concrete plans could be found\" for the distribution of seats.\n\nThe claim the Qatar World Cup will be carbon neutral has also been described as \"dangerous and misleading\" by environmentalists, who say the tournament could have a carbon footprint three times higher than stated.\n\nFifa's report compared the emissions produced by the building of Stadium 974 to the average emissions of the four permanent stadiums that have a similar capacity of 40,000-45,000.\n\nIt found the temporary stadium \"initially emits more carbon emissions due to the use of carbon-intensive materials such as metal and steel\" - as opposed to mainly concrete in permanent stadiums - which allows it to be dismantled and reassembled multiple times.\n\nSo, as it stands, Stadium 974 has a higher carbon footprint than the comparable permanent stadiums built for Qatar 2022.\n\nFor the temporary stadium to have a lower total footprint than multiple permanent stadiums, Carbon Market Watch said it \"depends on how many times, and how far, the stadium is transported and reassembled\".\n\nFifa's study assessed three different scenarios for the future of Stadium 974, in which it is reused once, twice or three times in a series of differing locations.\n\nIt found if the temporary stadium is reused only once, it must be relocated \"within a total sea and road travel distance of 7,033km\" to be more \"environmentally advantageous\" than building two permanent stadiums. It also highlighted the environmental benefits of the stadium being repurposed within the region, or specifically in Qatar.\n\nThat maximum travel figure rises to 40,118 km overall for two reuses and 72,616km for three.\n\nAll three scenarios were also modelled on the temporary stadium spending four years in the first location and in each subsequent location, before operating the remainder of a 60-year lifespan at its final destination.\n\nWhere is the stadium going?\n\nNo decision appears to have been made on the future uses or locations of Stadium 974.\n\nCarbon Market Watch said while organisers have \"highlighted the dismountable nature of the temporary stadium, we could identify no specific plans showing where the stadium will be moved, if at all\".\n\nThere are reports that Stadium 974 could be sent to Uruguay, which is set to be part of a joint bid with Argentina, Chile and Paraguay for the 2030 World Cup.\n\nUruguay is approximately 13,000km from Doha, so if the temporary stadium is moved there, it would have to be reused again in a third location in order to be more environmentally advantageous than building separate new stadiums in each place.\n\nWhen asked about future plans for Stadium 974 and any possible locations, the organising committee said: \"Qatar is on track to deliver the first carbon neutral Fifa World Cup.\n\n\"That means all infrastructure projects - including the eight stadiums - must meet stringent sustainability benchmarks.\n\n\"During their construction, we have recycled and reused wherever possible and implemented a vast range of energy and water efficiency solutions. In addition, materials from sustainable sources were used and innovative legacy plans have been implemented to ensure the tournament doesn't leave any 'white elephants'.\"\n• None Dive into the action behind the scenes of the epic drama", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"When I balance my wage against the cost of childcare, I would make £2 a day\"\n\nA mother of two said she only makes £2 a day when she works overtime due to the rising cost of childcare fees.\n\nLouise Morgan, from Swansea, wants to work more hours to advance her career, but said it was not worth the financial cost.\n\nThe 33-year-old said she felt left behind and would get overlooked as \"I'm only there three days a week\".\n\nThe Welsh government said all workers should have an automatic right to request flexible working.\n\nMs Morgan lives with her partner Josh Doyle and their sons Dexter, three, and two-year-old Teddy.\n\nShe is a part-time admin officer and wants to work full time to make more money and progress in her career, but even with government help, it is not worth it.\n\nChildcare for Dexter and Teddy is £71 a day and Ms Morgan makes £73 when she works overtime.\n\nLouise Morgan fears her career prospects will be hampered as she can only work part-time hours\n\nShe said Josh, who is a self employed carpenter, worked six days a week, sometimes seven, and wants to work more shifts, especially with Christmas coming up as she wants \"to spoil\" her sons.\n\nThe Welsh government provides 30 hours of free childcare a week for working parents of three and four-year-olds.\n\nWhile Ms Morgan said the creche her children attends is \"amazing\", her friends react with horror when they hear the cost.\n\n\"They're like... 'You can go on holiday every month for that',\" she told BBC Wales Live.\n\nNursery owner Nikola Masters says staffing is her highest outgoing\n\nShe said the 10% rise in minimum wage, coupled with increasing food bills and a \"three-fold increase\" in gas and electricity costs meant her outgoings would be £40,000 more next year.\n\nMs Masters said she \"had to pass that on\" in the form of increased fees.\n\n\"If we can't increase our fees, we can't run and parents can't get to work. The average outgoings for a day nursery is 75-80% on staff wages.\n\n\"Parents generally see the person they hand the child over to, they don't see the bigger cost of what goes on behind the scenes, and the immense amount of admin that we need to complete on a daily basis.\"\n\nLouise Morgan and her partner Josh Doyle have two sons - Teddy and Dexter\n\nThe Welsh government said it had already announced an extra £6m per year to pay childcare providers £5 per hour, up from £4.50, from April.\n\nThe maximum amount nurseries can charge for food has also increased from £7.50 a day to £9.\n\nMs Masters said nurseries were not just baby sitters, but places where children can learn.\n\n\"A child can learn wonderful things at home, but what they learn is their family's knowledge. When you bring a child into a community with other children, different adults, different carers, that child is opened up to a whole new world of development.\"\n\nJonathan Broadberry, head of policy at the National Day Nursery Association, said nurseries faced a raft of rising costs.\n\n\"You can't turn the heating off in the nursery. You can't not feed the children so these are costs where you can't make savings.\"\n\nMr Broadberry said either parents would be paying more or government rates had to keep pace with the increase in costs.\n\nClaire Protheroe, the national manager of Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years Cymru, said childcare providers faced \"a crisis\".\n\n\"Mortgage and rent increases are impacting on many and actually forcing the closure of some.\n\n\"We've seen a decline in childminder numbers in Wales in the last year by around 14% alone. It's drastic.\"\n\nSarah Rees, head of Oxfam Cymru, said affordable childcare was the \"basis of support that we need to enable people to go to work\".\n\nShe added: \"You can earn more money working in supermarkets rather than taking care of the most precious people in our lives.\"", "William MacDowell was jailed following a trial in September\n\nAn 81-year-old man jailed for the 1976 murder of his former lover and their son has abandoned an appeal over his conviction.\n\nWilliam MacDowell was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in September for murdering Renee, 36, and three-year-old Andrew MacRae in the Highlands.\n\nHe was convicted of disposing of the bodies. The remains were never found.\n\nMacDowell's legal team had indicated that he intended to appeal, but the deadline has now passed.\n\nThe Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service said he does not have a live appeal as the appropriate paperwork had not been submitted in time.\n\nMacDowell, from Penrith, Cumbria, could still seek an appeal through the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.\n\nThe bodies of Andrew and his mother Renee have never been found\n\nHe had denied all the charges against him during his trial at the High Court in Inverness. His lawyers had lodged special defences of incrimination and alibi.\n\nMrs MacRae and Andrew disappeared on 12 November 1976. Her car was found that night on fire in a lay-by on the A9 at Dalmagarry, south of Inverness.\n\nThe trial heard that the discovery exposed married MacDowell's affair with Mrs MacRae, and that she had believed they would be meeting up for a weekend away before a planned move to Shetland.\n\nMacDowell had told police he did not meet with Mrs MacRae and he had no plans to move away with her.", "A Russian human rights activist has told the BBC that he was ordered to turn down the Nobel Peace Prize by the Russian authorities.\n\nYan Rachinsky is from Memorial, one of three joint winners of this year's accolade, alongside the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties, and Ales Bialiatski, who is in prison in Belarus.\n\nMr Rachinsky chose to accept the award and told Stephen Sackur of BBC's HARDtalk: \"In today's Russia no-one's personal safety is guaranteed\".\n\nFor more than 30 years, Memorial worked on uncovering the fates of the victims of Soviet political repression. It also exposed human rights abuses in present-day Russia, before being forced to close.", "Editor Kenny Kemp describes Caledonian Inquirer as a polemic designed to highlight serious issues\n\nBusinessman Jim McColl has helped to fund a new publication aimed at exposing \"the truth\" about Scotland's ferry scandal.\n\nCopies of the Caledonian Inquirer will be distributed in west coast towns and island communities.\n\nDescribed as a polemical \"broadsheet\" it includes interviews with ferry experts, politicians and islanders.\n\nMr McColl owned Ferguson shipyard before it collapsed amid a bitter dispute with ferries agency CMAL.\n\nBoth CMAL and Mr McColl have blamed each other for the problems that have beset the construction of two CalMac ferries, Glen Sannox and hull 802, which are five years late and at least £240m overbudget.\n\nThe delays have had a knock-on impact on the west coast ferry network which is struggling with an ageing fleet and frequent breakdowns.\n\nThe new publication is edited by Kenny Kemp, a freelance journalist and ghost writer who has previously worked for the Sunday Herald, the Scotsman and Scottish Business Insider.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"It's a polemic - a modern day broadsheet to highlight a serious issue. I've been following this story for a long time.\n\n\"Jim McColl has put some money into this, but I've also helped pay for it.\n\n\"There is a real need to find the truth behind this whole debacle.\"\n\nThe first edition includes an article by Jim McColl himself as well as interviews with Labour MSP Paul Sweeney and Alba MP Kenny MacAskill.\n\nThere are also interviews with ferries experts Roy Pedersen and Alf Baird, and a feature examining catamarans as a cost effective way of renewing the CalMac fleet.\n\nGlen Sannox is still under construction at the Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow\n\nOne article entitled The CMALFUNCTION describes the Scottish government-owned ferries agency as a \"Scottish quango not fit for purpose\".\n\nCMAL was contacted by the BBC but said it had no comment to make on the new publication.\n\nIn September a BBC documentary presented evidence that the procurement process which awarded the CalMac ferries contract to Mr McColl's company FMEL in 2015 may have been rigged - a claim rejected by CMAL.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon strenuously denied there had been any political interference in the procurement when she faced questioning last month by Holyrood's public audit committee.\n\nJim McColl was once a member of the first minister's council of economic advisers but has become one of her staunchest critics.", "Mr Flynn made his first appearance as group leader at prime minister's questions on Wednesday\n\nThe SNP's new Westminster leader has denied plotting to oust his predecessor Ian Blackford.\n\nStephen Flynn was elected group leader on Tuesday after Mr Blackford abruptly announced he was standing down.\n\nSeveral MPs have since resigned from the SNP's front bench team, with Pete Wishart saying he was \"bemused\" about why Mr Flynn had sought a change.\n\nBut Mr Flynn, 34, told BBC Scotland that he only decided to stand for the job after Mr Blackford's resignation.\n\nThis is despite the fact he had distanced himself from the role only two weeks earlier, saying he had \"no intention of standing\" amid rumours that he was \"on manoeuvres\".\n\nMr Blackford, a close ally of SNP leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, announced last week that he was standing down from the post he had held for five years - but will be staying on as MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber.\n\nThis followed months of speculation about his future in the role, which included claims that Mr Flynn was seeking to replace him.\n\nMr Flynn then won a leadership vote against another ally of Ms Sturgeon, the Glasgow Central MP Alison Thewliss.\n\nAllies of the new leader say he plans to set up a smaller front-bench team, which they say would allow other MPs to focus on constituency work and campaigning for independence.\n\nAnd three prominent members of the front bench group have already stepped back, with defence spokesman Stewart McDonald and international development spokesman Chris Law joining Mr Wishart, who was its agriculture spokesman.\n\nPete Wishart said he was \"bemused\" about why Stephen Flynn had sought to replace Ian Blackford as leader\n\nMr Wishart was the most outspoken in his criticism, writing in his resignation letter to Mr Flynn that he was \"bemused as to the reasons why you felt it was necessary to seek a chance in our leadership\".\n\nHe also suggested that the new leader had been \"canvassing opinion for a leadership challenge\" prior to Mr Blackford's departure.\n\nHowever, in an interview with BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme, when asked if he had plotted to oust his predecessor, Mr Flynn said \"no, of course not\".\n\nHe said: \"Some folk have been watching a little bit too much House of Cards. There has been some very uninformed opinion in the public domain.\n\n\"Ian was very clear about this in his comments when he stepped down that now was the time for fresh leadership. I was quite keen to put myself forward, Alison did as well and I'm glad I received the backing of colleagues.\"\n\nWhen pressed about Mr Wishart's criticism, Mr Flynn said he wanted to keep the veteran MP \"on board\".\n\nHe said: \"Ian himself took the decision to stand down, and its for Ian to address any concerns Pete might have in relation to that. I can't speak for Ian in that regard.\n\n\"It was off the back of Ian's decision that I decided to put myself forward to be SNP group leader at Westminster.\n\n\"I am looking forward to us all coming together to really put pressure on the Tories and highlight the issues facing the people of Scotland in relation to the cost of living crisis, the damage being caused by Brexit, the complicity of the Labour Party in relation to that and of course the fact that Scotland has a democratic right to choose its own future.\"\n\nMr Flynn said he was putting together a \"dynamic\" team to lead the SNP at Westminster\n\nMr Flynn described the three MPs who resigned as \"incredibly valued colleagues\", adding that he was putting together a \"dynamic set of folk\" to lead the party at Westminster.\n\nHe also pledged his loyalty to Ms Sturgeon, who he referred to as \"perhaps the most effective and efficient politician in the entire of Western Europe\".\n\nHe said: \"Ultimately we are SNP MPs, and that means we are not concerned about which bench we sit on in Westminster, be that a front bench or a back bench.\n\n\"What we are interested in is making sure that Scottish MPs don't sit on those green benches, and that is our ultimate aim. When it comes to that myself and all of my colleagues will be at the forefront of that battle.\"\n\nPolitical opponents have accused the SNP of \"fighting like ferrets in a sack\", with the Scottish Conservatives claiming that \"the party's reputation for iron discipline\" was disintegrating.\n\nBut MP Stewart Hosie told BBC Scotland on Tuesday - the day before Mr Wishart quit - that talk of division was \"complete fiction\", saying he had \"no idea where these stories have come from\".\n\nAfter Pete Wishart lifted the lid on the rows behind the scenes of the SNP's Westminster leadership change, Stephen Flynn has moved swiftly to clamp it back on.\n\nAt this point his insistence that nothing untoward has gone on and that everyone remains on the very best of terms has a hint of unreality about it.\n\nBut nowadays, political parties find themselves in such positions relatively frequently.\n\nPlenty of rumours swirled around the Scottish Tory leadership change in 2020, when Jackson Carlaw disappeared in similarly sudden fashion and was smoothly replaced by Douglas Ross - who also denied talk of a \"stitch-up\".\n\nSo Mr Flynn is following a time-honoured approach by gritting his teeth and setting his sights on the horizon, in the hope he can slog through the questions until the story moves on.\n\nRegardless of how either he or Ms Sturgeon feel about how things have played out, they will now feel compelled to put these rows behind them and aim to forge a united front in the campaign for independence.", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEngland manager Gareth Southgate says he will \"review and reflect\" on his side's World Cup quarter-final exit with the Football Association before making a decision on his future.\n\nThe 52-year-old, who took charge in 2016, has a contract until after the Euro 2024 finals.\n\nAfter the 2-1 loss to France, Southgate said: \"These tournaments take a lot out of you and I need time to reflect.\n\n\"We've done that after every tournament and that's the right thing to do.\"\n\nEngland were set to fly home from Qatar on Sunday.\n\nFormer England internationals Gary Neville and Ian Wright, along with ex-Republic of Ireland captain Roy Keane, unanimously agreed they would like to see Southgate continue.\n\nHaving led England to the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and the Euro 2020 final, Southgate was unable to reach the last four of a major tournament again following the agonising defeat by France in Qatar.\n\n\"I'm so proud of what the players have done, not just tonight but through the whole tournament,\" Southgate added.\n\n\"I think the team has taken a real step forward in all areas.\"\n• None Anguish for Kane on night he levels Rooney's record\n• None 'Brutal - this England exit is even more painful'\n\nEngland produced a fine performance against the reigning world champions, but could not make their superiority at key stages count and were duly punished in the last-eight tie.\n\nCaptain Harry Kane equalised with a penalty for 1-1, but missed the chance to level again from the spot with just six minutes of normal time remaining after Olivier Giroud had netted a second for France.\n\n\"Everybody can see the team has progressed through this tournament,\" added Southgate, who was promoted from his role as England Under-21 boss six years ago.\n\n\"I think the performances have been a very good level, [including] against one of the very best teams in the world in France.\n\n\"We showed how close we are to that level, that we have some young players who announced themselves on a global stage and a spirit which we hoped would take us further.\"\n\nMatch-winner Giroud also spoke positively about England's performances in Qatar, saying: \"We knew the potential of this young English generation. They've got it all.\"\n\nSouthgate began his reign as England manager in October 2016, winning 49 of his 81 games in charge and the loss to France being his 14th.\n\nAfter a 2-1 defeat by Croatia in the last four of the 2018 World Cup in Russia was followed by another by Italy - on penalties - in the Euro 2020 final, questions were asked about Southgate's ability to get the most out of his talented squad.\n\nFurther concerns were raised during a poor Nations League campaign earlier this year, particularly after a humiliating 4-0 home thrashing by Hungary, where England fans chanted, 'You don't know what you're doing' at the manager.\n\nEngland have since recovered to reach the World Cup quarter-finals in Qatar, with Southgate earning credit for the tactical decisions that led to a 3-0 win against Senegal in the last 16.\n\nBut he will come under more scrutiny following another disappointing exit, when many fans felt they had a squad equipped to win the trophy.\n\n\"I would love Gareth to stay on for another two years and beyond that, whether as the coach or in a role in the FA designing the future,\" said former Manchester United captain Neville in his role as an ITV pundit.\n\n\"England, in the last 10 years, have won youth tournaments, won the women's Euros last summer and reached the men's Euros final. We're playing well and have good technical players.\n\n\"England are in a pretty good place, let's be clear about that. We've gone out of tournaments in disgrace and wondered what the hell the future is.\n\n\"We have a great future and he is a big part of that.\"\n\nBBC pundits Martin Keown and Jermaine Jenas, both former England internationals, also said Southgate \"100%\" should continue in the job.\n\n\"We played with belief and we are only 18 months away from the Euros. This group will stay together and build,\" former Arsenal defender Keown added.\n\nEx-Newcastle midfielder Jenas said: \"I don't see any regrets, we grew into the competition and today was that coming-of-age game.\n\n\"In terms of performance of the manager and the players, I have no qualms.\"\n\n'England's time will come' - reaction to Three Lions' exit\n\nFormer England striker Gary Lineker remained upbeat about the team's future and said there was \"little shame\" in losing to holders France.\n\nLineker added on Sunday: \"Despite the heartbreak, we should be immensely proud of this young England side.\n\n\"They have talent. They give everything. They have values. They are a credit to their sport and our country. And in these times of division and discord, they're an example to all. And they will win.\"\n\nPrince William also tweeted his support, saying the country remained \"proud\" of the players.\n\nGerman World Cup winner Mesut Ozil also said England had no reason to feel \"ashamed\".\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Dog walkers braved the frost and fog in Primrose Hill in north London\n\nSnow, ice and freezing fog that is sweeping across parts of the UK will continue for days, forecasters said.\n\nThe conditions have caused travel disruption, with delayed trains, motorway accidents and flights from Heathrow cancelled on Sunday morning.\n\nA number of people are in critical condition after being pulled from a lake amid freezing temperatures in Solihull, according to police.\n\nTemperatures could drop as low as -15C (5F) in northeast Scotland overnight.\n\nIf so, it would be the lowest temperature the UK has seen since February last year.\n\nBBC weather presenter Darren Bett said: \"It looks set to stay very cold for the week ahead. Snow and ice, as well as freezing fog, will continue to be a hazard and frosts will continue to be widespread and severe.\n\n\"From Tuesday, the cold northerly wind will develop and bring most of the snow to northern Scotland with as much as 20cm (7.8in) of fresh snow falling in the hills.\"\n\nEarlier, the Met Office warned power cuts and mobile phone coverage might also be affected.\n\nSnow has been settling in Devon and Wales as well as parts of Scotland and areas of north-west England.\n\nA yellow weather warning for snow and ice is in place for Scotland, London and south-west England until Monday morning.\n\nBut the Met Office ended its weather warning for Northern Ireland, despite the cold weather leading to some sporting fixtures being cancelled.\n\nChildren in Northwich, Cheshire, built a snowman after the snow fall\n\nHeavy snowfall caused a series of traffic collisions on Sunday, leaving drivers in treacherous conditions.\n\nIn Shropshire, the M54 between junctions 3 and 2 was shut, while major congestion was also reported on the M5 slip road to the M6.\n\nThe southbound M5 in Gloucestershire was shut after a multi-vehicle crash between junctions 11A and 12 near Quedgeley, Highways England said.\n\nDrivers in north-west England were also being advised to take care following accidents on other motorways including the M58, M62, M61.\n\nTrains across the West Midlands have also been hit by delays.\n\nHeathrow Airport confirmed scores of flights were cancelled on Sunday morning due to the fog.\n\nOn Saturday, Manchester Airport closed both runways due to \"heavy snow fall\", with dozens of flights affected.\n\nMet Office chief meteorologist Steve Willington said: \"It is staying cold with daytime temperatures remaining only a few degrees above freezing in many places over the coming days and overnight temperatures dropping to -10C or lower in isolated spots.\n\n\"Although below average, these temperatures are not that unusual for this time of year.\n\n\"There is still a risk we could see some freezing fog in places particularly southern England.\"\n\nSnow had settled in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, on Sunday\n\nRowers on the river Avon during a cold sunrise in Warwick\n\nPeople are being advised to check on vulnerable family and friends to ensure they have access to warm food and drinks as the wintry conditions hit.\n\nThe UKHSA added that people should make sure indoor temperatures in their homes are at least 18C.\n\nDr Agostinho Sousa, consultant in public health medicine at UKHSA, said: \"Cold weather can have serious consequences for health and older people and those with heart or lung conditions can be particularly at risk.\n\n\"If you have a pre-existing medical condition, you should heat your home to a temperature that is comfortable for you.\n\n\"In rooms you mostly use such as the living room or bedroom, try to heat them to at least 18C if you can. Keep your bedroom windows closed at night. Wearing several layers of clothing will keep you warmer than one thicker layer.\"\n\nGritters will be out this weekend to help clear the roads and ease travel disruption.\n\nDarren Clark, severe weather resilience manager at National Highways, said: \"National Highways is committed to treating every road which needs to be treated - whenever it is needed.\"\n\nThe RAC has added it has been \"exceptionally busy\" in recent days due to receiving a quarter more breakdowns than is normal for this time of year.\n\nHow are you being affected by the cold weather? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video has been removed for rights reasons.\n\nOne person has died after an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey. About 12 people are missing and two are being treated in hospital after the explosion on Pier Road in St Helier just before 04:00 GMT.\n\nOne person has died after an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey.\n\nAbout 12 people are missing and two are being treated in hospital after the explosion on Pier Road in St Helier just before 04:00 GMT.", "The Bailiff of Jersey (who is President of the States of Jersey and acts as Speaker of its assembly) Sir Timothy Le Cocq, has issued the following statement :\n\n\"I, together with many islanders, woke this morning to the shocking news of the explosion at Pier Road. We know that there has been loss of life and people have been injured and displaced. We are awaiting further news.\n\n\"My thoughts at this time are with all involved either those who have suffered loss or those working so hard since the early hours to help those affected, but, in particular, with the families who are waiting for information on family members who are unaccounted for.\n\n\"The Jersey community response has been quite superb and the help needed has been and is being provided. Food and shelter and clothing is being made available promptly and effectively and, following discussion with Chief Minister and Government officials, I would like to assure islanders that, at this point, all that is needed is available.\n\n\"I have spoken with the Dean of Jersey who has kindly offered to make the Town Church available and from this evening individuals may light candles for all who have been affected by this incident. I, along with others, will visit the Town Church this evening to take that opportunity and to hold in our thoughts the families and first responders who have taken part in or been affected by this incident.\"", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEngland are now established as genuine contenders as they prepare to meet World Cup holders France, says manager Gareth Southgate.\n\nEngland men's solitary major honour came way back at the 1966 World Cup.\n\nBut the opinion of the Three Lions has changed since they reached the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and the final of Euro 2020, says Southgate.\n\n\"I think there's always been a level of respect for England but I think we've got credibility now,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"To get to a semi-final then a final, I think the rest of the world believe that England are competitive and they know that we have performed under pressure a lot more in the last few years.\n\n\"When I travel around Europe and the world and meet football people, there's definitely a greater appreciation of what we've done.\"\n\nUnder Sven-Goran Eriksson, England reached the quarter-finals at three straight tournaments between 2002 and 2006.\n\nSouthgate took charge in 2016 and the Three Lions now have the chance to reach a third straight semi-final for the first time when they face France on Saturday.\n\n\"Four years ago we could have talked well but we didn't have actual evidence of winning big matches and going through big nights together as a group,\" he added.\n\n\"I think over this period of time we've had so many of those occasions that now there's less satisfaction with getting to the quarter-finals, there's more desire to go further and there's more evidence that we've come through these nights well. I think for any team that's an important part of growing.\"\n\nRaheem Sterling missed England's last-16 win over Senegal following a break-in at his family home in Surrey.\n\nThe Chelsea forward, 28, flew back from Qatar on Sunday but has now rejoined the squad in Al Wakrah and took part in training on Friday so should be available for selection on Saturday.\n\n\"I haven't had chance to sit with him yet,\" said Southgate.\n\n\"We've spoken on the phone and I think he's in a better place in that he feels he can come back in and has had the time he needs to help his family. Whether he's going to have done enough to be involved in the game is a different matter.\n\n\"He's had two long flights and missed a lot of training with the team - we're going into the level of game where you need to be fully on it.\n\n\"It's great that we've got the option of having him back with us, that he's back with the group, but in terms of involvement for this game, that's a bit more complicated.\"\n• None Why fine margins matter when you are marking Mbappe - Rio Ferdinand\n\nKylian Mbappe was named Best Young Player after scoring four goals when France won the last World Cup, and he is top scorer in Qatar with five.\n\nThe pace of England right-back Kyle Walker has been seen as a way of counteracting the threat posed by the Paris St-Germain forward, but Southgate says that England will not focus on containing the 23-year-old.\n\n\"It's the same way that we prepare for every team,\" he said. \"You're looking at all the patterns of how they play, the individuals within the team. Are there specifics that need to be highlighted?\n\n\"As much as we might highlight Mbappe, we've got to pay due attention to Olivier Giroud and how he gets his goals, and Antoine Griezmann has played over 70 consecutive games for France. There's a clue there in how important he is to them, I think he's a phenomenal player.\n\n\"So if we don't go into the detail and the specifics for those particular players in a game at this level then you're not doing your due diligence really.\"\n\nFrance coach Didier Deschamps said that Southgate's side \"don't have any weaknesses\" and highlighted pace as one of their strengths.\n\n\"England are very strong in transitions - more than half of their goals have come from quick counter-attacks,\" he said.\n\n\"But they have other qualities too - they have technical ability, the capacity to score goals and ability on set-pieces.\"\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nJordan Pickford is set to win his 50th cap for England on Saturday, after Harry Maguire and Marcus Rashford also reached the milestone in Qatar.\n\nDespite some dips in form, Pickford has been a mainstay in goal under Southgate, who handed the Everton keeper, 28, his England debut in 2017.\n\n\"What is the stand-out thing is that he's handled being the England number one really well,\" said Southgate.\n\n\"It's not an easy role to have, there's a lot of focus on it, a lot of spotlight. There have been credible alternatives at certain times that put that position under pressure but he's maintained a really high level of performance for us right through that period.\n\n\"It's a fantastic individual achievement,\" he added. \"There's still only a low number of players that get to 50 caps and to do that you've got to have a decent period of time as an England international.\n\n\"For them it's important and that experience for us, you do go through different experiences that England nights and tournaments bring.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nThe clock was ticking towards 1am local time at Lusail Stadium when Argentina's vast hordes of support burst into their second round of wild celebrations as a chaotic, dramatic and sometimes unsavoury World Cup quarter-final against the Netherlands was finally won.\n\nArgentina's sense of destiny here in Qatar is acquiring several layers, the first being that Lionel Messi is on a mission to win the one elite trophy that has always eluded his grasp.\n\nAnd it was sharpened before the game when the songs that have provided the soundtrack to Argentina's World Cup campaign filled the surroundings of this futuristic arena as Brazil, those bitter historic rivals, went out on penalties to Croatia.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nIf Argentina's players and fans celebrated twice, they also effectively had to win this quarter-final twice, squandering a 2-0 lead in the 11th minute of stoppage time before prevailing 4-3 on penalties to meet the World Cup's very own mentality monsters of Croatia in the semi-final on Tuesday.\n\nThe Argentine masses who made up the vast majority of the 88,235 crowd, providing a wall of sound and a splash of colour, were silenced momentarily when the unlikely figure of Wout Weghorst, on loan at Besiktas from Burnley and on as a substitute, scored two late goals to send the game into extra time.\n\nIt came as a huge shock to Argentina's system after 35-year-old Messi, in what is surely his last World Cup, looked to be inspiring them into the semi-finals with something to spare after brilliantly creating Nahuel Molina's opener before the break, then making it 2-0 from the spot in the 73rd minute.\n\nAston Villa's keeper Emi Martinez was Argentina's hero in the penalties, saving the first two Netherlands spot-kicks from Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis as the eventual victory margin was 4-3.\n\nArgentina's celebrations were a mixture of relief, pure elation and the increasing sense - especially after Brazil's demise - that this really could be their World Cup, although they under-estimate Croatia at their peril.\n\nTheir fans claimed huge swathes of Lusail Stadium for almost an hour after the game to go through their full songbook long after Argentina's joyous players had departed the scene.\n\nWhen they finally left the party only moved outside, the drums and horns still providing a backing track that was going on well into the night.\n\nAnd all this after a match of many flashpoints that yielded 17 yellow cards plus a red for Dutch defender Denzel Dumfries at the end, the largest number in World Cup history.\n\nThis included 15 players plus Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni and his assistant Walter Samuel. Dutch striker Weghorst was booked before he even came on as substitute.\n\nSpanish referee Antonio Miguel Mateu Lahoz could actually be described as lenient, despite this history-making tally, especially when he completely ignored a deliberate handball by Messi, who was later shown a yellow card which the Dutch justifiably felt should have been his second.\n\nArgentina's players turned away from their own celebrations to taunt their stricken, heartbroken Dutch counterparts while verbal clashes followed after the penalties with Messi and Emi Martinez involved.\n\nIn other words, all rather eventful and sometimes distasteful. There was no love lost and this World Cup quarter-final was, at times, an eyesore.\n\nAt the heart of it all was the masterly Messi, who now has four goals and two assists in Argentina's nine goals in the tournament so far. He also has 10 World Cup goals for Argentina, level with Gabriel Batistuta.\n\nArgentina's journey into the semi-final has echoes of their run to the 1990 World Cup final, which they lost to West Germany.\n\nThey were stunned by Cameroon in their opening game in Italy and here they were victims of the tournament's biggest shock result when they lost to Saudi Arabia at the start of their group.\n\nMessi is a member of this World Cup's elite at a tournament that has seen Cristiano Ronaldo marginalised by Portugal and Neymar injured and then eliminated with Brazil.\n\nFrance's Kylian Mbappe remains but there is now the growing sense that Argentina's superstar will contest another World Cup final, a chance to atone for the defeat by Germany in 2014.\n\nHe may provide the silken genius in this team but it is also mixed with a steel that makes Argentina the fiercest of opponents.\n\nThis can too often spill over into the sort of skirmishes we saw here, as players from both sides clashed on several occasions, including when Leandro Paredes was fortunate to stay on after receiving a yellow card for a poor challenge on Nathan Ake before blasting the ball at an understandably enraged Dutch bench.\n\nNot that Argentina will care.\n\nThey adopt the ruthless, uncompromising approach they believe is designed to win World Cups not popularity contests, and the two-time winners will be heavily backed to reach a sixth final, their first since they lost to Germany in Rio eight years ago.\n\nMessi was left heartbroken at Argentina's failure to record the ultimate triumph in the great Brazilian temple of the Maracana back then - now he will have his sights on the crowning glory of his career at Lusail Stadium on 18 December.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The six sent messages over WhatsApp about victims of domestic abuse, people with disabilities and women in general\n\nSix police constables have lost their jobs for being part of a WhatsApp group sharing \"grossly offensive\" messages.\n\nMore than 6,000 messages were viewed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), including racist and homophobic comments, derogatory remarks about domestic abuse victims, people with disabilities, and women.\n\nThe officers from three forces were found to be guilty of gross misconduct.\n\nTwo were sacked and the others would have been if they had not already left.\n\nThe IOPC found the six officers breached police standards of professional behaviour for discreditable conduct; authority, respect and courtesy; challenging and reporting improper conduct; and equality and diversity.\n\nServing PCs Gary Bailey, of the Met, and Matthew Forster, of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, were dismissed.\n\nThe former officers given dismissal notices are PCs Joel Borders, Jonathon Cobban and William Neville of the Met, and PC Daniel Comfort from the Norfolk Constabulary.\n\nAll of them apart from Pc Forster, who is subject to different regulations, will be added to the College of Policing barred list preventing them from future employment with the police service.\n\nThe chat group was called the Bottles and Stoppers and dated back to February 2019, according to the IOPC.\n\nIts messages also included jokes about the Auschwitz concentration camp in which at least 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazis.\n\nIOPC regional director Sal Naseem said: \"The views expressed by these officers do not belong in a civilised society and, as we have said before, social media cannot be a hiding place for them whether on a public platform or as part of a private group.\n\n\"Behaviour of this kind undermines public confidence in policing and the dismissal rulings by the panel today send out a strong message that it will not be tolerated.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Eva Kaili has been suspended from the European Parliament's centre-left Socialists and Democrats bloc\n\nEuropean Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili has been arrested in an investigation into suspected bribery by a Gulf state.\n\nBelgian prosecutors believe the unnamed country tried to influence the parliament with money or other gifts.\n\nFour others were also arrested, according to the AFP news agency.\n\nLocal media suggested the Gulf state in question was Qatar - but a Qatari spokesperson said he was unaware of any investigation, and denied misconduct.\n\nMs Kaili, a lawmaker at the European Parliament and one of its 14 elected vice presidents, has been suspended from the parliament's Socialists and Democrats Group and expelled from the Greek centre-left Pasok party.\n\nIn a statement, the Socialists and Democrats Group said it had \"zero tolerance\" for corruption, and would support the investigation.\n\nCash worth about €600,000 ($632,000; £515,000) was seized by Belgian police in 16 searches in Brussels on Friday. Computers and mobile phones were also taken by police in order to examine their contents.\n\nInvestigators had suspected that a Gulf state had been influencing economic and political decisions of the parliament for several months, a spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor said in a statement.\n\nThe state was accused of targeting aides at the parliament.\n\n\"This is done so by paying large sums of money or offering large gifts to third parties with a significant political and/or strategic position within the European Parliament,\" the statement said.\n\nThe wider investigation is into criminal organisation, corruption, and money laundering.\n\nBelgian news outlets Knack and Le Soir named the Gulf state as Qatar based on information from \"well-informed sources\". The BBC has not verified these claims.\n\nA Qatari government spokesperson told AFP: \"We are not aware of any details of an investigation. Any claims of misconduct by the State of Qatar are gravely misinformed.\"\n\nThe country \"operates in full compliance with international laws and regulations\", he added.\n\nA spokesperson for the European Parliament told Reuters that it would not comment on an ongoing investigation, but would work together with the local authorities if needed.\n\nThe day of the arrests, 9 December, was international anti-corruption day, designated by the UN and also marked by the European Parliament.\n\nCorruption costs the EU economy between €179bn and €990bn a year, representing up to 6% of EU GDP in lost tax revenue and investment, according to a 2016 estimate cited in a document published by the European Parliament to mark the day.\n\nQatar has repeatedly been accused of corruption, including in its bid to host the 2022 football World Cup. The country denied the allegations and was cleared of corruption by Fifa.", "The boss of the biggest rail workers' union has called on the prime minister to meet him in an attempt to resolve the long-running strike action.\n\nRail workers in Britain have been locked in a dispute over pay, jobs and working conditions since the summer.\n\nIn a letter to Rishi Sunak, the RMT union's general secretary, Mick Lynch, said talks between the two men was now the best way forward.\n\nThe next round of strikes is due to start next week.\n\nPassengers have been warned only to travel by train if absolutely necessary during the two 48-hour strikes on Tuesday and Friday. There will be no trains in some places.\n\nThe action is being staged by RMT members at Network Rail and 14 train companies - alongside other rail workers in the TSSA and Unite unions.\n\nThe RMT is involved in two sets of talks - one with Network Rail and one with the train operating companies, represented by the Rail Delivery Group.\n\nMr Lynch said that from press reports, Transport Secretary Mark Harper's appearance at the Transport Committee this week and from what he has been directly told by the Rail Delivery Group's negotiators, it was clear that Downing Street is \"directing the mandate for the rail companies and has torpedoed the talks\".\n\nIn his letter, he told Mr Sunak: \"I now believe that a meeting with yourself represents the best prospect of any renewed progress.\n\n\"We have a duty to explore every possible option for settling this dispute and I'm willing to do my part. I hope you will agree to meet me.\"\n\nThe RMT has accused the government of disrupting the resolution process by adding the extension of Driver Only Operation - meaning drivers would operate train doors in more places - into the offer from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which was swiftly rejected.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group has insisted that Driver Only Operation does not mean staff will be removed from trains.\n\nBut the Department of Transport insists that the inclusion of driver only operated doors were a part of the pay deal from the start of negotiations and described them as \"essential to fund pay fund offers and modernise the railways\".\n\nIn its offer to the union, it said that it would allow staff on board to focus on other safety issues, as well as looking after customers or selling tickets.\n\nIt has also disputed the union's claim that it would compromise passenger safety, with these types of services already running for almost 40 years.\n\nMr Lynch suggested Downing Street had \"torpedoed\" talks between the union and rail bosses\n\nSpeaking in front of a Commons Committee earlier this week, the transport secretary was asked repeatedly if reports the Treasury or Number 10 had inserted the change around these types of services into the RDG's offer, were true.\n\nHe did not directly answer, saying reform was necessary to drive the savings but he was \"not going to provide a running commentary\".\n\nA spokesman for the Department for Transport said then that: \"It's incredibly disappointing that, despite a new and improved deal offering job security and a fair pay rise, the RMT continues to hold Christmas hostage with more damaging strikes.\"\n\nHe added: \"The government has played its part by facilitating a fair and decent offer and the RMT and its members should vote this deal through and end this harmful disruption.\"\n\nThe RMT has rejected the RDG offer which included a 4% pay rise both this year and next. It has decided to put Network Rail's offer, which includes a 5% pay rise this year and a 4% rise next year, to its members in an electronic referendum, but has called for it to be rejected.\n\nMr Lynch noted RMT has resolved disputes with rail operators in Scotland and Wales.\n\n\"Where the Scottish and Welsh governments have had responsibility for mandates, pay settlements for 2022 have been agreed and neither of these settlements have been conditional on cutting staffing, and eroding safety, security and accessibility,\" he added.\n\nThe rail industry is not the only sector to face disruption, as demands grow for better working conditions and pay increases in line with rising prices.\n\nBut it is under pressure to save money after the pandemic left a hole in its finances, and bosses say reforms are needed to modernise the railway and make pay rises affordable.", "Jo-Anne Shaw's dreams came true when she got the chance to video call the star\n\nA woman who said her last wish was to meet Tom Hardy was rewarded with a video call from her hero after a social media appeal.\n\nSuperfan Jo-Anne Shaw, who is receiving end-of-life care at Myton Hospice in Warwick, told staff that was the one thing she dreamed of.\n\nThey put an appeal on social media and the actor responded on Instagram saying: \"Be my pleasure.\"\n\nHe video-called her on Friday and Mrs Shaw said: \"He has made my day.\"\n\n\"He put me on a pedestal for a day and that's all I can ask for,\" the 58-year-old told BBC CWR.\n\nThe mum-of-two, who has cancer, is such a huge fan of the Peaky Blinders star that her friend even sent her a life-sized cardboard cut-out of the actor as gift instead of flowers.\n\nThe star responded to the hospice's post on Instagram after being tagged a number of times\n\nHospice staff took to Facebook to help make her dream come true and within hours, the post amassed nearly 3,000 shares and hundreds of comments.\n\nThe grandmother-of-three said: \"I'm so excited, he spoke to me as if he's a friend.\n\n\"I'm such a big fan of his, I've watched all his movies and boxsets especially during lockdown. I love him to bits.\"\n\nThe star told Ms Shaw she was a \"very popular lady\".\n\nShe added: \"I haven't been very well for a while now, but he put me on a pedestal for a day and that's all I can ask for.\"\n\nThe gifted cardboard cut-out of the actor sits next to Warwick Myton Hospice's Christmas tree\n\nA spokesperson for the hospice posted on Facebook: \"We've been blown away by Tom's kindness and support.\n\n\"Jo-Anne and her family cannot thank you enough for making this happen,\" they told followers.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "One person has died after an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey.\n\nAbout 12 people are missing and two people are being treated at hospital after the explosion on Pier Road in St Helier just before 04:00 on Saturday morning.\n\nChief of Police Robin Smith spoke to reporters about the extent of the damage.", "A secondary school pupil has died with suspected strep A in East Sussex, officials have said.\n\nThe child attended Hove Park School in Hove, a joint statement from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Brighton & Hove City Council said.\n\nAs of Thursday, 15 UK children had died after invasive strep A infections since September.\n\nThe death of the pupil in Brighton with suspected strep A brings that number to 16.\n\nMost strep A infections are mild, but more severe invasive cases - while still rare - are rising.\n\nPublic health officials in Brighton and Hove said they were working with the school to raise awareness among parents about the signs of strep A infections and what to do if a child develops them.\n\nThe age and gender of the child have not been disclosed.\n\nDr Rachael Hornigold, consultant in health protection at UKHSA South East, said: \"We are extremely saddened to hear about the death of a young child, and our thoughts are with their family, friends and the local community.\"\n\nAlistair Hill, director of Public Health at Brighton & Hove City Council, said: \"We are working with the UK Health Security Agency and Hove Park School following the death of a pupil who attended the school.\n\n\"We offer our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and the whole school community who will all be deeply affected by the very tragic loss of this young child, and we are providing our support to them at this incredibly sad time.\"\n\nNormally, mild strep A infections cause symptoms like a sore throat or skin infections.\n\nThe bug can also cause scarlet fever - with a sore throat, skin rash that feels like sandpaper, a high temperature and a so-called \"strawberry tongue\".\n\nIt is treated with antibiotics which may also help reduce the risk of complications and spread of the bug.\n\nData as of Thursday from the UKHSA showed 13 children aged under 15 had died in England since September.\n\nTwo other deaths of children had been recorded in Belfast and Wales, taking the UK total to 15 at that point.\n\nMr Hill said that contracting strep A from another person was \"very rare\" and most people who come into contact with strep A infections \"remain well and symptom-free - and therefore there is no reason for children to be kept home if well\".\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nIt wasn't supposed to end like this.\n\nBrazil had danced into the quarter-finals of the World Cup but their dreams of a showpiece jig in the final ended in tears at Education City Stadium.\n\nCroatia schooled the Samba stars on penalties to end hopes of a sixth triumph as they were dumped out of the competition by a European nation again.\n\nIt looked like Neymar would be the hero when he opened the scoring in extra time to equal Pele's official scoring record for the men's national team but - as the unused fifth penalty taker - he left the field in tears after what could be his final World Cup match.\n\nAfter the game, it was confirmed that boss Tite would be leaving his job, the 61-year-old unable to add to his Copa America triumph in 2019, while Neymar hinted at international retirement.\n\n\"It is indeed very difficult,\" Tite said after the loss. \"But it is the end of my cycle with the Brazil squad. I said that one and half years ago.\"\n\nSouth American football expert Tim Vickery said on BBC Radio 5 Live: \"This is death in the family.\n\n\"That is what it is going to feel like in the next few hours for Brazil fans. Croatia have sent the far bigger nation into mourning. This will really hurt for a long time.\n\n\"I hope the population will not turn on them. Brazil crowds can be vicious. I hope there isn't a negative backlash because this team don't deserve it.\"\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nShould Neymar have taken first penalty?\n\nThe opening 90 minutes were engrossing but the sides could not be separated and the contest went into extra time.\n\nCroatia have been there in eight of their past nine knockout games in major tournaments and there was only one outcome thereafter.\n\nNeymar thought he had stood up for his country when they needed him the most, firing into the roof of the net to finish a slick team move.\n\nThe 106th-minute strike was his 77th international goal, drawing him level with the great Pele according to Fifa records.\n\nBut Bruno Petkovic's equaliser four minutes from time - which was Croatia's only shot on target - salvaged hope of progression which they settled on spot-kicks.\n\nIt was the opposition that were dancing this time as a disconsolate Neymar sank to the turf, tears streaming down his cheeks.\n\nHe was to be the fifth penalty taker but did not get that opportunity after Marquinhos struck the post to seal their fate.\n\nThe same sorrowful ending has happened before.\n\nAt his home World Cup in 2014 Neymar's participation was ended by a back injury, and four years ago they were beaten at the same stage by Belgium.\n\nHere he was one of the last players to trudge off the pitch, Brazil's supporters sitting in the stands in disbelief, their hopes in Qatar extinguished.\n\n\"Neymar was the fifth because that is the decisive one,\" said Tite. \"There is more pressure and the players who are more mentally prepared should be ones to take this last penalty kick.\"\n\nBut former Germany striker Jurgen Klinsmann disagreed on BBC One, saying: \"He would have been my number one penalty taker. You need him to set the tone.\"\n\nBrazil's World Cup was ended by a European nation for the sixth consecutive tournament, and they last beat a side from that continent in the 2002 final against Germany.\n\nThat was also the last of their five World Cup triumphs, and it has been 20 years since a non-European side lifted the trophy.\n\nThe statistics make for grim reading for Brazil.\n\nThe South American side have been slow starters and have failed to score in the first half of six of their past seven matches in the competition.\n\nHad Vinicius Junior or Neymar put away the opportunities that fell their way in the opening period it may have been a different outcome.\n\nTite's men also became the first team in World Cup history to be eliminated from a knockout match in which they scored the opening goal during extra time.\n\nMeanwhile, the last time a nation ranked world number one reached the semi-finals was when Brazil did so back in 1998.\n\n\"It is not only myself that loses, the entire team loses,\" said Tite. \"We tried to focus on chances and finishing. Our strategy was to increase the volume - we had 19 chances and 11 shots at goal. They could not have one shot on target.\n\n\"I understand I am the most responsible one, but we are all responsible for this loss. That is football. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.\"\n\nBrazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Twitter: \"Brazil worked hard. Neymar scored a beautiful goal and the team deserved better. My respect to the players and manager.\n\n\"Let's keep moving forward because in life we can never give up.\"\n\nBrazil website Globo Esporte bemoaned the 'end of the dream' on its home page.\n\nIt was for Tite, his players and all Brazil supporters.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEngland meet reigning champions France on Saturday in a tantalising World Cup quarter-final that will feature key battles across the pitch.\n\nThe first major tournament knockout match between the two nations promises to be a high-quality contest at Qatar's Al Bayt Stadium, and the outcome may be determined by the finest detail.\n\nBut how exactly might the game be won? BBC Sport takes a look...\n\nWhen considering how to stop France, the focus, naturally, is on Kylian Mbappe.\n\nIt's certainly no secret that containing the Paris St-Germain forward, who has either scored or assisted France's past seven World Cup goals, will be key to England's hopes of reaching consecutive semi-finals, having also made the last four of Russia 2018.\n\nFrance are unbeaten in Mbappe's 13 starts at major tournaments - winning all nine at the World Cup - and he has been directly involved in 12 goals in those fixtures.\n\nAn irreplaceable influence, he has been vital to France's attack and leads his team in a host of offensive metrics including shots (20), open play attacking sequence involvements (36) and opposition penalty area touches (46).\n\nThere are similarities in the way England and France have created their opportunities, with both favouring attacks on the left.\n\nThe two sides have made 41% of their attacks down that side, while no players have created more chances for their respective teams than left-backs Theo Hernandez (nine) and Luke Shaw (six).\n\nMore than half of France's opportunities have come from the left, where 26 chances have provided a total of five assists.\n\nThat's compared with three assists from 11 left-sided chances for England, who could deploy Shaw - second only to Argentina talisman Lionel Messi for progressive passes - and either Phil Foden or Marcus Rashford against an out-of-position Jules Kounde at right-back.\n\nAlthough it remains to be seen whether Gareth Southgate will choose to stay with a back four or shift to a three, there is no doubt England's right-sided defenders - potentially both Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier - are in for a busy night.\n\nBut Walker in particular will feel confident. The Manchester City defender has come up against Mbappe in the Champions League on three occasions, with the Frenchman restricted to an average of 0.7 shots per 90 minutes - significantly down on his 2022 World Cup average of 6.4.\n• None Rio Ferdinand column: Why fine margins matter when you are marking Mbappe\n• None Put yourself in Southgate's shoes - who should start for England?\n• None Walker will not roll out red carpet for Mbappe\n\nJude Bellingham's superb performance for England in the 3-0 last-16 win over Senegal led team-mate Foden to predict the 19-year-old will one day be the best midfielder in the world.\n\nBellingham leads the tournament's midfielders for duels won (26) and tackles won (11), and that disruptive aspect of his game will be crucial as he seeks to control a central area featuring the engine of 22-year-old Aurelien Tchouameni and the creativity of Antoine Griezmann, 31.\n\nThe direct Tchouameni has carried the ball 812.6 metres - significantly more than Bellingham (531.6 metres) - while Griezmann has created the most chances (15) and big chances (five) among both squads.\n\nGriezmann has also played the most passes into the box (36) and registered the highest expected assists value (2.67 xA) on either team, so limiting his influence in build-up phases will be key for England.\n\nThat job is likely to fall to Bellingham and Declan Rice, although Jordan Henderson may retain his place after Rice missed training because of illness earlier this week.\n\nBellingham has regained possession 23 times for his side in four matches - a leading midfield tally among the two sides - and transitional recoveries in particular will be important. While England (38) lead France (29) for high turnovers, one in six of those for France ends in a shot.\n\nBut England will also look to unleash one of their most creative players whenever possible.\n\nOnly Shaw and Harry Kane have offered greater creativity for England than Bellingham, who has so far played seven passes into the box and became the first teenager to assist in a World Cup knockout stage game in that standout Senegal showing.\n• None Why England have nothing to fear - Alan Shearer\n\nNot long after Olivier Giroud became France's all-time leading men's goalscorer against Poland on Sunday, England skipper Harry Kane opened his account in Qatar.\n\nGiroud, with three goals in as many starts, and Kane both stand on 52 international goals, with the Tottenham striker now just one short of Wayne Rooney's all-time Three Lions record.\n\nKane has marginally overperformed his expected goals (xG) value of 0.9 from his four chances to date, but it is in the build-up where he has been most effective for his team.\n\nLeading the way in Qatar with three assists among five chances created, his role in Henderson's goal (below) as he played the marauding Bellingham through against Senegal was typical of his wider influence.\n\nKane is far more important to England's build-up than his France counterpart, recording more than double the number of touches (123) as Giroud (56) at this World Cup, and making the most progressive passes (14) among strikers at the tournament.\n\nBut just 6.5% of Kane's touches have been inside the penalty area, compared with almost one in every five for Giroud.\n\nAnd it is in the box where the Frenchman continues to deliver, with a shot conversion rate of 33.3% and three goals from an xG of 2.37.\n\nEngland's most prolific shot-taker is in fact Rashford, whose eight attempts in 132 minutes of football equates to one every 17 minutes, followed by Bukayo Saka, Foden and Kane (five).\n\nIt is Kane's ability to keep the opposition defence occupied and bring others into play in his fluid role which could prove pivotal.\n\nAfter all, while eight of France's nine goals have been scored by either Mbappe or Giroud, England's 12 goals have been spread across eight players.\n• None Star names set for heavy-hitting World Cup last eight\n• None Check out the World Cup schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage from the scene of the explosion shows a large fire\n\nEmergency workers have been searching through the night after an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey left three people dead and a dozen missing.\n\nSpecialist teams and a search dog are on the scene, following the collapse in St Helier on Saturday morning.\n\nThe Jersey government says a \"meticulous\" multi-agency search effort is being co-ordinated.\n\nIsland police chief officer Robin Smith described the scene at Pier Road as \"complete devastation\".\n\nA video, tweeted by the island's government, shows piles of rubble and a crushed car behind the police cordon.\n\nChief Minister Kristina Moore described it as an \"unimaginable tragedy\".\n\nThe Jersey government said the search effort involved a \"number of stages, including vacating the site for short periods to allow dogs to enter, and the careful movement of debris\".\n\nChief fire officer Paul Brown earlier told a press conference: \"The plan is we will continue searching. Teams will be working all night and they will not stop.\"\n\nHe added: \"The primary challenge is the fact that we have a dangerous structure that has collapsed.\n\n\"Anything that we do, or do in the wrong way, may then jeopardise the chance of survival of anyone who might be rescued.\"\n\nTwo people who were in hospital earlier have been released and one other person is receiving treatment.\n\nThe blast happened at about 04:00 GMT on Saturday.\n\nPolice chief Mr Smith said \"there are a number of working hypotheses\" as to what had happened but warned people \"not to speculate\".\n\nHe added: \"Thankfully these circumstances are very rare but nevertheless they are of deep concern to communities.\"\n\nThe flats at Haut De Mont are shown as they appear following the explosion and as they were prior to the blast\n\nWitnesses have spoken of the ground being shaken by the force of the explosion.\n\nDaniel Hunt, 19, from St Helier, tweeted pictures of the fire from his flat.\n\n\"Everything shook, my windows were shaking, the whole room shook,\" he said. \"You could feel the shockwave through your bedroom almost. In the moment you think, what was that?\"\n\nThe government has repurposed its Covid helpline for those who need support following the incident.\n\nJersey's gas supplier, Island Energy, said it was working with the fire service to understand what had happened.\n\nIt was earlier confirmed the fire service had attended the scene on Friday night after the smell of gas was reported.\n\nThe chief fire officer was asked if the call on Friday had had anything to do with the cause of the explosion.\n\nMr Brown said: \"I will give you an answer to that but what I'd like to do for the moment is focus on the emergency response, talk to my colleagues and consider those bits that are subject to investigation and make sure I don't tell you something that I need to tell someone else first.\"\n\nThe three-storey building which collapsed is owned by Andium Homes which is a state-owned but independent company that rents out properties.\n\nIt said it was focusing on supporting residents at the estate.\n\nEmergency services continued to search through the night\n\nThe Government of Jersey said specialist teams from the UK had arrived to support local crews in the search for survivors.\n\nThe South West Hazardous Area Response Team has arrived on the island, alongside an Urban Search and Rescue Team from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service.\n\nA Chinook helicopter, typically used for military operations, was due to bring specialist equipment to the island, the government said.\n\nThe Town Church opened for islanders to light candles and pay their respects\n\nMs Moore said residents displaced by the blast were being found somewhere to stay.\n\n\"This is going to take some days and we will keep everyone updated and fully informed, and we will do our very best to ensure everybody is properly looked after,\" she added.\n\nThe Town Church opened on Saturday evening for islanders to light candles and pay respects to those who had died.\n\nJustice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab tweeted he was \"deeply saddened\" by the news.\n\n\"I commend the work of the emergency services responding and we stand ready to support in any way we can,\" he said.\n\nThe incident comes days after three fishermen were reported missing following a collision at sea on Thursday.\n\nMs Moore said: \"We must call on the collective strength of the island community.\"\n\nDo you live in the area? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Royal College of Nursing leader Pat Cullen says \"my door is open\"\n\nA nurses' strike due to start this week could be called off if the health secretary negotiates \"seriously\" over pay, says the head of the Royal College of Nursing.\n\n\"I won't dig in if he doesn't,\" general secretary Pat Cullen told BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.\n\nForeign Secretary James Cleverly said NHS pay was a matter for non-political independent review bodies.\n\nWalkouts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due on 15 and 20 December.\n\nThe RCN union is calling for nurses to be given a pay rise of 5% above the RPI inflation rate, which was 14.2% in October.\n\nThe government has previously announced average pay increases of 4.5% for doctors and 4.75% for other NHS staff - including nurses - in England next year.\n\nMinisters agreed to these after a recommendation by the independent pay review bodies that make suggestions about NHS pay rises.\n\nMs Cullen urged the health secretary to hold talks with her on a one-to-one basis or negotiate through Acas, the independent organisation which mediates disputes between employers and workers as early as Monday morning.\n\nShe said the union would not be \"found wanting\" in the negotiations but she said its position had not changed.\n\nAsked if the union could accept a lower pay rise, Ms Cullen said: \"Come to the table and let's have the discussion.\"\n\nShe said her priority was making sure nurses could \"make ends meet\", adding: \"It's not about lining their pockets with gold.\"\n\nMr Cleverly said Health Secretary Steve Barclay had already met with union officials, but added: \"Ultimately, salary negotiations are done between union leaders on behalf of their members and their employer. And in this instance, the nurses' employer is the NHS.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. James Cleverly: \"Negotiations are done between union leaders... and their (members') employer\"\n\nNHS England's medical director Prof Stephen Powis said pay was a matter for the independent review body and the government.\n\nHe said emergency services and key treatments like kidney dialysis and chemotherapy would continue during the walkouts, but that services would be disrupted.\n\nUnder trade union laws, life-preserving care has to be provided during strike action.\n\nProf Powis said there was \"trouble brewing this winter\" for the NHS, with an increase in people arriving at A&E and a rising number hospital patients with flu.\n\nBoth Mr Cleverly and Prof Powis said the NHS was prepared for the strike and wanted to minimise any disruption.\n\nThe Scottish government increased its offer to nurses and other health workers to a minimum increase of £2,205 with more for some staff - that was equivalent to an average 7.5% increase.\n\nTalks with unions are ongoing and the public service workers' union Unison has recommended the offer to members in Scotland.\n\nChristina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, said that if Mr Barclay was to mirror Holyrood's approach and commit to boosting wages this year, \"the threat of pre-Christmas strikes could well be lifted\".\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said the government accepted the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body in full, meaning newly qualified nurses had a 5.5% increase while those on the lowest salaries, such as porters and cleaners, received a pay rise of up to 9.3%.\n\n\"Ministers have had constructive talks with unions, including the RCN and Unison, on how we can make the NHS a better place to work - and have been clear the door remains open for further talks,\" a spokesperson for the department added.\n\nHas your treatment been affected by the strike? Do you work in a Trust that's striking? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Actress Ruth Madoc, who starred in the BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi!, has died aged 79, her agent says.\n\nHer agent said she died in hospital on Friday afternoon after surgery for a fall she had earlier in the week.\n\nPhil Belfield of talent agency Belfield & Ward Ltd described her as a \"unique talent loved by many\".\n\nHe paid tribute to her \"iconic\" TV performance as Gladys Pugh in the 1980s comedy Hi-de-Hi!, about a holiday camp in the late 50s.\n\n\"It is with much sadness that we have to announce the death of our dear and much loved client Ruth Madoc,\" he said in a statement.\n\nDescribing her as a \"real legend of the British entertainment scene\", Mr Belfield said she was \"gone far too soon\".\n\nHer fall forced her to withdraw from performing in the pantomime Aladdin at the Princess Theatre in Torquay, Devon.\n\nScreenwriter Russell T Davies described her as \"funny, kind, salty, shrewd and beautifully uncynical\" in a tribute on Instagram.\n\nThe Doctor Who writer and It's A Sin creator said she was \"one of those great old troupers who loved the business, loved the stories, loved acting and actors\".\n\n\"She starred as Myrtle in a series I wrote called Mine All Mine, and she was an absolute delight.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by russelltdavies63 This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nActor and broadcaster Sir Tony Robinson tweeted that he was \"so sad to hear my lovely friend… has passed\".\n\nHe described Madoc as \"smart, kindly, a loyal trade unionist and wore her heart on the left\".\n\nRuth Madoc and Simon Cadell, pictured here around 1982, both starred in Hi-de-Hi!\n\nHer role as chief yellowcoat Gladys Pugh in Hi-de-Hi! centred on her unrequited love for the camp's manager Jeffrey Fairbrother, played by Simon Cadell.\n\nPaying tribute to her, broadcaster Gyles Brandreth said it was through Cadell that he got to know Madoc.\n\n\"Ruth was a very lovely person - and a wonderfully gifted actress,\" Brandreth said.\n\nBorn in April 1943 and raised in Llansamlet near Swansea, Madoc trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.\n\nHer career spanned many roles in theatre and musicals, including Fiddler On The Roof and Gypsy.\n\nHer more recent performances included Little Britain, where she played Daffyd Thomas's mother, and on stage with Calendar Girls.\n\nIn a tweet, the former Little Britain star and comedian Matt Lucas said he was \"shocked and saddened\" to hear the news.\n\n\"We grew up watching her iconic and genius performance as Gladys Pugh in Hi-de-Hi! and were thrilled when she agreed to come on board 'Little Britain',\" he added.\n\nHe said Madoc was \"brilliant\" in the show and \"an absolute delight to work with\".\n\nMadoc is survived by her two children.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Winslet tells Laura Kuenssberg there should be age blocks for social media sites\n\n\"My God, I don't know what I'm supposed to do at all.\" That's not an admission that you expect to hear from a movie megastar.\n\nBut that's how Kate Winslet described some moments of being a mum in the 21st Century, with parents \"rendered utterly powerless\" as their kids spend more and more time online.\n\nWinslet's new film confronts that dilemma head on. She tells the story of a mother desperately trying to help her daughter, whose mental health has been shattered as she's sucked deeper and deeper into social media.\n\nThe drama - I am Ruth - is hard to watch, but hard to look away from. Without giving a terrible spoiler, it does also in the end offer hope.\n\nIt's all the more powerful because Winslet's on-screen child is played by her own daughter - Mia Threapleton.\n\nBut the Oscar winner hopes the film will prompt a wider conversation about how vulnerable children are.\n\nShe suggests some online platforms should be banned for kids and accuses the government and tech firms of \"shirking responsibility\". You can read the full story here.\n\n\"Whoever those people are, they know who they are, they should just step up and do better,\" she told me.\n\nThe UK was going to be the first country in the world to try and solve this problem but there have been so many delays the EU got there first.\n\nThe government has again cranked up its plan to regulate what happens online and the Online Safety Bill will be back in the Commons on Monday.\n\nIt is a massive piece of law and ministers are worried they might run out of time to get it done.\n\nThat said - its coming into force will be a genuine landmark moment.\n\nFor years, governments around the world more or less assumed that the exciting tech companies they used to like having photo opportunities with could basically regulate themselves.\n\nThat climate soured some time ago. As one senior tech executive described it: \"After tech euphoria now the pendulum has swung completely the other way.\"\n\nAnd governments, at least in the UK, have concluded platforms that hold so much power cannot be left to supervise themselves.\n\nThe communications watchdog Ofcom - which currently looks after TV, radio and phones - will be given the job of setting standards for tech platforms and checking they follow them.\n\nCrucially they'll have the power to impose hefty fines on the companies if they fall short. Alongside that there'll be new criminal offences for things like encouraging self harm.\n\nThese are big changes but some of the government's plans to confront the darkest corners of the internet have disappeared.\n\nAnd to understand what's gone on, we need for a moment to look at what exactly has changed.\n\nNeither ministers nor Ofcom were ever going to instruct Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or any other platform to take down specific content if it didn't break the law.\n\nWhat they were going to do was define the kind of material that could have caused harm to people.\n\nCompanies would then have taken those definitions of racism or misogyny, for example, into account in their own terms and conditions.\n\nThe regulator could then hold them to account for if they didn't follow their own rules.\n\nNow that's changed. The government is not going to define what is \"legal but harmful\" - leaving it up to companies to decide whether to specify those harms in their terms and conditions, if at all.\n\nAnd if they don't, well, the regulator doesn't have a rule to enforce.\n\nMinisters deny the plan has been watered down but it's hard not to conclude that the tech companies are more able to set the terms as a result of this change.\n\nThere'll be a filter for users to get rid of content they don't like - but that puts the responsibility onto the individual rather than the platform.\n\nYou may recoil at the idea of the government defining what's right and wrong - or be frustrated that it hasn't gone far enough to tame the tech giants.\n\nWhat you may well end up though is confused, because this system means different platforms will make different decisions.\n\nAnd as long as content is not illegal, one former Facebook executive says that for example \"if one platform wants to get rid of Tommy Robinson it can, if another platform wants to keep them all on because they are not illegal, they can keep them all on\".\n\nThe government wants under-18s to be protected from \"legal but harmful\" online content\n\nBut the political truth is that ministers ran into concerns on the Conservative Party's right.\n\nEven with the \"legal but harmful\" part of the bill scrapped for everyone but under-18s, the legislation overall is still seen by some as a \"censors' charter\".\n\nAnd while the idea of giving tech firms the right to scan encrypted messages to track down illegal activity may seem noble, there are genuine fears an important protection of privacy could be fundamentally undermined.\n\nFor many people, what happens online is still bewildering. For many parents - Hollywood megastars or not - what happens on teenagers' phones is desperately worrying and these changes can't remove that fear.\n\nThe proposed laws won't mean that all harmful material will disappear. And as the former Facebook executive told me: \"The big discussion we need to have is at what age should kids go online.\"\n\nThe government has tried to provide at least some solutions to these profound problems.\n\nBut as technology advances, the dilemmas may only become more complex over the coming years for parents, the public and the politicians.\n\nI am Ruth can be seen on Thursday 8 December at 21:00 GMT on Channel 4", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: A clip from the first episode of the Harry and Meghan Netflix series\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex have said they never cited privacy as a reason for stepping back from royal life.\n\nPrince Harry and Meghan's global press secretary said a \"distorted narrative\" had been created.\n\nIt follows suggestions from some commentators that their Netflix series, which launched this week, is at odds with their reasons for leaving the UK.\n\nThe statement said this was \"entirely untrue\".\n\nIt said they always intended to keep up public duties after leaving the royal family.\n\nTheir decision to step back from royal life in early January 2020 was announced in two coordinated statements from the duke and duchess and Buckingham Palace.\n\nIn their statement at the time, the Sussexes said: \"We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to the Queen, the Commonwealth and our patronages.\n\n\"This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity.\"\n\nAt the time, one interpretation of their decision led to commentary suggesting that press intrusion, particularly that affecting their then-newborn son Archie, may have been a factor.\n\nThe couple have engaged in separate legal battles against newspaper publishers, including over privacy, since they told several of the UK's biggest tabloid titles they would no longer cooperate with them.\n\nPress intrusion is a theme that runs throughout the first three episodes of the new Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan, which is co-produced by the couple.\n\nAnd since the release of the episodes and two minute-long trailers, some commentators cited in the media have suggested they have changed their tune on the subject of privacy.\n\nFor example, Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to the late Queen, told GB News after watching the first three episodes on Thursday: \"They left because they wanted privacy.\n\n\"Well, so much for privacy in this documentary because we are seeing a lot of family photographs.\"\n\nAnother critic responding to one of the trailers was quoted by a newspaper as saying: \"They've blown their own protestations out of the water and detonated their own privacy policy.\"\n\nThe Sussexes' global press secretary, Ashley Hansen, said in a written statement: \"The Duke and Duchess have never cited privacy as the reason for stepping back. This distorted narrative was intended to trap the couple into silence.\n\n\"In fact, their statement announcing their decision to step back mentions nothing of privacy and reiterates their desire to continue their roles and public duties. Any suggestion otherwise speaks to a key point of this series.\n\n\"They are choosing to share their story, on their terms, and yet the tabloid media has created an entirely untrue narrative that permeates press coverage and public opinion. The facts are right in front of them.\"", "Nimco Ali is a close friend of Boris and Carrie Johnson\n\nThe government's independent adviser on violence against women has said she does not want to serve under Suella Braverman and will not continue.\n\nOn live radio, Nimco Ali said she was on a \"completely different planet\" to the home secretary when it came to women's rights and ethnic minorities.\n\nMs Ali was appointed when her friend Boris Johnson was prime minister.\n\nA source close to the home secretary said Ms Ali's contract was coming to an end before Christmas.\n\nThey added: \"The home secretary is determined to make our streets and homes safer for women and girls.\n\n\"She will continue to focus on this policy and the rights of women and girls to live safely in our country.\"\n\nThe Home Office said they had not received any formal resignation and were therefore not commenting.\n\nMs Ali was being interviewed on Times Radio when she said she would not \"feel comfortable in serving under Suella\".\n\n\"Suella and I are on completely different planets when it comes to the rights of women and girls and also the way that we talk about ethnic minorities,\" she said.\n\nMs Ali said Ms Braverman had different approaches to \"people like me who are from a refugee background\".\n\nShe also questioned if the home secretary shared her \"feminist ideals\".\n\nWhen pressed on whether she would remain as an adviser, she said \"ultimately no, I'm not going to continue\".\n\nThe move comes hours after the home secretary agreed to back a bill criminalising street harassment.\n\nMs Ali had a major role in preparing the ground work for the bill and led a consultation into making street harassment a specific crime while serving under former home secretary Priti Patel.\n\nMs Ali was appointed to her role by Ms Patel in October 2020.\n\nLabour says Ms Ali's decision is \"damning for Suella Braverman\"\n\nThe BBC understands there has been no decision about appointing someone else to the role of Independent Adviser on Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls.\n\nMs Cooper said: \"Those around her clearly don't think she's capable of doing the job.\n\n\"It shows how weak Rishi Sunak was to appoint her. More chaos at the heart of this Tory government.\"\n\nAn ally of Ms Braverman indicated she had not met Ms Ali in her three months as home secretary.", "World Cup: Bukayo Saka rated best player as England lose to France Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nBukayo Saka was rated player of the match by BBC Sport users as England bowed out of the World Cup with a 2-1 quarter-final defeat by France. Saka won the first penalty of the game which Harry Kane converted to level after Aurelien Tchouameni's opener. But Kane then missed a second attempt from the spot after Olivier Giroud had restored France's lead in Qatar. Theo Hernandez, who gave away his side's second penalty, was France's lowest-scoring player with 4.73.", "Emiliano Sala found his place on the football pitch and said all he wanted in his life was to kick a ball\n\nCardiff City is suing an insurance company for more than £10m over the death of footballer Emiliano Sala.\n\nSala, 28, died in a plane crash over the English Channel in January 2019 after completing a £15m transfer to Cardiff from French club Nantes.\n\nThe club claims broker Miller Insurances LLP failed to properly communicate the process for immediately insuring new players.\n\nThe club said Miller Insurance failed to act with the reasonable skill and care expected of an insurance broker in its bid to the High Court.\n\nIt said it was the broker's responsibility to tell the club it would not be insured for a new player's death until its policy was amended to cover that new signing.\n\nClub bosses said they would have requested £20m-worth of coverage for Sala two days before the fatal crash if they had known.\n\nThe club said it was also not told about the risks of not immediately notifying the insurance company about a new player following a transfer deal or about how it could reduce or eliminate these risks.\n\nBusiness flight organiser David Henderson, 67, hired unqualified pilot, David Ibbotson, to fly the plane from Nantes to Cardiff airport.\n\nLast year, Henderson of Hotham, East Riding of Yorkshire, was jailed for 18 months for recklessly endangering the safety of an aircraft and trying to arrange a flight for a passenger without permission or authorisation.\n\nMr Ibbotson's body has never been found.", "Youssef En-Nesyri's first-half header gives Morocco a 1-0 win over Portugal as they make history and become the first ever African side to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup.\n\nWatch all the World Cup action across the BBC Sport website and on demand on BBC iPlayer.\n\nWatch more of our World Cup 2022 video\n\nAvailable to UK users only.", "The so-called Kingdom of Germany is a self-proclaimed state, complete with its own monarch\n\nIn the depths of the countryside in eastern Germany, there's an invisible border.\n\nThe turrets of an imposing castle loom out of the treetops. A sign on its front door solemnly informs the visitor that they've entered - in effect - a new country.\n\nThe \"Königreich Deutschland\" (Kingdom of Germany) is a self-proclaimed independent state - complete with its own self-appointed king.\n\nPeter the First, as he prefers to be known, receives us in a rather gloomy wood-panelled hall.\n\nIt's about a decade since his coronation - there was a ceremony, complete with orb and sceptre - and the foundation of his so-called kingdom, which mints its own money, prints its own ID cards and has its own flag.\n\nHe's what's known in Germany as a \"Reichsbürger\" (Citizen of the Reich), one of an estimated 21,000 people who are defined by the country's intelligence agencies as conspiracy theorists who don't recognise the legitimacy of the post-war German state.\n\nThey've risen to prominence this week, with the arrest of 25 people in raids on Reichsbürger suspected of plotting to storm the German parliament building, the Reichstag, in a violent overthrow of the government.\n\nKing Peter says he has no such violent intentions.\n\nBut he does believe the German state to be \"destructive and sick\".\n\n\"I have no interest in being part of this fascist and satanic system,\" he says.\n\nKing Peter told the BBC his kingdom now has 5,000 citizens\n\nWe settle in another room to talk, on plush armchairs under a glittering chandelier.\n\nBut this is no salon; we're surrounded by lights and cameras. This is King Peter's own TV studio - he hopes to start a TV channel - and I learn that one of his subjects will be recording every moment of our interaction.\n\nHe felt, he said, that he had no choice but to found his kingdom, having tried, unsuccessfully, to run as a mayor and a member of the German parliament.\n\n\"People who are corrupt, criminal or willing to be used thrive in the German system and those with an honest heart, who want to change the world for the better, in the interests of the common good, don't have a chance.\"\n\nHis real name is Peter Fitzek, and his activities have brought him into frequent conflict with the German law.\n\nGermany doesn't recognise the kingdom or its documents: Mr Fitzek has several convictions for driving without a licence and running his own health insurance programme. He also went to prison for several years for embezzling his citizens' money but the conviction was later quashed.\n\nThe regional intelligence service, which has been watching him and his kingdom for nearly two years, told us they regarded it as a threat. They liken it to a cult which exposes people to conspiracy theories and extremist ideology.\n\nSuch theories and ideology have proliferated in Germany in recent years, fuelled by the pandemic. And Covid-19 appears to have increased support and membership of the kingdom.\n\nMr Fitzek tells us he has about 5,000 citizens. He's expanding the kingdom, buying up land in Germany in order to set up a number of communities in which those people can ultimately live.\n\nThe self-proclaimed kingdom has even minted its own currency\n\nWe visited one such outpost about 150 miles (240km) away from the king's castle.\n\nAncient trees surround the site of another old castle in the village of Bärwalde, an hour and a half's drive south of Berlin. Around 30 people live on the site either in the main building or caravans which scatter the lawn along the main driveway.\n\nDespite the faded beauty of the castle, it's a bleak place. They're still renovating the buildings and clearing the grounds. Tree trunks still grow through the skeleton of an old greenhouse.\n\nBut the people here are proud of their home which they also consider to be kingdom territory.\n\nCitizens don't pay German tax and won't send their children to school, which is illegal in Germany. They are bound by their own legal structure - presided over, I'm told, by King Peter - and ultimately they intend to have their own healthcare system.\n\n\"The kingdom can provide everything that you need in daily life. Food and nourishment, social security, all these systems are there,\" says Benjamin, who recently moved in with his young family and is responsible for PR.\n\nFor all their plans to build a sustainable green community, using modern technologies, citizens appear to have little faith in modern medicine.\n\nNo-one here is vaccinated against Covid-19, Benjamin told me. It's a common position for Reichsbürger, many of whom joined protests against measures to control the pandemic.\n\n\"People who think for themselves today will often be condemned as conspiracy theorists,\" says Benjamin. \"But it's a fact that these are often the people who stay up at night thinking about problems, not just their own but those of society and politics.\"\n\nAs we left the commune and drove back through the village, a neighbour was standing on his front lawn.\n\nWhen I asked what he thought of his neighbours, he frowned. They should pay tax he said. After all, they still accessed Germany's resources. But what worried him the most, he added, were his own children. \"What kind of influence will this lot have on them?\"\n\nFor many years Reichsbürger were a bit of a national joke. Germany is learning to take them seriously.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We never knew what we were going to be faced with\"\n\nA special improvised episode of BBC medical drama Casualty is to be broadcast on Saturday.\n\nIt comes as ambulance crews and nurses prepare to go on strike later this month in disputes over pay.\n\nExecutive producer Jon Sen said he felt Casualty was at its best when it told stories that reflected the experiences of those working in the NHS.\n\nHe said: \"We're in a constant dialogue with medical advisors and we were really aware of the changing pressures facing paramedics.\n\n\"And so we decided we wanted to focus on a story that was purely about them.\"\n\nCasualty is the world's longest running medical drama, and it is the first time in its 36-year history that scripts have been ditched and every scene improvised.\n\nHe claimed improvising the show, filmed at the BBC's Roath Lock Studios in Cardiff, helped portray an \"authentic experience\".\n\n\"It allows the actors to really access their characters in a way that when you're very plot driven it never really does,\" he added.\n\nThe programme follows Holby City paramedics Jan, Sah, Teddy and Iain.\n\nMichael Stevenson, who has played Iain Dean since 2012, said the episode had a particular \"realness\"\n\nMichael Stevenson, who has played Iain since 2012, said the episode had a particular \"realness\".\n\n\"We met the guest actors in real time, in whatever situation they were in, which kept it fresh for us,\" he said.\n\nShow advisor, paramedic Laura Johnson, was initially nervous about the premise, but said she came to think the idea was \"genius\".\n\n\"There were points in there where I laughed, there were points where the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and there was a point where I cried,\" she said.\n\nYou can see the special episode of Casualty at 20:10 GMT on BBC One and iPlayer", "Ngozi Fulani, left, had been attending a reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by Camilla, the Queen Consort, right,\n\nA charity led by a black woman who was repeatedly asked where she was \"really\" from at a royal event has temporarily stopped its work over safety.\n\nSistah Space was thrown into the spotlight when its founder, Ngozi Fulani, said she felt she was \"interrogated\" by Lady Susan Hussey at Buckingham Palace last month.\n\nIt says it has now \"ceased many\" of its operations over safety.\n\nMs Fulani has said she suffered online abuse after speaking out.\n\nLady Hussey - Prince William's godmother and the late Queen's lady-in-waiting - has since left her honorary role within the Royal Household.\n\nIn a statement on its Instagram page, domestic violence charity Sistah Space said: \"Thank you for the continued support and messages.\n\n\"Unfortunately recent events meant that we were forced to temporarily cease many of our operations to ensure the safety of our service users and our team.\n\n\"We are overwhelmed by the amount of support and encouragement and look forward to fully reinstating our services as soon as safely possible.\"\n\nLady Susan Hussey was a key and trusted figure in the British royal household for decades\n\nMs Fulani said earlier this week that she, her family and team had been put under \"immense pressure\" and received \"horrific abuse\" on social media.\n\nThe BBC has contacted Sistah Space for further comment.\n\nLady Hussey was the late Queen's lady-in-waiting and was seen as a key and trusted figure in the Royal Household for decades.\n\nPart of her latest role had involved helping to host events at Buckingham Palace - which is how she met Ms Fulani.\n\nMs Fulani had been at the Palace representing the London-based charity - which supports women of African and Caribbean heritage who have faced domestic and sexual abuse.\n\nAfter the event, Ms Fulani described on Twitter how Lady Hussey had moved her hair aside to see her name badge, and had then challenged her to explain where she was from.\n\nThe conversation, as recounted by Ms Fulani, consisted of Lady Hussey pushing her about her background and nationality.\n\nThe BBC understands Lady Hussey remains willing to make a personal apology should it be welcomed.\n\nIn a statement, Buckingham Palace previously said \"unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments\" had been made and all staff were \"being reminded of the diversity and inclusivity policies which they are required to uphold at all times\".\n\nA spokesperson for Prince William previously said \"racism has no place in our society. The comments were unacceptable, and it is right that the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect.\"", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nEngland's World Cup campaign ended in disappointment as they went out despite a fine performance in the quarter-finals against France at Al Bayt Stadium.\n\nHarry Kane's late penalty miss proved decisive after he had earlier equalled Wayne Rooney's England record of 53 goals from the spot.\n\nFrance took a 17th-minute lead when Aurelien Tchouameni's 25-yard drive beat Jordan Pickford low to his right.\n\nEngland were the better team for long spells and created chances, deservedly pulling level nine minutes after the break when Kane beat Tottenham team-mate Hugo Lloris in convincing fashion with his penalty after Tchouameni fouled Bukayo Saka.\n\nFrance regained the lead 12 minutes from time when Olivier Giroud headed in Antoine Griezmann's perfect cross but England had a swift chance to draw level when Theo Hernandez fouled substitute Mason Mount in the box.\n\nKane had the opportunity to make history but uncharacteristically blazed his penalty over the top and England's World Cup dream was over as France look forward to a semi-final against Morocco.\n• None All the reaction as England lose to France\n\nEngland have been accused of making timid exits at major tournaments in the past but this charge cannot be levelled at Gareth Southgate and his players here.\n\nThey matched France and were superior for long spells, with Saka and Declan Rice outstanding, so this will be a painful loss as a route to their first World Cup final since 1966 appeared to be opening up.\n\nSadly for England and Southgate, they were unable to take the chances that came their way, and they ran into France keeper Lloris at his best.\n\nAnd it will be captain Kane who feels the disappointment most acutely after missing that second England penalty six minutes from time with the all-time England goalscoring record at his feet.\n\nThere was a palpable sense of disbelief around the stadium as this most reliable of penalty takers fired his spot-kick horribly high into England's fans behind the goal.\n\nIt was a rare lapse and manager Southgate was swift to come on to the pitch at the final whistle to console a player who has been one of his outstanding contributors.\n\nEngland's players looked devastated at the end - understandably, after performing so well.\n\nThe irony as they make their departure from Qatar is that while they have exited this World Cup one round earlier than they did four years ago, this England team is much richer in promise. This will, of course, be no consolation to Southgate and his squad.\n\nThe pre-match talk centred on how England could stop France's superstar Kylian Mbappe - but in the end, their inspiration came from elsewhere to set up that semi-final against Morocco.\n\nAnd the primary source was the superb Griezmann, who pulled the strings throughout, providing the pass for Tchouameni's strike and later delivering a perfect cross for Giroud to demonstrate his penalty-box expertise by edging in front of Harry Maguire to head powerfully past Pickford.\n\nMbappe carried real menace throughout but England's plan to subdue France's biggest threat worked to a large degree - only for the experienced Giroud, at 36, and 31-year-old Griezmann to combine to put the World Cup holders into the last four again.\n• None Attempt missed. Marcus Rashford (England) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high from a direct free kick.\n• None Substitution, England. Jack Grealish replaces John Stones because of an injury.\n• None Harry Maguire (England) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Antoine Griezmann (France) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Mason Mount (England) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Jude Bellingham.\n• None Mason Mount (England) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel off the Normandy coast of France. They are divided into two British Crown Dependencies, the Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey. The former also includes the islands of Alderney, Sark and Herm, and smaller islands are divided between the two bailiwicks.\n\nThe islands are not part of the United Kingdom or European Union, but rather are possessions of the British Crown with independent administrations. Their inhabitants are British citizens.\n\nThe Channel Islands were owned by the Duchy of Normandy, and passed to the English Crown when William the Conqueror became King of England in 1066. While England lost mainland Normandy in 1204, the islands remained possessions of the Crown and were divided into the two bailiwicks later that century.\n\nSince then the bailiwicks have maintained separate institutions, laws and media, with the exception of a common independent TV station, Channel TV.\n\nResidents of Jersey and the other Channel Islands are British citizens\n\nDuring World War Two the islands were occupied by Germany, causing considerable suffering to the locals. Some were deported as slave labourers, Jews were sent to concentration camps, reprisals for partisan activities were harsh, and many were reduced to near starvation by the end of the war. Accusations of collaboration and cover-up poisoned relations between many islanders for decades.\n\nThe total population is about 160,000, of whom the overwhelming majority is made up of native islanders of Norman French and British extraction. There are also groups of European Union citizens, with a prominent community from Portugal.\n\nAs Crown Dependencies the islands are not part of the United Kingdom or European Union, nor are they colonies or overseas territories of the United Kingdom like Gibraltar. They are possessions of the British Crown with independent administrations. Their assemblies pass their own legislation with the assent of the Crown granted in the Privy Council.\n\nThe Crown is responsible for defence, diplomatic representation and citizenship, although the islands maintain their own controls over housing and employment that apply to British as well as other citizens.\n\nThe islands have the right to establish direct relations with foreign governments.\n\nThe bailiwicks are governed by elected parliaments called States, while the smaller islands of Alderney and Sark also have their own assemblies - the States and Chief Pleas respectively.\n\nThe bailiffs are the chief civil officers, and preside over the States and court of law. They are appointed by the Crown, and usually serve until retirement or death. Their powers have been steadily transferred to the States over the last 100 years, culminating in the adoption of a ministerial system and appointment of chief ministers in 2005.\n\nThe economy of the islands is dominated by financial services, tourism, electronic commerce and agriculture. The relatively light tax burden has encouraged a booming offshore finance sector. Pressure from the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development is obliging the islands to change their taxation systems for the sake of compliance, as with other offshore centres.\n\nFollowing the 2016 EU referendum, the EU and UK concluded a Trade & Cooperation Agreement (TCA) in December 2020 that applied provisionally from1 January 2021 and entered into force on 1 May 2021.\n\nIn December 2020, the four parliaments of the islands approved their inclusion in the agreement. For most purposes, including tax, financial services, anti-money laundering and data protection, the islands have always been third countries to the EU, and this is not affected by the TCA.\n\nAs Crown Dependencies the islands are not part of the United Kingdom or the European Union", "Grant Wahl at work in Qatar last month\n\nA prominent football journalist from the United States has died while covering the World Cup in Qatar.\n\nGrant Wahl, 48, collapsed as extra time began in the Argentina-Netherlands game on Friday night.\n\nEarly reports suggest he may have had a heart attack, but this has yet to be officially confirmed.\n\nLast month Mr Wahl was briefly detained by Qatari authorities for trying to enter a stadium wearing a rainbow shirt, in support of LGBT rights.\n\nIn a statement, the US Soccer Federation said it was \"heartbroken\" by the news.\n\n\"Fans of soccer and journalism of the highest quality knew we could always count on Grant to deliver insightful and entertaining stories about our game, and its major protagonists,\" it said.\n\nIn a tweet, Mr Wahl's wife, Céline Gounder, said she was in \"complete shock\", adding that she was \"so thankful\" for the support she had received from friends.\n\nMr Wahl celebrated his 48th birthday on Thursday with friends in Qatar, a day before he collapsed. He wrote on his website on Monday that he had been unwell in the last 10 days and was on a course of antibiotics for suspected bronchitis.\n\n\"My body finally broke down on me,\" he wrote. \"What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort.\n\n\"I didn't have Covid (I test regularly here), but I went into the medical clinic and the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis.\"\n\nFIFA President Gianni Infantino said Mr Wahl's love for football was \"immense\", adding that his reporting would be \"missed by all who follow the global game\".\n\nTributes have poured in from several high-profile UK journalists.\n\nHenry Winter, chief football writer for the Times, told BBC News Mr Wahl's death represented a \"desperate moment\" for the industry and football across the world.\n\n\"Anyone who met Grant was immediately enthused by him,\" he said. \"He was so passionate about the game, passionate about the industry.\n\n\"He promoted soccer in the United States - probably one of the reasons they're going to be such good hosts of [the World Cup] in four years' time is because of his passion, his writing, his almost evangelical zeal to promote the sport in his homeland and to also get behind the men's national team and women's national team.\"\n\nWinter also told the BBC how Mr Wahl had spoken of his plans to run for FIFA President in 2011 - which were ultimately withdrawn.\n\nBBC Sport's Dan Roan tweeted: \"Grant Wahl was a renowned and hugely respected journalist and the flood of tributes is testament to the esteem in which he was held.\"\n\nMajor League Soccer commissioner Don Garber tweeted: \"We are shocked, saddened and heartbroken over the tragic passing of Grant Wahl. He was a kind and caring person whose passion for soccer and dedication to journalism were immeasurable.\"\n\nUS tennis icon Billie Jean King also paid tribute to Mr Wahl, describing him as an \"advocate for the LGBTQ community and a prominent voice for women's soccer\".\n\nA spokesperson for the Qatari body responsible for planning the World Cup, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, said: \"We are deeply saddened by the death of the US journalist Grant Wahl.\n\n\"Grant was known for his enormous love of football and was in Qatar to cover his eighth Fifa World Cup.\n\n\"He fell ill in the Lusail Stadium media tribune, during last night's quarter-final match between Argentina v Netherlands. He received immediate emergency medical treatment on site, which continued as he was transferred by ambulance to Hamad General Hospital.\n\n\"We are in touch with the US Embassy and relevant local authorities to ensure the process of repatriating the body is in accordance with the family's wishes.\"\n\nEarlier this week, Mr Wahl was presented with an award by Brazilian football legend Ronaldo for reporting on eight consecutive World Cups - his first was in the US in 1994.", "The fighting in Ukraine has been slowing down and this will likely continue in the coming winter months, US intelligence agencies believe.\n\nHowever, there has been no evidence of fading resistance on the part of Ukrainian forces, US director of intelligence Avril Haines said.\n\nShe said both sides would try to \"refit, resupply and reconstitute\" for any counter-offensive in the spring.\n\nIt follows Russian attacks on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure.\n\nThe war in Ukraine is now in its ninth month but Russia has lost more than half the land it seized.\n\nMs Haines told a defence forum in California that most of the fighting is currently around the Bakhmut and Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.\n\nShe said fighting had slowed down following Russia's withdrawal of troops from the west of the Kherson region last month.\n\n\"We're seeing a kind of a reduced tempo already of the conflict... and we expect that's likely to be what we see in the coming months,\" she told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell, who was chairing the panel.\n\nShe said both Ukraine and Russian militaries would be looking to prepare for any counter-offensive after the winter.\n\n\"But we actually have a fair amount of scepticism as to whether or not the Russians will be, in fact, prepared to do that,\" she said.\n\n\"I think more optimistically for the Ukrainians in that time frame.\"\n\nFrank Gardner looks at what lies ahead as winter arrives in Ukraine.\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)\n\nMs Haines said US intelligence believes Russian President Vladimir Putin does not have a full picture at this stage of just how challenged his military are.\n\n\"We see shortages of ammunition, for morale, supply issues, logistics, a whole series of concerns that they're facing.\"\n\nHowever, analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) painted a different picture in a daily review, questioning whether the freezing conditions could permit \"a higher pace of operations as winter sets in\".\n\nThe institute cited comments by Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine's regional governor in Luhansk, who observed that the weather in the eastern Donbas region was changing as winter conditions set in.\n\nPreviously, the ISW had asserted that operations in the Donbas were unlikely to slow down as freezing conditions created \"the most optimal times of year for mechanised manoeuvre warfare\".\n\nUS Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Ukraine showed no evidence of fading resistance\n\nMeanwhile on Saturday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky described a price cap set by his Western allies on Russian oil exports as \"weak\" and said it was not \"serious\" enough to damage the Russian economy.\n\nThe cap, due to come into force on Monday, is aimed at stopping countries paying more than $60 (£48) for a barrel of seaborne Russian crude oil.\n\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow had prepared for the move but would not sell its oil under the cap.\n\nAt a virtual meeting on Sunday, a group of the world's top oil-producing countries is expected to stick to its oil output targets.\n\nAt their last ministerial session in October, the Opec+ group - made up of countries including Russia and the United Arab Emirates - agreed to reduce output by two million barrels per day from November in a bid to help boost oil prices.\n\nThe move angered the United States and other Western nations with Washington accusing the group of siding with Russia.\n\nSince October, oil prices have declined due to slower global growth and higher interest rates. Opec sources say the group is likely to approve a policy rollover.\n\nMeanwhile, Ukraine's security service said the government in Kyiv is imposing sanctions against 10 senior Orthodox Church figures it accuses of having supported Russia's invasion.\n\nThe sanctions, which will freeze their assets for five years, are the latest moves by the Ukrainian government against religious groups seen as potentially subversive.", "The Tan Hill Inn is known for getting cut off in heavy snowfall\n\nPub-goers who spent three nights snowed in at Britain's highest pub have held a reunion at the venue a year later.\n\nDozens of guests got trapped by heavy snow at the Tan Hill Inn, in the Yorkshire Dales, after going to see an Oasis tribute band in late November 2021.\n\nAbout 60 people, including 40 booked guests, were unable to leave due to Storm Arwen.\n\nThe same tribute band, No Way Sis, was booked to play at the reunion event.\n\nThe stranded guests and staff, pictured last year, decided to have a reunion after new friendships were formed\n\nAbandoned vehicles and fallen power cables had made it impossible to clear a way through during the 2021 storm, which caused widespread damage across the UK.\n\nStaff and guests at the pub, which is 1,732ft (528m) above sea level, reminisced about when they woke up to about 3ft (0.9m) of snow.\n\nNicola Townsend, general manager, said: \"The main road to us was closed off [on the Friday], so the plough couldn't get to us until Monday afternoon.\n\n\"We formed a WhatsApp group with the people who were snowed in last year, called it the 'reunion group' and gave them the first chance to get tickets.\"\n\nOasis tribute band No Way Sis, who were snowed in along with guests and staff in late 2021, were booked again for the reunion\n\nJamie Nicholson, a returning guest, said the reunion on Saturday was \"a bit busier than last time\".\n\n\"We were enjoying No Way Sis and didn't know the snow was going on outside,\" he recalled.\n\n\"We came outside and the snow was up against the pub!\"\n\nGeneral manager Nicola Townsend said those who were stuck at the pub in 2021 were given the first opportunity to get tickets for the 2022 concert\n\nGaz Paine, No Way Sis frontman, said: \"It's good to be back, but good to know we can get home again.\"\n\nMartin Overton, from Pontefract, West Yorkshire, said the whole experience was \"quite surreal\".\n\n\"The staff really looked after us - looking back on it it was one of the best weekends of my life, to be honest.\"\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk or send video here.", "Joe Tatt and John Scott said the atmosphere during the game was \"amazing\"\n\nIt started nervously but ended with an explosion of joy as England overcame Senegal 3-0 to progress to the World Cup quarter-finals.\n\nIn scenes that echoed across the country, every seat and standing spot was taken in the two-storey King Street Brewhouse in the centre of Bristol as hundreds of fans gathered to watch the match against Senegal.\n\nIt was a chilly December evening and the Christmas lights were up outside - but all thoughts were on the heat of Qatar, and the prospect of England making it to the last eight.\n\nJoe Tatt, 21, was among the mostly younger fans in the pub. He said he would rather be with other England fans than sitting at home.\n\n\"I watched the semi-finals of the Euros [against Denmark] in here and it was amazing,\" he said.\n\n\"To be with other fans when we score, to jump about and scream - it's amazing.\"\n\nThe atmosphere before the match kicked off felt nervous, and only a few supporters in the pub joined in with God Save the King as the teams lined up.\n\nThe early part of the game featured plenty of frowns and not much chanting as Senegal tested the England defence.\n\nBut all that was forgotten when Jordan Henderson fired England in front, with a huge roar going up in every corner of the Brewhouse, and fans punching the air and embracing.\n\nIf anything, the noise was even louder when Jude Bellingham danced through the Senegal midfield and Harry Kane picked his spot to put England 2-0 ahead just before half time.\n\nAnd the nerves in the pub all but vanished in a raucous celebration when Bukayo Saka killed off Senegal's hopes with England's third.\n\nThe familiar sound of \"It's Coming Home,\" began to ring out, and there was loud applause for the arrival of substitutes Marcus Rashford and Jack Grealish.\n\n\"What a pair to be able to bring on,\" said Paul Simcox, 57, who was getting into the atmosphere.\n\n\"Watching it in a pub with other fans is the second best thing to being there, the atmosphere is great.\"\n\nAround the corner was Chris Sprackman, watching the game with colleagues and sporting a \"Football's Coming Home for Christmas\" jumper.\n\n\"I saw it, and had to have it,\" he said.\n\nEngland supporter Chris Sprackman sported a jumper that says 'Football's coming home for Christmas'\n\n\"Never in doubt,\" said Jack Holland, 34, who said he hoped people would \"give [manager Gareth] Southgate the respect he deserves now\".\n\nThe final 10 minutes were enjoyed by a now thoroughly-relaxed crowd in the pub, with some even leaving before the final whistle, so confident of England finishing the job.\n\nOn the street outside, as fans filed home with the working week just hours away, one of the biggest smiles was on the face of Joe Tatt.\n\n\"I was nervous beforehand but not so much during the game, as England started off quite defensively but were playing well.\n\n\"Southgate has proved himself I'd say. I was ecstatic at the end.\"\n\nSo is football coming home for Christmas?\n\n\"It might be,\" said Joe. \"And wouldn't that be lovely?\"\n\nElsewhere, England fans in Croydon cheered on as the Three Lions defeated Senegal", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Winslet tells Laura Kuenssberg there should be age blocks for social media sites\n\nThe government should make social media firms enforce age limits to help tackle their impact on children's mental health, actress Kate Winslet has said.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, she said parents feel \"utterly powerless\" about how to help their children navigate social media.\n\nWinslet said security checks could be more rigorous and those in power \"should step up\" to protect children.\n\nShe was speaking ahead of the launch of her new Channel 4 film I Am Ruth.\n\nThe feature-length drama sees Winslet playing opposite her real-life daughter Mia Threapleton as the mother of a teenager whose mental health begins to suffer as she becomes increasingly consumed by the pressures of social media.\n\nWinslet said the decision to focus on children's mental health followed a conversation with the film's creator Dominic Savage about how parents can help \"when they can clearly see there's a problem\".\n\nBut she said that the drama had to be about more than a child obsessed with their phone.\n\nIt had to cover \"what's actually going on with that phone, how it impacts on their self-esteem, how it impacts on eating habits, their mental state in terms of thinking about things like self-harm,\" Winslet said.\n\nIn the two-hour drama, to be shown on Channel 4 on Thursday 8 December, Winslet plays Ruth who is a single mother of two, including 17-year-old Freya.\n\nThe film shows Freya becoming less communicative and falling behind at school as she retreats further into herself as her relationship with social media becomes increasingly destructive.\n\nThe world of social media is \"frightening to parents because we don't really know what's there\", Winslet said.\n\n\"We don't know really what's going on in their friendship groups anymore because so much of it is actually built on phones, inside phones.\n\n\"This world that you can burrow deeper and deeper into it, and it becomes darker and trickier and much, much harder for children to navigate.\n\n\"I think because people, young children, are having phones at a much earlier age, they're able to access things that emotionally they're just not equipped or sophisticated enough to know how to process.\"\n\nAsked whether she thought there should be more legal regulation of social media, Winslet said she struggled with social media and its impact on teenage mental health.\n\n\"I do wish that our government would crack down on it. I do wish that there would be certain platforms that were banned before a certain age. I wish that security checks would be much more rigorous,\" she said.\n\nShe said there should be \"more protection and accountability\" because parents \"are left flailing\".\n\n\"I just think that the people who know that they could do better to protect our children should just be doing that. Whoever those people are, they know who they are, they should just step up and do better,\" she said.\n\nWinslet's comment come as the government is accused of watering down legislation aimed at regulating internet content.\n\nIn the past week, ministers have dropped plans from the Online Safety Bill which would require technology firms to take down legal but harmful material.\n\nIan Russell, the father of teenager Molly Russell, who ended her life after viewing suicide and self-harm content online, said the bill had been watered down and the decision might have been made for political reasons to help it pass more quickly.\n\nIn a statement, Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan told BBC News that \"unregulated social media is hurting our children and it must end\".\n\nShe added that the \"strengthened Online Safety Bill\" she is bringing back to Parliament \"will allow parents to see and act on the dangers sites pose to young people\".\n\n\"Young people will be safeguarded, criminality stamped out and adults given control over what they see and engage with online,\" Ms Donelan said.", "President Cyril Ramaphosa joked with reporters as he spoke outside the meeting of his party's top brass\n\nSouth African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said his fate is in his party's hands, in his first comments since an official report on a scandal over money stolen from his farm.\n\nOpponents have called for his resignation after a panel of legal experts concluded he may have broken the law.\n\nOn Saturday, Mr Ramaphosa's spokesman suggested he would fight on.\n\nThe president has now said the party top brass should decide his next move.\n\nThe leaders of the governing Africa National Congress (ANC) are currently meeting in Johannesburg to discuss the findings of the report.\n\nSpeaking outside the venue for the meeting, the president said that his fellow members of the National Working Committee had given him permission not to attend \"so that they're free to express themselves as openly and as thoroughly as possible without any form of fear or favour\".\n\nOn Monday, the ANC's larger decision-making body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), will also be meeting.\n\n\"It is up to the National Executive Committee, which I am accountable to, to take whatever decision,\" Mr Ramaphosa told journalists.\n\nThe scandal erupted in June, when a former South African spy boss, Arthur Fraser, filed a complaint with police accusing the president of hiding a theft of $4m (£3.25m) in cash from his Phala Phala game farm in 2020.\n\nMr Ramaphosa admitted that money had been stolen, but said it was $580,000, not $4m.\n\nThe president said the $580,000 had come from the sale of buffalo, but the panel, headed by a former chief justice, said it had \"substantial doubt\" about whether a sale took place.\n\nThe panel's findings have been handed to parliament, which is set to examine them and decide whether or not to launch impeachment proceedings against the president.\n\nOn Saturday, Mr Ramaphosa's spokesman Vincent Magwenya said the president was \"not resigning based on a flawed report, neither is he stepping aside\".\n\n\"It may be in the long-term interest and sustainability of our constitutional democracy, well beyond the Ramaphosa presidency, that such a clearly flawed report is challenged,\" he added.\n\nMr Ramaphosa is also under pressure from the opposition, as well as rivals within the ANC, to resign.\n\nThe scandal is especially damaging for Mr Ramaphosa because he came to power vowing to clear up the corruption which had dogged the country under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.\n\nThe ANC remains deeply divided between supporters of Mr Zuma and those who back Mr Ramaphosa.\n\nMr Ramaphosa will be challenged for the ANC's leadership by his former health minister Zweli Mkhize, who has also been accused of corruption. He denies the allegations.", "Police say the 58-year-old victim crashed his car into a nearby property after the attack\n\nA 58-year-old man killed in Newry was shot a number of times at close range, possibly as part of a feud, police have said.\n\nThe shooting occurred in Ardcarn Park, a residential area, shortly after 18:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nThe victim died at the scene. His name has not been released by the police.\n\nPolice said one line of inquiry is that the shooting was part of a cross-border crime feud, possibly involving drugs, and a murder investigation has begun.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supt Norman Haslett says the \"level of violence used was reprehensible\"\n\nThe killing was a \"brutal and a senseless attack on a defenceless man\", said Supt Norman Haslett on Friday.\n\nHe said the 58-year-old victim, who was a husband and father, crashed his car into a nearby property after the attack.\n\nEarlier reports suggest the victim was shot a number of times as he stood behind his car.\n\nShocking and brutal - that's how this killing has been described.\n\nNeighbours describe hearing what they thought was fireworks going off, only to realise someone had been killed outside their door.\n\nPolice and forensics remain at the scene, trying to establish what happened here.\n\nPoliticians have condemned the attack and urged anyone with any information to get in contact with the police.\n\nSDLP councillor Michael Savage called the attack \"a reckless act... when families would have been about\".\n\nSinn Féin assembly member Liz Kimmins said: \"This was a very brutal killing and a family have now been left grieving and the community left very, very frightened.\n\nThe man died at the scene at Ardcarn Park\n\n\"It's just horrendous news. There's just absolutely no room for this type of criminality on our streets and those responsible have nothing to offer.\"\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie described the murder as terrible.\n\n\"More guns on our streets, more victims, more families grieving. Senseless, just senseless,\" he tweeted.\n\nAlliance Party assembly member and Policing Board member Nuala McAllister said: \"This is a call back to the dark old days and we cannot allow those who want to drag us back to the past to do so.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Boxing\n\nTyson Fury retained his WBC world heavyweight title, brutally stopping Derek Chisora to set up a potential undisputed bout with Oleksandr Usyk.\n\nFury, 34, maintained his unbeaten record in front of 59,769 people at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.\n\nFellow Briton Chisora, 38, was hurt repeatedly by the dominant champion and the referee waved off the one-sided contest in the 10th round.\n\nUsyk, holder of the IBF, IBO, WBO and WBA belts, was ringside in London.\n• None 2023 will be biggest year of my career, says Fury\n• None Heavyweight fights that could happen in 2023\n\nFor Chisora, it was the 13th loss of his 46-fight career and his fourth in the last five.\n\nEarlier this week, the pair shook hands and promised to stand toe-to-toe in the opening three minutes with Chisora promising \"the best first round the heavyweight game has ever seen\".\n\nAnd, in front of an incredible atmosphere - despite the cold conditions at an outdoor December night event in London - the two fighters tried to provide the entertainment they had promised.\n\nBut the fight did prove a mismatch as Fury was a level above his opponent and can now look forward to a potential undisputed heavyweight showdown with Ukrainian Usyk in 2023.\n\nFury, back in action after saying he would retire from boxing in April, has targeted at least three fights in 2023. In chaotic scenes afterwards, he challenged two rivals - Usyk and unbeaten Briton Joe Joyce - at the same time.\n\nAsked about taking on 35-year-old Usyk, Fury responded: \"Where's the rabbit?\"\n\nAs Usyk confronted him at the ropes, Fury added: \"Usyk, you're next, 15 stone little body building midget. I've done one Ukrainian, [Wladimir] Klitschko, let's get it on.\"\n\nAs Joyce then showed up, Fury said: \"I'm saying Joe Joyce, a brilliant fighter, he deserves a title fight. If the rabbit [Usyk] doesn't fight, we'll fight at Wembley.\"\n\nHowever, there could yet be an obstacle as Fury, in a later interview with ESPN, said he had problems with his hand and may need surgery on his right elbow \"which will take about 6-8 weeks to heal\".\n\nFury had beaten Chisora in a wide points victory in 2011 when they fought for the British and Commonwealth titles and again three years later when Chisora was retired by his corner at the end of the 10th round in a contest for the British and European belts.\n\nThere were hopes Chisora could produce a career-defining performance and defy the bookmakers, who had dismissed him as a 14-1 outsider.\n\nHowever, by the second round it became clear this fight was going to go the way of their first two meetings.\n\nChisora tried to force Fury back onto the ropes early on, with a number of punches to the body, but Fury landed a huge overhand right soon after and started to land at will from range.\n\nA Fury left hook in the second rocked back Chisora and he ended the round in the corner and in trouble.\n\nIn the third, both men ended up in a heap on the floor as they lost balance, but it did not matter as Fury took complete control.\n\nChisora, as he has done throughout his 15-year career, gave it everything but was simply outclassed by Fury, whose shot selection, power and ability helped him pick off the rounds with relative ease.\n\nTwo solid right hooks landed in the sixth and in the seventh as Chisora continued to take a lot of punishment - and the only question was if he could land a wonder shot of his own.\n\nHe could not - and a bad cut developed around his eye in the ninth, before a brutal Fury uppercut in the following round marked the beginning of the end.\n\nSpeaking to BT Sport, Fury praised Chisora and the fans as he said: \"I just want to say, what a crowd - 60,000 in Tottenham, I love every single one of you people. This is overwhelming, I want to say a massive thank you.\n\n\"I felt good, I needed some rounds, I haven't boxed since April. I was landing good punches, but take nothing from Del Boy [Chisora], it was a pleasure to fight tonight, he is a British folk hero.\n\n\"What a tough man. I hit him with shots that would have sparked anyone else out.\"\n\nFury then led the crowd in a chant of \"Oh, Derek Chisora\".\n\nChisora, whose own future will now be in doubt, was gracious in defeat as he added: \"Thank you Tyson, I really appreciate that. We are friends.\n\n\"There's a big fight coming, everyone wants to see one champion in the heavyweight division.\"\n\nEarlier, Britain's Daniel Dubois survived a huge scare, coming back after being knocked down three times in the first round to beat South Africa's Kevin Lerena and retain his WBA (regular) heavyweight belt.\n\nThe 25-year-old was facing a second defeat of his career and also suffered what appeared to be a knee injury in a horrendous opening three minutes.\n\nHowever, after regaining his composure in the second, Dubois, who has gained 18 of his 19 victories inside the distance, caught Lerena in the third, sending him to the canvas.\n\nLerena got up, but it was the signal for a barrage of punches from Dubois as the home favourite sensed this was his moment.\n\nA truly brilliant uppercut - which drew gasps from the fans when replayed on the stadium's four big screens - rocked Lerena's head back and the South African was on the verge of going down again when referee Howard Foster moved in to stop it.\n\nA loss for Dubois would not only have seen him lose his WBA regular belt, but end his hopes of fighting Usyk in the future.\n\nIt was a superb recovery as he showed great character to turn this fight around in such dramatic style.\n\n\"It was amazing. He caught me on the top of my head. I feel my knee went,\" Dubois told BT Sport Box Office.\n\n\"But I have the heart of a warrior, and I just thought, calm down.\n\n\"I was looking for shots that weren't there, I had to recover and come back out. I saw the opening, went for it and the rest is history.\n\n\"I felt a bit rusty, like I wasn't there in the first round, but at least I was able to land my shots.\n\n\"I've never boxed in front of as many people, hopefully many more to come.\"\n\nFind out how to get into boxing with our special guide.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Wedlock says she has been living in the mobile home in the seaside town due to a shortage of accessible housing.\n\nA woman from Portrush in County Antrim has said she has been living in a mobile home in the seaside town due to a shortage of accessible housing.\n\nNicola Wedlock, 51, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), has been on a social housing waiting list since May 2020.\n\nShe was living with her mother, 75, in an upstairs flat but said she needed to move out due to mobility needs.\n\nThe Housing Executive said it made offers of accommodation but \"these were declined for a variety of reasons\".\n\nMs Wedlock said: \"They made me an offer for two bungalows which my occupational therapist turned down because they weren't wheelchair accessible.\"\n\nShe said she moved from her mother's flat at least eight months ago.\n\n\"My mum had to lift my legs on to the next step to help me get up the stairs,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\n\"It wasn't fair on mum, it wasn't fair on me,\" she added.\n\n\"I was lying in a bed looking out the window every day, which is no type of a life to live,\" she said.\n\nThe Housing Executive said it had not been informed that Nicola was living in a mobile home, something she disputes.\n\nThe organisation said it has tried to contact her several times in recent days.\n\n\"We received correspondence that advised us the applicant was living upstairs with a parent,\" said a spokesperson.\n\n\"We would urge the applicant to keep in contact her housing adviser to ensure all relevant details are updated.\"\n\nMs Wedlock said she used her savings to buy a mobile home but hoped it would only be a temporary move.\n\n\"My occupational therapist would like me to be in a wheelchair full time but I can't do that in the caravan.\n\nMs Wedlock says she has had several falls\n\n\"I have to walk and I have had several falls.\n\n\"The next time I fall, am I going to have to really hurt myself before I get listened to?\"\n\nFigures supplied to BBC News NI by the Housing Executive show 79 people required ground-floor accommodation in Portrush in June 2022.\n\nFewer than 10 people were allocated it in the previous 12 months, none of whom were wheelchair users.\n\nNuala Toman, head of policy at Disability Action said that urgent investment is needed to find accessible housing solutions.\n\n\"Disabled people's right to independent living is being heavily restricted by unsuitable and unsafe housing,\" she said.\n\n\"The ability to move around, leave the house and take as full and active role in the community as possible is vital to disabled people, and essential in ensuring we have access to education and employment.\"\n\nA Housing Executive spokesperson said a high level of housing points had been applied to Ms Wedlock's case.\n\n\"A ground floor, two-bedroom, wheelchair-friendly property has been requested,\" they said.\n\n\"The applicant's areas of choice are in high demand, with very low housing turnover and fewer properties in this area are suitable to ensure independence in the home.\n\n\"With a very limited stock of ground floor properties available in the Portrush area, it is difficult to predict when a suitable home will become available.\n\n\"However, we will continue to work with the applicant to find a successful housing solution.\"", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nOlivier Giroud became France's all-time leading men's goalscorer as the World Cup holders coasted past Poland to reach the quarter-finals.\n\nThe AC Milan striker scored his 52nd goal for France to claim the country's outright record, surpassing the great Thierry Henry.\n\nThe historic goal came on the stroke of half-time after Giroud controlled Kylian Mbappe's pass before converting low into the net beyond the reach of Wojciech Szczesny.\n\nBut having provided the assist for the first goal, the brilliant Mbappe turned on the style by scoring two fabulous strikes in the second half.\n\nHe hit a powerful drive into the roof of the net from 16 yards for his first and curled home a wonderful second in injury time to take the lead in the Golden Boot race with five goals.\n\nDidier Deschamps' side had been left frustrated up until the opener and could well have fallen behind.\n\nPoland's best opening in the first half came when the ball dropped for Piotr Zielinski in the centre of the penalty area, but his strike was straight at Hugo Lloris.\n\nRobert Lewandowski did manage a consolation for the Poles, rolling in a penalty with the last kick of the game.\n\nFrance will play England in the quarter-finals on Saturday, 10 December (19:00 GMT) after England beat Senegal 3-0.\n\nPremier League football followers may have thought Giroud was past his best when he left England after 10 seasons with Arsenal and Chelsea to join Milan.\n\nBut the 36-year-old scored 14 goals in all competitions last term as he helped the Rossoneri claim the Serie A title for the first time in 11 years.\n\nOn his 117th cap, Giroud was desperately looking for that record goal against Poland, grimacing and shaking his head whenever a chance went begging.\n\nHe had a great opportunity when Ousmane Dembele flashed a cutback across goal but could not get sufficient contact on the ball and screwed it wide.\n\nHe was presented with another big moment on 44 minutes, and this time he converted before being mobbed by all his team-mates during the celebrations.\n\nFrance will see another of their national records broken should captain Lloris line up in the quarter-final to win a 143rd cap that will take him past legendary defender Lilian Thuram.\n\nBut it was Poland who had their goalkeeper Szczesny to thank for just a one-goal deficit at the break. The Juventus stopper dealt with Tchouameni's low drilled strike from range, a Dembele effort after a weaving run and Jules Kounde's shot from a narrow angle.\n\nHowever, Szczesny was unable to stop Mbappe from breaking another record as he surpassed Pele's tally of scoring seven World Cup goals before the age of 24. The 23-year-old, who celebrates his next birthday two days before the final, scored both his goals came from similar positions in the penalty area to take his World Cup goals to nine in 11 matches.\n\nHe has scored 16 goals in his past 14 games for France and 33 overall from 63 appearances.\n\nBarcelona striker Lewandowski barely had a sniff, but stroked home a retaken 99th-minute consolation from the penalty spot - after Lloris moved off his line too quickly in saving the first effort. The Poles are now winless in their last eight meetings against France.\n• None Goal! France 3, Poland 1. Robert Lewandowski (Poland) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty conceded by Dayot Upamecano (France) with a hand ball in the penalty area.\n• None Attempt blocked. Robert Lewandowski (Poland) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Kamil Grosicki with a cross.\n• None Offside, Poland. Robert Lewandowski tries a through ball, but Arkadiusz Milik is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Robert Lewandowski (Poland) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Arkadiusz Milik.\n• None Goal! France 3, Poland 0. Kylian Mbappé (France) right footed shot from the left side of the box to the top right corner. Assisted by Marcus Thuram.\n• None Matty Cash (Poland) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEngland will take on holders France in a mouth-watering World Cup quarter-final after beating Senegal 3-0 in the last 16 on Sunday.\n\nYou can listen and follow that quarter-final tie live across the BBC. Here's everything you need to know before the game...\n\nWhen do England play next?\n\nEngland play France on Saturday, 10 December at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor.\n\nThe last-eight tie kicks off at 19:00 GMT - 22:00 local time in Qatar.\n• None England beat Senegal to reach last eight\n\nWhat TV channel is England v France on?\n\nITV are showing the match live with highlights and clips on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.\n\nIs England v France on the radio?\n\nEngland's quarter-final is on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds. World Cup coverage begins at 12:00, including commentary on Saturday's earlier last-eight tie at 15:00.\n\nHow else can I follow England's quarter-final?\n\nThe BBC Sport website will have live text commentary of England v France. There will also be a live text providing pre-match news throughout the day.\n\nFrance are the reigning world champions, beating Croatia 4-2 in the 2018 final in Russia.\n\nThey are ranked fourth in the world, one place above England. Didier Deschamps' side have gone one better than they did at the last major tournament - the delayed 2020 European Championship - where they lost to Switzerland on penalties in the last 16.\n\nFrance also have Kylian Mbappe in their attack, who leads the race for the Golden Boot with five goals so far, two more than any other player.\n\nHave England and France met before?\n\nEngland and France have not met in the knockout rounds of a men's major tournament before.\n\nThey have played each other 31 times, with England winning 17 to France's nine victories.\n\nThe last time they met was in a friendly in June 2017, when France were 3-2 winners.\n\nWho will England play if they beat France?\n\nGareth Southgate's team could face several teams in the semi-finals, with last-16 ties still to be played.\n\nThe possible opposition are Morocco, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland. Morocco will play Spain and Portugal face Switzerland on 6 December.\n\nIf they make it, England's semi-final, will take place on Wednesday, 14 December, with a 19:00 kick-off.\n\nThe final will take place at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar on 18 December. Potential opponents include Argentina and Brazil, who are on the opposite side of the draw.\n\nHow to follow the other quarter-finals on the BBC\n\nBBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds will provide coverage of all four quarter-finals.\n\nThe BBC will show two last-eight ties live on TV and BBC iPlayer. Highlights of non-live games and selected replayed matches will be available on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.\n\nFans will also be able to watch highlights of every match and all the goals on TV, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.\n\nThere will also be live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app for all matches.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "President Muhammadu Buhari's wife, Aisha Buhari, has been Nigeria's first lady since he took office in 2015\n\nA Nigerian university student arrested and detained for more than two weeks after he allegedly defamed President Muhammadu Buhari's wife on Twitter has apologised to the first lady.\n\nAminu Adamu Mohammed was released on Friday after authorities dropped the charges on ''compassionate grounds.\".\n\nHe denied defaming Aisha Buhari in a tweet suggesting she had misused public money to her satisfaction.\n\nBut in a series of tweets and video messages over the weekend, the 24-year-old undergraduate apologised to Mrs Buhari for the initial tweet.\n\n''It was never my intention to hurt your feelings'' he said, promising to ''change for the better.''\n\nMr Mohammed also thanked Mrs Buhari for forgiving him, describing her as ''our mother.''\n\nHe described his experience as ''the darkest hours of my life.''\n\nHe did not give details but he expressed his ''heartfelt gratitude'' to those who showed him support saying his case should serve as a ''lesson to all of us\".\n\nAmnesty International said Aminu Adamu Mohammed was subjected to \"torture\" after his arrest\n\nHis apology to Mrs Buhari has sparked controversy on social media in Nigeria with many users saying the first lady should apologise to him instead because of the way he was treated.\n\nBut there are some who say his apology was right in order to resolve the dispute.\n\nThe arrest and the subsequent charge against the student had sparked outrage in Nigeria with many social media users and rights campaigners calling for his immediate release.\n\nOn Thursday, Amnesty International said Mr Mohammed was subjected to \"torture\" and other forms of \"ill-treatment\" after his arrest, calling it a \"deeply repressive act\" that \"brazenly violates his human rights\". Nigerian authorities have not yet commented on these allegations.\n\nMr Mohammed is studying environmental management at the Federal University in Dutse, in the northern state of Jigawa, and is due to start his final exams on Monday.\n• None Student charged for tweet about Nigeria first lady", "Ukrainian servicemen ride a self-propelled howitzer, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, on a frontline in Donetsk region\n\nWhat does it mean when US President Joe Biden says he's willing to sit down with Vladimir Putin \"to see what he has in mind\"; or when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz conducts an hour-long phone call with the Russian leader, his first since September?\n\nIt certainly doesn't mean that high-level peace talks are about to begin.\n\nAs the US president himself said; it can only happen when the Russian leader indicates he is willing to end the war in Ukraine. This is something which has not yet happened.\n\nThe Kremlin's complaint that Washington does not recognise Russia's sovereignty over parts of Ukraine annexed at the end of September and the West's arming of Ukraine is responsible for Kyiv's alleged intransigence does not suggest that we are on the cusp of a breakthrough.\n\nBut, as the war drags on into its ninth month and Ukraine's bitter winter sets in - raising the prospect of yet more death, destruction and misery - the question of when peace talks should begin keeps coming up.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRecent remarks by Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggesting that an opportunity to negotiate should be grasped caused a flurry of speculation over possible divisions within the US administration.\n\nSince then, officials and Western leaders have generally insisted that it is up to Ukraine to determine when and how to negotiate.\n\n\"We have to respect the Ukrainians to decide the moment and conditions in which they will negotiate about their territory,\" French President Emmanuel Macron said as he stood beside Mr Biden at the White House.\n\nPrivately, Western officials insist the time for talking has not yet arrived. They see no indication from Moscow of a serious desire to conduct meaningful negotiations.\n\nUS President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands after speaking at a press conference in Washington\n\nWith Ukraine on the front foot militarily and Russia's war effort facing multiple challenges, there is an implicit sense the West believes Russia will be in a weaker position in the coming months than it is now.\n\n\"There will be a moment, but now doesn't feel like the right time\" was how one senior western diplomat put it recently.\n\nFor now, he said, the West's job is to continue supporting Ukraine militarily \"to put them in the best position, whenever that point it\".\n\nOfficials are extremely reluctant to be drawn into when that point will come.\n\nBut, if Ukraine continues to win back territory in the coming months, the debate will become more acute: just how far are Ukraine's Western allies prepared to support Kyiv's war aims?\n\nIn blunt terms, returning to the front lines which existed on 24 February, when Russia launched its all-out invasion, is one thing.\n\nEncouraging Ukraine to go beyond them, to recapture areas seized by Russia in 2014 - Crimea and large parts of the Donbas - is another.\n\nQuiet channels of communication do continue, involving the Pentagon and the Russian Defence Ministry, or CIA director William Burns and his Russian counterpart Sergei Naryshkin.\n\nBut, for all the talk of when and how peace talks should begin, we still seem to be a long way from a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine.", "Wood-burning stoves keep young and old warm in the town of Ladyzhyn\n\nHundreds of kilometres from the front line, a state of emergency has been declared in Ladyzhyn, a town whose 18,000 residents lost their heating for a week.\n\nTheir only source of heating is a private, coal-based thermal power plant, which has come under repeated Russian attack, just like other energy facilities across Ukraine.\n\nThe most recent strike on 23 November left the town with blackouts and no heat at all. Power was finally restored on Thursday although it is taking time to warm the homes of residents.\n\nThe people of Ladyzhyn remain cautious, worried by the threat of another Russian missile attack on their infrastructure.\n\nAs temperatures fell below freezing, residents started using electrical heaters but they proved useless because of intermittent blackouts.\n\nLosing access to all sources of warmth has been a fear for many Ukrainians who live far from the front line, but Ladyzhyn has been the first to face such a reality.\n\n\"I have a heater, but it keeps turning itself off, because there's no electricity; it's cold,\" says 70-year-old Mariia Buzynovska.\n\nShe was visiting one of Ukraine's new \"invincibility stations\", where people can come to get warm, charge their phones, have a cup of tea or collect a ration pack.\n\nThe now familiar sound of generators hums across the town's main square and wood burners keep the tent warm.\n\n\"At night I have a headache, and my ear aches, I take pills,\" says Mariia, sipping tea from a plastic cup. \"As you know, cold and hunger aren't good friends in such a weather. I put on clothes and blankets to withstand this, to not get sick.\"\n\nResidents can also work here using the internet, and for the more vulnerable there are rations, blankets and beds.\n\n\"The ration consists of hygiene items, water and the most basic medicines that may be needed,\" says Iuliia Kamenyuk, deputy chief of Ukraine's state rescue service in the central Ukrainian region of Vinnytsia, where Ladyzhyn is located.\n\n\"The most difficult moment was probably in the first days after the shelling. Water, heating and electricity were gone completely.\"\n\nFor Mariia, Ladyzhyn has always been a prosperous and peaceful town, centred around its thermal power plant - its biggest enterprise. That all changed when war came to Ukraine's eastern Donbas region in 2014 and she felt a full-scale Russian invasion might happen one day.\n\nBeside her in the tent is Pavlo Palahuta, 40, who was evacuated from the eastern city of Slovyansk during the summer.\n\nPavlo Palahuta explains how he keeps warm with the help of plastic bottles filled with hot water\n\nHe found shelter from the war, until Russian shelling and its consequences caught up with him here too.\n\nHe is one of more than 6.5 million internally displaced people in Ukraine and is now living in an disused primary school with 37 other people.\n\n\"The boiler isn't working right now because the electricity is off,\" he says. \"But I usually fill a bottle with hot water, close it tightly, dry the bottle and put a couple of them under the blanket, then I'm ready to stay warm for the evening.\"\n\n\"I put them around myself. I sleep fully dressed, and if you sleep alone they stay warm for four or five hours.\"\n\nVinnytsia's military administration is now working on providing additional sources of heating such as portable boiler houses and individual convection heaters. But it could take up to a month.\n\nSigning documents by torchlight, Lyudmyla Holovashych says the area will have to find new sources of energy\n\nLyudmyla Holovashych, who chairs the military administration in this area, tells the BBC that they had been talking about diversifying their energy sources for more than a decade.\n\nIt was only when Russia's military began firing missiles at the local infrastructure this year that the issue became a matter of survival.\n\nWith outside temperatures below freezing, thermometers inside people's homes fell as low as 8C.\n\nLadyzhyn's authorities say that will soon change now that heating is coming back, although many residents are yet to feel it.\n\nAfter more than a week of living in the freezer, people are praying Russian missiles do not strike again.", "The movement of the crown was kept a closely guarded secret\n\nThe St Edward's Crown has been removed from the Tower of London to be resized for the King ahead of the Coronation.\n\nThe historic centrepiece of the Crown Jewels was taken away to allow for its modification before the ceremony on 6 May, Buckingham Palace said.\n\nThe movement of the crown was kept secret until its safe delivery. Its current location has not been divulged.\n\nA version of it has been used during the coronations of English and British monarchs since the 13th Century.\n\nThis St Edward's Crown was made for King Charles II in 1661, as a replacement for the medieval crown that was melted down after the execution of his father in 1649.\n\nThe crown was last used by Queen Elizabeth II in 1953\n\nThe original is thought to date back to Edward the Confessor, the 11th Century royal saint who was the penultimate Anglo-Saxon king of England.\n\nIt is the 1661 St Edward's Crown that appears in the royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, the Royal Mail logo and in badges of the British armed forces.\n\nIn a statement on Saturday, Buckingham Palace said: \"St Edward's Crown, the historic centrepiece of the Crown Jewels, has been removed from the Tower of London to allow for modification work to begin ahead of the Coronation on Saturday 6 May 2023.\"\n\nThe ceremony will take place in Westminster Abbey, eight months after the monarch's accession and the death of Queen Elizabeth II.\n\nOn one unusual occasion, at Westminster Abbey in 1533, the medieval St Edward's Crown was used to crown a Queen Consort, Anne Boleyn\n\nIt is understood the ceremony will include the same core elements of the traditional service, which has retained a similar structure for more than 1,000 years, while also recognising the spirit of 21st Century Britain.\n\nHowever, the Coronation is expected to be on a smaller scale and shorter, with suggestions that it could last just an hour - Queen Elizabeth II's lasted about three hours.\n\nIt is also expected to be more inclusive of multi-faith Britain than in the past, but will nonetheless be an Anglican service, with the Queen Consort being crowned alongside Charles III.\n\nGuest numbers will be reduced from the some 8,000 of 1953 to about 2,000, with peers expected to wear suits and dresses instead of ceremonial robes, and a number of rituals, such as the presentation of gold ingots, not being performed.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nFrance have seen some incredible players in their history but it's the unassuming Olivier Giroud that can now lay claim to being among the country's greats.\n\nThe AC Milan striker became France's leading men's scorer when he put his side ahead in their 3-1 victory over Poland in the last 16 of the World Cup.\n\nBut on his momentous day - when he scored his 52nd international goal - the former Chelsea and Arsenal striker was upstaged by team-mate Kylian Mbappe's stunning showing.\n\nDidier Deschamps' men mean business as they aim to defend their crown and their charge is being led by veteran 36-year-old striker Giroud and 23-year-old sensation Mbappe.\n\n\"This is the competition of my dreams,\" said man of the match Mbappe, who scored twice and set up Giroud's goal. \"It is something I have been preparing for physically and mentally.\n\n\"We are doing well but [we are] a long way from the objective of winning the final.\"\n• None Mbappe is most complete striker in Qatar - Drogba column\n\nJust as Argentina's Lionel Messi brings fans out of their seats in excitement, Mbappe does the same for France and he was at his devastating best against Poland.\n\nMbappe drew loud cheers when he put Aston Villa full-back Matty Cash on his backside with a quick turn but the resulting shot deflected into the side-netting.\n\nHaving provided the assist for Giroud's opener, Mbappe showcased his fantastic finishing by smacking his first into the roof of the net before curling a glorious second into the far corner.\n\nHe is now the competition's top scorer with five and added to the four he netted in France's triumphant 2018 World Cup campaign, he has already overtaken Argentina's Diego Maradona, who scored eight, while Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo has also reached that tally.\n\nAt 23 years of age, Mbappe is the youngest player to score nine World Cup goals, breaking the record held by Eusebio, who scored eight for Portugal by the age of 24 years and 182 days.\n\n\"We know about Kylian,\" said Deschamps. \"We have already seen him and he speaks on the football pitch.\n\n\"He knows he can change a match in moment. He plays with such joy and smiles. France needed a great Kylian Mbappe tonight and they got one.\"\n\nFormer Premier League striker Dion Dublin said on BBC One: \"He is playing the game as though he is in the park. He is an incredible footballer.\"\n\nChris Sutton, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, said: \"Eventually it came down to Kylian Mbappe and a couple of wonderful finishes from him.\n\n\"This was a strong performance from France. There are tougher tests to come but it was a display of French swagger and a statement that we are still the team to beat.\"\n\nSome may have felt Giroud's best years were behind him when he left Arsenal last summer to move to Italy but he scored 11 goals to help Milan win the Serie A title.\n\nGiroud has a star-studded cast operating around him with the likes of Mbappe and the classy Antoine Griezmann pulling the strings.\n\nBut Giroud is a Deschamps favourite and knows what he brings to the team with his unselfishness and physicality up front, while he has been given more minutes this time because of the pre-tournament injury to Karim Benzema.\n\nAt the last World Cup, Giroud played all the games in their triumph in Russia, but in 546 minutes of action, he not only failed to score a goal but did not have a single shot on target.\n\nHow things can change. Giroud has scored three times already in this competition, but will be aware that his overall record may not last too long given Mbappe has already scored 33 goals for France.\n\n\"Giroud has always been an important player,\" said Deschamps. \"Four years ago he didn't score but we are seeing his quality.\n\n\"He has managed to remain mentally strong. He has broken the record by Henry, and Mbappe might beat it one day. To score so many goals at international level is a great achievement.\"\n\nFormer England defender Rio Ferdinand said on BBC One: \"You have to have the right attitude to do what Olivier Giroud does, with people saying at times he wasn't good enough.\n\n\"He is not flashy like a Kylian Mbappe with skills or pace but he knows what he's good at and he executes it well.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Mr Ramaphosa is under pressure from his own party but his spokesman said he would seek a second term as ANC leader\n\nSouth Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa will not resign despite a scandal over money stolen from his farm, his spokesman says.\n\nThe row centres on claims he kept large sums of cash on his property then covered up its theft.\n\nA panel of legal experts concluded that he has a case to answer.\n\nOn Sunday and Monday, the top leadership bodies of the African National Congress (ANC) are due to meet to decide the party's next steps.\n\nBut Mr Ramaphosa's spokesman suggested he would fight on, and rather than quit would seek a second term as leader of his African National Congress party.\n\n\"President Ramaphosa is not resigning based on a flawed report, neither is he stepping aside,\" Vincent Magwenya said.\n\n\"It may be in the long-term interest and sustainability of our constitutional democracy, well beyond the Ramaphosa presidency, that such a clearly flawed report is challenged,\" he added.\n\nThe scandal erupted in June, when a former South African spy boss, Arthur Fraser, filed a complaint with police accusing the president of hiding a theft of $4m (£3.25m) in cash from his Phala Phala game farm in 2020.\n\nMr Ramaphosa admitted that money had been stolen, but said it was $580,000, not $4m.\n\nThe president said the $580,000 had come from the sale of buffalo, but the panel, headed by a former chief justice, said it had \"substantial doubt\" about whether a sale took place.\n\nThe panel's findings have been handed to parliament, which is set to examine them and decide whether or not to launch impeachment proceedings against the president.\n\nMr Ramaphosa is also under pressure from the opposition, as well as rivals from his governing ANC, to resign.\n\nThe scandal is especially damaging for Mr Ramaphosa because he came to power vowing to clear up the corruption which had dogged the country under his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.\n\nThe ANC remains deeply divided between supporters of Mr Zuma and those who back Mr Ramaphosa.\n\nMr Ramaphosa will be challenged for the ANC's leadership by his former health minister Zweli Mkhize, who has also been accused of corruption. He denies the allegations.", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nSenegal have some very talented players but the biggest weapon the African champions will have against England on Sunday is their mindset.\n\nAliou Cisse's side are winners, and they have crossed the line twice on two huge occasions already this year.\n\nThis team did the biggest thing they can do for their country when they beat Egypt in February to win the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time, and then they followed it up a few weeks later by beating the same opposition in their play-off to reach this World Cup.\n\nSo they have a manager who is loved, and a very confident group of players.\n\nWhatever happens to them in this tournament now, they will still be celebrated, so they go into this last-16 tie with no fear of failure whatsoever - the pressure is all on England.\n\nA team who don't rely on one superstar\n\nI covered the Afcon for the BBC at the start of 2022 and it was really interesting to follow the tournament and understand the dynamics of the different African teams.\n\nI spoke a lot to Yaya Toure and his brother Kolo, who used to play for the Ivory Coast, and former Arsenal right-back Lauren, who is from Cameroon.\n\nThey explained that some of the traditionally strong teams, like Ivory Coast or Nigeria, struggled against the north African sides like Egypt, Morocco or Tunisia, because they did not have the same organisation and were more reliant on good individuals on the pitch.\n\nTo win things, you need that team ethic - you have to become an organised side is that is less reliant on one superstar and more reliant on the group.\n\nSenegal have clearly done that. Yes, they would be stronger if Bayern Munich's former Liverpool star Sadio Mane had been fit to play in Qatar, and Everton midfielder Idrissa Gueye's suspension for this game is a blow to them, but they have got players who can step up.\n\nLook down the spine of their team, starting with Eduoard Mendy in goal and his Chelsea team-mate Kalidou Koulibaly at the heart of their defence, and they have got quality and experience.\n\nI still think England will dominate the game, and have a lot more possession, but I see Senegal as a much bigger threat than anyone we have faced so far at this tournament.\n\nThe United States were dangerous because we didn't play very well whereas this Senegal team will not just look to frustrate England like Iran and Wales did, they can also cause Gareth Southgate's side problems on the counter-attack.\n\nEngland have to focus on themselves and remember they put in a really positive performance against Wales. One of the things Senegal will definitely be talking about is how to stop all of our talented players, and Gareth Southgate has to keep this momentum going.\n\nI feel like we have to get up speed now anyway, because France are probably up next in the quarter-finals if we do get through this game. That kind of allowance we had in the group stage of being able to have a bad game or even a bad half is over now we are into the knockout rounds.\n\nWe are a good enough team to bounce back from a bad first 45 minutes, especially with the options we will have on the bench, but I'd much rather we started this game like we started the second half against Wales - by trying to blow them away from the first minute.\n\nThat is what I want to see but as pundits we are torn between the prediction of what is going to happen, and what we would like to do.\n\nPersonally, I'd get Phil Foden in the team instead of Mason Mount, because I don't see what he does that Foden can't. Yes, he tracks back - but so does Foden.\n\nAnd I feel like he really has to play Marcus Rashford because, just looking at him, he is razor sharp and will strike fear into any team.\n\nI am not so sure Southgate will see things the same way, though - this could be the game where he reverts to type.\n\nI feel like he is more likely to see Rashford and Foden as game-changers from the bench and go back to the team he started the tournament with.\n\nThere is an argument for including Raheem Sterling because he has got tournament pedigree and 80-odd caps, and we are at the stage of this World Cup where you need that experience.\n\nSo I would not blame Southgate for doing that but I just think we have got a lot of players who are in good form, so why not let them go and play - and Rashford and Foden are two of them.\n\nJermaine Jenas was speaking to Chris Bevan in Doha.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Enel is increasing production of solar panels to produce electricity such as those in use at its plant in Serre, Italy\n\nIt \"will take years\" to get energy prices back to pre-Ukraine war levels, the boss of one of the world's biggest energy firms has told the BBC.\n\nEnel's Francesco Starace said bringing prices down depends on new sources of energy such as renewables and heat pumps.\n\nGovernments across Europe are spending billions helping business and households afford energy bills.\n\nThey are also scrambling to secure new supplies.\n\nMr Starace said the company, which produces and distributes electricity and gas, tried to shield its 20 million European customers from energy market volatility this year.\n\nIt did its best to stick to the fixed-price contracts it had agreed, he said.\n\nBreaking customer trust would inflict greater damage on the firm than a hit on one year's results, he said.\n\nThe Italian energy giant sells power to more than 70 million homes and businesses in over 30 countries.\n\nBut Enel is planning to leave many of those countries as it focuses on renewable energy and becoming carbon neutral by 2040.\n\nIt also wants to cut its huge debts of around $63bn (£52bn).\n\nIt is investing heavily in making solar panels as it expands an existing factory in Sicily and builds a new one in the US.\n\nEnel's Francesco Starace says that new supplies of renewable energy are key to cutting prices\n\nSoaring energy prices have been the biggest contributor to inflation and the cost of living crisis in the UK, the US and the Eurozone.\n\nThe global energy crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine \"showed very clearly how dependence on one single source of energy is dangerous for Europe\", Mr Starace said.\n\nThe future will be \"extremely decarbonised\" and depend on nuclear and renewable energy, he said.\n\nHowever, that shift to renewables also has risks.\n\nIn July, the International Energy Agency warned that China's dominance of the solar industry creates \"potential challenges that governments need to address\".\n\nMr Starace said the West has been over-reliant on China for renewables and other goods.\n\n\"Some rebalancing needs to be happening because it is unhealthy,\" he said, when asked about geopolitical tensions interfering with energy supplies.\n\nThis has helped drive Enel's investment in solar panels, although the expansion of the Sicilian factory will still meet only 10% of Europe's needs, he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPolitical leaders have also acknowledged that Europe needs to get its energy from more places.\n\nAccording to the European Council on Foreign Relations, the EU and its member states have signed 56 energy deals with 23 countries this year.\n\nAmong the latest was a 15-year deal for Germany to get liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar through a contract with ConocoPhillips.\n\nNorway is also boosting natural gas production and the world's biggest producer, the US, has been pumping out record amounts.\n\nThis means the chances of Europe repeating its dependence on Russia with another country are \"quite low\", according to Megan Richards, a former director of energy policy at the European Commission.\n\n\"A lot of work has been done\" to replace Russian energy, she added, before warning: \"I think Europe will not be completely domestically independent for a very, very long time, if ever\" even though \"renewables will increase dramatically\".\n\nYou can watch Francesco Starace's interview in full on Talking Business with Aaron Heslehurst on BBC iPlayer and on BBC World News on Sunday at 05:30 and 16:30 GMT and Monday at 08:30 GMT.", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEngland v France. It's the World Cup quarter-final some people have already started talking about. Yet there are significant hurdles to overcome first.\n\nBoth sides may face lower-ranked opposition in their last-16 ties on Sunday but this is a World Cup that has thrown up shock result after shock result. France must first overcome Poland, while England face African champions Senegal.\n\nThey may sit 13 places lower than England in the Fifa world rankings, but Senegal have a squad packed full of talent, even without injured superstar Sadio Mane.\n\n\"We know we will be favourites in terms of rankings but Senegal will be a very dangerous side,\" said England manager Gareth Southgate.\n\n\"We know many of their players who play in the Premier League and throughout Europe.\"\n\n'We need to take our chance'\n\nSenegal are the pinnacle of African football, ranking highest of all the teams on the continent and the current holders of the prestigious Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).\n\nThis is their third World Cup finals, having also qualified in 2002 when they reached the quarter-finals, and again in 2018 when they were knocked out in the group stages.\n\nBBC Africa's Babacar Diarra, said: \"I think the players are inspired by the 2002 generation with the head coach being former Birmingham and Portsmouth midfielder Aliou Cisse, the goalkeeper coach Tony Sylva and other former players close to the team like Lamine Diatta and El Hadji Diouf.\n\n\"So after dedicating the win in the Afcon to their elders, and the victory against Ecuador to Papa Bouba Diop, the first-ever Senegalese goal scorer in a World Cup, exactly two years after he died, we can say the spirit of 2002 is inspiring this current team.\n\n\"The qualification for the round of 16 was celebrated on Tuesday for several hours after the game. Now, there is trust in the team despite Mane's injury. Debates are going on about how to play against England and what could be their weak points.\"\n\nSenegal are a nation improving on the global stage with several players now featuring regularly in Europe's top leagues, including the Premier League.\n\nChelsea duo Kalidou Koulibaly and Edouard Mendy and Watford's Ismaila Sarr are among those who represent the 'Lions of Teranga', while Everton's Idrissa Gueye will miss the game because of suspension.\n\nBayern Munich forward Mane is also not playing. He was kept in Senegal's squad despite being ruled out of the tournament with a leg injury.\n\n\"We know English people. They play strong and attack well. They have a great squad. But Senegal has a chance,\" former Senegal international Alassane N'Dour told BBC Sport Africa.\n\n\"A lot of Senegal players are in the Premier League or the Championship. We know about English football.\n\n\"We deserve to be here and to play this game. We have to make sure we don't go there just to watch them play. We need to take our chance.\"\n\n'It would be a result for history'\n\nThey famously beat defending champions France in their group in 2002, as well as Sweden in the last 16.\n\nN'Dour, who was in the 2002 squad, said now was \"Africa's time\" to prove their capabilities at the World Cup.\n\n\"Africa has so many good players and talent. You cannot find a very good team without African players. We are everywhere in the top leagues,\" he added.\n\n\"It is the time for us to improve. This is the African time and especially the Senegalese time. It is time for us to come back.\"\n\nSenegal fan Ousmane, 25, told BBC Sport it would be \"the best ever result\" if they were to beat England on Sunday.\n\n\"What a moment [it would be] for Senegal. Everyone thinks England will win but why can't we win?\" said Ousmane.\n\n\"We have good players - we can beat the mighty England. It would be a result for history. The team would be heroes. We will never forget these players if we beat England.\"\n\nAmy, 23, added: \"This is one of the biggest football matches I can ever remember. The reaction at home would be crazy if we win, absolutely crazy.\"\n\nWho are the main men?\n\nExperienced Chelsea centre-back Koulibaly is the captain and Senegal's key man in defence. He has played in two World Cups and two Africa Cup of Nations finals with Senegal. He became the first Senegalese to lift the Afcon trophy, after beating Egypt in 2021, in which he scored the first penalty in the shootout. He also scored the winning goal in Senegal's vital group-stage victory over Ecuador on Tuesday.\n\nDia is a forward at Italian Serie A side Salernitana, on loan from Villarreal. He has started all three of Senegal's group matches at the World Cup and scored in the 3-1 win over Qatar. In Mane's absence, he has stepped up as the main striker and has been a handful so far in the competition.\n\nRB Leipzig centre-back Abdou Diallo, on loan from Paris St-Germain, has built a strong partnership with Koulibaly since making his debut for Senegal in March last year. In their World Cup qualifying group, Senegal conceded just four goals in six matches. However, they are yet to keep a clean sheet in Qatar.\n\n'Senegal have nothing to fear' - analysis\n\nSadly for the African Champions, England won't be facing the strongest possible version of Senegal. That will make a huge difference.\n\nAs well as the high profile absence of their star man and major attacking threat Mane, their midfield driving force Idrissa Gana Gueye will be missing due to suspension on what should've been his 100th appearance.\n\nBut without these key players, can Senegal still cause problems for England? Without a doubt.\n\nThe two full-backs who have stepped in - Youssouf Sabaly and Ismail Jakobs - have had a very good tournament so far, looking strong defensively but also offering a threat going forward.\n\nThe major attacking dangers are in the wide areas. I've always felt this Senegal team really misses a top-class number nine and goalscoring has been a problem even with Mane fit, but Boulaye Dia is proving to be a handful at this tournament.\n\nSenegal are at their best on the front foot. When they've looked ponderous, trying to drop deep to hold on to a lead or clean sheet, such as in the second half against Ecuador, they have paid the price.\n\nLike any international manager, Senegal's Aliou Cisse has taken some criticism since taking over in 2015 for his tactics but you can't question his record. He led them to the Africa Cup of Nations title and two World Cup qualifications - now a place in the last 16 for the first time since 2002, when he was the captain.\n\nHis calm, composed demeanour in the dressing room and the technical area seems to rub off on his players and he gives them real belief. The hangover from the awful Mane injury news has long gone, and they have been improving with every game in Qatar.\n\nEngland are favourites but after a wonderful 2022 so far, Cisse and Senegal will feel they have nothing to fear.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The head of the police watchdog has been forced to resign after becoming the subject of a police investigation, Home Secretary Suella Braverman says.\n\nIndependent Office for Police Conduct director general Michael Lockwood said on Friday that he was resigning for \"personal and domestic reasons\".\n\nBut on Saturday the home secretary said she had taken action after learning of the probe into a historical allegation.\n\nMr Lockwood was asked to either resign or be suspended, Ms Braverman said.\n\nShe said she had accepted the resignation, which came into immediate effect. No further information about the nature of the allegation was given.\n\nHome Office staff are now working with the IOPC to \"put in place temporary arrangements for the organisation's leadership\", Ms Braverman added.\n\nThe home secretary said in a statement: \"I took immediate action upon being made aware that Mr Lockwood was the subject of a police investigation... and instructed my officials to ask him to resign or face immediate suspension from his role.\"\n\nMr Lockwood was the first person appointed to lead the IOPC when it replaced the Independent Police Complaints Commission in 2018.\n\nIt handles the most serious complaints against police in England and Wales.\n\nIn his statement on Friday, Mr Lockwood said he was resigning with \"great sadness\", adding that it had been an \"enormous privilege\" to serve as the organisation's first director general.\n\nHe was previously chief executive of the London Borough of Harrow, north-west London.\n\nAfter the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, Mr Lockwood was asked by a government task force to lead the recovery and remediation work and liaise with the bereaved families and survivors, according to the IOPC website.\n\nA qualified accountant, he has also worked in central government at the National Audit Office, and for the Local Government Association as executive director for local government finance and policy.", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nJordan Henderson's sweeping finish was not simply the pivotal moment in England's World Cup win over Senegal but a vindication of manager Gareth Southgate's sure touch in team selection.\n\nHenderson has been a lightning conductor for critics ready to poke at Southgate's perceived conservatism, but if one pick showed the England boss' priceless ability to shut out the noise and focus on the requirements of tournament football, it was his decision to stick with Liverpool's 32-year-old captain in midfield.\n\nNeedless to say, the court of social media opinion was vociferous in its condemnation of the choice before the game, but Southgate is impervious to such outside influence and Henderson was central to a 3-0 victory that sets up a quarter-final against reigning champions France on Saturday.\n\nWhen England were struggling against the United States in the group stage, Southgate ignored those of us who felt Manchester City's Phil Foden was the answer and called on Henderson to restore control with his vast experience. He did the job - then did it again in the 3-0 victory that sent Wales home as the Three Lions topped their group.\n\nHenderson may lack the so-called X factor of many of those around him in England's squad, but as old Liverpool manager Bob Paisley used to say: \"You need somebody to carry the piano before anyone else can play it.\"\n\nThis is a quality and team ethic Southgate recognises in Henderson, and why he will start again against France. The manner in which he, Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice combine in midfield now looks an unbreakable link.\n\nSouthgate said: \"Jordan has been outstanding. He's such a leader. He knits the team together and around the camp he's brilliant. His performances have been top drawer.\"\n\nHenderson's game intelligence does indeed allow those such as Bellingham to flourish and it was significant that the 19-year-old pointed at his more experienced team-mate to demand applause and recognition after they combined for England's first goal.\n• None 'He will be best midfielder in world' - 'breathtaking' Bellingham stars\n\nFormer England defender Matthew Upson told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"Henderson is the one selection up for debate - but not now. The midfield three in this match has been the standout for me. Henderson arrived in the box all the time and he had the freedom to do that knowing Declan Rice was behind him.\"\n\nBellingham said: \"He was brilliant. I have seen some of the rubbish about him playing. It's ridiculous. He is so underrated technically. He delivered in a big game with a massive goal. I think it's time he gets a bit of respect.\"\n\nFoden, another of England's young brigade, added: \"Jordan is massive. When someone is not doing something right on the pitch he is quick to tell you off. I don't mind that. He is a leader and a captain of his club and has that in his locker.\"\n\nHenderson's inclusion was one element of a Southgate team selection that drew plenty of comment at Al Bayt Stadium when the team was announced, but those of us who raised an eyebrow - perhaps even two - must accept he got it absolutely spot on.\n\nAnd respect, too, has to go to Southgate for once again showing a singularity of purpose to stick to what he believed would get the right result.\n\nMarcus Rashford's two goals against Wales might have persuaded other managers to make the populist choice and pick the Manchester United forward, but he went back to the bench and Arsenal's Bukayo Saka returned. Foden also kept his place with Raheem Sterling absent dealing with the aftermath of a break-in at his family home in London.\n\nFoden made two goals. Saka scored one. Southgate got it right.\n\nSouthgate is now experienced in the art of tournament management after reaching the World Cup semi-finals in 2018 and the Euro 2020 final. When they ran out of momentum and were relegated from their Uefa Nations League group, Southgate revealed he had thought about these struggles and decided it was time to be ruthless.\n\nThis is reflected in the teams he is picking. He is shutting out the noise from elsewhere and building his team through the tournament, and that measured approach is producing a group growing in threat.\n\nEngland's midfield triumvirate of Henderson, Rice and Bellingham looks perfectly balanced, with the front trio of captain Harry Kane - now only one behind Wayne Rooney's international record of 53 following his goal here - is the ideal fulcrum for Foden and Saka in the wide positions.\n\nIt is a telling statistic that England's 12 goals in four games at this World Cup have been scored by eight players as Southgate manoeuvres his squad expertly.\n\nThe England manager now faces another selection conundrum before meeting France, with Kylian Mbappe in sensational form and no doubt noting Harry Maguire's early struggles against Senegal's pace.\n\nWill Southgate risk upsetting the fine balance he has achieved in this England side by bringing in an extra defender, using three at the back as insurance and entrusting the pace of Kyle Walker to somehow subdue the jet-heeled Mbappe?\n\nThe smart money must surely be on England naming an unchanged side after this comprehensive victory.\n\nIt is another pressure point for Southgate and his staff but the reassuring fact for England's fans is that he got the big selection calls right against Senegal. He must be entrusted to do the same again come Saturday night.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nBrazil great Pele says he is \"strong with a lot of hope\" as he undergoes treatment in hospital in Sao Paulo.\n\nIn a statement released on Saturday he said messages of support as well as watching Brazil at the World Cup had given him \"energy\".\n\nEarlier the hospital had said he was \"still undergoing treatment and remains stable\".\n\nIt follows a report in Brazil that he was beginning end-of-life care after not responding to chemotherapy.\n\n\"My friends, I want to keep everyone calm and positive,\" he said in a statement on Instagram .\n\n\"I'm strong, with a lot of hope and I follow my treatment as usual. I want to thank the entire medical and nursing team for all the care I have received.\n\n\"I have a lot of faith in God and every message of love I receive from you all over the world keeps me full of energy. And watching Brazil in the World Cup too!\n\n\"Thank you so much for everything.\"\n\nThe 82-year-old three-time World Cup winner has been in hospital since Tuesday, and on Thursday night he said it was a \"routine monthly visit\".\n\nHe had a tumour removed from his colon in September 2021.\n\nThe statement from the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein on Saturday said Pele \"had a good response to treatment for respiratory infection care\". It added he was undergoing a \"reassessment of chemotherapy treatment\".\n\nThe legendary forward was diagnosed with a respiratory infection and on Friday the hospital had said he was in a stable condition.\n\nOn Saturday, the new statement said his condition has not worsened in the last 24 hours.\n\nMeanwhile, messages of support have been sent from across the world.\n\nSpeaking on Saturday, England captain Harry Kane said: \"We are very sad to hear news of him being ill but we wish him well, not just me but the whole England set-up. He's an inspiration, an incredible person.\"\n\nWorld Cup-winning former Germany forward Jurgen Klinsmann, speaking on BBC One's World Cup coverage on Saturday, said: \"Pele is just such a wonderful person. The outstanding personality of world football. We can just pray and hope for the best.\"\n\nFormer Argentina defender Pablo Zabaleta added on BBC One: \"It's very sad news to hear about Pele. He's been a true inspiration for all of us, on and off the pitch. He's always been a great man.\"\n\nWorld Cup host nation Qatar showed its support for Pele on Saturday, lighting up buildings with a \"Get well soon\" message.\n\nThe Lusail Stadium in Doha, which will host the World Cup final on 18 December, and the Aspire Tower next to the Khalifa Stadium, were adorned with pictures of Pele in his famous number 10 shirt.\n\nConcerns were initially raised on Wednesday when ESPN Brasil reported Pele had been admitted, with his daughter Kely Nascimento saying there was \"no emergency\" involved.\n\nPele thanked well-wishers on Friday for sending \"good vibes\" and said his stay in hospital was \"a routine visit\".\n\nThe former striker is Brazil's all-time leading scorer with 77 goals in 92 games and scored in four World Cup tournaments.\n\nSantos, his only Brazilian club, tweeted: \"It's the whole world wishing you well, King Pele\".\n• None Pele and 1970: How the greatest player of all time cemented his legend", "Widespread disruption is expected at Scottish secondary schools next week as more teachers strike over pay.\n\nMembers of the SSTA and NASUWT unions will walk out on either Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the area they are in.\n\nAll secondary schools in East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire and Scottish Borders will be closed as a result.\n\nThe impact varies in other council areas, with some closing all secondary schools to younger pupils.\n\nOthers are taking a decision on closures on a school-by-school basis. Some primary schools will also be affected.\n\nLocal authorities and schools have begun contacting parents to confirm any school closures.\n\nThe strike is part of an ongoing dispute over teachers' pay.\n\nIndustrial action by members of EIS last week led to the closure of almost every school in Scotland.\n\nThe latest pay offer from the Scottish government was formally rejected on Wednesday.\n\nTeachers' unions were being offered a rise of between 5% and 6.85% but they want 10%. Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville says the 10% demand is \"unaffordable\".\n\nThe Teachers' Panel of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT), the negotiating forum for teachers' pay in Scotland, said the Scottish government's offer was \"wholly unacceptable to Scotland's teachers\".\n\nThe SSTA and NASUWT have far fewer members than the EIS which represents about 80% of teachers, so schools are able to stay open in some capacity.\n\nHowever, about a third of Scotland's councils have now said they expect significant disruption.\n\nA pattern is emerging as schools and councils work out the likely impact of next week's strike.\n\nThe exact impact will vary from school to school and council to council depending on how many teachers are in the SSTA and NASUWT unions.\n\nBut schools are prioritising senior students who are studying for qualifications. Where possible, schools will still be open for them.\n\nYounger secondary pupils in many areas face an unplanned day off.\n\nThis could well mean parents will have to work from home or take time off work.\n\nNationally, the impact of the strike will not be as great as that of last week's action by the EIS which represents 4 out of 5 teachers.\n\nBut if the action goes ahead it will still be a massive day of disruption for secondary schools.\n\nThu 8 Dec - Secondary schools will be closed to pupils in S1-S4.\n\nThu 8 Dec - Where possible, all schools will remain open but the industrial action will affect each school in different ways. This means the closure or partial closure of some schools and disrupted timetables in others. Parents ill be notified by their schools.\n\nThu 8 Dec - Only secondary schools will be affected. Arrangements will be confirmed by schools.\n\nWed 7 Dec - One secondary school closed to all pupils. Arrangements for others to be confirmed.\n\nWed 7 Dec - Secondaries will be open to all students but there may be some disruption to classes.\n\nWed 7 Dec - There will be some disruption to classes in secondary schools. Each school will write to parent/carers directly with the arrangements for their school.\n\nThu 8 Dec - All secondary schools will be open only to S5 and S6 pupils. Individual secondary schools may have some S4 pupils attending where staffing allows. Contact will be made with families by schools.\n\nWed 7 Dec - All secondary schools and three primaries will be closed.\n\nThu 8 Dec - All secondary schools will be closed to S1-S3 students. One will be closed to all students. The other four will be open to some senior students but the details vary between schools.\n\nWed 7 Dec - All secondary schools closed to S1, S2 and S3 pupils.\n\nThu 8 Dec - Around 10% of teachers are expected to strike. Some secondary schools will be closed or partially closed. More information will be provided to parents by their schools as soon as possible.\n\nThu 8 Dec - The council is planning to open all schools but education provision and delivery will be restricted in line with the number of teachers participating in the strike. Head teachers will advise.\n\nFull details have still to be confirmed. Glasgow hopes secondary schools will be open for S4, S5 and S6 students but some may be closed to S1, S2 and S3 students.\n\nWed 7 Dec - Parents will be notified of the impact of the industrial action. So far, no complete or partial closures of secondary schools have been announced\n\nWed 7 Dec - Four of its seven secondaries will only be open to S4, S5 and S6 pupils next Wednesday. The other three will be open to all students.\n\nThu 8 Dec - All secondary schools will be closed.\n\nThu 8 Dec - All Moray secondary schools will be closed to S1-3 pupils with variable arrangements in place for young people in S4-6, depending on staff availability. Head teachers will inform families directly of their individual arrangements over the coming days\n\nWed 7 Dec - Some primary school classes may be affected and parents/carers will be notified. Secondary schools are more complex and parents will be updated on arrangements.\n\nThu Dec 8 - All secondary schools except Pitlochry High School will be closed to pupils in S1-S4. S5 and S6 pupils should attend school as normal.\n\nWed 7 Dec - Five of eight secondary schools will be closed to pupils. Two will be open to S4, S5 and S6 students.\n\nThu 8 Dec - Some year groups will be able to attend and schools will notify pupils, parents and carers. Bannockburn High School will be open to all pupils in S1 to S6.\n\nSecondaries will be open to all students but there may be some disruption to classes.", "Nadeem Zahawi goes on to talk about immigration. He says: \"Dealing with illegal small boats is the real issue that we have to deal with. We need to break the business model of those small gangs and increase the number of patrols.\n\n\"They've already turned back about 30,000 people but we need to do much better. As we did on the vaccine, we saved the country.\"\n\nKuenssberg asks Zahawi about the government confronting the wave of strikes coming.\n\nZahawi responds and reflects on Russian President Vladimir Putin's role with the Ukraine war and its impact on inflation.\n\n\"President Putin has used energy as a weapon, he knows it's a weapon. The bulk of inflation, at 11%, is because of energy.\"\n\nAsked about the impact of long-term pressures on public sector pay and the NHS, Zahawi says: \"If we allow inflation to be embedded we hurt the most vulnerable. We need to be disciplined about public and private sector pay.\"\n\nZahawi goes on to talk about nurses strikes and acknowledges that the public sector review bodies recommended a £1,400 increase.\n\n\"The nurses union is asking for 19%, that would cost the NHS £10bn,\" he says, adding that it is money which should be put on the NHS front line.\n\nKuenssberg asks Zahawi what the government is doing about the strikes.\n\nHe responds: \"We are operationalising contingency plans with a surge capacity to make sure people are protected. It's unfair for the unions to damage people's lives and Christmasses. Let's not divide let's come together.\"", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nLionel Messi produced a moment of magic on his 1,000th career appearance as two-time champions Argentina beat Australia to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.\n\nMessi, 35, was winning his 169th cap for his country and they needed his brilliance to take them through to the next round and a tantalising tie against the Netherlands on Friday.\n\nArgentina had barely threatened in the first half but Paris St-Germain's Messi stroked in a delightful low finish to spark wild celebrations from their fans.\n\nIt was his 789th career goal, 94 of those coming for Argentina, and Messi is now the joint top goalscorer in Qatar.\n\nThe South American supporters had been on their feet singing all game and they had further delight when Julian Alvarez punished Mat Ryan's mistake to double their advantage.\n\nAustralia had offered very little but surprisingly pulled one back with 13 minutes remaining when substitute Craig Goodwin's strike took a huge deflection off Enzo Fernandez.\n\nThey could have levelled shortly after through Aziz Behich, whose incredible solo run took him past four players, but his shot was superbly blocked by Lisandro Martinez's sliding challenge as Argentina edged through.\n\nAustralia frustrated Argentina for 35 minutes, sitting deep and compact, allowing no space in behind - Alejandro Gomez's wild shot that flew way over was the only sniff they had.\n\nBut every time Messi got his left boot on the ball there was a buzz of excitement in the stadium, sharp intakes of breath anticipating something special.\n\nAnd the little magician showcased exactly why he is considered one of the greatest of all time in his landmark game, starting and finishing a move that had blue and white shirts dancing in the stands.\n\nMessi saw a free-kick from the left cleared but Argentina recycled the ball, Brighton's Alexis Mac Allister fizzing a pass into Nicolas Otamendi, who laid it off for Messi to take a touch to set himself before caressing a precise finish into the bottom corner.\n\nArms outstretched, Messi ran away to celebrate in front of his adoring faithful after converting his ninth World Cup goal - remarkably his first in a knockout-stage match - to move just one behind Gabriel Batistuta's Argentina record.\n\nA trademark jinking run then came to nothing, but thrilled those watching, who broke out with chants of \"Messi, Messi, Messi\".\n\nHe could have drawn level - or even surpassed Batistuta - in the second half, but slipped at the vital moment to scuff a shot straight at Ryan and fired another two efforts off target.\n\nRyan, the former Brighton keeper, had a moment to forget on his 10th World Cup appearance - the joint most for his country - when he took a heavy touch from a back-pass, allowing Manchester City's Alvarez to nip in, spin and score into an open net.\n\nFollowing their group-stage heroics, Australia were looking to spring another surprise and had hope courtesy of Goodwin's 20-yard drive that took a fortuitous deflection with 13 minutes remaining.\n\nThey could have taken the game to extra time when full-back Behich embarked on a mazy run to beat numerous defenders, but Martinez reacted in the nick of time.\n\nAn even better chance fell to the Socceroos in the 97th minute when Garang Kuol brought the ball down in the area but his shot on the turn was well kept out by Emiliano Martinez's reflex save.\n• None Attempt saved. Garang Kuol (Australia) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Craig Goodwin.\n• None Attempt missed. Lionel Messi (Argentina) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right.\n• None Attempt saved. Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Lionel Messi.\n• None Attempt blocked. Lionel Messi (Argentina) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Exequiel Palacios.\n• None Attempt blocked. Exequiel Palacios (Argentina) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt missed. Lionel Messi (Argentina) left footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses the top left corner. Assisted by Rodrigo De Paul.\n• None Attempt saved. Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Lionel Messi.\n• None Attempt missed. Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) right footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Lionel Messi following a fast break.\n• None Attempt missed. Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Rodrigo De Paul.\n• None Offside, Argentina. Exequiel Palacios tries a through ball, but Lionel Messi is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Ajdin Hrustic (Australia) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe family villa of Elnaz Rekabi - an Iranian climber who competed abroad with her hair uncovered - has reportedly been demolished.\n\nMs Rekabi, 33, broke Iran's mandatory dress code at the contest in South Korea - but later said her headscarf had fallen off \"inadvertently\".\n\nThe BBC was told her apology was forced.\n\nOpposition to the headscarf has fuelled protests that have swept Iran, with the climber being hailed as a hero.\n\nA video showing the ruins of a house with sports medals on the ground started circulating this week.\n\nDavood - Elnaz Rekabi's brother and also a top athlete - is seen crying in the video.\n\nAnti-government activists denounced it as an act of revenge against Ms Rekabi - although it is not clear when the footage was shot.\n\nNow, the semi-official Tasnim news agency has confirmed that the house has been demolished, but says this was due to the family not having a valid permit for its construction.\n\nIt said all this took place before Ms Rekabi competed without a headscarf in October.\n\nWomen in Iran are required to cover their hair with a headscarf, or hijab, and their arms and legs with loose clothing. Female athletes must also abide by the dress code when they are officially representing Iran in competitions abroad.\n\nA large crowd greeted Ms Rekabi at Tehran airport after the competition in South Korea, calling her a \"heroine\". She arrived at the airport without a headscarf, covering her hair with a black baseball cap and hoodie.\n\nThe next day she met the Iranian sports minister with the same clothes on, which raised suspicion that she had not been home during that time.\n\nThe source said Ms Rekabi was detained in a room at Iran's National Olympic Committee building with plainclothes agents present until she met the minister.\n\nThe day before returning to Iran, a post on Ms Rekabi's Instagram account apologised for \"getting everybody worried\".\n\n\"Due to bad timing, and the unanticipated call for me to climb the wall, my head covering inadvertently came off,\" it explained.\n\nHowever, the source said that authorities threatened to take her family's property if she did not make the statement.\n\nMeanwhile, a prominent Iranian film actress, Mitra Hajjar, has reportedly been released on bail after being arrested by Iranian authorities attempting to stem anti-government protests.\n\nA government critic for several years, Ms Hajjar previously condemned the execution of activist Ruhollah Zam, who documented online the mass demonstrations in 2019.", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEngland boss Gareth Southgate praised his side's \"ruthless\" victory against Senegal that has set up an \"acid test\" game against defending champions France in the World Cup quarter-finals.\n\nSouthgate said facing the two-time world champions will be a \"great challenge\" for the Three Lions.\n\n\"We know this is a step up from what we've had so far,\" said Southgate after Sunday's 3-0 win over Senegal.\n\n\"But the team have garnered so much experience in the last few years, they're playing with confidence and we look threatening.\n\n\"We're scoring goals and another clean sheet is lovely to see. We're in a good place but we know the level of the opposition as well.\"\n• None How to follow England quarter-final with France\n• None Reaction to England's last 16 win over Senegal\n\nEngland were nervy in the opening 30 minutes of their match against Senegal but Jordan Henderson's opener put them in control.\n\n\"I was pleased with the ruthlessness of our execution, the progress they are making is phenomenal,\" Southgate told BBC Radio 5 Live.\n\n\"The team made a very complicated game tonight look straightforward. It wasn't the case but because of the mentality and attitude we made it look that way.\"\n\nThis is the first time England have won a knockout game at three consecutive major tournaments after they reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2018 and the final of Euro 2020.\n\nBut what is arguably England's toughest challenge yet under Southgate is one that he is relishing.\n\n\"It couldn't be more exciting. France are the biggest test we could face. World champions, incredible depth of players and very difficult to score goals. A fantastic challenge,\" said Southgate.\n\nThe Netherlands will take on Argentina in the other quarter-final that has been decided so far and Southgate expressed his excitement over having two quarter-finals between historic footballing nations.\n\n\"The two quarter-finals are fantastic historic rivalries. Our history is not quite as good as the others' by the way, but we're really pleased. It's a brilliant game for us to be involved,\" he said.\n\nKylian Mbappe put on a masterclass and Olivier Giroud became France's all-time leading goalscorer in Les Bleus' 3-1 victory over Poland, as and France showed that, despite the losses of Karim Benzema and Paul Pogba before the tournament, they remain a potent force.\n\n\"Mbappe is a world-class player, [Antoine] Griezmann is a phenomenal player, we know Giroud well. They have outstanding midfield players. Everywhere you look, they have incredible depth of talent,\" said Southgate.\n\nSaturday's match will mark the first time England have faced France at a World Cup in 40 years, the two sides having last met at the 1982 tournament in Spain when England ran out 3-1 winners after Bryan Robson put them ahead after just 27 seconds.\n\nEngland captain Harry Kane said he is expecting a \"tough battle\" against France after he scored his first goal of the tournament on Sunday.\n\n\"Knockout games are never easy. We have shown great maturity throughout the tournament,\" said Kane.\n\n\"Mentality was top from the beginning. Another knockout win, over the years they have not been easy for England but we have a great mixture of youth and experience now.\n\n\"We will enjoy this one, but then our focus turns to that [France game]. It will be a really tough battle. If you are going to win the World Cup you have to play the best teams and France are up there.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Talks aimed at averting train strikes before Christmas are expected to continue on Monday, after the RMT union rejected an initial offer by the group representing train companies.\n\nThe latest round of strikes by union members at 14 train firms and Network Rail is due to begin in eight days.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said its offer would allow for a 4% pay rise this year and another 4% next year.\n\nBut the RMT said the offer did not meet its criteria for pay or conditions.\n\nIndustrial action is currently due to take place across four 48-hour periods: 13-14 December, 16-17 December, 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nIndustry sources have said that if the strikes are to be called off, this needs to happen by the end of Monday to avoid disruption for passengers.\n\nThe RDG - which represents the 14 train operators - set out a number of proposed changes to working practices which it said would help to fund a pay rise for staff of 4% this year, backdated to the beginning of the financial year, followed by another 4% next year.\n\nThese include repurposing or closing ticket offices, with staff having new \"multi-skilled\" roles and Sunday working where it is not in place already.\n\nOther proposals by the RDG to \"secure the future of the industry\" included drivers operating the train doors in more areas, although it insists guards would be still be on board.\n\nThe group also proposed the use of part-time contracts and flexible working patterns, which it said would help bring in a more diverse workforce who could fit in shifts around other commitments. There would be a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies until April 2024 too.\n\nThe RDG called on the union to avoid \"upsetting the travel plans of millions and cause real hardship for businesses which depend on Christmas custom\".\n\nHowever, the RMT union's general secretary Mick Lynch said the proposals would not be acceptable to its members.\n\n\"We have rejected this offer as it does not meet any of our criteria for securing a settlement on long-term job security, a decent pay rise and protecting working conditions,\" he said.\n\nMr Lynch added that if the plan was implemented, it would \"not only mean the loss of thousands of jobs\" because of the closure of ticket offices, for example, but also the use of \"unsafe practices\" like driver-only operated trains.\n\nHowever, the RDG said driver-only operated trains were already used on 45% of services and \"will not compromise passenger safety\".\n\nHow will the strikes affect you? Share your experiences.\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper described the RMT's rejection as \"incredibly disappointing\".\n\nHe added the government would continue to play its part in facilitating talks between the unions and employers.\n\nJohn Junior, who regularly takes the train from Manchester to London, said he was planning to visit friends in the capital on 17 December but is now considering other options.\n\n\"Everyone has the right to go on strike but not over the festive period. That's disgraceful. It's more stress on everyone,\" the IT consultant said.\n\nThe 34-year-old said he believes rail workers deserve a pay rise, but said the strikes made him worry a bit about the reliability of booking trains, having been hit by disruption on the Avanti West Coast line.\n\n\"Something needs to be done. I think the government needs to step in,\" he added.\n\nThe RDG offer is separate to negotiations with Network Rail, which maintains the railways throughout Britain and employs signallers and maintenance workers - about half of the workers in the dispute.\n\nOn Sunday, Network Rail made what it described as its \"best and final\" offer to its staff, which included a 5% pay rise this year and 4% next year, and no compulsory redundancies for workers in its general grades and controllers until 31 January 2025.\n\nThe RMT's national executive committee will consider Network Rail's proposal on Monday.\n\nThe rail industry is not the only sector to face strike action, and more workers are expected to walk out this month, as demands grow for better working conditions and pay increases in line with rising prices.\n\nRoyal Mail is set to be hit by a series of one-day strikes in December, and as a result it has asked people to post Christmas mail earlier than usual.\n\nHospitality bosses have raised concerns that if rail strikes go ahead in the upcoming weeks, pubs, restaurants and cafes will be severely affected during what is usually the busiest time of the year.\n\nUK Hospitality recently warned that the strike action will cost the sector about £1.5bn in lost sales.\n\nSome 40,000 workers are expected to walk out and there is likely to be disruption in the days around the strikes due to trains not being in the right places.\n\nThe rail industry is under pressure to save money after the pandemic left a hole in its finances, and bosses say reforms are needed to modernise the railway and make pay rises affordable.\n\nThe RDG said there would be opportunities for redeployment and voluntary redundancy programmes for those rail workers who wished to leave.\n\nThe proposals it set out would have had to go to local representatives for approval.", "Russia is consolidating its military presence in the captured port city of Mariupol by constructing a large army facility, satellite photos released from the Earth observation company Maxar appear to show.\n\nThe new, U-shaped compound sits near the centre of the city. On its roof, the red, white and blue star of the Russian army can be seen, with letters reading: \"For the people of Mariupol.\"\n\nMaxar says the building appears to be a military facility. However the BBC is unable to verify this or confirm what the new building is being used for.\n\nThe newly constructed Russian building in Mariupol suggests Russia is seeking to dig in in the city\n\nMoscow's forces laid siege to the city for almost three months earlier this year, and constant artillery barrages left much of it in ruins.\n\nUkrainian officials estimated last month that some 25,000 civilians were killed in the strikes, while the UN said it had confirmed the deaths of 1,348 civilians, but said the true death toll was \"likely thousands higher\".\n\nImages of the city's graveyard appear to show it being extended. Russian troops have reportedly been removing dead bodies from destroyed buildings in recent months and taking them away for burial. Last month, an analysis of images obtained by BBC Panorama suggested 1,500 new graves have been dug at the cemetery.\n\nPhotos of the Mariupol cemetery taken in March 2022\n\nImages of the cemetery taken in November show new graves being dug in the right foreground and the left foreground\n\nA large protective screen has also been erected around the remains of the city's theatre, where hundreds of people are believed to have died after Russian forces targeted it in a missile strike on 18 March. The attack - which Amnesty International called \"clear war crime\" by Russia - left the site in ruins.\n\nThe remains of the Mariupol theatre after a missile strike in March\n\nIn new images, a large screen can be seen around the theatre\n\nUkrainian officials estimate that up to 90% of the city's infrastructure was left in ruins by the Russian bombardment, and the new images suggest that Moscow has started to demolish many of the residential buildings that were left beyond repair.\n\nResidential buildings after being targeted by Russian strikes in March\n\nThe new images show the damaged buildings have been demolished in anticipation of reconstruction\n\nOther images show huge amounts of building supplies at the city shopping centre. During the Russian bombardment of Mariupol, many civilians could be seen waiting outside the centre for food and other necessities.\n\nThe images come amid reports that Russia is slowly building up its defensive positions in Mariupol, as Ukrainian counteroffensives in the south and east increasingly put the city under threat.\n\nLast month, UK defence officials said the Russian military was using two plants in occupied Mariupol to produce large numbers of \"dragon's teeth\" - concrete blocks designed to slow advancing enemy armour and other vehicles.\n\nThe city is strategically important for Russia, forming part of its \"land bridge\" linking Russia to annexed Crimea.", "The EU must address \"distortions\" created by a $430bn (£349bn) US plan to incentivise climate-friendly technologies, the bloc's chief says.\n\nSome EU members have criticised the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), raising fears of a trade war.\n\nThere are concerns that tax breaks may lure away EU businesses and disadvantage European companies.\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU should \"adjust our own rules\".\n\n\"Competition is good ... but this competition must respect a level playing field,\" she said during a speech in Belgium.\n\nUnder the IRA, American consumers will get incentives to purchase new and second-hand electric cars, to warm their homes with heat pumps and even to cook their food using electric induction.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has called it the most \"aggressive action\" his country has taken to tackle the climate crisis.\n\nBut European allies perceive it as anti-competitive and a threat to European jobs, especially in the energy and auto sectors.\n\nMs von der Leyen said the EU had to work with the US \"to address some of the most concerning aspects of the law\".\n\nShe added that the EU must also \"adjust\" its own rules on state aid to spur public investment in the environmental transition.\n\nThe new legislation was raised during French President Emmanuel Macron's trip to Washington to meet Mr Biden this week.\n\nThe US president said there could be \"tweaks\" made to make it easier for European firms to benefit from the subsidies package.\n\n\"I never intended to exclude folks who were cooperating with us. That was not the intention,\" Mr Biden said.\n\n\"We're back in business, Europe is back in business. And we are going to continue to create manufacturing jobs in America, but not at the expense of Europe.\"\n\nIn an interview with the BBC's US partner CBS News released on Sunday, Mr Macron said the issue was \"fixable\", and his discussion with Mr Biden was \"frank and fruitful\".\n\nHe said weakening Europe's industry was \"not the interest of the U.S. administration and even the U.S. society\".", "The Gladak Perak bridge, rebuilt after last year's eruption, was badly damaged\n\nIndonesia's Mount Semeru volcano has erupted, sending ash billowing into the sky and sparking evacuations on the country's main island, Java.\n\nAuthorities raised the volcano's warning status to the highest level, meaning its activity had escalated.\n\nNo injuries have been reported but nearly 2,000 people were evacuated from the area around the volcano.\n\nPeople have been urged to keep at least 8 km (5 miles) away, as \"hot avalanches\" of lava poured from Semeru.\n\nThe increased threat level from three to four also means the danger threatens people's homes, a spokesman for Indonesia's Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG) told a national broadcaster.\n\nThe organisation said a bridge being rebuilt after a previous eruption had been badly damaged.\n\nVolcanic ash mixed with monsoon rain was falling on nearby villages and 1,969 people, including children and seniors, had been evacuated, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said.\n\nAt least six villages had been affected, it added.\n\nResidents of six villages were evacuated by rescuers\n\nVideos of the event showed the sky turning black as a massive plume of ash blocked the sunlight.\n\nJapan issued a tsunami warning for its southernmost islands after the eruption, but meteorologists said no tidal changes had been observed.\n\nMount Semeru, in East Java province, began erupting at about 02:46 local time (19:46 GMT), authorities said.\n\nIndonesia sits on the Pacific \"Ring of Fire\" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent volcanic activity as well as earthquakes.\n\nSemeru - also known as \"The Great Mountain\" - is the highest volcano in Java at 3,676m (12,060ft) and one of the most active. Its last erupted exactly one year ago, killing at least 50 people and leaving streets filled with mud and ash.\n\nThe eruption also follows a series of earthquakes on the west of Java island, located about 640 km (400 miles) east of Indonesia's capital Jakarta, including one last month that killed more than 300 people.", "It is unclear how the seals died, but authorities say it is likely due to natural causes\n\nAbout 2,500 seals have been found dead on the Caspian Sea coast in southern Russia, officials say.\n\nOfficials say there is no sign that they died violent deaths.\n\nSome 700 dead seals were initially reported, but further investigation has revealed a much higher number and counting continues.\n\nCaspian seals have been classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list since 2008.\n\nZaur Gapizov, head of the Caspian Environmental Protection Center, said in a statement that the seals probably died about two weeks ago.\n\nThere is no evidence to suggest the animals were killed or caught in fishing nets, he said.\n\nThe Dagestan region's ministry of natural resources and environment wrote on Telegram that a large number had been found between the mouths of two rivers, the Sulak and the Shurinka.\n\nExperts have collected samples from the seals and the ministry said reasons for the deaths will be established when lab results come back.\n\nThe seal population of the Caspian Sea has dwindled drastically over the decades from over-hunting and industrial pollution.\n\nThe Caspian Environmental Protection Center puts the number now at just 70,000, down from more than one million around a century ago.", "Shoppers feeling festive at the Cardiff Christmas Market this year\n\nChristmas market stall holders fear their profit margins will be badly hit this year as their goods are costing far more to produce.\n\nStall holders at Cardiff Christmas market will be selling produce until 23 December.\n\nAfter surviving Covid, traders are now faced with a rise in their costs because of the cost of living crisis.\n\nHowever, some stall holders remain optimistic and said they were grateful for shoppers' support.\n\nEmily Becketts, owner of Boozie Brownie Co, based in Herefordshire, has a stall at Cardiff Christmas market for the second time.\n\nShe started her business in lockdown after leaving her job in a bakery.\n\n\"I am starting to notice that people are less likely to buy my brownies this year with the cost of living rising,\" she said.\n\n\"People are still responding well to the brownies and are enjoying my free samples, but they don't seem to be buying them.\"\n\nEmily Becketts explained that some of the ingredients she uses have gone up by 45%\n\nMs Becketts said her online sales had dropped since Covid so has started selling her products at more events.\n\nShe also recently bought a converted horse trailer to travel to music festivals to create more business.\n\nThe chocolate, butter and eggs she uses for her brownies have gone up by 45% in the past two years.\n\n\"The industrial oven I use costs me £12 in electric a day and I had a warning in my last bill that my electricity usage had doubled since last year,\" she said.\n\n\"This left me with no other option but to increase my prices from £2.50 a brownie last year to now £3.\n\n\"I'm just hoping my sales will be as good this year as they were last year.\"\n\nAnother stall holder, Emily Morgan, created her luxury tea business after leaving her job as a teacher in 2017.\n\nThe business owner from Porthcawl, Bridgend county, said: \"I have noticed that there's been a slump in my sales. It's affecting me as I have got lots of bills to pay.\"\n\nMs Morgan explained how one of the ingredients she uses for her tea, chamomile, has gone from costing £12 per kilogram to £22.\n\nEmily Morgan, the owner of Tea by the Sea, left her teaching career to start her business\n\nAs profit margins for chamomile tea are now smaller, she had no choice but to put her prices up by 25p.\n\n\"I have managed to weather the storm so far but if it gets worse I will have to put all of my prices up,\" she said.\n\nMs Morgan said it costs £120 a day to rent a stall in Cardiff Christmas Market - equating to £5,000 for the whole Christmas season.\n\nTherefore, she has opted to only have her stall there for five days.\n\nJames Gregg, from Cwmcarn in Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent, sells jewellery made using collected flowers.\n\nThe 41-year-old said the jewellery boxes he buys had gone up 50% since last year and chains for the jewellery he makes have also increased in price by 30%.\n\n\"A silver chain now is costing me £3.50 to buy, whereas two years ago they were costing me £2 each,\" he said.\n\nJames Gregg, the owner of Handmade Boutique, fears that he might have to put his prices up next year due to profit margins falling\n\nMr Gregg has kept his prices the same for the last three years by swapping a solid silver chain for a silver plated one.\n\n\"I won't be taking the same earnings today as I did this time last year,\" he said.\n\n\"I'll be down probably half. This does worry me, I may have to put my prices up next year.\"", "Summer Vacation 2021 won in the Macro category at the British Photography Awards\n\nDavid Gilliver's entry in this year's British Photography Awards was a picture of a summer holiday with a difference.\n\nHe won the top prize in the Macro category, a branch of photography that takes extreme close-up pictures of small objects, most often insects or flowers.\n\nBut instead David took a picture of the familiar blue face masks that were worn everywhere during Covid and reimagined it as a swimming pool with tiny figurines enjoying vacation activities around it.\n\n\"The idea was to approach a serious subject matter with a playful nature without trivialising it,\" said the 43-year-old Scottish artist.\n\n'Stay at Home' - another from the miniature ‘Pandemic’ series\n\nIt is a way of working that he first came across by accident when he was at Glasgow School of Art in the late 1990s.\n\nDavid said he was looking out of the window of a dentist's waiting room when he saw a lorry in the street below had tipped over and landed on a car.\n\nHe said he knew the situation was serious but from his unique perspective on the fourth floor it reminded him of the scenes he created with his toys as a young boy.\n\nDavid took a picture of the chaos on the street below, which did not result in serious injury, and when he was back at art school he recreated it using miniature figures.\n\nDavid took a photo of the crash scene and then recreated in miniature at art school in 1998\n\n\"Not only was it the first time I had received a strong compliment but I also thoroughly enjoyed doing it,\" David said.\n\n\"It gave me a new way of looking at things and making my art. From that point on I became obsessed with Macro photography and shooting figurines.\"\n\nOver the past 20 years he has created thousands of photos of his \"little people\", always using humour and playfulness as a way to present a more serious message.\n\nFrom David's ‘Life in Plastic’ series (to raise awareness about plastic pollution)\n\nAnother image from David's Life in Plastic series\n\n‘Vegetarian Kebab’ (Shortlisted in the 2022 Food Photographer of the Year awards)\n\n'Five, six, pick up sticks'\n\nAfter graduating from art school in 2001, making a living as an artist proved difficult. David ended working in finance in Guernsey for 14 years before returning to Scotland with his wife and baby girl about seven years ago.\n\nIn 2018 he took the plunge and became a full-time artist, specialising in Macro photography and light painting.\n\nHis home in Gartcosh, North Lanarkshire, is full of thousands of figurines - mainly intended for model railway enthusiasts - ready to find a home in his latest work.\n\nDavid said the pictures had become far broader and more interesting over the years.\n\n\"The figurines are static so I am at the mercy of the poses I find them in,\" David said.\n\n\"It has been my job as an artist to give them something to do within a scene that looks visually interesting.\"\n\nDavid Gilliver has thousands of figurines waiting for a role in his dioramas\n\nDavid exhibits his work across Europe and also hosts teaching workshops as well as collaborating with commercial partners.\n\nHe said he loved showing people the techniques of Macro photography but there are some things it is difficult to teach.\n\n\"The Macro work is 10% reliant on technical knowledge and it is 90% reliant on the imagination,\" he said.\n\n\"As an adult making work like this it is important to keep the imagination alive. I have got a young daughter now so it is unavoidable and critical that I do.\n\n\"This style of photography very much taps into a childlike way of thinking. The more you do of it, the more you are able to access it. It's like a muscle almost.\"", "Sofia kneels in the corner of the room, making herself as small as possible. Space, or the complete lack of it, is now the constant constraint in her life.\n\nThe 19-year-old is living in one single room with her boyfriend and his mother. Not only this, they're all sharing the same bed.\n\n\"I hate it,\" she says. \"I just want some personal space.\"\n\nEarlier this year, Sofia Prosyanyk fled Mariupol; the city besieged and eventually captured by Russia in May.\n\nShe met her boyfriend Yaroslav Moiseenko at an evacuation centre, before coming to live with him and his mother Nadiia in the village of Kalynivka, west of the capital Kyiv.\n\nBut Yaroslav and Nadiia returned to find their own home in ruins, destroyed during the failed Russian march on Kyiv at the start of the war.\n\nNow they all live in an out-house that used to be the family's \"summer kitchen\".\n\nThe floorspace in the room can be crossed in three strides. The bed and a fridge are on one side while a stove sits right by the door.\n\nIn between is a stool which they sit on for when they wash. Sixty-three-year-old Nadiia shows me how they lay down a plastic sheet to stop the floor getting wet.\n\nThey say that what's even worse is that sometimes they have to go to the toilet in here if it's too cold to use the outdoor bathroom.\n\n\"I hate to do that in front of everyone,\" says Sofia.\n\nShe now only feels \"normal\" when she's at work at a local petrol station, where there's a proper toilet and power.\n\nWhile we talk the lights go out which, she says, happens all the time. Millions of Ukrainians have been experiencing power cuts after repeated Russian strikes on the country's energy grid.\n\nNadiia says they use torches and candles but it's the suffocating lack of space that is the hardest thing for this family. At least in the summer they could open the door, but now it's too cold.\n\nFor Nadiia, the remains of her old house are right next door.\n\nWe crunch through the snow which covers the foundations of what used to be the ground floor rooms that made up her former home.\n\nHer family had started building it when she was just 14 years old.\n\nNow about to turn 64, Nadiia describes herself as \"homeless\" and cries as she explains how hard it is to let go of her memories when they lie, right there, amidst the rubble.\n\n\"When I want to go and take something, I keep remembering where all the things were in my old house,\" she says.\n\n\"There was a closet near the wall. Now when I want to take something from there, I catch myself thinking - there is nothing there anymore.\"\n\nComing home after the Russians had left their village, Kalynivka west of Kyiv, should have been a joy for Nadiia but instead it's a source of constant grief.\n\nThey hope that soon, via a charity called Nest, they will get a pre-fabricated house where Sofia could live with Yaroslav, while Nadiia would stay in the out-building.\n\nWe trundle along snow-covered tracks to another part of a village where men are busy putting up one of those prefab homes for 64-year-old Inna and her son.\n\nShe comes out to greet us but almost immediately bursts into tears, recalling those early weeks of the war.\n\n\"Everything was on fire,\" she tells me. \"Shells flew right above our heads.\"\n\nInna crying outside her home in Kalynivka\n\nThey left their home in March and returned in May, building a make-shift place to live on the site of where their old house had stood.\n\nWe go inside and it's clear why Inna's been prioritised for a pre-fab home as soon as possible.\n\nThe roof, such as it is, drips constantly onto a wet and dirty floor, while the kitchen is freezing cold. Inna often wrings her hands because of the pain of her swollen joints.\n\nWe crouch through another door into a dark back room and suddenly, it's stiflingly hot.\n\nSocks and clothes hang from a washing line along the ceiling.\n\nAt least it's warm in this part of the hastily-constructed home, but it's an unhealthy and oppressive heat coming from an old wood-burning stove.\n\nThe whole situation is taking its toll on Inna's health but she expresses a resilience that you hear from so many in Ukraine.\n\n\"We will get through everything,\" she says.\n\nHer hope is that Ukraine can win the war, \"as soon as possible\".\n\n\"So that there is peace and tranquillity. So that all soldiers return home alive and well. This is the main thing. The lack of light is not scary, we will survive.\"\n\nINSIDE THE WAR: The surrender hotline for Russian soldiers\n\nEXPLAINER: How much damage has Russia done to power supplies?\n\nON THE GROUND: Facing a harsh winter on the front line", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Zahawi - Unfair for unions to damage people's lives at Christmas\n\nIt is unfair for unions to \"disrupt people's lives\" with public-sector strikes at Christmas, Conservative chairman Nadhim Zahawi has said.\n\nHe said plans were in place to draft in the military to drive ambulances and secure borders if walkouts went ahead.\n\nMr Zahawi also told the BBC Russian President Vladimir Putin \"wants to see\" strikes, but unions criticised this.\n\nThousands of workers from various industries are set to strike this month in disputes over pay and conditions.\n\nSome unions say pay should match the cost of living, which is increasing at its fastest rate in 40 years, largely as a result of rising food and energy prices.\n\nSome of the most high-profile strikes have been called by unions representing workers in the NHS, the railways and the Royal Mail.\n\nNurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will strike over two days this month, in what is set to be their biggest walkout in the NHS's history.\n\nElsewhere, rail strikes will be held across four 48-hour periods in December and January, leaving passengers facing severe disruption to Christmas travel.\n\nIn an interview on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Mr Zahawi was asked what the government was doing to end the strikes.\n\nThe minister said President Putin's war in Ukraine - which has sent energy costs soaring - was the main driver of rising prices and pressure on pay.\n\nHe suggested some of the pay rises demanded would further stoke inflation - which is the increase in the price of something over time - which would \"hurt the most vulnerable\".\n\nThe government has repeatedly urged unions and employers to negotiate settlements and halt strike action, saying it can not afford pay rises to cover inflation.\n\nBut unions say workers have faced real-terms cuts to pay over many years and deserve a fair deal that reflects the current cost of living.\n\nWhen asked what the government would do to help the public deal with the impact of the strikes, Mr Zahawi said \"we are operationalising contingency plans\".\n\nThose plans include training about 2,000 military personnel and civil servants to support a range of services - including the Border Force at airports and ports - in the event of strike action.\n\nThe government is also planning for the potential deployment of military personnel to roles including ambulance driving and firefighting.\n\n\"It's unfair, in my view, for the unions to really damage and disrupt people's lives and livelihoods at Christmas,\" Mr Zahawi told Laura Kuenssberg.\n\n\"They should rethink and reflect on this because that is exactly what Putin wants to see. Let's not divide, let's come together.\"\n\nOpposition parties say the government is deflecting the blame for the strikes after refusing to give workers a fair pay rise.\n\n\"It is ludicrous and insulting to suggest Vladimir Putin is responsible for nurses going on strike,\" said Cabinet Office spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Christine Jardine.\n\n\"The responsibility lies firmly with this Conservative government's shambolic failure to find a solution.\"\n\nPat Cullen, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing union, said using Russia's war in Ukraine as a justification for a real-terms pay cut for nurses was \"a new low for this government\".\n\n\"The public does not believe this kind of rhetoric and wants ministers to address our dispute,\" he said.\n\nThe shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said there was a compromise to be had on teachers' pay.\n\nThe government has offered teachers pay awards of between 5% and 8.9%, depending on their position, but education workers say this is nowhere near enough to address a real-terms pay cut and the impact of inflation running at more than 10%.\n\nBridget Phillipson said the compromise on teachers' pay was \"somewhere in the middle\"\n\nPressed on where the compromise should be reached, Ms Phillipson told the programme: \"It's often somewhere in the middle and that's why it's a process of negotiation about pay but also about terms and conditions.\"\n\nMs Phillipson said important decisions were not being taken \"because of the chaos that we've seen\" at the heart of government this year.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak, who took office about a month ago, is grappling with an economic crisis and a recession predicted to last at least a year.\n\nHis party's ratings in the polls have slumped well below those of Labour, whose candidate won a by-election in Chester with a large majority earlier this week.\n\nThe 13.6% swing from Conservatives to Labour in the Chester by-election would be enough for Labour to form a government if the result was replicated in a national poll.\n\nWhen asked about the result, Mr Zahawi said there was \"no shying away from the fact that the internal challenges of the Conservative party has probably led to the gap in the polls\".\n\nHe said the party was undertaking \"a rebuilding exercise\" after a period of turmoil under former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who resigned over the instability caused by her mini-budget.", "The White House has condemned former President Donald Trump after he called for the \"termination\" of the US constitution.\n\nMr Trump made the comments in a post to his Truth Social account on Saturday while repeating his false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election.\n\nHe also accused \"Big Tech Companies\" of colluding against him with Democrats.\n\nWhite House spokesman Andrew Bates said Mr Trump's comments were \"anathema to the soul of our nation\".\n\n\"You cannot only love America when you win,\" Mr Bates said in a statement.\n\nHe added that Mr Trump's comments should be \"universally condemned\" - seemingly a pointed jab at senior Republicans who have so far avoided criticising the former president's outburst.\n\nOther senior Democrats also challenged Republicans - including Rep Eric Swalwell who questioned how the party's members could continue to refer to themselves as \"Constitutional conservatives\" if they didn't condemn the comments.\n\nIn the post, Mr Trump referred to vague allegations of \"massive & widespread fraud and deception\" and asked whether he should be immediately returned to power.\n\n\"A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great 'Founders' did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!\" he said.\n\nThe post came just hours after Twitter's internal deliberations around limiting a 2020 story about Hunter Biden were revealed.\n\nThe story, which came weeks ahead of the 2020 presidential election, was published by the New York Post and revealed the chaotic personal life and business dealings of President Joe Biden's youngest son.\n\nTwitter initially blocked the story because of a company policy on hacked and stolen materials, and the leaked emails showed confusion and disagreements among staff as they scrambled to respond.\n\nThe files - which the BBC cannot verify - were published on Twitter by Substack writer Matt Taibbi on Friday night.\n\nBut last week, Twitter owner Elon Musk hinted that he would release the information, writing on the platform: \"This is necessary to restore public trust.\"\n\nThe billionaire defended the move in a Twitter spaces live stream on Saturday, but he accepted there may be a \"legal risk\" to his decision.\n\n\"We're just going to put all the information out there try to get a clean slate,\" Mr Musk said. He added that legal risks were \"less of a concern than just clearing the air and making sure that people know what really happened\".\n\nMr Trump announced his third presidential bid last month and is a frontrunner to seal the Republican nomination in 2024.\n\nBut he has come under fire this week after dining with a known white nationalist and Holocaust denier at his Florida home.\n\nMr Trump said he was not aware that the man would be present and said he had accompanied the rapper Kanye West - who earlier this week expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and has been accused of a host of antisemitic comments.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nationDates Coverage : Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app. Day-by-day TV listings-Full coverage details\n\nArsene Wenger has suggested countries that protested at the World Cup before their first matches saw their on-field performances suffer.\n\nGermany players covered their mouths before their opening defeat against Japan after Fifa threatened \"unlimited\" sanctions against players who wore the anti-discrimination OneLove armband.\n\n\"The teams [who performed well] were mentally ready,\" Wenger said.\n\n\"They had focus on the competition and not on political demonstrations.\"\n\nAustralia's players released a protest video ahead of the tournament and lost their first match against France.\n\nFormer Arsenal manager Wenger, who is Fifa's head of global football development, was speaking at a media briefing on Sunday.\n\nGermany's football federation was the most vocal in pressing for the OneLove armbands to be worn by players and said \"extreme blackmail\" led to Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Wales, England and Switzerland abandoning plans to wear them.\n\nProtests have taken place against host Qatar's human rights record and its treatment of migrant workers as well as against Qatar's strict anti-LGBT laws.\n\nEngland, who came through the group stage with two wins and a draw, have taken the knee before each of their games, continuing a trend of carrying out the anti-racism gesture before their matches since the death of George Floyd in 2020.\n\nFour times winners Germany were knocked out of the tournament in the group stage for the second successive World Cup.\n\nDenmark, who finished bottom of Group D, were stopped by Fifa from using training kit with slogans in support for human rights and their kits featured toned down logos.\n\nBritish sports minister Stuart Andrew wore the OneLove armband during England's World Cup game with Wales.\n\nThat came after Qatar World Cup chief Hassan Al-Thawadi said the armbands were sending out a \"divisive message\".\n\nFootball Association chief executive Mark Bullingham said Fifa threatened \"unlimited\" sanctions against players who wore the armband during matches.", "About 5,000 people have taken part in the annual Santa Dash through Liverpool.\n\nParticipants, who were kitted out in red and blue suits to reflect the city's Premier League clubs, ran past landmark locations including the Pier Head.\n\nThe popular event, which heralds the city's run-up to Christmas, raised funds for Alder Hey Children's Hospital.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nEngland put in a mature and professional performance as they beat Senegal 3-0 to reach the quarter-finals, but there was one player who stood out above the rest.\n\nJude Bellingham was named player of the match by BBC Sport readers as the midfielder received an average rating of 8.53.\n\nThe next highest-rated player was Jordan Henderson, underlining the impressive display by the England midfield.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Sam Ryder appeared in Cardiff on Saturday afternoon playing live songs to fans and passers-by.\n\nHe said he was visiting different parts of the UK to promote his new album, and announced the performance at very short notice.\n\nDespite the low temperatures, he said the crowd's \"hearts were warm and in good spirits\".", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nThis World Cup has been a test of Harry Maguire's character as well as his ability - and he has shown everyone he has plenty of both.\n\nHis struggles at Manchester United were a big concern for me before the tournament because your form doesn't change just because you put on a different shirt.\n\nMaguire hadn't been playing much for United this season and when he did come into the team he looked nervous and a long way off the level we are used to seeing him play at for England.\n\nThe amount of criticism he was getting was way over the top, but you can't get away from the fact he had not been anywhere near his best for several months.\n\nThat meant he came to this World Cup with his international place under scrutiny too, but any doubts I had about whether he should be playing for England in Qatar were answered straight away.\n\nThe first game, against Iran, was a pivotal moment. If he had been shaky there for whatever reason, then this might have turned into a very different tournament for him.\n\nBut he made a positive start, got on the ball and got some belief back - and he has kept on building his confidence in every game since then.\n\nHe was our best player against the United States, when he showed what an excellent defender he is when the ball comes into our box, and looked extremely composed against Wales too.\n• None Who did you pick in your England team to face Senegal?\n• None World Cup Daily: 1,000 not out for Messi\n\nA different player for club and country?\n\nThe way England are set up is one of the reasons Maguire looks more at home playing for his country than he does for his club.\n\nGareth Southgate uses a system that plays to everyone's individual strengths and protects their weaknesses - such as Maguire's mobility.\n\nBeing in a team that defends deep with a low block suits him far better than when he plays for United and he is much higher up the pitch.\n\nFor United, Erik ten Hag wants his centre-halves to be 10 yards inside the opposition half when the team is in possession, which leaves a massive gap between Maguire and his goalkeeper for opponents to exploit.\n\nThat doesn't really happen with England because he has got more team-mates around him, and less space behind him where his lack of pace can be exposed.\n\nAll of this helps Maguire defensively, and the other part of his game has never been in question. He is so comfortable on the ball and bringing it out of defence, which is still vital to the way Southgate wants to play.\n\nHaving John Stones alongside him is important too, of course. They have played together in either a two or a three at the back at this level in all sorts of situations, including at the past two major tournaments.\n\nIn total, they have played together 31 times for England in the past five years and lost only three times over 90 minutes, so that trust is there - they know each other so well, and you can tell.\n\nThe importance of feeling wanted by your manager\n\nAfter the way he has started this World Cup, Maguire will not be thinking about his problems at United any more.\n\nIt was down to him to get his head right in order to prove the doubters wrong, but he could not have done it if Southgate hadn't stuck with him in the first place and let him answer his critics on the pitch.\n\nThe manager's part in this was to make Maguire feel wanted and valued, which Southgate has done by picking him in his team.\n\nI think the moment you feel the manager doesn't quite think you are worthy or ready, then there is a problem.\n\nThat kind of man-management is one of Southgate's main strengths. He has created a happy environment that allows all his players to flourish.\n\nI was part of England squads where you knew certain players didn't want to be involved and would make excuses over injuries to avoid call-ups.\n\nNow it is different. Southgate has clearly brought the squad together and, looking from the outside, they all want to be there and they all feel a part of it because they enjoy it so much.\n\nThe big thing for me is that they all look like mates, genuinely, which was not really the case in my day.\n\nRashford has refocused to get back to his best\n\nMaguire is not the only England player to have come through a difficult time to shine at this tournament.\n\nHis United team-mate Marcus Rashford has been on a similar journey where he seemed to lose some of his confidence, with the difference being he has been playing so well in the Premier League this season. Now he is doing the same for England.\n\nI'm so pleased to see him flying again and maybe he just needed to do some refocusing to get back on track.\n\nHe had been carrying some injuries as well, so getting a proper pre-season last summer was massive for him. He looks fresh and, as I said on BBC One after the Wales game, a smiling, hungry, dynamic and upbeat Marcus Rashford is a devastating player. At the moment he is all of these things.\n\nWhen he gets the ball, he turns and runs and is aggressive with it - he is not receiving it and playing it backwards. Instead he is facing his defender up and saying, 'I am going to test you'.\n\nRashford has three goals already, after only one start. He took us to a different level against Wales and it is going to be very difficult to drop him for the Senegal game now.\n\nFour years ago it was Harry Kane who got most of the goals when we reached the semi-finals in Russia. This England team is doing things differently, but I am getting similar vibes about our chances of going far this time too.\n\nI feel confident about the whole team and I love the fact that when we have made changes we have not looked weaker at all. It feels like we are ready and I can't wait to find out what happens next.\n\nRio Ferdinand was speaking to Chris Bevan in Doha, Qatar.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Winslet told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that more needed to be done for people in special circumstances\n\nKate Winslet has revealed she donated £17,000 to pay a soaring energy bill for a child's life support after being deeply moved by her family's plight.\n\nCarolynne Hunter was warned by Clackmannanshire Council that her bill could hit the high sum next year.\n\nHer daughter Freya, 13, has severe cerebral palsy and relies on receiving oxygen for chronic breathing problems.\n\nThe Oscar-winning actress said the original BBC Scotland story \"absolutely destroyed me\".\n\nMs Hunter said she was reduced to tears by Winslet's intervention.\n\nThe Hollywood star was asked about her donation on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.\n\nOn how she heard about it, Winslet told the programme: \"Something popped up on the BBC Scotland news page about this woman, Carolynne Hunter's story.\n\n\"And her saying that she would have to put her child, who has severe cerebral palsy and very, very extreme needs and is non-verbal, that she was going to have to put her child into care because she could not afford her electricity bills.\n\n\"And it absolutely destroyed me. I just thought on what planet is anyone going to let that happen, this is completely, completely wrong.\"\n\nFreya Hunter with mother Carolynne (right) and sister Katie (left)\n\nAfter reading the story last month Winslet said she was determined to do something about it.\n\nThe actress added: \"We were able to track her down and say that I had wanted to make a donation, and it was because of that that they then set up a GoFundMe page, and bang, I was able to do it right away.\n\n\"And it just felt - I just - it was just wrong to me that this woman was going to suffer and that she should have been in any way as a mother forced to make such a heart-breaking decision because she simply didn't have the support and couldn't pay the bills.\n\n\"I just couldn't let that happen.\"\n\nAsked by Laura Kuenssberg what the story said about the UK as a country, Winslet replied: \"I think we just - I mean, people just - the powers that be need to have a good think and they need to get it right.\n\n\"And they need to make changes that will actually help these people.\"\n\nShe said adults have always been great at fundraising for groups, other adults and large groups of children.\n\nBut Winslet added: \"I have always been really cut in half by the plight of the individual.\n\n\"And there seems to be very little support for individuals whose situations are extreme.\"\n\nThe actress' new film, I am Ruth, focuses on protecting young people from social media.\n\nAnd Winslet told the programme the government should make social media firms enforce age limits to help tackle their impact on children's mental health.\n\nShe also praised England footballer Marcus Rashford's \"extraordinary\" campaign to ensure no child in need went hungry during the pandemic.\n\nFreya needs costly medical equipment for her care at home\n\nOn Sunday, Ms Hunter told BBC Reporting Scotland about the moment GoFundMe informed her about the actress' donation.\n\nShe said: \"When they contacted me to say that Kate Winslet wanted to help our family I actually could not believe it.\n\n\"I was kind of in shock. It was a wee bit surreal.\"\n\nWhen she later discovered the Titanic star had pledged £17,000, Ms Hunter said: \"I just cried.\"\n\nShe added: \"What Kate has done is she has recognised Freya in a society and a world that Freya is very hidden.\n\n\"Life is not accessible for Freya because she has such a high level of medical need.\"\n\nMs Hunter, 49, also said the prospect of her daughter having to leave the family home if they could not not afford their energy bills was \"unthinkable\".\n\nShe said: \"I know that the reason Freya is here today is the love and care that we provide here at home to keep her comfortable and happy.\n\n\"That would not be happening in hospital or residential care. I don't think Freya would survive.\n\n\"Everybody who has donated and helped Freya have saved her life.\"\n\nThe Hunters live in a large council house in Tillicoultry - which is not energy efficient - so there is space for Freya's equipment.\n\nAt present it costs them £6,500 a year to run the kit and heat the home - though Ms Hunter said she had turned the heating off in most rooms to save money.\n\nAlthough she works full time on a moderate wage, she does not receive the same support as those on low incomes.\n\nMs Hunter also worries that possible winter power cuts in the event of reduced gas supply - a result of Russia's war on Ukraine - could put Freya's care at risk.\n\nIn addition to cerebral palsy, Freya relies on receiving oxygen for breathing problems - particularly through the night.\n\nThe family require help from at least two NHS nurses or staff from self-directed support (SDS) - a form of social care.\n\nStaff monitor Freya's heart rate as well as oxygen levels and carry out frequent suctioning to keep her airways clear.\n\nIn recent months Freya's room was the only one to be heated in order to keep her and her staff comfortable - but Ms Hunter said they have had to cut back.\n\nBefore Winslet's donation, Ms Hunter said her biggest worry was facing fuel poverty amid the cost of living crisis.\n\nMs Hunter also said she would like to see Scottish and UK governments stepping in to support families with care responsibilities who may end up struggling.", "Colombian President Gustavo Petro said peace talks had reached the first stage of agreement\n\nPeace talks between Colombia's government and the ELN rebel group have reached a first point of agreement, the country's president has said.\n\nPresident Gustavo Petro made the remarks during a visit to the province of Western Antioquia.\n\nBoth sides have agreed that indigenous people displaced by the conflict should be guaranteed safe return to their lands in the province, he said.\n\nThe conflict in Colombia has lasted nearly 60 years.\n\nThe left-wing National Liberation Army (ELN) is the last rebel group still active in the war, and no ceasefire has been reached yet.\n\nLast month, talks between the two sides resumed after more than three years following the election of Mr Petro - the country's first left-wing president, himself an ex-guerrilla.\n\nMr Petro, also a former member of the M-19 rebel group, took office in August promising to bring \"total peace\" to Colombia.\n\nThese talks held in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas are an important milestone for Colombia, aimed at ending the lengthy civil war.\n\nPrevious negotiations with the ELN as part of the historic 2016 peace deal with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebel group failed.\n\nThe ELN has about 2,500 members and the group is accused of getting funds through drug trafficking and illegal mining.\n\nAlong with Venezuela, Cuba and Norway have agreed to act as co-sponsors of the peace process.\n\nSpeaking at the time of the talks resuming, ELN delegation head Pablo Beltrán said: \"We cannot see each other as enemies, the task we have is reconciliation.\"\n\nColombia's High Commissioner for Peace, Danilo Rueda, previously said \"human dignity\" must be the focus of the peace dialogue, to eliminate the fear of being killed or kidnapped.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Winslet tells Laura Kuenssberg there should be age blocks for social media sites\n\n\"My God, I don't know what I'm supposed to do at all.\" That's not an admission that you expect to hear from a movie megastar.\n\nBut that's how Kate Winslet described some moments of being a mum in the 21st Century, with parents \"rendered utterly powerless\" as their kids spend more and more time online.\n\nWinslet's new film confronts that dilemma head on. She tells the story of a mother desperately trying to help her daughter, whose mental health has been shattered as she's sucked deeper and deeper into social media.\n\nThe drama - I am Ruth - is hard to watch, but hard to look away from. Without giving a terrible spoiler, it does also in the end offer hope.\n\nIt's all the more powerful because Winslet's on-screen child is played by her own daughter - Mia Threapleton.\n\nBut the Oscar winner hopes the film will prompt a wider conversation about how vulnerable children are.\n\nShe suggests some online platforms should be banned for kids and accuses the government and tech firms of \"shirking responsibility\". You can read the full story here.\n\n\"Whoever those people are, they know who they are, they should just step up and do better,\" she told me.\n\nThe UK was going to be the first country in the world to try and solve this problem but there have been so many delays the EU got there first.\n\nThe government has again cranked up its plan to regulate what happens online and the Online Safety Bill will be back in the Commons on Monday.\n\nIt is a massive piece of law and ministers are worried they might run out of time to get it done.\n\nThat said - its coming into force will be a genuine landmark moment.\n\nFor years, governments around the world more or less assumed that the exciting tech companies they used to like having photo opportunities with could basically regulate themselves.\n\nThat climate soured some time ago. As one senior tech executive described it: \"After tech euphoria now the pendulum has swung completely the other way.\"\n\nAnd governments, at least in the UK, have concluded platforms that hold so much power cannot be left to supervise themselves.\n\nThe communications watchdog Ofcom - which currently looks after TV, radio and phones - will be given the job of setting standards for tech platforms and checking they follow them.\n\nCrucially they'll have the power to impose hefty fines on the companies if they fall short. Alongside that there'll be new criminal offences for things like encouraging self harm.\n\nThese are big changes but some of the government's plans to confront the darkest corners of the internet have disappeared.\n\nAnd to understand what's gone on, we need for a moment to look at what exactly has changed.\n\nNeither ministers nor Ofcom were ever going to instruct Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or any other platform to take down specific content if it didn't break the law.\n\nWhat they were going to do was define the kind of material that could have caused harm to people.\n\nCompanies would then have taken those definitions of racism or misogyny, for example, into account in their own terms and conditions.\n\nThe regulator could then hold them to account for if they didn't follow their own rules.\n\nNow that's changed. The government is not going to define what is \"legal but harmful\" - leaving it up to companies to decide whether to specify those harms in their terms and conditions, if at all.\n\nAnd if they don't, well, the regulator doesn't have a rule to enforce.\n\nMinisters deny the plan has been watered down but it's hard not to conclude that the tech companies are more able to set the terms as a result of this change.\n\nThere'll be a filter for users to get rid of content they don't like - but that puts the responsibility onto the individual rather than the platform.\n\nYou may recoil at the idea of the government defining what's right and wrong - or be frustrated that it hasn't gone far enough to tame the tech giants.\n\nWhat you may well end up though is confused, because this system means different platforms will make different decisions.\n\nAnd as long as content is not illegal, one former Facebook executive says that for example \"if one platform wants to get rid of Tommy Robinson it can, if another platform wants to keep them all on because they are not illegal, they can keep them all on\".\n\nThe government wants under-18s to be protected from \"legal but harmful\" online content\n\nBut the political truth is that ministers ran into concerns on the Conservative Party's right.\n\nEven with the \"legal but harmful\" part of the bill scrapped for everyone but under-18s, the legislation overall is still seen by some as a \"censors' charter\".\n\nAnd while the idea of giving tech firms the right to scan encrypted messages to track down illegal activity may seem noble, there are genuine fears an important protection of privacy could be fundamentally undermined.\n\nFor many people, what happens online is still bewildering. For many parents - Hollywood megastars or not - what happens on teenagers' phones is desperately worrying and these changes can't remove that fear.\n\nThe proposed laws won't mean that all harmful material will disappear. And as the former Facebook executive told me: \"The big discussion we need to have is at what age should kids go online.\"\n\nThe government has tried to provide at least some solutions to these profound problems.\n\nBut as technology advances, the dilemmas may only become more complex over the coming years for parents, the public and the politicians.\n\nI am Ruth can be seen on Thursday 8 December at 21:00 GMT on Channel 4", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nRaheem Sterling has left the England World Cup squad in Qatar and returned to London after his home was burgled.\n\nThe Chelsea winger, 27, missed Sunday's last-16 victory over Senegal, after the incident on Saturday.\n\nSurrey Police said the occupants of the house returned to find jewellery and watches had been taken. No threats of violence were involved.\n\nThe player's spokesperson said Sterling was \"prioritising the wellbeing\" of his three young children.\n\nSterling was said to be \"shaken\" and \"as soon as he was alerted he wanted to get home\".\n\nThe spokesperson, speaking on Sunday, added the intruders had been armed and the family were home.\n\nBut the police said in a statement on Monday: \"We would reassure our communities that no witnesses have come forward to this effect.\"\n\nThe statement read: \"On Saturday, December 3 the occupants returned to the address after arriving home from an international trip. They contacted police just before 9pm to report a number of items of jewellery, including watches, had been stolen.\n\n\"Officers attended the address later that night and returned to speak to the occupants this morning. At this time it remains unclear on which date the property was stolen and establishing this forms a key part of our investigation.\n\n\"Enquiries into the full circumstances remain ongoing and officers will look at all available evidence including any CCTV opportunities. \"\n\nThey added no arrests had been made.\n\nSpeaking after Sunday's 3-0 victory, England manager Gareth Southgate said: \"Sometimes football isn't the most important thing and family should come first.\n\n\"We want to give him that space and we will see over the next few days how that develops.\"\n\nSterling's team-mate Declan Rice said: \"I saw him at breakfast this morning, then the manager said he had the difficulties at home so we've all sent him a message.\"\n\nEngland's next match at the World Cup is against France in the quarter-finals on Saturday.\n\nSterling is the second player to leave the England squad after Arsenal defender Ben White, who returned to the UK on 30 November for personal reasons.\n\nTwo years ago, three burglars who targeted a number of homes in the north west of England, including an attempted break-in where Sterling lived in Cheshire in November 2018, were jailed.\n\nThe Chelsea forward started and scored in England's 6-2 win over Iran in their opening group game, before being called on again for the 0-0 draw with the United States.\n\nSouthgate opted instead to play Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden either side of Harry Kane for England's 3-0 win over Wales.\n\nThe England boss has often relied on Sterling during major tournaments; he started all seven of England's Euro 2020 matches.\n• None 'Southgate's critics must admit he got it spot on again'\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticised a price cap set by his Western allies on Russian oil exports, calling it \"weak\".\n\nThe cap, approved on Friday, is aimed at stopping countries paying more than $60 (£48) for a barrel of seaborne Russian crude oil.\n\nRussia says it will not accept a cap on prices for its oil exports.\n\nThe measure - due to come into force on Monday - intensifies Western pressure on Russia over the invasion.\n\nBut Mr Zelensky called the price cap \"a weak position\" and not \"serious\" enough to damage to the Russian economy.\n\n\"Russia has already caused huge losses to all countries of the world by deliberately destabilising the energy market,\" he said in his nightly address.\n\nIt is \"only a matter of time when stronger tools will have to be used\", he added.\n\nThe price cap was put forward in September by the G7 group of industrialised nations (the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the EU) in a bid to hit Moscow's ability to finance the war in Ukraine.\n\nIn a joint statement, the G7, the EU and Australia said the decision was taken to \"prevent Russia from profiting from its war of aggression against Ukraine\".\n\nOn Saturday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow had prepared for the move but would \"not accept\" the cap.\n\nThough the measures will most certainly be felt by Russia, the blow will be partially softened by its move to sell its oil to other markets such as India and China - which are currently the largest single buyers of Russian crude oil.\n\nThe agreement of a price cap comes just days before an EU-wide ban on Russian crude oil imported by sea comes into force, also on 5 December.\n\nThe price cap - which is meant to affect oil exports worldwide - is meant to complement that.\n\nCountries which sign up to the G7-led policy will only be permitted to purchase oil and petroleum products transported via sea that are sold at or below the price cap.\n\nUkraine's Western allies also plan to deny insurance to tankers delivering Russian oil to countries that do not stick to the price cap. This will make it hard for Russia to sell oil above that price.\n\nBefore the war, in 2021, more than half of Russia's oil exports went to Europe, according to the International Energy Association. Germany was the largest importer, followed by the Netherlands and Poland.\n\nBut since the war, EU countries have been desperately trying to decrease their dependency. The US has already banned Russian crude oil, while the UK plans to phase it out by the end of the year.", "Almost 20% of unaccompanied child migrants from Albania taken in by Kent County Council this year have disappeared, the BBC has found.\n\nThe local authority took in 197 Albanian children up to 31 October, 39 of whom have gone missing.\n\nEcpat UK, which campaigns to protect children from exploitation, said the figures were very concerning.\n\nThe council said it had worked closely with the Home Office and police to safeguard vulnerable children.\n\nThe figures were obtained by the BBC via a Freedom of Information request.\n\nThe council said 197 Albanian children processed at the Home Office's Kent Intake Unit came into its care between 1 January and 31 October.\n\nIt added that, as of 7 November, 39 were recorded as missing. However, it said some of those children would have since turned 18.\n\nA government spokesperson said it took the issue of missing children \"extremely seriously\".\n\nIt added that it works \"closely with local authorities to ensure vulnerable children are supported\".\n\nGovernment figures collated by the BBC show 44,122 people have crossed on small boats so far this year, compared with 28,461 who arrived in 2021.\n\nThis contributed to overcrowding at the Manston processing centre in Kent, which at one point was holding more than double its capacity, at about 4,000 people.\n\nThe rising number of diphtheria cases among asylum seekers who have recently arrived in the UK has also been a concern.\n\nMeanwhile, a government plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda is currently on hold as it faces a legal challenge.\n\nFor a local authority which is taking on the role of a child's guardian, just one young person going missing is one too many.\n\nFor Kent County Council, to not know the whereabouts of 39 of the Albanian children it was tasked with caring for must be extremely worrying.\n\nThe council says candidly that it can be very difficult to prevent some children from going missing.\n\nIt's trying to identify proactively those who might be at risk of exploitation, and, when missing children are found, it will carry out a debrief to see if lessons can be learned.\n\nIt has certainly felt under pressure in recent years over the number of asylum-seeking children it has been required to take on, at times refusing to accept any more, saying services were at breaking point.\n\nNow, more unaccompanied children are being dispersed around the country. But the challenge of protecting those children from potential harm remains very real.\n\nMore than 12,000 migrants from Albania have reached the UK by boat so far this year - an increase of almost 4,000% compared with 2021.\n\nThe issue has been highlighted by Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, who said that on some small boats 80% of those on board were from Albania.\n\nLaura Durán, head of policy, advocacy and research for Ecpat UK said this was a \"really high\" number of missing children.\n\nShe said: \"We're really concerned they are at risk of exploitation or have effectively been trafficked.\n\n\"They could be facing labour exploitation in different industries such as construction or car washes; they could be criminally exploited in drug distribution or in cannabis farms, or they could be sexually exploited.\"\n\nMigrants rest at an unnamed Home Office facility in Kent\n\nIn a statement, Kent County Council said it had seen a \"significant increase\" in the number of unaccompanied Albanian children referred to its services.\n\nIt said: \"Whilst all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are vulnerable to exploitation... research and experience evidences that some nationalities are particularly vulnerable and can go missing from local authority care very quickly.\n\n\"Kent County Council has used both established safeguarding protocols, including the National Referral Mechanism, and initiated multi-agency strategies to minimise the risks for these children as much as possible.\n\n\"The council continues to take a proactive role in safeguarding all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in its care.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dean Burns, whose daughter Camila has Strep A, urged parents to get their children checked if they have concerns\n\nThe father of a four-year-old girl left fighting for her life in hospital after contracting Strep A has said they are \"hoping and praying for a miracle\".\n\nCamila Rose Burns, four, has been on a ventilator at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool since Monday.\n\nSix children have died with an invasive form of the Strep A bacterial infection in recent months.\n\nDean Burns urged parents with any concerns about their children's health to \"scoop them up\" and to get checked.\n\nExperts say there are more Strep A cases than usual this year.\n\nStrep A infections are usually mild, causing illness ranging from a sore throat to scarlet fever, but they can develop into a more serious invasive Group A Strep (iGAS) infection.\n\nHealth officials confirmed on Friday that six children had died with iGAS - including five under-10-year-olds in England - since September. Hanna Roap, a primary school pupil from Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, in Wales, has also died and her family said their hearts have been \"broken into a million pieces\".\n\nNo deaths have been confirmed in Scotland or Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Burns, from Bolton, told BBC News Camila was showing signs of improvement, but he fears \"anything could take her back the other way\".\n\nIn a message to other parents, he added: \"Any doubts, if they don't look right, just scoop them up and take them [to seek medical advice]. Get them checked out rapid.\"\n\nDean Burns said he has been in hospital by his daughter Camila's side since Monday\n\nMr Burns said Camila fell ill on Saturday and was taken to hospital in Bolton the following morning, after he realised she was hallucinating.\n\nHe said her condition had deteriorated so much by Monday morning that she had to be put on a ventilator, before being transferred to the specialist children's hospital for treatment - where her family have been by her bedside since.\n\nDescribing his daughter as \"our special little girl\", Mr Burns said the family \"just have to keep hoping and praying for a miracle so that she heals and comes back to us\".\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said the last time there was an intensive period of Strep A infection was in 2017-18, when there were four deaths in England in the equivalent time frame.\n\nThe rise in Strep A cases and deaths is most likely due to high amounts of the bacteria circulating and increased social mixing, it said.\n\nSpeaking earlier on Saturday, infectious diseases paediatrician Prof Beate Kampmann said parents should seek medical help if they were worried.\n\nShe explained Strep A caused \"an asymptomatic infection in the majority of people, then there is a sore throat, then scarlet fever, and in a very, very small minority will there be invasive Group A Strep\".\n\nShe said there had been three times as much scarlet fever this year than was seen pre-pandemic, adding: \"It starts off with a high fever, very sore throat and very red tongue, which has this sort of papillae - eventually developing a rash which feels a bit like sandpaper.\n\n\"The rash starts in the elbows and behind the neck. It tends to then peel after about 10 days because the disease is caused by a toxin that is produced by this bacterium.\"\n\nProf Kampmann said if children became really unwell, or if parents were in doubt, they should seek help. She also said children with a fever should be kept off school.\n\nShe continued: \"The good news is that Group A Strep is very, very treatable with penicillin.\"\n\nBut she added, \"if your child is deteriorating in any way, you feel that they're not eating, drinking, being quite flat and lethargic you need to take them to the doctors and to get them checked out\".\n\nThe latest data shows there were 851 cases of scarlet fever reported in the week of 14-20 November, compared to an average of 186 cases a week for the preceding years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How common is Strep A and what are the symptoms to watch out for?\n\nVirologist Dr Chris Smith said the general rise in Strep A infections could be due to a drop in immunity following the pandemic.\n\nHe told BBC Breakfast: \"There's something about the vulnerability of the population and particularly younger people.\n\n\"What has changed is that younger people have been through three years, almost, of relative isolation from each other.\n\n\"They haven't caught the normal infections at the normal rates and at the normal times that normal children of that sort of age bracket would have done.\"\n\nThere have been 2.3 cases of the invasive Strep A disease per 100,000 children aged one to four in England this year, compared with an average of 0.5 in pre-pandemic seasons of 2017-19, the UKHSA said.\n\nThere have also been 1.1 cases per 100,000 children aged five to nine, compared with a pre-pandemic average over the same period of 0.3.\n\nUKHSA advises people to call 999 or go to A&E if:\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your thoughts and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Growing up, Zoe Thomas never thought she could work in computing\n\n\"I foolishly thought coding was for men good at maths.\"\n\nZoe Thomas, 29, from Caerphilly, felt she needed a new challenge but never thought she could work with computers.\n\nBut after taking evening classes in coding she switched careers from customer service to software engineering for an insurance firm.\n\nLatest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that women make up 31% of staff in the wider technology industry.\n\nBut for software developers, web design professionals and data analysts, the proportion is far lower at just 18%.\n\n\"I never thought I could do it, but it's honestly the best decision I've ever made,\" said Zoe.\n\n\"Because I studied media, psychology and English at A-level I just didn't think I'd end up here,\" explained Zoe, who works for Veygo Insurance in Cardiff.\n\n\"I now help make the website function, adding features and sorting any problems that arise, and I really love it.\"\n\nZoe Thomas studied media, psychology and English at A-level so she did not expect to end up having a career in IT\n\nCompanies across the UK want more women like Zoe to work in the technology sector.\n\nMore than 7,500 people work for insurance firm Admiral, which is based in Cardiff, but most of its technology staff are men.\n\nAdmiral's director of IT, Christine Theodore, said the sector was so fast growing it was vital more women enter the industry.\n\nChristine Theodore, from Admiral Insurance, says women can and should be leaders in technology\n\n\"These continue to be the skills of the future,\" she said. \"People shouldn't shy away from it, these skills can be taught.\n\n\"I've been in IT for most of my professional life and I feel really passionate that women can definitely be in leadership positions.\"\n\nAdmiral has been working with several companies to appeal to more women, including the social enterprise Code First Girls.\n\nIt works with more than 100 businesses across the UK to teach women to code, including Zoe.\n\nZoe started to learn coding though a program called Code First Girls\n\nCode First Girls CEO Anna Brailsford said there was a danger \"labelling\" girls in school could have a detrimental effect on their confidence.\n\nCoding is a set of instructions used to tell devices such as computers, mobile phones and even traffic lights and aeroplanes what to do.\n\nPeople who work in coding say it's like learning a language that tells the computer what you want it to do.\n\nCoders, or programmers, are people who write the programs behind everything we see and do on a computer.\n\nGirls outperform boys in IT at both A-level and GCSE, a Welsh government-commissioned report found, but far fewer girls choose to study the subject.\n\nAisha Arshad, 32, from Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, has always worked in IT and studied it at A-level at school.\n\nShe now works in coding for Admiral, collating information so performance can be analysed.\n\nAisha Arshad, a coder for Admiral insurance, says she loves IT despite often hearing how her job is \"male-dominated\"\n\n\"When I tell people about my job I often hear 'oh, it's a very male-dominated career',\" she said.\n\n\"But I love it. It's not the same boring thing day in day out,\" she explained. \"I'm doing one thing one day, and then completely different problem-solving the next day.\"", "Currys has stopped using Royal Mail for parcel deliveries \"for now\" following a wave of strike action at the postal services firm.\n\nAlex Baldock, chief executive at the electronics retailer, said Currys used Royal Mail for \"relatively few, smaller parcels\".\n\nThe business was \"easily switchable to another provider\", he said.\n\nRoyal Mail has brought forward the last Christmas posting dates in response to the strike action.\n\nDeliveries are likely to be delayed around the days Royal Mail workers are taking strike action on 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24 December, and some shops have advised shoppers to order early to be on the safe side.\n\nWidespread strikes planned for December, at Royal Mail and in other sectors such as the railways, will have a particularly acute impact on retailers in the run-up to Christmas, their busiest time of the year, Mr Baldock told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg programme.\n\nBut he said the temporary switch to an alternative delivery firm would not cause additional problems.\n\n\"There's no great drama operationally for us. We plan for this sort of thing all the time,\" he said.\n\nWorkers at Royal Mail have already taken several days of action this year, calling for wage rises to keep pace with inflation, that reached 11% in October.\n\nMr Baldock said staff at Currys had enjoyed a 16% pay rise over the past year and nearly 40% over the past five years.\n\n\"I would love to say it is just because we are nice people, and of course we are, but it is also because we need to retain and motivate a workforce.\"\n\nHe said Currys' staff needed a high level of expertise in order to help customers and the higher wages were the price they were paying \"for the right talent\".\n\nThe Telegraph, which first reported that Currys was switching away from Royal Mail, said undelivered post was already piling up in Royal Mail depots.\n\nA spokesperson for Royal Mail said the industrial action was costing the company money and putting jobs at risk.\n\n\"We operate in a competitive market, and our customers have choices,\" they said. \"Continued strike action will force our customers to make those choices sooner rather than later.\"\n\nRetailers are facing a challenging festive season with many shoppers, facing the soaring cost of living, looking for ways to rein in spending this year.\n\nAt the same time, businesses are seeing wage and energy bills rise.\n\nMr Baldock said there had been a \"violent\" shift to people buying online in recent years, but that firms like Amazon were still not paying the same level of tax as local businesses.\n\n\"There are plenty of UK-based retailers who are paying for the infrastructure on which Amazon are getting a free ride,\" he said.\n\nMoves made in the Autumn Statement to provide help with business rates, which have a much bigger impact on chains with physical stores, represented progress, but \"much more\" has to be done, Mr Baldock said.\n\nNew measures announced in November will mean brick-and-mortar retailers will pay much lower business rates, while businesses using large warehouses and logistics centres will pay more.\n\nAmazon said the changes announced in the Autumn Statement would result in increased taxes on its warehouse operations.\n\nThe firm said in 2021 it had paid £648m in direct taxes, including corporation tax and business rates.\n\nAn Amazon spokesperson said if a wider definition of taxes was included, reflecting the tax generated as a result of Amazon's operations, such as VAT and the taxes employees pay on their own earnings, then the firm had paid a total of £2.77bn last year.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nBrazil delivered an ominous message to their World Cup rivals with a dazzling display of attacking brilliance to dismantle South Korea and set up a quarter-final against Croatia.\n\nNeymar made a goalscoring return to action after injury at Stadium 974, but Brazil's superstar was only one element of a devastating performance that ripped South Korea to shreds and settled this last-16 game well before half-time.\n\nVinicius Jr set the tone with a composed penalty-area finish from Raphinha's cross after seven minutes, and Neymar doubled Brazil's advantage from the spot six minutes later for a foul on Richarlison.\n\nIt was Neymar's 76th goal for Brazil, leaving him just one behind the legendary Pele's all-time record.\n\nRicharlison then added to his personal showreel of great goals at this World Cup when he followed his spectacular volley against Serbia with a real work of art, controlling the ball three times with his head and foot before moving into position to take Thiago Silva's pass in his stride and score.\n\nBrazil went four up with another gem after 36 minutes, Vinicius picking out Lucas Paqueta for West Ham's expensive acquisition to score with a well-placed volley.\n\nSouth Korea, to their great credit, continued to compete and forced several fine saves from Brazil keeper Alisson, before substitute Paik Seung-ho pulled one back with a glorious 30-yard strike to add to the night's collection of special goals.\n\nFor 45 minutes at Stadium 974, Brazil hit heights no other team has reached at this World Cup, demonstrating the level that will be required to overcome Tite's team, producing a collection of goals constructed in their country's best traditions.\n\nAnd it was all achieved with the smooth freedom of expression that is Brazil's trademark, a four-goal half-time advantage going some way to demonstrating their supremacy.\n\nRicharlison's goal was a golden moment of the tournament, followed by a team dance that rather incongruously included coach Tite.\n\nNeymar eased himself back into action with silky touches and his goal, before being replaced late on after proving his fitness following the ankle injury sustained against Serbia that forced him out of two group games.\n\nHe is part of a potent Brazil attacking triumvirate alongside Richarlison and Vinicius, both on the scoresheet and both making a serious mark on this World Cup.\n\nTite was so comfortable with Brazil's position that he was able to give Alisson a rest and send on third-choice keeper Weverton for a taste of World Cup action.\n\nBrazil will now be heavy favourites against Croatia after putting down a marker with the best display - or at least 45 minutes before they eased up - by any team in Qatar so far.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nAlisson outstanding as Brazil also shine in defence\n\nBrazil's three-goal victory margin was convincing and deserved, but there was another aspect to this win that showed just how strong Tite's squad is.\n\nSouth Korea may have been outclassed for large parts of the game but they still had plenty of chances, only to run into one of the world's best goalkeepers in Liverpool's Alisson.\n\nFor all the understandable attention on Neymar and his attacking cohorts, Brazil have a last line of defence that stands comparison with anyone at this tournament, with Manchester City's Ederson a world-class deputy and Weverton seeing action here.\n\nSouth Korea never gave up trying to create opportunities but Alisson was outstanding, tipping over a long-range effort from Hwang Hee-chan before reacting quickly to block him after the break, and racing off his line to thwart Tottenham's Son Heung-min when he was clean through.\n\nBrazil may be full of attacking options but they also have the protection of Alisson, who has taken his outstanding form at club level this season on to the world stage.\n• None Attempt missed. Dani Alves (Brazil) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Rodrygo.\n• None Attempt missed. Hwang Hee-Chan (Korea Republic) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Hong Chul.\n• None Attempt missed. Bremer (Brazil) header from very close range misses to the left. Assisted by Raphinha with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Dani Alves (Brazil) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Gabriel Martinelli.\n• None Offside, Korea Republic. Kim Min-Jae tries a through ball, but Cho Gue-Sung is caught offside.\n• None Goal! Brazil 4, Korea Republic 1. Paik Seung-Ho (Korea Republic) left footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner following a set piece situation.\n• None Cho Gue-Sung (Korea Republic) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDialogue is now taking place between Buckingham Palace and a black British charity boss who was repeatedly asked where she was \"really\" from during a royal reception, the BBC understands.\n\nNgozi Fulani was questioned about her background by Lady Susan Hussey at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday - later likening it to \"an interrogation\".\n\nLady Hussey has since left her honorary role within the Royal Household.\n\nShe has offered her \"profound apologies\" through a Palace statement.\n\nIn the statement on Wednesday, the Palace said they had \"reached out to Ngozi Fulani on this matter\" - but the next day, Ms Fulani told the BBC no direct contact had been made.\n\nThe BBC now understands dialogue is taking place with Ms Fulani's team - but at this stage no further details are being shared.\n\nLady Hussey, Prince William's godmother, remains willing to make a personal apology if it would be welcomed, the BBC has also been told.\n\nNgozi Fulani - pictured on the far left - was one of the campaigners attending a reception which was hosted by the Queen Consort (centre)\n\nLady Hussey was the late Queen's lady-in-waiting and was seen as a key and trusted figure in the Royal Household for decades.\n\nPart of her latest role had involved helping to host events at Buckingham Palace.\n\nMs Fulani was a guest at one of these events last Tuesday - a reception representing domestic violence which she attended as part of her work with the charity Sistah Space.\n\nShe described how Lady Hussey moved her hair to see her name badge and then repeatedly challenged her to explain where she was from.\n\nLady Susan Hussey was a key and trusted figure in the British royal household for decades\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday, Ms Fulani said: \"It was like an interrogation.\n\n\"I guess the only way I can explain it, she's determined: 'Where are you from? Where are your people from?'\"\n\nMs Fulani also rebuffed suggestions that Lady Hussey's remarks had anything to do with her age.\n\nShe had been representing her charity, which supports women of African and Caribbean heritage across the UK who have faced domestic and sexual abuse, at the event.\n\nLady Hussey's remarks overshadowed the Prince and Princess of Wales's trip to Boston.\n\nAt the time, a spokesperson for Prince William said \"racism has no place in our society\".\n\nHe added: \"The comments were unacceptable, and it is right that the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect.\"\n\nMs Fulani's team has been approached for comment about the latest dialogue.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nEngland will meet France in the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday after an impressive demolition of Senegal at Al Bayt Stadium.\n\nGareth Southgate's side survived a nervy opening in which goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made an outstanding save from Boulaye Dia to run out convincing winners with a powerful display of attacking strength.\n\nJude Bellingham was England's star man, setting up the first goal for Jordan Henderson with a perfect cross after 38 minutes then having a hand in the second on the stroke of half-time, combining with Phil Foden as captain Harry Kane powered home his first of the tournament.\n\nIt left Kane just one behind Wayne Rooney's all-time record of 53 England goals and he now has the perfect stage here in Qatar to write a fresh page in the history books.\n\nFoden was the creator once more as England wrapped the game up in the 57th minute, crossing for Bukayo Saka to show great awareness and touch to flick a delicate finish past Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.\n\nIt capped the perfect night for manager Southgate, who opted to restore Saka and keep faith with Foden, leaving out Marcus Rashford despite his two goals in the win over Wales. Raheem Sterling was not considered after a break-in at his family home and will now return to England.\n• None How to follow England's quarter-final with France\n\nEngland took a while to move through the gears against Senegal but when they clicked they showed a level of creation that gives them real edge and makes them genuine contenders for this World Cup.\n\nThe early worries came when Senegal attempted to expose Harry Maguire's lack of pace, which they did twice and will be noted by France and Kylian Mbappe, but once Bellingham exerted his authority over the midfield England were able to take control and cruise to victory.\n\nBorussia Dortmund's 19-year-old has already had an outstanding World Cup but he now has power and production on the biggest stage to add to his reputation.\n\nBellingham is the identikit modern midfield player and the manner in which he combined with Foden for England's second goal, completed by a rousing finish from Kane, was a glimpse into a golden future.\n\nFoden has also grown into this World Cup, having scored against Wales and creating two goals here. England's midfield and attack is taking shape with perfect timing for what will be the sternest of tests against France and the peerless Mbappe.\n\nHenderson and Declan Rice allow Bellingham to flourish while Saka once again showed his maturity and threat from the wide positions along with Foden.\n\nKane is the mobile spearhead up front and it is a good sign for England that he is now on the goal trail and chasing Rooney's record. He occasionally needs to play his way into major tournaments, as at Euro 2020, and Southgate will have been delighted to see how emphatically he finished the chance he got for the second goal.\n\nPickford has had little to do in this World Cup but when called into action he made a vital intervention against Senegal that paved the way for England to get their act together and win with ease.\n\nEngland were struggling in defence in the opening phase, with Dia missing one big chance before he was presented with another that needed Pickford to make a strong one-handed stop from his angled shot.\n\nSenegal were soon behind and England had the momentum which they never threatened to relinquish, Southgate's side closing out the win with plenty to spare following an uneventful second half.\n\nPickford's place in the England side has occasionally been questioned from outside but never by Southgate, who has total faith in a player who has never let him down.\n• None Attempt blocked. Bamba Dieng (Senegal) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt missed. Marcus Rashford (England) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Luke Shaw with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Pape Sarr (Senegal) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Famara Diédhiou.\n• None Attempt blocked. Pape Gueye (Senegal) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Youssouf Sabaly.\n• None Attempt missed. Ismaïla Sarr (Senegal) header from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Ismail Jakobs with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "The Royal Navy spent two days digging out the buildings\n\nThe Royal Navy has come to the aid of four UK women working at an isolated Antarctic scientific base after its buildings were buried in heavy snow.\n\nSailors and Royal Marines from HMS Protector spent two days digging out the Port Lockroy site.\n\nThe damaged roof of Bransfield Hut - home to a museum, gift shop and world's most remote post office - was fixed.\n\nThe women beat 6,000 applicants to manage the base and share the island with a colony of Gentoo penguins.\n\nClare Ballantyne, Mairi Hilton, Natalie Corbett and Lucy Bruzzone accepted the task of reopening the site 9,000 miles from the UK in October after the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nThey were setting up, assisted by three other staff who are leaving shortly, ahead of the austral summer - which falls between November to February in the southern hemisphere - when heavy snowfall of between two and four metres (6-12ft) deep arrived.\n\nThe new arrivals at Port Lockroy with the Royal Navy team from HMS Protector\n\nThe team from HMS Protector, which is based in Plymouth when in the UK, shifted several tonnes of snow and carried out temporary repairs.\n\nEngineers say they used traditional naval ship damage control methods using wooden stakes and blocks to stabilise the structure.\n\nThe ice patrol ship pays regular visits to international bases like Port Lockroy on the frozen continent, delivering supplies, and supporting scientific research of the UK and other nations.\n\nWarrant Officer First Class Lee \"Rattler\" Morgan, who was part of the rescue team, said he was \"taken aback\" by \"the sheer amount of snow\", adding that the buildings \"had all but disappeared\".\n\n\"It is good for the ship's company to step ashore and help out. The sailors were all smiles and happy to get cracking on with such a worthwhile task.\"\n\nThe staff can now resume their five-month stint at Port Lockroy, a former whaling station that has become a tourist attraction visited by around 20,000 people during the summer season.\n\nDuring their time at the site, the four have given up running water, a flushing toilet, wi-fi, and can only speak to their loved ones for 10 minutes a week.\n\nBut when they were asked about giving up on creature comforts, the four said they could not resist the opportunity to work on the island.\n\nMs Corbett, in charge of running the gift shop at the site's museum, was a newlywed when she embarked on the role.\n\nThe 31-year-old from Hampshire dubbed the trip a \"solo honeymoon\".\n\n\"Who wouldn't want to spend five months working on an island filled with penguins in one of the most remote places on the planet?\" she said.\n\nMs Ballantyne, from Lincolnshire, had just completed a masters in earth science at Oxford University.\n\nThe 23-year-old will deal with approximately 80,000 cards during her time on the job, which are mailed each year from the site to more than 100 countries.\n\nMs Hilton, from Bo'ness, near Falkirk in Scotland, is a conservation scientist in charge of monitoring the number of Gentoo penguins that live on the bay.\n\nMs Bruzzone, from London, who previously spent three months in Svalbard as a chief scientist on an Arctic expedition, is working as the base leader, managing the team and coordinating all ship visits to the island.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ian Blackford has denied he was pushed out of his role as SNP Westminster leader.\n\nIan Blackford has denied he was pushed out of his role as SNP Westminster leader.\n\nMr Blackford stood down after five years in the post after weeks of speculation that some colleagues were plotting to replace him.\n\nHe told BBC Scotland he took the decision to go but also claimed he would have been re-elected.\n\nTwo MPs, Stephen Flynn and Alison Thewliss, have entered the race to become the new group leader.\n\nMr Blackford's successor will be selected at the Westminster group's AGM on Tuesday.\n\nAsked on BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show if he was pushed out, Mr Blackford said: \"No I took the decision, I need to make sure my talents are used in the right way to support the government and support the first minister.\n\n\"I certainly take the view that if I had stood at the AGM that I still would have been the SNP's Westminster leader but I think now is the right time to allow other people to come forward.\"\n\nMr Blackford, MP for for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, is taking on a new role for the SNP promoting independence to Scotland's business community.\n\nStephen Flynn was elected MP for Aberdeen South in 2019\n\nMr Flynn confirmed he would stand on Sunday evening and tweeted: \"Independence is coming, let's get on and deliver it.\"\n\nThe Aberdeen South MP added: \"I want to see a Scotland where opportunity exists for all, where we have the powers to combat poverty and create a green energy revolution.\"\n\nEarlier, Glasgow Central MP Ms Thewliss said she was standing as she felt she had a \"duty to step up\".\n\nShe wrote on Twitter that she would be a \"clear contrast to the two men shouting at each [other] across the despatch box at PMQs on a Wednesday, illustrating the alternative vision on offer for Scotland\".\n\nAlison Thewliss, the Glasgow Central SNP MP, wants to be the next SNP Westminster leader\n\nOn Friday Kirsten Oswald confirmed she would step down as SNP Westminster deputy leader.\n\nThe East Renfrewshire MP tweeted that it \"seems sensible to me that a new leader and new deputy pick up the baton and they'll have my support to do that\".\n\nThe new Westminster leader will be selected on Tuesday by the 44 MPs who currently hold the SNP whip.\n\nIt means the new leader will be in place to face Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister's Questions the next day.\n\nMeanwhile, SNP president Mike Russell and former cabinet secretary for the constitution has raised the prospect of the SNP using the next Holyrood election as a \"de facto referendum\" on independence.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the next general election should be the \"de facto referendum\" on independence.\n\nThis followed the Supreme Court ruling that the Scottish government does not have the power to hold an actual referendum without the UK's government's consent.\n\nBut when asked by the BBC if the \"de facto referendum\" should be for the next Westminster or Holyrood election, Mr Russell said \"we need to look at both of those options very carefully\".", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nGareth Southgate says England's tag as \"favourites\" means nothing as they prepare for their World Cup last-16 meeting with Senegal.\n\nThe Three Lions meet African champions Senegal in their first knockout stage match in Qatar on Sunday at 19:00 GMT.\n\nEngland qualified as Group B winners with a 3-0 win over Wales on Tuesday, while Senegal were runners-up behind the Netherlands in Group A.\n\n\"We will be considered favourites,\" Southgate said.\n\n\"But that doesn't really mean anything in a one-off game,\" the England boss added.\n\n\"It doesn't mean there isn't any pressure for Senegal because every international team has great pressure in their own nation and externally as well.\"\n\nThe meeting at Al Bayt Stadium is the first between the two nations and the winner will meet reigning champions France or Poland in the quarter-finals.\n• None Who did you pick in your England team to face Senegal?\n\nEngland ready to go the distance\n\nWhile Senegal have reached the knockout stage of a World Cup for just the second time, England are bidding to make the last eight in consecutive tournaments for the first time since 2006, following their run to the semi-finals four years ago.\n\nSouthgate's side were eliminated by an extra-time Croatia winner in Russia, before then losing out to Italy on penalties in the Euro 2020 final at Wembley last summer.\n\n\"We are two tournaments on from when we played Colombia at this stage in Moscow. I think our level of experience is better, our level of ambition is different,\" Southgate told BBC Radio 5 Live.\n\n\"When we qualified from our group stage in Russia, we were probably celebrating quite a bit. This time was a great evening for our fans and we enjoyed the win, but we were already thinking of the next game.\n\n\"We know the focus has to be on this one game, nothing else.\"\n\nAsked about the prospect of penalties, Southgate added: \"We are aiming to win the game and avoid extra time and penalties, but if we need to go 120 minutes or beyond that we have to be ready for that mentally and physically and I believe we are.\"\n• None World Cup Daily: 1,000 not out for Messi\n• None Why Senegal have nothing to lose against England\n\n'We have huge respect for Senegal'\n\nSenegal lifted the Africa Cup of Nations trophy for the first time in February as Aliou Cisse's side overcame Egypt in a penalty shootout.\n\nThe Teranga Lions were dealt a huge blow prior to the World Cup when star player Sadio Mane was ruled out of the tournament with a knee injury he suffered playing for Bayern Munich less than two weeks before his nation's opening match.\n\nBut victories over hosts Qatar and Ecuador, after an opening defeat by the Netherlands, ensured they have qualified for the knockout stage for the first time in 20 years.\n\n\"We have been very impressed with Senegal,\" Southgate said.\n\n\"They are African champions and are very proud and have great spirit and belief in their team. They have some excellent individual players who can cause problems, but a good structure as well.\n\n\"Cisse has done a fantastic job. We know the size of the job ahead of us.\"\n\nSenegal coach Cisse was unable to attend his news conference on Saturday because of illness, raising doubts over whether he will be on the touchline.\n\nSouthgate has so far seen his faith in Harry Maguire repaid by the Manchester United centre-back, despite his recent struggles at club level.\n\nPartnering Manchester City defender John Stones at the heart of a back four, England kept successive clean sheets against the USA and Wales following a 6-2 thrashing of Iran.\n\nSouthgate believes the 29-year-old Maguire, who has started one league game for his club since August, has benefited from England's style of play - as well as the appreciation shown by the fans.\n\n\"He knows we've got complete belief in him,\" Southgate said. \"He's had huge performances for England in two tournaments where we've had a huge degree of progress as a country.\n\n\"As with most players of that quality, it is about confidence. You can see that when he plays in our team. We play in a way that suits him.\n\n\"He feels the love of the fans, that was clear in the stadium the other night, and that was brilliant to see because that hasn't always been the case in the last few months with England.\n\n\"He's helped to form a really important bedrock for our team.\"\n\nKane aiming to come into best form\n\nEngland captain Harry Kane won the golden boot at the 2018 World Cup, and although he is yet to score in Qatar - despite England's tournament-high nine group-stage goals - he has contributed three assists.\n\nThe Tottenham striker had an injury scare earlier in the tournament after sustaining a knock against Iran but says he is now focused on hitting his peak.\n\n\"First and foremost my foot feels fine, no problem at all. It has been getting getter and better day by day,\" Kane confirmed on Saturday.\n\n\"Form-wise I feel like I have been playing well. Goals are what I'm going to be judged on most, but I'm a calm individual and I always try to focus on doing my best for the team.\n\n\"I will continue to do that. If the goals come, great, it will give us a better chance of winning. It will be a tough game, but tomorrow hopefully I can get off the mark.\n\n\"I feel really good, I feel fit and sharp. I feel as match fit as I'm ever going to feel. Only time will tell. I can try and come into the best form with these knockout games.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You are now, properly, a city,\" says Princess Anne during her visit to Bangor\n\nBangor in County Down has formally received city status in a ceremony attended by the Princess Royal.\n\nThe ceremony took place at Bangor Castle with Princess Anne unveiling the city's official warrant.\n\nCity status was granted by Queen Elizabeth II to mark her platinum jubilee, three months before her death in September.\n\nBangor is now one of six cities in Northern Ireland, along with Belfast, Londonderry, Armagh, Lisburn and Newry.\n\nPrincess Anne said it was \"always a pleasure\" to visit Bangor, reminiscing on her previous trips in 2013 and 2016.\n\nThe official letters patent for Bangor reads that the area will \"have all such rank liberties, privileges and immunities as are incident to a city\"\n\nShe spoke about Bangor's historical importance as a centre of learning, noting its appearance on the medieval Hereford Mappa Mundi as \"civitas benair\" (city of Bangor).\n\n\"I can only apologise for taking so long to make sure that in fact you are now properly a city in 2022,\" she said.\n\nThe princess praised recent investment in the area, adding that she hoped city-status \"provides a real boost to these exciting plans\".\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris was also at the event, which was hosted by Ards and North Down Mayor Karen Douglas.\n\nMr Heaton-Harris said he hoped city-status would attract visitors and boost the economy.\n\nPrincess Anne was joined by Chris Heaton-Harris and Ards and North Down Mayor Karen Douglas as she unveiled the city's royal warrant\n\nBangor was one of eight UK towns elevated to a city in May after a competition in which it was required to show its royal associations and cultural heritage.\n\nIts application pointed out that in 1961 the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited Bangor Castle and had lunch at the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, before the duke raced in a regatta.\n\nCity status is often associated with having a cathedral, a university, or a large population.\n\nHowever, there are no set rules for being granted the status, which is awarded by the monarch on advice of ministers.\n\nTwenty years ago, Lisburn and Newry were awarded city status in a competition to mark the Queen's golden jubilee.\n\nThe coastal town has been popular with day-trippers for decades\n\nIn the 2011 census the population of Bangor was just over 60,000.\n\nIt is situated beside the coast, at the mouth of Belfast Lough.\n\nA number of famous faces come from Bangor, including the lead singer of Snow Patrol, Gary Lightbody, author Colin Bateman, golfer David Feherty and artist Colin Davidson.\n\nNobel Peace Prize winner Lord David Trimble, who died earlier this year, spent much of his early life in the town, attending Bangor Grammar, one of 19 schools in the area.\n\nIn the past it was a seaside resort which was popular with day trippers and tourists who gathered on the beach in front of the town.\n\nIn the late 1980s a marina was built, transforming the seafront.\n\nArtist Colin Davidson is one of the famous faces from Bangor\n\nLike many places it has been hit hard by the building of shopping centres on the outskirts of the central district.\n\nThere are plans in place to try to rejuvenate Bangor, with the hope that its new city status will help.\n\nThe city's courthouse was recently turned into a music venue, and other projects are in the pipeline.\n\nBangor's road signs will not change immediately to reflect its new status as a city - they will continue to refer to \"town centre\".\n\n\"Officials are content to liaise with Ards and North Down Borough Council representatives to consider a possible phased renewal of signs in conjunction with any replacement of signs the council is responsible for,\" said the Department for Infrastructure.", "Tottenham manager Antonio Conte has suggested he will only select players who were not involved in the World Cup for his side's Boxing Day match at Brentford.\n\nThe Premier League resumes on Monday, just eight days after the World Cup final in Qatar.\n\nConte has already said his players who were involved in the final - France's Hugo Lloris and Argentina's Cristian Romero - will not face the Bees.\n\n\"I am not really happy,\" Conte said.\n\n\"In one hand, you are happy because for my club, Tottenham, to have 12 players at the World Cup it means that we are in the right way to try to be competitive and to try to win something.\n\n\"But it is normal that when you have so many players play a tournament like this, especially during the season, that now it is not easy because the physical condition is not at the top.\n\n\"It is impossible to give them a lot of rest and for sure with the players that didn't play the World Cup and we work for four weeks, now they are in a great physical condition.\n\n\"We worked a lot on the tactical aspect and physical aspect. Now they are at a level that is better than the players who finished the World Cup.\n\n\"For this reason I think I have to make the best decision for the game against Brentford. On one side I have players who I worked with for four weeks really well and on the other side, I have players who worked at the World Cup and are not at the top at the moment.\"\n\nRodrigo Bentancur will miss Monday's lunchtime kick-off due to suspension but has also been nursing a minor hamstring issue.\n\nThe same injury will sideline Richarlison for a month - he picked it up playing for Brazil in Qatar - and Lucas Moura's problem with his tendon continues.\n\nConte said of Moura: \"He is struggling a lot to find a solution.\n\n\"It's a difficult situation, because I have a good player in my squad, but he's never available. It's like you don't have him.\n\n\"It's a pity because we are talking about a good player, a good guy, but he is struggling a lot to solve this problem. I don't know what in the future happens about him.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nArsenal manager Mikel Arteta says club great Arsene Wenger \"picked the right moment\" to go back to Emirates Stadium as he saw them underline their title credentials.\n\nArteta's young team produced a second-half fightback to beat West Ham and move seven points clear at the top of the Premier League, which was resuming after the World Cup.\n\nWenger, who was the last Arsenal manager to win the title, made his first return since stepping down in 2018.\n\n\"His presence is something that has to be very, very attached to this football club so thanks [to him] for doing that because it means a lot for everybody at the club,\" said Arteta.\n\n\"Hopefully he is willing to spend more time with us and be around us because he is such an influence.\"\n• None Relive all the action as the Premier League returned on Boxing Day\n\nWest Ham took the lead against the run of play when Jarrod Bowen was judged to have been clipped in the box by William Saliba, allowing Said Benrahma to smash a confident penalty down the middle.\n\nThere was a mood of frustration among the home fans until Bukayo Saka converted from close range after collecting Martin Odegaard's mis-hit shot.\n\nThe equaliser gave added impetus to the Gunners and another home goal looked increasingly likely.\n\nFive minutes later, it duly arrived. Gabriel Martinelli put the hosts ahead, catching out West Ham's former Gunners keeper Lukasz Fabianski by tucking inside the near post from a tight angle when he seemed more likely to cross.\n\nThe points were sealed when Eddie Nketiah - starting in place of the injured Gabriel Jesus - spun sharply in the box before firing into the opposite bottom corner.\n\nArsenal extended their lead at the top over Newcastle, who moved second by beating Leicester earlier on Monday.\n\nReigning champions Manchester City - who go to Leeds United on Wednesday - are now eight points behind the Gunners.\n\nWest Ham are 16th and just a point above the relegation zone after their fourth league defeat in a row.\n• None Go straight to all the best Arsenal content\n\nArsenal fans are starting to believe Arteta's side can genuinely maintain their push for the club's first title since Wenger's Invincibles in 2004.\n\nAnd as Wenger watched and heard his name lovingly sang by the home crowd, Arteta's young team added further encouragement to those dreaming of a long-awaited triumph.\n\n\"It is a really special day because Boxing Day is a beautiful day to play football and I thought the performance was at the level today that we deserve,\" said Arteta.\n\n\"Hopefully he [Wenger] will like it.\"\n\nThe match came on the third anniversary of Arteta's first game as Arsenal manager, and significant progress has been made since then.\n\nWhen the former Gunners midfielder took over, they were closer to the relegation zone than the top four.\n\nTheir current position - and mood around the club - is a measure of how they have come.\n\nThe Spaniard has built a new team in the past three years which bears little resemblance - in style and substance - to the one picked for his first game at Bournemouth in 2019.\n\nArteta will not be getting carried after this win over West Ham, especially with several significant fixtures - not least against Manchester City on 15 February - on the horizon.\n\nBut the Gunners sent a message with a clinical second-half performance and the omens are also in their favour.\n\nThe team who topped the Premier League table on Christmas Day have gone on to be champions in 10 of the past 13 seasons.\n\nNketiah takes chance as West Ham struggle in front of goal\n\nOne of the key questions as the Premier League returned was how the Gunners would cope without key striker Jesus.\n\nThe Brazil international had knee surgery after being injured in Qatar and is expected to be out until late February, fuelling talk the Gunners might need to sign some cover.\n\nBut against West Ham, a first Premier League start of the season was handed to Nketiah - and the 23-year-old delivered.\n\nAfter stretching the Hammers defence and creating space with his sharp movement, he capped an impressive all-round performance with a fierce finish and staked his claim to be Jesus' replacement.\n\n\"Gabby will be a big miss but we all believe in Eddie,\" Saka told Amazon Prime. \"That's all he needs, us to keep supporting him and we will keep encouraging him.\n\n\"Everyone in the team is chipping in [with goals] and everyone will be important.\"\n\nIn contrast to the leaders, West Ham are struggling in front of goal.\n\nThey have been better than their league position suggests, according to their expected goals statistics, with converting chances being their main problem.\n\nFew opportunities came against Arsenal, although the game might have panned out differently had Michail Antonio not been denied by Aaron Ramsdale shortly after the restart at 1-0.\n\nHammers manager David Moyes said before the match he has not been feeling pressure because of results, instead urging for perspective and togetherness across the club.\n\nBut a fourth straight league defeat leaves West Ham as one of the cluster of teams packed tightly together in the bottom half.\n\n\"I don't think we're in a relegation fight. Every team has a blip when it isn't plain sailing and results don't go your way,\" said midfielder Declan Rice.\n\n\"It's down to me as captain to keep everyone going and pushing. We still believe we are a top team. But we need to start showing that. It's down to us.\"\n• None Attempt saved. Pablo Fornals (West Ham United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top right corner. Assisted by Saïd Benrahma.\n• None Attempt missed. Lucas Paquetá (West Ham United) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Declan Rice following a corner.\n• None Divin Mubama (West Ham United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt saved. William Saliba (Arsenal) header from very close range is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Bukayo Saka with a cross.\n• None Attempt blocked. Martin Ødegaard (Arsenal) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Bukayo Saka.\n• None Attempt missed. Martin Ødegaard (Arsenal) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "China carried out a huge military drill around Taiwan in August as well\n\nChina has staged one of its biggest incursions in the seas and skies around Taiwan, the island's government says.\n\nIt said that 71 Chinese air force planes, including fighter jets and drones, had entered Taiwan's so-called air defence identification zone.\n\nThe US said China's military activity was \"destabilising\" and undermined \"regional peace and stability\".\n\nTaiwan is self-ruled - but China sees it as a breakaway province with which it will eventually reunite.\n\nTensions between the two sides have steadily increased in recent months.\n\nIn August, Beijing was enraged by a visit to the island by US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, the most senior US politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years.\n\nChina responded to that visit by holding what was then its biggest-ever military exercises in the seas around Taiwan, and also blocked some trade with the island.\n\nTaiwan's foreign minister Joseph Wu condemned China's action then as highly provocative. China has never said it would not use force to bring Taiwan under its control.\n\nOn Monday, Taiwan's defence ministry said 43 Chinese aircraft had crossed over the so-called median line, an unofficial buffer separating the two sides inside the air defence zone.\n\nChina said it had conducted \"strike drills\" around Taiwan on Sunday in response to what it said was provocation from the island and the US.\n\nA White House National Security Council official said the US was concerned by the latest development, adding it would \"continue to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defence capability in line with our long-standing commitments and consistent with our one-China policy\".\n\nWashington has always walked a diplomatic tightrope over the issue of Taiwan.\n\nOn the one hand it adheres to the one-China policy, a cornerstone of its relationship with Beijing. Under this policy, the US acknowledges that there is only one Chinese government, and has formal ties with Beijing rather than Taiwan.\n\nBut it also maintains close relations with Taiwan and sells arms to it under the Taiwan Relations Act, which states that the US must provide the island with the means to defend itself.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Pipebots are laden with sensors and designed to be small enough to patrol water pipes without blocking them\n\nAround three billion litres of water are lost through leaks across hundreds of thousands of miles of water pipe in England and Wales daily, says water industry economic regulator Ofwat.\n\nEngineers have now developed miniature robots to patrol the pipe network, check for faults and prevent leaks.\n\nThey say maintaining the network will be \"impossible\" without robotics.\n\nWater industry body Water UK told BBC News that companies were already \"investing billions\" in leakage.\n\nCompanies already use tethered inspection robots like the one on the right\n\nBut a recent Ofwat report pointed to a lack of investment by water companies. It named several that it said were \"letting down customers and the environment\" by not spending enough on improvements. Water UK responded saying that leakage was at \"its lowest level since privatisation\".\n\nLeaks are a widespread and complicated problem: Across the UK, hundreds of thousands of kilometres of pipe - of varying age and in varying condition - supply millions of properties with water.\n\nColin Day from Essex and Suffolk Water said: \"In [this region] alone, we look after more than 8,500km (5,282 miles) of pipe and only about half the leaks in those pipes are visible, which means it's complicated to pinpoint where [the rest] are.\"\n\nWasted water has been a particularly sensitive issue this year. According to Water UK, three companies - South East Water, South West Water, and Yorkshire Water - still have localised hosepipe bans in place following the summer drought. And, amid the cost of living crisis, Ofwat estimates 20% of customers in England and Wales struggle to pay their water bill.\n\nIn the last year, though, according to Ofwat, companies have reduced leakage by an average of about 6%.\n\nThe industry has committed to a government target of halving the amount of water lost by 2050. Water UK accepted that progress needed to \"accelerate\". \"We're adopting the latest technology, including special in-pipe cameras; satellite imaging; thermal drone technology, high-tech probes, and artificial intelligence,\" it told BBC News.\n\nWe visited the site of a leak repair with Essex and Suffolk Water, which is owned by Northumbria Water. At a suburban site, a team was carefully excavating - navigating the overlying sewer pipe, gas supply and electricity cables to locate an underground leak.\n\n\"This one wasn't visible - we detected it through monitoring flow in our network,\" said Colin Day from Essex and Suffolk Water.\n\n\"We've covered the biggest leaks - burst pipes that people see. It's these smaller, hidden leaks that we need to find.\"\n\nEssex and Suffolk Water is testing \"non-dig\" repairs, including sealants that can be safely injected into pipes to repair cracks before they develop into a major leak. The technological revolution in leak prevention, according to some scientists, will be miniature robots.\n\nTransparent water pipes in the infrastructure research centre in Sheffield\n\nSome companies already use tethered robots to investigate pipes that are inaccessible. But most of the network is currently inaccessible without digging. This is where much smaller, artificially intelligent machines come in.\n\nA new generation of underground robotic pipe patrollers is being tested at the Integrated Civil and Infrastructure Research Centre (ICAIR) at the University of Sheffield.\n\nPipebots are miniature, mobile robots with cameras for eyes and all-terrain legs. They are being developed in collaboration with the water industry to patrol pipes and find cracks and weaknesses before they develop into leaks.\n\n\"Companies only respond reactively to faults at the moment, not proactively,\" explains Prof Kirill Horoshenkov. \"We need to have the presence of robots so they can continuously collect data before the onset of faults.\"\n\nHolding the toy car-sized robot in his hand, Prof Horoshenkov explained: \"They move along the pipe, taking pictures and they have a microphone to listen to the pipe. They're designed to make decisions about whether the pipe is likely to develop a fault or not.\"\n\nResearchers test robots on different surfaces to mimic the inside of a pipe\n\nArtificial intelligence specialist Prof Netta Cohen from the University of Leeds says the biggest challenge for pipebots is communication.\n\n\"Underground, there's no GPS. So they will communicate with each other at short ranges (using sound or wifi).\"\n\nShe and her colleagues are developing a system where a larger \"mother\" robot carries and deploys a group of miniature robots.\n\n\"They will deposit these little guys to go into the smaller pipes and collect them when they're done,\" explained Prof Cohen. \"We will need a whole society of these robots to work in all these kilometres of pipe.\n\n\"If you think about the state of our infrastructure,\" she added, \"it is so urgent to do something. It has implications not just for industry, but for our impact on the environment.\"\n\nThe water pipes beneath our feet, said Prof Cohen, are some of the most inhospitable environments on Earth. \"We can't do this without robotics.\"\n\nAt ICAIR, the team hopes the first pipebots will patrol the water network within five years. Until then, each time there is a leak, the water companies will have to dig - around the maze of sewer pipes, gas supplies and cables - to fix it.", "The crash on the B4251 happened at Christmas Day lunchtime\n\nA three-year-old girl is among three people seriously injured in a crash on Christmas Day in Caerphilly county.\n\nA 29-year-old man also suffered life-threatening injuries while a woman, 33, was hurt in the crash on the B4251 in Blackwood about 13:00 GMT.\n\nTwo men have been arrested, both on suspicion of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and being unfit to drive through drink or drugs.\n\nThe three people injured were in a Vauxhall Corsa driving along Yard Coal Rise at lunchtime on Christmas Day. All three were taken to hospital.\n\nThe male driver of the Mini Cooper suffered minor injuries and was arrested, police said.\n\nThe force then tracked down a red Vauxhall Astra also being driven on the road at the time and have arrested a 25-year-old man.\n\nBoth men were in police custody on Christmas night.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "All ten members of a group of skiers caught in an avalanche near the resort of Lech-Zuers in western Austria on Sunday have been rescued, police say.\n\nHelicopters, searchlights and avalanche dogs were used in the operation to locate the missing people after initial fears they had been buried in the snow.\n\n\"According to our current information, it can be assumed that no more people are missing,\" police said later.\n\nNo details were given of the nationalities of the skiers.\n\nThe avalanche happened at about 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT) at an altitude of 2,700m (8,858ft).", "Police did not pursue the car, which did not stop for officers\n\nA man has been arrested after a woman was killed in a crash in the early hours of Christmas Day.\n\nAt about 03:45 GMT, patrolling Met police officers in a marked car indicated for a car to stop in Hendon Way, Edgware, north London.\n\nThe car drove off and police did not pursue it. The car was then involved in a crash with another vehicle and hit a lamp-post.\n\nThe 22-year-old, who was a passenger in the second car, died from her injuries.\n\nThe driver of the second car - a man - suffered a non-serious head injury.\n\nPolice said the occupants of the car that did not stop for officers fled the scene on foot.\n\nA 29-year-old man was subsequently arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and remains in custody.\n\nRoad closures are in place and inquiries are continuing to trace other occupants of the car, the force added.\n\nAnyone with information or dashcam footage is asked to contact police.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "King Charles's first Christmas message attracted the highest viewing figures this century for the monarch's traditional festive address, overnight viewing figures have shown.\n\nMore channels than ever carried the 3pm address - and the combined audience was 10.7 million.\n\nIn comparison, Queen Elizabeth II's final Christmas message a year ago was seen by 8.96 million viewers.\n\nThe King paid tribute to his mother's work during his first festive address.\n\nHe also took the opportunity to reflect on the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, as he spoke of those struggling to pay their bills.\n\nAccording to figures collated by Sussex University, the audience for the late Queen's annual broadcast dropped below 10 million in the late 1990s and had not climbed that high again.\n\nIn recent years, the message has regularly been the most-watched Christmas Day programme - but that is because viewers have increasingly switched off other Christmas shows or just watch them at a later time. The Queen's address was still seen by many as a live event to be watched at the time of transmission, even though it was actually pre-recorded.\n\nThe increased interest in what the King would say in his first message meant that it was shown simultaneously on BBC One, ITV1, ITV3, Sky News and GB News - with a signed version on BBC Two.\n\nThe BBC can also claim to have won the viewing battle with seven of the top 10 shows being screened on BBC One.\n\nThe number of viewers is based on \"overnight\" figures - largely based on viewers who were watching the programmes live. So they do not include viewers who watch Christmas specials on catch-up services during the rest of the festive period.\n\nAll figures supplied by the Broadcasters Audience Research Board (Barb))\n\nAccording to ratings body Barb, Strictly Come Dancing's Christmas Special was the second biggest success of the day, with 5.44 million viewers tuning in to watch Coronation Street star Alexandra Mardell lift the special trophy based on a Christmas star.\n\nThis year's festive soap battle saw EastEnders come out on top in eighth place. Soap actor Danny Dyer drew in 3.17 million viewers who tuned in to watch him leave Albert Square after nine years of playing Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter.\n\nThe next most-watched soap of Christmas Day was ITV's Coronation Street, which came in ninth place with 2.85 million viewers. But Emmerdale completely missed out on a place in the Top 10.\n\nITV's best-performing programme, despite a late time slot, was Doc Martin with 3.26 million viewers.\n\nBut the BBC secured the top six most-watched programmes including its shared screening of the King's Christmas message.\n\nChief content officer Charlotte Moore said: \"Winning the Christmas Day ratings caps off an incredible centenary year of world-class content on the BBC. In a time of so much competition and choice, the BBC continues to be the UK's entertainment destination on Christmas Day.\"\n\nAlexandra Mardell and Kai Widdrington were the winners of the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special 2022\n• None 'You are not alone' says Queen in Christmas speech", "The ONS says infections rose in London, the South West, the North East, the West Midlands and the South East in the week ending 9 December\n\nCoronavirus modelling data will stop being published in early January, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says.\n\nStatistics covering the growth rate of the virus are currently released fortnightly, but the agency says this is no longer necessary.\n\nChief data scientist Dr Nick Watkins said this is due to the UK living with Covid-19 because of vaccines and therapeutics.\n\nCovid will continue to be monitored in other ways, the agency added.\n\nThe reproductive rate - known as the R rate - refers to the number of people an infected person will pass the virus onto.\n\nAt the height of the pandemic both the R rate and growth rate for England were published weekly.\n\nSince April this year it has been published fortnightly.\n\nDr Watkins said it served as a useful and simple indicator to inform public health action and government decisions.\n\n\"Vaccines and therapeutics have allowed us to move to a phase where we are living with Covid-19,\" Dr Watkins said.\n\n\"We continue to monitor Covid-19 activity in a similar way to how we monitor a number of other common illnesses and diseases.\n\n\"All data publications are kept under constant review and this modelling data can be reintroduced promptly if needed, for example, if a new variant of concern was to be identified.\"\n\nAll remaining Covid restrictions, including the legal requirement to self-isolate at home with symptoms, were removed earlier this year.\n\nHowever, health officials have urged those with signs of respiratory illness should avoid mixing during the festive season, particularly with vulnerable people.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nThe last we saw of the Premier League was on Sunday, 13 November, with Manchester United snatching an injury-time winner at Fulham.\n\nSix weeks have passed, during which we have been glued to events in Qatar, where Wales fell at the group stage and England suffered penalty woe again, before Argentina lifted the 2022 World Cup.\n\nOn 26 December the English top flight returns, and just in case you had forgotten how we left it, BBC Sport will bring you up to speed.\n\nThe view from the top\n\nArsenal are out in front after a superb first 14 games of the campaign.\n\nThey have amassed 37 points, dropping them in just two fixtures so far - their only defeat coming at Manchester United in early September.\n\nAfter their best Premier League start, this is the first time they will be top at Christmas since the 2007-08 season.\n\nAll seven teams to win 12 of their first 14 games have won the Premier League title.\n\nAnother good omen for the Gunners is the team that topped the table on Christmas Day have been champions in 10 of the past 13 seasons.\n\nIn their first game back they face West Ham at Emirates Stadium.\n\nWith second-placed Manchester City not playing until 28 December - at Leeds - victory would take the Gunners eight points clear of the champions.\n\nNewcastle - the surprise challengers at the top end of the table - are at Leicester on 26 December and will want to pick up where they left off. A sixth consecutive win would move them above Manchester City and into second.\n\nThere are a few teams in the top half who will probably have appreciated the chance to take stock during the World Cup before going again.\n\nTottenham beat Leeds before the break, but had lost three of the previous four. They get us under way on Monday with an away game at Brentford (12:30 GMT).\n\nGraham Potter's Chelsea have not won in five Premier League games and spent the World Cup break in eighth.\n\nDown at the bottom\n\nOn the evidence of the first 14 or so games, this season's relegation battle could be wide open.\n\nJust nine points separate the bottom 12 sides in the division, with Wolves propping everybody up.\n\nOnly six teams have ever been bottom at Christmas and stayed up - with half of those in the first three Premier League campaigns - but Wanderers will be looking to buck that trend with a new man at the helm.\n\nJulen Lopetegui took charge on 14 November and is already targeting big improvements, including in his squad, with the Spaniard wanting six new signings when the transfer window opens on 1 January.\n\nSouthampton also made a managerial switch shortly before the break, with Nathan Jones arriving from Luton to replace the sacked Ralph Hasenhuttl at St Mary's. The Saints have lost their past three games and are 19th, two points from safety.\n\nIt is perhaps surprising to see no more clubs opt to make a change, with the World Cup effectively providing a mid-campaign mini pre-season.\n\nEverton have stuck by manager Frank Lampard despite sitting 17th off the back of two consecutive defeats, and David Moyes remains West Ham boss even though they have lost three on the trot and sit just a point above the bottom three.\n\nThe impact of the World Cup\n\nAn intense, mid-season World Cup always carried the risk of fatigue and injuries to players.\n\nLeaders Arsenal could well be the worst impacted as a result of a serious knee injury picked up by Brazil striker Gabriel Jesus.\n\nIt could well be late February before we see him in action again after what had been an impressive start to his time with the Gunners, albeit one that had seen him fail to score in six league games before the break.\n\nIn contrast, despite having the most players of any club at the World Cup with 16, Manchester City currently have no injuries to report.\n\nThe majority of their representatives in Qatar were out of the tournament by the semi-finals, with only Argentina's Julian Alvarez making it beyond the last eight.\n\nIn addition, the Premier League's top scorer Erling Haaland has been able to rest for five weeks, ready to return and try to add to his remarkable tally of 18 goals in 13 games. The Norway striker played his first match for City since November's defeat by Brentford in a 2-0 friendly win against Girona on 17 December, and scored, as did Belgium's Kevin de Bruyne.\n\nKeen interest will be paid towards which players who were injured before the World Cup will be ready for action again.\n\nThe likes of Reece James and Wesley Fofana at Chelsea, Newcastle striker Alexander Isak and Everton's Dominic Calvert-Lewin could all return, although Liverpool striker Luis Diaz has had knee surgery and faces a further three months out.\n\nIn order to incorporate the World Cup into the domestic season, matches will now be played regularly so all fixtures can be fulfilled in a timely fashion.\n\nBetween now and the end of January there are five rounds of English top-flight fixtures. These all come after some clubs have featured in the Carabao Cup fourth round, with those games having taken place on 20-22 December.\n\nIn addition, the FA Cup third round will be played 6-9 January, before some teams return to European action in mid-February.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment", "Ronan Vibert arriving at the premiere with his wife Jess for Saving Mr Banks in 2013\n\nStage and screen stars have paid tribute to a fellow film and TV actor who died just before Christmas aged 58.\n\nRonan Vibert was in movies such as Saving Mr Banks, the Lara Croft film The Cradle of Life starring Angelina Jolie, and the TV series The Borgias.\n\nRichard E Grant described the death of \"my friend\" as shocking, and Kathy Burke called him \"lovely\".\n\nVibert, who was born in Cambridgeshire and grew up in the Vale of Glamorgan, died last Thursday in Florida.\n\nHis other films included Tristan and Isolde, and The Snowman, which was based on the Jo Nesbo crime novel.\n\nOn TV his many credits included Poirot, Lewis, and The Bill.\n\nHe also appeared in the BBC comedy series Gimme Gimme Gimme, whose star Kathy Burke tweeted: \"Just heard about the death of lovely Ronan Vibert. We first worked together at Manchester Royal Exchange back in the 80s. We had great times together.\n\n\"Our favourite was seeing The Pogues, Glasgow Barrowlands on Paddy's night. Oh, how we jumped.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kath 🇺🇦💙🙀❄️🇪🇺✊🏾 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe acting bug bit him early. He took part in productions at Stanwell School in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, including the title role of Dracula.\n\nOne school friend recalled: \"He had a huge career, but his performances in those school productions have really stayed with us. In Dracula, when all we saw was a claw-like hand coming out of the stage curtain, he nearly finished off half the audience\".\n\nMore than 30 years later, he would revisit the vampire legend with a part in the 2014 film Dracula Untold.\n\nAfter school he went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.\n\nAmong his fellow RADA students was the actor Jason Watkins, who tweeted: \"So sad that my friend Ronan Vibert has died. Numb.\n\n\"The youngest in our year at RADA. He was unique. Saw things differently - so inventive. Wonderful times with him. Too young.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jason Watkins This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Richard E. Grant This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Hollywood Reporter quoted his manager saying that he died last Thursday at a Florida hospital after a brief illness.\n\nThe nature of the illness was not specified.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Seán Rooney's mother Natasha says he is a national hero and gave her a sense of purpose\n\nAt least one arrest has been made in Lebanon after an Irish soldier died while on a UN peacekeeping mission.\n\nPte Seán Rooney was in an armoured UN vehicle which came under fire while travelling to Beirut on 14 December.\n\nSeveral arrests were made, the influential pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reports.\n\nAccording to AFP news agency, quoting an unnamed security source, the prime suspect was handed over by the powerful Hezbollah militant group.\n\n\"The main shooter has been arrested by security forces after Hezbollah handed him over hours ago,\" the source said.\n\nHezbollah has denied any involvement in the shooting. It is not clear whether the suspect is a member of the militant group.\n\nThe village where Pte Rooney was killed is a stronghold of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement.\n\nThree separate investigations are being conducted into the incident by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, Lebanese authorities led by a military prosecutor and the Irish Defence Forces.\n\nBoth the Irish and UN flags were used to cover Pte Rooney's coffin\n\nIt is understood the vehicle was surrounded by a mob and fired on while travelling to Beirut at about 21:00 on 14 December.\n\nPte Rooney was repatriated to Ireland last Monday following a UN ceremony to honour him in Beirut the previous day.\n\nIrish President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar were among mourners present at Pte Rooney's funeral service in County Louth on Thursday.\n\nAnother soldier who was seriously injured in the same attack was returned home to the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday.\n\nTrooper Shane Kearney, who suffered a head injury, was flown by a medical aircraft from Beirut Airport to Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, then taken to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.", "A man and a woman have been arrested in connection with the murder of a 26-year-old who was shot at a Merseyside pub on Christmas Eve.\n\nBeautician Elle Edwards died in hospital after being shot in the head at the Lighthouse in Wallasey Village.\n\nPolice said on Monday night a man, 30, was arrested in Tranmere on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.\n\nA 19-year-old woman from Rock Ferry was also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, they added.\n\nBoth suspects have been taken into custody and will be questioned by detectives.\n\nFour other people who were at the pub were also injured - one of those, a 28-year-old man from Beechwood in Wirral, is still receiving medical treatment, police said.\n\nElle's sister Lucy, who left the pub just before the fatal shooting, visited the scene on Tuesday to lay flowers.\n\nHer card read: \"To my Elle May, I love you forever, you will always be by my side. Love Lucy Lou. x\"\n\nOther flowers and tributes have also been left at the scene, including a note signed \"mum and dad\" which read: \"To my beautiful Elle, you are the light of my life, you will never be gone.\"\n\nA heart-shaped plaque bearing a pink and green floral design read: \"Special Daughter, the happiness you brought in your own special way, will be remembered with love each and every day.\"\n\nMerseyside Police believe Ms Edwards, who was also known as Ellie, was not the target of the attack.\n\nChief Constable Serena Kennedy vowed her officers would be \"relentless\" in hunting down those responsible for her death.\n\nShe described her killing as \"sickening and heart-breaking\" which has \"ruined so many lives and culminated in the loss of a beautiful young woman\".\n\nElle Edwards and four men were shot outside the Lighthouse on Christmas Eve\n\nEarlier, Ms Edwards' colleagues at Nova Hair and Beauty Studio in Moreton, Wirral, said they were \"absolutely lost for words\".\n\n\"Heaven gained the most beautiful angel, we are all heartbroken, thinking of your family right now Elle,\" they wrote on Instagram.\n\nSeveral shots were fired at the entrance to the Lighthouse at about 23:50 GMT on Christmas Eve. The pub was packed with mainly young people.\n\nMs Edwards was rushed to Arrowe Park Hospital where she was pronounced dead.\n\nOne of Ms Edwards' friends, called Jess, said people initially thought they had heard fireworks when the shooting started.\n\n\"But automatically everything just stopped and we had a feeling that something wasn't right,\" she told Sky News on Monday.\n\nShe said she felt \"numb\" when she saw her friend on the floor, with people trying to help her.\n\nPolice are appealing for more information, especially from those who were in the pub at the time of the shooting.\n\n\"We are also appealing to motorists and residents in the area, who may have captured anything on Dashcam or CCTV to contact us and every bit of evidence is crucial to the investigation,\" Det Supt Coombs said.\n\nCrime scene tape and evidence markers were seen at the Lighthouse pub\n\nMerseyside Police earlier said it had stepped up its presence in the area after the shooting.\n\nIt follows other high-profile shootings on Merseyside in the past year including the deaths of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel and Knowsley Council worker Ashley Dale.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Police officers remained at the scene on Sunday morning\n\nPolice hunting a gunman who killed a woman at a pub in Merseyside on Christmas Eve have appealed for help over the \"callous shooting\".\n\nFour other people were injured but police do not believe the 26-year-old victim, who was celebrating with her sister and friends, was targeted.\n\nOfficers said the shooter fired towards the front entrance of The Lighthouse in Wallasey Village, Wirral, at about 23:50 GMT on Saturday.\n\nThe woman had been shot in the head.\n\nShe died after being taken to Arrowe Park Hospital.\n\nFour men were also injured, one of whom - a 28-year-old from Beechwood - is in a critical condition.\n\nA 22-year-old, also from Beechwood, sustained injuries to his legs, a 24-year-old, from Wallasey, suffered an injury to his hand while a 33-year-old suffered a wrist injury.\n\nThe woman was taken to hospital but was later pronounced dead\n\nOfficers said the pub was a \"busy venue full of young people\" and that the gunman's actions \"were totally and utterly reckless\".\n\nSpeaking at a press conference, Merseyside Police Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims said: \"Our investigation will rely heavily on information we receive from the public, and I urge members of the public and the local community who have any information which could help us, to come forward, so we can bring those responsible for this horrific murder of a young woman at Christmas to justice.\n\n\"She should have had the rest of her life to look forward to. Instead, her family can now only think of what might have been.\n\n\"These people need to be caught.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Merseyside police ask the public to help identify the gunman\n\nDet Supt Sue Coombs added: \"Her family have been informed and today, which should be a day with friends celebrating, they are coming to terms with this tragic loss.\n\n\"It's very early stages of the investigation but we do not believe that the victim in this case has been targeted.\n\n\"She was out enjoying Christmas with her sister and friends at what should have been a peaceful time.\n\n\"What her family are now going through is incomprehensible.\n\n\"At this stage of the investigation, we are trying to establish the motive and circumstances surrounding this callous shooting.\n\n\"We know that minutes later, a dark-coloured vehicle - possibly an A-Class Mercedes - was seen to leave the pub car park, so we are particularly keen to speak to that male and anybody who knows anything about that vehicle.\"\n\nEvidence markers were found near a pub advertising board at The Lighthouse\n\nIn a statement, The Lighthouse pub said staff were \"completely shocked\", adding that it was a \"tragedy beyond any words\".\n\nWirral Council leader Janette Williamson described the shooting as \"nothing less than despicable\", while Wallasey MP Dame Angela Eagle said it was \"heartbreaking\" and appealed for anyone with information to contact police.\n\nIn a joint statement, Wallasey ward councillors Ian Lewis, Lesley Rennie and Paul Hayes said: \"Taking weapons into a crowded, family pub on Christmas Eve shows that the person or people responsible are without conscience.\"\n\nThey joined calls for people with information to contact police, and added: \"Do not leave it to others to help take those responsible, and their weapons, off our streets.\"\n\nAfter some high-profile gun deaths in Merseyside in the past year, the government allocated £350,000 for the roll-out of a pilot scheme across the region to cut gun and knife crime.\n\nAmong those killed was nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, who was shot when a gunman chased a man into her home in Liverpool in August.\n\nShe died a day after council worker Ashley Dale was fatally shot in her back garden in Liverpool. The 28-year-old was not believed to have been the intended target of the attack.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Annick Ruedi and her daughter, Émeline, enjoying more pleasant US weather before this week's winter storm descended on their RV.\n\nAnnick Ruedi and her young daughter headed south this year in the hopes of experiencing a more pleasant winter.\n\n\"The goal always was to spend Christmas in gorgeous southern Texas,\" said the Ottawa resident. \"To finally escape the heaps of snow and freezing cold temperatures we have every year in Canada.\"\n\nBut mother nature had other plans. Like tens of millions of other people, they have been swept up in a historic winter storm that has brought brutally cold temperatures to much of North America.\n\nThe storm has wreaked havoc on highways, dumped multiple feet of snow on unsuspecting regions, and cancelled thousands of flights amid the chaos of holiday travel season.\n\nNow, Ms Ruedi, 47, and Émeline, 9, are sheltering inside their rented RV trailer on Texas' Mustang Island State Park. The small spit of land, which sits on the Gulf of Mexico not far from the city of Corpus Christi, saw temperatures on Friday afternoon drop below freezing with a biting wind chill on top.\n\nAnnick Ruedi's RV trailer parked near an overcast and windy Mustang Island beach.\n\nOutside their recreational vehicle, enormous waves crashed and palm trees bowed from the wind.\n\nMs Ruedi, a marketing specialist who works remotely, had bought the RV so her daughter could experience the wonders of the US. The two had embarked on their American adventure in October, making their way through the states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida before arriving in Texas this month.\n\nThey were on South Padre Island in Texas this week, hoping to take advantage of the pleasant weather that's typical for this time of year. Instead, they encountered gale-force winds and temperatures that froze their faces the moment they stepped outside.\n\n\"In one night I used a whole tank of propane,\" Ms Ruedi told the BBC. \"It's so cold you really go through the propane very easily. In a camper it's not very well insulated.\"\n\nAt first, she tried to find a hotel room or Airbnb, but her search was in vain. Ms Reudi then decided to drive to Mustang Island on Thursday in the hopes of finding better conditions.\n\nAnnick and Émeline Ruedi don Santa hats to fight the chill on Texas' Mustang Island beach.\n\n\"The Gulf of Mexico was rocking last night!\" the National Weather Service's Corpus Christie station tweeted on Friday. Their buoys recorded waves as high as 16 feet, and winds as high as 45 miles per hour. The city of Corpus Christi planned to open multiple warming centres, and warned residents that the wind chill could send temperatures into the single digits Fahrenheit.\n\nMustang Island's official website shows two happy beachgoers in their swimsuits. Instead, Ms Ruedi and her daughter donned multiple layers while inside their camper and closed the curtains on their windows shut to trap heat.\n\n\"I was clever enough, I packed our winter gear from Canada just to be on the safe side,\" Ms Ruedi said. She added that they'd got enough supplies and had found a sense of community among other travellers at the park.\n\nWith their winter getaway not going as planned, young Émeline was disappointed - not that it was cold, but that it wasn't cold enough.\n\n\"No!\" she declared, when the BBC asked if she wanted the storm to end. \"We want the cold because I like the snow!\"", "The Archbishop of Canterbury delivered his Christmas sermon at Canterbury Cathedral on Sunday morning\n\nIn his first Christmas sermon since the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the Archbishop of Canterbury praised the late monarch's life of service.\n\nThe Queen \"put her interest after those of the people she served\", Justin Welby said.\n\nHis sermon also remembered those suffering \"immense\" hardship in the UK's cost-of-living crisis.\n\nAnd despite darkness around the world, there is \"unconquerable hope\" in the birth of Jesus Christ, he said.\n\nThe archbishop referenced the \"desperate struggles of hospital wards\" as well as those who make journeys in small boats to reach the UK, as he delivered his annual Christmas Day message.\n\nMr Welby said the late Queen \"in obedience to the Christ-child lived a life of service and put her interest after those of the people she served.\"\n\nIn his sermon at Canterbury Cathedral, he praised those who have acted with love and service towards others over the past year - including a 10-year-old girl he met volunteering at a food bank in Canterbury, people who have welcomed refugees into their homes, NHS staff and life-boat crews.\n\nThe archbishop expressed concern for those struggling with \"immense anxiety and hardship\" during the UK's cost-of-living crisis.\n\nHe said: \"In Jesus Christ, God reaches out to each one of us here; to those who like his family have no resources, into the dark cells of prisons, into the desperate struggles of hospital wards, to those on small boats, to the despairing...and says: 'Take me into your heart and life, let me set you free from the darkness that surrounds and fills you, for I too have been there.\n\n\"And God says in me there is forgiveness, hope, life and joy, whoever and wherever you are, whatever you have done.\"\n\nHe appealed to South Sudan and Russia to end their respective wars, and said that \"the world does watch, does care and will hold rulers responsible for justice\".\n\nHe said: \"Even where the world forgetfully turns a blind eye to injustice and suffering, pays no attention to a war, God is present through Jesus in the world... God does not give up on us.\"\n\n\"We are conscious of darkness\" he said as he recalled standing next to a mass grave in a church yard in Bucha, Ukraine in the spring.\n\n\"Even in Bucha, among all the horror, the darkness does not overcome the light.\"\n\nSeparately in a joint Christmas message, Wales' Anglican and Catholic archbishops honoured \"the memory of a selfless and dedicated Queen\".\n\nAt Christmas Eve Mass in the Vatican, Pope Francis condemned human \"hunger for wealth and power\" in what appeared to be a reference to the Ukraine war and other conflicts.\n\nHe said \"How many wars have we seen!\" where the main victims were \"the weak and the vulnerable\".", "They are two titans of English cricket - Ian Botham and Ben Stokes.\n\nStokes has revolutionised the way Test cricket is played since taking over the England captaincy at the start of the summer, with his swashbuckling, ultra-positive approach leading to nine wins from 10 matches in charge.\n\nLord Botham had a similar, all-action outlook to the game during his England career and is widely seen as one of the best all-rounders to ever play the sport.\n\nAs part of his appearance as guest editor on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Monday, Lord Botham spoke to Stokes about his mission to transform Test cricket, the rise of the white-ball game, their heroic performances at Headingley and the importance of prioritising your mental health.\n\nWhen Stokes succeeded Joe Root as Test captain in April, England had won just one of their past 17 Tests, including a 4-0 drubbing in Australia and defeat in the West Indies. The following month former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum was appointed England coach. Together they have attempted to change how Test cricket is played, creating an atmosphere that allows players to express themselves and provide entertainment that will keep fans coming.\n\nStokes: \"Test cricket has been spoken about in a way I don't like. It is losing the attention of the fans with all the new formats and franchise competitions. We understand there are so many opportunities for players away from Test cricket. But for me it is so important for the game. I love playing Test cricket and felt we could do something different.\n\n\"Taking the result away from the mindset is a great starting point. Putting focus on making every day entertaining. Not allowing people to know what is going to happen. If people turn up excited about what they are going to watch you've already won before a ball has been bowled.\"\n\nBotham: \"It's about putting bums on seats. People now want to watch the game. You will lose the odd game but people are wanting to see Test cricket again. If we lose Test cricket, we lose cricket as we know it.\"\n• None England restore joy to all aspects of Test cricket\n• None TMS podcast: The TMS team's moment of the year\n\nTest cricket has been threatened by the rise in popularity of shorter formats of the game, most notably T20s, which offer players the chance to earn bigger sums playing in franchise leagues across the globe. The schedule has become more congested, with some players forced to choose which formats to play. Stokes himself retired from one-day international cricket in July, saying playing three formats was \"unsustainable\". He went on to help England win the T20 World Cup in November.\n\nStokes: \"The scheduling doesn't get enough attention that it should. A great example is England's one-day series against Australia after the T20 World Cup. That was shoving three games in there. It made sense to someone to schedule a series which meant nothing.\n\n\"Some people say 'you are playing for England, that should be enough'. But there is a lot more to factor in. You want international cricket to be the highest standard. But we have seen a lot of different squads being picked and players being rested, and that's not the way international cricket should go.\"\n\nBotham: \"Test match cricket is called that for a very good reason, because it tests all the faculties of a player. The emphasis is too much towards white ball. In England we currently have a few first-class games in early April and it disappears until end of season. It should be balanced better. You have to make room for it all.\n\n\"The idea of franchises is a solid, good idea. I just hope we can maintain a balance. And if franchises can maintain that balance then let's have a look at it.\"\n\nStokes has grown used to comparisons with Botham, particularly after his astonishing 135 not out guided England from the brink of defeat to a sensational victory against Australia at Headingley in the 2019 Ashes, 38 years after similar heroics by Botham led England to victory against the same opponents at the same ground.\n\nBotham: \"I've got lots of great memories of Headingley. But I also had Bob Willis, who took 8-43. I was there at Headingley in 2019 and I thought 'this is fun, this is how it should be played'. I loved watching the Aussies, their shoulders dropped, it takes a lot to do that. Stokes is box office. He empties bars.\"\n\nStokes: \"Moments like that in sport should always be cherished. The miracle of Headingley 1981, everyone who knows cricket knows about that. So for my moment to be compared is pretty cool.\n\n\"Andrew Flintoff was the all-rounder for me growing up. Flintoff would have been compared to Botham and I got compared to Flintoff. The player I admired was South Africa batter Herschelle Gibbs, he was ahead of his time and you look at Botham, he was ahead of his time as well. The way they move the game on. I love watching players who were different.\"\n\nStokes took a five-month break from cricket in 2021 to prioritise his mental wellbeing after a difficult few years that included the death of his father, Ged, in 2020. Stokes hopes his experience will encourage others to talk about mental health and help change the narrative around mental health breaks, something he discussed in a documentary about his career that was released earlier this year.\n\nStokes: \"It is perceived that men shouldn't be seen to show weakness, but I have never had an issue with expressing my feelings and opening up about It. I can't tell you how much pride I had in myself for doing that after the messages I got from people I had never met.\n\n\"I was really blown away by the effect that section of the documentary had on their lives, it pushed them to go and get help. Some of the messages were very emotional to read.\"\n\nBotham: \"I am very fortunate not to have been in that situation but I have been around players that have. They didn't get any help or advice in those days. I take my hat off to Ben. By coming out there and saying, 'I need a break' a lot of players will be much more relaxed about following suit.\"\n\nBotham is the first of the Today programme's Christmas guest editors. You can listen to his show on 26 December on BBC Sounds.", "Kathy Whitworth won six majors during her illustrious professional career\n\nKathy Whitworth - the professional golfer with the most trophies - has died aged 83, America's Ladies Professional Golf Association has said.\n\n\"Her 88 LPGA victories are the most ever on a professional tour,\" it said.\n\nThe Texan took six more trophies than her rival Mary Kathryn \"Mickey\" Wright, as well as men's game joint record-holders Sam Snead and Tiger Woods.\n\nShe died suddenly on Saturday night while celebrating Christmas Eve with family and friends, her partner said.\n\n\"Kathy left this world the way she lived her life, loving, laughing and creating memories,\" said Bettye Odle without providing any further details.\n\nWhitworth won six majors during her decades-long career, and came very close, being a runner-up in 1971, to winning the US Women's Open - the most prestigious trophy.\n\nIn 1981, she became the first woman to earn $1m (£829,000) on the LPGA tour.\n\n\"I would have swapped being the first to make a million for winning the Open, but it was a consolation which took some of the sting out of not winning,\" she said at the time.\n\nHer last professional title was in 1985 - 23 years after she triumphed for the first time.\n\nPaying tributes, LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan said Whitworth was \"one of the most incredible women\".\n\n\"Kathy was a champion in the truest sense of the word, both on the golf course and off,\" she said in a statement.", "A lifeboat returns to the Port of Dover during a rescue operation earlier this month\n\nNinety people crossed the English Channel in two small boats on Christmas Day, the Ministry of Defence said.\n\nMore than 45,000 migrants have made the perilous crossing from France to England so far this year. In 2021, the figure was far less, at almost 28,500.\n\nOn 14 December, four people died and 39 others were rescued after a migrant boat ran into difficulties.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has labelled the small boats crisis a priority for his premiership.\n\nThe 90 people who arrived on Sunday were taken to Western Jet Foil processing centre in Dover, the ministry confirmed.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"Nobody should put their lives at risk by taking dangerous and illegal journeys.\n\n\"We will go further to tackle the gangs driving this, using every tool at our disposal to deter illegal migration and disrupt the business model of people smugglers.''\n\nEarlier this month, Mr Sunak announced a range of measures to tackle the issue including 700 staff for a new unit to monitor small boats crossing the Channel.\n\nHe also promised more staff to help clear some of the UK's backlog of asylum cases by the end of next year.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rob Flanagan has been using a natural spring for water\n\nWelsh Water has admitted to failings over its supply after people were left without water during the Christmas period.\n\nSeveral villages in Monmouthshire were still without water on Boxing Day after almost 72 hours.\n\nIt comes after thousands of homes in west Wales were without water for several days before Christmas.\n\nChief executive Peter Perry said: \"It is clear there are a number of areas where we should have done better.\"\n\nWelsh Water said it estimated that about 200 homes were affected.\n\nA spokesperson added: \"We are very sorry to all the customers who have been impacted and very grateful to all our employees who have worked tirelessly through Christmas to restore customers' supplies in very challenging circumstances.\n\n\"More customers are having their supplies restored throughout the day and we're hopeful that remaining issues will be resolved this evening.\"\n\nIt also said the process to restore water would take time to avoid the pipes bursting again.\n\nWelsh Water said air locks in the network were causing supply issues around Trellech and Llandogo, south of Monmouth, with about 200 properties affected.\n\nThe company said bottled water was being delivered to \"priority customers\" and has set up a bottled drinking water station at the Premier Inn hotel on Portal Road in Monmouth.\n\nRob Flanagan, 68, who is visiting Llandogo in Monmouthshire for Christmas, said he was using a local spring as their supply had not yet been restored.\n\nHe said: \"On Christmas Eve we arrived at about 21:00 GMT and they had already been out for two hours.\n\n\"My sister-in-law called Welsh Water and was told it would be back on the same day. This is basically the story ever since.\n\n\"It was the same all day yesterday and here we are boxing day morning - no water, no sign of water and no more promises really.\"\n\nMr Flanagan said he and his family got by Christmas Day by \"using a bit of wartime spirit\".\n\n\"We were collecting water from the river to flush the toilets, collecting water from a stream up the road,\" he said.\n\n\"For drinking water my wife went to Monmouth to pick up some five litre containers which was a problem in itself because they were beginning to ration the water for people.\"\n\nApologising for the delays, Mr Perry of Welsh Water added: \"We understand how frustrating and worrying it has been, especially so close to Christmas.\"\n\nHouseholds can receive £70 compensation for every day they were without their water supply. Businesses will also be able to claim for any losses incurred.\n\nMatthew Browning, from Llandogo, has been without a water supply for three days.\n\nHe said: \"Everyone's just getting a bit smelly and desperate for a wash.\n\n\"We've got three in the house, myself, my wife and our granddaughter - but we've also had the family over for Christmas dinner. It was chaotic trying to get the washing up done yesterday.\"\n\nAbout 4,500 properties in Ceredigion lost their water supply for several days after supply pipes burst on 17 December when temperatures across Wales plummeted.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Thousands of homes in East Renfrewshire were hit by water supply issues on Christmas Day, with some still cut off on Boxing Day.\n\nScottish Water said the issue was caused by an \"operational issue\" at Picketlaw Water Treatment Works.\n\nThe fault was fixed within hours but people in Newton Mearns, Giffnock, Thornliebank and Clarkston may still have had limited supply on Boxing Day.\n\nBottled water collection points were set up for affected households.\n\nAll affected customers have now had their supply fully restored, Scottish Water said.\n\nScottish Water said the initial fault, which affected about 5,000 properties, was repaired in the evening of Christmas Day.\n\nHowever, a \"flow restriction\" at an outlet from a distribution tank meant some homes were continuing to experience poor pressure, discolouration or a loss of supply on Boxing Day.\n\nA Scottish Water spokeswoman said: \"We apologise to customers who were impacted by this issue and we thank them for your patience and understanding and appreciate this occurred during the festive holiday season.\n\n\"Our teams worked round the clock from Christmas Day until 27 December to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and can inform customers that this issue is now resolved with households and businesses back in supply.\n\n\"We will continue to monitor the performance of the water treatment works and the network over the coming days.\"\n\nBottled water will remain available at Williamwood High School in Clarkston and St Clares Primary School in Newton Mearns while supplies to the area are monitored.\n\nThe bottled water collection point at Williamwood High School ran out of water at one point on Boxing Day\n\nOne resident in Newton Mearns told BBC Scotland he was cut off from the water supply at about 19:30 on Christmas Day. His water was still off at 11:00 the following day.\n\nHe said: \"We've got five people in the household and the more inconvenient thing about it was just not being able to get kids' teeth brushed after they've been eating chocolate all day, not being able to have a shower before you go to bed and obviously not being able to flush the toilet.\n\n\"Nobody can have a shower, there's no drinking water from the tap and nobody can use the toilets.\n\n\"I'm sure that may be having quite an impact on any local restaurants, businesses.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Pope Francis' Christmas plea for 'immediate end to senseless war in Ukraine'\n\nPope Francis has said the world is suffering from a \"famine of peace\", in his annual Christmas Day message from the Vatican.\n\nHe called for a end to the \"senseless war\" in Ukraine, condemning what he said was the use of \"food as a weapon\" of war.\n\nUkraine shipped about 30% of the world's wheat and prices have jumped since the Russian invasion in February.\n\nIt was Pope Francis' 10th Christmas Day address since he assumed the papacy.\n\nWhile the war in Ukraine occupied much of his 10-minute speech, he spoke of \"a grave famine of peace also in other regions and other theatres of this Third World War\".\n\nHe singled out conflicts and humanitarian crises in the Middle East, Myanmar, Haiti, and the Sahel region of Africa.\n\nThe pontiff also prayed for \"reconciliation\" in Iran, where mass anti-government protests have swept the country for more than three months. The protests there have been met by a crackdown, with more than 500 people, including 69 children, killed, human rights groups say.\n\nSpeaking from a balcony at the basilica overlooking St Peter's Square, the 86-year-old Pope lamented the human cost of war. He urged not to forget those \"who go hungry while huge amounts of food daily go to waste and resources are being spent on weapons\".\n\n\"The war in Ukraine has further aggravated this situation, putting entire peoples at risk of famine, especially in Afghanistan and in the countries of the Horn of Africa,\" he said.\n\n\"We know that every war causes hunger and exploits food as a weapon, hindering its distribution to people already suffering.\"\n\nThe Pope said \"those who hold political responsibilities\" should lead the way to make food \"solely an instrument of peace\".\n\nHis message was followed by the customary Urbi et Orbi (To the City and to the World) blessing, recited in Latin and traditionally in many other languages as well.", "King Charles III has given his first Christmas Day message as monarch. Here is the full text of the speech:\n\n\"I am standing here in this exquisite Chapel of St George at Windsor Castle, so close to where my beloved mother, the late Queen, is laid to rest with my dear father.\n\n\"I am reminded of the deeply touching letters, cards and messages which so many of you have sent my wife and myself and I cannot thank you enough for the love and sympathy you have shown our whole family.\n\n\"Christmas is a particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones.\n\n\"We feel their absence at every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition.\n\n\"In the much-loved carol O Little Town Of Bethlehem we sing of how 'in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light'.\n\n\"My mother's belief in the power of that light was an essential part of her faith in God, but also her faith in people and it is one which I share with my whole heart.\n\n\"It is a belief in the extraordinary ability of each person to touch, with goodness and compassion, the lives of others, and to shine a light in the world around them.\n\n\"This is the essence of our community and the very foundation of our society.\n\n\"We see it in the selfless dedication of our Armed Forces and Emergency Services who work tirelessly to keep us all safe, and who performed so magnificently as we mourned the passing of our late Queen.\n\n\"We see it in our health and social care professionals, our teachers and indeed all those working in public service, whose skill and commitment are at the heart of our communities.\n\n\"And at this time of great anxiety and hardship, be it for those around the world facing conflict, famine or natural disaster, or for those at home finding ways to pay their bills and keep their families fed and warm, we see it in the humanity of people throughout our nations and the Commonwealth who so readily respond to the plight of others.\n\n\"I particularly want to pay tribute to all those wonderfully kind people who so generously give food or donations, or that most precious commodity of all, their time, to support those around them in greatest need, together with the many charitable organizations which do such extraordinary work in the most difficult circumstances.\n\n\"Our churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and gurdwaras, have once again united in feeding the hungry, providing love and support throughout the year.\n\n\"Such heartfelt solidarity is the most inspiring expression of loving our neighbour as our self.\n\n\"The Prince and Princess of Wales recently visited Wales, shining a light on practical examples of this community spirit.\n\n\"Some years ago, I was able to fulfil a life-long wish to visit Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity.\n\n\"There, I went down into the Chapel of the Manger and stood in silent reverence by the Silver Star that is inlaid on the floor and marks the place of our Lord Jesus Christ's birth.\n\n\"It meant more to me than I can possibly express to stand on that spot where, as the Bible tells us, 'The light that has come into the world' was born.\n\n\"While Christmas is, of course, a Christian celebration, the power of light overcoming darkness is celebrated across the boundaries of faith and belief.\n\n\"So, whatever faith you have, or whether you have none, it is in this life-giving light, and with the true humility that lies in our service to others, that I believe we can find hope for the future.\n\n\"Let us therefore celebrate it together, and cherish it always.\n\n\"With all my heart, I wish each of you a Christmas of peace, happiness and everlasting light.\"", "North Korean drones have crossed the border before\n\nSouth Korean military officials say North Korea has flown five drones across their mutual border.\n\nThe \"unmanned aerial vehicles\" violated South Korean airspace in the border areas around Gyeonggi province, said the country's joint chiefs of staff.\n\nOne drone flew all the way to the northern edge of the capital, Seoul, before returning across the border.\n\nJets and attack helicopters were deployed, but 100 rounds fired from helicopters failed to shoot them down.\n\nA South Korean military official said they had since lost track of all the drones, but that they were no longer in flight.\n\nThe incursion comes amid increased tensions on the Korean peninsula, with the North conducting a record number of missile tests this year.\n\nThe drones were spotted crossing the border at about 10:30 local time (01:30 GMT).\n\nOne of the South Korean warplanes involved in the operation, a KA-1 light attack aircraft, later crashed, but its two pilots escaped unhurt.\n\nThe plane fell to the ground in Hoengseong County, east of Seoul, soon after take-off from an air base in the nearby city of Wonju, according to the air force, quoted by Yonhap.\n\nSouth Korea also suspended planes taking off and landing at its Incheon and Gimpo airports for about an hour.\n\nA South Korean military official described the latest incursion as a clear act of provocation by Pyongyang.\n\n\"Our military will continue to respond thoroughly and resolutely to North Korea's provocations,\" the military added.\n\nIn response, the South Korean military said it also sent surveillance planes into the North to photograph its military installations.\n\nThe last time a North Korean drone crossed the border was five years ago in June 2017, when tensions between the two Koreas were last at their highest.\n\nNorth Korea's drones pose a threat to South Korea's security as they could be used both to spy on the South and to launch an attack on it.\n\nEarlier this month, the North claimed to have performed major tests needed to help it develop its first spy satellite, which could be used to monitor South Korea. It released an aerial photo of Seoul, which it said had been taken during the test.\n\nExperts believe North Korea is working to refine and improve its weapons, while putting pressure on the United States to ease sanctions in any future negotiations.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nAt least 38 deaths have now been linked to a severe Arctic freeze that continues to pummel the US and Canada.\n\nOfficials say 34 people died across the US, with the worst-hit area being the city of Buffalo, in New York state.\n\nFour fatalities occurred in Canada when a bus rolled over on an icy road near the town of Merritt, in the western province of British Columbia.\n\nThe scope of the winter storm has been unprecedented, stretching from Canada as far south as the Rio Grande.\n\nForecasters say the storm will ease off in the next few days, but the advice remains to avoid travelling unless essential.\n\nThe storm has wreaked havoc for days, but power has been steadily restored after earlier blackouts.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Thaw on the way to US cold spots\n\nFewer than 200,000 customers were without power as of Sunday afternoon EDT, down from a peak of 1.7 million, the Associated Press reports.\n\nThousands of flights have been cancelled, preventing many people from reaching their families at Christmas.\n\nMore than 55 million Americans remained under wind chill alerts on Sunday.\n\nThe \"bomb cyclone\" winter storm - which occurs when atmospheric pressure plummets, causing heavy snow and winds - has disrupted travel across the US.\n\nNew York State Governor Kathy Hochul - a native of Buffalo - said : \"This will go down in history as Buffalo's most devastating storm.\"\n\n\"It is [like] going to a war zone and the vehicles along the sides of the roads are shocking,\" she told reporters on Sunday evening.\n\nResidents still faced a \"very dangerous life-threatening situation\" and anyone in the area should remain indoors, she said.\n\nTwelve deaths were confirmed in Erie County, with some victims found dead in cars or snow banks.\n\nStorm-related deaths were also reported in Vermont, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Colorado. South Florida's temperatures dropped so low, that iguanas froze and fell from trees.\n\nThe western US state of Montana is the worst hit by the cold, with temperatures dropping to -50F (-45C).\n\nIn Canada, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec are bearing the brunt of the storm.\n\nIn Quebec almost 120,000 customers were without electricity on Sunday. Officials say it could take some days for some households to be reconnected.\n\nHave you been affected by the severe weather in the US and Canada? Please email us: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Russian air defences intercepted Ukrainian drones over two military airfields in Russia, hundreds of kilometres from the border between the two countries, Russia said on Monday.\n\nFalling debris from the unmanned vehicles lightly damaged two aircraft, a defence ministry statement said.\n\nThree Russian servicemen were killed and four injured in the incidents in the Ryazan and Saratov regions.\n\nLong-range strategic bombers are believed to be based at the airfields.\n\nEarlier, large explosions were reported at the Engels airbase in Saratov and the Dyagilevo airbase in Ryazan, but there had been no official comment on their cause.\n\nHours later, Russia launched a wave of missiles at targets around Ukraine, although Kyiv says it shot most of them down.\n\nUkraine has not officially commented on the explosions. However, its air force tweeted \"what happened?\" together with a partying face emoji and images of what looked like a badly damaged aircraft.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ukrainian Air Force This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMoscow has accused Ukraine of attacking its territory before, but these alleged attacks are deeper into Russia than previous ones. Ukrainian strikes this far into Russia will embarrass the Kremlin, says the BBC's Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg.\n\nSatellite images taken from Sunday appeared to show a large fleet of Russian heavy bombers at the Engels airbase.\n\nThey show what appeared to be type Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic bombers, which are capable of firing cruise missiles - one of the weapons used in strikes on Ukraine.\n\nOther satellite images released last week appeared to show increased military aircraft activity at the same airbase.\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin has been informed of the two reported incidents, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.\n\nSatellite imagery appears to show Russian bombers at the Engels airbase", "More than 50 people were taken to hospital by emergency services following the crash (file photo)\n\nFour people died and dozens were injured after an intercity coach crashed in the Canadian province of British Columbia on Christmas Eve.\n\n\"Extremely icy road conditions\" are believed to have caused the vehicle to roll over near the town of Merritt on Saturday, police say.\n\nTemperatures had dropped to -3.9C in the area, about 220 miles (360km) from the provincial capital, Victoria.\n\nProvincial premier David Eby expressed shock and sadness at the news.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with those impacted by the crash, their loved ones, and the first responders and health-care workers giving their all to treat people and keep them safe,\" he said.\n\nThe westbound coach had been travelling from Kelowna to Vancouver when it crashed on the Okanagan Connector, part of Highway 97, shortly after 18:00 (02:00 GMT Sunday), Global News reports.\n\nA total of 52 people were sent to hospital as a result and 36 required treatment, health officials say. As of Sunday afternoon local time, eight people were still in hospital, two in serious condition.\n\nPolice said their investigation into the crash, which involved no other vehicle, was continuing.\n\nAll railway services between Canada's two biggest cities, Toronto and Montreal, were cancelled for Christmas Day after a train derailed in poor weather conditions.", "Merseyside police have asked the public to help identify a gunman, after a 26-year-old woman died in a pub shooting on Christmas Eve.\n\n\"We do need more information so that we can find those responsible,\" said Assistant Chief Constable Jenny Sims.\n\n\"Now is the time for our communities to come together\", she added.\n\nPolice do not believe the victim, who was out with her sister and friends, was targeted. Four men were also injured in the shooting at The Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral.", "The number of people heading out to shops on 27 December beat the traditional Boxing Day sales by nearly 40% but footfall remains below pre-Covid levels.\n\nAnalysts at Springboard said there was a rise in shoppers visiting retail parks between Monday and Tuesday.\n\nOverall, however, footfall over the Christmas bank holidays remained sharply lower compared with 2019.\n\nTuesday's footfall dropped by nearly 25% from before the pandemic.\n\nDiane Wehrle, insight director at Springboard, said the data showed \"clearly that whilst Boxing Day is a renowned date in the Christmas retail trading calendar, in fact 27 December is a busier day for UK retail destinations than Boxing Day, with a rise in footfall of 36.6% from the day before\".\n\nComparing 27 December to last year, when the Omicron variant of Covid was spreading and some restrictions remained in place, footfall grew by 12.8%.\n\nUK retail parks saw the biggest rise in post-Christmas footfall, with over 60% more shoppers compared with Boxing Day.\n\nMeasured against High Streets and shopping centres, retail parks are the only destination to have significantly closed the gap with pre-Covid levels after Christmas.\n\nWhile Ms Wehrle, told the BBC the data would be \"encouraging\" for retailers but the overall drop since 2019 is \"attached obviously to the cost of living crisis\".\n\nSeparate research suggests that shoppers expected to spend less this year.\n\nBarclaycard predicted that the average person would spend £229 in the post-Christmas sales, £18 less than last year.\n\nIn a survey of 2,000 would-be shoppers, the credit card firm found that 42% said the higher cost of living would temper spending in the post-Christmas sales, with many of those saying they would spend less compared to previous years.\n\nThe rate of price rises - also known as inflation - hit 10.7% in November which was lower than October but is still at its highest for 40 years.\n\nDr Sarah Montano, retail expert and senior lecturer of marketing at the University of Birmingham, said: \"For many consumers, obviously they would've been shopping pre-Christmas, as we had the Black Friday sales and things like that.\n\n\"As we move into the new year, we expect consumers to be a bit cautious because of course, the heating bills will still be to come for consumers and that will impact on their discretionary spending.\"\n\nThe rise in Boxing Day and Bank Holiday footfall came despite rail strikes by members of the RMT union who work for Network Rail as well as some members of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association.\n\nA strike by TSSA members at Great Western Railway and West Midlands Trains began on 28 December and will last until midnight on 29 December.", "Protests began in Iran's Kurdish region and spread across the country\n\nA hundred days after they began, the longest running anti-government protests in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution have shaken the regime, but at a heavy cost to the people.\n\nMore than 500 protesters, including 69 children, have been killed, according to the Human Rights Activists' News Agency (HRANA). Two protesters have been executed and at least 26 others face the same fate, after what Amnesty International calls \"sham trials\".\n\nAlthough nationwide demonstrations have swept Iran before - once in 2017 lasting until early 2018, and another in November 2019 - the current protests are unique, as they involve people from across society and women are taking a lead role under the slogan \"Woman, Life, Freedom\".\n\nSome Iranian celebrities have taken irrevocable steps to support protests, leading to their arrest or exile.\n\nTaraneh Alidoosti, a well-known Iranian actress, is being held in the notorious Evin prison after she condemned the execution of a young protester. Previously, she published a photo of herself without a mandatory headscarf, holding a sign with the protesters' slogan.\n\n\"I have worked with Taraneh on four films and now she is in prison for her rightful support of her fellow countrymen and her opposition to the unjust sentences being issued,\" Asghar Farhadi, who directed Alidoosti in his Oscar-winning film The Salesman, wrote on Instagram.\n\n\"If showing such support is a crime, then tens of millions of people of this land are criminals,\" Mr Farhadi added.\n\nAnother prominent Iranian actress who has left the country, Pegah Ahangarani, told BBC Persian: \"Both sides have been radicalised, the regime in its crackdown and people in film industry in their response.\n\n\"Iran cannot go back to pre-Mahsa Amini era,\" referring to the Kurdish Iranian woman whose death in the custody of Iran's morality police on 16 September sparked the protests.\n\nHamid Farrokhnezhad, another well-known Iranian actor, moved to the US earlier this month and immediately called Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei a \"dictator\", comparing him to Franco, Stalin and Mussolini.\n\n\"Women, Life, Freedom\" has become the slogan of the protests\n\nAli Karimi, one of Iran's most celebrated former footballers, who was living in Dubai, also supported the protests. He said Iranian intelligence agents threatened to kill him, eventually leading him to move to the US.\n\nKarimi is now one of the most outspoken critics of the Iranian regime on his Instagram account, with more than 14 million followers.\n\nAnother Iranian football icon, Ali Daei, had his jewellery shop and restaurant shut down by the Iranian judiciary after coming out in support of a nationwide strike.\n\nWhat also marks the current protests out from previous ones is the emerging use by demonstrators of petrol bombs.\n\nThese have been used against bases of the Basij militia and Hawza, or religious schools for Shia Muslim clerics.\n\nIran's Generation Z has been at the forefront of these protests, defying strict religious rule and setting new trends such as burning headscarves.\n\nAnother new trend among young protesters is so-called \"turban tossing\" - sneaking up behind Shia Muslim clerics, knocking their turban off and running away.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Omid Memarian This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA 16-year-old boy, Arshia Emamgholizadeh, was arrested in the north-western city of Tabriz last month, accused of \"turban tossing\".\n\nHe was held for 10 days before being released. Two days later, he committed suicide, something his family blames on his treatment in prison. During his detention, Arshia had been beaten with batons and given unknown pills, a source close to the family told BBC Persian.\n\nIranian authorities have not only cracked down on protesters, but have also used the bodies of those who have died in custody or been killed as bargaining chips to silence the families of victims.\n\nFearing such pressure, the brother of a killed protester stole his body from a morgue, driving around town for hours, a source told BBC Persian.\n\nMehran Samak, 27, was shot in the head in the northern city of Bandar Anzali for honking his car's horn in celebration of Iran's elimination from the World Cup on 29 November.\n\nAnother family say they found shocking signs of torture on the body of their 23-year-old son, Hamed Salahshoor, who died in custody when they exhumed his body after he was forcibly buried 18 miles (30km) away from their home town.\n\nSo far, two men have been executed after being convicted of vaguely defined national security charges linked to the protests, in what human rights groups have condemned as gross miscarriages of justice.\n\nMany of those on death row have said they were tortured.\n\nThe Kurdistan Human Rights Network, a non-governmental organisation, said a Kurdish-Iranian rapper, Saman Yasin, who was sentenced to death, attempted to kill himself on Tuesday. The rights group has previously said Yasin was tortured while in detention. Iran's Supreme Court upheld an appeal against his death sentence on Saturday and ordered him to be retried.\n\nIn an audio file obtained by BBC Persian, a 26-year-old amateur bodybuilder, Sahand Noormohammadzadeh, alleges that he was subjected to several mock executions in prison.\n\nSahand Noormohammadzadeh, a bodybuilder, maintained his innocence at his trial last month\n\nMr Noormohammadzadeh was sentenced to death in November after he was found guilty of \"enmity against God\" (defined under Iranian law as \"creating public insecurity\" with a weapon). He was accused of blocking traffic on a highway by tearing down railings during a protest in Tehran on 23 September, which he denied.\n\nBBC Persian has also obtained X-ray images that show three ribs of an imprisoned radiologist were broken, piercing his lung. Dr Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou was found guilty of \"corruption on Earth\", a crime which carries death penalty.\n\nAn informed source told Amnesty International that Dr Ghare-Hasanlou was subjected to torture and ill-treatment in order to extract a forced \"confession\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The secret diaries of women protesting in Iran", "The bus plunged from a height of about 30m (98ft) into the fast-flowing Lerez river on Saturday\n\nEmergency services in Spain have confirmed a seventh death after a bus plunged from a bridge into a river on Christmas Eve (Saturday).\n\nRescuers retrieved the body of a woman from the Lérez river in the north-western Galicia region on Monday.\n\nTwo people, including the driver, were hurt after the bus travelling from Lugo to Vigo fell from a height of about 30m (98ft) into the fast-flowing river.\n\nOfficials say bad weather may have caused the crash.\n\nThey say the bus driver tested negative for alcohol and drugs.\n\nA passing driver and one of the survivors from inside the bus alerted the local emergency services\n\nAn investigation continues, with officials saying bad weather may have caused the deadly crash\n\nRescue teams initially ended their search near the village of Pedre, not far from Galicia's regional capital of Santiago de Compostela, on Christmas Day (Sunday) after finding six bodies.\n\nBut they resumed the operation after one surviving passenger said a friend she had been travelling with was not on the official list of victims.\n\nThe woman had not been reported missing as nobody had been waiting for her, a Guardia Civil police spokesman told AFP news agency.\n\nHer body was spotted by a helicopter in the river on Monday morning.\n\nEmergency services were first alerted about the incident by a passing driver who told them that a section of the bridge's safety barrier was missing.\n\nJust minutes later, one of the survivors called them from inside the bus as it was fast filling with water.\n\nThis helped rescue teams to quickly locate the crash site.\n\nAmong those on board were people who had just visited loved ones at a prison in central Galicia, AFP adds, quoting local media.", "A snow plough makes its way through Carlops in the Scottish Borders\n\nThe Met Office has said Scotland officially recorded a white Christmas.\n\nThe forecaster confirmed sleet or snow fell at five of its weather stations across the UK on 25 December.\n\nEdinburgh was one of three locations where at least one flake of snow fell in Scotland and another two recorded snow in Northern Ireland. However, most areas were too mild to see snow.\n\nYellow \"be aware\" weather warnings for ice and snow remain in place across most of Scotland until Tuesday.\n\nMore snow fell on Boxing Day as the Christmas Day warnings that began at 21:00 continued until 18:00 and new yellow warnings were issued from 18:00 to 15:00 on Tuesday.\n\nMet Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: \"Officially it was a white Christmas but, of course, a lot of people think of those perfect deep-snow Christmas card scenes and actually we didn't really see any snow settle at lower levels yesterday.\n\n\"What we define a white Christmas as is just a few snowflakes falling, even if it's mixed with rain, so it's a technical white Christmas but, for most places, particularly in England and Wales, it was too mild.\"\n\nMost of Scotland is covered by warnings for ice and snow on Monday and Tuesday\n\nIn Scotland, the forecaster recorded snow at Edinburgh's Gogarbank weather station, Loch Glascarnoch in Ross and Cromarty, and Altnaharra in Sutherland.\n\nAcross the Irish Sea, snow fell in Glennane, County Armagh, and at Lough Fea in Londonderry.\n\n\"Most of the day was too mild for snow and the showers were falling for rain, but in the evening it got colder and we started to see those showers turn to sleet and then to snow,\" said the meteorologist.\n\nSnow fall in Biggar in South Lanarkshire on Boxing Day\n\nBut for most places, the snow came too late to declare a white Christmas.\n\n\"We've got snow on the ground quite widely across Scotland this morning, even at lower levels,\" Mr Morgan added.\n\n\"If the colder air had been a little bit earlier to arrive then it would have been a white Christmas, but it's certainly a white Boxing Day for some of us.\"\n\nLast Christmas 6% of Met Office stations recorded snow fall, but just 1% had snow lying on the ground. In 2017 some 11% of sites recorded snow falling.\n\nHowever, forecasters have to go back to 2010 to find a 25 December where people would remember waking up to snow on the ground.\n\nOn Christmas Day, the Met Office recorded a high of 12.7C in Chertsey, Surrey, while Loch Glascarnoch recorded the lowest temperature of 2.7C.", "League Against Cruel Sports campaigns chief Emma Judd argued Labour's figures show hunting has a \"negative impact\" on rural communities and it is \"time for change\".\n\nThere are fresh calls to strengthen the ban around fox hunting ahead of more than 200 meets on Boxing Day.\n\nThe Countryside Alliance says it is the first time in three years traditional meets will go ahead in full.\n\nUsing dogs to chase or kill foxes was made illegal in England and Wales in 2004 in the Hunting Act.\n\nLabour has called for stricter laws around fox hunting after it claimed there have been less than 450 convictions in over a decade.\n\nOfficial figures compiled by Labour show 438 convictions - including 42 last year - were secured since 2010 under the Hunting Act.\n\nLabour wants to close \"loopholes\" in the law and says trail hunting - which involves laying a scent for hounds to chase instead of a live animal - is being used as a \"smokescreen\" for the illegal hunting of foxes.\n\nThe Countryside Alliance, which campaigns for the return of fox hunting, accused Labour of harbouring a \"pointless political vendetta against hunting\".\n\nChairman Nick Herbert said: \"Labour's position is utterly illogical and the large number of prosecutions under the Hunting Act only shows that the legislation is perfectly effective.\"\n\nReacting to Labour's figures a government spokesman said: \"The Hunting Act 2004 makes it an offence to hunt a wild mammal with dogs and anyone who believes that an offence has taken place should report the matter to the police.\n\n\"Those found guilty under the Act are subject to the full force of the law.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Bargain hunters have been told to expect traffic around shopping centres as rail strikes see train services disrupted on Boxing Day.\n\nA small number of services usually operate on 26 December, but no trains will run in the UK today.\n\nA walkout by RMT union members started on Christmas Eve and is set to end at 06:00 GMT on 27 December.\n\nThe AA expects 15.2 million cars on the roads throughout Monday.\n\nAn AA spokesperson said: \"Traffic is likely to build around shopping centres as lots of people seek a bargain in the sales, meanwhile football fans will travel to see their teams.\"\n\nThe RAC also highlighted two stretches of the M25 as likely hotspots for traffic - including from junction 7 to 16 clockwise, and from junction 4 to 1 anti-clockwise.\n\nPeople planning to jet off for a festive getaway will need to find other ways of getting to and from the UK's airports as transfer services including the Heathrow Express and Stansted Express are also affected.\n\nInstead, people can travel on Megabus or National Express bus services if they need public transport, as they run on Christmas Day and Boxing Day each year.\n\nTell us how you're being affected by the strike action. Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Jervis Ramirez Baligat and Larry Simyunn were aboard the L'Ecume II as crewmen when it sank\n\nTwo bodies recovered from near a sunken fishing trawler off the coast of Jersey have been identified as the crewmen.\n\nLarry Simyunn and Jervis Baligat died when L'Ecume II sank after it collided with a freight ferry at about 05:30 GMT on 8 December.\n\nA search and recovery operation for the boat's missing skipper, Micheal Michieli, continues.\n\nJersey Police said its \"thoughts continue to be with the families and friends affected by this tragedy\".\n\nThe bodies of Mr Simyunn and Mr Baligat were found on Thursday, 15 December as part of the search operation.\n\nA team is searching inside the wreck and the surrounding seabed, with an exclusion zone remaining around the area.\n\nThe captain of the fishing vessel Michael Michieli is yet to be found\n\nPorts of Jersey confirmed it had recovered personal items of the crew, which would be returned to family members once investigations concluded.\n\nAn investigation led by Maritime Standards with support from police was continuing, alongside another by the Bahamas Maritime Authority where the Condor Ferries vessel was registered.\n\nThe vessel it collided with - another Condor boat called the Commodore Goodwill - has been investigated and since been deployed back into service.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.", "This is a war where Ukrainian fathers and sons serve on the same front lines. And this was how it was for 22-year-old Eugene Gromadskyi - at least, at the very beginning.\n\nOn the first day of the invasion he stood shoulder to shoulder with his father, Oleg, on the outskirts of Kharkiv, as column after column of Russian men and armoured vehicles sought to capture their city.\n\nIn those crucial first hours he was in command of a unit which, outnumbered and outgunned, attacked and destroyed Russian vehicle columns and captured prisoners. For this, Eugene would earn the country's highest military honour. His father would face a different fate.\n\nEugene has been in the thick of it for almost the entire war. He started out as a lieutenant in the National Guard. Now he's a senior lieutenant in the army's 92nd Mechanized Brigade, which is named after Ivan Sirko, a 17th-Century Cossack military leader. The intelligence platoon Eugene commands describe themselves as Sirko's Rowdy Boys - their motto is \"Revenge for all\". \"They are my family,\" he tells me\n\nIt is a December morning in Kupyiansk, some 120km (75 miles) south-east of Kharkiv, and the temperature is -7C, even before the howling wind hits you and finds its way into every inch of loose clothing or exposed skin. It is mostly open ground - there is no cover from the wind, nor from the Russians who, in places, are within rifle range. Lines of trees, which in the summer provided camouflage, are now stark and bare. There is nowhere to hide.\n\nBut Eugene glows with vitality. He explains that the early days of the war were frustrating. Ukrainian forces took back a village or two, there was little momentum. They were on the defensive and under-prepared, then a summer stalemate set in. But in September, a co-ordinated counter-offensive began, starting from Balakliya and going all the way down to Kupyiansk.\n\nEugene was awarded the country's top military honour by President Zelensky\n\nI first met him in early March. He had recently graduated from university and was full of courage but fresh to conflict and on the defensive. What he didn't tell me at the time was how he and his comrades, under his command, had captured the Russian prisoners. His bravery a matter for record, he was later awarded the country's top military honour, Hero of Ukraine, Order of the Gold Star.\n\nEugene has countless missions under his belt, and like the landscape around him, bears the scarred lessons of conflict.\n\nWar toughens the heart, and death is its companion. Eugene has lost many men close to him, so I ask, given the high casualty rate - Ukraine says 13,000 of its soldiers have been killed so far in the war - does he fear death?\n\n\"Death is one of [war's] problems. Death loves brave ones. And courage must be used cleverly. There is no need to be afraid of death,\" he says. But he reconsiders for a moment, and continues: \"The person who is not afraid is already dead… I don't think about mortality, I think only about life, about life of my comrades and the life of my unit.\"\n\nWe ride inside one of his platoon's armoured personnel carriers (APC). The noise is deafening, even before its 30mm cannon opens fire on some farm buildings where they suspect Russians are hiding. Condensation drips from the metal roof, two dim lights emit a pale-green glow and the vehicle's eight sturdy wheels slip and slide through the mud, swaying us from side to side. I feel as if I'm in a submarine.\n\nEugene with the APC that has stalled in mud\n\nAbove the din, Eugene explains why the September operation was key. \"It was really important for the boys that we were able to accomplish a counter-offensive. Everyone was very motivated. They were taking back their own territory, taking back homes of their own families. It was really needed.\" As if to underscore this point, in the front seat of the APC is Sasha. He only recently joined the platoon after his village was liberated from the Russians.\n\nA black-and-white targeting screen offers the only view of the road ahead. It is a quagmire - there are few obstacles as fiendish, or varied, as Ukrainian mud. One moment it's a deep, sucking soup, the next a thick putty clogging machinery, weighing down boots, and gumming up everything. We drive past one soldier who is hammering frozen chunks of it off his stranded truck with a mallet.\n\nSmall wonder, then, that in these conditions, and in the face of stiff resistance from enemy forces, the counter-offensive is bogged down here. And so are we - the APC can go no further. It doesn't pay to be trapped out here in open ground, so we turn around. Days later another Ukrainian vehicle would become stuck at the same spot. A Russian helicopter attacked, causing significant casualties.\n\nInside the APC, despite the din, Eugene falls into a deep sleep. He had only two hours' rest the night before, and he remains sound asleep until the vehicle makes it back to base and the heavy steel handle by his ear clunks open.\n\nThe unit, which has its own Instagram page, is crammed into a few rooms in an abandoned house. A huge pot filled with potatoes and pork sits atop a wood-burning stove. Eugene eats standing.\n\nThe counter-offensive has taken its toll on Ukrainian equipment and men along this front. A punishing winter lies ahead. But Eugene, as ever, is optimistic.\n\n\"I think it will be very difficult but we will manage,\" he says. \"Our reserves of troops are growing, the ones who were getting trained abroad. They will be additional reserves, additional forces who will help us with further offensives. For now, there are difficulties especially with the weather. But it doesn't stop us because we are taking back our land step by step, corner by corner.\"\n\nUkraine's defence had an improvised and precarious feel at the start. The country was underprepared. Before the invasion President Volodymyr Zelensky had dismissed talk of war, saying that the country should keep calm, it would celebrate Easter in April and come May, the country would be occupied with sun, holidays and BBQs, not war.\n\nA week into the war, Kharkiv was still in turmoil. At a marshalling point on the city's eastern edge, busloads of reinforcements arrived, then quickly disappeared again, pushed forward to halt the Russians who were still trying to force their way into the city. It was freezing cold, but the air was electric with a desperate, hurried energy. But the lieutenant was cool-headed, \"Call me Eugene,\" he said, in English, with a smile.\n\nEugene Gromadskyi at the beginning of the war\n\nI saw a very young man - surely too young to be in command - who like his country was battling against the odds in a war with Russia. He lacked a winter uniform and army boots, instead he was wearing trainers. \"I can move fast in these,\" he joked.\n\nWe jumped into one of the few armoured vehicles around and headed to the front, a fur Russian army hat from a captured soldier swinging from the ceiling as we bumped along rutted, snow-covered roads.\n\nThe snows thawed, spring became summer, and Ukraine held on. Eugene and I kept in touch, and he would send videos of him and his men in battle. In one, he's smiling broadly while riding atop a tank. We met again in late April on a warm afternoon in Kharkiv. There had been no holidays nor BBQs for him.\n\nHe was still fighting, though now well beyond the city limits. His uniform was filthy, and he stayed only a short while, before heading back to the front. A patch on his uniform read, \"Stop: no touch, no talk, no eye contact\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe was in good spirits, grinning as ever. And despite the hardships of battle, he was clearly in his element. He still believed Ukraine could win. By then Russia's military inadequacies had been exposed and Western military aid was beginning to make a difference, though a large-scale push against the invading Russian forces still hadn't happened. There were questions over whether it ever would.\n\nEugene Gromadskyi needs little reminder of what Russian aggression has cost him - it's there every time he looks in the mirror. On the left side of his face a deep red scar is still healing.\n\nWe had lost touch in May. It's not unusual for soldiers to go offline, but 10 days went by and still he was out of reach. Eventually, he reappeared and sent a selfie as way of an explanation. He was in hospital, his face swollen and barely recognisable. It looks like he is trying to smile, but he can't, so instead gives a defiant hand gesture.\n\nAt the Kupyiansk front, he told me what had happened. \"Me and my comrade were on a combat mission,\" he explains.\n\n\"We came under fire and a shell exploded near me and shrapnel hit my face, near my lip and apparently came out at my temple. [In hospital] an operation was performed, I was put back together, they didn't need to use metal plates.\"\n\nEugene was wounded when a shell exploded in front of him\n\nHe checked himself out of hospital after only 10 days and returned to the front with a broken jaw. \"It wasn't nice,\" he says and smiles broadly.\n\nBut Eugene had suffered an even greater wound on the first day of the war.\n\nIn the early hours of 24 February, he had been commanding a small unit of National Guardsmen in the village of Pyatikhatky, when he was joined by his father, Oleg.\n\nOleg had been asleep in the family apartment on the edge of Kharkiv when he was awoken by his wife Natalia, who said she could hear Russian Grads nearby. The former army officer had trained hundreds of young recruits in battlefield care, so she knew her artillery.\n\nDuty and service to their country runs through the veins and history of the family - seven generations have served in the Ukrainian and Soviet military. Ukraine was under attack, and Oleg, an army veteran who had retired at the rank of colonel, would answer the call.\n\nHe posted a message on Facebook, rallying friends and former servicemen to gather weapons and equipment to defend the city, and went to join his son.\n\nSome Russian forces had already made it into Kharkiv but were driven back. The fighting was intense - Oleg manned a machine gun, while his son gave support with an automatic grenade launcher. They were outgunned and had to retreat. Oleg stayed behind to gather weapons, and father and son planned to regroup further back. But as he left his position, Oleg's car was caught in a rocket attack.\n\nNatalia had been sheltering in a city metro station, when she was told her husband had died. During breaks in the shelling, she headed to the area where she had been told Oleg had been killed. She discovered his body on the city's outskirts.\n\nNatalia was about to celebrate 25 years of marriage to her husband Oleg\n\n\"I picked up my husband and took him to the morgue. It was just me and him. I said goodbye over there. I conducted a body examination to make sure it was him.\"\n\nEugene was in the midst of battle when he learned of his father's death. He would later return home and bury Oleg alone. But for the moment, he set aside grief and took charge of another combat unit of 20 men. Cut off from their command, they destroyed more Russian vehicles, killing and capturing enemy soldiers.\n\n\"To this day, [my father's] friends and comrades who served with him write to me,\" Eugene tells me. \"They say, 'We are proud we served with your father because he was a man of honour and as he said, so he did.' He always kept his officer's word.\"\n\nOn 24 September, at a ceremony in Kyiv, President Zelensky made Eugene a Hero of Ukraine, bestowing on him the country's highest military order for bravery in the early defence of Kharkiv. His father's close friend, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander in chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, looked on as he received his medals.\n\nEugene was so nervous he forgot his own name.\n\nIn this country of 44 million people, only 652 have received the medal since the honour was created in 1998.\n\nEugene's medals now sit in a suitcase in the family apartment. Shortly after Oleg died, Natalia left Kharkiv as Russian attacks intensified. She returned in the early summer, but precious items remain packed, ready for her to leave again if necessary.\n\nNatalia's kitchen is full of home-made Christmas decorations, and an 11-year-old pekingese businka is at her feet. It is dark - there is no power, no water or light, because of Russia's continuing missile attacks.\n\nShe tells me how much she misses Oleg. \"He was a patriot. He is a real patriot of our country. A Ukrainian. Fun, friendly, people loved him a lot,\" she says. The couple were about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary when he was killed.\n\nI ask Natalia if she ever imagined she would have to sacrifice so much. \"I gave my husband; my son is there. And I devoted my youth to Ukraine as well - to my country.\"\n\nShe makes me tea and serves home-made cookies, and tells me that I should visit again.\n\n\"When did you last see Eugene,\" I ask. She looks towards the door, remembering - perhaps expecting. \"A month ago,\" she replies. \"For two minutes at the door.\" And she starts to cry.\n\nThe following day I am travelling back to the front, and so I ask Natalia if there is anything I could take to her son - even just a message.\n\nShe wipes away a tear, and says: \"My son, you should know that I'm always waiting for you. Always. In any weather, any time, day or night.\" She pauses, then insists she will wait, \"until victory, only with victory\".", "Al-Shabab militants have been active in Somalia for more than 15 years\n\nFourteen Iranian fishermen have returned home after years in captivity by al-Shabab militants in Somalia.\n\nThey were freed after \"lengthy negotiations with government officials, tribal chiefs and Somali elders,\" Iranian news agency ISNA reports.\n\nThey were flown back to Iran late on Saturday before being taken to their hometown of Chabahar, in the south.\n\nSome of them had been held for as long as eight years after being kidnapped in international waters close to Somalia.\n\nThe fishermen were freed almost a month after Somali police said they had found 20 foreigners - 14 Iranians and six Pakistanis - near land controlled by militants.\n\nAccording to the AFP news agency, police said at the time that some of the fishermen had been seized by al-Shabab in 2014 and others had been kidnapped in mid-2019.\n\nThe group of fishermen was welcomed by family members in a ceremony at the main international airport in Tehran on Saturday night.\n\nThe Islamist militant group al-Shabab has carried out several attacks in Somalia in recent months, including twin car bomb explosions in the capital Mogadishu in October, in which 120 people died.\n\nThe government has launched a large-scale offensive against al-Shabab, working together with local clan militia.\n\nAl-Shabab militants have been active in Somalia for more than 15 years, have control over large rural areas and continue to mount attacks in urban centres.", "Theresa May has warned government efforts to tighten modern slavery laws must not mistakenly make it easier for criminal gangs to hold onto victims.\n\nThe former Tory prime minister told BBC Radio 4's PM programme Rishi Sunak needed to avoid unintended consequences as he explores changes to legislation.\n\nMr Sunak has promised to make it harder to be considered a modern slave in a bid to cut illegitimate asylum claims.\n\nMrs May also said Mr Sunak could revive the Tories and win the next election.\n\nSpeaking about the Modern Slavery Act introduced in 2015 in her time as home secretary, Mrs May said the legislation offers \"world-leading protections\" for victims.\n\nBut she said efforts to raise thresholds at which a person can be considered a victim of modern slavery needed to consider the potential to create further loopholes.\n\nRaising the example of a sex trafficking victim who may come forward to authorities in the UK, Mrs May said \"there's talk of requiring more evidence from individuals\".\n\nBut she said victims were unlikely to have such evidence.\n\n\"If you are somebody who is being brought by a criminal gang who are abusing the system, and they know there needs to be a piece of paper, they probably will provide a piece of paper,\" she said.\n\nMrs May, who has previously spoken in the Commons about her concerns, added: \"So it's making sure that, in dealing with problems that are identified, we don't create other problems.\"\n\nMr Sunak has denied he would water down the definition of modern slavery and said he wanted to stop the system \"being clogged up by people making spurious claims\".\n\nBut Labour has criticised the government's plans to deal with a mounting asylum backlog, which stands at about 117,000 outstanding claims, as \"unworkable gimmicks\". And refugee and migration charities have hit out at what they say are \"cruel\" and \"ineffective\" proposals.\n\nMore than 40,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year - the highest number since figures began to be collected in 2018. Some 90 people arrived in two small boats on Christmas Day, the Ministry of Defence confirmed on Monday.\n\nElsewhere in a wide-ranging interview with presenter Carolyn Quinn on PM, Mrs May backed Mr Sunak to succeed at the next general election.\n\nThe Conservatives are currently trailing Labour in the opinion polls.\n\nMrs May - who left Downing Street in 2019 - said there was \"no doubt\" the so-called mini budget under Prime Minister Liz Truss had an impact on the Conservative Party's reputation for economic integrity,\n\nBut she said \"we've seen already... the new chancellor and a new prime minister... taking the process of re-establishing that reputation\", adding Mr Sunak can \"turn it round and we can win that election\".", "Swimmers braved the chilly water to enter the sea in Lowestoft, as large crowds looked on\n\nHundreds of people - many in festive fancy dress costumes - braved icy waters as Christmas Day dips were held along the Suffolk coast.\n\nSwimmers raised money for various charities as they entered the North Sea in Felixstowe, Lowestoft and Southwold.\n\nThe dips had not taken place over recent years due to a combination of the Covid pandemic and extreme weather.\n\nEvent organisers praised the hundreds who took part and the large crowds that looked on.\n\nMany people taking part in the Lowestoft event wore festive-themed fancy dress\n\nThe Everyone Active 2022 Lowestoft Christmas Day Swim - the 43rd time the event has been held - raised money for the James Paget Charity Trust, the Lowestoft Volunteer Lifeguard Corps, Lowestoft Lions, Dementia UK, St John Ambulance and the Brian Gallagher Football Fund.\n\nThe Felixstowe dip - the 18th time it has been held - was in aid of St Elizabeth Hospice, while the Southwold event raised funds for the Southwold RNLI, the Klondyke Skate Park project and the East Anglian Air Ambulance.\n\nThe Christmas Day swim in Felixstowe was the 18th time the event had been held\n\nDonna Taylor, Everyone Active's general manager at Waterlane Leisure Centre, in Lowestoft, said: \"We are delighted to have played our part in this special event, which is of such importance to the local community and fantastic charitable causes.\n\n\"It was great to welcome everyone this morning, not just the participants but also the people of all ages who came down to cheer them on. There were some fantastic costumes on display and our congratulations go to those who took part.\"\n\nThe event in Felixstowe raised money for the St Elizabeth Hospice\n\nNichola Whymark, of St Elizabeth Hospice, said: \"Massive well done to all our dippers for their fantastic efforts and to everyone who came out and supported this morning.\n\n\"It was brilliant to be able to hold the dip on Felixstowe beach, on Christmas Day in its traditional format once more.\n\n\"There was a brilliant atmosphere and such a great range of festive outfits being worn, it really is the perfect way to start your Christmas Day.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nKing Charles has greeted crowds at Sandringham after attending a Christmas Day church service for the first time as monarch.\n\nThe King and Camilla, the Queen Consort were joined by the Prince and Princess of Wales, their children and other senior royals at the Norfolk estate.\n\nCrowds gathered outside St Mary Magdalene Church from the early hours.\n\nIt is the first time members of the Royal Family have spent Christmas at Sandringham House since 2019.\n\nThe royal standard is flying above the house, marking a return to traditional royal festivities.\n\nHundreds of people turned up to catch a glimpse of the Royal Family on Sunday. Some had even camped out overnight at the gates, sitting in camp chairs and wrapped in blankets, while others brought bunches of flowers and gifts to hand to the royals.\n\nThe King and his family made the short walk from Sandringham House to the church just before 11:00 GMT.\n\nAfter the 45-minute service, the King and Queen Consort, as well as the Prince and Princess of Wales, spoke to several people in the crowd.\n\nPrince Louis joined his parents at the Christmas Day church service for the first time.\n\nThe Earl and Countess of Wessex, and their children, as well as Princess Beatrice and Eugenie, were also at Sandringham.\n\nTheir father, the Duke of York, was also there. Prince Andrew is not often seen in public with the Royal Family since stepping down as a working royal in 2019 following the controversy surrounding his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex who last celebrated Christmas at Sandringham in 2018 were not there.\n\nPrincess Charlotte and Prince Louis were seen leaving the church behind the King and Queen Consort\n\nIt is the first year the King has hosted the Royal Family's traditional gathering at the Norfolk estate since the death of his mother.\n\nQueen Elizabeth II hosted 32 Christmases at Sandringham but was forced to cancel her annual festivities in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.\n\nLater this afternoon the King's first Christmas Day message will be broadcast. It was recorded on 13 December in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, where the late Queen was buried in September.\n\nSandringham House has been the private home of British monarchs for more than 160 years.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales and their children greeting crowds at Sandringham\n\nIt was the first Christmas Day visit to church at Sandringham for four-year-old Prince Louis\n\nThe group of senior royals greeted crowds on their way to church on Sunday\n\nPrince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis walked with their parents\n\nPrince Louis showed no sign of feeling the cold in his short trousers\n\nPrince Andrew was also at the service, pictured here with his son-in-law Jack Brooksbank, the husband of Princess Eugenie\n\nEarlier, the Prince and Princess of Wales issued an image of Prince George's painting of a stag alongside their Christmas message on Instagram.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by princeandprincessofwales This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Lorna has helped bring Lemn Sissay's Christmas dinner concept to Wales for the first time\n\nMatching pyjamas, board games that never end, family politics, and food that we never want to see for another year is traditionally the epitome of Christmas Day.\n\nBut what does it look like for those that do not have a family?\n\nAfter growing up in care, award-winning author Lemn Sissay set up an annual Christmas dinner event to make sure people in the system never have to spend Christmas Day alone.\n\nThe concept started in 2013 in Manchester but quickly snowballed into multiple dinners across the rest of England.\n\nNow, volunteers are changing their traditions on 25 December to give care leavers in Cardiff a special day to remember.\n\n\"Young people we speak to every day often say, 'well I'm just going to be sat at home microwaving something from Iceland on my own in a mouldy bed and breakfast',\" said Lorna Stabler, who has helped bring the concept to Wales for the first time.\n\nThe volunteer and associate at Cardiff University's children's social care research centre, CASCADE, said that was the reality for many young care experienced people over the holidays.\n\nShe said her experiences growing up in care fuelled her desire to bring Sissay's model to Wales.\n\nFood delivered by big supermarkets like Waitrose has been packaged up for the young people\n\n\"Even if you have a really nice foster home, it feels like it's never really your home.\n\n\"You kind of know that foster carers paid are an allowance to look after you, they have to write everything down about your behaviour... you know, it's not a normal family environment.\"\n\nAfter months of planning, Lorna and her colleagues have helped coordinate dinner, presents, activities and company for about 25 people mainly aged 16 to 25 who would otherwise be spending Christmas alone.\n\nMore than 500 people or organisations have offered their support, with huge sums of donations pouring in from law frim Ascot Lloyd, Bad Boy Brownies, barbers, cinemas, chefs and other independent businesses.\n\nLorna, originally from Newcastle, said the goal for volunteers was to shine a light on \"some really difficult circumstances\" faced by young people and to ensure they have a \"great time\".\n\nShe said the team knows the day might not be \"a barrel of laughs for everyone\" given the fact that some young people's idea of Christmas has been \"shattered\" by their experience of growing up in care.\n\n\"There'll be people who have experienced parent abuse, sexual abuse and exploitation as well.\n\n\"What it'll mean [the day] is it'll give young people an example of what a supportive, safe, healthy Christmas could be. And that that doesn't mean you have to smile all the time.\"\n\nCheyenne (l), a care leaver, wants to help others who have not been as fortunate as herself\n\nCare leaver Cheyenne said she \"can't wait to help others\" on Christmas Day. \"I've been telling everyone I'm doing it.\"\n\nThis year, the 21-year-old moved out of her foster mother's home and will be spending part of the day with other young care experienced people at the venue at Spark|Sbarc.\n\nShe has helped prepare for the day on 21 December because she wants care leavers to know that \"there are people out there to support you in situations that you are going through... we are there to help\".\n\nUnfortunately for her, while the playlist she has sorted will not be filled with drill music, she has had an active part in collating tunes for the day and arranging colour schemes.\n\nBusy preparations under way on 21 December\n\nFifteen-year-old Ffion could not resist getting involved when she heard her mother Louise Roberts talking about the project over the phone.\n\n\"I find it quite upsetting to think that young people would be spending Christmas alone and I just wanted to be a part of something that would make people happy,\" she said.\n\nLouise (l) and her daughter Ffion are rearranging their Christmas Day to help out\n\nThe pair, from Bridgend, have been wrapping presents and helping pick up food donated by Waitrose.\n\nFfion said her family's Christmas Day is usually \"big\" but would rather rearrange her day for another to be a part of the event.\n\n\"I don't see a reason why we shouldn't be there because for us, we can have Christmas whenever, and for these people it's going to be really difficult,\" she said.\n\nLouise, who has been involved in the project every step of the way, said \"it's been a massive undertaking\".\n\n\"I think we all underestimated how huge it would be, but it's been a really fabulous experience.\"\n\nVolunteers were also at Spark|Sbarc preparing the table for dinner on Christmas Eve\n\nFfion spent the afternoon on 21 December wrapping presents that'll be given to young care experienced people on Sunday\n\nWhen Rachel Vaughn got asked by a young person who just left care if they could spend Christmas with her, she said she hated not being able to provide.\n\nShe said she thought about that moment a lot, which was part of her drive to get on board with Cascade's project.\n\nThe engagement manager from Cardiff said a few people told her they were \"really excited they have somewhere to go\", adding: \"No one should have to spend Christmas alone.\"\n\n\"I hope that they feel happy, supported and safe.\n\n\"And an idea that Christmas isn't always what you see on TV and all the kind of media ideas of what a family is. It can be a community as well. So that's what I hope to get out of it.\"\n\nRachel and the team have been planning the the big day since the summer\n\nFormer children's commissioner for Wales, Sally Holland has met many young people who have grown up in care.\n\n\"Young people and young adults are actually among the most lonely group, often in our population,\" she said.\n\n\"We're really keen that they feel looked after and welcomed on Christmas Day, and they can take it at any pace they want with us.\"\n\nIt may be the first time an event like this is being launched in Wales, but it is just the start.\n\nThe team hopes to hold a Christmas dinner in each city or hub in Wales over the next five years.\n\nAn arcade machine is on offer as well as other activities on Christmas Day\n\nYoung care experienced people have been given presents personal to them", "Patrick Rogers, 26, was driving and his mother-in-law Mary Duffy, 52, was one of the six passengers\n\nTwo of the three people who died in a crash near Cookstown in County Tyrone on Monday were Patrick Rogers and his mother-in-law Mary Duffy.\n\nThe driver of the other car - a woman in her 80s - also died in the collision in Dungannon Road about 15:30 GMT.\n\nMr Rogers' wife and their four children were taken to hospital and their injuries are not believed to be life threatening.\n\nA woman was killed in a separate crash on the M1 in County Tyrone on Monday.\n\nShe was named locally as Imelda Quinn, who was in her 40s, from County Tyrone. She was a nurse and a mother of two young children.\n\nImelda Quinn, a mother-of-two from County Tyrone, died following a crash on the M1\n\nThe name of the woman in her 80s who died in the crash near Cookstown has not yet been released.\n\nMr Rogers, 26, who was from Cookstown, was driving his Nissan X-Trail.\n\nSupt Stephen Murray said: \"Our thoughts are very much with the families of the people who lost their lives on our roads. Any loss of life is a cause of great sadness and it feels particularly tragic at Christmas.\n\n\"I'd also like to commend members of the public who provided assistance at the scene of this collision and our officers and other emergency services for their caring and professional approach in these very tragic circumstances.\n\n\"An investigation led by specialist investigators from the Collision Investigation Unit has commenced and I am appealing to anyone who was in the area at the time who may have witnessed the collision or who has dash-cam footage or any other information to contact police.\"\n\nThree people died in a crash which happened in Dungannon Road, near Cookstown\n\nSinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill said it was \"deeply tragic news\".\n\n\"I offer my heartfelt sympathies to the families of those tragically killed and every best wish to those injured for a full and speedy recovery,\" she added.\n\nSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) MLA Patsy McGlone said it is \"the worst possible news any family could receive but particularly at this time of year\".\n\n\"My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected at this incredibly difficult time.\"\n\nThe Northern Ireland Ambulance Service sent four emergency crews to the Cookstown collision\n\nIn a tweet, Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Doug Beattie said: \"I just can't imagine the horror those who survived have endured and the scene faced by the emergency services.\n\n\"Life is so precious and so fragile.\"\n\nDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said: \"Our thoughts and prayers are with all involved in this tragic incident and the families and communities impacted by such a devastating loss.\n\n\"We also think of the emergency services who attended the scene and the health service staff caring for those injured.\"\n\nPolice said no other vehicle was involved in the earlier crash in which Ms Quinn died.\n\nOfficers received a report just before 13:30 GMT on Monday that a blue Mercedes car had left the east-bound carriageway, near the Stangmore junction.\n\nEmergency services attended but the woman died later in hospital as a result of her injuries, police said.\n\nCannyMan Community Arts said Ms Quinn was a founding member of the organisation and that it was \"difficult to find words to articulate the incredible loss, grief and sorrow felt at this time\".\n\n\"Coming from a family steeped in music and arts and with an abundance of talent, Imelda had the foresight to create an organisation that would celebrate the arts and provide opportunities to showcase talent within the Galbally community,\" it added.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Hungry and weak refugees reach Indonesia on Sunday after boat broke down at sea\n\nA boat carrying more than 180 Rohingya asylum seekers which has been drifting without power for weeks has been allowed to land some of the passengers in the Indonesian province of Aceh.\n\nThis is the second boat carrying Rohingyas to have arrived in Aceh in the past two days.\n\nAnother boat with 180 on board is thought to have sunk in early December, NGOs and family members say.\n\nThe Rohingya are a persecuted ethnic minority in their home in Myanmar.\n\nMore than a million now live in overcrowded camps in southern Bangladesh following a campaign against them by the Myanmar military which the UN believes could amount to a genocide.\n\nThe wooden fishing boat, crammed with Rohingya men, women and children, set sail from southern Bangladesh on 25 November.\n\nSix days later, the engine broke down, and the boat began to drift westward from Malaysian waters to the seas off the northern tip of Indonesia, and then into Indian waters south of the Nicobar islands.\n\nActivists and family members were able to make occasional phone calls to the boat, and, together with the UN Refugee Agency, appealed to the Indian and Indonesian authorities to help. People on board said they were starving and that many had died.\n\nHowever, the Indian navy appears only to have given them some food and water and towed them back to Indonesia, where they drifted offshore for six more days until they were finally allowed to land, some 1,200 miles (1,900km) from where they had first set off.\n\nThis boat carrying refugees had a broken engine, Indonesian officials say\n\nOn Sunday, a wooden boat with at least 57 men on board drifted on to a beach in Aceh with a broken engine, local officials say.\n\nThey were described as hungry and weak after spending a month at sea. At least three men were taken to hospital.\n\n\"The boat had a broken engine and it was carried by the wind to a shore in Ladong Village in Aceh Besar [district],\" the spokesman said. \"They said they have been drifting at sea for a month.\"\n\nA local immigration official told AFP the refugees would be temporarily placed at a government facility.\n\nMeanwhile, the UN refugee agency fears 180 refugees on board another boat have probably died. Spokesman Babar Baloch said relatives had been told there were signs the boat was cracking: \"We're talking about desperate people - Rohingya refugees and full families, parents with their children.\"\n\nThe International Organisation for Migration said it had been raising the alarm for some time about boats heading for Malaysia and Indonesia carrying refugees who had not had food or water for weeks.\n\nHundreds of thousands of Rohingyas still live in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, but are subjected to apartheid-like restrictions and discrimination.\n\nIn recent months, they have been trying to escape from overcrowded refugee camps in southern Bangladesh by taking high-risk sea journeys at this time of year, after the monsoon in the region has passed, to try and reach Malaysia, where there is a large Rohingya community.\n\nTheir numbers have grown because of deteriorating conditions in the camps, while more Rohingya who are still in Myanmar are also trying to leave following the military coup there last year.\n\nAt least five boats are known to have left in the past two months.", "Rachael Moore was described by her family as a \"caring friend to many\"\n\nThe family of a woman who died when she was hit by a police car on Christmas Eve has described her as a \"cherished daughter\".\n\nRachael Moore was struck while walking in Sheil Road, Liverpool, at about 20:10 GMT on Saturday.\n\nThe 22-year-old died at the scene and her family is being supported by specially-trained officers, Merseyside Police said.\n\nIn a statement, Ms Moore's family said she was a \"caring friend to many\".\n\n\"She will be greatly missed by all those whose lives she touched. The family requests their privacy be respected at this devastating time,\" they added.\n\nDet Sgt Kurt Timpson, from Merseyside Police, said officers were providing assistance to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which has launched an investigation into the circumstances.\n\nHe said: \"Our sincere and thoughts and condolences are with Rachael's family who have been left devastated by this tragic incident.\"\n\nPolice are appealing for witnesses and those with relevant CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage to contact them.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Kathleen McGinness lived in a neighbouring property but was injured in the explosion\n\nA woman who was injured in an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey earlier this month has died, taking the death toll to 10.\n\nKathleen McGinness, 73, lived in a building adjacent to Haut du Mont flats in St Helier, which were destroyed in the early hours of 10 December.\n\nShe had been taken to hospital following the blast but died on Christmas Day, Jersey Police said.\n\nAn investigation into the cause of the explosion on Pier Road is continuing.\n\nIn a statement issued earlier, Chief of the States of Jersey Police Robin Smith said his thoughts were with all the families affected.\n\n\"This incident has been incredibly challenging for everyone involved and I would like to praise the families for their stoicism in the face of such tragic circumstances,\" he said.\n\n\"The island is rightly behind them and on-hand to support, but first and foremost we are there together to give them their privacy and time to grieve.\"\n\nHe said Ms McGinness's family were being supported by specially trained officers.\n\nTop row, left to right: Derek and Sylvia Ellis, Romeu and Louise de Almeida. Bottom row, left to right: Raymond Brown, Billy Marsden and Peter Bowler\n\nThe identities of the nine other people killed in the three-storey residential block were confirmed following post-mortem examinations.\n\nThey were: Peter Bowler, 72, Raymond Brown, 71, Romeu and Louise De Almeida, 67 and 64, Derek and Sylvia Ellis, 61 and 73, Ken and Jane Ralph, 72 and 71, and 63-year-old Billy Marsden.\n\nKen and Jane Ralph were the last of nine people missing since the explosion to be named by police\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Firefighters have been tackling a large blaze near Blackpool's seafront.\n\nThe fire broke out at a commercial property in Back Church Street at about 13:40 GMT.\n\nEight fire engines were sent to the scene with crews warning residents to shut their windows and doors to minimise smoke inhalation.\n\nPolice also advised people to avoid the area around the popular Winter Gardens complex and Blackpool Promenade as crews dealt with the blaze.\n\nThe fire broke out on Back Church Street\n\nFire station manager Samantha Preddy said that the service had reduced the crews tackling the fire to four pumps by late afternoon, but that there had been a \"partial building collapse\".\n\n\"Church Street is cordoned off at the moment and we ask that you to stay clear of the area while our crews maintain temperature monitoring of the situation,\" she said.\n\nSmoke spread over Blackpool's famous seafront after the blaze broke out\n\nEight fire engines rushed to the scene near the Winter Gardens\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The choir contains doctors, lawyers, farmers, accountants, nurses and students\n\nA choir started in 2016 by a woman after her son's second open-heart surgery has become an ensemble of 200 women.\n\nValley Rock Voices in Neath is a choir of women aged between 21 and 80.\n\nFounder Cerys Llewellyn-Bevan has created a community for women from all backgrounds and all ages, including mothers to grandmothers.\n\n\"We are a huge melting pot of every kind of woman,\" said Mrs Llewellyn-Bevan.\n\nMrs Llewellyn-Bevan started the choir with 12 friends as what she described as an \"antidote\" to her son Sam's second major operation.\n\nNow 26, Sam has recovered well.\n\nFrom the choir, a collective has formed with activities such as walking, swimming, social and fund-raising groups.\n\n\"When you become a mum your life becomes all about your children growing up, and I think a lot of women lose the ability to go out and make friends,\" said Mrs Llewellyn-Bevan.\n\n\"We spend a lot of time planning the lighting, and the whole ambience is really important to me,\" said Mrs Llewellyn-Bevan\n\n\"I needed to get out and find some joy again, and going back to my music-making seemed to be the obvious path as it had brought me much joy previously.\"\n\nThe 53-year-old has a classical music background and had stints as head of music at various schools.\n\nThe choir's repertoire includes the Bee Gees, The Killers, Katy Perry, Primal Scream and Stormzy.\n\nThey are due to perform at Swansea Arena in March with Max Boyce and tenor Wynne Evans.\n\nThe choir has a Christmas single with Swansea songwriter Mal Pope in support of Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris's Everyone Deserves a Christmas charity appeal\n\nDay-long \"boot camps\" are held on top of regular rehearsals at Neath Town Hall and St Peter's Church in Newton, Bridgend county.\n\nThe choir fell silent when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020.\n\n\"For nine months we didn't meet,\" said Mrs Llewellyn-Bevan.\n\n\"I honestly thought I would never put the choir back together again.\n\n\"In November 2020, restrictions started to be eased slightly so I decided to venture out and see if I had anyone who fancied a challenge.\"\n\nValley Rock Voices on the beach at Aberavon\n\nWhen restrictions allowed, the choir rehearsed outdoors at Neath RFC, in the rugby stands, socially distanced and groups of 15 at a time.\n\nBethan Comerford, from Neath, knew Mrs Llewellyn-Bevan from school and found out about the choir on Facebook.\n\n\"Up from the sofa I got - my husband said, 'what are you doing?' I said, 'I'm going to join a choir',\" said Ms Comerford.\n\n\"It was just what I needed. It's the best thing I have ever done.\"\n\nBut Ms Comerford's husband died shortly after she joined.\n\nThe choir came together to support Bethan Comerford after the loss of her husband\n\n\"It was the middle of Covid, and every night there would be food parcels delivered by people here,\" said the 54-year-old.\n\n\"They were fantastic, and they still are. They're such a great bunch of women.\"\n\nJoining the choir has also been of major benefit for its youngest member, Imogen Fish, from Neath.\n\nNow 21, Ms Fish has done GCSEs, A levels and completed a university degree while with Valley Rock Voices. She is now training to become a teacher.\n\nImogen Fish attends the choir with her mother\n\n\"When I first started I was so shy,\" she said.\n\n\"I wouldn't speak to anybody or look at anybody. I was going through a tricky time at school. Now I'm a totally different person.\"\n\nJoan Powell - the choir's oldest member at 80 - joined on its first day.\n\n\"When you get older you don't make lifelong friends so easily, but I have,\" she said.\n\nJoan Powell knew Mrs Llewellyn-Bevan from a swimming group before joining the choir\n\n\"I have formed some beautiful friendships. Everybody takes care of each other. We watch each other's backs.\"", "The aid groups say the ban on female staff is a direct threat to their lifesaving work\n\nFive top non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have halted work in Afghanistan after women were banned from working for them by the Taliban government.\n\nCare International, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and Save the Children said they could not continue their work \"without our female staff\".\n\nThe International Rescue Committee also suspended services while Islamic Relief said it was stopping most of its work.\n\nThe latest edict on NGOs came just days after the Taliban banned women from attending university.\n\nAbdel Rahman Habib, spokesman for the Taliban's ministry of economy, accused female workers at the foreign aid groups of breaking dress codes by not wearing hijabs.\n\nThe Taliban threatened to cancel the licence of any organisation that did not swiftly comply with the ban.\n\nA number of aid groups have since spoken out, demanding that women should be allowed to continue working for them.\n\nThe leaders of Care, the NRC and Save the Children said in a joint statement the organisations \"would not have jointly reached millions of Afghans in need since August 2021\" were it not for their female staff.\n\n\"Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our programmes, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan,\" their statement added.\n\nSeparately, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) - which employs 3,000 women across Afghanistan - said its ability to deliver services relied on \"female staff at all levels of our organisation\" and if women could not be employed, they could not deliver to \"those in need\".\n\nIslamic Relief said it had taken the \"difficult decision to temporarily suspend non-lifesaving activities in Afghanistan\" including \"projects that support impoverished families to earn a living as well as education and some healthcare projects\". Life-saving healthcare, it added, would continue.\n\n\"Islamic Relief is calling on the Afghan authorities to immediately lift the ban on female NGO workers,\" the organisation said.\n\n\"The ban will have a devastating humanitarian impact on millions of vulnerable men, women and children across the country. We are dismayed that this ruling comes just a few days after increased restrictions on Afghan girls' access to education.\"\n\nRamiz Alakbarov, the United Nations' top humanitarian coordinator, said the UN was trying to get the ban reversed and that it was a \"red line for the entire humanitarian community\".\n\nThe United Nations could stop humanitarian aid delivery in Afghanistan if the Taliban authorities do not reverse their edict banning women aid workers, the official told the BBC.\n\nBut Mr Alakbarov said it was still unclear what the Taliban meant by its edict.\n\nHe said the Taliban's minister of health had told the UN the agency should continue its health-related work and women could \"report to work and discharge their services\".\n\nOther ministries had also contacted the UN directly to say work in the areas of disaster management and emergencies should continue, he added.\n\nJan Egeland of the NRC said nearly 500 of the aid group's 1,400 workers were women, and that female staff had been operating \"according to all traditional values, dress code, movement, [and] separation of offices\".\n\nHe said he hoped the decision would be \"reversed in the next few days\" and warned that millions would suffer if NGOs' work was obstructed.\n\nNGOs also expressed concern about the effect the ban would have on jobs \"in the midst of an enormous economic crisis\".\n\nFemale Afghan NGO workers acting as the main earners in their household previously told the BBC of their fear and helplessness following the ban.\n\nOne asked: \"If I cannot go to my job, who can support my family?\" Another breadwinner called the news \"shocking\" and insisted she had complied with the Taliban's strict dress code.\n\nThe ban triggered international outcry, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning it would \"disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions\".\n\nSince seizing back control of the country last year, the Taliban have steadily restricted women's rights - despite promising its rule would be softer than the regime seen in the 1990s.\n\nAs well as the bans on NGO workers and female university students - in the case of students, now being enforced by armed guards - secondary schools for girls remain closed in most provinces.\n\nWomen have also been prevented from entering parks and gyms, among other public places.\n• None Taliban ban women from working at NGOs 'over hijab'", "The King delivered his Christmas message from St George's Chapel, Windsor\n\nKing Charles has used his first Christmas message to reflect on the cost-of-living crisis.\n\nHe spoke of the \"great anxiety and hardship\" for those struggling to \"pay their bills and keep their families fed and warm\".\n\nThere were images of food banks and help for the homeless alongside the speech, recorded by the King in St George's Chapel, Windsor.\n\nHe paid tribute to his mother Queen Elizabeth, who is buried in the chapel.\n\nThe late Queen pioneered the televised royal Christmas Day address, and used what was to become her final message last year to speak of \"passing the baton\" to the next generation.\n\nThe themes of the King's speech touched on some of his causes and beliefs - concern for the disadvantaged, the importance of public service and supporting a multi-faith approach to religion.\n\nOnly \"working royals\" appeared on screen in the King's broadcast, including the Queen Consort, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Earl of Wessex and the Princess Royal.\n\nThat meant that Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, were not mentioned. The Duke of York was also not included.\n\nAt a time of industrial strife and financial pressures, the King's message focused on those supporting people in need.\n\n\"I particularly want to pay tribute to all those wonderfully kind people who so generously give food or donations, or that most precious commodity of all, their time, to support those around them in greatest need,\" said the King.\n\nThe message was accompanied by pictures of charities giving food to the homeless and volunteers helping at a food bank.\n\nBuckingham Palace has said funds donated after the death of the late Queen were being given to a charity helping those unable to pay energy bills.\n\nThe King has gathered with other senior royals at Sandringham, Norfolk, for Christmas, and earlier attended the traditional Christmas Day service for the first time as monarch.\n\nLast year the Queen spoke of \"passing the baton\" to the next generation\n\nThe King praised the emergency services who \"worked tirelessly to keep us all safe\", teachers and health and social care staff.\n\nLast year proved to be the late Queen's last Christmas message, and the King remembered the \"love and sympathy\" that followed her death in September.\n\n\"Christmas is a particularly poignant time for all of us who have lost loved ones. We feel their absence at every familiar turn of the season and remember them in each cherished tradition,\" said the King.\n\nStanding \"close to where my beloved mother, the late Queen is laid to rest with my dear father\", he spoke of his mother's faith in God and also her \"faith in people\".\n\nThe message highlighted the community work of faith groups, and the King, as well as asserting his own Christian belief, extended this to other religions.\n\nHe spoke of the \"heartfelt solidarity\" shown by \"churches, synagogues, mosques and gurdwaras\".\n\nThe King described how moved he had been to go to the birthplace of Christ in Bethlehem: \"It meant more to me than I can possibly express to stand on that spot.\"\n\nThe King's speech continues a tradition going back 90 years, with the first royal Christmas broadcast delivered on the radio in 1932 by George V. The first televised broadcast was presented by Elizabeth II in 1957.\n\nIn terms of changes in style, the King delivered his first message standing up, rather than a formal address from behind a desk, and his themes addressed more current social issues.\n\nBut there was much that was traditional. This was a Christmas Day message delivered in a chapel with a choir singing, touching on themes of faith, hope and the importance of serving others.\n\nThe choir finished, as it had last year for the Queen's last message, singing the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, with the King highlighting its message of \"light overcoming darkness\".", "China is battling to cope with a virus wave after dropping most of its pandemic restrictions this month\n\nChina will scrap quarantine for travellers from 8 January, officials said, marking the last major shift from the country's zero-Covid policy.\n\nAfter almost three years of closed borders, this will reopen the country to those with work and study visas, or seeking to visit family.\n\nTravel overseas for Chinese citizens will become easier, the immigration authority said on Tuesday.\n\nCovid has spread ferociously in the wake of restrictions being lifted.\n\nReports say hospitals are overwhelmed and elderly people are dying.\n\nThe true toll - daily case counts and deaths - is currently unknown because officials have stopped releasing Covid data.\n\nBeijing had reported about 4,000 new Covid infections each day last week and few deaths.\n\nOn Sunday it said it would stop publishing case numbers altogether. But British health data firm Airfinity estimated China was experiencing more than a million infections and 5,000 deaths a day.\n\nChina is the last major economy in the world to move to \"living with Covid\" after three years of lockdowns, closed borders and mandatory quarantine for Covid cases and contacts.\n\nThe so-called zero-Covid approach battered the economy and made citizens weary of restrictions and repeated tests.\n\nResentment against the policy exploded into rare public protests against President Xi Jinping in November, which was followed by authorities dropping Covid rules just a few weeks later.\n\nClosed borders remain the last major restriction. Since March 2020, anyone entering China had to undergo mandatory quarantine at a state facility - for up to three weeks at a time. That was recently reduced to five days.\n\nBut on Monday the National Health Commission announced that Covid would be formally downgraded to a Class B infectious disease on 8 January.\n\nThat meant quarantine would be axed - although incoming travellers will still need to take a PCR test. A cap on the daily number of flights allowed into China would also be scrapped.\n\nAuthorities said they would also \"optimise\" visa arrangements for foreigners wishing to come to China for work and study, as well as family visits and reunions.\n\nIt's unclear if that includes tourist visas, but officials said a pilot programme would begin for international cruise ships.\n\nChinese citizens wishing to apply for passports to travel abroad will also be able to do so from 8 January, the immigration authority announced on Tuesday.\n\nPrior to the pandemic, the number of outbound tourists from China stood at 155 million in 2019, according to Statista. This number dropped to 20 million in 2020.\n\nThe new rules have been welcomed by many Chinese who will now be able to travel overseas again.\n\nThe country's top online travel agencies reported a spike in traffic within hours of the announcement. Many people will be hoping to visit family and loved ones during Chinese New Year, which begins on 22 January.\n\nBut many have also expressed anger over the sudden freedom after years of controls.\n\n\"I'm happy about it but also speechless. If we're doing this [reopening] anyway - why did I have to suffer all the daily Covid tests and lockdowns this year?\" said Rachel Liu, who lives in Shanghai.\n\nShe said she had endured three months of lockdown in April, but nearly everyone in her family had become infected with the virus in recent weeks.\n\nShe said her parents, grandparents and partner - living across three different cities in Xi'an, Shanghai and Hangzhou - had all come down with fever last week.\n\nHospitals - like this one in Shanghai - are under strain in this Covid wave\n\nMany have also expressed concern online about borders reopening as Covid cases peak in China.\n\n\"Why can't we wait until this wave passes to open up? The medical workers are already worn out, and old people won't survive two infections in one month,\" read one top-liked comment on Weibo.\n\nPeople in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, which experience chilly temperatures in the winter, say they're running out of flu and cold medicine.\n\nIt's feared that hundreds of deaths may be going unreported as crematoriums are overwhelmed.\n\nIn the capital, Beijing, authorities say they are planning to distribute the Pfizer tablets, Paxlovid, in order to try and reduce the severity of infections and ease the pressure on hospitals. But health centres contacted by The Global Times on Monday said the drug had yet to be delivered.\n\nOn Monday, President Xi issued his first remarks on the changes, calling on officials to do what was \"feasible\" to save lives.\n\nState media quoted him saying the country faced a new situation with pandemic control, and needed a more targeted response.\n\nChina's about-turn on how it manages the pandemic has put Mr Xi in a tough spot. He was the driving force behind zero-Covid, which many blamed for restricting people's lives excessively and crippling the economy.\n\nBut having abandoned it, analysts say he now has to take responsibility for the huge wave of infections and hospital admissions. Many have questioned why the country was not better prepared.\n\nAre you hoping to visit China in the new year to see family? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Ali Daei took part in the final draw for the World Cup in Qatar\n\nIranian football legend Ali Daei says an international flight has been rerouted to prevent his wife and daughter from leaving the country.\n\nThe 53-year-old, who has voiced support for anti-government protests, said his family had tried to fly from Tehran to Dubai to join him on holiday on Monday.\n\nBut the flight was made to land on an Iranian island in the Gulf and they were removed.\n\nNo reason was given and the pair are returning to Tehran, Ali Daei added.\n\nThe latest protests were triggered by the death in custody of Iranian-Kurd Mahsa Amini, 22, in September. She had been held for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly.\n\nMore than 500 protesters, including 69 children, have been killed, while thousands of others have been arrested, human rights activists say. Dozens of Iranian security personnel are also reported to have been killed.\n\nIran's state-run news agency Irna said Mr Daei's wife, Mona Farrokhazari, had pledged to inform officials before leaving the country, following the couple's \"association with the groups against the Islamic revolution\".\n\nIrna said their flight had landed at Kish Island and \"Ali Daei's wife and daughter got off the plane\".\n\nMr Daei said the pair \"were going to Dubai for a few days trip and back\", adding: \"Had they been banned (from leaving), the passport police system should have shown it. No-one has given me an answer about this.\"\n\nIn a social-media post in September, he urged the government to \"solve the problems of the Iranian people rather than using repression, violence and arrests\".\n\nEarlier in December his jewellery shop and restaurant in Tehran was shut down by the judiciary.\n\nIn addition to arrests, Iranian authorities have banned several celebrities, artists and prominent figures from leaving the country following their support for the mass protests.\n\nAli Daei, 53, is one of Iran's most famous sports figures. A former captain of the national football team, he has scored 109 goals at an international level in the 1990s and early 2000s.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The storm is causing widespread disruption across North America\n\nA severe winter storm that has swept across North America has left the city of Buffalo, New York, looking like a war zone, the state governor has said.\n\n\"This is a war with mother nature and she has been hitting us with everything she has\" since Thursday, state governor Kathy Hochul said.\n\nBlizzard conditions stretching from Canada to the Mexican border have now killed at least 56 people in total.\n\nThe region around Buffalo has been worst affected, with 27 deaths reported there.\n\nGovernor Hochul, a native of Buffalo, said: \"It is [like] going to a war zone, and the vehicles along the sides of the roads are shocking.\"\n\nShe said residents were facing a \"life-threatening situation\", as many emergency vehicles were unable to reach worst-hit areas or got stuck in snow themselves.\n\nOne family with young children - aged 2 to 6 - had to wait for 11 hours before being rescued in the early hours of Christmas Day.\n\n\"I was basically just hopeless,\" the father, Zila Santiago, told CBS News. He said he had managed to stay warm by keeping the engine running and kept distress at bay by playing games with the children.\n\nMore victims are expected to be discovered once melting snowdrifts reveal trapped vehicles and allow access to remote homes.\n\nOn Monday parts of western New York found another 40 inches (1m) of snow had fallen overnight, the governor said\n\nGovernor Hochul, who spoke to Joe Biden on Monday, said the US president had offered \"the full force of the federal government\" to support New York state.\n\nThe \"bomb cyclone\" winter storm - which occurs when atmospheric pressure plummets, causing heavy snow and winds - has disrupted travel across the US.\n\nForecasters say it will ease off in the next few days, but the advice remains to avoid travelling unless essential.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Thaw on the way to US cold spots\n\nOver the weekend an estimated 250,000 homes and businesses experienced blackouts - although power has been steadily restored.\n\nStorm-related deaths were also reported in Vermont, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Colorado. South Florida's temperatures dropped so low, that iguanas froze and fell from trees.\n\nThe western US state of Montana was the worst hit by the cold, with temperatures dropping to -50F (-45C).\n\nIn Canada, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec are bearing the brunt of the storm.\n\nFour fatalities occurred when a bus rolled over on an icy road near the town of Merritt, in the western province of British Columbia.", "A powerful Arctic winter storm sweeping across the US and Canada has been linked to at least 19 deaths ahead of the holiday weekend.\n\nThe storm, which extends more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) from Texas to Quebec, is affecting some 135 million people on the busiest travel days of the year.\n\nSevere weather alerts stretch from coast to coast and reach as far south as the US-Mexico border and Florida, the Sunshine State.\n\nThe US National Weather Service (NWS) says more than 100 daily cold temperature records could be tied or broken in the next few days. Nashville, Tennessee, has already seen its temperatures fall below zero for the first time in 26 years.\n\nHigh winds whip around 7.5 inches of new snow at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as workers prepare a Sun Country Airlines plane for take off.\n\nMajor airports elsewhere have cancelled thousands of flights as the storm intensifies. In anticipation of disruptions, airlines including United, Delta and American have offered to waive fees for travellers who wish to reschedule their flights.\n\nSome travellers were still arriving for flights at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on Thursday - even with more warnings being issued.\n\nA storm warning in Chicago is in effect until 6:00 (CST) Saturday, with forecasts of several inches of snow and winds topping 50mph (80km/h)\n\nWorkers were already out in force clearing away as the snowfall began in a western suburb of Chicago.\n\nIn many states, people have been urged to stay indoors. As temperatures dropped, only a handful of commuters were waiting for an L train during the lighter-than-usual evening rush hour in the city.\n\nConditions deteriorated further, into what is known as a \"bomb cyclone\" - a term given to an explosive storm that intensifies rapidly.\n\nIn Colorado, temperatures dipped to a record-breaking low of -9F from 42F on Thursday.\n\nThe extreme winter driving conditions shut many roads, including the I-70, in Silverthorne, Colorado.\n\nThe governors of Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia and Oklahoma have also declared states of emergency, while Wisconsin declared an \"energy emergency\".\n• None Winter storm leaves 1.5m without power in US and Canada", "The 20mph limit would come into force for all restricted roads\n\nWarnings that lowering the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph will harm the economy have been \"discredited\", a Welsh government minister has said.\n\nOne of the government's own documents said longer journeys could cause a \"substantial\" economic disadvantage.\n\nThe default speed limit will be cut in built-up areas next September.\n\nBut deputy climate change minister Lee Waters said he did not believe it, adding that it would make the streets safer for walkers and cyclists.\n\nAnywhere between 40 and 440 lives could be saved over 30 years, according to a government analysis, saying this would save money for the emergency services and could help the economy.\n\nThe document also warned that slower journeys for commuters and people who drive for a living meant its \"central estimate\" was an economic hit of £4.5bn over 30 years, but acknowledged there was \"significant uncertainty\" over the figure and \"active professional debate\" about how it was calculated.\n\nJourneys are expected to be less than a minute longer on average, with the vast majority affected by less than two minutes.\n\nMr Waters said: \"The idea that being a minute later to get to school harms the economy, I just don't believe it, so I think the figures are discredited in my view and there's a movement to change that.\n\n\"Also it's going to save lives - we know it's going to save lives.\"\n\nSeparate research commissioned by the government found cutting the speed limit could save £100m in its first year alone.\n\nA sign of things to come? Most residential roads in Wales could see 20mph restrictions next year\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives said 20mph speed limits should be at the discretion of councils, but should always be in place outside schools and playgrounds.\n\nWelsh Conservative spokeswoman for transport, Natasha Asghar, said: \"Research is far from conclusive with studies showing 20mph limits could have a detrimental impact on issues such as public transport.\n\n\"Labour need to get Wales moving again by dropping these dogmatic plans, ending the roadbuilding ban and investing in improved infrastructure for both public and private transport, rather than wage a war against drivers.\"\n\nThe law was voted through by the Senedd in July and will change on 17 September 2023.\n\nMr Waters said it would be a \"big change\" initially, but people would get used to it quickly, as they did when seatbelts became compulsory.\n\nUp to 7,700 miles (12,535km) of roads could be affected, although councils will be able to keep the old speed limits in some cases.\n\nCaldicot in Monmouthshire has been a pilot zone for the 20mph limit.\n\nDan Thompson thinks the speed limit should be targeted when children are at school\n\nDan Thompson has been a taxi driver in the town for 16 years and said he saw traffic get \"a lot worse\".\n\n\"Literally overnight, the moment it went to 20 miles an hour is when the sheer volumes of traffic started to build up.\"\n\nHe said the speed limit should be targeted, so it drops to 20mph when children are going to and from school, rising back to 30mph during the day.\n\nCaderyn (far left) said if he feels safer walking on his own in a 20mph zone\n\nDurand Primary School children have been tracking how far they walk to school, and pupils in Year Six said slower traffic made them feel safe.\n\nOlly said: \"It's a lot safer to cross the road when you're walking by yourself.\"\n\n\"It's safer around pedestrianised areas with slower speed limits,\" Alex said.\n\nMolly added: \"If I'm walking alone to somewhere it's going to be much more safe.\"", "\"The bears know the ice will be back soon - they're waiting,\" says Alysa McCall, from Polar Bears International (PBI).\n\nAlysa and her team are in the Canadian Arctic just outside Churchill, Manitoba, in a tundra buggy - an observation lab on tracks, which allows them to watch bears in safety.\n\nChurchill is dubbed the \"polar-bear capital\" of the world.\n\nDay-to-day life is shaped by the polar bears' proximity to the town. Residents have bear-proof rubbish bins and the province employs bear-patrol guards to accompany children when they are trick-or-treating at Halloween.\n\nIt is common practice for people to leave their parked-car doors unlocked so others have somewhere to run to should they encounter a wandering bear.\n\nIn Churchill's frozen Hudson Bay, bears use the sea-ice as a platform to hunt seals.\n\nBut the sea-ice-free season in this part of the Canadian Arctic is lengthening, leaving bears unable to hunt for long periods.\n\nAbout 2,000km south in Montreal, world ministers are gathering at the UN biodiversity summit in an effort to reach an agreement that will to protect wild spaces and reverse the human-driven loss of nature.\n\nBut as the polar bear becomes an icon of climate change, the bears' plight in Churchill embodies the inextricable link between preserving the natural world and fighting global warming. The polar-bear capital of the world is simply getting too warm for polar bears.\n\nA polar bear ice sculpture in Montreal, where the UN biodiversity summit is taking place\n\nBy 2050, conservation scientists now say, the length of the season during which there is no ice could push bears to the point of starvation.\n\n\"Looking over the last couple of decades, it forms later and later and it breaks up earlier and earlier in spring,\" Dr Flavio Lehner, of conservation charity PBI, says.\n\n\"So this season in between - where the bears are on land and can't take advantage of those hunting opportunities - that's is getting longer and longer, with warming.\"\n\nTundra buggies allow the team to watch and study the bears in safety\n\nBears depend on the blubber of seals for energy. Mothers raising cubs, in particular, need to consume sufficient fat.\n\nScientists have studied the link between the length of the so-called \"fasting season\" and polar bear survival. \"At 180 days [without sea-ice], we start to see impacts on their reproductive success,\" Dr Lehner says. \"So beyond that, we're likely to see declines, simply because they can't reproduce successfully any more.\"\n\nThese omnivorous predators will eat just about anything they can find on land, including berries, eggs, small rodents and even reindeer, Ms McCall says, \"but nothing replaces that [high fat] seal blubber\".\n\nThese changes are bringing bears and humans into closer proximity, making places such as Churchill, where polar bears and people coexist, riskier for both.\n\nA US Geological Survey study, using data from satellite tracking collars on more than 400 polar bears in Alaska, shows the time they spend onshore has grown significantly in recent decades.\n\nPolar bears in Alaska have been seen onshore earlier in the year\n\n\"Back in the 1980s, polar bears would only spend a couple of weeks onshore each summer,\" USGS research wildlife biologist Dr Karyn Rode says.\n\n\"Now, many spend nearly two months ashore each year.\"\n\nAnd communities along Alaska's North Slope have been seeing bears earlier.\n\nLife in Churchill is shaped by the bears' proximity to the town\n\nThe fate of Churchill, its seasonal sea-ice and Hudson Bay's hundreds of polar bears fundamentally depends on what every country in the world does to reduce emissions of the planet-heating gases that are changing this place so rapidly.\n\n\"The sea-ice projections are strongly dependent on the temperature - and the temperature is dictated by how much greenhouse gas we emit into the atmosphere,\" Dr Lehner says.\n\n\"So, from a scientific perspective, there is a beautiful relationship between how much we emit and what that means for the sea-ice and for the bears.\"\n\nMs McCall says the western Hudson Bay subpopulation of bears, which she and her colleagues study, has declined up to 30% in the past 30-40 years, because of less access to sea-ice.\n\n\"They are warning us what's to come for polar bears that live farther north [where icy winters are currently longer],\" she adds.\n\nAt this critical time for the Arctic, polar scientists also say they are being prevented from working in much of the region, because of Russia's war in Ukraine.\n\nProf Gareth Rees from the Scott Polar Research Institute says: \"We have a big gap now in the Russian Arctic, it's half the Arctic and we are increasingly losing the ability to monitor it.\n\n\"It's essential we collect data from all over - we can't assume it's all responding to climate change in the same way.\"\n\nAs well as changing the polar regions, climate change, Dr Lehner says, has transformed how we need to think about conservation. \"It permeates all life on this planet,\" he tells the BBC.\n\n\"So something like setting up a national park is not bad, but it's not going to help if that ecosystem fundamentally changes because of warming.\n\n\"These are not separate issues - if you care about animals, if you care about conservation, you have to care about climate change.\"\n\nHear a special episode of Inside Science from the UN Biodiversity summit in Montreal on BBC Sounds", "The light needs to be right for this red star of Christmas - and remember, they don't like draughts!\n\nWherever there are Christmas decorations, the vibrant red poinsettia flower is likely to be found.\n\nAnd although the plant is native to Mexico, every year thousands are grown in Northern Ireland for the festive season.\n\nAt the Greenmount campus of the College of Agriculture Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), the plants are grown by horticulture students.\n\nBut timing them to bloom and colour in time for Christmas takes a lot of care.\n\nSecond year student Amy Copeland says poinsettias change colour when there is less light\n\n\"It is quite difficult in terms of the lighting they need,\" says second-year CAFRE student Amy Copeland.\n\n\"They change colour when there is lower light so trying to get that in time for Christmas is definitely a challenge.\n\n\"But it's a good crop to grow.\"\n\nJames Crawford, the horticulture manager at CAFRE, says the plant is very popular among students.\n\n\"They colour naturally at the end of November and beginning of December,\" says Mr Crawford.\n\nHorticulture technologist Lucile Gilpin says CAFRE is moving away from peat products in its plant growing\n\n\"They have these nice red bracts which remind people of Christmas and they've become a very popular Christmas plant.\"\n\nThe poinsettia grow all year round in their native Mexico, where they can reach heights of up to six feet (1.8m), according to Mr Crawford.\n\n\"They like the heat - their preferred temperature is around 20C which is a bit contradictory for a Christmas plant,\" he says.\n\nThe college has taken a more sustainable approach to growing the plants in recent years by moving away from using peat products.\n\nLucile Gilpin, a horticulture technologist at CAFRE, says the peat-free substrates used are showing impressive results.\n\n\"At the moment we are able to reproduce what we would have been able to with peat,\" she says.\n\nAlthough native to Mexico, every year thousands of poinsettia plants are grown in Northern Ireland ahead of the festive season\n\n\"Traditionally, our fathers and generations before us have grown with peat - so it was a massive challenge for our generation to be able to grow without peat,\" she says.\n\n\"We are successfully able to do it here but it is a different growing - it's a different method to what would have been used before.\"\n\nWhile the star-shaped flowers are perfect for Christmas, many don't last long into the new year. But student Amy Copeland says that with the right care, they could.\n\n\"You need to keep them in a draught-free area,\" Ms Copeland advises.\n\n\"Nowhere near a window or a door that opens and closes quite regularly. And you want to keep them in an area that is around 15-22C and you should get a few months out of them at least.\"", "Anju Asok and Janvi Saju died after being found with serious injuries at a property in Northamptonshire\n\nA man has been charged with murdering an NHS nurse and her two young children.\n\nSaju Chelavalel, 52, was arrested after police were called to his home at Petherton Court in Kettering, Northamptonshire, on Thursday morning.\n\nAnju Asok, 35, her son Jeeva Saju, 6, and daughter Janvi Saju, 4, were found at the property with serious injuries.\n\nNorthamptonshire Police said post-mortem examinations discovered they died as a result of asphyxiation.\n\nMs Asok died at the scene while her two children died later in hospital.\n\nShe had worked at Kettering General Hospital since last year and was described as a \"committed and compassionate staff nurse who was loved and respected by her dear friends and colleagues\".\n\nMr Chelavalel will appear at Northampton Magistrates' Court on Monday.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Hundreds turned up to the vigil\n\nA vigil has been held for four boys who died after falling into a frozen lake.\n\nHundreds of people, some of them in tears, turned out at Babbs Mill Park in Kingshurst, West Midlands, to pay tribute to the victims.\n\nThere was a two-minute silence, tributes were left, then there was applause and a choir sang.\n\nFinlay Butler, 8, his cousin Thomas Stewart, 11, and Jack Johnson, 10, died in hospital on Sunday. Finlay's brother Samuel Butler, 6, died on Wednesday.\n\nPeople at the vigil brought candles and laid tributes to the boys\n\nA minute's silence was broken by singing from a local choir\n\nMany of those at the vigil said it had caused them think of children in their own families.\n\nOne woman said: \"I think it's just important to show that even though we're not close to the community itself, that everybody's here for the families that are affected and that we can all come together in such a difficult time.\"\n\nLee Wotman, who travelled 140 miles (225km) from Southampton with his wife, said: \"We felt we needed to be here to support, and it really does feel that every single person makes a difference to the wider community.\"\n\nHe has friends who live in the area and added: \"Everything is tough enough at the moment, isn't it? So it's super important that we all pull together and show that solidarity.\"\n\nAnother, woman, who said she had 10 grandchildren of her own, added: \"My heart's breaking for the parents, I just think it's awful.\"\n\nOn Friday a minute's silence was held at a Birmingham City's match, in memory of the boys who died after falling into Babbs Mill Lake\n\nAn online fundraising page for the families of the boys has raised more than £66,000.\n\nTributes to the boys were also paid at football matches on Saturday and on Friday night.\n\nOn Monday morning an inquest into the deaths of the four boys is due to open.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "A member of a Russian military band in Moscow last year (file picture)\n\nRussia says it will deploy musicians and singers to the front lines of its war in Ukraine to boost troops' morale.\n\nThe defence ministry announced the formation of the \"front-line creative brigade\" this week, saying it would also include circus performers.\n\nThe UK's Ministry of Defence highlighted the brigade's creation in an intelligence update on Sunday.\n\nMeanwhile, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited frontline troops in Ukraine, Moscow said.\n\nIn a statement posted to Telegram, the defence ministry said Mr Shoigu \"flew around the areas of deployment of troops and checked the advanced positions of Russian units in the zone of the special military operation\", referring to Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched on 24 February.\n\nThe ministry added that he \"spoke with troops on the front line\" and at a \"command post\" - but the BBC cannot confirm when the visit took place or whether Mr Shoigu visited Ukraine itself.\n\nCommenting on Mr Shoigu's reported visit, Ukraine's military spokesman Serhiy Cherevatyi told Ukrainian TV channels: \"I don't really believe that he is so brave\" to travel to the battlefield.\n\nThis comes as UK defence officials said low morale continues to be a \"significant vulnerability across much of the Russian force\".\n\nThe UK said the new creative brigade - which follows a recent campaign, urging the public to donate musical instruments to troops - is in keeping with the historic use of \"military music and organised entertainment\" to boost morale.\n\nBut they questioned whether the new brigade would actually distract troops, who have been primarily concerned about \"very high casualty rates, poor leadership, pay problems, lack of equipment and ammunition, and lack of clarity about the war's objectives\".\n\nAccording to the Russian outlet RBC news, the brigade will consist of troops mobilised under President Vladimir Putin's recruitment drive, as well as \"professional artists who voluntarily entered military service\".\n\nThe new unit will be tasked with maintaining \"a high moral, political and psychological state [among] the participants of the special military operation,\" the outlet cited the defence ministry as saying.\n\nIntense fighting has continued around the Ukrainian-controlled town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region on Saturday, Ukraine's military said.\n\nThe area has seen heavy clashes between Ukrainian and Russian troops for months, as Russia seeks to fully seize the region following a string of heavy defeats in north-eastern and southern Ukraine earlier this year.\n\nWestern intelligence officials have previously said Russian attacks on the town are being spearheaded by Russia's private military contractor, Wagner Group.\n\nMoscow hopes to use Bakhmut as a staging ground to launch attacks on the Ukrainian-held cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk further west.\n\nElsewhere, heating has been restored to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, after Russian launched widespread strikes on Friday that targeted power and water infrastructure, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.\n\nMoscow launched 76 missiles on Friday, hitting nine power supply stations and plunging much of the country into darkness. Ukraine said it intercepted 60.\n\nIn a separate development, President Putin is due to visit Belarus on Monday, amid media reports that he will be putting further pressure on Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally, to officially join in Russia's war effort and send troops to Ukraine.\n\nSince the start of the war, Russian troops have been using Belarusian territory as a launchpad - but Mr Lukashenko has so far resisted all Moscow's attempts to deploy his armed forces in Ukraine.\n\nIn Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting with top military and security officials to discuss the possible risks from Belarus, the country's northern neighbour.\n\n\"We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios. Whoever inclines Minsk to whatever, it will not help them just as any other sick idea in this war against Ukraine and Ukrainians,\" Mr Zelensky said in his video address late on Sunday.", "Christmas is supposed to be a magical time - but many children are facing up to having no present under the tree\n\nWhen children write their Christmas list to Santa, most ask for toys or books, not Calpol and baby wipes.\n\nHowever, parents are requesting everyday household items and clothing from a support group which is aiming to provide gifts for struggling families.\n\nThe Kindness Project in Cardiff is set to help hundreds of people this year.\n\nOrganiser Liam Schewitz said parents were not heating their homes and going without food to feed children, meaning presents are \"right on the backburner\".\n\n\"It's difficult to read, some things reduce you to tears,\" he admitted.\n\n\"We've had parents asking for Calpol, baby wipes, basic clothing for their children. Calpol. Calpol for Christmas.\n\n\"We've had a lady get in touch with us, saying her baby has a dermatological condition and the kid needs Dermacare wipes, that cost £3 or £4 instead of the normal £1. That's what she wants for Christmas for her kids.\"\n\nThe streets of Wales' capital are usually full of Christmas shoppers this time of year, but there are others who cannot afford gifts\n\nThe Kindness Project is a community group based in Cardiff, with parents able to ask for what they want for their children, such as games and toys, with these added to an Amazon Wishlist.\n\nIt was launched during what organisers believed would be the toughest Christmas for families - 2020, when the spread of Covid meant the country locked down the week before.\n\nWith many parents leaving present-buying until the last minute after their December pay cheque goes into their account, it left them facing a bleak time with all shops shut.\n\nThe group was able to help 900 children - with donations coming from businesses and the public providing them with gifts.\n\nIn 2021, the numbers dropped to 200, but a cost of living crisis in 2022 has seen demand go through the roof once again.\n\nIt is set to be a cold Christmas for many families this year, with fears over food and heating bills\n\n\"I'm writing to ask for your help as I've recently had to leave my job due to ill health,\" said one parent.\n\n\"I literally can't afford a single present for my three boys. I feel like a failure. The boys are very caring and help me a lot, I'd like to give them a little something.\"\n\nMr Schewitz said it was important children wake up on Christmas morning \"with their childhood intact\", with 50 families helped in two days, and another 200 awaiting support from the group.\n\nHe told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast offers of help from the public had been \"overwhelming\", but added: \"It's heartbreaking to see.\n\n\"We have parents where both are in work, and they can't afford to turn the heating on, can't afford to eat themselves.\n\n\"The food that comes into the house is for the children, and as a result, Christmas presents for their kids, that's right on the backburner.\"\n\nMr Schewitz said the situation made him angry as he feels children are baring the brunt of political issues, adding: \"The mental health toll on the parents who are struggling, I cannot even begin to imagine how hard it is.\"\n\nAn \"extremely generous donation\" received on Thursday \"saved Christmas for four children\", according to the group's Lois Ashcroft.\n\nHowever, she said she was being \"reduced to tears\" both by the stories of families struggling and the kindness of people who were helping.\n\nOne of these was a request for help from a woman who lost her partner and the father to her four children recently.\n\n\"My sons are age 11, seven and nearly two, and my eight-year old-daughter,\" she said.\n\n\"Since losing him, we have also lost our home and are currently living in temporary accommodation.\n\n\"After everything this year and waiting any day to start from scratch with nothing, I just want my kids to have a day where they can hopefully enjoy a day again and to see the excitement on their faces that Santa has been.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Cllr Andrew Morgan OBE This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe more people struggle, though, the more many others are willing to help - as was also illustrated in Rhondda Cynon Taf.\n\nA record 4,000 gifts were donated to the council's Christmas appeal, with leader Andrew Morgan saying: \"Care and compassion in the valleys shines brighter than ever at a time of need.\"\n\nPeople give their time as well as their money to help at what can be a difficult month - including at the NSPCC's Childline base in Prestatyn, Denbighshire.\n\nVolunteer Sandy Collyer, from Northop, Flintshire, said: \"Christmas can be such a hard time for so many children and young people, nothing like the happy, cosy, festive images they see on television.\"\n\nWith pressure on families, both financial and emotional, children call for a variety of reasons, including conflict in the home, missing a loved one or because they feel lonely, according to Abigail Mainon, from Bodelwyddan in Denbighshire.\n\nShe has volunteered her Christmas Day, and said: \"People associate Christmas with happy families, gifts and tables full of food, but that is not always the case for our young people.\n\n\"While I cannot fix these issues directly or give every child the Christmas they deserve, I can give them my time.\"", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nIt was an iconic moment that will live forever in World Cup history and Middle East imagery.\n\nThe great Lionel Messi was called up on stage to lift the trophy he had craved for so much of his glittering and unparalleled career.\n\nAt the other end of the podium were his Argentina team-mates, ready to party after overcoming France on penalties in one of the greatest finals ever witnessed.\n\nAt his end, Messi shook hands with Fifa president Gianni Infantino and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim, who twice playfully clipped the 35-year-old round the head.\n\nMessi was then adorned in a black bisht - a traditional men's cloak popular in the Arab world - before doing a jig and lifting the famous trophy.\n\nNot only was it Messi's moment, but it was Qatar's too - on its national day, bringing to an end the first World Cup to be held in a Muslim country.\n\nIt may have been a big honour for Messi to be dressed in the Arab attire, but others have seen it as disrespectful and overshadowing the day he had been waiting for.\n\n\"It is a dress for an official occasion and worn for celebrations,\" Hassan Al Thawadi, secretary general of Qatar's tournament organising committee, told BBC Sport. \"This was a celebration of Messi.\n\n\"The World Cup had the opportunity to showcase to the world our Arab and Muslim culture. This was not about Qatar, it was a regional celebration.\n\n\"People from different walks of life were able to come, experience what was happening here and get to understand that we may not see eye to eye on everything, but we can still celebrate together.\"\n\nSheikh Tamim said on Twitter: \"We have fulfilled our promise to organise an exceptional championship from the Arab countries.\n\n\"It provided an opportunity for the peoples of the world to learn about the richness of our culture and the originality of our values.\"\n• None 'Now hard to argue against Messi being football's greatest'\n• None Reaction to one of the most dramatic World Cup finals\n\nIt almost didn't happen for Argentina.\n\nThe brilliant Kylian Mbappe wanted his say with a hat-trick - the first in a World Cup final since England's Sir Geoff Hurst in 1966 - but Argentines always believed the late Diego Maradona was watching over them.\n\nIn the end, the hopes and dreams of Messi and all of Argentina eventually turned into reality at a rocking Lusail Stadium.\n\nThe song that has swept through Qatar and all the way back home in Argentina was on repeat once again.\n\nThe one where Don Diego is looking down from the sky, \"cheering Lionel on, and to be champions again, and to be champions again\".\n\n'Muchachos' is a cover of the track by Argentine band La Tosca, with the verse translating as: \"Boys, we have got our hopes up again.\"\n\nMore than three decades of hurt were banished as Lionel Scaloni's men, led by the mercurial Messi, celebrated their third World Cup triumph, after 1978 and 1986, in their sixth final.\n\n'Where's Messi?' There is your answer\n\nThe tournament started in shocking manner for Argentina.\n\n\"Where is Messi? Where is Messi?\" the Saudi Arabia fans were asking after their side's incredible 2-1 victory in the opening group game.\n\nThose jibes were echoing around Doha in the following days and went viral on social media.\n\nBut come the showpiece on Sunday, the question was emphatically answered as Messi confirmed his footballing magnitude, standing on the podium with his captain's armband on his bicep and the golden prize lifted above his head.\n\nAs soon as we landed in Qatar's capital city on 16 November, it felt like a Messi World Cup - the sense that expectation and excitement may carry the little magician to the one piece of silverware missing from his cabinet.\n\nArgentina shirts bearing his famous number 10 were everywhere - in the streets, the souq and the stadiums, and worn by men, women and children alike.\n\nA few Maradona ones were scattered around, but not anywhere close to those of the main man on today's global stage.\n\nThat 'Muchachos' song echoed around the metro and shuttle buses too. There was no escaping it, not even in your sleep.\n\nAnd it was no different on the day of the final.\n\nArgentina flags were hanging off rooftops and balconies, and in shop windows in local neighbourhoods of Doha. There was only one team they wanted to see taking home the trophy.\n\nEn route to Lusail, about 11 miles north of Doha, you got carried by the wave of thousands of Argentina supporters, singing their songs and breaking out into chants of \"Messi, Messi\".\n\nA section of raucous fans from the South American country had been inside the stadium long before kick-off, smashing their drum, jumping up and down and swinging blue-and-white scarves over their heads.\n\nWhen pictures of the players getting off the bus flashed up on the big screen, a deafening roar reverberated around for star player Messi, and he was given the same ovation when the teamsheet was read out.\n\nIt had to be the man-of-the-moment Messi who scored the opener from the penalty spot, coolly sending Hugo Lloris the wrong way.\n\nTeam-mates piled on top of him when he slid off to celebrate, sharing a warm embrace with Rodrigo de Paul.\n\nThere was further joy when Angel di Maria swept home a second to cap a stunning team move, with 'Muchachos' ringing out once more as the fans bounced up and down in the stands.\n\nBut Mbappe had other ideas.\n\nFrance's own superstar Mbappe netted a quick-fire double - just 97 seconds apart - to take the game into extra time.\n\nMessi thought he had won it, pouncing from close range, but Mbappe showed his credentials for one day being in the 'greatest of all time' debate.\n\nArgentina kept their nerve in the shootout to spark incredible celebrations, substitutes piling on to the pitch and a group of players surrounding Messi in a circle by the halfway line.\n\nThen came the tears, coach Scaloni, penalty shootout hero Gonzalo Montiel - all followed by man of the match and player of the tournament Messi, who waved up to his family in the stands.\n\nArgentina players celebrated with their families on the pitch, posing for photographs with the trophy in front of one of the goals - supporters staying behind long after the final whistle.\n\nHaving carried their burden, Argentina players paid one final tribute to Messi by lifting him on to their shoulders and carrying him around the pitch with the trophy aloft.\n\nThe show was over. The baton had been passed from Maradona to Messi. Greatness was confirmed. The debate was over.\n• None Why is the Qatar 2022 World Cup controversial?\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "A large diamond-encrusted breast bow was among the items stolen in 2019\n\nGerman police say they have recovered a number of 18th-Century treasures stolen from a Dresden museum during a €113m (£98m; $119m) heist in 2019.\n\nAuthorities returned 31 objects to the Green Vault museum after securing them overnight in Berlin.\n\nThe items were reportedly found after talks with the lawyers of six men currently on trial for the theft.\n\nAmong the items are a diamond-encrusted breast star and a richly-jewelled Heron Tail hat decoration.\n\nA diamond-encrusted breast star displaying the Polish Order of the White Eagle has been recovered\n\nThe thieves stole the treasures from part of a collection created in 1723 by Saxony's ruler, Augustus the Strong. They were housed in the vault, known in German as Dresden's Grünes Gewölbe, until the robbery 2019.\n\nGerman officials believe the heist was well-planned and professionally carried out. Before breaking into the museum, the thieves set fire to a circuit-breaker panel, plunging the streets around the museum into darkness.\n\nSeveral masked figures then broke into the gallery, before smashing a glass display case with an axe and retrieving the jewels with fishing twine.\n\nThey then escaped in an Audi getaway car, which police later found on fire in an underground car park. The entire operation is believed to have taken less than 10 minutes.\n\nThe returned items will now be examined by specialists in order to confirm the pieces' authenticity.\n\nThe Green Vault in 2019 before the robbery\n\nNot all of the items have been found, however. An epaulette which includes a precious stone known as the Dresden White Diamond is still missing.\n\nAuthorities have given little detail about how the jewels were secured.\n\nThe trial of the thieves, which started in January, is set to resume on Tuesday, AFP news agency reports.\n\nThe Green Vault collection is housed in eight ornate rooms in the Residenzschloss - a former royal palace.\n\nThree rooms were destroyed by Allied bombing in World War Two, but after the war the museum was restored to its previous glory.\n\nIt is called the Green Vault because some rooms were decorated with malachite-green paint.\n\nThere are about 3,000 items of jewellery and other treasures decorated with gold, silver, ivory and pearl.\n\nThe collection was founded by Augustus the Strong. He was Elector of Saxony - a German prince entitled to take part in the election of the emperor - and later king of Poland.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe government has said it is \"resolute\" on pay after nursing unions threatened to escalate strike action if ministers do not join talks within 48 hours of Tuesday's walkout.\n\nMembers of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) are due to stage a second strike on 20 December.\n\nCabinet minister Oliver Dowden insisted ministers were \"reasonable\" but had a duty to keep finances under control.\n\nHe insisted that nurses' pay should be decided by the NHS pay review body.\n\nIn July, this body recommended a £1,400 rise, with slightly more for experienced nurses - an increase of about 4% on average.\n\nThe RCN is calling for a pay rise of 19%, but union leader Pat Cullen said this was a \"starting point\" and any new offer would be put to members.\n\nUrging the unions to call off the strike, Mr Dowden told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: \"We will be resolute to this, because it would be irresponsible to allow public sector pay and inflation to get out of control and we owe a wider duty to the public to make sure we keep our public finances under control.\"\n\nChallenged about the government's reluctance to engage on pay, the cabinet minister in charge of contingency planning for strikes, said the government was \"always willing talk\".\n\n\"We're trying to be reasonable, we're trying to be proportionate and we're trying to be fair,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the government was trying to \"take the politics out\" of the issue of pay by accepting the NHS review body's recommendations.\n\nBut Ms Cullen says ministers are using the recommendations as \"cover\" and her union was \"seriously looking at whether we take part anymore\".\n\n\"We have been hoodwinked into lending credence to this process for years and if we aren't being listened to then it cannot be independent,\" she added.\n\nA small number of Conservative MPs have called on the government to revisit its offer to nurses. The latest to do so, former minister Caroline Nokes, called for the government to take \"another look at the negotiations\".\n\nSome Tories, including former cabinet minister Robert Buckland, have also said the pay review body should be asked to make fresh recommendations.\n\nMr Dowden repeated the government's claim that inflation-matching pay rises across the public sector would cost a further £28bn - insisting the figure was \"robust\" despite criticism from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank who provided a figure of half of this.\n\nThe Labour-run Welsh government, which is responsible for the NHS in Wales, has also accepted the pay review's recommendations, saying it was taking this decision to protect spending.\n\nOn Sunday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said the UK government had not given it a big enough budget to pay for a higher increase, and funding a rise from its existing budget would reduce treatment for patients.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, the power-sharing government would normally negotiate pay but is suspended due to a political stalemate over post-Brexit rules.\n\nThe Scottish government has offered NHS workers pay rises averaging 7.5% in a bid to avoid industrial action. It has been accepted by Unite and Unison, two major NHS unions representing paramedics, midwives, nurses and support staff. However, it has been rejected by another, the GMB.\n\nMeanwhile, a ballot of RCN members in Scotland closes on Monday. It is not clear when results will be announced.\n\nThe RCN's strike on Thursday was the largest in its history. Across England around 9,999 staff were absent, while nearly 16,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries were rescheduled.\n\nIt involved around a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all trusts in Northern Ireland and all but one health board in Wales.\n\nMs Cullen said an escalation would involve a greater number of hospitals and scaling back support for non-emergency services.\n\nDuring action so far, the RCN has said it will still staff chemotherapy, emergency cancer services, dialysis, critical care units, neonatal and paediatric intensive care.\n\nSome areas of mental health and learning disability and autism services are also exempt.\n\nThe action by nurses will be followed on 21 December by a strike by ambulance staff, when Unison, GMB and Unite members take action on 28 December. GMB union members will go on strike again on 28 December.\n\nAround 1,200 members of the military are being drafted in to cover for ambulance workers, as well as striking Border Force staff.\n\nHowever, health unions warn military staff are not \"sufficiently trained\".\n\nSara Gorton, head of health at Unison, said there was \"unfortunately more risk\" to patients during a strike, but said: \"Every single day patients are being put at risk because of the staffing crisis\".\n\nThe Chief of the Defence Staff's words are carefully calibrated.\n\nWhen asked about the strikes, he does not criticise the government for calling in the armed forces, nor those who're taking industrial action.\n\nAdmiral Sir Tony Radakin knows the armed forces must stay out of politics and he makes clear the military is there to serve the nation, whatever the task.\n\nBut his words do reflect some of the frustration within the armed forces at once again being called out to do someone else's job. It's by no means the first time.\n\nThey were heavily relied on during the Covid pandemic. In 2012 they had to provide security for the London Olympics.\n\nWhen asked about the strike action, the head of the armed forces reminds the public that's not their primary role - it's to defend the nation.\n\nBeing pulled away to fulfil other roles can often have an impact on training, although it will not affect military operations.\n\nAdmiral Radakin's comments do reflect frustration, rather than anger over what they're being asked to do. He also knows that when the armed forces help out most people are grateful.\n\nIndustrial action has also been taken by rail workers, Royal Mail staff and other sectors in recent weeks over pay disputes as the cost of living rises.\n\nThe government has announced it will publish a new \"resilience framework\" on Monday, aimed at improving how the UK prepares for and responds to critical issues like strikes.\n\nWill you be taking part in strike action in the coming days? Tell us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "People were filmed doing push ups and playing ice hockey on a frozen pond in Verulamium Park in St Albans\n\nMany calls about children and adults on frozen water have sparked urgent pleas from police forces, as England is gripped with ice warnings.\n\nIt has been one week since four boys aged six, eight, 10 and 11 died after plunging into icy waters in Solihull.\n\nRecent incidents have been reported in Derbyshire, London, Lincolnshire and Merseyside.\n\nIt comes as the Met Office has issued snow, ice and rain weather warnings for most of the country on Sunday.\n\nAn amber warning for ice has been given for parts of the North East, the North West and Yorkshire, while most of England has a yellow warning for ice, with rain due in the south.\n\nFinlay Butler, his younger brother Samuel, their cousin Thomas Stewart and a friend, Jack Johnson, were pulled from icy waters at Babbs Mill Park, near Solihull, last Sunday.\n\nHundreds of people attended a vigil for the boys on Saturday evening.\n\nJack Johnson, brothers Finlay and Samuel Butler and their cousin Thomas Stewart died after falling into the icy lake\n\nOn the same day, Avon and Somerset Police issued a safety warning after taking \"multiple calls\" about children playing on a frozen pond.\n\nPeople were filmed doing push ups and playing ice hockey on a frozen pond in Verulamium Park in St Albans, Hertfordshire.\n\nLincolnshire Police also reported that two young boys had walked across a canal in Grantham and three boys had later gone on to a frozen lake in Horncastle.\n\nOfficers in Cambridgeshire were called out to three incidents of children playing on frozen lakes and police in Northamptonshire also had calls about children on icy water on Saturday.\n\nTelford First Responders said it was \"incredibly sad\" to see someone had taken their bike across a frozen pond.\n\nSuffolk County Council reported on Friday that children in Lowestoft had tested ice on a frozen pond, which after an inspection was only a few centimetres thick.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nLondon Fire Brigade said it had received several calls across the week about children and dogs on frozen waters.\n\nEarlier in the week, children were spotted playing on lakes in the Solihull borough and in ponds in Staffordshire.\n\nIn Derbyshire, young people were filmed messing around on an icy lake on Thursday, while in Liverpool, adults filmed skating on a frozen pond were \"abusive\" when warned of the dangers.\n\nIn Himley Park, Staffordshire, a woman was rescued from an icy lake after she went in to try to save her dog.\n\nLondon Fire Brigade implored people to \"stay off the ice and keep dogs on leads\".\n\n\"It may look sturdy enough to stand on, but it often isn't. If you fall into icy water, the risk of hypothermia is high and can prove fatal,\" a spokesman added.\n\nOne of the incidents reported included a group of adults who were seen walking on a frozen pond in Liverpool\n\nBBC forecaster Nick Miller said much milder weather would begin later on Sunday, which would cause ice to thaw.\n\n\"Temperatures will continue to rise on Sunday night and on Monday, highs of 10C to 15C across the UK can be expected,\" he added.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Video shows panicked guests at the MNKY HSE restaurant in London's Mayfair fleeing after Christmas decorations caught alight.\n\nLondon Fire Brigade said the fire had been extinguished before firefighters arrived on Friday night.\n\nThree people were taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service.", "The black Fender Squier Telecaster has been signed by all four members of the band\n\nA new extension to a school in Gloucestershire has just been opened, in part thanks to money raised by raffling off a signed Coldplay guitar.\n\nSwell Church of England Primary School near Cheltenham spent £300,000 building a new classroom and toilet blocks.\n\nThe £300,000 had been raised by local benefactors and £11,000 was raised in a raffle which included a Coldplay guitar.\n\nHead of school Alison Rawlings said it was an \"incredibly large project\".\n\n\"We were a two-class school but housing three classes so we needed the new space to create a third classroom.\n\n\"We also had falling down cloakroom blocks which have been replaced and managed to sneak in getting a beautiful new entrance hall as well as a new headteachers office,\" she said.\n\nColdplay bassist Guy Berryman is friends with a parent at the school\n\nGround finally broke on the extension earlier this year after the guitar was donated in 2020 to the raffle which raised £11,000 in total.\n\nA parent of the school had a connection to Coldplay and asked them to help out.\n\nParent Nadia Moule's husband, Glenn, is a friend of the bassist Guy Berryman and contacted him asking for help.\n\nMrs Moule jokingly said \"some sweet-talking\" was involved.\n\nNadia Moule said it was \"amazing\" to be offered the guitar for their raffle prize\n\nShe actually met her husband-to-be at a Coldplay concert in 2009 as his band Howling Bells was supporting them in their Viva la Vida Tour.\n\nShe said: \"We were absolutely amazed by the generosity of offering the guitar.\n\n\"Everyone worked very hard to raise all the finds and now to see the children in the classrooms, it has so much more space and in a little village - it means everything to us.\"\n\nHeadteacher Alison Rawlings said they were really surprised to get offered a Coldplay guitar for the raffle\n\nHead of school Alison Rawlings said the school had nationwide interest in the raffle but the guitar was won by a local fan and is still in the village.\n\nShe said: \"When we were thinking about planning our raffle that was not the star prize that we were expecting.\n\n\"We had nationwide interested in our online raffle, people as far as Scotland put entries in.\"\n\nShe added she was thankful for everyone's help in raising the money.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "Soldiers have been deployed to drive ambulances in the past - including during Covid\n\nAbout 1,200 members of the military and 1,000 civil servants are to be drafted in to cover for striking ambulance and Border Force staff over Christmas.\n\nThe government say the personnel will plug staffing gaps and keep front-line services running.\n\nSome 10,000 ambulance staff in England and Wales will strike on 21 and 28 December in a pay dispute.\n\nUnions say military staff are not \"sufficiently trained\" to taking on ambulance roles.\n\nBut Health Secretary Steve Barclay said his \"number one priority\" is keeping patients safe.\n\nHowever he declined to discuss \"political debates\", stressing that the military is directed by the government to \"serve the nation\".\n\nThe head of the armed forces has warned against viewing troops as \"the go-to\" option when it comes to covering strike action.\n\nSpeaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, said: \"We're not spare capacity. We're busy and we're doing lots of things on behalf of the nation - we've got to focus on our primary role.\".\n\nThe Welsh government has said the military will not be asked to drive ambulances in Wales.\n\nThe co-ordinated walkout was called by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite.\n\nAll three are taking action on 21 December. GMB union members will go on strike again on 28 December.\n\nMeanwhile, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members are due to walk out for a second time on 20 December in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, following action on 15 December.\n\nThe nursing union has said it will set a deadline of 48 hours after the strike ends for ministers to agree to discuss pay - otherwise more extensive action will be announced for the new year.\n\nThe government said pay rises for ambulance workers and nurses were decided by independent pay review bodies - which have recommended pay rises of around 4.75%.\n\nWith inflation running at more than 10% and many struggling with the rising cost of living, unions have said this represents an unaffordable real terms pay cut.\n\nCabinet minister Oliver Dowden said the government was determined to be \"resolute\", reiterating that a 19% increase for nurses was \"simply not affordable\".\n\nUrging the unions to call off the strikes, he told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: \"We are trying to be reasonable, we are trying to be proportionate, we are trying to be fair.\"\n\nIndustrial action has also been taken by rail workers, Royal Mail staff and other sectors in recent weeks over pay disputes as the rising cost of living rises.\n\nThe government has announced it will publish a new \"resilience framework\" on Monday, aimed at improving how the UK prepares for and responds to critical issues like strikes.\n\nThe framework will \"bring together all levels of government, critical national infrastructure operators, the private sector, charities and the public to bolster our national preparedness to these risks\", the Cabinet Office said.\n\nThe Chief of the Defence Staff's words are carefully calibrated.\n\nWhen asked about the strikes, he does not criticise the government for calling in the armed forces, nor those who're taking industrial action.\n\nAdmiral Sir Tony Radakin knows the armed forces must stay out of politics and he makes clear the military is there to serve the nation, whatever the task.\n\nBut his words do reflect some of the frustration within the armed forces at once again being called out to do someone else's job. It's by no means the first time.\n\nThey were heavily relied on during the Covid pandemic. In 2012 they had to provide security for the London Olympics.\n\nWhen asked about the strike action, the head of the armed forces reminds the public that's not their primary role - it's to defend the nation.\n\nBeing pulled away to fulfil other roles can often have an impact on training, although it will not affect military operations.\n\nAdmiral Radakin's comments do reflect frustration, rather than anger over what they're being asked to do. He also knows that when the armed forces help out most people are grateful.\n\nThe ambulance strikes will affect non-life threatening calls only. Hospitals have been warned by NHS bosses to prepare for \"extensive disruption\" during the walkouts, and to free up beds to make it easier to move people through A&E and get paramedics quickly back on the road.\n\nHowever, doctors' leaders warned this would be very difficult to achieve.\n\nThe government said the health service will put into place \"tried and tested\" plans to reduced risks to patient safety and disruption, while individual NHS trusts will work with unions to agree on a safe level of cover.\n\nBut chief executive of the NHS Confederation Matthew Taylor said there was \"no question\" strikes would pose risks to patients.\n\n\"We're in the middle of winter and we have a health service which, even on an ordinary day without industrial action, is finding it difficult to cope,\" he said. \"So there are going to be risks to patients. There's no question about that.\"\n\nSara Gorton, head of health at Unison, said during a strike day there was \"unfortunately more risk\" to patients, but she said \"every single day patients are being put at risk because of the staffing crisis\".\n\nUnison says there are 133,000 vacancies across the health service.\n\nTroops from the Army, Navy and RAF will be deployed. Some 600 members of the armed forces are due to take on ambulance driving roles and 150 personnel will provide logistical support.\n\nCommunity first responders will also be used to help manage demand for medical care.\n\nMr Barclay described the decision to go ahead with strikes as \"deeply regrettable\", repeating the government's position that the striking unions' demands are \"not affordable\" - but he also said that he was \"open to further discussions\".\n\n\"My number one priority is to keep patients as safe as possible and we are stepping up preparations across government and the NHS, including making best use of the armed forces, volunteers and freeing up capacity to mitigate disruption and ensure safe staffing levels,\" he added.\n\nUnite accused ministers of \"hollowing out\" the health service, describing those taking strike action as \"trying to save\" the NHS.\n\nGMB and Unison blamed ministers for opting to \"dig in their heels\" on pay while the NHS is \"already on its knees\", adding that disruption now appears \"inevitable\".\n\nSara Gorton, Unison's head of health, also warned the military is \"no substitute\" for trained ambulance staff, adding: \"The hours spent on contingency planning could have been better used trying to prevent the strikes from taking place.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the main union representing Border Force staff is set to walk out for eight days between 23 and 31 December, with significant disruption for people travelling over Christmas expected.\n\nThe government said civil servants will join military personnel helping \"minimise disruption for passengers\" by checking documents and passports.\n\nAbout 1,000 Border Force staff who work in passport control will walk out on 23-26 and 28-31 December at Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester airports as well as at the Port of Newhaven.\n\nAbout 75% of Border Force staff are members of the Public and Commercial Services union, which balloted for strike action after it said the government had refused to increase a 2% pay rise offer.\n\nAs a result, some airlines have stopped selling new tickets for inbound flights to Heathrow on the days Border Force staff strike over Christmas, the BBC understands.\n\nThe Home Office has previously said it was \"extremely disappointed\" with the PCS union's decision, warning it would cause a \"significant inconvenience\" to travellers over Christmas and \"passengers should be prepared for disruption and take action to plan ahead\".\n\nThe PCS has accused Home Secretary Suella Braverman of \"scrambling around\" to get \"anyone she can\" to cover for border staff, as well as echoing the ambulance unions' concern that military staff and other civil servants are not \"sufficiently trained\".\n\nWill you be taking part in strike action in the coming days? Tell us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Kylian Mbappe scores a \"sensational\" volley as France come from 2-0 down to level at 2-2 in the World Cup final against Argentina.\n\nWatch all the World Cup action across the BBC Sport website and on demand on BBC iPlayer.\n\nWatch more of our World Cup 2022 video\n\nAvailable to UK users only.", "Volunteers in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv have made a Christmas tree out of camouflage nets.\n\nAfter the holidays, the nets will be donated to soldiers fighting on the frontline.\n\nA local resident said: \"We want to celebrate not only Christmas and New Year, but we also want to celebrate victory.\"", "Smoke seen in the aftermath of the fire\n\nAt least 19 people have been killed and dozens injured in a fire inside a road tunnel in Afghanistan, local officials say.\n\nAn oil tanker overturned and caught fire in the Salang Tunnel - which links the capital Kabul to the northern provinces - on Saturday evening.\n\nThe blaze spread to other vehicles before it was put out the next morning.\n\nPictures posted on social media showed several vehicles totally charred after the incident.\n\n\"The fuel tanker exploded... I fell down. My clothes caught fire,\" one witness, who was wounded in the tunnel, told Tolo news.\n\nSome of the bodies were severely burned, a senior health official in Parwan said in quotes cited by AFP news agency.\n\n\"Among the dead it was very hard to identify who was a male and who was a female,\" Abdullah Afghan Mal said, a senior health official in Parwan said, according to AFP news agency.\n\nAt least 32 people were wounded, another official said. It's thought the number of casualties could still rise.\n\nThe Ministry of Public Works said the pass had been closed to traffic while rescue operations were carried out.\n\nThe Salang Tunnel is 2.6km (1.6 miles) long and is located at an altitude of around 3,400m (11,154ft).\n\nHailed as an engineering masterpiece on its completion in the 1960s by the Soviet Union, the major route through the Hindu Kush mountains is often shut for days because of accidents and avalanches.\n\nA fire in the tunnel in 1982 killed at least 400 people, although some estimates put the death toll in the thousands.\n\nThe entrance to the Salang tunnel pictured in 2010", "Tunisia's main opposition coalition has said President Kais Saied must resign after fewer than 9% of eligible voters took part in parliamentary elections.\n\nThe National Salvation Front head, Nejib Chebbi, said Saturday's poll was a \"fiasco\", calling for mass protests to demand snap presidential elections.\n\nThe vote was boycotted by most opposition parties.\n\nThey accuse Mr Saied of reversing the democratic progress made since the 2011 uprising - a charge he denies.\n\nAfter sacking the prime minister and suspending parliament in July 2021, a year later Mr Saied pushed through a constitution enshrining his one-man rule after a vote that was also boycotted by the main opposition parties.\n\nThe new constitution replaced one drafted soon after the Arab Spring in 2011, which saw Tunisia overthrow late dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. It gave the head of state full executive control and supreme command of the army.\n\nA former law professor, Kais Saied (right) has been in power since 2019\n\nMr Saied, 64, says such powers were needed to break a cycle of political paralysis and economic decay.\n\nHis supporters agree with him, saying the impoverished North African nation needs a strong leader to tackle corruption and other major issues that hinder the country's development.\n\nTunisia's electoral officials said late on Saturday that 8.8% of the roughly nine-million-strong electorate had voted in the parliamentary elections.\n\nSpeaking shortly afterwards, Mr Chebbi said: \"What happened today is an earthquake, From this moment, we consider Saied an illegitimate president and demand he resign after this fiasco,\"\n\nHe told the AFP news agency that Mr Saied should leave office \"immediately\", saying the poll proved that there was \"great popular disavowal\" from the public of his style of governing.\n\nThe National Salvation Front, a coalition of several political parties, also called for mass rallies and sit-ins.\n\nPresident Saied has so far made no public comments on the issue.\n\nTunisia's uprising 11 years ago is often held up as the sole success of the Arab Spring revolts across the region - but it has not led to stability, either economically or politically.", "Ukraine has chosen pop duo Tvorchi as its act for next year's Eurovision Song Contest in a live broadcast from a Kyiv bomb shelter.\n\nTvorchi's entry Heart of Steel is the first song to be confirmed for the 2023 competition in Liverpool.\n\nShocked band member Andrew Hutsuliak said: \"We will try to do everything to present Ukraine with dignity.\"\n\nUkraine's Kalush Orchestra won this year's contest, but the UK will host in 2023 because of the war.\n\nA metro station in Kyiv was transformed into a TV studio for Saturday's selection show.\n\nThe underground stop has been in use as a bomb shelter since Russia invaded in February.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Євробачення Україна | Eurovision Ukraine official This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video by Євробачення Україна | Eurovision Ukraine official\n\nDuring Tvorchi's performance, dancers wore gas masks as nuclear warning signs appeared on screens over lyrics like: \"Don't be scared to say just what you think.\"\n\n\"I just want to say thank you Ukraine,\" vocalist Jeffery Kenny told viewers of Ukraine's Eurovision selection contest, known as Vidbir, which was streamed online.\n\nHutsuliak added: \"We didn't think we'd win but we want to say thank you to everyone who supported us, who listens to our music and who are fighting on the front line.\"\n\nBand members Andrew and Jeffrey formed Tvorchi in 2018 and have tried to represent Ukraine at Eurovision before\n\nThe upbeat entry beat a handful of ballads, with lyrical references to war, in the four-hour show.\n\nTvorchi will hope to repeat the success of compatriots Kalush Orchestra, who won this year's contest in May.\n\nThe winning country normally hosts the following year's event, but organisers decided it is too dangerous to stage Eurovision in Ukraine in 2023. Liverpool was instead chosen to put on the show, on behalf of Ukraine.\n\nUkraine will be hoping for a fourth Eurovision win with Tvorchi\n\nSince Ukraine's first involvement in the song contest in 2003, it has won three times and finished outside the top 10 only six times, making it one of the more continually successful countries in the competition.\n\nThis year, broadcaster UA:PBC received almost 400 songs from 299 participants who were hoping to make it to the final 10 acts in Saturday's TV selection show.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News beforehand, Ukraine's head of delegation at Eurovision Oksana Skybinska said: \"We did everything possible to hold this Vidbir in full swing, and once again unite Ukrainians around this important choice for the biggest music stage in Europe.\n\n\"The decision to go underground was the first one taken. It made us feel sure that the show itself could go on uninterrupted because no matter if we have air raid alerts the work could continue.\"\n\nViewers could hear trains passing by during certain parts of the show, but otherwise it looked like any other TV studio.\n\nMore than 160 million watched Kalush Orchestra win the Eurovision Song Contest in Italy in May\n\nKalush Orchestra told BBC News they are confident Ukraine can win for a fourth time in Liverpool.\n\nSince their win in Italy, the band have been promoting their music and raising money for Ukraine across Europe.\n\n\"It is very important to us to represent our country and to show our Ukrainian culture and to some extent revive it,\" lead singer Oleh Psiuk explained.\n\n\"I can help my nation by raising donations, and when I go back I explain what I did for my country, how many donated and who supported us.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTvorchi are the fifth act to be revealed for next year's Eurovision.\n\nCyprus, Israel, the Netherlands and Slovenia have also chosen their acts to send to Liverpool, but have not yet released the songs they will perform.\n\nThe 37 countries taking part have until the end of March to confirm their songs and artists for the competition.\n\nThe 2023 Eurovision Song Contest grand final will take place on 13 May.", "Watch the moment Lionel Messi lifts the World Cup trophy for Argentina after they beat France 4-2 on penalties after a thrilling 3-3 draw in the final in Qatar.\n\nWatch all the World Cup action across the BBC Sport website and on demand on BBC iPlayer.\n\nWatch more of our World Cup 2022 video\n\nAvailable to UK users only.", "Dowden says pay demand from nurses is 'not affordable'\n\nLaura Kuenssberg starts off by asking cabinet minister Oliver Dowden about the reliability of an ambulance turning up during the strikes this week. He urges ambulance union leaders to \"call off this strike\" to guarantee availability of care to the public. He says the government is working with union leaders to ensure availability and says if you have a life threatening injury you can continue to rely on the ambulance service. He says the government is working relentlessly to ensure a high level of service for people in the most difficult of circumstances. He again urges unions to be reasonable to call off the strikes. Asked about nursing strikes, Dowden says he's tried to resolve the issue by \"taking politics out of this and putting it to an independent pay review body\". He says nurses have been offered a minimum of £1,400 or 9% pay rise. He says the 19% urged by nursing unions is \"simply not affordable\", saying this could add to inflation.", "Irene Allen's daughter Melanie paid tribute to the \"first lollipop lady in Bury\"\n\nA former lollipop lady died after she was hit by a van on a road which she had campaigned to make safer.\n\nIrene Allen, 87, was seriously injured on Walmersley Road in Bury on 6 December and died five days later, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said.\n\nHer daughter Melanie paid tribute to the \"first lollipop lady in Bury\" whose \"sunny personality\" would be missed.\n\nShe noted the \"tragic irony\" that her mother had argued for safer crossings for children on the road in the 1960s.\n\nPolice are investigating and have urged anyone with footage from the area before the collision at about 11:15 GMT on 6 December to come forward.\n\nIn a statement released by GMP, Ms Allen's daughter described her mother - who had three grandchildren - as a \"keen walker and Rawtenstall Cricket fan\" and said she would leave behind \"a whole community who miss her sunny personality\".\n\nShe added: \"Always putting others before herself, in the mid-1960s Irene complained to Bury Council about the lack of safe crossings for school children across the busy Walmersley Road and became the newsworthy first lollipop lady in Bury.\n\n\"This tragic irony sits with us today.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Scottish Water has seen a rise of up to 150% in burst pipes in recent days as the sub zero temperatures turned to a rapid thaw.\n\nThe utility firm said this had led to an extra 100 million litres of water a day passing through the network.\n\nIt has repair teams out in affected areas which include Ayrshire, Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian and Stirling.\n\nIt warned that some response times were likely to extend well into next week.\n\nKevin Roy, Sottish Water's customer service general manager, said: \"The weather conditions this week have caused a significant impact on our supply network across the country.\n\n\"On top of the usual daily distribution of water and demand from customers, we've seen an additional 100 million litres a day flowing through the network and unfortunately that's the result of leaks and bursts.\n\n\"The deep freeze has developed into a quick thaw with temperatures on the increase leaving some pipes cracked.\"\n\nHe said some bursts would be visible and in publicly accessible places while others would be more challenging to locate.\n\n\"We would ask property owners, residents, keyholders and businesses to check their properties, including unoccupied buildings, for any sign at all of leaks or burst pipes,\" he said. \"We can all collectively help reduce the amount of water being lost in the current conditions.\n\n\"We're doing all we can to manage the situation as effectively as possible and trying to reduce disruption for customers. Our response is likely to extend well into next week as we approach the Christmas weekend.\"\n\nCustomers are advised that Scottish Water's customer contact centre is expected to be exceptionally busy and to avoid phoning in except for emergencies. Leaks can be reported on the company's website, where further winter advice on protecting pipes and property is available.\n\nIf a leak is discovered within the boundary of a property, householders are advised to seek the services of a registered plumber.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "China has been experiencing a surge in Covid cases since many restrictions were eased earlier this month\n\nA top Chinese health official says he believes China is experiencing the first of three expected waves of Covid infections this winter.\n\nThe country is seeing a surge in cases since the lifting of its most severe restrictions earlier this month.\n\nThe latest official figures appear to show a relatively low number of new daily cases.\n\nHowever, there are concerns that these numbers are an underestimate due to a recent reduction in Covid testing.\n\nThe government reported only 2,097 new daily cases on Sunday.\n\nEpidemiologist Wu Zunyou has said he believes the current spike in infections would run until mid-January, while the second wave would then be triggered by mass travel in January around the week-long Lunar New Year celebrations which begin on 21 January. Millions of people usually travel at this time to spend the holiday with family.\n\nThe third surge in cases would run from late February to mid-March as people return to work after the holiday, Dr Wu said.\n\nHe told a conference on Saturday that current vaccinations levels offered a certain level of protection against the surges and had resulted in a drop in the number of severe cases.\n\nOverall, China says more than 90% of its population has been fully vaccinated. However, less than half of people aged 80 and over have received three doses of vaccine. Elderly people are more likely to suffer severe Covid symptoms.\n\nChina has developed and produced its own vaccines, which have been shown to be less effective at protecting people against serious Covid illness and death than the mRNA vaccines used in much of the rest of the world.\n\nDr Wu's comments come after a reputable US-based research institute reported earlier this week that it believed China could see over a million people die from Covid in 2023 following an explosion of cases.\n\nThe government hasn't officially reported any Covid deaths since 7 December, when restrictions were lifted following mass protests against its zero-Covid policy. That included an end to mass testing.\n\nHowever, there are anecdotal reports of deaths linked to Covid appearing in Beijing.\n\nHospitals there and in other cities are struggling to cope with a surge, which has also hit postal and catering services hard.\n\nMeanwhile, China's largest city, Shanghai, has ordered most of its schools to take classes online as cases soar.", "The UK's cold snap has given way to soaring temperatures with warnings of heavy rain and some flooding, as people prepare for the Christmas getaway.\n\nYellow alerts for rain are in place until 06:00 GMT on Tuesday in southern England and South Wales.\n\nAfter freezing conditions last week, forecasters said Monday could bring highs of up to 15C in some parts.\n\nThe Met Office said flooding could hit homes and businesses, as well as causing disruption to road travel.\n\nIt added that bus and train journeys could also be impacted as downpours hit areas including Brighton, Plymouth and Portsmouth in the south of England, and Newport in Wales on Monday.\n\nThere are nine flood warnings in place and 49 flood alerts issued across the country.\n\nMore people may also choose to travel on the roads as thousands of members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) strike from 18:00 on Christmas Eve.\n\nThe RAC predicts 7.9 million journeys will be made over the two days immediately before Christmas Day, with the worst congestion expected between 10:00 and 19:00 on Friday, and between 12:00 and 13:00 on Saturday.\n\nRAC spokesman Rod Dennis said: \"If possible, drivers should try to make their trips on a quieter day earlier this week if they possibly can.\"\n\nThe AA also issued an \"amber traffic warning\" for Friday and Saturday, as they urged motorists to carry out car checks including levels of fuel, oil, coolant and screen wash, along with ensuring tyres are correctly inflated.\n\nPeter Jenkins from Water UK urged people to check that their water pipes were well insulated, following the freezing weather.\n\n\"The last thing we want is for people to experience further disruption as temperatures rise... putting many homes at risk of burst pipes due to freeze-thaw.\"\n\nScottish Water said it had seen a rise of 150% in burst pipes in recent days as sub zero temperatures tuned to rapid thaw, with an extra 100 million litres of water a day passing through them.\n\nWelsh Water also said there had been a number of leaks due to the \"rapid thaw\" - with one pub facing a huge clean up after pipes burst and water poured in from the ceiling.\n\nWarnings for snow and ice were previously in place for much of the country up to Sunday - including an amber alert for ice in parts of northern England.\n\nThe severe weather caused widespread disruption - bringing temperatures as low as -17.3C in Scotland on Tuesday - the coldest temperature since February 2021.\n\nBut BBC Weather said on Sunday that the bitterly cold, frosty weather was turning \"to something much milder, wetter and windier\".\n\nPresenter Jennifer Bartram said: \"The big swing in temperatures will be noticeable on Monday, and though it is unusual to see such a dramatic change, it's not unheard of.\n\n\"The change is all linked to where our air is coming from - we're replacing bitterly cold Arctic air with something much milder from the Atlantic.\"\n\nA sledger made the most of the snow in the Brecon Beacons National Park on Sunday\n\nHow have the weather conditions affected you? Share your pictures, video and experiences.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal have been crowned Strictly Come Dancing champions\n\nResidents of a Scottish village have said seeing their friend Hamza Yassin win Strictly Come Dancing was \"like winning the World Cup\".\n\nThe cameraman and TV presenter was crowned champion with dance partner Jowita Przystal on the BBC One show.\n\nThe Sudan-born wildlife photographer has lived in Kilchoan, on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, for 11 years.\n\nLocals who gathered in the community hall to watch the Strictly final have expressed their delight at his victory.\n\nFrom left: Sine, Innes and Caitlin Ferguson cheered on their friend in the Strictly final\n\nAmong those cheering on Hamza were siblings Sine, Caitlin and Innes Ferguson.\n\n\"It was like an eruption in the hall,\" said Sine, 29, reflecting on the moment the final results were announced.\n\n\"It was unreal. It was like winning the World Cup, I think, for Ardnamurchan.\"\n\nHamza had never had a dance lesson before taking part in the show, but villagers believe his talent was honed at ceilidhs.\n\nInnes, 21, who has known Hamza since he was in primary school, said his athletic ability was evident.\n\n\"I always knew he had the underpinning fitness because he's been lifting people around here, doing the famous lift,\" he told BBC Scotland.\n\n\"[He's been] up the hills and he's been a rugby player as well throughout his youth so he's got the fitness.\"\n\nInnes added: \"We knew he was fit but didn't know he had the twinkle toes that he was showing.\n\n\"I hope he's going to perform a bit better at all the ceilidhs from now on.\"\n\nHamza Yassin modelled his friend's merchandise while on Strictly Come Dancing with partner Jowita Przystal\n\nCaitlin, 28, is a graphic designer who also sells Gaelic-themed clothing. She has seen orders sky-rocket after Hamza wore her Ardnamurchan jumper on Strictly.\n\n\"It was mum's bright idea to post him one. I didn't know anything about it.\n\n\"And then I saw him on the TV with it and I thought wow that's so cool.\n\n\"I was so surprised when orders just started coming in. I sold out twice and now I'm taking pre-orders so it's been quite crazy.\"\n\nHamza has worked on The One Show as one of their wildlife cameraman, leading him to land his own CBeebies show and Let's Go For A Walk companion book.\n\nHe also appears on Countryfile and ITV's This Morning, and has filmed and presented Channel 4 shows Scotland: My Life in the Wild and Scotland: Escape to the Wilderness.\n\nAfter weeks away while filming Strictly, locals are looking forward to have the newly crowned dancing star back at home.\n\n\"We're hoping he comes back soon because he cuts all the logs,\" said Sine. \"That'll be handy for the winter.\"\n\nShe added: \"We're excited to see him home again. We're so proud of him.\"", "At least nine police officers have been killed in a bomb and gun attack in northern Iraq.\n\nThe attack took place near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, about 290km (180 miles) from the capital Baghdad on Sunday.\n\nIS has already said it was behind the planting of a roadside bomb that killed three Iraqi soldiers near Baghdad on Wednesday.\n\nSunday's attack began when a bomb blast targeted a truck carrying police near the village of Chalal al-Matar, officials told AFP.\n\nThe blast was followed by \"a direct attack with small arms\".\n\n\"An assailant has been killed and we are looking for the others,\" the official added, saying that two policemen were also wounded in the attack.\n\nAn official from the Ministry of the Interior in Baghdad confirmed the attack.\n\nIS once held 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from eastern Iraq to western Syria and imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.\n\nBut Iraqi forces declared victory over the Islamist group in December 2017, after its troops drove IS militants from the Syrian border zone where the Islamists' final strongholds had been.\n\nThe group was driven from its last territory in 2019, but the UN warned in July that it remained a persistent threat.\n\nIt is estimated to have between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, who are based mostly in rural areas and continue to carry out hit-and-run attacks, ambushes and roadside bombings.\n\nIn its report, the UN observed that despite \"significant leadership losses,\" the group has been able to \"exploit security gaps and conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism to recruit and to organise and execute complex attacks\".", "Ireland has a new taoiseach (prime minister) - Leo Varadkar - as he and Micheál Martin swap roles.\n\nEighty-seven TDs in the Dáil (Irish Parliament) voted to elect Mr Varadkar, while 62 were against his nomination.\n\nMr Varadkar takes over from Mr Martin as government leader, while Mr Martin takes on his role as tánaiste (deputy prime minister).\n\nMr Martin will also be minister for foreign affairs as Simon Coveney moves to the Department of Enterprise.\n\nThe rotation of power between the Irish parties was laid down in the coalition agreement of June 2020.\n\nThe deal brought together Mr Varadkar's Fine Gael party, Mr Martin's Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in a historic compromise.\n\nMr Varadkar, a qualified medical doctor, previously served as taoiseach and minister of defence from 2017 to 2020.\n\nThe handover is a first for the Republic of Ireland's political system and takes place between two parties which dominated Irish politics as bitter rivals for almost a century.\n\nThis swap-at-the-top has never happened before.\n\nIn the past, a coalition between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would have been thought to be as unlikely as Labour and the Conservatives going into government together in London.\n\nNow, the Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has handed over the most important job in Ireland to his Fine Gael counterpart, Leo Varadkar.\n\nThe parties agreed the deal after a general election in 2020, when Sinn Féin surged to win the most first-preference votes.\n\nThe leader of the opposition - Mary Lou McDonald - was predictably scathing in her attacks on Mr Varadkar during the parliamentary proceedings.\n\nPolls suggest she is in line to replace Mr Varadkar as taoiseach in the next Dáil election, due by early 2025.\n\nDomestic politics in the next two years are set to be dominated by housing, healthcare, and the cost of living.\n\nMr Varadkar's relations with Rishi Sunak will be particularly important, as the UK and the EU continue to negotiate on Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.\n\nThere is another interesting moment in history today - Britain and its nearest neighbour, Ireland, are now both led by men of Indian heritage.\n\nAddressing the Dáil following his appointment on Saturday, Mr Varadkar said his mission would be to build on the achievement of 100 years ago and work on what needs to done for this generation and the next.\n\nHe said he wanted to provide \"new hope and new opportunities for all our citizens\" and to see \"housing, economic opportunity and a fair start for all\".\n\nThe new taoiseach said there were many challenges.\n\n\"Ireland has never been a failed state,\" he said, \"and it is grotesque and dishonest to claim that we are or we were.\n\n\"But we are failing some of our citizens, and it is essential to our success as a country that we put this right.\"\n\nMr Varadkar reaffirmed the Irish commitment to stand with fellow Europeans through this \"harsh winter\".\n\n\"Dreams of a better future are not built on stalemate and the status quo,\" he added.\n\n\"I want to work with all parties in this house and in Northern Ireland, as well as with the British government and our partners in the European Union, to make progress on the protocol and restore the institutions of the agreement.\"\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he wished Mr Varadkar well and said the relationship between the UK and Ireland is \"so valuable\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chris Heaton-Harris MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn the new line-up, Stephen Donnelly is to remain as health minister, Simon Harris will be justice minister as well as leading in further and higher education, research, innovation and science for a period and Charlie McConalogue will hold on to his role as agriculture minister.\n\nThe coalition agreement originally specified that the handover would be on 15 December but this was changed in order to allow Mr Martin to participate in the final EU leaders' summit of the year in Brussels this week.\n\nMr Martin then offered his resignation to President Higgins, automatically dissolving the government.\n\nWhile addressing the Dáil, Mr Martin referenced Northern Ireland during his speech.\n\n\"If we genuinely believe in an Ireland which includes and serves all, then we must be prepared to build new bridges,\" he said.\n\nLeo Varadkar (left) replaces Micheál Martin as taoiseach in line with a coalition agreement\n\n\"We must be prepared to reach across divides and to do the hard work of learning to understand and respect each other far more than we have in the past.\n\n\"We must stop making assumptions about each other and get to know each other,\" he added.\n\nWhen Leo Varadkar first became taoiseach in 2017, he was seen internationally as a symbol of a new and much changed Ireland.\n\nA gay man of Indian heritage, he was certainly a break with the past.\n\nHe takes the reins for a second time as issues over the Brexit-related Northern Ireland Protocol remain unresolved between the EU and the UK.\n\nUnionist opposition to the protocol means no government at Stormont.\n\nAnd that casts a shadow over planned celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 deal designed to end 30 years of bloody conflict in Northern Ireland.\n\nWhen he meets Rishi Sunak, another prime minister of Indian heritage, resolving difficulties over the protocol will be the key priority.\n\nInevitably the responsibility of being in government takes the sheen off most politicians who come to power promising something new.\n\nDomestically, Mr Varadkar and his fellow ministers in the three-party coalition will have to convince a sceptical electorate that they are delivering on housing, heath and the cost of living.\n\nOtherwise there is likely to be a Sinn Féin government in two-and-a-half years time with Mary Lou McDonald replacing him as taoiseach.\n\nMary Lou McDonald accused the coalition of being \"out of touch, out of ideas and out of time\"\n\nSpeaking in the Dáil on Saturday, the Sinn Féin leader said Ireland needed a general election, not a rotation of leader.\n\nMs McDonald accused the coalition of being \"out of touch, out of ideas and out of time\" and questioned Mr Martin's assertion that the government was delivering.\n\nShe also challenged his claim that there were no easy answers to Ireland's problems.\n\n\"You all say that there are no easy answers, but I don't think that's an acceptable response to those mothers frantic because their children wait and wait for vital surgery, for essential services, for assessment of needs, to families distressed because they can't pay the latest bill, the mortgage repayment or afford the rent, to a child growing up in a B&B or a hotel room,\" she said.\n\nMr Varadkar is also vacating his post as minister for enterprise, trade and employment.\n\nIt took four months to negotiate the coalition agreement following the February 2020 election. Under the deal, six senior ministerial posts were each allocated to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and three to the Green Party.\n\nFine Gael and Fianna Fáil, for decades the largest parties in the Republic of Ireland, trace their origins to the opposing sides in the Irish Civil War of the early 1920s.\n\nThe 2020 election saw a rise in popularity for the left-leaning republican party, Sinn Féin, which won the most first-preference votes and ran a close second to Fianna Fáil in the number of seats taken.\n\nRecent opinion polls have suggested that support for Sinn Féin currently stands well ahead of the coalition parties and has done for some time.\n\nA former minister for health, Mr Martin's time as taoiseach has been dominated by Covid, the war in Ukraine and the stand-off between the European Union and the UK over the Northern Ireland Protocol.", "It is the week when families across the UK gear up for Christmas - but before settling down to turkey and sprouts there will be further industrial action to deal with first.\n\nIn the coming days, ambulance drivers, nurses, driving examiners and highway workers will all be striking.\n\nThen a fresh walkout by postal workers will disrupt last-minute deliveries of cards and presents - while further stoppages on the railways from Christmas Eve will make travelling home a challenge for many.\n\nThis is a bumper edition of my latest strike briefing, with lots of useful information on what is happening - and how it might affect you.\n\nSo what is the week ahead looking like?\n\nAcross England, Wales and Northern Ireland, nurses from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union are walking out on Tuesday 20 December.\n\nThe strike will involve staff in about a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all health boards in Northern Ireland and all but one in Wales.\n\nUnder trade union laws, life-preserving care has to be provided - so all nursing staff are expected to work in services such as intensive and emergency care.\n\nBut the action will affect routine services, such as planned operations, district nursing and mental health care.\n\nWatch Make Sense of Strikes on iPlayer and find out more about why people are striking and whether industrial action works.\n\nAmbulance staff across most of England and Wales will go on strike on Wednesday 21 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nThe co-ordinated walkout by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls only.\n\nHowever, it could mean people who have had trips and falls not being responded to.\n\nNational Highways traffic officers in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) working in London and the south-east of England will stop work from 22 to 25 December.\n\nThe strike will involve control centre staff. Traffic officers who work in the aftermath of accidents will also stop work.\n\nPCS says its rolling programme of strike action \"will have a significant impact\". However, National Highways says no roads will be closed and it has \"well-rehearsed resilience plans in place\".\n\nThe next strikes by Royal Mail staff are due to take place on 23 and 24 December - some of the busiest days for pre-Christmas deliveries.\n\nOn strike days Royal Mail says it will not be able to deliver first and second-class letters.\n\nHowever, it will deliver as many parcels and Special Delivery letters as possible.\n\nRoyal Mail delivery offices and customer service points will be closed. Letters will not be collected from post boxes.\n\nBorder Force staff are going on strike for eight days over Christmas at Heathrow and Gatwick airports.\n\nBirmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Manchester airports, as well as the port of Newhaven, will also be affected.\n\nThe strike will take place from 23-26 and 28-31 December.\n\nHeathrow has warned passport checks may take longer on strike days. The government says travellers could face \"serious disruption\".\n\nAnd if you're thinking about booking a last-minute flight, here is an extra spanner in the works - British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have stopped selling new tickets for inbound flights to Heathrow on the days of the Border Force strikes.\n\nThe RMT rail workers' union has announced further strikes from 18:00 GMT on Saturday 24 until 06:00 GMT on Tuesday 27 December.\n\nPrevious strikes by the RMT have had a major impact on services throughout England, Scotland and Wales.\n\nNetwork Rail says passengers should check their train-operating company's website and only travel if absolutely necessary.\n\nDrivers in south and west London who are in the Unite union and work for operator Abellio will walk out on 24 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nCivil servants in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) - including driving examiners and some job centre workers - are striking most days until early January.\n\nBut the industrial action is regional - with different areas affected each week. This week, until 24 December, the walk-outs will be in north-west England and Yorkshire and the Humber.\n\nSome vehicle testing and enforcement services might also be unavailable.\n\nCheck out our full rundown of all the December and January strikes.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Wales has been warned to expect heavy rain from Sunday evening\n\nWales has been warned to expect heavy and persistent rain from Sunday evening until early on Tuesday.\n\nThe Met Office said there would be between 35-50mm (1.3-2in) in many areas, and 70-90mm (2.7-3.5in) is possible on high ground.\n\nThe warning is for south-east Wales, and Swansea, Carmarthenshire and Powys from 18:00 GMT on Sunday until 06:00 GMT on Tuesday.\n\nThe rain alert follows an earlier one for icy conditions.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said it was experiencing high call demand, especially with people having fallen.\n\nThe service said some patients had to wait for \"many hours\" for an ambulance or a call-back from a clinician via the 111 helpline due to demand.\n\n\"Extreme weather, coupled with a high call volume which are mostly reporting falls and breathing issues, has limited our capacity to respond safely and timely,\" said Sonia Thompson, assistant director of operations.\n\nAn ice warning, as seen here in Crumlin, Caerphilly county, covered all Wales until 14:00 GMT on Sunday\n\n\"We are sorry to everyone who has waited longer for their calls to be answered, and subsequently wait longer for an ambulance to arrive.\"\n\nSouth Wales Police had earlier advised people to \"only drive if it's necessary\" due to \"extremely poor\" road conditions.\n\nCrashes were reported by Gwent Police and North Wales Police, along with road closures due to ice.", "A series of strikes has focused attention on the gap between pay in the public and private sectors.\n\nPublic-sector employees are generally those paid directly by the state such as teachers and members of the armed forces. All others work in the private sector.\n\nThe Office for National Statistics (ONS) says that private sector pay grew 6.9% between August and October 2022 while public sector pay grew 2.7%, and that this was among the largest differences ever seen between the two.\n\nBut both figures are still well below inflation - the rate at which prices are currently rising.\n\nHow much public-sector pay goes up usually depends on the recommendations of the Pay Review Bodies.\n\nIn several years since 2010, there have been public sector pay freezes or rises limited to 1%.\n\nThis chart shows average weekly pay for public and private-sector workers, excluding bonuses, adjusted for rising prices.\n\nIf you look at the total pay figures, which include bonuses, private sector pay has actually overtaken public sector pay.\n\nThat's because private sector workers are much more likely to receive bonuses than public sector workers and bonuses have been relatively high this year, particularly in finance and business services.\n\nOn the other hand, the figures do not reflect the fact that public sector workers tend to have considerably better pension provision than private sector workers.\n\nThe Treasury said that freezing pay in 2020-21 had helped \"to ensure fairness between the private and public sector\".\n\nRegular pay is still higher in the public sector, but whether that is fair is a tricky question.\n\nAs the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says, public-sector workers are more likely to be highly educated professionals who command higher wages in the labour market.\n\nSo the problem with comparing average earnings for the public and private sector is that highly educated professionals would be expected to be earning more.\n\nThe IFS also calculates the percentage gap between public and private sector pay if you take into account characteristics such as a worker's education and experience, which is the red line in the chart below.\n\nPublic-sector pay was frozen from 2011-13 and then capped at a 1% annual increase until 2018.\n\nAs a result, the difference between public and private-sector pay has narrowed since 2011, such that in 2019-20, there was no gap once you took into account their characteristics.\n\nIn 2020-21, the gap increased somewhat, indicating that the public sector workers on average had a better year than the private sector.\n\nAnd we know that employees in the public sector worked hard during the pandemic, weren't generally furloughed and were less likely to lose their jobs than those in the private sector.\n\nBut in 2021-22, the difference became negative, meaning that private sector workers were being paid more on average if you adjusted for their characteristics.\n\nIt is not entirely straightforward working this out.\n\nThis has increasingly been the case as successive governments have paid private-sector companies to carry out lower-paid jobs such as cleaning, security or catering.\n\nSince privatisation in 2013, Royal Mail workers have counted as private sector workers.\n\nUniversity lecturers also count as private sector workers, but that may be reviewed in 2023.\n\nRail workers employed by Network Rail were counted as part of the public sector from 2013, and those employed by most of the train operating companies were moved to the public sector in July 2020, after emergency measures were brought in during lockdown.\n\nBut many station cleaners, who have been outsourced to private companies, are counted as private sector workers, as are staff at some operators such as Hull Trains and Eurostar.\n\nThe IFS found that after adjusting for workers' characteristics, the lower-paid half of public-sector employees are paid on average more than their private sector counterparts, while the higher paid half are paid less.\n\nHigher paid public sector employees are more likely to be paid less than private sector workers with similar characteristics.\n\nThe IFS warned: \"The continuing fall in public sector pay relative to the private sector poses recruitment and retention challenges for public services, and could threaten the government's ability to deliver on its public service objectives.\"\n\nOf course, the attractiveness of a job is not just about the amount you are paid.\n\nThis analysis excludes pension provision, bonuses and overtime payments, which are not the same in the public and private sectors.\n\nAlso, one thing that the pandemic highlighted was the greater job security in the public sector, especially because those in the public sector were more likely to be classified as key workers.\n\nAnd while unemployment is currently low, job security may become more of an issue as the country enters recession.", "Lionel Messi restores Argentina's lead in extra time as they lead France 3-2 in the World Cup final.\n\nWatch all the World Cup action across the BBC Sport website and on demand on BBC iPlayer.\n\nWatch more of our World Cup 2022 video\n\nAvailable to UK users only.", "Lionel Messi strode alone into a single spotlight amid the darkness at Lusail Stadium to finally take possession of the one prize that has remained painfully out of reach throughout his silver-lined career.\n\nThe 35-year-old Argentina maestro rubbed his hands together in glorious anticipation of his crowning glory, donning the traditional Arab robe known as a bisht, before finally lifting the World Cup to the sky amid an explosion of flashlights and pyrotechnics.\n\nMessi had achieved his dream. The gap in his glittering collection had been filled - the set complete after arguably the most spectacular World Cup final in history, a game for the ages that tore at the emotions and played havoc with the pulse rates before Argentina's icon reached his summit.\n\nHe can now add the World Cup to seven Ballons d'Or, four Champions Leagues, one Copa America, 10 La Liga titles with Barcelona and a Ligue 1 crown in France with Paris St-Germain.\n\nThis was the one. This was the trophy that Messi's millions of advocates will now use as 'Exhibit A' in their argument that he is the greatest to have played the game.\n\nThis is a trophy, almost 15 inches of solid gold, that will now have many saying Messi is the greatest - and those with a counter-argument will have an added degree of difficulty presenting their case.\n\nComparisons are expanded over generations, which adds a different frame to all the arguments, but no-one can now deny Messi belongs in the same pantheon as Pele and another whose image was across many Argentina banners at Lusail Stadium on Sunday.\n\nInevitably, Diego Maradona, his legendary predecessor in Argentina's number 10 shirt, had a forceful case for the best. The point of difference was always his World Cup triumph in Mexico 36 years ago - a triumph Messi did not have. It has now been removed.\n\nMessi will always be in any conversation about the greatest, and the fact he now has the biggest honour the global game has to offer makes for a more powerful discussion as to his merits.\n\nHow do you even begin to tell the tale of how Messi reached his pinnacle? How do you recount events that eventually led to Argentina's World Cup win and the climax of a tournament that will have the name Lionel Messi attached to it forever?\n• None Reaction to one of the most dramatic World Cup finals\n• None World Cup Daily podcast: Argentina champions after 'best game ever'\n\nMessi should have known, given his history of World Cup heartache and disappointment stretching back to 2006 and including a losing final to Germany at Rio's Maracana in 2014, that this was an honour which would not be won easily.\n\nThe fact that this spectacular night at Lusail Stadium contained so much suffering before Argentina and Messi hit the heights of their third World Cup win may make it even sweeter.\n\nAnd it was all done in the face of brilliance from the 23-year-old who will, if he is not there already, join Messi in any debate about the sport's true elite in years to come: France's Kylian Mbappe.\n\nFrance appeared to be rolling out the red carpet for Messi's coronation as they barely threatened for 80 minutes. Lusail was Messi's playground as he scored Argentina's opener from the penalty spot, making him the first player in World Cup history to score in the group stage, round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final and final in a single tournament.\n\nMessi then helped to create Angel di Maria's second, the game taking a routine course with celebrations started among Argentina fans until the much-anticipated battle with Mbappe was joined in stunning fashion.\n\nMbappe pulled one back from the spot with 10 minutes left, then fired in a brilliant volley seconds later. Messi's smile that stretched across the giant screens in each corner of the stadium was one of \"not again\" disbelief.\n• None 'Breathless, staggering and magnificent' - was final one of best ever?\n\nArgentina coach Lionel Scaloni pulled off a masterstroke of selection with the inclusion of 34-year-old Di Maria, who ran Jules Kounde ragged, but then appeared to give way to fatal conservatism by taking him off with his side on top after 64 minutes for the workmanlike Marcos Acuna.\n\nMessi, of course, pulled Argentina round with his second in extra time but France, revived from the earlier mediocrity, were level again through Mbappe's penalty.\n\nIn an atmosphere of near hysteria, Argentina keeper Emiliano Martinez saved with his foot from Randal Kolo Muani with the World Cup at his mercy in the closing seconds, although there was still time for Lautaro Martinez to head wide of an unguarded goal at the other end.\n\nTo say extra time was highly charged would be an understatement, with some fans even tearing their gaze away from the action, such was the unbearable tension.\n\nMagnificently stressful, it went to penalties which Argentina won 4-2, a painful way to settle a game that will now be talked about whenever the World Cup is discussed.\n\nWhen Gonzalo Montiel scored the decisive kick, Messi slumped to his knees in tears in the centre circle, arms raised to the heavens before he was buried under an avalanche of light blue and white striped shirts.\n\nHe then claimed a microphone to address Argentina's supporters amid scenes of celebratory mayhem.\n\nMessi picked up the Golden Ball for player of the tournament, the first player to win it twice since it was introduced in 1982, after also winning the honour in 2014.\n\nHe has now been involved in 21 goals for Argentina at World Cups - 13 goals and eight assists, the most by any player for any nation. The goals in this World Cup final give him 793 in his career. He was also the first player to score in every round in the same men's World Cup tournament.\n\nThere was one statistic that mattered above all others on this night: Messi was a World Cup winner - at last.\n\nHe sat astride the figure-of-eight stage on which he had received the World Cup with his team, basking in the fact he can at last fill that one space in his trophy cabinet. It was a stage later filled with friends and family of the Argentina squad, their country now back on top of the football world for the first time since 1986.\n\nArgentina's supporters stayed in their seats for well over an hour, going through the songbook that has been the soundtrack to their World Cup campaign, paying homage to the man they counted on. The man who had delivered.\n\nThe seismic shock of that opening loss to Saudi Arabia seemed an age away. It was Messi who got Argentina's World Cup into gear with a brilliant goal against Mexico and he was unstoppable as he carried it through to the finish.\n\nMessi had the golden trophy in his hands. It was mission accomplished - a mission stretching back more than 16 years to when he came on as a scoring substitute in a 6-0 win over Serbia and Montenegro in Germany.\n\nThe final chapter of Messi's World Cup story was a thriller from first to last against France, with the plot taking so many twists. It delivered the perfect ending on a never to be forgotten night in Qatar.\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\n\"We'll never see anything like this again.\"\n\nFormer England defender Rio Ferdinand summed up what most of us were thinking after one of the greatest finals in World Cup history.\n\nIt had everything. Superstars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe going head to head. Dramatic comeback goals. And a nerve-wracking penalty shootout decider.\n\nSocial media was sent into meltdown, sports stars around the world were transfixed and those in Lusail Stadium were treated to a mouth-watering showpiece.\n\n\"I couldn't imagine that happening - where you see two great teams going toe to toe and no-one takes a back step,\" said Ferdinand on BBC One.\n\n\"The two superstars on either team slugging it out, goal for goal...magnificent.\"\n\nEx-England striker Alan Shearer added: \"We're breathless, it was just an unbelievable final. I've never seen anything like it and I don't think I'll ever see anything like it again. It was staggering.\"\n\nArgentina manager Lionel Scaloni said he was \"calm\" afterwards, but could not hide his elation.\n\n\"The match was completely insane. I know we had a good match, we could have won in the first 90 minutes,\" he said.\n\n\"I have the best feelings ever. The most important thing is how we achieved this.\"\n• None 'Now hard to argue against Messi being football's greatest'\n\nMuch of the focus was on Argentina's Messi and France's Mbappe before kick-off as both were level in the race for the Golden Boot and seen as the superstars to lead their teams to glory.\n\nBut Mbappe barely had a sniff in the first half as Argentina took just four minutes to have their first shot on target through Alexis Mac Allister, and went on to dismantle the defending champions.\n\nMessi's first contribution came in the 23rd minute when he scored from the penalty spot to put Argentina ahead and Angel di Maria doubled the advantage 13 minutes later.\n\nFrance were in disarray, Mbappe had not been in the opposition box and had the fewest touches of any player after half an hour.\n\nHaving had enough, manager Didier Deschamps made a double substitution after 41 minutes, hooking Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele and replacing them with Randal Kolo Muani and Marcus Thuram.\n\nAt half-time, with no shots on target from France and Argentina cruising at 2-0, reporters around the globe were finalising their match reports - it was surely game over.\n\nBut the drama had not even begun.\n\nFrance were still not at their best when they eventually tested Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez for the first time after 67 minutes, but the game changed in a pulsating 97-second period that followed...\n\nMuani went down under a challenge from Nicolas Otamendi in the box and Mbappe stepped up to fire a penalty past Martinez.\n\nArgentina had barely got their breath back and France supporters were still celebrating when Mbappe then volleyed in a stunning second to make it 2-2. Extra time, here we go.\n\nBut this was Messi's night - and he thought he had the final say when he poked it over the line, sparking wild celebrations, in the 108th minute.\n\nMbappe was not done, though. His hat-trick goal arrived in the 118th minute - making him the second man, after England's Sir Geoff Hurst in 1966, to score three goals in a World Cup final - and a penalty shootout followed.\n\nArgentina, who had lost their lead twice during the match, finally got their hands on the trophy for the first time since 1986, after Martinez had saved Kingsley Coman's spot-kick and Aurelien Tchouameni sent his effort wide.\n• None World Cup Daily podcast: Argentina champions after 'best game ever'\n\nWhich was the best World Cup final? Vote below\n\nIf you are viewing this page on the BBC News app please click here to vote.\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "A man has been charged after four people died in the Channel when a migrant boat got into trouble.\n\nThirty-nine people were rescued when a dinghy ran into difficulties off the Kent coast on Wednesday, but four died.\n\nIbrahima Bah, 19, of no fixed address, was charged with facilitating the attempted arrival in the UK of people he knew or had reasonable cause to believe were asylum seekers.\n\nKent Police said officers were still working to identify those who died.\n\nEight children were among those who were successfully rescued.\n\nA dramatic rescue operation saw people in T-shirts and thin lifejackets shouting for help as people were pulled from the water. The incident happened at night and helicopters lit the scene as people were airlifted away.\n\nLifeboats and a nearby fishing boat helped with the rescue\n\nAuthorities were alerted at 03:05 GMT to reports that the small boat was in distress, which was in difficulty off the coast of Dungeness, 30 miles west of Dover.\n\nTemperatures had dropped to 1C overnight on Tuesday and it was likely to have been colder at sea.\n\nA yellow weather warning was in place across Kent at the time.\n\nCrews on a nearby fishing boat helped lifeboats and the UK coastguard with the rescue.\n\nFrench navy and air and land ambulances were also deployed.\n\nOn Tuesday, the government announced measures to stop small boat crossings, including a new command centre and more funding to tackle immigration crime.\n\nNearly 45,000 people have made the journey so far in 2022.\n\nA statement issued by Kent Police said the Crown Prosecution Service had authorised the charge against Mr Bah. He is due to appear before magistrates on Monday.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Director Steven Spielberg has said he \"truly regrets\" the decimation of the shark population following the success of the Oscar-winning film Jaws.\n\nHe told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs he fears sharks are \"mad\" at him for \"the feeding frenzy of crazy sword fishermen that happened after 1975\".\n\nThe film has been blamed for misrepresenting great whites and leading to trophy hunting in the US.\n\nSpielberg also discussed his childhood and new film in the programme.\n\nThe 75-year-old American is known for many Hollywood blockbusters including E.T., Schindler's List and Jurassic Park.\n\nAsked how he felt about the sea around his desert island being inhabited by sharks, Spielberg told the programme: \"That's one of the things I still fear.\"\n\nClarifying it was not a fear of being eaten, the director said the impact to the shark population is something \"I truly and to this day regret\".\n\nThe 1975 film Jaws tells the story of a great white shark that attacks a US seaside town, which influenced a rise in sports fishing across America. Research has suggested the number of large sharks fell along the eastern seaboard of North America in the years following its release.\n\nThe songs Somewhere from West Side Story, Frank Sinatra's Come Fly With Me and his daughter's song Cool Hand were among the eight records he selected.\n\nSpielberg also discussed his new semi-autobiographical film, The Fabelmans - which follows the story of his childhood and introduction to filmmaking.\n\nHe told presenter Lauren Laverne that a film based on his own story sent his fear levels \"through the roof\".\n\n\"I'm a private person that's going public about and I can't hide behind somebody else's authorship or a book or a genre or American history.\"\n\nThe director said he first thought the project would be the \"most self-indulgent thing I've ever asked people to accompany me through\" - describing it as \"$40m of therapy\".\n\nHe said he was \"answering a need\" in making the film, but admitted the biggest struggle was probably \"not to get emotional\" while making it.\n\nThe Fabelmans, which has already picked up nominations at the 2023 Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, stars Paul Dano and Michelle Williams.\n\nJaws has been described as a turning point in the public's perception of sharks\n\nAsked by Laverne about how he started making films, Spielberg said his first attempt was a Western shot on one camera with no editing software at the age of 10.\n\nAfter showing it to his scout group, he said: \"I got bitten by this bug and that was it.\"\n\nDiscussing his time at school, Spielberg said his \"only ticket\" to popularity was making small movies and recollected getting the captain of the football team to dedicate a whole Saturday to star in a film.\n\n\"In a way it was being able to say action to somebody who wouldn't talk to me at school but would obey the word action - [and that] was kind of empowering.\"\n\nSpeaking generally about being a filmmaker, Spielberg said it was not his role to \"manipulate\" the audience, but admitted doing it in Jaws and in his 1982 supernatural horror film Poltergeist.\n\nSpielberg also touched on Schindler's List, saying when he was initially approached to do the film in 1982 he was not ready \"emotionally\" or as a filmmaker.\n\nHe also chose to take the book, The Grapes of Wrath, and his favourite camera to the deserted island.\n\nThe full interview on Desert Island Discs will air on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds at 11:15 GMT on Sunday.", "Gareth Southgate to remain England manager until after Euro 2024 Last updated on .From the section England\n\nSouthgate's England exited the 2022 World Cup after a 2-1 defeat by reigning champions France in Qatar Gareth Southgate will remain as England manager until after the European Championships in 2024, the Football Association has confirmed. He had said he was \"conflicted\" about his future in the role after England's quarter-final exit at the World Cup. The 52-year-old, who was appointed in 2016, led the Three Lions to the World Cup semi-finals in 2018 and a first Euros final in 2021. His current contract is due to expire in December 2024. \"We are delighted to confirm that Gareth Southgate is continuing as England manager and will lead our Euro 2024 campaign,\" said FA chief executive Mark Bullingham. \"Gareth and Steve Holland [assistant manager] have always had our full support, and our planning for the Euros starts now.\"\n• None 'Southgate must now be the winner England want' Southgate officially became England boss in November 2016 after a two-month spell as caretaker manager following Sam Allardyce's departure. The former defender, who made 57 appearances for England, became the fourth permanent manager of the national team in as many years. In the six years since, he has brought great stability to the England camp, building a strongly bonded unit of players off the pitch and a team seen as serious contenders for major trophies on it. Southgate has won 49 of his 81 games in charge so far, losing 14. But his record of winning six knockout games in major tournaments as Three Lions boss is the same number as England had won in the 48 years before he took the helm. But despite the growing expectation put on his team, Southgate is yet to deliver the silverware so longed for. His side suffered a 2-1 defeat by Croatia in the last four of the 2018 World Cup in Russia after leading 1-0, while England were beaten on penalties by Italy in the Euro 2020 final after also leading that match. England went into the World Cup on the back of relegation from their Uefa Nations League group after three defeats and three draws. However victories over Iran and Wales, either side of drawing with the United States, saw England top their group and they then comfortably beat Senegal in the last 16. Their journey ended in a 2-1 defeat by France, with captain Harry Kane missing a late penalty, having earlier scored one to equal Wayne Rooney as England's leading goalscorer. Southgate previously managed England Under-21s from 2013 to 2016 and was also in charge at Middlesbrough from 2006 to 2009. Under Southgate, the England senior side have scored 174 goals and conceded 57. The Three Lions have scored three or more goals on 27 occasions - exactly a third of his games in charge. He ranks fourth for most games as the England men's manager, with Walter Winterbottom taking charge of 139 games, Sir Alf Ramsey 113 and Sir Bobby Robson 95. Former England goalkeeper David Seaman said he was \"really happy\" Southgate has decided to stay. \"I would have been really disappointed if he hadn't because of what he has built and where England are in at the moment,\" he told BBC Radio 5 Live. \"This is the best position England have been in years. People are afraid of us, they know how good we can be.\" Ex-England defender Gary Neville said it was the \"right decision\". \"The fact it has come out is welcome - it puts it to bed and allows everyone to focus on the next 18 months,\" Neville said on Sky Sports. \"We have played well in the World Cup - we just came out the wrong side of a 50-50 match. That happens in football sometimes. \"We always want to an autopsy and someone to blame, but I don't think it exists in this tournament.\" Ex-England and Arsenal striker Ian Wright told ITV: \"I'm delighted he stayed on. \"You can talk about the group and how he has got them together, the belief he's given the team, wanting to be with the England side. I'm delighted he has stayed on.\" Football journalist Rory Smith believes it was the right decision from an England perspective. \"There's no obvious candidate to take over here so there's no real need to call time on his reign. It feels like there is a process going on and it's going alright,\" he said on BBC Radio 5 Live. Former England goalkeeper Rob Green told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"What you don't want to do is end up like every England manager and walk away on the tail of something awful happening to you. \"When he took over we were so far off, looking really abject in the games that we went out. \"This is where we should be, this is the expectation.\"\n• None From old pick-ups to the fastest car on the planet:\n• None The gripping story of Sepp Blatter's rise and fall: Explore how football became synonymous with scandal", "Russian President Vladimir Putin has met his military chiefs on the same day his forces launched another wave of missiles at Ukraine's infrastructure.\n\nMr Putin spent most of Friday at the headquarters of the \"special military operation\" discussing ideas for what Russia's next move should be.\n\nIt comes as some Ukrainian military officials claimed Russia was planning an offensive, perhaps early next year.\n\nRussian attacks on Ukraine's power grid have plunged millions into darkness.\n\nFootage from Friday's meeting showed Mr Putin flanked by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Armed Forces Chief Valeriy Gerasimov.\n\n\"We will listen to the commanders in each operational direction, and I would like to hear your proposals on our immediate and medium-term actions,\" the Kremlin leader was seen telling military officials on state TV.\n\nGen Gerasimov's presence ends rumours circulating online that he had been dismissed from his position. The 67-year-old has been the target of intensive criticism from hawkish commentators, who have accused him of being too cautious.\n\nAir Force general Sergei Surovikin - who was appointed as Russia's commander in Ukraine in October - was also present at the meeting, photos released by state media showed.\n\nUkrainian forces have made a series of major advances in recent months, including retaking Kherson - the only regional capital captured by Russian forces so far.\n\nAnd the collapse of Moscow's forces in eastern Ukraine earlier this year saw military bosses come in for sustained criticism from pro-Kremlin media figures.\n\nThere had been reports that Armed Forces Chief Valeriy Gerasimov (R) had been dismissed\n\nThe meeting followed claims by the commander of Ukraine's military, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, that Moscow could seek to launch a new offensive in early 2023. He warned that Russia was preparing around 200,000 troops for the attack.\n\n\"I have no doubt they will have another go at Kyiv,\" he added. \"I know how many combat units I have right now, how many combat units I have to create by the end of the year - and, most importantly, not to touch them in any way now. No matter how hard it is.\"\n\nHe added that the attack could originate \"in the direction of Kyiv\" and may be launched from Belarus.\n\nIn February, Russian troops advanced towards the Ukrainian capital Kyiv after crossing the border from Belarus.\n\nWhile the country's leader Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly denied that his forces will join in the invasion, thousands of Russian troops are currently in the country taking part in what Moscow's defence ministry called \"intensive combat training\".\n\nMr Putin will visit his Belarusian counterpart in Minsk on Monday.\n\nBut analysts have questioned Russia's ability to launch a new offensive on the Ukrainian capital, and White House spokesperson John Kirby said that US intelligence officials \"aren't seeing any indication that there's an imminent move on Kyiv\".\n\nSenior US defence officials told Reuters news agency that Russia had been forced to use decades-old ammunition with high failure rates as it burns through its supplies.\n\nThey added that \"the rate of fire that Russia has been using its artillery and rocket ammunition\" could see them run out of reliable munitions by early 2023.\n\nMeanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that power had been restored to nearly six million people after the latest wave of Russian strikes to hit the country's energy grid.\n\nKyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city's metro system had restarted and the water supply had been restored.\n\nHe also posted photos on Telegram of a large Christmas tree that has been adapted to meet the constraints of a wartime winter. The tree will be lit with energy-saving bulbs run off a generator, he said.\n\nPower has also been restored in the country's second city of Kharkiv, authorities said, after it was left without electricity for hours following Friday's wave of strikes that targeted energy stations across the country.\n\nRussia has launched more than 1,000 missiles and Iranian-made attack drones since the wave of strikes on power infrastructure began on 10 October. International leaders - including French President Emmanuel Macron - have said the strikes amount to a war crime.\n\nThe UK's Ministry of Defence says there had been an \"uptick\" in Russia's campaign of long-range strikes against Ukraine's critical infrastructure in recent days.\n\nKharkiv's mayor said the city suffered \"colossal\" damage after the latest barrage of strikes", "Iranian authorities have arrested one of the country's best known actresses, after she expressed solidarity with anti-government demonstrators.\n\nTaraneh Alidoosti was detained on charges of \"spreading falsehoods\" about the protest movement that has gripped the country, state media said.\n\nIn an Instagram post last week, she condemned the execution of a man over his involvement with the protests.\n\nMs Alidoosti is best known for her role in the Oscar-winning film The Salesman.\n\nIn her post, the 38-year-old took aim at some international organisations for not speaking out against the execution of Mohsen Shekari.\n\nHe was hanged by authorities after they accused him of being a \"rioter\" who blocked a main road in Tehran in September and wounded a member of a paramilitary force with a machete.\n\n\"His name was Mohsen Shekari. Every international organisation who is watching this bloodshed and not taking action, is a disgrace to humanity,\" she wrote.\n\nAccording to a post on the state news agency IRNA's Telegram account, she was arrested by police for failing to provide \"any documents in line with her claims\".\n\nHer Instagram account, which has more than eight million followers, was recently taken down.\n\nThe 38-year-old is one of Iran's most successful actresses. She starred in The Salesman, which won an Academy Award in 2016 for the Best International Feature Film.\n\nBut since the outbreak of the protest movement she became a vocal critic of the Iranian government's attempts to clamp down on the nationwide unrest, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September.\n\nIn November, she attracted attention after posting an image of herself on Instagram without a headscarf to signal solidarity with the demonstrations.\n\nThe protest movement has become one of the most serious challenges to the Iranian regime since it came to power in the 1979 revolution.\n\nAuthorities have already executed two men after they were found guilty of \"moharebeh\" - roughly translated as \"enmity against God\". Under Iranian law, the crime is defined as \"creating public insecurity\" by threatening lives or property with a weapon.", "The cost of living crisis is forcing many people from their homes, the Simon Community says\n\nNorthern Ireland is heading into a \"homelessness disaster\" this Christmas, a charity has warned.\n\nThe chief executive of the Simon Community, Jim Dennison, has said that the cost-of-living crisis is making many people unable to afford payments on their homes.\n\nHe said the charity is also seeing more people sleeping out on the streets.\n\n\"We are rapidly turning from a homelessness crisis into a homelessness disaster,\" Mr Dennison has said.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, he said that the Simon Community is seeing cases of \"individuals who simply can't afford to keep their own homes\".\n\n\"They can't pay mortgages, they can't pay escalating rents so poverty is a real issue.\"\n\nMr Dennison said the charity is seeing an increase in people living on the streets because some people feel they have exhausted all options and are desperate.\n\nJim Dennison said the Simon Community's services \"are extremely stretched\"\n\n\"It's very visible, particularly in places like Belfast, we are seeing a lot more street homelessness and street activity, it's absolutely heartbreaking,\" he said.\n\n\"Even just being out with a coat on in -2 degrees is bad, but having to sleep through the night in that is absolutely horrendous.\"\n\nThe organisation and its partners manage about 480 beds in emergency accommodation.\n\nResources are \"are extremely stretched\", he added.\n\n\"We run at full occupancy nearly all the time and for every bed we have there is a demand that is 15 times greater than supply,\" Mr Dennison said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What is it like to be sleeping on the streets in winter?\n\nDamien told BBC News NI that his alcohol addiction spiralled out of control and resulted in him living on the streets.\n\n\"I was on the streets for about a year,\" he said.\n\n\"I wasn't the easiest person to get on with back then, there were no doors open to me really and I had no choice but to go out onto the streets.\n\n\"It was hard and I was embarrassed. You were begging off people from your own town.\n\n\"Winter was the hardest, like at Christmas time, people would be out buying their presents for their family and yet there was you asking them for spare change.\n\n\"Some people were so cruel. We were not even asking for pounds or fivers but just pennies.\n\n\"That really hurt inside, but it was the only way I could survive. I lost all dignity then, I had no self-worth or nothing.\"\n\nDamien has since gone on to find accommodation and is receiving treatment and support for his addiction issues.\n\nIf you, or someone you know, have been affected by any of the issues in this video you can find information about organisations that can help on the BBC Action Line website.\n\nMr Dennison said the Simon Community has never seen things as bad as they currently are in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"We are looking at 4,000 children in emergency accommodation this Christmas - like B&Bs, hotels and homeless hostels.\n\n\"We're looking at about 44,500 people and families being on social housing waiting lists, many of those individuals are in acute housing need.\n\n\"We are also looking at, on average, 1,000 people in Northern Ireland legally being deemed homeless here every month.\"\n\nMr Dennison said those figures are based on data published by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and also from information gathered by the Simon Community's research and development department.\n\nSinead McFadden, from First Housing Aid in Londonderry, said a lack of suitable accommodation means more and more people were finding themselves struggling to find places to live in the north-west.\n\n\"There's been more than a 50% increase in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area alone in the past four years,\" Ms McFadden said.\n\n\"We now have over 1,000 people in temporary accommodation in that area and unfortunately we are now looking at a situation where demand is outstripping supply.\"\n\nThe most recently published Housing Executive figures show that there were 44,426 applicants on the social housing waiting list as of 31 March 2022.\n\nWithin that figure, 31,407 of those applicants were deemed as being in \"housing stress\". These are people who are classed as being higher priority cases for housing.\n\nThe areas with the highest number of applicants on the social housing waiting list were Belfast (12,237) and Derry City and Strabane (5,531).\n\nThe highest proportion of people presenting as homeless were families and single males.\n\nThere were 10,135 households accepted as statutorily homeless by the Housing Executive from April 2021 to March 2022.\n\nThe Housing Executive is responsible for providing accommodation for anyone who is deemed \"legally homeless\".\n\nFor a person to be defined as \"legally homeless\", it does not mean that they need to be living on the streets.\n\nThey need to satisfy four conditions: eligibility, homelessness, priority need and intentionality.\n\nSomeone can be legally homeless, for example, if they are living in a place that is damaging to their health, they are at risk of violence, living in overcrowded conditions or staying with friends.", "Glen Allen was jailed for 14-and-a-half year in 2010 for the murder of William Meek in 2008\n\nA convicted murderer is at large after failing to return to Maghaberry Prison following temporary release.\n\nGlen Allen, 34, was jailed for 14-and-a-half years in 2010 for the murder of William Meek.\n\nMr Meek was stabbed 51 times in the head, face and neck in June 2008.\n\nThe Department of Justice said Allen went missing on Wednesday. He is described as being about 5ft 9in tall and of medium build, with dirty fair hair and blue eyes.\n\nHe also has scars on his right hand, left finger and knee.\n\nThe police said that despite searches to arrest Allen, they have so far been unable to find him.\n\nThey have appealed for anyone who has seen him or knows where he is to get in contact.\n\nThe police also appealed directly to Allen to hand himself in.\n\nThe Department of Justice has appealed for anyone with information to contact the police.", "Fire crews led 24 people to safety after two water mains burst, causing flooding to homes\n\nDozens of people have been evacuated from their flooded homes and thousands have been left without water after two water mains burst in north London.\n\nAbout 60 firefighters were called to Belsize Road in Camden at about 02:50 GMT when homes were deluged with about 50cm (1.6ft) of water.\n\nLondon Fire Brigade (LFB) said 24 people were led to safety and a hub was set up at Swiss Cottage Library.\n\nThames Water apologised after multiple postcodes were left without water.\n\nTwenty people were rescued from basement flats and three adults and a child from properties.\n\nThe fire service said in total about 100 properties were affected by \"significant\" flooding.\n\nVideo footage on social media shows firefighters evacuating residents in the flood, including people in pyjamas carrying pets.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by George 🎗 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOne fire officer is heard alerting colleagues to a pregnant woman.\n\nCody Dolcy-Grant, who lives in Hilgrove Road, at the end of Belsize Road, said she woke up to scenes \"like the river Thames\" outside her home.\n\nThe 27-year-old said: \"I wasn't aware of the situation until 07:00 when I went to the toilet, realised the toilet wasn't flushing and no water was coming out of the taps.\n\n\"My road was flooded... when I opened the front door it was like a horror scene.\n\n\"Fire engines up my whole road, police, ambulance, and then I looked to my left and it was like the river Thames outside,\" she added.\n\nMs Dolcy-Grant lives on the second floor of her building so her home was not flooded but she said she had no running water on Saturday.\n\nStefano Calcagni and the two dogs he was caring for were evacuated from a property\n\nStefano Calcagni was dogsitting for a friend in a first and second-floor property in Belsize Road when he woke to a text telling him about the floods on Saturday morning.\n\nThe 48-year-old was evacuated by boat with the dogs on Saturday afternoon.\n\nMr Calcagni said: \"The water level was halfway up the door to the basement flat.\n\n\"It's owned by a couple, I saw them leave through the window as they couldn't get out the door,\" he added.\n\nLFB said crews would remain at the scene of the flooding for a number of hours and significant road closures were in place.\n\nIt said one main had been isolated but a smaller main was still leaking. Crews advised people to avoid the area.\n\nThames Water said houses in north-west London, in the postcodes of NW2, NW6, NW8 and NW10 were affected, with homes left with no or low water.\n\nMultiple postcodes in London were left without water after the mains burst\n\nBy Saturday evening the company said water pressure in the area was starting to return and will continue to do so overnight.\n\nIt said staff were visiting homes in the Belsize Road area to see if there was anything else it could do to help.\n\nIt added loss adjustors were in the area to assess damage and help residents.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"If your home has been flooded, we're so sorry, we know this must be very distressing,\" adding that \"getting water supplies back on is our top priority\".\n\nThames Water said it was supporting the most vulnerable people and was sending bottled water to them.\n\nTemperatures plummeted to lows of -7C (19F) in parts of London on Saturday morning, the Met Office reported.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A weather warning for fog and ice across Northern Ireland ended on Sunday morning with conditions to become blustery later in the day.\n\nThe Met Office has forecast strong south-easterly gales along the County Antrim coast.\n\nThere will be heavy outbreaks of rain with a maximum temperature of 8C.\n\nA brief spell of warmer air will continue into next week as temperatures reach 14C on Monday.\n\nTemperatures will then fall back closer to average towards Christmas weekend.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nLionel Messi finally achieved his World Cup dream as Argentina won their third crown on penalties in one of the greatest finals in the tournament's history.\n\nArgentina won the shootout 4-2 after a spectacular game which developed into the much-anticipated confrontation between the 35-year-old maestro Messi and his France opposite number Kylian Mbappe.\n\nFrance's own superstar scored a hat-trick - the first in a Fifa World Cup final since 1966 - but still ended up on the losing side at Lusail Stadium.\n\nMessi looked to be securing the one major honour missing from his glittering collection in comfort as Argentina cruised into a two-goal lead.\n\nThis all changed when an explosive intervention from Mbappe, who scored two goals inside two minutes late on, turned this frantic, magnificent match for the ages on its head.\n\nMessi had given Argentina the lead from the penalty spot in the 23rd minute following Ousmane Dembele's foul on Angel di Maria. It made him the first player in World Cup history to score in the group stage, last 16, quarter-final, semi-final and final of a single tournament.\n\nHe then contributed a delicate touch within a magnificent counter-attack that ended with Brighton's Alexis Mac Allister setting up Di Maria for the second 13 minutes later.\n• None 'Now hard to argue against Messi being football's greatest'\n• None 'Breathless, staggering and magnificent' - was final one of best ever?\n\nArgentina were untroubled until the closing stages, only for Mbappe to give France a lifeline from the penalty spot with nine minutes left - then restore equality with a magnificent volley moments later.\n\nMessi bundled Argentina back in front in extra time, but Mbappe completed his treble from the spot two minutes from the end of a frantic, chaotic added spell.\n\nAnd so it went to penalties, with the two greats opening the scoring. But Argentina and Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez saved from Kingsley Coman, before Aurelian Tchouameni missed, leaving Gonzalo Montiel to win the World Cup.\n\nMessi, a World Cup winner at last, collapsed to his knees in the centre circle and was engulfed by jubilant Argentina team-mates.\n• None World Cup Daily podcast: Argentina champions after 'best game ever'\n• None Reaction to one of the most dramatic World Cup finals\n\nMessi stood at the pinnacle of his career as Argentina closed out time in the World Cup final, only for great rival Mbappe to threaten to knock him off and leave him in despair.\n\nInstead, this World Cup - which will now have Messi's name attached to it forever, along with a final that will rank alongside the greats - gave the iconic Argentine the conclusion he wanted.\n\nMessi was imperious for 80 minutes in his final World Cup game as Argentina exerted complete control over a strangely laboured France, scoring his penalty with ease before contributing crucially to a second goal which was a team creation of beauty finished off by Di Maria.\n\nAnd then came Mbappe. And then came France.\n\nIn an atmosphere of disbelief among the massed ranks of Argentina fans who were starting to celebrate victory, Lionel Scaloni's team had to lift themselves once more from the double blow inflicted by Mbappe.\n\nInevitably it was Messi who gave them hope again, showing he was happy to do the dirty work by turning home a scrambled finish in the box in the second period of extra time - only for Mbappe to answer again.\n\nBut Argentina prevailed on penalties and Messi was the centre of attention when Montiel sent the decisive penalty past France keeper Hugo Lloris.\n\nAmid wild scenes of celebration, Messi fell to his knees in tears and raised his arms to the skies, before disappearing beneath a mountain of team-mates.\n\nMessi then took to the microphone to address Argentina's jubilant fans, his Holy Grail reached, another piece of evidence assembled in the argument that would have many declare him the game's greatest player.\n\nMbappe cemented his status as one of the game's modern greats with only the second hat-trick in a World Cup final, following Sir Geoff Hurst's when England beat West Germany in 1966. But the 23-year-old still suffered the pain of defeat.\n\nMbappe was as anonymous as most of his team for the first 80 minutes, ill-served amid an unfathomably poor France display - which they put in despite seeking to become the first side to retain the trophy since Brazil did so 60 years ago, and only the third ever after Italy won in 1934 and 1938.\n\nManager Didier Deschamps even made two substitutions before half-time, replacing Olivier Giroud and Dembele with Marcus Thuram and Randal Kolo Muani.\n\nAnd yet it was Mbappe who revived France in those sensational seconds when they went from looking like timid losers to potential winners, then getting his third from the spot after Messi had put Argentina back in front.\n\nIn a stunning period of extra time during which both sides exchanged chances, France could have won but for a superb last-gasp save by Martinez with his outstretched boot from Muani.\n\nInstead, Mbappe will find history no consolation as he was embraced by his team-mates and French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of this enthralling spectacle.\n• None How you rated the Argentina and France players\n• None Goal! Argentina 3(4), France 3(2). Gonzalo Montiel (Argentina) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3(3), France 3(2). Randal Kolo Muani (France) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the high centre of the goal.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3(3), France 3(1). Leandro Paredes (Argentina) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty missed! Bad penalty by Aurélien Tchouaméni (France) right footed shot is close, but misses to the left. Aurélien Tchouaméni should be disappointed.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3(2), France 3(1). Paulo Dybala (Argentina) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Penalty saved! Kingsley Coman (France) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3(1), France 3(1). Lionel Messi (Argentina) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3, France 3(1). Kylian Mbappé (France) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Attempt missed. Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Gonzalo Montiel following a fast break.\n• None Attempt saved. Randal Kolo Muani (France) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Ibrahima Konaté with a through ball.\n• None Offside, Argentina. Lionel Messi tries a through ball, but Lautaro Martínez is caught offside.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3, France 3. Kylian Mbappé (France) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds.", "Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, from Newham, east London, died in hospital on Saturday morning\n\nA woman has died after being injured in a crush at a gig at London's Brixton O2 Academy that left several others hurt.\n\nThe concert, by Afro-pop singer Asake, had to be abandoned part-way through after a \"large number of people\" tried to force their way inside on Thursday, the Met Police said.\n\nMother-of-two Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, from Newham, east London, died in hospital on Saturday morning, the Met said.\n\nHer family said she was a nursing graduate known for \"care and kindness\".\n\nTwo other women aged 21 and 23 remain in a critical condition, police added.\n\nAsake said he was \"overwhelmed with grief\" and \"devastated\" by her death.\n\nThe artist said he had spoken to Ms Ikumelo's family and asked people to \"keep them in our prayers\".\n\nIn a statement released through the Met, her family said Ms Ikumelo was an \"adorable mother of two children who loved working with kids\".\n\nThey said: \"She was well respected in the family for her care, kindness and love.\n\n\"Her parents call her Tosin (short for Oluwatosin) meaning 'Lord is Worthy'.\"\n\nAcademy Music Group, which owns and runs the venue, said in a statement: \"All at O2 Academy Brixton and Academy Music Group are deeply saddened by the news of the tragic death of Rebecca Ikumelo.\n\n\"We send our heartfelt condolences to Rebecca's family and friends, and our thoughts are with everyone affected by this devastating news at this extremely difficult time.\"\n\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan also wrote in a tweet he was \"heartbroken\" by the death.\n\nHe said it was \"vital that the investigation into what happened concludes as soon as possible\" and added that City Hall was working with authorities \"to ensure nothing like this happens again\".\n\nThe crush happened after a \"large number of people\" tried to force their way inside the Brixton O2 Academy, the Met Police said\n\nVideos on social media showed the crowd stretching from the road outside to the venue's doors.\n\nSpeaking at the scene on Friday, Ch Supt Colin Wingrove said: \"I'd like to extend my sympathies to all those who have been affected.\n\n\"Having seen some of the really upsetting images on social media our thoughts are with them,\" he added.\n\nThe force said more than 4,000 people were in attendance at the gig and it has set up a website for people to submit relevant photos and videos.\n\nThe Met Police said more than 4,000 people were at the gig and it urged witnesses to contact officers\n\nIn a statement outside Brixton police station on Friday afternoon, Mr Wingrove said officers were called by staff at the venue \"following reports that a large number of people were attempting to force entry\".\n\nHe added: \"Some officers provided first aid and CPR to members of the public in order to save life.\"\n\nFlorence Eshalomi, Labour MP for Vauxhall whose constituency includes Brixton, tweeted on Saturday: \"I visited the site this morning and I've been dreading this news ever since the incident and hoping it would never never come.\n\n\"My thoughts and prayers to Rebecca Ikumelo's family and friends. Such a tragic loss of a young 33yr with so much life ahead of her.\"\n\nThe first officers were reported to be on the scene at 21:11 GMT, seven minutes after they were called.\n\nThe concert was the final performance of three sold-out shows at the venue by singer Asake\n\nThe concert was the final performance of three sold-out shows at the venue by Nigerian singer Asake, sometimes known as Mr Money.\n\nBefore the gig, he had posted on Twitter asking fans not to try to gain entry unless they had tickets.\n\nIn a statement published on Twitter on Saturday, Asake said: \"I am overwhelmed with grief and could never have imagined anything like this happening.\n\n\"My team and I are still awaiting the full debrief back from the venue management and the police to determine what exactly led to all the disruption caused and ultimately to Rebecca's passing.\"\n\nHe urged anyone with information to contact police.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n• None What happened at the Brixton Academy crush?\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "An NHS midwife protesting against working conditions in November 2021.\n\nMidwives in Wales have voted for strike action over a \"disappointing and unacceptable\" pay award worth around 4% this year.\n\nBut action in England will not go ahead after the numbers taking part in the ballot fell short of the 50% needed.\n\nMidwives in England said the vote result exposed the flaws in the law around industrial action.\n\nThe Welsh government said it recognises the strength of feeling in the NHS.\n\nIn Wales, 55% of Royal College of Midwives (RCM) members responded to the ballot, with 91% voting in favour of strike action.\n\nIn England, the RCM said 47% of its 28,500 members voted in the ballot.\n\nOf those that did take part, 88% voted in favour of strike action.\n\nAny decision to take industrial action must be approved by the RCM's elected board. The union said it will now look at the result of the ballot and consider the next steps.\n\nJulie Richards, director for Wales at the RCM, said: \"Midwives in Wales are exhausted. The disappointing and unacceptable 4% pay offer simply reinforced their feelings of being overlooked and undervalued.\"\n\nShe added: \"Taking industrial action is always a last resort, and the decision taken by our members today shows just how desperate they are for policy makers to listen.\n\n\"The Welsh Government must now do so to get maternity services in Wales back on track, and to stop the inevitable exodus of demoralised staff.\"\n\nA spokesman for the Welsh Government said it recognises the \"anger and disappointment\" felt by public sector workers.\n\n\"We are unable to increase our pay offer without additional funding being made available by the UK government,\" he said.\n\n\"NHS Wales organisations are exploring all options to ensure there will be a safe level of staffing, with life-saving and life-maintaining care being provided during any industrial action.\"\n\nIn a separate announcement, physiotherapy staff in over half of NHS trusts in England and every health board in Wales also voted to take strike action, in their first ever ballot on pay.\n\n\"We are short-staffed, overworked, exhausted,\" said Jill Taylor, a physiotherapist and chair of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's pay committee.\n\n\"We need to attract people to the NHS and we need to keep people in the NHS. We simply cannot do this until the government gives NHS staff a fairer pay award.\"\n\nThe Westminster government has said it was disappointed NHS staff were taking industrial action but further pay rises were unaffordable in the current economic climate.", "The remains were found in a garden at a house in Handsworth police had been searching\n\nA child's body has been found during searches of a garden in Birmingham.\n\nWest Midlands Police said last week officers were searching the garden of the home in Clarence Road, Handsworth, after receiving information suggesting there had been a death there in 2020.\n\nA man, aged 40, and a woman, aged 41, were arrested on 9 December on suspicion of causing or allowing the death of a child and a separate case of wilful neglect.\n\nBoth have been charged with neglect.\n\nThey have been remanded in custody.\n\nPost-mortem tests on the body are due to be held, the police force said.\n\nThe force said the home's current occupiers were not connected to the inquiry.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Salah Hammouri has been held in Israeli administrative detention since March\n\nIsrael's interior ministry says it has deported a Palestinian-French human rights lawyer after accusing him of security threats.\n\nSalah Hammouri, 37, was escorted onto a flight to France by police early on Sunday morning, the ministry said.\n\nA lifelong resident of Jerusalem, he was stripped of his residency rights after officials accused him of being a member of a terrorist organisation.\n\nMr Hammouri denies the charges and rights groups have condemned the move.\n\nThe French foreign ministry also expressed disappointment at the decision, and said it condemned \"the Israeli authorities' decision, against the law, to expel Salah Hammouri to France\".\n\nBut in a statement, the Israeli interior ministry said Mr Hammouri had \"organised, inspired and planned to commit terror attacks\" against \"citizens and well-known Israelis\".\n\nInterior Minister Ayelet Shaked, part of the outgoing Israeli government, hailed the move as a personal success.\n\n\"Justice has been done to the terrorist and he has been deported from Israel,\" she said in a statement.\n\n\"This was a long and protracted process and it is a tremendous achievement that I was able to bring about his deportation just before the end of my duties, using the tools at my disposal to advance the fight against terrorism.\"\n\nMr Hammouri holds French citizenship through his mother. He held residency rights in Jerusalem - a fragile system used by Palestinians in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem which can be revoked by authorities. He does not hold Israeli citizenship.\n\nHe works for Addameer, a Palestinian legal aid and prisoners' rights group that was designated a terrorist organisation by the Israeli defence ministry in October 2021 along with five other Palestinian civil society groups.\n\nThe military said they were linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Palestinian militant group that Israel considers a terrorist organisation.\n\nIn 2005 he was jailed for six years after being accused of attempting to assassinate an ultra-Orthodox rabbi and political leader, which he denied.\n\nIn March, Mr Hammouri was arrested and the Israeli military commander in the occupied West Bank ordered that he be held without charge or trial for three months under what is known as administrative detention.\n\nSuch detention orders are routinely used by Israel to hold suspected militants for months at a time without charging them or putting them on trial.\n\nAfter four months in detention, Mr Hammouri wrote a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron appealing for help. He was subsequently classified as \"a prisoner of high risk\" and transferred to a high security prison in central Israel.\n\nIn late September, he began a hunger strike to protest against his administrative detention. He ended it after 19 days, during which he was reportedly placed in solitary confinement.\n\nLast month, he was informed he would be deported without trial, but the expulsion was delayed as his lawyers contested the case. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal earlier this month.\n\nAmnesty International condemned his deportation and said he was \"paying a high price for his work as a lawyer for Palestinians\".\n\n\"The expulsion from the occupied Palestinian territories constitutes a serious violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention and a potential war crime,\" the body added. \"It could also constitute a crime against humanity.\"\n\nAnd HaMoked, a Palestinian rights group, said the deportation set \"a dangerous precedent\" and constituted \"a gross violation of basic rights\".", "The Welsh Ambulance Service is experiencing high demand on its services due to the cold weather\n\nWales' health minister has said she was \"hopeful\" ambulances would get to the most serious calls when paramedics plan to strike on Wednesday.\n\nEluned Morgan said red category life-threatening calls would be prioritised but people \"need to consider\" pressure on other calls \"will be even greater\".\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service said it had been experiencing high call demand as a result of the icy weather.\n\nIt has called on people to only dial 999 in a life-threatening emergency.\n\nThe UK government has made arrangements to deploy 1,200 members of the military and 1,000 civil servants in England during Wednesday's strike.\n\nMs Morgan said the army had a role to play but soldiers would not be driving ambulances in Wales.\n\n\"We will not be using the army to transport people, but we are going to be using the army for logistics,\" she told BBC Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement.\n\nEluned Morgan said NHS Wales would be \"under immense\" pressure this week with separate strikes by ambulance workers and nurses\n\n\"That is making sure we use the capacity we do have to its maximum effect.\n\n\"We have discussed that with trade unions and they seem to be comfortable with that particular use of the services.\"\n\nMs Morgan said NHS Wales would be \"under immense\" pressure this week with separate action by ambulance workers and a nurses' strike on 20 December.\n\nAsked if she was confident people in with red category calls would get an ambulance during the strike, Ms Morgan said: \"We're hopeful they will if they are in that category on Wednesday.\n\n\"But that means the pressure on those not in that category will be even greater, that's something people need to consider.\n\n\"And, obviously, it's important that people seek clinical advice.\"\n\nShe said people calling the NHS Wales 111 advice line and the 999 service would be directed to the most appropriate help.\n\n\"And there will be occasions when you'll be encouraged to try and get yourself to hospital if it is genuinely difficult and not that life-threatening situation,\" she said.\n\nMembers of the RCN on the picket line outside the University Hospital Wales in Cardiff\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service recorded its worst-ever performance in October, latest figures have shown, responding to less than half of red category calls within eight minutes.\n\nSome 10,000 ambulance staff are striking across most of Wales and England on 21 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nMeanwhile, Helen Whyley, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) director in Wales, said there will \"absolutely\" be more nursing strikes in the new year.\n\nWelsh Conservative health spokesman Russell George called it \"totally disingenuous\" for the first minister to say he could do nothing.\n\n\"I am also surprised that the health minister is so candid, only being hopeful that ambulances will actually reach the most serious situations,\" Mr George said.\n\n\"However, that seems to be the case even when there isn't a strike on, with Wales recording its slowest response times on record in October.\n\n\"Labour need to get a grip on the NHS.\"", "Angel di Maria finishes off a lovely team move as Argentina take a 2-0 lead over France in the World Cup final.\n\nWatch all the World Cup action across the BBC Sport website and on demand on BBC iPlayer.\n\nWatch more of our World Cup 2022 video\n\nAvailable to UK users only.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jim Thewliss said the Scottish government's spending plans would lead to cuts in schools\n\nSome school subjects will have to scrapped as a result of the Scottish government's budget, a teaching union chief has said.\n\nThe general secretary of School Leaders Scotland claimed the number of pupils per class would also rise, with teacher vacancies to remain unfilled.\n\nIt comes as Cosla warned of job losses and service cuts in local authorities.\n\nThe government says it will work with local authorities to \"protect what matters in Scottish society\".\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney laid out the draft budget on Thursday, announcing a change to Scotland's tax rates that will put more of the burden on those earning more than £43,000.\n\nHe also pledged a £1bn increase in health and social care spending as well as a £550m year-on-year increase for local government.\n\nHowever, analysis published by Cosla suggests the cash increase could be just £71m once Scottish government-mandated policies are paid for, while it claims capital funding will remain flat for next year.\n\nThe organisation had called for a £1bn cash injection to maintain current services and fund pay deals for staff.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nJim Thewliss, general secretary of the School Leaders Scotland union, said the spending plans would lead to cuts in schools.\n\n\"We are now at a stage where we really have a service where if you're going to start to cut any more you're cutting into the basic functions of the service, which is essentially … the number of teachers in front of young people in schools,\" he told BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show.\n\n\"Vacancies which are already identified within schools - head teachers have been told these are not going to be filled.\"\n\nMr Thewliss said teachers across the country were expecting increases in class sizes and said some subjects would be removed if \"deemed as non-viable\".\n\nHe gave the example of higher modern languages subjects, which he said often had small class sizes of four or five pupils.\n\n\"We're now starting to find even greater pressure coming upon what is deemed as non-viable in terms of class sizes,\" the union chief told the programme.\n\nHe added: \"We have bought entirely into the whole notion of young people having the best educational experience and the best life chances that they can have.\n\n\"We are now in the position … of managing expectations to a degree. And I've no idea where we're going to move with this but it's becoming much, much more challenging in managing those expectations at the same time as promoting aspiration.\"\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nKatie Hagman, an SNP councillor and Cosla resources spokesperson, said the budget announcement had been met with \"extreme disappointment\" after the organisation said it received less than a tenth of what it had asked for from the government.\n\nShe told The Sunday Show: \"If we got the £1bn that would save, potentially, job cuts.\n\n\"What it translates to is equivalent of, say, 17,500 teachers. We're looking at essential services, things like youth work, things like economic development, working with our third sectors as well for domestic abuse and family support services.\n\n\"All these are considered essential services and we're at the front line of local government and it's these types of services that we will be desperately trying to protect.\"\n\nMr Swinney defended his budget announcement but acknowledged he had set out a \"bleak picture\" in parliament.\n\nHe told the programme that the war in Ukraine had increased inflation and the financial stress had been \"compounded by some of the significant strategic mistakes\" by the UK government.\n\nHe disputed claims the councils had been short-changed, saying their funding had increased by £570m year-on-year.\n\nIn response to warnings of service and jobs cuts, he said: \"Local government came to me and asked for £1bn and I said up front there was just no way I was going to be able to achieve that. But I have managed to put £570m into the local government settlement.\n\n\"I've said to local authorities we need to work together to ensure that we protect what matters in Scottish society, which is preventative early intervention services where we do our best to change the outcomes for people within our society.\"\n\nWhile the Deputy First Minister said councils would have to be \"open to the concept of public sector reform\", he insisted education was the government's priority.\n\n\"There's sustained investment being made in local authority expenditure, there is sustained investment being made in the Scottish attainment challenge, sustained investment in early learning and child care, key elements of how we deliver the curriculum and how we ensure people are well supported and young people are well supported to fulfil their potential,\" Mr Swinney added.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Scenes of devastation after tank explosion at Berlin hotel\n\nBerlin police say they are not seeking suspects following the explosion of the \"AquaDom\" aquarium on Friday, warning the public about what they say is a fake tweet suggesting they are.\n\nThe explosion in the Radisson Blu hotel spilled one million litres of saltwater, flooding the hotel and nearby streets.\n\nHundreds of fish died and two people were injured by falling glass.\n\nInspectors have now declared the building safe.\n\nA police source told local media on Friday there was no evidence the blast in the 15.85m high (52 ft) aquarium was the result of a targeted attack.\n\nThey have also taken to social media to debunk a tweet from a copycat account that is asking for the public's help in tracking down suspects linked to the incident.\n\nA tweet from the real Berlin police account says that they \"expressly dissociate\" themselves from the fake post and have asked people not to recirculate it.\n\nAn investigation into the exact cause of the explosion is ongoing but there has been speculation that the freezing temperatures - which dropped as low as -6C overnight on Friday - may have caused a crack in the tank.\n\nBerlin's Interior Senator, Iris Spranger, told the DPA news agency that first signs suggest that the cause was \"material fatigue\".\n\nUS company Reynolds Polymer Technology, which was involved in the building of the tank, has said it will send a team to investigate the rupture but that it is too early to determine the cause.\n\nThe authorities in Berlin are still investigating the exact cause of the AquaDom explosion\n\nAquaDom was opened in December 2003 and was given the Guinness World Record for being the world's largest cylindrical aquarium.\n\nAccording to reports at the time of its construction, it cost about €12.8m (£11.2m) to build. It was last refurbished in 2020.\n\nThere has reportedly been extensive damage to the lobby at the Radisson Blu hotel from Friday's explosion, with a spokesman for the local fire department telling German broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg that it \"looks like a battlefield\".\n\nFriedrich Engel, a spokesperson for the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, which assists in emergencies, has said that the building has been classified as safe and handed back to the owners.\n\nA spokesman for the owner, Union Investment, has told the media that the building is not in danger of collapsing.\n\nThe hotel has been closed indefinitely and its guests have been relocated.\n\nOther businesses in the building complex are also reported to have suffered damage.\n\nThe AquaDom in Berlin contained about 1,500 fish and over a million litres of water\n\nWhile the majority of the 1,500 fish kept in the aquarium were killed in the explosion, some managed to survive and have been taken elsewhere.\n\nHundreds more fish that were kept in the basement for breeding purposes were also at risk from the power cut that followed the incident but they have also now been moved to safety.\n\nThe animal rights group Help for Animals in Need has started an online petition urging against the installation of a new aquarium.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nCroatia's third top-three finish at the World Cup has a \"golden layer\", said boss Zlatko Dalic after his side clinched a play-off victory over history-makers Morocco.\n\nDalic's side were runners-up to France four years ago and confirmed their status as one of the elite footballing nations with another third-place finish to go alongside that secured in their competition debut in 1998.\n\nIn a frantic opening, Josko Gvardiol gave Croatia the lead on seven minutes with a superb diving header but Achraf Dari levelled just two minutes later by nodding home from close range.\n\nMislav Orsic curled in a sumptuous second for Croatia via the post three minutes before half-time and struck a thumping, deflected drive into the side-netting after the break.\n\nThe second half could not match the energy of a thrilling opening period and Morocco failed to find an equaliser as a fruitful campaign ended in back-to-back defeats.\n\nDalic said: \"We won the bronze medal and it has a golden layer, it is like we have won the gold medal tonight.\n\n\"Fighting for the third place play-off and losing would have been a disaster. This is the end of a cycle, end of a journey. My players spared no efforts and these are what we work for.\"\n\nIt's the game no team wants to be involved in but in the end Croatia, a country with a population under four million, will be highly satisfied with another outstanding showing on the global stage.\n\nAt the heart of the team is influential skipper Luka Modric, running the show once again at the age of 37 on his 162nd cap, though this could well be his final appearance at a World Cup.\n\n\"This is the last World Cup for some of my players due to their age,\" said Dalic. \"But we have young players in our team and there is a great hope for Croatia. We have many young players on the bench. The older players instil confidence in them.\n\n\"Croatia has nothing to fear for the future. Is this the end of an era? I believe not, we have the Nations League and European Championship in 2024. I believe Croatia has a fascinating future.\"\n\nCroatia's opener was straight off the training ground, Ivan Perisic flicking on a free-kick that was latched on to by Gvardiol's brilliant finish, flying through the air to head into the far corner.\n\nBut Morocco levelled immediately courtesy of Dari, a looping ball falling into his path to convert from a few yards out and spark rowdy celebrations in the stands.\n\nTeenage midfielder Bilal El Khannouss, making his Morocco debut at 18, showed confident touches but was culpable for Croatia's second goal, giving the ball away deep in his own half and ultimately handing over victory.\n\nMarko Livaja laid the ball off for Orsic, who curled a glorious first time finish past the despairing reach of goalkeeper Yassine Bounou and into the net via the post.\n\nSevilla striker Youssef En-Nesyri had Morocco's best chances for an equaliser, forcing knockout round penalty hero Dominik Livakovic into a sharp save from close range and heading on to the roof of the net in injury time.\n\nWalid Regragui's men made history by becoming the first African side to reach the semi-finals and their passionate players and supporters have lit up this tournament.\n\nTheir following sang and banged their drum for the entirety of this game and, despite being beaten in the last four by defending champions France and here by Croatia, they will look back on their achievements at this tournament with fond memories.\n\nRegragui said: \"The doubts were in the minds of everyone before this tournament but we have gone further than expected and it is not enough. That needs to set the example for the future.\n\n\"Something that has touched me is when I see the pictures of children because football makes people dream. We have allowed children to dream, we have kept those dreams alive.\n\n\"Children in Morocco and around the world dream of winning the World Cup and that means more to me than winning any game at the World Cup.\n\n\"We have made a fantastic achievement but we want to do that again. If we can keep reaching the semi-final or quarter final regularly, one day we will win the World Cup.\"\n• None Attempt missed. Youssef En-Nesyri (Morocco) header from the centre of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Yahya Attiat-Allah with a cross.\n• None Offside, Morocco. Sofyan Amrabat tries a through ball, but Youssef En-Nesyri is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Hakim Ziyech (Morocco) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Azzedine Ounahi.\n• None Attempt blocked. Youssef En-Nesyri (Morocco) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Achraf Hakimi with a cross.\n• None Offside, Morocco. Sofyan Amrabat tries a through ball, but Anass Zaroury is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Mateo Kovacic (Croatia) left footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Mislav Orsic.\n• None Selim Amallah (Morocco) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Northern Ireland Office officials were debating flag policies in the 1990s, archived memos reveal\n\nAn end to flying the union flag from government buildings on 12 July would \"redress the effects of patriotic exuberance\" by a unionist government in NI, a government memo from 1994 says.\n\nThe note is among almost 500 documents from the 1990s now published online.\n\nIn it, Northern Ireland Office (NIO) officials were debating whether to bring government flag policy into line with that in England and Wales.\n\nThe files were previously available at the Public Record Office of NI (PRONI).\n\nAnother memo notes that \"only one (Irish) chair had been smashed up by a guest in the early hours\" at a St Patrick's Day party for Irish and British diplomats.\n\nThe documents are available on the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) website, as part of a partnership between PRONI and Ulster University.\n\nAt one point, it had been under threat of closure but its future was secured by new funding in 2021.\n\nThe decision to fly the union flag on government buildings on the Twelfth had originally been taken by the Northern Ireland cabinet in April 1933.\n\nIn 1994, both the IRA and Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) declared ceasefires.\n\nIt was in that context that NIO officials debated whether the policy on flying the union flag should change.\n\nThey also considered some designs for a new Northern Ireland flag suggested by an academic called Dr Martin Ball.\n\nAn artistic impression of the \"proposed new flag for Northern Ireland\" based on a design suggested in the 1995 memo\n\n\"There is much to be said for an early initiative to demonstrate government's readiness to grasp the nettle of identity issues rather than appearing to concede to pressure from Sinn Féin at a later stage,\" one NIO memo stated.\n\n\"Regrettably, the union flag lacks in Northern Ireland the politically neutral connotations which it enjoys in the rest of the United Kingdom.\n\n\"However, any decision to remove 12 July from the list of prescribed days - even though the day itself would continue to be a bank and public holiday - may be expected to provoke some strong unionist reaction.\n\n\"The day is redolent with unionist political overtones and the delisting of it for flag-flying purposes would be interpreted as a dissociation by the state from the unionist tradition.\"\n\nAnother memo also warned that not flying the union flag on government buildings on 12 July \"would undoubtedly provoke unionist ire\".\n\nAnother official, though, asked: \"Is this what we want? Now?\n\n\"Surely there are better arguments than to say we are kicking unionists before Sinn Féin ask us to?\"\n\nAn artistic impression of the \"South African-style proposal\" which was among the suggestions for a new NI flag in the 1995 memo\n\nNevertheless, the writer of that memo, an official called PN Bell, said the move was a \"courageous (in the 'yes, minister' sense) proposal\".\n\n\"Slán agus beannacht,\" he signed off his memo, an Irish-language phrase often translated as goodbye and God bless.\n\nIn the event, the Flags (Northern Ireland) Order 2000 eventually brought official flag-flying in Northern Ireland more closely into line with the rest of the UK with little fanfare or protest.\n\nHowever, there were widespread loyalist protests following a later decision by Belfast City Council in 2012 to fly the union flag at City Hall only on designated days.\n\nA vote to reduce flag-flying at Belfast City Hall led to protest marches and rallies in 2012\n\nA later memo from March 1997 lauds the success of a St Patrick's Day reception held for NIO and Irish government officials at the Anglo-Irish Secretariat building outside Belfast.\n\n\"The Irish side reckoned that, although the numbers were slightly down on the last Christmas reception, approximately 250 people had attended, and only one (Irish) chair had been smashed up by a guest in the early hours,\" it recorded.\n\nOther NIO memos from the time include the government's responses to Orange Order requests for \"confidence-building measures\", including that the Order was \"a cultural group worthy of funding on the same scale as Gaelic language groups, Gaelic schools, Gaelic Athletic Association etc\".\n\n\"By and large, the requests cannot be met to any great extent,\" the NIO memo stated.\n\nMany of the state papers reflect the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and the politics of the time.\n\nBut some now published online reflect other events.\n\nFor instance, minutes of a meeting between the then secretary of state Peter Brooke and Catholic bishops in 1989 reflected the bishops' concern that education reform would favour integrated schools over Catholic schools.\n\nThere is also a letter from the former owner of Harrods department store Mohamed Al-Fayed to the former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MLA Sir John Gorman.\n\nSir John was the chair of the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue, a body set up in 1996 to try to bring politicians together before the Good Friday Agreement.\n\nSir John had written to Mr Al-Fayed to offer condolences after his son Dodi was killed alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, and their driver in a car crash in Paris in 1997.\n\nA tribute to the late Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed was erected in Harrods in the late 1990s\n\n\"Dodi was always kind, gentle and decent,\" Mr Al-Fayed wrote in reply.\n\n\"The whole family loved Princess Diana but Dodi cherished her friendship more dearly than his own existence.\n\n\"As his father, of course I think he was special.\n\n\"But I am sure that a wonderful woman like Princess Diana, with that unique star-bright quality, would never have given her affection to anyone outside that part of the heavens that is set aside for the truly exceptional.\n\n\"I take some comfort from my absolute belief that God has taken their souls to live together in paradise.\"", "A record number of people died from alcohol last year, which is likely to be the result of increased drinking during the pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics.\n\nThere were 9,641 deaths in the UK in 2021, compared to 7,565 in 2019 - a 27% increase.\n\nThe ONS says people who were already big drinkers before the pandemic drank more during the Covid years.\n\nCharity Drinkaware said the numbers were \"devastating\" and \"unacceptable\".\n\nThe 2021 figures are alcohol-specific deaths, which are defined as a direct consequence of alcohol. Most are from alcoholic liver disease.\n\nThey account for around a third of all deaths linked to alcohol.\n\nIn 2021, UK rates of alcohol-specific deaths per 100,000 people were highest in Scotland and lowest in England:\n\n\"Research has suggested that people who were already drinking at higher levels before the pandemic were the most likely to have increased their alcohol consumption during this period,\" says James Tucker, from the Office for National Statistics.\n\nAs with previous years, men were twice as likely as women to die from alcohol.\n\nIn the seven years running up to 2019, rates of alcohol-specific deaths in the UK had remained pretty stable, before going up in 2020 and 2021.\n\n\"These statistics are absolutely devastating, each number masking an individual family tragedy,\" says Karen Tyrell, from Drinkaware.\n\n\"It is unacceptable that in one of the richest countries in the world, the rate of alcohol-related deaths was four times higher among men in the poorest areas compared to the most affluent.\"\n\nShe said warning signs of the heaviest drinkers drinking more during the pandemic were missed, because people were less able to access support.\n\nDrinkaware is now calling for a new co-ordinated UK-wide alcohol strategy to reduce the damage from alcohol to society and public services.\n\nAn increase in alcohol duty (or tax) in the price paid for alcohol is seen as one way of reducing harm to drinkers, by discouraging the production and sale of cheap, high-strength alcohol.\n\nDr Katherine Severi, chief executive of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said: \"Despite opposition from commercial interests, we can't afford to delay or dilute policies that help save lives.\"\n\nThe UK government says it is committed to simplifying the current system for alcohol duty, calling it complicated and outdated. This is likely to happen in 2023.\n• None ONS - Alcohol-specific deaths in the UK in 2021 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Levi used to play for the Bath rugby team and now plays for Worthing RFC\n\nA £10,000 reward is being offered to help find a British rugby player who has disappeared in Barcelona.\n\nLevi Davis has been missing in Spain for over a month, last being seen on 29 October.\n\nHis mum Julie previously told BBC Newsbeat about her frustration at the \"slow\" progress of the investigation.\n\nThe 24-year-old's family also announced a private investigator called Gavin Burrows would now be involved in the hope of gathering more information.\n\nJulie said the family were \"thankful\" to him for volunteering his services.\n\n\"The fact that we've got now him involved will mean that there'll be more more eyes on deck, in hopefully finding Levi.\"\n\nThe Worthing Raiders winger travelled by boat from Ibiza, where he visited a friend, on 29 October.\n\nHe was last seen on CCTV leaving the Old Irish Pub in the centre of Barcelona at about 22:00.\n\nThe rugby union player has not been seen or heard from since.\n\n\"I'm concerned about Levi's welfare, if he's eating OK. I just don't know how he's managing to get by from day-to-day,\" Julie says.\n\nJulie has described the last few weeks as \"the scariest time\" of her life and \"an emotional whirlwind\"\n\nJulie, from Solihull in the West Midlands, last had contact with her son a few hours before he went missing.\n\nHe sent her a video taken on board his boat from Ibiza, showing the view from the deck and telling her: \"It's beautiful here\".\n\nSince the end of October there have been a few possible sightings of Levi - but none have been confirmed as him.\n\nThen, almost three weeks ago, his passport was discovered at Barcelona's port area.\n\nSpanish police have confirmed this to the BBC, but say they can't comment on the investigation any further at this stage.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Levi's mum has shared the last video message from him sent just hours before he disappeared\n\n\"Since the last thing we heard about the passport, there's been no more information,\" Julie says.\n\nShe travelled to Barcelona with her son Nathan a few weeks ago to search for Levi herself, and is planning to go back again soon.\n\nLevi previously played for Bath Rugby, which shared the appeal over his disappearance a month ago.\n\nHe's also known for his TV appearances in ITV's Celebrity X Factor in 2019 and E4's Celebs Go Dating in 2020.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Data shows that 49 probationary constables quit in the last financial year\n\nResignations among newly-recruited Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers have doubled in two years, prompting the force to carry out a review.\n\nOne constable told BBC News NI pay was a major issue - he was earning £11.91 an hour and had a second job outside his police shifts.\n\n\"I'm about to work my 16th day in a row between the two jobs,\" he said.\n\n\"If I had a mortgage to pay I would be finished.\"\n\nRecruits undergo a 23-week training programme before spending two years as a probationary constable.\n\nData shows 49 probationary constables quit in the past financial year - up from 25 during the previous 12 months.\n\nThe PSNI spent more than £1m training them.\n\nThe numbers are in sharp contrast to the picture 10 years ago, when eight officers quit in the period after training.\n\nStarter pay is just over £21,000 - about £7,000 less than in Scotland - although increments can eventually push a constable's salary to around £40,000 over time.\n\nAfter completing training, officers are also paid a £3,500 allowance in acknowledgement of the additional security threat faced by police in Northern Ireland.\n\nBut the cost-of-living crisis appears to have created big problems amongst new joiners.\n\nThe Police Federation, which represents officers, put BBC News NI in contact with a number of officers who spoke on condition of anonymity.\n\nThe constable with the second job is in his early 20s.\n\n\"I had to get clearance to do the other job and more are going down that route,\" he said.\n\n\"I've seen people resign but I haven't considered it as it's what I always wanted to do.\n\n\"The stress is a lot more than people realise, especially with there being a security threat.\"\n\nA constable with six years' experience - and higher up the pay ladder - said: \"You are seeing one or two resignations a week.\"\n\nHe said things are \"pretty dire\", with the PSNI's squeezed budget having impacted on officer overtime.\n\n\"We pay quite heavily into our pension. But people are opting out of it as they can't afford the £300-400 a month.\n\n\"That's going to effect their long-term futures.\"\n\nThe issue has been discussed between PSNI commanders and the Policing Board.\n\nUlster Unionist Party board member Mike Nesbitt said: \"Some attrition is inevitable. There is always the odd recruit finding 'it's not for me'.\n\n\"But my concern is around pay. It is not attractive especially when you think officers are subject to a terrorist threat.\n\n\"Pay is the most significant fact in the rise in attrition rates.\"\n\nIn response to the figures, which were disclosed under a Freedom of Information request, the PSNI said it was reviewing the situation.\n\n\"Once this work is completed, we will be in a position to identify what, if any, specific actions are required by us as an organisation to reduce attrition rates,\" a spokesperson said.", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEngland winger Raheem Sterling is to return to Qatar before Saturday's World Cup quarter-final against France.\n\nThe Chelsea player, 28, flew back to England on Sunday following a break-in at his family home in Surrey.\n\nSterling's spokesperson said he left the England camp to \"prioritise the wellbeing\" of his three young children.\n\nHe missed England's 3-0 win over Senegal in the last 16, but is expected to rejoin the squad in Al Wakrah on Friday.\n\nSterling, who has 81 international caps, scored for England in a 6-2 win against Iran in their opening game at the World Cup.\n\nHe also started the goalless draw against the United States before being an unused substitute in the 3-0 win against Wales that saw England qualify for the knockout stages as group winners.\n\nHis representative had said Sterling's family was at home on Saturday when there were \"armed intruders\". The former Liverpool and Manchester City forward was said to be \"shaken\" and concerned for the wellbeing of his children.\n\nSterling's team-mate Kalvin Phillips says the incident has made other England players concerned too.\n\n\"I think once one player goes through it, there is always a thought in the back of your mind that it might happen to you or to somebody else,\" said Manchester City midfielder Phillips.\n\n\"It isn't a nice feeling - when you are so far away from home and you've got family at home. There isn't much we can do about it but Raheem feels good enough now to join back up with us and we're very happy about that. We're glad his family is well.\"\n\nHe added he was not aware of any conversations with the FA about enhancing security.\n\nIn a statement, Surrey police said it was investigating a report of a burglary after the occupants of the house returned to find jewellery and watches had been taken, but that no threats of violence were involved.\n\nOn Wednesday, the police said they are not linking the case to another attempted burglary in the same village.\n\nNo arrests have been made yet in relation to the break-in at Sterling's home.\n\nThe Football Association is yet to reveal exactly what it was told about the incident before Sterling's departure.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Surface pollution on the Leeds Liverpool Canal in Lancashire, England, UK\n\nSeveral water companies in England and Wales are \"letting down their customers and the environment\" the industry regulator said on Thursday.\n\nIn its annual review Ofwat said that despite some improvements it remains deeply concerned.\n\nThis year water companies have come under increasing scrutiny following numerous pollution incidents from untreated sewage in rivers.\n\nIndustry body Water UK conceded there was more work to be done.\n\nThe report reviewed the performance of the 17 largest water and wastewater companies in England and Wales.\n\nNorthumbrian Water, Southern Water, South West Water, Thames Water, Welsh Water and Yorkshire Water were named as the worst performing companies.\n\nChristine McGourty, chief executive of Water UK, whose members include all water and wastewater companies in the UK, said: \"There are areas of good performance, but this report clearly shows there's more to do... to meet the stretching targets of the regulators, as well as the high expectations of the public.\"\n\nIn 2021-2022 the number of serious pollution incidents in England and Wales increased and only four companies met the requirements for reducing sewage flooding.\n\nOfwat said that companies \"have again failed to clearly explain\" how this performance is linked to their shareholder payouts and staff bonuses.\n\nEarlier this year analysis by the Lib Dems showed that England water company executives have been paid nearly £27m in bonuses since 2020.\n\nIn November, Ofwat handed out nearly £132m in fines to water companies for pollution and ordered them to return almost £17m to customers for lack of service.\n\nThe regulator has said it will require companies to \"increase customer focus\" as part of a new licensing condition. It is not yet clear how this will be measured.\n\nOfwat Chief Executive David Black said: \"For some companies poor performance has become the norm. This cannot go on.\"\n\nDuring heavy rains storm overflow systems are used to discharge untreated sewage into the UK's rivers\n\nThe report concluded that water companies spent only 68% of what they had earmarked for improvements.\n\nThey had made progress on targets to reduce water leaks but \"there was still some way to go\".\n\nDaily demand for water in England and Wales was 14 billion litres (three billion gallons), in 2018.\n\nBut each day, another three billion litres was lost through leakage, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report.\n\nWater companies in Scotland are regulated by the Water Industry Commissioner for Scotland, and in Northern Ireland by the Utility Regulator.", "Nicola Wheatley, Morgan Rogers, Paul O'Dwyer and Andrea Powell were among those who died\n\nThe deaths of four people on a paddleboarding trip was \"tragic and avoidable\", a report has said.\n\nThe organisation of the trip on the River Cleddau on 30 October 2021 was strongly criticised by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch MAIB.\n\nPaul O'Dwyer, 42, Morgan Rogers, 24, Nicola Wheatley, 40, and Andrea Powell, 41, all died as a result of the trip in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.\n\nAn inquest into their deaths was adjourned to allow investigations.\n\nMr O'Dwyer, from Port Talbot, Ms Rogers, from Merthyr Tydfil, and Ms Wheatley, of Pontarddulais, all died at the scene in Pembrokeshire.\n\nMs Powell, from Bridgend, died in hospital on 5 November 2021.\n\nMAIB chief inspector Andy Moll has now said the accident was \"tragic and avoidable\".\n\nFloral tributes were laid close to where the paddleboarders died\n\nMr O'Dwyer, an Army veteran, was one of the leaders of the excursion, organised by the Salty Dog Company of Port Talbot, and was travelling at the rear of the group.\n\nThe other leader survived the tragedy.\n\nNine paddleboarders set off at about 09:00 - there were two leaders, the wife of one of the leaders and six paying participants.\n\nFour paddleboarders got into difficulties at a weir on the western Cleddau, outside County Hall.\n\nThey were trapped by \"hydraulic towback, with no means of escape,\" the report stated.\n\nAlthough the leaders of the group were experienced paddleboarders, they had \"no experience to teach novices on fast-flowing rivers\".\n\nThe MAIB said the leaders' planning and preparation was inadequate and overlooked the extreme hazard posed by the weir.\n\nThey did not have adequate training, experience or qualifications to lead the group from Haverfordwest to Burton Ferry.\n\nSpecially trained firefighters were involved in the rescue operation\n\nSigns at the launch site and on the river were said to be inadequate, along with clothing and buoyancy aids.\n\nThe MAIB also criticised UK stand-up paddleboarding, saying safety messaging and training governance was inconsistent.\n\nSeveral safety recommendations have been made by the authors of the report, including risk assessments from Welsh Water in collaboration with Pembrokeshire council and Milford Haven Port Authority.\n\nThe paddleboarders got into difficulties at a weir outside County Hall\n\nCh Insp Moll said stand-up paddleboarding was one of the \"fastest-growing UK watersports\", with a 300% increase in numbers in recent years and urged participants to be aware of the risks.\n\n\"Firstly, wear the right equipment. Always wear a buoyancy aid,\" he said.\n\n\"In certain conditions, weirs can develop treacherous hydraulic towbacks that can trap and drown you.\"\n\nCCTV footage showed the paddleboarders on the River Cleddau\n\nAfter the deaths, a woman was arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter and released. Prosecutors are still considering whether charges will be brought against her.\n\nPembrokeshire council said it had taken further steps, ahead of receipt of the MAIB final report, by putting up more warning signs on the banks of the river upstream from the weir.\n\nPembrokeshire council said it had taken steps including putting up warning signs\n\n\"Along with other organisations, the council has made itself available to assist Dwr Cymru Welsh Water, which owns and is responsible for the weir, in preparation of the risk assessment which was the recommendation from the MAIB.\n\n\"The matter remains in the hands of HM Senior Coroner for Pembrokeshire and an inquest will be held in due course. It would be inappropriate to comment further pending that process.\"\n\nFollowing a separate and unrelated inquest into another paddleboard death on Wednesday, coroner John Gittens said he noted similarities between the two cases.\n\nFollowing the death of 24-year-old Emma Powell in July, Mr Gittens said he would write to Tesco, where Ms Powell bought her board, and the UK government regarding his concerns over safety.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "People are being urged to look out for vulnerable friends and relatives as we face a \"winter like no other\", a charity has said.\n\nBen Saltmarsh from National Energy Action said: \"It's going to get worse, especially as it gets colder.\"\n\nThe warning comes as cold weather payments were triggered across 300 postcode areas including parts of Wales.\n\nThe Met Office has weather warnings in force for Thursday and Friday.\n\nCold Weather Payments are triggered when the temperature drops below 0C or under.\n\nThere are 25 Cold Weather Payments for eligible people in more than 300 postcode areas and they are paid for a seven-day period.\n\nThese include postcodes within South and Mid Wales, Hereford, Llysdinam, Carmarthenshire, Shawbury, North East Wales, and Denbighshire and Powys.\n\nCharities such as Age Connects are opening warm spaces to stop people having to endure cold temperatures in their own homes.\n\nMr Saltmarsh added that energy companies were \"duty-bound\" to help the most vulnerable.\n\nBen Saltmarsh from National Energy Action is urging people to check up on vulnerable friends and family this winter\n\nHe said: \"We certainly don't want households to suffer in silence, so if you are worried about friends, family or neighbours, please check on them.\n\n\"And if you are worried about yourself and your own home please claim what support you are entitled to and contact your energy supplier who are duty-bound to support you.\"\n\nOn Wednesday, the UK Health Security Agency advised people to heat living rooms during the day and bedrooms at night as the cold snap hits the country.\n\nSnow and ice warnings have been issued for Wales, as well as parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland and the east coast of England.\n\nThe first significant cold spell comes as households grapple with high energy bills and rising costs for food and fuel.\n\nNational Energy Action has compiled details of the help available for people.\n\nMr Saltmarsh said: \"I think this has the potential to be a winter like no other, with energy prices as high as they are, with the cost of living crisis as it is.\"\n\nAge Connects opened its community cafe in Barry as a warm hub\n\nThe cold weather has led some local authorities and charitable organisations to offer warm hubs, such as libraries and community centres.\n\nThe older people's charity Age Connects is offering warm places for people to avoid the cold and save on their own energy bills.\n\nOne of the places is at the Age Connects café in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, where visitors can enjoy low-cost hot drinks and a game of bingo.\n\n\"There's a lot of people suffering, and it is upsetting,\" said 82-year-old Patricia Hunt.\n\nShe has been coming to the café regularly in order to get out of the house, and has enjoyed meeting new friends.\n\nHazel Sewell, 64, said the café offered a cup of tea and a mince pie for £1.50 and was \"cheaper than being at home\".\n\n\"Yesterday I had the grandchildren over for tea, so I ran the gas and the electric. I was checking it before bed, and it was an extra £2 yesterday.\n\n\"If that multiplies every day it's an extra £14 a week, which is a lot of money.\"\n\nHazel Sewell (left) and Patricia Hunt (right) attend the cafe because staying warm at home is getting too expensive\n\nCafé manager Nicci Jones said the cost of living dominated discussions over cups of tea.\n\n\"The topic of conversation is just heating and how are we going to afford everything,\" she said.\n\nMrs Jones started working at the café in April and has seen demand grow recently.\n\n\"I worry all the time about them,\" she said.\n\n\"When I get home I am still conscious about putting the heating on and how long I am leaving it on for, because of the cost of it.\n\n\"So for the people who can't afford it, I just think at least they have got this place to come to between Monday and Friday. It's a godsend.\"", "Jet Black, the original drummer for 1970s and 80s punks The Stranglers, has died aged 84, the band has confirmed.\n\nThe musician, who was born Brian Duffy, was a founding member of the Guildford group, playing on hits like Golden Brown, Peaches and No More Heroes.\n\nHe last performed with them in 2015, announcing his retirement a few years later due to ill health.\n\nIn a statement online, his ex-bandmates described him as an \"elder statesman\" of British music.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The Stranglers (Official) This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The Stranglers (Official)\n\nBassist and co-frontman JJ Burnel said: \"After years of ill health, Jet has finally been released. He was a force of nature. An inspiration.\n\n\"The Stranglers would not have been if it wasn't for him. The most erudite of men. A rebel with many causes.\"\n\nSil Willcox, the band's manager, added: \"Jet Black was the real deal. Astute in business, a talented drummer and an obsessive perfectionist.\n\n\"I will cherish the times we planned, pranked, ate, drank and laughed on so many great nights together.\"\n\n(Left to right) Dave Greenfield, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Jet Black and Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers in 1980\n\nThe Stranglers, formed in Surrey in 1974, went on to became an integral part of the riotous UK punk and new wave scenes.\n\nDespite the indolent, youthful rage associated with the genre, Black - a semi-professional drummer in the late 1950s and early 1960s - was, in fact, by then a successful businessman in his mid-30s.\n\nHe owned a fleet of ice cream vans and later an off-licence called The Jackpot and a home brewery. In the early days, the Stranglers used one of the vans as a tour bus and his shop as their headquarters.\n\nSpeaking to the band's official website in a 2010 interview, Black said he never doubted the decision to shift his focus away from business and back into music.\n\n\"Once I had made the decision, and then the commitment, I then pretty much burnt my bridges, there was no turning back,\" he said. \"I told myself that one way or another I was going to succeed.\n\n\"Now, there were many, many problems, but my thoughts were focussed on how to solve them, not on questioning whether I had made the right decision.\"\n\nBlack, who always rejected the term \"punk\" to describe his band, later told BBC Breakfast: \"We were on a mission to break all the rules and create something new and exciting; and that's what we've been doing for the past 40 years.\n\n\"We've developed a style of music that is very aggressive and exciting.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Drummer Jet Black: \"We on a mission to break all the rules\"\n\nSupporting US punk stars the Ramones and Patti Smith at their UK gigs, The Stranglers' musical virtuosity set them apart from the more DIY aesthetic of their peers.\n\nAfter original frontman Hugh Cornwell left in 1990, the band continued touring and recording. According to Cornwell's autobiography, when he phoned Black to announce his resignation, the drummer's response was simply \"OK, fine\".\n\nOn Thursday, Cornwell paid tribute to Black, noting how they had \"shared a special period\" of their lives together, achieving their dreams of becoming musicians.\n\n\"We were immediately drawn to one another, he had a singular sense of purpose that I identified with,\" wrote Cornwell. \"He threw everything in his previous life out, to dedicate himself to our common goal.\"\n\nAdding: \"The Stranglers success was founded on his determination and drive... His timing was faultless.\"\n\nThe Stranglers, pictured in 1988, had seven UK top10 singles\n\nIn 2007, the band announced that Black was suffering with heart issues and he took a step back from performing, being temporarily replaced by his drum technician.\n\nHe resumed his duties full-time for the band's tours in 2010 and 2011, but the following year he was taken to hospital after falling ill just before he was due on stage in Oxford.\n\nThe musician, who had suffered respiratory issues since childhood, began to restrict his live work to the UK, although he vowed to \"carry on until I'm incapable of doing it\".\n\nDespite difficulties in performing towards the end of his career, he remained a fan favourite. Audiences would often chant his name as he took his place behind the kit, until he finally retired in 2015.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by stranglersofficial This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nBlack wrote several books chronicling his time in the band - most notably The Stranglers' infamous 1980 arrest in Nice, France, where they had allegedly incited a riot (they also famously clashed with members of the Clash, Sex Pistols and Ramones, as well as journalists).\n\nAn enthusiastic furniture designer, he also patented the Jet Black Power Bass Drum Pedal.\n\nWhen asked how he would like be remembered by the band's website in 2010, Black replied: \"I guess if we are actually remembered, then that will do.\"\n\nIn a statement, his representative confirmed the musician had passed away \"peacefully\" on Tuesday 6 December at his country home in Wales.\n\nHe leaves behind his wife Ava, and his two children Charlotte and Anthony.\n\nBlack's death comes two years after The Stranglers' keyboard player Dave Greenfield died at the age of 71 after testing positive for coronavirus.\n\nGreenfield, originally from Brighton, had contracted the virus following a prolonged stay in hospital for heart problems.\n• None The Stranglers: 'We broke the rules'", "The framing of this documentary series was clear in the trailer, it’s story about the Sussexes and the press.\n\nHowever, after three episodes and nearly three hours of television, we have been reminded of what happened to Harry’s mother at the hands of the press and his long standing discomfort with the intrusion and the demands to \"perform\" but there have been no great revelations.\n\nHearing that Prince Harry has issues with the media is hardly news. It is easier to name the UK national newspapers he isn’t taking legal action against at the moment.\n\nWe have learnt more about the effect it’s had on Meghan’s mother, Doria. What’s also noteworthy is how the couple are very specific about their unhappiness with the “UK media” who are referred to in the programme as “toxic”, “notorious” and out to “destroy.”\n\nGiven that this documentary is itself a huge media event run by one of the biggest media companies on the planet, it would be hard for them to say they just want to escape the public gaze.\n\nWhat’s not been discussed yet in any detail is how the press and the royal households operate. We have learnt a little about the different royal press offices, the constant demands for information and the formal staged nature of royal events with certain journalists allowed controlled but privileged access. But again, hardly new.\n\nThere were no detailed revelations about how certain stories appeared or why. What we got instead was a broad brush discomfort with the press narrative, intrusion and the racial undertones of some of the coverage.\n\nIndeed, for a viewer who knew little about the UK, the repeated appearances of various town criers at royal events might lead them to believe this was still an important part of Britain’s media landscape.\n\nWhat’s perhaps most remarkable about the series so far is how engaging it is, without revealing any bombshells. They are highly watchable interviewees.\n\nThe story may be about Harry and Meghan’s troubled relationship with the ‘media’ but it’s easy to overlook quite how good they are at media.", "Sunny Balwani was convicted on 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud in July\n\nRamesh \"Sunny\" Balwani, the business partner of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, has been sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison.\n\nBalwani was convicted in July of 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in the failed blood-testing start-up.\n\nTheranos executives falsely claimed the product could diagnose illnesses with a few drops of blood from a finger prick.\n\nHolmes was sentenced to over 11 years (135 months) in prison last month.\n\nBalwani did not speak as he was sentenced to 155 months in prison at the end of a nearly four-hour sentencing hearing on Wednesday. His lawyers say that like Holmes, he plans to file an appeal.\n\nUnlike Holmes, he was found guilty of defrauding patients who used the blood tests. Holmes was convicted of four counts of fraud.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The rise and fall of Elizabeth Holmes\n\nOnce hailed as the \"next Steve Jobs\", she launched Theranos after dropping out of Stanford University at age 19. The company's value rose sharply after it claimed it could bring about a revolution in disease diagnosis.\n\nBalwani, the company's former president and chief operating officer, served as her second-in-command and had direct oversight over the company's labs.\n\nThough the two were originally charged together, their trials were separated after Holmes accused Balwani of emotional and physical abuse during their romantic relationship, which occurred during their time at Theranos. She argued that his alleged manipulation of her was controlling and affected her business decisions.\n\nBalwani, who is 19 years her senior, has denied those allegations.\n\n\"Mr Balwani is not the same as Elizabeth Holmes,\" his lawyers wrote in a memo to the judge before the sentencing, adding that Holmes \"was dramatically more culpable\" for the scam.\n\n\"He actually invested millions of dollars of his own money; he never sought fame or recognition; and he has a long history of quietly giving to those less fortunate.\"\n\nThe sentence was read in the same court in San Jose, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, where Holmes learned her fate less than three weeks earlier.\n\nBalwani's trial was sparsely attended compared to Holmes'. For her 18 November sentencing, crowds formed a queue five hours before the court opened, but there was no line to see him.", "Dina Boluarte said she would govern until 2026\n\nPeru has a female president for the first time, after ex-president Pedro Castillo was impeached - hours after he tried to dissolve parliament.\n\nDina Boluarte - previously the vice-president - was sworn in after a dramatic day in Lima on Wednesday.\n\nEarlier in the day, Mr Castillo had said he was replacing Congress with an \"exceptional emergency government\".\n\nBut lawmakers ignored this, and in an emergency meeting impeached him. He was then detained and accused of rebellion.\n\nReports in local media say he was heading to the Mexican embassy in the capital when he was arrested.\n\nMs Boluarte, a 60-year-old lawyer, said she would govern until July 2026, which is when Mr Castillo's presidency would have ended.\n\nSpeaking after taking the oath of office, she called for a political truce to overcome the crisis which has gripped the country.\n\n\"What I ask for is a space, a time to rescue the country,\" she said.\n\nWednesday's dramatic chain of events began with President Pedro Castillo giving an address on national television in which he declared a state of emergency.\n\nHe announced that he would dissolve the opposition-controlled Congress, a move which was met with shock both in Peru - several ministers resigned in protest - and abroad.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Three dramatic moments from the day Peru's president was ousted\n\nThe head of the constitutional court accused him of launching a coup d'etat, while the US \"strongly urged\" Mr Castillo to reverse his decision.\n\nPeru's police and armed forces released a joint statement in which they said they respected the constitutional order.\n\nMr Castillo tried to dissolve Congress just hours before it was due to start fresh impeachment proceedings against him - the third since he came to office in July 2021.\n\nIn his televised address he said: \"In response to citizens' demands throughout the length and breadth of the country, we have decided to establish an exceptional government aimed at re-establishing the rule of law and democracy.\"\n\nHe said that \"a new Congress with constituent powers to draw up a new constitution\" would be convened \"within no more than nine months\".\n\nBut Congress, which is controlled by parties opposed to Mr Castillo, convened an emergency session and held the impeachment vote Mr Castillo had been trying to prevent.\n\nThe result was overwhelming: 101 voted in favour of impeaching him, with only six against and 10 abstentions.\n\nFormer President Pedro Castillo seen inside a police car in Lima\n\nThere were skirmishes between police and angry Castillo supporters in the capital Lima\n\nAfter the impeachment, Mr Castillo was seen on police premises.\n\nIn the photos - which were shared by police on Twitter but subsequently deleted - he could be seen sitting, seemingly relaxed, and chatting to others. Footage was then released of Mr Castillo signing papers with prosecutors.\n\nHe was later detained and accused of rebellion for breaking the constitutional order.\n\nPeru has been going through a rocky political period, with multiple presidents ousted from office in recent years. In 2020, it had three presidents within the space of five days.\n\nMr Castillo, who is a left-wing former school teacher, was elected in June 2021 in a polarising election in which he defeated his right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori.\n\nHe had recently been fighting allegations of corruption, which he said were part of a plot to oust him.", "People were Googling the game - and searching the answers\n\nAmericans dug for new word definitions in Google this year, looking up terms like tacit, cacao and foray, driven by a nearly singular pursuit - Wordle.\n\nThe word Wordle itself crowned the top spot as Google's most searched term globally and in the US in 2022.\n\nThe searches were revealed by the tech giant in their annual Year in Search report.\n\nReleased by software engineer Josh Wardle in 2021, the daily word game's simplicity has found mass appeal.\n\nUsers are given a maximum of six attempts to guess the word of the day. It's always a five letter word and the word is the same for everyone.\n\nWordle became so popular that Google searches from desperate players looking for answers affected other top Google search trends. Seven of the top 10 searched-for word definitions in 2022 were Wordle answers including cacao, homer, canny, foray, trove, saute and tacit.\n\nMajor events also made an impact in online searches.\n\nThe death of Queen Elizabeth II in September made the top five for overall global search interest. Ukraine was the third most widely searched term.\n\nAs far as celebrities go, Johnny Depp topped the search-interest charts among actors, following his defamation case against Amber Heard over the summer.\n\nDepp was followed by Will Smith, who made headlines after slapping comedian Chris Rock live onstage in front of millions tuned into the Academy Awards.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Will Smith acknowledges that Oscar slap was wrong\n\nTennis icon Serena Williams appeared as the number two most-searched athlete in the US, flung into the spotlight by the announcement of her retirement and the media storm trailing Williams' final moments of her last US Open.\n\nAnd Googlers in the US showed a keen interest in getting rich quick. Lottery games Mega Millions and Powerball numbers were high in the top 10 search-interest spots in the US and globally.\n\nThe Google trend report also made note of the interesting ways in which users searched for information, like snapping a photo, speaking into the phone and - humming.\n\nPhones today use algorithms to solve that common conundrum of \"what's this song\"? And users can hum, whistle or sing 10-15 seconds of a melody into their phone to figure out what song that might be stuck in their heads.\n\nThese trending lists, according to Google, are based on the terms that had the highest spike in search in 2022 when compared to previous years.", "People face \"serious disruption\" at UK airports over Christmas due to planned strikes by border staff, the home secretary has warned.\n\nSuella Braverman said people should \"think carefully\" about their plans as \"they may well be impacted\".\n\nStaff at six airports will stage walkouts from 23 December to Boxing Day and from 28 December to New Year's Eve.\n\nThe strikes come at one of the busiest times for travel and coincide with walkouts by train and rail workers.\n\nIt is the first Christmas since 2019 that airlines have been able to operate without widespread Covid restrictions.\n\nUp to two million passengers are expected to arrive between 23 and 31 December at the airports where the strikes will take place, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.\n\nIt said that more than 10,000 flights are scheduled to arrive at Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports during the period.\n\nAround 1,000 Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union members - including people who work in passport control - are taking industrial action after the Home Office offered workers a 2% pay rise instead of the 10% they requested.\n\nOn Thursday, Ms Braverman said: \"If they go ahead with those strikes there will be undeniable, serious disruption caused to many thousands of people who have holiday plans.\n\n\"I really want to urge people who have got plans to travel abroad to think carefully about their plans because they may well be impacted.\"\n\nShe added: \"It's very regrettable that they have made this decision to potentially strike over critical times in the run-up and following Christmas and the New Year.\"\n\nBut Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said: \"The government can stop these strikes tomorrow if it puts money on the table.\n\n\"Like so many workers, our members are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. They are desperate.\"\n\nThe government says it will draft in military personnel to help minimise disruption if the walkouts go ahead.\n\nBut travel expert Simon Calder said: \"That doesn't make up for the decades of expertise and experience that Border Force staff have so you're going to see queues building up.\n\n\"Once that happens you could get passengers kept on planes to avoid too many queues in the arrivals hall. When that happens the planes aren't going out again full of other passengers, delays build up and that's when you get diversions and cancellations starting up.\"\n\nIt is expected that if there is disruption, it will mainly affect passengers flying into the UK.\n\nA report in The Times said that airlines had been advised to cancel up to 30% of flights over the eight days of strikes to prevent disruption at airports.\n\nA spokesman for Airlines UK, which represents the industry, said: \"We urge all parties to work on reaching an agreement to avoid the need for industrial action at what is such an important time of year for many travellers.\"\n\nOne source within the aviation industry told the BBC that a letter from the Border Force to airports last week said that based on initial modelling, it would be possible to operate about 80% of 2019 flight levels during strike action.\n\nHowever, it is understood that some airlines had already expected to run about that level of capacity because they were not back to pre-Covid levels yet.\n\nEasyJet said it was \"too early\" to say what impact the strikes would have on its flight schedules, but said it was planning to operate as normal.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"As you would expect, we are in talks with the individual airports on their contingency plans.\n\n\"We want to take our customers on their planned trips at this important time of year and so we urge all parties to reach an agreement as soon as possible.\"\n\nJet2 said: \"We would like to let our customers and industry partners know that we very much intend to operate our full schedule of flights throughout the festive period, including on the dates when strike action is taking place.\"\n\nKLM said it was \"looking at its operation\" over the Christmas and New Year period, after being informed by Border Force UK about the potential strikes. It said it does not intend to cancel any flights over the period but that the decision would be \"constantly reviewed.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic said it will \"continue to work closely with government and industry to support contingency planning and minimise disruption\".\n\nThey added: \"Our customers' journeys over the festive period are our priority and we're focussed on supporting their travel plans, keeping them updated on any potential disruption at the border.\"\n\nHeathrow Airport said its \"priority is to ensure passengers get through the border safely and as quickly as possible\".\n\nIt added: \"We are working closely with airlines and Border Force on mitigation plans for potential strike action by Border Force officers and these plans will now be implemented for the notified days.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Gatwick said: \"We are disappointed that Border Force staff have decided to take strike action at this particular time.\n\n\"We expect that flights will operate as normal and remain in regular contact with Border Force about their mitigation plans. Additional airport staff will also be made available to help with passenger welfare on strike days.\"\n\nCommenting on what action travellers can take, Mr Calder said that under European air passenger rights rules the airline \"has a strict duty to get you to your destination as soon as possible, possibly even buying a ticket on another airline\".\n\nBut he said: \"There just aren't the seats available at the moment. All you can do at this stage is basically hope for the best.\"", "The coins follow centuries of tradition with the monarch now facing left - the opposite way to his predecessor, the late Queen\n\nMillions of 50p coins bearing the image of King Charles III will enter circulation from Thursday via post offices across the country.\n\nThey are the first mass-produced coins carrying the new King's image, and will be given out in change to customers.\n\nAn estimated 4.9 million of the new coins are being distributed to post offices - about half of the total number earmarked for circulation.\n\nCoins carrying the image of the late Queen will still be accepted in shops.\n\n\"Today marks a new era for UK coinage, with the effigy of King Charles III appearing on 50ps in circulation,\" said Rebecca Morgan, director of collector services at The Royal Mint.\n\n\"We anticipate a new generation of coin collectors emerging, with people keeping a close eye on their change to try and spot a new 50p that bears the portrait of our new King.\"\n\nThe new 50p coin celebrates the King and commemorates his mother\n\nThe coin has been struck at The Royal Mint in Llantrisant, Wales, using an image of the King produced over the course of months by sculptor Martin Jennings.\n\nHe used pictures of King Charles on his 70th birthday to create a likeness of the monarch, in what is the smallest work he has ever had to produce. He described its production and distribution as a \"quite remarkable experience\".\n\nThe first batch of coins will be given in change to customers buying something in post offices - something its chief executive Nick Read describes as a \"tremendous honour\".\n\n\"December is our busiest time of the year so the coin will be entering our network in a phased manner,\" he said. \"If you don't receive the new 50p in your change on your first visit to a post office you may well get it in your change in a subsequent visit, so keep a look out for it.\"\n\nMore coins will be released in line with demand, replacing damaged or worn 50p coins carrying the portrait of Queen Elizabeth. There are approximately 27 billion coins circulating in the UK bearing the image of the late Queen and these can still be used to pay for things. Before decimalisation, it was common for people to carry coins featuring different monarchs in their pockets.\n\nCash use has become far less frequent when compared to debit cards, a trend driven by the emergence of contactless cards and then accelerated by the Covid pandemic. The buying power of these coins has also been diluted by rising prices.\n\nHowever, there is still keen interest from consumers and collectors about the images used on coins and banknotes.\n\nThe reverse side of the new 50p coin is a copy of the design used on the 1953 Crown struck to commemorate the Queen's coronation.\n\nIt includes the four quarters of the Royal Arms depicted within a shield. In between each shield is an emblem of the home nations: a rose, a thistle, a shamrock and a leek.\n\nThe coins follow centuries of tradition with the monarch now facing left - the opposite way to his predecessor. Profiles are alternated between left and right for successive monarchs. As with previous British kings, and unlike the Queen, he wears no crown.\n\nOther denominations will be manufactured, carrying the King's image, in line with demand.", "The event was detected by a space telescope and a NASA observatory\n\nA \"remarkable\" astronomical explosion is thought to have been triggered by the collision of stars with a black hole, scientists have said.\n\nThe event, a gamma-ray burst, was detected by a space telescope and a NASA observatory.\n\nA team of scientists including University of Leicester physicists described the minute-long blast as a rare cosmic event.\n\nThey said they hoped their research would help the study of future events.\n\nGamma ray bursts are the most powerful explosions known in the universe.\n\nThis particular explosion, from a nearby galaxy, was detected in December 2021.\n\nScientists said the blast, named GRB 211211A, was relatively lengthy with more infrared light than they would normally expect to see.\n\nTheir research suggests the light came from a kilonova, an astral event, thought to be generated as neutron stars and a black hole collide.\n\nThe research team was led by Jillian Rastinejad at Northwestern University in the US.\n\nIt included experts from the universities of Birmingham and Leicester as well as Radboud University in the Netherlands.\n\nThe researchers said they believed the explosion had produced elements such as gold and platinum.\n\nDr Matt Nicholl, an associate professor at the University of Birmingham, said the research supported the idea that such kilonovae \"are the main factories of gold in the universe\".\n\nDr Gavin Lamb, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Leicester, said the burst had seen an excess of infrared light from about a day after the burst.\n\nDr Benjamin Gompertz, an assistant professor at the University of Birmingham, added the research had exciting implications for future research.\n\nHe said: \"This was a remarkable [gamma-ray burst].\n\n\"We don't expect mergers to last more than about two seconds. Somehow, this one powered a jet for almost a full minute.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe current pressure on hospital beds is \"worse than it was during Covid\", according to a senior manager at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald.\n\nSeaneen Pettigrew works in the hospital's discharge hub and her role is to free up beds by facilitating the discharge of medically-fit patients.\n\nShe said they were having difficulty securing care in the community for vulnerable patients leaving hospital.\n\nMs Pettigrew said demand for carers \"is currently outstripping supply\".\n\n\"We've more patients attending emergency department (ED), we've more patients coming through the hospital and more patients with complex needs who are needing more support on discharge than maybe previously,\" she said.\n\nBBC News NI was granted access to the hospital's discharge hub this week, as well as its emergency department.\n\nOn Wednesday afternoon, 135 patients were in the emergency department, with 50 of those waiting for admission to a ward.\n\nAt the same time, there were 67 patients in the hospital who were ready to be discharged into the community, but could not leave because of delays securing onward care.\n\nOne patient, who required admission to the hospital, had been waiting nearly 60 hours in the emergency department.\n\nSeven ambulances were also waiting outside with patients onboard.\n\nAndrew Dobbin, a consultant at the Ulster Hospital, warned that patients waiting long periods in emergency departments to be admitted are \"going to come to harm\".\n\nDr Andrew Dobbin said it had become \"normal\" to see 50 patients waiting in the ED for admission to wards\n\nHe said there was \"almost a one-in-one out-policy\" due to delays discharging medically-fit patients.\n\nDr Dobbin said it had become normal to see 50 patients waiting in the department for admission to wards and for hospital staff to be under \"significant pressure\".\n\n\"We know, as our Royal College of Emergency Medicine has said, that crowding and long waits in emergency departments are directly linked to harm for patients and we know that patients staying here for long periods of time are going to come to harm.\"\n\nHe added there were two reasons why emergency departments were facing \"significant problems\".\n\n\"The first thing is demand has increased and the second problem, which is the main problem at the moment, is that we have a significant number of patients who need to continue their care in hospital that we cannot move through our system to create the capacity to run an efficient, safe, effective emergency department.\"\n\nIn the hospital's discharge hub a team of nurses, social workers, administrative staff and occupational therapists work seven days a week sourcing suitable placements for patients who are ready to leave hospital.\n\nMs Pettigrew told BBC News NI that the \"picture is worse than it was during Covid\" because of the demand.\n\n\"The challenges we are having would be in accessing domiciliary care and sourcing appropriate care homes to facilitate patient discharge, and as a result those patients are delayed in hospital awaiting their care package or care home.\"\n\nMs Pettigrew said the team at the discharge hub were appealing to patients and their families to work with them.\n\n\"Given the challenges we may have to look at an alternative interim bed to go to, to await your package or await your home of choice.\n\n\"We know its not ideal, but it frees up the hospital bed for those patients waiting to come in through ED to also get the treatment that your loved one will have had.\"\n\nSeaneen Pettigrew said there is a need to increase care worker numbers\n\nThe discharge hub manager said there was a need to increase the number of care workers both within care homes and the domiciliary care sector.\n\n\"It is a very complex issue within domiciliary care, the demand for the service is outstripping what's available at the minute.\n\n\"And then within our care home sector it is the appropriate care home placements for patients - potentially those who have complex nursing needs, complex behavioural needs. It's trying to source the right placements for those patients,\" Ms Pettigrew explained.\n\nSeparately, the number of people waiting for a first appointment with a consultant increased by 20,000 in a year, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health.\n\nMore than 375,000 people were waiting to see a specialist at the end of September, up more than 5% from the same time last year.\n\nThe Department of Health said its target by March next year is that at least 50% of people should not be waiting any longer than nine weeks for a first outpatient appointment.\n\nThe current number of patients waiting longer than nine weeks is 82%, with over half of people on a waiting list for more than a year.\n\nThe latest figures also show that almost 124,000 people were waiting to be admitted to hospital for inpatient or day care treatment.\n\nAnd almost 164,000 patients were still waiting for a diagnostic test at the end of September - up 11% on the same time last year.", "Healthcare Inspectorate Wales has found 25 areas of improvement needed at Morriston Hospital's emergency department\n\nPatients with heart attack symptoms are not being seen quickly enough at a Swansea emergency department, a report has found.\n\nHealthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) has reported 25 areas where improvements were necessary at Morriston Hospital.\n\nDelays were \"beyond national guidelines\", including assessment of people with chest pain.\n\nSwansea Bay University Health Board said it had already reviewed the report and will bring in \"necessary changes\".\n\nThe report also found that some patients were being left waiting on \"unsuitable surfaces\" for \"extensive periods\".\n\nThe inspection concluded that, despite staff efforts, patients were not consistently receiving quality care.\n\nHIW completed an unannounced inspection of the emergency department on three consecutive days in September.\n\nDuring this period a number of assessment areas were also inspected, including the children's emergency unit, rapid assessment unit and the surgical decision making unit.\n\nHIW's general areas for improvement included patient privacy and dignity, nutrition and hydration, infection prevention and control, and staffing levels.\n\nInspectors reported a lack of timely care and treatment. They noted that people were generally receiving a safe service, but this was affected by poor patient flow within the department and wider hospital.\n\nThe HIW said the department has \"good management and leadership\" and patients stated they were happy with the care provided by staff.\n\nHowever, patient privacy and dignity was compromised due to the high number of patients accessing the service.\n\nPatients at Morriston Hospital emergency department are not consistently receiving quality care, a report has found\n\nHIW chief executive Alun Jones said: \"There are mounting pressures on NHS services, and like all hospitals across Wales, Morriston Hospital continues to face extraordinary challenges due to increased demand and staff shortages.\n\n\"HIW acknowledges the health board is working hard to make improvements and reduce waiting times. Our report sets out specific recommendations which the health board needs to address in order to improve.\n\n\"We will continue to engage with Swansea Bay University Health Board to ensure progress against our findings.\"\n\nSwansea Bay health board said: \"Our senior clinicians and management team have already reviewed its findings in detail to produce a comprehensive action plan, and will work hard to implement the necessary changes in order to improve the service\".\n\nIt said HIW pointed out that the inspection was at a time of \"intense pressure and unrelenting demand, which continues to be the case across the UK as we try to overcome the challenges experienced, brought about by the pandemic.\"\n\nThe board said it was pleased by the findings of good management and leadership, and staff feeling supported.\n\n\"We are particularly proud of our staff who are working hard to provide patients with a positive experience and good levels of care despite extreme pressures,\" it said.\n\nThis week, the health board is \"completely overhauling\" its acute medicine service, and launching a new acute hub at Morriston, with the aim of treating a larger proportion of patients there rather than in the emergency department.\n\nIt said the new hub would focus on same day care, to cut the number of patients having to be admitted to wards, which was in turn designed to help patient flow.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nThe chief executive of the Qatar World Cup has been criticised by human rights groups for saying \"death is a natural part of life\" when asked about a migrant worker's death at the tournament.\n\nFootball's world governing body Fifa said it was \"deeply saddened\" following the death of the worker during the group stages.\n\nIn an interview with Reuters, tournament boss Nasser Al Khater said he was \"disappointed\" at journalists' questions on the matter.\n\n\"The Qatari official's comment displays a callous disregard for the migrant worker who has died,\" Human Rights Watch representative Rothna Begum said.\n\n\"His statement that deaths happen and that it's natural when it does, ignores the truth that many migrant worker deaths were preventable.\"\n• None World Cup 2022: How many migrant workers have died?\n\nA Filipino national fell to his death while carrying out repairs at a resort used as a training base by the Saudi Arabian team, The Athletic reported.\n\nQatar's treatment of migrant workers was one of the main controversies overshadowing the build-up to the World Cup.\n\nThe tournament's supreme committee said the worker was \"not working under its remit\" and the incident took place \"on property not under its jurisdiction\".\n\nThe matter is now being investigated by the Qatari authorities.\n\nFifa said it had been made aware of an accident and was in touch with the local authorities to request more details.\n\n\"This is something you want to talk about right now?\" Al Khater said. \"I mean, death is a natural part of life, whether it's at work, whether it's in your sleep.\n\n\"Of course, a worker died. Our condolences go to his family. However, I mean it is strange that this is something you want to focus on as your first question.\"\n\nHe added: \"Look, workers' deaths has been a big subject during the World Cup. Everything that has been said and everything that has been reflected about workers' deaths has been absolutely false.\n\n\"This theme, this negativity around the World Cup has been something that we've been faced with.\n\n\"We're a bit disappointed that the journalists have been exacerbating this false narrative. And honestly, I think a lot of the journalists have to ask themselves and reflect on why they've been trying to bang on about the subject for so long.\"\n\nElla Knight, Amnesty International migrants' labour rights researcher, said: \"Unfortunately, Mr Al Khater is mistaken when he says that every fatality is investigated. This is simply not true.\n\n\"We and others have been calling on the Qatari authorities to conduct such investigations on workers' deaths for years to no avail.\n\n\"Instead, they continue to simply write off vast numbers of deaths as being due to 'natural causes' despite the clear health risks associated with working in extreme temperatures.\n\n\"It goes without saying that the Government should be investigating this most recent tragic case, as well as the deaths of all others. Every single family who has lost a loved one as a result of their working conditions in Qatar deserves answers and remedy for their loss.\"\n\nHuman rights organisations and a number of football associations whose countries are involved in the tournament say they will \"continue to press\" Qatar and Fifa to establish a compensation fund for migrant workers and their families, as well as the establishment of a migrant worker centre in Doha.", "Viktor Bout spent more than two years in a Bangkok jail\n\nViktor Bout, one of the world's most infamous arms dealers, has been released from US custody as part of a prisoner exchange with US basketball star Brittney Griner.\n\nGriner had been in custody since February after Moscow airport officials found cannabis oil in her luggage while she was returning to the US after playing in Russia.\n\nRumours had circulated in US media for months that senior state department officials had sought to secure Griner's release in exchange for the arms dealer's freedom.\n\nSo notorious are the exploits of the former Soviet air force officer that they inspired a Hollywood film, and garnered him an impressively fearsome nickname.\n\nBut who is the man known as the Merchant of Death?\n\nBout was extradited from Thailand to the US in 2010, after a sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) two years earlier.\n\nAgents from the DEA posed as potential buyers from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as Farc. That group - which has since disbanded - was classified as a terrorist organisation by the United States.\n\nBout claimed he was simply an entrepreneur with a legitimate international transport business, wrongly accused of trying to arm South American rebels - the victims of US political machinations.\n\nBut a jury in New York didn't believe his story.\n\nHe was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April 2012 after being found guilty of conspiracy to kill Americans and US officials, delivering anti-aircraft missiles and aiding a terrorist organisation.\n\nHis three-week trial heard that Bout had been told the weapons would be used to kill US pilots working with Colombian officials. Prosecutors said he replied: \"We have the same enemy.\"\n\nBout - a Russian national born in Soviet-ruled Tajikistan - began his career in air transport in the early 1990s, after the fall of the USSR.\n\nAccording to a 2007 book - Merchant of Death, by security experts Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun - Bout built up his business using military planes left on the airfields of the collapsing Soviet empire in the early 1990s.\n\nBout was extradited from Thailand to the US after efforts by Russian diplomats to have him released failed\n\nThe sturdy Antonovs and Ilyushins were up for sale along with their crews, and were perfect for delivering goods to bumpy wartime airstrips around the world.\n\nBout - who was 45 when he was sentenced - is said to have begun channelling weapons through a series of front companies to war-torn parts of Africa.\n\nThe UN named him as an associate of former Liberian President Charles Taylor - who was convicted in 2012 on charges of aiding and abetting war crimes during the Sierra Leone civil war.\n\n\"[Bout is a] businessman, dealer and transporter of weapons and minerals [who] supported former President Taylor's regime in [an] effort to destabilise Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds,\" UN documents state.\n\nMedia reports in the Middle East claimed he was a gun-runner for al-Qaeda and the Taliban.\n\nHe is also alleged to have armed both sides in Angola's civil war and supplied weapons to warlords and governments from the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Sudan and Libya.\n\nIn an interview with the UK's Channel 4 News in 2009, he flatly denied ever dealing with al-Qaeda or the Taliban.\n\nBut he did admit to flying arms to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, saying they were used by commanders fighting against the Taliban.\n\nHe also claimed to have helped the French government transport goods to Rwanda after the genocide, and to have transported UN peacekeepers.\n\nBut law enforcement agencies pursued him throughout the 2000s. He left his home in Belgium in 2002 when the authorities there issued an arrest warrant.\n\nIt is thought Bout travelled under several aliases, moving through countries such as the United Arab Emirates and South Africa before resurfacing in Russia in 2003.\n\nIn the same year, British Foreign Office minister Peter Hain coined the nickname Merchant of Death\n\nAfter reading a 2003 report about him, Mr Hain said: \"Bout is the leading merchant of death who is the principal conduit for planes and supply routes that take arms... from East Europe, principally Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine to Liberia and Angola.\n\n\"The UN has exposed Bout as the centre of a spider's web of shady arms dealers, diamond brokers and other operatives, sustaining the wars.\"\n\nRussian authorities have called for Bout’s return since his 2011 conviction\n\nThe US made moves against Bout throughout the 2000s, freezing his assets in 2006, but there was no law he could be prosecuted under in the US.\n\nInstead, US agents bided their time until 2008 when they posed as buyers for Colombia's Farc rebels and gained an introduction to Bout through one of his former associates.\n\nShortly after the undercover officers discussed arms shipments to Farc with Bout, Thai authorities arrested him and lengthy legal proceedings began to bring him to the US.\n\nBout said the US case against him was politically motivated; his wife has been quoted as saying his only connection with Colombia was \"tango lessons\".\n\nThe Russian authorities supported him throughout his legal proceedings, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov vowing to fight to secure his return to Russia and labelling the Thai court's decision \"unjust and political\".\n\nThe 2005 film Lord of War, loosely based on the arms dealer's life, has the anti-hero escaping justice at the end.\n\nPerhaps it seemed unlikely Bout would ever achieve the same - but after 12 years behind bars, he has now been flown home to freedom.", "While police have received thousands of tips, no suspect has been publicly identified yet.\n\nOver three weeks after a murder left four Idaho university students dead, police plan to return the victims' belongings to their grieving families.\n\nThe four students, all 20 or 21, were found stabbed to death in the town of Moscow on 13 November, baffling the tight-knit community and police alike.\n\nInvestigators have received thousands of tips, but no arrests have been made.\n\nAn Idaho lawmaker has also warned about the impact on the university if the murders remain unsolved.\n\nThe four victims were Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20, and 21-year-olds Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, all students at the University of Idaho in Moscow, which is about 80 miles (130km) south of Spokane, Washington.\n\nAccording to Moscow police, the items being removed from the rental home three of the victims shared are \"no longer needed for the investigation\".\n\n\"It's time for us to give those things back that really mean something to those families,\" police chief James Fry said in a YouTube video published on Tuesday.\n\n\"I'm a dad. I understand the meaning behind some of those things.\"\n\nA statement from the police force added that the items will be moved to a \"secure location\" until the families can collect them. The house is still considered a crime scene.\n\nIn another update on Wednesday, police said they were looking to speak with the driver or occupants of a white car that was seen near the crime scene around the time of the murders.\n\nWhoever was inside the Hyundai Elantra with an \"unknown licence plate\", police said, \"may have critical information to share regarding this case\".\n\nAs of 6 December, police had received over 2,640 emailed tips, as well as over 2,700 phone calls and 1,804 \"digital media\" submissions from the public.\n\nThe tips, however, have not led to any suspects being identified, arrests made or murder weapon recovered.\n\nThe lack of significant progress in the investigation has frustrated family members, some of whom have publicly complained about the police response.\n\nSteve Goncalves - Kaylee's father - told Fox News last week that he does \"not feel confident\" in the investigation, and called on police to share undisclosed information with the wider public.\n\nUniversity of Idaho officials earlier this week estimated that between 25% and 40% of the school's student body of about 11,000 people have not returned to campus since the murders.\n\nThe figures prompted a state lawmaker, Ilana Rubel, to warn of a \"snowballing disaster\" if the murder isn't solved soon, saying she is concerned about the possibility of dropping enrolment at the college.\n\n\"Nobody wants to send their kids to a community where they could face this kind of horror,\" she told local news outlet KHQ.\n\n\"It's every parent's worst nightmare, it's every student's worst nightmare. They have got to find the perpetrator.\"", "Researchers found genetic traces of the plants and animals that once lived in the north of Greenland\n\nThe most ancient DNA ever sequenced reveals what the Arctic looked like two million years ago when it was warmer.\n\nToday the area in North Greenland is a polar desert, but the genetic material, extracted from soil, has uncovered a rich array of plants and animals.\n\nThe scientists found genetic traces of elephant-like mastodons, reindeer and geese that roamed among birch and poplar trees, and of marine life including horseshoe crabs and algae.\n\nThe research is published in Nature.\n\nProf Eske Willerslev, who carried out the study, from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Cambridge said that this mixture of Arctic and temperate species living side by side has no modern equivalent.\n\nThe soil samples were collected from a desolate environment in northern Greenland\n\nThe research was conducted in an area called the Kap København Formation, which is in the northernmost part of Greenland.\n\nUntil now, it's been hard to turn back the clock and see what this region was like two million years ago. Animal fossils from this period are extremely rare there.\n\n\"In fact, from the Kap København, the only animals that have ever been discovered through macro fossils are a hare's tooth and a dung beetle. So people had no idea what kind of fauna was there back then,\" explained Prof Willerslev.\n\nInstead, the team turned to environmental DNA - or eDNA. This is genetic material that is shed from plants and animals - for example, from skin cells or droppings - and accumulates in their surroundings.\n\nIt's a technique that's now widely used in conservation. For example, studying the DNA found in a drop of sea water can reveal all of the creatures that have lived in a patch of ocean, even if you can't see the individual animals yourself.\n\nIn Greenland, the team used ancient soil samples to look back in time at the biology of the Early Pleistocene Epoch.\n\nThey found a forest ecosystem, with Arctic shrubs, herbs, ferns and mosses growing among the trees.\n\nAmong the discovery of DNA from creatures like rodents, reindeer and geese, the unearthing of mastodon DNA was a surprise - Prof Willerslev told the BBC no one had found the elephant-like creatures in Greenland before.\n\nTwo million years ago, North Greenland was much warmer than it is now. The average annual temperatures were about 11-19C hotter.\n\n\"What it really tells us is that the plasticity of biological organisms - in terms of where they can live and the plants or animals that can live together - is way larger than what we thought,\" he said.\n\nThe team was not sure if DNA would survive for so many years\n\nExtracting and sequencing the DNA from the soil wasn't easy - it took the team years to work out the best technique to use. They even thought it might not be possible for genetic material to survive this long.\n\nProf Willerslev said: \"I wrote a paper in 2005, where I said I thought DNA would not survive for more than a million years, and here we are with DNA that's two million years old.\"\n\nHe thinks a chemical reaction between the DNA and the soil slowed any degradation.\n\n\"DNA is electrically charged molecules, and many of the minerals we see in the soil are also electrically charged. Therefore, the DNA will basically bind to solid minerals, and when it does this, it reduces the rate of spontaneous degradation.\"\n\nIf more environmental DNA is found to survive at other sites, the discovery could change the way we view the ancient world.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Here's the latest after basketball star Brittney Griner was freed in a prisoner swap between the US and Russia.\n\nGriner is on a plane to the US. She was arrested in Moscow in February for possessing cannabis oil and later jailed. \"I'm just standing here overwhelmed with emotions,\" her wife, Cherelle, said at the White House earlier\n\nHer release was part of a swap with the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who has been held in an American prison for 12 years. He sold arms to warlords and rogue governments, becoming one of the world's most wanted men\n\nThe swap took place in Abu Dhabi. The Biden administration proposed the exchange in the summer and officials were aware Russia had long sought Bout's release. He's being flown to Vnukovo airport near Moscow, state media report\n\nAnother American, Paul Whelan, remains jailed in Russia. The former US Marine who was detained on espionage charges in 2018 told CNN he was “disappointed” that he had not been released. Biden acknowledged the deal had come up short and vowed to continue negotiations\n\nFollow the latest throughout the day here.", "Emergency service crews were called to the scene on Saturday morning\n\nPeople have died following a major river rescue operation, the BBC has been told.\n\nIt has been confirmed that one person was taken to hospital after being pulled from the River Cleddau.\n\nTown councillor Thomas Tudor called it a \"terrible tragedy\" and sent his sympathies \"to the families who have lost loved ones\".\n\nPolice launched a search after reports that a group of people were in distress in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.\n\nDyfed-Powys Police, firefighters, coastguard, ambulance crews and four helicopters were deployed to the stretch of the river at Quay Street about 09:00 BST.\n\nA floral tribute has been left at the scene\n\nA police spokeswoman said: \"A swift search of the river was launched, with 30 firefighters from Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service working alongside Coastguard crews and helicopter support.\"\n\nDet Ch Insp Jonathan Rees of Dyfed-Powys Police said he was not in a position to release further details at this time, but everyone had been accounted for and the search stood down.\n\nHe said at present his priority was ensuring those involved, and their families, had been contacted and were receiving appropriate support.\n\nAn investigation is under way into the circumstances.\n\nMr Tudor said: \"Today a terrible tragedy unfolded on the River Cleddau in the Castle Ward of Haverfordwest.\n\n\"I would like to extend my sympathies to the families who have lost loved ones in this tragedy and I would like to thank the emergency services for their brave efforts in tackling this issue.\n\n\"I would also like to thank the staff from the Bristol Trader and Vaughans Radio who provided help and support for the emergency services during this difficult operation.\"\n\nEmergency vehicles near the River Cleddau in Haverfordwest\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service confirmed one patient was taken to the town's Withybush Hospital for treatment.\n\nEarlier Dyfed-Powys Police asked people to avoid the area around Quay Street.\n\nThere is a flood alert on rivers in the western Cleddau catchment area following heavy rain on Friday.\n\nCoastguard, police, firefighters and ambulance crews are at the scene\n\nThe Met Office has issued a warning for more heavy rain across south Wales on Sunday.\n\nIt comes after a landslide closed a road in Gwynedd following torrential rain.\n\nThe Severn rail tunnel between Wales and England was forced to close on Friday evening due to flooding.\n\nIn a statement, the RNLI said a crew was launched from nearby Angle to help with the search on Saturday morning, but has since been stood down.\n\nPeople in this tight-knit community are obviously upset and shocked at what happened here today.\n\nIt's said the conditions in the river were dangerous at about 9 o'clock this morning.\n\nThere had been a heavy and sudden downpour of rain which came amid warnings to be careful.\n\nThere were dangerous and fast-flowing flood waters following heavy rain in the last few days.\n\nThis has been an intensive operation with the emergency services called to the scene.\n\nThey were brought in from a wide area to help in the effort.\n\nYellow weather warnings for rain also remain in several parts of the country, including Glasgow, where the global COP26 climate summit is due to begin on Sunday.\n\nOn Saturday afternoon, seven flood warnings remained in place, meaning that flooding is expected, and 46 flood alerts, meaning that flooding remains likely.\n\nIn Dartmoor, Devon, parts of the area received 125mm (4.9in) of rain in 48 hours - compared with an October average of 130mm (5.1in).\n\nIt comes after a week of wet weather which saw disruption and destruction in northern areas including Cumbria and southern Scotland.\n\nThe search on the River Cleddau in Haverfordwest", "The family of Harry Dunn arriving at the Old Bailey earlier today Image caption: The family of Harry Dunn arriving at the Old Bailey earlier today\n\nWe'll be ending our live coverage soon, but here's a recap of events at the Old Bailey this afternoon, where Anne Sacoolas was sentenced over Harry Dunn's death.\n\nSacoolas was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for a year, for the death of 19-year-old motorcyclist Harry Dunn, who she hit outside a US military base in Northamptonshire in 2019 while she was driving on the wrong side of the road.\n\nJudge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said the death of Harry Dunn is \"the highest degree of harm and Sacoolas's conduct was was not far short of deliberately dangerous driving that results in a death, but said she accepted that Sacoolas felt \"genuine remorse\".\n\nSacoolas attended the sentencing by video-link and the judge said the US administration had said her return to the UK could place US interests at risk.\n\nHarry Dunn's mother Charlotte Charles read a tearful statement in the witness box, in which she said it was a \"privilege and joy\" to raise Harry, whose death \"haunts me every minute of every day\". Later she said her promise to get justice for her son was \"well and truly complete\".\n\nHarry Dunn's father, Tim Dunn, said: \"It's been such a relentless time, we as a family fought off everything we can to get to this point.\"\n\nSacoolas hasn't spoken in public since the sentencing, but in a statement read out in court on her behalf, said she was “deeply sorry for the pain that I have caused” and said her \"tragic mistake led to the loss of Harry, and I live with this regret every single day\".", "The BBC has been given photos of Twitter office space that has been converted into bedrooms, which San Francisco authorities are probing as a possible building code violation.\n\nOne image shows a room with a double bed, including a wardrobe and slippers.\n\nAn ex-worker said new Twitter boss Elon Musk has been staying at the headquarters since he bought the firm.\n\nHe last month emailed all Twitter staff saying they \"will need to be extremely hardcore\" to succeed.\n\nSan Francisco's Department of Building Inspection has confirmed it is investigating potential violations following a complaint.\n\nMr Musk said the city was attacking companies for providing beds to \"tired employees\".\n\nIn a now-deleted tweet, Mr Musk posted that he would work and sleep in the office \"until the org is fixed\".\n\nThe BBC has also been given pictures of sofas at Twitter being used as beds.\n\nAnother conference room has an alarm clock, and a picture placed over a made-up bed.\n\nFormer staff say wardrobes have been moved into Twitter's HQ\n\n\"It looks like a hotel room,\" said one former worker. They went on to say that Mr Musk regularly sleeps at the Twitter HQ in San Francisco.\n\nTwitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC.\n\nLast month Mr Musk - who completed his Twitter takeover in October - emailed all staff at the company saying they would need to work \"long hours at high intensity\".\n\n\"Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade,\" he wrote.\n\nCalifornia state senator Scott Wiener told the BBC on Wednesday: \"He's now making them [workers] sleep at Twitter.\n\n\"It's clear that he doesn't really care about people. He doesn't care about the people who work for him.\"\n\nA Department of Building Inspection official told the BBC's US partner CBS News: 'We need to make sure the building is being used as intended.\"\n\nTwo sofas with bedding on them\n\nIn a reply to a journalist on Twitter, Mr Musk posted that the city should prioritise protecting children from the consequences of opioid drug misuse.\n\nForbes broke the story of \"sad little conference-room sleeping quarters at the company's recently depopulated headquarters\", noting it was an apparent improvement on the improvised sleeping-bag-on-the-floor arrangement posted on Twitter by one employee.\n\nThe bedrooms, Bloomberg reported, are also said to accommodate staff from Tesla and other Musk-owned businesses brought in to work at Twitter, \"some of whom travel to Twitter for work meetings\", sources told the publication.\n\nDepartment of Building Inspection official Patrick Hannan told the San Francisco Chronicle it investigated all complaints and there were different rules for residential buildings, even those used for short-term stays.\n\nIn May 2020, before Mr Musk's takeover, Twitter told employees they could work from home \"forever\" if they so wished because its remote-working measures during Covid lockdowns had been a success.\n\nLast month Mr Musk said remote working would end.", "Harbourmaster Bill Sadler said the vessel was believed to have sunk in 40m (131ft) of water\n\nRescue teams have been searching for three people who were onboard a fishing boat which is believed to have sunk after a collision off the Jersey coast.\n\nJersey Coastguard said a captain and two crew members were missing following the collision at sea off St Ouen's Bay at about 05:30 GMT.\n\nCondor Ferries confirmed its vessel, Commodore Goodwill, had been involved.\n\nPorts of Jersey said the search has been suspended overnight.\n\nHarbourmaster Bill Sadler said the vessel was believed to have sunk in 40m (131ft) of water.\n\nHe said the search required specialist diving resource and an offshore construction vessel with a remote operation vehicle would be used to confirm the location of the boat.\n\nPorts of Jersey said search and rescue services would regroup before first light on Friday to consider the findings of the search by the vehicle before deciding how to proceed.\n\nRescue teams have suspended the search overnight for three crew members who were onboard the fishing vessel\n\nBBC Channel Islands journalist Meghan Owen said from the cliffs at Grosnez she had seen helicopters and a plane flying above the numerous boats, including lifeboats and fishing vessels, involved in the search.\n\nPorts of Jersey said a large number of local fishing vessels had joined the search, with the Jersey Coastguard co-ordinating the response.\n\nPresident of the Jersey Fishermen's Association Don Thompson said: \"Everything is being done at the moment and there is still hope of finding survivors.\n\n\"Fishermen will rally together... It's good to see the boys all out on the scene.\"\n\nMr Thompson said there was wreckage spotted on the surface of the water early on.\n\n\"The fact that the wreckage of the vessel has been located by one of the boys gives a little bit of hope but you know, it's still a fluid situation at the moment,\" he said.\n\n\"It's a small community here, it's a very close knit community... It's obviously at the moment very worrying but it's still an ongoing situation, there is still hope.\"\n\nCondor Ferries confirmed its Commodore Goodwill, which is now docked at the harbour, had been involved in the collision\n\nCondor Ferries CEO John Napton said: \"We can confirm that Commodore Goodwill was involved in a collision with a fishing boat at 05:30 this morning.\n\n\"Goodwill was en route from Guernsey to Jersey on her regular sailing when the incident occurred, north-west of Jersey.\n\n\"The master notified the coastguard in Jersey and Goodwill has assisted in the search and rescue.\"\n\nThe company said it would fully comply with any investigations into the incident.\n\nThe freight vessel, which was carrying five passengers and 24 crew, was sailing from Guernsey to Jersey when the incident occurred.\n\nCommercial shipping has been rerouted to avoid the search area.\n\nChief Minister Kristina Moore tweeted \"thoughts and prayers\" to the families of the vessel's crew.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "BBC News NI has been granted exclusive access to the emergency department at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast as part of a BBC-wide spotlight on emergency care across the United Kingdom.\n\nThroughout the day, staff manoeuvred trolleys through very tight areas as they attempted to find available space for the patients.\n\nIn one area, known as acute care, trolleys were lined up head to toe with staff having to squeeze between them in order to check patients and to deliver food.\n\nMichael Thompson is lead nurse in charge of patient flow between the department and wards.\n\n\"It's like a massive game of Jenga,\" he said.\n\n\"There's just no flow going out. Our front door is massive but our back door is tiny and it just keeps shrinking.\"", "Busy, noisy, highly stressful - and sometimes violent. This is the reality of A&E as the NHS gears up for what will be an incredibly difficult winter.\n\nThat much is clear from the experience of staff and patients at Royal Berkshire Hospital's emergency department.\n\nLike all units, it is struggling to see patients quickly - more than a third of patients wait more than four hours.\n\nThe stress and frustration means tempers can easily boil over.\n\nReceptionist Tahj Chrichlow says it can get so busy patients end up \"packed like sardines\".\n\n\"Sometimes people can be not as nice to us as we like,\" he adds, explaining how earlier this week the window of the reception office had been smashed by one angry person.\n\n\"Luckily we have got a very nice security team who can come down and help us - they're pretty much on our speed dial, just in case.\"\n\n'Sometimes people can be not as nice to us as we like', says Tahj Chrichlow.\n\nStaff nurse Harriet Nicholls ended up getting slapped and bitten on the arm as she and a colleague tried to put a drip in a patient.\n\nThe individual had dementia - so it was not necessarily related to the delays seeing patients - but such episodes were not uncommon in the department.\n\n\"We're overloaded and there are not enough staff,\" she says.\n\nThe latest figures show the emergency care system has never seen such huge pressures - certainly since modern recording-keeping began 20 years ago.\n\nThe proportion of patients waiting more than four hours to be seen has reached its highest level ever with more than 30% of patients facing delays.\n\nAnd for those patients who cannot be treated on the spot and need a stay in hospital, there can then be long waits for a bed.\n\nOne of those was Anne Whitfield-Ray who was taken to her local hospital last month after she fell at home and broke her hip.\n\nShe spent 15 hours on a trolley until a bed could be found for her.\n\n\"It was absolute chaos - like something out of a third world country,\" said the 77-year-old from Worcestershire.\n\n\"Patients were being squeezed in everywhere they could. It was horrific.\"\n\nBut she said that despite her experience she cannot fault the staff: \"They are doing the best they can.\"\n\nHayley's six-month-old spent more than 30 hours waiting for a bed on a ward\n\nHayley, 34, from Ashford in Surrey, had an even longer wait with her six-month-old.\n\nShe was told to go straight to A&E by her GP after her baby became unwell.\n\n\"It was totally rammed. We spent 33 hours in A&E waiting for a bed on the wards.\n\n\"The staff tried their best to help us. I can't complain about the care we've had as it's been very good. But the NHS is totally overwhelmed.\"\n\nThe Royal College of Emergency Medicine is warning delays like these are putting patients at risk.\n\nVice president Dr Ian Higginson says hospitals are \"full to bursting\".\n\n\"When our hospitals are full, we can't get patients out of our emergency departments.\n\n\"That means emergency departments become overcrowded and we see patients waiting for long periods on uncomfortable trollies in corridors or other rubbish places.\"\n\nDr Higginson says his colleagues are \"very worried\" and unable to deliver the care they would like to give to patients.\n\n\"It's just not possible,\" he adds.\n\nDr Vin Diwakar, of NHS England, said staff were working \"round-the-clock\" to try to see and treat patients as quickly as they can.\n\nHe said the problems in A&E were caused by a lack of beds, with 19 out of every 20 currently occupied.\n\nHe said the \"fundamental challenge\" was the difficulty hospitals were facing discharging patients who were medically fit to leave, but could not be released because of a lack of care in the community.\n\nEvery day more than half of patients ready to be discharged cannot be discharged.\n\nDr Diwakar said steps were being taken, including investment in community teams to stop people ending up in hospital,\n\nA network of regional \"war rooms\" has also been created, he added, which monitor the pressures on local hospitals in real time, so they can try to manage demand by diverting ambulances away from the most under-pressure hospitals.\n\nAre you currently waiting in A&E? If you feel well enough to do so, tell us what it's like by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The family of a 24-year-old woman who died while paddleboarding off the north Wales coast have paid tribute to her.\n\nNorth Wales Police confirmed Emma Louise Powell, from Llandudno, died after a group of three people got into difficulty in the River Conwy estuary.\n\nEmergency services were called to the water at Beacons jetty, near Morfa beach, at about 22:15 BST on Thursday.\n\nHer family paid tribute, saying she was a \"beautiful young lady who was adventurous and had a free spirit\".\n\nThey added she would remain in their hearts for the rest of their lives.\n\nA floral tribute on the jetty where emergency services launched a rescue effort\n\nMembers of the public entered the water attempting to rescue the paddleboarders, police said.\n\nCoastguard rescue teams from Bangor and Llandudno, Conwy RNLI lifeboat and a coastguard helicopter from Caernarfon all joined the rescue effort.\n\nTwo people were taken to Ysbyty Gwynedd hospital in Bangor after the rescue in the River Conwy estuary, where Ms Powell died.\n\nA large rescue operation was launched to save the three people\n\n\"The full circumstances are still unclear and there are still a lot of witnesses to speak to,\" Supt Owain Llewellyn said.\n\n\"What I can say is that when the emergency services arrived, it was a fairly chaotic scene.\n\n\"Members of the public had bravely tried to intervene to assist those in difficulty.\n\n\"There were a number of people in the water, so the coastguard helicopter conducted an aerial survey of the area to make sure that there weren't other people in difficulty that we were unaware of.\"\n\nThe local coroner has been informed, specialist officers are supporting the family of Ms Powell and an investigation has been launched.", "A Metropolitan Police officer has been charged with false imprisonment and assault after an alleged offence at a house in south-west London.\n\nA woman in her 20s suffered minor injuries at the property in Twickenham on 2 December but did not require hospital treatment.\n\nPC Sam Grigg, attached to the South West Basic Command Unit, was off duty at the time, the Met Police said.\n\nHe is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court later.\n\nA statement from the force added the Met's Directorate of Professional Standards had been informed and a referral would be made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout crossed on airport tarmac\n\nThe US and Russia have exchanged jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, held in an American prison for 12 years.\n\nPresident Joe Biden said Griner was safe and on a plane home from the United Arab Emirates.\n\n\"I'm glad to say Brittney's in good spirits... she needs time and space to recover,\" he said at the White House.\n\nBout - widely known as the \"merchant of death\" - has arrived back in Moscow, Russian media reports.\n\n\"In the middle of the night they simply woke me up and said 'Get your things together' and that was it,\" Bout said in brief remarks to a reporter from national television, after landing in Russia.\n\nBout reportedly came down the aeroplane steps carrying a bouquet of flowers before embracing his mother and his wife.\n\nGriner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possessing cannabis oil and last month she was sent to a penal colony.\n\nThe Biden administration proposed a prisoner exchange in July, aware Moscow had long sought Bout's release.\n\nThe elaborate swap involved two private planes bringing the pair to Abu Dhabi airport from Moscow and Washington, and then flying them home.\n\nFootage on Russian state media showed them crossing on the tarmac with their respective teams. In the video, apparently provided by Russian security services, Bout is warmly greeted by two Russian officials as Griner, who is 6ft 9in (206cm), looks on. Part of the swap is then edited out before the two parties go their separate ways.\n\n\"The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland,\" the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.\n\nSpeaking in the Oval Office, Brittney Griner's wife Cherelle praised the efforts of the Biden administration in securing her release: \"I'm just standing here overwhelmed with emotions.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Cherelle Griner thanks those who have helped end her wife Brittney's imprisonment\n\nAccording to a joint Saudi-UAE statement, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman played a leading role in mediation efforts, along with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.\n\nThe heir to the Saudi throne has good relations with Russia's Vladimir Putin and in September he helped co-ordinate a complex swap of hundreds of prisoners held by Russia and Ukraine.\n\nBut the White House denied any mediation had been involved. \"The only countries that negotiated this deal were the United States and Russia,\" said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.\n\nWhen negotiations began to secure Griner's release during the summer, the US made clear it wanted ex-marine Paul Whelan to be included in an exchange.\n\nBout's lawyer, Alexei Tarasov, told Russian TV that from the start the US wanted two of its citizens returned, and Russia's foreign ministry complained that \"Washington categorically refused to engage in dialogue\".\n\nBut it became clear that Whelan, jailed in 2018 on suspicion of spying, would not be part of the Russian swap, dashing his family's hopes.\n\nPaul Whelan told CNN he was \"greatly disappointed\" more had not been done to free him, as he had carried out no crime: \"I don't understand why I'm still sitting here,\" he said.\n\nPresident Biden finally signed the order for Bout's release, commuting his 25-year jail term, in a direct swap for Griner.\n\nBout's wife Alla told Russian TV she had spoken to him only two days ago: \"He was supposed to call me tonight. Now we'll see each other and hug each other. That's better than any phone call.\"\n\nViktor Bout sold arms to warlords and rogue governments, becoming one of the world's most wanted men.\n\nDubbed the \"merchant of death\" for gun-running in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian's exploits inspired the 2005 Hollywood film Lord of War, which was loosely based on his life.\n\nRussian state TV showed images of Bout being reunited with his family in Russia\n\nHis secretive career was brought to an end by an elaborate US sting in 2008, when he was arrested at a hotel in the Thai capital Bangkok, to the anger of the Russian government.\n\nHe was extradited two years later and has spent the past 12 years in an American jail for conspiring to support terrorists and kill Americans.\n\nBout's circumstances could hardly be more different from that of his opposite number in the prisoner swap.\n\nBrittney Griner, 32, is one of the best-known sportswomen in America. During the US basketball season the double Olympic champion is a star centre for Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: \"Do you know where you're going?\"\n\nHer only reason for flying to Moscow was to play in Russia during the off-season in the US. She told her Russian trial that the cannabis oil found in her bag had been an \"honest mistake\".\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken singled out the efforts of presidential envoy Roger Carstens, who accompanied Griner on the plane from the UAE.\n\nLeading figures in US basketball welcomed her release, among them twice WNBA champion Breanna Stewart of the Seattle Storm.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Breanna Stewart This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nGriner was moved last month to a penal colony in Mordovia, a remote area some 500km, (310m) south-east of Moscow. She was held not far from where Paul Whelan is serving his 16-year jail term on spying charges.\n\nIn his statement President Biden said Russia had treated Whelan's case differently from Griner's for totally illegitimate reasons.\n\n\"While we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release we have not given up; we will not give up,\" he vowed.\n\nWhelan's brother, David, praised Griner's release and said US officials had warned the family in advance that Paul Whelan was not part of the exchange.\n\n\"It's clear the US government needs to be more assertive,\" he said in a statement. \"If bad actors like Russia are going to grab innocent Americans, the US needs a swifter, more direct response.\"\n\nFormer White House national security advisor John Bolton condemned the deal as a not a swap but a surrender by the Biden administration.\n\n\"Terrorists and rogue states all around the world will take note of this and it endangers other Americans in the future,\" he said.\n\nThe deal was also criticised by Robert Zachariasiewicz, a former agent with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, who helped lead the team that arrested Viktor Bout.\n\n\"Today's actions just placed a target on back of every United States citizen travelling throughout the world and they just became a commodity,\" he told the BBC's World Tonight.\n\n\"I think we just sent the message that it's really good business to illegally detain and if not kidnap American citizens, and it's really great to have one in your back pocket if you need them for a trade at some point.\"\n\nViktor Bout was extradited to the US from Thailand in 2010 (file pic)\n\nVladimir Osechkin - a former Russian MP who led a parliamentary investigation into Bout, and who is now a dissident in France - told the BBC's Outside Source programme he believed Vladimir Putin wanted Bout back because of what he knew.\n\n\"Putin and the generals were worried that Viktor Bout might start providing detailed and consistent evidence of what he knew about Russian intelligence helping terrorist organisations and organising sabotage abroad,\" he said.\n\n\"It was a matter of honour for them to take their agent back.\"\n\nHowever, the US Bring Our Families Home Campaign suggested Russians saw Bout in a very different light. \"Over the years they built him up like the spy of the century. There's a domestic political problem in Russia to keep the lie going,\" said Jonathan Franks from the campaign.\n\nThursday's prisoner exchange is not the first between Russia and the US this year. US marine Trevor Reed spent three years in jail for assault before being traded last April for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted of smuggling cocaine.\n\nSpeaking from a Russian penal colony, Paul Whelan said he had been told that Russia \"put me at a level higher than what they did with Trevor and Brittney\", because he had been accused of spying.\n\nPresident Biden urged Americans to take precautions before travelling overseas, and warned of the risk of being wrongfully detained by a foreign government.", "A human rights activist said Mohsen Shekari was subjected to a \"show trial without any due process\"\n\nIran has announced the first execution of a protester convicted over the recent anti-government unrest.\n\nMohsen Shekari was hanged on Thursday morning after being found guilty by a Revolutionary Court of \"moharebeh\" (enmity against God), state media said.\n\nHe was accused of being a \"rioter\" who blocked a main road in Tehran in September and wounded a member of a paramilitary force with a machete.\n\nAn activist said he was convicted after a \"show trial without any due process\".\n\n\"The international community must immediately and strongly react to this execution,\" Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, said in a statement.\n\n\"If Mohsen Shekari's execution is not met with serious consequences for the government, we will face mass execution of protesters,\" he added.\n\nThe judiciary's Mizan news agency reported that a Revolutionary Court was told that Mohsen Shekari had blocked Tehran's Sattar Khan Street on 25 September and used a machete to attack a member of the Basij Resistance Force, a volunteer paramilitary force often deployed to quell protests.\n\nOn 1 November, the court found Shekari guilty of fighting and drawing a weapon \"with the intention of killing, causing terror and disturbing the order and security of society\" and convicted him of \"enmity against God\", Mizan said.\n\nHe appealed against the verdict, but it was upheld by the supreme court on 20 November, it added.\n\nIranian state TV broadcast footage from Mohsen Shekari's trial before a Revolutionary Court last month\n\nIran Human Rights said Shekari was \"denied access to his lawyer throughout the interrogation phase [and] legal proceedings\".\n\nIt also said the hard-line Fars news agency aired his \"forced confessions\" hours after his execution. In the video, a bruise on his right cheek is visible.\n\nOpposition activist collective 1500tasvir tweeted: \"While his family were still hoping for an appeal and had no news from the case, the Islamic Republic unexpectedly executed him.\"\n\nThe judiciary has so far announced that at least 11 other people have been sentenced to death by Revolutionary Courts on the charges of \"enmity against God\" or \"corruption on Earth\" in connection with the protests. The defendants' identities have not been disclosed.\n\nAmnesty International has said the courts operate \"under the influence of security and intelligence forces to impose harsh sentences following grossly unfair trials marked by summary and predominantly secret processes\".\n\nMohsen Shekari's arrest, trial and execution took less than two and a half months.\n\nA rushed execution of a young protester might deter others from taking to the streets. However, it might prove to be a double-edged sword for the Iranian regime, which is seeking to instil fear but causing anger.\n\nProtesters have proven over and over again that they no longer have any fear. The funeral of each one killed by security forces has turned into an anti-government demonstration.\n\nThe hanging is therefore yet another huge gamble for the regime and one that might give fresh impetus to the protests on the streets.\n\nAmnesty International said Shekari's execution \"[exposed] the inhumanity of Iran's so-called justice system as dozens of others face the same fate\".\n\n\"The international community must urgently call on the Iranian authorities to immediately halt all planned executions and stop using the death penalty as a tool of political repression against protesters in their desperate attempt to end the popular uprising,\" it added.\n\nUK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted that the world \"cannot turn a blind eye to the abhorrent violence committed by the Iranian regime against its own people\", while German Foreign Annalena Baerbock lamented that \"the Iranian regime's contempt for humanity knows no bounds\".\n\nJudiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei has said that he has instructed judges to \"avoid showing unnecessary sympathy to main elements of these riots and issue tough sentences for them\" as a deterrent.\n\nA majority of the members of Iran's parliament have also demanded \"decisive action\" from the judiciary and \"qisas\", or retaliation in kind, for those who have \"waged war\" on the state.\n\nIran is second only to China in the number of executions carried out annually.\n\nEven before the current unrest there had been what UN human rights chief Volker Türk has called an \"alarming increase\" in executions in Iran, with the number reportedly passing 400 for the year for the first time since 2017.\n\nWomen have led the protests sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini\n\nThe women-led protests against Iran's clerical establishment were sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police on 13 September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, \"improperly\".\n\nThey have spread to 160 cities in all 31 provinces and are seen as one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.\n\nIran's leaders have portrayed the protests as \"riots\" instigated by the country's foreign enemies. However, the overwhelming majority of protesters have been unarmed and peaceful.\n\nSo far, at least 475 protesters have been killed by security forces and 18,240 others have been detained, according to the Human Rights Activists' News Agency (HRANA). It has also reported the deaths of 61 security personnel.\n\nIran's Supreme National Security Council has said that more than 200 people have been killed, including members of the security forces.", "Up to half of all hospitals beds in England could be occupied by patients with respiratory infections, including Covid and flu, NHS England says.\n\nThe warning came as NHS bosses set out further details of its plans to help the health service cope this winter.\n\nThis includes rapid response teams to help people who have fallen at home and \"data war rooms\" to monitor pressures.\n\nThe return of normal winter viruses along with Covid will place huge strain on hospitals, NHS England said.\n\nIt said the modelling, which has not been published, was very much a worst-case scenario - even during the peak of the pandemic, Covid did not lead to such high levels of beds being occupied.\n\nBut NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said it was important to be prepared.\n\n\"Winter comes hot on the heels of an extremely busy summer - and with the combined impact of flu, Covid and record NHS staff vacancies - in many ways, we are facing more than the threat of a 'twindemic' this year,\" she said.\n\n\"So it is right that we prepare as much as possible - the NHS is going further than it ever has before in anticipation of a busy winter.\"\n\nShe said every local area would have a data-driven war room where clinicians could monitor pressures at individual hospitals in real-time so that ambulances could be diverted to the sites with greatest capacity to treat patients.\n\nShe said it was also important for everything to be done to keep patients out of hospital.\n\nThe use of rapid response teams to treat patients who have fallen at home is one solution that is being increasingly adopted.\n\nAreas such as London and Hull have set up systems whereby teams including non-paramedics such as firefighters attend to patients who have fallen but are not deemed to be an emergency.\n\nIt has allowed quick support to be provided and reduced the numbers being taken to hospital.\n\nAnother scheme being rolled out is dedicated care hubs to support care homes to reduce unnecessary admissions.\n\nThese projects are being partly supported by the extra £500m the government has provided for the NHS this winter.\n\nIt comes on top of the NHS winter plan published in the summer which will see an extra 5,000 beds opened, bringing the total to close to 100,000 as well as 2,500 \"virtual ward spaces\" with patients monitored at home.", "Andrew Csabi says the decision has left him shocked and concerned\n\nAfter the deadly bombings on two Bali nightclubs in 2002, some survivors say they got a \"life sentence\".\n\nOn Wednesday, the man who crafted the bombs that killed Mr Csabi's friends and left him a double amputee was freed from an Indonesian prison.\n\nIndonesia says Umar Patek has been deradicalised, but his parole has sparked anger - particularly in Australia, where 88 victims were from.\n\nSome 202 people from 21 nations were killed in the blasts on 12 October that year. It remains Indonesia's deadliest terror attack.\n\nPatek was accused of being a bombmaker for Jemaah Islamiah (JI) - a group inspired by al-Qaeda - and spent almost a decade on the run.\n\nHe was jailed for 20 years in 2012, serving just over half of his initial sentence.\n\nIndonesian authorities say he no longer poses a threat and is eligible for release after a series of sentence reductions for good behaviour.\n\nJan Laczynski, an Australian who lost five friends in the bombings, said he was among those shocked and angry.\n\n\"This guy gets his life back again. For a lot of us we'll never get our lives back again,\" he told the BBC on Thursday.\n\n\"It's appalling. It's dreadful. It's wrong.\"\n\nHe described it as \"another kick in the guts\" after last year's release of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir - the alleged mastermind of the attacks - who had served a sentence unrelated to the bombings.\n\nMr Csabi, who's also Australian, said the decision has also sparked fear. \"You like to feel safe - we all do - and now I don't feel as safe as I was.\n\n\"If they've still got views of hatred, then there is a great possibility that they could incite another bombing.\"\n\nFew survivors believe claims Patek is reformed, Mr Laczynski said.\n\n\"I've seen him in jail, I've seen him close up. He didn't seem deradicalised to me.... I don't buy that at all.\"\n\nThe Australian government lobbied against Patek's release and says it will press Indonesian authorities to promise constant surveillance of him.\n\nAustralians had \"every right to be disappointed and concerned by this news\", minister Chris Bowen said on Thursday.\n\nPatek's release is particularly hurtful because of its timing, both Mr Csabi and Mr Laczynski say. It is just weeks after the 20th anniversary of the bombing and days out from Christmas.\n\nPatek is required to join a \"mentoring programme\" until April 2030 and if any violation is discovered his parole will be revoked, a statement from the Indonesian ministry of law and human rights said.", "Thirty-three cases of scarlet fever have been found in pupils at Brynaman Primary School\n\nThree more cases of scarlet fever have been found in pupils at a primary school where two children have needed hospital treatment after an outbreak.\n\nIt takes the total number of reported cases at Brynaman Primary School, in Carmarthenshire, to 33.\n\nThere have been no further cases of invasive Strep A identified, meaning the figure stands at three.\n\nSince September, 15 UK children have died after invasive strep A infections, including seven-year-old Hanna Roap.\n\nHanna, from Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, was described by her family as \"bubbly\" and \"always smiling\".\n\nIn a letter to parents, Brynaman Primary School said it was working with the council, Public Health Wales (PHW) and Hywel Dda health board.\n\nPHW has previously said the scarlet fever cases at the school occurred over six weeks and that the number was higher than would normally be expected.\n\nPHW health protection consultant Sion Lingard said: \"Invasive Group A Streptococcal disease (iGAS) is a rare complication which usually affects fewer than 20 children in Wales each year.\n\n\"Although iGAS is concerning, the majority of these children will recover with proper treatment.\"\n\nIt is caused by a bacteria group called streptococcus, also known as strep A.\n\nThe rash of scarlet fever often begins with small spots on the body which then spread to the neck, arms and legs. It is often sandpaper-like to touch, but is not itchy.\n\nYour child may also have a:\n\nIt is a notifiable disease, meaning health professionals must inform health protection teams of suspected cases. This is so they can be treated quickly and possible outbreaks brought under control.\n\nIf a parent or carer suspects scarlet fever or invasive strep A infection, they should call their GP or NHS 111 as prompt treatment with antibiotics can prevent serious illness and stop infections spreading.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Harry Dunn's mother, Charlotte Charles, makes an emotional statement outside the Old Bailey\n\nA US citizen has admitted responsibility for the death of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn in a case that caused a diplomatic row between the US and British governments.\n\nAnne Sacoolas, 45, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey, via videolink, to causing his death by careless driving.\n\nMr Dunn, 19, died following a crash outside a US military base in Northamptonshire in August 2019.\n\nHis mother Charlotte Charles said she had now completed her promise to him.\n\nJudge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Sacoolas, who was employed by a US intelligence agency, would be sentenced at the end of November.\n\n\"I direct that Mrs Sacoolas attends court in person to be sentenced,\" the judge added.\n\nSacoolas was charged with causing death by dangerous driving but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) accepted her guilty plea to the lesser charge.\n\nDeath by careless driving carries a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment but a community punishment or suspended jail sentence is often given.\n\nMrs Charles said the family \"didn't wish to separate her from her children, it's not their fault\".\n\nShe said: \"Getting to court and getting to where we are now has been the most monumental thing for me because I can talk to [Harry] now and tell him we've done it, promise complete.\n\n\"I feel I can breathe easier. I don't have that guilt on my shoulders of not having done it yet.\"\n\nHis father Tim Dunn said: \"Hopefully we've given hope to other families that they can do the same as us and get justice and believe and fight because it will happen in the end, it will happen.\"\n\nHarry Dunn died following a collision outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in 2019\n\nThe former head of extradition at the CPS, Nick Vamos, said Sacoolas appearing via videolink from the US was \"a way of circumventing extradition\".\n\nHe said it did \"undermine the power of the court\" and he hoped it would not set a precedent for other cases.\n\nCoronavirus legislation permits even the most important court sessions to be held virtually.\n\nAsked why the CPS decided to conduct the case remotely, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) said: \"We apply the law that is in force at the time that the hearing takes place.\"\n\nAnne Sacoolas, pictured here in 2020, was told by the judge she should appear in court for her sentencing\n\nThe guilty plea brings a legal resolution to the Dunn family after a three-year wait for justice.\n\nOn 27 August 2019, Sacoolas turned out of RAF Croughton and drove 350 metres (1,148ft) on the wrong side of the road for over 20 seconds.\n\nShe hit Mr Dunn who was driving on his motorbike on the correct side of the road.\n\nSacoolas had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US administration following the accident. She left the UK 19 days later.\n\nMr Dunn's family travelled to the US in October 2019 to lobby President Trump.\n\nThe CPS made the decision to charge Sacoolas with causing death by dangerous driving in December 2019.\n\nBut an extradition request was rejected by the US government a month later, causing a diplomatic row between the two countries.\n\nFollowing a period of transatlantic negotiations and a change in the law, it was agreed Saccolas could take part in the proceedings remotely from Washington.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "British teen Harry Dunn was killed in August 2019 when his motorcycle was hit by Anne Sacoolas's vehicle. The US citizen was driving on the wrong side of the road.\n\nHer husband worked on a US intelligence base in the UK, which meant she had diplomatic immunity.\n\nHarry Dunn's family have fought for justice for over three years. In December 2022, Sacoolas was handed a suspended custodial sentence at the Old Bailey, but she did not appear in person.\n\nWatch the BBC's home and legal correspondent Dominic Casciani explain the case.", "Joining Schengen would mean no need for border checks like these on the Bulgarian border with Greece\n\nEuropean Union interior ministers have voted to accept Croatia into the 26-nation, border-free Schengen zone, but to reject Romania and Bulgaria.\n\nThe vote was greeted with relief in Zagreb, but anger and dismay in Bucharest and Sofia.\n\nGermany's foreign minister said it was a bad day for Europe.\n\nThe European Commission had backed all three countries as meeting the criteria necessary for joining the zone, which includes 420 million people.\n\nCroatia joined the EU in 2013; Romania and Bulgaria had become member states six years earlier.\n\nCroatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic praised the decision, which means that Croatia will decommission its border crossings with EU neighbours Slovenia and Hungary on 1 January, the same day as it joins the euro.\n\nCreated in 1985, the Schengen area allows people and goods to travel freely, usually without showing travel or customs documents.\n\nIt includes 22 of the EU's 27 states as well as Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein.\n\nAustria and the Netherlands voted against admitting Romania and Bulgaria, citing concerns that both were soft on illegal migration. The most vehement opposition came from Austria.\n\n\"It is not right for a system that is not working in many places to be expanded at this time,\" said Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, explaining his country's veto.\n\nAs its main reason for keeping Romania and Bulgaria out of Schengen, the government in Vienna cited a rapid increase in the number of migrants entering Austria illegally through the West Balkan route.\n\nHowever, political leaders in Romania and Bulgaria argue that relatively few cross their territory, and that their bid to join Schengen has been derailed for political reasons. They say the Austrian and Dutch governments are looking to attract the anti-immigrant vote.\n\nEU Border Agency Frontex has reported 128,000 \"irregular entries\" into the EU so far this year from the West Balkans, a 77% increase on 2021, with 22,300 in October alone. These figures include multiple attempts by the same people.\n\nThe Austrian government says 75,000 irregular migrants are currently in the country. Some 40% are from India and Tunisia, after flying into non-EU country Serbia legally under a no-visa scheme; a further 40% are from countries led by Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria.\n\nRomania said it did not understand Austria's \"inflexible decision\".\n\nThe head of the ruling Social Democrats, Marcel Ciolacu, went further: \"European unity and stability received a tough blow today from a state that chose, in difficult times, to abandon its European comrades and serve instead the interests of Russia.\"\n\nBut Bulgaria's acting interior minister, Ivan Demerdzhiev, was more diplomatic: \"Austria has made it clear it is ready for compromise and wants a complete reform of the Schengen area in those places where the mechanisms do not work,\" he said, holding out hope that Thursday's decision would be reversed next year.\n\nThere was criticism inside Austria as well, with migration researcher Judith Kohlenberger pointing out that the majority of people who had come to Austria for protection were already in the EU.\n\n\"To blame Romania and Bulgaria but not Hungary or even Croatia, which continue systematic push-backs, is both irrational and hypocritical,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Chris Morris explains how the Schengen area was created", "Stormont has had no ministers in post since October\n\nNorthern Ireland's ministers left office at the end of October and since then Stormont's nine government departments have been left in the hands of senior civil servants.\n\nBut, who are the officials running Northern Ireland?\n\nWith no ministers in place, the powers of civil servants are severely limited.\n\nThey can only implement policies previously agreed by politicians and their ability to react to changing circumstances is negligible.\n\nIn a statement to BBC News NI, The Executive Office (TEO) outlined how Northern Ireland is currently being run.\n\n\"Departments will continue to deliver services as far as possible and business as usual will continue for the majority of services in the immediate future,\" said a spokesperson.\n\nThe statement spelled out the limitations faced by civil servants.\n\n\"The courts have made clear what departments can do in the absence of a minister. The Court of Appeal confirmed in July 2018 that the role of the civil servant is to advise ministers and be accountable to them.\n\n\"The court also stated that any matter, which as a matter of convention or otherwise would normally go before the minister for approval, lies beyond the competence of a department in the absence of a minister.\"\n\nSo who are Northern Ireland's top civil servants?\n\nMs Brady became Head of the Civil Service in June 2021 and leads a workforce of 23,000 civil servants.\n\nUnlike most top Stormont officials she was appointed from outside the civil service having previously worked as Belfast City Council's digital innovation commissioner.\n\nShe holds an MBE for Services to Economic Development in Northern Ireland and describes herself as \"an engineer at heart\".\n\nAddressing the current challenge facing senior officials Ms Brady said: \"There is no doubt that what we are faced with is very difficult but we will continue to do our best to serve citizens.\"\n\nThe NI Civil Service offers a salary of up to £166,000 for its top job.\n\nThe role of Permanent Secretary at the Executive Office (TEO) previously included the function of head of the civil service. This changed when Jayne Brady was appointed.\n\nThe role was divided and long-term civil servant Denis McMahon became the leading official at TEO.\n\nIn normal times, it is the department at the heart of government and headed by the first and deputy first ministers.\n\nTEO's official role includes \"the effective operation of the institutions of government in the delivery of an agreed programme for government\" - a tough job given the absence of an executive, or a programme for government.\n\nMr McMahon was previously permanent secretary at the Department of Agriculture and began his career as a statistician.\n\nHis many jobs have included a spell as principal private secretary to former first minister Ian Paisley.\n\nResponsibility at the head of the remaining eight executive departments transferred to their individual permanent secretaries when the politicians lost their ministerial posts.\n\nSome of them have been civil servants for all of their working lives, others have experience working in business, academia and the voluntary sector.\n\nMr Boyle was appointed to the top job at the department in April 2022.\n\nHe had previously been interim permanent secretary in the Department of Finance.\n\nThe role of the Department for Communities includes responsibility for the social welfare system, housing and support for local government.\n\nMs Godfrey is an experienced senior civil servant, having spent three years as permanent secretary at the Department for Infrastructure.\n\nShe's the first woman to fill the top job at the Department of Agriculture.\n\nIn addition to her Stormont duties, the permanent secretary is a visiting professor at Ulster University where she teaches on the Masters in Public Administration course.\n\nMr Gibson was the chief economist for Ireland in the consultancy firm EY before becoming permanent secretary in the department that holds Northern Ireland's purse strings.\n\nHe replaced Sue Gray, who had been highly tipped for the post of head of the civil service but subsequently returned to a career in Whitehall.\n\nNeil Gibson is also a visiting professor of Economic Policy at Ulster University.\n\nMr Browne is a familiar figure at Stormont having spent 36 years in the civil service.\n\nHe started out as a statistician in the Department of Finance in 1985.\n\nMr Browne was appointed permanent secretary at the education department in March 2021 having previously served as deputy secretary in TEO since 2013.\n\nMr May took the helm at the department in May following a job swap with Richard Pengelly, who took over his position at the Department of Justice.\n\nHe has had a long civil service career at a senior rank. In addition to his period with the Justice Department, he previously held the top job at the Department for Infrastructure and the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure.\n\nMr May recently grabbed the headlines for comments he made regarding the future of Northern Ireland health service.\n\n\"Ultimately, we get the health service we pay for,\" he said.\n\n\"Without sustained investment, we will need as a society to recalibrate our expectations of what our health and social care system can deliver.\"\n\nRichard Pengelly is the top civil servant in the Department for Justice\n\nRichard Pengelly became the top official at the Justice Department in May following a stint of eight years as permanent secretary at the Department of Health.\n\nHis time at health coincided with the Covid pandemic when he worked alongside then Health Minister Robin Swann.\n\nMr Pengelly started out as a chartered accountant in private practice and worked in the Northern Ireland Audit Office before joining the Department of Finance and Personnel in 1998.\n\nHe is married to the Lagan Valley MLA, Emma Little-Pengelly.\n\nMs Harrison worked in a number of jobs outside the civil service before her appointment as deputy secretary in the Department of Justice in 2020.\n\nShe assumed the top job at infrastructure in April, where she heads a department employing 3,000 people.\n\nMs Harrison previously served as Northern Ireland chair and UK board member of the National Lottery Community Fund.\n\nMike Brennan took on the top job at economy in December 2020 having spent much of his civil service career at the Department of Finance.\n\nHe served as deputy secretary in the EU Exit Policy Group.\n\nPrior to joining the civil service, Mr Brennan was an economist at the Northern Ireland Economic Council.", "Aymen Alkhawlani, 31, worked as an English teacher in Yemen\n\nAymen Alkhawlani wakes each morning and asks himself the same question: Do I buy a bus ticket and go hungry, or eat and be alone?\n\nSuch dilemmas are familiar to people in the UK asylum system.\n\nWith most barred from working, they rely on UK government support. Typically this is £40.85 a week, or £5.84 a day. Others in hotels are given £8.24 a week, or £1.18 a day.\n\nAymen is one of several people in the asylum system who have spoken to BBC Scotland about the crisis they face as the cost of living soars at the fastest rate in 40 years. The self-titled \"new Scots\" want to be allowed to work while awaiting decisions on their applications.\n\nThe Home Office says its payments are to cover essential needs for people \"who would otherwise be destitute\".\n\nBut recipients say they are often unable to afford transport, good quality clothing, food, internet access and medicine.\n\nAymen is from Yemen and arrived in the UK in April 2021. He was placed in a hotel in Falkirk for a year before getting Home Office accommodation in Airdrie in October.\n\nHe said he feels alone and cannot afford to buy return train or bus tickets for the 30-minute trip to Glasgow where he meets up with other people in the asylum system.\n\nHe explained: \"The only way to meet people is to go to Glasgow. And I need to spend a lot, at least £10, to go to Glasgow and back.\n\n\"If I decide to go to Glasgow, I won't be able to eat for two days.\"\n\nThere are approximately 5,200 people in the asylum support system in Scotland with about 4,700 accommodated and/or financially supported by the Home Office. They can apply for £40.85 per week from the UK government.\n\nSome can request permission to work if they have been waiting for more than a year for a response on their claim, but most of those granted permission are only allowed to work in jobs on the official shortage occupation list, which was recently expanded to include nursing and care roles.\n\nAymen says he is only given about £35 a week because he received an extra £40 payment when he was offered housing in England, which he rejected.\n\nHe said he will not receive the full weekly allowance until he pays back the £40, which he says he has no way of doing.\n\nThe 31-year-old, who worked as an English teacher in Yemen, said: \"I can't even eat three meals a day nowadays because I only receive £35 a week. I have to skip dinner most of the time. Breakfast and lunch is pretty much all I have.\"\n\nHe added: \"Because I don't have the money to buy bus tickets, I stay home all the time. So that also adds to my depression.\"\n\nFor those in hotel accommodation, which is provided by private contractors, the level of government support is lower.\n\nIn Scotland, between 500 and 600 people in the asylum system live in 10 hotels across eight local authorities.\n\nSince they are provided with \"full board\", they can only apply for £8.24 in support per week, or £1.18 a day. The Home Office says this should cover clothing, non-prescription medicine and travel.\n\nBut Hawre, a Kurdish man in his 30s who asked to remain anonymous, said: \"The £8 does literally nothing, especially in this cost of living crisis.\"\n\n\"We can't even go to a barbershop to get a haircut.\n\n\"We are at the point where we give each other haircuts, regardless of the quality of what we can do.\"\n\nHe has spent a year in a hotel in Aberdeen, awaiting news on his asylum application.\n\nHaving worked as a painter and decorator in Iraq, Hawre says he is frustrated about his inability to earn his own money.\n\nHe explained: \"Financial gain wasn't something on my mind when I came here. If I didn't have a big issue in Iraq, if it wasn't life-threatening, I wouldn't come here to live under these circumstances living on £1 a day.\n\n\"It makes me feel less human, like we're being treated inhumanely.\"\n\nHerberth, 35, is from El Salvador and currently lives in Glasgow with his partner\n\nHerberth, a poet from El Salvador, arrived in Scotland in April having also fled his home country due to fears for his safety.\n\nHe applied for financial support in October but has been told he is unlikely to hear back until January.\n\nHerberth lives in Glasgow with his partner, a UK citizen, so does not rely on Home Office housing support. But he says not being able to earn money is damaging his mental health, as well as his finances.\n\nThe author of two poetry books in his homeland, the 35-year-old is studying for a psychology degree which he started in El Salvador but can complete online.\n\nHe would like to study for a masters degree in clinical psychology in Scotland, but he is struggling to get access to higher education due to his immigration status.\n\nHerberth has managed to enrol on an advanced English course at City of Glasgow College. \"That's a big help,\" he said. \"But of course, I would like to get a job, study here in Scotland, those type of things I'm missing out on and it's affecting my life. I'm 35 years old and I'm in my most productive years and I'm unable to work, so it's a very stressful situation.\"\n\nThe Maryhill Integration Network (MIN), an organisation which supports people in the asylum system in the Glasgow area, provides a haven to both Herberth and Aymen.\n\nPinar Aksu, human rights and advocacy coordinator at MIN, said: \"With the cost of living crisis, people seeking asylum are forced to live in extreme poverty having to choose between buying food, clothes, or travelling.\"\n\nPinar Aksu is from asylum seeker support organisation the Maryhill Integration Network\n\nShe backed the Lift the Ban coalition, a campaign urging the UK government to give people the right to work after six months in the UK.\n\nMIN has also called on Holyrood to follow the Welsh government by providing free bus passes for people seeking asylum. Aksu said the move would allow people to travel without being \"forced to pick between food, travel and essential needs\".\n\nThe Scottish government said it continued to consider plans to provide free bus travel to refugees and people in the asylum system.\n\nCampaign group Refugees for Justice told BBC Scotland that people in the asylum system are especially vulnerable during the cost of living crisis, and called for the UK government to increase weekly payments.\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said the Nationality and Borders Act, which became law in June, \"will fix the broken asylum system\" by speeding up the application process and \"focusing on those genuinely fleeing persecution\".\n\nThey continued: \"For asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, we provide accommodation and a weekly allowance for food, clothing, transport and sundries.\n\n\"The Home Office ensures all spending is carefully scrutinised to make sure that every pound of taxpayers' money is spent in the most effective way. We review the allowance rates on an annual basis and we have commenced this year's annual review.\"", "West Cumbria Mining says the scheme would bring about 500 jobs to the Whitehaven area\n\nA proposed new coal mine in Cumbria has been branded \"absolutely indefensible\" by the chairman of the government's official advisors on climate change.\n\nLord Deben, chair of the Climate Change Committee (CCC), was speaking at the launch of the annual report on the UK's progress in tackling greenhouse gases.\n\nA decision on planning permission for the mine near Whitehaven to source coal for steel-making is expected soon.\n\nEnvironmentalists have warned that demand for coking coal is declining.\n\nLord Deben, who leads the independent advisory committee, said Russia's invasion of Ukraine meant the government should be looking to protect energy supplies.\n\nHe acknowledged that the UK had done so with a focus on renewables and nuclear.\n\n\"As far as the coal mine in Cumbria is concerned, let's be absolutely clear, it is absolutely indefensible,\" he said.\n\n\"First of all, 80% of what it produces will be exported, so it is not something largely for internal consumption.\n\n\"It is not going to contribute anything to our domestic needs in the terms we're talking about, the cost of energy and the rest.\"\n\nHe said the mine's backers claimed it would provide metallurgical coal, which is currently imported, but it would not reduce the amount of coal being produced - largely in the USA.\n\nDuring Prime Minister's Questions on 22 June, Boris Johnson appeared to hint that the mine may be given the go-ahead when he said that \"plainly it makes no sense to be importing coal, particularly for metallurgical purposes, when we have our own domestic resources.\"\n\nThe mine was approved by Cumbria County Council in October 2020, but the decision was suspended weeks later following guidance from the CCC and then the Planning Inspectorate was tasked with examining the arguments.\n\nIts report was handed to the government earlier this year and a deadline of 7 July was set for a decision by the Communities Secretary Michael Gove.\n\nWoodhouse Colliery could be the UK's first new deep mine for three decades\n\nHowever, Lord Deben warned its approval would damage the UK's leadership on climate change and \"create another example of Britain saying one thing and doing another\".\n\nHe said the government should find a way of ensuring the jobs that might have been created by the mine be replaced by alternative green jobs.\n\nLord Deben said he was not concerned about keeping a coal-fired power plant open longer than planned this winter to shore up energy supplies, despite a commitment to end UK coal power by October 2024.\n\n\"We are under serious threat because of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russians, and in those circumstances the government has to make sure that we keep the lights on,\" he added.\n\nFriends of the Earth energy campaigner Tony Bosworth said Lord Deben was \"right\" and the case against a new coal mine was \"overwhelming in climate terms\".\n\nHe said the \"market for its coal is declining before it even opens\", adding: \"Saying no to this mine should an open-and-shut case for a government serious about the climate crisis.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Introducing new legislation won't reduce the impact of industrial action due to happen imminently\n\nThe government is exploring the idea of significantly restricting or even banning the right of ambulance workers and firefighters to go on strike.\n\nA number of government departments are working up a range of options to toughen up new legislation designed to reduce the impact of industrial action.\n\nI am told the prime minister hasn't made any decisions yet on precisely what he wants to do.\n\nHe wants to bring forward planned new laws as quickly as possible.\n\nThe timeframe for doing so is expected soon, but no specific timetable is being committed to publicly yet.\n\nIntroducing new legislation isn't likely to be feasible before January and it wouldn't reduce the impact of industrial action due to happen imminently.\n\nMinisters are thinking of extending existing plans to introduce what are known as Minimum Service Level Agreements to public transport to other sectors, including the emergency services.\n\nThese would allow strikes to happen, but impose a legal floor on how limited the resulting service on a strike day would be.\n\nNurses, paramedics and rail staff are among those set to strike this winter.\n\nThe latest strikes to be announced are by Border Force staff at several airports, who are walking out over Christmas in a row over pay, jobs and conditions.\n\nOfficials at the Department of Health are expected to meet trades unions as soon as Thursday to discuss broadening the range of emergencies they would be willing to respond to while a strike was under way.\n\nAs things stand, they would attend life-threatening emergencies but not others.\n\nIf there wasn't a willingness from the unions to volunteer to broaden the list of what are known as \"derogations\" or exceptions during a strike, there is a growing appetite within government to legislate to do this.\n\nSenior ministers met on Wednesday, I understand, to discuss the options on the table.\n\nGovernment figures insist they want to be \"reasonable,\" as they put it, in dealing with the waves of strike action being announced, but if trades unions behave in what they see as an \"unreasonable\" way, they have a duty to respond.\n\nRishi Sunak has told the BBC: \"It is my responsibility to make sure everyone can be kept safe and we can minimise the disruption on their day-to-day lives, and I will do what I need to do to make sure that is the case.\"\n\nHe added that he had to ensure \"people can go about their day-to-day lives free of the enormous disruption these strikes are going to cause.\"\n\nSharon Graham, general secretary of the trade union Unite, has said if the government \"put more hurdles in our way, then we will jump over them. We are ready industrially and financially. I will continue to fight and win for workers.\"", "Applications for the scheme went live on the council website on Tuesday after a series of delays\n\nMore people have applied for a hardship fund to help with home heating bills than Derry City and Strabane Council can afford.\n\nPeople can apply for payments of up to £100 from the £258,000 fund, which will be paid directly to energy providers.\n\nApplications for the scheme went live on Tuesday after a series of delays.\n\nThe council website began accepting referrals at 09:30 GMT, but shut about eight hours later after thousands applied.\n\nThe funding is only available to oil and electricity customers in the council area and not to gas customers.\n\nThe council said the programme formed part of the its response to the cost of living crisis and was designed for emergency situations when a householder was not able to pay fuel bills or buy a top-up.\n\nIt estimated it could support about 2,405 households in the district.\n\nPeople Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin told BBC Radio Foyle the number of applications exceeded the available funding.\n\n\"The fact that so many people applied for this tells us so much about the scale of need in the district,\" Mr Harkin said.\n\n\"We are happy to move this out and get this out for people who needed it, but the fact that this went way past what was available so quickly tells us there are a lot of people who are desperate for help.\"\n\nMr Harkin said councillors would receive a report later on Wednesday from council officers with more details on the exact number of people who applied.\n\nCouncil says the scheme is aimed at helping 2,405 households in the district\n\nThe scheme is being run on a referral basis, which can be made by any local support organisation, school, church or charity.\n\nAdvice North West and Resource Centre Derry in Carnhill was appointed by the council to undertake the eligibility checks, with the Bryson Charitable Group providing payments to successful applicants.\n\nPeople were also able to refer themselves using an application that was made available on the council's website.\n\nSuccessful applicants for the scheme must meet certain eligibility criteria, the council has said.\n\nMr Harkin said the council estimated successful applicants would start seeing payments being made by the beginning of next week.\n\nA council spokesperson said the council and their advice service partners would now work to review all the paperwork.\n\nThey added that given the scale of the cost-of-living crisis and the response to the referral scheme, the funding would only reach a small proportion of those who applied.\n\nA UK-wide scheme to help people with their energy bills has still not been delivered in Northern Ireland.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Forecaster Simon King says cold weather is expected to last into next week\n\nThousands of people on the lowest incomes in over 300 postcode districts will receive a £25 Cold Weather Payment as temperatures plunge below zero.\n\nTemperatures went as low as -9.1C (15F) in the Scottish Highlands and -8.9C in Cumbria, overnight figures showed.\n\nA cold weather alert for England will run until 09:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nIt is issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) when the weather is cold enough to be likely to affect people's health.\n\nAs parts of the UK are hit by freezing conditions, a fuel poverty charity has called on the government to provide more support for \"those at greatest peril\".\n\nThe government has triggered Cold Weather Payments for eligible people across large parts of England and Wales. It is paid once in a seven-day period and people can check if they will receive it online.\n\nThe payments will be made in parts of Cumbria, North East and North West England, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Coventry, Staffordshire and Brecon.\n\nIn Scotland, those on low incomes and benefits may receive a one-off Winter Heating Payment, but this is not tied to temperatures.\n\nCurrent forecasts predict unseasonable temperatures - well below average for the time of year - in many places, with the cold weather continuing into next week.\n\nHeavy snow has been causing traffic disruption across the north east of Scotland, with reports of vehicles becoming stuck on some routes.\n\nThe wintry weather also caused delays to flights at Aberdeen Airport, with bus services also facing disruption.\n\nNational Energy Action says people are struggling to heat their homes as a result of \"impossibly high prices\" and they now face \"dreadful consequences\".\n\nCEO Adam Scorer said \"millions have been dreading the onset of winter\" and people are choosing between \"either huge debt or an unheated home\".\n\n\"Despite the current programme of support, the government must step in with more help for those at greatest peril this winter,\" he said.\n\nWintry scenes near Bassetts Pole on the Warwickshire-Staffordshire border\n\nThe Met Office has several weather warnings in place - including across the western and eastern coasts of England and Wales, parts of Northern Ireland and northern Scotland/\n\nMore widely, temperatures dipped to about -6C and -7C across much of the UK overnight.\n\nBBC Weather presenter Chris Fawkes said the cold weather would last well into next week as the high pressure over Greenland continues to push cold Arctic air across the country.\n\n\"Snow showers will continue to affect north and east Scotland\" on Thursday afternoon, he said.\n\nA few centimetres of snow is also expected to accumulate in the north east of England.\n\nTemperatures could plummet to -10C on Thursday night, with a risk of slippery surfaces caused by hard frost, following the quick drop in temperature.\n\nThe Met Office has warned people to take care on the ice, with the risk of injuries and slips on icy surfaces heightened on Thursday morning.\n\nIn Sheffield, hundreds of homes are still without a gas supply after water leaked into the mains six days ago.\n\nJosh, 30, who lives with his girlfriend and two children in Stannington, is one of those affected.\n\nAs he tucked his four-year-old son into bed on Tuesday, Josh wrapped him in five quilts. By midnight he said the house felt \"as cold as Iceland\" and he spent an hour with a tiny electric heater trying to warm the boy's room.\n\n\"Still that wasn't enough,\" Josh said. \"He woke up at half five this morning, crying, cold. What more can we do?\"\n\nThere are concerns the situation could last until the end of this week and \"maybe longer\" before gas is restored to everyone.\n\nResidents in Stannington, Sheffield, are using electric heaters to keep warm after their gas supply was cut off\n\nThe UKHSA has reiterated its long-standing advice for people who cannot heat every room - saying they should warm the living room during the day and bedrooms just before going to sleep, ideally to at least 18C.\n\nThe cold weather alert for England also requires health care providers to activate special plans, such as arranging gritting services to allow access to critical services and to cover pedestrian hotspots.\n\nBut many local councils in England and Wales - who have collectively stockpiled 1.4 million tonnes of salt for this winter - said they were struggling to attract and retain gritter drivers.\n\nMotorists are being advised to keep warm clothes, blankets and flasks of tea in their vehicles. The RAC said people driving in frosty, icy conditions should prepare to keep warm in the event of breakdowns, which are expected to surge this week.\n\nAn emergency protocol in London has been activated to provide extra accommodation for rough sleepers.\n\nHow are you keeping warm? Will you be receiving a cold weather payment? Please share your experiences, tips and questions by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "(Left to right): Stella, Jorja and Renée from Flo got a sneak peak of their Brit trophy before the official ceremony in February\n\nThe London-based trio only released their debut single, Cardboard Box, in March, but won instant praise for their retro-styled girl band sound.\n\nFormed in 2021, they comprise singers Stella Quaresma and Renée Downer, who met at the Sylvia Young Stage School, and Jorja Douglas, who they discovered on Instagram.\n\nThey are the first band ever to win the rising star award.\n\nThe prize, formerly known as the Critics' Choice award, has previously tipped the likes of Adele, Florence + the Machine and Sam Fender for success.\n\nFlo were nominated alongside jungle artist Nia Archives and torch singer Cat Burns, who scored a number two hit earlier this year with her break-up ballad Go.\n\nAll three were also nominated for best newcomer at last week's Mobo Awards; and feature on the BBC's Sound Of 2023 longlist - which was unveiled on Monday.\n\nFlo said they were \"shocked and grateful\" to have won a Brit so soon after releasing their debut EP, The Lead.\n\n\"As a kid, I was ambitious and I had a plan, and a Brit was on it,\" Stella told BBC Radio 1's Clara Amfo. \"But not as a group and not this young!\"\n\nAsked what made the band special, Jorja replied: \"We're the sisters we never had. That's literally what it is.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by FloLikeThisVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nAlready this year, the band have amassed 70 million streams, gained 319,000 followers on TikTok and been given the stamp of approval by US R&B stars Missy Elliott, Brandy and Kelly Rowland.\n\nAppropriately enough, their sound harks back to the staccato, stuttering beats of 1990s girls bands like TLC and Destiny's Child, complete with lyrics chastising any \"trifling good-for-nothing type of brother\".\n\nCardboard Box was followed up with the similarly-catchy Not My Job; and the band were booked to perform on Jimmy Kimmel's talk show in the US, as well as Later... with Jools Holland in the UK.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News at the Mobos, the band said their signature sound was essentially a tribute to their mums.\n\n\"They brought us up on 90s music,\" Jorja explained, \"so it's hard to make music that's not influenced by Brandy, or Faith Evans, or SWV.\n\n\"All the girl groups, all the boy groups. It happens naturally because that music is so ingrained in us.\"\n\nFlo will receive their Brit Award when the ceremony takes place on Saturday 11 February at London's O2 arena.\n\nIn recent years, winners of the rising star award have also been given the opportunity to perform at the ceremony.\n\nThe shortlist for the prize is selected by a panel of music industry experts including magazine editors, critics, songwriters, producers and festival bookers.\n\nAll three nominees performed exclusive live sessions for the Brits after receiving their nominations, which you can watch below.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by FLO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 3 by Nia Archives This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 4 by CatBurnsVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Nicola Wheatley, Morgan Rogers, Paul O'Dwyer and Andrea Powell were among those who died\n\nAn inquest into the deaths of four paddleboarders who died after an incident on the River Cleddau last month has been opened.\n\nPaul O'Dwyer, 42, from Port Talbot, Morgan Rogers, 24, from Merthyr Tydfil, Nicola Wheatley, 40, of Pontarddulais, died in the incident on 30 October.\n\nThe fourth victim, Andrea Powell, 41, from Bridgend, died a week later in hospital.\n\nThe inquest in Llanelli was opened and adjourned to a later date.\n\nA woman from south Wales has been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter and released pending inquiries.\n\nActing Senior Coroner Paul Bennett told the inquest it was his duty to adjourn the inquests until police investigations were complete.", "Zoe Williams wants to share her experience for others to be more prepared on the water\n\nA woman who drifted out to sea on her paddleboard is calling on people to \"be prepared\" when taking to the water.\n\nZoe Williams, 27, was on her board near the village of Trefor on the Llŷn Peninsula when she got into trouble earlier in June.\n\nHaving called the Coastguard, she was eventually rescued by the lifeboat team from Porthdinllaen.\n\nRecalling the \"scary\" experience, she emphasised the importance of a buoyancy aid and a mobile phone nearby.\n\nMs Williams, from Pwllheli, said she had been enjoying a Sunday on the beach with her partner, Gareth, on 13 June.\n\nAs he returned their kayak to the car, she went out on her paddleboard. But suddenly, at about 20:40, she got into trouble.\n\nMs Williams said being taken out to sea was a \"scary\" experience and she worries for other people\n\n\"No matter how hard I paddled, the wind was against me and I was being blown out to sea,\" she said.\n\n\"I was blown out very quickly and had to make a decision on the spot - either I come off the paddleboard and swim to shore, or let it take me and phone for help.\n\n\"I felt so afraid - how quickly things turned, how quickly the weather turned. The sea was completely still when we set out.\"\n\nBecause she had her phone in a waterproof pouch, she called the coastguard, with whom she spoke while waiting for the lifeboat crew to arrive.\n\n\"In the meantime, I had drifted a mile-and-a-half, which was scary because I was being pulled out to sea,\" she said.\n\nIn 2020, RNLI crews were called out 88 times to help paddleboarders in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. About half of those had been swept out to sea - and 12 of the launches resulted in lives saved.\n\nRNLI'S Mali Parry-Jones said people should always have a phone and buoyance aid nearby\n\nMali Parry-Jones of RNLI Porthdinllaen said it was important for paddleboarders to have a device such as a mobile phone at hand, and to wear a buoyance aid such as a life jacket.\n\n\"Also ensure that you wear the leash around the ankle to ensure that you and the board aren't separated, because it's so important to stay on the board if you get into trouble,\" she added.\n\nMs Williams said she had nightmares after the incident, and was fearful of going back to sea with her paddleboard.\n\nZoe Williams says she worries about other paddleboarders, including children\n\nShe is also worried by the sight of paddleboarders, including children, taking to the waves without having prepared.\n\n\"That's why I'm sharing my story, really - to raise awareness of the importance of preparing and taking a phone with you. Waterproof pouches are available free from the RNLI and for next to nothing online.\n\n\"Also, it's about the importance of buoyancy aids. I know they don't look great, and they aren't cool, but they're so important. They can save lives and I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't prepared and taken those things with me.\"", "The former Marchon chemical works on the outskirts of Whitehaven is the site of the proposed mine\n\nGoverning is about difficult choices; confronting seemingly irreconcilable demands - and making a decision.\n\nSo here's the scenario: Coal that is used to make steel is under the Irish Sea off the west Cumbrian coast, one of England's most isolated spots, desperate to attract more private sector jobs, particularly ones that pay well and have a future.\n\nThe government is committed to what it calls levelling up, and has won seats in the area long held by Labour.\n\nThe government is also committed to being a champion of tackling climate change, and was wrestling with this decision about the coal mine at exactly the same time as hosting the COP climate summit in Glasgow a year ago.\n\nAnd saying yes then, however comfortable they are with their arguments for doing so, would have looked… awkward.\n\nWell, another climate summit, the recent one in Egypt, has come and gone while ministers have been making their minds up on what to do in Whitehaven.\n\nThey asked the Planning Inspectorate to take a look at the whole idea.\n\nMeanwhile, war in Ukraine broke out.\n\nUntil then, 40% of the coal needed to make steel in the UK, metallurgical coal, the stuff this new mine will dig up, came from, you guessed it: Russia.\n\nSince then, alternative suppliers have been found, but nonetheless the issue of energy security is a salient one.\n\nMeanwhile plenty are saying it is bonkers to be digging coal out of the ground in 2022, let alone opening a brand new mine to do so.\n\nHow on earth do you incentivise finding alternative ways of making steel if you carry on relying on the black stuff?\n\nSo, you're the minister, what do you do?\n\nWell, prevaricate — and they did.\n\nAnd every expectation it will be appealed.\n\nLabour say it proves Rishi Sunak is a \"fossil fuel prime minister in a renewable age.\"\n\nBut would a Labour government shut the mine or stop it opening in a part of the world they are desperate to win back?\n\nThe government is arguing their decision is in keeping with their emissions obligations because the alternative would be importing the coal, and alternatives to using coal are a long way off.\n\nAnd plenty of people in west Cumbria are delighted.\n\nBut not before an almighty row that is only just beginning.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nThe England and Wales Cricket Board reviewed more than 200 complaints of alleged discrimination in 2021.\n\nLast November ex-Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq told a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee the English game was \"institutionally\" racist.\n\nThe ECB made 12 commitments to promote equality, diversity and inclusion, and has published updates on its progress .\n\nIt said a new system for dealing with complaints of discrimination had \"taken longer than anticipated\".\n\nStill, it said 208 complaints were received last year, all of which have now been reviewed.\n\nThere were 36 separate cases - some involving multiple allegations - in recreational cricket referred for further investigation. Of those, 12 remain under investigation while 24 have been concluded.\n\nThey involved 65 allegations of discrimination, of which 14 were substantiated during the investigation process - 47 were unsubstantiated and six withdrawn or undetermined.\n\nThe figures come after the ECB pledged to adopt a \"standardised approach\" to whistleblowing across cricket and creating a \"better culture of reporting and complaint management\" which will be managed by a new anti-discrimination unit.\n\nThe ECB said \"full delivery\" of the unit has \"taken longer than anticipated\" but a director has been appointed and \"the implementation plan is being finalised\".\n\n\"The ECB anticipates the first phase of the implementation plan will be operational by the end of December 2022, followed by phase two by spring 2023,\" it said.\n\nThere is another DCMS session about racism in cricket in front of MPs on Tuesday.\n\nLast month, disciplinary proceedings over charges against Yorkshire and seven individuals were delayed until next year.\n• None Yorkshire cricket racism scandal - how we got here\n• None Reaction & all the evidence: Rafiq appears before MPs\n\nThe ECB also vowed to continue anti-discrimination training and around 4,500 people have completed the training in 2022, including 97% of ECB employees.\n\nThe dressing room culture has been reviewed for 30 teams across the men's and women's domestic games, as well as England women, England men's white-ball and disability teams. The final session will be held with the England men's red-ball team before the end of 2022.\n\nThe percentage of boys and girls from ethnically diverse backgrounds in youth academies has increased, as has ethnic diversity on club boards (from 5% to 17%), while female representation on boards has tripled (11% to 33%).\n\nFollowing on from the success of the women's Hundred and the England national team, the ECB announced that the number of clubs offering women and girls the chance to play has risen by 12% since 2019 (to 1,050 in total), while there has been a 75% rise in the number of women's and girls teams (3,586).\n\nSince 2019, there has been a 54% increase in people attending England women's fixtures and the number of female ticket buyers for the Hundred is up from 21% to 28%.\n\nElsewhere, free cricket is being played at 300 more schools in lower socio-economic areas, along with 200 more special education needs schools, while 104 clubs are regularly delivering disability cricket, up from 36 in 2020.\n\nOne of the ECB programmes to increase ethnic diversity in cricket is called Dream Big, which is co-funded by Sport England and has seen 2,109 South Asian women volunteer as role models at grassroots level, while 33% of participants on ECB coaching courses have been from ethnically diverse backgrounds.\n• None How to win the World Cup: No live games today? No problem! Watch this instead on BBC iPlayer", "The taxi driver was advised to apply for Universal Credit when temporarily out of work\n\nA Stormont department has repaid more than £11,000 to a taxi driver after he successfully complained that he lost out on benefits due to poor advice.\n\nHe was temporarily unable to work after a car crash so he phoned a government support centre to claim benefits.\n\nHe was advised to apply for Universal Credit, but was not warned of the risk he could lose £54 a week in tax credit.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman upheld his complaint and said it amounted to \"maladministration\".\n\nMargaret Kelly said the taxi driver suffered \"injustice\" because he had been denied the opportunity of making \"a fully informed decision\" about how his Universal Credit (UC) application would affect his existing benefits, in this instance his working tax credit.\n\nWelfare campaigners said the case highlights how some people risk losing their entitlement to their existing social-security benefits when they apply for UC, even if their UC application is turned down.\n\nIn his complaint, the taxi driver told the ombudsman that he applied for UC within an hour of his phone call with the Department for Communities' Employment Support Centre. His application was turned down.\n\nHe said he later found out that by applying for UC, he had effectively ended his right to claim working tax credit ever again and there was \"no right of appeal\".\n\nThe taxi driver said his working tax credit had amounted to £216 over each four-week period and losing this money left him in financial hardship.\n\nThe ombudsman's investigation concluded that the complainant had \"a reasonable expectation that he would not be left worse off by following the advice given by the department's adviser\".\n\nShe added that the adviser did not \"raise any flag, even of a general nature, that making a claim for UC may affect existing benefits\".\n\nMargaret Kelly said the taxi driver \"suffered a huge amount of stress and financial hardship through no fault of his own\"\n\nA recording of the taxi driver's call was deleted by the department before it could be heard by the ombudsman.\n\nBut Ms Kelly said on the balance of the available information, she found no evidence that the adviser had told the man about the availability of independent telephone advice or online benefits guidance.\n\n\"I am satisfied that had the complainant been fully informed, he would not have claimed UC and would not have lost out financially,\" she said.\n\nMs Kelly recommended that the department repay all the money the taxi driver lost out on from the time he applied for UC in April 2018 through to the date of her report - a total of £11,412.\n\nShe also said the complainant should get a written apology from the department's permanent secretary \"for the injustice caused as a result of the maladministration\".\n\nShe added the department should also apologise for prematurely deleting a recording of his telephone conversation with a call handler before his complaint was investigated.\n\nThe Department for Communities said it \"acknowledges the findings of NIPSO in respect of this complaint\".\n\n\"An action plan addressing all of the recommendations was immediately developed following receipt of the draft investigation report earlier this year and the ombudsman has been advised that all recommendations have been implemented,\" its spokeswoman added.\n\nUC rolls several existing social welfare benefits into one fortnightly or monthly payment, depending on a claimant's eligibility for each benefit.\n\nThese include payments like housing benefit; jobseeker's allowance; child tax credit and working tax credits.\n\nThe process of moving claimants from these older \"legacy benefits\" has taken several years and is far from complete.\n\nIn June 2022, the charity Advice NI said more than 250,000 claims for legacy benefits were still active in Northern Ireland.\n\nIt warned it would be an \"incredibly complex\" process to move them all to UC by the target date of December 2024.\n\nAdvice NI's head of policy, Kevin Higgins, said he hoped the investigation would raise awareness about the financial risks of transferring from older, non-means-tested benefits to UC.\n\nKevin Higgins said benefits claimants need to seek independent advice before they transfer to UC\n\n\"Once you leave your legacy [benefit] and claim Universal Credit there's no going back, so it's very important that you're clear on what you are doing and why you're doing it,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"Some people will be worse off; some people might be better off; some people are roughly the same.\"\n\nMr Higgins explained that personal savings can be taken into account in a UC application, preventing a new claim and invalidating existing claims in certain circumstances.\n\n\"People shouldn't shouldn't take a risk on this. They should get independent advice, and they should be very clear before they do anything,\" he said.\n\n\"Don't gamble on UC. Stay put if you're worried about anything.\"\n\nSpeaking about the 250,000 existing legacy claims that are due to be transferred into the UC system over the next two years, Mr Higgins said the government was planning safeguards for those who are at risk of losing money during the migration process.", "After a blaze of publicity and controversy, Netflix's Harry & Meghan series is beginning on Thursday with three episodes.\n\nIt promises to reveal the inside story of how the Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped down from royal duties.\n\nTrailers refer to a \"war against Meghan\", with Prince Harry speaking of the \"leaking and... planting of stories\" as part of a \"dirty game\".\n\nBuckingham Palace has not responded to the Sussexes' claims.\n\nThere will be intense scrutiny of the series.\n\nA \"behind-closed-doors\" view of Palace life has been promised, with Prince Harry speaking of the \"pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution\", in an apparent reference to his wife, Meghan, and mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.\n\nThe trailers suggest the TV documentary will reveal the love story of how the \"clandestine\" relationship between Prince Harry and Meghan developed.\n\nBut it will also show their account of a changing relationship with the media and the public.\n\nThis will be their version of events - and the rest of the Royal Family might be watching to see how far the claims go, if there is any evidence and whether they should officially respond.\n\nThe Netflix series promises an inside story of the couple's relationship\n\n\"We know the full truth,\" Prince Harry says, introducing a series with a 15 rating and a warning it deals with \"discrimination\".\n\nBut questions have been raised about some of the images used.\n\nA scene of a press scrum is said to have been taken from an appearance at Crawley Magistrates' Court by TV personality Katie Price, rather than a royal engagement.\n\nOn Tuesday, at a New York event where the prince and Meghan received a human rights award, the couple faced awkward questions from reporters: \"Are you putting money before family?\" and \"Are you harming your family, Harry?\".\n\nBut the dramatic tone of the trailers shows no sign of offering any olive branches, instead suggesting a collision course with the Royal Family.\n\nAnd the new year will bring the publication of Prince Harry's \"unflinching\" memoir.\n\nThe series is being released in two sections of three episodes, on 8 and 15 December, at 08:00 GMT.", "Mr Hancock came third in the reality TV show I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here\n\nEx-Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said he will not be standing as an MP at the next general election.\n\nHis announcement came as some local party members said he was \"not fit to represent\" them.\n\nIn a letter, the West Suffolk Conservative Association president urged Chief Whip Simon Hart not to re-admit Mr Hancock as a Tory MP.\n\nMr Hancock was suspended from the party for joining the I'm A Celebrity show and is currently an independent MP.\n\nAnnouncing his decision not to stand at the next election, Mr Hancock said he had \"discovered a whole new world of possibilities which I am excited to explore\".\n\nHe added that politicians need to find \"new ways to reach people\" outside Parliament.\n\nHe concluded his letter by saying it had been \"an honour to serve in Parliament and represent the people of West Suffolk\".\n\n\"I will play my part in the debate about the future of our country and engage with the public in new ways,\" he said.\n\nMr Hancock had been a minister in successive Conservative governments since 2013 and served as health secretary during the coronavirus pandemic.\n\nIn June 2021, he was forced to resign from the role after he breached social distancing guidelines by kissing colleague, Gina Coladangelo, who later became his partner.\n\nDespite supporting Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership campaign, Mr Hancock wasn't given a role in government when the prime minister entered Downing Street.\n\nThe MP subsequently joined the cast of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here - a decision that attracted criticism from his fellow MPs and local Conservative association, who accused him of \"abandoning his constituency\".\n\nIn a letter sent to Chief Whip Simon Hart on 1 December and published on the group's website on 7 December, association president Terry Wood said \"a vote was taken that ruled that the Officer Group had no confidence in Matt Hancock our sitting MP, and we would request that the whip is not restored to him\".\n\n\"This vote was brought about following feed-back from the constituents in West Suffolk, advising that by virtue of recent events, they consider Matt Hancock not fit to represent this constituency.\"\n\nA political ally of Matt Hancock said: \"This letter is irrelevant. It hasn't been sent on behalf of the Association, and the chief whip told Matt he was going to get the whip back.\n\n\"Matt had already decided not to stand again when it came to light.\"\n\nMr Hancock has previously defended his decision to appear on I'm A Celebrity saying reality TV was a \"powerful tool\" to reach young people.\n\nAs health secretary, Mr Hancock led the UK's response to the Covid pandemic\n\nAnnouncing his decision to quit Parliament, Mr Hancock said: \"There was a time when I thought the only way to influence the public debate was in Parliament, but I've realised there's far more to it than that.\n\n\"I have increasingly come to believe that for a healthy democracy we must find new ways of reaching people - especially those who are disengaged with politics.\n\n\"The revival of modern conservatism over the next decade will I suspect take place as much outside Parliament as in it.\"\n\nHe said he looked \"forward to championing the issues that are dear to my heart, including better support for dyslexia children\".\n\nIn his letter, he also said the chief whip had told him he would be re-admitted into the Conservative parliamentary party \"in due course\", but Mr Hancock said \"that is now not necessary\".\n\nMr Hancock is the latest in a string of MPs who have announced their decision not to stand in the next election, which has to take place before January 2025.\n\nLast week Sajid Javid - another former health secretary - said he would be leaving Parliament.\n\nOther Conservatives quitting include Levelling Up Minister Dehenna Davison and backbenchers William Wragg and Chloe Smith.\n\nThe West Suffolk constituency, which Mr Hancock has represented since 2010, currently has a large Conservative majority of over 23,000.\n\nResponding to the news, the Liberal Democrats said Mr Hancock should stand down as an MP immediately.\n\n\"He's clearly not interested in the job anymore and would rather make money on reality TV shows than represent the people of West Suffolk - his constituents deserve better than a part-time MP chasing fame and fortune.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sq Ldr George \"Johnny\" Johnson was a bomb-aimer during the raid to destroyed key dams\n\nTV presenter Carol Vorderman has led tributes to the last survivor of the World War Two Dambusters who has died aged 101.\n\nSq Ldr George \"Johnny\" Johnson, was a bomb-aimer in the 617 Squadron, which destroyed key dams in Germany during the war.\n\nHis family said he died peacefully in his sleep on Wednesday.\n\nIn 2017, Ms Vorderman led a campaign for Mr Johnson to receive a knighthood for his bravery during the operation.\n\nMs Vorderman described him as \"one of the finest.\"\n\nCelebrating his 100th birthday in November last year, Mr Johnson told the BBC: \"I've had a very lucky life in every respect.\"\n\nHe was born in Lincolnshire and lived in Bristol, and was just 21 when he took part in the 1943 operation, which involved experimental bouncing bombs that were targeted at dams in the Ruhr Valley, releasing huge quantities of water into areas used by Germany for war production.\n\n\"Johnny\" Johnson was presented with an MBE by The Queen in 2017\n\n\"It was an exhilarating experience,\" he said of the raids, adding he felt \"honoured to have had the chance to take part\".\n\nSgt George Johnson (extreme left) was part of 617 Squadron based at Scampton, Lincolnshire\n\nMr Johnson was made an MBE in 2017 after a long-running campaign supported by celebrities such as Ms Vorderman.\n\nTrained pilot, Ms Vorderman is an ambassador for the RAF Air Cadets\n\nShe told BBC Radio Bristol Mr Johnson was part of a generation that sacrificed everything - but asked for nothing in return.\n\n\"Well over 50,000 died in combat and their average age was this similar to that of Johnny's at the time,\" Ms Vorderman said.\n\n\"There were young men, there were kids, and Jonny was one of the finest.\"\n\nPosting to Facebook, his daughter Jenny Sextone said his family were beside their \"beloved Gramps\", at the time of his death.\n\n\"We would appreciate your respect for our privacy in this family time,\" she added.\n\nThe Möhne Dam in North Rhine-Westphalia after being bombed during Operation Chastise\n\nIt was Mr Johnson's job to target the Sorpe Dam as part of the attack, which was codenamed Operation Chastise and carried out by the RAF's 617 Squadron, based at RAF Scampton.\n\nIt was one of the most dangerous air operations of the war, with 53 men killed and three captured.\n\nIn 2019, Mr Johnson had a tour of the cab of the Great Western Railway train named after him\n\nPainter Dan Llywelyn Hall - who produced a portrait of Mr Johnson for his 100th birthday - described him as a man with a \"warming and inviting spirit\".\n\n\"He was still exuberant and alert and wanting to keep regaling his stories,\" he said.\n\n\"That freshness was always there. He was always able to energize the room.\"\n\nDan Llywelyn Hall spent six months working on this portrait which is part of a series titled \"The Last Dam Busters\"\n\nIn the last few years of his life Mr Johnson, who lived in Westbury-on-Trym in north Bristol, was involved in charity work and made many public appearances.\n\nIn 2019, he had an inter-city train named after him and was also given an honorary doctorate by the University of Lincoln in 2017.\n\nAfter 22 years of service in the air force, he worked as a teacher in Newark in Nottinghamshire.\n\nHe and his wife Gwyn later moved to Devon, where he became a Conservative councillor.\n\nMr Johnson was joined by friends and family to mark his 100th birthday, in November 2021\n\nAuthor, war veteran and friend John Nichol said: \"I was looking through some pictures of all of the times I'd met Johnny and I think in every single one he and I had got a glass of something in our hands and we're raising a toast to something or someone.\n\n\"That is how I'll remember Johnny, a man who loved life, who served his nation and loved a glass of red wine.\"\n\nLisa Harding, an aviation photographer and archivist for the Petwood Hotel in Lincolnshire - once home to 617 Squadron - said she was \"heartbroken\" having met Mr Johnson on several occasions.\n\n\"He was a truly humble man who was always quick with his praise for everybody else with him in Bomber Command and who described himself as just doing his job, and his relentless fight for Bomber Command veterans to get the medal that they deserved,\" she said.\n\n\"He was fighting for that pretty much up until his last breath.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "There are worries that this winter will be very tough, with pressure on health and care systems\n\nThe health and care system in England is gridlocked with patients at risk because they cannot access the support they need, regulators say.\n\nThe Care Quality Commission's annual report warned the problem was creating long waits for ambulances and in A&E.\n\nA major factor is most patients cannot leave hospital when they are ready, it said, because of a lack of support in the community.\n\nThe system could no longer operate effectively, the CQC said.\n\n\"People are stuck - stuck in hospital because there isn't the social care support in place for them to leave, stuck in emergency departments waiting for a hospital bed to get the treatment they need and stuck waiting for ambulances that don't arrive because those same ambulances are stuck outside hospitals waiting to transfer patients,\" chief executive Ian Trenholm said.\n\nThis winter would be particularly tough, he warned, and he was worried about how the health and care systems would cope.\n\nAlongside delays in accident-and-emergency departments and with 999 services, 500,000 people are waiting for council-funded care - an increase from just under 300,000 in a year.\n\nThe CQC report blamed staffing shortages, with one-in-10 posts in both the NHS and social-care sector vacant.\n\nThe regulator was also heavily critical of maternity care, pointing out two out of five services were rated not good enough.\n\nThe signs were services were becoming worse, it added. \"It's unacceptable,\" Mr Trenholm said.\n\nIt comes after an inquiry into maternity care at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust found evidence of significant harm to babies, due to a \"clear pattern of suboptimal care\" during an 11-year period from 2009.\n\nThe review, published on Wednesday, said up to 45 babies may have survived with better care.\n\nMr Trenholm said maternity services, like the rest of the system, suffered from a lack of staff but there also seemed to be a cultural problem where the concerns were not being listened to as they should or prompting the necessary response.\n\nThe East Kent report comes just months after similar failings were identified at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.\n\nThe numbers in the CQC report paint a picture of a health and care system where the indicators are flashing red. Inevitably that only tells part of the story. Far harder to measure is the human cost in terms of families and care staff.\n\nOver the months I've heard from many families confronted by a care system that they believe has failed them.\n\nA daughter who described the fight she faced to find enough care to allow her mother to leave hospital so she could spend her last days in her own home. The family called it a totally broken system.\n\nAnother daughter who found the only way to provide her mother with the care she needed was by giving up paid work. Others who weep as they talk about their exhaustion, up through the night caring for a person they love who has dementia - the respite care which could make a difference hard to find.\n\nAnd then there are the care workers who worry about having to tell desperate families they just don't have enough staff to help them.\n\nIt perhaps adds to the emotional burn-out many feel in the wake of the pandemic. Combine such stories with the CQC statistics and even at a time of political and economic turmoil, it underlines the urgency of fixing a problem that many governments have ducked.\n\nThe wider issues across health and care, Mr Trenholm said, were undoubtedly linked to \"historic under-investment\" - and without action, would only worsen.\n\nThis would be especially visible in poorer areas, where access to care outside hospitals was most under pressure, he said.\n\nIn addition to the increased risk of harm, more people would be driven out of the labour market through ill-health or because they were supporting family members who needed care, Mr Trenholm added.\n\nNHS England says the public's confidence in what support it can expect is being affected\n\nLouise Ansari, from the patient group Healthwatch England, said the findings echoed what many patients had been telling her.\n\nThe problems would be putting \"lives at risk\" and widening health inequalities, she said.\n\n\"It's starting to affect the public's confidence that the NHS will be there for them when they need it,\" Ms Ansari added.\n\nNHS England medical director Prof Sir Stephen Powis accepted that it was going to be an \"incredibly challenging\" few months.\n\nExtra support was being provided to keep patients out of hospital, he said, including the rollout of rapid-response teams to treat patients at home after incidents such as falls.\n\n\"NHS staff are working hard to keep patients safe despite the record demand and pressures,\" Sir Stephen added.\n\nHave you been affected by NHS delays? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "All of the people I have spoken to today have shared stories of long waits at the King George Hospital's emergency department in Ilford.\n\nThey haven’t wanted to share their identities but have wanted to highlight their experiences.\n\nThe most shocking is that of a woman who told me she attended A&E two nights ago with a suspected strangulated hernia. This could have been life-threatening if left untreated.\n\nShe said she was in tears as she couldn’t stand up and there was nowhere to lie down.\n\n“It was a really hard situation. I was thinking that I might die in the waiting area and nobody would know.”\n\nAfter 12 hours she left without receiving any medical attention.She returned this morning when her abdominal area started bleeding and was seen within five hours.\n\nShe summed up her experience as “horrible” and felt there was a \"lack of care”.\n\nIn a statement, the chief executive of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals apologised for the long delays and said staff were working in \"challenging conditions\",\n\nMatthew Trainer added that record numbers of children coming to A&E had increased pressure on their services as well as the number of beds taken by people who could be discharged.\n\nQuote Message: 138 patients in our two hospitals are well enough to go home, but they can’t do so because the right care and support isn’t in place in the community. In A&E, at the moment, we have 20 patients waiting for a bed which means we have more people needing care outside the hospitals than we have waiting to be admitted.” from Matthew Trainer Chief executive of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust 138 patients in our two hospitals are well enough to go home, but they can’t do so because the right care and support isn’t in place in the community. In A&E, at the moment, we have 20 patients waiting for a bed which means we have more people needing care outside the hospitals than we have waiting to be admitted.”", "Former President Pedro Castillo (right) seen inside a police car in Lima\n\nIn a dramatic turn of events in Peru, Pedro Castillo, who less than 24 hours ago was president, is in police custody facing likely charges of rebellion.\n\nHis fall from power was swift.\n\nFacing an impeachment vote by the opposition-controlled Congress, he announced he was dissolving the legislative body.\n\nCongress defied him, voted overwhelmingly to remove him from office and his bodyguards stopped him from seeking refuge at an embassy.\n\nJust hours after impeaching Mr Castillo, Congress swore in his vice-president, Dina Boluarte, as the new president.\n\nDina Boluarte said she would govern until 2026\n\nMs Boluarte is the first woman to lead Peru. She said she would govern until July 2026, which is when Mr Castillo's term would have come to an end.\n\nWhile Ms Boluarte was Mr Castillo's running mate in the 2021 election which brought them to power, she quickly distanced herself from him on Wednesday when he tried to dissolve Congress, a move she said was an \"attempted coup\".\n\nSpeaking after being sworn in, she urged Peruvians to come together for \"national unity\" and asked for a \"truce\" to allow her to fight corruption.\n\nWhile she was taking the oath of office, her predecessor was already in the custody of the police.\n\nFollowing his televised announcement, which he had delivered nervously with his script clearly shaking in his hands, he was quickly abandoned by many of his allies.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Three dramatic moments from the day Peru's president was ousted\n\nThe head of the constitutional court said Mr Castillo's dissolution of Congress was in violation of the constitution.\n\nA raft of ministers, including the defence minister, resigned within minutes. The police and the armed forces released a joint statement saying they would abide by the constitution.\n\nMr Castillo and his family left the presidential palace and got into an SUV. A police report suggests he was heading to the Mexican embassy in Lima, presumably to claim political asylum.\n\nBut according to a report by Peruvian daily El Comercio, top police officials told the security officer who was driving the car to stop the vehicle.\n\nMr Castillo was then escorted onto police premises where Peru's attorney-general detained him on suspicion of rebellion.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ministerio Público This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMedia reports suggest Mr Castillo has since been moved to the headquarters of the police special operations branch.\n\nAsked whether Mexico had received a request for asylum from Mr Castillo, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard declined to comment but did point out that his country had a history of granting asylum to those facing \"political persecution\".\n\nIn 2019, the former Bolivian president, Evo Morales, sought asylum there shortly after his resignation from office.\n\nBut with Mr Castillo already under investigation by the attorney-general's office for alleged rebellion, he is unlikely to be allowed to leave Peru.\n\nThe attorney-general's office said it was gathering evidence and investigators could be seen taking away boxes from the presidential palace and a number of ministries overnight.\n\nMr Castillo's presidency has been rocky even by Peru's standards, a country which in 2020 had three presidents within the space of five days.\n\nThe left-wing former school teacher narrowly beat his right-wing rival Keiko Fujimori to the presidency in June 2021.\n\nBut with little political experience and facing a hostile Congress, the 53-year-old who often attended official events wearing a wide-brimmed hat, quickly appeared out of his depth.\n\nMr Castillo was often seen wearing his trademark hat, even when inspecting the troops\n\nHis cabinet underwent constant change and during his 18 months in office he had five prime ministers.\n\nHis time in office was also overshadowed by allegations of corruption, which Mr Castillo said were part of a \"political persecution\".\n\nPressure on him was building as he and also members of his family came under investigation for alleged fraud and influence peddling.\n\nOn Wednesday, he was facing a fresh attempt to impeach him for \"moral incapacity\".\n\nWhile two previous attempts had failed to get the necessary votes, Mr Castillo must have feared this third motion had the potential to unseat him.\n\nIn his televised address, he said that \"in response to citizens' demands throughout the length and breadth of the country, we have decided to establish an exceptional government aimed at re-establishing the rule of law and democracy\".\n\nBut opinion polls suggested many Peruvians disapproved of his handling of the country. In April, 76% of people questioned in a Ipsos polls said their impression of Mr Castillo was a negative one.\n\nA small group of his supporters did take to the streets on Wednesday, with one demonstrator holding up a sign reading \"Pedro, we are with you\".\n\nThere were skirmishes between police and angry Castillo supporters in the capital Lima\n\nBut thousands had earlier turned out to vent their anger at what they said was his \"attempted coup\".\n\nAll eyes are now on the new President, Dina Boluarte, to see who she will choose for her new cabinet.\n\nA former lawyer who was something of a political unknown before being chosen as Mr Castillo's running mate, the 60-year old has asked for \"space\" and \"time to rescue the country\".\n\nShe has received - among others - the backing of the US, which said that it would \"support Peru under the unity government President Boluarte pledged to form\" and that of Brazil, whose president-elect wished her success in \"healing her divided nation and leading it down the path of development and social peace\".\n\nBut winning the trust of Peruvians, many of whom are wary of politicians in general and tired of the infighting within Congress which has seen so many of her predecessors fall, will be a challenge.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We are visible people!\" Veronica Ryan accepts the award\n\nSculptor Veronica Ryan, who made the UK's first permanent public artwork to honour the Windrush generation, has won this year's Turner Prize.\n\nFor her Windrush memorial, Ryan placed giant sculptures of Caribbean fruits on a street in Hackney, east London.\n\n\"Power! Visibility!\" she shouted after her name was announced at the ceremony.\n\nRyan, 66, became the oldest winner in the prestigious art award's 38-year history when she picked up the £25,000 cheque at the event in Liverpool.\n\n\"Better late than never,\" she said afterwards, telling BBC culture editor Katie Razzall it was \"overwhelming\" to win.\n\nRyan wore her late father's hat to the ceremony\n\nRyan was born on Monserrat before moving to the UK as a toddler, and her art uses the fruits, seeds and even volcanic ash from her home island.\n\nHer winning works included the custard apple, breadfruit and soursop sculptures that were unveiled in Hackney in October 2021 in tribute to those who moved from the Caribbean to the UK after 1948.\n\nHer career has been \"an incredible struggle\" at times, she explained. \"There were 20 years, almost, when no-one was paying attention to my work.\"\n\nBut she credited her upbringing in a thrifty family for giving her an attitude that enabled her to make art in lean times with whatever materials she had to hand.\n\nShe thanked people \"who've looked out for me when I wasn't visible and I was making work from rubbish\", adding: \"But actually some of the rubbish [works] are some of the most important works, I think.\"\n\nRyan's marble and bronze fruit sculptures were inspired by her memories of visiting Hackney's Ridley Road Market as a child\n\nShe also won for an exhibition in Bristol last year that featured cocoa pods, avocado stones and orange peel.\n\nCrocheted bags made from fishing line were included, as well as tea-stained medical pillows that were made during the pandemic to reflect acts of care and nurturing.\n\nRyan wore her father's hat as she accepted the award and paid tribute to her family, including three late siblings, on stage. \"They were fantastic people and I think they're looking at us right now, and they're proud,\" she told the audience.\n\nTurner Prize judges praised Ryan's \"really poetic\" art, which uses \"things that normally are thrown away or lost\"\n\nRyan's Turner Prize exhibits include long crocheted sacks made from fishing lines, containing avocado stones, drift seeds and other items\n\n\"It obviously means a huge amount, in her dad's hat up there, having been overlooked for a long, long time,\" she said.\n\n\"She is a great, great artist, and she really works with stuff, and she makes stuff speak.\"\n\nTate Britain director Alex Farquharson, who co-chaired this year's jury, said Ryan's work had \"a quiet but very compelling presence\".\n\n\"There's a kind of subtle autobiographical component to the work, and the jury feel that she's extending the language of modern contemporary sculpture in new and subtle ways,\" he said.\n\nAt 66, Veronica Ryan is the oldest winner of the Turner Prize\n\nRyan's was \"perhaps the most abstract and elusive work\" of this year's four nominees, he added.\n\n\"But it's quite insistent. And it's ultimately really poetic as a sculptural practice - but you're aware that this poetry is a result of working with the most humble forms, things that normally are thrown away or lost.\n\n\"There's a sense of beachcombing to how the materials are found, kept and brought back to life. And I think that is something that people can relate to.\"\n\nThe prize comes a year after Ryan was made an OBE for services to art. Farquharson said the Turner was not intended as a \"lifetime achievement award\", noting that her work had taken \"a very interesting turn over the last year or two\".\n\nRyan's work at the Turner exhibition in Liverpool is probably the least immediately relatable of the four artists vying for this prize.\n\nThat's not to say her mysterious sculptures aren't quietly beautiful.\n\nBut they don't have the more obviously understandable themes explored by her fellow nominees around identity, the environment, racism, gay rights. Or their larger, bolder scale.\n\nVisitors to Tate Liverpool have been encouraged to use plastic tokens to vote for their favourite artist. On the day I visited, other nominees Ingrid Pollard and Heather Phillipson had the most tokens by far. Tate wouldn't reveal who won that \"public vote\".\n\nTate Britain boss Alex Farquharson told the BBC that Ryan's appeal may be \"a case of slow burn\".\n\nBut she has also been judged on her sculptures in east London - the first ever to honour the Windrush generation. They alone make her a worthy winner.\n\nRyan received the trophy from Frankie Goes To Hollywood frontman Holly Johnson at Liverpool's St George's Hall on Tuesday.\n\nThe three other nominees - Heather Phillipson, Ingrid Pollard and Sin Wai Kin - will receive £10,000 each.\n\nBefore announcing the winner, Johnson referred to the fact that there were three women nominated, with the fourth contender being non binary.\n\n\"It's about time, after the years of misogyny in the art world where women were only good for baring their breasts and reclining on couches, it's about time they were nominated and held in high esteem,\" he told the audience.\n\nThe Turner Prize is Britain's most well-known - and often most controversial - award for contemporary art, and Liverpool is the first city outside London to host the ceremony and accompanying exhibition more than once.\n\nRyan is the first individual artist to pick up the award since 2018.\n\nIn 2019, all five nominees asked to share it rather than having one winner; in 2020, the pandemic meant it was replaced with 10 artist bursaries; and last year all the nominees were collectives who helped to \"inspire social change through art\".\n\nThe Turner Prize exhibition runs at Tate Liverpool until 19 March.", "Motorcyclist Harry Dunn died after being struck by a car outside a US military base in Northamptonshire\n\nA US citizen responsible for the death of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn has been sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for a year.\n\nAnne Sacoolas was driving on the wrong side of the road when she hit the 19-year-old outside a US military base in Northamptonshire in 2019.\n\nThe case led to a transatlantic row between the US and UK governments.\n\nCharlotte Charles said of the family's three-year wait for justice \"we didn't back down because we have values\".\n\nMrs Charles, Harry's mother, added that her \"promise\" to get justice for her son through the UK courts was \"well and truly complete\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Harry, we done it,' says mother of Harry Dunn\n\nFollowing the crash, Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US administration and left the country 19 days later. She never returned to the UK.\n\nSacoolas, who admitted earlier this year to causing death by careless driving, appeared at London's Old Bailey via video-link after her employer, the US government, advised her not to travel to the UK to attend in person.\n\nMrs Charles said the 45-year-old's failure to attend was \"despicable\", adding she was \"absolutely disgusted\" at the actions of the US.\n\nMr Dunn's father, Tim Dunn, said: \"It's been such a relentless time, we as a family fought off everything we can to get to this point.\"\n\nMrs Charles added: \"Anne Sacoolas has a criminal record for the rest of her life.\n\n\"That was something she never thought she'd see, something the US government never thought they'd see.\n\n\"Harry we done it. We're good, we're good.\"\n\nMrs Charles also spoke about being unable to say goodbye to her son because he was too injured by the time she reached the hospital.\n\n\"I couldn't comfort him at all. I couldn't let him know that I was there. So for me, the next best thing was to kiss that bruised lip of his and just let him know that I would fight for justice,\" she told Sky News.\n\nShe said the family was no longer interested in meeting Sacoolas, adding: \"The time for any contact, for any remorse, is long gone.\"\n\nFamily spokesman Radd Seiger said they wanted a parliamentary inquiry and hoped to work with the Foreign Office to prevent others from going through the same thing.\n\nForeign Secretary James Cleverly has requested to meet the family, he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSacoolas, who was also disqualified from driving for 12 months, was originally charged with causing death by dangerous driving, but the UK's Crown Prosecution Service accepted her guilty plea to the lesser charge.\n\nIn her sentencing remarks, which were broadcast live, Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: \"There is no doubt that the calm and dignified persistence of these parents and the family of that young man has led, through three years of heartbreak and effort, to your appearance before the court and the opportunity for you to acknowledge your guilt of a crime.\"\n\nMr Cleverly also paid tribute to the \"incredible resolve\" of the family.\n\n\"Anne Sacoolas has finally been sentenced in a British court,\" he said.\n\nHe added her appearance via video-link was \"the most viable way to bring the case to court and give justice to Harry's family\".\n\nAnne Sacoolas (right) appeared via video-link at the Old Bailey with her lawyer Amy Jeffress\n\nThe judge could not give Sacoolas a community order because, in her words, \"it's obvious no enforcement can be carried out\".\n\nAn immediate jail sentence would have needed Sacoolas to surrender to the court, so the judge's only real option was a suspended sentence.\n\nProsecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the court that on 27 August 2019, Sacoolas turned out of RAF Croughton and drove 350 metres (1,148ft) on the wrong side of the road for 26 seconds.\n\nShe then hit Mr Dunn, who was riding his motorbike on the correct - left - side of the road.\n\nWhen a witness reached the scene, Sacoolas said to her: \"It's all my fault. I was on the wrong side of the road. I have only been here a couple of weeks.\"\n\nThe witness then rushed over to Harry and he said: \"Don't let me die.\"\n\nAnne Sacoolas, pictured here in 2020, appeared via video-link from Washington in the US\n\nWhen the police arrived, Sacoolas was said to be co-operative but in total shock, with her head in her hands.\n\nShe confirmed it had been her fault, Mr Atkinson said.\n\nHe said she told police she was on \"the American side\" of the road, from the base to the brow of the hill where the collision occurred.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Harry Dunn: Teen's death case explained in under three minutes\n\nIn a statement read to the court, Sacoolas said: \"My tragic mistake led to the loss of Harry and I live with this regret every single day.\n\n\"There is not a day that goes by that Harry isn't on my mind and I am deeply sorry for the pain that I have caused.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A bill to ban anti-abortion protests at Northern Ireland health clinics does not \"disproportionately interfere\" with protesters' rights, the Supreme Court has ruled.\n\nFormer assembly member Clare Bailey developed the bill to set up so-called safe access zones outside clinics where abortions are carried out.\n\nIt was voted through the assembly in March by a majority of parties.\n\nIt was delayed from becoming law after the attorney general intervened.\n\nNorthern Ireland is the first part of the UK to bring such legislation into place.\n\nAttorney General Dame Brenda King referred the bill to the UK's highest court, asking judges there to determine whether part of the bill disproportionately interfered with the rights of people protesting against abortion.\n\nIt was the first time a piece of Northern Ireland legislation had been referred to the Supreme Court in this way.\n\nThe legislation can now go on to become law, but it is not clear how long it will take to implement.\n\nThe bill would make it an offence to protest against abortion within the zones, directly argue or harass people who may be attending the clinics or to obstruct access to the premises in question.\n\nDame Brenda King had asked the court to determine whether the bill was within the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly.\n\nHer concerns related to the omission of what is known as the \"reasonable excuse\" defence from the bill.\n\nOn Wednesday, Supreme Court President Lord Reed said judges had unanimously agreed that the legislation was within the assembly's competence.\n\nHe said the bill had a \"legitimate aim\" and while it restricted the exercise of protesters' rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, the restrictions could be justified.\n\n\"It seeks to ensure women have access to advice and treatment relating to lawful termination of pregnancy under conditions which respect their privacy and dignity, and are not driven instead to less safe alternatives,\" said Lord Reed.\n\nHe said the legislation also protected staff working at health clinics from being intimidated, harassed or abused.\n\n\"The right to access healthcare and pursue employment are protected by article eight of the convention,\" Lord Reed said.\n\nThe court found the legislation balanced competing rights, concluding that as drafted the bill was \"justifiable\".\n\n\"The restrictions imposed are required to protect the rights of women seeking treatment or advice, and are also in the interests of the wider community, including other patients and staff of clinics and hospitals,\" Lord Reed added.\n\nIn October, MPs backed similar proposals for England and Wales but they are still going through Parliament.\n\nIn Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the government will support plans to outlaw such protests outside health clinics.\n\nChief commissioner Alyson Kilpatrick said it was a \"positive affirmation of women and girls' rights to protection from harassment\" when accessing abortion services.\n\nSinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill described the judgement as a step forward to protect patients and health workers.\n\nAlliance Party MLA Paula Bradshaw also said the judgement was a welcome step for women's rights and safe access to healthcare services was a fundamental right.\n\nBut the campaign group Abolish Abortion NI condemned the move.\n\n\"Today's Supreme Court judgement is nothing new,\" it said.\n\n\"Abortion clinic ministry has already saved lives in Northern Ireland and will continue to in spite of today's judgement.\"\n\nMs Bailey, who began developing the legislation when she was first elected as a Green Party MLA in 2016, said the ruling came as a great relief.\n\n\"It's the best Christmas present ever,\" she said.\n\n\"We've been waiting for months in trepidation on the Supreme Court judgement on this bill and I think they've made the right judgement.\n\nThe Department of Health said it had worked closely with Ms Bailey and welcomed the Supreme Court decision.\n\nIt said once the bill became law it would work with health trusts to ensure they could implement the new rules.", "The plans to ease regulations on financial services are being described as a second \"Big Bang\"\n\nThe government has announced what it describes as one of the biggest overhauls of financial regulation for more than three decades.\n\nIt says the package of more than 30 reforms will \"cut red tape\" and \"turbocharge growth\".\n\nRules that forced banks to legally separate retail banking from riskier investment operations will be reviewed.\n\nThose were introduced after the 2008 financial crisis when some banks faced collapse.\n\nThe package of changes, the \"Edinburgh Reforms\", is being presented as an example of post-Brexit freedom to tailor regulation specifically to the needs and strengths of the UK economy.\n\nHowever, critics say it risks forgetting the lessons of the financial crisis.\n\nBetween 2007 and 2009 the then-Labour government spent £137bn of public money to bail out banks.\n\nOverall, taxpayers have lost £36.4bn on those bailouts, according to the latest estimate from independent forecaster the Office for Budget Responsibility.\n\nThe plans to ease regulations on financial services are being described as another \"Big Bang\" - a reference to the deregulation of financial services by Margaret Thatcher's government in 1986.\n\nThe government has already announced it will scrap a cap on bankers' bonuses and allow insurance companies to invest in long-term assets such as housing and windfarms to boost investment and help its levelling up agenda.\n\nRules governing how senior finance executives are hired, monitored and sanctioned will be overhauled.\n\nThere will also be new rules around bundling investments together into tradeable units - a process called securitisation.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt said the changes would secure \"the UK's status as one of the most open, dynamic and competitive financial services hubs in the world\".\n\nThe reforms \"seize on our Brexit freedoms to deliver an agile and home-grown regulatory regime that works in the interest of British people and our businesses\".\n\nMr Hunt met bosses of the UK's largest financial services in Edinburgh on Friday to discuss the reforms.\n\nWhile in Edinburgh he was asked whether the reforms risked sowing the seeds of the next financial crash.\n\nHe said: \"We have learned the lessons of that crash, we put in place some very important guardrails which will remain, but the banks have become much healthier financially since 2008.\"\n\nHowever, Labour's shadow City minister Tulip Siddiq said the reforms would bring more risk.\n\n\"That this comes after the Tories crashed our economy is beyond misguided,\" adding that the reforms were part of a \"race to the bottom\".\n\nGreen charity the Finance Innovation Lab said the government \"is taking major risks with the stability of the economy\".\n\n\"Weakening the essential protections that were put in place after the global financial crisis is an incredibly dangerous move - they help keep the system stable and our money safe,\" said its chief executive Jesse Griffiths.\n\nBut Chris Hayward, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, said the reforms would not weaken standards.\n\n\"It's a chance to actually grow our economy and I think we should be very excited about it,\" he said.\n\nAfter the financial crisis of 2008, when the government had to spend billions supporting the UK banking system, a new regime was brought in to increase the personal accountability of senior risk-taking staff.\n\nIt allowed for fines, bans and even custodial sentences, although there have been very few examples of enforcement.\n\nBut City insiders say a major disadvantage it imposes is the lengthy process of getting the movement of senior staff to the UK approved by the regulator - making London less attractive to foreign firms.\n\nAfter the financial crisis, large banks were forced to separate or \"ring fence\" their domestic banking operations - mortgages and loans for example - from their investment banking operations, which expose their own cash to market volatility and were deemed riskier.\n\nThe cost of having two separate shock-absorbing cushions of spare money was seen by some as placing extra costs on the sector.\n\nMost of the big banks have spent billions on this ring fencing and are not calling for its reversal.\n\nThe reforms of ring fencing are aimed at mid-size banks such as Virgin Money and TSB.\n\nLondon's position as the pre-eminent European financial centre has been dented in recent years\n\nThe government also re-announced more freedom for the pensions and insurance industry to invest in longer term, illiquid assets - those that are hard to sell quickly such as social housing, windfarms, and nuclear - which the government will say helps their levelling up ambitions.\n\nIt is worth noting that although this will be billed as a Brexit freedom, the EU is undertaking similar reforms.\n\nThere was a nod to developing the UK as a centre for crypto assets, but with some caveats given the recent bloodbath after the demise of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.\n\nMost financial industry leaders say they are crypto curious but do not feel the need to be first on this. \"Let the shipwrecks of others be your seamarks,\" said one.\n\nLondon's position as the pre-eminent European financial centre has been dented in recent years.\n\nThe UK's capital city briefly lost its long-time crown of most valuable European stock market to Paris before gains in the pound pushed it narrowly back ahead, while Amsterdam took the title of busiest European share dealing centre.\n\nLeading hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall of Marshall Wace recently described the London financial markets as a \"Jurassic Park\" of old-fashioned companies and investors, and it has struggled to attract the world's fastest growing companies to list on UK exchanges, often losing out to New York, Shanghai or even Amsterdam.", "Ambulance crews are facing crippling delays when they arrive at A&E with sick patients, NHS bosses are warning.\n\nOver the past week, nearly three in 10 ambulances were caught queuing outside hospitals in England.\n\nIt is the worst start to winter since records began - before the pandemic about half the number of delays were recorded, NHS England data shows.\n\nAmbulance chiefs said the problems were leading to patients dying and being harmed on a daily basis.\n\nMartin Flaherty, managing director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), said: \"These crippling delays are a twin threat - they cause significant harm to patients who are forced to wait in the back of our ambulances, while our crews are stuck and therefore unable to respond to patients who need us out in the community.\n\n\"As the colder winter weather approaches we have serious concerns that things will get worse in the coming weeks and months.\n\n\"The life-saving safety net that NHS ambulance services provide is being severely compromised by these unnecessary delays, and patients are dying and coming to harm as a result on a daily basis.\"\n\nAACE said its own analysis of the delays seen during October suggested about 44,000 patients may have come to harm because of delays.\n\nAmbulance crews are meant to be able to hand over their patients to hospital staff within 15 minutes of arrival.\n\nBut in 29% of the nearly 80,000 arrivals seen in the seven days up to last Sunday, crews had to wait 30 minutes or more.\n\nThat compares to 23% last year at the start of winter, and 15% in 2019 before the pandemic began.\n\nAt about a tenth of hospitals, more than half of ambulance crews arriving were delayed, the weekly report by NHS England - the first of this winter - showed.\n\nThe report also showed there were nearly 400 patients in hospital with flu.\n\nThis is three times higher than the peak seen last winter despite it only being the start of the flu season.\n\nHowever, last year did see very low levels of flu as people were still cautious about mixing because of Covid.\n\nProf Sir Stephen Powis said the figures showed fears of the so-called \"tripledemic\" - high levels of flu, Covid and a respiratory infection called RSV - were very real.\n\nHe said hospitals were facing huge pressures with 19 out of 20 beds occupied with difficulties discharging patients who needed support in the community a key problem.\n\nSir Stephen said this was a major cause of the handover delays ambulances were facing as staff were struggling find beds for new patients.\n\nMatthew Taylor, of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, said the data showed the NHS was facing \"one of the worst winters for decades\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The mine would be near Whitehaven in Cumbria\n\nMichael Gove has approved the first new UK coal mine in 30 years despite concern about its climate impacts among Conservative MPs and experts.\n\nThe proposed mine in Cumbria would dig up coking coal for steel production in the UK and across the world.\n\nCritics say the mine would undermine climate targets and demand for coking coal is declining.\n\nBut supporters claim the mine, near Whitehaven, will create jobs and reduce the need to import coal.\n\nThe fate of the West Cumbria Mining project had been hanging in the balance for two years after the local county council initially approved the mine in 2020.\n\nThe project's approval was suspended in early 2021, ahead of the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, after the government's climate change adviser said it would increase carbon emissions.\n\nThe government's advisory Climate Change Committee (UKCCC) pointed out that 85% of the coal produced by the mine would be exported.\n\nLord Deben, chairman of the CCC, described the proposal as \"absolutely indefensible\" and said its approval would damage the UK's leadership on climate change.\n\nPlanning authorities reviewed the original decision and sent a report to the secretary of state of communities to review and make a final judgement.\n\nA letter outlining the decision said Mr Gove - the communities and levelling-up secretary - agreed with the planning inspector's recommendation to approve the mine.\n\nThe letter says Mr Gove was \"satisfied that there is currently a UK and European market for the coal\".\n\nThe secretary of state agrees with the assessment that the effects of the development on carbon emissions \"would be relatively neutral and not significant\", the letter says.\n\nThe department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the decision was consistent with the government's policies on curbing carbon emissions.\n\nBut opposition parties and environmental groups condemned the decision as harmful for the climate and the UK's transition to a greener economy.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kellingley Colliery miners talk about their way of life\n\nFriends of the Earth said the decision was a \"misguided and deeply damaging mistake that flies in the face of all the evidence\".\n\n\"The mine isn't needed, will add to global climate emissions, and won't replace Russian coal,\" said Friends of the Earth campaigner Tony Bosworth.\n\nCoal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, producing almost twice the emissions of natural gas.\n\nWest Cumbria Mining says the coking coal it produces will be used for steelmaking in the UK and Europe.\n\nThe local council had granted permission to dig for coking coal until 2049, with the mine expected to create about 500 jobs.\n\nBut the two companies that still make steel using coal in the UK - British Steel and Tata - say they plan to move to lower carbon production methods.\n\nSteel industry expert Chris McDonald estimates that, at best, they will use less than 10% of the output of the mine and, by the mid-2030s, none at all.\n\nThat means the new mine will export virtually all the coal it produces.\n\nThe former Marchon chemical works on the outskirts of Whitehaven is the site of the proposed mine\n\nShadow climate secretary Ed Miliband said the mine was \"no solution to the energy crisis\" and \"does not offer secure, long-term jobs\".\n\nThe Green Party suggested the decision had been \"cynically delayed\" until after the UK's presidency of COP ended and had left the government's environmental credentials \"in tatters\".\n\nThe decision could expose divisions within the Conservative Party, whose greener MPs have spoken out against the plans.\n\nSenior Conservatives - including the former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and COP President Alok Sharma - had argued the mine would conflict with the UK's climate targets.\n\nBut some Northern Tory MPs had campaigned for the mine on the basis it would provide jobs and investment.\n\nIn a tweet, former Conservative Party chairman Jake Berry said the decision was \"good news for the North and for common sense\".\n\nWhere does this leave Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's green credentials?\n\nOnly earlier this week he caved to pressure from his own Tory MPs to relax planning rules for new onshore wind farms in England, having previously wanted to keep the de facto ban on them.\n\nCritics argue burning more coal is the antithesis of such plans to boost green energy sources.\n\nSupporters of the mine say it would support the government's pledge to level up and reduce regional inequality.\n\nBut Labour say that doesn't have to conflict with net zero commitments - arguing the government should invest in jobs in renewable energy, insulation and nuclear power instead.\n\nThe mine has also divided opinion in Cumbria, with some in favour of the jobs it would bring, but others warning of the risks of climate change.\n\nChris Whiteside, a local Conservative councillor, welcomed the decision, saying that UK coking coal was \"less damaging to the planet than importing coal from USA or Russia\".\n\nBut ahead of the decision, South Lakes Action on Climate Change - a Cumbria campaign group that opposes the mine - suggested the project epitomised the UK's \"lack of meaningful action on the climate and ecological emergency\".", "Anne Whitfield-Ray said that despite her experience she cannot fault NHS staff: \"They are doing the best they can\"\n\nLying on a trolley in a hospital corridor in pain from a broken hip, Anne Whitfield-Ray could not believe she was in the care of the NHS.\n\n\"It was absolute chaos - like something out of a third world country,\" said the 77-year-old from Worcestershire.\n\n\"The staff were rushed off their feet, paint was peeling off the walls and patients were being squeezed in everywhere they could - in makeshift bays, in corridors and side rooms. It was horrific.\"\n\nAnne spent 15 hours in that position until a bed could be found for her.\n\nSuch delays used to be the exception, something that happened on the odd occasion in the depths of winter.\n\nNow they are commonplace. Latest figures show nearly 40% of A&E patients who need admitting face what is called a trolley wait - a delay of four hours or more waiting for a bed to be found.\n\nAround 10% are waiting over 12 hours. To put that in context, there have been more 12-hour trolley waits in 2022 so far than in the past 10 years combined. Similar pressures are being reported in other parts of the UK.\n\nThese are the sickest and frailest patients - the ones who cannot be sent home immediately after treatment. Research has linked delays like this with longer hospital stays and even a higher risk of death.\n\nBy the time patients get to this point, they may have already faced hours of waiting in A&E or, increasingly, stuck outside A&E in the back of an ambulance, as was the case for Anne.\n\nShe is now back home recovering after surgery, a few days after her fall in October.\n\nShe said that despite her experience she cannot fault the staff: \"They are doing the best they can. But this is not what should be happening in the NHS.\n\n\"There are people much worse off than me - people who have strokes and heart attacks and face delays too.\"\n\nDr Adrian Boyle, of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said it is the plight of patients like Anne that worries him the most.\n\n\"We are not doing the right thing by patients. There are lots of risks to people spending these long stays in emergency departments. Their care is delayed and diluted.\n\n\"Elderly people become delirious - it's a miserable experience for them. And I see people regularly who are just so tired that they become confused, and it doesn't help them get better.\"\n\nDr Boyle said that once someone has spent more than six hours in A&E, there is a real increase in the risk of severe harm: \"We really need to stop people having these long stays in emergency departments.\"\n\nDr Vin Diwakar, of NHS England, said staff were working \"round-the-clock\" to try to see and treat patients as quickly as they can.\n\nHe said the problems in A&E were caused by a lack of beds, with 19 out of every 20 currently occupied.\n\nHe said the \"fundamental challenge\" was the difficulty hospitals were facing discharging patients who were medically fit to leave, but could not be released because of a lack of care in the community.\n\nEvery day more than half of patients ready to be discharged cannot be discharged.\n\nDr Diwakar said steps were being taken, including investment in community teams to stop people ending up in hospital,\n\nA network of regional \"war rooms\" has also been created, he added, which monitor the pressures on local hospitals in real time, so they can try to manage demand by diverting ambulances away from the most under-pressure hospitals.\n\nAre you currently waiting in A&E? If you feel well enough to do so, tell us what it's like by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Anne Sacoolas has been sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for 12 months, for the death of motorcyclist Harry Dunn in 2019.\n\nThe US citizen appeared via video link from Washington after pleading guilty earlier in the year.\n\nRead more: Sacoolas gets suspended sentence over Harry Dunn death", "Harry Dunn's mother Charlotte Charles said the family had to embark on a three-year campaign to get justice\n\nHarry Dunn's mother said she had to make her son a \"household name\" to get justice.\n\nMr Dunn, 19, died following a crash outside a US military base in Northamptonshire in August 2019.\n\nLast month, Anne Sacoolas, 45, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey, via videolink, to causing his death by careless driving.\n\nThe teenager's mother Charlotte Charles said: \"It's all been about doing the right thing from day one.\"\n\nOn 27 August 2019, US citizen Sacoolas turned out of RAF Croughton and drove on the wrong side of the road for more than 20 seconds.\n\nShe hit Mr Dunn, who was riding his motorbike on the correct side of the road.\n\nAnne Sacoolas, pictured here in 2020, was told by the judge she should appear in court for her sentencing\n\nSacoolas had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US administration following the crash and left the UK 19 days later.\n\nShe was charged with causing his death but an extradition request was rejected by the US government a month later, causing a diplomatic row between the two countries.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio Northampton, Mrs Charles said: \"We have put ourselves out there... Harry has had to become household name to get justice done.\n\n\"When you choose to embark on a campaign, you have to take the rough with the smooth.\"\n\nShe admitted she had been \"thrown off course\" by some of the reactions from the public, despite it being \"overwhelmingly\" positive.\n\n\"The support we have had has been immense. Without the support of the public and media, we wouldn't be here - it has all been worth it,\" she added.\n\nHarry Dunn died following a collision outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in 2019\n\nSacoolas will be sentenced later this month and the Judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, urged her to attend court in person, having appeared via videolink for previous hearings.\n\n\"Our job is done. It's over to the judge now,\" Mrs Charles said.\n\nSacoolas's guilty plea in court marked the end of the family's three-year wait for justice.\n\n\"There's been so much buried, we've needed to get this campaign done, get justice done,\" Mrs Charles said.\n\nShe said she was \"a little more emotional, a little bit more tearful and little more accepting of the fact that I need to start allowing the grief to set in to now\".\n\nMrs Charles said should would now \"start opening that horrific Pandora's box that's sat in the pit of my stomach\".\n\n\"I know there is a lot in there that is going to hurt like hell,\" she said.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEngland manager Gareth Southgate is not given enough credit for the job he has done, says midfielder Kalvin Phillips.\n\nEngland play France in the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday (19:00 GMT), with 52-year-old Southgate having already led the Three Lions to the 2018 semi-finals and the Euro 2020 final.\n\n\"I think people underestimate how good a manager Gareth Southgate is,\" Manchester City player Phillips said.\n\n\"I have been with England for three years and he has been amazing.\"\n\nSouthgate began his reign as England manager in October 2016, winning 49 and losing 13 of his 80 games in charge since.\n\nBut the defeat by Croatia in the last four of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, followed by another by Italy on penalties in the Euro 2020 final, led to questions about Southgate's ability to get the most out of his talented squad.\n• None Walker 'will not roll out red carpet' for Mbappe\n• None End of the road for England? Sutton's World Cup quarter-final predictions\n\nFurther concerns were raised during a poor Nations League campaign earlier this year, particularly after a humiliating home thrashing by Hungary where England fans chanted 'You don't know what you're doing' at the manager.\n\nEngland have since recovered to reach the World Cup quarter-finals in Qatar, with Southgate earning credit for his tactical decisions that led to a 3-0 win against Senegal in the last 16.\n\nNow his credentials will be put under scrutiny again when his side face defending champions France in Doha.\n\n\"We didn't have good results in the summer but you can put that down to a few reasons,\" said Phillips, who has played under Marcelo Bielsa and Pep Guardiola - both internationally revered coaches - at Leeds and Manchester City.\n\n\"How he has nurtured this team to winning games and one of the best countries in the world at playing football. A lot of people don't give him credit for that.\n\n\"He has got very tough decisions to make. He has unbelievable players that he has to leave on the bench.\n\n\"I understand it is a very hard position he is in, but he has been unbelievable since I've been with England. He is an unbelievable man-manager.\"\n• None Alan Shearer column: Show fear? Let everyone else be afraid of England\n\nOne of Southgate's biggest tasks this weekend is how to nullify the threat of France's in-form forward Kylian Mbappe.\n\nMbappe, 23, is the tournament's leading scorer with five goals in four games and has been involved in each of Les Bleus' past seven goals in Qatar.\n\nWhile England will have to pay plenty of attention to Mbappe, midfielder Mason Mount says it will not distract England from using their own attacking strength.\n\n\"Mbappe is very dangerous. When you play against players like this you maybe give a bit more focus on them than usual because you know what they can do and how they can hurt you,\" the Chelsea player said.\n\n\"But we are ready for that challenge. We know what we can do and how we've been playing.\n\n\"We need to continue that form because it can be frightening at times if we are at the top of our game and scoring goals. I think scoring 12 goals in the tournament so far is right up there.\n\n\"We are in a good place and confident in how we have played. The performances have been top class and now obviously this is our toughest test.\"\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The NI secretary is set to cut the pay of assembly members - who have not legislated since May - by 27%\n\nA fifth attempt to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland since May's assembly election has failed.\n\nThe attempt to elect a speaker was blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party as part of its ongoing protest against Brexit trading arrangements.\n\nNI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he would implement new powers to cut assembly members' salaries \"very soon\".\n\nIrish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has suggested that pay cut would take effect from January.\n\nMr Heaton-Harris confirmed he would implement a 27% cut \"very, very soon\", after a law giving him the power to cut Stormont salaries came into effect on Tuesday night.\n\nMr Coveney told Evening Extra: \"I hope that the decision around that - which won't take effect until January - will be very short lived because we have to find a way to get devolved institutions back up and running again, which will make salary a non issue.\"\n\nThe new law also means the NI secretary is under a new legal obligation to call a fresh Stormont election, which would take place no later than 13 April if the institutions are not restored by mid-January.\n\nThe legislation also clarifies the limited decision-making powers provided to civil servants while there is no Northern Ireland Executive in operation.\n\nThe assembly sat on Wednesday after a Sinn Féin recall request - a move backed by the Alliance Party and the Social Democratic and Labour Party.\n\nThe motion called on the DUP to end its boycott of power-sharing to help deal with the cost-of-living crisis.\n\nBut the DUP again refused to vote for any of the candidates for Speaker - a position that must be filled before any other business can be heard.\n\nNorthern Ireland has been without a functioning government since February, when the DUP walked out of the first minister's role in protest against the protocol.\n\nSinn Féin won the largest number of seats in May's election, but no new power-sharing executive could be formed due to the DUP's ongoing boycott.\n\nUnionist politicians argue the post-Brexit trading arrangement undermines Northern Ireland's position in the UK.\n\nIt keeps Northern Ireland aligned with some EU trade rules to ensure goods can move freely across the Irish land border.\n\nNegotiations between the UK government and the EU to resolve differences over the protocol are continuing.\n\nThe last failed recall was in October, ahead of a deadline to restore power-sharing.\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday, Sinn Féin's would-be first minister, Michelle O'Neill, accused the DUP of abandoning the public \"to a Tory government intent on inflicting cuts and austerity in society\".\n\n\"We do not have months to ponder, but rather weeks to take action and create stability and certainty for society, businesses and politics,\" she said.\n\nThe DUP's Gordon Lyons said the recall was \"nothing more than a farce\".\n\n\"Devolution needs a firm foundation to succeed and that foundation will never be in place as long as the issues around the protocol are unresolved,\" he said.\n\nThe plot followed a familiar path with much the same script lines building to the same anti-climatic conclusion.\n\nFor the fifth time assembly members (MLAs) tried and failed to elect a speaker to restore the assembly as the DUP refused to end its Stormont boycott.\n\nMindful of those suffering to pay their bills, the exchanges were full of passion and at times anger.\n\nBut there was no hint of a DUP climbdown any time soon as Gordon Lyons doubled down on his party's stand-off with some stinging digs at the Sinn Féin benches - digs which Sinn Féin dismissed as \"dead cat\" distractions.\n\nThe only note of remorse came from Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie when he apologised after being accused of making a misogynistic remark.\n\nMLAs left the chamber as they entered it - no closer to restoring the Stormont institutions and braced for a pay cut.\n\nThe Alliance Party's Kellie Armstrong said she did not expect the DUP to end its boycott.\n\n\"I expect every household in Northern Ireland to face a cold winter without the same level of help that is being provided to others across the UK,\" she said.\n\nThe SDLP's Matthew O'Toole accused the DUP of \"always shirking, always deflecting, it's always somebody else's fault\".\n\n\"The tragedy is that the DUP are addicted to power but hate responsibility,\" he said.\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie landed himself in hot water with some of his comments\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie described the recall of the assembly as gesture politics which was born out of frustration.\n\n\"The reality is this, like three years before with Sinn Féin, the DUP simply do not care\", he said.\n\nHe accused the DUP and Sinn Féin as \"two sides of the same damn coin\".\n\nBut Mr Beattie faced criticism after accusing some DUP members of screaming and \"whinging like a girl from the side lines\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Doug Beattie under fire for 'whine like a girl' remarks\n\nLagan Valley assembly member Emma Little-Pengelly tweeted that she was proud \"of the many strong girls and women\" she knows.\n\nA new law giving the Irish language official status, also received Royal Assent on Tuesday.\n\nThe culture, language and identity bill will allow the use of Irish in courts and see the appointment of Irish and Ulster Scots/Ulster British commissioners.", "Julian Knight has accused the Conservative Party of denying him the right to a fair hearing, after he was suspended as a Tory MP following a report to police involving allegations of sexual assault.\n\nMr Knight said he was \"entirely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever\".\n\nIn a letter to the party's chief whip, Simon Hart, Mr Knight strongly objected to the way he was named by the whip's office on Wednesday night, when they confirmed his suspension from the parliamentary Conservative party.\n\nHe has demanded an \"immediate and unequivocal answer\" as to why he was suspended and publicly named.\n\nThe MP for Solihull said the whips - who are responsible for party discipline - must have known their actions would \"entirely prejudice\" any prospect of getting a fair hearing in any inquiry, court or disciplinary hearing.\n\n\"By unilaterally and publicly suspending the whip you have stripped me of the rights to anonymity or a fair hearing in any judicial forum or, indeed, in the court of public opinion,\" he wrote.\n\nIn the letter, posted on his Twitter account on Thursday, Mr Knight said he was making the statement after his name was linked with an \"apparently serious but entirely unspecified offence\".\n\nHe said he was making his letter public \"in the interests of natural justice\" and has asked the chief whip does the same with this reply.\n\nOn Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the chief whip said in a statement Mr Knight had been suspended as a Conservative MP after a complaint to the Metropolitan Police.\n\nMr Knight said he found out he had been suspended from the media, after the statement from the chief whip's office was released.\n\nHe said no one from the whip's office spoke to him before his suspension and he had heard nothing from the police about \"any allegation apparently made against me\".\n\nThe BBC has been told the chief whip was in touch with Mr Knight on Wednesday night.\n\nBut when asked for a response to Mr Knight's position, the chief whip's office would not comment further given the police investigation.\n\nOn Thursday, the Metropolitan Police said that on 28 October it had received allegations of sexual assault against unnamed victims reported to have taken place on unknown dates at undisclosed locations.\n\nIn his letter to the chief whip, Mr Knight asked whether his suspension was related to those allegations.\n\nThe statement added: \"On 7 December, a further referral relating to the incident[s] was made and an investigation was launched.\"\n\nPolice said inquiries were ongoing and there have been no arrests.\n\nIn a tweet earlier, Mr Knight said he believed his suspension was \"wrong and unjustified\".\n\n\"Subsequently, I have received what my lawyers advise are explicit threats involving blackmail as well as being at the centre of a campaign of rumour and innuendo,\" he said.\n\n\"All matters are now with my lawyers and I will be recusing myself from Parliament until the matter is resolved.\"\n\nMr Knight, who entered Parliament in 2015, is chairman of the Commons culture committee.", "Julian Knight has been suspended as a Conservative MP after a complaint was made to the Metropolitan Police, a party spokeswoman has said.\n\nShe declined to comment on the nature of the complaint as it is now under investigation.\n\nMr Knight, who has been an MP since 2015, chairs the culture committee in the House of Commons.\n\nHe represents the Solihull constituency in the West Midlands, but will now sit as an independent.\n\nA spokeswoman for Chief Whip Simon Hart said: \"Following a complaint made to the Metropolitan Police this evening, we have removed the whip from Julian Knight MP with immediate effect.\"\n\nThe chief whip is in charge of discipline within the parliamentary party. He also has the power to remove the whip from an MP, meaning they can no longer sit in Parliament as a Conservative MP.\n\nMr Knight becomes the fifth MP to currently have the Conservative whip removed.\n\nAs chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, Mr Knight has previously commented on drafts of the online safety bill.", "Putin was speaking at an awards ceremony in the Kremlin\n\nVladimir Putin has vowed to continue attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure despite millions being left without electricity or water.\n\n\"Yes, we do that. But who started it?\" the Russian president said at an awards ceremony in the Kremlin.\n\nHe said that criticism of Russian strikes would \"not interfere with our combat missions\".\n\nMoscow has been battering Ukraine's power grid since 10 October, following a string of heavy military defeats.\n\nSome Western leaders have called the strategy a war crime, because of the huge amount of damage caused to civilian infrastructure.\n\nBut President Putin said that growing global criticism would not stop the strikes.\n\n\"There's a lot of noise about our strikes on the energy infrastructure of a neighbouring country. Yes, we do that. But who started it?\" he said to recipients of state awards, including the \"Hero of Russia\" medal.\n\nHe said the strikes were in response to a blast on the Russian bridge to annexed Crimea on 8 October. He also accused Ukraine of blowing up power lines from the Kursk nuclear power plant and of cutting water supply to Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.\n\n\"Not supplying water to a city of more than a million people is an act of genocide,\" Mr Putin said, accusing the West of \"complete silence\" on these claims and of bias against Russia.\n\nUkrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin said last month that Russia's attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure amount to genocide.\n\nThe Russian president said that when Moscow responds to Ukrainian aggression \"there is uproar and clamour spreading through the whole universe\".\n\nUkraine is now seeing snow and sub-zero temperatures in many regions, including Kyiv\n\nUkraine is now seeing snow and sub-zero temperatures in many regions, and millions are without electricity and running water, raising fears people may die of hypothermia.\n\nThe country switched to emergency shutdowns to stabilise its power grid after a fresh wave of Russian missile attacks on Monday.\n\nExperts have told the BBC that Russia's tactic of hitting energy infrastructure is most likely designed to demoralise and terrorise the population, rather than gain any concrete military advantage - a move that would violate international law.\n\nFrank Gardner looks at what lies ahead as winter arrives in Ukraine.\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "That's all from today's assembly sitting - for the fifth time, members have failed to elect a Speaker and the Northern Ireland Assembly stays in the deep freeze.\n\nA breakthrough to the political stalemate appears no closer but whatever political developments occur, you can get the latest on BBC News NI online as well as via BBC Newsline and BBC Radio Ulster.\n\nWe'll see you next time - most likely for the sixth assembly recall. Until then, thanks for joining us.", "The cut will reduce annual incomes of Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) by 27.5%\n\nStormont's 90 assembly members will have their salaries cut by more than £14,000 from 1 January, Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has said.\n\nFurther cuts may come if the political stalemate continues, he added.\n\nAssembly members have not governed for 10 months due to a boycott by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).\n\nMr Heaton-Harris also told BBC News NI he could not confirm a date for a delayed £600 energy bill discount to be issued to Northern Ireland households.\n\nHe said the best way for this to be delivered was through a functioning power-sharing executive.\n\nHowever, he insisted: \"Everyone in Northern Ireland will get the complete payment before everybody in the rest of Great Britain.\"\n\nIn Great Britain, payments began being released in six monthly instalments from October.\n\nNorthern Ireland has been without a functioning government since February, when the DUP walked out of the executive in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nUnionists argue the post-Brexit trading arrangement undermines Northern Ireland's position in the UK, as it keeps the nation aligned with some EU trade rules to ensure goods can move freely across the Irish land border.\n\nA motion called on the DUP to end its boycott to help deal with the cost-of-living crisis, but the party again refused to vote for a new Speaker - a position that must be filled before any other business can be heard.\n\nEarlier this week, Mr Heaton-Harris was granted new legal powers to cut by 27.5% the annual incomes of Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs).\n\nThe pay cut will reduce their salaries by £14,163 - from £51,500 to £37,337.\n\nIt will mean a cut of about £800 to their pay packet in January.\n\nThe lack of a functioning executive is complicating the delivery of a £600 energy support scheme\n\nMr Heaton-Harris said there was a strong argument to keep the matter under review.\n\n\"I've asked my officials to give me some more legal basis and check if they can do more,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"People will also have seen that when this was being debated in the House of Commons, there was a big push to go further so I'm going to keep it under review.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chris Heaton-Harris says MLAs' pay will stay under a review after a 27% cut in January\n\nAsked if he was doing enough to try to restore power sharing, the secretary of state said he would convene talks with the parties next week.\n\nIt will be the first series of round-table discussions he has held since taking on the job in September.\n\n\"I'm putting as much pressure on all parties to go back into the executive, and I do that whenever I see them, and I see them a lot,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm talking to the parties all the time but they could do this themselves.\"\n\nMr Heaton-Harris also confirmed the government was \"taking soundings\" on whether to change the date of next year's scheduled local government election.\n\nThe election is due to happen on 4 May, but there have been calls to move it so that the counting of votes does not clash with the coronation of King Charles III, which is happening two days later.\n\nIn a letter to all MLAs on Thursday, the secretary of state said he was also increasing the required number of days they must attend Stormont in order to claim travel allowances.\n\nHe said it will increase from a minimum of 72 days to 100 with effect from 1 April.\n\nFor each working day less than this that an MLA attends the assembly the allowance will be cut by 1%.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: A clip from the first episode of the Harry and Meghan Netflix series\n\nSome royals questioned why Meghan should be protected from press harassment, Prince Harry has claimed in the couple's new Netflix documentary.\n\nHarry said some members of the family felt negative treatment in the media was \"a rite of passage\" - but he added: \"The difference is the race element.\"\n\nThe first three episodes of the six-part bombshell series, titled Harry & Meghan, were released on Thursday.\n\nThe couple talk about life in the Royal Family, press intrusion and racism.\n\nBuckingham Palace has not yet responded to the claims.\n\nAt the start of episode one, a message says members of the Royal Family declined to comment on \"the content within this series\".\n\nBoth Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace confirmed they received an email purporting to be from a production company from an unknown organisation's address and attempted to verify its authenticity with Archewell Productions and Netflix, but did not receive a response, PA reported.\n\nA source told PA the substance of the email did not address the entire series.\n\nThe episodes released on Thursday - which include sit-down interviews with the couple and their friends, as well as a video diary - cover a range of topics, including the couple's difficult relationship with the tabloid press, and the Royal Family's response to racist news articles written about Meghan.\n\n\"The direction from the Palace was don't say anything,\" says Harry. \"But what people need to understand is, as far as a lot of the family were concerned, everything that she was being put through, they had been put through as well.\n\n\"So it was almost like a rite of passage, and some of the members of the family were like 'my wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?\"'\n\n\"I said 'the difference here is the race element'.\"\n\nHe says there is a \"huge level of unconscious bias\" in the Royal Family, adding: \"It is actually no one's fault. But once it has been pointed out, or identified within yourself you then need to make it right.\"\n\nThe Duke of Sussex - who is fifth in line to the throne - says he is really proud that his children are mixed race, and it makes him want to \"make the world a better place for them\".\n\n\"But, equally, what's most important for the two of us is to make sure that we don't repeat the same mistakes that perhaps our parents made.\"\n\nThe couple also spoke about meeting other royals, with Meghan saying she found it surprising that the formality \"carries over\" even when not in public.\n\nShe says: \"When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot. I was a hugger. I've always been a hugger, I didn't realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.\n\n\"I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside.\"\n\nIn much of episode one, the duke and duchess spoke about their relationship - including how they met via a friend on Instagram and met for drinks in London's Soho for their first date.\n\nHarry describes it as a \"great love story\", adding: \"I think for so many people in the family, especially obviously the men, there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit in the mould, as opposed to somebody who you are perhaps destined to be with.\n\n\"The difference between making decisions with your head, or your heart. And my mum certainly made most of her decisions - if not all of them - from her heart. And I am my mother's son.\"\n\nHe adds: \"She (Meghan) sacrificed everything she ever knew, the freedom that she had, to join me in my world. And then pretty soon after that I ended up sacrificing everything that I know to join her in her world.\"\n\nPrince Harry tells the docuseries: \"My job is to keep my family safe. But the nature of being born into this position... and the level of hate that is being stirred up in the last three years especially against my wife and my son, I'm generally concerned for the safety of my family.\"\n\nThe duke adds that, as a royal, it is his \"duty to uncover this exploitation and bribery that happens within our media\".\n\nMeghan, meanwhile, says she felt that \"no matter how hard I tried, no matter how good I was, no matter what I did, they [the media] were still going to find a way to destroy me\".\n\nIn other moments from the series:\n\nMeghan describes a BBC interview that took place as part of the announcement of her and Prince Harry's engagement as an \"orchestrated reality show\", adding: \"We weren't allowed to tell our story... it was, you know, rehearsed.\"\n\nThe interview was conducted by news presenter Mishal Husain, who said on Thursday she remembers the \"discreet\" and \"very small scale\" interview for its atmosphere of infectious joy.\n\n\"I don't know what kinds of conversations went on between them and their team ahead of the day,\" she says. \"I can speak to my recollection of that day and that was two people who were happy to be talking about each other.\"\n\nThe couple were \"happy to be sharing their love\" and \"full of plans for the future and what they could do as a team\", she says, adding that their sense of excitement about what the future held \"was very infectious\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home video of Archie features in Harry and Meghan documentary\n\nAre Prince Harry and Meghan the victims of an oppressive royal system? Or are they the millionaire moaners of Montecito?\n\nHowever the public views their TV show, there will be one set of delighted viewers - and that's in Buckingham Palace and the rest of the Royal Family.\n\nThey might get a bit of a frosty blast from the series, described as unable to hug and getting married for the wrong reasons. But there are no real bombshells or direct hits and nothing specific about any individuals.\n\nIt's a love letter to themselves. They present themselves as under siege, facing prejudice and threats, at war with the media. And as such it's a view looking inwards rather than outwards, with a supporting chorus of friends and experts.\n\nFor a Royal Family worried at the prospect of being painted as out of touch and unsympathetic, or even worse as racists, the programmes so far have not landed anything really embarrassing or awkward.\n\nThe eagerly-anticipated docuseries - which will culminate in its final three episodes at 08:00 GMT on 15 December - faced controversy earlier this week when two trailers allegedly appeared to use footage and photos in misleading ways.\n\nThe trailers showed archive clips and pictures as Prince Harry and Meghan spoke about being sidelined by the Royal Family and hounded by the media - but it is thought at least three such images were taken from events that had nothing to do with the couple. Netflix and the Sussexes' production company Archewell have not commented.\n\nOn Tuesday, Prince Harry and Meghan faced awkward questions from reporters including \"are you putting money before family?\" and \"are you harming your family, Harry?\" as they attended a New York event to receive a human rights award.\n\nHarry and Meghan - who met via a friend on Instagram - share new pictures in the documentary\n\nThe royal couple stepped back as senior royals in March 2020 and now live in California with their two young children, Archie and Lilibet.\n\nSince their exit, they have given several interviews about life in the Royal Family - including their famous Oprah interview last year when they accused an unnamed member of the family of racism, and Meghan said she had had suicidal thoughts.\n\nThe couple have also spoken about their relationship with the media - blaming racist coverage in the tabloid press as a reason why they decided to step back as senior royals.\n\nThey have gone on to secure interviews, produce podcasts and carry out campaigning work. In January, Prince Harry's memoir - called Spare - will be published.", "Anjana and Baljit Sethi have been trying for nearly three years to claim compensation\n\nBaljit Sethi cannot understand why it is taking so long for the Post Office to pay him compensation.\n\n\"It doesn't seem like they're interested in doing anything,\" he says.\n\nHe is one of thousands of sub-postmasters who lost everything, after the introduction of a faulty IT system made it appear as though money was going missing.\n\nThe official inquiry into the scandal was looking into the compensation process for a third time on Thursday.\n\nThe inquiry heard from government, Post Office and legal representatives, after its chairman Sir Wyn Williams said in September he was \"disappointed with the apparent lack of substantial progress to date\".\n\nThe Post Office, which administers the compensation schemes, said it recognised the \"importance of ensuring that postmasters receive timely and fair compensation for the failings associated with the Horizon IT system\" and pointed to the numbers of people who had already received payments.\n\nThe government says \"significant progress\" has already been made on compensation and has announced details of an additional compensation scheme that will begin work next year.\n\nBut solicitors for sub-postmasters making claims say the process is too slow.\n\nMr Sethi agrees that three years after the High Court declared the Post Office's Horizon IT system was riddled with \"bugs, errors and defects\", it is high time that people like him are properly compensated.\n\n\"We haven't had a single penny,\" he says.\n\n\"We've sent them so many emails, and after four or five months they reply: 'Please have patience, Mr Sethi'.\"\n\n\"I mean, how long can I have patience for?\" he says.\n\nOver 20 years Mr Sethi and his wife ran two post offices near Romford in east London, investing in the businesses and working long hours.\n\nHe noticed the new IT system was causing shortfalls in the accounts at one of his two branches. He alerted the Post Office, but nothing was done. After ongoing erratic results from the Horizon accounting software, he lost his businesses, became bankrupt, and his reputation in the local community was destroyed. He ended up working as a low-paid night security guard, struggling to make ends meet.\n\nOther sub-postmasters were prosecuted, some spent time in prison, or had to pay back tens of thousands of pounds that they were wrongly accused of stealing.\n\nSome former sub-postmasters have suffered other financial consequences.\n\nStefan Fountain, 65, decided to sell up and leave after his Post Office accounts started to show shortfalls, but that left him in \"an awful situation financially\".\n\nHe was declared bankrupt, and ended up losing his home, and is now living in rented accommodation.\n\nMr Fountain still owed money to creditors, and he has been told that £20,000 of his damages will go to official receivers, leaving him with £4,000.\n\n\"I get quite angry and bitter when I think about it, as I've had to struggle all of my life due to the failings of the Horizon system, and yet still I am treated like this,\" he said.\n\nA Post Office spokesperson said: \"We are sincerely sorry for the impact of the Horizon scandal on the lives of victims and their families.\"\n\nThe Post Office, which is state-owned, runs two compensation schemes. One, the Historical Shortfall Scheme (HSS), is for people like Mr Sethi, former postmasters who had to cover discrepancies in their businesses' accounts with their own funds, but who were not prosecuted.\n\nA Post Office spokesperson said there had been over 2,300 eligible applications for the HSS.\n\n\"Over 70% of applications have accepted an offer and received payment; and 95% of applicants should receive an offer by the end of this year. The scheme has also been extended to anyone who wants to submit a late application,\" he said.\n\nThe Post Office said if outstanding applications had not received an offer, it was \"usually in light of a case-specific complexity\".\n\nIn 2019 the sub-postmasters' case in the High Court uncovered the scale of the miscarriage of justice\n\nA second scheme, the Overturned Historical Convictions (OHC) scheme, provides payments to those who were prosecuted. So far £11.3m has been paid in compensation to 77 of the 83 individuals whose convictions had been overturned, although much of that is in interim payments, and only two cases have been fully settled.\n\nThe Post Office said it was \"making good progress with many more claims\".\n\nOn Wednesday the government outlined the details of a third scheme, to be overseen by the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).\n\nThe new scheme will compensate the 555 former sub-postmasters who brought the initial legal action, known as the Group Litigation Order (GLO), that culminated in 2019 with a settlement at the High Court, making clear for the first time the scale of the miscarriage of justice that had taken place.\n\nThose 555 sub-postmasters did receive a share of the £57m original settlement, but that was mostly absorbed by legal fees and for legal reasons the GLO group are not eligible for either of the two Post Office-run compensation schemes.\n\nThe new scheme would \"ensure that these trailblazing postmasters, who did so much to uncover this injustice, receive the compensation they deserve\", Business Secretary Grant Shapps said.\n\nBut solicitors representing the former postmasters said their clients were \"justifiably frustrated\" at the delays to authorising settlements.\n\nHudgell Solicitors, in a submission ahead of Thursday's inquiry hearing, highlighted the low initial offers that some claimants were receiving, which were increased three-fold or more when challenged. The delays in the process put \"great pressure\" on claimants in financial hardship to accept the initial offer, the firm said.\n\nHowe and Co accused BEIS of \"inertia\", only making fast progress with the new compensation scheme in the build-up to a hearing at the inquiry. The HSS scheme was \"exceptionally slow\" the firm said.\n\nThat has certainly been Mr Sethi's experience.\n\nHe made his initial application in February 2020. Since then he has answered hundreds of questions, but still received no substantial response.\n\nMr Sethi's son Adeep is doing his best to help his parents to keep battling through what he says is a very opaque process.\n\n\"These people are in their 70s and 80s, they're sick and tired of fighting,\" he says. \"They don't want the spectre of the Post Office haunting them any further.\"", "American basketball star Brittney Griner has been released after nearly 10 months in Russian custody, as part of a long-rumoured prisoner exchange brokered by officials in Washington and Moscow.\n\nGriner is arguably the greatest female basketball player of all time and is the marquee player for the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in the US.\n\nThe 32-year-old disappeared on 17 February - just days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine - as she was passing through Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport.\n\nShe was later charged with carrying cannabis oil in her luggage and sentenced to nine years in prison.\n\nThe future WNBA star was born on 18 October 1990 to Raymond and Sandra Griner in Texas. Her father was a veteran of the Vietnam War, where he served two tours of duty as a US Marine, and he later became a police officer in Houston.\n\nShe grew up in a strict household and later wrote in her autobiography that her father had \"so many damn rules\" designed to keep her safe and \"on the right path\".\n\nThe star - who is 6ft 9in (2.05 metres) tall - recalled being bullied for her height and tomboyish appearance as a child.\n\nShe wrote in her autobiography that she spent much of her time \"wishing away so much of what would eventually make me successful at basketball: my size, strength, and tenacity\".\n\nDespite wishing to be \"normal\", her unique talent on the basketball court was quickly noticed by coaches at the Nimitz High School in Houston.\n\nWhile playing for the school's team, the Nimitz Cougars, her ability to dunk a basketball attracted massive attention.\n\nDuring her junior season, a video compilation of her dunks racked up 6.6 million views on YouTube and lead to a meeting with LA Lakers legend Shaquille O'Neal.\n\nGriner with NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal, an early admirer of her talent.\n\nAfter leading the Nimitz Cougars to a state championship game in her senior year - during which she dunked the ball a record 52 times in 32 games - she was named to the illustrious Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) All-American team, and scored 20 points in its showpiece game.\n\nGriner came out as gay at the age of 22, at the start of her promising career, becoming one of the most prominent LGBT athletes in the world.\n\nComing out in an interview with Sports Illustrated, she told the publication that the decision \"wasn't hard at all\".\n\n\"I've always been open about who I am and my sexuality,\" she said. \"If I can show that I'm out and I'm fine, then hopefully the younger generation will feel the same way.\"\n\nIn 2013, Griner became the first openly gay player to be endorsed by Nike in a multi-million dollar deal.\n\nTamryn Spruill, a sports journalist who is writing a book on the WNBA and Griner's contributions to the league, told the BBC earlier this year that her decision was groundbreaking for the sport.\n\n\"Before Griner, there was this shadow over the league, where it was like 'don't say gay,'\" Ms Spruill said. \"She was just like 'screw that, this is who I am.'\"\n\n\"BG's always been one to be a pioneer,\" Griner's teammate, Diana Taurasi has said.\n\nIn 2019, she married her partner Cherelle Watson after a heavily publicised divorce from her ex-wife and fellow WNBA player Glory Johnson.\n\nAfter a successful college career with Baylor University, Griner was drafted as the number one pick in the 2013 WNBA draft by the Arizona-based Phoenix Mercury.\n\nThe star went on to become one of the WNBA's most dominant players in history, widely considered the best offensive player in the league - and her ability to dunk remains unmatched.\n\nShe has won a WNBA championship, eight WNBA All-Star awards, four EuroLeague titles and two Olympic gold medals.\n\n\"She's every bit the Tom Brady of her sport,\" Melissa Isaacson, a sportswriter and professor at Northwestern University in the US state of Illinois, said, adding: \"You could argue very accurately that she is one of the best athletes in the world.\"\n\nDespite all this, Griner had a second job, and that was why she flew to Russia - to play for EuroLeague team UMMC Ekaterinburg, who she has played for during the WNBA off-season since 2014.\n\nRoughly half of WNBA players compete overseas in the off-season. For most, it's a way to boost their income: WNBA players receive roughly five times more in Russia than they do in the US.\n\n\"If she were Steph Curry or LeBron James, she wouldn't be over there at all because she'd be making enough money,\" Ms Spruill said.\n\nGriner's counterparts in the men's league make more than 200 times the maximum WNBA salary.\n\nFollowing Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the EuroLeague suspended all Russian teams, and US and WNBA officials began calling players out of the country.\n\nBut it was too late for Griner, who is believed to have entered Russia one week earlier, on 17 February, though the timing remains unclear.\n\nInitially, US authorities and representatives for Griner were largely silent, other than to say they were working to bring her home.\n\nIn early May, however, the State Department said it considered Griner to be \"wrongfully\" detained, and a lengthy campaign to secure her release began.\n\nGriner's wife, Cherelle, posted on Instagram in April about the painful wait.\n\n\"People say 'stay busy.' Yet, there's not a task in this world that could keep any of us from worrying about you. My heart, our hearts, are all skipping beats everyday that goes by,\" she wrote.\n\n\"There are no words to express this pain. I'm hurting, we're hurting\".\n\nOn Thursday, following Griner's release, her wife embraced US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.\n\n\"I'm just standing here overwhelmed with emotions,\" she said.", "Prototype dish: The South African site will see the installation of parabolic antennas\n\nOne of the grand scientific projects of the 21st Century begins its construction phase on Monday.\n\nThe Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the largest radio telescope in the world when completed in 2028.\n\nSplit across South Africa and Australia, with a headquarters in the UK, the facility will address the biggest questions in astrophysics.\n\nIt will perform the most precise tests of Einstein's theories, and even search for extra-terrestrials.\n\nDelegations from the eight countries leading the project are attending ceremonies in the remote Murchison shire in Western Australia and in the Karoo of South Africa's Northern Cape.\n\nWhen the festivities are over, the bulldozers will move in.\n\nThe Wajarri Yamaji inaugurate the Murchison site with their ceremonial digging sticks\n\n\"This is the moment it becomes real,\" said Prof Phil Diamond, director general of the Square Kilometre Array Organisation.\n\n\"It's been a 30-year journey. The first 10 years were about developing the concepts and ideas. The second 10 was spent doing the technology development. And then the last decade was about detailed design, securing the sites, getting governments to agree to set up a treaty organisation (SKAO) and provide the funds to start,\" he told BBC News.\n\nThe telescope is being built in areas already used for radio astronomy\n\nThe initial architecture of the telescope will incorporate just under 200 parabolic antennas, or \"dishes\", as well as 131,000 dipole antennas, which look a little like Christmas trees.\n\nThe aim is to construct an effective collecting area measuring hundreds of thousands of square metres.\n\nThis will give the SKA unparalleled sensitivity and resolution as it probes targets on the sky.\n\nThe system will operate across a frequency range from roughly 50 megahertz to, ultimately, 25 gigahertz. In wavelength terms, this is in the centimetres to metres range.\n\nThis should enable the telescope to detect very faint radio signals coming from cosmic sources billions of light-years from Earth, including those signals emitted in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang.\n\nOne of the SKA's great quests will be to trace the full history of hydrogen, the most abundant element in the Universe.\n\nThe telescope should be able to detect hydrogen's presence even before great clouds of it collapsed to form the first stars.\n\nThe centre of our galaxy imaged by the Meerkat telescope, a South African pathfinder for the SKA\n\n\"The SKA is going to contribute to so many areas of astronomy,\" said Dr Shari Breen, the observatory's head of science operations.\n\n\"One would be these 'fast radio bursts' that have been detected. These things output the equivalent of an entire year's worth of energy from our Sun in just a fraction of a second. And we have no idea what they are. How is that possible? Hopefully the SKA will have an answer.\"\n\nThe telescope is being built in areas already used for radio astronomy on a smaller scale.\n\nTo expand these sites, however, has required various land agreements, with farmers in the Karoo; and with the Wajarri Yamaji, the Aboriginal title holders in the Murchison.\n\nThe Wajarri community have organised Monday's celebration to inaugurate the SKA.\n\nThe low-frequency antennas for Australia look like Christmas trees\n\nVarious procurement contracts will be announced around the ceremonies.\n\nThese will take the total financial outlay to date to just under €500m (£430m) - out of an expected final construction budget of €2bn.\n\nThe first major milestone should come in 2024, when four dishes in Australia and six antenna stations in South Africa are made to work seamlessly together as a basic telescope. This proof-of-principle moment will then trigger the array's full roll-out.\n\nBy 2028, the SKA will have an effective collecting area of just under 500,000 square metres. But the set-up is such that it can continue growing, perhaps up to the much desired one million square metres, or one square kilometre.\n\nOne way this could happen is if more and more countries join the organisation and provide the necessary funds.\n\nThe current members are: South Africa, Australia, the UK, China, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland. These countries have ratified the treaty.\n\nFrance, Spain, and most recently Germany, have got themselves on to the accession path.\n\nCanada, India, Sweden, South Korea and Japan have indicated their intention to join at some point.\n\n\"And we're actually in the process of talking to other countries as well, to see what interest they might have in joining the observatory,\" said Prof Diamond.", "The assembly cannot function unless a Speaker is elected\n\nThe Stormont Assembly is set to be recalled for a fifth time on Wednesday in a bid to elect a new Speaker.\n\nSinn Féin proposed a motion to bring it back to debate the cost-of-living crisis. It was also backed by the SDLP and Alliance.\n\nThirty signatures were required for it to be successful.\n\nThe last failed recall was in October, ahead of a deadline to restore power-sharing.\n\nThe Sinn Féin motion calls on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to end its boycott of the assembly and reform an executive.\n\nThe assembly has previously been recalled four times since May's election but on each occasion, the DUP has refused to support a new Speaker being chosen.\n\nNo other business can take place until a Speaker is elected.\n\nAlex Maskey is the outgoing Speaker of the assembly\n\nThe DUP has said it will not vote for a Speaker until the Northern Ireland Protocol is significantly changed.\n\nThe party has protested against the protocol, a part of the UK-EU Brexit deal which keeps Northern Ireland aligned with some EU trade rules.\n\nThis was designed to ensure goods could move freely across the Irish land border, from the UK into an EU member state, the Republic of Ireland.\n\nHowever, in turn, the protocol imposed some new checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.\n\nMeanwhile, a bill to give the Northern Ireland secretary powers to cut MLA salaries is being fast-tracked through the House of Lords.\n\nIt has already been passed by MPs and is currently being debated by peers.\n\nThe bill also extends the time period for parties to return to power-sharing government at Stormont.\n\nIf the DUP refuses to end its boycott of the Stormont institutions by 8 December, the bill will give Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris the option to either:\n\nIf nothing changes by that extended deadline, an election could take place by 13 April.\n\nThe legislation will also clarify the \"limited decision-making\" powers that civil servants now have in the absence of ministers.\n\nExtra provisions are also being made to allow a regional rate to be set, should an executive not be in place, as well as powers for the approval of some public appointments.", "Police say the 58-year-old victim crashed his car into a nearby property after the attack\n\nA 58-year-old man killed in Newry was shot a number of times at close range, possibly as part of a feud, police have said.\n\nThe shooting occurred in Ardcarn Park, a residential area, shortly after 18:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nThe victim died at the scene. His name has not been released by the police.\n\nPolice said one line of inquiry is that the shooting was part of a cross-border crime feud, possibly involving drugs, and a murder investigation has begun.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supt Norman Haslett says the \"level of violence used was reprehensible\"\n\nThe killing was a \"brutal and a senseless attack on a defenceless man\", said Supt Norman Haslett on Friday.\n\nHe said the 58-year-old victim, who was a husband and father, crashed his car into a nearby property after the attack.\n\nEarlier reports suggest the victim was shot a number of times as he stood behind his car.\n\nShocking and brutal - that's how this killing has been described.\n\nNeighbours describe hearing what they thought was fireworks going off, only to realise someone had been killed outside their door.\n\nPolice and forensics remain at the scene, trying to establish what happened here.\n\nPoliticians have condemned the attack and urged anyone with any information to get in contact with the police.\n\nSDLP councillor Michael Savage called the attack \"a reckless act... when families would have been about\".\n\nSinn Féin assembly member Liz Kimmins said: \"This was a very brutal killing and a family have now been left grieving and the community left very, very frightened.\n\nThe man died at the scene at Ardcarn Park\n\n\"It's just horrendous news. There's just absolutely no room for this type of criminality on our streets and those responsible have nothing to offer.\"\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie described the murder as terrible.\n\n\"More guns on our streets, more victims, more families grieving. Senseless, just senseless,\" he tweeted.\n\nAlliance Party assembly member and Policing Board member Nuala McAllister said: \"This is a call back to the dark old days and we cannot allow those who want to drag us back to the past to do so.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Wedlock says she has been living in the mobile home in the seaside town due to a shortage of accessible housing.\n\nA woman from Portrush in County Antrim has said she has been living in a mobile home in the seaside town due to a shortage of accessible housing.\n\nNicola Wedlock, 51, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), has been on a social housing waiting list since May 2020.\n\nShe was living with her mother, 75, in an upstairs flat but said she needed to move out due to mobility needs.\n\nThe Housing Executive said it made offers of accommodation but \"these were declined for a variety of reasons\".\n\nMs Wedlock said: \"They made me an offer for two bungalows which my occupational therapist turned down because they weren't wheelchair accessible.\"\n\nShe said she moved from her mother's flat at least eight months ago.\n\n\"My mum had to lift my legs on to the next step to help me get up the stairs,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\n\"It wasn't fair on mum, it wasn't fair on me,\" she added.\n\n\"I was lying in a bed looking out the window every day, which is no type of a life to live,\" she said.\n\nThe Housing Executive said it had not been informed that Nicola was living in a mobile home, something she disputes.\n\nThe organisation said it has tried to contact her several times in recent days.\n\n\"We received correspondence that advised us the applicant was living upstairs with a parent,\" said a spokesperson.\n\n\"We would urge the applicant to keep in contact her housing adviser to ensure all relevant details are updated.\"\n\nMs Wedlock said she used her savings to buy a mobile home but hoped it would only be a temporary move.\n\n\"My occupational therapist would like me to be in a wheelchair full time but I can't do that in the caravan.\n\nMs Wedlock says she has had several falls\n\n\"I have to walk and I have had several falls.\n\n\"The next time I fall, am I going to have to really hurt myself before I get listened to?\"\n\nFigures supplied to BBC News NI by the Housing Executive show 79 people required ground-floor accommodation in Portrush in June 2022.\n\nFewer than 10 people were allocated it in the previous 12 months, none of whom were wheelchair users.\n\nNuala Toman, head of policy at Disability Action said that urgent investment is needed to find accessible housing solutions.\n\n\"Disabled people's right to independent living is being heavily restricted by unsuitable and unsafe housing,\" she said.\n\n\"The ability to move around, leave the house and take as full and active role in the community as possible is vital to disabled people, and essential in ensuring we have access to education and employment.\"\n\nA Housing Executive spokesperson said a high level of housing points had been applied to Ms Wedlock's case.\n\n\"A ground floor, two-bedroom, wheelchair-friendly property has been requested,\" they said.\n\n\"The applicant's areas of choice are in high demand, with very low housing turnover and fewer properties in this area are suitable to ensure independence in the home.\n\n\"With a very limited stock of ground floor properties available in the Portrush area, it is difficult to predict when a suitable home will become available.\n\n\"However, we will continue to work with the applicant to find a successful housing solution.\"", "Many people adopted goblin mode, giving in to lazy behaviour, during the pandemic\n\nThe first Oxford word of the year to be chosen by public vote has been announced.\n\nThe winning word, \"goblin mode\", is a slang term describing \"unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy\" behaviour.\n\nIt was one of three potential choices selected by Oxford lexicographers.\n\nThousands managed to drag themselves out of goblin mode to vote, as the phrase won by a landslide with 318,956 votes, making up 93% of the total.\n\nSo, what does goblin mode mean exactly?\n\nAccording to Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary, it is a slang term often used in the expressions such as \"I am in goblin mode\" or \"to go goblin mode\".\n\nIt went on to explain it as \"a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations\".\n\nThe term started appearing online in 2009, but went viral earlier this year over a fictitious headline scandal involving actress and model Julia Fox as well as a popular Reddit post describing someone who has been acting like a goblin.\n\nAs Covid restrictions eased, the term continued to grow as people realised they did not want to go back to the way life was before.\n\nIt prompted a campaign for its selection, with the PC Gamer magazine asking readers to \"put aside our petty differences and vote for 'goblin mode' over 'metaverse' as the Oxford Word of the Year\", because \"goblin mode rules\".\n\nIt's perhaps hard to argue with that logic when many of us can feel a little goblin-like occasionally.\n\nIt is the first time the word of the year has been chosen by the public, a decision made in a year organisers described as \"more divided than ever\".\n\nCasper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, said that people have been embracing their inner goblin.\n\nHe added: \"We were hoping the public would enjoy being brought into the process, but this level of engagement with the campaign caught us totally by surprise.\n\n\"The strength of the response highlights how important our vocabulary is to understanding who we are and processing what's happening to the world around us.\n\n\"Given the year we've just experienced, 'goblin mode' resonates with all of us who are feeling a little overwhelmed at this point. It's a relief to acknowledge that we're not always the idealized, curated selves that we're encouraged to present on our Instagram and TikTok feeds.\"\n\nThe runner up was metaverse with 14,484 votes, followed by #IStandWith with 8,639 votes.\n\nTV word expert Susie Dent said that she was voting for #IStandWith.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News, Ms Dent explained that Oxford Languages has always been clear that its word of the year does not always need to be a singular term.\n\nSpeaking about the winning word, she said: \"It seems in some ways quite a frivolous choice but actually the more you dig into it the more you realise it is actually a kind of reaction to the existing state of affairs. We're sort of retreating and no longer want our life to be curated by filters.\"\n\nLast year's word of the year was vax, echoing the interest in vaccines after a coronavirus vaccine was released.", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nJordan Henderson's sweeping finish was not simply the pivotal moment in England's World Cup win over Senegal but a vindication of manager Gareth Southgate's sure touch in team selection.\n\nHenderson has been a lightning conductor for critics ready to poke at Southgate's perceived conservatism, but if one pick showed the England boss' priceless ability to shut out the noise and focus on the requirements of tournament football, it was his decision to stick with Liverpool's 32-year-old captain in midfield.\n\nNeedless to say, the court of social media opinion was vociferous in its condemnation of the choice before the game, but Southgate is impervious to such outside influence and Henderson was central to a 3-0 victory that sets up a quarter-final against reigning champions France on Saturday.\n\nWhen England were struggling against the United States in the group stage, Southgate ignored those of us who felt Manchester City's Phil Foden was the answer and called on Henderson to restore control with his vast experience. He did the job - then did it again in the 3-0 victory that sent Wales home as the Three Lions topped their group.\n\nHenderson may lack the so-called X factor of many of those around him in England's squad, but as old Liverpool manager Bob Paisley used to say: \"You need somebody to carry the piano before anyone else can play it.\"\n\nThis is a quality and team ethic Southgate recognises in Henderson, and why he will start again against France. The manner in which he, Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice combine in midfield now looks an unbreakable link.\n\nSouthgate said: \"Jordan has been outstanding. He's such a leader. He knits the team together and around the camp he's brilliant. His performances have been top drawer.\"\n\nHenderson's game intelligence does indeed allow those such as Bellingham to flourish and it was significant that the 19-year-old pointed at his more experienced team-mate to demand applause and recognition after they combined for England's first goal.\n• None 'He will be best midfielder in world' - 'breathtaking' Bellingham stars\n\nFormer England defender Matthew Upson told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"Henderson is the one selection up for debate - but not now. The midfield three in this match has been the standout for me. Henderson arrived in the box all the time and he had the freedom to do that knowing Declan Rice was behind him.\"\n\nBellingham said: \"He was brilliant. I have seen some of the rubbish about him playing. It's ridiculous. He is so underrated technically. He delivered in a big game with a massive goal. I think it's time he gets a bit of respect.\"\n\nFoden, another of England's young brigade, added: \"Jordan is massive. When someone is not doing something right on the pitch he is quick to tell you off. I don't mind that. He is a leader and a captain of his club and has that in his locker.\"\n\nHenderson's inclusion was one element of a Southgate team selection that drew plenty of comment at Al Bayt Stadium when the team was announced, but those of us who raised an eyebrow - perhaps even two - must accept he got it absolutely spot on.\n\nAnd respect, too, has to go to Southgate for once again showing a singularity of purpose to stick to what he believed would get the right result.\n\nMarcus Rashford's two goals against Wales might have persuaded other managers to make the populist choice and pick the Manchester United forward, but he went back to the bench and Arsenal's Bukayo Saka returned. Foden also kept his place with Raheem Sterling absent dealing with the aftermath of a break-in at his family home in London.\n\nFoden made two goals. Saka scored one. Southgate got it right.\n\nSouthgate is now experienced in the art of tournament management after reaching the World Cup semi-finals in 2018 and the Euro 2020 final. When they ran out of momentum and were relegated from their Uefa Nations League group, Southgate revealed he had thought about these struggles and decided it was time to be ruthless.\n\nThis is reflected in the teams he is picking. He is shutting out the noise from elsewhere and building his team through the tournament, and that measured approach is producing a group growing in threat.\n\nEngland's midfield triumvirate of Henderson, Rice and Bellingham looks perfectly balanced, with the front trio of captain Harry Kane - now only one behind Wayne Rooney's international record of 53 following his goal here - is the ideal fulcrum for Foden and Saka in the wide positions.\n\nIt is a telling statistic that England's 12 goals in four games at this World Cup have been scored by eight players as Southgate manoeuvres his squad expertly.\n\nThe England manager now faces another selection conundrum before meeting France, with Kylian Mbappe in sensational form and no doubt noting Harry Maguire's early struggles against Senegal's pace.\n\nWill Southgate risk upsetting the fine balance he has achieved in this England side by bringing in an extra defender, using three at the back as insurance and entrusting the pace of Kyle Walker to somehow subdue the jet-heeled Mbappe?\n\nThe smart money must surely be on England naming an unchanged side after this comprehensive victory.\n\nIt is another pressure point for Southgate and his staff but the reassuring fact for England's fans is that he got the big selection calls right against Senegal. He must be entrusted to do the same again come Saturday night.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "CCTV video showed the moment five cars worth more than £700,000 were stolen from an industrial unit.\n\nThieves cut the bolts on a front gate in Brentwood Road, in Bulphan, near Thurrock, Essex, just after midnight on 11 November and were later seen driving the vehicles away.\n\nThey included two Porsches, a Mercedes and a rare Ariel Atom car.\n\nEssex Police appealed for CCTV or dashcam video from the area.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The Labour leader says the first five years of a Labour government would see the House of Lords abolished\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer has promised \"the biggest ever transfer of power from Westminster to the British people\" if elected.\n\nLabour published a report on Monday by former prime minister Gordon Brown setting out plans for sweeping constitutional change, including abolishing the House of Lords.\n\nThe plans would release £200m a year and change the economy, Sir Keir said.\n\nHe called the reforms an end to short-term \"sticking plaster politics\".\n\nSir Keir told BBC Breakfast the unelected second chamber was \"indefensible\", and added that a Labour government would abolish it and replace it with an elected body \"with a strong mission\" - but did not provide an exact timeframe.\n\n\"I'm very keen that all of the recommendations in the report are carried out as quickly as possible,\" he said, adding the proposals could be implemented within five years of a Labour administration.\n\nThe report, entitled A New Britain, put forward 40 recommendations, including proposals for handing new economic powers to English mayors, local authorities and devolved governments.\n\nSir Keir said he commissioned the report \"because I profoundly think that the fact we hold too much power in Whitehall is holding us back, not only politically - with people feeling more distant form politics - but economically\".\n\n\"Amongst the reasons we have failed to grow our economy in the last 12 years is we're not allowing every part of the UK to play its part economically,\" he told the BBC.\n\nKeir Starmer is making a big pledge: a massive transfer of power away from London to the rest of the UK.\n\nIs it the biggest priority facing the country? Not everyone will think so. But Labour is adamant it is a way of making sure better decisions are made that work for local people in different parts of the UK.\n\nGordon Brown has been working on this report for two years. It's a chunky read and there is a lot in there.\n\nAt the moment though, Labour isn't endorsing everything. It's a direction of travel, Sir Keir says, but he wants to now go away and discuss the detail and a timetable.\n\nWill it actually happen? Scrapping the Lords has been on Labour's agenda for quite some time. Some are sceptical it is the best use of time for a new Labour Govt, if there is one.\n\nBut the hope in the Labour party is this starts a process that will end in a rewiring of the UK's political system.\n\nThe report argues the \"continuing over-concentration of power in Westminster and Whitehall is undermining our ability to deliver growth and prosperity for the whole country\", creating a \"vicious circle\".\n\nOne of its most eye-catching recommendations is the proposal to scrap the Lords, but other recommendations include:\n\nThe government is \"doing a great deal to devolve power to local areas\" and has relocated \"thousands of jobs\", the prime minister's official spokesperson said.\n\nResponding to Labours plans to restrict second jobs for MPs, the prime minister's spokesman said \"outside interests and experience outside Westminster can bring benefits\".\n\nLabour is expected to confirm the plans in the next manifesto\n\nThe size and role of the Lords has come under scrutiny in recent years, amid warnings that unelected membership has grown excessive, with about 800 sitting members.\n\nThe Observer reported last month that Sir Keir told Labour peers part of the argument for reform was the public having \"lost faith in the ability of politicians and politics to bring about change\".\n\nHowever, Labour peer Lord Mandelson warned that, without agreement from other parties, Labour's plans risked dragging the party into a \"quagmire of disagreement\".\n\n\"It's going to soak up acres of time and energy, which, frankly, a Labour government would be better devoting to other priorities and other needs in the country,\" he told BBC Newsnight.\n\n\"Don't imagine that you're going to be able to pull it off simply by the Labour Party agreeing with itself and imposing some outcome on everyone else.\"\n\nDirector of the Institute for Government, Dr Hannah White, said the plans were \"certainly ambitious\".\n\n\"It would require the House of Lords to agree to itself being abolished or at least significantly reformed,\" she said.\n\n\"We have had multiple efforts in the past to reform the House of Lords in the past which have fallen foul of the politics, which have failed to achieve consensus.\"\n\nSpeaking to Times Radio, Conservative peer Lord Norton argued the Lords should remain unelected and urged caution over \"Big Bang reform\".\n\nHe said the \"detailed legislative scrutiny\" done by the Lords \"improves the law of this country\".\n\nFormer Cabinet minister, Tory MP Simon Clarke criticised the move, saying: \"Anyone who has looked at the institutionalised gridlock in US politics can see the utter stupidity it would be to create an elected upper house.\"\n\nBut Labour sources insist the party remains committed to abolishing the Lords.\n\nThe party will consult on the report's proposals and the timeframe in which they can be delivered before deciding whether to put them in its next election manifesto.\n\nOne Labour source said \"everything in our manifesto we will seek to deliver in a parliamentary term\".\n\nThe report comes as Labour enjoys a handsome lead in the polls over the Conservatives, who lost a by-election in Chester by a large margin this week.", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEngland boss Gareth Southgate praised his side's \"ruthless\" victory against Senegal that has set up an \"acid test\" game against defending champions France in the World Cup quarter-finals.\n\nSouthgate said facing the two-time world champions will be a \"great challenge\" for the Three Lions.\n\n\"We know this is a step up from what we've had so far,\" said Southgate after Sunday's 3-0 win over Senegal.\n\n\"But the team have garnered so much experience in the last few years, they're playing with confidence and we look threatening.\n\n\"We're scoring goals and another clean sheet is lovely to see. We're in a good place but we know the level of the opposition as well.\"\n• None How to follow England quarter-final with France\n• None Reaction to England's last 16 win over Senegal\n\nEngland were nervy in the opening 30 minutes of their match against Senegal but Jordan Henderson's opener put them in control.\n\n\"I was pleased with the ruthlessness of our execution, the progress they are making is phenomenal,\" Southgate told BBC Radio 5 Live.\n\n\"The team made a very complicated game tonight look straightforward. It wasn't the case but because of the mentality and attitude we made it look that way.\"\n\nThis is the first time England have won a knockout game at three consecutive major tournaments after they reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2018 and the final of Euro 2020.\n\nBut what is arguably England's toughest challenge yet under Southgate is one that he is relishing.\n\n\"It couldn't be more exciting. France are the biggest test we could face. World champions, incredible depth of players and very difficult to score goals. A fantastic challenge,\" said Southgate.\n\nThe Netherlands will take on Argentina in the other quarter-final that has been decided so far and Southgate expressed his excitement over having two quarter-finals between historic footballing nations.\n\n\"The two quarter-finals are fantastic historic rivalries. Our history is not quite as good as the others' by the way, but we're really pleased. It's a brilliant game for us to be involved,\" he said.\n\nKylian Mbappe put on a masterclass and Olivier Giroud became France's all-time leading goalscorer in Les Bleus' 3-1 victory over Poland, as and France showed that, despite the losses of Karim Benzema and Paul Pogba before the tournament, they remain a potent force.\n\n\"Mbappe is a world-class player, [Antoine] Griezmann is a phenomenal player, we know Giroud well. They have outstanding midfield players. Everywhere you look, they have incredible depth of talent,\" said Southgate.\n\nSaturday's match will mark the first time England have faced France at a World Cup in 40 years, the two sides having last met at the 1982 tournament in Spain when England ran out 3-1 winners after Bryan Robson put them ahead after just 27 seconds.\n\nEngland captain Harry Kane said he is expecting a \"tough battle\" against France after he scored his first goal of the tournament on Sunday.\n\n\"Knockout games are never easy. We have shown great maturity throughout the tournament,\" said Kane.\n\n\"Mentality was top from the beginning. Another knockout win, over the years they have not been easy for England but we have a great mixture of youth and experience now.\n\n\"We will enjoy this one, but then our focus turns to that [France game]. It will be a really tough battle. If you are going to win the World Cup you have to play the best teams and France are up there.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The EU must address \"distortions\" created by a $430bn (£349bn) US plan to incentivise climate-friendly technologies, the bloc's chief says.\n\nSome EU members have criticised the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), raising fears of a trade war.\n\nThere are concerns that tax breaks may lure away EU businesses and disadvantage European companies.\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU should \"adjust our own rules\".\n\n\"Competition is good ... but this competition must respect a level playing field,\" she said during a speech in Belgium.\n\nUnder the IRA, American consumers will get incentives to purchase new and second-hand electric cars, to warm their homes with heat pumps and even to cook their food using electric induction.\n\nUS President Joe Biden has called it the most \"aggressive action\" his country has taken to tackle the climate crisis.\n\nBut European allies perceive it as anti-competitive and a threat to European jobs, especially in the energy and auto sectors.\n\nMs von der Leyen said the EU had to work with the US \"to address some of the most concerning aspects of the law\".\n\nShe added that the EU must also \"adjust\" its own rules on state aid to spur public investment in the environmental transition.\n\nThe new legislation was raised during French President Emmanuel Macron's trip to Washington to meet Mr Biden this week.\n\nThe US president said there could be \"tweaks\" made to make it easier for European firms to benefit from the subsidies package.\n\n\"I never intended to exclude folks who were cooperating with us. That was not the intention,\" Mr Biden said.\n\n\"We're back in business, Europe is back in business. And we are going to continue to create manufacturing jobs in America, but not at the expense of Europe.\"\n\nIn an interview with the BBC's US partner CBS News released on Sunday, Mr Macron said the issue was \"fixable\", and his discussion with Mr Biden was \"frank and fruitful\".\n\nHe said weakening Europe's industry was \"not the interest of the U.S. administration and even the U.S. society\".", "We're now going to pause our Ukraine war live coverage - thanks for joining us.\n\nFresh strikes... The latest wave of missile strikes in Ukraine caused mass power cuts and saw at least two people killed in the Zaporizhzhia region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said air defences shot down most missiles and work was under way to restore energy supplies.\n\nAcross the border... Separate blasts at two Russian military airfields killed several people, with Moscow saying the devices used were \"Soviet-made, low-flying Ukrainian drones\". Ukraine has so far not claimed responsibility.\n\nYou can read more on this here.\n\nRare sighting... Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a bridge linking annexed Crimea to the Russian mainland, weeks after it was partially destroyed. Pictures on state TV showed the leader driving a car across the Kerch bridge.", "It is unclear how the seals died, but authorities say it is likely due to natural causes\n\nAbout 2,500 seals have been found dead on the Caspian Sea coast in southern Russia, officials say.\n\nOfficials say there is no sign that they died violent deaths.\n\nSome 700 dead seals were initially reported, but further investigation has revealed a much higher number and counting continues.\n\nCaspian seals have been classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list since 2008.\n\nZaur Gapizov, head of the Caspian Environmental Protection Center, said in a statement that the seals probably died about two weeks ago.\n\nThere is no evidence to suggest the animals were killed or caught in fishing nets, he said.\n\nThe Dagestan region's ministry of natural resources and environment wrote on Telegram that a large number had been found between the mouths of two rivers, the Sulak and the Shurinka.\n\nExperts have collected samples from the seals and the ministry said reasons for the deaths will be established when lab results come back.\n\nThe seal population of the Caspian Sea has dwindled drastically over the decades from over-hunting and industrial pollution.\n\nThe Caspian Environmental Protection Center puts the number now at just 70,000, down from more than one million around a century ago.", "Julia Roberts has starred with George Clooney in the Ocean's 11 trilogy, as well as this year's Ticket To Paradise\n\nJulia Roberts showed her support for George Clooney at the prestigious Kennedy Center Honours by wearing a custom dress adorned with his face.\n\nThe long black gown featured framed photos of the star throughout his career - from early headshots to his role as Doug Ross on ER and a famous polka-dot photoshoot for W magazine.\n\nClooney was among several lifetime achievement honourees at the event.\n\nRock band U2 and singer Gladys Knight were also recognised.\n\nThis year's honourees: Back row (L-R) U2's Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr, The Edge and Bono. Front row (L-R) Amy Grant, Gladys Knight, George Clooney and Talia Leon\n\nThe star-studded event was attended by other celebrities and political figures, including Matt Damon, Patti LaBelle, Sean Penn, US Vice President Kamala Harris, Sheryl Crow, Garth Brooks, Sacha Baron Cohen and Sesame Street's Big Bird.\n\nPaul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also made his first public appearance since being brutally attacked in his home in late October.\n\nMr Pelosi, wearing a black hat to cover head injuries he sustained when an intruder attacked him with a hammer, received a standing ovation, and a fist-bump from President Joe Biden.\n\nNancy Pelosi attended the event with her husband Paul\n\nEarlier, in a reception at the White House, the president praised the \"exceptional group of artists\" for their accomplishments and contributions to the arts.\n\n\"Thank you for showing us the power of the arts and 'We the People',\" Biden said.\n\nCiting the lyric of U2's song One, Biden continued: \"At a moment when there's too much hate, too much anger, too much division here in America and, quite frankly, around the world, we have to remember today, as their song goes, 'We're one, but we're not the same. We get to carry each other'.\"\n\nThe band were later celebrated onstage at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, who played their hits Elevation and One; while Ukrainian singer Jamala performed Walk On.\n\nThe song was originally written for Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but was recently rewritten as an anthem of solidarity for the people of Ukraine.\n\nU2's singer Bono and guitarist The Edge played the song in Kyiv earlier this year at the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelensky.\n\nThe honourees hung out at the White House before attending the ceremony\n\nThe ceremony saw performances from Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder and Brandi Carlile amongst others\n\nBut the band's bubble was punctured by Sacha Baron Cohen who, in character as Borat, reminded them of the infamous partnership with Apple that saw their album Songs Of Innocence automatically added to people's iTunes libraries.\n\nSpeaking a few words in Kazakh, Borat then translated: \"It means: 'Please remove your wretched album from my iPhone 6.'\"\n\nClooney was also teased on stage by his Ocean's 11 co-star Matt Damon, who recalled the actor once \"stole Bill Clinton's stationery and wrote fake notes to actors saying how much the president loved their movies\".\n\nThe actor, who got his big break in ER and went on to become a film star in movies like Out Of Sight, Three Kings, O Brother Where Art Thou? and Up In The Air, was also honoured by his father, Nick, who said: \"George's best and most important work is still ahead of him.\"\n\nHe also regaled the crowd with stories of George's childhood, including the time the seven-year-old - heartbroken over the assassination of Martin Luther King - gave his father all his toy guns.\n\nGladys Knight is one of the most recognisable soul voices of her generation\n\nSesame Street character Big Bird, who was a Kennedy Center honouree in 2019, also attended the ceremony\n\nDon Cheadle, accompanied by his wife Bridgid Coulter, also paid tribute to Clooney\n\nActor and hip-hop star LL Cool J paid tribute to Gladys Knight's powerful voice, saying: \"I once heard Gladys sing the ABCs and I thought I was in church\".\n\nCountry music superstar Garth Brooks, then sang her classic soul ballad Midnight Train to Georgia.\n\nChristian pop singer-songwriter Amy Grant and Cuban-born composer Tania León were also celebrated at the ceremony.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Transport for Wales aims to provide a twice-hourly service to Liverpool out of north Wales\n\nPlans to increase some rail services in the north Wales border area are \"on hold\" after the company supplying the trains went into administration.\n\nThe aim is to provide a twice-hourly service to Liverpool as part of the Welsh government's plans for a North Wales Metro.\n\nVivarail Ltd, the planned supplier for the hybrid-powered trains, went into administration on Thursday.\n\nTransport for Wales (TfW) said it plans for a 2023 new service start date.\n\nThe Welsh Conservatives claim communities in Flintshire and Wrexham have been \"let down\" by delays.\n\nPowered by a hybrid of diesel and battery, the refurbished 125 seat units were originally due to go into service in 2019, operating first on the Wrexham to Bidston line.\n\nIt was part of a £5bn investment by the company.\n\nBut implementation was delayed and last week Warwickshire-based Vivarail Ltd appointed administrators Grant Thornton to oversee its activities.\n\nWelsh Tories have called for firm dates for the introduction of the new trains.\n\nWelsh Conservative shadow transport minister Natasha Asghar MS said: \"With no new trains and no doubling of services, this upgrade is now three years late while promises to communities on the borderlands line have been broken.\n\n\"These trains should have begun service first in 2019, but delay after delay means the trains are yet to utilised.\"\n\n\"Now, this farce by Transport for Wales has outlived the company that manufactured the trains.\"\n\n\"The Labour government must now give concreate dates for when these trains will enter service and assurances that Vivarail's administration will not lead to any further delays to their deployment which could see these trains delayed by four years.\"\n\nTfW, which is wholly owned by the Labour Welsh government, says it plans to bring the new Class 230 trains into service in 2023.\n\nIt added that it still has a \"strong ambition\" to deliver on its plans and will \"work with all partners to expand the capacity of the line in the future\".\n\nIt looks to introduce the twice-hourly service, it said, but testing and training is now \"on hold\" after the announcement from Vivarail.\n\n\"We'll be in a position to provide an updated statement in the coming days, but our focus remains to bring our Class 230 units into service on our network.\"\n\nOn behalf of administrators Grant Thornton, joint administrator, Jon Roden said while the company has been supporting Vivarail with sourcing investment opportunities, it has yet to find any solution in the limited time available.\n\n\"Whilst it has not been appropriate to continue to trade the Vivarail business in administration, we have presently retained a core team of around 30 employees and would urge any parties interested in the business and/or its assets to contact us urgently.\n\n\"Outside of these final discussions, our primary focus is to now work alongside Vivarail's customers and other key stakeholders with a view to enhancing the return to creditors under difficult circumstances.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said it will not be adding anything to TfW's statement.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The market on St Enoch Square was sealed off following the gas explosion\n\nTwo people have been hurt in a gas canister explosion at a Christmas market in Glasgow.\n\nEmergency services, including three fire engines, were called to St Enoch Square following reports of the incident at about 11:00.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said the two casualties were handed into the care of the Scottish Ambulance Service.\n\nPolice sealed off the area while they were taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary.\n\nA Police Scotland spokesperson said: \"Work is ongoing to establish the full circumstances.\"", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nGoalkeeper Dominik Livakovic was the hero, saving three penalties in the shootout, as Croatia edged past Japan with a 3-1 victory to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.\n\nAfter a 1-1 draw at extra time, Livakovic kept out the first two efforts before stopping Maya Yoshida's kick, then Mario Pasalic tucked his penalty into the corner to take his side through.\n\nZlatko Dalic's side, beaten in the final by France four years ago, will face tournament favourites Brazil or South Korea in the next round on Friday (15:00 GMT).\n\nJapan were the livelier side and took a deserved lead two minutes before half-time when Celtic forward Daizen Maeda converted from Yoshida's knock down.\n\nCroatia levelled in the second half courtesy of Ivan Perisic's brilliant bullet header from Dejan Lovren's cross, becoming his country's all-time leading scorer at major tournaments with 10 goals.\n\nNeither side could find a breakthrough and the game ticked into the additional 30 minutes, with Brighton midfielder Kaoru Mitoma's spectacular strike pushed over by Livakovic.\n\nAt the other end, Marko Livaja's flicked header looked to be looping in, but Shuichi Gonda managed to gather and Lovro Majer dragged a shot in the 120th minute.\n\nThe contest went to nerve-shredding penalties, where Livakovic emerged as the man to lead Croatia's celebrations.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nCroatia just know how to get it done.\n\nIn 2018, when they almost lifted the trophy, they emerged from extra time with a win in each of their knockout games before losing in the final.\n\nOf their last eight knockout games at the World Cup and Euros, seven have gone to extra time with the exception of their match against France.\n\nThey failed to score in two of their three group games but have demonstrated their vast experience to progress to the last eight.\n\nIt didn't start well though, as Shogo Taniguchi came close to netting for Japan in only the third minute but flicked his header wide.\n\nDaichi Kamada was looking to finish off a slick team move but ended up skewing his shot out for a throw-in from six yards out. They got the breakthrough courtesy of Maeda's poaching effort from close range.\n\nCroatia, though, hit back through Perisic's header as he moved past Davor Suker's nine goals at major tournaments. Only the legendary striker has scored more international goals for the country, with 45 to Perisic's 33.\n\nThe Tottenham player could have netted when Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu's miscued a backpass, which allowed his north London rival to run in on goal, but a shot from the angle was batted out by Gonda.\n\nChelsea's Mateo Kovacic hooked wide and Luka Modric's dipping effort was pushed over by Gonda at full stretch.\n\nCroatia needed someone to stand up and Livakovic stopped efforts from Takumi Minamino, Kaoru Mitoma and Yoshida to become just the third goalkeeper to save three penalties in a shootout at the World Cup.\n\nFor Japan, their dream came to end at the round of 16 once more, failing to progress beyond this stage in all four World Cup appearances.\n• None Goal! Japan 1(1), Croatia 1(3). Mario Pasalic (Croatia) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty saved! Maya Yoshida (Japan) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty missed! Still Japan 1(1), Croatia 1(2). Marko Livaja (Croatia) hits the left post with a right footed shot.\n• None Goal! Japan 1(1), Croatia 1(2). Takuma Asano (Japan) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Japan 1, Croatia 1(2). Marcelo Brozovic (Croatia) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Penalty saved! Kaoru Mitoma (Japan) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Japan 1, Croatia 1(1). Nikola Vlasic (Croatia) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty saved! Takumi Minamino (Japan) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt missed. Lovro Majer (Croatia) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Mislav Orsic.\n• None Attempt blocked. Mislav Orsic (Croatia) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Marcelo Brozovic.\n• None Borna Barisic (Croatia) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Junya Ito (Japan) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt saved. Marko Livaja (Croatia) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Josip Juranovic. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Russian air defences intercepted Ukrainian drones over two military airfields in Russia, hundreds of kilometres from the border between the two countries, Russia said on Monday.\n\nFalling debris from the unmanned vehicles lightly damaged two aircraft, a defence ministry statement said.\n\nThree Russian servicemen were killed and four injured in the incidents in the Ryazan and Saratov regions.\n\nLong-range strategic bombers are believed to be based at the airfields.\n\nEarlier, large explosions were reported at the Engels airbase in Saratov and the Dyagilevo airbase in Ryazan, but there had been no official comment on their cause.\n\nHours later, Russia launched a wave of missiles at targets around Ukraine, although Kyiv says it shot most of them down.\n\nUkraine has not officially commented on the explosions. However, its air force tweeted \"what happened?\" together with a partying face emoji and images of what looked like a badly damaged aircraft.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ukrainian Air Force This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMoscow has accused Ukraine of attacking its territory before, but these alleged attacks are deeper into Russia than previous ones. Ukrainian strikes this far into Russia will embarrass the Kremlin, says the BBC's Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg.\n\nSatellite images taken from Sunday appeared to show a large fleet of Russian heavy bombers at the Engels airbase.\n\nThey show what appeared to be type Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic bombers, which are capable of firing cruise missiles - one of the weapons used in strikes on Ukraine.\n\nOther satellite images released last week appeared to show increased military aircraft activity at the same airbase.\n\nRussian President Vladimir Putin has been informed of the two reported incidents, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.\n\nSatellite imagery appears to show Russian bombers at the Engels airbase", "Youth centres are currently applying for funding from the Education Authority for 2023/24\n\nYouth leaders have warned the wider community will suffer if planned cuts to youth centres go ahead.\n\nSome have told BBC News NI they will have to reduce both the number of staff they employ and the number of nights that centres can open for young people.\n\nThe Department of Education (DE) is responsible for youth services but the Education Authority (EA) provides funding for centres.\n\nThe EA has been contacted for comment by BBC News NI.\n\nYouth centres are currently applying for funding from the EA for 2023-24.\n\nBut EA guidance documents on the \"assessment of need\" in each council area in Northern Ireland indicates that many are set to get less funding than in 2022-23.\n\nStephen Mallett, from North West Youth Services in Londonderry, said many youth centres in the city were facing cuts to their funding - including one of the largest facilities, St Mary's Youth Club in the Creggan area.\n\nAccording to EA documents, it received £130,000 in 2022-23, but the maximum available funding it and other centres in the area can apply for in 2023-24 is £102,021.\n\nAccording to the EA's own assessment of multiple deprivation measures, Creggan is one of the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Mallett said the proposed cut in funding would have a major impact on the area.\n\n\"St Mary's currently works with in excess of 180 children and young people per day and opens seven days a week,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"Staffing will suffer the brunt of the cuts and the team will be significantly reduced due to the reduction of the budget, which equates to almost a 24% cut.\n\n\"If these cuts go ahead, programming will be reduced to four nights a week, and they will have to limit the number of young people attending per session.\n\n\"The number who can attend will be almost cut in half because of staff supervision ratios.\n\n\"That's going to have a major impact on young people and additionally the wider community will suffer.\"\n\nCreggan is one of the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland\n\nMr Mallett said the situation was \"currently being replicated right across the region and it is the voluntary youth sector that's facing the bulk of the cuts with statutory services being relatively unscathed\".\n\n\"North West Youth Services currently administers 76 staff across 10 voluntary youth programmes in the city,\" he added.\n\n\"I've had to tell them that we can't extend their current contracts beyond 31 March so they're facing a very uncertain future.\"\n\nIn Belfast, Stephen Hughes is the leader of the St Peter's Immaculata Youth Centre in the lower Falls Road.\n\nStephen Hughes said St Peter's Immaculata in west Belfast faced losing a quarter of its funding\n\nYouth workers from the club were among those from both sides of the community who tried to keep teenagers away from rioting in west Belfast in Easter 2021.\n\nThe EA's own assessment of the Divis and lower Falls area said that there were a number of \"social issues\" like:\n\n\"Youth centres have been acknowledged as safe spaces where young people can meet friends and make new friendships,\" said the EA's assessment.\n\n\"Young people recognise the opportunities they can avail of including participation in programmes, access volunteering opportunities and develop employment skills.\"\n\nBut Mr Hughes said St Peter's Immaculata faced losing more than a quarter of its funding.\n\nHe said St Peter's had received more than £130,000 from the EA in 2022-23, but the maximum funding available in 2023-24 is £96,823.\n\n\"The reality is that this will result in us reducing the nights that the centre will be open for young people from six nights a week to four,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"We'll see a removal of detached and street-based youth workers, including those who respond to civil unrest.\n\n\"This will directly affect young people in our most vulnerable communities.\"\n\nHe explained that the youth club would be limited to 35 young people per night and would exclude many others with additional needs as it would not have safe ratios of staff to admit them.\n\n\"It'll also affect summer programmes, removing educational activities for young people during the summer months when they have most free time,\" he said.\n\n\"Some of our staff are also facing unemployment after 31 March 2023 and that affects their mental health as a result of ongoing financial uncertainty.\"\n\nThe Youth Work Alliance, which represents voluntary youth centres across Northern Ireland has also warned that cuts to funding will have a detrimental impact on the lives of young people.\n\nIn the recent budget, the Department of Education was told it needed to make significant cuts to its \"current spending trajectory\".\n\nThe EA has also previously warned that it is facing is facing a \"serious degree\" of financial risk and budget deficit.", "Nurses in Northern Ireland went on strike for the first time in 2019\n\nHealthcare workers from two of Northern Ireland's biggest unions have begun industrial action in a dispute about pay.\n\nUnison members are taking similar action on Monday and will follow that with a one-day strike on 12 December.\n\nThose unions announced their action after the Royal College of Nursing said its members would strike on 15 and 20 December.\n\nNipsa members are taking the action over three issues: pay, staffing levels within the health service and travel reimbursement.\n\nUnison's action is over pay for its members.\n\nHealth workers in Northern Ireland have yet to receive an increase in pay for the 2022-23 financial year.\n\nIn July an independent pay review body recommended that they should receive a rise of £1,400.\n\nUnison representative Anne Speed told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster programme the union was seeking an \"inflation-busting pay rise\" for its members.\n\n\"What it means is inflation is 11%, and a pay rise actually has to match that in order to protect workers,\" she said.\n\n\"What's being awarded is only half of inflation, and health workers are just frustrated, fed up, very disappointed and they're choosing to speak out now.\"\n\nMs Speed added that unions were prepared to negotiate, but the responsibility fell on Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, due political stalemate at Stormont.\n\nThe Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) withdrew from the executive earlier this year in protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is part of the Brexit deal.\n\nIn England and Wales, NHS staff have been given a rise of at least £1,400.\n\nUnions in Scotland are considering a government offer averaging 7.5%.\n\nThere are several reasons why workers are taking industrial action, including the failure by the Stormont executive to trigger a pay increase while the cost of living soars.\n\nWorkers in the Unison and Nipsa unions want staff shortages addressed and feel their efforts during the pandemic should be recognised financially.\n\nIt will take a lot to resolve the industrial dispute.\n\nBut the unions say that for starters, in the absence of devolved government, civil servants could agree to pay workers the recommended rate that has been granted elsewhere.\n\nThe Nipsa and Unison action will take the form of work to rule - members will only take on work required in their contracts.\n\nNipsa deputy general secretary Pádraig Mulholland said those who were taking the action were the \"heroes who brought us through Covid and are now standing up for the health service\".\n\nHe said that during the action members would:\n\nUnison said its members were frustrated and angry and \"are now the lowest paid part of the UK NHS workforce\".\n\nThe union said the cost-of-living crisis was biting deep and it was foolish to assume workers would \"suck it up\".\n\nRegarding the strike planned for 12 December, Unison said employers would be advised in the coming days of the full scope of the action.\n\nIn a joint statement the unions said the safety of health service patients was \"very important for health staff who will take industrial action\".\n\n\"Discussions have already begun to ensure the employers take the necessary steps to protect patients during the dispute,\" they said.\n\nStormont's Department of Health said the health authorities would work to protect critical services as much as possible during the industrial action.\n\nBut it warned that there would \"inevitably be an impact on patient care\".\n\nHealth staff in Northern Ireland last went on strike in late 2019 and early 2020 in protest over pay and staffing levels.", "Passengers had already been warned to plan their travel well in advance over the Christmas period\n\nFresh rail strikes have been announced for Christmas Eve with the walkout threatening to hit celebrations and travel over the festive weekend.\n\nWorkers at the UK's biggest rail union, RMT, will walk out from 18:00 GMT on 24 December until 06:00 GMT on 27 December amid a row over pay and conditions.\n\nThe move comes after the union urged workers to reject the latest pay offer.\n\nThe new strikes could also affect many restaurants and bars at a key time of the year for the hospitality industry.\n\nThe fresh walkouts are in addition to strikes by rail workers that have already been announced and begin next week.\n\nTim Shoveller, Network Rail's chief negotiator, said the RMT was \"playing fast and loose with people's Christmas plans and the new strike dates announced deliberately target vital engineering work designed to improve the railway\".\n\nThe RMT represents staff at Network Rail, who maintain the railways and include signallers and maintenance workers. The union also represents workers at 14 train operating companies.\n\nRMT general secretary Mick Lynch told the BBC's Today programme that he regretted the inconvenience that was being caused by the strikes. But he said \"this inconvenience is being caused by the government who are running the playbook and the strategy for the railway companies and directing what's going on\".\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper said the latest developments were \"incredibly disappointing\", adding the RMT had \"failed to play its part\".\n\nAs well as the strikes on 24-27 December, industrial action across four 48-hour periods will take place on:\n\nAbout 40,000 rail workers across Network Rail and train companies are expected to walk out. There is likely to be disruption in the days around the strikes as well.\n\nPassengers had already been warned to plan their travel well in advance over Christmas, with some 5% of the rail network shut for engineering works - although many trains do not run over Christmas Day and Boxing Day.\n\nNigel Goddard in Croydon, south London, says the industrial action means that his family's Christmas has been \"ruined\".\n\nHe will not be able to see his son in Newcastle this December, and will miss visiting his six-month old granddaughter over the holidays.\n\n\"We have three possible days that we can meet up for Christmas lunch but there are strikes on all three of the days,\" he told the BBC.\n\nNigel Goddard says he will not be able to see his son and granddaughter over Christmas\n\nThe last time Nigel saw his son was September 2021. He said he will also miss out on his staff Christmas party.\n\nThe rail sector is not the only industry facing strike action, and walkouts are expected to affect postal deliveries, bus services and teaching in schools this month.\n\nWorkers are seeking better working conditions and pay increases to keep up with the soaring cost of living, as prices rise at the fastest rate for 41 years.\n\nThe RMT is involved in two sets of talks - one with Network Rail and one with the train operating companies.\n\nNetwork Rail had said the latest offer was its \"best and final\". It includes:\n\nOn Monday, the RMT said it would put the new offer from Network Rail to its members in an electronic referendum. But it is calling for the offer to be rejected offer, describing it as \"not acceptable\".\n\nOn Sunday, the union rejected the first offer from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents the 14 train companies.\n\nThe RMT will continue to hold talks with the RDG on Tuesday.\n\nThe rail industry is under pressure to save money after the pandemic left a hole in its finances, and bosses say reforms are needed to modernise the railway and make pay rises affordable.\n\nHow will you be affected by the strikes? Share your experiences haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Domestic abuse campaigner Ngozi Fulani was persistently asked where she was \"really\" from at the Palace event\n\nA black British charity boss who was repeatedly asked where she was \"really\" from during a royal reception says she has suffered \"horrific\" abuse on social media after speaking out.\n\nNgozi Fulani says her family has been under immense pressure, but she has been heartened by messages of support.\n\nHer comments come after she felt she was \"interrogated\" by Lady Susan Hussey at Buckingham Palace last Tuesday.\n\nLady Hussey has since left her honorary role within the Royal Household.\n\nMs Fulani - who had been at the Palace representing the London-based charity Sistah Space which supports women of African and Caribbean heritage who have faced domestic and sexual abuse - felt she has had to highlight an issue which \"occurs on an all too regular basis\".\n\nIn a statement Ms Fulani has described her experiences since speaking out as \"an emotional whirlwind\".\n\n\"The last week has been an extremely difficult time for us all at Sistah Space,\" she said.\n\n\"My team, family and I have been put under immense pressure and received some horrific abuse via social media.\n\n\"Yet throughout this time I have been heartened by the huge amount of support we have received.\"\n\nLady Susan Hussey was a key and trusted figure in the British royal household for decades\n\nLady Hussey was the late Queen's lady-in-waiting and was seen as a key and trusted figure in the Royal Household for decades.\n\nPart of her latest role had involved helping to host events at Buckingham Palace - which is how she met Ms Fulani.\n\nAfter the event, Ms Fulani described on Twitter how Lady Hussey - who is Prince William's godmother - moved her hair aside to see her name badge, and then challenged her to explain where she was from.\n\nThe conversation, as recounted by Ms Fulani, consisted of Lady Hussey pushing her about her background and nationality.\n\nLady Hussey is said to have asked what part of Africa Ms Fulani was from, to which Ms Fulani replied she was born in the UK.\n\nMs Fulani told Lady Hussey her parents arrived in the UK in the 1950s adding that she was of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.\n\nIn her statement issued on Monday, Ms Fulani added: \"What took place at the event is now well documented, and sadly is something that occurs on an all too regular basis.\n\n\"Incidents like this not only cause emotional harm to those involved but do also have wider repercussions within the community.\n\n\"I have experienced first-hand what happens when a black woman faces adversity and has to overcome additional barriers when trying to report it.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe BBC understands Lady Hussey remains willing to make a personal apology should it be welcomed.\n\nLast week a spokesperson for Prince William, who is Lady Hussey's godson, said \"racism has no place in our society.\n\n\"The comments were unacceptable, and it is right that the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect.\"", "The crash happened on the A5 on Friday evening\n\nA murder probe has been launched after a man died in a crash in Shropshire.\n\nPolice were called on Friday evening to reports of a collision close to the Gledrid roundabout, near Chirk.\n\nA black Nissan Qashqai collided head on with a white Nissan Juke on the bridge over the River Ceiriog. The Qashqai was travelling south on the A5, towards Oswestry, West Mercia Police said.\n\nThe driver of the Juke, 49, died at the scene and the Qashqai driver was arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nThe 27-year-old man remains in police custody while he is treated in hospital, after being taken to the the Royal Stoke University Hospital with serious injuries.\n\nPolice are appealing for witnesses to the crash, which happened at about 19:00 GMT.\n\nThe BBC has contacted the West Mercia force to try to obtain more details about the crash and the subsequent arrest.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Labour is looking to the next general election, crafting a platform that it hopes can help win back power at Westminster – by spreading it out across the country.\n\nScottish seats could be key to that ambition. Past Labour prime ministers could rely on returning scores of MPs north of the border, but Sir Keir Starmer’s group includes only one.\n\nThe SNP also has big plans for that poll, with Nicola Sturgeon outlining a single-issue campaign on the topic of independence.\n\nA Labour revival could pose a challenge to the first minister’s “de facto referendum” idea – hence why she is working up electoral messages of her own, painting her red rivals as a Tory-lite midwife of Brexit.\n\nAll of that means the campaign in Scotland is going to have a constitutional focus, and Sir Keir knows its vital Labour has a consistent and convincing policy to pitch on the doorsteps.\n\nThis needs to have a broad appeal beyond the binary question of independence, given his party needs to regain votes lost to both the SNP and Tories since the 2014 referendum.\n\nFrom control of the Commons to the future of a nation – if it forms the cornerstone of the next Labour manifesto, there could be a lot riding on Mr Brown’s blueprint.", "Hanna was a pupil at Victoria Primary School in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan\n\nThe family of a girl who died from the bacterial disease Strep A have said their \"hearts have been broken into a million pieces\".\n\nHanna Roap, a primary school pupil from Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, had invasive Group A Streptococcal disease (iGAS).\n\nShe is now one of six children to have died with Strep A, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has confirmed.\n\nThe others were in England, including in London, Buckinghamshire, and Surrey.\n\nIn a statement on Facebook Hanna's family said: \"Thank you to everyone for your overwhelming support.\n\n\"Thank you for all the flowers, cards and donations. Thank you for all the hugs and tears. Your kindness reminds us that there is good despite immense tragedy.\n\n\"We are sorry we have not responded to any messages, texts, emails and calls. Sorry if we are unable to make eye contact if we see you walking by.\n\n\"Our hearts have been broken into a million pieces.\n\n\"Our only priority is the welfare of Hanna's eight-year-old sister and best friend.\n\n\"We have been stunned by the volume of donations we have received. We were not expecting this. This is testament to the wonderful caring people of Penarth. We will be donating all of this to charity.\n\n\"As most of you will be wondering what the cause of death was and to prevent misinformation, Hanna passed away as a result of contracting Strep A.\n\n\"It all happened suddenly (within 24 hours).\"\n\nThis Facebook post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts. Skip facebook post by Nail Spa This article contains content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Facebook cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\nHanna's death comes as Public Health Wales said it has written to schools and nurseries in Wales \"to remind them of the symptoms and potential complications of scarlet fever more generally. This was prompted by a rise of case of scarlet fever across the UK\".\n\nPHW said there were 1,512 notifications of scarlet fever in the first 47 weeks of 2022, compared to 948 In the same period in 2019.\n\nNumbers were lower across 2020 and 2021 likely due to changes in transmission and behaviour during this period, it said.\n\nIn a letter it said: \"We are notifying schools and nurseries as this infection mostly affects children aged under 10 years, and so outbreaks can occur in schools and nurseries. Older children are also susceptible to streptococcal sore throats but may not have the rash of scarlet fever\".\n\nHanna was a pupil at Victoria Primary School. In a joint statement with the Vale of Glamorgan council, it said: \"Earlier this week, it was confirmed that a pupil from Victoria Primary School had tragically passed away after contracting Strep A.\n\n\"Both the school and council would like to pass on their heartfelt condolences to the family at this incredibly difficult time.\n\n\"Support is being provided to staff and pupils by the council's team of educational psychologists and information from Public Health Wales has been circulated to parents where appropriate.\n\n\"It is unlikely that other pupils will be affected by the illness and severe symptoms are extremely rare.\n\n\"Sensible precautions such as regular hand washing and not attending school when ill can reduce the risk of infection.\"\n\nSymptoms of Strep A include high fever, severe muscle aches, pain in one area of the body, redness at the site of a wound, vomiting or diarrhoea, a sore throat or tonsillitis, and a mild skin infection such as impetigo or a rash.\n\nAnyone with any of these symptoms is advised to contact their GP immediately.\n\nDr Ardiana Gjini, from Public Health Wales, said it was working closely with the Penarth school to raise awareness about the disease.\n\n\"Although it is unlikely that their child will be affected by iGAS infection, relevant individuals are being advised that they should familiarise themselves with the symptoms and what to do if these symptoms occur,\" said Dr Gjini.\n\n\"Contracting iGAS disease from a contact is very rare.\"", "Orion passed a mere 130km (80 miles) from the lunar surface at closest approach\n\nThe US space agency's Orion capsule is heading home.\n\nThe vehicle conducted a big engine burn on Monday in the vicinity of the Moon that now commits it to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.\n\nIt was the last major powered manoeuvre for the next-generation crew ship on what has been, so far, a highly successful demonstration flight.\n\nA trouble-free return at the weekend will see astronauts climb aboard Orion for its next mission in late 2024.\n\nNasa is planning a series of ever more complex outings for the capsule and its launch rocket - as part of its Artemis programme.\n\nThis first flight, Artemis-1, has been all about testing systems in the absence of astronauts. They will get their opportunity on the next mission, Artemis-2.\n\nArtemis-3 is most eagerly anticipated - an attempt to land people back on the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years. It could take place in late 2025 or in 2026.\n\nBut the whole plan depends on the current venture ending without incident.\n\nOrion set off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 16 November. It was put into an extended loop around the Moon that saw it reach some 430,000km (270,000 miles) beyond Earth - the furthest any spacecraft designed to carry humans has travelled.\n\nTwo big engine firings from Orion's European Space Agency-provided propulsion unit - the first occurring last Thursday, and the second in the past few hours - have since turned the ship for home.\n\nNasa is describing the return as its \"priority one\" for the mission. Engineers want to see proof that the vehicle can survive the heat of re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.\n\nArtwork: This is a demonstration before astronauts step aboard the capsule\n\nOrion will be moving at about 39,500km/h, which is far faster than a spacecraft coming back from the International Space Station.\n\nAs the vehicle pushes up against the air in front of it, pressure and friction will generate temperatures approaching 3,000C.\n\nNasa and spacecraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin need to know the shield on the capsule's underside is absolutely fit for purpose before astronauts are asked to ride aboard.\n\nAssuming the shield works and the 11 parachutes deployed to further slow the spacecraft also work, a controlled splashdown off the California coast should occur not long after 09:30 local time (17:30 GMT) on Sunday.", "Shoppers feeling festive at the Cardiff Christmas Market this year\n\nChristmas market stall holders fear their profit margins will be badly hit this year as their goods are costing far more to produce.\n\nStall holders at Cardiff Christmas market will be selling produce until 23 December.\n\nAfter surviving Covid, traders are now faced with a rise in their costs because of the cost of living crisis.\n\nHowever, some stall holders remain optimistic and said they were grateful for shoppers' support.\n\nEmily Becketts, owner of Boozie Brownie Co, based in Herefordshire, has a stall at Cardiff Christmas market for the second time.\n\nShe started her business in lockdown after leaving her job in a bakery.\n\n\"I am starting to notice that people are less likely to buy my brownies this year with the cost of living rising,\" she said.\n\n\"People are still responding well to the brownies and are enjoying my free samples, but they don't seem to be buying them.\"\n\nEmily Becketts explained that some of the ingredients she uses have gone up by 45%\n\nMs Becketts said her online sales had dropped since Covid so has started selling her products at more events.\n\nShe also recently bought a converted horse trailer to travel to music festivals to create more business.\n\nThe chocolate, butter and eggs she uses for her brownies have gone up by 45% in the past two years.\n\n\"The industrial oven I use costs me £12 in electric a day and I had a warning in my last bill that my electricity usage had doubled since last year,\" she said.\n\n\"This left me with no other option but to increase my prices from £2.50 a brownie last year to now £3.\n\n\"I'm just hoping my sales will be as good this year as they were last year.\"\n\nAnother stall holder, Emily Morgan, created her luxury tea business after leaving her job as a teacher in 2017.\n\nThe business owner from Porthcawl, Bridgend county, said: \"I have noticed that there's been a slump in my sales. It's affecting me as I have got lots of bills to pay.\"\n\nMs Morgan explained how one of the ingredients she uses for her tea, chamomile, has gone from costing £12 per kilogram to £22.\n\nEmily Morgan, the owner of Tea by the Sea, left her teaching career to start her business\n\nAs profit margins for chamomile tea are now smaller, she had no choice but to put her prices up by 25p.\n\n\"I have managed to weather the storm so far but if it gets worse I will have to put all of my prices up,\" she said.\n\nMs Morgan said it costs £120 a day to rent a stall in Cardiff Christmas Market - equating to £5,000 for the whole Christmas season.\n\nTherefore, she has opted to only have her stall there for five days.\n\nJames Gregg, from Cwmcarn in Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent, sells jewellery made using collected flowers.\n\nThe 41-year-old said the jewellery boxes he buys had gone up 50% since last year and chains for the jewellery he makes have also increased in price by 30%.\n\n\"A silver chain now is costing me £3.50 to buy, whereas two years ago they were costing me £2 each,\" he said.\n\nJames Gregg, the owner of Handmade Boutique, fears that he might have to put his prices up next year due to profit margins falling\n\nMr Gregg has kept his prices the same for the last three years by swapping a solid silver chain for a silver plated one.\n\n\"I won't be taking the same earnings today as I did this time last year,\" he said.\n\n\"I'll be down probably half. This does worry me, I may have to put my prices up next year.\"", "Thomas Bell's headstone was placed on the wrong grave in 2005 (file photo)\n\nA \"perfect storm\" of problems led to a family grieving at the wrong grave for 17 years, an inquiry has found.\n\nThe Bell family found the headstone for their father Thomas had been put on the wrong grave at Holy Trinity in Wingate, County Durham in 2005, when they went to bury his wife Hilda in June.\n\nA church probe found records had been poorly kept.\n\nThe report said it could not guarantee other historic errors had not been made.\n\nThe Venerable Bob Cooper, Archdeacon of Sunderland, said it was a case of \"great sadness\" but his recommendations going forward should ensure similar problems \"do not happen again\".\n\nHe said a stonemason had fitted the headstone for Thomas Bell in 2005 but \"because of insufficient process and also poor record keeping\" it was \"placed on the wrong grave\".\n\nThe churchyard is now under the care of Durham County Council\n\nThe Ven Mr Cooper said the vicar at the time, who has since died, \"did not keep records to the extent that would be considered best practice\" while the notes of the verger, who has also passed away, were not handed over to church officials at the time of her death and had since been lost.\n\nHe also said it was \"best practice\" to place a marker on the grave at the time of burial but \"this did not happen here\", and someone from the church should have attended the placing of the headstone and \"cross-referenced with the grave records\" but that also did not happen.\n\nHe said the overall lack of records had been \"compounded\" by burglars in the late 1970s who broke in and burnt church documents on the altar.\n\nThe Ven Mr Cooper said since being closed and coming under the care of Durham County Council which had \"limited resources\", certain parts of the churchyard had become \"overgrown and the whole aspect of the graveyard changes year by year\".\n\nHe said: \"The term 'a perfect storm' is used all too often in modern parlance, however on this occasion it seems particularly apt\".\n\nBut, he added, it \"cannot be guaranteed that historic cases like this will not reoccur because there will be gaps in the records for many reasons in parishes across the Diocese of Durham and further afield\".\n\nIan Hoult, Durham County Council's neighbourhood protection manager, said the authority had not yet been contacted by the church but added: \"We would be happy to work alongside the parish and the diocese regarding the maintenance of the grounds.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A headteacher is urging parents to know the signs of the strep A bacterial infection after the death of a pupil.\n\nThe child, who attended Morelands Primary School in Waterlooville, is the latest confirmed death caused by an invasive form of the disease.\n\nSince September seven other UK children have lost their lives due to complications caused by the bug.\n\nHeadteacher Alison Syred-Paul said they were \"devastated\" by the loss and now want to raise awareness.\n\nIn a statement, she described the death as \"tragic\", and offered \"sincere and heartfelt condolences to the child's family at this extremely sad time\".\n\nShe said: \"As a precaution, we have also been raising awareness amongst parents, carers and our school community of the signs and symptoms of Group A Streptococcal infections, and what to do if a child develops these.\"\n\nTrish Mannes from the UK Health Security Agency said they were working with local authorities to support the school.\n\nShe added: \"Infection with Group A Streptococcus bacterium usually causes a sore throat, scarlet fever or skin rash and is passed by physical contact or through droplets from sneezing or coughing.\n\n\"In very rare cases, the infection can become invasive and enter parts of the body where bacteria aren't normally found, which can be serious.\n\n\"We will implement public health actions including advice to the county council and school community.\"\n\nSimon Bryant, director of public health at Hampshire County Council, said contracting the disease from another person is \"very rare\" and reassured parents there is \"no reason for children to be kept home if well\".\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Residents of Kyiv crowded into the metro to take shelter from Russian missiles\n\nRussia has fired a barrage of missiles at targets across Ukraine for the eighth time in eight weeks.\n\nSignificant disruption to the power grid was reported, mainly in the east. In the south, Odesa was without power. Ukraine says four people were killed.\n\nBut the strikes, which came nearly two weeks after the last, may have done less damage than on previous occasions.\n\nUkraine says it shot down 60 of the 70 missiles fired by Russia. Moscow says it hit all 17 of its targets.\n\nIn his video address late on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes had also hit electricity supplies in neighbouring Moldova.\n\n\"This once again proves that Russia's ability to carry out such massive terrorist attacks is a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to our entire region.\"\n\nPrevious Russian attacks have hit Ukraine's energy grid, leaving millions without electricity and heat as winter arrives.\n\nWarnings that Russia was planning a fresh wave of attacks have been circulating for several days. They eventually arrived just hours after a series of explosions at two airbases deep inside Russia, which Moscow blamed on Ukrainian drones intercepted by Russian air-defences.\n\nThree servicemen were killed and two aircraft were lightly damaged in the explosions, Russia's defence ministry said. Ukraine has yet to comment.\n\nFor Ukraine's hard-pressed electrical engineers, Monday's missile strikes are likely to mean another round of emergency repairs, often to facilities hit repeatedly in recent weeks.\n\nBefore today's strikes, officials in Kyiv were talking about moving from highly disruptive emergency blackouts, which often last for many hours, to more manageable scheduled power cuts which offer civilians some badly needed predictability.\n\nThose plans may now be on hold, but it seems Monday's damage could be less extensive than in previous attacks.\n\nAnother striking feature of the latest Russian strikes is the apparent absence of Iranian-made \"kamikaze\" drones.\n\nUkrainian officials recently said Russia had used up its supply of the unmanned vehicles. Another Ukrainian military official said cold weather had prevented Russia from deploying them.\n\nEither way, they do not appear to have been used since mid-November.\n\nUkraine says it shot down the majority of the 70 missiles fired by Russia\n\nRussia began its large-scale, co-ordinated attacks on Ukraine's power grid on 10 October. Since then, around half of the country's energy infrastructure has been damaged, leaving millions of Ukrainians disconnected from electricity just as winter temperatures dropped below zero.\n\nSome Western leaders have called the strategy a war crime, because of the huge amount of damage caused to civilian infrastructure. Attacks on power grids are not necessarily violations of international law, but they do have to be proportionate to any military advantage gained.\n\nExperts have told the BBC that Russia's tactic of hitting energy infrastructure is most likely designed to demoralise and terrorise the population, rather than gain any concrete military advantage. This would be a violation of international law, as set out by Addition Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions.", "Bob McGrath with some furry Sesame Street friends in 2009\n\nBob McGrath, one of the founding cast members of Sesame Street, has died aged 90, his family has announced.\n\nThe actor, who was on the children's TV show for nearly 50 years, \"died peacefully at home, surrounded by his family\", they posted on Facebook.\n\nMcGrath first appeared on Sesame Street in 1969, portraying the friendly music teacher Bob Johnson.\n\nThe show's production company Sesame Workshop said he \"embodied the melodies of Sesame Street like no one else\".\n\n\"His performances brought joy and wonder to generations of children around the world, whether teaching them the ABCs, the people in their neighbourhood, or the simple joy of feeling music in their hearts,\" it said in a statement on social media.\n\nMcGrath died of complications after a stroke, his daughter Cathlin McGrath told The Washington Post and other news outlets.\n\nThe actor, tenor singer, and children's author was one of the longest-running human characters on Sesame Street, along with Loretta Long, who played Susan Robinson.\n\nHis final episode, titled Having a Ball, was aired in 2017. Long's final episode aired in 2016.\n\nTogether with their furry, friendly, and occasionally grouchy muppet friends, McGrath and the Sesame Street family taught children everything from counting to kindness, through songs such as People In Your Neighbourhood.\n\nThe cast of Sesame Street in 1969, with Bob McGrath second from the right, standing next to Loretta Long\n\nBorn in Illinois in 1932, Robert Emmett McGrath studied music at the University of Michigan.\n\nAfter graduating, he served in the US Army in Germany, where he became the conductor for a local church choir and toured France with the Seventh Army Symphony.\n\nIn the 1960s he was a singer in the NBC television show Sing Along With Mitch, and he also became a successful folk singer in Japan.\n\nInitially, McGrath was not interested in auditioning for Sesame Street.\n\n\"I thought, 'Hmm, here's another silly kiddie's show that doesn't mean that much,'\" he told the Television Academy Foundation in 2004.\n\nBut he eventually joined Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert, and Ernie in 1969 for the show's pilot.\n\nActor Holly Robinson Peete, whose late father Matt Robinson was also an inaugural cast member and show producer, said McGrath was \"the nicest, sweetest, kindest man\" who was \"loved all over the world\".\n\nBob McGrath died at his home in New Jersey on Sunday, and is survived by his wife and five children.", "Last updated on .From the section England\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nRaheem Sterling has left the England World Cup squad in Qatar and returned to London after his home was burgled.\n\nThe Chelsea winger, 27, missed Sunday's last-16 victory over Senegal, after the incident on Saturday.\n\nSurrey Police said the occupants of the house returned to find jewellery and watches had been taken. No threats of violence were involved.\n\nThe player's spokesperson said Sterling was \"prioritising the wellbeing\" of his three young children.\n\nSterling was said to be \"shaken\" and \"as soon as he was alerted he wanted to get home\".\n\nThe spokesperson, speaking on Sunday, added the intruders had been armed and the family were home.\n\nBut the police said in a statement on Monday: \"We would reassure our communities that no witnesses have come forward to this effect.\"\n\nThe statement read: \"On Saturday, December 3 the occupants returned to the address after arriving home from an international trip. They contacted police just before 9pm to report a number of items of jewellery, including watches, had been stolen.\n\n\"Officers attended the address later that night and returned to speak to the occupants this morning. At this time it remains unclear on which date the property was stolen and establishing this forms a key part of our investigation.\n\n\"Enquiries into the full circumstances remain ongoing and officers will look at all available evidence including any CCTV opportunities. \"\n\nThey added no arrests had been made.\n\nSpeaking after Sunday's 3-0 victory, England manager Gareth Southgate said: \"Sometimes football isn't the most important thing and family should come first.\n\n\"We want to give him that space and we will see over the next few days how that develops.\"\n\nSterling's team-mate Declan Rice said: \"I saw him at breakfast this morning, then the manager said he had the difficulties at home so we've all sent him a message.\"\n\nEngland's next match at the World Cup is against France in the quarter-finals on Saturday.\n\nSterling is the second player to leave the England squad after Arsenal defender Ben White, who returned to the UK on 30 November for personal reasons.\n\nTwo years ago, three burglars who targeted a number of homes in the north west of England, including an attempted break-in where Sterling lived in Cheshire in November 2018, were jailed.\n\nThe Chelsea forward started and scored in England's 6-2 win over Iran in their opening group game, before being called on again for the 0-0 draw with the United States.\n\nSouthgate opted instead to play Marcus Rashford and Phil Foden either side of Harry Kane for England's 3-0 win over Wales.\n\nThe England boss has often relied on Sterling during major tournaments; he started all seven of England's Euro 2020 matches.\n• None 'Southgate's critics must admit he got it spot on again'\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Celebrities from around the world graced the red carpet in London at the Fashion Awards 2022 on Monday.\n\nCatwalk models including Lila Moss - the daughter of Kate Moss - and Bella Hadid were among those in the running to win the coveted Model of the Year award at the ceremony.\n\nMs Hadid, a regular on the catwalks of fashion capitals Paris, Milan and New York, clinched the award; while environmentalist and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard won the Outstanding Achievement Award.\n\nIn September, Mr Chouinard said he was giving away the apparel company to a trust that will use its profit to fight the climate crisis.\n\nFashion company Wales Bonner was presented with the Independent British Brand Award at the Royal Albert Hall and Valentino designer Pierpaolo Piccioli was crowned Designer of the Year.\n\n\"To me fashion has a responsibility, I feel (I) have a voice and I want to use my voice even for who doesn't have a voice,\" he told Reuters on the red carpet before the awards.\n\nLila Moss, daughter of Kate Moss, was in the running to win the Model of the Year award\n\nThe event brought supermodels, fashion designers and celebrity muses together to recognise excellence in the fashion industry.\n\nHollywood stars James McAvoy and Florence Pugh; rapper Stormzy and Olympian Tom Daley were some of the famous faces to grace the red carpet.\n\nAlso among the guests at the awards ceremony were TV presenters Maya Jama and Rochelle Humes, singer Liam Payne, and royal relative Lady Amelia Windsor.\n\nOlympic diver Tom Daley was among the stars to grace the red carpet in London", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nEngland will meet France in the World Cup quarter-finals on Saturday after an impressive demolition of Senegal at Al Bayt Stadium.\n\nGareth Southgate's side survived a nervy opening in which goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made an outstanding save from Boulaye Dia to run out convincing winners with a powerful display of attacking strength.\n\nJude Bellingham was England's star man, setting up the first goal for Jordan Henderson with a perfect cross after 38 minutes then having a hand in the second on the stroke of half-time, combining with Phil Foden as captain Harry Kane powered home his first of the tournament.\n\nIt left Kane just one behind Wayne Rooney's all-time record of 53 England goals and he now has the perfect stage here in Qatar to write a fresh page in the history books.\n\nFoden was the creator once more as England wrapped the game up in the 57th minute, crossing for Bukayo Saka to show great awareness and touch to flick a delicate finish past Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.\n\nIt capped the perfect night for manager Southgate, who opted to restore Saka and keep faith with Foden, leaving out Marcus Rashford despite his two goals in the win over Wales. Raheem Sterling was not considered after a break-in at his family home and will now return to England.\n• None How to follow England's quarter-final with France\n\nEngland took a while to move through the gears against Senegal but when they clicked they showed a level of creation that gives them real edge and makes them genuine contenders for this World Cup.\n\nThe early worries came when Senegal attempted to expose Harry Maguire's lack of pace, which they did twice and will be noted by France and Kylian Mbappe, but once Bellingham exerted his authority over the midfield England were able to take control and cruise to victory.\n\nBorussia Dortmund's 19-year-old has already had an outstanding World Cup but he now has power and production on the biggest stage to add to his reputation.\n\nBellingham is the identikit modern midfield player and the manner in which he combined with Foden for England's second goal, completed by a rousing finish from Kane, was a glimpse into a golden future.\n\nFoden has also grown into this World Cup, having scored against Wales and creating two goals here. England's midfield and attack is taking shape with perfect timing for what will be the sternest of tests against France and the peerless Mbappe.\n\nHenderson and Declan Rice allow Bellingham to flourish while Saka once again showed his maturity and threat from the wide positions along with Foden.\n\nKane is the mobile spearhead up front and it is a good sign for England that he is now on the goal trail and chasing Rooney's record. He occasionally needs to play his way into major tournaments, as at Euro 2020, and Southgate will have been delighted to see how emphatically he finished the chance he got for the second goal.\n\nPickford has had little to do in this World Cup but when called into action he made a vital intervention against Senegal that paved the way for England to get their act together and win with ease.\n\nEngland were struggling in defence in the opening phase, with Dia missing one big chance before he was presented with another that needed Pickford to make a strong one-handed stop from his angled shot.\n\nSenegal were soon behind and England had the momentum which they never threatened to relinquish, Southgate's side closing out the win with plenty to spare following an uneventful second half.\n\nPickford's place in the England side has occasionally been questioned from outside but never by Southgate, who has total faith in a player who has never let him down.\n• None Attempt blocked. Bamba Dieng (Senegal) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt missed. Marcus Rashford (England) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Luke Shaw with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Pape Sarr (Senegal) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Famara Diédhiou.\n• None Attempt blocked. Pape Gueye (Senegal) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Youssouf Sabaly.\n• None Attempt missed. Ismaïla Sarr (Senegal) header from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Ismail Jakobs with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Three people have been arrested and released on bail\n\nAn 83-year-old woman has suffered life-threatening injuries in a dog attack.\n\nEmergency services, including firearms officers, were called to a property in Heol Fawr, Caerphilly, just after 15.00 GMT on Saturday.\n\nThe woman and a 55-year-old man were taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.\n\nThree people have been arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury and the dog has been put down.\n\nThe attack on the Penyrheol estate comes just over a year after another incident\n\nGwent Police said the two men, aged 20 and 31, and a woman, 28, all from the Caerphilly area, have been released on bail.\n\nDet Ch Insp Matthew Sedgebeer said the force would maintain a visible presence in the area.\n\nHe added: \"Officers will be making further inquiries at this time and will remain at the scene as the investigation progresses.\"\n\nCouncillor Steve Skivens says the attack was another tragic incident\n\nThe attack on the Penyrheol estate comes just over a year after another incident - the shocking and fatal attack on 10-year-old Jack Lis which happened just a few streets away.\n\nSteve Skivens, a Penyrheol councillor, said he was shocked when he heard the rumours about the incident.\n\n\"I spoke to my other community councillor and we couldn't believe that another incident had taken place in such a short space of time - here we are again talking about another tragic dog attack, yards away - it's terrible. \"\n\n\"This is again a tragic incident and our heartfelt condolences go out to the family,\" he said.\n\n\"But it's not just the family, it's the community in the area. We have just passed the anniversary of the previous dog attack on the estate which is still having its repercussions. \"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "In Port-au-Prince you cannot see the boundaries, but you must know where they are. Your life may depend on it. Competing gangs are carving up the Haitian capital, kidnapping, raping, and killing at will. They demarcate their territory in blood. Cross from one gang's turf to another, and you may not make it back.\n\nThose who live here carry a mental map, dividing this teeming city into green, yellow, and red zones. Green means gang free, yellow can be safe today and deadly tomorrow, and red is a no-go area. The green area is shrinking as heavily armed gangs tighten their grip.\n\nArmed groups control - and terrorise - at least 60% of the capital and its surroundings, according to Haitian human rights groups. They encircle the city, controlling roads in and out. And the UN says the gangs killed almost 1,000 people here between January and June of this year.\n\nThis report contains content which some readers may find upsetting, including sexual violence\n\nPort-au-Prince is nestled between green hillsides and the blue waters of the Caribbean. It is blanketed by heat and neglect. The rubbish is knee-deep in places - a putrid monument to a crumbling state. There is no head of state (the last one was killed in office), no functioning parliament (gangs control the area around it) and the US-backed prime minister, Ariel Henry, is unelected and deeply unpopular.\n\nIn effect the state is missing in action, as the people suffer overlapping crises. Almost half the population - 4.7 million Haitians - are facing acute hunger. In the capital around 20,000 people are facing famine-like conditions, according to the UN. This is a first for the Americas. Cholera has made a deadly comeback. But armed gangs are the greatest plague.\n\nThey set the clock here. Morning rush hour - between 06:00 and 09:00 - is peak kidnapping time. Many are snatched from the streets on their way to work. Others are targeted in the evening rush hour - from 15:00 to 18:00.\n\nAbout 50 of the staff at our downtown hotel live in because it's too dangerous for them to go home. Few here go out after dark. The manager says he never leaves the building.\n\nKidnapping is a growth industry. There were 1,107 reported cases between January and October of this year, according to the UN. For some gangs it's a major income stream. Ransoms can run from $200 (£164) to $1m (£819,740). Most victims come back alive - if the ransom is paid - but they are made to suffer.\n\n\"Men are beaten and burned with materials like melted plastic,\" says Gedeon Jean, of Haiti's Centre for Analysis and Research in Human Rights. \"Women and girls are subject to gang rape. This situation spurs relatives to find money to pay the ransom. Sometimes kidnappers call the relatives so they can hear the rape being carried out on the phone.\"\n\nWe travel around by armoured car. Normally that's reserved for frontlines in warzones like Ukraine, but it's necessary in Port-au-Prince to ward off kidnappers. It is a protection that many here can't afford. It's the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, prone to both natural and political disasters.\n\nKidnappers belong to competing gangs - which are mainly grouped into two large coalitions - G9 and G-Pep.\n\nDriving to an early morning appointment in late November, we come across a crime scene in the middle-class suburb of Delmas 83. Bullet casings litter the pavement, glinting in the sunlight, and a man lies dead in a back alley, face down in a pool of blood.\n\nA grey 4x4 pickup truck has veered into a wall, one side riddled with holes. An AK-47 lies on the ground beside it. Heavily armed police surround the pickup, some with faces covered and weapons drawn. Onlookers cluster together on the path. If they have questions, they don't ask them. When you live in the shadow of the gangs, it pays to be silent.\n\nThe police tell us they were involved in a shoot-out with a group of kidnappers, out early hoping to snatch their next victim. The gang fled on foot, one of them trailing blood. The suspected kidnapper was tracked to the alley, where he was killed.\n\n\"There was a battle between an officer and the bad guys. One of them died,\" says a police veteran of 27 years, who didn't want to be named.\n\nHe says the situation in the capital has never been worse. I asked if the gangs were unstoppable. \"We stopped them. Today,\" he replies.\n\nAcross town that same morning Francois Sinclair, a 42-year-old businessman, heard a burst of gunfire as he was struck in traffic. He saw armed men holding up the two cars in front of him, so asked his driver to turn around. But as they tried to get away, they were spotted.\n\n\"Out of nowhere I was shot inside my own car, and there was blood everywhere,\" he tells us, sitting up on a trolley in a trauma hospital run by Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF).\n\n\"I could have been shot in the head,\" he says, \"and there were other people in the car too.\" There's a bandage on his arm, where a bullet went straight through.\n\nI ask if he has ever thought about leaving the country to escape the violence. \"Ten thousand times,\" he replies. \"I couldn't even call my mother to tell her what happened [to me] because she is getting old. The way things are here, it's better to leave if you can.\"\n\nThat's a refrain we hear again and again, but for most Haitians, there's nowhere to go.\n\nThe wards of the MSF hospital are full of gunshot victims, many hit by stray bullets. Claudette, who has a freshly bandaged stump in place of her left leg, tells me that she can never marry now that she is disabled. Lying nearby is 15-year-old Lelianne, who is doing a crossword puzzle to pass the time. She was shot in the stomach.\n\n\"My mom and I went out to get something to eat,\" she says. \"While we were ordering I felt something. That's when I fell and screamed in agony. I didn't expect to survive. I usually hear gunshots further away from my house. On that day they drove closer.\"\n\nEven Haiti's last serving president wasn't safe in his own home. Jovenel Moise was killed by gunmen in July of 2021. Police blamed Colombian mercenaries, about 20 of whom were arrested. But more than a year later, no-one has been tried here for pulling the trigger or ordering the assassination. Human rights campaigners say four judges have come and gone from the case. It's now in the hands of a fifth.\n\nThe killing of the president created a power vacuum which gangs have been competing to fill - with help from their friends.\n\nExperts say that armed groups have ties to corrupt political figures - in power and in the opposition. They supply the gangs with weapons, or finance, or political protection. In return the gangs do their dirty work, generating fear, support, or instability, as required.\n\nWealthy businesspeople also have links to the gangs.\n\n\"There have always been relationships between politicians and some gangs, located mainly in poor neighbourhoods with high electorates. But since the election in 2011 those relationships have become institutionalised,\" says James Boyard, a security expert, and professor of international relations at the State University of Haiti. \"They [the gangs] are used as subcontractors to create political violence.\"\n\nRights campaigners say there are about 200 armed groups across the country, more than half of them in the capital.\n\nIf a gang member is arrested, a phone call from their backers can get them released without delay - and with their guns. Human rights activists say there's plenty of crime, but no punishment.\n\n\"There are no prosecutions,\" says Marie Rosy Auguste Ducena, of Haiti's National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH). \"Judges don't want to work on these cases. They are paid off by the gangs. And some police are like a support system for the gangs, giving them armoured cars and tear gas.\"\n\nOther officers are gang members, says rights activist Gedeon Jean. \"We know that there are at least two serving or former policemen, in every gang. We know cars with police licence plates are used for kidnappings. Whether the police as an institution is involved, we don't know.\"\n\nSome current and former police officers actually have their own gang, called Baz Pilate. Rights campaigners say it controls part of the main street in downtown Port-au-Prince.\n\nPolice collusion isn't a mystery. Officers can earn as little as $300 a month, and some live in gang-held neighbourhoods. For them it may be a matter of survival, not choice.\n\nWhat's happening here - about two hours flying time from Miami - goes well beyond mere violence. It's as if the gangs of Port-au-Prince are engaged in a brutality contest, and anyone in this city of around one million souls can become a victim.\n\nA slender man in his 30s - who has no gang affiliations - comes to tell us what he and his wife endured a few months ago. His neighbourhood is controlled by a gang, whose rivals came on a killing spree. For his safety we are not naming the area, or the armed group involved.\n\nWhen he initially starts to speak, he carries on for 13 minutes without stopping - as if he cannot hold in his words or his anguish.\n\nThe husband spoke out about his wife's rape\n\n\"I told myself the shots are too close to us, and we should try to leave,\" he says. \"But they were already storming the neighbourhood. I went back inside the house with my wife. I was so scared I was shaking. I did not know what to do. They mostly kill young men. My wife hid me under the bed and covered me with a pile of clothes. My nephew was hiding in the wardrobe.\"\n\nSoon men entered the house, hitting his wife, and demanding information on local gang members. When his nephew tried to run, they shot and killed him. The husband remained in hiding, and in torment.\n\n\"I wanted to run away. I wanted to cry out. What hurts me the most is that when I was under the bed, I couldn't see but I could hear those men raping my wife. They were raping her, and I was under the bed, and I could say nothing.\"\n\nAfterwards their house was burned, and he and his wife fled in different directions. They are still living apart, staying with friends and relatives, but he hopes they can set up home again with their young child.\n\nWhat happened \"is a scar that affects the body and the soul\". His wife is now pregnant, and they do not know if he is the father, or if it is one of the attackers. Either way, he says he will accept the child and give it his name.\n\n\"What I endured was nothing,\" he says. \"There is a lady who had only one child. They cut his throat in front of her. The young man who was not in a gang.\"\n\nHusband and wife have been robbed of almost everything, including their love for their country. \"Haiti is erased from our hearts,\" he says. \"Any chance we get, we will leave.\"\n\nAt that he breaks down, his chest heaving as he weeps.\n\nThe testimonies I have gathered here are among the worst I have ever heard in more than 30 years as a foreign correspondent, reporting from over 80 countries. And it feels like we have barely scratched the surface.\n\nFor the gangs of Port-au-Prince, there are no limits.\n\nIn just a few days, I met three victims of gang rape - the youngest only 16. She and a relative were raped by the same attackers, who threatened afterwards to burn them alive inside their house. The other woman was six months pregnant at the time she was attacked. As she was being set upon, her husband was led away to his death. Months on she has not been able to find his body.\n\nIncreasingly, rape is used as a weapon by the gangs. They target women and girls living in areas controlled by their rivals. During a turf war in July in Haiti's poorest district, the sprawling Cité Soleil. Campaigners say more than 300 people were murdered - most of the bodies were charred - and at least 50 women and girls were gang raped.\n\nHaiti's National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH), which has documented the rapes in Cite Soleil, says many survivors \"regret being alive\". Twenty of them were raped in front of their children. Six saw their spouses being killed before being gang raped.\n\nMost of Cité Soleil is controlled by the most powerful gang federation in Port-au-Prince - the G9 family and allies. Local sources say it had close ties to the assassinated president and his ruling party, and its speciality is extortion.\n\nG9 blockaded the main fuel terminal in the city in September, paralysing the country for almost two months, and triggering a humanitarian crisis.\n\nIts leader is a former police officer called Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed \"Barbecue\", who occasionally holds press conferences. We requested an interview through intermediaries, but had no response. He may be less talkative these days because he's recently been put under sanctions by the UN Security Council, accused of threatening the peace and stability of Haiti.\n\nThe United States and Canada recently sanctioned two Haitian politicians, including the sitting president of the Senate, Joseph Lambert, for allegedly collaborating with the gangs.\n\nSources here say the sanctions are having some impact because politicians who use the gangs now want to lie low.\n\nWhen Jean Simson Desanclos reached the deserted street at the edge of a gang-ridden suburb, he found nothing of his family except the burnt-out shell of the family's Black Suzuki. The charred remains of his wife and two daughters had already been taken to the morgue.\n\nJosette Fils Desanclos, 56, was taking one daughter Sarhadjie, 24, to university, and the other, Sherwood Sondje, shopping for her birthday. She was about to turn 29. Both girls had studied law like their father. They were his \"princesses\".\n\n\"On 20 August I lost everything,\" he says. \"And it wasn't just my family. In all, eight people were killed that day. It was a massacre.\"\n\nJean Simson Desanclos with his wife and two daughters\n\nMr Desanclos believes his wife and daughters resisted a kidnap attempt and were shot by a notorious gang called the 400 Mawazo, who were expanding their territory. \"I point my fingers at them,\" he says. The killings happened on the outskirts of an area called Croix des Bouquet, which was already under the gang's control.\n\nMr Desanclos, who is softly spoken and smartly dressed, is a lawyer and human rights activist. He is now a man bereft - longing for the voices he will never hear again.\n\n\"You are always waiting for a call from your child telling you, 'Dad this' or 'Dad that'. I lost the love of my life and the two children we raised in this difficult country. It's like you are a multi-millionaire and suddenly, you are poor.\"\n\nDespite the risk to himself, he is seeking justice for his wife and daughters. \"Family is a sacred thing. Not pursuing justice would be betraying them,\" he says. \"My daughters know their father is a fighter, who never abandons people, much less his own family. The risk is enormous, but what more can I lose now?\"\n\nHe wants the world to understand one thing about the Haiti of today - that the gangs have free rein.\n\n\"Criminals have taken a country hostage,\" he says. \"They make their own laws. They kill. They rape. They destroy. I would like my daughters to be the last sacrifice, the last young women killed.\"\n\nHe speaks with dignity, and conviction, but knows his wish may not be granted.\n\nIn Haiti, it is the gangs that function, rather than the state. Prime Minister Ariel Henry cannot even reach his own office because armed groups control the area. We made several requests for an interview with him, but these were declined.\n\nHaiti's government - such as it is - has issued \"a distress call\" for an international force to help restore order.\n\nThere's talk at the United Nations about the need for a non-UN armed force, but no-one seems in a hurry to lead it, or even to take part.\n\nForeign interventions have a bad name, and a bad history here. The last UN mission is remembered for allegations of sexual abuse, and for bringing cholera to Haiti, via UN peacekeepers from Nepal. The epidemic killed around 10,000 people.\n\nThere are mixed views here on the idea of foreign boots on the ground. There's support from some in business - who have used armed groups but now want them reined in - and from those trapped in gang-controlled areas. There's opposition from civil society leaders who say Haiti needs to go it alone.\n\nWhile the international community debates and demurs, it is massacres as usual for the gangs.\n\nLocal sources say armed groups are brutally expanding their territory because elections are overdue. When politicians come looking for votes - in gang held areas - they have to pay off the gunmen.\n\nThe latest atrocity was at the northern entrance to Port-au-Prince on 30 November. According to local media reports, some in the area spotted armed men - from an emerging gang - trying to gain a foothold, and informed police.\n\nThe gunmen retaliated at night, killing at least 11 people. Some of the bodies were set alight.\n\nThe boundaries here are once again being redrawn in blood. Those living in the city need to update their mental map, as one more area is turning from green to red.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You are now, properly, a city,\" says Princess Anne during her visit to Bangor\n\nBangor in County Down has formally received city status in a ceremony attended by the Princess Royal.\n\nThe ceremony took place at Bangor Castle with Princess Anne unveiling the city's official warrant.\n\nCity status was granted by Queen Elizabeth II to mark her platinum jubilee, three months before her death in September.\n\nBangor is now one of six cities in Northern Ireland, along with Belfast, Londonderry, Armagh, Lisburn and Newry.\n\nPrincess Anne said it was \"always a pleasure\" to visit Bangor, reminiscing on her previous trips in 2013 and 2016.\n\nThe official letters patent for Bangor reads that the area will \"have all such rank liberties, privileges and immunities as are incident to a city\"\n\nShe spoke about Bangor's historical importance as a centre of learning, noting its appearance on the medieval Hereford Mappa Mundi as \"civitas benair\" (city of Bangor).\n\n\"I can only apologise for taking so long to make sure that in fact you are now properly a city in 2022,\" she said.\n\nThe princess praised recent investment in the area, adding that she hoped city-status \"provides a real boost to these exciting plans\".\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris was also at the event, which was hosted by Ards and North Down Mayor Karen Douglas.\n\nMr Heaton-Harris said he hoped city-status would attract visitors and boost the economy.\n\nPrincess Anne was joined by Chris Heaton-Harris and Ards and North Down Mayor Karen Douglas as she unveiled the city's royal warrant\n\nBangor was one of eight UK towns elevated to a city in May after a competition in which it was required to show its royal associations and cultural heritage.\n\nIts application pointed out that in 1961 the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited Bangor Castle and had lunch at the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, before the duke raced in a regatta.\n\nCity status is often associated with having a cathedral, a university, or a large population.\n\nHowever, there are no set rules for being granted the status, which is awarded by the monarch on advice of ministers.\n\nTwenty years ago, Lisburn and Newry were awarded city status in a competition to mark the Queen's golden jubilee.\n\nThe coastal town has been popular with day-trippers for decades\n\nIn the 2011 census the population of Bangor was just over 60,000.\n\nIt is situated beside the coast, at the mouth of Belfast Lough.\n\nA number of famous faces come from Bangor, including the lead singer of Snow Patrol, Gary Lightbody, author Colin Bateman, golfer David Feherty and artist Colin Davidson.\n\nNobel Peace Prize winner Lord David Trimble, who died earlier this year, spent much of his early life in the town, attending Bangor Grammar, one of 19 schools in the area.\n\nIn the past it was a seaside resort which was popular with day trippers and tourists who gathered on the beach in front of the town.\n\nIn the late 1980s a marina was built, transforming the seafront.\n\nArtist Colin Davidson is one of the famous faces from Bangor\n\nLike many places it has been hit hard by the building of shopping centres on the outskirts of the central district.\n\nThere are plans in place to try to rejuvenate Bangor, with the hope that its new city status will help.\n\nThe city's courthouse was recently turned into a music venue, and other projects are in the pipeline.\n\nBangor's road signs will not change immediately to reflect its new status as a city - they will continue to refer to \"town centre\".\n\n\"Officials are content to liaise with Ards and North Down Borough Council representatives to consider a possible phased renewal of signs in conjunction with any replacement of signs the council is responsible for,\" said the Department for Infrastructure.", "Last updated on .From the section Cricket\n\nFirst Test, Rawalpindi (day five of five)\n\nEngland pulled off one of their greatest victories with a 74-run win over Pakistan in the first Test in Rawalpindi.\n\nWith the sun dropping at the end of a tension-filled final day, England took the last wicket with only minutes of light remaining.\n\nIn scenes reminiscent of England's famous victory in the dark in Karachi in 2000, Jack Leach trapped Naseem Shah lbw to leave Pakistan 268 all out, 75 short of their target of 343.\n\nThat England were in a position to win was thanks to James Anderson and Ollie Robinson, who gave a masterful exhibition of reverse-swing bowling to claim four wickets each.\n\nPakistan were defiant throughout. Saud Shakeel made 76, Mohammad Rizwan 46 and Azhar Ali 40. At 176-3 and 259-5, the home side were right in the hunt.\n\nBut after Robinson removed Salman Agha and Azhar, England could only be defeated by the fading light.\n\nWith the stadium nearly full and the crowd engrossed, 40-year-old Anderson snared Zahid Mahmood and Haris Rauf in the same over.\n\nNaseem and Mohammad Ali survived for 52 balls, before Leach sent England into wild celebrations.\n\nThere is only a three-day gap to the second Test in Multan on Friday, when England will have the chance to secure the series.\n• None 'Raid of Rawalpindi makes believers of us all'\n• None 'A feeling only sport can give you'\n\nThis is an England win that will be remembered for a long time, a fitting way to mark their first Test in Pakistan for 17 years.\n\nThe drama of victory being secured late on the fifth day was entirely in keeping with the extraordinary action of the previous four days.\n\nEngland plundered 921 runs in 136.5 overs at a scoring rate of 6.73, the fastest of any team batting twice in Test history. The 506-4 runs they racked up on day one is a Test record.\n\nBen Stokes' bold declaration at tea on Sunday engineered a contest that had all four results possible going into the final session of the match.\n\nWith darkness creeping in, England looked to have missed their chance when Naseem's edge off Stokes sailed between wicketkeeper Ollie Pope and first slip Joe Root, only for Leach to provide the decisive intervention.\n\nIt ended a run of 11 away Tests without victory and secured a first win over Pakistan outside the UK for 22 years with an entire XI that had never played a Test here before.\n\nAll this after the England squad was badly affected on the eve of the match by a virus that raised the prospect of the Test being delayed by a day.\n\nThey had a stand-in wicketkeeper in Pope and an attack relying heavily on three part-time spinners, from which Liam Livingstone did not bowl because of a knee injury and will return home.\n\nAbove all, this is the finest win of England's new era under Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, giving full vindication to their ultra-aggressive style of play that is turning Test convention on its head.\n\nOops you can't see this activity! To enjoy Newsround at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on.\n\nThis was a compelling, arm-wrestle of a day, with England only taking definitive control in the dying embers.\n\nFrom 80-2 overnight, Pakistan were shackled by England's seamers in the early morning. Imam-ul-Haq was caught down the leg side to depart for 48, Rizwan needed 24 balls to get off the mark.\n\nWhen England turned to spin, the hosts countered, leaving Leach, Will Jacks and Root with no answer. Their combined 16 morning overs cost 72 runs, compared with 14 conceded from 16 overs of pace.\n\nDebutant Shakeel and Rizwan added 87 for the fourth wicket, only for Rizwan to poke Anderson behind and Shakeel to be well caught by diving substitute Keaton Jennings at short cover off Robinson.\n\nAzhar, returning after retiring hurt with an injured finger on Sunday, and Salman built again in the face of an examination from England's tireless pacers.\n\nIn the one over of spin England bowled in the afternoon session, Leach thought he had the sweeping Salman lbw, only for replays to show the ball going over. In the next over, the diving Pope could not hold Azhar's leg-side tickle off Robinson.\n\nEngland's pressure finally told after tea. Ignoring the availability of the second new ball, Robinson had Salman lbw on review with one that came back then, crucially, Azhar guided to Root at leg slip.\n\nWith the tail exposed, England's main opponent was the setting sun. Pope acrobatically grabbed Mahmood down the leg side off Anderson and, two balls later, Haris was trapped in front.\n\nNaseem and Ali clung on, wasting as much time as they could. Anderson and Robinson were withdrawn, Naseem was missed, Stokes took the new ball and Leach was summoned.\n\nNaseem was pinned in front, a review could not save him and an iconic England win was sealed.\n\n'One of best wins I've been involved in' - what they said\n\nEngland bowler James Anderson: \"I feel like it's the best win I've been involved in away from home and at all really. That wicket was so flat and unresponsive. Today was a monumental effort.\"\n\nOllie Robinson, who took 4-50 and was named player of the match: \"The pitch was tough for our seamers but we kept going. Every player didn't leave anything behind and it was a great effort.\"\n\nBBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew: \"An absolute rethink is required from all of us.\n\n\"This is working and it's intimidating for the opposition. It's just a totally different mindset.\"\n\nEx-England spinner Alex Hartley: \"We talk about this exciting brand that England want to play. That was unbelievable. The best bit was they believed until the very end.\"\n• None How can a manager control his emotions?: Sacked in the Morning discusses anger on the sideline", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nFrance have seen some incredible players in their history but it's the unassuming Olivier Giroud that can now lay claim to being among the country's greats.\n\nThe AC Milan striker became France's leading men's scorer when he put his side ahead in their 3-1 victory over Poland in the last 16 of the World Cup.\n\nBut on his momentous day - when he scored his 52nd international goal - the former Chelsea and Arsenal striker was upstaged by team-mate Kylian Mbappe's stunning showing.\n\nDidier Deschamps' men mean business as they aim to defend their crown and their charge is being led by veteran 36-year-old striker Giroud and 23-year-old sensation Mbappe.\n\n\"This is the competition of my dreams,\" said man of the match Mbappe, who scored twice and set up Giroud's goal. \"It is something I have been preparing for physically and mentally.\n\n\"We are doing well but [we are] a long way from the objective of winning the final.\"\n• None Mbappe is most complete striker in Qatar - Drogba column\n\nJust as Argentina's Lionel Messi brings fans out of their seats in excitement, Mbappe does the same for France and he was at his devastating best against Poland.\n\nMbappe drew loud cheers when he put Aston Villa full-back Matty Cash on his backside with a quick turn but the resulting shot deflected into the side-netting.\n\nHaving provided the assist for Giroud's opener, Mbappe showcased his fantastic finishing by smacking his first into the roof of the net before curling a glorious second into the far corner.\n\nHe is now the competition's top scorer with five and added to the four he netted in France's triumphant 2018 World Cup campaign, he has already overtaken Argentina's Diego Maradona, who scored eight, while Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo has also reached that tally.\n\nAt 23 years of age, Mbappe is the youngest player to score nine World Cup goals, breaking the record held by Eusebio, who scored eight for Portugal by the age of 24 years and 182 days.\n\n\"We know about Kylian,\" said Deschamps. \"We have already seen him and he speaks on the football pitch.\n\n\"He knows he can change a match in moment. He plays with such joy and smiles. France needed a great Kylian Mbappe tonight and they got one.\"\n\nFormer Premier League striker Dion Dublin said on BBC One: \"He is playing the game as though he is in the park. He is an incredible footballer.\"\n\nChris Sutton, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, said: \"Eventually it came down to Kylian Mbappe and a couple of wonderful finishes from him.\n\n\"This was a strong performance from France. There are tougher tests to come but it was a display of French swagger and a statement that we are still the team to beat.\"\n\nSome may have felt Giroud's best years were behind him when he left Arsenal last summer to move to Italy but he scored 11 goals to help Milan win the Serie A title.\n\nGiroud has a star-studded cast operating around him with the likes of Mbappe and the classy Antoine Griezmann pulling the strings.\n\nBut Giroud is a Deschamps favourite and knows what he brings to the team with his unselfishness and physicality up front, while he has been given more minutes this time because of the pre-tournament injury to Karim Benzema.\n\nAt the last World Cup, Giroud played all the games in their triumph in Russia, but in 546 minutes of action, he not only failed to score a goal but did not have a single shot on target.\n\nHow things can change. Giroud has scored three times already in this competition, but will be aware that his overall record may not last too long given Mbappe has already scored 33 goals for France.\n\n\"Giroud has always been an important player,\" said Deschamps. \"Four years ago he didn't score but we are seeing his quality.\n\n\"He has managed to remain mentally strong. He has broken the record by Henry, and Mbappe might beat it one day. To score so many goals at international level is a great achievement.\"\n\nFormer England defender Rio Ferdinand said on BBC One: \"You have to have the right attitude to do what Olivier Giroud does, with people saying at times he wasn't good enough.\n\n\"He is not flashy like a Kylian Mbappe with skills or pace but he knows what he's good at and he executes it well.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The head of Morelands Primary School said the community was devastated by the loss\n\nAn eighth child has died from a severe strep A bacterial infection, it has been confirmed.\n\nMorelands Primary, in Waterlooville, Hampshire, said it was \"absolutely devastated\" by the loss of one of its pupils.\n\nSuch deaths are rare, but, since September, seven other UK children have lost their lives due to complications of the disease.\n\nEarlier, it emerged a 12-year-old pupil in south-east London had also died.\n\nAnd there have been five deaths of under-fives in England and a death of a seven-year-old in Wales.\n\nReports say there are eight cases of severe strep disease in Scotland, but no deaths. It is not known whether there are any ongoing severe cases in Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nHowever, a cluster of scarlet fever cases has been identified at a primary school in County Down. Some people who have Strep A develop scarlet fever, which causes a skin rash (that feels like sandpaper) and flu-like symptoms, including a high temperature.\n\nMorelands Primary School head teacher Alison Syred-Paul said: \"We are absolutely devastated by the loss of one of our young pupils and offer our sincere and heartfelt condolences to the child's family at this extremely sad time. We ask that the privacy of the family is respected.\n\n\"As a precaution, we have been raising awareness amongst parents, carers and our school community of the signs and symptoms...and what to do if a child develops these.\"\n\nRichard Russell, head of Colfe's School in Lee, London, where the 12-year-old Year 8 pupil died, said the tragedy was \"wholly unexpected\" and had affected \"all members of the school community\".\n\nHe said the school was doing what it could to support the pupil's family \"who are seeking to come to terms with their devastating loss\".\n\nDean Burns wants parents to be aware of the signs and symptoms\n\nHealth experts say parents and doctors need to be vigilant and have a low bar for treating the contagious disease that is circulating earlier than usual this year.\n\nThey say the UK must brace itself for more cases, as levels of the bacteria circulating are thought currently to be high.\n\nMost strep A infections are mild and get better with antibiotics. But some people who catch it can get very sick.\n\nFour-year-old Camila Rose Burns is critically ill and on a ventilator in hospital because of a severe strep A infection, known as invasive group A Strep (iGAS).\n\nHer father, Dean Burns, from Liverpool, told the BBC's Today programme: \"She is still fighting for her life. She is really poorly, it is just devastating to us as a family. We can't believe this has happened.\n\n\"It progressed to something called invasive group A strep, which has now gone into her bloodstream and has devastated her body.\n\n\"I'm at a loss with it all, I just want our family back. The pain is unimaginable. She is just so beautiful and precious. She is just our special little girl.\"\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency's (UKHSA) chief medical adviser, Dr Susan Hopkins, said: \"We are concerned, and concerned enough to ensure that we wanted to make the public aware of the signs and symptoms that they should watch out for and of course to alert clinicians to prescribe antibiotics for these conditions.\"\n\nShe says an early start to the strep A infections season in the UK could be a side effect of the easing of pandemic restrictions.\n\n\"We are back to normal social mixing and the patterns of diseases that we are seeing at the moment are out of sync with the normal seasons, as people mix back to normal and move around and pass infections on.\"\n\nStrep A can cause a range of illnesses. Most cases are mild - a sore throat or a skin infection that can be easily treated with antibiotics.\n\nSome people develop scarlet fever, which causes a skin rash (that feels like sandpaper) and flu-like symptoms, including a high temperature.\n\nVery rarely, strep A can cause something called invasive group A streptococcal infection or iGAS, which can be deadly.\n\nInvasive disease happens when the bacteria get past your body's immune defences.\n\nThe UKHSA advises that anyone with a high fever, severe muscle aches, pain in one area of the body and unexplained vomiting or diarrhoea should call NHS 111 and seek medical help immediately.\n\nStrep A can be treated with antibiotics.\n\nSeven-year-old Hanna Roap, from Penarth, died from Strep A in the latest outbreak\n\nProf Jim McManus, current president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, said the UK should expect more cases: \"It is a function of numbers. There are many more cases of group A strep around, and because there are many more cases, the number of severe cases will rise.\n\n\"We had four deaths in 2017-18,\" he added, comparing that figure to this year's total.\n\n\"It is a case for real vigilance. We seem to have forgotten that strep A is around, so we have to think strep A when children present with symptoms that could be Strep A. In some cases perhaps we had thought this had gone away because we had been thinking about other infections.\"\n\nAs a parent, if you feel that your child seems seriously unwell, you should trust your own judgement. Contact NHS 111 or your GP if:\n\nCall 999 or go to A&E if:", "The coin was illustrated by Jim Kay, the artist behind the fully illustrated editions of Harry Potter\n\nA 50p coin featuring the Hogwarts Express is the final one to feature Queen Elizabeth II's portrait.\n\nThe Hogwarts Express coin is part of a larger collection celebrating the 25 years of Harry Potter.\n\nThe final two coins which have not yet been released will feature the official portrait of King Charles III.\n\nDirector of Collector Services at The Royal Mint Rebecca Morgan said: \"A change in portrait makes this collection a highly sought after one.\"\n\nAll four coins feature the work of the artist Jim Kay, who created the first fully illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.\n\nThe collection features Harry Potter, the Hogwarts Express, Professor Dumbledore and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on their own individual coin and will be one of a small number that will see a change of portrait during the series.\n\nThe coins were modelled by the Welsh Royal Mint product designer, Ffion Gwillim.\n\nThe front and back of the Hogwarts Express 50p coin\n\n\"The Royal Mint's Harry Potter collection presents a unique opportunity for collectors and fans of Harry Potter across the world,\" Ms Morgan said.\n\n\"This collection of coins serves as a permanent reminder of the fascinating transition from Britain's longest reigning monarch to His Majesty the King's first appearance on UK coins,\" she added.\n\nMr Kay, said: \"It hasn't really sunk in yet. It is the same for most aspects of publishing because you are on your own all of the time in a studio, none of it quite seems real until you see the book on a shelf in a shop.\n\n\"Then you think 'oh yeah! I did that!' This is completely new to me though, a coin!\"\n\nMandy Archer of Bloomsbury said it was a joy to see the illustrations on the coins\n\nEditorial director at Bloomsbury Children's Books Mandy Archer said: \"Jim Kay's evocation of the Hogwarts Express instantly whisks you away to platform nine and three-quarters - the very start of Harry's magical journey.\n\n\"It's a joy to see his stunning book illustration so skilfully and beautifully rendered on a new silver anniversary coin.\"", "In Port-au-Prince you cannot see the boundaries, but you must know where they are. Your life may depend on it. Competing gangs are carving up the Haitian capital, kidnapping, raping, and killing at will. They demarcate their territory in blood. Cross from one gang's turf to another, and you may not make it back.\n\nThose who live here carry a mental map, dividing this teeming city into green, yellow, and red zones. Green means gang free, yellow can be safe today and deadly tomorrow, and red is a no-go area. The green area is shrinking as heavily armed gangs tighten their grip.\n\nArmed groups control - and terrorise - at least 60% of the capital and its surroundings, according to Haitian human rights groups. They encircle the city, controlling roads in and out. And the UN says the gangs killed almost 1,000 people here between January and June of this year.\n\nThis report contains content which some readers may find upsetting, including sexual violence\n\nPort-au-Prince is nestled between green hillsides and the blue waters of the Caribbean. It is blanketed by heat and neglect. The rubbish is knee-deep in places - a putrid monument to a crumbling state. There is no head of state (the last one was killed in office), no functioning parliament (gangs control the area around it) and the US-backed prime minister, Ariel Henry, is unelected and deeply unpopular.\n\nIn effect the state is missing in action, as the people suffer overlapping crises. Almost half the population - 4.7 million Haitians - are facing acute hunger. In the capital around 20,000 people are facing famine-like conditions, according to the UN. This is a first for the Americas. Cholera has made a deadly comeback. But armed gangs are the greatest plague.\n\nThey set the clock here. Morning rush hour - between 06:00 and 09:00 - is peak kidnapping time. Many are snatched from the streets on their way to work. Others are targeted in the evening rush hour - from 15:00 to 18:00.\n\nAbout 50 of the staff at our downtown hotel live in because it's too dangerous for them to go home. Few here go out after dark. The manager says he never leaves the building.\n\nKidnapping is a growth industry. There were 1,107 reported cases between January and October of this year, according to the UN. For some gangs it's a major income stream. Ransoms can run from $200 (£164) to $1m (£819,740). Most victims come back alive - if the ransom is paid - but they are made to suffer.\n\n\"Men are beaten and burned with materials like melted plastic,\" says Gedeon Jean, of Haiti's Centre for Analysis and Research in Human Rights. \"Women and girls are subject to gang rape. This situation spurs relatives to find money to pay the ransom. Sometimes kidnappers call the relatives so they can hear the rape being carried out on the phone.\"\n\nWe travel around by armoured car. Normally that's reserved for frontlines in warzones like Ukraine, but it's necessary in Port-au-Prince to ward off kidnappers. It is a protection that many here can't afford. It's the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, prone to both natural and political disasters.\n\nKidnappers belong to competing gangs - which are mainly grouped into two large coalitions - G9 and G-Pep.\n\nDriving to an early morning appointment in late November, we come across a crime scene in the middle-class suburb of Delmas 83. Bullet casings litter the pavement, glinting in the sunlight, and a man lies dead in a back alley, face down in a pool of blood.\n\nA grey 4x4 pickup truck has veered into a wall, one side riddled with holes. An AK-47 lies on the ground beside it. Heavily armed police surround the pickup, some with faces covered and weapons drawn. Onlookers cluster together on the path. If they have questions, they don't ask them. When you live in the shadow of the gangs, it pays to be silent.\n\nThe police tell us they were involved in a shoot-out with a group of kidnappers, out early hoping to snatch their next victim. The gang fled on foot, one of them trailing blood. The suspected kidnapper was tracked to the alley, where he was killed.\n\n\"There was a battle between an officer and the bad guys. One of them died,\" says a police veteran of 27 years, who didn't want to be named.\n\nHe says the situation in the capital has never been worse. I asked if the gangs were unstoppable. \"We stopped them. Today,\" he replies.\n\nAcross town that same morning Francois Sinclair, a 42-year-old businessman, heard a burst of gunfire as he was struck in traffic. He saw armed men holding up the two cars in front of him, so asked his driver to turn around. But as they tried to get away, they were spotted.\n\n\"Out of nowhere I was shot inside my own car, and there was blood everywhere,\" he tells us, sitting up on a trolley in a trauma hospital run by Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF).\n\n\"I could have been shot in the head,\" he says, \"and there were other people in the car too.\" There's a bandage on his arm, where a bullet went straight through.\n\nI ask if he has ever thought about leaving the country to escape the violence. \"Ten thousand times,\" he replies. \"I couldn't even call my mother to tell her what happened [to me] because she is getting old. The way things are here, it's better to leave if you can.\"\n\nThat's a refrain we hear again and again, but for most Haitians, there's nowhere to go.\n\nThe wards of the MSF hospital are full of gunshot victims, many hit by stray bullets. Claudette, who has a freshly bandaged stump in place of her left leg, tells me that she can never marry now that she is disabled. Lying nearby is 15-year-old Lelianne, who is doing a crossword puzzle to pass the time. She was shot in the stomach.\n\n\"My mom and I went out to get something to eat,\" she says. \"While we were ordering I felt something. That's when I fell and screamed in agony. I didn't expect to survive. I usually hear gunshots further away from my house. On that day they drove closer.\"\n\nEven Haiti's last serving president wasn't safe in his own home. Jovenel Moise was killed by gunmen in July of 2021. Police blamed Colombian mercenaries, about 20 of whom were arrested. But more than a year later, no-one has been tried here for pulling the trigger or ordering the assassination. Human rights campaigners say four judges have come and gone from the case. It's now in the hands of a fifth.\n\nThe killing of the president created a power vacuum which gangs have been competing to fill - with help from their friends.\n\nExperts say that armed groups have ties to corrupt political figures - in power and in the opposition. They supply the gangs with weapons, or finance, or political protection. In return the gangs do their dirty work, generating fear, support, or instability, as required.\n\nWealthy businesspeople also have links to the gangs.\n\n\"There have always been relationships between politicians and some gangs, located mainly in poor neighbourhoods with high electorates. But since the election in 2011 those relationships have become institutionalised,\" says James Boyard, a security expert, and professor of international relations at the State University of Haiti. \"They [the gangs] are used as subcontractors to create political violence.\"\n\nRights campaigners say there are about 200 armed groups across the country, more than half of them in the capital.\n\nIf a gang member is arrested, a phone call from their backers can get them released without delay - and with their guns. Human rights activists say there's plenty of crime, but no punishment.\n\n\"There are no prosecutions,\" says Marie Rosy Auguste Ducena, of Haiti's National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH). \"Judges don't want to work on these cases. They are paid off by the gangs. And some police are like a support system for the gangs, giving them armoured cars and tear gas.\"\n\nOther officers are gang members, says rights activist Gedeon Jean. \"We know that there are at least two serving or former policemen, in every gang. We know cars with police licence plates are used for kidnappings. Whether the police as an institution is involved, we don't know.\"\n\nSome current and former police officers actually have their own gang, called Baz Pilate. Rights campaigners say it controls part of the main street in downtown Port-au-Prince.\n\nPolice collusion isn't a mystery. Officers can earn as little as $300 a month, and some live in gang-held neighbourhoods. For them it may be a matter of survival, not choice.\n\nWhat's happening here - about two hours flying time from Miami - goes well beyond mere violence. It's as if the gangs of Port-au-Prince are engaged in a brutality contest, and anyone in this city of around one million souls can become a victim.\n\nA slender man in his 30s - who has no gang affiliations - comes to tell us what he and his wife endured a few months ago. His neighbourhood is controlled by a gang, whose rivals came on a killing spree. For his safety we are not naming the area, or the armed group involved.\n\nWhen he initially starts to speak, he carries on for 13 minutes without stopping - as if he cannot hold in his words or his anguish.\n\nThe husband spoke out about his wife's rape\n\n\"I told myself the shots are too close to us, and we should try to leave,\" he says. \"But they were already storming the neighbourhood. I went back inside the house with my wife. I was so scared I was shaking. I did not know what to do. They mostly kill young men. My wife hid me under the bed and covered me with a pile of clothes. My nephew was hiding in the wardrobe.\"\n\nSoon men entered the house, hitting his wife, and demanding information on local gang members. When his nephew tried to run, they shot and killed him. The husband remained in hiding, and in torment.\n\n\"I wanted to run away. I wanted to cry out. What hurts me the most is that when I was under the bed, I couldn't see but I could hear those men raping my wife. They were raping her, and I was under the bed, and I could say nothing.\"\n\nAfterwards their house was burned, and he and his wife fled in different directions. They are still living apart, staying with friends and relatives, but he hopes they can set up home again with their young child.\n\nWhat happened \"is a scar that affects the body and the soul\". His wife is now pregnant, and they do not know if he is the father, or if it is one of the attackers. Either way, he says he will accept the child and give it his name.\n\n\"What I endured was nothing,\" he says. \"There is a lady who had only one child. They cut his throat in front of her. The young man who was not in a gang.\"\n\nHusband and wife have been robbed of almost everything, including their love for their country. \"Haiti is erased from our hearts,\" he says. \"Any chance we get, we will leave.\"\n\nAt that he breaks down, his chest heaving as he weeps.\n\nThe testimonies I have gathered here are among the worst I have ever heard in more than 30 years as a foreign correspondent, reporting from over 80 countries. And it feels like we have barely scratched the surface.\n\nFor the gangs of Port-au-Prince, there are no limits.\n\nIn just a few days, I met three victims of gang rape - the youngest only 16. She and a relative were raped by the same attackers, who threatened afterwards to burn them alive inside their house. The other woman was six months pregnant at the time she was attacked. As she was being set upon, her husband was led away to his death. Months on she has not been able to find his body.\n\nIncreasingly, rape is used as a weapon by the gangs. They target women and girls living in areas controlled by their rivals. During a turf war in July in Haiti's poorest district, the sprawling Cité Soleil. Campaigners say more than 300 people were murdered - most of the bodies were charred - and at least 50 women and girls were gang raped.\n\nHaiti's National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH), which has documented the rapes in Cite Soleil, says many survivors \"regret being alive\". Twenty of them were raped in front of their children. Six saw their spouses being killed before being gang raped.\n\nMost of Cité Soleil is controlled by the most powerful gang federation in Port-au-Prince - the G9 family and allies. Local sources say it had close ties to the assassinated president and his ruling party, and its speciality is extortion.\n\nG9 blockaded the main fuel terminal in the city in September, paralysing the country for almost two months, and triggering a humanitarian crisis.\n\nIts leader is a former police officer called Jimmy Cherizier, nicknamed \"Barbecue\", who occasionally holds press conferences. We requested an interview through intermediaries, but had no response. He may be less talkative these days because he's recently been put under sanctions by the UN Security Council, accused of threatening the peace and stability of Haiti.\n\nThe United States and Canada recently sanctioned two Haitian politicians, including the sitting president of the Senate, Joseph Lambert, for allegedly collaborating with the gangs.\n\nSources here say the sanctions are having some impact because politicians who use the gangs now want to lie low.\n\nWhen Jean Simson Desanclos reached the deserted street at the edge of a gang-ridden suburb, he found nothing of his family except the burnt-out shell of the family's Black Suzuki. The charred remains of his wife and two daughters had already been taken to the morgue.\n\nJosette Fils Desanclos, 56, was taking one daughter Sarhadjie, 24, to university, and the other, Sherwood Sondje, shopping for her birthday. She was about to turn 29. Both girls had studied law like their father. They were his \"princesses\".\n\n\"On 20 August I lost everything,\" he says. \"And it wasn't just my family. In all, eight people were killed that day. It was a massacre.\"\n\nJean Simson Desanclos with his wife and two daughters\n\nMr Desanclos believes his wife and daughters resisted a kidnap attempt and were shot by a notorious gang called the 400 Mawazo, who were expanding their territory. \"I point my fingers at them,\" he says. The killings happened on the outskirts of an area called Croix des Bouquet, which was already under the gang's control.\n\nMr Desanclos, who is softly spoken and smartly dressed, is a lawyer and human rights activist. He is now a man bereft - longing for the voices he will never hear again.\n\n\"You are always waiting for a call from your child telling you, 'Dad this' or 'Dad that'. I lost the love of my life and the two children we raised in this difficult country. It's like you are a multi-millionaire and suddenly, you are poor.\"\n\nDespite the risk to himself, he is seeking justice for his wife and daughters. \"Family is a sacred thing. Not pursuing justice would be betraying them,\" he says. \"My daughters know their father is a fighter, who never abandons people, much less his own family. The risk is enormous, but what more can I lose now?\"\n\nHe wants the world to understand one thing about the Haiti of today - that the gangs have free rein.\n\n\"Criminals have taken a country hostage,\" he says. \"They make their own laws. They kill. They rape. They destroy. I would like my daughters to be the last sacrifice, the last young women killed.\"\n\nHe speaks with dignity, and conviction, but knows his wish may not be granted.\n\nIn Haiti, it is the gangs that function, rather than the state. Prime Minister Ariel Henry cannot even reach his own office because armed groups control the area. We made several requests for an interview with him, but these were declined.\n\nHaiti's government - such as it is - has issued \"a distress call\" for an international force to help restore order.\n\nThere's talk at the United Nations about the need for a non-UN armed force, but no-one seems in a hurry to lead it, or even to take part.\n\nForeign interventions have a bad name, and a bad history here. The last UN mission is remembered for allegations of sexual abuse, and for bringing cholera to Haiti, via UN peacekeepers from Nepal. The epidemic killed around 10,000 people.\n\nThere are mixed views here on the idea of foreign boots on the ground. There's support from some in business - who have used armed groups but now want them reined in - and from those trapped in gang-controlled areas. There's opposition from civil society leaders who say Haiti needs to go it alone.\n\nWhile the international community debates and demurs, it is massacres as usual for the gangs.\n\nLocal sources say armed groups are brutally expanding their territory because elections are overdue. When politicians come looking for votes - in gang held areas - they have to pay off the gunmen.\n\nThe latest atrocity was at the northern entrance to Port-au-Prince on 30 November. According to local media reports, some in the area spotted armed men - from an emerging gang - trying to gain a foothold, and informed police.\n\nThe gunmen retaliated at night, killing at least 11 people. Some of the bodies were set alight.\n\nThe boundaries here are once again being redrawn in blood. Those living in the city need to update their mental map, as one more area is turning from green to red.", "Passengers are being warned to expect Christmas rail disruption, with 5% of the rail network shut over the festive period for engineering works.\n\nThe disruption includes no trains running into or out of London Liverpool Street station from 25 December through to 2 January, Network Rail said.\n\nIt urged passengers to plan their journeys in advance.\n\nRail strikes could also impact services in the run-up to Christmas, with union bosses set to announce further action.\n\nNetwork Rail said most of the engineering works has been planned for when passenger trains don't run, such as on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and overnight.\n\nIt said 95% of the network would be open as usual, but key routes will be affected such as:\n\nThe works will cost a total of £120m, Network Rail said.\n\nIts chief executive Andrew Haines said: \"Christmas is an important time for the railway as it gives us the opportunity to get a lot of work done to improve the railway when trains aren't running, and therefore keep disruption for our passengers at a minimum.\n\n\"We've worked closely with our train operators to ensure the vast majority of the network is open for business over the festive period so people can travel by rail to spend time with their families and friends.\n\n\"However, some of these key upgrade projects will have an impact on services, so we're asking passengers to plan their journeys before travelling.\"\n\nMr Haines said the engineering work would mean \"more reliable journeys\" for passengers in future.\n\nSeparately, there are no dates set yet for rail strikes over the festive period, but workers are likely to stage more walkouts, with the RMT union warning it is likely to announce further action on Tuesday.\n\nUnion bosses accused train companies of refusing to make \"their promised written proposals\", and said Network Rail had \"refused to make any proposals promised at the conclusion of intensive talks last week\".\n\nMick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, said he would be \"recommending that we set out further phases of sustained industrial action in support of our members\".\n\n\"While we will remain available for meaningful negotiations it is now obvious that the other side is unwilling or unable to progress matters appropriately, so our action will be reinstated,\" he added.\n\nThere is already a rail strike set for 26 November which could affect travel to Christmas markets as well as some major sporting events.\n\nThe action by the train drivers' union Aslef at 12 train companies means only an extremely reduced service will operate on a limited number of routes on the day.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, said recent talks had let to firms believing they could see \"the outline of a credible deal\".\n\nIt said any further strikes \"will only cause further misery for customers and struggling businesses in the run up to Christmas and beyond\".\n\n\"The RMT leadership should now remove any uncertainty around Christmas and commit to protecting everyone's first festive period post-Covid from any strike disruption,\" the industry body said.\n\nTim Shoveller, Network Rail's chief negotiator, said striking would only make the \"precarious financial hole\" that he claimed the industry was in, bigger.\n\n\"Only through reform, that will not result in anyone losing their job, can savings be made that can then be converted into an improved offer.\"\n• None Which train services are affected by the latest strikes?", "Amber Heard's lawyers have filed an appeal against the result of her libel case with Johnny Depp.\n\nIn June, a US jury found Ms Heard defamed her ex-husband, Mr Depp, with an article in which she claimed she was a victim of domestic abuse.\n\nJurors awarded Mr Depp - who denied abusing Ms Heard - $15m (£12m) in compensatory and punitive damages.\n\nHer team have now asked for the jury's verdict to be reversed, or for a new trial entirely.\n\nMs Heard, 36, won one of three counter-claims against Mr Depp, 59, and was awarded $2m (£1.6m) in compensatory damages.\n\nBut she is now arguing the trial was held in the wrong state and also objected to the judge's decision to exclude certain pieces of evidence, including notes from therapists documenting allegations of abuse.\n\nIn a lengthy written document, obtained by Deadline, her lawyers argued: \"That holding, if allowed to stand, undoubtedly will have a chilling effect on other women who wish to speak about abuse involving powerful men.\"\n\nThe actress's team went on to note the previous unsuccessful libel suit the Pirates of the Caribbean star brought against The Sun newspaper in 2018, for calling him a \"wife-beater\" in print. Suggesting the subsequent, separate US libel case \"should never have gone to trial\" because \"another court had already concluded that Depp abused Heard on multiple occasions\".\n\n\"After Depp filed this case, the United Kingdom High Court of Justice [the High Court of England and Wales sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice] ruled in a separate defamation action brought by Depp that Heard's abuse allegations were true,\" they said.\n\nThe move comes a month after Mr Depp filed his own formal appeal against some of the verdict of the case. His representatives declined to comment on Heard's appeal.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Rum Diary co-stars, who divorced in 2017, presented conflicting versions of their doomed relationship in the trial.\n\nOver six weeks, the court in Fairfax, Virginia, heard tawdry details of Mr Depp and Ms Heard's tempestuous marriage, and its unhappy ending.\n\nPolls suggested many Americans were more interested in the legal drama than the war in Ukraine or a potentially historic ruling on abortion expected any day from the US Supreme Court.\n\nCoverage of the trial - which was televised and livestreamed - hit billions of views on social media.", "Donnie McKinnon died after a shooting on the Caribbean island on Saturday\n\nA 48-year-old man from Scotland has died after a bar shooting on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.\n\nDonnie McKinnon is understood to be from Lochaber in the Highlands. He was previously a manager at the Marcliffe Hotel in Aberdeen.\n\nAnother British man, Peter Jackson from Lancashire, was hurt in the incident in Soufriere on Saturday.\n\n\"Everyone knew them,\" one resident told St Lucia Times. \"They were community people. This is sad.\"\n\nThe Royal Saint Lucia Police Force said the shooting was under investigation.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"We are taking statements from individuals and we have officers on the ground.\"\n\nThe death in St Lucia is being investigated\n\nIt is understood Mr McKinnon moved to St Lucia several years ago, after working at the Marcliffe Hotel where he was a manager from 2007 until 2009.\n\nThe hotel said in a statement: \"All of us at the Marcliffe are devastated to hear of the death of Donnie McKinnon in such terrible and violent circumstances.\n\n\"We are all part of the Marcliffe family - staff past and present - and to lose Donnie in such a way has deeply saddened us all.\n\n\"We will remember him as the lovely, unassuming and very popular guy we all knew; he will be sorely missed. We send our love and condolences to his family and friends at this sad time.\"\n\nThe Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a statement: \"We are supporting the family of a British man who has died and a British man who has been injured in St Lucia.\"", "Mohamed El Bachiri lost his wife Loubna in the 2016 Brussels attacks\n\nOn a bridge overlooking a Brussels canal, Mohamed El Bachiri's face lights up in the winter sun as he remembers the mum of his three boys.\n\n\"Loubna was an angel, she was beautiful, she was always smiling, she was an extraordinary mother and wife,\" says Mohamed.\n\nThirty-four-year-old teacher Loubna Lafquiri was murdered on the Brussels metro on the morning of 22 March 2016.\n\nIn all, 32 people were killed by three suicide bombers in the attacks at Maelbeek station and Zaventem airport.\n\nTen men are now going on trial in the Belgian capital. Six of them have already been found guilty of involvement in the terror attacks in Paris in November 2015, which killed 130 people.\n\nSalah Abdeslam, the main suspect in the French trial who was detained four days before the Brussels attacks, is also among the defendants, along with others whom prosecutors claim hosted or helped certain attackers.\n\nOne of the 10, who is presumed killed in Syria, will be tried in absentia.\n\nBack in 2016, Mohamed El Bachiri was plunged into grief with the realisation he was now a widowed father to three children under the age of 10.\n\nHis immediate response? A Jihad of Love.\n\nThis, the name of the book he subsequently wrote, was intended to wrestle back the narrative from men who had grown up in his community and who had corrupted his Islamic faith.\n\n\"I needed to express a kind of anger - which is legitimate. My anger expresses itself in the jihad [struggle] of love. Sharing love. That's my way of violently responding to the terrorists. To deconstruct their ideology.\"\n\nI meet Mohamed in Molenbeek, one of the poorest districts of Brussels. It is where plotters of both the 2016 Brussels bombings and the Paris attacks had lived and were later given refuge amid a huge manhunt.\n\nWhenever such high-profile cases come to court, we the media often talk of an opportunity for justice to finally be done, or a moment where bereaved families can \"move on.\"\n\nBut Mohamed will not be attending the trial.\n\n\"I have three kids who really need my energy, who need strength,\" says Mohamed. \"It's not always obvious, but I really need to protect myself and I am sincerely afraid what the legal process might reawaken in me.\"\n\nDoes he ever allow himself to think about those who took away the \"love of his life\"?\n\n\"I think those men on trial, their thoughts are in hatred and darkness and negativity. And to wish them ill - I hold to the principles of humanism and I can't wish suffering on others. I don't have hatred, it brings nothing to your life. How to react to this is with a message of peace and love and not to be sad or negative.\"\n\nAs I and my Brussels colleagues began to think about how we would cover this trial in our adopted city, we considered which of the 32 bereaved families we would try to approach to ask if they felt able to talk.\n\nMohamed was an obvious choice, as a father of three who still lives in the community where some of the killers had plotted. So too was Charlotte Dixon-Sutcliffe, whose partner David was the only Briton murdered in the Brussels attacks; in early 2016, she and David had been living in Brussels with their son Henry, who was turning seven.\n\nWhat none of us knew was that an immediate, profound bond had been forged between Mohamed and Charlotte in the hours after the attacks, as photos of their respective missing loved ones David and Loubna circulated online.\n\n\"On my Facebook they always appeared next to each other and I was invested in her,\" says Charlotte.\n\n\"She was just so beautiful and she was with her three children. Her eyes were shining through the photograph.\"\n\nIn a park overlooking the River Thames in London, Charlotte tells her story with the same illuminated expression that Mohamed had when also describing Loubna.\n\n\"I just felt really attached to her and almost like - and this may sound ridiculous - but almost like their fates were intertwined.\"\n\nCharlotte lived with David and their son Henry in Brussels before David's death\n\nCharlotte says the connection with Loubna was overwhelming.\n\n\"It was almost like I was as invested in her being found as it was David. It's like she became a family member or someone that I cared about, even though I had never met her. It was heartbreaking for me with David. But it felt like I'd lost her as well.\"\n\nFor Charlotte, her treatment by the Belgian authorities had compounded her trauma as she had searched in vain for her partner.\n\n\"With my picture of David we were going into local police stations and they were gathering round and just saying, 'Well, it's nothing to do with us, it's a federal matter',\" she says.\n\nThree days after the attack, Charlotte got a call from a police social worker:\n\n\"It was dark. I was walking the dog around the streets. She said I had to prepare myself for the worst now. She basically told me that David was dead. She told me over the phone.\"\n\nCharlotte says the authorities became more supportive recently.\n\nMuch like how Mohamed channelled his grief into writing his book and sharing his message in schools, Charlotte founded an organisation called Survivors Against Terror.\n\n\"One of the big drives is to make sure that terrorist acts don't happen in the first instance. But if they do, having seen the poor treatment and some of the excellent treatment, it instils a massively strong drive to make a difference and to change things so that no one has to suffer in the way that we did.\"\n\nDefendants were surrounded by special police as the trial began on Monday\n\nAfter the attacks, she and her son Henry left Belgium to try to rebuild their lives but Charlotte has decided to return to Brussels for the start of the trial.\n\nThe defendants include Mohamed Abrini, who prosecutors say is the \"man in the hat\" who was captured on CCTV fleeing the airport after his suitcase of explosives failed to detonate.\n\n\"So many of them have already been found guilty and are serving sentences. But I think they weren't the only ones. I think that there was a huge misstep in the way that the Belgian state handled the attacks, [how it] behaved on the day of the attack and leading up to the attack.\"\n\nCharlotte points to intelligence failings in the run up to the attack and the decision to keep the metro running after the earlier airport bombings.\n\nThere were government resignations and apologies in the aftermath, but that is not enough for many bereaved families and survivors.\n\n\"Culpability obviously essentially rests with those who committed the attacks, but certainly there's a level of culpability by the Belgian state that I feel needs to be addressed,\" says Charlotte.\n\nAs well as shining a light on how the authorities acted, Charlotte welcomes the opportunity to give a victim impact statement.\n\n\"Me being able to present a picture of David in court will give me some peace. It will give me something that will help me connect a sense of justice for him.\"\n\nShe doesn't want her partner remembered as just one of 32 victims.\n\n\"David was incredibly funny, the power he had to be able to connect to other people, to be able to bring joy to people's lives - it's like it's the very polar opposite of the people in those boxes.\"\n\nThat's a reference to the glass boxes for the defendants in the specially constructed court at the former Nato headquarters where the trial will slowly play out over the next six months.\n\nIn September, the judge ruled the boxes should be reworked after defence lawyers argued they were like animal cages.\n\nIn all, the delayed trial is expected to cost up to 25 million euros ($25.9m; £21.5m).\n\nIn the greyness of the court and the grind of the legal process, Charlotte hopes her depiction of her David will provide some colour.\n\n\"I hope that joy stays with him. And I think maybe if I could bring to that place a sense of lightness and connection and love and happiness, then that's got to be something, doesn't it?\"\n\nIn the course of this working on this story we discovered the bond Charlotte felt for Loubna was reciprocated.\n\nWhen we had said our goodbyes to Mohamed, I asked if he was particularly attached to any of the other families of the victims.\n\n\"There was a British woman. She had a young boy and also lost her partner.\"\n\nWhen I explain we are also interviewing Charlotte and she is returning to his city for the trial a smile breaks out across his face.\n\nNeither knows how they will react to the coming months but both hope to meet each other and reinforce the solidarity and spirit the terrorists unwittingly created.\n\n\"They've created a network of people that talk about cohesion and love and community,\" says Charlotte.\n\n\"They destroyed some of us, but we come together and we're stronger. You know what? Our message is stronger. And that's why they won't win.\"", "Sofia kneels in the corner of the room, making herself as small as possible. Space, or the complete lack of it, is now the constant constraint in her life.\n\nThe 19-year-old is living in one single room with her boyfriend and his mother. Not only this, they're all sharing the same bed.\n\n\"I hate it,\" she says. \"I just want some personal space.\"\n\nEarlier this year, Sofia Prosyanyk fled Mariupol; the city besieged and eventually captured by Russia in May.\n\nShe met her boyfriend Yaroslav Moiseenko at an evacuation centre, before coming to live with him and his mother Nadiia in the village of Kalynivka, west of the capital Kyiv.\n\nBut Yaroslav and Nadiia returned to find their own home in ruins, destroyed during the failed Russian march on Kyiv at the start of the war.\n\nNow they all live in an out-house that used to be the family's \"summer kitchen\".\n\nThe floorspace in the room can be crossed in three strides. The bed and a fridge are on one side while a stove sits right by the door.\n\nIn between is a stool which they sit on for when they wash. Sixty-three-year-old Nadiia shows me how they lay down a plastic sheet to stop the floor getting wet.\n\nThey say that what's even worse is that sometimes they have to go to the toilet in here if it's too cold to use the outdoor bathroom.\n\n\"I hate to do that in front of everyone,\" says Sofia.\n\nShe now only feels \"normal\" when she's at work at a local petrol station, where there's a proper toilet and power.\n\nWhile we talk the lights go out which, she says, happens all the time. Millions of Ukrainians have been experiencing power cuts after repeated Russian strikes on the country's energy grid.\n\nNadiia says they use torches and candles but it's the suffocating lack of space that is the hardest thing for this family. At least in the summer they could open the door, but now it's too cold.\n\nFor Nadiia, the remains of her old house are right next door.\n\nWe crunch through the snow which covers the foundations of what used to be the ground floor rooms that made up her former home.\n\nHer family had started building it when she was just 14 years old.\n\nNow about to turn 64, Nadiia describes herself as \"homeless\" and cries as she explains how hard it is to let go of her memories when they lie, right there, amidst the rubble.\n\n\"When I want to go and take something, I keep remembering where all the things were in my old house,\" she says.\n\n\"There was a closet near the wall. Now when I want to take something from there, I catch myself thinking - there is nothing there anymore.\"\n\nComing home after the Russians had left their village, Kalynivka west of Kyiv, should have been a joy for Nadiia but instead it's a source of constant grief.\n\nThey hope that soon, via a charity called Nest, they will get a pre-fabricated house where Sofia could live with Yaroslav, while Nadiia would stay in the out-building.\n\nWe trundle along snow-covered tracks to another part of a village where men are busy putting up one of those prefab homes for 64-year-old Inna and her son.\n\nShe comes out to greet us but almost immediately bursts into tears, recalling those early weeks of the war.\n\n\"Everything was on fire,\" she tells me. \"Shells flew right above our heads.\"\n\nInna crying outside her home in Kalynivka\n\nThey left their home in March and returned in May, building a make-shift place to live on the site of where their old house had stood.\n\nWe go inside and it's clear why Inna's been prioritised for a pre-fab home as soon as possible.\n\nThe roof, such as it is, drips constantly onto a wet and dirty floor, while the kitchen is freezing cold. Inna often wrings her hands because of the pain of her swollen joints.\n\nWe crouch through another door into a dark back room and suddenly, it's stiflingly hot.\n\nSocks and clothes hang from a washing line along the ceiling.\n\nAt least it's warm in this part of the hastily-constructed home, but it's an unhealthy and oppressive heat coming from an old wood-burning stove.\n\nThe whole situation is taking its toll on Inna's health but she expresses a resilience that you hear from so many in Ukraine.\n\n\"We will get through everything,\" she says.\n\nHer hope is that Ukraine can win the war, \"as soon as possible\".\n\n\"So that there is peace and tranquillity. So that all soldiers return home alive and well. This is the main thing. The lack of light is not scary, we will survive.\"\n\nINSIDE THE WAR: The surrender hotline for Russian soldiers\n\nEXPLAINER: How much damage has Russia done to power supplies?\n\nON THE GROUND: Facing a harsh winter on the front line", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sound of 2023: Listen to all of the nominees\n\nThe post-pandemic resurgence in dance music is reflected in the longlist for BBC Radio 1's Sound of 2023, which tips new music for the coming year.\n\nThe nominees include hotly-tipped house producer Fred Again, drum and bass duo Piri & Tommy and the Mobo-award winning jungle musician Nia Archives.\n\nR&B girl group Flo and busker-turned-baladeer Cat Burns are also nominated.\n\nNow in its 21st year, the Sound Of list has predicted success for the likes of Adele, Stormzy, Sam Smith and Haim.\n\nThis year's longlist suggests that dance music will continue to dominate the charts next year - after club hits like LF System's Afraid To Feel and Eliza Rose's Baddest Of Them All became the soundtrack of summer 2022.\n\nThe Sound Of 2023 nominees include (clockwise from top left) Gabriels, Flo and Cat Burns\n\nBreakout British producer Fred Again is already a must-see live act, whose electrifying set at London's Boiler Room went viral earlier this year.\n\nBorn Fred Gibson, he's been a behind-the-scenes hitmaker for years, producing and writing hit singles for the likes of Ed Sheeran (Bad Habits), George Ezra (Shotgun), BTS (Make It Right) and Stormzy (Own It).\n\nHe struck out as a solo artist in 2020, releasing a trilogy of albums that blend house music with everyday samples and conversations recorded on his phone.\n\nBradford-born Nia Archives is at the forefront of the jungle music revival in the UK, whose fast-paced Forbidden Feelingz EP was praised for its \"laser-sharp\" songwriting and \"electrifying soundscapes\".\n\nReal-life couple Piri & Tommy, meanwhile, have become known for infectious, feel-good drum and bass tracks like Beachin' and Soft Spot.\n\nThe longlist also features US neo-soul band Gabriels, whose debut album Angels & Queens has \"a strong claim to the title of album of the year\", according to The Guardian's Alexis Petridis.\n\nThe band are fronted by former American Idol contestant Jacob Lusk, who recently told BBC News his time on the TV show had been \"treacherous\" and \"harrowing\".\n\nNigerian star Asake is on a hot streak at home with hits like Sungba and Joha, and looks set to replicate that success in the UK, with a sold out show at London's Brixton Academy scheduled for later this month.\n\nCat Burns has already scored a platinum-selling single, after her break-up ballad Go went viral on TikTok earlier this year.\n\nThe 22-year-old followed that up with support slots on Ed Sheeran's stadium tour, and a nomination for the Brits rising star award.\n\nThe longlist is completed by pop-punk singer Dylan, indie songwriter Rachel Chinouriri and alt-pop musician Biig Piig, who has been championed by Billie Eilish.\n\nPinkPantheress won the Sound Of 2022 - and was named best female at last week's MOBO Awards\n\nYou can listen to their biggest songs and find out more about their careers to date below.\n\nThe top five will be revealed in the new year on BBC Radio 1, with one artist announced each day from Sunday 1 to Thursday 5 January.\n\nThe prize is open to new artists, who have yet to score a top five album, or more than two top 10 singles by 31 October 2022. Artists who have appeared on TV talent shows within the last three years are also ineligible.\n\nLast year's poll was won by bedroom pop singer PinkPantheress, with breakout indie duo Wet Leg in second place and emotive pop singer Mimi Webb in third.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by ASAKE This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by BiigPiigVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 3 by CatBurnsVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 4 by Rachel Chinouriri This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 5 by iamdylanofficialVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 6 by FloLikeThisVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 7 by Fred again . . This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video 7 by Fred again . .\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 8 by BBC Music This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 9 by Nia Archives This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 10 by piri & tommy This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Zahawi - Unfair for unions to damage people's lives at Christmas\n\nIt is unfair for unions to \"disrupt people's lives\" with public-sector strikes at Christmas, Conservative chairman Nadhim Zahawi has said.\n\nHe said plans were in place to draft in the military to drive ambulances and secure borders if walkouts went ahead.\n\nMr Zahawi also told the BBC Russian President Vladimir Putin \"wants to see\" strikes, but unions criticised this.\n\nThousands of workers from various industries are set to strike this month in disputes over pay and conditions.\n\nSome unions say pay should match the cost of living, which is increasing at its fastest rate in 40 years, largely as a result of rising food and energy prices.\n\nSome of the most high-profile strikes have been called by unions representing workers in the NHS, the railways and the Royal Mail.\n\nNurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will strike over two days this month, in what is set to be their biggest walkout in the NHS's history.\n\nElsewhere, rail strikes will be held across four 48-hour periods in December and January, leaving passengers facing severe disruption to Christmas travel.\n\nIn an interview on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Mr Zahawi was asked what the government was doing to end the strikes.\n\nThe minister said President Putin's war in Ukraine - which has sent energy costs soaring - was the main driver of rising prices and pressure on pay.\n\nHe suggested some of the pay rises demanded would further stoke inflation - which is the increase in the price of something over time - which would \"hurt the most vulnerable\".\n\nThe government has repeatedly urged unions and employers to negotiate settlements and halt strike action, saying it can not afford pay rises to cover inflation.\n\nBut unions say workers have faced real-terms cuts to pay over many years and deserve a fair deal that reflects the current cost of living.\n\nWhen asked what the government would do to help the public deal with the impact of the strikes, Mr Zahawi said \"we are operationalising contingency plans\".\n\nThose plans include training about 2,000 military personnel and civil servants to support a range of services - including the Border Force at airports and ports - in the event of strike action.\n\nThe government is also planning for the potential deployment of military personnel to roles including ambulance driving and firefighting.\n\n\"It's unfair, in my view, for the unions to really damage and disrupt people's lives and livelihoods at Christmas,\" Mr Zahawi told Laura Kuenssberg.\n\n\"They should rethink and reflect on this because that is exactly what Putin wants to see. Let's not divide, let's come together.\"\n\nOpposition parties say the government is deflecting the blame for the strikes after refusing to give workers a fair pay rise.\n\n\"It is ludicrous and insulting to suggest Vladimir Putin is responsible for nurses going on strike,\" said Cabinet Office spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, Christine Jardine.\n\n\"The responsibility lies firmly with this Conservative government's shambolic failure to find a solution.\"\n\nPat Cullen, general secretary and chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing union, said using Russia's war in Ukraine as a justification for a real-terms pay cut for nurses was \"a new low for this government\".\n\n\"The public does not believe this kind of rhetoric and wants ministers to address our dispute,\" he said.\n\nThe shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said there was a compromise to be had on teachers' pay.\n\nThe government has offered teachers pay awards of between 5% and 8.9%, depending on their position, but education workers say this is nowhere near enough to address a real-terms pay cut and the impact of inflation running at more than 10%.\n\nBridget Phillipson said the compromise on teachers' pay was \"somewhere in the middle\"\n\nPressed on where the compromise should be reached, Ms Phillipson told the programme: \"It's often somewhere in the middle and that's why it's a process of negotiation about pay but also about terms and conditions.\"\n\nMs Phillipson said important decisions were not being taken \"because of the chaos that we've seen\" at the heart of government this year.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak, who took office about a month ago, is grappling with an economic crisis and a recession predicted to last at least a year.\n\nHis party's ratings in the polls have slumped well below those of Labour, whose candidate won a by-election in Chester with a large majority earlier this week.\n\nThe 13.6% swing from Conservatives to Labour in the Chester by-election would be enough for Labour to form a government if the result was replicated in a national poll.\n\nWhen asked about the result, Mr Zahawi said there was \"no shying away from the fact that the internal challenges of the Conservative party has probably led to the gap in the polls\".\n\nHe said the party was undertaking \"a rebuilding exercise\" after a period of turmoil under former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who resigned over the instability caused by her mini-budget.", "Firms are not investing, prices are rising and the economy is contracting - a dire economic picture that is set to last into 2023, the UK's biggest business group has warned.\n\nThe UK could even face a decade of lost economic growth if action is not taken, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) boss Tony Danker said.\n\n\"We don't have people we need, nor the productivity,\" said Mr Danker.\n\nThe CBI expects the economy to shrink by 0.4% next year.\n\nIt marks a downgrade from its previous forecast, with the lobby group saying the UK is suffering from \"stagflation\", which is a combination of rising prices - or inflation - and economic stagnation.\n\nThe CBI, which represents 190,000 UK businesses, said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had succeeded in stabilising the markets in the wake of Liz Truss's mini-budget.\n\nBut it said that the UK is in recession and that action is now necessary to boost productivity and economic growth in the long-term.\n\nIt urged the government to address worker shortages and find ways to \"unlock\" business investment.\n\n\"There is no time to waste... we cannot afford to have another decade where both are stagnant,\" Mr Danker added.\n\nAt the group's conference last month, he called on politicians to be \"practical\" about using immigration to solve worker shortages and boost economic growth.\n\nAlthough the CBI expects the economy to contract next year, its outlook is not as pessimistic as the government's independent forecasting body, the Office for Budget Responsibility, which last month predicted the economy would shrink by 1.4% in 2023.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Today programme, Mr Danker said there were two reasons why the CBI was more optimistic.\n\nFirstly, he said, the CBI expects interest rates to come down quicker than the OBR is predicting. Secondly, Mr Danker said the CBI spoke to many firms that had plans to invest but had paused them because they were worried about the current climate.\n\n\"We think that if the government can help create momentum then actually those firms will choose to invest,\" he said.\n\nThe government has said the country is already in recession, which is defined as when an economy shrinks for two three-month periods in a row. It is a sign an economy is performing badly, with companies often making less money and unemployment rising.\n\nGlobal factors are partly to blame, with energy and food prices soaring this year due to the war in Ukraine and Covid.\n\nBut the UK also faces significant labour supply challenges due to it being more difficult for small businesses to trade with Europe or recruit workers due to Brexit, which ended freedom of movement for EU citizens coming to the UK and vice versa.\n\nThere will be \"no New Year cheer for the economy\", the CBI added, with its latest forecast suggesting that business investment is set to be 9% below pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024.\n\nThere will also be a year-long fall in consumer spending as the squeeze on household budgets continues, it said.\n\nWhile inflation, which measures how the cost of living increases over time, will have peaked, it said that prices will still be rising at a pace \"significantly above\" the Bank of England's 2% target.\n\nA spokesman for the Treasury said: \"We have been honest that there are tough times ahead for the UK economy in the face of strong global headwinds, and we are not alone in that challenge.\"\n\nHe also pointed towards measures announced in the recent Autumn Statement, such as setting the Annual Investment Allowance at £1m from 1 April 2023, encouraging firms to invest in plants and machinery.", "Agoraphobia is twice as common in women as in men\n\nChelsea Birkett has agoraphobia and has scarcely left her house in four years, but the Covid lockdown meant she got a job working from home 100% of the time.\n\nHowever that changed when the pandemic restrictions were lifted and employers pushed for people to spend time in the office again.\n\nSince then Chelsea has applied for hundreds of roles but has been unsuccessful.\n\nEven when jobs are listed as home-working they still want people in the office regularly.\n\nChelsea, who lives in Aberdeen with her two young daughters, says she has a fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult, after a panic attack while working as a prison custody officer.\n\n\"If I was to have a panic attack outside, I wouldn't be able to escape the situation,\" the 30-year-old says.\n\n\"I'm receiving help, and I'm slowly getting better. I can manage a short walk now, but I still struggle leaving the house.\"\n\nChelsea lives in Aberdeen with her daughters Eleira, Scarlett-May and their dog Dinah\n\nThe NHS website says many people assume agoraphobia is simply a fear of open spaces but it is actually a more complex condition.\n\nIf someone with agoraphobia finds themselves in a stressful situation where help would not be available if things went wrong they could experience the symptoms of a panic attack.\n\nIt is estimated that two people in every 100 in the UK have a panic disorder and a third of those people will go on to develop agoraphobia.\n\nIt is twice as common in women as in men and usually starts between the ages of 18 and 35, the NHS says.\n\nChelsea, a qualified paralegal, developed the phobia in September 2018 while working as a prison custody officer.\n\n\"I had just taken a prisoner from the court to the holding cell and I just remember not being able to breathe very well,\" she says.\n\n\"I was not feeling good at all and thought I must be coming down with a chest infection so I asked my boss if I could go home.\"\n\nThat weekend the feeling of breathlessness continued so she booked herself a doctor's appointment.\n\n\"I went to the doctors on the Monday and took the biggest panic attack I've ever had in my life,\" Chelsea says.\n\n\"I couldn't breathe, I was disoriented and had this like mad sense of fear. Ever since that day, I've not been able to leave the house.\"\n\nShe received sick pay from her employer before quitting in 2020 and was unemployed until remote working jobs became more common due to the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\n\"Because of that, I actually got an admin job with an online mental health platform really easily,\" she says.\n\n\"I didn't even apply for it. I uploaded my CV on to [jobs website] Indeed and they reached out to me.\"\n\nThen, when restrictions began to be lifted, Ms Birkett's employer started to push for people to come back into the office.\n\n\"For me that just wasn't possible, so I left,\" she says.\n\n\"Now even when jobs are advertised as home-working, I get told that I'd need to come into the office once a month, or for training. Finding one that is 100% remote is near impossible.\"\n\nChelsea says she ideally wanted to work part-time hours but would make a full-time job work around her children if she could be flexible with her hours.\n\n\"Having a job I could do from home would make a phenomenal difference financially to us as a family,\" she says.\n\n\"It would help my mental health too, to have more purpose.\"\n\nA study carried out by social business Timewise found that only 27% of Scottish job adverts mention roles are open to flexible working.\n\nFlexible working is a way of working that suits an employee's needs, for example having flexible start and finish times, or working from home.\n\nFlexibility Works, a social business which aims to help employers develop more flexible workplaces, believe that the lack of employers advertising flexibility within their job roles is making it harder for the estimated 90,000 Scottish adults currently seeking work, to find it.\n\nChelsea has spent a lot of time looking for a job she can work completely remotely\n\nThe business' co-founder and director, Nikki Slowey, says: \"Many people don't know where to find flexible jobs.\"\n\n\"Not helped by the fact that even companies open to flexible working don't always think to promote this in their job adverts.\n\n\"Without flexible working, many brilliantly skilled and experienced people simply can't work at all - this is particularly the case for parents, carers and people with a health condition.\"\n\nChelsea has been job searching for the past 16 months and said that the constant knockbacks and rejections had started to affect her self-esteem and confidence.\n\n\"It's hard because I'm applying for like everything and I've tried explaining my situation to recruiters,\" she said.\n\n\"Even though I've always had excellent reviews for my work and I know I'm capable, I just get told time and again that unfortunately they'll have to take me off their list.\n\n\"It's so disheartening and frustrating given that for so long things had to be 100% remote and companies still functioned fine.\"\n\nChelsea receives counselling from Aberdeen University and practices exposure therapy to try and get over her phobia.\n\n\"Until then I just hope I can find a remote job,\" she said.", "Let's be honest: when politicians talk about the structures of government - how politics works, or doesn't - it doesn't set many hearts racing.\n\nI must admit to the odd flutter, but then I am paid to be a bit weird about this stuff.\n\nWhat really matters are outcomes, rather than processes.\n\nLabour's bet is that things won't improve without a re-wiring of who takes decisions and where.\n\nOr, to put it another way, better processes, as they see them, will lead to better outcomes, they hope.\n\nBut how much of this will they deliver if they win?\n\nThey haven't absolutely committed to any of it yet; that will wait for their programme for government, their manifesto, a few weeks before the next general election.\n\nSenior figures tell me Keir Starmer does believe in everything in Gordon Brown's weighty and lengthy treatise — he would have insisted on anything he didn't like going in the bin before the document saw the light of day.\n\nOn the face of it, you might wonder what connects the House of Lords, the future integrity or otherwise of the United Kingdom and communities that feel left behind.\n\nLabour's thesis is that a perceived lack of political influence in all sorts of spots around the UK, away from the south east of England, drove many people to back Brexit and many in Scotland to back independence.\n\nPerhaps, but then plenty were motivated by a more straightforward belief in the propositions they endorsed in those referendums.\n\nKeir Starmer commissioned former PM Gordon Brown to write Labour's report on constitutional change\n\nLabour is also arguing such a centralised political system reinforces a sense of dislocation, irritation and economic under-performance.\n\nPerhaps, but governments for around a century have sought to address the inequalities of geography in the UK, with at best limited success.\n\nAnd there isn't likely to be much extra new money about for a Labour government to give all this a kickstart, if indeed they concluded money would make an important difference.\n\nThe Conservatives argue this all amounts to navel-gazing and they've done plenty of devolution themselves — handing power away from Westminster.\n\nAnd the Scottish National Party reckon Labour's idea of giving more power to the Scottish government and parliament are underwhelming and reheated.\n\nThen there's the issue of what, in the end, Labour chooses to focus on.\n\nTo govern, or aspire to govern, is to prioritise —and an incoming government, of whatever complexion, will inherit one heck of an in-tray.\n\n\"It's not the first one hundred days stuff, this,\" as one party source acknowledged.\n\nBut the announcements reveal a willingness for Labour to embark on a wholesome conversation beyond immediate short-term political horizons, in the hope a roadworthy set of ideas emerges for it to attempt to deliver.\n\nAnd that, in itself, is indicative of a confidence, borne of opinion polls that now suggest Labour can win the next election.\n\nA criticism that has dogged the Labour leader has been that few people know what he stands for.\n\nSir Keir Starmer is beginning - at last, some say - and albeit in rather general terms, to paint the broad canvas of his vision for a Labour government.\n\nHe knows the demand for detail will soon grow, as will the scrutiny.\n• None Can Labour revive its fortunes in Scotland?", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nBrazil delivered an ominous message to their World Cup rivals with a dazzling display of attacking brilliance to dismantle South Korea and set up a quarter-final against Croatia.\n\nNeymar made a goalscoring return to action after injury at Stadium 974, but Brazil's superstar was only one element of a devastating performance that ripped South Korea to shreds and settled this last-16 game well before half-time.\n\nVinicius Jr set the tone with a composed penalty-area finish from Raphinha's cross after seven minutes, and Neymar doubled Brazil's advantage from the spot six minutes later for a foul on Richarlison.\n\nIt was Neymar's 76th goal for Brazil, leaving him just one behind the legendary Pele's all-time record.\n\nRicharlison then added to his personal showreel of great goals at this World Cup when he followed his spectacular volley against Serbia with a real work of art, controlling the ball three times with his head and foot before moving into position to take Thiago Silva's pass in his stride and score.\n\nBrazil went four up with another gem after 36 minutes, Vinicius picking out Lucas Paqueta for West Ham's expensive acquisition to score with a well-placed volley.\n\nSouth Korea, to their great credit, continued to compete and forced several fine saves from Brazil keeper Alisson, before substitute Paik Seung-ho pulled one back with a glorious 30-yard strike to add to the night's collection of special goals.\n\nFor 45 minutes at Stadium 974, Brazil hit heights no other team has reached at this World Cup, demonstrating the level that will be required to overcome Tite's team, producing a collection of goals constructed in their country's best traditions.\n\nAnd it was all achieved with the smooth freedom of expression that is Brazil's trademark, a four-goal half-time advantage going some way to demonstrating their supremacy.\n\nRicharlison's goal was a golden moment of the tournament, followed by a team dance that rather incongruously included coach Tite.\n\nNeymar eased himself back into action with silky touches and his goal, before being replaced late on after proving his fitness following the ankle injury sustained against Serbia that forced him out of two group games.\n\nHe is part of a potent Brazil attacking triumvirate alongside Richarlison and Vinicius, both on the scoresheet and both making a serious mark on this World Cup.\n\nTite was so comfortable with Brazil's position that he was able to give Alisson a rest and send on third-choice keeper Weverton for a taste of World Cup action.\n\nBrazil will now be heavy favourites against Croatia after putting down a marker with the best display - or at least 45 minutes before they eased up - by any team in Qatar so far.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nAlisson outstanding as Brazil also shine in defence\n\nBrazil's three-goal victory margin was convincing and deserved, but there was another aspect to this win that showed just how strong Tite's squad is.\n\nSouth Korea may have been outclassed for large parts of the game but they still had plenty of chances, only to run into one of the world's best goalkeepers in Liverpool's Alisson.\n\nFor all the understandable attention on Neymar and his attacking cohorts, Brazil have a last line of defence that stands comparison with anyone at this tournament, with Manchester City's Ederson a world-class deputy and Weverton seeing action here.\n\nSouth Korea never gave up trying to create opportunities but Alisson was outstanding, tipping over a long-range effort from Hwang Hee-chan before reacting quickly to block him after the break, and racing off his line to thwart Tottenham's Son Heung-min when he was clean through.\n\nBrazil may be full of attacking options but they also have the protection of Alisson, who has taken his outstanding form at club level this season on to the world stage.\n• None Attempt missed. Dani Alves (Brazil) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Rodrygo.\n• None Attempt missed. Hwang Hee-Chan (Korea Republic) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Hong Chul.\n• None Attempt missed. Bremer (Brazil) header from very close range misses to the left. Assisted by Raphinha with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Dani Alves (Brazil) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Gabriel Martinelli.\n• None Offside, Korea Republic. Kim Min-Jae tries a through ball, but Cho Gue-Sung is caught offside.\n• None Goal! Brazil 4, Korea Republic 1. Paik Seung-Ho (Korea Republic) left footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner following a set piece situation.\n• None Cho Gue-Sung (Korea Republic) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nDialogue is now taking place between Buckingham Palace and a black British charity boss who was repeatedly asked where she was \"really\" from during a royal reception, the BBC understands.\n\nNgozi Fulani was questioned about her background by Lady Susan Hussey at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday - later likening it to \"an interrogation\".\n\nLady Hussey has since left her honorary role within the Royal Household.\n\nShe has offered her \"profound apologies\" through a Palace statement.\n\nIn the statement on Wednesday, the Palace said they had \"reached out to Ngozi Fulani on this matter\" - but the next day, Ms Fulani told the BBC no direct contact had been made.\n\nThe BBC now understands dialogue is taking place with Ms Fulani's team - but at this stage no further details are being shared.\n\nLady Hussey, Prince William's godmother, remains willing to make a personal apology if it would be welcomed, the BBC has also been told.\n\nNgozi Fulani - pictured on the far left - was one of the campaigners attending a reception which was hosted by the Queen Consort (centre)\n\nLady Hussey was the late Queen's lady-in-waiting and was seen as a key and trusted figure in the Royal Household for decades.\n\nPart of her latest role had involved helping to host events at Buckingham Palace.\n\nMs Fulani was a guest at one of these events last Tuesday - a reception representing domestic violence which she attended as part of her work with the charity Sistah Space.\n\nShe described how Lady Hussey moved her hair to see her name badge and then repeatedly challenged her to explain where she was from.\n\nLady Susan Hussey was a key and trusted figure in the British royal household for decades\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday, Ms Fulani said: \"It was like an interrogation.\n\n\"I guess the only way I can explain it, she's determined: 'Where are you from? Where are your people from?'\"\n\nMs Fulani also rebuffed suggestions that Lady Hussey's remarks had anything to do with her age.\n\nShe had been representing her charity, which supports women of African and Caribbean heritage across the UK who have faced domestic and sexual abuse, at the event.\n\nLady Hussey's remarks overshadowed the Prince and Princess of Wales's trip to Boston.\n\nAt the time, a spokesperson for Prince William said \"racism has no place in our society\".\n\nHe added: \"The comments were unacceptable, and it is right that the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect.\"\n\nMs Fulani's team has been approached for comment about the latest dialogue.", "Prince Harry speaks of the \"leaking and... planting of stories\" as part of a \"dirty game\" in a new trailer for the Harry and Meghan series on Netflix.\n\nHe describes the \"pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution\" in an apparent reference to his wife, Meghan, and mother, Princess Diana, and their experience of royal life.\n\nThe issue of the royals and race is raised, with a commentator saying: \"It's about hatred. It's about race.\"\n\nThe latest trailer from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex reveals a series of hard-hitting comments which show no sign of offering any olive branches to the Royal Family.\n\nInstead there is a commentary that claims \"there was a war against Meghan to suit other people's agendas\".\n\nKiss and tell: The Netflix series promises an inside story of the couple's relationship\n\nOver an image of senior royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony, Prince Harry says: \"There's a hierarchy of the family. You know there's leaking, but there's also planting of stories.\"\n\nPrince Harry and Meghan, who are no longer \"working royals\", were not allowed on to that symbolic balcony for the late Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Netflix This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA previous trailer last week drew comments about the choice of a stony-faced picture of Catherine, Princess of Wales and this latest teaser includes another austere picture of her, alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort, and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex.\n\nThe series is being released in two sections of three episodes, the first on 8 December at 08.00am, and then a week later on 15 December.\n\nThe latest trailer shows a quickfire narrative of the couple's difficult relationship with other royals, the media and the public - which ended with Prince Harry and Meghan moving to the US.\n\nIt begins with Meghan being warmly received by the public - treated like a \"royal rock star\".\n\nBut then it suggests \"everything changed\", with Prince Harry talking of leaks and planted stories. Christopher Bouzy, who founded a company specialising in tackling social media misinformation, appears in the trailer and says: \"It's about hatred. It's about race.\"\n\nMr Bouzy has been a supporter of Meghan and warned about online attacks against her.\n\nThe Netflix series will be followed by Prince Harry's memoir\n\nThe trailer links Meghan's experience to the pressure faced by Princess Diana using images of the intense press attention surrounding her - with Meghan saying \"I realised, they're never going to protect you\".\n\n\"We know the full truth,\" says Prince Harry at the end, introducing a series which will have a 15 rating, with the Netflix series warning it deals with \"discrimination\".\n\nBut questions have been raised on social media about some of the footage shown in the trailer - with some of the pictures apparently coming from events not involving the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.\n\nA brief image of photographers rushing to take pictures was claimed on Twitter to have been filmed at Crawley Magistrates' Court, rather than an engagement involving the couple. Netflix has been approached for a comment.\n\nA security guard outside the court in a recording from last year\n\nThe Netflix series shows a clip of photographers rushing to take pictures\n\nBuckingham Palace has not officially responded to the latest glimpse of the revelations ahead from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.\n\nBut there is likely to be concern about what accusations might be made, and whether the Harry and Meghan show will overshadow the efforts of other royals.\n\nThe TV show in the run-up to Christmas will also be followed by the publication of Prince Harry's memoir in the new year.\n\nLast week, a teaser for the Netlix series was released at the same time as Prince Harry's brother, the Prince of Wales, was in the US to present his Earthshot environmental prize.\n\nThe documentary promises a \"behind closed doors\" account of why Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020 - and audiences will be looking to see if they say more about the issues raised in an interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey.\n\nMeghan had described a lonely and isolated life within the Royal Family and had complained about a lack of support.\n\nShe also suggested an unnamed family member had asked \"how dark\" their son Archie's skin might be.\n\nThe trailer for the upcoming documentary comes against a backdrop of a race row over comments to a black British guest at Buckingham Palace.\n\nLady Susan Hussey, Prince William's godmother, stood down from her honorary palace duties last week after Ngozi Fulani, the founder of the charity Sistah Space, described how she had been repeatedly asked where she \"really\" came from at a reception.\n\nA spokesman for Prince William responded to the row by saying that \"racism has no place in our society\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Passengers were evacuated and bomb disposal unit was sent to Glasgow Airport\n\nPassengers were evacuated and flights were cancelled at Glasgow Airport over a suspicious luggage item - which bomb disposal teams found was \"innocent\".\n\nPolice were called to the scene at about 06:00 and passengers were moved into the car park for two hours.\n\nStaff provided emergency blankets to protect against the cold and handed out water.\n\nGlasgow Airport confirmed 22 flights had been cancelled and three had been diverted.\n\nPolice sealed off the central search area and domestic arrivals area before a Royal Navy bomb disposal unit was sent to the scene.\n\nQueues built up outside Glasgow Airport following concern of an item in a passenger's bag\n\nThe Explosive Ordnance Disposal team (EOD) team confirmed the item was \"innocent in nature\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"Around 05:55 police were called to a report of a suspicious item within the security search hall of Glasgow Airport.\n\n\"As a precautionary measure, and in accordance with procedures, the check-in and security search hall areas were closed to the public and a cordon implemented.\"\n\nAt about 12:30 Police Scotland said passengers were allowed back into the building.\n\nGlasgow Airport said staff had welcomed passengers back into the terminal and provided assistance.\n\nA spokesperson added: \"We would like to thank our passengers for their patience.\"\n\nSome flights had departed from the airport over the course of the morning.\n\nMike McPherson, from Glasgow, told the BBC that phone signal kept dropping in and out as passengers checked for flight updates online.\n\nHe had been waiting in the car park from 10:00 with a flight booked to London for a conference.\n\nHe said many people continued to arrive expecting flights to take off, but there were no announcements provided.\n\nLaura and Ian Snee from Kirriemuir are hopeful their travel plans will not be cancelled\n\nIan Snee and wife Laura, 55, had arrived at the airport at 07:00 and had spent most of the morning waiting outside in the cold.\n\nThe couple from Kirriemuir, Angus were due on a 10:45 flight to the Canaries for a cruise.\n\nIan said: \"We stepped off the bus and at that point it didn't look like anything untoward was happening - but we did notice there wasn't anyone getting in the building.\n\n\"At that point the terminal was full - then we tried further up to get into building and police stopped us. They moved us to car park but we couldn't get any information.\"\n\nIan said the crowd outside the airport had been in good spirits.\n\nHe added. \"Staff are going round with emergency blankets to make sure people are warm and we've got water.\n\n\"Although it's cold there's nobody moaning asking why we're delayed - these things are meant to keep us safe.\"\n\nIan said he was hopeful that they would make their 23:00 sailing.\n\nPolice officers sealed off areas of Glasgow Airport following reports of a suspicious package\n\nThis is not the first time there's been a security alert at Glasgow Airport.\n\nThe most serious was in the summer of 2007 when two men drove a burning Jeep at the main entrance of the departures hall, attempting to use gas cylinders in the vehicle to cause a huge explosion.\n\nThe scene at Glasgow Airport after the 2007 attack\n\nThey were tackled by staff at the airport, one of whom, John Smeaton, became something of a local hero and was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.\n\nThe attack prompted a major rethink of how vehicle access to the airport is managed. Now all traffic apart from buses and taxis are routed away from the front of the building and substantial barriers are in place.\n\nThe difficulty for those who try to make public buildings secure is that groups or individuals who want to threaten them will always seek new ways to get round any measures put in place in response to previous attacks.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "England captain Harry Kane scores his first goal of the 2022 World Cup to double their lead against Senegal in the last 16.\n\nWatch all the World Cup action across the BBC Sport website and on demand on BBC iPlayer.\n\nWatch more of our World Cup 2022 video\n\nAvailable to UK users only.", "President Muhammadu Buhari's wife, Aisha Buhari, has been Nigeria's first lady since he took office in 2015\n\nA Nigerian university student arrested and detained for more than two weeks after he allegedly defamed President Muhammadu Buhari's wife on Twitter has apologised to the first lady.\n\nAminu Adamu Mohammed was released on Friday after authorities dropped the charges on ''compassionate grounds.\".\n\nHe denied defaming Aisha Buhari in a tweet suggesting she had misused public money to her satisfaction.\n\nBut in a series of tweets and video messages over the weekend, the 24-year-old undergraduate apologised to Mrs Buhari for the initial tweet.\n\n''It was never my intention to hurt your feelings'' he said, promising to ''change for the better.''\n\nMr Mohammed also thanked Mrs Buhari for forgiving him, describing her as ''our mother.''\n\nHe described his experience as ''the darkest hours of my life.''\n\nHe did not give details but he expressed his ''heartfelt gratitude'' to those who showed him support saying his case should serve as a ''lesson to all of us\".\n\nAmnesty International said Aminu Adamu Mohammed was subjected to \"torture\" after his arrest\n\nHis apology to Mrs Buhari has sparked controversy on social media in Nigeria with many users saying the first lady should apologise to him instead because of the way he was treated.\n\nBut there are some who say his apology was right in order to resolve the dispute.\n\nThe arrest and the subsequent charge against the student had sparked outrage in Nigeria with many social media users and rights campaigners calling for his immediate release.\n\nOn Thursday, Amnesty International said Mr Mohammed was subjected to \"torture\" and other forms of \"ill-treatment\" after his arrest, calling it a \"deeply repressive act\" that \"brazenly violates his human rights\". Nigerian authorities have not yet commented on these allegations.\n\nMr Mohammed is studying environmental management at the Federal University in Dutse, in the northern state of Jigawa, and is due to start his final exams on Monday.\n• None Student charged for tweet about Nigeria first lady", "An EasyJet flight travelling from Poland to the UK was diverted to the Czech Republic after a \"possible bomb\" was reported on board.\n\nThe flight from Krakow to Bristol landed safely after being diverted to Prague Airport on Sunday evening.\n\nCzech police said its pyrotechnicians attended the scene to investigate.\n\nPrague Airport later tweeted: \"No dangerous object was found on the plane after the pyrotechnic inspection.\"\n\nThe flight - EZY6276 - was an hour into its two-and-a-half hour journey when the Airbus A320 aircraft landed at Vaclav Havel Airport Prague.\n\nOfficials for Prague Airport tweeted: \"At 22:50 a diverted aircraft landed safely on the Prague Airport Krakow-Bristol route.\n\n\"There was reported a possible bomb on board an aircraft.\n\n\"All actions to ensure the safety of passengers and all air traffic are currently being carried out by Police of the Czech Republic.\"\n\nEasyJet has been contacted by the BBC for a comment.", "Talks aimed at averting train strikes before Christmas are expected to continue on Monday, after the RMT union rejected an initial offer by the group representing train companies.\n\nThe latest round of strikes by union members at 14 train firms and Network Rail is due to begin in eight days.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said its offer would allow for a 4% pay rise this year and another 4% next year.\n\nBut the RMT said the offer did not meet its criteria for pay or conditions.\n\nIndustrial action is currently due to take place across four 48-hour periods: 13-14 December, 16-17 December, 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nIndustry sources have said that if the strikes are to be called off, this needs to happen by the end of Monday to avoid disruption for passengers.\n\nThe RDG - which represents the 14 train operators - set out a number of proposed changes to working practices which it said would help to fund a pay rise for staff of 4% this year, backdated to the beginning of the financial year, followed by another 4% next year.\n\nThese include repurposing or closing ticket offices, with staff having new \"multi-skilled\" roles and Sunday working where it is not in place already.\n\nOther proposals by the RDG to \"secure the future of the industry\" included drivers operating the train doors in more areas, although it insists guards would be still be on board.\n\nThe group also proposed the use of part-time contracts and flexible working patterns, which it said would help bring in a more diverse workforce who could fit in shifts around other commitments. There would be a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies until April 2024 too.\n\nThe RDG called on the union to avoid \"upsetting the travel plans of millions and cause real hardship for businesses which depend on Christmas custom\".\n\nHowever, the RMT union's general secretary Mick Lynch said the proposals would not be acceptable to its members.\n\n\"We have rejected this offer as it does not meet any of our criteria for securing a settlement on long-term job security, a decent pay rise and protecting working conditions,\" he said.\n\nMr Lynch added that if the plan was implemented, it would \"not only mean the loss of thousands of jobs\" because of the closure of ticket offices, for example, but also the use of \"unsafe practices\" like driver-only operated trains.\n\nHowever, the RDG said driver-only operated trains were already used on 45% of services and \"will not compromise passenger safety\".\n\nHow will the strikes affect you? Share your experiences.\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper described the RMT's rejection as \"incredibly disappointing\".\n\nHe added the government would continue to play its part in facilitating talks between the unions and employers.\n\nJohn Junior, who regularly takes the train from Manchester to London, said he was planning to visit friends in the capital on 17 December but is now considering other options.\n\n\"Everyone has the right to go on strike but not over the festive period. That's disgraceful. It's more stress on everyone,\" the IT consultant said.\n\nThe 34-year-old said he believes rail workers deserve a pay rise, but said the strikes made him worry a bit about the reliability of booking trains, having been hit by disruption on the Avanti West Coast line.\n\n\"Something needs to be done. I think the government needs to step in,\" he added.\n\nThe RDG offer is separate to negotiations with Network Rail, which maintains the railways throughout Britain and employs signallers and maintenance workers - about half of the workers in the dispute.\n\nOn Sunday, Network Rail made what it described as its \"best and final\" offer to its staff, which included a 5% pay rise this year and 4% next year, and no compulsory redundancies for workers in its general grades and controllers until 31 January 2025.\n\nThe RMT's national executive committee will consider Network Rail's proposal on Monday.\n\nThe rail industry is not the only sector to face strike action, and more workers are expected to walk out this month, as demands grow for better working conditions and pay increases in line with rising prices.\n\nRoyal Mail is set to be hit by a series of one-day strikes in December, and as a result it has asked people to post Christmas mail earlier than usual.\n\nHospitality bosses have raised concerns that if rail strikes go ahead in the upcoming weeks, pubs, restaurants and cafes will be severely affected during what is usually the busiest time of the year.\n\nUK Hospitality recently warned that the strike action will cost the sector about £1.5bn in lost sales.\n\nSome 40,000 workers are expected to walk out and there is likely to be disruption in the days around the strikes due to trains not being in the right places.\n\nThe rail industry is under pressure to save money after the pandemic left a hole in its finances, and bosses say reforms are needed to modernise the railway and make pay rises affordable.\n\nThe RDG said there would be opportunities for redeployment and voluntary redundancy programmes for those rail workers who wished to leave.\n\nThe proposals it set out would have had to go to local representatives for approval.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe number of people killed in crashes on one of Scotland's most notorious stretches of road have risen to their highest level in 20 years.\n\nThirteen people have lost their lives on the 112-mile section of the A9 between Inverness and Perth this year.\n\nThere have been attempts to improve safety while work continues on a £3bn project to dual about 77 miles of remaining single carriageway.\n\nBut campaigners say local residents are in constant fear of the next crash.\n\nTransport Scotland said it recognised that the \"concerning\" increase in fatalities required urgent attention.\n\nTransport Minister Jenny Gilruth said the Scottish government was \"absolutely committed\" to dualling the A9, but she could not put a date on when it would be complete until after a procurement process.\n\nShe told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme she expected to receive advice on the process in coming weeks, adding that short-term actions to improve safety would be brought before parliament.\n\nMs Gilruth added that she had been told by police that redesign of the A9 was only part of the solution.\n\nConcerns over safety on the A9 - which is Scotland's longest road, running for 230 miles from Scrabster, near Thurso, to Dunblane, near Stirling - date back decades.\n\nOfficial figures show there were 15 deaths on the Inverness to Perth stretch in 1988, then 21 the following year.\n\nIn 2011, the Scottish government pledged to dual the remaining single carriageway parts of that section of the road.\n\nAccording to the A9 Safety Group, whose members include Bear Scotland, Police Scotland and Highland Council, some 77% of all fatal and serious accidents on that stretch took place on single carriageways.\n\nOver the last 10 years, work has been completed on two sections, totalling 11 miles of road.\n\nThe Scottish government said key preparations had begun on eight of the remaining nine sections. Design work to identify a preferred route for the Pass of Birnam to Tay Crossing is ongoing.\n\nThe A9 Dual Action Group campaign has called for a revised timetable and detailed plans for all the outstanding sections - and a renewed commitment to the project being completed by 2025.\n\nCampaigner Laura Hansler, who lives in Kincraig, near Aviemore, said those living near the A9 had a feeling of dread when they heard the sound of the emergency services.\n\n\"The moment we hear a siren out on the A9 we collectively hold our breaths, because we are wondering who is coming next?\" she said.\n\n\"Is it going to be one of mine, is it going to be a neighbour?\"\n\nMs Hansler said the action group's main goal was to prevent the number of head-on crashes which have happened on the road.\n\nShe said the mix of single and dual carriageway between Inverness and Perth confused some drivers, and heightened the risk of collisions.\n\nIn October 2014, a network of average speed cameras was introduced in an effort to reduce casualty numbers while work continued on the dualling programme.\n\nThe number of fatalities dropped, before rising again this year.\n\nIn 2022, 13 people have died in eight fatal accidents between Inverness and Perth.\n\nThe casualties have included a two-year-old and his grandparents at the Slochd, south of Inverness, in July.\n\nIn August, three members of a family visiting Scotland from the US were killed at Ralia, also in the Highlands.\n\nThere have been fatal accidents at Dunkeld and near Bankfoot in Perthshire.\n\nAlong the full length of the road there have been a total of 17 fatalities. The most recent were the death of a man and a woman in Caithness last week.\n\nThis is the highest number for the entire road since 2009, according to Police Scotland data.\n\nCaithness councillor Matthew Reiss, a former police officer, said residents of Caithness and Sutherland - home to 15% of the Highland population - were desperate for improvements.\n\nThe A9 is single carriageway for 104 miles from the Tore Roundabout on the Black Isle to Scrabster, with some sections featuring hills and bends around the coast.\n\nImprovements have been made at the site of a notorious hairpin bend in Caithness\n\nA new £9.6m stretch of the A9 was opened at Berriedale Braes in 2020 to overcome a challenging hairpin bend, but Mr Reiss said local communities would welcome upgrades to the road just north of Brora - around Portgower - also between Newport and Dunbeath and at the Cambusavie bends.\n\n\"We are not asking for dual carriageway, but modest improvements,\" said Mr Reiss.\n\nTransport Scotland said £95,000 would be invested in further A9 safety schemes over the next four months between Inverness and Perth, including enhanced signs and road marking at key locations.\n\nThe Scottish government agency added that £431m of investment had been delivered so far on the dualling programme - one of the biggest transport infrastructure projects in Scotland's history.\n\nTransport Scotland said it continued to work with organisations like the road safety charity, Brake, to help make Scotland's roads safer.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"One death on Scotland's roads is one too many and our sympathies lie with all those affected by such tragic incidents.\n\n\"As the transport minister has made clear in parliament, the concerning increase in fatal road collisions on the A9 requires urgent attention.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police officers on safety on the A9\n\nSgt Steve Livesey is among members of the emergency services frequently called to the scene of serious and fatal accidents on the A9.\n\nHe said: \"Every one (accident) has to be taken on its own merit. However, you can see trends - particularly foreign drivers seem to be featuring this year.\n\n\"We are also getting local tourists from the UK who are unfamiliar with the road.\"\n\nHe added: \"I think the responsibility is with the driver, and the responsibility is on the driver to understand the road.\n\n\"The road itself is not an unsafe road.\n\n\"Yes, dualling would make the road quicker with traffic flow. However, if everyone was driving responsibly and effectively then we wouldn't have any collisions.\"\n\nPC Niall Collin, who is involved in forensic investigations of crash scenes, said: \"There is only so much you can prepare for when you turn up and find things that realistically nobody should see.\n\n\"Not just a police officer... nobody should see these kinds of things. It does play on you over time.\"\n\nThe Scottish Conservatives said progress on the dualling project had been \"painfully slow\". MSP Graham Simpson said: \"Every single one of these deaths is a tragedy and my thoughts are with those who have lost a loved one.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Kate Winslet told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that more needed to be done for people in special circumstances\n\nKate Winslet has revealed she donated £17,000 to pay a soaring energy bill for a child's life support after being deeply moved by her family's plight.\n\nCarolynne Hunter was warned by Clackmannanshire Council that her bill could hit the high sum next year.\n\nHer daughter Freya, 13, has severe cerebral palsy and relies on receiving oxygen for chronic breathing problems.\n\nThe Oscar-winning actress said the original BBC Scotland story \"absolutely destroyed me\".\n\nMs Hunter said she was reduced to tears by Winslet's intervention.\n\nThe Hollywood star was asked about her donation on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.\n\nOn how she heard about it, Winslet told the programme: \"Something popped up on the BBC Scotland news page about this woman, Carolynne Hunter's story.\n\n\"And her saying that she would have to put her child, who has severe cerebral palsy and very, very extreme needs and is non-verbal, that she was going to have to put her child into care because she could not afford her electricity bills.\n\n\"And it absolutely destroyed me. I just thought on what planet is anyone going to let that happen, this is completely, completely wrong.\"\n\nFreya Hunter with mother Carolynne (right) and sister Katie (left)\n\nAfter reading the story last month Winslet said she was determined to do something about it.\n\nThe actress added: \"We were able to track her down and say that I had wanted to make a donation, and it was because of that that they then set up a GoFundMe page, and bang, I was able to do it right away.\n\n\"And it just felt - I just - it was just wrong to me that this woman was going to suffer and that she should have been in any way as a mother forced to make such a heart-breaking decision because she simply didn't have the support and couldn't pay the bills.\n\n\"I just couldn't let that happen.\"\n\nAsked by Laura Kuenssberg what the story said about the UK as a country, Winslet replied: \"I think we just - I mean, people just - the powers that be need to have a good think and they need to get it right.\n\n\"And they need to make changes that will actually help these people.\"\n\nShe said adults have always been great at fundraising for groups, other adults and large groups of children.\n\nBut Winslet added: \"I have always been really cut in half by the plight of the individual.\n\n\"And there seems to be very little support for individuals whose situations are extreme.\"\n\nThe actress' new film, I am Ruth, focuses on protecting young people from social media.\n\nAnd Winslet told the programme the government should make social media firms enforce age limits to help tackle their impact on children's mental health.\n\nShe also praised England footballer Marcus Rashford's \"extraordinary\" campaign to ensure no child in need went hungry during the pandemic.\n\nFreya needs costly medical equipment for her care at home\n\nOn Sunday, Ms Hunter told BBC Reporting Scotland about the moment GoFundMe informed her about the actress' donation.\n\nShe said: \"When they contacted me to say that Kate Winslet wanted to help our family I actually could not believe it.\n\n\"I was kind of in shock. It was a wee bit surreal.\"\n\nWhen she later discovered the Titanic star had pledged £17,000, Ms Hunter said: \"I just cried.\"\n\nShe added: \"What Kate has done is she has recognised Freya in a society and a world that Freya is very hidden.\n\n\"Life is not accessible for Freya because she has such a high level of medical need.\"\n\nMs Hunter, 49, also said the prospect of her daughter having to leave the family home if they could not not afford their energy bills was \"unthinkable\".\n\nShe said: \"I know that the reason Freya is here today is the love and care that we provide here at home to keep her comfortable and happy.\n\n\"That would not be happening in hospital or residential care. I don't think Freya would survive.\n\n\"Everybody who has donated and helped Freya have saved her life.\"\n\nThe Hunters live in a large council house in Tillicoultry - which is not energy efficient - so there is space for Freya's equipment.\n\nAt present it costs them £6,500 a year to run the kit and heat the home - though Ms Hunter said she had turned the heating off in most rooms to save money.\n\nAlthough she works full time on a moderate wage, she does not receive the same support as those on low incomes.\n\nMs Hunter also worries that possible winter power cuts in the event of reduced gas supply - a result of Russia's war on Ukraine - could put Freya's care at risk.\n\nIn addition to cerebral palsy, Freya relies on receiving oxygen for breathing problems - particularly through the night.\n\nThe family require help from at least two NHS nurses or staff from self-directed support (SDS) - a form of social care.\n\nStaff monitor Freya's heart rate as well as oxygen levels and carry out frequent suctioning to keep her airways clear.\n\nIn recent months Freya's room was the only one to be heated in order to keep her and her staff comfortable - but Ms Hunter said they have had to cut back.\n\nBefore Winslet's donation, Ms Hunter said her biggest worry was facing fuel poverty amid the cost of living crisis.\n\nMs Hunter also said she would like to see Scottish and UK governments stepping in to support families with care responsibilities who may end up struggling.", "Husean Hseb was processed at Manston after arriving on a small boat\n\nA migrant who died after being held for a week at the Manston processing centre in Kent has been named as 31-year-old Hussein Haseeb Ahmed.\n\nThe man, who had diphtheria, died at the QEQM Hospital in Margate on 19 November after entering the UK on a small boat seven days earlier.\n\nAn inquest into his death has been opened in Maidstone.\n\nIn court, he was described as an immigrant of Kurdish origin, who spoke no English.\n\nThe Home Office had initially said that there was no evidence he had died from an infectious disease.\n\nBut a follow-up test for diphtheria has since produced a positive result.\n\nThe inquest heard the man was first taken to A&E by Border Force on 14 November, when he was unable to eat or drink and finding it painful to swallow.\n\nHe was treated and discharged back to Manston.\n\nHe was taken back to hospital on 19 November, suffering from increasing breathlessness, a fever and drowsiness. Blood tests later revealed multiple-organ failure.\n\nThe medical cause of death was described in court as unascertained.\n\nThe inquest was adjourned until 30 May next year, when a pre-inquest review is expected to take place.\n\nDiphtheria is a highly contagious infection that affects the nose, throat and sometimes cause ulcers on the skin.\n\nAccording to the NHS website, it is spread by coughs and sneezes or through close contact with someone who is infected.\n\nYou can also get it by sharing items such as cups, cutlery, clothing or bedding with an infected person.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Migrant death may have been caused by diphtheria", "A 14-year-old girl has died and another, aged 13, has been seriously injured after they were attacked by a man with a knife while walking to school in southern Germany.\n\nPolice say the suspect came out of a refugee shelter in the village of Illerkirchberg on Monday morning and attacked the pupils.\n\nThe older girl later died in hospital.\n\nGerman police arrested a 27-year-old man, who they said was an asylum seeker from Eritrea.\n\nThe 13-year-old girl suffered serious knife wounds but reports said her life was not in danger.\n\nThe man had fled to the refugee shelter after the stabbing and police said they had found him with a knife thought to have been used in the attack.\n\nThe suspect was taken to hospital with serious wounds, thought to have been caused by the knife, and he was later questioned by police.\n\nProsecutors were trying to establish whether the suspect had psychiatric issues and whether he had known the two girls before the attack.\n\nIn a statement, police urged the public not to use the incident to stoke suspicion of foreigners or asylum seekers.\n\n\"Everything connected to this is completely unclear so far,\" police spokesman Wolfgang Jürgens told reporters. However, the far-right AfD were quick to blame Germany's immigration policy for failing to protect primary school children.\n\nIllerkirchberg is a village with a population of less than 5,000 according to the 2015 census.\n\nThe 14-year-old girl who died was a German citizen with a family of Turkish origin.\n\nTurkish ambassador Ahmet Basar Sen was expected to visit the village later on Tuesday with the deputy leader of Baden-Württemberg state.\n\nMayor Markus Häußler said everyone there was in shock, while German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the \"terrible news\" had shaken her.\n\n\"I mourn the girl who was killed and sincerely hope that the injured girl will recover... The police are investigating all the backgrounds with intensity,\" the minister wrote on Twitter (in German).", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ghofran Hamza says refugees can play a role in societies that help them, and support others\n\nTwo women who found sanctuary in Wales 72 years apart have met to learn about each other's experiences.\n\nRenate Collins fled Prague and the Holocaust in 1939.\n\nGhofran Hamza left her home in Syria at the start of the civil war in 2011.\n\nThey met at the launch of an exhibition tracing the lives of refugees in Wales from the 1930s to the present day.\n\nBoth women said they felt a strong connections to Wales.\n\n\"When the war finished,\" Renate said. \"I'd been in Wales longer than I'd been in Prague. I feel British.\"\n\nRenate was on the last refugee train out of Prague after war was declared in 1939\n\nGhofran agreed, saying: \"I feel this is my place. I don't feel like I belong to any other country.\"\n\nThey both carry painful memories from the countries they left behind.\n\nRenate was five years old when she got on the last Kindertransport out of Prague.\n\nUnwell with chickenpox and a fever, Renate's mother did not want her to leave.\n\n\"A family friend at the station said if she doesn't get on now she'll never go,\" she recalled.\n\n\"Of course, she was quite right. If I hadn't gone, I wouldn't be here today.\"\n\nGhofran and her baby brother before they fled the war in Syria\n\nGhofran and her family fled Syria in 2011 as the tensions of civil war increased.\n\n\"Overnight [my parents] decided that we're going to leave,\" she said. \"We packed everything and went illegally to Lebanon.\"\n\nThey spend the next seven years \"hiding\" from the authorities and violence until news came of asylum in the UK.\n\n\"I can't explain to you how we were feeling when we went to the airport,\" she said.\n\n\"We said we're not believing this until we are on the flight.\"\n\nGhofran, 23, opened her own restaurant in Aberystwyth\n\nBoth women's arrivals in Wales began with challenges, but ended in triumph.\n\n\"The only two words I knew was yes and no which are the most dangerous words because how on earth can I know when to say yes and when to say no,\" Renate laughed.\n\nLife in Porth was very different to Prague. Her adoptive father was a Baptist minister in a small community.\n\n\"Not many people in the Rhondda Valley had heard about Czechoslovakia,\" she said.\n\n\"There were no Jewish communities. They hadn't even heard of a synagogue.\"\n\nBut Renate said as a child, she quickly settled in.\n\n\"When I went to school I was just one of the local children. It was absolutely amazing.\"\n\nRenate says she fit in as a school girl in Wales\n\nGhofran had to adapt to life in Wales alongside different generations of her family.\n\n\"I believe that until now my parents were still not able to get along with the whole system here,\" she said.\n\nThe difference in culture and the preconceptions people had of Syrians \"made it hard to cope and times\", she explained.\n\n\"People view us in a different way, especially because of all the drama that goes on the news and everything they hear about my religion,\" she said.\n\n\"It was quite a long journey to get people to understand that people like me don't have to be dangerous'.\"\n\nHowever Ghofran said she had always felt welcome in Wales.\n\n''In Aberystwyth specifically I did not face any racism. People always treated us in a kind way.''\n\nRenate came to Wales to escape the Holocaust, while Ghofran fled the civil war in Syria\n\nRenate and Ghofran also live with their traumatic experiences.\n\n\"After the war I couldn't become a British subject,\" Renate said. \"I had to wait two-and-a-half years before I could be adopted because I had nobody in Prague to tell me how many of the family had died.\"\n\nYears later she found out she lost 64 members of her family, including her mother and father.\n\n\"I think then it sort of struck me.\"\n\nExhibit visitors can see pictures, video and artefacts depicting refugees in Wales\n\nGhofran said the suffering she faced in Syria has never left her.\n\n\"I don't believe that it's my country anymore which breaks my heart. I just feel betrayed.\n\n\"People were bombed, people were tortured to death.\n\n\"Inside of me there is a trauma that takes me back to Syria or Lebanon.\n\n\"I try to forget about it or to move on but it's always in the back of my mind.\"\n\nRenate sympathised with the challenges of overcoming her past.\n\n\"I've been asked thousands of times can I forgive and forget. I have to say I can forgive, but you never forget.\"\n\nAn exhibit on the Syrian experience in Wales\n\nRenate married and moved to Newquay, Cornwall, where she now lives.\n\nGhofran is still studying and after years of serving Middle Eastern cuisine at local events, she recently opened her own restaurant in Aberystwyth.\n\n\"I was thinking with my mum what can we share with the community,\" she remembered. \"We found that food is the centre point of the heart to everyone.\"\n\nThe project that brought Renate and Ghofran together is led by Andrea Hammel, director of the Centre for the Movement of People at Aberystwyth University.\n\n\"A lot of refugees made an immense contribution to Wales after coming here,\" she said.\n\n\"But, I would also like us to learn from the difficulties they've had.\n\n\"Refugees need to be able to be in touch with their original community but obviously they also need to integrate into Wales.\"\n\nGhofran said the exhibition shows \"refugees can take part in the community, can be chefs, or can be artists\".\n\n\"I think it's very important for refugees to share their experiences,\" she added.\n\n\"What we're sharing now might help other people who come later on.\"\n\nFor more, watch BBC Wales Live on BBC iPlayer.", "Matt Hancock has accused Tory peer Michelle Mone of being aggressive and threatening when trying to secure a government Covid contract for a firm.\n\nMr Hancock said she asked for help to secure contracts in an email in June 2021, when he was health secretary.\n\nThe Daily Mail reported the company was not PPE Medpro, which has been linked to Baroness Mone and won government contracts worth more than £200m.\n\nBaroness Mone has been contacted for comment.\n\nIn his book, Pandemic Diaries, which is being serialised in the Mail, Mr Hancock claimed the Glasgow-born businesswoman had demanded his \"urgent help\" with a company, which he has not named.\n\nOn 18 June 2021, he wrote: \"Baroness Michelle Mone has sent me an extraordinarily aggressive email complaining that a company she's helping isn't getting the multi-million-pound contracts it deserves.\n\n\"She claims the firm, which makes lateral flow test kits, 'has had a dreadful time' trying to cut through red tape and demanded my 'urgent help' before it all comes out in the media.\n\n\"'I am going to blow this all wide open,' she threatened.'\"\n\n\"By the end of the message, she seemed to have worked herself into a complete frenzy and was throwing around wild accusations. 'I smell a rat here. It is more than the usual red tape, incompetence and bureaucracy. That's expected! I believe there is corruption here at the highest levels',\" he said.\n\nHe added: \"She concluded by urging me to intervene 'to prevent the next bombshell being dropped on the government'.\n\n\"I read the message again, stunned. Was she threatening me? It certainly looked that way.\"\n\nMr Hancock said he was told the tests had not won any contracts because they had not passed the standards required.\n\nHe said he chose not to reply to the email, adding: \"I won't be pushed around by aggressive peers representing commercial clients.\"\n\nMatt Hancock was health secretary at the height of the pandemic\n\nBaroness Mone, who joined the House of Lords in 2015, is facing questions about her alleged links to PPE Medpro.\n\nThe House of Lords commissioner for standards is investigating her \"alleged involvement\" in procuring contracts for the company.\n\nHowever, the commissioner says he is unable to finalise or publish his report because \"the matter is under investigation by the police or another agency of a criminal investigation\".\n\nProperties linked to the company have previously been searched by the National Crime Agency.\n\nBetween May and June 2020, PPE Medpro was awarded two government contracts worth £203m to supply masks and medical gowns.\n\nEmails released under Freedom of Information laws show Baroness Mone referring the company to a government minister during the pandemic.\n\nLast month, Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner accused the government of a \"total failure of due diligence\" and a \"conflict of interest\" in awarding the contracts to PPE Medpro.\n\nShe was responding to an investigation in the Guardian based on leaked documents that alleged Baroness Mone had financially benefited from the company.\n\nShe told MPs it appeared \"tens of millions of pounds\" from the money awarded to the company \"ended up in offshore accounts connected to the individuals involved\".\n\nAt a Commons debate on Tuesday, Labour will try to force ministers to release \"all papers, advice, and correspondence\" about the government contracts awarded to PPE Medpro.\n\nAsked in December 2020 about reports she was linked to the company, Baroness Mone's lawyers told BBC News she \"had no role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro\".\n\nIn December 2020, BBC News reported that millions of medical gowns the firm supplied, worth £122m, had never been used.\n\nPPE Medpro said at the time that it had delivered 100% of the contract to the terms specified and that it had supplied equipment \"fully in accordance with the agreed contract, which included clear terms as to technical specification and performance criteria of the products\".\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care has since been in mediation with the firm over what it has described as an \"underperforming contract\" and last month MPs were told that no \"satisfactory agreement\" had been reached at this stage.", "Cody Fisher was fatally injured at The Crane on Adderley Street, Digbeth, just before 23:45 GMT on 26 December\n\nA 23-year-old man stabbed to death on the dance floor of a Birmingham nightclub has been described as a \"best friend\" by his family.\n\nCody Fisher, a non-league footballer and school sport coach, was fatally injured at The Crane nightclub, just before 23:45 GMT on 26 December.\n\nDespite efforts to save him, he was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, West Midlands Police said.\n\nHis family said: \"They have broken our hearts; I have lost my best friend.\"\n\nThe incident happened during a Boxing Day event at the club, on Adderley Street, Digbeth and featured well-known techno DJ Marco Carola.\n\nHis picture, released by West Midlands police, shows him in the colours of a Bromsgrove side, and he also played for Stratford Town and Stourbridge.\n\nHe had been in the Birmingham City FC Academy, and was also a trainee with Walsall, according to social media and local media posts.\n\nThe Crane is a \"multi-purpose cultural events site\" according to its website\n\nPolice believe Mr Fisher was approached by a group before being stabbed and are urging anyone in the club to get in touch.\n\n\"We know there were hundreds of people in the nightclub at the time,\" added Det Insp Thurgood.\n\n\"While we've spoken to a number of them already, we still need to hear from anyone who was there and who witnessed or even filmed what happened.\"\n\nOne clubber told the PA news agency there were \"groups of lads\" who were \"looking to cause trouble\".\n\n\"As soon as me and my friends walked in, we got a very weird vibe and the atmosphere wasn't good,\" said Sydnee Power, 23, from Birmingham.\n\nAnother attendee from Wolverhampton said the event was a \"disaster waiting to happen\".\n\n\"Me and the friend I was with, not once did we get asked to clear our pockets out even though mine were full. I had cargo trousers on with pockets full,\" he said.\n\n\"They didn't even touch me whilst searching me, they just followed the outline of my body with their hands then tapped me to say go on through.\n\n\"Obviously you want everyone to have a good time and enjoy themselves [but] when we got in I said to my friend: 'That's the worst search I've ever seen'. Anyone could have brought anything in.\"\n\nBromsgrove Sporting FC tweeted it was \"deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Cody Fisher\".\n\n\"Cody, was a friend to many at the club and we send our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.\"\n\nStratford Town FC posted a tribute on its website that said: \"Our sincere condolences go to the family and friends of Cody Fisher.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the you at this very difficult time.\n\n\"Cody made 54 appearance for The Bards and having started with the club in 2018.\"\n\nWoodrow First School, where Mr Fisher coached children, said: \"Everyone is devastated today to hear of the tragic and needless death of this bright, friendly and talented young man.\n\n\"Many of the children at school know Cody as their sports coach and have enjoyed working with him.\"\n\nNo arrests have been made but the scene remains closed while officers gather evidence and review CCTV footage.\n\nIn a statement, the venue said its staff were \"deeply shocked and saddened\" by the incident, which happened shortly before the event was due to finish at midnight.\n\nIt said \"our thoughts are with the victim, and his family and friends\" and staff were working closely with investigators.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Russia has banned oil sales to countries and companies that comply with a price cap agreed by Western nations earlier this month.\n\nThe price cap - which was agreed by the G7 group of nations, Australia and the EU - came into force on 5 December.\n\nThe cap prohibits countries from paying more than $60 (€56; £50) per barrel of Russian oil.\n\nRussia has now said its oil and oil products will not be sold to anyone imposing the price cap.\n\nThe presidential decree said the ban would take effect for five months from 1 February until 1 July.\n\nThe decree also said Russian President Vladimir Putin could give \"special permission\" to supply to countries that fall under the ban.\n\nThe G7 group of major economies first put forward the idea of a price cap in September in order to stop Moscow from using oil revenue to finance the war in Ukraine.\n\nAlthough Western demand for Russian oil fell after the invasion, Russian revenue remained high due to a price spike and demand elsewhere, including from India and China.\n\nAn EU-wide ban on Russian crude oil imported by sea is already in place, alongside similar pledges from the UK, the US, and others.\n\nThe price cap aims to reduce Russian oil revenue further. It stops any Russian crude sold for more than $60 from being shipped using G7 and EU tankers, insurance companies and credit institutions.\n\nMany major global shipping and insurance companies are based within the G7.\n\nBut earlier this month, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky called the price cap a \"weak\" idea that was not \"serious\" enough to damage the Russian economy.\n\nRussia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Tuesday that Russia's budget deficit could be wider than the planned 2% of GDP in 2023 - with the oil price cap squeezing export income.\n\nOil is currently trading at around $80 a barrel - well down from the peaks of above $120, seen in March and June.", "Staff at Shaws the Drapers were told the company was closing in an email\n\nA family-owned business with 28 shops in Wales and England has gone into liquidation.\n\nStaff at Shaws the Draper, which sold curtains and home goods, have received an email confirming the closure of the 106-year-old business.\n\nIn the message owner Philip Shaw said the business had hoped to restructure after a \"challenging year\", but decided it was no longer viable.\n\nAbout 150 staff are believed to be affected.\n\nShaws has been a fixture on many high streets for decades after opening its first store in Wales in 1916.\n\nLiquidators said the company had been placed into voluntary liquidation and had formally ceased trading on 23 December.\n\nIt has 28 stores listed on its website, with 15 in Wales, and another 13 in the south-west of England and the west Midlands.\n\nThis month staff were told no new stock would be ordered to its warehouses ahead of Christmas, with remaining stock being sold off at discounted prices.\n\nJan Holmes, 64, who worked at the Bridgend store, said staff were visited by Mr Shaw but he was unable to confirm what would happen to their jobs.\n\n\"We knew it was coming but it's still a shock,\" Ms Holmes said.\n\n\"The week before Christmas, on the Monday, we got a phone call asking us to close the shop within the hour.\n\n\"We had to ask customers to make their final purchase and we shut up shop. It was upsetting for everyone, for us and the customers.\"\n\n\"It's the end of an era,\" she said.\n\nThe Shaws in Newport is one of 28 listed on the company's website in Wales and England\n\nMs Holmes, who worked at Shaws since August, previously ran a gift shop in Pencoed, Bridgend county, which closed after the pandemic.\n\n\"I feel sorry for everyone involved,\" she said. \"It's another business gone from the high street, it's a shame.\"\n\nMs Holmes said she was going to make the best of the holidays and start looking for work in the new year.\n\nIn the email Shaws said staff would be paid in full until 24 December and an insolvency company would contact them in the coming days to discuss redundancy settlements.\n\nStones & Co, of Swansea, has been instructed by Shaws and approached for comment.\n\nShaws said in its email it wanted to support staff in finding new jobs and thanked them for their service.\n\n\"After 100 years of trading, this hasn't been an easy decision for us to make, and we fully appreciate the consequences for you, but the business simply is not viable and we cannot see a way of making it so,\" it said.\n\nA spokesman said a valuer had been appointed to assess the worth of the company's assets.\n\n\"It is understood that all of the former employees of the company have been paid their outstanding wages and holiday pay,\" they added.\n\n\"Those ex-employees entitled to redundancy pay and/or pay in lieu of notice will have such claims dealt with by the Redundancy Payments Service.\"", "Train passengers are being warned to expect disruption to continue after the latest round of strikes by rail workers come to an end.\n\nMembers of the RMT union who work for Network Rail ended their latest walkout over pay and conditions at 06:00 GMT.\n\nThe later start means many trains did not begin running until 09:00 and did not start until midday in some places.\n\nNetwork Rail said 70% of services will be operating but it has urged passengers to check their travel times.\n\nThe first train from London to Edinburgh was due to leave at 10:30 but it was nearly 30 minutes late.\n\nMost services will not call at York due to engineering work at the station, London North Eastern Railway said.\n\nLumo, which also runs services between London and Edinburgh, said due to a train being late from the depot earlier trains may be delayed and disruption is expected until 15:00.\n\nTrains did not run to or from Euston until midday due to engineering work.\n\nLondon's Liverpool Street station is shut due to works, and there are limited services from London Victoria.\n\nRail disruption in the capital comes at the same time as bus drivers are taking industrial action that is affecting routes mostly in south and west London.\n\nHe said plenty of passengers were turning up for trains this morning, only to be told to expect delays.\n\nRepeated announcements suggested parts of the railway were about to reopen - only for the schedule to slip even further.\n\nBut there was little sign of anger. Most people seemed resigned to what was going on - and several expressed sympathy for the strikers.\n\nA number of trains were delayed at London Paddington\n\nThe Gatwick Express rail service to Victoria is suspended and Heathrow Express trains from Paddington did not resume until after 11:00 with the 11:40 and 12:55 cancelled.\n\nThe express from Heathrow Terminal 5 at 12:12 and 13:27 are also cancelled.\n\nThere were no trains due out of London Stansted Airport into the capital until after 08:00. Long queues had snaked outside the airport's arrivals hall overnight as people waited for bus services into London.\n\nAdding to the delays for travellers, 1,000 Border Force passport control staff at Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Gatwick, Heathrow (terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5) and Manchester airports, went on strike on Boxing Day and will walk out again from Wednesday to Saturday.\n\nA spokesman for Network Rail said: \"Staff are returning to work so it is [a] much later start-up for passenger services.\"\n\n\"Passengers should really check before they travel so they don't just turn up at a station for no trains to be there.\"\n\nScotRail said most services had started by 08:00 but warned in some parts of the country, such as Stirling, there would be no trains until 17:00 due to the shift start times of Network Rail signallers.\n\nThousands of RMT members across Network Rail, which operates and maintains the rail system, and 14 train companies have been engaged in strike action in a row over pay and conditions.\n\nIt coincides with wider industrial unrest across a number of sectors including nurses and ambulance drivers as well as Border Force workers at six of the UK's biggest airports.\n\nEmployees are walking out over pay at a time when the rate of price rises, or inflation, is running at a 40-year high.\n\nRail strikes will restart between 3 and 4 January as well as from 6 to 7 January.\n\nIn the meantime, there is an overtime ban by RMT members at 14 train companies, which is scheduled to run until 2 January.\n\nNetwork Rail hopes service levels will increase to 90% in the days ahead.\n\nHowever, it expects this will drop to 20% of normal services once the next set of strikes begins in early January.\n\nMick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, said: \"The union remains available for talks to resolve this dispute.\n\n\"But until the government gives the rail industry a mandate to come to a negotiated settlement on job security, pay and condition of work, our industrial campaign will continue into the new year, if necessary.\"\n\nA spokesman for Network Rail said: \"The only way we're going to resolve any industrial dispute is by negotiation and by talking so of course we'll look to sit round the table.\n\n\"It is just unclear at the moment where we can go as all the cards we have to deal are already on the table.\"\n\nMeanwhile, members of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) at CrossCountry staged a 24-hour strike from 21:00 on Boxing Day.\n\nIt is part of a long-running campaign for a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies, no unagreed changes to terms and conditions, and a pay increase which addresses the rising cost of living.\n\nThe strikes involve staff who work in customer service management, driver management, training, control, customer communications, safety, timetabling and planning.\n\nThe union said it believes these walkouts will severely affect services at CrossCountry, which run from Penzance to the Midlands, Wales and northern England through to Scottish cities as far north as Aberdeen.\n\nThere are no services running north of York, Cross Country said. It also warned trains running north of Banbury and services from Reading to Manchester would be \"extremely busy\".\n\nTSSA members at Great Western Railway will strike from noon on Wednesday to 11.59 on Thursday, and at West Midlands Trains from noon on Wednesday to noon on Thursday.\n\nTell us how you're being affected by the strike action. Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nArsenal manager Mikel Arteta says club great Arsene Wenger \"picked the right moment\" to go back to Emirates Stadium as he saw them underline their title credentials.\n\nArteta's young team produced a second-half fightback to beat West Ham and move seven points clear at the top of the Premier League, which was resuming after the World Cup.\n\nWenger, who was the last Arsenal manager to win the title, made his first return since stepping down in 2018.\n\n\"His presence is something that has to be very, very attached to this football club so thanks [to him] for doing that because it means a lot for everybody at the club,\" said Arteta.\n\n\"Hopefully he is willing to spend more time with us and be around us because he is such an influence.\"\n• None Relive all the action as the Premier League returned on Boxing Day\n\nWest Ham took the lead against the run of play when Jarrod Bowen was judged to have been clipped in the box by William Saliba, allowing Said Benrahma to smash a confident penalty down the middle.\n\nThere was a mood of frustration among the home fans until Bukayo Saka converted from close range after collecting Martin Odegaard's mis-hit shot.\n\nThe equaliser gave added impetus to the Gunners and another home goal looked increasingly likely.\n\nFive minutes later, it duly arrived. Gabriel Martinelli put the hosts ahead, catching out West Ham's former Gunners keeper Lukasz Fabianski by tucking inside the near post from a tight angle when he seemed more likely to cross.\n\nThe points were sealed when Eddie Nketiah - starting in place of the injured Gabriel Jesus - spun sharply in the box before firing into the opposite bottom corner.\n\nArsenal extended their lead at the top over Newcastle, who moved second by beating Leicester earlier on Monday.\n\nReigning champions Manchester City - who go to Leeds United on Wednesday - are now eight points behind the Gunners.\n\nWest Ham are 16th and just a point above the relegation zone after their fourth league defeat in a row.\n• None Go straight to all the best Arsenal content\n\nArsenal fans are starting to believe Arteta's side can genuinely maintain their push for the club's first title since Wenger's Invincibles in 2004.\n\nAnd as Wenger watched and heard his name lovingly sang by the home crowd, Arteta's young team added further encouragement to those dreaming of a long-awaited triumph.\n\n\"It is a really special day because Boxing Day is a beautiful day to play football and I thought the performance was at the level today that we deserve,\" said Arteta.\n\n\"Hopefully he [Wenger] will like it.\"\n\nThe match came on the third anniversary of Arteta's first game as Arsenal manager, and significant progress has been made since then.\n\nWhen the former Gunners midfielder took over, they were closer to the relegation zone than the top four.\n\nTheir current position - and mood around the club - is a measure of how they have come.\n\nThe Spaniard has built a new team in the past three years which bears little resemblance - in style and substance - to the one picked for his first game at Bournemouth in 2019.\n\nArteta will not be getting carried after this win over West Ham, especially with several significant fixtures - not least against Manchester City on 15 February - on the horizon.\n\nBut the Gunners sent a message with a clinical second-half performance and the omens are also in their favour.\n\nThe team who topped the Premier League table on Christmas Day have gone on to be champions in 10 of the past 13 seasons.\n\nNketiah takes chance as West Ham struggle in front of goal\n\nOne of the key questions as the Premier League returned was how the Gunners would cope without key striker Jesus.\n\nThe Brazil international had knee surgery after being injured in Qatar and is expected to be out until late February, fuelling talk the Gunners might need to sign some cover.\n\nBut against West Ham, a first Premier League start of the season was handed to Nketiah - and the 23-year-old delivered.\n\nAfter stretching the Hammers defence and creating space with his sharp movement, he capped an impressive all-round performance with a fierce finish and staked his claim to be Jesus' replacement.\n\n\"Gabby will be a big miss but we all believe in Eddie,\" Saka told Amazon Prime. \"That's all he needs, us to keep supporting him and we will keep encouraging him.\n\n\"Everyone in the team is chipping in [with goals] and everyone will be important.\"\n\nIn contrast to the leaders, West Ham are struggling in front of goal.\n\nThey have been better than their league position suggests, according to their expected goals statistics, with converting chances being their main problem.\n\nFew opportunities came against Arsenal, although the game might have panned out differently had Michail Antonio not been denied by Aaron Ramsdale shortly after the restart at 1-0.\n\nHammers manager David Moyes said before the match he has not been feeling pressure because of results, instead urging for perspective and togetherness across the club.\n\nBut a fourth straight league defeat leaves West Ham as one of the cluster of teams packed tightly together in the bottom half.\n\n\"I don't think we're in a relegation fight. Every team has a blip when it isn't plain sailing and results don't go your way,\" said midfielder Declan Rice.\n\n\"It's down to me as captain to keep everyone going and pushing. We still believe we are a top team. But we need to start showing that. It's down to us.\"\n• None Attempt saved. Pablo Fornals (West Ham United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top right corner. Assisted by Saïd Benrahma.\n• None Attempt missed. Lucas Paquetá (West Ham United) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Declan Rice following a corner.\n• None Divin Mubama (West Ham United) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt saved. William Saliba (Arsenal) header from very close range is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Bukayo Saka with a cross.\n• None Attempt blocked. Martin Ødegaard (Arsenal) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Bukayo Saka.\n• None Attempt missed. Martin Ødegaard (Arsenal) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment", "Neighbouring homes had been evacuated as a precaution, police said\n\nFour people have been injured following a suspected gas explosion in Worcestershire.\n\nEmergency services were called to the incident at a property on Hemmingway, Evesham, shortly after 17:00 GMT.\n\nOne man was taken to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.\n\nTwo other adults were taken to hospital in Hereford, with a fourth person treated at the scene, said West Mercia Police.\n\nSome 10 neighbouring properties were evacuated as a precaution, the force said.\n\nThe road remains closed with a police cordon in place.\n\nPeople are asked to stay away from the area.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nDid you witness this incident? If you'd like to get in touch you can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk Please do not endanger yourself.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the \"anti-crisis\" package would protect Spaniards from the increasing cost of living\n\nSpanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced another €10bn (£8.8bn) in support to address rising prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nThe government would \"protect the middle class and workers amid the rise in the cost of living, energy and food\", he said.\n\nThe proposals include cuts to VAT and a €200 one-off payment for millions of households on less than €27,000 a year.\n\nIt's Spain's third set of aid measures and brings total support to €45bn.\n\nSpain has succeeded in bringing down inflation in recent months to 6.8%, the lowest annual rate in the European Union and the lowest figure since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But food price inflation is far higher.\n\nDubbed as an \"anti-crisis\" package to mitigate rising prices and boost growth in the year ahead, the latest plans extend for a further six months cuts to tax on gas and electricity brought in by left-wing government.\n\nThe one-off payment for households will benefit some 4.2 million households - it was previously limited to families with an annual income of less than €14,000.\n\nPublic transport will also continue to be subsidised - with a discount on season ticket prices extended until the first half of 2023 - but a 20-cent-per-litre fuel discount for consumers will be restricted to a few job sectors.\n\nMr Sánchez also pledged to scrap sales tax for six months on essential food items like bread, milk, cheese, eggs, fruits and vegetables - and bring down taxes on on pasta and cooking oil, from 10% to 5%. A ban on cutting off gas and electricity to households will last until the end of 2023.\n\nEU countries have all acted to protect consumers and businesses from rising prices, with Germany announcing a \"defensive shield\" package in October worth €200bn to bring down the cost of electricity and gas. Olaf Scholz's government said it was Berlin's response to Russia's \"energy war\".\n\nGermany's so-called price brake caps the cost of units of gas and electricity. Earlier this month EU leaders agreed to cap gas prices from next February if they breached €180.\n\nFrance, like Spain, has announced a one-off payment to vulnerable families receiving energy vouchers as part of a €45bn package.\n\nIt also forced energy provider Électricité de France (EDF) to cap price rises at 4% for a year.\n\nIn the UK, the government brought in a cap on the price of a unit of energy until April 2023, which will mean the typical household bill for gas and electricity will be £2,500 a year.", "King Charles's first Christmas message attracted the highest viewing figures this century for the monarch's traditional festive address, overnight viewing figures have shown.\n\nMore channels than ever carried the 3pm address - and the combined audience was 10.7 million.\n\nIn comparison, Queen Elizabeth II's final Christmas message a year ago was seen by 8.96 million viewers.\n\nThe King paid tribute to his mother's work during his first festive address.\n\nHe also took the opportunity to reflect on the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, as he spoke of those struggling to pay their bills.\n\nAccording to figures collated by Sussex University, the audience for the late Queen's annual broadcast dropped below 10 million in the late 1990s and had not climbed that high again.\n\nIn recent years, the message has regularly been the most-watched Christmas Day programme - but that is because viewers have increasingly switched off other Christmas shows or just watch them at a later time. The Queen's address was still seen by many as a live event to be watched at the time of transmission, even though it was actually pre-recorded.\n\nThe increased interest in what the King would say in his first message meant that it was shown simultaneously on BBC One, ITV1, ITV3, Sky News and GB News - with a signed version on BBC Two.\n\nThe BBC can also claim to have won the viewing battle with seven of the top 10 shows being screened on BBC One.\n\nThe number of viewers is based on \"overnight\" figures - largely based on viewers who were watching the programmes live. So they do not include viewers who watch Christmas specials on catch-up services during the rest of the festive period.\n\nAll figures supplied by the Broadcasters Audience Research Board (Barb))\n\nAccording to ratings body Barb, Strictly Come Dancing's Christmas Special was the second biggest success of the day, with 5.44 million viewers tuning in to watch Coronation Street star Alexandra Mardell lift the special trophy based on a Christmas star.\n\nThis year's festive soap battle saw EastEnders come out on top in eighth place. Soap actor Danny Dyer drew in 3.17 million viewers who tuned in to watch him leave Albert Square after nine years of playing Queen Vic landlord Mick Carter.\n\nThe next most-watched soap of Christmas Day was ITV's Coronation Street, which came in ninth place with 2.85 million viewers. But Emmerdale completely missed out on a place in the Top 10.\n\nITV's best-performing programme, despite a late time slot, was Doc Martin with 3.26 million viewers.\n\nBut the BBC secured the top six most-watched programmes including its shared screening of the King's Christmas message.\n\nChief content officer Charlotte Moore said: \"Winning the Christmas Day ratings caps off an incredible centenary year of world-class content on the BBC. In a time of so much competition and choice, the BBC continues to be the UK's entertainment destination on Christmas Day.\"\n\nAlexandra Mardell and Kai Widdrington were the winners of the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special 2022\n• None 'You are not alone' says Queen in Christmas speech", "Jamie Oliver has brought his campaign for better child nutrition to several prime ministers, including Boris Johnson last May\n\nJamie Oliver has said the millions being raised through the so-called sugar tax should be used to extend the provision of free school meals.\n\nThe chef and food campaigner wants at least 800,000 more children to benefit.\n\nHe was instrumental in persuading the government in 2018 to impose the levy on soft drinks with high sugar content.\n\nInitially the funds raised were used for programmes to tackle childhood obesity but now Oliver wants them to be diverted to the school meals programme.\n\nAs it stands, in England and Wales children aged four to 16 are only eligible for the free meals if they live in a household with an annual income of less than £7,400. Oliver said all children living in households receiving Universal Credit should be included in the scheme. In England alone, this amounts to about 800,000 children.\n\nThe levy raised £336m in 2019-2020, the year after it was first introduced and Oliver said that \"if you look at the money raised from the sugary drinks tax, it's not far off what's needed\" to fund those extra meals.\n\nHe said such a move would help teachers, saying: \"If you've got a couple of kids coming in [who are] not fed, that affects plan A, plan B and plan C of a teacher's hour.\"\n\n\"It's like passive smoking. We're talking about all children being affected by some of the kids maybe being disruptive or sleeping or any other kind of carnage that goes along with the poverty of hunger.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOliver has long been campaigning on child nutrition and the need to improve the quality and availability of school dinners. His 2005 Feed Me Better campaign led to the government pledging £280m to tackle the school meals programme in England.\n\nOn Tuesday, Oliver brought these issues into focus as he guest-edited the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.\n\nAs part of the programme, former Chancellor George Osborne was interviewed and he said he was \"disappointed\" more was not done during his time in government to tackle childhood obesity\n\nSpeaking to Nick Robinson, Mr Osborne credited the chef with having been \"very influential\" in bringing about the soft drinks levy in 2016.\n\nThe former Chancellor also added that if he was still in government he would introduce more measures to tackle child obesity, such as a ban on junk food TV adverts and an expansion of the levy to include non-sugary products.\n\n\"That still has not been implemented. To my mind, that's very disappointing,\" Mr Osborne said.\n\nHe added: \"Conservatives should not be afraid of sensible use of government to improve people's health because, by the way, that also reduces dependency on public services down the road.\"\n\nJamie Oliver was just 29 when he had talks with Tony Blair after presenting a petition signed by 271,000 people\n\nSir Tony Blair, who was prime minister when Oliver first started his campaign, said greater government focus on children's health was \"absolutely fundamental\".\n\nHe added: \"I honestly don't think there's anything more important for the future of the country but to make sure we deal with this - early years education and wellbeing.\n\n\"For the sums of money you're going to spend on this early years, if you really have the will to do it, I promise you having been in government, you could find the money necessary to do this.\"\n\nSpeaking on the programme, Dr Camilla Kingdon, the president of the Royal College of Paediatrics, said that the government needs to look at regulating the field of baby food which can contain exceedingly high amounts of sugar.\n\nA single pouch of baby food \"could have as much as two-thirds of what adults should have in a single day\", Dr Kingdon said.\n\nShe added that high rates of obesity see one in three children leaving primary school overweight or obese. \"We need to get infant nutrition right. The health of the nation depends on this,\" Dr Kingdon said.\n\nA Department for Education spokesperson said the government understood the pressures that many households were under. \"That is why we are supporting more children and young people than ever before,\" the spokesperson added.\n\n\"Over a third of pupils in England currently receive free school meals in education settings and we have just announced a further investment in the National School Breakfast Programme, extending the programme for another year backed by up to £30m.\"\n\nAs is now tradition over the festive period, Radio 4's Today programme has invited seven guest editors to take over the programme this week. Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Abba's Björn Ulvaeus and Sir Jeremy Fleming, the director of GCHQ, will be sitting in the editor's chair in the coming days - you can listen to the full week of programmes on BBC Sounds.", "Ronan Vibert arriving at the premiere with his wife Jess for Saving Mr Banks in 2013\n\nStage and screen stars have paid tribute to a fellow film and TV actor who died just before Christmas aged 58.\n\nRonan Vibert was in movies such as Saving Mr Banks, the Lara Croft film The Cradle of Life starring Angelina Jolie, and the TV series The Borgias.\n\nRichard E Grant described the death of \"my friend\" as shocking, and Kathy Burke called him \"lovely\".\n\nVibert, who was born in Cambridgeshire and grew up in the Vale of Glamorgan, died last Thursday in Florida.\n\nHis other films included Tristan and Isolde, and The Snowman, which was based on the Jo Nesbo crime novel.\n\nOn TV his many credits included Poirot, Lewis, and The Bill.\n\nHe also appeared in the BBC comedy series Gimme Gimme Gimme, whose star Kathy Burke tweeted: \"Just heard about the death of lovely Ronan Vibert. We first worked together at Manchester Royal Exchange back in the 80s. We had great times together.\n\n\"Our favourite was seeing The Pogues, Glasgow Barrowlands on Paddy's night. Oh, how we jumped.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Kath 🇺🇦💙🙀❄️🇪🇺✊🏾 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe acting bug bit him early. He took part in productions at Stanwell School in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, including the title role of Dracula.\n\nOne school friend recalled: \"He had a huge career, but his performances in those school productions have really stayed with us. In Dracula, when all we saw was a claw-like hand coming out of the stage curtain, he nearly finished off half the audience\".\n\nMore than 30 years later, he would revisit the vampire legend with a part in the 2014 film Dracula Untold.\n\nAfter school he went to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.\n\nAmong his fellow RADA students was the actor Jason Watkins, who tweeted: \"So sad that my friend Ronan Vibert has died. Numb.\n\n\"The youngest in our year at RADA. He was unique. Saw things differently - so inventive. Wonderful times with him. Too young.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Jason Watkins This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Richard E. Grant This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Hollywood Reporter quoted his manager saying that he died last Thursday at a Florida hospital after a brief illness.\n\nThe nature of the illness was not specified.", "A man and a woman have been arrested in connection with the murder of a 26-year-old who was shot at a Merseyside pub on Christmas Eve.\n\nBeautician Elle Edwards died in hospital after being shot in the head at the Lighthouse in Wallasey Village.\n\nPolice said on Monday night a man, 30, was arrested in Tranmere on suspicion of murder and attempted murder.\n\nA 19-year-old woman from Rock Ferry was also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, they added.\n\nBoth suspects have been taken into custody and will be questioned by detectives.\n\nFour other people who were at the pub were also injured - one of those, a 28-year-old man from Beechwood in Wirral, is still receiving medical treatment, police said.\n\nElle's sister Lucy, who left the pub just before the fatal shooting, visited the scene on Tuesday to lay flowers.\n\nHer card read: \"To my Elle May, I love you forever, you will always be by my side. Love Lucy Lou. x\"\n\nOther flowers and tributes have also been left at the scene, including a note signed \"mum and dad\" which read: \"To my beautiful Elle, you are the light of my life, you will never be gone.\"\n\nA heart-shaped plaque bearing a pink and green floral design read: \"Special Daughter, the happiness you brought in your own special way, will be remembered with love each and every day.\"\n\nMerseyside Police believe Ms Edwards, who was also known as Ellie, was not the target of the attack.\n\nChief Constable Serena Kennedy vowed her officers would be \"relentless\" in hunting down those responsible for her death.\n\nShe described her killing as \"sickening and heart-breaking\" which has \"ruined so many lives and culminated in the loss of a beautiful young woman\".\n\nElle Edwards and four men were shot outside the Lighthouse on Christmas Eve\n\nEarlier, Ms Edwards' colleagues at Nova Hair and Beauty Studio in Moreton, Wirral, said they were \"absolutely lost for words\".\n\n\"Heaven gained the most beautiful angel, we are all heartbroken, thinking of your family right now Elle,\" they wrote on Instagram.\n\nSeveral shots were fired at the entrance to the Lighthouse at about 23:50 GMT on Christmas Eve. The pub was packed with mainly young people.\n\nMs Edwards was rushed to Arrowe Park Hospital where she was pronounced dead.\n\nOne of Ms Edwards' friends, called Jess, said people initially thought they had heard fireworks when the shooting started.\n\n\"But automatically everything just stopped and we had a feeling that something wasn't right,\" she told Sky News on Monday.\n\nShe said she felt \"numb\" when she saw her friend on the floor, with people trying to help her.\n\nPolice are appealing for more information, especially from those who were in the pub at the time of the shooting.\n\n\"We are also appealing to motorists and residents in the area, who may have captured anything on Dashcam or CCTV to contact us and every bit of evidence is crucial to the investigation,\" Det Supt Coombs said.\n\nCrime scene tape and evidence markers were seen at the Lighthouse pub\n\nMerseyside Police earlier said it had stepped up its presence in the area after the shooting.\n\nIt follows other high-profile shootings on Merseyside in the past year including the deaths of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel and Knowsley Council worker Ashley Dale.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "New roadblocks appeared on Tuesday in the majority-Serb town of North Mitrovica as tensions escalated\n\nThe Serbian army says it is at its \"highest level of combat readiness\" after weeks of escalating tensions between Serbia and Kosovo.\n\nPresident Aleksandar Vucic says he will \"take all measures to protect our people and preserve Serbia\".\n\nThe sabre-rattling is louder than ever and follows some media claims in Serbia that Pristina is preparing \"an attack\" on ethnic Serb areas in north Kosovo.\n\nThe government in Pristina has made no comment about the allegations.\n\nBut it has previously accused Mr Vucic of playing \"games\" to stir up trouble.\n\nKosovo, which has an overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority, broke away from Serbia after a war in 1998-99. Serbia does not recognise Kosovo as an independent state, nor do the ethnic Serbs who live there.\n\nBelgrade accuses Kosovo of plotting \"terrorism against Serbs\" in areas where some 50,000 ethnic Serbs live.\n\nIn return, Pristina says Belgrade is behind \"paramilitary formations\" that set up roadblocks in majority Serb areas of north Kosovo on 10 December.\n\nThe European Union has been attempting to mediate. The 27-member bloc is calling for \"maximum restraint and immediate action\" and for the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo to \"personally contribute to a political solution\".\n\nBelgrade has increased its armed presence on the border in recent days after conflicting reports about a shooting incident in which no-one was hurt. Reports from Belgrade alleged ethnic Serbs came under attack, but the claim was rejected by Kosovo authorities in Pristina.\n\nNevertheless, Serbia appeared to use the reports to justify intensifying its military presence on the border.\n\nSo far, hostilities have been limited to harsh words, then on Monday, Serbia placed its army on combat alert. Kosovo has warned that if Nato's KFOR peacekeeping force does not remove the roadblocks, then it will take matters into its own hands.\n\nNato, which has some 3,700 peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, has called on all parties to avoid provocations. For years, its KFOR troops have played a crucial role in guaranteeing the peace. The European Union, which has a rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, has warned it will not tolerate attacks on EU police or criminal acts.\n\nIt is a worryingly combustible situation. Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have ebbed and flowed since Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008.\n\nBut they have been running particularly high over the past few months, with ethnic Serbs withdrawing all co-operation with Kosovo authorities.\n\nThe trigger was, of all things, a row over number plates. Pristina demanded that ethnic Serbs should surrender the Serbian-issued vehicle licence plates that they had continued to use and replace them with \"Republic of Kosovo\" plates.\n\nFor both sides, the symbolism was significant.\n\nFor Pristina, it was a matter of asserting its sovereignty. For Kosovo Serbs, number plates represented their identity. Only a handful made the swap before the deadline.\n\nPristina's plan to impose fines on the holdouts sparked last month's mass resignation of ethnic Serbs from all of Kosovo's national institutions. This included police, with more than 600 ethnic Serb officers handing in their badges.\n\nAn EU-mediated compromise agreement on the number plates has not convinced them to return. Instead, Belgrade is insisting that Kosovo should honour a pledge made in a 2013 Brussels agreement to grant Serbs limited autonomy through an association of majority Serb municipalities.\n\nThe European Union has urged Pristina to set up the association. But Kosovo's Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, is firmly against the idea. He believes it would result in a mini-state within Kosovo controlled by Serbia.\n\nWith no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough, the barricades appeared after an ethnic Serb former police officer was arrested on suspicion of attacking the Kosovo force.\n\nCrossing points between north Kosovo and Serbia are blocked. And on Tuesday morning, new roadblocks were set up in North Mitrovica, Kosovo's largest majority Serb town.\n\nInternational elements are also a factor. Kosovo has accused Serbia of doing Russia's bidding by stirring up trouble in the Western Balkans, to distract attention from the war in Ukraine.\n\nSpecial envoys from the US and the EU have put weeks into shuttle diplomacy. But so far, they have failed to bring Kosovo and Serbia to the negotiating table.\n\nNato peacekeepers are facing calls from Belgrade to protect Serbs, as well as demands from Pristina to dismantle the barricades.\n\nEU pleas for maximum restraint had a slightly desperate tone. It may be the festive season - but goodwill remains in short supply in this simmering dispute.", "Welsh is a feature on many road signs in the region\n\nWelsh language schools in Patagonia need more teachers.\n\nThey hope to preserve the language and traditions that have existed in the Argentine province since the first settlers arrived in 1865 aiming to build a safe haven for the language.\n\nToday it is estimated that between 2,000-5,000 Argentines speak Welsh.\n\nThe British Council funds three Welsh language teachers in the Wladfa settlement, but recruitment has been a problem since Covid.\n\nWelsh is spoken mainly in the Gaiman area of Chubut province some 650 miles south of Buenos Aires, as well as in the towns of Trevelin and Esquel close to the border with Chile.\n\n\"Some people have become more inclined to stay at home since Covid,\" said Clare Vaughan, the Welsh language teaching coordinator in Argentina.\n\n\"During the pandemic everyone in the Wladfa realised how important the input from Wales is when it comes to learning bilingually.\n\n\"With three bilingual schools, as well as extra-curricular activities and lessons for adults, we need a lot more help.\"\n\nProspective teachers have until 30 December to apply, with travel and accommodation costs paid for, as well a monthly salary of about £750.\n\nNia Jones travelled to work in Esquel and Trevelin in 2016 as part of the British Council-funded scheme and has worked since then in Ysgol Y Cwm (The Valley School) in Trevelin.\n\nThere are currently four teachers responsible for Welsh language lessons and she said it was \"a lot of work\".\n\n\"Ysgol Y Cwm started with one nursery class and now there are 150 pupils,\" she said.\n\n\"We have nine different classes who have Welsh language lessons every day and from next year we will have a secondary school class as well.\n\nWelsh school Ysgol Gymraeg Yr Andes in the town of Trevelin\n\n\"There's much excitement when we wait to hear who's coming to spend a year with us from Wales, and to see the relationship develop between the new teachers and the pupils and the local community.\"\n\nMs Jones feels the work of the teachers from Wales is even more important with far fewer people travelling to the province on holiday and cultural trips.\n\nShe said: \"We are seeing a few more people coming to see us but the numbers are still low. We haven't had a visit from the Urdd since 2019 and that used to be one of the annual highlights.\n\n\"The drop in visitor numbers has made the role of the visiting teachers even more important.\"\n\nSome of the original passengers pictured 25 years after they arrived in Patagonia\n\nNoe Sánchez Jenkins, a bilingual Argentine from Esquel, learned Welsh mainly from teachers visiting from Wales.\n\nThe 29-year-old said she missed out on speaking Welsh face to face during the pandemic.\n\n\"More people want to learn,\" she said, \"adults as well as children, and that is because of the bilingual schools. And these schools are growing every year so we need more help.\n\nThe 153 passengers paid £12 each for a place aboard the Mimosa to get to Patagonia\n\n\"As we learn the language we also learn the songs and the traditions. It is so important to maintain the links between Cymru and Argentina.\"", "A 13-year-old girl from Basingstoke in Hampshire who has been missing for six days boarded a train to Reading before her disappearance, police have said.\n\nLyla Lake was last seen at Reading train station on Wednesday 21 December at 21:57 GMT, officers said, as they escalated appeals for information.\n\nHer cousin, the Olympic athlete Morgan Lake, asked anyone who may know something to come forward.\n\nLyla is described as mixed race, 5ft 6in (1.68m) tall and of medium build.\n\nShe has long brown hair and brown eyes, and was last seen wearing a black puffer jacket, grey jogging bottoms and white trainers.\n\nIn a new CCTV image released by Hampshire Police, Lyla - who is also known as Lyla-Jane - is seen carrying a black Sports Direct bag for life at Reading train station.\n\nThe new image of Lyla shows her at Reading train station last Wednesday evening\n\nPreviously, police said she was last seen 22km (14 miles) away in Simmons Walk, Basingstoke, close to her family home.\n\nDet Ch Insp Dave Storey said: \"Together with Lyla's family we are growing increasingly concerned for her welfare.\n\n\"We now know that she took a train to Reading and it is possible she is still in that area.\n\n\"Therefore we are extending our appeal to the Reading area and are asking anyone who thinks they have seen Lyla since she went missing or anyone who thinks they might know where she is, to call us immediately.\"\n\nWriting on Twitter, Morgan Lake, who was the first British woman to make an Olympic high jump for more than two decades at the Rio Games in 2016, appealed for information on Christmas Eve.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Morgan Lake This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn a further appeal on Tuesday, Lyla's father Nathan said his daughter never left the house after 20:00 without her parents and has not stayed overnight with anyone besides her family for over 18 months.\n\n\"Someone must know something,\" he said. \"Lyla, if you are watching this, daddy loves you so much. If anything is worrying you it is nothing that can't be sorted. So please, please just come home.\"\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.", "North Korean drones have crossed the border before\n\nSouth Korean military officials say North Korea has flown five drones across their mutual border.\n\nThe \"unmanned aerial vehicles\" violated South Korean airspace in the border areas around Gyeonggi province, said the country's joint chiefs of staff.\n\nOne drone flew all the way to the northern edge of the capital, Seoul, before returning across the border.\n\nJets and attack helicopters were deployed, but 100 rounds fired from helicopters failed to shoot them down.\n\nA South Korean military official said they had since lost track of all the drones, but that they were no longer in flight.\n\nThe incursion comes amid increased tensions on the Korean peninsula, with the North conducting a record number of missile tests this year.\n\nThe drones were spotted crossing the border at about 10:30 local time (01:30 GMT).\n\nOne of the South Korean warplanes involved in the operation, a KA-1 light attack aircraft, later crashed, but its two pilots escaped unhurt.\n\nThe plane fell to the ground in Hoengseong County, east of Seoul, soon after take-off from an air base in the nearby city of Wonju, according to the air force, quoted by Yonhap.\n\nSouth Korea also suspended planes taking off and landing at its Incheon and Gimpo airports for about an hour.\n\nA South Korean military official described the latest incursion as a clear act of provocation by Pyongyang.\n\n\"Our military will continue to respond thoroughly and resolutely to North Korea's provocations,\" the military added.\n\nIn response, the South Korean military said it also sent surveillance planes into the North to photograph its military installations.\n\nThe last time a North Korean drone crossed the border was five years ago in June 2017, when tensions between the two Koreas were last at their highest.\n\nNorth Korea's drones pose a threat to South Korea's security as they could be used both to spy on the South and to launch an attack on it.\n\nEarlier this month, the North claimed to have performed major tests needed to help it develop its first spy satellite, which could be used to monitor South Korea. It released an aerial photo of Seoul, which it said had been taken during the test.\n\nExperts believe North Korea is working to refine and improve its weapons, while putting pressure on the United States to ease sanctions in any future negotiations.", "George Santos, along with the rest of the incoming class of Congress, is set to be sworn in on 3 January\n\nNewly elected Republican congressman George Santos has apologised after admitting he lied about his education and work experience.\n\nMr Santos, who was elected in New York, told the New York Post: \"My sins here are embellishing my resume. I'm sorry.\"\n\nHe insisted he was \"not a criminal\" and said that the controversy would not deter him from serving his two-year term in Congress.\n\nThe allegation was first made in a New York Times report last week.\n\nAt the time, a lawyer for Mr Santos hit back at the claims that he misrepresented where he went to college and his alleged employment history, describing them as \"defamatory\" and a \"shotgun blast of attacks\".\n\nHe said during his campaign that he had worked at high-profile Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.\n\nBut Mr Santos told the New York Post he had \"never worked directly\" for either firm, admitting it was a \"poor choice of words\".\n\nThe 34-year-old said he actually worked at a company called Link Bridge, as a vice-president, where he did business with both of the financial giants.\n\nHe also admitted that he did not go to college, despite previously claiming to have received a degree from New York City's Baruch College in 2010.\n\n\"I didn't graduate from any institution of higher learning. I'm embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my resume,\" he said. \"I own up to that… We do stupid things in life.\"\n\nMr Santos, who was elected to Congress on 8 November to represent part of Long Island and Queens, took a seat from the Democrats as the Republicans triumphed overall with a slim majority in the House of Representatives, Congress's lower chamber.\n\nHis Democratic opponent, Robert Zimmerman, tweeted that Mr Santos had admitted to being a liar and said he must be held accountable by the Department of Justice for his actions.\n\nIn a separate tweet he also suggested that Mr Santos should \"resign and run against me in a special election\" and \"face the voters with your real past\".\n\nMr Santos told the New York Post: \"I campaigned talking about the people's concerns, not my resume... I intend to deliver on the promises I made during the campaign.\"\n\nAs things stand, he is set to be sworn in on 3 January, along with the rest of the incoming class of Congress.", "Train passengers across Britain are being warned to expect disruption into the New Year as rail strikes continue.\n\nMembers of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) at CrossCountry began a 24-hour strike from 21:00 GMT on 26 December.\n\nAnd more TSSA members at Great Western Railway and West Midlands Trains will walk out on Wednesday and Thursday.\n\nRMT union members at Network Rail will resume strikes over pay and conditions on Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 January.\n\nTheir latest walkout ended at 06:00 GMT on Tuesday - but delays continued into the afternoon as services got back up and running. The late handover of engineering works also caused some disruption, including at Paddington.\n\nNetwork Rail said the \"industrial action means rail travel will be significantly disrupted throughout December and January\".\n\nThe TSSA strikes are part of a long-running campaign for a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies, no unagreed changes to terms and conditions, and a pay increase which addresses the rising cost of living.\n\nMembers at Great Western Railway go on strike from noon on Wednesday to 11:59 GMT on Thursday, and at West Midlands Trains from noon on Wednesday to noon on Thursday.\n\nThe strikes involve staff who work in customer service management, driver management, training, control, customer communications, safety, timetabling and planning.\n\nThe union said it believes these walkouts will severely affect services at CrossCountry, which run from Penzance to the Midlands, Wales and northern England through to Scottish cities as far north as Aberdeen.\n\nCrossCountry said are no services running north of York. It also warned trains running north of Banbury and services from Reading to Manchester would be \"extremely busy\".\n\nAdding to the delays for travellers, 1,000 Border Force passport control staff at Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Gatwick, Heathrow (Terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5) and Manchester airports, went on strike on 26 December and will walk out again from Wednesday to Saturday.\n\nTSSA organising director Nadine Rae that members did not want to strike \"but they are sick and tired of being taken for granted\".\n\nThe Department for Transport had urged unions to \"to step back, reconsider and get back round the table, so we can start 2023 by ending this damaging dispute.\"\n\nA spokesman for Network Rail said: \"Passengers should really check before they travel so they don't just turn up at a station for no trains to be there.\"\n\nTell us how you're being affected by the strike action. Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "A murder investigation is under way after a 23-year-old man was stabbed to death on the dance floor of a Birmingham nightclub.\n\nThe man was fatally injured at The Crane on Adderley Street, Digbeth, just before 23:45 GMT on 26 December.\n\nDespite efforts to save him, he was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later, West Midlands Police said.\n\n\"This was a young man enjoying himself with friends on a Boxing Day night out,\" Det Insp Michelle Thurgood said.\n\nThe incident happened during a Boxing Day event featuring well-known techno DJ Marco Carola, that started at 15:00 GMT.\n\nThe Adderley Street site is cordoned off as police gather evidence\n\nPolice believe the victim was approached by a group before being stabbed and are urging anyone in the club to get in touch.\n\n\"We know there were hundreds of people in the nightclub at the time,\" added Det Insp Thurgood.\n\n\"While we've spoken to a number of them already, we still need to hear from anyone who was there and who witnessed or even filmed what happened.\"\n\nOne clubber told the PA news agency there were \"groups of lads\" who were \"looking to cause trouble\".\n\n\"As soon as me and my friends walked in, we got a very weird vibe and the atmosphere wasn't good,\" said Sydnee Power, 23, from Birmingham.\n\nNo arrests have been made but the scene remains closed while officers gather evidence and review CCTV footage.\n\nNeighbourhood officers will be patrolling the area over the coming days to offer reassurance, police added.\n\nIn a statement, the venue said its staff were \"deeply shocked and saddened\" by the incident, which happened shortly before the event was due to finish at midnight.\n\nIt said \"our thoughts are with the victim, and his family and friends\" and staff were working closely with investigators.\n\nDJ Steve Lawler, who played an earlier set and left before the stabbing, posted on social media the news was \"heartbreaking\".\n\n\"My prayers and love go to this person's family and loved ones,\" he said.\n\nA New Year's Eve event at The Crane has been cancelled.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "How much council tax you pay is determined by the band your house is in\n\nOver £700,000 in overpaid council tax is being held by two councils.\n\nTorfaen County Borough Council is holding almost £400,000 in payments, while Monmouthshire County Council is holding about £339,000.\n\nThe Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) has advised taxpayers in these areas to check their bills to see if they have overpaid.\n\nA typical band D council tax bill in Monmouthshire this year is £1,847 and is £1,802 in Torfaen.\n\nThe charge goes towards local services such as social care, education and rubbish collections.\n\nThe figures were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.\n\nThough there is no legal requirement for any council to notify individuals that they have overpaid, authorities will issue a closing bill or do so if there is a change in circumstance.\n\nCouncil tax is usually paid over a period of 10 monthly instalments from April every year.\n\nIf there is any credit on a householder's account it should be \"netted\" off any new annual bill issued, meaning the over payment will count as payment towards that year's charge.\n\nThe WLGA, which represents all of Wales' 22 bill issuing authorities, said the lack of legal duty on councils to notify households means an individual has to make their claim within six years from when they learned the overpayment was made.\n\nThe overpaid cash sits in a council's general fund and the WLGA said councils will usually have a policy which allows them to keep it after a period.\n\nA WLGA spokesperson added: \"If the latest council tax bill advises of a credit contact the council to request a refund.\n\n\"Simply enquire with the local authority providing as many details as possible in relation to the account/property the taxpayer is concerned about.\n\n\"Local authority records extend to 1993. Where a clear entitlement to the money exists councils would reverse the write back and refund.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The number of people heading out to shops on 27 December beat the traditional Boxing Day sales by nearly 40% but footfall remains below pre-Covid levels.\n\nAnalysts at Springboard said there was a rise in shoppers visiting retail parks between Monday and Tuesday.\n\nOverall, however, footfall over the Christmas bank holidays remained sharply lower compared with 2019.\n\nTuesday's footfall dropped by nearly 25% from before the pandemic.\n\nDiane Wehrle, insight director at Springboard, said the data showed \"clearly that whilst Boxing Day is a renowned date in the Christmas retail trading calendar, in fact 27 December is a busier day for UK retail destinations than Boxing Day, with a rise in footfall of 36.6% from the day before\".\n\nComparing 27 December to last year, when the Omicron variant of Covid was spreading and some restrictions remained in place, footfall grew by 12.8%.\n\nUK retail parks saw the biggest rise in post-Christmas footfall, with over 60% more shoppers compared with Boxing Day.\n\nMeasured against High Streets and shopping centres, retail parks are the only destination to have significantly closed the gap with pre-Covid levels after Christmas.\n\nWhile Ms Wehrle, told the BBC the data would be \"encouraging\" for retailers but the overall drop since 2019 is \"attached obviously to the cost of living crisis\".\n\nSeparate research suggests that shoppers expected to spend less this year.\n\nBarclaycard predicted that the average person would spend £229 in the post-Christmas sales, £18 less than last year.\n\nIn a survey of 2,000 would-be shoppers, the credit card firm found that 42% said the higher cost of living would temper spending in the post-Christmas sales, with many of those saying they would spend less compared to previous years.\n\nThe rate of price rises - also known as inflation - hit 10.7% in November which was lower than October but is still at its highest for 40 years.\n\nDr Sarah Montano, retail expert and senior lecturer of marketing at the University of Birmingham, said: \"For many consumers, obviously they would've been shopping pre-Christmas, as we had the Black Friday sales and things like that.\n\n\"As we move into the new year, we expect consumers to be a bit cautious because of course, the heating bills will still be to come for consumers and that will impact on their discretionary spending.\"\n\nThe rise in Boxing Day and Bank Holiday footfall came despite rail strikes by members of the RMT union who work for Network Rail as well as some members of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association.\n\nA strike by TSSA members at Great Western Railway and West Midlands Trains began on 28 December and will last until midnight on 29 December.", "The bus plunged from a height of about 30m (98ft) into the fast-flowing Lerez river on Saturday\n\nEmergency services in Spain have confirmed a seventh death after a bus plunged from a bridge into a river on Christmas Eve (Saturday).\n\nRescuers retrieved the body of a woman from the Lérez river in the north-western Galicia region on Monday.\n\nTwo people, including the driver, were hurt after the bus travelling from Lugo to Vigo fell from a height of about 30m (98ft) into the fast-flowing river.\n\nOfficials say bad weather may have caused the crash.\n\nThey say the bus driver tested negative for alcohol and drugs.\n\nA passing driver and one of the survivors from inside the bus alerted the local emergency services\n\nAn investigation continues, with officials saying bad weather may have caused the deadly crash\n\nRescue teams initially ended their search near the village of Pedre, not far from Galicia's regional capital of Santiago de Compostela, on Christmas Day (Sunday) after finding six bodies.\n\nBut they resumed the operation after one surviving passenger said a friend she had been travelling with was not on the official list of victims.\n\nThe woman had not been reported missing as nobody had been waiting for her, a Guardia Civil police spokesman told AFP news agency.\n\nHer body was spotted by a helicopter in the river on Monday morning.\n\nEmergency services were first alerted about the incident by a passing driver who told them that a section of the bridge's safety barrier was missing.\n\nJust minutes later, one of the survivors called them from inside the bus as it was fast filling with water.\n\nThis helped rescue teams to quickly locate the crash site.\n\nAmong those on board were people who had just visited loved ones at a prison in central Galicia, AFP adds, quoting local media.", "Taiwan will extend mandatory military service from four months to one year, President Tsai Ing-wen has said.\n\nThe decision comes amid growing tensions with China, which claims the self-ruled island as its territory.\n\nSpeaking at a press conference on Tuesday, President Tsai announced new plans to bolster Taiwan's defence in the event of an attack from Beijing.\n\n\"Peace will not drop from the sky... Taiwan is on the frontline of authoritarian expansion,\" she said.\n\nPresident Tsai said conscripts will also undergo more intense training, borrowing some elements from the US and other advanced militaries. She added that the island's current defence system was inadequate to cope with aggression from China, which has one of the world's largest and most advanced militaries.\n\nThe Taiwanese army has shrunk since the early 1990s when all men over the age of 18 were required to serve in the military for up to three years. Over the next few decades, service was shortened to one year and 10 months before being further reduced to four months. The new rule takes effect in January 2024 - the same month Taiwan will elect its next president.\n\n\"This is an extremely difficult decision, but as president, as the head of military forces, it is my unavoidable duty to defend national interests and our democratic way of life,\" President Tsai said.\n\n\"No-one wants war, Taiwan and Taiwanese people are the same, and the international community is the same,\" she said, adding \"China's military aggression has become increasingly obvious after its war game in August.\"\n\nTensions between Taipei and Beijing soared in August following a visit to the island by US Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.\n\nBeijing responded by holding its biggest-ever military exercises in the seas around Taiwan. Taipei called the drills \"highly provocative\".\n\nIn October, Chinese President Xi Jinping did not rule out the use of force to unify with Taiwan in his opening speech at the Communist party Congress in Beijing. Later that week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said China is pursuing unification with Taiwan \"on a much faster timeline\" than previously expected.\n\nTaiwan has also become a flashpoint in US-China relations given the island's close ties to Washington.\n\nIt was believed to have been a major discussion point when Mr Xi met US President Joe Biden at the G20 summit in November. Following the meeting, Mr Biden said he did not believe China would invade Taiwan.\n\nBut tensions again ratcheted up on Monday when Taiwan reported one of the biggest Chinese incursions around the island, with 71 Chinese air force planes, including fighter jets and drones, entering Taiwan's so-called air defence identification zone.", "The 62-year-old pedestrian was hit by a police car on Almond Link Road\n\nA 62-year-old man has died in West Lothian after being hit by a police car.\n\nThe pedestrian was struck by a marked Police Scotland vehicle on Almond Link Road in Livingston at about 22:15 on Boxing Day.\n\nThe man was taken by ambulance to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh but was pronounced dead a short time later.\n\nAn investigation has now been launched by the Police Investigation and Review Commissioner (Pirc).\n\nThe male driver and sole occupant of the police car did not require medical treatment.\n\nThe road was re-opened at about 04:30 the following day after inquiries at the scene.\n\nSenior Investigator Steven Carr from Pirc said: \"Our thoughts are very much with the family and friends of the man who died.\n\n\"Our investigation into the circumstances of this incident is continuing and I would urge any drivers with dashcam footage or anyone who witnessed the collision, to please contact Police Scotland or alternatively the Pirc during office hours on 01698 542900.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The storm is causing widespread disruption across North America\n\nThe death toll in the New York city of Buffalo has risen to 28, with thousands still without power amid a monster winter storm that has battered North America.\n\nAcross the US, at least 62 people have died in weather-related incidents.\n\nIn Buffalo, a state official said that military police are being brought in to help manage traffic in the city, where a driving ban remains in place.\n\nLooting has been reported in parts of the city during the emergency.\n\nThe winter storm has also forced the cancellation of thousands of flights, including about 4,800 on Tuesday morning alone. Thousands of passengers have been left stranded at airports across the country.\n\nConditions are now expected to improve, with very little snowfall on Tuesday and slightly warmer weather on the way.\n\nAt a news conference on Tuesday, officials in New York's Erie County - which includes Buffalo - said that the death toll is expected to rise as search and rescue operations continue. The 28 confirmed dead were all in Buffalo.\n\n\"All of the numbers have not caught up at this time,\" Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said. \"We know that the [Erie] county number is larger.\"\n\nMore than 4,000 people in the area remain without power after the storm, which Mr Brown said was \"probably\" the worst of most residents' lifetimes. At the peak of the storm, about 20,000 people were without power.\n\nMr Brown added that there had been an \"improvement\" in the city, with very little snowfall and an absence of whiteout conditions allowing officials \"significant progress\" as they clear vehicles and restore power.\n\nOfficials warned that the warming temperatures in the region might lead to additional problems, including flooding as snow thaws.\n\nIn Erie County, city authorities on Tuesday were removing ice and blockages from storm drains ahead of what officials referred to as a \"rapid melt\".\n\nMark Poloncarz, executive of Erie County where Buffalo is located, said that 100 military police officers and additional state police were being brought in to help control traffic in the area, where conditions remained \"ugly\" on many local roads.\n\nBuffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gragmalia said that looting is \"still going on\". Four people have so far been arrested.\n\n\"This isn't people stealing food and medicine and diapers,\" he said. \"They're destroying stores. They're stealing televisions, couches, whatever else they can get their hands on. They're opportunists.\"\n\nOn Monday, US President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration allowing federal support for New York State. \"My heart is with those who lost loved ones this holiday weekend,\" he tweeted.\n\nNeighbouring state New Jersey also sent emergency services to New York state to provide further assistance.\n\nState Governor Kathy Hochul, a native of Buffalo, described the storm as \"the blizzard of the century\".\n\n\"It is [like] going to a war zone, and the vehicles along the sides of the roads are shocking.\"\n\nOfficials in New York have said that emergency personnel were forced to go from car to car searching for survivors of the storm, sometimes finding bodies in cars and snow banks.\n\nMr Poloncarz said that some of the fatalities died from cardiac arrest while ploughing snow, with Buffalo state issuing a \"Shovel Smart\" warning, notifying people that over-exertion from shovelling snow can cause heart attacks or back injuries. While three additional deaths were confirmed by Tuesday morning, two deaths that had been reported earlier were deemed a \"non-storm related\", he added.\n\nWyoming County medical teams respond to a call as Buffalo deals with the winter storm\n\nSome local residents recounted harrowing escapes from the storm over the last several days.\n\nOne local family with young children - aged two to six - had to wait for 11 hours before being rescued in the early hours of Christmas Day (Sunday).\n\n\"I was basically just hopeless,\" the father, Zila Santiago, told CBS News. He said he managed to stay warm by keeping the engine running, and kept distress at bay by playing games with the children.\n\nDitjak Ilunga from Gaithersburg, Maryland, told CBS News he was on his way to visit relatives in Hamilton, Ontario, with his daughters when their SUV was trapped in Buffalo.\n\nAfter spending hours with the engine running he made the desperate choice to risk the howling storm to reach a nearby shelter.\n\nHe carried six-year-old Destiny on his back while 16-year-old Cindy clutched their Pomeranian puppy, and followed his footprints in the snow drifts.\n\n\"If I stay in this car I'm going to die here with my kids,\" Mr Ilunga recalled thinking.\n\nHe said he cried when the family walked through the shelter doors. \"It's something I will never forget in my life,\" he said.\n\nWhile the largest death toll has been reported in New York, storm-related deaths have been reported across the US, including Vermont, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Colorado.\n\nOver the weekend, an estimated 250,000 homes and businesses experienced blackouts, although power has steadily been restored. Still, tens of thousands of people remained without power on Tuesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Thaw on the way to US cold spots\n\nIn Canada, the central province of Ontario and Quebec, in the north-east, bore the brunt of the storm.\n\nOntario's Prince Edward County, along Lake Ontario, declared a state of emergency and had to take snow ploughs off the streets because they were in danger of getting stuck, Mayor Steve Ferguson told CBC News.\n\nFour fatalities earlier occurred when a bus rolled over on an icy road near the town of Merritt, in the western province of British Columbia.\n\nHave you been affected by the severe weather in the US and Canada? Please email us: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The Spice Girl was named \"Honorary Gay\" at Attitude magazine's awards this year\n\nMelanie C has pulled out of a New Year's Eve concert in Poland after being made aware of issues \"that do not align with the communities I support\".\n\nThe Spice Girl had been due to perform in the town of Zakopane on Saturday.\n\nShe didn't specify why she cancelled her appearance, but her decision was praised by LGBT people and allies.\n\nPolish authorities and the TV station organising the concert have been widely criticised in recent years for their stances on LGBT rights.\n\nThe singer wrote on social media: \"In light of some issues that have been brought to my attention, that do not align with the communities I support, I'm afraid I will no longer be able to perform in Poland as planned on New Year's Eve.\n\n\"I hope to be back there very soon. Hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas and best wishes for 2023. Melanie xxx.\"\n\nThe New Year's Eve show is being organised by state broadcaster TVP, who said she had withdrawn \"under the pressure of online comments\".\n\nBBC News has asked Melanie C's spokesperson for more information about her reasons.\n\nThe star has been a high-profile supporter of LGBT rights, winning the celebrity ally prize at the British LGBT Awards in 2021 and being named \"Honorary Gay\" at Attitude magazine's awards earlier this year.\n\nThose praising her decision included left-wing Polish politicians Robert Biedron and Beata Maciejewska, who wrote: \"Equality is equality. No discussion or compromise.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Why LGBT people in Poland still don't feel free, despite the recent relaxation of \"pro-family\" resolutions\n\nHostility to LGBT rights has become a flashpoint in Poland in recent years, with conservative politicians including the ruling party frequently taking aim at that community.\n\nIn 2019, President Andrzej Duda said the LGBT movement was \"more destructive\" than communism, while about 100 towns and regions passed resolutions condemning \"LGBT ideology\".\n\nSame-sex marriages and civil unions are not legally recognised in Poland. Same-sex couples also have no legal right to adopt children.\n\nEarlier this year, Amnesty International said \"the atmosphere of hostility towards LGBTI people in Poland is growing dangerously worse\".\n\nTVP is described by Reporters Without Borders as an \"instrument of government propaganda\".\n\nAccording to the country's Campaign Against Homophobia, the broadcaster was recently ordered to air an apology for a 2019 documentary called Invasion, which promised to reveal \"the inside story, aims, methods, and money behind the LGBT invasion\" of Poland.\n\nResponding to Melanie C's withdrawal, TVP said in a statement reported by Polishnews.co.uk that the singer had previously expressed her excitement at performing, \"and today - under the pressure of online comments - she unexpectedly resigned from the performance\".\n\nShe will also appear in BBC One's New Year's Eve concert hosted by Sam Ryder, which was recorded earlier this month.", "Theresa May has warned government efforts to tighten modern slavery laws must not mistakenly make it easier for criminal gangs to hold onto victims.\n\nThe former Tory prime minister told BBC Radio 4's PM programme Rishi Sunak needed to avoid unintended consequences as he explores changes to legislation.\n\nMr Sunak has promised to make it harder to be considered a modern slave in a bid to cut illegitimate asylum claims.\n\nMrs May also said Mr Sunak could revive the Tories and win the next election.\n\nSpeaking about the Modern Slavery Act introduced in 2015 in her time as home secretary, Mrs May said the legislation offers \"world-leading protections\" for victims.\n\nBut she said efforts to raise thresholds at which a person can be considered a victim of modern slavery needed to consider the potential to create further loopholes.\n\nRaising the example of a sex trafficking victim who may come forward to authorities in the UK, Mrs May said \"there's talk of requiring more evidence from individuals\".\n\nBut she said victims were unlikely to have such evidence.\n\n\"If you are somebody who is being brought by a criminal gang who are abusing the system, and they know there needs to be a piece of paper, they probably will provide a piece of paper,\" she said.\n\nMrs May, who has previously spoken in the Commons about her concerns, added: \"So it's making sure that, in dealing with problems that are identified, we don't create other problems.\"\n\nMr Sunak has denied he would water down the definition of modern slavery and said he wanted to stop the system \"being clogged up by people making spurious claims\".\n\nBut Labour has criticised the government's plans to deal with a mounting asylum backlog, which stands at about 117,000 outstanding claims, as \"unworkable gimmicks\". And refugee and migration charities have hit out at what they say are \"cruel\" and \"ineffective\" proposals.\n\nMore than 40,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats so far this year - the highest number since figures began to be collected in 2018. Some 90 people arrived in two small boats on Christmas Day, the Ministry of Defence confirmed on Monday.\n\nElsewhere in a wide-ranging interview with presenter Carolyn Quinn on PM, Mrs May backed Mr Sunak to succeed at the next general election.\n\nThe Conservatives are currently trailing Labour in the opinion polls.\n\nMrs May - who left Downing Street in 2019 - said there was \"no doubt\" the so-called mini budget under Prime Minister Liz Truss had an impact on the Conservative Party's reputation for economic integrity,\n\nBut she said \"we've seen already... the new chancellor and a new prime minister... taking the process of re-establishing that reputation\", adding Mr Sunak can \"turn it round and we can win that election\".", "Opposition to new housing developments could be curbed if there was more focus on the \"heart and soul\" of areas, Michael Gove has suggested.\n\nThe levelling up, housing and communities secretary said too many planning applications were \"indifferent\" or \"insipid\".\n\nMr Gove made the comments in the foreword to a report by the centre-right think tank Policy Exchange.\n\nHe is backing its call for a new school of architecture and urban design.\n\nThe government has a target of building 300,000 new homes by the middle of the decade.\n\nBut, Mr Gove previously said the pledge would be \"difficult\" to deliver in the next year because of the economic slump and rising inflation.\n\nLabour's shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy said: \"The thousands of families who saw their dreams of home ownership go up in smoke after the Tories crashed the economy need a real plan for more homes to be built.\"\n\nIn the think tank's report, Mr Gove suggested the potential of some public spaces was being squandered as a result of poor design and maintenance.\n\n\"Places must be at the heart of levelling up but if places themselves have no heart and soul, then levelling up too will falter,\" he said.\n\n\"Much of the opposition to new housing developments is often grounded in a fear that the quality of the new buildings and places created will be deficient and therefore detrimental to existing neighbourhoods and properties.\n\n\"If a general improvement in the standard of design reassures the general public that this will in fact not be the case, then they may be less likely to oppose it.\"\n\nBut Mr Gove acknowledged there is \"no silver bullet\" to solve the housing crisis.\n\nThe Policy Exchange report calls for the government to back a new \"School of Place\", arguing if there was \"a generally higher quality of architecture and placemaking then this could help diffuse much of the aesthetic opposition to new housing\".\n\nThe school would include architects, planners, designers, engineers and consultants.\n\nEarlier this month, the government watered down its housing targets for local councils following the threat of a rebellion from some Conservative MPs.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak had been trying to bring in binding targets, but the government now says: \"Housing targets remain, but are a starting point, with new flexibilities to reflect local circumstances.\"\n• None Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Antov had set up the Vladimir Standard company in the 2000s and became a well-regarded lawmaker in the city of Vladimir\n\nRussian sausage tycoon Pavel Antov has been found dead at an Indian hotel, two days after a friend died during the same trip.\n\nThey were visiting the eastern state of Odisha and the millionaire, who was also a local politician, had just celebrated his birthday at the hotel.\n\nAntov was a well known figure in the city of Vladimir, east of Moscow.\n\nLast summer he denied criticising Russia's war in Ukraine after a message appeared on his WhatsApp account.\n\nThe millionaire's death is the latest in a series of unexplained deaths involving Russian tycoons since the start of the Russian invasion, many of whom have openly criticised the war.\n\nReports in Russian media said Mr Antov, 65, had fallen from a window at the hotel in the city of Rayagada on Sunday. Another member of his four-strong Russian group, Vladimir Budanov, died at the hotel on Friday.\n\nSuperintendent Vivekananda Sharma of Odisha police said Mr Budanov was found to have suffered a stroke while his friend \"was depressed after his death and he too died\". The Russian consul in Kolkata, Alexei Idamkin, told the Tass news agency that police did not see a \"criminal element in these tragic events\".\n\nTourist guide Jitendra Singh told reporters that Mr Budanov may have \"consumed a lot of alcohol as he had liquor bottles\".\n\nPavel Antov founded the Vladimir Standard meat processing plant and in 2019 Forbes estimated his fortune at some $140m (£118m) at the top of Russia's rich list of lawmakers and civil servants.\n\nHe played an important role at the legislative assembly in Vladimir, heading a committee on agrarian policy and ecology. The assembly's deputy chairman Vyacheslav Kartukhin said he had died in \"tragic circumstances\".\n\nLate last June he appeared to react to a Russian missile attack on a residential block in the Shevchenkivskyi district of Kyiv that left a man dead and his seven-year-old daughter and her mother wounded.\n\nA WhatsApp message on Antov's account described how the family were pulled out of the rubble: \"It's extremely difficult to call all this anything but terror.\"\n\nThe message was deleted and Antov then posted on social media that he was a supporter of the president, a \"patriot of my country\" and backed the war.\n\nThe WhatsApp message had come from someone whose opinion on the \"special military operation in Ukraine\" he strongly disagreed with, he insisted. It had been posted accidentally on his messenger and was a highly annoying misunderstanding, he said.\n\nSeveral high-profile Russian tycoons have died in mysterious circumstances since the war began.\n\nIn September the head of Russia's oil giant Lukoil, Ravil Maganov, apparently fell from a hospital window in Moscow.", "For three nights in February 1941, thousands of bombs rained down on Swansea, killing hundreds of people and causing massive destruction\n\nThere are potentially thousands of unexploded World War Two bombs around Wales, with emergency services still dealing with up to 20 callouts a year.\n\nWith the coastal towns of Cardiff and Swansea key German targets, many are thought to be in these areas.\n\nAt the start of the war, the authorities were \"utterly unprepared\" how to deal with unexploded bombs, according to historian Steve Day.\n\nA bomb disposal officer was expected to live for two months.\n\nMr Day said this was consistent with a \"farcical approach\" at the start of the conflict, with kit typically comprising of a hammer and chisel, ball of string, and maybe a stethoscope if they were lucky.\n\nHe added: \"The running joke was 'join the Army and see the world, join the bomb disposal squad and see the next world'.\"\n\nIt was an issue my family are all too aware of because on 21 February 1941, my then 15-year-old grandfather, Les Prior, was on traffic duty on Swansea's Castle Street.\n\nAs part of the Home Guard, his role was to direct cars away from the area while bomb disposal experts tried to defuse a massive unexploded device dropped during the Three Night Blitz on the town.\n\nSwansea city centre had to be rebuilt after being targeted during World War Two\n\nAt about 17:00 he recalled a \"whoosh of air\" which blew him flat on his face and destroyed the street's shopfronts.\n\nBeing several hundred yards away from the blast, he was thankfully uninjured, but seven sappers from the Royal Engineers were not so lucky.\n\nIn 1941, Wales became a major battleground, not only because of the industrial targets along the Bristol Channel, but because of the undefended route it offered to the north-west of England.\n\n\"Cardiff, and particularly Swansea were key targets in their own right, especially given the oil refinery at Llandarcy, but the gaps in Welsh air defences made us a back door to attack the far more important prizes of Liverpool on the North Atlantic shipping route,\" Mr Day said.\n\n\"There were no gun emplacements in the gaps between Pembroke, Swansea and Cardiff.\"\n\nBecause of this, more than 80 years later, the sight of Ministry of Defence (MoD) vehicles rushing to emergencies are still a common sight on Welsh roads.\n\nThis is because about 10% of all German bombs dropped on Wales failed to detonate.\n\nAs soon as UK authorities learnt how to deal with a certain type of bomb, a new one was developed\n\nGiven that there were 743 air raids over Wales, each containing between five and 30,000 devices, many thousands are potentially still lying undetonated, Mr Day believes.\n\nThe author and historian from Swansea has charted the different ways they have been tackled over the decades in his book Danger UXB WW2 Wales.\n\n\"At the start of the war, we were utterly unprepared for how to deal with unexploded bombs,\" he said.\n\n\"There were various plans for ARP (air raid precautions) and police to chart them falling, and for volunteers to collect them for disposal in a safe place, but it quickly became apparent that this wasn't going to happen.\"\n\nMoD worker Mr Day said responsibility was soon switched to the armed forces, with each of The Army, RAF and Royal Navy taking charge of drops in their own areas of command.\n\nBefore the first attack had even hit Wales, an early example of bombs used by the Luftwaffe had been sent to RAF Sullom Voe on the Shetland Islands for inspection.\n\nBut a lot of time and effort was spent for nothing, with Mr Day adding: \"The Germans had actually registered the copyright for the Type 15 fuse with the Patent Office in Newport in 1932.\n\n\"All the British would have needed to do was to inspect the plans, and they could have saved themselves several months of research.\"\n\nHe said that unexploded bombs are not always where you would expect them to be, near their intended targets.\n\n\"Having carried out a bombing raid on Liverpool, German bombers would rush back over mid Wales pursued by night fighters and would just drop whatever bombs they were still carrying, in order to gain height and speed,\" Mr Day added.\n\n\"That means bomb disposal teams are often called out across many parts of what was rural Wales to unearth high explosives in what were just fields during World War Two.\"\n\nBy 1941, The Luftwaffe had worked out that British bomb disposal experts had figured out how to short-circuit Type 15 fuses.\n\nThey then used the Type 17, which contained a mechanical clock, set to go off anything from a minute to several days after landing.\n\nBut Mr Day said these were \"ingeniously countered\" with either pumped-in sugar based viscous fluid to gum up the clockwork mechanism, or a magnet known as \"the clock stopper\" which would disrupt its iron parts.\n\nGermany again responded with anti-tamper fuses, which would immediately explode when anyone tried to remove them, he said.\n\nOne of these one tonne (1,000kg) bombs killed seven men in the single biggest loss of life for bomb disposal during the entire war.\n\nMr Day explained: \"They were using a process called 'trepanning', whereby you bore into the side of the bomb with a steam drill and then force steam into the bomb casing to allow the liquid TNT to flow out.\n\n\"However, like many other cases, this bomb was embedded deeply in the road, and as they tried to lift it out with whatever materials came to hand - planks or even doors from nearby bombsites - the bomb went off and killed all those around.\"\n\nMr Day said many of the same methods and techniques of bomb disposal from World War Two are still used to this day, although robots carry out a lot of the most dangerous roles.\n\nFrom a high in the 1950s of about 80 unexploded bombs a year, even now in Wales it is not uncommon to receive around 20 callouts.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The storm is causing widespread disruption across North America\n\nA severe winter storm that has swept across North America has left the city of Buffalo, New York, looking like a war zone, the state governor has said.\n\n\"This is a war with mother nature and she has been hitting us with everything she has\" since Thursday, state governor Kathy Hochul said.\n\nBlizzard conditions stretching from Canada to the Mexican border have now killed at least 56 people in total.\n\nThe region around Buffalo has been worst affected, with 27 deaths reported there.\n\nGovernor Hochul, a native of Buffalo, said: \"It is [like] going to a war zone, and the vehicles along the sides of the roads are shocking.\"\n\nShe said residents were facing a \"life-threatening situation\", as many emergency vehicles were unable to reach worst-hit areas or got stuck in snow themselves.\n\nOne family with young children - aged 2 to 6 - had to wait for 11 hours before being rescued in the early hours of Christmas Day.\n\n\"I was basically just hopeless,\" the father, Zila Santiago, told CBS News. He said he had managed to stay warm by keeping the engine running and kept distress at bay by playing games with the children.\n\nMore victims are expected to be discovered once melting snowdrifts reveal trapped vehicles and allow access to remote homes.\n\nOn Monday parts of western New York found another 40 inches (1m) of snow had fallen overnight, the governor said\n\nGovernor Hochul, who spoke to Joe Biden on Monday, said the US president had offered \"the full force of the federal government\" to support New York state.\n\nThe \"bomb cyclone\" winter storm - which occurs when atmospheric pressure plummets, causing heavy snow and winds - has disrupted travel across the US.\n\nForecasters say it will ease off in the next few days, but the advice remains to avoid travelling unless essential.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Thaw on the way to US cold spots\n\nOver the weekend an estimated 250,000 homes and businesses experienced blackouts - although power has been steadily restored.\n\nStorm-related deaths were also reported in Vermont, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Colorado. South Florida's temperatures dropped so low, that iguanas froze and fell from trees.\n\nThe western US state of Montana was the worst hit by the cold, with temperatures dropping to -50F (-45C).\n\nIn Canada, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec are bearing the brunt of the storm.\n\nFour fatalities occurred when a bus rolled over on an icy road near the town of Merritt, in the western province of British Columbia.", "Sean Dilley has said he believes he was targeted by a phone thief because he is blind\n\nA blind BBC reporter says he \"instinctively\" leapt on a mugger who had stolen his mobile phone - and managed to get it back.\n\nSean Dilley was targeted on Tuesday while on a break during a night shift at London's New Broadcasting House.\n\nA person riding a bike snatched the phone - but Dilley did not give up easily and instead made a split-second decision to try to detain his attacker.\n\nHe said afterwards he suspected he was targeted because of his blindness.\n\nA member of the public is allowed to attempt an arrest if they suspect a serious criminal act is taking place and they intend to deliver the suspect to the custody of police as soon as possible.\n\nThe news correspondent took his opportunity when he sensed that his attacker was still next to him so jumped in that direction and managed to get them onto the ground.\n\nHe then restrained their arms and was able to retrieve his phone.\n\nDilley sustained several cuts and injured his elbow in the incident, which happened just before 0600 GMT. He said he was concerned about protecting himself but also wanted to ensure the person was as safe as possible.\n\nHe used a voice assistant on his phone to call 999. As he waited for the police, another person arrived and offered to help.\n\nAt that stage, with his assailant continuing to struggle, Dilley told them he would let them go as long as they left immediately.\n\nThree police officers arrived soon after and Dilley said he was grateful to them for their quick response, describing their attitude towards him as \"friendly\" and \"helpful\". The trio walked him back into the BBC newsroom.\n\nDilley said he hoped that his instinctive actions might force the thief to reconsider their actions in future.\n\n\"He picked the wrong blind person on the wrong day,\" he said.\n\nHe described his own actions as \"stupid\" and advised anybody in a similar situation that no property is worth risking their life for and to simply call the police.\n\nHowever, Mr Dilley said he can't pretend he is not happy he got his phone back.\n\nPolice are investigating the incident as an robbery and are appealing for witnesses who saw what happened in Bolsover Street, in central London. The witness who stopped to help told police the person ran off in the direction of Greenwell Street. Anyone with information should call 101 quoting CAD 1115/27Dec.", "Patrick Rogers, 26, was driving and his mother-in-law Mary Duffy, 52, was one of the six passengers\n\nTwo of the three people who died in a crash near Cookstown in County Tyrone on Monday were Patrick Rogers and his mother-in-law Mary Duffy.\n\nThe driver of the other car - a woman in her 80s - also died in the collision in Dungannon Road about 15:30 GMT.\n\nMr Rogers' wife and their four children were taken to hospital and their injuries are not believed to be life threatening.\n\nA woman was killed in a separate crash on the M1 in County Tyrone on Monday.\n\nShe was named locally as Imelda Quinn, who was in her 40s, from County Tyrone. She was a nurse and a mother of two young children.\n\nImelda Quinn, a mother-of-two from County Tyrone, died following a crash on the M1\n\nThe name of the woman in her 80s who died in the crash near Cookstown has not yet been released.\n\nMr Rogers, 26, who was from Cookstown, was driving his Nissan X-Trail.\n\nSupt Stephen Murray said: \"Our thoughts are very much with the families of the people who lost their lives on our roads. Any loss of life is a cause of great sadness and it feels particularly tragic at Christmas.\n\n\"I'd also like to commend members of the public who provided assistance at the scene of this collision and our officers and other emergency services for their caring and professional approach in these very tragic circumstances.\n\n\"An investigation led by specialist investigators from the Collision Investigation Unit has commenced and I am appealing to anyone who was in the area at the time who may have witnessed the collision or who has dash-cam footage or any other information to contact police.\"\n\nThree people died in a crash which happened in Dungannon Road, near Cookstown\n\nSinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill said it was \"deeply tragic news\".\n\n\"I offer my heartfelt sympathies to the families of those tragically killed and every best wish to those injured for a full and speedy recovery,\" she added.\n\nSocial Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) MLA Patsy McGlone said it is \"the worst possible news any family could receive but particularly at this time of year\".\n\n\"My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected at this incredibly difficult time.\"\n\nThe Northern Ireland Ambulance Service sent four emergency crews to the Cookstown collision\n\nIn a tweet, Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Doug Beattie said: \"I just can't imagine the horror those who survived have endured and the scene faced by the emergency services.\n\n\"Life is so precious and so fragile.\"\n\nDemocratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said: \"Our thoughts and prayers are with all involved in this tragic incident and the families and communities impacted by such a devastating loss.\n\n\"We also think of the emergency services who attended the scene and the health service staff caring for those injured.\"\n\nPolice said no other vehicle was involved in the earlier crash in which Ms Quinn died.\n\nOfficers received a report just before 13:30 GMT on Monday that a blue Mercedes car had left the east-bound carriageway, near the Stangmore junction.\n\nEmergency services attended but the woman died later in hospital as a result of her injuries, police said.\n\nCannyMan Community Arts said Ms Quinn was a founding member of the organisation and that it was \"difficult to find words to articulate the incredible loss, grief and sorrow felt at this time\".\n\n\"Coming from a family steeped in music and arts and with an abundance of talent, Imelda had the foresight to create an organisation that would celebrate the arts and provide opportunities to showcase talent within the Galbally community,\" it added.", "Firefighters have been tackling a large blaze near Blackpool's seafront.\n\nThe fire broke out at a commercial property in Back Church Street at about 13:40 GMT.\n\nEight fire engines were sent to the scene with crews warning residents to shut their windows and doors to minimise smoke inhalation.\n\nPolice also advised people to avoid the area around the popular Winter Gardens complex and Blackpool Promenade as crews dealt with the blaze.\n\nThe fire broke out on Back Church Street\n\nFire station manager Samantha Preddy said that the service had reduced the crews tackling the fire to four pumps by late afternoon, but that there had been a \"partial building collapse\".\n\n\"Church Street is cordoned off at the moment and we ask that you to stay clear of the area while our crews maintain temperature monitoring of the situation,\" she said.\n\nSmoke spread over Blackpool's famous seafront after the blaze broke out\n\nEight fire engines rushed to the scene near the Winter Gardens\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Musician Loyle Carner told Jamie Oliver how he hopes to expand his self-funded cooking school to help more young people with ADHD.\n\nLoyle explained how food was always a space for his neurodiversity \"to exist\".\n\nChef and campaigner Jamie Oliver was guest-editing BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday for a special episode.", "Chinese people have rushed to book overseas travel after Beijing announced it would reopen its borders next month.\n\nPassport applications for Chinese citizens wishing to travel internationally will resume from 8 January, the immigration administration said.\n\nIt follows an announcement on Monday that ended almost three years of strict quarantine rules for arrivals.\n\nTravel sites have since reported a spike in traffic.\n\nBut Chinese tourists will not have unfettered access to all countries.\n\nOfficials in the US are considering new restrictions on travellers from China due to concerns about a surge in cases and a lack of transparency from the Chinese government.\n\n\"There are mounting concerns in the international community on the ongoing Covid-19 surges in China and the lack of transparent data, including viral genomic sequence data,\" US officials said in a statement quoted by news agencies.\n\n\"Without this data, it is becoming increasingly difficult for public health officials to ensure that they will be able to identify any potential new variants and take prompt measures to reduce the spread.\"\n\nJapan - one of the most popular destinations for Chinese travellers - has announced that all travellers from China must show a negative Covid test on arrival, or quarantine for seven days, because of the surge in cases there.\n\nIndia has also said travellers from China (as well as some other countries) must show a negative Covid test when they arrive - though this was announced before Beijing's easing of restrictions.\n\nThe easing of travel rules in China - the last part of the country's zero-Covid policy - comes as the country battles a new wave of infections.\n\nResentment against the government's policy - which sparked rare public protests against President Xi Jinping in November - led to a relaxation of Covid restrictions across the country.\n\nBut an increase in Covid cases followed, with reports of hospitals overwhelmed and a shortage of drugs.\n\nThe announcement on outbound travel on Tuesday came after Monday's news, which axed quarantine rules for travellers arriving in China. It also scrapped a cap on the daily number of flights.\n\nOn the same day, the National Health Commission announced that Covid would be formally downgraded to a Class B infectious disease on 8 January.\n\nBefore the relaxation of travel rules, people were strongly discouraged from travelling abroad. The sale of outbound group and package travel was banned, according to marketing solutions company Dragon Trail International.\n\nWithin half an hour of Monday's notice that China's borders would reopen, data from travel site Trip.com - cited in Chinese media - showed searches for popular destinations had increased ten-fold year-on-year.\n\nMacau, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and South Korea were the most popular destinations.\n\nIn addition, Chinese travel agency Qunar saw flight enquiries on its website increase seven-fold within the first 15 minutes after the announcement, the China Daily reports.\n\nBefore the pandemic, the number of outbound tourists from China stood at 155 million in 2019, according to Statista. This number dropped to 20 million in 2020.\n\nThis year, some people in China will hope to visit family and loved ones during Chinese New Year, which begins on 22 January.\n\nBut inside China, there has been a mixed reaction.\n\n\"I'm happy about it but also speechless. If we're doing this [reopening] anyway - why did I have to suffer all the daily Covid tests and lockdowns this year?\" said Rachel Liu, who lives in Shanghai.\n\nShe said she had endured three months of lockdown in April - but nearly everyone in her family had become infected in recent weeks.\n\nShe said her parents, grandparents and partner - living across three different cities in Xi'an, Shanghai and Hangzhou - had all come down with fever last week.\n\nMany have also expressed concern online about borders reopening as Covid cases peak.\n\n\"Why can't we wait until this wave passes to open up? The medical workers are already worn out, and old people won't survive two infections in one month,\" read one top-liked comment on Weibo.\n\nPeople in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, which experience chilly temperatures in the winter, say they're running out of flu and cold medicine.\n\nIt's feared that hundreds of deaths may be going unreported as crematoriums are overwhelmed.\n\nIn the capital, Beijing, authorities say they are planning to distribute the Pfizer tablets, Paxlovid, in order to try to reduce the severity of infections. But health centres contacted by The Global Times on Monday said the drug had yet to be delivered.\n\nOn Monday, President Xi issued his first remarks on the changes, calling on officials to do what was \"feasible\" to save lives.\n\nChina's about-turn has put Mr Xi in a tough spot. He was the driving force behind zero-Covid, which many blamed for restricting people's lives excessively and crippling the economy.\n\nBut having abandoned it, analysts say he now has to take responsibility for the huge wave of infections and hospital admissions. Many have questioned why the country was not better prepared.\n\nAre you hoping to visit China in the new year to see family? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Shoppers appear to flee Shanghai Ikea in August", "China is battling to cope with a virus wave after dropping most of its pandemic restrictions this month\n\nChina will scrap quarantine for travellers from 8 January, officials said, marking the last major shift from the country's zero-Covid policy.\n\nAfter almost three years of closed borders, this will reopen the country to those with work and study visas, or seeking to visit family.\n\nTravel overseas for Chinese citizens will become easier, the immigration authority said on Tuesday.\n\nCovid has spread ferociously in the wake of restrictions being lifted.\n\nReports say hospitals are overwhelmed and elderly people are dying.\n\nThe true toll - daily case counts and deaths - is currently unknown because officials have stopped releasing Covid data.\n\nBeijing had reported about 4,000 new Covid infections each day last week and few deaths.\n\nOn Sunday it said it would stop publishing case numbers altogether. But British health data firm Airfinity estimated China was experiencing more than a million infections and 5,000 deaths a day.\n\nChina is the last major economy in the world to move to \"living with Covid\" after three years of lockdowns, closed borders and mandatory quarantine for Covid cases and contacts.\n\nThe so-called zero-Covid approach battered the economy and made citizens weary of restrictions and repeated tests.\n\nResentment against the policy exploded into rare public protests against President Xi Jinping in November, which was followed by authorities dropping Covid rules just a few weeks later.\n\nClosed borders remain the last major restriction. Since March 2020, anyone entering China had to undergo mandatory quarantine at a state facility - for up to three weeks at a time. That was recently reduced to five days.\n\nBut on Monday the National Health Commission announced that Covid would be formally downgraded to a Class B infectious disease on 8 January.\n\nThat meant quarantine would be axed - although incoming travellers will still need to take a PCR test. A cap on the daily number of flights allowed into China would also be scrapped.\n\nAuthorities said they would also \"optimise\" visa arrangements for foreigners wishing to come to China for work and study, as well as family visits and reunions.\n\nIt's unclear if that includes tourist visas, but officials said a pilot programme would begin for international cruise ships.\n\nChinese citizens wishing to apply for passports to travel abroad will also be able to do so from 8 January, the immigration authority announced on Tuesday.\n\nPrior to the pandemic, the number of outbound tourists from China stood at 155 million in 2019, according to Statista. This number dropped to 20 million in 2020.\n\nThe new rules have been welcomed by many Chinese who will now be able to travel overseas again.\n\nThe country's top online travel agencies reported a spike in traffic within hours of the announcement. Many people will be hoping to visit family and loved ones during Chinese New Year, which begins on 22 January.\n\nBut many have also expressed anger over the sudden freedom after years of controls.\n\n\"I'm happy about it but also speechless. If we're doing this [reopening] anyway - why did I have to suffer all the daily Covid tests and lockdowns this year?\" said Rachel Liu, who lives in Shanghai.\n\nShe said she had endured three months of lockdown in April, but nearly everyone in her family had become infected with the virus in recent weeks.\n\nShe said her parents, grandparents and partner - living across three different cities in Xi'an, Shanghai and Hangzhou - had all come down with fever last week.\n\nHospitals - like this one in Shanghai - are under strain in this Covid wave\n\nMany have also expressed concern online about borders reopening as Covid cases peak in China.\n\n\"Why can't we wait until this wave passes to open up? The medical workers are already worn out, and old people won't survive two infections in one month,\" read one top-liked comment on Weibo.\n\nPeople in cities like Beijing and Shanghai, which experience chilly temperatures in the winter, say they're running out of flu and cold medicine.\n\nIt's feared that hundreds of deaths may be going unreported as crematoriums are overwhelmed.\n\nIn the capital, Beijing, authorities say they are planning to distribute the Pfizer tablets, Paxlovid, in order to try and reduce the severity of infections and ease the pressure on hospitals. But health centres contacted by The Global Times on Monday said the drug had yet to be delivered.\n\nOn Monday, President Xi issued his first remarks on the changes, calling on officials to do what was \"feasible\" to save lives.\n\nState media quoted him saying the country faced a new situation with pandemic control, and needed a more targeted response.\n\nChina's about-turn on how it manages the pandemic has put Mr Xi in a tough spot. He was the driving force behind zero-Covid, which many blamed for restricting people's lives excessively and crippling the economy.\n\nBut having abandoned it, analysts say he now has to take responsibility for the huge wave of infections and hospital admissions. Many have questioned why the country was not better prepared.\n\nAre you hoping to visit China in the new year to see family? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Ali Daei took part in the final draw for the World Cup in Qatar\n\nIranian football legend Ali Daei says an international flight has been rerouted to prevent his wife and daughter from leaving the country.\n\nThe 53-year-old, who has voiced support for anti-government protests, said his family had tried to fly from Tehran to Dubai to join him on holiday on Monday.\n\nBut the flight was made to land on an Iranian island in the Gulf and they were removed.\n\nNo reason was given and the pair are returning to Tehran, Ali Daei added.\n\nThe latest protests were triggered by the death in custody of Iranian-Kurd Mahsa Amini, 22, in September. She had been held for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly.\n\nMore than 500 protesters, including 69 children, have been killed, while thousands of others have been arrested, human rights activists say. Dozens of Iranian security personnel are also reported to have been killed.\n\nIran's state-run news agency Irna said Mr Daei's wife, Mona Farrokhazari, had pledged to inform officials before leaving the country, following the couple's \"association with the groups against the Islamic revolution\".\n\nIrna said their flight had landed at Kish Island and \"Ali Daei's wife and daughter got off the plane\".\n\nMr Daei said the pair \"were going to Dubai for a few days trip and back\", adding: \"Had they been banned (from leaving), the passport police system should have shown it. No-one has given me an answer about this.\"\n\nIn a social-media post in September, he urged the government to \"solve the problems of the Iranian people rather than using repression, violence and arrests\".\n\nEarlier in December his jewellery shop and restaurant in Tehran was shut down by the judiciary.\n\nIn addition to arrests, Iranian authorities have banned several celebrities, artists and prominent figures from leaving the country following their support for the mass protests.\n\nAli Daei, 53, is one of Iran's most famous sports figures. A former captain of the national football team, he has scored 109 goals at an international level in the 1990s and early 2000s.", "Last updated on .From the section Premier League\n\nPremier League football resumed with a feast of Boxing Day fixtures, 40 days after the top-flight broke up for the World Cup in Qatar.\n\nMonday's seven fixtures produced a bumper 25 goals, with table-toppers Arsenal showing no signs of letting up by securing a 3-1 win over West Ham.\n\nSouthampton now find themselves bottom of the league following a home defeat and Everton were left in despair after conceding late on at Goodison Park.\n\nBBC Sport looks at the main headlines from the Premier League's dramatic return.\n• None How the seven Boxing Day games unfolded\n\nAny suggestions the World Cup break might stall Arsenal's momentum were quashed in Monday's final game.\n\nMikel Arteta's men extended their lead to seven points after coming from behind to defeat the Hammers courtesy of goals from Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah.\n\n\"Once we got one, we could all feel the atmosphere in the stadium,\" said Nketiah. \"There is that real unity and connection with the fans.\"\n\nArsenal lie seventh points clear of second-placed Newcastle, but Pep Guardiola's City, who are in third, can claw the deficit back to five points with victory at Leeds on Wednesday (kick-off 20:00 GMT).\n\n\"We are here to stay,\" said Gunners legend Thierry Henry on Amazon Prime.\n\nWith City not playing until Wednesday, Newcastle moved a point above the Premier League champions into second place with an impressive win at Leicester.\n\nThe Magpies dominated and went 3-0 up with only 32 minutes on the clock. A Chris Wood penalty, plus goals from Miguel Almiron and Joelinton, made it a Boxing Day to savour for the travelling fans.\n\nThe Newcastle supporters were heard chanting \"we're gonna win the league\" but does manager Eddie Howe think the same?\n\n\"We can do anything,\" said Howe. \"The season is still young enough for all possibilities to exist for us.\"\n\nThere are managers still trying to find their feet with their new clubs in the Premier League and the Boxing Day fixtures brought up differing results for Julen Lopetegui, Nathan Jones and Unai Emery.\n\nLopetegui got off to a dream start after Rayan Ait-Nouri scored a dramatic stoppage-time winner as Wolves came from behind to beat Everton 2-1 at Goodison Park.\n\nThe victory for the Spanish boss lifted his side off the bottom of the table and into 18th place, one point behind Frank Lampard's Toffees.\n\nWhile Lopetegui soaked up the adulation from the away fans, Southampton boss Nathan Jones - taking charge at St Mary's Stadium for the first time in the Premier League - had to suffer boos from the home supporters after his Saints were comfortably beaten 3-1 by Brighton.\n\nThe relegation scrap has become even harder for Jones as his side now prop up the league table following Wolves' victory.\n\nAston Villa failed to bring Christmas cheer to Villa Park as Emery experienced his first league defeat as Villa manager after Liverpool picked up a 3-1 away victory.\n\nLampard said Everton \"deserved\" to win against Wolves but the fact remains the Toffees are firmly in the relegation fight once again following their disappointing defeat.\n\nFormer West Ham striker Carton Cole said on Final Score: \"I kind of feel sorry for [Lampard] because he knows what he wants from his team.\n\n\"But he needs to brush up and get a bit more stability in midfield - then they can start scoring more goals. Once they do create - which is once in a blue moon - they don't put it in the goal. That's where you need a ruthless striker.\"\n\nMeanwhile, ex-England striker Dion Dublin told BBC Radio 5 Live that while he is not worried for Lampard yet, \"another couple of defeats\" and his time at Everton could be up.\n\nBrentford and Tottenham had set the tone for the day with a four-goal thriller in the early kick-off.\n\nVitaly Janelt and Ivan Toney put the Bees on course for a first win over Spurs since 1948 before Harry Kane launched the fightback in his first match since missing a penalty in England's 2-1 defeat by France in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.\n\nPierre-Emile Hojbjerg made it 2-2 with a curling finish - and neither side was able to find a winner, with Kane heading a chance against the crossbar.\n\n\"What a game to reopen the Premier League with,\" said Brentford boss Thomas Frank, while Spurs boss Antonio Conte added: \"It was an exciting game.\"\n\nNew Premier League referees chief Howard Webb told BBC Sport last week he wants to demystify the refereeing process and to improve the current VAR system.\n\nSo how did the use of the technology go on Monday?\n\nIn the late evening game between leaders Arsenal and strugglers West Ham, referee Michael Oliver awarded a penalty for William Saliba's foul on Jarrod Bowen, with Said Benrahma converting from the spot.\n• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment\n\nLate in the first half, Oliver awarded another penalty for a 'handball' by Aaron Cresswell but after consultation with the VAR and watching a replay on the pitch-side monitor, he rightly overturned the original decision as the ball had clearly hit the West Ham full-back in the face.", "Three or four hours after Nick Bateman found the earring \"it hit home I'd found gold and I did a quick dance in the kitchen with Badger my dog\"\n\nA metal detectorist said he sank to his knees in disbelief when he realised a metal milk bottle top he had unearthed was in fact a gold earring.\n\nNick Bateman, 53, from Burston, Norfolk, made the find in a field he had nicknamed \"disappointment\" after regular searches revealed \"junk\".\n\nThe earring was initially believed to be medieval but closer examination by an expert revealed it was Roman.\n\nIt has been declared treasure and will be lent to a Diss Museum exhibition.\n\nThere is a tiny cross under the suspension loop on the earring which can be seen on the right\n\nMr Bateman made the discovery in a south Norfolk field on Christmas Eve 2021.\n\n\"I'd done all the Christmas stuff so I thought I'd go out for a sneaky hour or two,\" he said.\n\n\"It wasn't the best signal in the world but I dug down three or four inches (seven to 10 cm) and saw what I thought was a gold metal bottle top, but when I cleared off the mud I realised I'd found gold and sunk to my knees in disbelief.\"\n\nMr Bateman said the \"disappointing field\" is now \"one of the best fields I've been in\"\n\nThe builder took up the hobby seriously during lockdown in 2020.\n\nGuided by experienced detectorist Joe Edwards-Gill, he soon exceeded his mentor's experience.\n\nHe said: \"Joe says, 'Nick's been detecting for five minutes and he's already got five pieces going through the treasure process and I've been detecting for 10 and only found one', so I do seem to be the luckiest person.\"\n\nBorder collie Badger accompanies Mr Bateman when he goes out metal detecting - always with permission from the landowner\n\nThe \"fairly battered\" 20.5mm by 22.1mm (0.8in) earring was reported to the coroner and examined by numismatist Adrian Marsden from the Norfolk Historic Environment Service.\n\n\"A colleague thought it was medieval as he could see a tiny cross under one of the loops,\" he said.\n\n\"But when I looked closely I could see a laurel wreath and an eagle and that's exactly the sort of thing you get on Roman objects.\n\n\"Other artefacts like this had gone down as medieval, so it does show you need to keep your wits about you when you examine these things.\"\n\nClose examination of the tiny battered object revealed a laurel wreath and an eagle, said numismatist Adrian Marsden\n\nThe pattern was punched out on two discs of gold, which were soldered together.\n\nIt would have had two loops, one to hang from a ear hook, while a now missing object would have been suspended from the second loop.\n\nMr Bateman said the \"disappointing\" field has since yielded various artefacts currently being assessed through the treasure process.\n\nHe said: \"Every time I look at it, I wonder what that Roman woman's life was like, what she looked like and how she came to lose the earring in a Norfolk field.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: England fans despair as team knocked out of World Cup\n\nEngland's defeat to France in Qatar was watched by an average UK audience of 19.4 million viewers, TV figures showed.\n\nA peak five-minute audience of 21.31 million people tuned in to ITV (and +1) to watch the end of the World Cup 2022 quarter-final match on Saturday.\n\nEngland crashed out of the tournament after losing 2-1 to France.\n\nSome people may have watched on other services such as ITVX, which are not reflected in the Barb rating figures.\n\nThe five-minute peak of 21.31 million was the most-watched single channel TV moment of 2022 so far.\n\nThe most-watched overall TV moment this year was during the Queen Elizabeth II's funeral in September, when a peak audience of 28 million people tuned in.\n\nThere are several measures of TV viewing figures and broadcasters can also release statistics for peak one-minute viewing, which often reflect the highest viewing numbers.\n\nThe Three Lions were pictured looking solemn on Sunday as they headed back to the UK following their defeat.\n\nCaptain Harry Kane said on Twitter he was \"absolutely gutted\" after missing a penalty that would have meant England would have levelled up 2-2 to France.\n\nHe also scored an earlier penalty which took England to 1-1 after France took an early lead in the game when Aurélien Tchouaméni scored in the 17th minute.\n\nMillions of fans have tuned in to watch England throughout the winter World Cup.\n\nAn average UK audience of 7.4 million people watched England beat Iran 6-2 in their first match on BBC One on Monday 21 November, according to Barb.\n\nAnd an average UK audience of 16.59 million TV viewers tuned in for England's 3-0 win over Wales on BBC One on Tuesday 29 November.", "If you're reading this in a cold house in the UK with a woolly hat on your head, if you've winced at the cost of filling up the car, if you've taken in Ukrainian refugees, then your life has been changed by Vladimir Putin's decision to wage war against an independent country.\n\nAs one diplomat puts it, in 2022 \"foreign policy has come home to roost\".\n\nBut beyond supporting Ukraine against Russia's aggression, what makes up Rishi Sunak's foreign policy? That's something to ask Foreign Secretary James Cleverly when he is on our show this Sunday.\n\nWhile Mr Sunak has a ghastly set of problems to attend to at home, part of being an effective prime minister is wielding influence abroad.\n\nBut, as one senior former minister laments, there's been little sign of a grand vision, with \"demoralisation left, right and centre\" instead.\n\nLike any leader, there are some things they have no choice but to do. When it comes to foreign policy, for Mr Sunak, there is the UK's commitment to Ukraine.\n\nUnlike Boris Johnson, he's hardly likely to have Ukrainian streets named after him. But his commitment is as solid as a rock, the right thing to do and politically a no-brainer.\n\nDespite the impact on our fuel bills, there's no sign of the public expecting anything but full-throated support for Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.\n\nAnd when it comes to the issue of people arriving in the UK in small boats, efforts are being put into repairing the relationship with France's President Emmanuel Macron.\n\nThis was \"essentially broken with Boris\", according to one Whitehall source, and a better relationship with Paris could bring a resolution to that problem.\n\nThere's also been a visible effort by the government to move towards a solution on the Northern Ireland protocol - the trickiest hangover from the Brexit deal minted by Mr Johnson.\n\nLong gone is the tough talk and sabre rattling, with one EU ambassador saying Mr Sunak's government has \"completely changed the mood\".\n\nThe determination is to play nice, for now, but resolving the long-standing dispute over implementing extra rules for Northern Ireland, which kept closer ties with the EU than the rest of the UK, needs more than a friendly conversation, it needs one or both sides to budge.\n\nOne former diplomat warns there will be a \"showdown moment\" ahead of next year's 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement which brought peace to Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Sunak faces the same dilemma as the other post-Brexit prime ministers. He could compromise and get an agreement but risk a giant row with his party - or refuse to budge and trigger a massive fight with our biggest trading partner.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rishi Sunak meets President Zelensky in Kyiv for the first time as prime minister\n\nThe tone of government policy is different, but as one ambassador tells me: \"The big question is do we see any willingness to make a deal?\"\n\nThere's been unavoidable pressure too on the prime minister to turn up the heat on China - not least because of the noisy demands from his backbenches - as President Xi Jinping's increasingly hard-line tactics have become more obvious.\n\nMr Sunak stepped along a careful line in his white tie and tails speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet. \"Not as soft and squishy\" as David Cameron was on China, one former diplomat said, \"but not quite as hawkish as Liz Truss\".\n\nGovernments can't ignore China if they want to solve issues like climate change, but they cannot also cut themselves off from an evolving mega power.\n\nIt is hard so far to see how Mr Sunak's government will manage these unavoidable problems differently.\n\nYet this week we may see the foreign secretary fill in some of the blanks in Mr Sunak's foreign policy.\n\nOn Monday, Mr Cleverly will make his pitch to focus on new friends - \"future partnerships\" around the world - essentially building better relationships with countries who are neither the global bad guys nor Britain's traditional allies.\n\nMr Cleverly will argue for closer ties with countries like Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil whose influence is growing.\n\nThe idea is to lengthen the UK's list of global friends - it's described as the \"really smart and obvious thing to do\".\n\nBut one senior Conservative MP worries the government's foreign policy will be \"devoid of any meaningful depth but heavy on flirtation with cameras\", adding that it's time to spell out its objectives and \"show some grit when it comes to threats from autocratic states\".\n\nMr Sunak said foreign policy would go through an \"evolutionary leap\". But when you look down the list of challenges it's hard to see, so far, anything that matches that grand language.\n\nIt's not Theresa May's \"Global Britain\", David Cameron's \"golden era\" with China or Tony Blair's \"ethical foreign policy\" - much maligned though they all came to be.\n\nAnd on the world stage, as one former senior official says, Mr Sunak \"is the junior guy at the table\" and world leaders are not sure after years of the Tories knocking lumps out of each other whether he has control or they should be working out what Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer would do instead.\n\nMr Sunak is a pragmatist prime minister - not a foreign philosopher. His backers would argue that's exactly what's required right now.\n\nBut he is boxed in by an unhappy party which disagrees with itself on policy towards China or the EU.\n\nAnd his detractors claim his political personality is dwarfed by the scale of the challenge.\n\n\"The more he talks, the less he says,\" a Labour source tells me.\n\n\"Both at home and abroad he is in danger of being the Incredible Shrinking Prime Minister - the man who got smaller in office.\"\n\nThe world stage can provide huge opportunities for prime ministers, but Mr Sunak's chance of turning things round for his struggling party starts with confronting problems at home.", "Charlotte Chapman says she won't make herself a meal, to make sure her kids don't go hungry\n\nMother-of-five Charlotte Chapman's kids come before everything else.\n\n\"I will eat their leftovers, I won't make myself a meal,\" the 30-year-old single parent said in their Cardiff home.\n\nCharlotte is the swan in her house, frantically paddling beneath the surface to ensure her kids have a smooth ride through their young lives.\n\n\"If you have got the support, and you have got the family, I think you are going to be OK,\" she said.\n\n\"We are all struggling, but it is what you make of it.\"\n\nCharlotte was 17 when she had her first child. As well as caring for her five children, Charlotte's 16-year-old brother also lives with them in their three-bedroom house.\n\n\"My money, I just spend on food and bills. That's it.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You don't need a lot of money it's just what you make of it\"\n\n\"We don't go out. If we do, it's free things. We go down the [River] Taff or to the park. There's no treats like cinema or bowling, I can't afford that.\"\n\nTo ensure her children have a nice Christmas, Charlotte said she has had to find other ways of saving money.\n\n\"We've had to use charities a lot to help, I went to the food bank not long ago so I was able to buy some Christmas presents,\" she explained.\n\n\"I have to go to charity [shops] for clothing, because I find that's a lot of money at the moment.\"\n\nThe children's school shoes were bought online using Klarna, paying in instalments. Charlotte has also used PayPal to spread the cost of some items, and she has only just finished paying for last year's Christmas presents.\n\nFree activities such as the park are how the mother-of-five keeps her little ones entertained\n\nWhile the cost of living crisis has made most people reconsider what they are spending, Charlotte said she was used to a tight budget.\n\n\"This is normal life for me, to be honest. I am a single mum since 17, so it has always been a struggle for things.\n\n\"You've just got to use the help and support that's out there to get by. And that's what I've done for the last 10 years, really.\"\n\nCharlotte Chapman, 30, says a positive mindset goes a long way to improving quality of life\n\nSome of that help comes from Home-Start Cymru, a charity which supports young people with children at their most challenging time.\n\n\"We've definitely seen an increase in families needing some of those everyday essentials,\" said Home-Start coordinator Ruth Triggs.\n\n\"Help with nappies, wipes, baby milk. And if they can't provide those, then there's no money left to provide those little luxuries for Christmas either.\"\n\nAt this time of year, Home-Start's work includes a Christmas present appeal, with the gifts being distributed to the families they support.\n\nMs Triggs said the pressures of Christmas could take their toll on young parents.\n\n\"We see a lot more referrals for families struggling with mental health issues, just with the stress of everyday life., trying to make ends meet and provide for their families. It's obviously having an impact on them,\" she said.\n\nRuth Trigs, from Home-Start Cymru, says more and more young parents are struggling with mental health due to the cost of living crisis\n\nCharlotte Chapman's family will have a picnic on the living room floor for Christmas dinner, as they won't all fit around the table.\n\nShe thinks that some in her community judge her, and she has been called names in the street. But she hopes her positive attitude will overcome the pressures that come with Christmas.\n\n\"You can make something really good with just a little bit, you don't need a lot of money. It's just what you make of it,\" she said.", "Exiled Ukrainian governor Serhiy Haidai said this hotel in the town of Kadiivka, Luhansk region, was hit by the country's forces\n\nUkrainian forces have struck a headquarters of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, says the governor-in-exile of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.\n\nSerhiy Haidai said a hotel where the group met in Kadiivka, Luhansk, had been hit with major losses.\n\nThe BBC was unable to independently verify Wagner's presence at the hotel.\n\nFighting also raged in southern Ukraine over the weekend, with Russia targeting Odesa and Ukraine bombarding a target in the occupied city of Melitopol.\n\nWagner are state-sponsored mercenaries who act in the Kremlin's interests, according to Western experts.\n\nThe private military company, set up by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former restaurateur and close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly been accused of war crimes and human rights abuses.\n\nWagner units have previously been deployed in Crimea, Syria, Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic.\n\nIn the Kadiivka strike, Mr Haidai said Russia had suffered \"significant losses\" and he expected \"at least 50%\" of the surviving forces to die due to a lack of medical treatment.\n\nDuring a phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, US President Joe Biden said Washington was prioritising efforts to help boost Ukraine's air defence systems.\n\nThe pair also spoke about Mr Zelensky's desire for a \"just peace\" with Russia \"based on fundamental principles enshrined in the UN Charter\", the White House said.\n\nThe attack on the \"Wagner HQ\", in the east, came amid further fighting in southern Ukraine.\n\nOn Saturday, the Ukrainian army said it had shot down 10 drones, with another five hitting energy facilities in the port city of Odesa - leaving some 1.5 million people without power.\n\n\"The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,\" President Zelensky said in his nightly video address. \"Unfortunately the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity. It doesn't take hours, but a few days.\"\n\nKey infrastructure was hit by Russia's Iran-made drones, according to Ukrainian officials.\n\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz is due to host an online meeting of G7 leaders on Monday, where further sanctions on Russia and Iran will be discussed.\n\nThe proposed measures would target Iran over its supply of drones to Russia, while the ninth package of Russia sanctions would place almost 200 more individuals on an EU sanctions list.\n\nIn Melitopol, pro-Moscow authorities said a Ukrainian missile attack had killed two people and injured 10. Images shared by a Moscow-installed official there showed a big fire.\n\n\"Air defence systems destroyed two missiles, four reached their targets,\" Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russia-installed governor of the city, said on the Telegram messaging app.\n\nHe added that a \"recreation centre\" where people were dining had been destroyed in the attack, and that Ukrainian forces had used US-supplied Himars rocket launchers.\n\nThis weapon has played a key role in Ukraine's counter-offensive, being used to target locations away from the frontlines, including Russia's command posts.\n\nIvan Fedorov, Melitopol's exiled mayor, said scores of \"invaders\" had been killed.\n\nMelitopol has been under occupation since early March and is a major logistics hub for the Russian forces in the south-east.\n\nThe city, in the Zaporizhzhia region, is strategically located between Mariupol to the east, Kherson and the Dnipro River to the west, and Crimea to the south.\n\nUkraine says its efforts to retake occupied territory are continuing, despite the arrival of winter.\n\nFrank Gardner looks at what lies ahead as winter arrives in Ukraine.\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)\n\nIn recent weeks, most of the fighting has taken place in the east of the country, especially around the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.\n\nBut on Saturday night, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Zelensky, indicated that Melitopol could be a main target of Ukrainian forces.\n\n\"If Melitopol falls, the entire defence line all the way to Kherson collapses,\" he said in an interview.\n\nIf that happened, he added, \"Ukrainian forces would gain a direct route to Crimea,\" the peninsula Russia annexed in 2014 and that the Ukrainians have vowed to retake.\n\nElsewhere, the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine came under fresh bombardment on Sunday. Images showed firefighters attempting to put out a blaze at a commercial building.\n\nUkraine has denied attacking the separatist-run city on many occasions during the war.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nEngland's World Cup campaign ended in disappointment as they went out despite a fine performance in the quarter-finals against France at Al Bayt Stadium.\n\nHarry Kane's late penalty miss proved decisive after he had earlier equalled Wayne Rooney's England record of 53 goals from the spot.\n\nFrance took a 17th-minute lead when Aurelien Tchouameni's 25-yard drive beat Jordan Pickford low to his right.\n\nEngland were the better team for long spells and created chances, deservedly pulling level nine minutes after the break when Kane beat Tottenham team-mate Hugo Lloris in convincing fashion with his penalty after Tchouameni fouled Bukayo Saka.\n\nFrance regained the lead 12 minutes from time when Olivier Giroud headed in Antoine Griezmann's perfect cross but England had a swift chance to draw level when Theo Hernandez fouled substitute Mason Mount in the box.\n\nKane had the opportunity to make history but uncharacteristically blazed his penalty over the top and England's World Cup dream was over as France look forward to a semi-final against Morocco.\n• None All the reaction as England lose to France\n\nEngland have been accused of making timid exits at major tournaments in the past but this charge cannot be levelled at Gareth Southgate and his players here.\n\nThey matched France and were superior for long spells, with Saka and Declan Rice outstanding, so this will be a painful loss as a route to their first World Cup final since 1966 appeared to be opening up.\n\nSadly for England and Southgate, they were unable to take the chances that came their way, and they ran into France keeper Lloris at his best.\n\nAnd it will be captain Kane who feels the disappointment most acutely after missing that second England penalty six minutes from time with the all-time England goalscoring record at his feet.\n\nThere was a palpable sense of disbelief around the stadium as this most reliable of penalty takers fired his spot-kick horribly high into England's fans behind the goal.\n\nIt was a rare lapse and manager Southgate was swift to come on to the pitch at the final whistle to console a player who has been one of his outstanding contributors.\n\nEngland's players looked devastated at the end - understandably, after performing so well.\n\nThe irony as they make their departure from Qatar is that while they have exited this World Cup one round earlier than they did four years ago, this England team is much richer in promise. This will, of course, be no consolation to Southgate and his squad.\n\nThe pre-match talk centred on how England could stop France's superstar Kylian Mbappe - but in the end, their inspiration came from elsewhere to set up that semi-final against Morocco.\n\nAnd the primary source was the superb Griezmann, who pulled the strings throughout, providing the pass for Tchouameni's strike and later delivering a perfect cross for Giroud to demonstrate his penalty-box expertise by edging in front of Harry Maguire to head powerfully past Pickford.\n\nMbappe carried real menace throughout but England's plan to subdue France's biggest threat worked to a large degree - only for the experienced Giroud, at 36, and 31-year-old Griezmann to combine to put the World Cup holders into the last four again.\n• None Attempt missed. Marcus Rashford (England) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high from a direct free kick.\n• None Substitution, England. Jack Grealish replaces John Stones because of an injury.\n• None Harry Maguire (England) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Antoine Griezmann (France) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Mason Mount (England) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Jude Bellingham.\n• None Mason Mount (England) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch the moment Orion capsule returns to Earth after moon mission\n\nThe American space agency Nasa has brought home its next-generation astronaut ship after a near-26-day mission to orbit the Moon.\n\nThe Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after a fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere and a descent that was further slowed by parachutes.\n\nBecause this was a test, there were no people aboard this time, but that will change for the next flight.\n\nNasa is planning ever more complex missions with Orion.\n\nThese will likely start in late 2024 and include, in 2025 or 2026, an attempt to put humans back on the lunar surface.\n\nThis was last achieved exactly 50 years ago to the day by the crew of Apollo 17. The agency's new project is called Artemis, who in Greek mythology was the sister of Apollo.\n\n\"[During Apollo] we did the impossible by making it possible,\" observed Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson.\n\n\"Now, we are doing that again, but for a different purpose, because this time we go back to the Moon to learn to live, to work, to invent, to create, in order to go on out into the cosmos to further explore. The plan is to get ready to go with humans to Mars late in the decade of the 2030s, and then even further beyond,\" he told reporters.\n\nMike Sarafin, the Artemis project manager who has been an ever-present in media conferences over the past three weeks, couldn't hide his delight at seeing a perfect splashdown: \"Folks, this is what mission success looks like.\"\n\nNasa had described the Sunday return of Orion to Earth as its \"priority one\" objective.\n\nVehicles coming back from lunar distances do so at very high speed - some 40,000km/h (25,000mph) at initial contact with the atmosphere.\n\nA robust heatshield is required to prevent the ship from tearing itself apart as it pushes up against the air and temperatures reach close to 3,000C.\n\nThe protective layer on the underside of Orion is a new design from previous craft, and Nasa had to be sure it was effective before risking the lives of astronauts on future missions.\n\nThe mission from beginning to end lasted just over three weeks\n\nThe spectacular sight of the capsule's 11 parachutes deploying and inflating in sequence was clear indication that the heatshield had done its job, although engineers won't pass judgement until they've inspected it.\n\nAfter the capsule's drop into the ocean, not far from Mexico's Guadalupe Island, recovery teams moved in to gather imagery that can be fed into the post-flight analysis.\n\n\"This mission is a great success for us,\" said Vanessa Wyche, director of Nasa's Johnson Space Center. \"Right now, this tells us that this spacecraft has the outer bones and everything that it needs. We are going to go and finish outfitting it so that we can put humans on board for Artemis II.\"\n\nHumans last landed on the Moon on 11 December, 1972, at 19:54 GMT. The Apollo 17 crew of Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent just over three days on the surface before coming home. This image, remastered by image processor Andy Saunders, shows the boot prints they left behind. In the absence of the erosion that occurs on Earth, these markings would look exactly the same today, half a century on.\n\nRead more: Apollo Remastered: One man's mission to show us the Moon\n\nWatching the re-entry was Nasa's partner on the mission - the European Space Agency.\n\nEsa provided the service and propulsion module that had expertly pushed Orion towards, around, and back from the Moon.\n\nIt didn't splash down with the capsule. It was detached about 20 minutes prior to re-entry and was destroyed as it fell towards Earth over the South Pacific.\n\nEurope will continue to supply further service modules for future Orion missions as a means of securing seats for its own astronauts alongside their American colleagues.\n\nThe propulsion model for the next Artemis mission - the first to carry a crew - has already been delivered to Nasa. A third vehicle - the one that will be used on Artemis III, the lunar landing mission - is in an advanced stage of assembly in Germany.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Earthrise\": Orion saw our planet climbing above the Moon's horizon\n\nMuch still has to go right if the timelines are to be maintained for a human return to the Moon. Nasa doesn't yet have a landing system. This is being developed by the US entrepreneur Elon Musk.\n\nHe is building a mammoth rocket and crew vehicle he calls Starship. This is due to have its maiden flight above the Earth in the coming months.\n\nThe idea for Artemis III is that Orion would meet up with Starship at the Moon, with Mr Musk's vehicle taking the astronauts down to the surface.\n\n\"We have hardware today in work around the world through Artemis V,\" said Jim Free, Nasa's associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development. \"This isn't just a one flight and we're done. We are on our path to getting that base on the Moon, to getting the understanding we need to go on to Mars and doing the science that's front and centre.\"\n\nA crew for Artemis II will be chosen early next year.\n\nAs Orion returned to Earth from the Moon on Sunday, two spacecraft were headed in the opposite direction.\n\nJapanese company iSpace despatched its Hakuto-R robotic lander. This is taking a slow route to the Moon lasting several months. If it can put down safely, it will deploy a small rover from the United Arab Emirates, called Rashid, and a similarly small deformable robot from the Japanese space agency to investigate the properties of lunar soil.\n\nNasa also had a payload on the same launch rocket. Called Lunar Flashlight, this briefcase-size spacecraft will circle the Moon, using infrared lasers to search for deposits of water-ice.", "Specialist teams and a search dog are on the scene, following the collapse in St Helier on Saturday morning\n\nFive people are confirmed to have died in an explosion at flats in Jersey, with four residents still unaccounted for, police have said.\n\nStates of Jersey Police said the operation in St Helier continued as a search and recovery effort.\n\nChief of Police Robin Smith said: \"The number of islanders confirmed to have been killed in the blast is now five.\"\n\nHe added there were still a number of residents unaccounted for after the blast early on Saturday.\n\nThe fire service had attended the flats just after 20:30 GMT on Friday after the smell of gas was reported, it has been confirmed.\n\nMr Smith described earlier on Sunday how there had been a \"meticulous and painstaking search of the debris following the explosion, to start carefully identifying bodies when and if we find them\".\n\nHe told a press conference: \"That will take time. We are not going to be here for days we are likely to be here for weeks.\"\n\nThe flats at Haut De Mont are shown as they appear following the explosion and as they were prior to the blast\n\nIt is understood there were nine known residents in the block before the blast in the three-storey Haut du Mont residential block on Saturday at about 04:00 GMT.\n\nMr Smith said there were \"several areas of focus\" in the search for bodies and families of the victims \"continue to be supported by special officers\".\n\nThe police chief earlier estimated \"around 40\" people had been displaced because of the blast and the damage it had caused to nearby buildings.\n\nThere are \"several areas of focus\" in the recovery operation\n\nNone of the emergency leaders could confirm the cause, but Mr Smith said it \"looks likely\" it was down to a gas explosion.\n\nAn appeal has been set up to provide support for those affected by both the explosion and a maritime collision off the Jersey coast on Thursday in which three fishermen went missing.\n\nChief Minister Kristina Moore said islanders were \"immensely shocked and saddened\" by the two tragedies this week.\n\nJersey chief fire officer Paul Brown confirmed residents had reported smelling gas the night before the blast\n\nJersey chief fire officer Paul Brown acknowledged that something had gone \"horribly wrong\" at the block of flats.\n\nHe confirmed firefighters had been called to the building at 20.36 GMT on Friday - just hours before the blast - after residents reported smelling gas.\n\nMr Brown said the fire service would be \"co-operating fully\" with \"honesty\" and \"transparency\" with a future inquiry, but added that the main focus remained on the search operation at this time.\n\n\"The most important thing is to understand the absolute truth and also be seen to establish the absolute truth,\" he told reporters.\n\n\"We don't want any cloud around that at all.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage from the scene of the explosion shows a large fire\n\nSpecialist teams from other parts of the UK, including the Isle of Wight and Hampshire, have been drafted in to aid the response.\n\nMr Brown said mutual aid would support the numbers of firefighters on the island to ensure a \"rolling pattern of deployment\" at the scene.\n\nMr Smith said the response to the tragedy was \"as big as it gets\".\n\n\"We all practice for these things and hope they never happen,\" the police chief said.\n\nStating whether criminal activity was suspected, he added: \"We rule nothing in and we rule nothing out.\"\n\nEmergency crews are carrying out a \"painstaking search of the debris\", Chief of Police Robin Smith said\n\nAndium Homes, a state-owned but independent company which rents out thousands of properties on the island, said it was focused on supporting residents at the estate.\n\nGas supplier Island Energy said it was working with the fire service to \"understand exactly what has happened\".\n\nThe Government of Jersey said flags would be flown at half-mast on Monday \"as a sign of respect\" for the victims.\n\nA minute's silence will also be observed at 11:00 to give islanders a moment to reflect on the two tragedies.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Yan Rachinsky from Memorial: \"In today's Russia no-one's personal safety is guaranteed\"\n\nThe Russian co-winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize has said Kremlin authorities told him to turn down the award.\n\nYan Rachinsky, who heads Memorial, said he was told not to accept the prize because the two other co-laureates - a Ukrainian human rights organisation and jailed Belarusian rights defender - were deemed \"inappropriate\".\n\nMemorial is one of Russia's oldest civil rights groups, and was shut down by the government last year.\n\nThe Russian Foreign Ministry has been contacted for comment.\n\nIn an exclusive interview with the BBC's HARDtalk programme, Mr Rachinsky said his organisation had been advised to decline the award, but \"naturally, we took no notice of this advice\".\n\nDespite threats to his safety, Mr Rachinsky said the work of Memorial remained essential.\n\n\"In today's Russia, no-one's personal safety can be guaranteed,\" he said. \"Yes, many have been killed. But we know what impunity of the state leads to… We need to get out of this pit somehow.\"\n\nIts first chairman - Arseny Roginsky - was sent to Soviet labour camps for the so-called \"anti-communist\" study of history.\n\nAnnouncing the prize winners, the Nobel Committee said that Memorial was founded on the idea that \"confronting past crimes is essential in preventing new ones\".\n\nMr Rachinsky called the committee's decision to award the prize to recipients in three different countries \"remarkable\".\n\nHe said it was proof \"that civil society is not divided by national borders, that it is a single body working to solve common problems\".\n\nUkrainian Oleksandra Matviichuk refused to be interviewed alongside one of her co-winners, Russian Yan Rachinsky\n\nBut the decision to include a Russian recipient has been controversial.\n\nThe woman who runs Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties - another of the prize-winners - refused to be interviewed alongside Mr Rachinsky. The BBC spoke to them separately in Oslo.\n\nWhen asked why she wanted to do the interview separately, Oleksandra Matviichuk told HARDtalk: \"Now we are in a war and we want to make the voice of Ukrainian human rights defenders tangible.\n\n\"So I am sure that regardless that we are doing separate interviews, we transmit and deliver the same messages.\"\n\nThe Center for Civil Liberties was recognized for its work promoting democracy in Ukraine and investigating alleged Russian war crimes in the country.\n\nDespite refusing to speak beside her co-winner, Ms Matviichuk praised Mr Rachinsky's work and described Memorial as \"our partner\".\n\nMemorial had helped the Ukrainian group for years, she said, adding she had \"huge respect for all [her] Russian human rights colleagues\" who work in difficult conditions.\n\nShe also warned that without proper accounting for Russian crimes, peace would not come to Eastern Europe.\n\nMs Matviichuk called for a new international tribunal to hold President Vladimir Putin and other Russians accountable for their actions in Ukraine, describing the current system as insufficient.\n\n\"The question is, who will provide justice for hundreds of thousands of victims of the war crimes?\" she asked.\n\nShe also accused Russia of using the war as a tool to achieve its geopolitical aims - and committing war crimes in order to win the conflict.\n\nThe third Nobel winner, Belarusian human rights defender Ales Bialiatski, has been in prison without trial in his home country since July last year.\n\nHe is the founder of the country's Viasna (Spring) Human Rights Centre, which was set up in 1996 in response to a brutal crackdown of street protests by Belarus's authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.\n\nMr Bialiatski previously spent three years in prison and was released in 2014.\n\nMs Matviichuk described her co-laureate as \"an extremely brave person, so he will continue this battle even in prison\".\n\nWatch HARDtalk on the BBC News Channel (UK) at 14:30 GMT on 10 December, 00:30 on 11 December, or 00:30 or 04:30 on 12 December.\n\nOr view the programme on BBC World News at 01:30 or 08:30 GMT on 11 December, or 04:30, 09:30, 15:30 or 19:30 on 12 December.\n\nThis year's third Nobel winner, Ales Bialiatski (pictured in 2020), is in prison in Belarus", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Santas dash onto the streets of Glasgow\n\nThousands of cheerful runners braved near-freezing temperatures to complete the Glasgow Santa Dash.\n\nThe festive run - the first in three years - had a new 5K route starting and finishing at Glasgow Green.\n\nAny profits from registration fees are donated to the Beatson Cancer Charity and the Lord Provost's fund for vulnerable children.\n\nAlmost 4,000 people took part in the race, the first time it has been held since the Covid pandemic.\n\nThe run is organised by the charity in partnership with the city council.\n\nThe race begins and ends at Glasgow Green\n\nArmed with Santa hats, coats and the occasional pet for company, runners snaked through Glasgow Green before taking in the Gorbals and running along the River Clyde towards the finish line at the 2014 Commonwealth Games sculpture.\n\nCole Park from Kirkintilloch completed the run in his wheelchair pushed by a team of around 30 supporters including his mum, Michelle.\n\nThe six-year-old is receiving treatment at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre for an aggressive brain tumour and was guest of honour at the event.\n\nCole and loved ones were raising money for the Beatson - and he managed to walk over the finish line.\n\nCole Park with his mum Michelle (left) plus family and friends.\n\nOrganisers said almost 4,000 people took part in the event\n\nBailie Paul McCabe from Glasgow City Council said it was wonderful to see the run return with \"huge support\".\n\nHe said: \"Everyone loves the Santa Dash, it is held in great affection by runners and spectators alike and there was huge disappointment when it couldn't go ahead in person during the pandemic.\n\n\"Today's event was really uplifting. It put a huge smile on everyone's face. We had a fantastic turn out and the wintry weather made it feel even more festive. Well done to everyone who took part.\"\n\nMartin Cawley, chef executive of the Beatson Cancer Charity, praised the generosity of participants.\n\nHe said: \"The Santa dash is such a wonderful event and takes place at a very special time of the year for us all.\n\n\"The proceeds from this year's Santa Dash will help Beatson Cancer Charity continue to deliver invaluable supports to people with cancer in Glasgow and across the west. Quite simply, we couldn't do the work we do without the support of so many others.\"", "The snow has been affecting driving conditions on the A55 in Denbighshire\n\nSnow has fallen in parts of Wales after a weather warning was extended amid falling temperatures.\n\nThe Met Office has forecast wintry conditions until noon on Sunday, with a yellow weather warning in place.\n\nIt caused some disruption with icy surfaces and snow in a few places. Road closures have also been announced in some counties.\n\nMeanwhile, Welsh Water has been working to repair a burst water main in Dryslwyn in Carmarthenshire.\n\nThe snow warning came after the extension of a weather alert until Sunday.\n\nThe mountain road between Penegoes and Dylife, Powys, was closed due to snow.\n\nIn Ceredigion, traffic analysts Inrix also said the A44 between Goginan and Llangurig was impassable on Saturday evening.\n\nAnd the A494 at Llanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd, Denbighshire, near the Clwyd Gate Inn, was not passable for a time due to the icy conditions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Weather presenter Derek Brockway has warned there could be snow on the way\n\nVehicles were also unable to pass on the B5430 Hen Ffordd, Minera, Wrexham - the hill leading out of Coedpoeth - due to icy roads.\n\nSome areas have already experienced snowfall - such as Llanymawddwy and Llanuwchllyn, in Gwynedd - while others were told to expect flurries later on Saturday or Sunday.\n\nPeople have been warned to expect icy patches on some untreated roads, pavements and cycle paths, with a risk of injuries from slips and falls.\n\nIn a few areas, difficult travel conditions may occur quite quickly due to heavy sleet, snow or hail showers making surfaces slippery or even snow-covered.\n\nPicturesque but chilly: Llanuwchllyn in Gwynedd on Saturday morning\n\nFamilies and friends enjoyed tobogganing near Capel Curig in Eryri, also known as Snowdonia\n\nIn Carmarthenshire, Welsh Water said the burst water main affected Dryslwyn and surrounding areas in the SA32 postcode area.\n\nResidents were warned they could experience low pressure or no water at all.\n\nIt was estimated that the repair could be completed later on Saturday.\n\nSnow-covered roads and fields at Llanymawddwy, Gwynedd, on Saturday", "Ukraine has accused Iran of sending drones to Russia, which the Middle Eastern country denied then later admitted\n\nRussia and Iran's relationship has warmed to a fully fledged defence partnership, the US has said.\n\nRussia is giving an unprecedented level of military support, says US national security council spokesman John Kirby.\n\nThe US has seen reports that the two countries are considering joint production of lethal drones, he adds.\n\nIt comes after Ukraine accused Iran of supplying Russia with \"kamikaze\" drones used in deadly attacks on 17 October, which Tehran initially denied.\n\nThe Middle Eastern country later admitted sending Moscow a limited number of drones, \"many months\" before the war.\n\nIn response, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said this was a lie and that many more Iranian drones were being used.\n\nThe Ukrainian air force said it downed 10 of 15 such drones used to attack southern regions in the early hours of Saturday.\n\nThe strikes left more than 1.5 million people without power in Odesa, Mr Zelensky said in his evening address, adding it could take days for electricity to be restored.\n\nEarlier, Australia announced it was sanctioning three Iranians and one Iranian business for supplying Russia with drones to use against Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking on Friday, Mr Kirby said that a partnership between Iran and Russia to produce drones would be harmful to Ukraine, Iran's neighbours and the international community.\n\n\"Russia is seeking to collaborate with Iran in areas like weapons development, training,\" he said, adding that the US fears that Russia intended to \"provide Iran with advanced military components\" including helicopters and air defence systems.\n\n\"Iran has become Russia's top military backer...\" he said. \"Russia's been using Iranian drones to strike energy infrastructure, depriving millions of Ukrainians of power, heat, critical services. People in Ukraine today are actually dying as a result of Iran's actions.\"\n\nIn response to Mr Kirby's comments, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that Iran had become one of Russia's main military supporters and that the relationship between them was threatening global security.\n\nThe \"sordid deals\" between the two countries have seen Iran send hundreds of drones to Russia, he said.\n\n\"In return, Russia is offering military and technical support to the Iranian regime, which will increase the risk it poses to our partners in the Middle East and to international security,\" he added.\n\nHe said the UK agreed with the US that Iranian support for the Russian military would grow in the coming months as Russia tried to get hold of more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles.\n\nRussia's war on Ukraine continues to affect many cities and regions, including Bakhmut in the Donbas\n\nOn Saturday, Penny Wong, Australia's foreign minister, said in a statement: \"The supply of drones to Russia is evidence of the role Iran plays in destabilising global security. This listing highlights that those who provide material support to Russia will face consequences.\"\n\nShe also announced measures against 19 other people and two entities, including Iran's Morality Police, for the brutal treatment of anti-government protesters following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody earlier this year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Operating on a baby in the dark after missiles hit Kyiv", "Stephen Flynn made his first appearance at PMQs as the SNP Westminster leader this week\n\nThe SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has announced a front bench reshuffle following the resignation of three prominent MPs.\n\nPete Wishart, Chris Law and Stewart McDonald stepped down after the 34-year-old took over from Ian Blackford.\n\nStewart Hosie, previously spokesperson for the Cabinet Office, now takes over the economy brief.\n\nMeanwhile David Linden takes social justice, Dave Doogan takes defence and Chris Stephens takes levelling up.\n\nIt follows reports of divisions in the SNP, which Mr Hosie has dismissed as \"complete fiction\".\n\nIn his resignation letter, Mr McDonald said the SNP was at its best \"when we collaborate as a united party\" and urged the new leadership to \"keep this at the forefront of their mind and work in that spirit across the party\".\n\nMr Flynn said his team were \"entirely focused on standing up for Scotland's interests\".\n\nReferring to three recent opinion polls which suggested there is majority support for independence, he said members were ready to \"harness that momentum\".\n\nHe said: \"Scotland continues to face the cost of living crisis, made worse by Tory 'wreckonomics', and we are still being hit with the disastrous impacts of leaving the EU.\"With the Tories and Labour both backing Brexit and denying democracy by standing in the way of a Scottish independence referendum, only the SNP is truly standing up for the people of Scotland. \"Support for independence is growing because people know that it is the only route back to the EU, and the only way to escape the broken Westminster system. The SNP Westminster team will work hard to make it happen.\"\n\nMr Flynn (sitting alongside new deputy leader Mhairi Black) was elected as the SNP's Westminster leader at the group's AGM on Tuesday evening\n\nMr Flynn had initially been expected to be the only candidate to replace Ian Blackford, who was regarded as being a close ally of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nBut Alison Thewliss unexpectedly threw her hat in the ring after sources close to Mr Flynn were quoted in the media as saying he intended to replace much of the party's front bench team in the Commons.\n\nThe Aberdeen South MP defeated Ms Thewliss - who is also seen as being closer to Ms Sturgeon - by 26 votes to 17 in a vote of the party's MPs.\n\nPreviously Mr Flynn had been the party's business, energy and industrial strategy spokesman.\n\nMs Thewliss, who is now the party's home affairs spokesperson, was previously the Treasury spokesperson.", "Peter Sellers' Swedish co-star Mai Zetterling was suspected of being a communist by British intelligence operatives\n\nSixty years ago, the streets of Swansea were filled with stardust, controversy and espionage.\n\nUsing it as the fictional setting of Aberdarcy, the comedy film Only Two Can Play was the third highest-grossing film in cinemas in 1962.\n\nIt starred Peter Sellers and the Swedish actress Mai Zetterling, with a young Richard Attenborough and the Welsh actor Kenneth Griffith.\n\nBased on the Kingsley Amiss novel That Uncertain Feeling, it not only courted controversy in front of the camera - as the first comedy to be awarded an X classification by the British Board of Film Censorship - but it was also closely monitored by MI5.\n\nZetterling was thought to have communist sympathies.\n\nOnly Two Can Play concerns a professionally frustrated provincial librarian (played by Sellers) being tempted towards marital unfaithfulness by the wife of a councillor (Zetterling) who is chairman of the libraries committee.\n\nIt wasn't the first film to receive an X-rated certificate - several horror and erotic movies had limited showings in Soho sex cinemas before that.\n\nNor was it the first film on general cinema release to receive such a rating - kitchen sink drama Room at The Top, set in Bradford, achieved that in 1959.\n\nHowever, it was the first light-hearted film to receive such a classification, but Welsh film critic Gary Slaymaker said it now seemed very tame.\n\n\"It would probably be a PG or 12 by modern standards, the most titillating thing the censors could find against it was that Sellers saw the reflection of a woman's naked back in the mirror.\"\n\nHe contrasts it with Twin Town (1997), set in the same location.\n\n\"They depict many of the same places, but in very different feels - there's none of the violence or sex of Twin Town.\n\n\"Yet both are time capsules of Swansea as it was at the point of filming - the cars and houses etc.\"\n\nFilming took over the streets of Swansea in 1962 and people gathered to catch a glimpse of the action\n\nIn 1962, the streets of Swansea were packed with people hoping to catch a glimpse of naughty action.\n\nHistorian Geoff Brooks said: \"It's still a talking point in pubs, certainly for people of my era.\n\n\"There's lots who can remember the filming, and how they gathered round for a sight of the stars.\"\n\nProf Martin Johnes, historian at Swansea University, said this was a sign of the city's changing face.\n\n\"The crowds were huge, some supporting the film, some protesting against it, either way it was something which was going to stay in our history.\n\n\"Swansea was something of a Petri dish - the most studied post-war city of its kind, so when a film came out from here which pitted a working class boy trying to advance himself... then the mobs got all over it.\"\n\nFor some, change wasn't coming quickly enough.\n\nOnly Two Can Play is about a provincial librarian (Sellers) and a councillor's wife (Zetterling)\n\nZetterling was said to be living in \"a communist co-operative household\" in Sevenoaks, Kent, so among the crowds were MI5 agents.\n\nUnsealed in 2008, her files noted she had embarked on several affairs with men, including US actor Tyrone Power and Herbert Lom, best known later for his role as Inspector Clouseau's long-suffering boss in the Pink Panther films.\n\nProf Johnes said it was all a part of the times: \"Mixed up with the Profumo affair and McCarthyism in the States, there was much fear around celebrity left-leaning and the damage it could cause.\"\n\nOnly Two Can Play was only a moderate box office hit, though it launched Zetterling's career as she went on to become a cutting-edge director exploring themes of homosexuality before her death in 1994.", "Planes at Stansted were seen blanketed in snow on Sunday night\n\nPassengers face delays and cancellations at airports on Monday after snow, ice and freezing fog swept the UK.\n\nGatwick and Stansted airports closed their runways on Sunday due to the bad weather.\n\nFlights have since resumed but many have been cancelled or pushed back.\n\nA yellow weather warning is in place for Scotland, Northern Ireland, much of England and parts of Wales, with disruption set to continue.\n\nTrains have also been delayed and drivers warned to take care after several motorway accidents.\n\nThose travelling to UK airports have been urged to check their travel plans and flight status with their airline before setting off.\n\nA total of 316 flights were cancelled across Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Glasgow, Belfast International and Bristol airports over the weekend, roughly 11% of all scheduled flights, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.\n\nAbout 37 flights were cancelled from Gatwick before lunchtime on Monday, with EasyJet the worst affected airline.\n\nMore than 40 flights had also been cancelled at Stansted.\n\nLondon City Airport said it was \"experiencing some disruption this morning\" due to aircraft being out of position after the \"significant amount of cancellations\" on Sunday night.\n\nEdmund O'Leary told the BBC he was stranded in Malta after his return flight to Gatwick with British Airways was cancelled twice.\n\nHe said that he hoped to have an idea by Monday evening when he would be able to return to the UK.\n\nAlthough he felt communication had been poor, he said the British Airways staff on the ground were very helpful in terms of sorting out accommodation on Sunday night for passengers.\n\nAbout 50 flights were cancelled at Heathrow on Monday, after freezing fog resulted in air traffic control restrictions on the number of aircraft that could land and depart per hour over the weekend.\n\n\"We encourage passengers to check their flight status with their airline for the latest information,\" a spokeswoman said.\n\nBritish Airways, Heathrow's biggest airline, said it had apologised to customers and was refunding or rebooking anyone whose flight had been cancelled and providing refreshment and hotel vouchers where needed.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Gatwick Airport LGW This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nGatwick Airport temporarily closed one of its runways at 17:55 GMT on Sunday due to snow and reopened it at 20:00 when conditions were safer.\n\nOn Monday, it said there were still delays and cancellations affecting the airport and urged passengers to contact their airlines directly.\n\nA spokesperson for London Luton Airport warned that there could be disruption to flights and also advised passengers to allow extra time when travelling to the airport.\n\nSome passengers complained on Sunday about a lack of information from airlines on the cancellations.\n\nOthers said they had been unable to get off planes due to the icy conditions.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Stephen Curry This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHeavy snowfall caused a series of traffic collisions on Sunday, as many drivers were faced with treacherous conditions.\n\nMotorists were urged to adjust their driving to the freezing conditions on Monday morning.\n\nThe RAC's spokesman said that by 17:00, 9,000 people had called in asking for help, having broken down.\n\nThey added that drivers should only set off if they feel confident enough to do so, and that sticking to main roads which are more likely to be gritted would help.\n\nThey also told drivers to pack a blanket and fully-charged phone in case of a breakdown.\n\nSam told BBC 5 Live that she and her family had been stuck in their car for more than eight hours without food and only one small bottle of water during an arduous journey home from London to Thame in Oxfordshire.\n\nThe family left the O2 Centre in London at 23:00 on Sunday night after attending the Jingle Bell Ball and had not left their car since, travelling along the M11 and M25.\n\nNational Highways has said that the section of the M25 that was closed in both directions between junctions 23 and 25 has now reopened.\n\nHowever, there are still about 11 miles of congestion in the anti-clockwise direction, it added.\n\nOther roads in the area with long delays include the M11, M2, A21, A27 and A249, according to the agency.\n\nTrain lines across the country have also been affected by the weather.\n\nPassengers at a busy King's Cross station waited for further information on their services.\n\nSoutheastern Railways has lifted its advice not to travel on the railway today. But customers are advised to check their routes before they set off.\n\nMeanwhile, Avanti West Coast said it was seeing some last-minute cancellations because of the weather and staff sickness.\n\nThere will also be no trains between Wrexham Central and Bidston until the end of the day.\n\nThe Met Office has also issued a fresh weather warning for ice for the East Midlands, the east of England, London and south-east England.\n\n\"Lying snow and icy patches will lead to difficult travel conditions during Monday and into Tuesday,\" it says.", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nCaptain Harry Kane said England would use their defeat by France to be \"mentally and physically stronger for the next challenge\" as they headed home from the World Cup in Qatar.\n\nEngland were beaten 2-1 in the quarter-finals, with Kane missing an 84th-minute penalty, having earlier equalled England's scoring record of 53 goals.\n\nGareth Southgate's side left their hotel in Al Wakrah before their flight home.\n\nWriting on social media, the Tottenham forward added: \"We've given it everything and it's come down to a small detail which I take responsibility for. There's no hiding from it, it hurts and it'll take some time to get over it but that's part of sport.\n\n\"Now it's about using the experience to be mentally and physically stronger for the next challenge. Thanks for all the support throughout the tournament - it means a lot.\"\n\nSpeaking about Kane's penalty miss, former England striker Alan Shearer told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"That's the life of a centre-forward. You put yourself in those positions and it will haunt Harry for the rest of his life.\"\n\nEngland departed their hotel in Qatar at about 12:30pm local time and landed at Birmingham Airport on Sunday evening.\n\nPlayers waved to fans gathered outside the hotel as they boarded a coach, with midfielder Jude Bellingham taking the time to sign memorabilia.\n\nEngland centre-back Harry Maguire echoed his captain's words, and also paid special tribute to Southgate, who has said he will \"review and reflect\" on his side's exit with the Football Association before making a decision on his future.\n\nSouthgate, who has been England manager since 2016, has a contract that runs until the Euro 2024 finals.\n\n\"Last night hurt. Absolutely gutted. Special thanks to Gareth and you amazing fans who kept belief in me. I love my country and I hope we made you proud,\" said Maguire on social media.\n\nUnder Southgate, England reached the 2018 World Cup semi-finals and the Euro 2020 final before their elimination by the defending champions in Qatar.\n\n\"Gareth has been amazing with myself, amazing with every player in the team,\" Maguire said in an interview.\n\n\"I'm sure if you asked every player in the team they wouldn't be able to speak highly enough of him, his man-management, the way that this team has been built and developed over a period of time.\n\n\"Over the last five or six years with Gareth in charge you can really see the development. I know being an England manager is so tough, they get every decision they make scrutinised, every squad they make, 'he should be in' or 'he shouldn't be in'. Every team he picks, 'he should play' or 'he shouldn't play'... that is being an England manager.\n\n\"He knows how to handle it. He handles everything really well and tactically he gets all the big decisions right and he has proven that again this tournament.\"\n\nSouthgate was also backed by midfielder Declan Rice, who said he hoped his manager continued in the job.\n\n\"If you guys could come in and see how well everyone's been on it, you would have thought we would have gone the whole way as a collective but for me, personally, I hope he stays,\" he said.\n\n\"Obviously, I don't know. There's a lot of talk around that. I think he's been brilliant for us. I think there's a lot of criticism that's not deserved. I think he's taken us so, so far. Further than what people can expect.\n\n\"He got everything spot on again, it's not on him. It's not on him at all - the tactics were right, we played the right way.\n\n\"I really hope he stays because the core group that we've got and what he's made for us, it's so special to be a part of. I love playing under him and I love playing for England.\"\n\n'We will come again'\n\nMarcus Rashford was among a host of England players who posted on social media on Sunday, with the Manchester United forward promising that the Three Lions \"will come again\".\n\nRashford was England's joint top scorer with Bukayo Saka in Qatar, scoring three goals.\n\n\"The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions, each and every one of our team gave everything we had to be ready for what was thrown at us, we got close, but not close enough,\" he said.\n\n\"I'll make a promise that we will come again.\"\n\nMidfielder Jordan Henderson said it was a \"tough one to take\", adding \"sometimes football isn't fair\".\n\nEarlier, FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said the team was \"hurting\" after the last-eight defeat.\n\n\"Like all England fans we feel the pain of losing a quarter-final, along with the coaches, players and support team who are hurting this morning,\" he said in a statement.\n\n\"Gareth and Steve [Holland] prepared the team exceptionally well throughout the tournament. The players were committed to winning the trophy and were very well led by Harry Kane.\n\n\"But sport can have fine margins and on the day, against the current world champions, it was not to be.\n\n\"This is a very exciting young English squad and, despite the intense disappointment of last night, they should be very proud of their performances in Qatar.\n\n\"We are incredibly proud of Gareth, the players, the coaches and the support team and appreciate all the hard work they put in. \"\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Lissandro is a fan of Elvis Presley and Bruno Mars\n\nFrance has won this year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Yerevan, Armenia.\n\nThirteen year old Lissandro won with 203 points for his song Oh Maman! beating hosts Armenia in second place, Georgia third, and Ireland fourth.\n\nThe United Kingdom came fifth overall with 146 points - although it did win the public vote.\n\nThe UK's entrant, Freya Skye, performed live after suffering with vocal issues during rehearsals.\n\nAccepting his award an excited Lissandro said: \"I'm so happy, thank you everyone. Vive La France\".\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Junior Eurovision Song Contest This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis year marks the 20th anniversary of the contest, with 16 countries competing, and is the first time the contest was broadcast on the BBC, with Lauren Layfield and HRVY commentating.\n\nIt's also the first time in more than 15 years that the UK has taken part in the junior version, where entrants have to be aged between nine and 14.\n\nFreya Skye has been described as \"a great ambassador for the UK\"\n\nThe result is determined by a 50/50 vote, with half of the votes deriving from online voting, and the other half from professional juries - which are based on the final dress rehearsal.\n\nSerbia's act did not perform live due to \"medical reasons\", with viewers seeing a rehearsal performance instead.\n\nThe voting system is slightly different from the adult edition, as viewers were able to vote for their own country.\n\nJunior Eurovision apologised for issues with the online voting element that prevented some viewers from picking their favourite during Sunday's show.\n\nRosa Linn, the Armenian entrant at this year's \"senior\" Eurovision competition in Turin, performed her hit Snap before the results. Her song went viral around the world after May's contest, and charted around the globe.\n\nFreya was chosen because of her \"genuine star quality\", the BBC said when she was selected.\n\nThe team behind her song, titled Lose My Head, has previously worked with the likes of Ava Max, Pharrell Williams and Megan Thee Stallion. The lyrics talk about friendships, moving on and leaving the past behind.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by Junior Eurovision Song Contest This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThe UK previously participated in the competition between 2003 and 2005 with the support of ITV, while broadcaster S4C decided to go it alone for Wales in 2018 and 2019.\n\nThe BBC is also preparing to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place in Liverpool next May on behalf of Ukraine.\n\nLast month organisers announced several changes to the voting after anomalies occurred in the 2022 contest.", "This video can not be played\n\nTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Earthrise\": Orion saw our planet climbing above the Moon's horizon\n\nThe US space agency Nasa is all set to bring home its Orion capsule.\n\nThe spaceship, which has been on a three-week journey around the Moon, is targeting a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off California.\n\nUncrewed for this test flight, the capsule is expected to carry astronauts on its next outing, assuming everything works as planned in the coming hours.\n\nThe parachute-assisted drop into the sea should occur at about 09:40 local time (17:40 GMT).\n\nThe exercise is part of Nasa's Artemis programme, a quest to take people back to the lunar surface later this decade.\n\nFittingly, Sunday marks exactly 50 years since this feat was last achieved by the crew of Apollo 17.\n\nPriority one for Nasa is ensuring the heatshield is fit for purpose\n\nOrion was lined up for the day's event by its European propulsion module.\n\nThis part of the spacecraft executed a big engine manoeuvre last Monday that pushed the ship away from the Moon and in the direction of Earth.\n\nThe incoming velocity will be extremely high. The capsule will be moving at 40,000km/h (25,000mph) - or 32 times the speed of sound - when it touches the top of our planet's atmosphere.\n\nWhat happens next is critical to the success of the whole endeavour.\n\nFriction and pressure on Orion's forward-facing surface will generate temperatures likely to reach close to 3,000C (5,000F).\n\nThe shielding that covers this part of the spacecraft has to handle this challenge if Orion is ever to be trusted to carry astronauts in the future.\n\n\"This is our priority one objective, for a reason,\" said Artemis mission manager Mike Sarafin.\n\n\"The heatshield is a safety-critical piece of equipment. It is designed to protect the spacecraft and its passengers, the astronauts on board. So it needs to work.\"\n\nOrion has taken a number of selfies during its mission\n\nNasa already has experience of an Orion re-entry. It conducted a previous uncrewed demonstration of the capsule in 2014. But the velocities - and heating conditions - were much lower during that test.\n\nWhat that earlier flight did do, however, was prove the effectiveness of the parachute system. Eleven chutes are used in sequence to slow the final part of the descent to the ocean's surface.\n\nThe USS Portland will be waiting to pick up Orion.\n\nIn contrast to the helicopters that performed hoisted recoveries of Apollo capsules, Orion will be floated into a flooded well deck at the back of the navy vessel.\n\nNasa's Melissa Jones, who's in charge of the procedure, said various tests and assessments would be conducted while Orion was still in the water.\n\n\"We'll be very careful with the capsule; we'll get about an hour and a half of imagery of that heatshield before it touches anything in the ship. We want to make sure we document every bit of that so that we have the data that Orion needs to understand the performance of the capsule going forward,\" she told reporters.\n\nThe capsule will be floated into the well deck of the USS Portland\n\nOrion is coming down a little short of the location that was originally planned.\n\nThe space agency had been targeting a point closer to San Diego, but a forecasted cold front is likely to generate an unwelcome swell in the ocean, along with rain.\n\nA decision was made therefore to come down roughly 550km up range, off Mexico's Baja California Peninsula.\n\nWatching the re-entry will be Nasa's partner on the mission - the European Space Agency.\n\nEsa provided the service module that has been shepherding Orion on its journey these past three weeks.\n\nIt won't splash down with the capsule. It will instead be detached about 20 minutes prior to re-entry and will be destroyed as it falls towards Earth over the South Pacific.\n\nOrion's propulsion module, visible on the left, was supplied by the European Space Agency\n\nEuropean states are about to consider whether to build an independent crew transport system of their own. The performance of their Orion service module will give them food for thought.\n\n\"It's a very good starting point, a very good foundation; I've never doubted the technical capabilities of European industry,\" observed Esa's director of human and robotic spaceflight, Dr David Parker, but he noted also that Europe was still missing experience of some key additional technologies, including a rocket certified to launch humans.\n\nFor the time being, Europe will keep supplying service modules.\n\nThe unit for the next Artemis mission has already been delivered to Nasa, and the third vehicle - the one that will be used on Artemis III, the lunar landing mission, currently scheduled for late 2025 or in 2026 - is already at an advanced stage of assembly.", "The image was captured by Sam Hussein at this year's Braemar Games\n\nKing Charles and the Queen Consort have chosen a photograph taken days before Queen Elizabeth's death for their official Christmas card this year.\n\nThe image selected for the couple's first festive card since Charles became King was taken at the Braemar Royal Highland Gathering on 3 September.\n\nCharles, then still the Prince of Wales, and Camilla are pictured smiling in the shot taken by Sam Hussein.\n\nThe Queen did not attend the annual event due to her declining health.\n\nShe passed away five days later on 8 September, aged 96.\n\nThe image, released by Buckingham Palace, captures the King in profile, dressed in a tweed suit with a red, green and beige tie.\n\nHis wife is wearing a green suit, matching hat with a pheasant motif and pearl earrings.\n\nAnne, the Princess Royal, Charles and Camilla all attended this year's Highland Games event\n\nThey were joined by crowds from around the world to watch competitors take part in the caber toss, hammer throw and tug of war.\n\nDuring the popular Highland Games event, Charles officially opened a new structure celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee at The Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park.\n\nTo mark the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee Archway, he cut a heather rope.\n\nBefore the Games got under way, Camilla and the Princess Royal were presented with heather posies by Chloe Guy, 10, and Cassie Stewart, 12, both members of the Braemar Royal Highland Society's dancing class, before the Games got under way.\n\nCamilla appeared to take a sprig of flowers and put it in her buttonhole, which can be seen in the Christmas card photograph.", "Demand on the Welsh Ambulance Service has \"exceeded its capacity to respond\" to calls, with some people being asked to make their own way to hospital.\n\n\"Extreme weather, coupled with a high call volume focused on falls and breathing issues overnight, has limited our capacity to respond safely and timely,\" said director Lee Brooks.\n\nA Met Office warning for ice and fog is in force across parts of Wales.\n\nMeanwhile, police said icy conditions had caused a number of accidents.\n\nThe Welsh Ambulance Service has declared a \"business continuity incident\" after receiving more than 2,000 emergency 999 calls on Saturday, a 17% increase on last week.\n\nIt said the NHS 111 Wales helpline had also received more than 10,000 calls, \"the busiest day ever for the service\", with icy roads affecting its ability to respond promptly to callouts.\n\nThe service has urged people to only call 999 in a life-threatening emergency such as a cardiac arrest, chest pain or breathing difficulties, loss of consciousness, choking, or catastrophic bleeding.\n\nIt also said the 111 helpline continued to be busy with calls for advice about children \"very high\" due to parents being cautious about possible strep A symptoms following a number of cases.\n\nPeople awoke to a blanket of snow in New Inn, Torfaen, on Sunday\n\nIt said it had put arrangements in place to \"manage demand, including asking some patients to make an alternative arrangement, such as making their own way to hospital\".\n\nSouth Wales Police has said there were several collisions along the M4 because of the weather.\n\nHighways service Traffic Wales tweeted that snow had fallen across the country, causing poor conditions.\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf council said conditions were bad on the A470, and advised drivers to only travel if they had to, while an accident on the A449 in Raglan, Monmouthshire, left the road partially blocked.\n\nThe A4233 at Trebanog in Tonyrefail, Rhondda Cynon Taf, was closed in both directions. The road was described as impassable, and there was also a two-vehicle accident on Trebanog Road.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Traffic Wales South This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nSouth Wales Police tweeted: \"Road conditions across the south Wales area are extremely poor.\n\n\"There are several reports of black ice, including the M4, and some roads have been affected by snowfall.\n\n\"Only drive if it's necessary. Please allow extra time for your journey.\"\n\nSnow fell overnight in Pontypridd, and Rhondda Cynon Taf council warned drivers to travel only if necessary\n\nThe latest snow came after the weather warning was extended from Saturday into Sunday.\n\nOn Sunday afternoon the Met Office issued a new warning of ice and fog from 16:00 to 11:00 on Monday for Flintshire, Wrexham and Powys.\n\nSaturday saw road closures in several places due to snow and ice, including in Denbighshire, Ceredigion, Powys, and Wrexham.\n\nPeople have been warned to expect icy patches on some untreated roads, pavements and cycle paths, with a risk of injuries from slips and falls.\n\nThe A449 near Raglan was partially blocked after an accident", "We need more doctors and nurses, says Powis\n\nKuenssberg asks about what she says is the scandal of people dying in ambulances Prof Sir Stephen Powis replies that the government is putting in a national fall service so elderly people who fall at home can be treated there instead of going to hospital. On the issue of tackling the shortage of staff in the health service, he says \"the NHS absolutely needs more staff\". This is because it has 100,000 vacancies and we have fewer doctors per head of the population compared with other countries. He says he hopes to publish a long-term workforce plan in the spring. \"If you ask me personally when it comes to doctors we need more medical student places,\" he says. He adds that he would increase these places from 1,000 to 2,000 and would create them in areas of the country where there are staff shortages so people will put down roots there and work in those communities.", "A total of 270 people died in the Lockerbie bombing on 21 December 1988\n\nA Libyan man accused of making the bomb which destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie 34 years ago is in United States custody, Scottish authorities have said.\n\nThe US announced charges against Abu Agila Masud two years ago, alleging he had played a key role in the bombing on 21 December, 1988.\n\nThe blast on board the Boeing 747 left 270 people dead.\n\nIt is the deadliest terrorist incident to have taken place on British soil.\n\nAll 259 passengers and crew on board the jumbo jet bound to New York from London died while another 11 people were killed in Lockerbie when wreckage destroyed their homes.\n\nLast month it was reported that Mr Masud had been kidnapped by a militia group in Libya, leading to speculation that he was going to be handed over to the American authorities to stand trial.\n\nA US Justice Department spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that the suspect would make an initial appearance in a federal court in Washington.\n\nFive years ago he was serving a prison sentence in Libya for bomb-making.\n\nIn 2001 Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of bombing Pan Am 103 after standing trial at a specially convened Scottish court in the Netherlands.\n\nHe was the only man to be convicted over the attack.\n\nMegrahi was jailed for life but was released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer.\n\nHe died in Libya in 2012.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Newsnight's Kirsty Wark recalls arriving at Lockerbie on the night of 21 December 1988\n\nIt is alleged that while in jail in Libya, Mr Masud confessed to being involved in the conspiracy with Megrahi to blow up the flight.\n\nAamer Anwar, Megrahi's lawyer, said Mr Masud was actually in the custody of a warlord \"widely condemned for human rights abuses\" - he said the circumstances in which such a confession was extracted would be \"strongly opposed\" in any US or Scottish court.\n\nMegrahi, who always proclaimed his innocence, launched two appeals against his 27-year sentence. One was unsuccessful and the other was abandoned.\n\nIn the 34 years since Pan Am 103 was brought down, the story of the Lockerbie bombing has taken many twists and turns.\n\nThe prospect of a first Lockerbie trial, let alone a second, seemed extremely unlikely until Nelson Mandela brokered a deal which led to two Libyan suspects being handed over to a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands.\n\nOne of them was convicted of bombing the plane, but it was always the prosecution case that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi acted with others.\n\nThe collapse of Colonel Gaddafi's regime in 2011 raised hopes that more suspects could be brought before a court until the country fell back into violent political instability.\n\nIn 2020, the outgoing US Attorney General William Barr announced charges against Abu Agila Masud and behind the scenes, prosecutors at the Crown office, detectives from Police Scotland and their US counterparts continued to work on the case.\n\nThe announcement that Mr Masud is now in US custody means a second trial over the biggest mass murder in British legal history could now happen, under American rather than Scots law.\n\nBut many challenges lie ahead, not least the legal status of the suspect's alleged confession when he was held in prison in Libya.\n\nIts contents also appear to undermine and strengthen the prosecution case against Megrahi.\n\nAs ever with this story, it's wise to expect the unexpected.\n\nA spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said: \"The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told that the suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi (\"Mas'ud\" or \"Masoud\") is in US custody.\n\n\"Scottish prosecutors and police, working with UK government and US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing those who acted along with Al Megrahi to justice.\"\n\nPolice Scotland said it remained \"deeply committed\" to the investigation and to supporting the families and communities who suffered such devastating losses.\n\nA spokesperson added: \"We continue to work closely with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in Scotland, along with our partners within the UK government and the authorities in the United States, in supporting the continued pursuit of justice against those responsible\"\n\nThe Pan Am flight was bombed just days before Christmas", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nMorocco became the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final and ended the hopes of Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal.\n\nStriker Youssef En-Nesyri scored the winning goal in the first half, leaping highest to beat goalkeeper Diogo Costa to the ball and heading in to spark pandemonium at Al Thumama Stadium.\n\nThe north African side's supporters populated most of the venue and joyously celebrated their breakthrough moment on the global stage.\n\nRonaldo came off the bench in the 50th minute to equal the men's all-time appearance record of 196 in international matches, but he could not drag his side back into the contest.\n\nMorocco, who will face England or France in the last four, were happy to play on the counter and grabbed the opener just before the break when En-Nesyri headed in from Yahya Attiyat-Allah's cross.\n\nPortugal skipper Bruno Fernandes came agonisingly close to levelling just minutes later but a brilliant individual effort struck the crossbar.\n\nDecimated by injuries, Morocco sat back for the majority of the second half and Yassine Bounou brilliantly tipped over Joao Felix's drive - the closest they came to an equaliser.\n\nMorocco striker Walid Cheddira was sent off for a second yellow card in eight minutes of additional time but Portugal could not find the equaliser as their last-four hopes were dashed.\n\nThree African sides had previously reached this stage of the World Cup but none had progressed any further. Until now.\n\nThe marvellous Moroccan players and fans rejoiced as En-Nesyri's header on 42 minutes proved to be the pivotal moment.\n\nFans whistled and jeered every pass the Portuguese players made and then the rowdiest section behind the goal seemed to suck the ball into the net.\n\nWalid Regragui's side were missing West Ham's Nayef Aguerd, Bayern Munich's Noussair Mazraoui and lost captain Romain Saiss to injury early in the second period.\n\nBut they defended resolutely and frustrated Portugal to keep their seventh clean sheet in eight games under their boss and have conceded just once in this tournament.\n\nMorocco are a tough proposition and buoyed on by a partisan crowd in Doha, they will present a difficult challenge to whoever they face in the last four on Wednesday.\n\nGoalkeeper Bounou, earning his 50th cap, pushed away a header from Felix early on and a deflected strike flew narrowly over.\n\nMorocco had carved out the better opportunities on the break but En-Nesyri sent two free headers off target and Sofiane Boufal's curler was straight at Costa.\n\nIn his desperation for an equaliser, Fernando Santos sent on Ronaldo early in the second half but the 37-year-old - who equalled Kuwait striker Bader Al-Mutawa's international caps record - found it difficult to make any impact.\n\nHaving seen rival Lionel Messi reach the semi-finals on Friday, Ronaldo could not do the same with his side on what is likely to be his final World Cup appearance, trudging down the tunnel in tears at full-time as his dream was over.\n• None Attempt missed. Pepe (Portugal) header from the right side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Rafael Leão with a cross.\n• None Attempt saved. Zakaria Aboukhlal (Morocco) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Yahya Attiat-Allah.\n• None Second yellow card to Walid Cheddira (Morocco) for a bad foul.\n• None Walid Cheddira (Morocco) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt saved. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Bruno Fernandes with a through ball.\n• None Offside, Morocco. Sofyan Amrabat tries a through ball, but Walid Cheddira is caught offside.\n• None Vitinha (Portugal) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The walrus, nicknamed Thor, was discovered at Calshot in the early hours\n\nA walrus was found resting on a Hampshire beach, prompting warnings for the public to stay away from it.\n\nNicknamed Thor, the creature was discovered at Calshot in the early hours.\n\nBritish Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), monitored the large marine mammal, which it said swam off again during the early afternoon.\n\nThe charity said the walrus had needed to regain its strength before making its next journey.\n\nBDMLR said: \"We've not had any location details yet as to where it's gone - but it may well appear somewhere along the coast again tonight or tomorrow.\n\n\"If you do happen to spot it, don't share the location on social media but stay well clear and contact us.\"\n\nThe age and whether the walrus is male or female is not yet known\n\nDan Jarvis, director of welfare and conservation, at BDMLR said Thor is known to have visited the Netherlands, Dieppe and Brittany in recent weeks.\n\nHe said: \"Repeated visitors are going to prevent the animal from conserving its energy and making its next journey.\"\n\n\"The more people than can leave it alone, the better chance it has of surviving,\" he added.\n\nCoastguard officers set up a cordon along the stretch of beach to keep gathering crowds a safe distance away from Thor.\n\nFully-grown walruses weigh about two tonnes and measure nearly 4m long. The tusked creatures live can for 40 years.\n\nBDMLR said it was vital the public kept their distance from the walrus so it could rest before making a move\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "L'Ecume II sank after the collision with a freight vessel\n\nTwo crewmen missing after their fishing boat was involved in a collision with a freight vessel off Jersey have been named.\n\nLarry Simyunn and Jervis Baligat were on board the L'Ecume II when it sank off Jersey at about 05:30 GMT on Thursday, Ports of Jersey (POJ) said.\n\nBoth men had been on the boat with skipper Michael Michieli.\n\nA search operation for the men was called off on Friday with attention switching to recovery of the vessel.\n\nMr Michieli and the two crew members were on the L'Ecume II when it collided with the Commodore Goodwill.\n\nThe Jersey Coastguard, RNLI, Channel Islands Air Search and local fishermen were involved in the search.\n\nThe POJ said all rescue options had \"been exhausted\" in efforts to find the men.\n\nThe captain of the fishing vessel has been named as Michael Michieli, an experienced and respected fisherman\n\nThe search had entered a second day after the L'Ecume II sank in about 131ft (40m) of water.\n\nThe POJ said: \"All possible rescue activities [have] been exhausted in an effort to find the three missing fishermen.\n\n\"We are aware that this is very difficult for friends and family of the men, and we extend our deepest sympathies to all those affected by this tragic incident.\"\n\nSigns of a collision are visible on the hull of the Commodore Goodwill\n\nA remotely-operated underwater craft is expected to conduct a \"more detailed survey\" of the collision site to inform the recovery phase of the operation in the next week.\n\nA large offshore support vessel commissioned by POJ to conduct the survey is expected off Jersey's west coast at about 06:00 GMT on Sunday.\n\nA maritime exclusion zone is in place for the area, and \"islanders are urged to respect this, so the vessel's crew can complete their work unimpeded\", said the POJ.\n\nAn investigation, led by Maritime Standards with support from police, has been commissioned.\n\nCondor Ferries confirmed its freight ship had been involved in the collision.\n\nBecause its vessel is registered in the Bahamas, a separate \"safety-focused investigation\" will be run by the Bahamas Maritime Authority in collaboration with Jersey authorities.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A number of people are in a critical condition after being pulled from a lake in freezing temperatures, police have said.\n\nThe BBC's Sophie Madden is in Babbs Mill Park, where emergency services are at the scene of the incident. She says a drone was spotted flying over the water.", "Nurses at almost all health boards in Wales will strike on 15 and 20 December\n\nNurses at almost all NHS health boards in Wales will take part in two days of strikes in the run up to Christmas.\n\nThey will strike on 15 and 20 December at all health boards except Aneurin Bevan, which did not meet the threshold.\n\nMembers of the Royal College of Nurses (RCN) union rejected a Welsh government pay award of between 4% and 5.5%, well below the rate of inflation.\n\nHowever, some services are exempt from strike action, such as chemotherapy and paediatric intensive care.\n\nHave you had your appointment cancelled because of the nurses' strike?\n\nUse this form to tell us about your experiences:\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.", "England captain Owen Farrell says the Rugby Football Union's decision to sack Eddie Jones as head coach was \"unbelievably disappointing\".\n\nJones was sacked a week ago after only five wins from 12 Tests in 2022.\n\nThe 62-year-old won three Six Nations titles in his seven years in charge and led the team to the 2019 World Cup final, which they lost to South Africa.\n\nFarrell said the run of poor results in 2022 \"doesn't happen because of one person, it's everyone\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC rugby correspondent Chris Jones after Saracens' Heineken Champions Cup win over Edinburgh on Sunday, Farrell added: \"It's unbelievably disappointing.\n\n\"Eddie had been a big part of England Rugby for a long time now and he has been one of the best coaches I have ever had so, for that, I'm massively thankful.\n\n\"We are disappointed it has finished early and we owe a lot to him. I have been around for a while now and not been around too many changes, both at club and international level. It's not pleasant to go through.\n\n\"I don't think it has come from the players. There is obviously stuff we all want to get better at from the results but as players you look at yourself and see what you can do.\"\n\nJones' sacking followed a review into England's disappointing autumn campaign, which saw one win from four matches.\n\nAsked if he had spoken to Jones since the Australian was relieved of his duties, the 31-year-old Saracens fly-half said: \"We have exchanged a few messages and hopefully I will see him.\"\n\nEngland are now without a head coach nine months before the 2023 World Cup, while their Six Nations campaign begins against Scotland at Twickenham on 4 February.", "A Libyan man accused of making the bomb which destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie has been taken into United States custody.\n\nThe explosion on board the Boeing 747 on 21 December 1988 left 270 people dead, making it the deadliest terrorist incident to have taken place on British soil.\n\nAnother Libyan, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, is the only man ever convicted in connection with the atrocity.\n\nHe was found guilty of the murders in 2001, but always protested his innocence. He died in 2012 after being allowed to return home when it emerged that he had terminal cancer.\n\nHere is a timeline of the key developments in the case.\n\nAbdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah were accused of carrying out the bombing\n\n21 December 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York explodes 31,000 feet over Lockerbie, 38 minutes after take-off from London.\n\nThe 259 people on board the Boeing 747 are killed, along with 11 people on the ground.\n\n13 November 1991: US and British investigators indict Libyans Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah on 270 counts of murder, conspiracy to murder and violating Britain's 1982 Aviation Security Act.\n\nThe men were accused of being Libyan intelligence agents.\n\n15 April 1992: The UN Security Council imposes sanctions on air travel and arms sales over Libya's refusal to hand the suspects over for trial in a Scottish court.\n\nAugust 1998: Britain and the United States propose trying the suspects in the Netherlands under Scottish law.\n\n5 April 1999: The suspects are taken into Dutch custody after flying from Tripoli to an airbase near the Hague and are formally charged with the bombing. UN sanctions against Libya are suspended as agreed.\n\nThe Scottish court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands\n\n3 May 2000: The trial of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, 48, and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, 44, opens at Camp Zeist, a specially convened Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands. Both of the accused deny murder.\n\n31 January 2001: Megrahi is found guilty of murder after the historic trial under Scottish law in the Netherlands.\n\nThe judges recommend a minimum of 20 years \"in view of the horrendous nature of this crime\".\n\nMegrahi's co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, is found not guilty and told he is free to return home.\n\n14 March 2002: Megrahi loses his appeal against the conviction.\n\n15 March 2002: Megrahi spends his first night at a prison in Glasgow after being flown by helicopter to HMP Barlinnie.\n\n14 August 2003: Lawyers acting for families of the Lockerbie bombing victims say they have reached agreement with Libya on the payment of compensation.\n\nThe deal to set up a $2.7bn (£1.7bn) fund was struck with Libyan officials after negotiations in London.\n\n24 November 2003: Megrahi is told he must serve at least 27 years in jail.\n\nHis sentence was increased after a change in the law meant he had to again come before the Scottish courts so that the punishment period could be set.\n\n28 June 2007: The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, which has been investigating the case since 2003, recommends Megrahi is granted a second appeal against his conviction.\n\n21 October 2008: Megrahi's lawyer reveals the 56-year-old former Libyan intelligence agent has been diagnosed with \"advanced stage\" prostate cancer.\n\n31 October 2008: The father of one of the victims of the Lockerbie bombing reiterates his call for Megrahi to be released.\n\nJim Swire, whose daughter was killed, criticised the slow appeal process faced by the man convicted of the attack and said the question of whether Megrahi should be released was one of \"common humanity\".\n\n14 November 2008: A court rules that Megrahi will remain in jail while he appeals against his conviction.\n\n25 July 2009: Megrahi asks to be released from jail on compassionate grounds due to his illness.\n\n18 August 2009: Judges accept an application by the Lockerbie bomber to drop his second appeal against conviction.\n\nThe permission of the High Court in Edinburgh was required before the proceedings could be formally abandoned.\n\nMegrahi was met on his return to Libya by Muammar Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam\n\n20 August 2009: The Scottish government releases Megrahi on compassionate grounds. He returns home to Libya aboard a jet belonging to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.\n\n24 August 2009: The Scottish Parliament is recalled to discuss the release of the Lockerbie bomber.\n\nJustice Secretary Kenny MacAskill faces questioning from MSPs over his decision but says he stands by his decision and will \"live with the consequences\".\n\n29 August 2011: Megrahi falls into a coma at his Tripoli home with CNN reporting he appeared to be \"at death's door\".\n\n20 October 2011: Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi is overthrown by an uprising in Libya, and is killed by rebels.\n\n20 May 2012: Abdelbaset al-Megrahi dies at his home in Tripoli, aged 60.\n\nEleven people were killed on the ground in Lockerbie\n\n20 December 2014: Scotland's top prosecutor, Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, reaffirms his belief that Megrahi is guilty of the Lockerbie bombing and says no Crown Office investigator or prosecutor ever raised concerns about the evidence used to convict him.\n\nHe also pledges to continue tracking down Megrahi's accomplices.\n\n3 July 2015: Scottish judges rule that relatives of the Lockerbie bombing victims should not be allowed to pursue an appeal on Megrahi's behalf. Courts had previously ruled that only next of kin could proceed with a posthumous application.\n\n4 July 2017: The family of Lockerbie bomber Megrahi lodges a new bid to appeal against his conviction, five years after his death.\n\n11 March 2020: The Scottish Criminal Case Review Commissionrules that there can be a fresh appeal and refers the case to the High Court of Justiciary.\n\nThe commission says it considered six grounds of review and concluded that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred by reason of \"unreasonable verdict\" and \"non-disclosure\".\n\nThe family of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi attenpted to appeal against his conviction\n\n22 December 2020: On the 32nd anniversary of the atrocity, the US announces it has filed charges against a Libyan suspected of making the bomb.\n\nAttorney General William Barr says Abu Agila Mohammad Masud was accused of terrorism-related crimes.\n\n15 January 2021: Scottish judges reject the appeal from the family of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi as the Court of Criminal Appeal upholds the verdict of the original trial.\n\nThe court rejected the argument that the original trial had come to a verdict that no reasonable court could have reached.\n\n11 December 2022: It emerges that Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, the Libyan man accused of making the bomb which destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, is in United States custody.", "Editor Kenny Kemp describes Caledonian Inquirer as a polemic designed to highlight serious issues\n\nBusinessman Jim McColl has helped to fund a new publication aimed at exposing \"the truth\" about Scotland's ferry scandal.\n\nCopies of the Caledonian Inquirer will be distributed in west coast towns and island communities.\n\nDescribed as a polemical \"broadsheet\" it includes interviews with ferry experts, politicians and islanders.\n\nMr McColl owned Ferguson shipyard before it collapsed amid a bitter dispute with ferries agency CMAL.\n\nBoth CMAL and Mr McColl have blamed each other for the problems that have beset the construction of two CalMac ferries, Glen Sannox and hull 802, which are five years late and at least £240m overbudget.\n\nThe delays have had a knock-on impact on the west coast ferry network which is struggling with an ageing fleet and frequent breakdowns.\n\nThe new publication is edited by Kenny Kemp, a freelance journalist and ghost writer who has previously worked for the Sunday Herald, the Scotsman and Scottish Business Insider.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"It's a polemic - a modern day broadsheet to highlight a serious issue. I've been following this story for a long time.\n\n\"Jim McColl has put some money into this, but I've also helped pay for it.\n\n\"There is a real need to find the truth behind this whole debacle.\"\n\nThe first edition includes an article by Jim McColl himself as well as interviews with Labour MSP Paul Sweeney and Alba MP Kenny MacAskill.\n\nThere are also interviews with ferries experts Roy Pedersen and Alf Baird, and a feature examining catamarans as a cost effective way of renewing the CalMac fleet.\n\nGlen Sannox is still under construction at the Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow\n\nOne article entitled The CMALFUNCTION describes the Scottish government-owned ferries agency as a \"Scottish quango not fit for purpose\".\n\nCMAL was contacted by the BBC but said it had no comment to make on the new publication.\n\nIn September a BBC documentary presented evidence that the procurement process which awarded the CalMac ferries contract to Mr McColl's company FMEL in 2015 may have been rigged - a claim rejected by CMAL.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon strenuously denied there had been any political interference in the procurement when she faced questioning last month by Holyrood's public audit committee.\n\nJim McColl was once a member of the first minister's council of economic advisers but has become one of her staunchest critics.", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nEngland manager Gareth Southgate and his players nursed a familiar sense of missed opportunity as that elusive major tournament triumph escaped them once more.\n\nWatching the post-match scene at the Al Bayt Stadium brought flashbacks - to the World Cup semi-final defeat against Croatia in Moscow in 2018, to the European Championship final loss to Italy at Wembley 16 months ago.\n\nAmid the pain of their latest defeat, Southgate offered consolation to devastated England players who inspired hope, only to see potential glory wrenched from their grasp.\n\nA 2-1 World Cup quarter-final loss to holders France, here in Qatar, was a brutal outcome. England's display deserved at least to drag the game into extra time.\n\nPerhaps this is why it felt different, even more painful, for England this time. A genuine opportunity to win this World Cup had opened up for Southgate's team, an emerging blend of youth and experience.\n• None Anguish for Kane on night he equals England scoring record\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nThe prize for the winners here was a semi-final against Morocco. And for all the World Cup surprise packages have to offer, their brilliant defending and potent counter-attacking style, England would have gone into that match as hot favourites to make next weekend's final in Lusail.\n\nThis is why Southgate clasped Harry Kane's face in his hands and offered words of consolation; the captain's uncharacteristically wild late penalty had been England's best chance to force extra time.\n\nKane's tearful expression revealed what a cruel game this can be; his was the face of a man shouldering the responsibility after giving England so much. Goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made his way down the length of the pitch to offer more comfort to the desolate captain.\n\nThe old question will be asked as to why England cannot force their way past elite opposition at major tournaments. But on this occasion, at least, there can be no complaints about the approach.\n\nSouthgate spoke of \"fine margins\" - and they proved decisive. One team took their chances and the other could not. England had no cause for reproach about their efforts.\n\nIn the past, England have been justifiably criticised for timid World Cup and Euro exits, and Southgate has not been immune from that - but this was not the case here.\n\nSouthgate, who gazed to the skies in disappoinment at the final whistle, refused to alter his line-up or formation, or opt for conservatism in an attempt to combat Kylian Mbappe. France's superstar always carried the hint of menace but England managed to keep him relatively subdued.\n\nEngland had the majority of the chances but fell foul to France's more clinical finishing, accompanied by some justified frustration with Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio.\n\nThe official appeared to miss two fouls on Bukayo Saka by Dayot Upamecano in the build-up to Aurelien Tchouameni's 17th-minute strike, the start of an erratic display, but England were deservedly level shortly after the break when Kane rammed a spot-kick past Tottenham team-mate Hugo Lloris after a foul on Saka.\n\nEngland had the force with them and Harry Maguire's header glanced the outside of the post. So near.\n\nWhile they could not beat Lloris, danger lurked. And so it proved when 36-year-old Olivier Giroud, having just been denied superbly by Pickford, stole in ahead of Harry Maguire to head in Antoine Griezmann's cross with only 12 minutes left.\n\nAnd then came Kane's penalty miss.\n\nEngland have suffered penalty pain before in World Cups and Euros. Here it was again, only in a different form - inside the regulation 90 minutes instead of in a shootout.\n\nWas it the fact it was a second penalty against a keeper who knows him so well? Was it simply the pressure of the situation, even for such a consummate penalty expert? Whatever the reason, Kane's penalty was awful, skied into disbelieving England fans behind the goal.\n\nIt was all over. England were coming home early again.\n\nSo how will this campaign be reflected upon?\n\nThe irony is that while a quarter-final exit represents a regression from the last-four place achieved in 2018, this squad carries much more promise for the future than the one in Russia.\n\nSaka and Declan Rice were truly outstanding and while Bellingham and Phil Foden were not as influential as in previous games, especially against Senegal, this quartet will be an integral part of England's long-term future.\n\nThe arguments will be pushed forward that England won against those they should have beaten and lost to the first elite team they met but this was a different performance to those that have fallen into that category before. Southgate's team were not hiding behind the door here. They were the primary attacking force. Their fault was a failure to take chances.\n\nKane's penalty was the decisive moment. This was a night when it was not to be for this high-class striker. He was denied twice by Lloris in the first half, once at his feet and then again from a deflected long-range effort. He may be level with Rooney's record but history must wait for another day.\n\nEngland were impressive against Iran, Wales and Senegal but drab against the USA. Their 13 goals came from eight different players. It was their highest number at a World Cup.\n\nSadly, other statistics do not make as comfortable reading.\n\nEngland have been knocked out of the World Cup quarter-finals seven times, more than any other country. Kane's penalty record for his country is not perfect - 17 conversions from 21. What he and England would have given for that to read 18.\n\nThere are elements of a bright future for England - but will their manager be part of it?\n\nThe Football Association would like Southgate to serve every day of the contract that takes him to December 2024 but ultimately the decision rests with him. Will he feel a three-tournament span is enough? Will he want another crack at club management?\n\nHe was keeping his counsel as he told BBC Sport: \"These tournaments take a lot out of you and I need a bit of time to reflect. We've done that after every tournament and I think that's the right thing to do.\"\n\nOnce again, England and Southgate will be reflecting on what might have been, as a very good chance to win the World Cup slipped agonisingly through their clutches.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Dog walkers braved the frost and fog in Primrose Hill in north London\n\nSnow, ice and freezing fog that is sweeping across parts of the UK will continue for days, forecasters said.\n\nThe conditions have caused travel disruption, with delayed trains, motorway accidents and flights from Heathrow cancelled on Sunday morning.\n\nA number of people are in critical condition after being pulled from a lake amid freezing temperatures in Solihull, according to police.\n\nTemperatures could drop as low as -15C (5F) in northeast Scotland overnight.\n\nIf so, it would be the lowest temperature the UK has seen since February last year.\n\nBBC weather presenter Darren Bett said: \"It looks set to stay very cold for the week ahead. Snow and ice, as well as freezing fog, will continue to be a hazard and frosts will continue to be widespread and severe.\n\n\"From Tuesday, the cold northerly wind will develop and bring most of the snow to northern Scotland with as much as 20cm (7.8in) of fresh snow falling in the hills.\"\n\nEarlier, the Met Office warned power cuts and mobile phone coverage might also be affected.\n\nSnow has been settling in Devon and Wales as well as parts of Scotland and areas of north-west England.\n\nA yellow weather warning for snow and ice is in place for Scotland, London and south-west England until Monday morning.\n\nBut the Met Office ended its weather warning for Northern Ireland, despite the cold weather leading to some sporting fixtures being cancelled.\n\nChildren in Northwich, Cheshire, built a snowman after the snow fall\n\nHeavy snowfall caused a series of traffic collisions on Sunday, leaving drivers in treacherous conditions.\n\nIn Shropshire, the M54 between junctions 3 and 2 was shut, while major congestion was also reported on the M5 slip road to the M6.\n\nThe southbound M5 in Gloucestershire was shut after a multi-vehicle crash between junctions 11A and 12 near Quedgeley, Highways England said.\n\nDrivers in north-west England were also being advised to take care following accidents on other motorways including the M58, M62, M61.\n\nTrains across the West Midlands have also been hit by delays.\n\nHeathrow Airport confirmed scores of flights were cancelled on Sunday morning due to the fog.\n\nOn Saturday, Manchester Airport closed both runways due to \"heavy snow fall\", with dozens of flights affected.\n\nMet Office chief meteorologist Steve Willington said: \"It is staying cold with daytime temperatures remaining only a few degrees above freezing in many places over the coming days and overnight temperatures dropping to -10C or lower in isolated spots.\n\n\"Although below average, these temperatures are not that unusual for this time of year.\n\n\"There is still a risk we could see some freezing fog in places particularly southern England.\"\n\nSnow had settled in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, on Sunday\n\nRowers on the river Avon during a cold sunrise in Warwick\n\nPeople are being advised to check on vulnerable family and friends to ensure they have access to warm food and drinks as the wintry conditions hit.\n\nThe UKHSA added that people should make sure indoor temperatures in their homes are at least 18C.\n\nDr Agostinho Sousa, consultant in public health medicine at UKHSA, said: \"Cold weather can have serious consequences for health and older people and those with heart or lung conditions can be particularly at risk.\n\n\"If you have a pre-existing medical condition, you should heat your home to a temperature that is comfortable for you.\n\n\"In rooms you mostly use such as the living room or bedroom, try to heat them to at least 18C if you can. Keep your bedroom windows closed at night. Wearing several layers of clothing will keep you warmer than one thicker layer.\"\n\nGritters will be out this weekend to help clear the roads and ease travel disruption.\n\nDarren Clark, severe weather resilience manager at National Highways, said: \"National Highways is committed to treating every road which needs to be treated - whenever it is needed.\"\n\nThe RAC has added it has been \"exceptionally busy\" in recent days due to receiving a quarter more breakdowns than is normal for this time of year.\n\nHow are you being affected by the cold weather? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "More than 1,700 children live in temporary accommodation, the Welsh government's latest figures have shown.\n\nThe number of households without a permanent home in September increased 60% over 12 months to 6,935, including 1,742 under-16s.\n\nCharity Shelter Cymru warned the homeless sector was at \"breaking point\".\n\nThe Welsh government said temporary accommodation had slashed the amount of people normally sleeping on the street.\n\nJennie Bibbings, Shelter Cymru's campaigns boss, said: \"A lot of homelessness services are firefighting from one moment to the next, there are unprecedented numbers of people who are stuck in temporary accommodation this Christmas.\"\n\nMs Bibbings added that the situation was \"in crisis stage\".\n\n\"This is not a long term solution. You don't end homelessness with temporary accommodation, you need to be investing in permanent homes.\"\n\nThe evictions ban introduced because of the Covid pandemic had kept homeless numbers down.\n\nThat ended in June and evictions began rising again.\n\n\"We've seen more people becoming homeless because of relationship breakdowns, domestic abuse, trouble at home, young people being kicked out and we've seen big increases in illegal evictions as well,\" Ms Bibbings said.\n\nThe end of the evictions ban has led to more people becoming homeless\n\nKaren, 59, became homeless 11 months ago, and is a resident of one of 11 temporary homes Vale of Glamorgan council recently opened in Barry.\n\nShe gave up working as a taxi driver after three heart attacks and said she was unhappy in her previous accommodation.\n\n\"I'd get on the bus and you'd see the people looking and saying, 'that's all the junkies, the homeless',\" she said.\n\nKaren was \"embarrassed\" by her previous address but at her new one, people no longer viewed her as homeless.\n\n\"They should be a permanent residence not temporary,\" she said.\n\nBut council chief Rob Thomas said more temporary housing was needed.\n\n\"We're currently reviewing the land holdings that we have to see if we can replicate this elsewhere,\" he said.\n\nThe Welsh government said during the pandemic its use of temporary accommodation \"radically reduced the number of people sleeping rough in a way never achieved before\".\n\nA spokesman said extra cash would be used to help build 20,000 affordable social homes over the next five years.", "Specialist teams and search dogs are on the scene following the collapse\n\nA search for people after an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey that left three dead has found no signs of life.\n\nEmergency service bosses said the search and rescue operation was now one of recovery.\n\n\"We have been searching and we will not stop searching for people's loved ones,\" Chief Fire Officer Paul Brown told a press conference.\n\nIt is understood there were nine known residents in the block before the blast in St Helier on Saturday morning.\n\nThree bodies have been found at the Pier Road scene and specialist teams are continuing to look for six more.\n\nIt is estimated there could be up to a dozen, as details on visitors remain unknown.\n\nEmergency crews are carrying out a \"painstaking search of the debris\", Chief of Police Robin Smith said\n\nThe fire service had attended the flats just after 20:30 GMT on Friday after the smell of gas was reported, it has been confirmed.\n\nThe blast happened at about 04:00 GMT on Saturday.\n\nSpecialist teams and a search dog have been carrying out searches at the scene.\n\nChief of Jersey Police Robin Smith described how there had been a \"meticulous and painstaking search of the debris following the explosion, to start carefully identifying bodies when and if we find them\".\n\nHe told the press conference: \"That will take time. We are not going to be here for days we are likely to be here for weeks.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage from the scene of the explosion shows a large fire\n\nMr Smith said it was \"difficult to be precise\" on the total number of fatalities.\n\n\"The one area I can be precise on is we have three confirmed fatalities and it's fair to say we expect to find more,\" he said.\n\n\"Previously we have said in the region of a dozen but it's difficult to make that assessment. That's the number we hope we do not get to but that is the number we are working to.\"\n\nMr Smith said \"around 40\" people had been displaced because of the blast and the damage it had caused to nearby buildings.\n\nNone of the emergency leaders could confirm the cause, but Mr Smith was asked to comment on whether it was down to a gas explosion.\n\n\"It looks likely that is the case,\" he said.\n\n\"But as you often hear the police service say, we keep all our options open.\"\n\nHe added: \"We will seek experts who are independent, as we would do with any investigation where there is particular specialisms - be reassured this will be an independent investigation.\"\n\nStating whether criminal activity was suspected, he added: \"We rule nothing in and we rule nothing out.\"\n\nPaul Brown, Jersey chief fire officer, acknowledged something had gone \"horribly wrong\".\n\nHe told reporters the fire service would be \"co-operating fully\" with \"honesty\" and \"transparency\", but the main focus remained on the search operation.\n\n\"The most important thing is to understand the absolute truth and also be seen to establish the absolute truth,\" he said.\n\n\"We do not want any cloud around that at all.\"\n\nBailiff of Jersey Sir Timothy Le Cocq has announced the creation of a Bailiff's Island Appeal to support people affected by the blast.\n\nChief Minister Kristina Moore earlier told the BBC she was woken by the explosion.\n\n\"It's unthinkable news, we're all absolutely devastated and really concerned for the people who are involved, for those whose lives have been lost,\" she said.\n\n\"Those families will get the answers they need.\n\n\"We're so grateful to the emergency services and everybody who is absolutely committed to searching through the rubble to find everybody.\"\n\nSpecialist teams from the UK's Ministry of Defence and fire services have been supporting local crews.\n\nThey include the South West Hazardous Area Response Team, alongside an Urban Search and Rescue Team from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service.\n\nTwo people who were in hospital earlier have been released and one other person is receiving treatment.\n\nThe flats at Haut De Mont are shown as they appear following the explosion and as they were prior to the blast\n\nSearch teams continued their work through a bitterly cold night and into the morning\n\nJersey's gas supplier, Island Energy, said it was working with the fire service to understand what had happened.\n\nThe three-storey building that collapsed is owned by Andium Homes, a state-owned but independent company that rents out properties.\n\nIt said it was focusing on supporting residents at the estate.\n\nMs Moore said residents displaced by the blast were being found somewhere to stay.\n\n\"This is going to take some days and we will keep everyone updated and fully informed, and we will do our very best to ensure everybody is properly looked after,\" she added.\n\nSpecialist teams from the UK have arrived to support local crews in the search for survivors\n\nThe Town Church opened on Saturday evening for islanders to light candles and pay respects to those who had died.\n\nThe incident comes after three fishermen were reported missing following a collision at sea on Thursday, and those affected by this will also be supported through the bailiff's appeal.\n\nOn Monday, the flag of Jersey will fly at half mast on the island's official buildings \"as a sign of respect\" for those affected by the explosion, the Government of Jersey said.\n\nThe flags will be lowered from 08:00 GMT until sunset on 23 December.\n\nA one-minute silence will also be held at 11:00 GMT on Monday to give islanders a moment to \"reflect on the incidents that have resulted in loss of life\", the government said.\n\nDo you live in the area? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.", "Mark Hoyle wore an updated version of Band Aid's Feed The World T-shirt for the recording session\n\nYouTube stars LadBaby have unveiled plans to score an unprecedented fifth Christmas number one single in a row.\n\nThe duo, Mark and Roxanne Hoyle, will cover Band Aid's 1984 hit Do They Know It's Christmas to raise money for those affected by the cost of living crisis.\n\nThey will be joined by finance expert Martin Lewis and \"icons from the music industry\", who are yet-to-be revealed.\n\n\"I don't think everyone is ready for Martin Lewis's singing voice,\" Mark told BBC News. \"He puts me to shame\".\n\nProceeds from the song will be shared equally between food bank charity The Trussell Trust and the Band Aid foundation.\n\nLadBaby made chart history last year when their collaboration with Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John, Sausage Rolls For Everyone, became their fourth consecutive UK Christmas number one.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. LadBaby and Ed Sheeran helped out at a food bank last year\n\nThe Nottinghamshire couple first topped the chart in 2018 with We Built This City, a cover of Starship's 1985 hit; followed by 2019's I Love Sausage Rolls, their take on The Arrows/Joan Jett's I Love Rock 'n' Roll; and 2020's Don't Stop Me Eatin', a cheeky version of Journey's power ballad Don't Stop Believin'.\n\nThey are currently tied with the Beatles as the act with the most festive chart-toppers overall - but the Fab Four only managed three consecutive years at the top, with their run broken by Tom Jones' Green, Green Grass of Home in 1966.\n\n\"We never intended to release a fifth Christmas single but as ambassadors of the Trussell Trust we were not prepared to sit back and do nothing in a year when people are struggling more than ever,\" Mark and Roxanne said in a statement.\n\nThey approached Bob Geldof and Midge Ure (the original writers of Do They Know It's Christmas) to ask for permission six months ago.\n\n\"I wasn't as difficult as people might think,\" said Mark.\n\n\"Bob said he was excited to see what we were going to do, and they've approved everything - all the lyrics we wrote, the music video, who we got involved. Everything.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by LadBaby This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThe single is available for pre-order now and will be released on 16 December, with hopes of topping the Christmas countdown the following Friday.\n\nIt will face competition from perennial favourites like Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You and Wham's Last Christmas, but bookmakers have already made LadBaby the favourites.\n\n\"Come on, we can beat Mariah Carey,\" said Mark. \"We've done it before\".\n\nLewis said he was amazed to have been approached for help.\n\n\"I thought they'd confused me with someone else,\" he said. \"The nearest I've ever got to thinking about a Christmas number one is going to the loo on Boxing Day after too much orange juice the day before.\n\n\"Yet once I knew they were serious, and it was for the Trussell Trust, a hugely important charity I've a history with, I decided to give it a go, and do it with gusto.\"\n\nMark said he had approached the money-saving expert because \"he knows more than most how to help people in this country\".\n\nHe added that Lewis \"has got more raw sex appeal than Ed Sheeran and more legendary status than Elton John\".\n\nThe full cast of guest stars has yet to be revealed\n\nThe charity says the cost of living crisis has placed increased pressure on food banks around the UK.\n\nMore emergency food parcels were given out between April and September than ever before - 1.3 million in total, an increase of 52% compared with the same period in 2019.\n\nOne in five people referred to the charity's food banks are in working households, it added.", "Passport control staff at airports including Cardiff are due to strike over the Christmas period\n\nDrafting in the Army to airports during industrial action over the Christmas period would be \"completely wrong\", a union head has said.\n\nPassport check staff at five airports will take action later this month.\n\nMark Serwotka of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said it would be a mistake for the UK government to bring in the military.\n\nThe Welsh government, Cardiff Airport's owner, said it \"strongly urges\" Downing Street to negotiate with unions.\n\nThe PCS has warned that airport strikes could continue into the new year if the UK government fails to \"come to the table\".\n\nMr Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS union, told BBC Radio Wales Sunday Supplement: \"I would say in a nation where there is a history of the Army being brought in, it would be completely wrong for anyone to think that the way to solve an industrial dispute is to ask our armed forces to effectively come in and strike break\".\n\nHe grew up in south Wales, where controversy remains more than a century later about the decision of then Home Secretary Winston Churchill to send in troops to the Rhondda town of Tonypandy to tackle riots by striking miners.\n\n\"That's not the way you solve these problems, you solve it around the negotiating table,\" said Mr Serwotka.\n\n\"I have confidence that [First Minister] Mark Drakeford would hopefully be urging [Home Secretary] Suella Braverman and people in Westminster to get around the table and solve this dispute.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has vowed to take action against \"unreasonable\" striking groups.\n\nThe Border Force strikes will take place over eight days - between 23 December and New Year's Eve - at London Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff airports.\n\nThe dispute is over pay, and the union says the action will escalate if the UK government does not enter talks.\n\nMr Serwotka said: \"Escalation is likely to involve passports, the DVLA in Swansea, job centres, people working in Whitehall departments in devolved institutions, the heart of government that touches people from cradle to grave.\n\n\"There's no point going on strike if no-one notices. Any anger should not be directed at staff, it should be directed at the UK government.\"\n\nSpeaking about the planned use of the Army to fill gaps where staff are striking, Mr Serwotka added: \"The fact they have started bringing in the Army, in uniform, to stand in our airports over Christmas without adequate training, as a knee-jerk response to try to undermine the strike, I think shows this is a government totally mishandling the situation.\n\n\"If they're using the Army in our airports and to drive our ambulances, what's next? Will the Army be driving trains and teaching and standing in wards? Of course they can't.\"\n\nMark Serwotka of PCS says the government needs to be looking at the wider problem, rather than quick fixes such as drafting in the Army\n\nHe said that the government \"should not try short-term fixes\" but instead focus on tackling the \"real crisis\" of work poverty by getting \"round the negotiating table\".\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"The UK government is responsible for borders and immigration policy and we strongly urge it to negotiate with the PCS to resolve this dispute.\n\n\"We would urge people to check before they travel.\"\n\nThe PCS is one of a number of union groups striking over the Christmas period - with rail staff, postal workers, ambulance drivers and nurses among others taking a stand over pay and working conditions.\n\nSpeaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he is working on \"new tough laws\" to protect people from strike action.\n\n\"If union leaders continue to be unreasonable, then it is my duty to take action to protect the lives and livelihoods of the British public,\" he said.", "Eva Kaili has been suspended from the European Parliament's centre-left Socialists and Democrats bloc\n\nEuropean Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili has been arrested in an investigation into suspected bribery by a Gulf state.\n\nBelgian prosecutors believe the unnamed country tried to influence the parliament with money or other gifts.\n\nFour others were also arrested, according to the AFP news agency.\n\nLocal media suggested the Gulf state in question was Qatar - but a Qatari spokesperson said he was unaware of any investigation, and denied misconduct.\n\nMs Kaili, a lawmaker at the European Parliament and one of its 14 elected vice presidents, has been suspended from the parliament's Socialists and Democrats Group and expelled from the Greek centre-left Pasok party.\n\nIn a statement, the Socialists and Democrats Group said it had \"zero tolerance\" for corruption, and would support the investigation.\n\nCash worth about €600,000 ($632,000; £515,000) was seized by Belgian police in 16 searches in Brussels on Friday. Computers and mobile phones were also taken by police in order to examine their contents.\n\nInvestigators had suspected that a Gulf state had been influencing economic and political decisions of the parliament for several months, a spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor said in a statement.\n\nThe state was accused of targeting aides at the parliament.\n\n\"This is done so by paying large sums of money or offering large gifts to third parties with a significant political and/or strategic position within the European Parliament,\" the statement said.\n\nThe wider investigation is into criminal organisation, corruption, and money laundering.\n\nBelgian news outlets Knack and Le Soir named the Gulf state as Qatar based on information from \"well-informed sources\". The BBC has not verified these claims.\n\nA Qatari government spokesperson told AFP: \"We are not aware of any details of an investigation. Any claims of misconduct by the State of Qatar are gravely misinformed.\"\n\nThe country \"operates in full compliance with international laws and regulations\", he added.\n\nA spokesperson for the European Parliament told Reuters that it would not comment on an ongoing investigation, but would work together with the local authorities if needed.\n\nThe day of the arrests, 9 December, was international anti-corruption day, designated by the UN and also marked by the European Parliament.\n\nCorruption costs the EU economy between €179bn and €990bn a year, representing up to 6% of EU GDP in lost tax revenue and investment, according to a 2016 estimate cited in a document published by the European Parliament to mark the day.\n\nQatar has repeatedly been accused of corruption, including in its bid to host the 2022 football World Cup. The country denied the allegations and was cleared of corruption by Fifa.", "A teenage girl's incurable cancer has been cleared from her body in the first use of a revolutionary new type of medicine.\n\nAll other treatments for Alyssa's leukaemia had failed.\n\nSo doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital used \"base editing\" to perform a feat of biological engineering to build her a new living drug.\n\nSix months later the cancer is undetectable, but Alyssa is still being monitored in case it comes back.\n\nAlyssa, who is 13 and from Leicester, was diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in May last year.\n\nT-cells are supposed to be the body's guardians - seeking out and destroying threats - but for Alyssa they had become the danger and were growing out of control.\n\nHer cancer was aggressive. Chemotherapy, and then a bone-marrow transplant, were unable to rid it from her body.\n\nWithout the experimental medicine, the only option left would have been merely to make Alyssa as comfortable as possible.\n\n\"Eventually I would have passed away,\" said Alyssa. Her mum, Kiona, said this time last year she had been dreading Christmas, \"thinking this is our last with her\". And then she \"just cried\" through her daughter's 13th birthday in January.\n\nAlyssa decided to donate her hair when she found out she would lose it anyway\n\nWhat happened next would have been unthinkable just a few years ago and has been made possible by incredible advances in genetics.\n\nThe team at Great Ormond Street used a technology called base editing, which was invented only six years ago.\n\nBases are the language of life. The four types of base - adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T) - are the building blocks of our genetic code. Just as letters in the alphabet spell out words that carry meaning, the billions of bases in our DNA spell out the instruction manual for our body.\n\nBase editing allows scientists to zoom to a precise part of the genetic code and then alter the molecular structure of just one base, converting it into another and changing the genetic instructions.\n\nThe large team of doctors and scientists used this tool to engineer a new type of T-cell that was capable of hunting down and killing Alyssa's cancerous T-cells.\n\nThey started with healthy T-cells that came from a donor and set about modifying them.\n\nThe final stage of genetic modification instructed the T-cells to go hunting for anything with the CD7 marking on it so that it would destroy every T-cell in her body - including the cancerous ones. That's why this marking has to be removed from the therapy - otherwise it would just destroy itself.\n\nIf the therapy works, Alyssa's immune system - including T-cells - will be rebuilt with the second bone-marrow transplant.\n\nWhen the idea was explained to the family, mum Kiona was left thinking: \"You can do that?\" It was Alyssa's decision to be the first to take the experimental therapy - which contained millions of the modified cells - in May this year.\n\nJan Chu, senior research nurse at Great Ormond Street, gives Alyssa the therapy in May 2022.\n\n\"She's the first patient to be treated with this technology,\" said Prof Waseem Qasim, from UCL and Great Ormond Street.\n\nHe said this genetic manipulation was a \"very fast-moving area of science\" with \"enormous potential\" across a range of diseases.\n\nAlyssa was left vulnerable to infection, as the designer cells attacked both the cancerous T-cells in her body and those that protect her from disease.\n\nAfter a month, Alyssa was in remission and was given a second bone-marrow transplant to regrow her immune system.\n\nAlyssa spent 16 weeks in hospital and couldn't see her brother, who was still going to school, in case he brought germs in.\n\nThere were worries after the three-month check-up found signs of the cancer again. But her two most recent investigations have been clear.\n\n\"You just learn to appreciate every little thing. I'm just so grateful that I'm here now,\" said Alyssa.\n\n\"It's crazy. It's just amazing I've been able to have this opportunity, I'm very thankful for it and it's going to help other children, as well, in the future.\"\n\nShe's eyeing-up Christmas, being a bridesmaid at her auntie's wedding, getting back on her bike, going back to school and \"just doing normal people stuff\".\n\nThe family hope the cancer will never return, but are already grateful for the time it has bought them.\n\n\"To have this extra year, this last three months when she's been home, has been a gift in itself,\" said Kiona.\n\nDad James said: \"I find it quite hard to talk about how proud we are. When you see what she's gone through and her vitality of life she's brought to every situation, it's outstanding.\"\n\nProf Waseem Qasim was part of the team that developed the base-editing therapy\n\nMost children with a leukaemia respond to the main treatments, but it is thought that up to a dozen a year could benefit from this therapy.\n\nAlyssa is just the first of 10 people to be given the drug as part of a clinical trial.\n\nDr Robert Chiesa, from the bone-marrow transplant department at Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: \"It is extremely exciting. Obviously, this is a new field in medicine and it's fascinating that we can redirect the immune system to fight cancer.\"\n\nThe technology, though, only scratches the surface of what base editing could achieve.\n\nDr David Liu, one of the inventors of base editing at the Broad Institute, told me it was \"a bit surreal\" that people were being treated just six years after the technology was invented.\n\nIn Alyssa's therapy, each of the base edits involved breaking a section of genetic code so it no longer worked. But there are more nuanced applications where instead of switching an instruction off you can fix a defective one. Sickle-cell anaemia, for example, is caused by just one base change that could be corrected.\n\nSo there are already trials of base editing under way in sickle-cell disease, as well as high cholesterol that runs in families and the blood disorder beta-thalassemia.\n\nDr Liu said the \"therapeutic applications of base editing are just beginning\" and it was \"humbling to be part of this era of therapeutic human gene editing\", as science was now taking \"key steps towards taking control of our genomes\".", "Jo-Anne Shaw's dreams came true when she got the chance to video call the star\n\nA woman who said her last wish was to meet Tom Hardy was rewarded with a video call from her hero after a social media appeal.\n\nSuperfan Jo-Anne Shaw, who is receiving end-of-life care at Myton Hospice in Warwick, told staff that was the one thing she dreamed of.\n\nThey put an appeal on social media and the actor responded on Instagram saying: \"Be my pleasure.\"\n\nHe video-called her on Friday and Mrs Shaw said: \"He has made my day.\"\n\n\"He put me on a pedestal for a day and that's all I can ask for,\" the 58-year-old told BBC CWR.\n\nThe mum-of-two, who has cancer, is such a huge fan of the Peaky Blinders star that her friend even sent her a life-sized cardboard cut-out of the actor as gift instead of flowers.\n\nThe star responded to the hospice's post on Instagram after being tagged a number of times\n\nHospice staff took to Facebook to help make her dream come true and within hours, the post amassed nearly 3,000 shares and hundreds of comments.\n\nThe grandmother-of-three said: \"I'm so excited, he spoke to me as if he's a friend.\n\n\"I'm such a big fan of his, I've watched all his movies and boxsets especially during lockdown. I love him to bits.\"\n\nThe star told Ms Shaw she was a \"very popular lady\".\n\nShe added: \"I haven't been very well for a while now, but he put me on a pedestal for a day and that's all I can ask for.\"\n\nThe gifted cardboard cut-out of the actor sits next to Warwick Myton Hospice's Christmas tree\n\nA spokesperson for the hospice posted on Facebook: \"We've been blown away by Tom's kindness and support.\n\n\"Jo-Anne and her family cannot thank you enough for making this happen,\" they told followers.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage from the scene of the explosion shows a large fire\n\nEmergency workers have been searching through the night after an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey left three people dead and a dozen missing.\n\nSpecialist teams and a search dog are on the scene, following the collapse in St Helier on Saturday morning.\n\nThe Jersey government says a \"meticulous\" multi-agency search effort is being co-ordinated.\n\nIsland police chief officer Robin Smith described the scene at Pier Road as \"complete devastation\".\n\nA video, tweeted by the island's government, shows piles of rubble and a crushed car behind the police cordon.\n\nChief Minister Kristina Moore described it as an \"unimaginable tragedy\".\n\nThe Jersey government said the search effort involved a \"number of stages, including vacating the site for short periods to allow dogs to enter, and the careful movement of debris\".\n\nChief fire officer Paul Brown earlier told a press conference: \"The plan is we will continue searching. Teams will be working all night and they will not stop.\"\n\nHe added: \"The primary challenge is the fact that we have a dangerous structure that has collapsed.\n\n\"Anything that we do, or do in the wrong way, may then jeopardise the chance of survival of anyone who might be rescued.\"\n\nTwo people who were in hospital earlier have been released and one other person is receiving treatment.\n\nThe blast happened at about 04:00 GMT on Saturday.\n\nPolice chief Mr Smith said \"there are a number of working hypotheses\" as to what had happened but warned people \"not to speculate\".\n\nHe added: \"Thankfully these circumstances are very rare but nevertheless they are of deep concern to communities.\"\n\nThe flats at Haut De Mont are shown as they appear following the explosion and as they were prior to the blast\n\nWitnesses have spoken of the ground being shaken by the force of the explosion.\n\nDaniel Hunt, 19, from St Helier, tweeted pictures of the fire from his flat.\n\n\"Everything shook, my windows were shaking, the whole room shook,\" he said. \"You could feel the shockwave through your bedroom almost. In the moment you think, what was that?\"\n\nThe government has repurposed its Covid helpline for those who need support following the incident.\n\nJersey's gas supplier, Island Energy, said it was working with the fire service to understand what had happened.\n\nIt was earlier confirmed the fire service had attended the scene on Friday night after the smell of gas was reported.\n\nThe chief fire officer was asked if the call on Friday had had anything to do with the cause of the explosion.\n\nMr Brown said: \"I will give you an answer to that but what I'd like to do for the moment is focus on the emergency response, talk to my colleagues and consider those bits that are subject to investigation and make sure I don't tell you something that I need to tell someone else first.\"\n\nThe three-storey building which collapsed is owned by Andium Homes which is a state-owned but independent company that rents out properties.\n\nIt said it was focusing on supporting residents at the estate.\n\nEmergency services continued to search through the night\n\nThe Government of Jersey said specialist teams from the UK had arrived to support local crews in the search for survivors.\n\nThe South West Hazardous Area Response Team has arrived on the island, alongside an Urban Search and Rescue Team from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service.\n\nA Chinook helicopter, typically used for military operations, was due to bring specialist equipment to the island, the government said.\n\nThe Town Church opened for islanders to light candles and pay their respects\n\nMs Moore said residents displaced by the blast were being found somewhere to stay.\n\n\"This is going to take some days and we will keep everyone updated and fully informed, and we will do our very best to ensure everybody is properly looked after,\" she added.\n\nThe Town Church opened on Saturday evening for islanders to light candles and pay respects to those who had died.\n\nJustice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab tweeted he was \"deeply saddened\" by the news.\n\n\"I commend the work of the emergency services responding and we stand ready to support in any way we can,\" he said.\n\nThe incident comes days after three fishermen were reported missing following a collision at sea on Thursday.\n\nMs Moore said: \"We must call on the collective strength of the island community.\"\n\nDo you live in the area? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Royal College of Nursing leader Pat Cullen says \"my door is open\"\n\nA nurses' strike due to start this week could be called off if the health secretary negotiates \"seriously\" over pay, says the head of the Royal College of Nursing.\n\n\"I won't dig in if he doesn't,\" general secretary Pat Cullen told BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.\n\nForeign Secretary James Cleverly said NHS pay was a matter for non-political independent review bodies.\n\nWalkouts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due on 15 and 20 December.\n\nThe RCN union is calling for nurses to be given a pay rise of 5% above the RPI inflation rate, which was 14.2% in October.\n\nThe government has previously announced average pay increases of 4.5% for doctors and 4.75% for other NHS staff - including nurses - in England next year.\n\nMinisters agreed to these after a recommendation by the independent pay review bodies that make suggestions about NHS pay rises.\n\nMs Cullen urged the health secretary to hold talks with her on a one-to-one basis or negotiate through Acas, the independent organisation which mediates disputes between employers and workers as early as Monday morning.\n\nShe said the union would not be \"found wanting\" in the negotiations but she said its position had not changed.\n\nAsked if the union could accept a lower pay rise, Ms Cullen said: \"Come to the table and let's have the discussion.\"\n\nShe said her priority was making sure nurses could \"make ends meet\", adding: \"It's not about lining their pockets with gold.\"\n\nMr Cleverly said Health Secretary Steve Barclay had already met with union officials, but added: \"Ultimately, salary negotiations are done between union leaders on behalf of their members and their employer. And in this instance, the nurses' employer is the NHS.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. James Cleverly: \"Negotiations are done between union leaders... and their (members') employer\"\n\nNHS England's medical director Prof Stephen Powis said pay was a matter for the independent review body and the government.\n\nHe said emergency services and key treatments like kidney dialysis and chemotherapy would continue during the walkouts, but that services would be disrupted.\n\nUnder trade union laws, life-preserving care has to be provided during strike action.\n\nProf Powis said there was \"trouble brewing this winter\" for the NHS, with an increase in people arriving at A&E and a rising number hospital patients with flu.\n\nBoth Mr Cleverly and Prof Powis said the NHS was prepared for the strike and wanted to minimise any disruption.\n\nThe Scottish government increased its offer to nurses and other health workers to a minimum increase of £2,205 with more for some staff - that was equivalent to an average 7.5% increase.\n\nTalks with unions are ongoing and the public service workers' union Unison has recommended the offer to members in Scotland.\n\nChristina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, said that if Mr Barclay was to mirror Holyrood's approach and commit to boosting wages this year, \"the threat of pre-Christmas strikes could well be lifted\".\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care said the government accepted the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body in full, meaning newly qualified nurses had a 5.5% increase while those on the lowest salaries, such as porters and cleaners, received a pay rise of up to 9.3%.\n\n\"Ministers have had constructive talks with unions, including the RCN and Unison, on how we can make the NHS a better place to work - and have been clear the door remains open for further talks,\" a spokesperson for the department added.\n\nHas your treatment been affected by the strike? Do you work in a Trust that's striking? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Four children were taken to hospital in critical condition after being rescued from an icy lake near Birmingham.\n\nThey are believed to have fallen into the water after playing on ice in Babbs Mill Park, Kingshurst. They were taken to two hospitals in Birmingham.\n\nWest Midlands Ambulance Service said the children had been in cardiac arrest when they were rescued, but offered no further update on their condition.\n\nThe Met Office has warned of the risks of ice as the UK faces a cold spell.\n\nDuring a news conference on Sunday evening, West Midlands fire chief Richard Stanton said crews were told on arrival that up to six people had been in the lake.\n\nHe said: \"We have continued search operations in order to confirm whether there were any more in the water.\"\n\nBut he later clarified that \"this would no longer be a search and rescue operation\", citing the coldness of the water, the age of those who had entered, and the time they may have been in there.\n\nThe ambulance service said during the news conference that its resources had been stood down.\n\nSupt Richard Harris, of West Midlands Police, added that his officers would \"hold the scene tonight\", but he could not confirm they were looking for anyone else at this stage.\n\nHe said one officer had suffered \"mild hypothermia\" during the rescue operation, but was making a recovery after being taken to hospital \"as a precaution\".\n\nAll three emergency services said they were called shortly after 14:30 GMT on Sunday, with the first ambulance arriving within seven minutes after it was called.\n\nBy the time firefighters arrived, both police office officers and members of the public were involved in rescue attempts, Mr Harris said.\n\nTemperatures of 1C (34F) were reported in the area at the time. They are expected to plummet to -3C overnight.\n\nThe UK is expected to continue experiencing a cold spell - with snow, ice and freezing fog expected for days, according to forecasts.\n\nTemperatures could drop as low as -15C in northeast Scotland overnight, which would be the lowest temperature recorded in the UK since February last year.\n\nThe four children received immediate treatment on site, said Cameron McVittie, a tactical commander with the West Midlands Ambulance Service.\n\nThey were then taken under blue lights to hospital, each with an advanced care team, Mr McVittie said - two going to Birmingham Children's Hospital and two to Heartlands Hospital.\n\nHe added: \"There are no updates. They were all in critical condition when they arrived in hospital.\"\n\nThe officials declined to provide any further information about the children involved in the incident.\n\nConcerned members of the community had gathered near the scene in a residential area, as emergency services worked at the lake.\n\nA drone was also spotted flying over the water.\n\nBabbs Mill Park is a local nature reserve with a lake, river, wildflower grasslands and woodlands.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nWest Midlands Mayor Andy Street tweeted to say it had been a \"deeply concerning incident\", adding: \"I know we'll all be praying for the children to pull through\".\n\nThe Met Office warned of the dangers posed by ice during the UK's cold spell.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"With temperatures set to struggle to get much above freezing over the coming days across much of the country, stretches of water such as rivers and ponds are at risk of freezing.\n\n\"While frozen rivers and ponds can be fascinating, they can be dangerous and a hazard to life.\"\n\nDo you live in the area? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Actress Ruth Madoc, who starred in the BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi!, has died aged 79, her agent says.\n\nHer agent said she died in hospital on Friday afternoon after surgery for a fall she had earlier in the week.\n\nPhil Belfield of talent agency Belfield & Ward Ltd described her as a \"unique talent loved by many\".\n\nHe paid tribute to her \"iconic\" TV performance as Gladys Pugh in the 1980s comedy Hi-de-Hi!, about a holiday camp in the late 50s.\n\n\"It is with much sadness that we have to announce the death of our dear and much loved client Ruth Madoc,\" he said in a statement.\n\nDescribing her as a \"real legend of the British entertainment scene\", Mr Belfield said she was \"gone far too soon\".\n\nHer fall forced her to withdraw from performing in the pantomime Aladdin at the Princess Theatre in Torquay, Devon.\n\nScreenwriter Russell T Davies described her as \"funny, kind, salty, shrewd and beautifully uncynical\" in a tribute on Instagram.\n\nThe Doctor Who writer and It's A Sin creator said she was \"one of those great old troupers who loved the business, loved the stories, loved acting and actors\".\n\n\"She starred as Myrtle in a series I wrote called Mine All Mine, and she was an absolute delight.\"\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by russelltdavies63 This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nActor and broadcaster Sir Tony Robinson tweeted that he was \"so sad to hear my lovely friend… has passed\".\n\nHe described Madoc as \"smart, kindly, a loyal trade unionist and wore her heart on the left\".\n\nRuth Madoc and Simon Cadell, pictured here around 1982, both starred in Hi-de-Hi!\n\nHer role as chief yellowcoat Gladys Pugh in Hi-de-Hi! centred on her unrequited love for the camp's manager Jeffrey Fairbrother, played by Simon Cadell.\n\nPaying tribute to her, broadcaster Gyles Brandreth said it was through Cadell that he got to know Madoc.\n\n\"Ruth was a very lovely person - and a wonderfully gifted actress,\" Brandreth said.\n\nBorn in April 1943 and raised in Llansamlet near Swansea, Madoc trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.\n\nHer career spanned many roles in theatre and musicals, including Fiddler On The Roof and Gypsy.\n\nHer more recent performances included Little Britain, where she played Daffyd Thomas's mother, and on stage with Calendar Girls.\n\nIn a tweet, the former Little Britain star and comedian Matt Lucas said he was \"shocked and saddened\" to hear the news.\n\n\"We grew up watching her iconic and genius performance as Gladys Pugh in Hi-de-Hi! and were thrilled when she agreed to come on board 'Little Britain',\" he added.\n\nHe said Madoc was \"brilliant\" in the show and \"an absolute delight to work with\".\n\nMadoc is survived by her two children.", "Morocco fans brought traffic to a standstill in Cardiff to celebrate becoming the first African nation to reach a World Cup semi-final.\n\nFlags were waved and blue and red smoke bombs were set off after their football team beat Portugal 1-0 in Saturday's quarter-final in Qatar.\n\nThe supporters sang and chanted to a drum beat on City Road as horns blared.\n\nThe Atlas Lions face France on Wednesday for a chance to face Argentina or Croatia in the final.", "A search and rescue operation is under way after police said a number of people pulled from a lake near Birmingham in freezing temperatures are in a critical condition.\n\nReports suggested people had been playing on the ice at Babbs Mill Park and fell through, according to West Midlands Fire Service.\n\nIt said people had received treatment before being taken to hospital.\n\nSpecialist teams and equipment are involved in the search.\n\nThe fire service said they were called shortly after 14:30 GMT on Sunday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nConcerned members of the community gathered near the scene in what is residential area, as emergency services carried out work at the lake.\n\nA drone was also spotted flying over the water, the BBC's Sophie Madden said, reporting from the scene.\n\nIt was likely that the emergency service presence would remain there for a number of hours, she added.\n\nLocal MP Saqib Bhatti said he was being kept updated on the situation, adding in a tweet: \"My thoughts and prayers are with the whole community and I pray for all those that are affected.\"\n\nBabbs Mill Park is a local nature reserve with a lake, river, wildflower grasslands and woodlands.\n\nTemperatures of 1C (34F) were reported in the area at the time the emergency services were called. They are expected to plummet to -3C during the night.\n\nMeanwhile, police in Cumbria said they were dealing with an \"incident\" at Siddick Pond in Workington. The force later confirmed no-one was unaccounted for.\n\nThe Met Office warned of the dangers posed by ice.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"With temperatures set to struggle to get much above freezing over the coming days across much of the country, stretches of water such as rivers and ponds are at risk of freezing.\n\n\"While frozen rivers and ponds can be fascinating, they can be dangerous and a hazard to life.\"\n\nDo you live in the area? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Steven Burke has secured a flat on the outskirts of Swansea after 20 years of drifting in and out of homelessness\n\n\"I'm literally one of the lucky ones, some people don't make it.\"\n\nSitting in his new flat on the outskirts of Swansea, Steven Burke finally feels settled after 20 years drifting in and out of homelessness.\n\nBut, across Wales, many thousands are still waiting for suitable accommodation.\n\nHomelessness charities have warned of a \"perfect storm\" despite the Welsh government saying it is \"very proud\" of its response to the crisis.\n\n\"There's no words to describe how amazing I feel right now,\" said Steven.\n\nWith support from staff and volunteers at Housing Justice Cymru, the 36-year-old has been able to decorate the flat and he had a new carpet fitted earlier this week.\n\n\"OK, carpet's just carpet for some people but for me it's a luxury,\" he said.\n\nAcross Wales thousands of people are waiting for a similar outcome to Steven - the latest latest Welsh government figures show there were 8,652 people in temporary accommodation at the end of September, with the number increasing since August 2020.\n\nHowever, charities say the true total is closer to 14,000 once refugees, including people fleeing the war in Ukraine, are taken into account.\n\n\"We do have a bit of a perfect storm in Wales at the moment in relation to our housing and homelessness crisis,\" Bonnie Williams, director of Housing Justice Cymru, told the BBC's Politics Wales programme.\n\n\"I would say it's the result of many factors coming together at once - some things which were planned, such as [the Welsh government's] change of policy direction to end homelessness, which is absolutely the right thing to do.\n\n\"However, there were some issues that have come along the way that we didn't expect such as Covid, such as the situation in Afghanistan and, of course, Ukraine.\"\n\nBonnie Williams, director of Housing Justice Cymru says a combination of factors are worsening the situation\n\nThe cost of living crisis also means that \"people who would never have thought they would ever end up experiencing homelessness are\".\n\nThe Welsh government adopted its \"no-one left out\" strategy at the start of the pandemic, whic has the backing of housing charities and organisations.\n\nBut the sector has warned that more suitable accommodation must be built for the strategy to succeed.\n\nThe Welsh government has committed to building 20,000 low-carbon social homes during this Senedd term.\n\nHowever, the minister responsible for the policy, Climate Change Minister Julie James, recently admitted the pledge was \"hanging by a thread\".\n\nMs James said she was \"very proud\" of the response to the homelessness crisis, saying £65m had been invested into the \"transitional accommodation programme\" to provide 1,000 homes in the next 18 months, with the idea being it sets people up to find their own permanent accomodation in future.\n\nIssues around the shortage of suitable accommodation are compounded by pressures on the private rental sector.\n\nLandlords say they are facing increased costs linked to the economic situation and the demands of new legislation, meaning many have said they are looking at leaving the industry or changing their business model.\n\n\"You've got mortgage rates going up so you've got vastly increased monthly outgoings,\" says Steven Blestoe, from the National Residential Landlords Association Wales.\n\n\"You've got new 'fit for human habitation' requirements, but you've got the workmen who are putting their prices up, so you've got this perfect storm where landlords are looking at their investments [and] they're looking at the relatively unregulated short-term holiday lets market.\n\n\"We've found 64% of current landlords are looking to sell at least one of the properties, so forget where we are now, look at where we're going when 64% of our industry are looking to leave.\"", "More children are being placed in temporary accommodation due to a lack of homes\n\nA mother and her newborn baby are among thousands of homeless people placed in temporary accommodation in Wales due to a lack of social housing.\n\nLocal authorities are having to put families in hotels that have no facilities to cook or wash clothes.\n\nCeri, from Gwynedd, spent four months in a hotel with her baby after registering homeless, as the local council had run out of social housing.\n\nThe Welsh government said it was committed to ending homelessness.\n\nResearch by BBC Wales shows the number of people living in temporary accommodation has risen by more than 5,000 in two years.\n\nIn August 2020 there were 3,577 people in Wales living in temporary accommodation, but that figure jumped to 8,545 in August 2022, with 2,515 of them children.\n\nCharity Shelter Cymru said families were \"living in limbo\", while a councillor said the situation was \"beyond a crisis\".\n\nTemporary accommodation is given by local authorities as a last resort to people who have no other housing options.\n\nCeri, who has asked for her surname not to be used to shield her identity, was housed in a hotel without any cooking facilities or a place to wash her clothes for four months as she waited for a home.\n\nShe has now been moved into a holding house as she waits for a permanent home to become available, but said she was left isolated in a rural location 20 miles (32km) away from her support network.\n\nShe has been waiting for 10 months, and said: \"I just want a home in an area that I've chosen, where I can hop 10 minutes on a bus to see friends and family - somewhere I can call home.\"\n\nCeri registered as homeless in January, soon after having her first child, and with nowhere else to go she was housed in a hotel but said she did not expect to be living there for so long.\n\n\"We were in the process of weaning, there was no way to cook - there was just a kettle in the room,\" she explained.\n\n\"We had to go out, eat out for those three meals a day and that costed. Travelling to friends and family to cook tea for the baby, and then the issue of getting him settled - it was just really hard.\"\n\nCeri said there were also booking issues and on more than one occasion she had to be moved to another hotel 25 miles (40km) away as the hotel where she was staying was full.\n\nShe has now been moved to a \"holding house\" in a rural part of Gwynedd, and while she said she was grateful she could now cook at home, she finds the lack of stability difficult.\n\n\"I really want to go back to work but I can't commit to getting a job around here as I could get a call tomorrow saying a house has been found in the area I've asked for which is miles away from here,\" she said.\n\nCeri did not blame the local authority and said she was sympathetic to its struggles.\n\nHer situation is becoming more common across Wales.\n\nWayne, 40, is currently living in a Travelodge in Pembroke Dock due to a shortage of temporary accommodation.\n\nHe arrived in Pembrokeshire from Cumbria in March after his relationship broke down during Covid, and said he spent three months sleeping rough.\n\nWayne initially slept in a tent because Pembrokeshire council does not currently have a night shelter and there is a waiting list for emergency accommodation in the county.\n\n\"It's hard, because you don't know where to turn, you don't know where to go. You don't know what to expect. You don't know who's going to make what decision, it's just a waiting game,\" he said.\n\nLocal authorities are responsible for housing people who present as homeless\n\nA Pembrokeshire council spokesman said it had seen \"a significant increase\" in the numbers of households on the social housing waiting list in the past two years.\n\nIt is currently putting up 161 households in temporary accommodation, including B&Bs and hostels.\n\nThe spokesman added: \"However, due to the reduction of properties in the private rental market, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find affordable and suitable accommodation in this sector.\n\n\"The council has increased its temporary accommodation provision, but unfortunately due to both limited availability and cost it has been difficult to continue to meet the escalating demand for this accommodation.\"\n\nIn Gwynedd, 247 people are living in temporary accommodation\n\nThe council's cabinet member for housing, Craig ab Iago, said he expected the situation to get worse due to a rise in the cost of living, a shortage of housing and the unstable future of Ukrainian refugees.\n\n\"This isn't right, it's immoral. We are the sixth richest country in the world,\" he said.\n\n\"We're talking about millions of pounds more in housing people just in B&Bs... it's immoral... this is people's lives.\"\n\nLocal authorities are responsible for housing people who present as homeless, but Mr ab Iago admits it puts massive financial strain on the council's budget.\n\nHe called on the Welsh government to ramp up home-building efforts.\n\nHe described Ceri's situation as \"heart-breaking\", adding: \"We need to see a substantial investment.\n\n\"The word crisis is used often, so often actually I don't think it justifies the scale of the problem.\n\n\"It's beyond a crisis… and local authorities are pulling their hair our not knowing what to do - we need to find a solution or these numbers will just continue to rise.\"\n\nShelter Cymru has also put emphasis on the rise in children in temporary accommodation, saying it has a massive impact on education and mental health.\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"We are committed to ending homelessness and ensuring that any incidences are rare, brief and unrepeated.\n\n\"We do this by ensuring people are quickly supported into a suitable and stable home and, this year, we have provided local authorities with an additional £10m to support with the costs associated with providing temporary accommodation.\n\n\"This is part of the £197m we are investing in homelessness and housing support services.\"", "Hospitals in England have paid out as much as £5,200 for a shift by a doctor through an agency, according to figures obtained by Labour through Freedom of Information requests.\n\nThat is the latest in an intensifying debate over workforce shortages in the NHS in England.\n\nLabour blamed the high agency fees on Conservatives, arguing they had failed to train enough doctors and nurses.\n\nA Conservative spokesperson said \"record numbers\" had been recruited.\n\nThe information on payments for agency workers comes from Freedom of Information requests to NHS trusts in England made by Labour covering the financial year 2021/22.\n\nThe most expensive reported shift was £5,234 - paid by Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust in northern England. This covers the agency fee and other employer costs as well as the money going to the doctor.\n\nThere was a response rate of about 40% of major hospital trusts in England. Labour says one in three of those who responded paid an agency more than £3,000 for a single doctor's shift last year, while three quarters paid more than £2,000.\n\nThe NHS Confederation said the \"staffing crisis\" was so \"desperate\" that NHS trusts were being forced to pay large fees to make sure rotas were \"staffed safely\".\n\nMatthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: \"Trusts are having to breach the caps on how much they pay for agency doctors because of the extremely high levels of demand they are facing for their services.\n\n\"The staffing crisis is so desperate that they either pay these fees or find that their rotas cannot be staffed safely, leading to reduced services for patients. This is particularly true in parts of the country where the NHS can struggle to recruit new staff.\"\n\nLabour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: \"Desperate hospitals are forced to pay rip-off fees to agencies, because the Conservatives have failed to train enough doctors and nurses over the past 12 years.\"\n\nMr Streeting said that, if elected, Labour would train 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses a year, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status - the status which allows UK residents whose permanent homes are abroad not to pay UK tax on overseas income.\n\nA Conservative spokesperson said 4,000 more doctors and 9,000 more nurses had been hired since September 2021.\n\nThey added: \"Labour cannot be trusted to support our NHS - they have no plan to grip inflation, resolve strikes or boost the workforce.\"\n\nIn November, BBC News revealed that spending on agency health workers in England rose by 20% to £3 billion last year.\n\nSome NHS bosses told us how they had to breach government pay cap guidelines to ensure staffing ratios were maintained.\n\nThe cap is set at 55% above what a normal employee would earn. One cancer specialist told BBC News he was offered work for £130 an hour and described the fees available as \"astonishing\".\n\nPreviously reported figures suggest spending also appears to be rising in other parts of the UK.\n\nIn Scotland it has doubled in the past year, while in Wales it has risen by more than 40%. In Northern Ireland, it is four times higher than it was three years ago.\n\nIn response to the latest findings, Miriam Deakin of NHS Providers, representing trusts in England, said: \"Funding is very tight but agency costs will remain part of the picture while staff are in short supply. Trusts are doing all they can to avoid unnecessary costs\".\n\nNHS England is to publish a long-term workforce plan in the spring to present to ministers who will decide how to fund it.\n\nThe medical director of NHS England, Sir Steve Powis, told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that the NHS needed more staff and \"if you ask me personally, when it comes to doctors, we need more medical student places\".", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nI have no doubt at all that Gareth Southgate should stay on as England manager to take us to the 2024 European Championship.\n\nI know he hasn't delivered the trophy we wanted in Qatar, but we have to look at the bigger picture.\n\nNot only about how we have played at this tournament but also the progress we have made during his six years in charge.\n\nWe were a shambles when Southgate took over in 2016 and it had felt like we were going nowhere. We had been a laughing stock under Roy Hodgson at the Euros earlier that year and then had to contend with the embarrassment of Sam Allardyce's exit when it had felt like things could not get any worse.\n\nCompare that with where we are now, after the amazing experiences we have had at three major tournaments with Southgate, and it is probably why losing to France hurts so much.\n\nWe thought we could win this World Cup because of what we've done under him in the past, and also what we had shown at this tournament. We were serious contenders for many reasons and Southgate was behind all of them.\n\nAfter reaching the semi-finals in Russia four years ago and the final of Euro 2020, going out in the quarter-finals might look like a backward step but we are definitely heading in the right direction with him at the helm.\n\nWe are a better team now than we were in either of those two tournaments, even though we haven't gone as far this time - and there is far more to come from these players.\n• None 'England future brighter now than it was in 2018'\n• None 'Brutal - this England exit is even more painful'\n\n'Players appear to like and respect Southgate'\n\nIt will be down to Southgate alone whether he stays or not. No-one at the Football Association will tell him that he has to go, which I think is only right.\n\nNo other England manager has taken a team to more than three major finals since Sir Alf Ramsey [four between 1966 and 1972], and Gareth understandably wants some time to reflect on his future before thinking about another campaign.\n\nBut I really hope he decides to carry on to the next tournament as well, and hopefully he feels he has unfinished business with this exciting young England team.\n\nThey all appear to like him and respect him, and they seem to enjoy playing for him as well because of the environment he has created in his squads.\n\nHe has got the best out of them in Qatar, but they will feel like they could have gone further and I think it helps that their chance to put that right - at the next Euros in Germany - is only 18 months away.\n\nWe start the journey to those finals with our first qualifier against Italy in March, in a repeat of last year's final. We should line up with the core of players who have played so well here, and Gareth is still their leader.\n\nHe has been criticised before now for some of his tactical decisions in big games, but I don't think he could or should have done anything differently in our defeat to France.\n\nMy only disappointment is their winning goal came from a cross, something I mentioned in my last column as being a big part of their game.\n\nI thought France's approach might suit our centre-halves and full-backs, who deal with those sort of deliveries every week, but ultimately that is how the game has been decided, with a wily old fox like Olivier Giroud finding a yard of space in the box.\n• None Your messages to Southgate as he considers future\n\n'When you give everything, you can hold your head up high'\n\nOn the plus side, we went toe to toe with the holders and favourites to win this World Cup, played well and created lots of chances. It just wasn't meant to be.\n\nWe lost, but we gave everything and when that happens you can hold your head up high.\n\nI got a similar feeling after my England team lost to Germany in Euro 96 and then Argentina at the World Cup in France two years later. We also worked so hard and played in pulsating matches which were intense contests that were decided by the finest of margins.\n\nAfter both defeats I came away thinking 'we could have won that' and feeling all the hurt that goes with such a narrow defeat - even though, when I thought about our performance, I was proud and there were reasons to be positive.\n\nSo I know how much this defeat will be hurting the England players right now, especially Harry Kane after his late penalty miss.\n\nI feel for Harry, but that is the life of a top striker. You always have to put yourself forward for such a huge moment. You can't score with every chance you have, but some chances are bigger and mean more than others, so that one will hurt like hell.\n\nIt will probably haunt him for the rest of his life, but there is nothing he can do about that.\n\nThe biggest penalty I ever missed was for Newcastle against Sunderland in 2000 - and I still think about it now.\n• None Anguish for Kane on night he equals England scoring record\n• None World Cup Daily podcast: What next for England and Southgate?\n\nThis World Cup was there for the taking\n\nWe are left with what-ifs, rather than thinking about England winning this World Cup, but I do believe we had a genuine chance when I look at the teams left in the tournament, because it really was there for the taking.\n\nCroatia have only won one game in open play so far and do not have much happening up front. Argentina are not a great team either, although they do have Lionel Messi which is why they have always have a chance.\n\nMorocco, whom England would have faced in the semi-finals, are well organised and dangerous on the counter-attack but I would have backed us to beat them.\n\nInstead, we are going home, but I am sure the younger members of our team can use this experience to help them the next time we reach this stage.\n\nSo many of them had memorable moments to take away from this tournament, but it was Jude Bellingham who stood out for me as our outstanding player.\n\nBellingham is only 19 but, right from the start, his performances were so mature and he showed he is not afraid of anyone or anything.\n\nHe is one of the reasons the future is so exciting for England. This World Cup goes down as a missed opportunity, but we will go into the next Euros as one of the favourites, I am sure of that.\n\nAlan Shearer was speaking to Chris Bevan in Doha, Qatar.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "In all my years covering business, I've never witnessed a collision between workers and employers like this.\n\nThis winter is seeing one of the highest levels of walkouts in recent memory as millions of workers across both the public and private sector are demanding higher pay rises to match the soaring cost of living.\n\nMore than one million working days will be lost to strike action by the end of December, according to projections by the Financial Times. The next three weeks running up to the New Year resemble an advent calendar of disruption as nurses, transport workers, postal workers, baggage handlers and others have scheduled strikes.\n\nThe stoppages are disrupting people's daily lives but also hitting businesses that rely on commuters for most of their sales. The boss of pub chain Fuller's recently told the BBC rail strikes could hit trade in the \"vital\" Christmas period and see customers cancel parties and staff lose out on tips.\n\nThe collision course between workers and employers is not hard to understand. Rates of pay growth in both the public and private sector have been outstripped by the rising cost of living, meaning most workers are getting poorer every day.\n\nThe cost of living is currently rising at its fastest rate in almost 40 years, largely due to the war in Ukraine and the fallout of the pandemic.\n\nEnergy and food prices have shot up, leaving many people struggling to pay their bills.\n\nIn fact, this year has seen the sharpest fall in living standards on record. Public sector workers have been hardest hit with an average annual basic pay rise of 2.2% languishing miles behind inflation, the rate at which prices rise, of 11.1%. Those on lower incomes have felt the impact the most as they spend more of their take-home pay on heating and food, which have seen some of the most eye-watering rises.\n\nPublic sector workers tend to benefit from greater job security and more generous pension arrangements but that may feel like little comfort when paying bills here and now.\n\nPrivate sector employers have also been squeezed as the same rampant inflation pushing up their costs has also emptied the pockets of their customers leaving reduced room to afford staff pay rises.\n\nManpowerGroup, one of the UK's biggest recruiters, told the BBC that the gap between wages and prices was \"putting more and more pressure on households\".\n\nBut when the employer is the government and the staff are in critical public services delivery - as with nurses and ambulance workers - the social and political stakes are high.\n\nThe government has two arguments as to why it can't award inflation-matching pay rises.\n\nThe first is that it would be unaffordable. Government debt as a percentage of national income at 97.5% is already near its highest level since the 1960s and is expected to increase over the next two years as the government is expected to spend more than it receives in tax for the foreseeable future.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay said this week that the cost of offering all public sector workers an inflation-matching pay rise would be £28bn - roughly half the entire defence budget. However, IFS analysis suggests the figure would be closer to £18bn.\n\nAlthough that is still a significant amount of expenditure, the government would expect to recoup about 30% of that in higher tax and National Insurance payments from those higher pay packets.\n\nIt would still push up government borrowing, but the UK has one of the lowest debt burdens in the G7 group of leading global economies, based on data from the International Monetary Fund, so arguably has room to accommodate a bit more spending.\n\nThe government's second argument is that putting more money into people's pockets could keep inflation higher for longer. This would make everyone worse off over time and increase the pressure on the Bank of England to use its powers to dampen price rises by raising interest rates, which affects borrowing costs for consumers, homeowners and businesses.\n\nAll of these many disputes are different and short of offering everyone an inflation-matching (and potentially inflation-stoking) pay rise, there is no simple solution. One worker's frustration at their falling standard of living is another person's frustration at the disruption that looks set to dominate the Christmas headlines.\n\nHow are you and your family affected by the strikes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Nato-led Latvian soldiers in Kosovo inspect a truck blocking the way to the border with Serbia\n\nSerbian President Aleksandar Vučić has met his national security council as tensions rise in Kosovo between the authorities there and ethnic Serbs.\n\nOn Saturday a stun grenade was thrown at EU police in north Kosovo, where Serbs form a majority, and local police exchanged fire with unknown groups.\n\nEthnic Serbs set up road blocks after Kosovan police were deployed in a dispute over car number plates.\n\nSerbia refuses to recognise Kosovo as an independent state.\n\nKosovo, which has an overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority, broke away from Serbia after a war in 1998-99.\n\nNato, which has peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, called on all parties to avoid provocations. The EU has done likewise, warning that it will not tolerate attacks on EU police or criminal acts.\n\nOn Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell repeated his call for de-escalation from both Kosovo and Serbia. \"They have to find a way to end the tendency to fighting in the streets, to creating blockades,\" he said.\n\nThe latest unrest was triggered by the arrest of a Serb former police officer on Saturday.\n\nSpeaking to Reuters news agency after meeting his national security council, Mr Vučić said he wanted to defuse the situation.\n\nKosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the protesters as \"criminal gangs\" and asked the Nato-led peacekeeping Kosovo Force (KFOR) to remove the barricades.\n\nKosovo police said they had come under fire in different locations close to a lake bordering Serbia late on Saturday, with officers returning fire in self-defence.\n\nKosovo deployed police to majority-Serb areas - which do not recognise the Kosovo government in the capital Pristina - at the end of last week. This heightened tensions further, after they were already raised for months over a row about vehicle license plates.\n\nMr Vučić said the use of police violated previous peace agreements. He said he planned to ask Nato peacekeepers for permission to send Serbian police and troops to the area, though acknowledged there was little chance of this being granted.\n\nWhenever tensions rise between Kosovo and Serbia - or between Kosovo's Serb minority and the authorities in Pristina - Nato's KFOR peacekeepers play a crucial role.\n\nThey do not have to do anything in particular. The mere presence of the 4,000 multinational troops has been enough to prevent any serious issues for the best part of two decades.\n\nThe authorities in Belgrade rely on KFOR to guarantee the safety of Kosovo-Serbs. They fear a repeat of the violence in 2004 which resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen Serbs, hundreds more injuries and the displacement of thousands of Serb families.\n\nAt the same time, KFOR's presence also acts as a guarantee that Serbia will not send any of its own forces into Kosovo. Belgrade is aware that engaging with Nato troops would be extremely unwise.\n\nSo while tensions may remain high, any incidents are likely to be isolated. Even so, the EU will be working overtime to bring both sides around the table to reach a long-term solution.\n\nKosovo declared independence in 2008, following the bloody year-long war a decade earlier. Serbia does not recognise it as a sovereign state, however does accept the governing authority under an agreement brokered in 2013 to normalise relations.\n\nOf the 1.8 million people living in Kosovo, 92% are Albanian and 6% are Serbian.\n\nThe police officer arrested on Saturday was one of some 600 ethnic Serbs who resigned from the force in November in protest after authorities in Kosovo said they would require Serbs to swap Serbian licence plates dating to before the war for Kosovan ones.\n\nSome 50,000 people in majority-Serb areas have so far refused to use Kosovo number plates because they do not recognise its independence from Serbia.\n\nA deal brokered by the EU at the end of November saw an uneasy agreement reached between the two sides, with Kosovo dropping plans to fine people who did not swap the plates, and Serbia agreeing to stop issuing registrations with the initials of towns in Kosovo.", "Four people have been charged in an investigation into suspected bribery at the European Parliament by a Gulf state - reportedly Qatar.\n\nGreek MEP and European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili was among those previously arrested in the case.\n\nProsecutors suspect the Gulf state tried to influence parliament decisions with donations of money or gifts.\n\nLocal media have reported that the accused country is Qatar, which the Qatari government has denied.\n\nWatchdogs and opposition MEPs have said it could be one of the biggest corruption scandals the European Parliament has ever seen.\n\nMs Kaili has been suspended from her duties as one of 14 vice-presidents, and from the parliament's Socialists and Democrats Group. She has also been expelled from the Greek centre-left Pasok party.\n\nPresident of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola flew from her native Malta to Brussels on Saturday evening to witness the searching of an MEP's house - as is required by the Belgian constitution.\n\nA spokesman for Ms Metsola said she had \"decided to suspend with immediate effect all powers, duties and tasks that were delegated to Eva Kaili\". The spokesman added that the European Parliament \"stands firmly against corruption\" and is \"fully cooperating\" with investigators.\n\nCash worth about €600,000 ($632,000; £515,000) was seized by Belgian police in 16 searches in Brussels on Friday. Computers and mobile phones were also taken in order to examine their contents.\n\nA total of six people were detained for questioning, two of whom have been released.\n\n\"Four individuals have been arrested by the Brussels investigating judge who is leading the investigation,\" the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.\n\n\"They are charged with participation in a criminal organisation, money laundering and corruption. Two persons have been released by the investigating judge.\"\n\nThe prosecutor said investigators had suspected that a Gulf state had been influencing economic and political decisions of the parliament for several months, especially by targeting aides.\n\nLocal media has named the Gulf state under suspicion as Qatar.\n\nA Qatari government spokesperson told AFP: \"We are not aware of any details of an investigation. Any claims of misconduct by the State of Qatar are gravely misinformed.\"\n\nThe country \"operates in full compliance with international laws and regulations\", he added.\n\nShe has been a defender of Qatar in the past.\n\nIn a speech last month about human rights during the Fifa World Cup in Qatar, she called the country a \"frontrunner in labour rights\", for abolishing kafala, a legal framework used in several Gulf states which human rights organisations compare to modern slavery.\n\n\"The World Cup in Qatar is proof, actually, of how sports diplomacy can achieve a historical transformation of a country with reforms that inspired the Arab world,\" she said.\n\nShe accused some MEPs of bullying and discriminating against Qatar, adding: \"They accuse everyone that talks to them or engages of corruption.\"\n\nQatar has previously been accused of corruption, including in its bid to host the 2022 football World Cup. The country denied the allegations and was cleared of corruption by Fifa.", "Grant Wahl at work in Qatar last month\n\nA prominent football journalist from the United States has died while covering the World Cup in Qatar.\n\nGrant Wahl, 48, collapsed as extra time began in the Argentina-Netherlands game on Friday night.\n\nEarly reports suggest he may have had a heart attack, but this has yet to be officially confirmed.\n\nLast month Mr Wahl was briefly detained by Qatari authorities for trying to enter a stadium wearing a rainbow shirt, in support of LGBT rights.\n\nIn a statement, the US Soccer Federation said it was \"heartbroken\" by the news.\n\n\"Fans of soccer and journalism of the highest quality knew we could always count on Grant to deliver insightful and entertaining stories about our game, and its major protagonists,\" it said.\n\nIn a tweet, Mr Wahl's wife, Céline Gounder, said she was in \"complete shock\", adding that she was \"so thankful\" for the support she had received from friends.\n\nMr Wahl celebrated his 48th birthday on Thursday with friends in Qatar, a day before he collapsed. He wrote on his website on Monday that he had been unwell in the last 10 days and was on a course of antibiotics for suspected bronchitis.\n\n\"My body finally broke down on me,\" he wrote. \"What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort.\n\n\"I didn't have Covid (I test regularly here), but I went into the medical clinic and the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis.\"\n\nFIFA President Gianni Infantino said Mr Wahl's love for football was \"immense\", adding that his reporting would be \"missed by all who follow the global game\".\n\nTributes have poured in from several high-profile UK journalists.\n\nHenry Winter, chief football writer for the Times, told BBC News Mr Wahl's death represented a \"desperate moment\" for the industry and football across the world.\n\n\"Anyone who met Grant was immediately enthused by him,\" he said. \"He was so passionate about the game, passionate about the industry.\n\n\"He promoted soccer in the United States - probably one of the reasons they're going to be such good hosts of [the World Cup] in four years' time is because of his passion, his writing, his almost evangelical zeal to promote the sport in his homeland and to also get behind the men's national team and women's national team.\"\n\nWinter also told the BBC how Mr Wahl had spoken of his plans to run for FIFA President in 2011 - which were ultimately withdrawn.\n\nBBC Sport's Dan Roan tweeted: \"Grant Wahl was a renowned and hugely respected journalist and the flood of tributes is testament to the esteem in which he was held.\"\n\nMajor League Soccer commissioner Don Garber tweeted: \"We are shocked, saddened and heartbroken over the tragic passing of Grant Wahl. He was a kind and caring person whose passion for soccer and dedication to journalism were immeasurable.\"\n\nUS tennis icon Billie Jean King also paid tribute to Mr Wahl, describing him as an \"advocate for the LGBTQ community and a prominent voice for women's soccer\".\n\nA spokesperson for the Qatari body responsible for planning the World Cup, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, said: \"We are deeply saddened by the death of the US journalist Grant Wahl.\n\n\"Grant was known for his enormous love of football and was in Qatar to cover his eighth Fifa World Cup.\n\n\"He fell ill in the Lusail Stadium media tribune, during last night's quarter-final match between Argentina v Netherlands. He received immediate emergency medical treatment on site, which continued as he was transferred by ambulance to Hamad General Hospital.\n\n\"We are in touch with the US Embassy and relevant local authorities to ensure the process of repatriating the body is in accordance with the family's wishes.\"\n\nEarlier this week, Mr Wahl was presented with an award by Brazilian football legend Ronaldo for reporting on eight consecutive World Cups - his first was in the US in 1994.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. John Swinney explains why he is asking higher earners to pay more in tax\n\nEveryone earning more than £43,662 in Scotland will have to pay more income tax next year.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said the higher rate of tax will increase from 41p to 42p in the pound in April, and the top rate from 46p to 47p.\n\nThe tax threshold for the top rate will also be lowered from £150,000 to £125,140.\n\nThis change has already been announced for other parts of the UK by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.\n\nMr Swinney described the increase as an \"extra penny to enable spending on patient care in our National Health Service\".\n\nAnd he said he was asking people to \"pay their fair share\" so they could \"help to create the fairer society in which we all want to live\".\n\nBut the Scottish Conservatives said making higher and middle earners in Scotland pay more more tax than their counterparts elsewhere in the UK risked undermining the country's potential for economic growth.\n\nScottish Labour said the extra money would be used to \"fix some of the damage done by 15 years of SNP cuts and failure\" and predicted that people will not accept rising tax bills \"if all they see is further decline in services\".\n\nMr Swinney had been due to deliver his budget statement at 14:30 - but Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone suspended the session for 30 minutes so she could investigate how details of the tax rises had been revealed by the BBC two hours earlier.\n\nMs Johnstone later allowed Mr Swinney to speak after receiving \"categoric assurance\" from him and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that the information had not been shared by the government.\n\nIncome tax rates in Scotland, as well as several other taxes, are set by the Scottish government rather than at Westminster.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nAbout 500,000 people in Scotland are in the higher rate bracket while a further 33,000 pay the top rate of income tax, according to the government.\n\nThe threshold for the 41p higher rate will remain frozen at £43,663 in Scotland - lower than the £50,271 elsewhere in the UK.\n\nAnd there will be no changes to the rate paid by lower earners, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon previously saying this would be counterproductive in a cost of living crisis.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The presiding officer suspended parliament to investigate how details of the tax rises were given to the BBC in advance of the budget statement\n\nThe changes mean that everyone earning more than that threshold will pay more income tax than they did last year, and more than people earning the same salary elsewhere in the UK.\n\nThe increases are a significant departure from the SNP's manifesto aim not to alter income tax rates for the duration of this parliament.\n\nMr Swinney said that the changes will raise a total of £553m next year when taken alongside changes to other taxes including Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) - the Scottish equivalent of stamp duty.\n\nThe second homes tax part of LBTT will rise from 4% to 6%.\n\nThe deputy first minister also confirmed an extra £550m for local government next year. Local authorities had been asking for much more, but will be given full flexibility to set their own council tax rates.\n\nMr Swinney said councils should \"consider carefully the cost pressures facing the public\" when deciding the rate they will charge people.\n\nThe Scottish Child Payment will remain at the increased level of £25 per child per week, with all other social security benefits under the control of the Scottish government being increased by the rate of inflation in September of 10.1%.\n\nThe chancellor had already confirmed that benefits and pensions paid by the UK government would also rise by that figure.\n\nSpending on health and social care in Scotland will increase by £1bn, Mr Swinney said.\n\nAnd funding of £20m that had been set aside for a referendum on Scottish independence will instead be used to help people at risk of fuel poverty.\n\nThe Supreme Court recently ruled that the Scottish government does not have the power to hold a vote without the formal consent of Westminster.\n\nMeanwhile, the basic rate of business rates, which is also called the poundage, will be frozen at 49.8p. The intermediate property rate, at 51.1p, will be charged on properties with a rateable value of between £51,001 and £100,000. The threshold for the higher property rate will increase from £95,000 to £100,000.\n\nThis is likely to be one of the most memorable budgets in Holyrood's short history.\n\nNot because the statement was delayed after the BBC established some of the key details in advance.\n\nInstead, because of the significant tax changes it contains - with higher and top rates of income tax now two pence above the comparable rates elsewhere in the UK.\n\nThis is a big political choice by the Scottish government which abandons their manifesto intentions not to tinker with tax rates at all before the next election.\n\nThe Conservatives think they're making a mistake that could damage economic recovery while trades unions have welcomed the tax rises albeit they would have liked them to be higher.\n\nMinisters expected this criticism and suspect the political and financial pain would have been much greater if their decisions had gone the other way.\n\nMr Swinney said the budget was being announced against the backdrop of the \"most turbulent economic and financial context most people can remember\".\n\nHe added: \"War is taking place in Europe, leading to the suffering and displacement of millions of Ukrainians. As a result of the conflict, energy and fuel prices are surging. Inflation is now corroding our economy having reached a 40-year high.\n\n\"If these challenges - faced by countries around the globe - were not enough, the UK has added to the turmoil by a disastrous approach to Brexit which has damaged labour supply through the loss of free movement of people and undermined frictionless trade with our nearest markets.\n\n\"All of these difficulties have been compounded by the utterly catastrophic decisions of the UK government in the September mini-budget, which have driven increases in interest rates and saddled the country with much higher debt, undermining the public finances for generations to come.\"\n\nScottish Conservative finance spokesman Liz Smith said Mr Swinney should \"stop blaming the UK government for every single predicament\".\n\nAnd she said she was concerned about the tax differential between Scotland and the rest of the UK, which she fears could make Scotland a less attractive place to work, live and invest.\n\nScottish Labour finance spokesman Daniel Johnson said: \"The fact is that this money is going to have to be used to fix some of the damage done by 15 years of SNP cuts and failure.\n\n\"It is down to John Swinney to show how this money will be used to support our public services, and not to swell the ranks of spin doctors, quangos and apparatchiks.\"\n• None SNP budget may go down in left-leaning history", "A footballer has been cleared of assaulting a fan who invaded the pitch following a Championship play-off match.\n\nNottingham Forest fan George Brinkley said Sheffield United striker Oli McBurnie had stamped on him following the clubs' semi-final game on 17 May.\n\nMr McBurnie denied assaulting the fan and said he had hopped over his alleged victim to protect his injured foot.\n\nHe was cleared of assault by beating on Thursday.\n\nAt Nottingham Magistrates' Court, District Judge Leo Pyle said: \"[From] what I've heard over the last few days, the prosecution hasn't proved their case to the required standard.\n\n\"The phone footage clearly shows that he [Mr McBurnie] pulled his left leg back and over Brinkley's pulled up leg.\"\n\nMr McBurnie had not been playing in the match due to an injury\n\nThe court previously heard a pitch invasion began at Forest's City Ground following the penalty shoot-out that saw the home team qualify for the play-off final at Wembley.\n\nMr McBurnie had not been playing in the match, and was wearing a protective boot on his left leg due to an injury.\n\nThe prosecution showed footage to the court filmed by a home fan, which they alleged showed Mr McBurnie stamping on Mr Brinkley while he was on the floor, with a voice off-screen saying: \"The Sheffield United player has stamped on him.\"\n\nAfter the video footage went viral, the court heard Mr Brinkley made a report to the police in the early hours of 19 May.\n\nHe said he had suffered bruising to his leg but had not taken pictures of any injuries.\n\nThe judge said: \"For someone so wedded to his phone and social media, one has to ask the obvious question: why didn't he photograph these bruises?\"\n\nHe added: \"What this witness describes and what is reality as far as evidence is concerned seems to diverge.\"\n\nThe district judge had been urged by Mr McBurnie's barrister to find that \"a degree of club bias\" was responsible for accounts given by witnesses about the incident.\n\nIn her closing speech Lisa Judge, defending, said the complainant in the case had lied about the incident and shown malice by sending an abusive Instagram message wishing death on Mr McBurnie and his family.\n\nMr McBurnie told the court he was trying to find his balance and stay out of the complainant's way during the incident.\n\nHe said: \"Literally there is no space. There is nowhere else for me to go but to the right-hand side. My left foot is on the floor within his two legs.\n\n\"I was using my arms for balance - it was kind of a hopping motion. It's hard to get your balance with so many people and obstacles in the way.\"\n\nIn a tweet after the hearing, Sheffield United said the club was \"pleased to note today's verdict at Nottingham Magistrates' Court with regards to Oliver McBurnie\".\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nurses are striking in around a quarter of NHS services across England.\n\nStaff will continue to provide \"life-preserving\" and some urgent care but routine surgery and other planned treatment is likely to be disrupted.\n\nYou can see if an organisation is affected in your area using our interactive table below.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. About 35,000 people have signed an online petition calling for greyhound racing to be scrapped in Wales.\n\nGreyhound racing could be banned in Wales after a Senedd committee called for it to be gradually outlawed.\n\nA majority of members on the petitions committee agreed with the 35,000 people who signed a petition calling for it to be banned.\n\nMembers also called for a review into other sports involving animals.\n\nThe Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB) said it was \"disappointed\" while the Welsh government said it would consider the recommendation.\n\nThere is only one greyhound race track remaining in Wales.\n\nVanessa Waddon, the owner of Llanharan-based dog charity Hope Rescue, which launched the petition, said she was delighted.\n\n\"It has lost its social licence to operate. The public agree that greyhounds deserve our protection.\n\n\"They are not collateral damage. We don't want to see dogs injured or dying for sport.\"\n\nThe committee's report said the evidence provided by Valley Greyhounds \"suggests the track is no more dangerous than any other\".\n\nVanessa Waddon, owner of Hope Rescue dog charity, says greyhound racing has \"lost its social licence to operate\"\n\nValley Greyhounds in Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly county, is Wales' last remaining greyhound track and hosts meets once a week.\n\nThe track has applied to Caerphilly council for planning permission to expand its facilities as part of the bid for a licence from the Greyhound Board for Great Britain.\n\nAn initial application for extension to the grandstand and clubhouse was refused last month by the council and a second application is being considered, although no date has been set for a decision.\n\nMalcolm Tams, manager of Valley Greyhounds said he had plans to open a greyhound re-homing centre at his track.\n\nHe said: \"There will be no burden on any rescue centre whatsoever, it will all be dealt with in-house\".\n\nMr Tams said he feared banning greyhound racing would force it underground\n\nMr Tams said that he feared banning greyhound racing would force it underground, into so called \"flip meetings\".\n\nHe added: \"If you ban greyhound racing, people who still want to race greyhounds will hold flip meetings in fields, like they did years ago, and this will drive it underground.\n\n\"Like the whippets do now and lurchers, they don't race on these tracks, they race in fields - there will be more injuries to greyhounds.\"\n\nHope Rescue claims to have rescued almost 200 dogs associated with Valley Greyhounds since 2018, though the track disputes this.\n\nThe charity previously worked alongside Valley Greyhounds, but has since adopted a policy calling for all greyhound racing to be banned.\n\nValley Greyhound Stadium in Ystrad Mynach is Wales' last remaining greyhound racing track\n\nMs Waddon said the industry was fuelling the breeding of excess dogs that would likely require help from charities in later life, adding pressure to an already-stretched sector.\n\n\"Once a dog stops racing, they then need to find a rescue [centre] that can take it in for rehoming,\" she said.\n\nFour of the five members of the committee said they were in favour of a phased ban, with Conservative Member of the Senedd MS Joel James saying he favoured tightening existing regulation instead.\n\nDespite advocating for a ban, the report acknowledged such a move would have a financial impact on the Valleys Greyhounds Stadium and Ystrad Mynach.\n\nIt recommended undertaking a widespread consultation before implementing any changes.\n\nBanning greyhound racing could have a financial impact on the area surrounding Wales' only venue, the report acknowledged\n\nGBGB said: \"We are disappointed that four members of the petitions committee are in favour of a ban on greyhound racing in Wales.\n\n\"As their report makes very clear in its recommendations, however, there are a number of strong alternatives which would allow the sport to continue in a fully regulated environment, thus protecting the welfare of dogs, the jobs and livelihoods of those involved in the sport and the revenue contribution the sport makes to the economy.\"\n\nThe report added that greyhound racing was \"not the only sport where animals race for the entertainment of humans\" and that all such sports should be looked at.\n\nThe GBGB said the recommendation was a warning to industries like horse racing, fishing and pigeon racing and their sport was \"the thin end of the wedge\".\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"Our ambition is for all animals in Wales to have a good quality life.\n\n\"We recognised there are concerns relating to the welfare of racing greyhounds and we will give careful consideration to the committee's recommendations.\"", "Nurses at some NHS Trusts are due to strike on two days in December\n\nWith nurses set to go on strike on two days in December, not all who support the action are able to take part.\n\n\"It's not a political choice, it's a financial one,\" says Lizzie*.\n\nShe wishes she could join her colleagues on the picket lines but says union membership fees mean she can't afford it.\n\nAnd even if she could, Lizzie says, losing two days' pay during the biggest walkout in NHS history would cause her real problems.\n\n\"My team know that I would have voted yes and I'm supportive of my colleagues,\" says Lizzie.\n\n\"I'm not in a union because I can't afford it.\"\n\nNevertheless, many nurses around England, Wales and Northern Ireland will go on strike.\n\nWhether they walk out or not will depend on who they work for.\n\nSo, in some cases, even if you wanted to strike you wouldn't be able to if most of the colleagues in your trust voted not to.\n\nThe dispute centres on nurses' pay, working conditions and patient safety\n\nIt costs £16.40 a month to join nurses' union the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), although it's cheaper for students and newly registered nurses.\n\nThe union says the fees entitle members to benefits including confidential advice and support as well as workplace representation.\n\nStriking workers aren't paid for days on the picket line and Lizzie, from Hampshire, says union membership fees are also out of her reach.\n\nAll workers can take part in legal, official strike action, even if they're not in a union, and still have the same rights as their unionised colleagues.\n\nLizzie, 34, is a single mum of two and says she takes home about £1,800 a month and relies on Universal Credit to top up her wages.\n\nShe spends more than half her income on rent and says she can't justify union fees once she's paid for things like childcare and her car.\n\n\"Once everything's paid, I haven't got enough to live off,\" Lizzie says. \"So at the end of the day, being in a union is the least of my priorities.\"\n\nThe RCN announced strikes on 15 and 20 December in its pay dispute with the government. Emergency care will continue but routine services will be hit.\n\nIt wants a 19% pay rise for nurses, however the government has said that is \"unaffordable\" and it has met independent recommendations on nurses' pay.\n\nJade Adam is unable to strike after her Trust did not support action\n\n\"I know it's going to be really difficult to be working both of those days knowing that I should be out there with everyone else taking a stand,\" says 24-year-old nurse Jade Adam.\n\nShe works for the East London Foundation Trust, where the threshold for strike action was not met and so she won't be able to walk out.\n\n\"I was absolutely gutted,\" she says.\n\n\"I'm working on both of the strike days so I can't go and support my colleagues who are on the picket lines.\"\n\nJade is a mental health nurse and now works in police custody. Even though she's still early in her career, she voted for strike action over her concerns about understaffing and pay.\n\n\"Nursing is not an attractive profession anymore,\" she says.\n\n\"I voted to strike because it needs to change or the NHS is just going to crumble and I can't just kind of stand back and watch that happen.\"\n\nAlthough she can't join the picket line, Jade is doing her best to support her striking colleagues in any way she can.\n\n\"If you can strike, do it, take a stand for the rest of us that can't,\" she says.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch this video quiz to test your knowledge of nurses' pay\n\nAlex*, is unable to strike next month at the hospital in London where she works due to her shift pattern.\n\nShe resents the missed opportunity to withdraw her labour because she will be on a day off anyway.\n\n\"It feels like less of a message has been sent,\" the 22-year-old says. \"I think it would be more effective if I was on shift.\"\n\nShe's an RCN member and as a newly qualified nurse she pays a bit less for her membership.\n\nShe voted yes to strike action, despite only being a few months into the job, and still plans to support her colleagues who will be walking out.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nLike Jade, Alex trained during the pandemic and describes challenging situations and having to pick up extra work while colleagues were off ill or isolating.\n\n\"I didn't want to have to stay in the in the profession if things were not going to change, or if there wasn't the start of change at least,\" she says.\n\nThe RCN says members are entitled to a number of benefits and membership is about more than striking\n\nAlthough there has been criticism of the decision to strike, Lizzie says she's grateful to her colleagues who are \"taking that hit because I can't afford to\".\n\nGoing into work on those days will mean crossing the picket for Lizzie. However, the RCN says staff won't face any criticism for going to work.\n\n\"I'll walk past them and wish I could be striking with them I think,\" she says.\n\n*Names have been changed in this article to protect identities.\n\nClarification 21 December: This article was updated to include that non-union members are able to take part in legal, official industrial action.\n\nIf you're a nurse taking part in the strikes, or a patient who has been affected by them, we'd like to hear from you. Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The injured woman and two children were found by police at a property in Petherton Court, Kettering\n\nA woman and two children have died after they were found with serious injuries in a property, police said.\n\nOfficers were called to flats in Petherton Court, Kettering, at 11:15 GMT where a boy and a girl, believed to be aged six and four, were found.\n\nParamedics attended to the woman but she died at the scene, police said. The two children later died in hospital.\n\nA 52-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody.\n\nNorthamptonshire Police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the case at this moment in time.\n\nSupt Steve Freeman of Northamptonshire Police says justice will be sought for the woman and children who died\n\nSupt Steve Freeman said: \"It is a desperately sad incident and I want to be absolutely clear on our unwavering commitment in establishing what has happened here and in seeking justice for this woman and these young children.\n\n\"We understand that the local community, and indeed many people across the country, will be shocked by this event.\n\n\"There are no words to describe how upsetting this incident is, but I want to reassure the public that we have a team of detectives working on the case, absolutely determined to get justice.\"\n\nDetectives are appealing for anyone with information to come forward\n\nThe officer appealed for witnesses and any information in connection with the deaths.\n\nPost-mortem examinations were expected to take place in the coming days.\n\nOfficers were called to an address at Petherton Court, Kettering on Thursday morning\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Flowers, balloons and messages of love continue to be placed near the scene\n\nThe fourth boy to die after being pulled from an icy lake at the weekend has led to an outpouring of emotion from the community gathering at the scene since his loss.\n\nThe deaths of the three others - aged eight, 10 and 11 - were confirmed at the start of the week following events at Babbs Mill Park in Kingshurst, near Solihull, on Sunday.\n\nBut the fourth, aged six, had been in a critical condition in hospital.\n\nLocals hoping he would pull through have called his death \"simply tragic\".\n\nWest Midlands Police, whose officers had battled to smash ice and save the children, said it could not \"comprehend the enormity of the pain\" the boys' families must feel.\n\nMany residents, with tears in their eyes, left their homes and made their way to the memorial site when news broke of the fourth boy's death.\n\nOn a Christmas card, one wrote to the children: \"You will be forever in my thoughts and prayers\".\n\nAn easel board has been left too for people to write \"messages to heaven\".\n\nThe 10-year-old has been named locally as Jack Johnson, but the identities of the other three boys are yet to be confirmed.\n\nFootballers John McGinn and Tyrone Mings came to pay their respects\n\nPolice said searches at the site had been completed, with cordons lifted on Wednesday evening.\n\nEarlier that day, England footballer Tyrone Mings and his Aston Villa teammate John McGinn went to the scene to lay flowers.\n\nMings said it was a \"personal decision\" to pay their respects and added: \"I think it's impacted the whole city [of Birmingham].\n\n\"Sometimes, as we've seen with other things that have happened across the city, there are things more important than football,\" he added.\n\nThe Kingshurst community was praised at Prime Minister's Questions, as were emergency services staff who responded.\n\nOne police officer who physically punched through the ice to try to rescue the boys has since returned to work where he is being supported by colleagues.\n\n\"That punching of the ice has become symbolic of just how desperate we were to try and get those children safe,\" said Rich Cooke, chair of the West Midlands Police Federation.\n\nA vigil for the boys is due to be held on Saturday. Solihull Moors Football Club has said it will raise money for the families at its next two home fixtures.\n\nSearches of the lake continued until Wednesday evening\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nGrant Wahl died from a ruptured aortic aneurysm while working at the World Cup in Qatar, says his widow.\n\nThe journalist collapsed in a World Cup press box during the Argentina-Netherlands quarter-final on Friday.\n\nThe 48-year-old American had described feeling pressure in his chest in the days leading up to the game.\n\nHis wife Celine Gounder said an autopsy performed by the New York City Medical Examiner's Office concluded there was nothing untoward in his death.\n\n\"Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium,\" she said on Wednesday.\n\nA ruptured aortic aneurysm is when a bulge or swelling in the main artery that carries blood away from your heart tears, stopping blood being pumped around the body.\n\n\"The chest pressure he experienced shortly before his death may have represented the initial symptoms, \" added Gounder, who is herself a doctor.\n\n\"No amount of CPR or shocks would have saved him. His death was unrelated to Covid. His death was unrelated to vaccination status.\n\n\"There was nothing nefarious about his death.\"\n\nGounder thanked the world of sport for the tributes to her late husband.\n\nHis death prompted messages from various leading figures in American sports, including some of the United States team he had been covering in Qatar.\n\n\"While the world knew Grant as a great journalist, we knew him as a man who approached the world with openness and love,\" Gounder added.\n\n\"Grant was an incredibly empathetic, dedicated, and loving husband, brother, uncle, and son who was our greatest team-mate and fan. We will forever cherish the gift of his life; to share his company was our greatest love and source of joy.\"\n\nEarlier in the tournament Wahl said he was stopped from entering the United States' group match against Wales because he was wearing a T-shirt in support of same-sex relationships, which are illegal in Qatar.\n\nHe had also accused Qatari organisers of apathy and indifference over migrant worker deaths around the tournament. The rights and welfare of migrant workers in Qatar have been the focus of international criticism, with differing claims over the number of deaths.\n\nWahl wrote in the earlier part of last week that he had been to a hospital in Qatar and been told it was likely he had bronchitis.\n• None Did he find the real man beneath the tough-guy exterior?", "One family in service accommodation shared photos of mould in their utility room.\n\nDozens of military personnel and their families say they're having to live in damp, mould-infested housing without heating.\n\nSome say they've been waiting days or sometimes weeks for repairs.\n\nOne mother who has a nine-month-old baby told the BBC there was \"black mould everywhere\".\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said it was unacceptable that some military families were not receiving the level of service they deserved.\n\nIt said it was working with its contractors to improve the service.\n\nAs temperatures have dropped, some of the military personnel have turned to social media to highlight the problem - a rare step for members of the armed forces.\n\nIt comes at a time that some military personnel are being asked to step in to cover striking workers, including ambulance staff.\n\nThe BBC has been contacted by families in military accommodation in Sandhurst who have lived without heating for most of the past week.\n\nIn a joint statement, they said: \"We're at breaking point and something has to change. The system is broken.\n\n\"Calls go unanswered, and even if they are picked up, you're told there are no appointments for days.\"\n\nThey added that they were \"scared for our children living in unsafe homes with black mould that has not been dealt with for months.\"\n\nOne family shared photos of their utility room with the BBC.\n\nA family living in Sandhurst shared photos from inside their home.\n\nThe mother of the nine-month-old baby said that \"basic living requirements are not being met, and families are suffering in freezing, damp and sometimes dangerous living conditions\".\n\n\"I say dangerous, because we had a black mould everywhere, and it comes with an awful toxic smell,\" she said.\n\n\"We couldn't use our downstairs loo for months and we were so worried about our baby's lungs,\" she added.\n\nYasmine, who lives in different armed forces accommodation with young children, said there was mould in every room, and shared a photograph of one room with the BBC. \"Just very disappointing and makes you feel sad in your own home,\" she said.\n\nA woman living in different armed forces housing said she had mould in every room\n\nServing soldiers have spoken out in a rare show of public frustration.\n\nCaptain Will Matthews tweeted: \"Tired of living like this. Cupboards unusable due to never ending damp/mould. Drafty windows. No loft insulation, cold house all the time.\"\n\nHe filmed what his family, including young children, have to live with.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Capt Will Matthews RE This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Capt Will Matthews RE\n\nThe garrison commander at Aldershot, a major garrison in south-east England, also criticised the system. In a now deleted tweet, Lt Col Nick Burley said he recently had a meeting with contractors to discuss repairs and \"a litany of failures\".\n\nThe original tweet ended with \"…our people deserve better than this\".\n\nAnother military wife complained that a fellow service family had been without hot water since October.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Wendy Faux FRSA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMilitary accommodation is overseen by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation. Several contracts have been awarded to manage the defence estate - with no one company having overall responsibility for the service delivered.\n\nBetween April 2021 and May 2022, service families made 6,729 complaints about their accommodation. Some believe the system is getting worse.\n\nIn April this year, the Ministry of Defence awarded a national contract worth £144m to a property management provider - Pinnacle Group. It has also awarded four regional contracts.\n\nPinnacle is the main contact point for families living in 49,000 military properties across the country.\n\nThe company says it is not responsible for repairs but fields the calls and schedules the work. Urgent repairs are meant to be dealt within 48 hours.\n\nIt said the Ministry of Defence is responsible for decisions around upgrade works to improve the conditions of the buildings.\n\nTwo other companies - VIVO and Amey - carry out the property maintenance. Pinnacle says it has no contractual relationship with VIVO or Amey.\n\n\"At present there is a high demand for urgent appointments, which the repairs providers are struggling to meet, and our call handlers are unable to appoint a significant minority within the target timeframe of 48 hours as appointments are just not available,\" Pinnacle said in a statement.\n\n\"We are very sorry for the inconvenience this is undoubtedly causing to military families,\" it said.\n\nLabour has accused the government of failing the armed forces at a time when some are being asked to sacrifice their Christmas.\n\nShadow armed forces minister, Luke Pollard, said that \"basic failings with repairs and heating are far too common and aren't getting fixed\".", "Officers from West Midlands Police laid flowers near to the scene where three boys died after falling into an icy lake.\n\nThe children, aged eight, 10 and 11, died after emergency calls to Babbs Mill Park, near Solihull, on Sunday.\n\nThe 10-year-old has been named as Jack Johnson but the identities of the other two boys are yet to be confirmed, as mourners leave tributes near the lake.\n\nAnother boy, six, rescued from the water remains in a critical condition.\n\nThe police visit on Tuesday afternoon followed a similar mark of respect from West Midlands Fire Service on Monday.", "Elon Musk says he is taking legal action against the holder of a Twitter account that tracks his private jet, arguing it put his son at risk.\n\nThe @ElonJet account, which has more than half a million followers, was suspended on Wednesday.\n\nIts owner Jack Sweeney, 20, used publicly available flight-tracking information to tweet every time Mr Musk's jet took off and landed.\n\nMr Musk says legal action is now being taken against Mr Sweeney and others.\n\n\"Last night, car carrying [his son] lil X in LA was followed by crazy stalker (thinking it was me), who later blocked car from moving and climbed onto hood,\" he tweeted.\n\nHe added that any account revealing people's real-time locations will be suspended \"as it is a physical safety violation\".\n\nMr Sweeney denied the incident was related to his account when asked by the BBC.\n\nIt comes after he confirmed on his personal Twitter account on Wednesday that the profile had been suspended.\n\nThat evening, Mr Sweeney's account appeared to have been reactivated. He tweeted: \"Yes I am back!\" Minutes later it was listed again as suspended. His personal account, @JxckSweeney, has also been frozen.\n\nMr Sweeney, a college student in the state of Florida, shared a screenshot with CNN of a message from Twitter saying the social media company had conducted a \"careful review\" and had decided to permanently ban the account for violating Twitter's rules.\n\nThe student is in charge of dozens of other accounts that track the private flights of wealthy Americans, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg.\n\nMany of those accounts - including one tracking aircraft associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and another monitoring celebrity jets - appeared to be suspended on Twitter as well on Wednesday afternoon.\n\nMr Musk had long taken issue with the @ElonJet account, and once reportedly offered Mr Sweeney $5,000 to delete it.\n\nMr Sweeney told US media outlets that Mr Musk ultimately told him it did not feel right to pay to have the account shut down.\n\nAnd a month ago, Mr Musk pledged to keep it running even though it was a \"direct personal safety risk\".\n\nBut Mr Musk tweeted on Wednesday evening: \"Any account doxxing real-time location info of anyone will be suspended, as it is a physical safety violation. This includes posting links to sites with real-time location info.\"\n\nTwitter's Help Center has tweeted an updated media policy that begins: \"You may not publish or post other people's private information without their express authorization and permission.\"\n\nSince taking the helm at Twitter, Mr Musk has made a host of changes to its moderation practices.\n\nHe has restored a handful of previously banned accounts, including former President Donald Trump's profile, which was banned following the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Tesla CEO has also slashed the social media company's staff and has reportedly stopped paying rent for some of Twitter's offices, including the company's San Francisco headquarters, according to the New York Times.\n\nInvestors have questioned whether his recent takeover of Twitter has diverted his attention from his electric car business.\n\nOn Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, he sold another 22 million shares, worth $3.58bn (£2.9bn), in the company.\n\nIt brings the total of Tesla stocks sold by Mr Musk over the past year to almost $40bn.", "A sexual predator branded a \"danger to any woman\" has been jailed for at least 38 years for murdering Zara Aleena as she walked home from a night out.\n\nJordan McSweeney, 29, admitted killing and sexually assaulting the 35-year-old law graduate in Ilford, east London, in a late-night attack in June.\n\nShe was savagely kicked and stamped on by McSweeney, who had followed a number of other women that night.\n\nHis refusal to be in the dock showed \"no spine whatsoever\", the judge said.\n\nJordan McSweeney had only recently been released from prison when he murdered the law graduate\n\nIn a televised sentencing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the Old Bailey that McSweeney - who would not come up from the court's cells - had carried out the attack with \"sickening deliberation\".\n\nZara Aleena was killed walking back from a night home by a sexual predator, only recently released from prison, labelled a \"danger to any woman\".\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)\n\nGiving him a mandatory life sentence, the judge said she did not believe McSweeney's actions on the night of the killing were an \"aberration\". She described him as a \"pugnacious and deeply violent man\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment McSweeney is sentenced for Zara Aleena's murder\n\nMrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said of the attack: \"It was a steep and sudden escalation of violence that had simmered in his life for many years.\"\n\nMcSweeney was also given a four-year term for sexual assault, a sentence that will run concurrently.\n\nThe defendant, from Dagenham in east London, had only recently been released from prison when he carried out the attack.\n\nHe had 28 convictions for 69 crimes, dating back to 2006, ranging from burglary to assaulting the police and including racially motivated offences.\n\nIn 2010, when he was a teenager, McSweeney was convicted over an attack on a young woman he had left with a swollen eye. Eleven years later, he was made the subject of a restraining order that barred him from contacting another female victim.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. McSweeney was caught on CCTV following other women before attacking Ms Aleena\n\nThe Old Bailey heard how Ms Aleena was discovered by a couple on a driveway on Cranbrook Road in the aftermath of the 26 June assault, which began at about 02:15 BST. She was partially naked and struggling to breathe, having sustained 46 separate injuries in the nine-minute beating.\n\nThe 35-year-old received medical treatment for more than an hour on the street before she was taken to the Royal London Hospital. She died later the same morning.\n\nPrior to the killing, McSweeney had been caught on CCTV drunkenly lurching in the street after being ejected from a pub for pestering a female member of staff.\n\nHe went on to follow three women and confronted a fourth before he targeted Ms Aleena.\n\nSpeaking outside the Old Bailey, Ms Aleena's aunt Farah Naz said McSweeney's sentence would protect the public from a man who \"cannot and must not live freely in the world\".\n\nShe added that his \"extreme indifference\" to her niece's life and the law made him a \"very dangerous man\".\n\nMs Naz said: \"Today, like every day, we live with the horror that she faced.\n\n\"We are deeply touched by the kindness we have felt from so many and this is testament to the power of Zara's spirit.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Zara was the light in our family,\" says aunt Farah Naz\n\nThe Old Bailey was shown CCTV footage of the attack - McSweeney's reason for not appearing in court was that he did not \"want to relive\" what happened that night, his defence barrister George Carter-Stephenson KC said.\n\nMs Aleena's family left the courtroom while footage of her final moments was shown.\n\nThe Old Bailey heard how after the fatal assault, McSweeney took away some of Ms Aleena's clothes, keys, phone and purse - possessions he later discarded.\n\nProsecutor Oliver Glasgow KC said McSweeney had \"treated Zara Aleena's belongings with the same appalling disdain with which he had treated her life\", casting them away like \"any other insignificant piece of rubbish\".\n\nMs Aleena's family described her as \"a carefree spirit, with the most caring heart\"\n\nAfter the sentencing hearing, Det Ch Insp Dave Whellams described McSweeney as \"not a sophisticated criminal\".\n\nThe detective, who led the murder investigation, said: \"This was a ferocious and repetitive attack that shocked even experienced murder detectives.\n\n\"He attacked Zara out in the open on a residential street and, other than a clumsy effort to hide a bag containing his belongings, he did not try to cover his tracks.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Awaab Ishak's family had complained about the mould but no action was taken\n\nA government regulator has found \"widespread failings\" at the housing association that rented out a mouldy flat to the family of Awaab Ishak.\n\nThe two-year-old died from a respiratory condition caused by exposure to the mould, a coroner ruled.\n\nThe Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) said Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) had failed to \"treat Awaab Ishak's family with fairness and respect\".\n\nRBH said it was addressing \"failings\" and making changes to its board.\n\nThe housing association said there were \"hard lessons to learn\" and it was working with the regulator to make necessary improvements.\n\nAwaab's family had repeatedly complained about mould in their flat but no action was taken before his death in 2020.\n\nIn November, the family accused the housing provider of being \"racist\" and failing to provide fair treatment to people moving to the UK.\n\nRSH - the government body which monitors social housing providers in England - said it had found \"significant failings in the way RBH deals with damp and mould across the organisation\".\n\nIt downgraded the provider to the second-lowest grading on a four point scale, meaning it had breached standards and was required to take action.\n\nA ventilation issue led to mould developing in the property\n\nThe regulator found the housing group had waited nearly two years after Awaab's death to check for damp and mould in other homes on the estate.\n\nWhen that eventually happened, they found hundreds of tenants living with damp and mould.\n\nRBH had \"failed to act quickly and protect more tenants from potential harm\", the regulator said.\n\nRSH chief executive Fiona MacGregor said: \"Our investigation reveals significant failures in the way RBH manages damp and mould in its homes, resulting in harm to tenants.\n\n\"The tragic death of Awaab Ishak should have led to action to establish wider risks, but RBH failed to respond quickly or effectively. This is unacceptable.\n\n\"RBH needs to address the issues we have found and we will take further action if it fails to do so.\"\n\nHousing Secretary Michael Gove said RBH's failures \"meant that Awaab Ishak needlessly and tragically lost his life\".\n\nHe said he would continue to block government funding for RBH to build new homes until it could prove each of its residents has \"a safe and secure home\".\n\nThe minister added: \"We must honour Awaab's memory, so I am looking at new measures - including legislation - that will go further to deliver urgent action when people complain about damp and mould and make sure the rights of tenants are respected.\"\n\nRBH said it had already made changes to the membership of its board and recruitment for new members, including a new chair, would start in January.\n\nIt also added that staff were now speeding up the complaints system, using new translation tools and improving ventilation on the Freehold Estate where Awaab lived.\n\nMichael Gove said he would \"use every power at my disposal to make sure people have good quality homes\"\n\nA spokesman said: \"There are hard lessons to learn - process must never get in the way of people, tenant voice must always be valued, maintenance and property renewal should be prioritised, tenant safety must always be the first and foremost consideration.\"\n\nThe group previously apologised and said it had set up a specialist task force to deal with damp and mould.\n\nLandlords nationally have been ordered to submit evidence to the RSH by Monday about how they deal with damp and mould, or face \"appropriate action\".\n\nThe latest English Housing Survey shows 3.4 million occupied dwellings failed to meet the Decent Homes Standard and 4% of the occupied dwelling stock had problems with damp in 2021.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "The GMB union has voted to reject an improved NHS pay deal from the Scottish government.\n\nIt said two thirds of its members voted to reject the improved offer, which would have seen workers receive an average 7.5% pay uplift.\n\nThe GMB suspended a planned 26-hour ambulance strike last month and put the new offer to members in a vote.\n\nGMB Scotland has more than 8,000 members employed across the NHS and its associated services, including 1,700 members in the Scottish Ambulance Service.\n\nThe Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) voted to accept the offer on Thursday.\n\nMembers of Unite and Unison also voted to accept the offer earlier this week.\n\nRoyal College of Nursing (RCN) members are currently voting on the offer.\n\nGMB Scotland senior organiser for public service Keir Greenaway said the government's pay offer \"doesn't go far enough\" to help staff struggling with the cost of living crisis, or to improve the understaffing crisis affecting frontline services.\n\nMr Greenaway said the union wanted to get back round the table with Health Secretary Humza Yousaf before Christmas.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf found an extra £35m for the deal\n\nHe said: \"It is important the cabinet secretary takes on board the views of all NHS staff and not just some, because we are talking about frontline workers who understand first-hand the crisis across service delivery and patient care, and they have clear and credible views on how these services can be recovered in the months and years ahead.\n\n\"The fact remains that GMB members in major services and health board areas have strong legal mandates for strikes and an imposition of this offer without further discussion would be seriously detrimental to the industrial relations the Scottish government have been quick to promote.\n\n\"If the cabinet secretary wants to preserve those relations, he must meet our members urgently.\"\n\nAfter the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy accepted the pay offer, senior negotiating officer in Scotland Claire Ronald said \"there is far more to do on pay\" for all workers.\n\nShe added: \"However, while not everything we would have wanted, and not everything members deserve, this offer does represent a good step forward.\"\n\nMr Yousaf previously told BBC Scotland that the government's latest £515m pay proposal had been its \"best and final\" offer and there was \"nothing left in the coffers\" to improve it.\n\nThe health secretary said NHS strikes would be \"catastrophic\" in an already overstretched service.\n\nNurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are currently striking in the largest action of its kind in NHS history.\n\nStaff will continue to provide \"life-preserving\" and some urgent care but routine surgery and other planned treatment is likely to be disrupted.\n\nStrike plans in Scotland were put on pause when the Scottish government tabled its improved pay deal.\n\nThe RCN's ballot of its members in Scotland closes on Monday, but it is not clear when the result will be announced.\n\nThe union did not make a recommendation on how members should vote, but it said the new deal \"still does not meet our members' expectations\" and that there would be a \"clear mandate for strike action\" if the offer was rejected.\n\nIt had asked for a pay deal at least 5% above inflation, which reached 10.7% in November.\n\nThe decision by GMB members to reject the current pay offer shows that the risk of industrial action in the NHS in Scotland remains real.\n\nThe union has still to decide on its next steps and hopes strike action will not be necessary.\n\nBut, aside from the question of cost, will it be possible to make a meaningful improvement to a pay offer? The offer which has now been accepted by Unison - which is the biggest union within the NHS in Scotland - and Unite?\n\nThe next big question is whether members of the Royal College of Nursing will accept the offer.\n\nThe RCN has spoken favourably about the Scottish government's efforts to engage with the NHS unions.\n\nBut that certainly does not mean that any presumptions can be made about whether RCN members will accept or reject the offer.\n\nAny strike action requires two weeks notice which, realistically, means there is no possibility of it taking place before the new year.", "The boy was run over as France fans celebrated in the centre of Montpellier (file picture)\n\nA 14-year-old boy has been run over and killed in the southern French city of Montpellier shortly after France's World Cup semi-final victory over Morocco.\n\nAuthorities said he was struck by a car after the match and then died in hospital.\n\nImages on social media showed a car draped in a French tricolour surrounded by people who then grabbed the flag.\n\nThe driver then appeared to panic, accelerating into two teenagers.\n\nAs he turned his car around and sped off, the 14-year-old was hit and went into cardiac arrest.\n\n\"Immense sadness that a sporting event should end in total tragedy,\" said local MP Nathalie Oziol, who expressed her sympathy with the boy's family.\n\nThe local prefect in the southern Hérault area said the car was later found abandoned not far from the scene of the accident, and police have begun searching for the driver.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Midi Libre Montpellier This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMayor Michaël Delafosse said everyone was appalled and in shock at \"this terrible tragedy\", and wished that perpetrators of \"this cowardly act\" be brought to justice.\n\nLocal MP Patrick Vignal said the driver had to be caught and severely punished.\n\nThe incident happened in Montpellier's north-western district of La Paillade, around half-an-hour after the final whistle in Qatar, where France beat Morocco 2-0.\n\nTensions between France and Morocco supporters briefly spilled over in the centre of the city as flares were lit and police responded with tear gas. France has a large Moroccan community of some 1.5 million people.\n\nCelebrations in cities across France were largely peaceful, although police used tear gas to halt trouble involving far-right youths in the centre of Lyon.\n\nTen thousand police were deployed across the country and a reported 167 arrests were reported nationally.", "Tam Cowan has apologised for his comments\n\nBBC Scotland football show host Tam Cowan has apologised after being accused of bullying by Livingston assistant manager Marvin Bartley.\n\nCowan had called on the former defender to say sorry after he accused an unidentified fan of shouting racist abuse during a league match between Dundee Utd and Hibernian.\n\nHibernian has now said new evidence confirms the slur was racial, and Bartley said he was owed an apology.\n\nCowan said sorry for \"upset\" he caused.\n\nSocial media footage from the game between Dundee Utd and Hibernian in October appeared to show abuse being directed towards the Hibs winger Jair Tavares.\n\nIn response, Bartley tweeted: \"To hear someone shout this and abuse someone for the colour of their skin, breaks my heart.\"\n\nMarvin Bartley said he felt he was unfairly targeted\n\nBoth clubs and the SPFL investigated the incident but it was agreed the comment made was more likely to be \"derogatory rather than racist\".\n\nCowan highlighted the issue on his weekend BBC Radio Scotland show, Off the Ball, and called on Bartley to apologise for accusing a supporter of racism.\n\n\"I was expecting to read a wee apology,\" said Cowan.\n\n\"Feel free to contact us Marvin, because it was a big, big blooper – a real cock up,\" the presenter added. He also posted about the issue on social media.\n\nBut Hibs have reopened the investigation. They say new evidence from a forensic audio expert confirms the slur was racial.\n\nBartley responded on Twitter, claiming Cowan had singled him out and bullied him.\n\n\"Tam I really can't believe you went on national radio and peddled lie after lie,\" the Livingston coach posted.\n\n\"You attacked me and started a narrative on the back of an 'inconclusive' original outcome that has now been proven to be racist.\n\n\"Why did you feel the need to attack and bully me personally, on this subject.\n\n\"You will never deter me from standing up for what I believe is right, against all forms of discrimination.\"\n\nHe posted: \"Hibs have now clarified that there was indeed a racist comment at their game against Dundee United in October.\n\n\"This, of course, is new information and if I had known this from the outset, I would have been the first to call it out, personally and on national radio.\n\n\"It's absolutely abhorrent that this happens inside Scottish football grounds and I hope the culprit is now dealt with appropriately.\n\n\"In the light of this new evidence, I apologise for the upset I've caused.\"\n\nThe SPFL is awaiting the finding of the reopened investigation.\n\nHibs say they will continue the search for whoever was responsible.\n\n\"If the individual is identified, then the person will face the strongest action from the club,\" they said in a statement.\n\n\"Hibernian FC is proud to have players, staff, and supporters from a number of different backgrounds and cultures, and will continue to work alongside all other clubs up and down the country to ensure that all forms of discrimination are kicked out of the game.\"", "Princess Bajrakitiyabha is widely seen in Thailand as the most plausible heir to the throne.\n\nThe Thai King's eldest daughter collapsed from a heart condition on Wednesday evening, Thailand's royal palace says.\n\nPrincess Bajrakitiyabha, the eldest daughter of King Vajiralongkorn, collapsed while training her dogs north-east of Bangkok, the palace said.\n\nThe 44-year-old was taken to a nearby hospital, then taken by helicopter to Bangkok, where she is being treated.\n\nThe palace described her condition last night as \"stable to a certain extent\".\n\nMedical bulletins from the royal palace in Thailand are typically vague and cryptic, and from the single statement issued about Princess Bajrakitiyabha, it is difficult to gauge how serious her condition is, says the BBC's Jonathan Head in Bangkok.\n\nThe statement says nothing about her state of health now. Some reports have suggested it is a lot more serious than stated.\n\nThe princess is the daughter of the king's first wife Princess Soamsawali, and his eldest child. She has been a part of her father's innermost circle since he succeeded King Bhumibol in 2016, and has been made a senior officer in the king's personal guard.\n\nShe is the most visibly accomplished of the inner royal circle, with post-graduate degrees in law from two US universities.\n\nKing Vajiralongkorn has not yet named an heir to the throne, but Princess Bajrakitiyabha is widely viewed as the most suitable successor.\n\nBeing one of the king's three children who have formal titles, she is eligible for the throne under a 1924 Palace Law of Succession.\n\nShe is a fitness enthusiast and also has a long record of advocating penal reform in Thailand.\n\nShe is especially vocal for female prisoners, of which Thailand has one of the world's highest populations.\n\nShe was Thailand's ambassador to Austria from 2012 to 2014.", "These are the latest efforts by SSEN to return power to 2,800 homes in Shetland Image caption: These are the latest efforts by SSEN to return power to 2,800 homes in Shetland\n\nEven getting to Shetland has been difficult with snow closing the runways at both Aberdeen and Sumburgh airports.\n\nWith the plane having to abort its landing, I thought at one point that we might end up back where we started.\n\nMy five hour delay perhaps gives you an idea of how difficult it’s been getting engineers here from the mainland.\n\nThis plane and some others was carrying workers from SSE who are being sent here to tackle the faults.\n\nAt the south end of Shetland, there’s barely any snow but further north and it’s quickly gets thicker with quite a few cars abandoned at the side of the road.\n\nGangs of workers can be seen busy up poles trying to get the cables re-strung.\n\nIn Voe, which has had no power since Monday, a community hall has finally been provided with a spare generator from the wind farm being built in Shetland and local people are rallying their neighbours to take refuge there.\n\nThere is some anger but a lot of quiet resignation that this is not going to be over quickly.", "Pharmacists will now be able to give alternative forms of penicillin directly to patients to help treat strep A infections, amid temporary supply issues of the antibiotic.\n\nIt follows a rise in demand for the medicine because of an out-of-season increase in strep A illnesses.\n\nThere have been 18 confirmed deaths of children in the UK with rare, invasive strep A infections.\n\nExperts advise anyone concerned about symptoms to seek prompt medical advice.\n\nStrep A infections tend to increase in the winter and peak in the spring, but this year cases are rising at an earlier point than usual - which is probably down to changes in the normal cycle of infections, because of the Covid pandemic and increased social mixing.\n\nMany strep A infections are mild - causing a sore throat or skin infection - but occasionally, a very serious infection with invasive group A strep (iGAS) can develop.\n\nDoctors can prescribe penicillin antibiotics at home to help treat mild infections, but severe cases need to be treated in hospital.\n\nUsually when patients take prescriptions to pharmacists they must - by law - only supply the exact medicine on the forms. If the medicines are not available, patients have to go back to their doctors to get new prescriptions.\n\nSome pharmacists have been unable to give the specific prescribed medicine.\n\nUnder the new protocol, patients no longer have to go back to GPs for an alternative prescription.\n\nThere are various forms of penicillin - liquid, sugar-free liquid, and tablets - and pharmacists will now be able to give some of these forms as alternatives.\n\nHealth and Secondary Care minister Will Quince said the protocol would help make things easier for pharmacists, patients and GPs.\n\nHe added: \"We are taking decisive action to address these temporary issues and improve access to these medicines by continuing to work with manufacturers and wholesalers to speed up deliveries, bring forward stock they have to help ensure it gets to where it's needed, and boost supply to meet demand as quickly as possible.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Strep A: What you need to know, in a minute\n\nSince September, records suggest 18 children in the UK have died after severe iGAS infections.\n\nThis includes 16 children in England and one in Northern Ireland, while the death of a child in Wales has also been confirmed.\n\nFigures for England show that 58 adults have also died from the same condition in the same period.\n\nThis is the highest number of deaths since the winter of 2017-18, when 27 children and 328 adults died with invasive strep A.\n\nAccording to UK Health Security Agency experts, there is no evidence to suggest there is a new strain of strep A circulating.\n\nStrep A symptoms include flu-like symptoms - a sore throat, headache, fever, and muscle aches. If there is also a rash that feels rough like sandpaper, it could be scarlet fever - which needs antibiotics.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "As we've been reporting, today's interest rate rise means a typical tracker mortgage will go up by about £49 a month while a standard variable rate loan will jump by about £31.\n\nThe series of rises over the course of this year have also hit those whose fixed-rate deals have come to an end.\n\n\"We got a letter from our mortgage company a couple of weeks before it was due to end so it was a panic,\" says Clive, who lives in Pudsey, West Yorkshire with his girlfriend, stepson and cat.\n\n\"It was mega-stressful because I was trying to work but then you're looking at the news and seeing interest rates going up and I'm thinking,‘what am I going to do?’\"\n\nClive's mortgage interest rate had been 3.48% and the couple were paying £628 a month. But their new five-year fixed deal is 5.76% with payments of £750 a month - a £122 increase.\n\nThe 48-year-old considered tracker and variable rate deals but concluded: \"It's not even worth risking.\n\n\"I just wanted to fix it, take the hit, and hopefully at the end of the five years we will get something better.”\n\nClive works from home in customer services and says his pre-payment meter electricity costs have gone up since spring 2022 from £15 a week to £30 a week.\n\nHis gas bill, which is paid by direct debit, increased from £66 to £75 a month from 1 December.", "John Swinney is making much of choosing a more progressive path on income tax: loading more of the burden on to those who can best afford it.\n\nAs a result of this budget, the Scottish Fiscal Commission estimates £129m will be raised next year, and he is linking that to the NHS - always a popular choice - as 'a penny for patient care'.\n\nThose with a long memory will recall the SNP's 'penny for Scotland' campaign in the first Scottish Parliament election, nearly 24 years ago. Having failed to prepare the ground for it, that did not go well. But these were very different times.\n\nTaking into account other changes in the five years since almost all income tax powers were devolved to the Scottish Parliament, the SFC calculates that the extra funds raised by choices made by Scottish ministers means an extra tax bill on Scots of around £1bn next year, rising to more than £1.5bn within five years.\n\nMr Swinney's increased tax on buying a second home is also aimed at those with broader shoulders, but will have an impact on the private rental market, where some landlords are selling up because of increased mortgage and other costs.\n\nThe winners from these budget choices include those who receive the Scottish Child Payment, which was already announced and is remaining at £25 per week. The SFC reckons that a more generous welfare system in Scotland has cost £400m during this year, doubling to £800m next year, and rising to £1.4bn by 2027-28.\n\nThat is the cost of commitments that go beyond the sums being transferred from the Department of Work and Pensions, and it means a squeeze on other budgets.\n\nOne of the biggest winners from the budget choices was business. While the freezing of income tax thresholds means a stealth tax at every level of tax-paying, there has been a more welcome freeze on the level at which business rates are charged, giving away more than £300m that would have been collected if bills had risen with inflation.", "Last updated on .From the section Tennis\n\nFormer Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has been released from prison after serving eight months of his sentence for hiding £2.5m worth of assets and loans to avoid paying debts.\n\nThe 55-year-old German was jailed for two and a half years in April after being found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act.\n\nHe was released from prison on Thursday morning and has flown to Germany.\n\nThe BBC understands Becker has been deported from the United Kingdom.\n\nHis Berlin-based lawyer, Christian-Oliver Moser, said in a statement Becker \"was released from custody in England and has left for Germany today\".\n\nBecker flew from Biggin Hill in a private jet chartered by a friend, a government source told the BBC.\n\nA Home Office spokesperson told BBC Sport: \"Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity.\"\n\nBecker qualifies for automatic deportation as a foreign national who does not have British citizenship and received a custodial sentence of more than 12 months.\n\nBecker has lived in the UK since 2012, having retired from playing in 1999. He won six Grand Slam singles title, including three at Wimbledon, during his 15-year career.\n\nHe was declared bankrupt in June 2017 over an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his estate in Mallorca, Spain.\n\nBecker went on trial earlier this year having been accused of hiding millions of pounds worth of assets to avoid paying his debts.\n\nHe was ultimately found guilty of four charges relating to his bankruptcy but was acquitted of a further 20.\n\nIt was reported that Becker was initially held at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London before being moved to Huntercombe Prison in May.\n\nHe previously worked as a BBC pundit on Wimbledon and spent three seasons coaching 21-time major singles champion Novak Djokovic.", "Andrew Western currently leads Trafford Council within the Stretford and Urmston constituency\n\nSir Keir Starmer has said \"it's time for a Labour government\", after the party comfortably held Stretford and Urmston in a by-election.\n\nThe Labour leader said the result, which saw the party increase its share of the vote, showed people were \"fed up of 12 years of Tory failure\".\n\nAndrew Western secured 70% of the vote, with an 11% swing from the Tories.\n\nLabour had been expected to retain the Greater Manchester seat, which they have held since it was created in 1997.\n\nBut the fact the result was in little doubt, plus the bitterly cold weather on polling day, led to only a quarter of eligible voters turning out.\n\nAnother factor in the low turnout may have been problems with postal ballots amid ongoing industrial action.\n\nMr Western, who has led Trafford Council within the constituency since 2018, achieved a majority of 9,906.\n\nThe 37-year-old succeeds Kate Green, who resigned last month after being nominated as deputy mayor of Greater Manchester.\n\nSir Keir congratulated Mr Western on Twitter, although he is not expected to visit the constituency following the result.\n\nTory peer and pollster Lord Hayward said the result was \"disappointing but not bad\" for the Conservatives, pointing out that the swing to Labour was smaller than in a recent by-election in Chester.\n\nHowever, he told Sky News other Tory MPs in the area, including Sir Graham Brady, who represents nearby Altrincham and Sale West and is chairman of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers, would be \"concerned\".\n\n\"There's been a trend away from the Conservatives in that belt of south and west Manchester,\" he added.\n\nIf you take this and Labour's victory in the Chester by-election earlier this month together, they are basically consistent with the evidence of the opinion polls - Labour are now in a stronger position than they have been at any point since David Cameron entered 10 Downing Street as prime minister in 2010.\n\nTherefore the challenge that the Conservatives are facing is certainly a very substantial one. Can Prime Minister Rishi Sunak persuade voters to ignore what happened in the Liz Truss administration?\n\nMr Sunak does have a personal reputation for economic competence that does not, at the moment, extend to his party.\n\nCan he, in the very difficult economic circumstances the government now faces, have any chance of turning things around?\n\nThe Stretford and Urmston constituency includes the Old Trafford area around Manchester United's stadium.\n\nThe count was held in a large suite there because the usual venues had long been booked for Christmas parties.\n\nMr Western said the result sent out a \"strong message\", showing 12 years of Conservative government was \"coming to an end\".\n\nEmily Carter-Kandola trailed a distant second for the Tories, with a 16% share of the vote.\n\nThanking voters who braved -6C conditions to back him, Mr Western said it \"must hold the record for the coldest polling day\".\n\nHe added: \"It's clear from the result, and from the conversations I have had with voters throughout the campaign, that the public want a general election.\n\n\"The Tories have given up on governing and it is increasingly clear that the British people are giving up on them.\n\n\"Labour stands ready to deliver for our country and only Labour has a plan for working people and to create a fairer, greener, future.\"\n\nIt is the second by-election victory for Labour this month, after the party easily held Chester.\n\nRecent national opinion polls suggest Labour have a substantial lead over the Conservatives, which grew with the turbulence of Liz Truss's premiership.\n\nThe government is also grappling with soaring prices, an economic downturn and a wave of strike action.\n\nAs expected, this was a resounding victory for Labour.\n\nThe freezing temperatures on polling day and a lack of jeopardy appear to have contributed to a low turnout but it's the percentage share of the vote that the parties are focused on.\n\nBy-elections are always tricky for a party of government and this one - in a Labour stronghold, in a cost-of-living crisis - was always going to be harder than most for the Tories.\n\nBut it does all add to the growing sense of momentum that Labour are building as they become increasingly bullish about their chances of returning to power at the next general election.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The two boys stuck on the ride were screaming, an eyewitness said\n\nTwo teenage boys had to be rescued when a \"reverse bungee\" ride failed at Winter Wonderland in London, leaving them suspended in the air in a cage.\n\nThe teenagers were on the ride at Hyde Park on Wednesday evening, when the Met Police said the incident occurred.\n\nThe amusement park industry's own regulatory safety scheme said there was a \"technical issue\" with a gear-box.\n\nWinter Wonderland said both boys were \"safely\" escorted off the ride.\n\nIt added the ride would be closed while an investigation took place.\n\nThe boys were left suspended in the cage, pictured on the left\n\nThe Met Police said it had attended the scene, along with London Fire Brigade, but the cage had been lowered down before they arrived, the boys had left the scene and there were no reported injuries.\n\nThe Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has been informed, a Met spokesperson said.\n\nBecky Littlewood, who filmed video showing the cage hanging in the air, travelled from Suffolk to go to Winter Wonderland with her husband.\n\nShe said: \"We were walking around where the rides were and I really wanted to go on it but my husband said, 'no, it doesn't look safe'.\n\n\"We watched it for a while and then as we turned around there was a massive bang and it was hanging on the side - two people on the ride were screaming.\n\n\"Then it looked like they tried to reset the ride, as [the boys] were being pulled up into the air.\"\n\n\"Security came running and started pushing us back, telling us to stop filming.\"\n\nShe added: \"I wont be going to Winter Wonderland again.\"\n\nLondon Fire Brigade confirmed on Twitter it had attended the incident but had not needed to respond.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by London Fire Brigade This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Amusement Device Inspection Procedures Scheme, which went to the site on Thursday morning, said in a statement released via Winter Wonderland: \"We can confirm that the elastic cord and the steel wire rope supporting the reverse bungee gondola in which the public sit has not snapped or failed in any way.\"\n\nThe organisation, which monitors the safety of amusement park rides, added: \"We inspected the ride at 07:00GMT this morning and it was found that a technical issue had occurred within a sealed gear-box that controls the release of the elastic cord and steel wire rope.\n\n\"The HSE has been informed.\"\n\nA Hyde Park Winter Wonderland spokesperson said: \"We can confirm that a technical issue involving the reverse bungee occurred on Wednesday evening.\n\n\"Both riders were safely escorted off the ride, checked by our on-site medics and were not injured.\n\n\"Safety is our highest priority and the ride is closed while further investigation takes place.\"\n\nThe Health and Safety Executive has been informed about the incident at Winter Wonderland\n\nThey added: \"All of our rides undergo rigorous and regular safety checks by experienced members of staff trained in health and safety.\n\n\"We also provide regular training for all staff to ensure our visitors can enjoy a fun and safe experience.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nDid you witness this incident? You can get in touch by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A \"fantasist\" who falsely claimed to be related to boxing champion Tyson Fury has been found guilty of raping, assaulting and coercing three women.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said David Overton, who was also known as David Fury-Walsh, was a \"violent and manipulative bully\".\n\nThe 31-year-old, of Macclesfield, Cheshire, took loans out in the women's names and threatened their children.\n\nOverton was convicted at Chester Crown Court after a four-week trial.\n\nHe will be sentenced on 6 February.\n\nThe CPS said Overton initially pretended to be engaging and wildly generous to the women, but a \"darker side\" soon emerged.\n\nA representative said his behaviour quickly descended into criminality and was coercive and controlling, which had a serious effect on the women.\n\nHe later inflicted violent assaults and sexual attacks on all three, they said.\n\nOne of the women said Overton threatened her and her children, assaulted her, controlled her contact with friends, took her money, monitored her movements and whereabouts and raped her on several occasions.\n\nAnother woman also talked of Overton's control and coercion, assaults, and rape and said he made her take out loans and give him money and limited her contact with friends.\n\nThe CPS said the third woman suffered the same offences.\n\nOverton was eventually arrested and was charged with 25 offences of rape, assault and coercive and controlling behaviour.\n\nSenior Crown Prosecutor Karen Nolan said it had been a \"complex and disturbing\" case.\n\nShe said Overton was a \"violent and manipulative bully\" and a \"fantasist\" with \"no respect for women\".\n\nShe said he \"does not take 'no' for an answer\" and was \"someone who must be in control of a situation\".\n\nShe said in court, he had denied the charges and \"claimed the women consented to sex, invited it, and enjoyed it\", but the three women \"all denied that and the jury has agreed with them\".\n\n\"I would like to thank the victims for their courage in supporting the prosecution, the police for a thorough investigation and the prosecution team,\" she added.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "SAS squadrons conducted night raids in Afghanistan, aiming to kill or capture Taliban targets\n\nMinisters have announced an inquiry into allegations SAS soldiers murdered scores of unarmed people during night raids in Afghanistan.\n\nDefence minister Andrew Murrison said the inquiry would have statutory powers to compel witnesses to give evidence.\n\nThe government previously said a review would only examine the way the allegations had been handled.\n\nIt follows BBC Panorama revelations, in July, that one SAS unit killed 54 people in suspicious circumstances.\n\nMr Murrison's statement to Parliament came a day after the BBC published a follow-up investigation into a 2012 raid, on which British special forces killed four people - including a woman - and shot two infant boys.\n\nMr Murrison said that the inquiry would \"investigate and report on alleged unlawful activity by British Armed Forces\" and \"the adequacy of subsequent investigations into such allegations\".\n\nHe said the inquiry would look specifically at special forces raids known as Deliberate Detention Operations (DDOs) which took place between mid-2010 and mid-2013.\n\nThe announcement of an independent statutory inquiry - as opposed to the review proposed by the government earlier this year - expands the scope and powers available to the judge leading it. The minister said the inquiry would be chaired by Lord Justice Hadden Cave.\n\nIn his statement, Mr Murrison referenced two cases brought against the Ministry of Defence by family members of people killed in DDO raids.\n\nResponding to Thursday's announcement, representatives for the Saifullah and Noorzai families welcomed the expanded statutory inquiry.\n\n\"I did not ever think this would happen,\" said a member of the Saifullah family. \"I am extremely happy that there are people who value the loss of life of my family, of Afghans, enough to investigate.\"\n\nA member of the Noorzai family said: \"My family has waited 10 years to find out why this happened. We are happy that finally, after so many years, someone is going to investigate this thoroughly.\"\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said there had already been \"several comprehensive investigations into the events in question\".\n\nHe added: \"If there are further lessons to learn, it is right that we consider those fully to ensure all allegations are handled appropriately and in equal measure to ensure our personnel are adequately protected from unnecessary reinvestigations.\"\n\nLabour's shadow defence secretary, John Healey, told the BBC he welcomed the special inquiry, saying it was \"essential to protect the reputation of our British special forces, guarantee the integrity of military investigations, and secure justice for any of those affected\".\n\nSpeaking in the Commons, he said the \"allegations of unlawful killings and cover ups could not be more serious\" and questioned whether the MoD was \"fully committed\" to making the inquiry succeed.\n\n\"Too often, the MoD responds with denial and delay,\" he said.\n\nThe Royal Military Police (RMP), which investigates misconduct by the Armed Forces, undertook several investigations between 2010 and 2019 into allegations that UK Special Forces murdered unarmed people, including children, in Afghanistan.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said the investigations had not found enough evidence to prosecute anyone.\n\nBut documents cited in court earlier this year revealed there were significant concerns within the Armed Forces that a number of the RMP investigations were flawed.\n\nThe minister said the inquiry would \"begin in earnest\" in early 2023.\n\nDo you have information about this story that you want to share?\n\nGet in touch using SecureDrop, a highly anonymous and secure way of whistleblowing to the BBC which uses the TOR network.\n\nOr by using the Signal messaging app, an end-to-end encrypted message service designed to protect your data.\n\nPlease note that the SecureDrop link will only work in a Tor browser. For information on keeping secure and anonymous, here's some advice on how to use SecureDrop.", "Search and recovery teams have been working at the site in St Helier\n\nA ninth person has been confirmed dead following an explosion at a block of flats in Jersey, police have said.\n\nJersey Police believe there are no more residents that remain unaccounted for.\n\nThe names of nine people have been released, but formal identification has not yet taken place.\n\nThe three-storey Haut du Mont residential block on Pier Road, in St Helier, collapsed on Saturday at about 04:00 GMT.\n\nPolice previously released the following names of people missing and feared dead: Ken Ralph, 72, Jane Ralph, 71, Peter Bowler, 72, Raymond Brown, 71, Romeu de Almeida, 67, Louise de Almeida, 64, Derek Ellis, 61, Sylvia Ellis, 73, and Billy Marsden, 63.\n\nTop row, left to right: Derek and Sylvia Ellis, Romeu and Louise de Almeida. Bottom row, left to right: Raymond Brown, Billy Marsden and Peter Bowler\n\nKen and Jane Ralph were the last of nine people missing since the explosion to be named by police\n\nJersey's Chief of Police Robin Smith said: \"The search operation will continue until the site has been fully cleared.\"\n\nMr Smith said the families had been made aware ahead of the announcement and were being supported by specially trained family liaison officers.\n\nHe added: \"The thoughts of all of us at States of Jersey Police are with everyone affected, in particular those who lost loved ones in what has been a tragic incident for our island and our community.\"\n\nAt a press conference on Thursday Mr Smith said three people had been taken to hospital following the explosion and one of those was still receiving treatment in hospital.\n\nEmergency workers had been working \"tirelessly in very cold temperatures\", he said.\n\nHe praised the \"determination and professionalism\" of workers including those from the UK who had joined in the search and recovery.\n\nHe said the \"detailed and professional investigation\" into the blast \"will take time\", before inquests could be held.\n\nThe Jersey force is being assisted by 26 mutual aid officers from outside the island.\n\nThe 42 families displaced by the blast would be back in their homes \"when it is safe to do so\", he said.\n\nAn investigation into circumstances surrounding the explosion is being led by the head of Jersey's CID, with the help of national experts.\n\nPeople have been leaving flowers in respect to the victims of both tragedies\n\nThe fire service previously confirmed it attended the flats just after 20:30 on Friday after the smell of gas was reported.\n\nChief Fire Officer Paul Brown said firefighters handed the scene over to Island Energy at 21:01.\n\nHe said independent investigators would be appointed for a process that \"will be complex and long\".\n\nIan Gallichan, chief executive of Andium Homes which is responsible for the building, said: \"There was a redundant Island Energy supply at Haut du Mont but as Island Energy have confirmed, no gas was being consumed on site either by us or our residents.\"\n\nHe said the company asked for the redundant supply to be disconnected from the mains network in September.\n\nIsland Energy said in a statement: \"We can confirm that, in line with Andium's statement, there was a redundant Island Energy supply at Haut du Mont but there was no gas being consumed by either Andium or their residents.\n\n\"Outside of this, we are unable to comment on any details regarding works carried out on the property last week as this is part of an investigation and, as such, it would be inappropriate to discuss any information at this time.\"\n\nThe explosion happened two days after another tragedy in Jersey when a fishing boat collided with a freight ferry and sank off the coast, with three people missing.\n\nTwo bodies have been recovered from the wreck of the L'Ecume ll fishing boat.\n\nA vigil was held on Wednesday and people have been leaving flowers and signing books of condolence.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Meghan makes fresh accusations against Buckingham Palace in the latest trailer for the Harry & Meghan Netflix documentary\n\nBuckingham Palace conducted \"a real kind of war against Meghan\", the duchess's lawyer has claimed.\n\nJenny Afia said she had \"seen evidence that there was negative briefing against Harry and Meghan by the Palace to suit other people's agendas\".\n\nShe makes the claim in the latest trailer for the couple's Netflix series Harry & Meghan ahead of the release of the second instalment on Thursday.\n\nBuckingham Palace has so far not commented on the series.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Netflix This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nPrince Harry said on Tuesday that \"they were happy to lie to protect my brother\", without specifying who he was talking about, and has previously spoken of the \"leaking and... planting of stories\" as part of a \"dirty game\".\n\nBut Meghan goes further in the new trailer, claiming the Palace strategically targeted website homepages and newspaper front covers with stories.\n\n\"You would see it play out,\" she says in the trailer.\n\n\"A story about someone in the family would pop up for a minute, and they'd go, 'We gotta make that go away.'\n\n\"But there's real estate on a website homepage, there is real estate on a newspaper front cover, and something has to be filled in there about someone royal,\" she says.\n\nNeither Meghan nor anyone else in the trailer offers evidence for the claims.\n\nLater in the trailer, Ms Afia, of Schillings law firm, says that the \"barrage of negative articles\" about the breakdown of the relationship between Meghan and her father, Thomas Markle, was part of a campaign of \"nasty\" coverage about Meghan.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home video of Archie features in Harry and Meghan documentary\n\nShe does not specifically say that stories about Meghan and her father were planted by the Palace.\n\nA friend of Meghan, Lucy Fraser, adds in the trailer: \"Meg became this scapegoat for the Palace. And so they would feed stories on her whether they were true or not to avoid other less favourable stories being printed.\"\n\nThe final three episodes of the documentary will release on Netflix at 08:00 GMT on Thursday.", "Engineers are working on lines in Shetland\n\nTeams of engineers have been battling to restore power to homes in Shetland, with about 1,700 properties still without supplies.\n\nEnergy firm Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said its engineers had to rebuild the \"critical backbone\" of the network to allow more homes to be connected.\n\nMany of those without power are residential homes.\n\nMore than 100 schools are closed in Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Highlands.\n\nMany roads have been badly affected by snow drifts.\n\nA yellow weather warning is in place in the north of Scotland with the central belt due to be hit by snow and ice on Friday morning.\n\nA Shetland mother whose twins were born prematurely eight weeks ago and who told how she was trying to keep them warm and fed now has power back on.\n\nSiobhan Bradley's babies Danny and Annie were born five weeks early.\n\nSiobhan Bradley and her twins now have power back\n\nWhen the power failed on Monday, Siobhan, the twins and her nine-year-old son Benjamin moved into the home of her partner's mother, a mile-and-a-half away, and were in a room with a wood burner to keep them warm.\n\nWith power now restored, the 37-year-old, who is in Whalsay, told BBC Scotland it was a \"massive relief\".\n\nShe said: \"We can get home, we can get settled, ready for Christmas, and get warm and cosy again and enjoy time together as a family.\"\n\nA broken pole in Semblister on the west of Shetland\n\nA number of power lines have been brought down\n\nHeavy snowstorms disrupted electricity supplies in Shetland, with many left without power for days.\n\nSSEN said that on Wednesday power was successfully restored to customers in the Out Skerries, parts of Voe, northern parts of Whalsay, and clusters elsewhere on Shetland.\n\nAbout 1,700 properties remained off supply in Voe, Brae and the West Mainland late on Thursday.\n\nMeanwhile helicopters were sent to assess damage on the west of the island and parts of Voe where access on foot was a \"significant challenge\".\n\nSSEN has warned that some of them may be without power over the weekend.\n\nThe company said it had replaced core infrastructure and points of damage in Voe and Yell and replaced kilometres of overhead line.\n\nOn Thursday afternoon, Mark Macdonald, head of region at SSEN Distribution, said a 125-strong team had been \"working tirelessly\" to repair significant damage.\n\nHe added: \"I'd continue to encourage customers to visit warm welfare locations, organised in collaboration with our partners, which are serving hot drinks, offering kitchen facilities, and providing a warm space for customers without power.\n\n\"I'd also urge anyone who has any concerns for themselves or others, particularly family members or neighbours who may need extra support, to give our teams a call on 105.\"\n\nKaela, Susan, Astryd and Carol are trying to keep warm in the Hillswick practice\n\nDr Susan Bowie, who works at the Hillswick practice in the northernmost part of mainland Shetland, has no electricity in her home or at the surgery.\n\nThe surgery is using a diesel generator but it does not provide heating.\n\nShe told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"It's really cold at the surgery. You can't stay there too long because your hands get so cold, but there's been a real community spirit about this situation.\n\n\"The roads are terrible but the staff have come in, they have done their best. We are wearing coats, jumpers and fleeces just to stay warm.\"\n\nThe surgery has had to move some of its medicines into a fridge at a nearby hotel in order to ensure they are not wasted.\n\nMore engineers and poles arrived on Thursday\n\nSSEN crews started arriving in Lerwick by ferry on Wednesday to help with reconnection efforts, which have been hampered by continuing poor weather.\n\nMore engineers and poles arrived in a Shetland off the ferry from Aberdeen on Thursday morning.\n\nThe power cuts have been caused by \"significant\" network damage as a result of line icing, where snow and ice accumulate on overhead power lines and the additional weight causes them to break.\n\nCustomers can claim up to £30 per person for meals for every 24 hours they are without power. This is in addition to statutory compensation.\n\nHow have you been affected by power cuts? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Nurses at almost all health boards in Wales will strike on 15 and 20 December\n\nNurses at almost all NHS health boards in Wales will take part in two days of strikes in the run up to Christmas.\n\nThey will strike on 15 and 20 December at all health boards except Aneurin Bevan, which did not meet the threshold.\n\nMembers of the Royal College of Nurses (RCN) union rejected a Welsh government pay award of between 4% and 5.5%, well below the rate of inflation.\n\nHowever, some services are exempt from strike action, such as chemotherapy and paediatric intensive care.\n\nHave you had your appointment cancelled because of the nurses' strike?\n\nUse this form to tell us about your experiences:\n\nIf you are reading this page on the BBC News app, you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question on this topic.", "Jakob Ellemann-Jensen of the Liberal Party, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of the Social Democrats and Lars Lokke Rasmussen of the Moderates\n\nDenmark's new coalition government is set to scrap a bank holiday to boost defence spending.\n\nIt is one of the first measures agreed by the unusual coalition between centre-left and centre-right parties - the first since the 1970s.\n\nThe centre-left Social Democrat party, the centre-right Liberal Party and the centrist Moderate party are all part of the new government.\n\nIncumbent Social Democrat PM Mette Frederiksen will carry on in the job.\n\nIn October, Ms Frederiksen called a snap election following outrage after a highly critical report of her government's handling of a country-wide mink cull at fur farms at the height of the pandemic was released over the summer.\n\nAfter last month's vote, Ms Frederiksen handed in her government's resignation to Queen Margrethe despite her party winning the most votes, as she said she wanted to form a broader coalition.\n\nAn agreement with her historical rivals was found when the Liberals and the Moderates agreed to drop calls for an independent legal inquiry into the mink cull.\n\nThe result was the Social Democrat-Liberal-Moderate coalition unveiled on Thursday, as the handover of power from the previous government took place.\n\nFormer prime minister and Moderates leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen has been appointed foreign minister and Liberal leader Jakob Ellemann-Jensen becomes deputy prime minister and defence minister.\n\nOne of the coalition's priorities is to reach Nato's target of 2% of GDP for defence spending three years ahead of schedule. The issue of defence has been at the forefront of Danish political debate since Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.\n\nTo this end, Ms Frederiksen has announced the government will scrap one of Denmark's 11 public holidays, in the hope of boosting productivity and economic activity.\n\nThe axe is likely to fall on Store Bededag (the \"Great Prayer Day\"), which falls every year on the Friday before the fourth Sunday after Easter and was introduced as a public holiday in 1686.\n\nThe measure has sparked some criticism, starting with Denmark's religious community.\n\nThe president of the clergy association, Pernille Vigso Bagge, told Danish newspaper Berlingske that she was \"saddened\" by the prospect of losing the day, and said that scrapping it left both priests and people waiting to be confirmed \"in a logistical nightmare\" as the Store Bededag is traditionally a big confirmation day.\n\nThe Dean of Roskilde Cathedral, Sophie Olander, told TV2: \"We need holidays, as gathering times to get down to speed and have time for prayer and reflection. It is a shame to have a society where you think it is not important.\"\n\nBusiness owners are concerned too: baker Iver Hansen told outlet TV SYD the day was a large source of income for his business, and he stood to lose around 20,000-30,000 Danish kroner (£2,300-£3,460) in revenue if the holiday was scrapped.\n\nAsked about the decision to scrap the holiday, Ms Frederiksen said: \"There is war in Europe, and we need to strengthen our defences... And that will require everyone to contribute a little more.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'Terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me', says Harry\n\nPrince Harry has described how \"terrifying\" it was to have his brother \"scream and shout\" at him when they met to discuss his and Meghan's future.\n\nIn a Netflix series, Prince Harry says it was his decision, not Meghan's, to leave after plans for a half-in, half-out royal life were rejected during a family meeting at Sandringham.\n\nHe says his father said things that \"just simply weren't true\" as his grandmother, the Queen, looked on.\n\nIn the latest and final instalments of the docuseries, Harry and Meghan describe why they decided to give up their royal duties and move to the US, claiming they were not supported by the Royal Family during a barrage of negative press that was mainly directed at Meghan.\n\nMeghan talks in detail about how she considered taking her own life. Harry describes how he feels shame looking back at how he reacted, reverting to \"Institutional Harry\" rather than \"husband Harry\".\n\nIn 2020 the duke went to Sandringham, the royal estate in Norfolk, to discuss scenarios for the couple's royal role with Harry's father King Charles - then Prince Charles - as well as his brother and grandmother, the late Queen.\n\nHe recalls how the meeting went, saying: \"It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that just simply weren't true, and my grandmother quietly sit there and sort of take it all in.\"\n\nPrince William attended a carol concert with his family on Thursday\n\nHe says his preference was to be half in, half out of the Royal Family, with him and Meghan doing their own jobs but also supporting the Queen.\n\n\"It became very clear, very quickly that that goal was not up for discussion,\" he says.\n\nAs for the Queen, he says her ultimate responsibility was the institution of the Royal Family.\n\nHarry also says a joint statement was put out after the meeting without his permission in his and his brother's name. The statement denied a story that William had bullied him out of the Royal Family.\n\nHe describes the move as a \"lie to protect my brother\", adding: \"There was no other option at this point. I said, 'we need to get out of here'.\"\n\nHe says Meghan had not asked to leave and that saying she drove the decision was \"misogyny at its best\".\n\nThe Netflix trailers had hinted at explosive revelations about the monarchy, but in the end the final three episodes of the series had a different kind of impact. It was emotional rather than political.\n\nIt was a battle between brothers, with an underlying sense of angriness and betrayal.\n\nPeople sometimes call the royals a soap opera. This was the Christmas omnibus edition, with claims of shouting matches, underhand dealing, and a big walk out.\n\nAnd it will set up another chain reaction of stories when they next all meet in front of the public - next year's coronation isn't far away.\n\nIn the latest episodes, Meghan also speaks about how she considered taking her own life, before stepping back from the Royal Family.\n\n\"It was like 'all of this will stop if I'm not here,'\" she says.\n\nMeghan's mother, Doria Ragland, says hearing her daughter's thoughts \"broke my heart\".\n\nPrince Harry says he was devastated after his wife confided in him about her struggles,\n\nBut he had been \"trained\" to worry more about what people were going to think, and he \"hated himself\" for that, he says.\n\n\"What she needed was so much more than I was able to give,\" he adds.\n\nMeghan says that she wanted to seek help but \"wasn't allowed to\".\n\nWithout being specific as to who \"they\" were, she says: \"They were concerned about how that would look for the institution.\"\n\nThe prince adds: \"They knew how bad it was. They thought 'Why couldn't she just deal with it?' As if to say, well, 'everybody else has dealt with it, why can't she deal with it?' But this was different. It was really different.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Meghan: 'They were concerned how that would look for the institution'\n\nMeghan's mother is seen looking teary-eyed as she shares her account of that time, adding that her daughter's words were \"not easy for a mum to hear\".\n\nIn a reference to press intrusion in her daughter's life, Ms Ragland said: \"I knew it was bad, but to just constantly be picked at by these vultures, just picking away at her spirit, that she would actually think of not wanting to be here.\"\n\nOther revelations from the series include:\n\nThe final three episodes of the six-part series, titled Harry & Meghan, were released on Thursday.\n\nThe filming of the series was completed before the Queen's death in September this year.\n\nPrince Harry's memoir, Spare, will be published in January.\n\nInformation and support: If you or someone you know is feeling emotionally distressed, these organisations offer advice and support. For mental health issues, there are these organisations.", "Some security rules on liquids and items such as laptops in airport hand luggage will be scrapped in 2024.\n\nThe government has set a deadline of June 2024 for most UK airports to install new high-tech 3D scanners, that show more detailed images of baggage.\n\nThe changes will see the 100ml liquid rule increased to two litres and mean passengers won't need to remove electrical items from bags at security.\n\nA previous installation deadline was pushed back due to the pandemic.\n\nPassengers are currently required to remove items such as tablets, laptops and liquids from their hand luggage for screening at security checks at airports.\n\nLiquids, such as sun cream, shampoo or toothpaste need to be 100ml or under and must be in a clear plastic bag.\n\nThe limits have been in place since November 2006 and their introduction marked the end of a ban on liquids in the cabin imposed three months earlier, when British police said they had foiled a plot to blow up as many as 10 planes using explosives hidden in drinks bottles.\n\nSeveral US airports have already installed 3D scanning equipment\n\nThe government said its requirement for airports to upgrade screening equipment to the type similar to CT scanners used in hospitals, will mean eventually the rules on electrical items can be lifted and the liquid limit can be extended to two litres.\n\nWith the legislation being phased in across the country over the next two years, current rules will still apply at airports not using the technology. Passengers are advised to check this before travelling.\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper said the new technology would reduce queue times to improve the \"passenger experience, and most importantly detecting potential threats\".\n\nChristopher Snelling, policy director at the Airport Operators Association, which represents UK airports, added the investment was a \"great step forward for UK air travel, matching the best in class around the world\".\n\n\"It will make the journey through the UK's airports easier and air travel itself more pleasant,\" he added.\n\nThe technology has already been in use by US airports, such as Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson and Chicago's O'Hare, for a number of years.\n\nFormer Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a pledge to use the scanning technology to speed up pre-boarding checks and improve security, giving UK airports a deadline of the end of 2022.\n\nBut passenger numbers were dented during the height of the Covid pandemic with travel restrictions in place across much of the world.", "Technology aimed at improving safety on all-lane running smart motorways needs to be improved \"urgently\", the transport watchdog has said.\n\nRadar-based technology meant to improve the detection of stranded vehicles on smart motorways with no hard shoulder is falling short of targets, the Office for Rail and Road (ORR) said.\n\nAll-lane motorways are meant to ease congestion but critics say they have contributed to deaths.\n\nTheir rollout was paused in January.\n\nThe government is now collecting data on existing all-lane smart motorways to assess their safety before it allows any more to be built.\n\nAt the end of 2020 there were 369 miles of smart motorways in England, including 168 miles without a hard shoulder.\n\nStopped Vehicle Detection (SVD) was installed on every existing all-lane motorway by the end of September this year and is one of the measures designed to further improve safety on these types of motorways.\n\nThe ORR said that it was too early to see the full effects of SVD given the rapid rollout of the technology.\n\nBut it said that while SVD had \"helped to reduce the duration\" of breakdowns in live lanes, it was \"not working as well as it should\".\n\nAmong other things the regulator said that \"false detection rates\" of breakdowns were too high.\n\nORR chief executive John Larkinson said: \"It's clear National Highways [the agency in charge of motorways] needs to urgently improve its performance in this area.\"\n\nUnder the performance requirements for SVD, alert times should be below 20 seconds.\n\nBut the testing data to date shows that in four out of National Highways' five English regions, the average time was higher than 40 seconds.\n\nIn Yorkshire and the North East it was 64.8 seconds - over a minute. In the North West, the average was only 15.7 seconds, well within the target.\n\nThe watchdog said that National Highways was now \"seeking rapid improvements\" to the SVD technology to achieve \"the required performance levels by the end of June 2023\", and the ORR would take further action if improvements do not happen.\n\nNational Highways said: \"Our roads are among the safest in the world but every road death is a tragedy and we know there's more we can do to further improve safety.\"\n\nIt said it was committed to making sure SVD works as it should do within the next six months, but also pointed out various sources were used to notify and detect stopped vehicles, including the police, the public, the recovery industry and traffic officers.\n\nA smart motorway is a stretch of road where technology is used to regulate traffic flow and - hopefully - ease congestion. There are three main types:\n\nAll three models use overhead gantries to direct drivers. Variable speed limits are introduced to control traffic flow when there is congestion, or if there is a hazard ahead. These limits are controlled by speed cameras.\n\nThe president of the AA motoring organisation, Edmund King, said the fact that the SVD system was not working effectively was \"a major concern for drivers\".\n\n\"For 'smart' motorways to be truly smart and safe then the technology behind them must be fully effective,\" he said. \"If there are doubts about the technology, then the motorways are not smart and we should revert to tried and tested methods.\"\n\nRAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said: \"Breaking down in a live lane is terrifying enough but drivers must have confidence that the infrastructure is detecting them quickly so authorities can immediately close the lane.\"\n\nThe ORR has also been assessing how well the Smart Motorway Action Plan put in place by the government in 2020 is working.\n\nUnder the plan, the government is collecting evidence on smart motorway safety and devising measures to improve their safety.\n\nThe ORR says it is too early to draw firm conclusion on success, but notes that \"National Highways has achieved substantial improvements in attendance times for traffic officers\".\n\nWhen it comes to response times, where there is more than one mile between safe places to stop, a national average below 10 minutes was achieved for the first time in September.\n\nOverall, the ORR said that National Highways \"appears to be on course to achieve its key safety target to halve the number of people killed or seriously injured on the SRN [Strategic Road Network] by 2025, compared to a 2005 to 2009 baseline\". The SRN comprises motorways and some A roads in England.\n\nBut it added there was a risk the number of casualties could increase if, as expected, traffic levels rise further in 2022 - as traffic numbers were still affected by the pandemic in 2021.", "Nathaniel Train was a school principal until late last year\n\nTwo Australian men behind a shootout that left six dead were \"obsessed\" with guns in their youth, their father says.\n\nNathaniel and Gareth Train, along with Gareth's wife Stacey, were killed by police on Monday after they shot two police officers and a neighbour.\n\nPolice are investigating whether they set an ambush at the remote property - and their links to conspiracy theories.\n\nOn Thursday, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said radicalisation was likely to have played a role.\n\n\"Radicalisation is not new. But... conspiracy theories, disinformation and misinformation - problems as old as time - are being turbocharged by technology into terrible acts of violence,\" she told parliament.\n\n\"They are presenting a new kind of threat to our national security.\"\n\nPolice have said the trio used \"many weapons\", but are yet to reveal what kind - or a motive for the attack.\n\nRonald Train, speaking for the first time since the shooting, said his sons were not \"monsters\", but had \"completely lost their way in life\" since cutting off their family 20 years ago.\n\nIn an exclusive interview with local television programme A Current Affair, Mr Train said the pair had been interested in weapons since they were young men.\n\n\"Gareth in particular was obsessed... Nathaniel to a lesser degree,\" he said.\n\nHe described Gareth - the older of the two brothers - as a \"difficult\" child who was \"very volatile [and] very controlling\", but said he couldn't fathom how his sons had come to be involved in such a \"horrific\" incident.\n\n\"I just could not understand how something like this could have occurred with two children who had been raised… with certain beliefs, Christian beliefs,\" Mr Train said.\n\nHe also spoke of his surprise at learning Stacey Train, 45, had left her first husband and the father of her children - Nathaniel, 46 - for his brother Gareth, 47.\n\nOfficers were at the property in Wieambilla - 270km (168 miles) west of Brisbane - searching for Nathaniel Train, who had been reported missing, when they were fired upon about 16:30 on Monday.\n\nBoth slain officers were relatively new to the job - Rachel McCrow, 29, and Matthew Arnold, 26\n\nTwo constables - Matthew Arnold and Rachel McCrow - were killed. They were hit immediately then shot again \"execution-style\", the Queensland Police Union head claims.\n\nA third officer was shot and injured, but escaped, and the fourth faced an hours-long ordeal as the suspects attempted to hunt her down, lighting fires to try and flush her out.\n\nAt some point 58-year-old Alan Dare, a neighbour concerned a house was on fire, turned up at the property and was killed by the suspects.\n\nSeveral media outlets reported that Gareth Train appeared to have contributed frequently to online forums which promoted conspiracy theories. In posts he had expressed a distrust of police and wrongly claimed the country's deadliest mass shooting was a government ploy to disarm Australians, the Guardian reported.\n\nAustralia will have to confront \"deep and important policy questions\" in the wake of the shooting, but \"today is a day for grieving\", Ms O'Neil said.\n\nLocal MP and Nationals Party Leader David Littleproud, who grew up in a town near the scene, said the shooting had rocked his community \"to its core\".\n\nThe slain officers were \"young people serving their community - a rich and full life ahead of them\", Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, and Mr Dare was an \"innocent Australian who paid for his kindness and concern with his life\".", "Michael Cox spotted ice pancakes on the Wharfe while walking his dog on Wednesday morning\n\nPlunging temperatures have brought \"ice pancakes\" to a river in North Yorkshire.\n\nThe phenomenon, which is caused when foam floating on the top of a river freezes, was spotted on the River Wharfe near Bolton Priory on Wednesday.\n\nThey were photographed by dog walker Michael Cox, who said he visits the area regularly but had never seen the ice pancakes before.\n\nIt comes as freezing temperatures have gripped the country for several days.\n\nMr Cox, who lives in nearby Silsden, said the riverside walk had been transformed into something of a \"winter wonderland\".\n\n\"There had been a hard frost that day, it was all very picturesque,\" he said\n\nAlthough he had never seen ice pancakes before, he said he knew what he was witnessing having seen previous news stories about the phenomenon.\n\nDays of sub-zero temperatures have allowed the ice pancakes to form\n\nThe distinctive circular shapes are formed when the foam freezes, and the ice chunks then bump into each other and become rounded.\n\nThe spectacle has already been witnessed on a Glasgow river earlier this week, and ice pancakes were also captured on the River Swale in Richmond in 2019.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Poland's top police chief has been hurt after a gift given by Ukrainian officials exploded at his headquarters.\n\nJarosław Szymczyk suffered minor injuries on Wednesday after opening the present at his Warsaw offices.\n\nIt is not clear what the object was but local reports suggested it was a grenade launcher. The officer was given the gift on a recent visit to Ukraine.\n\nPoland has asked for an explanation, but Kyiv has not yet made a public statement on the incident.\n\nThe explosion happened in a room next to the commander-in-chief's office at 07:50 (06:50 GMT) on Wednesday.\n\nA civilian employee at the HQ was also hurt but did not need hospital treatment, Poland's interior ministry said.\n\nThe present was a gift from one of the heads of Ukraine's police and state emergency services who Mr Szymczyk had visited a few days earlier.\n\nThe incident comes a month after a missile strike during an attack by Russia on Ukraine killed two people in Poland close to the Ukrainian border.\n\nNato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the missile was most likely Ukrainian air defence, but that the blame for the deaths lay with Russia due to its attack on Ukraine.\n\nPolish President Andrzej Duda said at the time that the deaths appeared to be an \"unfortunate accident\".\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The missiles Ukraine prosecutors say are being kept as evidence", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nChina has removed six officials from Britain - including one of its most senior UK diplomats - two months after violence at its Manchester consulate.\n\nThe UK had requested the officials waive their right to diplomatic immunity to allow detectives to question them about October's incident.\n\nForeign Secretary James Cleverly expressed his disappointment that none of the six would now face justice.\n\nPro-democracy protester, Bob Chan, a Hongkonger, was injured after being dragged onto the consulate grounds and beaten by men on 16 October.\n\nMr Zheng, who was effectively in charge of China's Manchester outpost, denied attacking Mr Chan after he was identified in photographs, and accused of doing so by a senior Conservative MP.\n\nBut he later told reporters he had been trying to protect his colleagues, adding that Mr Chan was \"abusing my country, my leader. I think it's my duty\".\n\nChina's decision to remove the diplomats is seen by some as an attempt to de-escalate the dispute and avoid further tit-for-tat exchanges between it and the UK.\n\nHowever, the spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said on Wednesday the UK had failed to protect its staff, adding it had launched its own representations with Britain over the incident.\n\nIt said Mr Zheng had returned to China under a \"normal rotation of Chinese consular officials\" after completing a term of office.\n\nUK officials made clear the embassy was fully aware that if the diplomats did not agree to take part in the police investigation, then there would be consequences.\n\nThis is likely to have included the men being declared persona non grata and expelled from the UK.\n\nInstead, China has chosen to avoid that outcome by recalling the diplomats themselves.\n\nMr Cleverly said China's removal of Mr Zheng and five other officials demonstrates the seriousness of the UK's response to the incident.\n\n\"We will continue on the world stage and domestically to abide by the rule of law and we expect others to do likewise,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe added in a written statement to the House of Commons: \"I am disappointed that these individuals will not be interviewed or face justice.\n\n\"Nonetheless, it is right that those responsible for the disgraceful scenes in Manchester are no longer - or will shortly cease to be - consular staff accredited to the UK.\"\n\nThe UK government had informed China the six officials needed to waive their right to diplomatic immunity, a status reserved for foreign diplomats, by this week.\n\nIt followed a request by Greater Manchester Police, Mr Cleverly said.\n\nMr Chan said of the officials' departure: \"It has been two months since I was attacked in Manchester by staff members of the Chinese Consulate.\n\n\"Today, I hear that some members from that consulate have been sent back to China. While it may have taken two months for this to happen, I believe this is one way of solving this complicated diplomatic problem.\n\n\"I relocated to this country with my family to live freely. What happened on 16 October 2022 was unacceptable and illegal, and the withdrawal of these Chinese diplomats gives me a sense of closure.\"\n\nIn theory, diplomatic immunity means officials and their families cannot be arrested or prosecuted for any crime or civil case.\n\nChina had initially claimed that there had been attempts to illegally enter the consulate grounds.\n\nA still from a video shows a scuffle outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester\n\nPolice said at the time that up to 40 protesters had gathered outside the consulate - a smaller diplomatic office that is UK territory but cannot be entered without consent.\n\nGreater Manchester Police said a group of men \"came out of the building and a man was dragged into the consulate grounds and assaulted\".\n\n\"Due to our fears for the safety of the man, officers intervened and removed the victim from the consulate grounds,\" a statement said.\n\nFormer Conservative Party leader, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, said the UK should have formally declared the diplomats persona non grata.\n\n\"The flagrant assault on a peaceful democracy campaigner in Manchester needs more than allowing those responsible to leave the UK uncharged and with their heads held high. Letting China take them back isn't justice,\" he said.\n\n\"We should have kicked them out weeks ago.\"", "Hundreds of floral tributes have been left for the boys near the scene\n\nA six-year-old who was one of four boys to fall into an icy lake near Solihull has died, police have said.\n\nThe three others, aged eight, 10 and 11, who have also died were with the younger child at Babbs Mill Park, in Kingshurst, on Sunday.\n\nWest Midlands Police said it was with \"heartfelt sadness\" it had to report the six-year-old in hospital had \"lost his fight for life\".\n\nHundreds of floral tributes and toys have been left at a site near the lake.\n\nWest Midlands Fire Service, which was also involved in the effort to rescue the boys, said it was \"devastated\" to hear the news.\n\nIt added: \"We wish the family strength and comfort in these tragic circumstances.\"\n\nThe 10-year-old has been named locally as Jack Johnson, but the identities of the other three boys are yet to be confirmed.\n\nSpecialist diving teams were in the water until Tuesday, although police have stressed they have not had reports of anyone else missing.\n\nThey added all searches had now been completed and the cordon would be lifted.\n\nThe 10-year-old boy who died has been named locally as Jack Johnson\n\nOn Wednesday, police said their deepest sympathies were with the families and friends of the children.\n\n\"We cannot comprehend the enormity of the pain they must feel and our hearts go out to them,\" a statement said.\n\nA family member of Jack said all the families involved in the tragedy were suffering \"unimaginable pain\".\n\nHis aunt Charlotte McIlmurray thanked the local community on social media for their support.\n\nMembers of the public and police officers initially went into the water to try to get the children, before they were pulled out by specialist water rescue-trained firefighters. One policeman punched through ice to try to reach the boys.\n\nMourners have continued to visit Kingshurst, with hundreds of cards and gifts left by the community and people paying their respects at a site near Babbs Mill Lake.\n\nOn Wednesday, England footballer Tyrone Mings and his Aston Villa teammate John McGinn went to the scene to lay flowers.\n\nThe footballers visited the growing memorial by Babbs Mill Lake\n\nMings said it was a \"personal decision\" to pay their respects and said: \"I think it's impacted the whole city [of Birmingham].\n\n\"Sometimes, as we've seen with other things that have happened across the city, there are things more important than football,\" he said.\n\n\"We felt it was important to come down here, show our respects and show we were thinking about everything that has happened and the parents that are affected by it.\n\nThe players had been at the club's mid-season training camp in Dubai before returning to the UK ahead of Thursday night's home friendly against Spanish side Villareal.\n\nClub captain McGinn said: \"We were in Dubai when we heard the news and I thought of my nieces and nephews, and the players thought about their kids.\n\n\"It was certainly moving for us.\"\n\nBirmingham City's head coach John Eustace laid a wreath at the memorial on behalf of the team on Tuesday.\n\nSearches took place on Tuesday but have now been completed\n\nThe community in Kingshurst was praised at Prime Minister's Questions earlier, as well as emergency services staff who responded.\n\nSaqib Bhatti, Conservative MP for Meriden, told the Commons the people who he represents had suffered \"an unimaginable tragedy\" and the families were in his thoughts and prayers.\n\nHe asked the prime minister to join him in paying tribute to the community that had \"come together and is supporting each other to get through this tragedy\".\n\n\"And will you recognise the heroic efforts of the emergency services, including the police officer who used his bare hands to try and break through the ice and then jumped in the water with fire service personnel, without the PPE, risking their own lives to save the young children?\" he said.\n\nRishi Sunak sent his condolences to the families and friends of the boys and paid tribute to the emergency services for \"their incredibly selfless actions\".\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Swinney is standing in as finance secretary while Kate Forbes is on maternity leave\n\nThe Scottish government is expected to target the country's higher earners when it unveils its tax and spending plans for next year.\n\nFinance Secretary John Swinney said his budget would include \"decisive action\" to tackle the cost of living crisis.\n\nThis is likely to include cutting the threshold at which people start paying the top 46p rate of income tax from its current level of £150,000.\n\nThere has been speculation that middle earners may also need to pay more.\n\nIncome tax rates in Scotland, as well as several other taxes, are set by the Scottish government rather than by UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.\n\nBBC Scotland political editor Glenn Campbell said the government knows it will be criticised whatever it decides to do on taxation, with the SNP's manifesto at the last Holyrood election promising not to raise income tax rates or bands during this parliamentary term.\n\nBut he said he believed the government would take the view that the political and financial pain would be greater if it did not increase the amount of money it raises from taxation.\n\nHe added: \"I would expect for a start that he will lower the threshold for the top rate of income tax in Scotland - as the UK government has already done.\n\n\"I wouldn't be surprised if he goes much further on tax. I think tax is the key to this budget.\"\n\nMr Hunt announced last month that the UK government would cut the threshold at which people start paying the top rate of tax in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to £125,000, and Mr Swinney is expected to at least match that.\n\nThere have been newspaper reports that the government is also considering raising the 41p and 46p tax rates.\n\nThe Scottish government has frozen the threshold for the 41p higher rate in recent years - it currently begins at £43,663 in Scotland, compared to £50,271 elsewhere in the UK - and could continue to do so.\n\nHowever, it is much less likely to increase the rate that is paid by lower earners, which First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has previously said would be counterproductive in a cost of living crisis.\n\nMr Swinney may opt to change the thresholds where the different income tax rates kick in\n\nMr Swinney said the government would use its taxation powers to the \"maximum extent that is responsible\" and has warned that \"difficult decisions\" will need to be made on funding for public services.\n\nMany departments are expected to be see real-terms cuts as the government continues to grapple with high inflation and interest rates and the cost of economic support measures.\n\nThe deputy first minister - who is standing in as finance secretary while Kate Forbes is on maternity leave - is expected to begin his budget speech at around 14:25.\n\nHe has said his plans would help create a \"fairer, more equal Scotland\" and will help address inequality, create wealth and opportunity and make sure public services remain sustainable.\n\nHowever he has also warned that the country was still facing \"sustained economic pressure\" on public finances.\n\nWhen rising prices, higher than expected pay deals and Ukrainian refugee support ate into the Scottish budget this year, ministers made cuts elsewhere to balance the books.\n\nThe difference now, as they look ahead to another tough year for the public finances, is that they can choose to use devolved tax powers to increase the cash they have to spend.\n\nThere is a clamour for them to do so from the trade union movement and others, while the Conservatives and key business voices are cautioning against putting up tax.\n\nMinisters know they'll be criticised whatever they decide but from my conversations at Holyrood, I think the considered view is that the political and financial pain would be greater if they did not act.\n\nWhile the SNP has a manifesto commitment to avoid increasing income tax rates during this parliament, they left themselves a bit of wriggle room in the small print.\n\nIn any event, they can still increase the tax paid by higher earners by freezing or lowering the thresholds at which the higher and top rates of tax take effect.\n\nIn the previous budget, Ms Forbes gave councils free reign to set local tax rates at whatever level they choose, and this is expected to continue next year.\n\nThe government has also faced calls from firms to freeze the poundage rate of business tax, with the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland saying firms need to be given \"room to breathe and space to grow\".\n\nMr Swinney has said he will prioritise tackling child poverty in his spending plans, as well as moving to a \"net zero\" economy in terms of carbon emissions, and supporting public services in a sustainable way.\n\nHe has also promised to begin a \"fundamental change in the way we manage public spending\", in a bid to make public services and finances \"more sustainable and resilient\".\n\nThe Fraser of Allander Institute - an economic think tank based at the University of Strathclyde - has highlighted that extra funding from the UK Treasury should offset the impact of inflation over the next two financial years.\n\nHowever much of that cash has already been ring-fenced for spending on health services, meaning other departments are still likely to face real-terms cuts.\n\nThe Scottish government is also committed to controversial plans for setting up a new National Care Service, which is estimated to cost between £664m to £1.26bn over the next five years.\n\nAnd ministers will face questions about £20m which had been earmarked to deliver an independence referendum in the next financial year.\n\nThe Supreme Court has since ruled that MSPs cannot set up a vote without Westminster's backing, but the government insists it is committed to offering Scots a choice on their future.\n\nScottish Conservative finance spokeswoman Liz Smith told BBC Scotland that she expected too see tax rises given the \"very difficult fiscal circumstances\".\n\nShe added: \"What I'm much more worried about is the differential between Scotland and the rest of the UK.\n\n\"It is absolutely essential that Scotland is an attractive place to work and live and invest, and if we see a widening of those differentials that affects that attractiveness.\"\n\nScottish Labour called on the government to use its tax powers, as well as cutting internal spending on advisors and spin doctors in order to funnel more cash to households.\n\nFinance spokesman Daniel Johnson said: \"The government will have to look at using its powers flexibly and to the maximum extent it can, and I can't say they always have in previous years.\"\n\nThe Liberal Democrats are calling for extra funding for insulation and energy efficiency, long Covid support and social care.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nFrance were pushed all the way by World Cup wildcards Morocco before the holders sealed a place in Sunday's final against Argentina.\n\nThe first African side to reach a World Cup semi-final refused to buckle, despite suffering the early blows of losing key defender Nayef Aguerd to injury after he was named in the starting line-up, and then going behind to Theo Hernandez's scrambled fifth minute goal.\n\nFor all Morocco's endeavour and spirit, France were more clinical and substitute Randal Kolo Muani ensured they will defend their crown against Argentina and Lionel Messi at Lusail Stadium on Sunday when he turned in Kylian Mbappe's deflected shot 11 minutes from time.\n\nMorocco also lost the clearly unfit Romain Saiss to injury before half-time but, roared on by their fanatical support, they came close to drawing level, especially when Jawad El Yamiq's overhead kick was tipped on to the post by France goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.\n\nFrance, with Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate outstanding, kept their composure in the hothouse atmosphere of Al Bayt Stadium and had chances of their own, Olivier Giroud striking the post in the first half.\n\nDidier Deschamps' side always threatened on the break and so it proved as the lurking Muani finally broke Morocco's resistance late on with his first touch, 44 seconds after coming on, for his maiden France goal.\n• None 'France win sets up the final and Messi-Mbappe duel many wanted'\n• None 'No tears just pride' as Moroccan dreams shattered\n• None World Cup Daily podcast: All the analysis after France beat Morocco to set up Argentina final\n\nFrance needed to keep their nerve to stay on course to become the first country to retain the World Cup for 60 years, following Brazil's triumphs in 1958 and 1962.\n\nThey faced a wall of sound from Morocco's support, with ear-splitting whistles every time they had possession - and while it was not a classic performance, France remained organised and got the job done to set up a final of two giants to conclude this Qatar World Cup.\n\nKonate, in for Dayot Upamecano, who was short of match fitness, epitomised French solidity and coach Deschamps will be hard pushed make a change in that crucial defensive position on Sunday.\n\nAnd, of course, the narrative of Mbappe against Messi will come to a climax on Sunday as France try to repeat their 2018 triumph, when they beat Croatia in the final in Moscow.\n\nThe understated Deschamp has put together a France team spearheaded by the brilliant Mbappe, and they rode their luck at times.\n\nFrance, however, are in another World Cup final and the 54-year-old Deschamps, who captained them when they claimed the crown on home soil in 1998, now has the chance to become only the second coach to win the tournament twice.\n• None His World Cup record is little known - and now under threat\n\nMorocco's players and coaching staff were given a huge and prolonged ovation from their supporters, who have been a real highlight of this World Cup, when they went towards them to take the acclaim after the final whistle.\n\nAnd it was completely deserved after yet another performance of talent and character which showed exactly why they have been such a glorious surprise package at this World Cup.\n\nMorocco coach Walid Regragui could have been forgiven for feeling the fates were against them after losing crucial players before and shortly after kick-off, as well as going behind.\n\nNot a bit of it.\n\nInspired by the magnificent Sofyan Amrabat, Morocco redoubled their efforts and were so close to restoring parity when El Yamiq's effort was pushed on to the post.\n\nMorocco also had a clear penalty appeal waved aside in the first half when goalscorer Hernandez flattened Sofiane Boufal in the area. Not only was the spot-kick not given, but Boufal was mystifyingly shown a yellow card.\n\nStill Morocco pushed after the break, but they wasted opportunities with a reluctance to shoot, a failing that left them vulnerable to a second France goal, which duly came.\n\nMorocco may have finally been beaten but what a ride this has been for the World Cup and for African football as they beat Belgium, Spain and Portugal - three of the global game's elite - on the way to the last four.\n\nThis is a wonderful platform to build on and Morocco have given their fans World Cup memories they will treasure for ever after this campaign in Qatar.\n• None Offside, Morocco. Hakim Ziyech tries a through ball, but Zakaria Aboukhlal is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Abderrazak Hamdallah (Morocco) left footed shot from very close range is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Azzedine Ounahi (Morocco) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Abdessamad Ezzalzouli.\n• None Attempt blocked. Azzedine Ounahi (Morocco) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Azzedine Ounahi (Morocco) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.\n• None Attempt blocked. Abdessamad Ezzalzouli (Morocco) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.\n• None Offside, Morocco. Azzedine Ounahi tries a through ball, but Zakaria Aboukhlal is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Zakaria Aboukhlal (Morocco) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Yahya Attiat-Allah with a cross.\n• None Abderrazak Hamdallah (Morocco) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Goal! France 2, Morocco 0. Randal Kolo Muani (France) right footed shot from very close range to the centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt blocked. Kylian Mbappé (France) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Marcus Thuram. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "John Swinney is to outline the Scottish government's tax and spending plans for the next year as the country grapples with a cost of living crisis and soaring inflation.\n\nSome of what the finance secretary announces could affect your take-home pay - while other decisions will have an impact on Scotland's public services.\n\nBBC Scotland asked some of our experts what the key things to look out for in the budget could be.\n\nAt Westminster, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is freezing income tax thresholds while holding the rates steady. That is a substantial stealth tax on earners as their pay goes through these thresholds, and with inflation, many people are doing just that.\n\nNot to freeze thresholds in Scotland would be a tax giveaway, relative to England at least. It would be difficult financially not to follow the Chancellor in doing that, and politically it would be odd not to take that more progressive approach.\n\nMr Hunt also reduced the threshold at which additional rate is paid at 45p for each extra pound earned. That is coming down from £150,000, which is the level it has been at for more than a decade, to just over £125,000. Again, it would be odd for the SNP, which levies that tax at a rate of 46p in the pound, not to do something similar.\n\nFor higher earners, Scotland already has a higher tax rate than the rest of the UK, by 1p in the pound. Mr Swinney could choose to raise that further. But higher tax, while household budgets are being squeezed by inflation, could harm efforts to return the economy to growth.\n\nOther important decisions include council tax. Will Mr Swinney constrain the ability of councils to raise their tax bills, as he did for several years as finance secretary? While Green MSPs are pressing for major reform of council tax, there's a lot more talking before that happens.\n\nHaving missed seven of the last eleven targets on reducing emissions, the Scottish government's climate credentials are very much at stake in this budget.\n\nMinisters took a major hammering last week from the Climate Change Committee which said there was no delivery plan for cutting harmful greenhouse gases and progress on delivery had stalled.\n\nAs campaigners will point out, time to act is rapidly running out with Holyrood legally committed to cutting emissions by 75% by 2030.\n\nThe response last week from ministers was that a climate change plan next year will set out its stall but that won't take effect until after 2030.\n\nWhat the committee wants is an immediate ramping up of action and that costs money.\n\nGreen minister Patrick Harvie recently announced grants of up to £7,500 for people to install heat pumps which is a vital step away from heating our homes with gas.\n\nBut the budget for that - £42m - will only enable the conversion of 5,600 of the 2.67 million homes in Scotland.\n\nSo the cost of change is colossal and this will be the moment where we'll see if the first minister is prepared to put her money where her mouth is.\n\nHealth and social care receives by far the biggest share of the Scottish budget - £18bn last year - but the Audit Scotland public spending watchdog has consistently warned it is financially unsustainable.\n\nThere are so many competing interests for the money, from energy to heat 1,500 buildings to policy commitments such as funding a new National Care Service.\n\nThe cost of medicines and drugs last year was £2.7bn and there are ever-growing numbers of patients needing treatment.\n\nBut the highest spend is on staff at £8.6bn for 2020/2021 - £1bn more than the previous year.\n\nThe government has already made cuts in primary care, mental health and Covid spending to cover an increased pay offer to staff and strikes have so far been averted, unlike other parts of the UK.\n\nBut while some unions have accepted the new offer, others like the Royal College of Nursing are still consulting members and have threatened to strike.\n\nWith the need to recruit even more staff to meet demand the question for this budget will be what has to give to pay for it?\n\nThe plan for a new National Care Service would end the \"postcode lottery\" for social care, claims the Scottish government.\n\nOthers argue the proposals don't go far enough to address poor pay for carers and inequities in a system largely run for profit.\n\nHowever the service ends up, concerns were raised by Holyrood's finance committee about a lack of clarity on the actual costs of delivering reform of Scotland's care sector by 2026.\n\nAudit Scotland believes the Scottish government's cost predictions of £500m are \"understated\".\n\nJohn Swinney now faces a choice of whether to spend tens of millions this year toward setting up the new service of tomorrow, or whether to hold that funding back for the problems of today.\n\nThat might include increasing support for the poorest families during the cost of living crisis, with many households struggling to cope with rising energy bills.\n\nThe Child Payment has already increased by 150% since its introduction last year and is claimed by nine out of 10 families who qualify for the benefit.\n\nWhen it was extended to include under-16s two months ago, the avalanche of applications temporarily crashed the website.\n\nWith charity Child Poverty Action Group claiming that rising costs are still outstripping additional Holyrood support, Mr Swinney may choose to increase funding for families facing poverty.", "Heavy snow on the A9 towards Perth\n\nThe wintry weather is set to continue across much of Scotland, with warnings of further snow and ice.\n\nFollowing sub-zero conditions in some areas on Saturday, more snow is likely on Sunday.\n\nThe Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings for the whole country that are in place until 21:00 on Sunday.\n\nIt comes after heavy snow fell across central Scotland on Friday, causing disruption for commuters.\n\nSome of the worst conditions were seen on the A9 around Dunblane and the A83 and A85 in Argyll and Bute.\n\nPolice received numerous reports of vehicles getting stuck on the A82 and A85 near Crianlarich due to the conditions.\n\nA rest centre was set up at Crianlarich Village Hall and 58 people stayed there overnight.\n\nThe roads were later cleared and vehicles freed, allowing those at the rest centre to return home on Saturday morning.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Andreas G. Wolff, MA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nInsp Barbara Hughes, of Stirling Police Station, said: \"Thanks to the hard work of our officers and our partners we have been able to clear the roads and allow those people whose vehicles were stuck on the A82 and A85 last night to return home.\n\n\"I would also like to thank the local volunteers who assisted those at the village hall for their kindness in supplying resources and refreshments.\"\n\nShe reminded everyone to plan ahead and have sufficient fuel and supplies such as warm clothing, food, water, and a fully charged mobile phone.\n\nAt some points on Friday, the M73, M80, M8 and M90 were also affected affected by snow and ice.\n\nPolice issued a travel warning for the whole of Scotland and advised people to travel with caution.\n\nThere were tricky conditions for commuters on the M80 northbound on Friday\n\nBBC Weather Watcher Nellington woke up on Friday to a blanket of snow in Methven\n\nAll Megabus and Scottish Citylink services northbound from Glasgow and Edinburgh were temporarily suspended until the A9 and M90 reopened at midday.\n\nGlasgow Airport's runway was closed on Friday until 11:30 while it was cleared of snow and ice. Some flights were severely delayed or cancelled.\n\nSome schools were closed in the Highlands, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Aberdeenshire, Orkney, and Perth and Kinross.\n\nMelissa Kelly said travelling to work was a struggle\n\nMelissa Kelly, a nurse at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, told BBC Scotland that road conditions on her way to work were \"absolutely horrendous\".\n\nShe said some staff have not been able to get in for their shift.\n\nTransport bosses said 240 gritters were deployed from 40 depots across the country.\n\nA major incident was declared in Shetland earlier in the week when thousands were left without power, while more than 100 schools were closed in Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Highlands.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nEight children were among the 39 people rescued from a migrant boat which began sinking in the Channel on Wednesday, according to a government source.\n\nThe figure is different to one given by Kent County Council, which earlier said 12 children had been on the boat and been taken into care.\n\nA teenager was among four people who died, while four others remain missing, a meeting at the council heard.\n\nThey were on a packed vessel which started sinking in freezing waters.\n\nCrews on a nearby fishing boat and lifeboats helped with the rescue.\n\nA search operation for the four people believed to be still missing came to an end at 17:00 GMT on Thursday, the Coastguard said.\n\nThe Maritime and Coastguard Agency said vessels in the area had been asked to post lookouts and report sightings to the Dover Coastguard.\n\nFootage from Wednesday's rescue showed the inflatable boat filling with water as some dressed only in T-shirts and thin lifejackets screamed for help.\n\nThe video - shared by Ben Squire, the owner of the fishing trawler- showed the crew of the fishing boat pulling people up out of the water and the boat with ropes.\n\nThose rescued from the dinghy said they had each paid £5,000 to cross the channel, the BBC has been told.\n\nMr Squire said that after hauling people to safety, the crew offered them clothes and hot showers, and fed them to help warm them up.\n\nCharles Blyth, the safety officer at the company which owns the trawler, said it was \"sheer coincidence\" it was in the right place for the rescue.\n\n\"As soon as the individuals on that dinghy saw [our] fishing vessel, many of them started to jump off and swim,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\nHe said crew members onboard had been trained in emergency care for people going overboard.\n\nLifeboat crews that arrived at the scene 10 minutes after the fishing trawler encountered a \"horrific\" and \"distressing situation\", the RNLI's head of lifeboats said on Thursday.\n\nSimon Ling thanked the \"invaluable\" actions of the fishing vessel, saying crew members had saved \"countless lives\".\n\nTemperatures at the time had dropped below 1C and were likely to have been colder out at sea.\n\nOn Thursday, French maritime officials said \"around 10 precarious boats\" had attempted the Channel crossing overnight into Wednesday.\n\nOfficials said several of them contacted emergency services during the night and French authorities monitored the progress of the boats.\n\nInformation was shared with the Dover Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC), which co-ordinated the eventual rescue.\n\nThey provided a detailed timeline of the boat's sinking and rescue.\n\nOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his sorrow at the \"tragic loss of human life\".\n\nIn a joint statement, the UK and France pledged to \"destroy\" the business model of people-smuggling gangs.\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman and her French counterpart Gérald Darmanin said the tragedy highlighted the need to jointly prevent the crossings.\n\nIn November 2021, at least 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK from France.\n\nSome 460 people made the journey from France to Kent in small boats between Friday and Sunday, the BBC's Simon Jones said.\n\nNearly 45,000 people have made the journey this year so far.\n\nIt is not known where the children that were rescued have been taken, but Kent County Council works with the Home Office and police in the safeguarding of vulnerable children.", "Jack Johnson (left), brothers Finlay and Samuel Butler and Thomas Stewart died after falling into the icy lake\n\nTwo young brothers and their cousin were three of the four boys who died when they plunged into an icy lake in the West Midlands.\n\nFinlay Butler, eight, and his younger brother Samuel, six, died, as did their cousin Thomas Stewart, 11, and another boy, Jack Johnson, 10.\n\nThey were pulled from water at Babbs Mill Park, near Solihull, on Sunday.\n\nThe families of the three young relatives have paid tribute to their \"beautiful boys\".\n\n\"As a family we are devastated at the loss of our beautiful boys Tom, Fin and Sam in such tragic circumstances,\" said their parents in a statement released by West Midlands Police.\n\n\"We would like to thank the emergency services for all they did in rescuing the boys and to the community for their support - it has been overwhelming.\n\n\"We would like to pass on our condolences to Jack's family at this very sad time, and ask for privacy from the media to begin to grieve.\"\n\nJack, Finlay and Thomas died in hospital on Sunday.\n\nOn Wednesday, police confirmed the youngest of the boys Sam had also died.\n\nThomas's older brother released a tribute to his \"beautiful\" and \"lively\" sibling with \"such a big heart\".\n\n\"He loved being outside playing with his mates. I love you Tom, big bro will take care of the family and I will see you soon,\" it said.\n\n\"Make sure you keep practising on warzone and get a win, will you?\"\n\nWriting before he learned his younger cousin had also died, the boy added he could not forget \"dinosaur man, Fin\".\n\n\"He loved dinosaurs so much and always showing me new things he built on Minecraft, and all the new stuff he learnt on it. Gonna miss you little man.\"\n\nAmbulance workers who tried to help the boys laid flowers at the scene\n\nSt Anthony's Catholic Primary School, where Jack was a pupil, said its community remained \"in a state of shock\" at the tragic news.\n\n\"Jack was a loving, bubbly pupil with a heart of gold. Someone who would always check in on others and make sure they were doing OK,\" said head teacher Cieran Flaherty.\n\n\"He was a joy to teach and a child who we are all so very proud of. A ray of sunshine who would never fail to make us all smile. We can only say thank you to him for brightening up our lives.\"\n\nStaff from the school visited the scene on Thursday to pay their own tributes.\n\nDr Toby Close, associate head teacher at Park Hall Academy, confirmed the death of their pupil, 11-year-old Thomas, \"with the heaviest of hearts\".\n\n\"Tom was a well-liked, caring pupil with real character who went out of his way to look after those around him,\" he said.\n\n\"He was a fiercely loyal friend to so many in our school community. In the short time he was at Park Hall, his outgoing personality, energy and wit shone through.\n\n\"We will miss him brightening every day with his great sense of humour. He radiated a love for learning with his infectious smile and enthusiastic manner.\"\n\nHundreds of tributes have been left near the shore of the lake in Babbs Mill Park, Kingshurst\n\nEarlier on Thursday a mass was held as a \"beautiful tribute to Jack\", St Anthony's Primary School tweeted.\n\n\"We were joined by Jack's family and our school family,\" it said.\n\nFirefighters from Sheldon fire station also attended the service. Crews from the station were among those who had tried to rescue the boys on Sunday.\n\nAmbulance workers who had tried to save the four boys placed a wreath near the scene.\n\n\"We are all human,\" said assistant chief officer Nathan Hudson.\n\n\"Nobody comes to work to perform advanced care on four children that have drowned in a lake, so it's a very difficult moment for them professionally.\"\n\nA police cordon at the scene of the accident was lifted on Wednesday evening, after specialist diving teams completed their searches.\n\nSupt Rich Harris, of West Midlands Police, said officers would remain in the area over the coming days.\n\n\"This is a tragedy beyond words and a grief that is unimaginable for the families and friends of the boys,\" added Supt Harris.\n\n\"The support from the community has been overwhelming, not just for the bereaved families, but also for the emergency services, for which we are extremely grateful.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "The air in London's Tube network is polluted with metallic particles small enough to enter the human bloodstream, according to a study.\n\nResearchers at the University of Cambridge analysed dust samples from ticket halls, platforms and train driver cabins.\n\nHigh levels were found of a type of iron oxide called maghemite.\n\nThe academics did not investigate whether the particles pose a direct health risk.\n\nThe findings, however, could be used in future studies.\n\nThe university's earth sciences department concluded the presence of maghemite particles indicated they are suspended for long periods due to poor ventilation, particularly on platforms.\n\nPaddington Tube station was one of the places samples were taken\n\nSamples were collected in 2019 and 2021 from stations including Oxford Circus, King's Cross St Pancras and Paddington.\n\nPollution levels are normally monitored using standard air filters, which cannot capture ultrafine particles or identify particles. Some of the particles had a diameter of just five nanometres, making them small enough to be inhaled.\n\nProf Richard Harrison, senior author of the study, said: \"If you're going to answer the question of whether these particles are bad for your health, you first need to know what the particles are made of and what their properties are.\n\n\"Our techniques give a much more refined picture of pollution in the Underground.\n\n\"We can measure particles that are small enough to be inhaled and enter the bloodstream.\n\n\"Typical pollution-monitoring doesn't give you a good picture of the very small stuff.\"\n\nTransport for London's chief safety officer Lilli Matson said: \"We have been working for many years to improve air quality on the Tube, and will continue to do so.\n\n\"Our monitoring has shown that dust levels on the Tube remain well below limits set by the Health and Safety Executive, but we are going further and have developed a number of cleaning regimes.\n\n\"This includes the use of industrial backpack dust cleaners, which are one part of our multimillion-pound Tube cleaning programme.\"", "Campaigners have previously held rallies outside the Scottish Parliament\n\nThe screening of a controversial film about transgender rights has been cancelled by the University of Edinburgh following student protests.\n\nGender-critical documentary Adult Human Female was due to be shown at a lecture hall in George Square on Wednesday.\n\nBut the event was called off due to safety concerns after protesters formed a blockade. Police were called but no arrests were made.\n\nThe university said it stood by its decision to let the event go ahead.\n\nAdult Human Female, made by independent filmmakers Deirdre O'Neill and Mike Wayne, is billed as an \"explainer about the issues, how far things have already changed for the worse for women and how difficult it has been to be heard, to be listened to\".\n\nThe University and College Union Edinburgh and the university's LGBT+ Pride Society had urged the university's principal, Peter Mathieson, to stop the event being held.\n\nThe union raised concerns that the film contained content that was \"a clear attack on trans people's identities\". It also said the documentary breached the university's dignity and respect guidelines.\n\nAbout a dozen protesters lined up at the entrance of the lecture hall to prevent the viewing. A showing at an alternative venue was again thwarted by activists.\n\nThose in favour of the event chanted \"women won't wheesht\" in response.\n\nStudents staged a protest at a lecture theatre in the university's George Square campus\n\nThe university's Pride Society said it backed the protest by an \"unaffiliated activist group\". A spokesperson told BBC Scotland: \"The occupation and all protests around it make it clear that students of the University of Edinburgh will not tolerate transphobia on campus.\"\n\nThe event was organised by University of Edinburgh Academics for Academic Freedom (AFAF), which is made up of university staff. It branded the cancellation a \"temporary victory for censorious bullies\" and vowed to rearrange the screening for early next year.\n\nA university spokesperson said: \"We stand by our decision to let AFAF hold the screening of Adult Human Female. As part of our commitment to freedom of expression and academic freedom, it is our duty to make sure staff and students feel able to discuss controversial topics and that each event allows for debate.\n\n\"In line with our commitment to fostering an inclusive, supportive and safe environment for our whole community, we put measures in place to mitigate any risks associated with the event. However, when it became clear that safety could no longer be guaranteed for all present it was decided that the event should not continue.\"\n\nThey added: \"We always encourage respectful debate and discussion whenever there are differences of view or opinion and ensure that attendees of all events are aware of, and comply with, the university's dignity and respect policy, so that those wanting to attend feel able to contribute.\"\n\nShereen Benjamin, a founding member of the group and senior lecturer in primary education, had been due to join a panel discussion at the event in her role as a member of the Labour Women's Declaration working group, which works to \"raise the profile of women's sex-based rights\".\n\nShe was to be joined by Susan Smith, co-director of For Women Scotland, a campaign group which opposes the Scottish government's gender reform plans.\n\nA Police Scotland spokesperson confirmed it was called to a report of a demonstration at George Square on Wednesday at about 18:00, but no arrests were made. \"Officers attended and engaged with those present,\" they said.\n\nLegislation that aims to make it easier for people in Scotland to change their legally recognised gender is currently being considered by MSPs.\n\nThe controversial proposals were previously shelved in the face of opposition from some senior SNP politicians and high-profile figures such as author JK Rowling.\n\nBut the SNP resurrected the plans after its victory in the last Holyrood election.", "People should go into stores rather than rely on online shopping if they want to get Christmas gifts on time, retailers have said, as postal strikes delay parcel deliveries.\n\n\"That's the advice we're giving,\" the boss of bookseller Waterstones said.\n\nShopping in store will ensure \"certainty\", the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) said.\n\nIt comes as Royal Mail staff continue strike action, in a row over pay and conditions.\n\nPostal workers are walking out again on Thursday, marking the fourth of six strike days across the festive season.\n\nAs a result, letters and parcel deliveries are being delayed.\n\nMany larger retailers have their own distribution networks or deals with courier firms.\n\nBut the UK's largest book chain, Waterstones, is warning customers on its website that the Royal Mail strikes are likely to result in \"some delay to our quoted delivery times\".\n\nIts chief executive, James Daunt, told the BBC that buying books in shops is the best option given the strike disruption.\n\nWaterstones is urging people to buy in store if they want things in time for Christmas\n\n\"If people want to be certain of getting deliveries in time for Christmas, they need to go into stores,\" Mr Daunt said. \"That's definitely the advice we're giving.\"\n\nWaterstones has more than 300 stores across the UK, leaving it in a very different position to those retailers who don't have a physical presence, as he acknowledged.\n\n\"I know it's easy for us to say go into shops, as we're a national retailer,\" he said.\n\n\"It's the independent retailers all over the country who will be suffering the most from this. I feel desperately sorry for them.\n\n\"For national retailers, it's more swings and roundabouts. What we lose online, we make in stores.\"\n\nAndrew Goodacre, the chair of Bira, said that if customers want to be confident of getting their Christmas gifts on time, their best bet was to go and buy them in person.\n\n\"To ensure you get your Christmas gifts on time, we are advising people to go into shops,\" Mr Goodacre told the BBC.\n\n\"We would always say that anyway as we'd always promote a healthy vibrant High Street, but when there's so much disruption, not just with postal strikes, but rail strikes too, if customers want certainty on Christmas orders, best to order online, and collect in store.\"\n\nBut Mr Goodacre warned that it was a difficult situation for small retailers, many of whom will be reliant on Royal Mail to make deliveries.\n\nHe said retailers would have been hoping to maximise sales at Christmas time, and the strikes could make that harder.\n\n\"They will do their best but it's a challenge they could do without.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the Booksellers Association said the \"uncertainty\" around parcel delivery dates was likely to push people into shops to get their Christmas gifts.\n\n\"This could have the positive consequence of creating more traffic on High Streets and more footfall for bricks-and-mortar retailers,\" said Meryl Halls, managing director of the group.\n\n\"If the silver lining from the very challenging situation around Royal Mail strikes does help produce busy local High Streets this Christmas, many bookshops will be pleased to welcome the increased traffic.\"\n\nHowever, not all retailers are being affected by the strike.\n\nEarlier this month, electrical goods chain Currys said it had stopped using Royal Mail for parcel deliveries due to the walkouts.\n\nOn Thursday, Currys chief executive Alex Baldock told the BBC's Today programme that its \"supply chain is in good shape\" and customers could continue to order online from the company.\n\nThe postal worker walkouts coincide with the busiest time of year for Royal Mail when people and businesses are sending Christmas cards and presents.\n\nSome parcel companies claim the walkouts are having a knock-on effect, and forcing them to delay next-day deliveries as people and firms seek alternative ways to send their post.\n\nAs well as holding strikes this week, 115,000 Royal Mail workers from the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will also take industrial action on 23 December and Christmas Eve.\n\nThe dispute has been going on since the summer and like all the industrial action across rail, the NHS, teachers, border staff and driving examiners, pay is a key issue.\n\nMany workers are seeking wage rises as the cost of living soars. The rate at which prices are rising, known as inflation, is running at nearly 11%, which remains close to a 40-year high.\n\nA spokesman for Royal Mail said the company had made a \"best and final pay offer worth up to 9% over 18 months\".\n\n\"Instead of working with us to agree on changes required to fund that offer and get pay into our posties' pockets, the CWU has announced plans to ballot in the New Year for further strike action.\"\n\nBut a spokesman for the CWU said that Royal Mail had offered workers a 3% pay rise this year, 3% next year, and an additional 2% if employees agree to \"the absolute destruction\" of terms and conditions.\n\nThe union has said the strikes are partly about the \"Uberisation\" of the postal service, including \"widespread changes... introducing Uber-style owner-drivers, mail centre closures and changes to Sunday working\".", "Teddies, flowers and candles have been left at a tree near the lake in Kingshurst, Solihull\n\nChristmas lights twinkling on one side, blue police tape on the other. The lake in between the scene of utter devastation just weeks before Christmas.\n\nThree boys aged eight, 10 and 11 were playing on the icy water at the beauty spot near Solihull in the West Midlands on Sunday afternoon when they fell in.\n\nHeroic actions from the public and emergency services - they raced down on foot and jumped into the freezing water, and one police officer tried to punch through the ice - were sadly not enough.\n\nAfter being pulled from Babbs Mills Lake, the children later died. A fourth boy, aged six, died days later in hospital.\n\nBut what has become apparent in the midst of this tragedy is a tight-knit community pulling together to help one another.\n\nAbout nine miles to the east of Birmingham, Kingshurst is an area that has faced hardship - financial and food insecurities have been cited by some - but at the heart of it is a thriving community spirit, with families from as many as five generations living here.\n\nHeartwarming tales have emerged of centres, churches and the local scout hut opening their doors and residents offering food and hot drinks to the emergency services as they worked into the night searching the water.\n\nComfort Konfor says her children go to the same school as the boys who died and are similar ages\n\nMother-of-four Comfort Konfor said she had found out what had happened late on Sunday night via her children's school, and was at the Connection Church Centre in Kingshurst on Monday.\n\nNew to the area, she praised the local community for coming together.\n\n\"It's a very wonderful community. People are lovely, they are friendly,\" she said.\n\n\"Here, it's not been empty since, people are walking in and out. Everybody is concerned and taking it personally and taking ownership of the whole thing.\"\n\nTalking about the tragedy, she added: \"It's a sickening situation. The moment I heard of it I got dizzy, almost fainting because the first thing that came to mind was 'they could be my children'. It's a big shock.\n\n\"I couldn't sleep last night. I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of the parents, what must they be going through right now?\n\n\"It's really a sad situation. Was it foreseeable, could it have been avoided? How many children have gone, just like that? Something could be done to stop this happening again in future.\"\n\nA woman lays flowers among the tribute left near the park in Kingshurst\n\nA vigil was held on Monday night for the boys who died\n\nChurch Pastor Emil Kerekes was quick to open their doors to the community on Sunday.\n\nHe said: \"It was a heavy atmosphere [on Sunday night]. Everyone was shocked to hear what was happening. Knowing there were some children involved you can imagine the feeling.\n\n\"I woke up and thought 'why not open the church for the community' and if they want to come and have a chat about what's happening, have a drink and be a support for them. People are feeling down and want to talk to somebody.\n\n\"We need each other and we need to stand up for each other.\"\n\nDozens of local people, including many schoolchildren, placed bunches of flowers and balloons in tribute to the three boys at the base of a tree near the northern entrance to Babbs Mill nature park.\n\nMother-of-four Katie O'Driscoll, who was accompanied by her five-year-old daughter, said: \"Anyone that has got kids can really relate to that; we feel heartbroken as a community. The whole community cares - they will be kids that we know because we are a close-knit community.\n\n\"It's affected everybody. It's devastating and it's sad.\"\n\nAmie Hopkins was at the church to offer her support to the local community\n\nAmie Hopkins was also at the church offering support to those who needed it.\n\nShe said: \"I've got a 12-year-old boy myself that probably would have done something similar as well. It really hits home when you hear they're children of similar ages to your own that have lost their lives so close to Christmas as well.\n\n\"It's a tragic loss to the community and something you wouldn't expect to happen from children having some harmless fun.\n\n\"It's heartbreaking, the loss of such young children from the community and in such a tragic way.\"\n\nJo Cole has lived in Kingshurt for 27 years and has run projects in the area to raise awareness of some of the issues it is facing, such as food insecurity and financial insecurity.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio WM, she said: \"One of the marvellous things about Kingshurst is that it's so tight as a community. We have got quite a lot of difficulties around us that we're dealing with.\n\n\"We're sending out all our love as a community. We pull together and we work together. We're a good bunch over here.\"\n\nBorough councillor for Kingshurst Marcus Brain said the whole community was in \"absolute shock\" and devastated.\n\n\"It's going to take a long time to sink in. We are all in a complete state of shock,\" he said.\n\nHe described Kingshurst as a very close-knit community where everyone knew everybody and with families who had been there for five generations.\n\nHe added: \"The local community has rallied around amazingly and supported the emergency services as best they can.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Gunna had been due to face trial accused of taking part in criminal gang activities\n\nRapper Gunna has been released from jail in the US after he agreed to enter a guilty plea to a gang-related charge.\n\nAccording to his lawyer, Gunna maintains his innocence despite pleading guilty.\n\nThe 29-year-old, real name Sergio Kitchens, was among 28 people linked to Atlanta record label YSL arrested in May.\n\nThey include fellow rapper Young Thug, who is set to face trial next month accused of criminal gang activity.\n\nIn a statement released through defence attorney Steve Sadow, Gunna says he took an Alford plea.\n\nUnder US law, defendants can enter a guilty plea to avoid a trial - where they face much harsher sentences - even if they don't admit the crime they're accused of.\n\nGunna, who had been held in an Atlanta jail, says he has not co-operated with prosecutors or made statements against anyone else named in the case against him.\n\n\"[I] have absolutely NO intention of being involved in the trial process in any way,\" he says.\n\nFederal prosecutors in the US have accused YSL - Young Stoner Life - Records of being a front for organised crime.\n\nThey claim the label, founded by Young Thug, is responsible for \"75 to 80% of violent crime\" in Atlanta, where it's based.\n\nGunna says he joined YSL in 2016 but did not consider it a gang.\n\nInstead, he says, he believed it was a \"group of people from metro Atlanta who had common interests and artistic aspirations\".\n\n\"My focus of YSL was entertainment - rap artists who wrote and performed music that exaggerated and 'glorified' urban life in the black community.\" he says.\n\nYoung Thug, aka Jeffery Lamar Williams, is due to face trial next month\n\nAccording to Mr Sadow, Gunna has been given a four-year suspended sentence and banned from having any contact with his co-defendants unless it is via his lawyers or record label.\n\nHe has also been ordered to perform 500 hours of community service.\n\nMuch of this will involve talking to young people about the hazards of gangs, the lawyer says.\n\nIn his statement, Gunna says this will give him \"an opportunity to give back to my community and educate young men and women that 'gangs' and violence only lead to destruction\".\n\nPushin P - the song by Gunna and Future, featuring Young Thug - has been nominated for a 2023 Grammy.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.\n• None How a rapper's own lyrics landed him in jail", "French football fans were seen celebrating across the country after their 2-0 World Cup semi-final win over Morocco.\n\nThe mood was a lot more sombre among supporters of the North African side.\n\nFrance, the reigning champions, will face Argentina in the final on Sunday.", "A police officer told the court Mr Love's DNA profile had been found on a number of items from the scene\n\nA 28-year-old man has appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of two police officers in a bomb attack in County Tyrone.\n\nCharlie Love, of Bridge Street, Strabane, is charged with two counts of attempted murder as well as charges of causing an explosion and possessing explosives.\n\nThe charges are in connection with an attack on police in Strabane on 17 November.\n\nMr Love has been remanded into custody.\n\nAt Dungannon Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, a detective inspector told the court he could connect the accused to the charges.\n\nMr Love spoke only to confirm he understood the charges.\n\nThe court heard that at 22:58 GMT on 17 November, a police patrol in Strabane experienced \"a large flash and a loud bang\" as their vehicle passed through the Mount Carmel area of the town.\n\nThe detective told the court that officers discovered a crater at a building site during follow up searches.\n\nThey heard that further forensic tests showed that a military grade explosive was used.\n\nA command wire leading to what police believe was a firing point close to a tree stump was also found, the officer said.\n\nA drill and wiring, which detectives believed to be the trigger mechanism, were also discovered, the court was told.\n\nThe detective inspector also told the court there was CCTV evidence of a figure wearing dark clothing running away after the explosion and down an alleyway.\n\nPolice forensics officers searched the area close to where the explosion happened\n\nMr Love was arrested on 18 November and his mobile phone seized.\n\nThe detective said Mr Love made no comment during several interviews and was later released.\n\nThe court was told that forensic testing of several items - including the trigger of the firing mechanism, the drill, the command wire closest to the firing mechanism and a metal post at the site of the explosion -all revealed a DNA profile matching that of Mr Love.\n\nA barrister for the accused challenged the DNA connection and asked was it not the case that \"DNA is a very transmittable product and that a sample can be taken and planted?\"\n\nThe detective inspector answered that he was not a forensic scientist and the question was not something he could answer.\n\nDistrict Judge Alanah McSorley ruled the test for connection had been made.\n\nThe detective opposed an application for bail.\n\nHe said police believed Mr Love could continue \"to engage in terrorist activity\" and added that people in Strabane were afraid to help with the investigation into the attack.\n\nThe court heard Mr Love was a \"vulnerable adult\" who had been accompanied during police interviews by an appropriate adult.\n\nThe 28-year-old was arrested again on 13 December.\n\nThe detective inspector told the court Mr Love was \"an extremely dangerous individual\" who was involved with the political party Saoradh - which police believe is the political wing of the New IRA.\n\nHe had taken part in a protest outside Strabane police station on 25 November, the court was told.\n\nThe detective said the New IRA said it carried out the attack in Strabane.\n\nJudge McSorley said that there was a risk of further offending and refused bail.\n\nThe accused was remanded in custody to appear again on 5 January.", "Boris Johnson was paid £215,000 to give a speech at a summit in Lisbon\n\nBoris Johnson has made more than £1m from giving speeches since leaving No 10, parliamentary records show.\n\nThe former prime minister was paid £754,000 for three speeches in America, India and Portugal last month, according to the latest register of MPs' interests.\n\nIt comes on top of £276,000 he made from a speech in October.\n\nThe records also show he and his family have continued to receive accommodation from Tory donor Lord Bamford.\n\nMr Johnson registered a further £3,500 in accommodation from the JCB boss and his wife Carole for November and December.\n\nThat was in addition to the £37,000 for accommodation he had previously registered from the couple since leaving office in September.\n\nThe couple donated £23,853 towards a summer wedding celebration for Mr Johnson and his wife Carrie, who married last year.\n\nA previous entry specified it covered the cost of hiring a marquee, portable toilets, waiting staff, flowers, a South African BBQ and an ice cream van.\n\nAccording to the latest update to the register, Mr Johnson was paid £277,723 by New York-based investment banking firm Centerview Partners for a speech on 9 November.\n\nHe then received £261,652 from the Hindustan Times for a speech on 17 November, and £215,275 from Portuguese TV station Televisao Independente for a speech on 23 November during the CNN Global Summit in Lisbon.\n\nMr Johnson was replaced as prime minister by Liz Truss in September, after his resignation in June.\n\nHis downfall followed a mass revolt by ministers over controversies including his handling of sexual misconduct allegations against former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher.\n\nMr Johnson faced criticism for being too slow to suspend Mr Pincher from the parliamentary party, following allegations he had groped two men in a private members' club.\n\nMr Pincher stepped down from his government job in July, when he apologised for drinking \"far too much\" and embarrassing \"myself and other people\".\n\nThe MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip attempted a surprise comeback in October, when he emerged as a possible replacement for Ms Truss after she resigned.\n\nBut he later ruled himself out of the leadership race, saying it was not possible to govern effectively without a united party.\n\nThere had been suggestions Mr Johnson would stand down from Parliament after he was ousted as prime minister but he has told his local Conservative Party he will stand again as an MP at the next general election.", "Councillor Dorian Phillips denied he was addressing the meeting when he swore\n\nA councillor has apologised for a sweary outburst during a Zoom meeting, saying he thought he was on mute.\n\nPlaid Cymru's Dorian Phillips was heard telling other Carmarthenshire councillors to \"swallow that\", accompanied by some expletives.\n\nHe claimed he was not addressing the meeting and used the \"colourful language\" believing the call was muted.\n\nThe Labour group at the council have called on Plaid Cymru to suspend Mr Phillips.\n\nLabour leader for the council, Rob James, said the remarks were made as councillors were informed that approximately 95% of all council decisions were taken by the Plaid Cymru cabinet.\n\nMr Phillips, who has represented Llanboidy since 2012, said: \"I cannot deny that I used profane language, but it was not directed at anyone at that meeting.\n\n\"During the session, I had to deal with a non-council business conversation which became very heated, in which colourful language was used.\n\n\"I was horrified to learn that my microphone was turned on and the impression given that I was addressing the meeting. This was certainly not the case.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Council meetings over Zoom have seen drama before, with Jackie Weaver going viral after removing councillors she thought were rude\n\nMr Phillips said he had referred himself to the Public Services Ombudsman.\n\nMr James added: \"This is truly appalling behaviour from an elected councillor and has really upset a number of councillors in attendance.\n\n\"We are calling on [Plaid Cymru leader] Adam Price to condemn this behaviour and suspend him from the party pending investigation.\"", "Boss was a DJ, dancer and choreographer, as well as an actor and TV presenter\n\nStephen \"tWitch\" Boss, best known as the dancing DJ and sidekick on The Ellen Show, has died by suicide at 40.\n\nConfirming the news to People magazine, the TV star's wife Allison Holker Boss said he was \"the backbone of our family, the best husband and father, and an inspiration to his fans\".\n\nBoss became an integral part of Ellen DeGeneres' US talk show from 2014, until it finished earlier this year.\n\nDeGeneres tweeted on Wednesday to say she was \"heartbroken\" at the news.\n\nShe described the American freestyle hip-hop dancer and actor as \"pure love and light\". \"He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart,\" she wrote. \"I will miss him.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Ellen DeGeneres This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to the BBC that its West Valley Division officers responded to an \"ambulance death investigation\" radio call at a motel on Ventura Boulevard on Tuesday.\n\nThere were no signs of foul play and the case has been handed the over to the Los Angeles County Coroner's office.\n\nAfter appearing as a dancer in movies like Blades of Glory and Hairspray, Boss first found fame as a runner-up on So You Think You Can Dance in 2008.\n\nOne of his dances was nominated for an Emmy for best choreography and he later returned to the show as a judge.\n\nThe Alabama-born entertainer went on to work as an actor, featuring in the Step Up film series and later Magic Mike XXL, and was also made an executive producer on The Ellen Show in 2020.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by TheEllenShow This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nBefore the long-running show ended in May, DeGeneres surprised him with a special tribute: \"Over a decade ago, I met someone who changed my life, and our show... And I'm talking about you tWitch.\"\n\n\"I love you so much,\" she told him, noting how \"you always make me smile and laugh\" with a dance or a song.\n\nAn emotional Boss replied: \"I love you and also I love the family that we've gained, and something that I'll always remember was you gave me a place where I can just be myself.\n\nThe TV personality pictured dancing with Hillary Clinton and Ellen DeGeneres on the show in 2015\n\n\"I came here to dance one time, to do a dance course for you, and now I've gained a family.\"\n\n\"And whether I was a real DJ or not...\" he added, jokingly. \"I always felt at home!\"\n\nPaying tribute on Wednesday, his wife, a fellow dancer with whom he co-hosted Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings, said: \"Stephen lit up every room he stepped into.\"\n\nShe added: \"He valued family, friends and community above all else and leading with love and light was everything to him.\"\n\n\"Stephen, we love you, we miss you, and I will always save the last dance for you.\"\n\nThe couple pictured last week at the Critics Choice Association's Celebration of Black Cinema & Television\n\nThe couple, who met on an all-star season of So You Think You Can Dance, had three children - and the family appeared together on the The Ellen show.\n\nActor Dwayne \"The Rock\" Johnson urged them all to \"stay strong\", posting online that he was \"so sorry to hear the heart-breaking news\".\n\n\"I've lost a lot of friends to the struggle,\" he said. \"You never know what's happening between the ears.\"\n\nFor information and support about any issues raised in this story contact the BBC Action Line.", "Rail passengers have felt the brunt of transport disruption so far this week - but on Friday they'll be joined by travellers on roads and buses.\n\nJust one in five trains will run so the advice is once again only travel if you have to. Other workers - including traffic officers who work in the aftermath of road accidents - are walking out for the first time.\n\nHowever, if you were planning a pre-Christmas getaway from Heathrow Airport, you'll be pleased to know that a planned strike by baggage handlers has just been cancelled.\n\nThis is my latest strike briefing, with lots of useful information on what is happening - and how it might affect you.\n\nSo what is Friday looking like?\n\nMembers of the UK's biggest rail union the RMT will walk out from midnight for 48 hours until the end of Saturday, hitting services throughout England, Scotland and Wales.\n\nThe union is also planning further action over Christmas and in the New Year.\n\nWatch Make Sense of Strikes on iPlayer and find out more about why people are striking and whether industrial action works.\n\nNational Highways traffic officers in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) working in north-west England, north east England, and Yorkshire and the Humber will stop work for 48 hours.\n\nNational Highways says no roads will be closed and it has \"well-rehearsed resilience plans in place\". About 125 out of 1,500 operational staff will take part - 10-25 people per region.\n\nThe strike will involve members of control centre staff who monitor the road network's CCTV and do a number of jobs including programming the electronic warning signs we see on major roads. Traffic officers who work in the aftermath of accidents will also stop work.\n\nThere's good news for travellers using Heathrow.\n\nA 72-hour strike by baggage handlers from staff working for Menzies Aviation has been called off after talks between the private contractor and the Unite union.\n\nUnite said the decision was a \"gesture of goodwill\" after a revised pay offer, which it will now ballot members on.\n\nCivil servants in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) - including driving examiners - are striking most days now until early January.\n\nBut the industrial action is regional - with different areas affected each week. This week, until Sunday 18 December, the walk out is in north-east England and Scotland.\n\nThe government said the union's demands were \"unaffordable\".\n\nDrivers in south and west London who are in the Unite union and work for operator Abellio will walk out for 48 hours in a dispute over pay.\n\nUnite said it had invited Abellio to pay talks in September but had no response, and accused the company of paying among the lowest rates for bus drivers in London, causing a severe \"retention crisis\".\n\nWe will have another briefing for you from teatime on Friday - looking ahead to Saturday's continued rail disruption.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n• None Who could have to work during a strike?", "Students at more than 1,500 schools and colleges were affected by delays\n\nMore than 20,500 students received their vocational-qualification results late this year, according to England's exams regulator.\n\nOfqual launched a review after many had to wait for BTec, Cambridge National and Cambridge Technical grades - issued by Pearson and Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) - in August.\n\nSome told BBC News it had thrown their university places into question.\n\nPearson and OCR have apologised for the delays.\n\nOfqual said it would now set a deadline for organisations to issue grades for vocational technical qualifications (VTQs).\n\nBut Ofqual said students at 1,550 schools had seen delayed results in:\n\nEmma Harrison was one of those affected by the delays\n\nEmma Harrison, 18, told BBC News waiting for her health and social care BTec Level 3 result had been \"frustrating\".\n\nShe spent a week wondering whether she would be able to take up her place on a mental health nursing course at the University of Worcester.\n\nNow happy at university, she wants an explanation.\n\n\"Results day is one of those things where it should be a big celebration because everyone's got their results,\" she said.\n\n\"I did feel incredibly left out, really.\"\n\nOfqual said it was setting up a taskforce that would meet throughout the year.\n\nSchools and colleges needed better support, it said, and a senior member of staff who could be the point of contact for awarding organisations.\n\nChief regulator Dr Jo Saxton said the delays were \"unacceptable\" and the \"action plan... a step towards parity of treatment\" between students taking VTQs and those taking other qualifications such as A-levels.\n\nOfqual's findings on the causes of the delays will be published in 2023.\n\nPearson and OCR have published their own reviews - both of which cited communication issues, as well as complexities resulting from adaptations brought in to mitigate the impact of Covid on students.\n\nA Pearson spokeswoman said: \"It was unacceptable that some students did not receive their results when they were expecting them this summer and we apologise for Pearson's role in this.\"\n\nPearson was part of the new taskforce and would work on improvements, she added.\n\nOCR chief executive Jill Duffy said it was \"vital that we learn, improve and do everything we can to avoid it happening again\".\n\n\"I know first-hand from the calls I had with students, parents and teachers this summer that delays in delivering some Cambridge Technicals results caused additional stress and anxiety at what was already a challenging time,\" she said.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFour people have died after a migrant boat got into difficulties crossing the English Channel on a freezing night.\n\nA fishing crew spotted the dinghy sinking in cold waters between Kent and France just after 03:00 GMT.\n\nThe skipper pulled his boat alongside and his crew hauled 31 people to safety in a dramatic rescue operation, the BBC has been told.\n\nFootage filmed from the boat showed some dressed only in T-shirts and thin lifejackets screaming for help.\n\nThe video - shared by the owner of the fishing trawler, Ben Squire - showed crew members pulling people up out of the water and the boat with ropes.\n\nPeople can be heard panicking and shouting as water appears to fill the inflatable boat.\n\nIn the night sky, helicopter lights shine down and airlift people away, as lifeboats arrive at the scene to continue rescuing people.\n\nPeople rescued from the dinghy said they had each paid £5,000 to cross the English Channel, the BBC has been told.\n\nA government spokesman said authorities were alerted at 03:05 GMT to a small boat in difficulty off the coast of Dungeness, 30 miles west of Dover.\n\nMr Squire, who was not on the boat for the rescue, said the skipper Ray Strachan told him they saved 31 people.\n\nAfter hauling them to safety, the crew gave them hot showers, their own clothes and fed them to help warm them up.\n\nMr Squire said the sea was quite cold and the conditions were \"a little bit rough\".\n\nTemperatures dropped to 1C overnight on Tuesday, with it likely to have been colder out at sea. A yellow weather warning for ice was in place across Kent at the time.\n\nIt was a horrific incident, he said, but the crew did a \"cracking job\".\n\n\"They did brilliantly getting that many people on board the boat\", Mr Squire told the BBC.\n\nLifeboat crews tried to resuscitate some survivors on the quayside in Dover and a helicopter took one adult to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford where he later died, according to the BBC's Mark Easton.\n\nAnother adult victim, thought to have also received treatment, has since been discharged.\n\nA lifeboat returns to the Port of Dover during the rescue operation\n\nForensic tents were erected at the RNLI station at the Port of Dover\n\nA French organisation, Utopia 56, which helps migrants in Calais, said it was contacted at 01:53 GMT - with a voice message and a location - by a boat in distress in the English Channel.\n\nNikolai Posner from the organisation said the voice message stated there were people in the water and families on board.\n\n\"It was clearly an emergency, he was calling for help,\" he told PA News.\n\n\"It was like 'help us, help us, help us, we need help',\" said Mr Posner, who added that babies could be heard \"screaming\" in the background of the message.\n\nHowever the organisation said it was not possible to verify whether this distress call was from the boat in question.\n\n\"Our hearts go out to all those affected by this tragic event,\" said Home Secretary Suella Braverman and French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin in a joint statement.\n\nThey added that the incident was a \"stark reminder of the urgent need to destroy the business model of smugglers\".\n\n\"These are the days that we dread,\" Ms Braverman said.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier expressed his sorrow at the \"tragic loss of human life\".\n\nThe boat is likely to have been carrying migrants risking the crossing from France, a day after Mr Sunak announced new measures to \"stop the boats\".\n\nIn those plans, the PM promised more staff to help clear some of the UK's backlog of asylum cases by the end of next year.\n\nThe UK coastguard, the French Navy, the RNLI and an air ambulance were all sent to help with the rescue operation.\n\nCoastguard helicopters from Lydd and Lee on Solent were also involved.\n\nSouth East Coast Ambulance Service said it was called following reports of the incident, and sent crews to Dover, in Kent, to help with the follow-up operation.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer said it was \"heartbreaking\" that there have been more deaths in the Channel, and Dover MP Natalie Elphicke said she was \"very saddened\" to hear of the tragedy.\n\nIt follows a fatal incident in November 2021, when at least 27 migrants died after a dinghy sank while heading to the UK from France.\n\nSome 460 people made the journey from France to Kent in small boats between Friday and Sunday, the BBC's Simon Jones said.\n\nNearly 45,000 people have made the journey this year so far.\n\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury said he was \"praying for the victims of today's terrible events\", tweeting that debates about asylum seekers \"are not about statistics, but precious human lives\".\n\nTim Naor Hilton, from the charity Refugee Action, said the tragedy was predictable and inevitable, and more people would die trying to reach safety if the government did not create more routes for people to claim asylum.\n• None How is the UK stopping Channel crossings?", "Cavill played Superman in films including Man Of Steel and Batman Vs Superman\n\nActor Henry Cavill has been dropped as Superman by the new bosses of DC Studios, less than two months after he announced his return to the role.\n\n\"I have just had a meeting with James Gunn and Peter Safran and it's sad news, everyone. I will, after all, not be returning as Superman,\" Cavill said.\n\n\"After being told by the studio to announce my return back in October, prior to their hire, this news isn't the easiest, but that's life.\"\n\nHe said there were no hard feelings.\n\n\"The changing of the guard is something that happens. I respect that,\" he continued, in his Instagram post.\n\n\"James and Peter have a universe to build. I wish them and all involved with the new universe the best of luck, and the happiest of fortunes.\"\n\nGunn and Safran took over DC Studios in late October, just after Cavill made a surprise appearance as the Man of Steel during the credits of the Dwayne Johnson film Black Adam.\n\nThe British actor then posted a video telling fans: \"I wanted to make it official, that I am back as Superman.\" The Black Adam cameo was \"just a very small taste of things to come\", he added.\n\nCavill played the legendary role in the 2013 Man Of Steel film, as well as in 2016's Batman v Superman alongside Ben Affleck, and in Justice League the following year.\n\nFollowing the announcement, some fans have been speculating that the actor is now available to take on the role of James Bond - should the casting director come calling.\n\nCavill, 39, also announced his departure from Netflix's The Witcher in late October. He will be replaced by Liam Hemsworth.\n\nOn Wednesday, Gunn wrote on Twitter: \"Peter and I have a DC slate ready to go, which we couldn't be more over-the-moon about; we'll be able to share some exciting information about our first projects at the beginning of the new year.\n\n\"Among those on the slate is Superman. In the initial stages, our story will be focusing on an earlier part of Superman's life, so the character will not be played by Henry Cavill.\"\n\nHe added: \"But we just had a great meeting with Henry and we're big fans and we talked about a number of exciting possibilities to work together in the future.\"", "Kennedy was shot during a visit to Dallas, Texas, in 1963\n\nThe White House has ordered the release of thousands of documents on the murder of US President John F Kennedy in full for the first time.\n\nWith the publication of some 13,173 files online, the White House said more than 97% of records in the collection were now publicly available.\n\nNo huge revelations are expected from the papers, but historians hope to learn more about the assassination.\n\nKennedy was shot during a visit to Dallas, Texas, on 22 November 1963.\n\nA 1992 law required the government to release all documents on the assassination by October 2017.\n\nOn Thursday, President Joe Biden issued an executive order authorising the latest disclosure.\n\nBut he said some files would be kept under wraps until June 2023 to protect against possible \"identifiable harm\".\n\nThe US National Archives said that 515 documents would remain withheld in full, and another 2,545 documents would be partly withheld.\n\nA 1964 US inquiry, the Warren Commission, found that Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, a US citizen who had previously lived in the Soviet Union, and that he acted alone. He was killed in the basement of the Dallas police headquarters two days after his arrest.\n\nJFK's death spawned decades of conspiracy theories, but on Thursday the CIA said the US spy agency had \"never engaged\" Oswald, and did not withhold information about him from US investigators.\n\nLong-time JFK academics and theorists have hoped the latest release would reveal more information about Oswald's activities in Mexico City, where he met a Soviet KGB officer in October 1963.\n\nIn its latest statement, the CIA said that all information held by the agency relating to his trip to Mexico City had previously been released, adding: \"There is no new information on this topic in the 2022 release.\"\n\nBut researchers with the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a non-profit that sued the government to release the files, said the CIA was withholding information about Oswald's time in Mexico.\n\nThe foundation said some CIA records were never submitted to the archives and therefore were not part of the batch just released.\n\nOne newly revealed document shows the president of Mexico helped the US place a wiretap on the Soviet embassy in Mexico without the knowledge of other officials in the Mexican government.\n\nThis nugget of information was hidden by redactions in a previously released version of the file, reports the BBC's US partner CBS News.\n\nThe White House said the release of the files would provide the public with greater understanding of the investigation into the assassination.\n\nPresident Biden wrote in his order that \"agencies have undertaken a comprehensive effort to review the full set of almost 16,000 records that had previously been released in redacted form and determined that more than 70 percent of those records may now be released in full\".\n\nThe Trump administration released thousands of pages over the course of his presidency, but withheld others on the basis of national security, despite the 1992 law forcing the release of all the information by 2017.\n\nIn October 2021, Mr Biden released around 1,500 documents, but said he was keeping the others sealed.\n\nPhilip Shenon, a former New York Times reporter and author of A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination, says the new files could shed light on whether the government may have known of Oswald's intentions.\n\n\"I suspect there may be information in these documents to suggest that other people knew before the Kennedy assassination that this man Lee Harvey Oswald was a danger and that he may have talked openly about his intention to kill the president,\" he tells BBC News.\n\n\"And the question has always been did the agencies of government, the CIA and FBI, have some sense that this man was a danger to President Kennedy, and if they had acted on that information could they have saved the president?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A British nurse was in the Dallas hospital when JFK was shot", "A councillor who took part in an online meeting while sitting in the driver's seat of a car has denied he was driving at the time.\n\nAndrew Wood is seen apparently raising his hand to vote and then seems to reach to turn the camera off while the vehicle appears to be moving.\n\nMr Wood, an independent councillor who represents Gele and Llanddulas on Conwy council, has denied any wrongdoing.\n\nThe public services ombudsman has confirmed it is investigating.\n\nA Conservative Member of the Senedd had already called for the ombudsman to look into it.\n\nNorth Wales MS Mark Isherwood said he had received emails from constituents accusing Mr Wood of \"making a mockery of the political system, and that \"he should be encouraged to resign and apologise\".\n\nConwy council said it was considering what action to take.\n\nThe incident happened at a meeting of the council's finance and resources scrutiny committee in July.\n\nLike many council meetings around Wales since the pandemic, it was a \"hybrid\" meeting, which councillors can attend by sitting in a meeting room or by using Zoom.\n\nMr Wood took part remotely, but only appears on screen briefly, seemingly to vote on council decisions by showing his hand to the camera.\n\nIn one vote, the vehicle he is sitting in appears to be moving, before Mr Wood moves his hand towards the camera and the video feed is turned off.\n\nConwy council said it had only just been made aware of the incident, but that driving while attending a virtual council meeting was not actually covered by any of its existing rules.\n\nAndrew Wood is seen sitting in a car for the meeting\n\nA council spokeswoman said \"existing policies do not refer to members taking part in meetings while driving\".\n\n\"The council's monitoring officer will consider appropriate action and also remind all elected councillors of their individual responsibility to conduct themselves in line with the requirements of the code of conduct and members protocol.\"\n\nMr Wood did not reply to several messages from BBC Wales asking for a response, but told the Daily Post newspaper: \"I can tell you I have not done a Zoom meeting while driving a vehicle.\n\n\"The only time I have ever attended a meeting whilst in my vehicle would have been an audio meeting only.\n\n\"I play it through my Bluetooth, other than that I do not have a clue as it's never been pointed out to me. I know nothing about it.\"", "Several Madrid stations were forced to close due to flooding after heavy rains on Wednesday.\n\nVideos posted on social media showed waist-deep waters at one, and floodwater gushing down the steps of another's entrance.\n\nEarlier this week, Storm Efraín saw large parts of Spain affected by torrential rain.", "There is much discussion of Harry and Meghan's daughter Lilibet and the couple's feeling of elation after her birth, as we continue with episode six in our watch-along.\n\nThere is little discussion, however, of the controversy surrounding Harry and Meghan's choice of name, which was intended as a tribute to the Queen.\n\n\"There was something that felt so complete once we had Lilibet,\" Meghan says.\n\n\"Everyone just really respected that we'd been through so much, and like any parent, that we deserved to just welcome their child into the world peacefully.\"\n\nAfter we've seen some footage of Lilibet in the months following her birth, the series returns to the couple's battle with Associated Newspapers.\n\nHarry and Meghan are filmed from LA calling their team in the UK to find out the judgement, which goes in their favour - with a High Court judge dismissing the media group's appeal.\n\nAnd with that, we're into the last 10 minutes of this episode and the docuseries. The piano music kicks back in as family footage is shown on screen.\n\nArchie is baking zucchini muffins, which sound pretty tasty to us.\n\n\"I want our kids to be able to travel, to fall in love, I just want them to be happy,\" Meghan says as we head towards the closing minutes of the series.", "The administration building in the heart of Kherson was hit on Wednesday and shelling continued near by on Thursday\n\nTwo people have been killed, say Ukrainian officials, in a second day of Russian attacks on central Kherson, recaptured by Ukraine last month.\n\nHeavy shelling on critical infrastructure in the port area left the entire city without power, according to the regional governor.\n\nThe retreat of Russian forces from Kherson was one of Moscow's biggest setbacks since the February invasion.\n\nFor weeks it has targeted power facilities in Ukrainian cities.\n\nMillions of Ukrainians have been left without heating or power as winter temperatures have fallen below freezing.\n\nShells reportedly landed 100m (328ft) from the main administration building in Kherson city, officials said, a day after the building itself was badly damaged. A 32-year-old paramedic and a 70-year-old man were killed in the attack which hit a medical aid point, Ukrainian media said.\n\nExplosions also went off in Ukraine's second biggest city Kharkiv. Mayor Igor Terekhov said Russia was shelling infrastructure facilities and appealed to residents to stay in shelters if possible.\n\nUN human rights commissioner Volker Turk warned that Russia's attacks were exposing millions of Ukrainians to \"extreme hardship\" and further attacks on power facilities could \"lead to a further serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation and spark more displacement\".\n\nMeanwhile, Russian-backed proxies said Ukrainian forces had launched their \"most massive strike\" on the centre of occupied Donetsk since 2014, when the separatists triggered a conflict by seizing parts of the Donbas region.\n\nRussian-appointed official Alexei Kulemzin said 40 rockets were fired, killing one person and leaving nine more wounded.\n\nRussian-appointed official Alexei Kulemzin said shells were fired at the city at 07:00 local time\n\nDetails of the attack could not be confirmed, but Mr Kulemzin posted pictures of damaged buildings in the city.\n\nIn his speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk said the war had left 18 million people in need of humanitarian aid. He gave details of summary executions of civilians by the Russian military between February and April, including the infamous murders in the town of Bucha outside Kyiv.\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to EU leaders on Thursday to help defeat \"Russia's energy terror\", by maintaining Ukraine's energy supply with around 2bn cubic metres of gas and electricity worth about €800m (£697m; $851m) worth of electricity.\n\nIn the past six months he said Ukraine had achieved tangible victories and had begun building an air shield for Ukraine. The capital Kyiv was also targeted by 13 drones on Wednesday, the president said, but the military had been able to repel it.\n\nThis was the scene inside the Kherson administration building after Wednesday's attack", "We’ve been contacted by Eamon, a theatre nurse who works for the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS and has been in the profession for nearly 20 years.\n\n“I’m striking more in solidarity with my colleagues than thinking about myself really. The conditions on many wards are appalling and many nurses are at breaking point.\n\n“The conditions are getting worse year on year. Every year we’re sent to the wards because of winter pressures. That didn’t really happen pre-2012. Day case wards are being used as additional space for medical patients and elective surgery is just stopped every year.\n\n“Staff retention is getting worse. Staff are walking away. The pandemic has also put stress on people. Many of my colleagues have PTSD now.\n\n“We have 46,000 nursing vacancies in the NHS in England alone and that has a knock-on-effect on the wards.\n\n“The NHS needs to cover these staff vacancies and they are covering them with agency staff and it's a false economy. The NHS is spending a fortune on agency staff when they could pay nurses more and let them know that they are looked after.\n\n“When it comes to this strike, patient safety is at the top of the list because if you don't have enough staff for the wards, it's not safe.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has previously said that the Royal College of Nurses’ pay demands are “not affordable” but Eamon believes the government would gain money in tax and increased staff retention would also mean the NHS saves money on agency staff.\n\n“It costs thousands of pounds to train a nurse and we’re losing so many after two years of them qualifying and it's such a waste of their training and investment.”", "Rhianon Bragg fears justice officials have given the jailed stalker fresh \"ammunition\" against her and her family\n\nAn investigation has been launched after justice officials shared intimate details about a victim with her jailed stalker.\n\nIn 2019 Rhianon Bragg was held hostage at gunpoint by her ex-partner Gareth Wyn Jones at her home in north Wales.\n\nHe was jailed for four-and-a-half years in 2020, and will have a parole hearing in the new year to discuss his potential release.\n\nThe Ministry of Justice has apologised to Ms Bragg.\n\nAs part of that parole process, public protection officers put together documents about the case.\n\nThey included confidential and sensitive reports from a clinical psychologist about the impact Jones' crimes had on his victim and her children.\n\nThose full reports should never have been shared.\n\nMs Bragg fears the information given to 58-year-old Jones could be used as a new weapon against her.\n\n\"It's horrific,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rhianon Bragg says at times she thought she would never see her children again\n\nShe said learning of the privacy breach was a fresh \"trigger\" for her, that brought back the trauma of her ordeals at the hands of Jones.\n\nShe ended what she previously described as a controlling and threatening five-year relationship with the mechanic in 2019.\n\nBut the threats and harassment continued. On the night of 15 August, he arrived at her home near Caernarfon, armed with a shotgun.\n\nHe held her hostage until she convinced him to let her attend a doctor's appointment, and he was arrested in the car park.\n\nHe was jailed for stalking, false imprisonment, making threats to kill, and a firearms offence.\n\nMs Bragg has since called for improvements in the way police and the justice system deals with stalking and domestic abuse, including more investment in prevention services.\n\nShe said she now had \"no faith\" in the criminal justice system.\n\n\"They have blown away what miniscule rights I had,\" she added.\n\nRhianon Bragg said her ex-partner was controlling and abusive during their five year relationship\n\n\"As innocent victims I thought me and my children would be protected.\"\n\nShe said she felt her jailed stalker's privacy was protected more than hers.\n\n\"I've been made to feel inconsequential - that my rights don't matter as much as his.\"\n\nMs Bragg said she was determined to highlight the mistake by justice officials, for fear it had happened to others going through similar ordeals.\n\nShe has received the backing of local politicians, including Senedd member Sian Gwenllian.\n\nThe Arfon MS said the error by the Ministry of Justice was \"completely unacceptable\".\n\n\"Sharing sensitive and confidential information with the perpetrator is a serious and shocking incident that should never have happened,\" she said.\n\n\"Steps need to be taken to ensure that even more pressure is not placed on victims due to the incompetence of the system.\"\n\nA Ministry of Justice official said: \"The government has made significant changes in recent years to better protect stalking victims, so we are deeply sorry for this unacceptable mistake and the distress it has caused Ms Bragg.\n\n\"We take this type of error extremely seriously and an investigation is underway to understand what happened.\"\n\nIf you've been affected by any issues in this story you can find support via the BBC Action Line.", "Restrictions over the festive season in the last two years led to Christmas Day plans being scuppered for many\n\nPeople have been urged to avoid mixing with vulnerable relatives if they feel unwell this Christmas.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warned flu and Covid hospital admission rates were continuing to rise.\n\nHealth officials also encouraged everyone eligible for the vaccines to have them as soon as possible.\n\nThe warning comes as people across the UK prepare for the most open festive period since the start of coronavirus pandemic restrictions.\n\nParts of the UK were forced into lockdown over the Christmas period in 2020, and a wave of Covid infections meant hundreds of thousands of people were forced to isolate on Christmas Day in 2021.\n\nAll remaining Covid restrictions, including the legal requirement to self-isolate at home with symptoms, were removed earlier this year.\n\nHowever, health officials have said those with signs of respiratory illness should avoid mixing during the festive season, particularly with vulnerable people.\n\n\"Both Covid-19 and flu can cause severe illness or even death for those most vulnerable in our communities, and so it is also important to avoid contact with other people if you are unwell in order to stop infections spread over the Christmas and new year period,\" Dr Mary Ramsay, UKHSA's director of public health programmes said.\n\nShauna Liptrot, a nurse from Wigan, has cancelled her plans to visit family over Christmas after coming down with flu symptoms earlier this week.\n\n\"I was supposed to be visiting quite a lot of family members over Christmas - I'm going to be staying at home in bed now,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"I don't want to pass it on to my vulnerable family members and I don't feel up to it.\n\n\"I also have tonsillitis and I'm on two lots of antibiotics, so Christmas is definitely cancelled in my house because I cant drink any alcohol while I'm on antibiotics.\"\n\nOverall hospital admission rates for Covid hit 9.56 per 100,000 for the week beginning 12 December, up from 6.61 per 100,000 the week before.\n\nHospital admissions for Covid are highest in the south west of England with a rate of 15.21 per 100,000 people.\n\nMeanwhile both hospital and intensive care admission rates for flu have increased - hitting 42.04 per 100,000 for adults aged 85 and over, up from 25.4 per 100,000 the previous week.\n\nThe flu surge has been attributed to the end of restrictions and the recent cold snap which led to more people mixing indoors.\n\n\"Covid restrictions kept flu at bay in previous seasons but the ending of these and plunging temperatures in recent weeks has resulted in increased socialising indoors, which is why both viruses are on the rise,\" a Department of Health spokesperson said.\n\nThe government continued to call for people eligible for both the Covid booster and flu vaccines to come forward as soon as possible for their free jabs.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay said: \"As we move into the festive holiday, we can all draw on the spirit of Christmas and make sure our vulnerable relatives, friends and neighbours are getting their immunity topped up to prevent them from serious illness.\n\n\"I know from when I got the jabs how quick and easy it is, and I want to encourage all eligible people to come forward this Christmas.\"\n\nCalum Semple, professor for outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool, said while vaccination was key to preventing flu outbreaks, uptake of the jabs was particularly low in deprived areas.\n\n\"My suspicion is we've seen an erosion in the confidence of vaccination, although in many of these areas it was always hard to reach these populations,\" he told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.\n\n\"It's never good to catch these diseases. It's not a weakness of the immune system [but] simply the fact that you haven't been exposed to flu for two years,\" he added.\n\nDo you have flu or Covid? How will your Christmas be affected? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Images of the demolition were posted on social media by an aide to Mariupol's Ukrainian mayor\n\nRussian authorities have started destroying the ruined theatre in Mariupol, according to an aide to the city's exiled Ukrainian mayor.\n\nPetro Andryushchenko accused the occupying authorities of seeking to cover up the murder of hundreds of civilians when the building was bombed by Russian warplanes in March.\n\nA screen was recently erected around the ruined theatre.\n\nVideo showed a bulldozer knocking down some of the rear of the building.\n\nMr Andryushchenko said the Russians were planning to leave the front of the theatre intact and destroy the rest of the structure, to build a new theatre \"on the bones of Mariupol's people\".\n\nA screen was erected around the ruins of the theatre last month, complete with images of Russian cultural figures.\n\nBefore Russia invaded Ukraine last February and laid siege to Mariupol, the theatre was a focal point of city life.\n\nThis year, Russia's proxy authority that runs the city and the occupied areas of the surrounding Donetsk region has promised the city's remaining population alternative entertainment - a revival of a 1960s Soviet cult musical, The Bremen Town Musicians.\n\nInstead of taking place at the bombed out theatre, it is being staged more than a kilometre away at the Pioneers' Palace.\n\nIt is all a far cry from the glitzy new year celebrations held in Mariupol a year ago.\n\nThis satellite picture from 30 November shows a screen erected around the theatre\n\nEarlier this month journalists from the Associated Press used satellite imagery to estimate that 10,300 new graves had been dug at a Mariupol cemetery.\n\nThe BBC reported in November that witnesses had seen Russian authorities removing bodies from the rubble of destroyed buildings and taking them away for burial. Ukrainian officials believe 25,000 people lost their lives in fighting in the city.\n\nIt took months for Russia to win the siege of Mariupol in May, when hundreds of Ukrainian fighters finally surrendered at the city's Azovstal steel plant.\n\nTwo months earlier, at around 10:00 on 16 March, Russian warplanes dropped two 500kg bombs on the city's theatre which detonated simultaneously, according to a report by Amnesty International, which condemned the attack as a clear war crime.\n\nCivilians had been using the building as a refuge from the siege and a large sign spelling \"children\" had been daubed in Russian in front of the theatre.\n\nSome 1,200 people were inside the building when the bombs struck. Ukrainian authorities believe 300 people were killed but an AP investigation said the number was closer to 600. Many of the bodies were found in the basement.", "Nurses will go on strike again on 18 and 19 January in England unless pay talks are opened, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said.\n\nNurses at more hospital trusts than before will be involved in the strike action in the new year, the union said.\n\nMeanwhile, the GMB union has called off a second day of ambulance strikes planned in England and Wales for 28 December.\n\nBut it announced a new co-ordinated walkout on 11 January.\n\nTwo days of nurses strikes were held in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on 15 and 20 December, which resulted in more than 40,000 patient appointments and procedures being rescheduled.\n\nOn two consecutive days in January, there will be 12-hour walkouts by nurses at 55 health trusts in England - around a quarter.\n\nPat Cullen, head of the RCN, said the union had been left \"with no choice\" but to arrange January strikes.\n\n\"The government had the opportunity to end this dispute before Christmas but instead they have chosen to push nursing staff out into the cold again in January,\" Ms Cullen said.\n\n\"The public support has been heart-warming and I am more convinced than ever that this is the right thing to do for patients and the future of the NHS.\"\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay said he was \"disappointed\" by the decision to take further strike action. He said meeting unions' pay demands would mean money being taken away from frontline services, causing delays to patients' treatment.\n\n\"Strikes are in no one's best interest, least of all patients, and I urge unions to reconsider further strike action before walkouts have a worse impact on patients,\" he added.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was \"really sad\" about the disruption being caused \"to so, so many people's lives, particularly at Christmas time.\"\n\nBut he insisted he had \"acted fairly and reasonably\" in accepting public sector pay recommendations and could not risk inflation rising any further.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch this video quiz to test your knowledge of nurses' pay\n\nIn Scotland, NHS workers are to be awarded an average pay increase of 7.5% - but nurses are still expected to announce strike dates in the new year. They rejected the pay deal, alongside midwives and staff belonging to the GMB union.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said the deal was \"the biggest since devolution\" and he had no more money for pay this year - but he said he was prepared to meet unions during the festive period to stop further strike action.\n\nThe Royal College of Midwives says its members in Scotland may also take action in 2023.\n\nUp to 10,000 ambulance members were expected to walk out on Wednesday 28 December.\n\nThe union said it was scrapping the action next week so that \"the public will be able to enjoy Christmas without additional anxiety\".\n\nThe additional day of strike action on 11 January means GMB workers will again be striking on the same day as ambulance workers represented by Unison.\n\nIt means thousands of paramedics, call handlers and technicians will walk out in nine of England's 10 trusts, and across Wales in the new year.\n\nUnison said yesterday it planned two more days of strikes on 11 and 23 January in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West.\n\nThe unions say they want the government to come to the table and negotiate pay in order to help retain staff and improve patient care.\n\nRachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary, said they were suspending action on 28 December because they had been overwhelmed by \"amazing public support\".\n\nBut she said the new January strike date showed the union's commitment to getting higher pay for ambulance staff was \"stronger than ever\".\n\n\"The government can now do what ambulance workers and the public want - get round the table and talk pay now. We are here 24/7. Any time, any place,\" she said.\n\nA Welsh Government spokesperson said: \"We will continue to work to bring together trade unions, employers and government to deliver the best possible outcomes for workers, while continuing to call on the UK government to use the funding it has to provide a fair pay offer to NHS staff and enable us to do the same in Wales.\"", "Want to get a sense of how cold it is in the US state of Montana?\n\nWatch this person toss a pot of boiling water into the air and see it immediately transform into snow.\n\nLarge parts of the US and Canada have seen temperatures plummet as a bomb cyclone sweeps across North America.", "The King's first Christmas Day message was filmed at St George's Chapel in Windsor\n\nKing Charles is set to include a tribute to his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in his first Christmas message as monarch.\n\nAn image of Charles delivering his speech, which is due to be broadcast on Christmas Day at 15:00 GMT, shows the King in St George's Chapel, Windsor.\n\nIn her final Christmas message, the late Queen spoke of \"passing the baton\" to the next generation.\n\nAnd her son's first Christmas Day message will remember her legacy.\n\nThis will be the first televised annual royal Christmas Day broadcast not to be presented by the late Queen, who appeared in the first TV message in 1957.\n\nThe photo of the King shows him recording this year's message in the chapel where a committal service was held during the Queen's funeral in September.\n\nBoth his mother and father, Prince Philip, are buried in the George VI Memorial Chapel within St George's Chapel.\n\nThe picture, released by Buckingham Palace, shows King Charles standing in front of a Christmas tree with plastic-free, recyclable decorations and arrangements of holly and ivy in the background.\n\nThis year sees the King and Camilla the Queen Consort return to the tradition of spending Christmas in Sandringham, Norfolk, after concerns about Covid and Queen Elizabeth's health kept the Royal Family in Windsor last year.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales are among the senior royals expected to be with King Charles for Christmas.\n\nIn her 2021 Christmas message, the Queen gave a highly personal tribute to her \"beloved\" Prince Philip, who died in April of that year.\n\nHer broadcast was the most watched programme on Christmas Day in 2021, drawing almost nine million viewers.\n\nQueen Elizabeth presented the first televised Christmas message in 1957\n\nThe first royal Christmas broadcast was a live radio speech in 1932, delivered from Sandringham by George V, with the script written by the author Rudyard Kipling.\n\nIn 1957, Elizabeth II delivered the first televised message, saying that it was a technological landmark that \"television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes on Christmas Day\".\n\nThe message became part of many families' Christmas celebrations and the first televised broadcast in 1957 set a familiar pattern.\n\nThe national anthem was followed by the monarch speaking directly to the camera, with a speech that included Christmas greetings, a religious lesson, support for the Commonwealth, a round-up of the royal year and a moral message for the times.\n\nIn 1957 it meant a warning about values in public life, criticising a culture of \"self-interest\".\n\nThe timing of the Christmas broadcast was originally set for 15.00 GMT as best for reaching the most countries in different time zones around the world.", "Proud Boy Enrique Tarrio said his group didn't like the far-right Oath Keepers militia\n\nInfighting among some of America's most well-known far-right groups was revealed in a series of transcripts released by the congressional committee investigating the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot.\n\nThey had a shared love of Donald Trump, but not so much for each other.\n\nOath Keepers and Proud Boys were among those who gathered at the Capitol that day, but leaders of the two groups criticised each other in sworn testimony.\n\nTheir disagreements revolved around the involvement of white nationalists in groups and protest movements in the years before the riot.\n\nAlthough many of former President Donald Trump's most fervent far-right supporters refused to engage with the committee, citing constitutional protections against self-incrimination, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes answered a number of questions over hours of testimony earlier this year.\n\nHe said his group defended peaceful protesters and aided people of many different backgrounds. During protests in Berkeley, California, in 2017, when right-wing protesters clashed with anti-fascist groups, he said he told white nationalists to \"take a hike\".\n\n\"We would not let them in,\" he told the committee. \"They could not get their moment of fame.\"\n\nContrasting Oath Keepers with Proud Boys, he said members of his group were \"quiet professionals\". And he accused Proud Boys of failing to adequately vet its members.\n\n\"Look, I don't believe the Proud Boys are white nationalists,\" he told investigators. \"I think they've been sloppy and let white nationalists infiltrate their group.\"\n\nEnrique Tarrio, a Florida man of Afro-Cuban ancestry who led the Proud Boys at the time of the riot, was also subpoenaed by the committee and described an argument that he had with Rhodes.\n\n\"I didn't like Stewart Rhodes. I still don't like Stewart Rhodes,\" he said during testimony.\n\nStewart Rhodes faces decades in jail after being convicted for his role in the Capitol riot\n\nThe animosity between the two stems from a 2019 demonstration in Portland, Oregon, one of a number of far-right protests in the city. Oath Keepers were providing security for the event, but Rhodes says he heard that a white nationalist was part of the group, and he pulled his members out. Mr Tarrio was furious.\n\n\"After that event in Portland, I didn't want to… have anything to do with Oath Keepers or militias or anything like that,\" Mr Tarrio told the investigators.\n\nThe pair were shown in video footage meeting in an underground car park on the night before the Capitol riot, but Mr Tarrio said he only shook hands with Rhodes to be polite.\n\nRhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges related to the Capitol riot last month, and faces a lengthy jail sentence. Mr Tarrio is currently on trial for seditious conspiracy and other charges. He was not in Washington on 6 January 2021, but prosecutors allege he was directing Proud Boys from nearby Maryland.\n\nMegan Squire, deputy director of data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, says that fractious relations are common among extremist groups.\n\n\"These groups devolve into infighting, mismanagement and bickering more than they stay together,\" she says.\n\nSince the riot, increased scrutiny and criminal cases have hampered some of the country's most well-known far-right organisations.\n\n\"On the whole, it's not been a great year for these groups,\" Squire says.", "The Miller & Carter steakhouse restaurant has been partially submerged in the waters of Alexandra Lake at the shopping centre in West Thurrock\n\nA floating restaurant has partially sunk into a lake at a major UK shopping centre.\n\nPictures showed part of the Miller & Carter restaurant, located in a converted paddle steamer at Lakeside in Essex, starting to submerge.\n\nEssex County Fire and Rescue Service said it heard about the sinking at 11:00 GMT but crews were not required to attend.\n\nThe shopping centre said about half a dozen staff were on board.\n\nA Miller & Carter spokesman said refunds would be issued \"as quickly as possible\"\n\nA spokesman for Miller & Carter Lakeside said: \"Regrettably, due to the scale of damage we were forced to close immediately.\n\n\"Our priority is our guests, and our teams are working hard to contact everyone who holds a booking with us to inform them of the unforeseeable incident and issue refunds as quickly as possible.\"\n\nA further post on the branch's Facebook page reported the restaurant would be closed until \"further notice due to structural issues\".\n\nThe page said the restaurant was refurbished in October 2019.\n\nLakeside's centre director Howard Oldstein said the boat appeared to have stopped sinking and was sitting on the water at about a \"30% decline\".\n\nHe told the BBC that about half a dozen staff were preparing to open for lunch when water started to \"ingress\".\n\nMr Oldstein said they shut down all energy supplies before evacuating the restaurant.\n\n\"The important thing is to make sure it is safe and we are discussing that with the restaurant's owners,\" he said, adding that the cause of the incident was as yet unknown.\n\nLakeside centre director Howard Oldstein said the boat appeared to have stopped sinking but said it was too early to say whether any damage could be repaired\n\nThe Lakeside Shopping Centre is made up of dozens of retail outlets and restaurants\n\nThe rest of the shopping centre, apart from a section of the Boardwalk, was open to customers.\n\nBen Stanley, manager at the nearby Casco Lounge restaurant, said the shopping centre \"quickly\" cordoned off an area beside the boat.\n\nHe said: \"There is a security guard in the way blocking people from getting through, but they have now opened up the walkway.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Close relatives of Zara Aleena have been \"completely destroyed\" by her murder, her aunt has said.\n\nSix months after the law graduate's death in east London, Farah Naz said they \"don't feel well, physically, emotionally\" and were \"constantly tormented\" by thoughts of how she died.\n\nMs Naz also said \"we will never have peace\", despite Zara's killer having been jailed recently for 38 years.\n\nJordan McSweeney was sentenced after admitting killing Zara, 35, in Ilford.\n\nHe attacked her as she walked home from a night out on 26 June. She was later found in the early hours having been badly beaten and died later that day.\n\nMs Naz, the sister of Zara's mother, spoke to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour about the traumatic effect it had had on their \"tight-knit\" family.\n\n\"In the last six months we all feel we've aged 10 years, the change feels tangible inside us,\" she said.\n\n\"We feel stuck in time, we feel lost, we find it difficult to connect with each other.\"\n\nLater she added: \"At the same time we feel we can't be hurt anymore - the very worst has happened, nothing more can happen to us.\"\n\nZara Aleena was killed walking back from a night home by a sexual predator, only recently released from prison, labelled a \"danger to any woman\".\n\nHer niece, whom she described as \"our Zara\", had aspired to be a lawyer from a young age, was hard working, loved animals and contributed to community life by volunteering, she said.\n\nMcSweeney, from Dagenham, east London, had followed two lone women in the hours before he killed Ms Aleena, CCTV footage revealed.\n\nAt his sentencing last week, the judge described him as a \"pugnacious and deeply violent\" man.\n\nMrs Justice Cheema-Grubb also said McSweeney had shown \"no spine whatsoever\" as he did not turn up for his sentencing.\n\nJordan McSweeney had only recently been released from prison when he murdered Zara\n\nMs Naz told the programme's presenter Krupa Padhy that McSweeney should have been forced to attend court: \"It felt so wrong, it felt disrespectful to Zara and like and somehow the court proceedings felt incomplete.\"\n\n\"We needed some retribution, we needed to see his face,\" she added.\n\nMs Aleena's family previously described her as \"a carefree spirit, with the most caring heart\"\n\nNearing the end of the emotional interview, she said the family had not yet been able to adjust to life without Zara, which she described as a \"new horror\".\n\n\"We know we can't stay there, we know we have to enter some kind of normal normality, but at the moment it doesn't even feel like we're living.\"\n\nLater she said \"one way forward\" for the family may be to work with and help families of other women who die in similar circumstances, \"to change society, to work with leaders and to give that very special insight that victims can give\".\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "The chief executive of the Worcestershire NHS trust has apologised to the patient\n\nMetal forceps were left inside a patient in a so-called never event at a Worcestershire hospital.\n\nThe error occurred during a complex seven-hour abdominal operation at Alexandra Hospital on 23 November.\n\nThe patient spent the night in intensive care at the site in Redditch when the six-inch (15 cm) object could not be retrieved the same day.\n\nThe hospital trust has apologised unreservedly and said it would share the findings of an investigation.\n\nThe instrument was an arterial clamp resembling a large pair of scissors.\n\nUnder normal circumstances, all instruments should be counted and checked twice before the patient is closed. There is also a process of \"signing out\" at the end of an operation to confirm they are all accounted for.\n\nA source claimed such an incident - known as a never event - should not be able to happen.\n\nIt was also claimed that nothing like this had happened at the hospital for at least 15 years.\n\nThe BBC understands that following the lengthy operation, the device was found to be missing and was confirmed to be inside the patient, via x-ray, while they were still under anaesthetic.\n\nWhen it was not possible to remove the forceps, the patient was transferred to intensive care overnight.\n\nA further operation was carried out the next day to remove the clamp and the patient returned to intensive care where they were described as stable.\n\nForceps similar to these were left inside the patient\n\nMatthew Hopkins, chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: \"We are aware of an incident which involved a surgical instrument being left inside a patient following surgery.\n\n\"There are clear and well established processes in place to protect patients from this kind of event, which are exceptionally rare.\n\n\"We are currently carrying out an investigation into what happened. The patient and their family have been informed as part of our duty of candour.\n\n\"We have apologised unreservedly to the patient and promised to share the findings of our investigation with them once it is completed.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Moment winner revealed on BBC One's The Traitors\n\nThe BBC's hit reality series The Traitors concluded on Thursday, with faithfuls Aaron, Hannah and Meryl splitting the £101,050 prize money.\n\nThe trio rooted out the final traitor, Wilfred, after his fellow traitor Kieran planted suspicion about him.\n\nAs a \"parting gift\" for being banished from the castle, Kieran encouraged the remaining players to look towards Wilf.\n\nFor three weeks, over 12 episodes, \"faithful\" contestants tried to work out who were the chosen \"traitors\".\n\nThe traitors \"murdered\" one of their fellow competitors each night. If a secret traitor remained at the end of the game then they would have scooped the money.\n\n\"I'm so happy for you,\" a tearful Wilf told the winners, having kept his traitor identity hidden since episode one.\n\nAaron, Wilf, Hannah, Meryl and Kieran were the final five in the new reality show\n\n\"I've found it really hard and I've had to fight. The more I've got to know you guys... I've had to try and steal money from you... It's really hard.\"\n\nThe faithfuls were stunned, especially Hannah who was blindsided by any suggestion throughout the show (mainly from Maddy) that Wilf was a traitor.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Maddy Smedley This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEarlier, Wilf had convinced the group to banish (vote out) Kieran, who he'd converted from a faithful.\n\nThe Guardian described the final as \"so thrilling your heart won't stop hammering in your chest\", giving it five stars.\n\n\"And of course, there are tears - so many tears - this time even from Claudia,\" wrote Alim Kheraj.\n\nAn average overnight audience of 3.3 million watched the finale, overnight ratings show.\n\nThat figure does not include catch-up viewing. A significant number of viewers have been watching the show on iPlayer.\n\nHost Claudia Winkleman has been praised for her enthusiasm for the contestants as well as her one-liners throughout the series.\n\nShe announced the final five will appear on her Radio 2 show on Saturday morning.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Claudia Winkleman This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAs he explained in the Scottish Highlands castle, 24-year-old Aaron will be using some of his winning money towards a deposit for his Mum's house, while 25-year-old Meryl will use it to go travelling.\n\n\"I can't put into words... I can't quite believe what's happened,\" Hannah, 32, told the cameras after finding out she was part of the winning team.\n\nOn Tuesday's programme Will gave Kieran an ultimatum, which became his downfall, by asking him to come on-board as a traitor, as replacement for Alyssa and Amanda who'd been banished, or he would be murdered.\n\nHannah, Aaron, Meryl and Will tell Claudia (centre) if they'd like to end the game or banish one more player\n\nThe faithfuls worked out on Thursday's final there was at least one traitor still amongst them and Wilf had planted the seed it was Kieran, who was then banished. His vote went to Wilf as he hinted to Hannah, through facial expressions, there was still a traitor in the group.\n\n\"I would never do it again,\" Wilf laughed on Radio 1 Breakfast with Greg James on Friday. \"The best thing I did was lose. I don't think I could have lived with the guilt in the end.\"\n\nHe also explained he prefers Will and wasn't known as Wilf until the show - but it's the name of Hannah's dog so the name stuck.\n\nThe BBC hasn't confirmed if there will be a second series but Winkleman told Radio 4's Today programme she'd love to host it again.", "Ambulance staff in five areas of England are to stage two further strikes in January, union leaders say.\n\nThe industrial action on 11 and 23 January is likely to heap more pressure on emergency care, which is already under serious strain.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay said further strike action was in no one's best interest.\n\nUnison leaders say the action is a direct result of the government's refusal to negotiate over pay.\n\nLife-threatening calls to 999, as well as the most serious emergency calls, will still be responded to, they say.\n\nServices in London, Yorkshire, the North West, North East and South West will take action over pay and staffing.\n\nThe January strikes will each last for 24 hours from midnight, Unison says, and will involve all ambulance employees - not just 999 response crews.\n\nAmbulance staff, including paramedics, call handlers and technicians, staged a strike in England and Wales on Wednesday, and are set to strike again on 28 December.\n\nThree unions - Unison, Unite and the GMB union - were involved in the strike action.\n\n\"We are disappointed that some union members have chosen to take further strike action,\" said Mr Barclay.\n\nHe said the pay demands the unions were making \"would mean taking money away from frontline services and cause further delays to treatment\" and called for further strikes to be reconsidered.\n\nEven before Wednesday's strike, a quarter of ambulances were delayed for more than an hour outside A&E, according to the latest NHS England statistics.\n\nSaffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts in England, said the prospect of prolonged strikes by more health unions in January was \"incredibly worrying\".\n\n\"There are no winners in this situation. Serious talks must take place between health ministers and unions, and fast.\"\n\nUnison general secretary Christina McAnea said no health workers wanted to go out on strike but holding talks was the only way the dispute would end.\n\nShe said accusing NHS staff of making a conscious decision to inflict harm on the public by taking action this week \"was not the health secretary's finest hour\".\n\n\"Neither was it a particularly smart move for Steve Barclay to falsely accuse health unions of failing to deliver a national emergency cover plan,\" she added.\n\n\"It's time [he] stopped with the insults and fibs and called the unions in for proper talks about improving NHS pay.\"\n\nThe health secretary has repeatedly said that ambulance workers have already been given a pay rise recommended by an independent pay review body and that any further increase was unaffordable.\n\nMr Barclay is said to be keen to focus on settling next year's pay deal for NHS staff in England, from April 2023, but the unions say strikes are about this year's pay offer, which he is refusing to negotiate on.\n\nThe average earnings for ambulance staff in England were £46,643, figures from NHS Digital for April 2021 to March 2022 show.\n\nOf this, £13,854 came from extra payments for things like shift work and overtime.\n\nWorkers classed as support staff - such as ambulance technicians and non-emergency ambulance drivers - had average pay of £29,139, of which £7,842 came from extra payments.", "Are teachers in the top 10% of earners?\n\nAs well as more strikes by ambulance staff, rail workers, nurses and postal staff in the new year, the UK is also facing the prospect of walkouts by teachers. Another teachers' strike is already scheduled to take place in Scotland on 10 and 11 January. Schools were forced to closed during action in November and December. Elsewhere in the UK, teachers are also considering industrial action over pay, with a decision expected in January. Facing questions from teachers and parents, earlier this week Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said that teachers were in the top 10% of earners in some parts of the country. Her comments drew criticism from some, with one teacher saying that the profession being one of the best-paid in the public sector was a \"shameful\" illustration of how poorly public servants were paid. The BBC's Lucy Gilder has been looking into this. She says that to be in the top 10% of earners across the country, a full-time employee would have to earn a monthly salary of at least £5,090, according to October 2022 estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) . This would be more than £61,000 a year. The average classroom teacher salary of about £39,000 would be a long way short of the top 10%.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA gunman has opened fire in central Paris, killing three people and wounding three others.\n\nThe attacker targeted a Kurdish cultural centre and shot members of the local community. A possible racist motive is being investigated.\n\nA suspect, aged 69, was quickly arrested and it soon emerged he had been freed from prison recently.\n\nClashes later broke out between police and a group who had gathered at the scene in the aftermath of the attack.\n\nFootage showed people starting fires in the middle of the street and smashing car windows, with officers in riot gear responding by throwing tear gas.\n\nThe unrest came after a man, described by witnesses as tall, white and elderly, shot dead two men and a woman on Rue d'Enghien in the 10th district of Paris.\n\nOf the three people injured, one was said to be in a critical condition and the others were receiving treatment for serious injuries.\n\nThere is no confirmed motive for the shooting, but Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the suspect had previously been charged with racist violence.\n\nThat incident - in which he attacked tents at a migrant camp in Paris with a sword - took place at Bercy on 8 December 2021. It was not clear why he had recently been released.\n\nFrench Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who earlier travelled to the scene, said there was currently no known link between the suspect and \"ultra-right\" groups.\n\nLocal Mayor Alexandra Cordebard said the gunman was also wounded in the shooting and that three places had come under fire: the Kurdish community centre, a restaurant and a hairdresser.\n\n\"We were walking in the street and heard gunshots,\" a witness, Ali Dalek, told the BBC. \"We turned around and saw people running left and right.\n\n\"And then, five or six minutes later, because we know people who work at the hair salon, we went in and we saw that they had arrested a guy.\"\n\nAnother witness, a shopkeeper, told AFP she had locked herself in. She said she had heard seven or eight bursts of gunfire.\n\nPolice eventually detained the suspect without resistance and reportedly recovered the weapon used in the attack. Prosecutors said they had opened a murder investigation.\n\nThe Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDF-K), which runs the Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish centre that was hit, condemned the attack in a short statement.\n\nLe Monde newspaper quoted Agit Polat, a spokesperson for the centre, as saying French authorities had \"once more\" failed to protect Kurds living in Paris.\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron said the capital's Kurdish community had been the \"target of a heinous attack\" and praised police for their \"courage\".\n\nThe shooting came almost 10 years after the murder of three Kurdish women activists in Paris in January 2013, including a co-founder of the militant nationalist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).\n\nA Turkish man was charged with the killings but he died in 2016 before being tried.\n\nThe CDF-K referred to the historic case in its statement, saying the attack on Friday occurred \"shortly before the 10th anniversary of the the triple assassination of Kurdish activists in Paris on 9 January 2013\". No official link between the two incidents has so far been identified.\n\nA meeting is due to take place on Saturday morning between Laurent Nunez, head of the Parisian police, and leaders of the Kurdish community, the force said in a statement.\n• None Police on the scene after three dead in Paris shooting", "Kyra King was attacked by a husky in the car park at Ostler's Plantation, near Woodhall Spa\n\nThe mother of a three-month-old girl mauled to death by a husky has admitted being responsible for the out-of-control dog that killed her daughter.\n\nKyra King was attacked in woodland on 6 March near Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire as her parents walked 19 dogs.\n\nAt Lincoln Crown Court, Karen Alcock, 41, pleaded guilty to being in charge of a dog which was out of control causing injury resulting in death.\n\nVince King, 54, the girl's father, pleaded not guilty to the same charge.\n\nThe couple, of Castle Dyke Bank, New York, Lincolnshire, were bailed and told to appear again at the court on 1 June for Mr King's two-day trial.\n\nMs Alcock will be sentenced following the trial's conclusion.\n\nThe court heard the pair had the group of dogs with them at rural Ostler's Plantation, when the husky, named Blizzard, attacked Kyra.\n\nJeremy Janes, prosecuting, told the hearing: \"It's difficult to imagine a more tragic set of circumstances in the context of dog ownership and handling.\"\n\nAddressing the court, Judge Simon Hirst said: \"Ms Alcock has the enormous advantage when it comes to sentence of the fact that she has pleaded guilty, plainly showing that she has taken responsibility for this enormous tragedy and plainly has a significant amount of remorse for what happened.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Parents of baby killed by dog appear in court\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Pat Cullen has led the largest strike action in the history of UK nursing\n\nIt may be surprising to hear Pat Cullen struck a tone of sorrow, not anger, as she led English and Welsh nurses into the first nationwide strike in the nursing union's 106-year history.\n\nSpeaking on the first day of the walkouts, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing called it \"a tragic day for nursing, and a tragic day for patients\".\n\nThe union chief's sombre approach appears to have resonated somewhat with the public. While many feared for patients as the NHS weathered two days without nurses delivering any non-emergency care, two-thirds of people say they support the profession's campaign for better pay and working conditions, according to the latest YouGov poll this week.\n\nAs the top official for the RCN, Ms Cullen represents over 465,000 registered nurses, midwives, healthcare assistants and nursing students. Around 300,000 of these are nurses, representing two-thirds of the profession.\n\nAt a time of deep crisis for the NHS, she is tasked with fighting for the welfare and rights of staff while also keeping in check with the frustrations of patients facing spiralling waiting lists, treatment delays and a shortage of resources.\n\nBut Ms Cullen, as she has described herself, is tenacious. She successfully spearheaded strike action in her home nation of Northern Ireland in 2019 to get better pay for nurses. That too was Northern Ireland's first ever nationwide nursing strike.\n\nMs Cullen, a former psychiatric nurse turned RCN general secretary, has previously said nursing was \"in her blood\".\n\nThe 58-year-old grew up in Carrickmore in County Tyrone, born to farmer Paddy McAleer and his wife, Annie. She was the youngest of seven siblings, with six sisters and one brother.\n\nMs Cullen says she was inspired into the profession by her eldest sister, who would come home in a \"beautiful uniform\", talking passionately about her last shift.\n\n\"I remember thinking, even at that young age, it was just incredible how much she was able to touch people's lives,\" she told the Guardian earlier this month.\n\nMs Cullen did not pass her GCSEs so did not stay on for A-Levels and instead decided on nursing college in Carrickmore, a time she recalled to the Belfast Telegraph as her \"really happy years\".\n\nThe RCN chief was drawn to mental health nursing in particular after watching her mother take care of one of her sisters, who has learning disabilities.\n\nWorking as a community psychiatric nurse during the height of the Troubles, Ms Cullen recalled the impact of the violence on mental health being \"shocking\".\n\nIt was during her time as an 18-year-old trainee in County Antrim that she started calling out what she saw as injustices in the system.\n\nShe wrote to hospital management over a \"heartless policy\" which punished patients whose behaviour proved difficult by taking away their personal possessions like sweets or cigarettes.\n\n\"I just felt that was such an injustice. Patients on the wards couldn't cope without their own personal belongings,\" she told the Guardian. \"I think I did win it; I felt great about it.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Royal College of Nursing leader Pat Cullen: \"My door is open\"\n\nFollowing her work on the front line, Ms Cullen worked as the professional head of nursing in a local healthcare trust, before joining the Department of Health as a nursing officer in 2001.\n\nHer husband of 30 years - Enda - also works in healthcare as a GP in south Belfast. Despite her best efforts, her two children are not in the nursing profession, but her son Shane is training to be a surgeon in Dublin.\n\nIt was in 2019, the year she was appointed the Royal College of Nursing's Northern Ireland director, that she was confronted with what she described as \"an injustice too far\".\n\nNurses' pay in Northern Ireland had fallen to 10 years behind anywhere else in the UK, compelling her to campaign for strike action, the first in the union's history.\n\nA three-day strike led to Stormont striking a deal with the RCN, leading to the introduction of better pay, and legislation on safe staffing levels.\n\nNow, Ms Cullen is leading a similar battle for nurses in England and Wales. She was appointed the RCN's interim general secretary and chief executive in July 2021, initially for a period of 18 months.\n\nWhile the RCN and the government have held talks, Ms Cullen has insisted that everything has been on the table - apart from discussions on pay.\n\nIn the face of the strikes, Health Secretary Steve Barclay has said that the RCN's requests for a 19% pay rise was \"unaffordable\" during a cost-of-living crisis, but has said his door is \"always open\" to continue talks. He emphasised the pay offer was based it on recommendations by an independent pay review body.\n\nWith the union and the government in a stalemate, Ms Cullen has warned that there may be further action to come in 2023.\n\nAnd in her own words, she describes herself as someone who will follow through on something she believes in \"to the bitter end\".\n\n\"I'm hardworking,\" she told the Guardian. \"I have a really wicked sense of humour. That gets me through. And I'm tenacious. I'm definitely tenacious. When I believe in something I'll follow it through to the bitter end, I absolutely will.\"\n\nPat Cullen joins nurses on the picket line during the 15 December strike", "Soldiers have been deployed to drive ambulances in the past - including during Covid\n\nAbout 1,200 members of the military and 1,000 civil servants are to be drafted in to cover for striking ambulance and Border Force staff over Christmas.\n\nThe government say the personnel will plug staffing gaps and keep front-line services running.\n\nSome 10,000 ambulance staff in England and Wales will strike on 21 and 28 December in a pay dispute.\n\nUnions say military staff are not \"sufficiently trained\" to taking on ambulance roles.\n\nBut Health Secretary Steve Barclay said his \"number one priority\" is keeping patients safe.\n\nHowever he declined to discuss \"political debates\", stressing that the military is directed by the government to \"serve the nation\".\n\nThe head of the armed forces has warned against viewing troops as \"the go-to\" option when it comes to covering strike action.\n\nSpeaking to the Sunday Telegraph, Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, said: \"We're not spare capacity. We're busy and we're doing lots of things on behalf of the nation - we've got to focus on our primary role.\".\n\nThe Welsh government has said the military will not be asked to drive ambulances in Wales.\n\nThe co-ordinated walkout was called by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite.\n\nAll three are taking action on 21 December. GMB union members will go on strike again on 28 December.\n\nMeanwhile, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members are due to walk out for a second time on 20 December in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, following action on 15 December.\n\nThe nursing union has said it will set a deadline of 48 hours after the strike ends for ministers to agree to discuss pay - otherwise more extensive action will be announced for the new year.\n\nThe government said pay rises for ambulance workers and nurses were decided by independent pay review bodies - which have recommended pay rises of around 4.75%.\n\nWith inflation running at more than 10% and many struggling with the rising cost of living, unions have said this represents an unaffordable real terms pay cut.\n\nCabinet minister Oliver Dowden said the government was determined to be \"resolute\", reiterating that a 19% increase for nurses was \"simply not affordable\".\n\nUrging the unions to call off the strikes, he told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: \"We are trying to be reasonable, we are trying to be proportionate, we are trying to be fair.\"\n\nIndustrial action has also been taken by rail workers, Royal Mail staff and other sectors in recent weeks over pay disputes as the rising cost of living rises.\n\nThe government has announced it will publish a new \"resilience framework\" on Monday, aimed at improving how the UK prepares for and responds to critical issues like strikes.\n\nThe framework will \"bring together all levels of government, critical national infrastructure operators, the private sector, charities and the public to bolster our national preparedness to these risks\", the Cabinet Office said.\n\nThe Chief of the Defence Staff's words are carefully calibrated.\n\nWhen asked about the strikes, he does not criticise the government for calling in the armed forces, nor those who're taking industrial action.\n\nAdmiral Sir Tony Radakin knows the armed forces must stay out of politics and he makes clear the military is there to serve the nation, whatever the task.\n\nBut his words do reflect some of the frustration within the armed forces at once again being called out to do someone else's job. It's by no means the first time.\n\nThey were heavily relied on during the Covid pandemic. In 2012 they had to provide security for the London Olympics.\n\nWhen asked about the strike action, the head of the armed forces reminds the public that's not their primary role - it's to defend the nation.\n\nBeing pulled away to fulfil other roles can often have an impact on training, although it will not affect military operations.\n\nAdmiral Radakin's comments do reflect frustration, rather than anger over what they're being asked to do. He also knows that when the armed forces help out most people are grateful.\n\nThe ambulance strikes will affect non-life threatening calls only. Hospitals have been warned by NHS bosses to prepare for \"extensive disruption\" during the walkouts, and to free up beds to make it easier to move people through A&E and get paramedics quickly back on the road.\n\nHowever, doctors' leaders warned this would be very difficult to achieve.\n\nThe government said the health service will put into place \"tried and tested\" plans to reduced risks to patient safety and disruption, while individual NHS trusts will work with unions to agree on a safe level of cover.\n\nBut chief executive of the NHS Confederation Matthew Taylor said there was \"no question\" strikes would pose risks to patients.\n\n\"We're in the middle of winter and we have a health service which, even on an ordinary day without industrial action, is finding it difficult to cope,\" he said. \"So there are going to be risks to patients. There's no question about that.\"\n\nSara Gorton, head of health at Unison, said during a strike day there was \"unfortunately more risk\" to patients, but she said \"every single day patients are being put at risk because of the staffing crisis\".\n\nUnison says there are 133,000 vacancies across the health service.\n\nTroops from the Army, Navy and RAF will be deployed. Some 600 members of the armed forces are due to take on ambulance driving roles and 150 personnel will provide logistical support.\n\nCommunity first responders will also be used to help manage demand for medical care.\n\nMr Barclay described the decision to go ahead with strikes as \"deeply regrettable\", repeating the government's position that the striking unions' demands are \"not affordable\" - but he also said that he was \"open to further discussions\".\n\n\"My number one priority is to keep patients as safe as possible and we are stepping up preparations across government and the NHS, including making best use of the armed forces, volunteers and freeing up capacity to mitigate disruption and ensure safe staffing levels,\" he added.\n\nUnite accused ministers of \"hollowing out\" the health service, describing those taking strike action as \"trying to save\" the NHS.\n\nGMB and Unison blamed ministers for opting to \"dig in their heels\" on pay while the NHS is \"already on its knees\", adding that disruption now appears \"inevitable\".\n\nSara Gorton, Unison's head of health, also warned the military is \"no substitute\" for trained ambulance staff, adding: \"The hours spent on contingency planning could have been better used trying to prevent the strikes from taking place.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the main union representing Border Force staff is set to walk out for eight days between 23 and 31 December, with significant disruption for people travelling over Christmas expected.\n\nThe government said civil servants will join military personnel helping \"minimise disruption for passengers\" by checking documents and passports.\n\nAbout 1,000 Border Force staff who work in passport control will walk out on 23-26 and 28-31 December at Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester airports as well as at the Port of Newhaven.\n\nAbout 75% of Border Force staff are members of the Public and Commercial Services union, which balloted for strike action after it said the government had refused to increase a 2% pay rise offer.\n\nAs a result, some airlines have stopped selling new tickets for inbound flights to Heathrow on the days Border Force staff strike over Christmas, the BBC understands.\n\nThe Home Office has previously said it was \"extremely disappointed\" with the PCS union's decision, warning it would cause a \"significant inconvenience\" to travellers over Christmas and \"passengers should be prepared for disruption and take action to plan ahead\".\n\nThe PCS has accused Home Secretary Suella Braverman of \"scrambling around\" to get \"anyone she can\" to cover for border staff, as well as echoing the ambulance unions' concern that military staff and other civil servants are not \"sufficiently trained\".\n\nWill you be taking part in strike action in the coming days? Tell us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Molnupiravir is the first antiviral pill licensed for treating Covid in the UK\n\nAn antiviral drug tested by more than 25,000 vaccinated Covid patients has been found to reduce recovery time from the disease.\n\nMolnupiravir was given to people twice a day, for five days at home, while they had the Omicron variant of Covid.\n\nThose chosen were at a higher risk of death or hospitalisation from Covid due to age or underlying health conditions.\n\nDespite aiding recovery, the drug did not decrease death rates or hospital admissions.\n\nParticipants taking the antiviral drug while having Covid were compared with those receiving standard care who also had the infection.\n\nThe trial was conducted to see whether it backed up previous studies on molnupiravir, which had suggested it was effective at reducing hospital admissions among patients with mild-to-moderate Covid.\n\nHowever, those trials were conducted on unvaccinated patients, before the emergence of the Omicron wave.\n\nResearch in this latest study showed the treatment reduced recovery time by around four days and also reduced the viral load - the level of infection.\n\nThe findings suggest this drug would not be suitable for the entire population but in extreme circumstances could reduce pressure on the NHS.\n\nMolnupiravir, which is made by Merck, Sharp and Dohme (MSD), is very expensive- a seven-day course costs around £577.\n\nIt was the first antiviral drug studied as a treatment for Covid in the community - which means it was taken at home rather than in a medical setting.\n\nChris Butler, who is a professor of primary care in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, says: \"Finding effective, safe and scalable early treatments for Covid-19 in the community is the next major frontier in our research response to the ongoing worldwide pandemic.\n\n\"It is in the community where treatments could have a massive reach and impact.\n\n\"But decisions about who to treat should always be based on evidence from rigorous clinical trials that involve people who would most likely be prescribed the drugs.\"\n\nTo participate in the trial, people had to be within five days of the start of symptoms and either healthy and over 50 or 18-50 with underlying health conditions that made them more vulnerable to Covid.\n\nFormer deputy chief medical officer for England, Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam, who is pro-vice-chancellor for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham and study co-author, said: \"While molnupiravir was originally found to work well to reduce hospitalisation in patients with Covid, these were unvaccinated patients.\n\n\"This latest research has repeated the exercise in the highly vaccinated population, demonstrating that the vaccine protection is so strong that there is no obvious benefit from the drug in terms of further reducing hospitalisation and deaths.\n\n\"However, symptom duration and virus shedding are both markedly reduced, and we have to wait much longer to know if there will be any discernible effects on long Covid.\"\n\nThe findings are published in The Lancet journal.", "LadBaby have now overtaken the Beatles as the act with the most Christmas number ones in chart history\n\nCharity campaigners LadBaby have gained their fifth consecutive Christmas number one with Food Aid - a cover of Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas.\n\nThe song, which is raising money for UK food banks and the Band Aid trust, sold 65,000 copies to beat Wham's much-loved Last Christmas.\n\nLadBaby, aka Mark and Roxanne Hoyle, now have more Christmas number one singles than any act in chart history.\n\n\"It's unbelievable, isn't it?\" said Mark. \"All we can say is thank you.\"\n\nLadBaby made chart history last year when their collaboration with Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John, Sausage Rolls For Everyone, became their fourth consecutive UK Christmas number one.\n\nNow, with their fifth chart-topper, the Nottinghamshire couple have overtaken The Beatles as the act with the most Christmas number ones overall.\n\nThe Beatles had four in total: I Want To Hold Your Hand in 1963, I Feel Fine in 1964, Day Tripper in 1965 and Hello, Goodbye in 1967.\n\n\"A massive apology to The Beatles, and to all The Beatles' fans,\" said Mark. \"I'm sorry! The charity wins.\"\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, he added: \"If there was anything important enough to take a record from the Beatles, it was to shine a light on 14 million people who are struggling.\n\n\"I think it's an amazing moment [and] hopefully it gets everyone talking and gets everyone supporting food banks all year.\"\n\nLadBaby's run started with 2018's We Built This City, a sausage-roll themed cover of Starship's soft rock classic. They followed it up with 2019's I Love Sausage Rolls and 2020's Don't Stop Me Eatin'.\n\nMartin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company, said: \"Securing one Christmas number one is a huge achievement in itself. To do it five times, in successive years, is unprecedented and frankly incredible.\"\n\nTheir latest cover featured money saving expert Martin Lewis, and a host of celebrity look-a-likes, including an \"Adele\", a \"Paul McCartney\" and a belligerent \"Liam Gallagher\".\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by LadBaby This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThe success means that Do They Know It's Christmas, originally written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to combat the Ethiopian famine, is the only song ever to top the charts with five different recordings.\n\nIn doing so, it breaks a tie with Unchained Melody, which has been taken to number one by Jimmy Young, the Righteous Brothers, Robson & Jerome and Gareth Gates.\n\nProfits from Food Aid will be shared between the Trussell Trust food bank charity, and Band Aid's ongoing efforts to fight poverty and famine around the world.\n\nWham's Last Christmas, which was denied the number one spot by the original Band Aid single in 1984, again has to settle for being the chart's second-biggest song.\n\nYouTube supergroup Sidemen, who had hoped to become the first drill act to top the festive chart, ended the week in third position.\n\nTheir track, Christmas Drillings, was also raising money to fight food poverty in the UK, and featured vocals from KSI and grime legend JME.\n\nMariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You came fourth, with Ed Sheeran and Elton John's Merry Christmas rounding off the Christmas top five.\n\nThe highest-charting non-Christmas single was Raye's kaleidoscopic club anthem Escapism, which landed at number six.\n\nTaylor Swift's Midnights returned to the top of the album charts for its third week in pole position\n\nA political protest song about the Conservative government, the title of which is unprintable here, was a new entry at seven.\n\nIt was the fourth such song to make the Christmas charts for an act whose stage name is also unprintable on the BBC News site.\n\nMeanwhile, the surprise new single by London rapper Central Cee, Let Go (a reworking of Let Her Go by Passenger) outsold dozens of Christmas perennials to enter the chart at 10.\n\nIn total, 28 of the Top 40 singles were Christmas classics, including Fairytale Of New York, Santa Baby and Feliz Navidad, as listeners continue to stream Christmas playlists in huge numbers.\n\nTheir stranglehold will continue in next week's chart, which will count streams from Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, after which streams tend to drop off dramatically.\n\nIn the album charts, Taylor Swift's eighth album Midnights regained the top spot, with Cliff Richard's Christmas With Cliff at number two.\n\nLadBaby refused to say whether they would make a sixth attempt on the charts next year.\n\nBut if they do, they could be within breathing distance of matching The X Factor's tally of seven Christmas number ones between 2005 and 2014.\n\nThe couple said they sympathised with accusations they'd ruined the Christmas charts, but felt the cost of living crisis was too important to ignore.\n\n\"We didn't want to come back this year but unfortunately the food banks are in emergency crisis,\" Roxanne told the BBC.\n\n\"We didn't want to turn our backs on so many people. We get messages every day from nurses, teachers, children and families who are struggling.\n\n\"You don't want music to become something people get annoyed with [but] that's why we did it.\"\n\n\"We want to do whatever we can at Christmas to support food banks,\" added her husband. \"And if that isn't in the form of a song, it doesn't mean we won't show up somewhere else.\"\n\n\"Plans are always afoot. Don't rule us out. You think we can't sing? Wait until we go somewhere else and can't do that, too.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington on a US Air Force plane\n\nThe extraordinary measures taken to transport Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from Ukraine to the US capital are a sign of just how crucial the relationship is for both countries.\n\nAfter visiting the front line in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky's journey to Washington DC began with an overnight train journey to Poland before boarding a US Air Force plane, reportedly supported by a Nato spy-plane and an F-15 fighter jet.\n\nReports of the visit to Washington began circulating early this week, but it wasn't confirmed until early on Wednesday morning, when US officials felt certain that Ukraine's leader was safely en route to the US capital.\n\nThe visit had been discussed for months but the final preparations were made quickly - the two presidents spoke about it on 11 December and an invitation was extended to Mr Zelensky three days later. Only once the visit had been confirmed could final plans be put into action.\n\nUnsurprisingly, no official information about the journey was released - security is tight around presidential visits even during peacetime, but for a wartime leader the risks are greater still.\n\nWith the threat of Russian missiles making air travel over Ukraine too risky, Mr Zelensky appears to have taken a secretive train ride through Ukraine to Poland, where he was spotted early on Wednesday at a railway station in the border town of Przemysl.\n\nPictures from Polish TV showed an entourage including Mr Zelensky walking along a platform with a blue-yellow Ukrainian train in the background. The group then got into a convoy of waiting cars, including black Chevrolet Suburbans - a favourite model of the US government.\n\nMany Western leaders and officials have travelled by train to visit Mr Zelensky in Kyiv, but this was his first time abroad since Russia's war began.\n\nPresident Zelensky was filmed at a railway station in Poland\n\nNot long afterwards, flight data showed a US Air Force Boeing C-40B - thought to be transporting Mr Zelensky - taking off from Rzeszow airport some 80km (50 miles) to the west.\n\nThe plane headed northwest towards the United Kingdom, but before it entered the airspace above the North Sea, a Nato spy-plane scanned the area. The sea is known to be patrolled by Russian submarines.\n\nAnd a US F-15 fighter jet, which took off from a base in England, escorted Mr Zelensky's flight for part of its journey.\n\nFinally, around noon in Washington - nearly 10 hours after take-off and many more hours of travel for the Ukrainian president - the plane landed near Washington.\n\nOn arrival, he was given Secret Service protection - as is the case for all visiting heads of state - but Mr Zelensky's status as leader of a country at war with Russia meant security officials were being extra-vigilant.\n\n\"We are very cognisant that Russia has assets in this country and might try to do something,\" one senior official told ABC News. \"We know what is at stake.\"\n\nDespite the concerns, the visit appeared to pass smoothly. On Thursday he stopped briefly in Poland on his way home to meet his counterpart, Andrzej Duda. And by Friday he was back at his desk in Kyiv, posting a short video on Telegram: \"We are working towards victory,\" he said.", "Members of the union representing midwives in Scotland have rejected the latest NHS pay offer.\n\nThe Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said 65% of members voted against it. The union will now consider next steps including possible industrial action.\n\nThe NHS offered an average pay increase of 7.5%. It was accepted by Unison and Unite members but rejected by the GMB.\n\nThe Scottish government has said the proposal was unprecedented at a time of \"extraordinary financial challenges\".\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing has also rejected the pay offer and said it would soon announce dates for strikes.\n\nJaki Lambert, RCM director for Scotland, said: \"Our members have spoken loud and clear - the latest pay offer by the Scottish government is simply not good enough. It goes nowhere near addressing the rising cost of living and would see many midwives actually worse off in real terms.\n\n\"Our members have been consistent throughout this process - they want a decent deal, and they are prepared to take industrial action to get one.\n\n\"No midwife wants to do this and it is for the Scottish government to make sure that they do not feel that they are left with no other option.\n\n\"While we acknowledge that the Scottish government has listened to some of the concerns regarding career opportunities and development, it has failed to meet our members' needs on pay.\"\n\nLast month, Holyrood ministers tabled an improved pay offer averaging 7.5% to health workers threatening industrial action.\n\nAnnual salary rises under the proposal would range from a flat rate payment of £2,205 for staff in Bands 1 to 4 and up to £2,660 for staff in Bands 5 to 7, backdated to April.\n\nThis represents an increase of 11.3% for the lowest paid workers and delivers an average uplift of 7.5%.\n\nUnite and Unison chose to accept the deal, however, the GMB union became the first to reject it last week.\n\nThe Scottish government said previously that the pay offer was unprecedented for front-line employees and would ensure NHS workers in Scotland remain the best paid in the UK.\n\nThe RCM is part of the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee (STAC), which negotiates pay deals with the Scottish government. STAC staff will meet with ministers on Thursday to share the outcomes of their respective consultations, the RCM said.", "Terri Harris (bottom left) and her children John Bennett (top left) and Lacey Bennett (bottom right) were killed along with Lacey's friend Connie Gent (top right)\n\nA review is taking place into how probation officers handled the case of a man who murdered a pregnant woman and three children while serving a suspended sentence.\n\nDamien Bendall was given a whole-life term for killing Terri Harris, her children John and Lacey Bennett, and their friend Connie Gent.\n\nThe 32-year-old used a claw hammer to kill his victims at a house in Killamarsh in Derbyshire in 2021.\n\nBendall had previously been convicted of several violent offences, and the review is examining the way the risk he posed was managed by the probation service.\n\nHis Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons and Probation Justin Russell was asked to investigate by the Justice Secretary Dominic Raab in September 2021 as the scale of Bendall's previous crimes became clear.\n\nThe review is likely to be published early in the new year. It will first be shared with the families of Bendall's victims but is expected to be made public.\n\nA probation officer who assessed Bendall's previous criminal record has been sacked for gross misconduct and another member of staff suspended.\n\nA Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: \"These were appalling crimes and our thoughts remain with the victims' families.\n\n\"The Deputy Prime Minister [Dominic Raab] asked the Chief Inspector of Probation to conduct a review of this case and we will respond further once this is published.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Killamarsh murders: Footage shows arrest of man who murdered four\n\nBendall was sentenced at Derby Crown Court on Wednesday.\n\nThe court heard Ms Harris and the children were found dead at a house in Chandos Crescent on 19 September, having been killed the previous evening.\n\nBendall and Ms Harris had been in a relationship, having met on a dating app after her relationship with her children's father ended.\n\nThe court heard Bendall went from room to room, using the claw hammer to kill the woman and children in turn.\n\nThe judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, described the attacks as \"vicious, brutal and cruel\", with all parties agreeing a whole-life order was appropriate.\n\nDetails of Bendall's previous offences - which included violent crimes - were given at the hearing.\n\nHe had previously received a three-year sentence for robbery, and another three-year sentence for attempted robbery and possession of a knife.\n\nHe had also been given a 54-month prison sentence for inflicting grievous bodily harm and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.\n\nHowever, the suspended sentence he was serving at the time of the murders was for arson, rather than a violent offence.\n\nIt was committed on 9 May 2020 - shortly after Bendall and Ms Harris started their relationship in around April 2020.\n\nDamien Bendall admitted four murders and the rape of 11-year-old Lacey\n\nThe court heard Ms Harris was aware of this and had encouraged Bendall to hand himself in to the police.\n\nHe was sentenced on 9 June 2021 at Swindon Crown Court - three-and-a-half months before the murders.\n\nThe judge gave him a 17-month prison sentence, but suspended this for two years.\n\nBendall was then supervised by the probation service while living with Ms Harris in Killamarsh, with one of the conditions of his sentence being an overnight curfew, monitored by an electronic tag.\n\nThe decisions of staff who oversaw Bendall's case are the subject of the independent review.\n\nJohn and Lacey, shown here with their father, were aged 13 and 11 when they were murdered\n\nThe sentencing hearing heard that Bendall had previously killed a dog by hitting it around the head with a brick, apparently because his friend could not afford vets bills.\n\nMs Harris's mother Angela Smith became concerned when Bendall told her about this, the court heard.\n\nMs Smith was also concerned about Bendall's use of drugs, the court heard, and had told her daughter to end the relationship.\n\n\"In the view of Terri's mother, the defendant was controlling of her daughter and she gave Terri an ultimatum between ending her relationship with the defendant or losing her relationship with her mother,\" prosecution barrister Louis Mably KC said.\n\nDespite this, the relationship continued.\n\n\"When I was told the harrowing news that Terri, Lacey and John had been murdered I instantly knew it could only have been Damien Bendall,\" Ms Smith said in her victim personal statement.\n\n\"The person who has taken my world from me, Damien Bendall, is someone who I initially welcomed into my home and on occasions he has stayed over with Terri.\n\n\"This was against my better judgement and as I became aware of his violent past I still gave him a chance as this was what Terri wanted, and he told me he had changed and would never hurt Terri or the children.\n\n\"Terri was a fantastic mum. She adored Lacey and John, who were her life, and they had a fantastic bond. Terri wouldn't have done anything to jeopardise the children's wellbeing.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nasa TV captured images of white particles streaming out of the capsule earlier this month\n\nRussia's space agency says it is considering sending an empty spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) to bring home three crew members ahead of schedule, after their Soyuz capsule started leaking.\n\nRoscosmos and Nasa said it was unclear how the external radiator on the spacecraft sustained a tiny puncture.\n\nThey have ruled out the impact of a meteor.\n\nThe leak started as two cosmonauts were preparing for a routine spacewalk.\n\nA decision is yet to be made about how exactly the three crew members will be brought back to Earth.\n\nThe most likely option is to send another Soyuz spacecraft to collect them.\n\nA less likely option is sending them home in the leaky capsule without most of its coolant, which regulates temperatures inside the crew compartment of the spacecraft.\n\nThe vehicle - known as MS-22 - flew Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev, as well as Nasa astronaut Frank Rubio, to the station in September.\n\nBut it began spraying coolant into space earlier this month, with Nasa TV capturing dramatic images of white particles streaming out of the capsule like snowflakes.\n\nJoel Montalbano, Nasa's ISS program manager, said late February would be the most likely time to launch another Soyuz. The crew were due to return in March.\n\nNasa says that none of the crew are in danger.\n\nThe capsule is currently being vented with air flow allowed through an open hatch to the space station, Mr Montalbano said.\n\nThe ISS was launched in 1998 and is located about 400 km from the Earth.\n\nCosmonauts carry out tests and research at the station that will help future space missions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Out on a spacewalk with Nasa astronauts", "Jeremy Clarkson is the star of Amazon Prime series Clarkson's Farm and hosts Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for ITV\n\nThe Sun newspaper says it regrets publishing a Jeremy Clarkson column about the Duchess of Sussex and is \"sincerely sorry\".\n\nMore than 20,000 complaints were made to the press regulator after the broadcaster wrote last week that he hated Meghan \"on a cellular level\".\n\nHe later asked for the column to be removed from the Sun's website.\n\nThe Sun said columnists' opinions were their own, but as a publisher \"with free expression comes responsibility\".\n\nThe piece became the Independent Press Standards Organisation's (Ipso) most complained-about article.\n\nIpso said it had received more than 17,500 complaints by 09:00 GMT on Tuesday - which rose to 20,800 by 17:00.\n\nIn place of the article, the Sun's website now has a copy of a tweet from Clarkson in which he said he was \"horrified to have caused so much hurt\" and \"would be more careful in future\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jeremy Clarkson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nClarkson's column, published on 16 December, was widely criticised on social media.\n\nHis daughter, Emily, distanced herself from her father's words.\n\nShe said last week: \"I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle.\"\n\nKevin Lygo, ITV's media and entertainment boss, described the comments made by Clarkson as \"awful\" but said there were no plans to replace him as a host of the gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.\n\nThe column came after the release of Prince Harry and Meghan's Netflix six-part series, in which the couple talked about their life in Royal Family.\n\nIn its apology, which has been published on its website, the Sun said: \"We will continue to campaign for good causes on behalf of our readers in 2023.\"\n\nThe Sun said it had a \"proud history of campaigning\", including work on bringing about legislation on domestic abuse, providing beds in refuges and closing harmful loopholes in the law.\n\nThe newspaper added the article had been removed from the website and the archives.\n\nIn the original column, Clarkson said: \"At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her.\n\n\"Everyone who's my age thinks the same way,\" he added. \"But what makes me despair is that younger people, especially girls, think she's pretty cool. They think she was a prisoner of Buckingham Palace, forced to talk about nothing but embroidery and kittens.\"\n\nIn his tweet following the criticism, Clarkson said he had made a \"clumsy\" reference to a scene in Game of Thrones which \"has gone down badly with a great many people\".\n\nElsewhere in the column, Clarkson had also compared his hatred of the Duchess of Sussex with his feelings towards Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and serial killer Rose West.\n\nIn response, Ms Sturgeon said Clarkson's comments about Meghan were \"deeply misogynist and just downright awful\".\n\nShe said she feels \"pity\" for men like Clarkson, adding: \"I can't imagine what it must be like to be so consumed and distorted by hate of other people, and in his case it appears women in particular, that you end up writing that toxic, vile abuse.\"\n\nNeil Wallis, media commentator and former editor at the Sun and News Of The World, told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme Clarkson was failed by the editorial team.\n\n\"The bottom line of this is this is a dreadful failure of editing,\" he said.\n\nHe added: \"At least three points it seems to me there were opportunities for people in senior responsible positions for putting their hand up and saying 'we can't publish this, this is just wrong'. The job of being an editor is to sometimes protect a columnist from themselves.\"\n\nThe column also received complaints from political figures.\n\nConservative MP Caroline Nokes wrote to the editor of the Sun, Victoria Newton, on Tuesday demanding \"definitive action is taken to ensure no article like this is ever published again\".\n\nThe letter was signed by more than 60 MPs.", "Members of Wagner Group stand outside new headquarters in St Petersburg\n\nThe United States has accused North Korea of supplying battlefield missiles and rockets to the Russian mercenary group Wagner for use in Ukraine.\n\nThe White House said the shipment violated UN Security Council resolutions and that it would announce further sanctions on Wagner.\n\nBoth North Korea and Wagner have denied the reports.\n\nFighters from the mercenary group have ballooned from 1,000 to nearly 20,000 in Ukraine, the UK government says.\n\nThe group has also been active recently in Syria and African countries, and has repeatedly been accused of war crimes and human rights abuses.\n\n\"Wagner is searching around the world for arms suppliers to support its military operations in Ukraine,\" White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters.\n\n\"We can confirm that North Korea has completed an initial arms delivery to Wagner, which paid for that equipment,\" he said.\n\nThe White House says the mercenary group took delivery of infantry rockets and missiles from North Korea.\n\nMr Kirby said Wagner is spending more than $100 million (£82 million) each month in Ukraine.\n\nHe added that the group now rivals the Russian military in power.\n\n\"The fact that President (Vladimir) Putin is turning to North Korea for help is a sign of Russia's desperation and isolation,\" Mr Cleverly said in a statement.\n\nBut Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin denied the assertion, calling it \"gossip and speculation\", while North Korea's foreign ministry called the reports \"groundless\".\n\nIts position \"remains unchanged\" and the transaction of arms between North Korea and Russia \"has never happened\", a North Korean spokesperson said.\n\nWagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has been seen in leaked footage addressing prisoners in Russia\n\nThe Wagner group is believed to have first gone into action during Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.\n\nIts owner, Mr Prigozhin, is an oligarch known as \"Putin's chef\" - so-called because he rose from being a restaurateur and caterer for the Kremlin.\n\nWagner's influence and presence has drastically strengthened as Russia's invasion of Ukraine has suffered multiple setbacks.\n\nIn March 2022, Wagner was thought to have sent an initial force of just over 1,000. But UK officials say that number has now grown to more than 20,000 - around 10% of the total Russian forces on the ground.\n\nWagner's inflated ranks are linked to its targeted recruitment of convicts in Russian prisons. UK officials say open source estimates suggest that the numbers of convicts in Russian prisons fell by more than 23,000 in the two months leading up to November 2022 - the period in which it was recruiting.\n\nMany convicts are believed to have joined Wagner - though there are no precise numbers. In return they have been told they will get paid and have their sentences commuted after serving six months on the front line.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A people carrier with a crew of Santas on board gets stuck in a Cornish lane\n\nAn armoured personnel carrier filled with Santas had to be freed by police after getting stuck in a Cornish lane.\n\nThe Santas, who were believed to be on a pub crawl, got wedged in a hedge at Marsh Lane near Hayle in Cornwall.\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police were called at about 19:40 GMT on Thursday after reports that a vehicle had been damaged. No-one was arrested.\n\nFisherman Ian Jepson, who shot video of the Santa jam, said the lane was blocked for about two hours.\n\nHe said the Santas were on an annual pub crawl.\n\n\"They shot past me singing and we later found them stuck where the lane narrows,\" he added.\n\n\"They were quite tightly jammed but it says no parking.\n\n\"It was quite funny as they tried to free themselves.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.", "Jennifer Amnott, Valerie Hayes and Gary Reburn wanted the UK Supreme Court to consider their case after losing an extradition appeal in the Scottish courts\n\nThree Americans facing trial over a kidnap and murder plot have lost their latest attempt to avoid extradition from Scotland.\n\nThe US authorities say Valerie Hayes, Gary Reburn and Jennifer Amnott conspired to abduct five children and kill their parents in Dayton, Virginia.\n\nThe plot was foiled in 2018 and the three were later traced in Glasgow and taken into custody.\n\nThe Supreme Court has now refused to hear their appeal against extradition.\n\nJudges at the UK's highest court ruled the trio had not raised an arguable point of law.\n\nIn January, judges at the High Court in Edinburgh rejected an extradition appeal bid by the three US citizens.\n\nBBC Scotland understands lawyers for the Americans now hope to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.\n\nAmerican investigators say Valerie Hayes, 40, and her boyfriend Gary Reburn, 58, informed Jennifer Amnott that their three children had been \"captured\" by two families in West Virginia.\n\nThey are alleged to have told Ms Amnott that if she and her husband Frank helped recover them, she could keep one of the families' other children.\n\nAccording to the FBI and the local sheriff's department, the plan was to break into the families' homes, take the children and murder the parents so there would be no witnesses.\n\nThey tried to enact the plot but the alarm was raised and no-one was hurt.\n\nMs Amnott's husband Frank admitted conspiracy to kidnap in Virginia in December 2019\n\nFrank Amnott was captured at the scene and later received a mandatory life sentence for conspiracy to kidnap and to kill witnesses.\n\nThe Americans say Ms Hayes, Mr Reburn and Ms Amnott fled to Scotland to evade justice.\n\nThey have claimed their human rights would be breached if they were sent back to the US and given life sentences without parole.\n\nAfter Frank Amnott was sentenced in 2019, United States Attorney Thomas T. Cullen said: \"Although the facts of this case read like the script of a bad horror movie, the defendants' murderous plot was real and it posed a grave risk to their intended victims.\"", "A Vietnam veteran walked into a liquor store in Massachusetts on a cold December day.\n\nHe played the lottery, like he had been doing for over 20 years.\n\nHis intuition told him: don't just buy one ticket, buy six. And don't just use any numbers, use the exact same numbers on each ticket.\n\nAs luck would have it, Raymond Roberts' numbers came in, and were worth $390,000 (£324,000) each as a cash prize.\n\nMr Roberts chose to take a lump sum for five of the tickets - earning nearly $2m (£1.6m) in total.\n\nFor the sixth ticket, he chose the annuity option - meaning he will also get 20 annual payments of $25,000.\n\nThe lottery awards a set amount for correctly drawing five balls, as Mr Roberts did, meaning multiple wins with the same numbers are possible.\n\nThe winning numbers Mr Roberts chose were a carefully concocted combination of birthdays and anniversary dates. He had used them on other lottery tickets, on other days, but had drawn a blank.\n\nThe veteran, of Fall River, 50 miles (80km) south of Boston, picked up his winnings on 15 December.\n\nSo what does he plan to do with his unexpected riches?\n\nFor starters, he'll buy a motorcycle, according to the lottery.\n\nLucky for Life was the game Mr Roberts played, and indeed that's what some might call him.\n\nAccording to the rules of the game, the odds of winning just the $25,000 per year for life prize are one in 1,813,028.\n\nResidents of Massachusetts spend the most per capita on lottery and scratch-off tickets than anywhere else in the US.", "Rishi Sunak has surprised public servants working across the world over Christmas with a personal phone call to thank them for their efforts.\n\nInstead of a traditional message to the nation, the PM called diplomats, Royal Navy crew and a childcare provider in Pakistan, Somalia, Ukraine and the UK.\n\nMr Sunak said he was grateful for their \"sacrifice\" over the festive period.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer used his message to pay tribute to the Ukrainian people and those working at Christmas.\n\nIn the UK, Mr Sunak spoke to Chris Mitchell, who runs Smart Play, a government-funded holiday activities and food programme in Barnet, north London.\n\nThe prime minister also called Svita Yavorska, who works for the UK's embassy in Ukraine. She told Mr Sunak how she had fled to Poland, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, helping to set up a temporary base there, before returning to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking to diplomat Nic Guffog, who is based in Mogadishu, Mr Sunak heard how staff at the UK's diplomatic compound were living in containers under the threat of terror attacks, as they supported the Somalian government to counter the militant Al-Shabaab group and deal with the hunger crisis facing the country.\n\nHe also spoke to some of the crew of HMS Protector, which is currently deployed off the coast of the South Sandwich islands in Antarctica.\n\nIt comes as the UK is facing a wave of industrial action, including by NHS and Border Force staff, with members of the armed forces stepping in to cover striking workers.\n\nThe prime minister's official Christmas card shows him baking with his family\n\nAlthough Mr Sunak did not follow the tradition of recording a Christmas message that is broadcast to the UK, he did issue a statement.\n\nMr Sunak said: \"Whether you are working in Mogadishu or Milton Keynes this Christmas, I want you to know that I am personally grateful for your sacrifice.\n\n\"This year has been an extraordinary year for so many reasons, but most of all, it's been a year in which the true spirit and resilience of the United Kingdom has been on show, from the support given to our Ukrainian friends, to the work being done to ensure essential aid reaches the most vulnerable overseas.\n\n\"And closer to home, those who have checked on friends and neighbours, volunteers, public servants and essential service staff all working over Christmas - I am truly humbled by your dedication and I know your selflessness this festive season will spread cheer across the country.\"\n\nMr Sunak also tweeted a short video to the people of Ukraine, writing: \"This Christmas, we're with you...\"\n\nAnd in a Christmas message on Twitter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the prime minister and British public, saying he was \"grateful\" for their support and \"warmth of your hearts\".\n\nSir Keir used his Christmas message to pay tribute to \"our friends in Ukraine\"\n\nIn his annual Christmas message, Labour's leader acknowledged that for many people in Britain \"life is tough at the moment\".\n\n\"But Christmas is a reminder that we will endure, that things will get better,\" Sir Keir Starmer added.\n\n\"I hope this Christmas is a joyous and relaxing time for you, however you are spending it. I'm looking forward to sharing my time with my family, away from the day to day of work,\" he said.\n\n\"But as I do I will be keeping in my heart all those who are working to keep us safe. Those looking after the less fortunate, and our friends in Ukraine, facing the horror of Putin's appalling attacks. Their struggle for freedom inspires us all.\"\n\nSNP leader Nicola Sturgeon used her festive message to offer a \"heartfelt thanks\" to public sector workers and noted \"tough times\" for Scotland.\n\nShe said: \"Especially after the past two Christmases, I know most of us will be really looking forward to this festive period.\n\n\"Of course, the cost-of-living crisis is making this a very hard winter for many. So this Christmas, it's important for all of us to also think about how we can help others.\"\n\nIn his message, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: \"For me, the message of Christmas is for us to treat others as we would wish to be treated and the symbol of Christmas is light - the light of hope, in the darkest week of the year.\n\n\"Hope that we all desperately need for these most challenging of times.\"", "Heather Smedley was the \"glue that held our family together\", a tribute said\n\nA family has paid tribute to a \"kind and gentle\" mum-of-three who died after being hit by an unmarked police car.\n\nThe car was pursuing a different vehicle, suspected to have been stolen, when it collided with Heather Smedley's car in Royton, Oldham.\n\nThe 53-year-old was taken to hospital with serious injuries after the collision at about 10:00 GMT on Friday and died a short time later.\n\nHer family said she was \"the glue that held our family together\".\n\nIn a statement the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said: \"We understand that the police car had been pursuing a separate, suspected stolen vehicle prior to the collision.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the woman's family and friends at this awful time and all those affected by this tragic incident.\n\n\"Our investigation will examine the circumstances leading up to the collision and whether police actions were in accordance with policies and procedures.\"\n\nPaying tribute, Mrs Smedley's family said she was the \"most wonderful mother\" to Benjamin, Olivia and Jamie, and daughter to Hilda and Fred and wife to Damian.\n\nThey said \"the world was a much better place\" with her in it.\n\nThey added she was the most \"kind, gentle, beautiful soul inside and out\".\n\n\"She faced all of life's challenges with her beautiful smile, and her bravery and courage never wavered,\" they added.\n\n\"We could not have asked for a better role model growing up, giving everything she had to all of those she loved, and always supporting those around her.\n\n\"She was the glue that held our family together. Her resilience and kindness inspired us all to be better.\"\n\nGreater Manchester Police Ch Supt Chris Bowen said his \"sincere thoughts and condolences\" were with Mrs Smedley's family and friends.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. CCTV footage shows a man leaving Natalie McNally's street on the night she was killed\n\nPolice investigating the stabbing of Natalie McNally have released CCTV footage of a suspect seen entering her street on the night she was killed.\n\nThe 32-year-old was 15 weeks pregnant when she was stabbed to death in her home in Lurgan on Sunday night.\n\nThe CCTV footage shows a man entering Silverwood Green at 20:52 GMT on Sunday. He leaves at 21:30.\n\nA 32-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder was released on police bail on Thursday night.\n\nThe charity Crimestoppers has offered a £20,000 reward for information about Ms McNally's killing.\n\nPolice previously said she may have known her killer.\n\nNatalie McNally was 32 and was expecting a child when she was killed\n\nShe was stabbed a number of times and some of her wounds appeared to have been inflicted as she tried to defend herself.\n\nDet Ch Insp John Caldwell said: \"The person on the CCTV is a suspect - I believe that is the person who has murdered Natalie McNally.\"\n\nThe man in the CCTV footage was carrying a rucksack when he arrived in Silverwood Green.\n\nHe appeared to be wearing white footwear, which Mr Caldwell said were possibly trainers.\n\nOn Thursday Ms McNally's youngest brother Niall appealed to her killer to \"do the decent thing and confess to her murder\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Natalie's brother Niall McNally appeals for her killer to confess to police\n\nHe said the family were devastated and he could not put into words the heartache they were experiencing.\n\n\"I really can't believe we will never see her beautiful smile or hear her infectious laugh again,\" he said.\n\n\"Nats really was the best sister ever and such a lovely person.\n\n\"To add to our unbearable heartache we are devastated that we will never meet Natalie's baby.\n\n\"We were all looking forward to welcoming the family's first grandchild.\n\n\"The killer has denied Nats the opportunity of being a mummy.\"\n\nHer uncle John McStravick said she came from one of the most caring families he had ever met.\n\n\"Natalie was a gorgeous, kind, generous girl who went the extra mile for her friends and family,\" he said.\n\nNatalie's's brother Niall (left) and uncle John McStravick (centre) joined Det Ch Insp John Caldwell for a press conference on Thursday\n\nA man in his 30s who was arrested on suspicion of murder was released on bail on Tuesday pending further inquiries.\n\nHe is not the same man who was arrested on Wednesday and released on Thursday.\n\nMs McNally worked as part of the marketing team at public transport provider Translink.\n\nIn posts on social media, friends described her as \"one of the best\".\n\nPolice were called to Ms McNally's house in Silverwood Green at 22:00 on Monday.\n\nShe was pronounced dead when the emergency services arrived.\n\nMr Caldwell said there were no signs of a break-in at the property.\n\nHe said he wanted information from people who may have driven along the Kiln Road in Lurgan between 20:45 and 21:45 on Sunday.", "Around 650 armed forces personnel were drafted in to cover ambulance strikes this week\n\nMilitary personnel covering public sector strikes over the Christmas period are to be paid daily bonuses of £20.\n\nThe Ministry of Defence said the payments were for those asked to step in from 19 December to 2 January.\n\nAround 625 personnel are filling in for Border Force staff striking at UK airports this week.\n\nOn Wednesday, around 750 were drafted in to help during walkouts from ambulance staff in England and Wales.\n\nMembers of the armed forces do not have the right to strike, and can be called upon to guarantee emergency services during industrial action.\n\nBut Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin recently cautioned against seeing the military as an \"ultimate backstop\" during walkouts.\n\nThe MoD said the £20 payments would come out of the department's budget, and be made for each day of cover or training beforehand.\n\nThe payments are after tax and would be paid to military staff as part of their monthly salary, the department added.\n\nMilitary staff covered ambulance strikes earlier this week during action by the Unison, Unite and the GMB unions striking over pay.\n\nMinisters said they would help get people to A&E more quickly, but would not be allowed to drive ambulances under blue lights, go through red lights or break the speed limit.\n\nMilitary staff have also been asked to cover striking Border Force officials from the PCS union at six airports and the Port of Newhaven in Sussex.\n\nDefence Secretary Ben Wallace said he was \"incredibly grateful\" that the armed forces were going \"above and beyond\" at short notice to keep services going.\n\nHe blamed unions for the industrial action, accusing them of holding \"our public services to ransom\".\n\nShadow defence secretary John Healey said the government's \"small gesture is better than nothing\" but forces were \"once again having to bail out Conservative ministers who are grinding our country to a halt\".\n\nThe MoD also said the current rules under which it charges for the use of military staff would be reviewed early next year.\n\nThe procedure, under which the MoD bills other government departments for using the armed forces, has been used increasingly in recent years because of their role in the response to the Covid pandemic.\n\nThe government has set out a long-term ambition to reduce its reliance on the regular armed forces during emergency situations.\n\nIn a strategy document published earlier this week, it said using military staff should be a \"last resort\" and in future it wanted to make greater use of reservists.\n\nLast week, the top civil servant at the MoD told MPs it was charging other parts of government £4,000 per week per staff member to ensure they were being used as a \"last resort\" during industrial action.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 16-23 December.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nHarbour master: \"The top of the Aberdeen control centre appears to be peeking over the hill looking at the sunrise,\" says David Hughes.\n\nSnowed under: \"This gnome lives next to our workshop and is normally quite visible, but there wasn't much of him after our first major snow in a considerable cold snap,\" says Benjamin Blundell near Cupar, Fife.\n\n\"The colours and light one morning were amazing so I stopped to take a photo,\" says Suzanne Brown. \"My son Quin thought it looked like the sun was rising out of Dumbarton rock itself.\"\n\nJet skiing: \"This is my son Alfie at Glenshee,\" says Laura Ballantyne. \"Two jets came through the valley while we were at the top, I managed to capture this photo.\"\n\nGoing cheep: \"Robin singing in the snow in Livingston,\" says Geoff Donnelly.\n\nForth Brrridge: \"Freezing fog over the Forth,\" says Mark Miller.\n\nView finder: A stunning winter scene across Loch Tulla to the Black Mount and Glen Etive mountains, from John Dewar.\n\nCapital gain: \"I took this from Wester Craiglockhart Hill in Edinburgh when out walking Mara the dog,\" says Alistair Murphy. \"I thought the sun did a great job of lighting up the Queensferry Crossing and the rainbow certainly added colour to a relatively dull December day.\"\n\nIce to see you: \"Roadside icicles in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire,\" says Robin Miller.\n\nPot of goals? \"Aberdeen manager Jim Goodwin will be hoping there’s a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow over Pittodrie,\" says Alistair Annand.\n\nRed nose incoming: \"Cracking afternoon spent with the herd on the Cairngorms,\" says Jon McConnachie.\n\nSnowbow area: \"A brief squally snow shower produced this unusual effect at Torrin on the Isle of Skye during the recent frosty weather,\" says Louise Love. \"Something I have never seen before - a very lucky capture.\"\n\nCold stare: \"Even the statues were covered in frost,\" says Rosie McGeachan in Glasgow.\n\nIt's all downhill from here: Lecht ski centre snow from Murray Railton.\n\nChilly dog: \"Tilly the fox red lab enjoying her first walk in the snowy Ochil Hills,\" says Patricia Taylor.\n\nThe fisher king: \"This kingfisher picked up his lunch at Quarrymill Woodland Park near Perth,\" says Peter Wilkinson.\n\nBeach buddies: \"Daisy and Molly play in the sand at Ayr beach,\" says Rebecca Chown.\n\nA very berry Christmas: \"I’d love it if you would feature my shot of this stunning Bohemian Waxwing taken in Edinburgh,\" says Iain Donnachie. \"They are such an unusual and irregular winter visitor.\"\n\n\"A ram on the Ben Nevis path,\" says Jasmine Brown.\n\nThe white house: \"A photo of our house near Highland Park, Kirkwall,\" says Gordon Watson.\n\nSingle decker: The scene on the MV Loch Seaforth, from John Dyer.\n\nBlack and very white photography: This atmospheric image was taken at Drummondearnoch Farm in Comrie, Perthshire, by Andrew Tainsh.\n\nDogged effort: \"This tractor seemed very resistant to the collie's attempts to get it moving,\" says Alistair Ferns. \"A striking mural on a shed door in Evanton.\"\n\nIt's wheely cold: This chilly scene was photographed by Andrew Gillman.\n\nRed alert: \"A squirrel enjoying the walnuts and hazelnuts in our Perthshire garden,\" says Debi Bell.\n\nChill time: \"This picture of a frosty sundial was taken at St Andrews Botanics,\" says Lucy Munsaka. \"My husband and I had taken out 16-month-old daughter to an outdoor baby group called Wild Fife Babies and Bairns and it was very cold.\"\n\nWe've herd it's cold: Graham Rosie spotted these cattle near Deepsyke Forest, West Linton.\n\nBushy hair: \"Brian May (the Queen guitarist) has had a new haircut,\" says George Murray in Westhill, Aberdeenshire. Or perhaps also Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons we'd humbly suggest.\n\nFreeze frame: \"My 11-year-old son Cameron at the side of the River Braan near Dunkeld, chuffed to bits with the massive icicle he found,\" says Paul Dick.\n\nDressed up to the canines: \"Christmas outfit all sorted for Humphrey in Newton Mearns, taken by his human,\" says Mary Thorpe.\n\nIce bucket: \"When you find the waste bin you forgot about a week ago under the melted snow and this slides out,\" says Izzy Irvine in Edinburgh.\n\nMonster trunk: \"Nessie gets into the festive spirit on Ness Islands, Inverness,\" says Derek Mackenzie.\n\nGive peas a chance: Food left out for the birds in Auchterarder, from Robert Booth.\n\nCold feet: \"This little Robin sat looking in the window as if to say 'more seeds please',\" says Hazel Thomson in Elgin.\n\nA little snowman needing cheered up, photographed by Carol Brown near the Pitlochry Dam Visitor Centre.\n\nIcy look: \"Ollie's ice-blue eyes looking quite the part,\" says Jacki Gordon.\n\nIt's neigh warm: The Kelpies in the snow, from David Wilkinson.\n\nOn song: Scottish Opera’s Christmas Community Choir at St Columba’s Church in Glasgow, pictured by Julie Broadfoot.\n\nEwe beauty: This Strathcarron scene is courtesy of David Chambers.\n\nShip to shore: \"A fishing boat amongst the sea fog at the local beach here in Stevenston, North Ayrshire,\" says Amanda Hughes.\n\n\"Walking home in the Scottish Borders,\" says Tricia Buckley.\n\nSloping off: \"A great day sledging for my kids Jessie and Guthrie and a lot of running after them for my husband Johnny,\" says Gill Walker at the foot of Bennachie.\n\nAnything but plane: \"Sunset captured from the flight to Inverness,\" says Suparna Basetti.\n\nFairly impressive: George Square Christmas Market in Glasgow at the end of a great day in town, says Julie Nelis, who was with daughter Freya.\n\n\"This festive projection on the front of Inverleith House in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh forms part of the current Christmas at the Botanics illuminated trail event,\" says Janina Dolny. And on that note, a very Merry Christmas to all our readers.\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "Carter was asked to be a mascot in September by Wrexham striker Paul Mullin\n\nA boy whose parents were told he would not walk until he was seven has defied the odds and is playing in his first pair of football boots, aged four.\n\nCarter was diagnosed with a form of cerebral palsy called spastic diplegia when he was 18 months old.\n\nNow, three years earlier than doctors predicted, he is enjoying a kickabout in his first pair of football boots.\n\nThe Wrexham season ticket holder hopes to use his new boots to \"play just like\" his hero, striker Paul Mullin.\n\nHis mother Alison Murphy, 26, said her son could not wait to get his new boots on when he got them this week: \"We tried them on him and as soon as he got them on he got a little ball in the house and started kicking it about.\"\n\nMs Murphy said being able to give her son his new boots has \"made her Christmas\".\n\n\"When I take him to school they've got a little goal there and he has to play football before he goes in,\" she said.\n\n\"He's now been tackling his friends in school and coming home covered in mud - which is making me very happy because I know he's happy.\"\n\nCarter was absolutely delighted with his new football boots\n\nShe described a \"difficult few months\" trying to get her son football boots as the splint he wears means he has to wear a pair \"three or four sizes\" too big to accommodate them.\n\n\"We went into a shop on the off chance that we would find some that would possibly fit his splints. We took them home, and they fit him perfectly.\"\n\nEarlier this season, Carter was personally invited by Wrexham striker Mullin to be his mascot.\n\n\"I make quite a few TikToks about Carter because there's quite a few other parents who don't have support or anybody else to talk to,\" said Ms Murphy.\n\n\"I put one on Twitter and Paul Mullin saw it - he messaged me in August and asked for Carter to be his mascot in September a week after his birthday.\"\n\n\"We go to watch Wrexham every week,\" said Carter's mum\n\nMs Murphy is now looking for ways for Carter to put his new boots into action.\n\n\"He's been offered to go to a football club in Oldham - they have a cerebral palsy football team. So we are thinking about that,\" she said.\n\n\"He wants to go and practice his football now - so we're going to take him to a field by where we live.\n\n\"His dad practises with him - he passes him the ball for him to score the goal.\"\n\nCarter got some trainers to wear as a Wrexham mascot which are specifically designed for children with cerebral palsy", "Nurses in Scotland are set to strike after voting down the latest pay offer for NHS workers.\n\nRoyal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland members rejected an average increase of 7.5%. The union said it was planning for industrial action and would announce dates early next year.\n\nRoyal College of Midwives (RCM) members also rejected the pay deal.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf said he was disappointed but would continue negotiations with unions.\n\nIn the RCN ballot that closed on Monday, 82% voted against the offer.\n\nThe union, which has more than 30,000 NHS members in Scotland, had asked for an increase of at least 5% above inflation - which is currently 10.7%.\n\nJulie Lamberth, RCN Scotland board chair, said nurses had \"forcefully rejected\" the deal.\n\nShe added: \"Make no mistake - we do not want to go on strike. Years of being undervalued and understaffed have left us feeling we have been left with no option because enough is enough.\n\n\"The ball is in Scottish government's court if strike action is going to be avoided.\"\n\nNurses in Scotland are planning industrial action after rejecting the latest pay offer\n\nLast month, ministers tabled an improved pay offer averaging 7.5% to health workers threatening industrial action.\n\nAnnual salary rises under the proposal would range from a flat rate payment of £2,205 for staff in Bands 1 to 4 and up to £2,660 for staff in Bands 5 to 7, backdated to April.\n\nThis represents an increase of 11.3% for the lowest paid workers and delivers an average uplift of 7.5%.\n\nUnite and Unison chose to accept the deal, however, the GMB union became the first to reject it last week.\n\nThe deal was also rejected by 65% of midwives who voted in the RCM ballot. The union, which has about 3,000 members in Scotland, said it was considering industrial action.\n\nJaki Lambert, RCM director for Scotland, said: \"Our members have spoken loud and clear - the latest pay offer by the Scottish government is simply not good enough. It goes nowhere near addressing the rising cost of living and would see many midwives actually worse off in real terms.\n\n\"Our members have been consistent throughout this process - they want a decent deal, and they are prepared to take industrial action to get one.\n\n\"No midwife wants to do this and it is for the Scottish government to make sure that they do not feel that they are left with no other option.\"\n\nThe rejection of this pay offer by such a high proportion of RCN members will be a real blow for the Scottish government, which had billed it as the best and highest offer in the UK.\n\nIt will also be disappointing for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon after she had personally intervened, meeting nursing leaders to see if there was anything that could be done to get this deal over the line.\n\nIt now leaves a complicated picture here in Scotland because some other unions, including Unison, who also represent some of the nursing workforce, have accepted the offer. Others like GMB, who represent ambulance staff, have turned it down.\n\nI'm told there is a willingness on all sides to get back round the table and see if any more can be done, but it is hard to see where such negotiations can go.\n\nStrikes in the new year are still not inevitable, but it they are growing ever more likely.\n\nHumza Yousaf said the government had made its \"best and final pay offer\" to NHS staff.\n\nThe health secretary said: \"While I am naturally disappointed the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Nursing have rejected this offer, I respect the voice of their membership.\n\n\"We have engaged tirelessly with trade union representatives over recent weeks and months, leaving no stone unturned to reach a record pay offer which responds to the key concerns of staff across the service.\"\n\nThe minister said he would be meeting with trade unions on Thursday to continue \"meaningful dialogue\".\n\nHe added: \"We are making this offer at a time of extraordinary financial challenges to the Scottish government to get money into the pockets of hard working staff and to avoid industrial action, in what is already going to be an incredibly challenging winter.\n\n\"Constructive engagement is crucial, those unions who have rejected our pay offer have all said they want to avoid industrial action, we must collectively work toward avoiding strikes taking place this winter at a time of already significant pressure for our NHS.\"\n\nScottish Conservative health spokesperson, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, called on Mr Yousaf to \"immediately get back round the table\" with the RCN to prevent strike action going ahead.\n\nHe said: \"Scotland's NHS is on its knees due to the health secretary's mismanagement, so the last thing it can afford going into the peak winter period is industrial action.\"\n\nScottish Labour health spokesperson Jackie Baillie said the health secretary should step down.\n\nShe said: \"Under the SNP, Scotland's heroic nursing staff have been pushed to breaking point. We are already in the midst of a full-blown winter crisis, with lives being risked on a daily basis.\n\n\"It's time that Humza Yousaf does the right thing and resigns.\"\n\nAnd Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: \"Nurses have gone above and beyond in recent years to keep all of us safe. They need a proper pay deal, better working conditions and safe staffing levels.\n\n\"Scottish ministers clapped for our NHS, now they need to get their hands in their pockets.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Football\n\nThe right-back played every minute of the six matches in the 1966 tournament and was vice-captain for the 4-2 win over West Germany in the Wembley final.\n\nCohen, who spent his entire club career with Fulham, won 37 caps for England.\n\n\"Very sad to hear my friend and England team-mate has died,\" said Sir Geoff Hurst, who is one of the two surviving members of the XI that started the final, along with Sir Bobby Charlton.\n\n\"Everyone, without exception, always said that George was such a lovely man. He will be sadly missed, my heartfelt thoughts are with George's wife Daphne and his family,\" Hurst added on Twitter.\n\nFulham, who announced Cohen's death, said: \"Everyone at Fulham Football Club is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of one of our greatest ever players - and gentlemen.\n\n\"All of our thoughts are with Daphne, his beloved wife of more than 60 years, sons Anthony and Andrew, his grandchildren and extended family, as well as George's many, many friends.\"\n\nCohen featured in every game of England's successful World Cup campaign.\n\nHe was awarded the MBE in 2000, one of five players from the 1966 side to be belatedly honoured, following a media campaign to recognise their achievement alongside that of their peers.\n\nIn a 13-year playing career at Fulham, from 1956 to 1969, Cohen made 459 appearances for the club.\n\nIn October 2016, a statue of Cohen was unveiled at Craven Cottage to commemorate their former player and mark the 50th anniversary of the World Cup win. Fulham have also named a section of their hospitality facilities after him.\n\nHis World Cup medal is on display at the stadium, with the club having bought it for £80,000 in 1998.\n\nAlf Ramsey, who managed the 1966 England side, called Cohen the country’s “greatest right-back”, while Manchester United's legendary winger George Best described him as \"the best full back I ever played against”.\n\nAfter his playing career, which was ended before his 30th birthday by a knee injury, he coached Fulham’s youth team and had a spell managing non-league side Tonbridge.\n\nCohen was given the freedom of Hammersmith and Fulham in 2016 for his footballing achievements and his campaigning for more research into cancer and dementia.\n\nHe was vocal in his demands for a public enquiry into dementia in football after a study revealed that ex-players were more than three times as likely to suffer from the condition as the general population.\n\nHis nephew, Ben Cohen, won the Rugby World Cup with England in 2003.\n\nA minute's applause will take place before all Premier League matches between 26 and 28 December, with players and officials wearing black armbands as a mark of respect.\n\nTributes have flooded in on social media and beyond.\n\nCohen's former Fulham team-mate Alan Mullery told BBC 5 Live: \"I've just got a kick in the teeth; he's not been well for some time now. George had a wonderful life, he's got a wonderful family and he was a terrific player to play with.\"\n\nFormer England player Gary Lineker wrote: \"Sorry to hear that George Cohen has died. Another of the heroes of the '66 World Cup winning team leaves us. He'll always have footballing immortality. RIP George.\"\n\nIan Callaghan, George Eastham and Terry Paine are the three other surviving players from England's 22-man squad selected for the 1966 World Cup finals.\n\nFulham manager Marco Silva said: \"It is a huge loss for Fulham, for English football. As manager, I want to send our condolences to his family.\n\n\"He is one of the biggest examples in the club's history, the numbers he reached speak for themselves. I know what he represents; he is really important for the club and it is a sad day for us.\"\n\nThe widow of England's World Cup-winning captain Bobby Moore, Stephanie, said: \"George was a close friend of Bobby's and he himself had bowel cancer in the mid-1970s, but made a full recovery.\n\n\"George was a loyal supporter of the Bobby Moore Fund and will be sadly missed by us all. We send our sincere condolences to Daphne and all the family.\"\n\nThe Football Association chair Debbie Hewitt said: \"We are very sad to hear the news of George Cohen's death today.\n\n\"We would like to pass on our deep condolences to George's family and friends at this sad time.\"\n\nEverton manager Frank Lampard said: \"I always was drawn to that group of players [1966 World Cup squad] and it is always more than a shame when we lose one of those players.\"", "A frog that turns itself mostly transparent while sleeping may hold clues for understanding blood clotting in humans.\n\nScientists have long known about the glass frog but did not understand how it made itself see-through.\n\nNow research has discovered that it is able to pool blood in its body without being negatively affected by clots.\n\nThe findings could advance medical understanding of dangerous blood clotting - a common serious condition.\n\nThe glass frog - which is about the size of a marshmallow - spends its days sleeping on bright green leaves in the Tropics.\n\nIn order to escape the attention of predators, the creature turns itself up to 61% transparent, disguising itself on the leaf.\n\nGlass frogs sleeping on leaves become transparent and hidden from predators\n\n\"If you turn these frogs over, you could watch their heart beating by itself. You can see through the skin and see the muscle, the majority of the body cavity is really transparent,\" Jesse Delia, a researcher at the Museum of Natural History in New York, US told BBC News.\n\nNow findings by Mr Delia and Carlos Taboada at Duke University, US have uncovered how the glass frogs perform this very unusual function.\n\nBy shining different wavelengths of light through the animals while active and sleeping, the scientists measured their opacity. They discovered that the creatures pool blood into their liver.\n\n\"They somehow pack most of the red blood cells in the liver, so they're removed from the blood plasma. They're still circulating plasma... but they do it somehow without triggering a massive clot,\" Mr Delia explains.\n\nThe frog has different levels of red blood cells circulating when asleep and when active\n\nUp to 89% of the animal's blood cells become packed together, almost doubling the size of the liver, and allowing the frog to become transparent.\n\nAt night, when the creature wants to become active again to hunt or mate, it releases the red blood cells back into circulation and the liver shrinks back again.\n\nMr Taboada explains that the frog is still able to clot blood when necessary, for example when injured.\n\nThis ability to selectively pool and clot blood is the creature's \"superpower\", he says, and could open doors to a better understanding of blood clotting more generally.\n\nIn most animals, pooling blood together leads to clotting which can be life-threatening, for example leading to heart attacks in humans.\n\nBut the researchers stress that transferring that knowledge to practical application in human medicine could be decades away.\n\nThe research is published in the scientific journal Science.", "Laura Nuttall was presented with a signed shirt by Chloe Kelly\n\nA young woman with terminal cancer has told of her delight during a surprise meeting with two of the England Lionesses during an interview.\n\nLaura Nuttall, who turns 23 today, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer four years ago.\n\nWhile speaking to LADbible she was surprised with a video message from Mary Earps, before Chloe Kelly appeared and presented her with a signed shirt.\n\nThe Manchester City winger said Laura was \"an inspiration for all of us\".\n\n\"People like you inspire us to be better every day,\" she said.\n\n\"On the pitch I hope we put smiles on your faces like we did this summer and plenty more to come.\"\n\nLaura Nuttall, pictured with her mum Nicola and dad Mark, was given an initial prognosis of 12 months\n\nLaura said the work the team has done has \"changed a generation\".\n\nBeing at Wembley to watch the Lionesses beat Germany 2-1 to become Euro 2022 winners was \"probably one of the best days of my life\", she said.\n\nLaura, from Barrowford in Lancashire, was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme - the most aggressive form of brain cancer - in 2018 following a routine eye test and given an initial prognosis of 12 months.\n\nSince then she has ticked off various \"bucket list\" goals including graduating this summer, lunch with Peter Kay, fishing with Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer and presented a BBC weather forecast..\n\nLaura recently underwent her fourth major surgery but her mother said the tumour returned days later. and the family moved Christmas forward.\n\nOn Wednesday her mother tweeted that Laura will be \"enjoying a 2nd Xmas dinner on Sunday & that's our little #ChristmasMiracle\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk", "Talks between the health secretary and unions have ended without a new pay offer being made.\n\nThe Scottish government will now impose its existing offer which is worth an average of 7.5%.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf met unions on Friday morning in a bid to avert industrial action.\n\nUnions representing nurses and midwives rejected the latest proposed pay deal and said they were planning strikes, with dates to be announced next month.\n\nThe meeting ended at lunchtime with Mr Yousaf saying he was prepared to meet further over the festive period.\n\nThe pay increase described by the health secretary as the \"best and final\" offer has been accepted by Unite and Unison.\n\nThe deal was rejected by the GMB union, which represents NHS and Scottish Ambulance Service workers, as well as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Royal College of Midwives (RCM).\n\nThe RCN, which has more than 30,000 NHS members in Scotland, said it was angry at the development after 82% of members who took part in a ballot rejected the offer.\n\nThe union said it would announce dates for strike action in early January.\n\nColin Poolman, RCN Scotland director, said: \"Our members will be furious that for the second year in a row the Scottish government has chosen to ignore their voice.\n\n\"There is no doubt that our members are long overdue a pay increase for this year, but this is not the Christmas present they deserve.\n\n\"For the second year in a row, the Scottish government is ignoring them and imposing what is a real-terms pay cut.\"\n\nNurses in Scotland could soon go on strike after rejecting the latest pay offer\n\nKeir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser for Public Services, said the union was considering strike action.\n\n\"The Scottish government's imposition of the NHS pay offer - despite being rejected by thousands of front-line healthcare staff - is an attack on workers and an attempt to silence the voice of those who faced the pandemic on the frontline of our health services and are now in the grips of a cost-of-living crisis,\" he said.\n\n\"But our members will not be silenced. They have spoken loudly and clearly that the offer is not good enough.\n\n\"Our members will consider their next steps, but the Scottish government is forcing NHS and SAS staff onto the picket lines.\"\n\nHe said that further talks must be \"meaningful\" and that the pay offer would do nothing to stop nursing staff leaving the profession or attract the nurses of the future.\n\nWilma Brown from Unison, who, along with Unite had accepted the last offer, told BBC Scotland the implementation of the pay deal was \"fully and gratefully received\" and was overdue.\n\nMr Yousaf said he would now push on with the Action for Change deal which will see wages rise by an average of 7.5%, with those on the lowest pay packages seeing an increase of 11.3%.\n\nThe health secretary told BBC Scotland he did not think strikes were inevitable.\n\n\"Even those trade unions that have rejected the deal said that they were committed to continued meaningful dialogue, as am I and as has been the hallmark of these entire discussions,\" he said.\n\n\"I don't believe strikes are inevitable and I will do everything I can to try to avert strike action. But what I've got to be upfront and honest about is that we don't have any more money for this pay deal.\"\n\nHe said the government would continue talks over non-pay elements of the deal.\n\nIn a statement released after the meeting with unions, Mr Yousaf said: \"Given that the majority of unions representing the majority of unionised Agenda for Change staff have accepted the pay deal, we will now move to implement this record pay deal.\n\n\"We believe it is right to get additional money into the pay packet of NHS staff in the midst of a cost of living crisis. NHS staff need the certainty of a pay uplift in this financial year, and I can only do this by implementing the deal now.\"\n\nHe added: \"This deal is the biggest since devolution, represents an investment of over half a billion pounds and ensure our hard-working NHS staff remain the best paid in the UK.\"\n\nThe RCN had asked for a pay increase of at least 5% above inflation - which is currently 10.7%.\n\nThe government's pay deal was also rejected by 65% of midwives who voted in a RCM ballot. The union, which has about 3,000 members in Scotland, said it was considering industrial action.\n\nScottish Conservative health spokesman, Dr Sandesh Gulhane, said: \"This is a deeply worrying development which points to a complete breakdown in trust between the nursing unions and Humza Yousaf.\n\nHe added: \"It's time for Nicola Sturgeon to immediately restart negotiations herself with the unions to prevent these potentially catastrophic strikes going ahead.\"\n\nHealth spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: \"I asked Humza Yousaf yesterday whether he would refrain from imposing a pay settlement on the NHS and he failed to answer.\n\n\"We now know why. It is clear that his plan was to impose this rejected pay deal all along.\"\n\nScottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: \"This imposition by the SNP/Green government is an insult to democracy and all those staff who took the decision together to reject it.\n\n\"Nurses have gone above and beyond in recent years to keep all of us safe. They need a proper pay agreement, better working conditions and safe staffing levels.\"", "Auditors discovered at least £122m was allegedly not properly accounted for\n\nSpecialist investigators have been called in to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board after auditors discovered at least £122m was allegedly not properly accounted for.\n\nAudit Wales is also conducting a \"high level review of board effectiveness\" to understand what went wrong and how.\n\nThe Welsh government said it was unable to comment on an active investigation.\n\nIssues were first uncovered earlier in the year when auditors found a number of \"significant errors\" in the health board's account for the 2021-22 financial year.\n\nThey allegedly found there was £72m of unpaid invoices and bills listed in the accounts, but could not find evidence that they existed.\n\nOverall, auditors are said to have raised concerns that £122m of expenditure was not properly accounted for.\n\nThe Welsh financial watchdog, Audit Wales, said it was still investigating to work out whether and how the money was spent.\n\nAccountancy and consulting firm EY were commissioned to review the accounts after auditors raised concerns.\n\nFollowing their report, the NHS Counter Fraud Service Wales was asked to investigate.\n\nThe NHS Counter Fraud Service is an independent body which looks into allegations which can include economic crime in the NHS, including fraud, bribery and corruption.\n\nBBC Wales understands none of the issues being investigated involve anyone making personal gain.\n\nAudit Wales said: \"The audit of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board's 2021-22 accounts identified significant errors.\n\n\"The health board was unable to provide sufficient audit evidence to demonstrate the existence of £72m of expenses incurred, but not paid in the year.\"\n\nThey added there was also insufficient evidence to confirm that expenditure of £122m occurred in the year or was properly accounted for in the correct accounting period.\n\n\"Audit Wales is aware that in response to our recommendations, the health board commissioned EY to undertake an external review of the circumstances that led to the errors identified,\" the Audit Wales spokesperson continued.\n\n\"Audit Wales is also currently undertaking a high-level review of board effectiveness as part of his annual programme of performance audit work at the health board.\"\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr is the largest NHS organisation is Wales, employing more than 19,000 staff and with an annual budget of £1.87bn.\n\nIt is run by a board including executives - the most senior doctors, nurses, finance and personnel managers - and non-executive members, who are people who are not medical professionals, but who scrutinise and advise on the work of the NHS in north Wales.\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr health board is the largest NHS organisation is Wales\n\nSeparately, the health board confirmed an investigation was also taking place into \"working relationships at a senior leadership level\".\n\n\"Concerns have been raised through the NHS Wales Raising Concerns Policy about governance and leadership,\" the health board said in a statement.\n\n\"They will be investigated independently in line with existing procedures and policies.\"\n\nThe health board confirmed that the NHS Counter Fraud Service is carrying out an investigation on the request of Audit Wales.\n\n\"We have a duty of care to our staff and no further comment will be made,\" the health board added.\n\nGovernance had previously been among the areas of concern which led, in 2015, to Betsi Cadwaladr health board being put in special measures, the Welsh government's highest level of oversight.\n\nIn November 2020, it was de-escalated and is currently under \"targeted intervention\".\n\nPlaid Cymru's health spokesperson, Rhun ap Iorwerth MS, questioned whether it was possible to turn the health board around.\n\nHe said: \"I am of a firm belief now that the best thing for patients and the best thing for hard-working staff is to scrap this health board and start again.\"", "Ana de Armas featured in the trailer for Yesterday, but was cut from the final film\n\nFilm studio Universal can be sued for false advertising after fans complained a movie trailer was misleading, a US judge has ruled.\n\nTwo fans of the actress Ana de Armas filed a lawsuit in January after renting the 2019 film Yesterday.\n\nThe actress was seen in the trailer, but the pair were disappointed to find she had been cut from the final film.\n\nThe plaintiffs, Conor Woulfe and Peter Michael Rosza, each paid $3.99 (£3.31) to rent Yesterday on Amazon Prime.\n\nWoulfe and Rosza are seeking at least $5 million (£4.1m) from Universal in the case, which has been filed as a class action on behalf of other disappointed fans.\n\nThe pair argued they would not have paid the money to rent the film if they had known the actress did not feature in it.\n\nCalifornia US district judge Stephen Wilson ruled that their legal action can go ahead.\n\nYesterday starred Ed Sheeran, Lily James and Himesh Patel (pictured at the film's London premiere)\n\nUniversal, the studio behind the film, sought to throw out the lawsuit, arguing that movie trailers are entitled to broad protection under the First Amendment, which protects free speech rights and the press.\n\nThe studio's lawyers argued that a trailer is an \"artistic, expressive work\" that tells a three-minute story conveying the theme of the movie, and should therefore be considered \"non-commercial\" speech.\n\nBut the judge rejected that argument, ruling that a trailer is commercial speech and is subject to the California False Adverting Law and the state's Unfair Competition Law.\n\n\"Universal is correct that trailers involve some creativity and editorial discretion, but this creativity does not outweigh the commercial nature of a trailer,\" Wilson wrote in his ruling.\n\n\"At its core, a trailer is an advertisement designed to sell a movie by providing consumers with a preview of the movie.\"\n\nIn their briefing on the issue, Universal's lawyers argued that it is not unusual for movie trailers to feature clips that do not appear in the finished film.\n\nThey referred to Jurassic Park, another Universal film, one trailer for which they said was comprised entirely of footage that is not in the movie.\n\nAna de Armas featured in the trailer for Yesterday, but was cut from the final film\n\nUniversal also argued that classifying trailers as \"commercial speech\" could open the door to many more lawsuits from dissatisfied filmgoers, who could make a subjective claim that a film did not live up to the expectations created by the trailer.\n\nWilson sought to address that concern, saying the false advertising law applies only when a \"significant portion\" of \"reasonable consumers\" could be misled.\n\nThe judge said the court's holding was limited to cases where an actor or scene from the trailer does not feature in the finished film.\n\nIn the case of the Yesterday trailer, he said, it was plausible that viewers would expect de Armas to have a significant role in the film.\n\nDe Armas, a Cuban-Spanish actress who starred in Knives Out, was originally set to appear as a love interest for the film's protagonist, played by Himesh Patel.\n\nPatel's character was to have met her on the set of James Corden's talk show, where Patel would serenade her with the Beatles song Something. Some footage of these scenes featured in the trailer.\n\nPatel (pictured in the film with Sheeran) played Jack Malik, who uses The Beatles' songs to find fame and fortune\n\nRichard Curtis, the screenwriter, explained that de Armas was cut because audiences did not like the idea of Patel's character straying from his primary love interest, played by Lily James.\n\nIn 2019, he said it had been a \"very traumatic cut\", because de Armas was \"brilliant\" in the role.\n\nYesterday tells the story of a young man who wakes up after a bicycle crash to find nobody on earth seems to remember The Beatles.\n\nHe goes on to find fame and fortune by performing the songs himself, and faces a moral dilemma when he is credited as the writer.\n\nWoulfe and Rosza's lawsuit will now proceed to discovery and a motion for class certification.", "In her introduction, the Princess of Wales says the late Queen \"held Christmas close to her heart\"\n\nThe Princess of Wales has paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth in a special broadcast set to air on Christmas Eve.\n\nCatherine said the Queen had \"held Christmas close to her heart\" as a time that \"reminded us of the importance of faith, friendship and family\".\n\nPeople recognised for showcasing community values were invited to the service at Westminster Abbey.\n\nIt is the first royal carol service since the Queen died in September.\n\nThe Together at Christmas event was held on 15 December, and was supported by the Royal Foundation, a charity founded and run by the Prince and Princess of Wales.\n\nAmong those celebrated at the event was Inna Hryhorovych, headmistress of St Mary's Ukrainian School in London.\n\nThe school has more than doubled its intake of pupils since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.\n\nPupils from the school performed at the event in Westminster Abbey and Ms Hryhorovych was sent a letter from the princess commending her work.\n\nIn it, she writes the school is \"a lifeline for the whole community\" and only possible \"because of your tireless work and dedication\".\n\nSt Mary's Ukrainian School in London has doubled its intake since the start of the war\n\nThe princess's comments are among end-of-year dedications to the late Queen, with other tributes from the Royal Variety Performance and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.\n\nThe service will be broadcast on ITV1 at 19:00 GMT on Christmas Eve as part of Royal Carols: Together At Christmas, a programme which will be narrated by actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.\n\nThe service also featured musical performances from the Westminster Abbey choir, Craig David, Alexis Ffrench, Alfie Boe and Melanie C. Readings were delivered by the Prince of Wales, Dame Kristin Scott Thomas, and Nicola Adams.\n• None Royal carol concert offered to ITV instead of BBC", "Art historian Eike Schmidt, 54, has run the Uffizi since 2015\n\nAfter seven years running Italy's flagship museum the Uffizi, its director has clearly had enough of inappropriate punctuation.\n\nEike Schmidt has laid out his rules for email etiquette in a message to staff.\n\nBold characters are out, although underlining is still acceptable where suitable for words or salient phrases.\n\n\"You should also avoid whole sentences in capitals,\" Mr Schmidt says.\n\nThere was no reference to emojis but, judging from the tone of the circular, complete with its culture ministry heading, there would be little room for them either.\n\n\"It was the conversation of the day for many employees in the corridors, at the water cooler or in the café,\" Uffizi Galleries spokesperson Tommaso Galligani told the BBC by email, with no hint of a character out of place.\n\nAs staff at the Uffizi in Florence turned their thoughts to Christmas, this was a reminder that they were representing a ministry of culture institution in the city of Dante, considered the father of the Italian language.\n\nMr Schmidt's main bugbear is excessive punctuation, not unlike UK politician Thérèse Coffey who objected to the so-called \"Oxford comma\".\n\n\"Where punctuation is concerned it is necessary to avoid altogether, as ever only where possible, exclamation marks, while with both question marks and exclamation marks only one is necessary at the end of a sentence with no repetition.\"\n\nHis circular may have lacked Dante's style but the sentiment was clear:\n\nThe entire staff of the Uffizi galleries is asked to abide scrupulously by these above-mentioned rules for best practice in writing\n\nMr Galligani said that most staff loved the circular and many colleagues smiled, but he also believed there were some who did not have much to laugh about.\n\n\"The tendency to consider email exchanges as something totally informal, like a chat on WhatsApp, and as a direct outlet for emotions of all kind is now rampant, and I believe it was the director's intention to contain this problematic trend.\"\n\nFor Benjamin Weissman, lecturer in cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the US, Eike Schmidt's recommendations are an attempt to resist a gradual integration of elements that have made text-based communication closer to the way people speak.\n\n\"It amounts to telling people they can only speak in monotone or with a neutral expression. In addition to any general issues of employers controlling the way employees communicate, this appears to restrict their expressive flexibility,\" he told the BBC via email.", "Ellie Gomersall says gender identity should not be a matter for the state\n\nFollowing one of the most lengthy debates in the Scottish Parliament's history, MSPs have voted to approve a controversial bill which makes it easier for people to legally change their gender.\n\nHowever the UK government, which says it has concerns about safety of women and children, may seek to block the reform from Royal Assent and has not yet ruled out a legal challenge.\n\nHere we examine in more detail the two sides of the the debate.\n\nThe diamond grass of Cathkin Park is glinting in the winter sun as Ellie Gomersall reflects on something intensely personal - her identity.\n\nIt is a bitterly beautiful December day on the south side of Glasgow and Ms Gomersall, 23, is telling us about \"coming out\" as a woman.\n\nIt was, she says, \"a really happy, joyous moment\" thanks to the support of friends and family.\n\nBut the bureaucracy she then encountered was less enjoyable.\n\nMs Gomersall describes a lengthy - and continuing - wait to be seen at a gender identity clinic, and a struggle to accumulate the paperwork required to demonstrate to the world that she is not a man.\n\n\"I often joke that the hardest thing about being trans is the admin,\" she says with a wry smile.\n\nMs Gomersall is currently president of the National Union of Students Scotland, although she is speaking to BBC News in a personal capacity.\n\nNearly five years after \"coming out,\" she has been able to amend her passport and driving licence which now reflect her preferred identity, listing her sex as female. Her birth certificate, however, still records that she was born male.\n\nIf she were to marry or die any time soon the marriage or death certificates also would state that she was a man.\n\nThat means, she says, that at present \"I can't guarantee that I'll have dignity in death\".\n\nFor the past 17 years, the process for changing sex on a birth certificate has been set out in the Gender Recognition Act 2004, enacted by the Westminster parliament in April 2005.\n\nApplicants must first obtain a GRC, the criteria for which are detailed in the legislation.\n\nThe current requirements in UK law for a gender recognition certificate are:\n\nThe Scottish government - led by the Scottish National Party but also including ministers from the Scottish Green Party, of which Ms Gomersall is a member - wants to remove some of those hurdles, making the process quicker and easier.\n\nIf the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill becomes law, it would include these changes:\n\nMs Gomersall is a strong supporter of the legislation, which she says would make her life easier and more dignified.\n\nShe argues that gender identity should not be a matter for the state.\n\n\"I think ultimately the only person who can really describe my own identity, my own gender is me,\" she insists.\n\nShe explains that she has been unable to change her birth certificate because she has been unable to acquire a gender recognition certificate - because she has been unable to obtain an initial appointment, let alone a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or the required medical reports, at Glasgow's Sandyford gender identity clinic, one of four such facilities run by NHS Scotland.\n\nJK Rowling posted a picture of herself wearing a t-shirt that described Nicola Sturgeon as a \"destroyer of women's rights\"\n\nThe Scottish government has attempted to present the bill as an administrative tidying-up exercise designed to simplify and streamline the process in a manner which is \"more respectful of the privacy and dignity of trans men and women\".\n\nOpponents of the bill - led by the author JK Rowling - feel it goes much further than that.\n\nThe Harry Potter creator set out her concerns in detail two years ago in a 3,700-word post on her website.\n\nThe Scottish government's plans, she wrote, \"will in effect mean that all a man needs to 'become a woman' is to say he's one\".\n\nIn the article, Ms Rowling expressed sympathy with vulnerable trans people who \"need and deserve protection\", and said she wants trans women to be safe.\n\n\"At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe.\n\n\"When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he's a woman - and, as I've said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones - then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth.\"\n\nSupporters and opponents of the bill outside the Scottish parliament\n\nMs Gomersall disagrees, insisting \"all this process does is it changes your birth certificate - and no one checks someone's birth certificate before they access a single sex space. This legislation has no impact on single sex spaces.\"\n\nMs Rowling and her fellow critics of the bill are far from satisfied by such assurances.\n\nWhen, in October, the writer posted on Twitter a photograph of herself wearing a T-shirt which described First Minister Nicola Sturgeon as a \"destroyer of women's rights\" it was a reminder that two of Scotland's most successful women are now pitted against each other in one of the great moral debates of our time.\n\n\"I feel we're currently waging a cultural war between what I would see as authoritarians and liberals,\" Ms Rowling told her fellow feminist, the journalist Suzanne Moore, earlier this month.\n\nMs Sturgeon responded to the T-shirt criticism by urging respect and insisting that the bill neither gave any additional rights to trans people nor took any rights away from women.\n\n\"It is men who attack women and we need to focus on that, not on further stigmatising and discriminating against a tiny group in our society that is already one of the most stigmatised,\" she told BBC Radio Scotland.\n\n\"I say this as a passionate life-long feminist, and I have spent much of my life campaigning for women's rights.\"\n\nThe proposal has also been controversial within the SNP leader's own party leading to the resignation of community safety minister Ash Regan as part of the biggest rebellion since the party came to power at Holyrood.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon described herself as a life-long feminist\n\nMs Rowling's tweet criticising the SNP leader was in support of a organisation called For Women Scotland who describe themselves as \"working to protect and strengthen women and children's rights\".\n\nOver coffee in an Edinburgh café, the group's co-director Susan Smith told me she was particularly concerned about the potential effect of this \"massive social change\" on young people.\n\n\"In other countries, they are halting the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for people under 18 because we are starting to see some really severe physical side effects,\" she said.\n\nMs Smith said Scotland was going in the opposite direction, and warned about the impact of these treatments.\n\nShe said young people's perception of their gender was probably in flux until they were in their twenties.\n\nAnd she described the \"total acceptance of the premise that sex is not real and that it's a feeling\" as an \"extremist position\".\n\n\"I think that some of the ideas in this, especially about people having been born in the wrong body or having female brains... are profoundly sexist, because they suggest there's a way to be a woman and a way to be a man,\" she said.\n\nSusan Smith said she was concerned about the potential effect on young people\n\nEven the United Nations has now become embroiled in the debate, with two UN experts giving contradictory evidence to MSPs about the law's potential impact.\n\nReem Alsalem, the UN's special rapporteur on violence against women, told members of Holyrood's equalities committee that introducing gender self-identification could see violent men taking advantage of loopholes \"to get into women's spaces and have access to women\".\n\nBut Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, insisted there was \"no evidence\" that \"maintaining complexity in the process of recognition of gender identity would be an effective safeguard\".\n\nEven if the bill becomes law that may not be the end of the matter, as the UK government has been making noises about challenging the legislation.\n\nOne potential avenue for doing so is the interaction between gender recognition certificates issued in Scotland and equalities law, which is reserved to Westminster.\n\nEarlier this month Scotland's Court of Session ruled in favour of the Scottish government over its intention to include trans people in the definition of women in terms of female representation on public sector boards.\n\nLady Haldane concluded that for the purposes of the 2010 Equalities Act the meaning of sex was \"not limited to biological or birth sex.\"\n\nFor Women Scotland, which brought the case, says the ruling reveals that a gender recognition certificate effectively counts as a change of sex under the Equality Act. It says this could open up women-only spaces such as changing rooms and refuges to trans people, potentially putting women at risk.\n\nSupporters of the bill insist that is a misreading of the ruling.\n\nAnother potential challenge the UK government could mount would be to argue that recognising Scottish gender recognition certificates elsewhere in the UK could breach the Scotland Act 1998, which established devolution, if Holyrood were seen to be legislating beyond its borders.\n\nScotland's social justice secretary Shona Robison and the UK's women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch previously held a virtual meeting to discuss the British government's concerns.\n\nWhile acknowledging that there were very different views on the subject in London and Edinburgh, the UK government nonetheless described the discussion as \"constructive\" and the Scottish government said both sides had agreed to continue to work together.\n\nAileen McHarg, professor of public law and human rights at Durham University's Law School, said there was a third route which opponents of the bill might go down: a challenge under Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which codifies a right to respect for privacy.\n\nBut, said Prof McHarg, supporters of the bill could also mount a human rights challenge if there was a blanket refusal to recognise Scottish-issued gender recognition certificates elsewhere in the UK.\n\nShe told the BBC: \"This is going to be very messy whatever happens.\"\n\nHow do you feel about the Scottish gender bill being blocked? Share your thoughts by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The judge told Joseph Jones: \"You are someone who's supposed to be upholding the law, and instead you've undermined it\"\n\nA former senior police officer has been jailed for 14 months for misusing the police database and lying in court in an attempt to avoid a conviction.\n\nJoseph Jones, who was a South Wales Police chief inspector, used a computer system to find details of a couple who were tenants of his cleaner.\n\nKelly Roberts was involved in a civil dispute with the couple.\n\nJones, 48, looked up records about them and their children and passed the information on to her.\n\nJones had also been involved in a brief sexual relationship with Ms Roberts, of Swansea.\n\nWhen she later became involved in the supply of Class A drugs, his association with her was discovered, along with his use of the computer system.\n\nDuring interviews by the South Wales Police Anti-Corruption Unit, Jones, who was based at Fairwater police station in Cardiff, insisted he only accessed the database for legitimate policing purposes.\n\nIn November 2021, he was charged with securing unauthorised access to computer material and went on trial at Newport Crown Court in February.\n\nIn his defence statement, Mr Jones had accused those investigating him as being motivated by \"an underlying unexplained grievance\" against him.\n\n\"The fact that you are a police officer and a senior police officer is a seriously aggravating feature,\" said the judge\n\nOn the first day of the trial he claimed to have found his \"daybook\" from 2015 which contained notes proving that he did have a legitimate purpose for accessing the information.\n\nThe jury was discharged and a retrial was ordered to allow for forensic tests to be carried out on the notebook after doubts were expressed about the colour of the ink used in the relevant entries.\n\nThe daybook was never handed over and Jones has refused to explain what happened to it.\n\n\"You had waited to declare this miracle discovery until the jury had been sworn,\" said Judge Daniel Williams, \"hoping that as a chief inspector your word would be accepted and you could leave court with your good character, job and pension intact.\n\n\"It was an act borne of arrogance on your part which was an insult to the court and to the justice system which you have served so many years.\"\n\nJones was sentenced to two months' custody for the offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, which he will serve concurrently with the 14-month sentence for perverting the course of justice.\n\nSouth Wales Police held a misconduct hearing on December 14, where it was found the allegations against Jones were proven and that they amounted to gross misconduct.\n\nHe was dismissed without notice and a referral was made to the College of Policing barring him from returning to the profession.\n\n\"Police officers should be trusted to the ends of the earth, they hold so much authority and access to personal information, the public rightly expect our officers to uphold the highest professional standards,\" said chief constable Jeremy Vaughan.\n\n\"Misusing personal private information in such circumstances means that dismissal is the only outcome in this matter.\"", "Here in Michigan, we’re used to frigid winter weather.\n\nDuring several winters when I was growing up, temperatures frequently fell as low as 10F (-12C), including a brutally cold polar vortex in 2014, when wind chill temps hit -30F (-34C).\n\nOur coldest temperature on record is an astounding -51F (-46C), which hit the northern town of Vanderbilt in 1934.\n\nAs a result, we are probably better prepared than many US states for this Arctic storm, which has brought chilly temperatures, strong winds and up to a foot (30 cm) of snow to some parts of our Great Lake state.\n\nOur snow ploughs are prepped and ready to go after an overnight blizzard. I saw several on the roads during a 15-minute drive this morning.\n\nOur residents are used to the morning winter routine of sprinkling salt on their steps and spending 20 minutes scraping stubborn frost off car windshields.\n\nHome heating costs can be expensive in our cold state, but Michiganders are used to footing the bill.\n\nThat said, the freezing weather can still claim lives in Michigan, especially among vulnerable populations like the homeless. In 2019, two men in Michigan’s biggest city of Detroit were found dead outside during another polar vortex.\n\nOfficials say they're taking several steps to ensure residents’ safety this week during the Arctic storm, including sending extra troopers to help drivers on the roads and coordinating with humanitarian groups such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army.", "There were celebratory scenes in parliament when the bill was passed\n\nScotland has approved a self-identification system for people who want to change their legal gender.\n\nThe new rules lower the age that people can apply for a gender recognition certificate (GRC) to 16, and removes the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.\n\nIt's the only nation in the UK to simplify the process of transitioning.\n\nBut the Westminster government says it has concerns about the legislation and could yet prevent it from becoming law.\n\nThe Scottish Parliament backed the controversial proposals by 86 to 39 in a vote on Thursday afternoon.\n\nThere were shouts of \"shame on you\" from protesters in the public gallery as the result was announced.\n\nBut there were also louds cheers and a standing ovation in the chamber from supporters of the reforms.\n\nThe UK government says it has concerns about the legislation and could seek to prevent it becoming law by blocking Royal Assent - when the Bill gets formal agreement by the King and becomes an Act of the Scottish Parliament.\n\nWomen and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch said its impact on the Equality Act raised questions, and the Scottish government had not addressed the full implication of it in the bill.\n\nShe said in a statement on Twitter: \"The UK government is now looking at provisions that can prompt reconsideration and allow MSPs to address these issues.\"\n\nHowever, a Scottish government spokesman said \"any attempt by the UK government to undermine the democratic will of the Scottish Parliament will be vigorously contested\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Conservative MSP Russell Findlay says the gender reform bill lets down women across Scotland\n\nPeople in Scotland have been able to change their legal gender from male to female or female to male since 2005.\n\nThe Scottish government believes the existing process can be intrusive and distressing and put people off applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate.\n\nThe new rules, which are expected to come into force sometime next year, will mean applicants will now only need to have lived in their acquired gender for three months - or six months if they are aged 16 and 17 - rather than two years.\n\nThere will be also be a three-month \"reflection period\" during which they can change their minds and it will be a criminal offence to make a false declaration or false application for a GRC, with anyone who does so potentially facing up to two years in prison.\n\nIt will be possible to de-transition by going through the process again.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Shona Robison says evidence from other countries shows trans rights have no negative impact on other people\n\nCampaigners say a move to make trans peoples' lives easier is long overdue, and will allow them to \"live with the dignity and recognition that everyone deserves.\"\n\nScottish Trans manager Vic Valentine said the change in the law would mean that trans men and women would be able to show a birth certificate \"that reflects who they are\" at important moments in their lives such as starting a job or giving notice to be married.\n\nBut critics including author JK Rowling have raised concerns about the potential impact on women-only services, spaces and legal protections.\n\nThey have argued that there are insufficient safeguards to protect women and girls from predatory men who they say could seek to change their gender in order to gain access to facilities such as women's prisons.\n\nProtestors against the reforms fear they will impact on women's rights and single-sex spaces\n\nSpeaking ahead of the vote, Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison said: \"Trans rights are not in competition with women's rights, and as so often before, we can improve things for everyone when those discriminated against act as allies, not opponents.\"\n\nAnd First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she would \"never apologise for trying to spread equality, not reduce it, in our country.\"\n\nThe UK government has not ruled out mounting a legal challenge, with Scottish Secretary Alister Jack saying it \"shares the concerns that many people have regarding certain aspects of this Bill, and in particular the safety issues for women and children\".\n\nThe government is understood to be concerned about the potential impact of people with gender recognition certificates moving from Scotland to other parts of the UK, where a different system will still be in place, and on things like passports, pensions and some benefits.\n\nUnder UK law, it can apply to have Scottish laws struck down by arguing they would conflict with UK-wide equalities legislation. This power has never been used before.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The passing of controversial gender reform laws receive mixed reaction in the Scottish Parliament\n\nEfforts by some MSPs to keep the minimum age at 18 were voted down, as was an attempt by Conservative MSP Russell Findlay to prevent convicted sex offenders being allowed to change their gender.\n\nThe reforms were backed by most SNP, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green MSPs but opposed by the majority of Conservatives, who accused the government of attempting to avoid proper scrutiny of the legislation by rushing it through before Christmas.\n\nNine SNP MSPs voted against the government - the biggest rebellion since the party came to power in 2007.\n\nScottish Conservative equalities spokeswoman Rachael Hamilton said the party supported trans rights - but it should not come \"at the expense of the safety of women and girls, and their hard-won rights\".\n\nShe added: \"For a majority of MSPs to vote against an amendment that would have prevented convicted sex offenders from applying for a Gender Recognition Certificate will astonish and outrage most Scots.\"\n\nThe Bill, which was previously shelved by the government, has been been one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in the history of the Scottish Parliament, with Community Safety Minister Ash Regan resigning in October after saying she could not support the proposals.\n\nThe moment the bill passed was an emotional one at Holyrood.\n\nThere were big cheers from trans-rights campaigners and cries of \"shame\" from women's rights campaigners in the public gallery.\n\nTwo thirds of MSPs backed the bill with opinion divided in the three largest parties.\n\nThe MSP who resigned as an SNP minister to protest against the law, Ash Regan told me she was \"ashamed\" of the Scottish Parliament, while one of only three Tories to support the bill, Jamie Greene said he was \"proud\" of what had been decided.\n\nThe epic debate and vote on the gender recognition reform is not the end of the story.\n\nIt is likely to face a legal challenge from somewhere and the UK government is reserving the right to block the legislation, if they decide it could negatively impact on UK law.\n\nThe minister who fronted the reforms, Shona Robison, told me the legislation was \"robust\" and that she intends to put it into effect as soon as possible.\n\nSpeaking after the vote, Ms Regan told BBC Scotland she was \"ashamed\" of what the parliament had done.\n\nMSPs considered more than 150 proposed amendments to the proposals in two marathon sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday - with the latter not finishing until 01:15 on Thursday.\n\nThe Conservatives were accused of attempting to delay the legislation by proposing numerous points of order and forcing almost all amendments to votes that were sometimes not required.\n\nNine other European countries have already adopted self-declaration systems for legal gender recognition, including Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland.\n\nAlso on Thursday, Spain passed a bill bringing it a step closer to allowing people to change their officially registered gender by filling in a form.", "Former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried will face home detention while awaiting trial in the US on charges that he defrauded customers and investors of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange.\n\nA US judge said the 30-year-old former billionaire could be released to his parents on a $250m (£207m) bond.\n\nAt the hearing, Mr Bankman-Fried did not admit or deny guilt.\n\nHe has previously distanced himself from the charges, which have shaken the entire crypto industry.\n\n\"I didn't knowingly commit fraud. I don't think I committed fraud. I didn't want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was,\" he told the BBC, shortly before his 12 December arrest in the Bahamas, where he lived, and FTX was based.\n\nTwo of Mr Bankman-Fried's closest colleagues pleaded guilty to fraud on Wednesday and are helping with the investigation.\n\nFederal prosecutors in New York have accused Mr Bankman-Fried of unlawfully using customer deposits made at FTX to fund his other crypto firm, Alameda Research, buy property and make millions of dollars in political donations.\n\nIn a press conference last week, they described it as \"one of the biggest financial frauds in US history\" announcing eight criminal charges, including wire fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations. Financial regulators have also brought civil charges.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried spent nine days in prison in the Bahamas weighing his choices before telling the Nassau magistrates' court on Wednesday that he would not fight extradition, which could have sparked a long legal fight.\n\nAt Thursday's court hearing in New York, assistant US Attorney Nick Roos said prosecutors would not oppose releasing Mr Bankman-Fried on bail, despite a \"fraud of epic proportions\", pointing to his decision to return to the US voluntarily and his much diminished financial state.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried's release requires him to surrender his passport and submit to location monitoring and detention at his parents' home in California. He also agreed to regular mental health treatment. His parents will co-sign the $250m bond, Mr Bankman-Fried's attorney, Mark Cohen said.\n\nThe son of two Stanford University professors, Mr Bankman-Fried founded FTX in 2019.\n\nKnown to his legions of fans as SBF, the curly-haired MIT graduate was a hero in the crypto world, nicknamed the 'King of Crypto' and known for bailing out struggling firms and making massive donations to charity.\n\nThe collapse of his firm, which was once valued at more than $30bn (£25bn), has unsettled the wider industry, sparking bankruptcy filings at other firms and further declines in crypto values.\n\nThe firm declared bankruptcy in November, after customers and investors rushed to pull their funds from the firm amid reports that its finances were shaky.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried, who stepped down as chief executive the same day, has previously denied deliberate wrongdoing, and said he is focused on restoring funds to customers.\n\nAt Thursday's arraignment, Mr Bankman-Fried spoke only once, when asked if he understood the conditions of his release, and that he could be charged with an additional crime if he fails to show up to court.", "Christmas Eve commuters rush to get trains at Waterloo Station in London\n\nRail passengers scrambled to catch the last trains as further strikes ended Christmas Eve services.\n\nSome roads were hit with congestion as rail services stopped ahead of a 18:00 GMT walkout by RMT union members.\n\nBut the AA said disruption was \"not as bad as expected\" as people headed home for the festive period.\n\nPostal workers and Border Force staff also took part in the latest walkouts over pay in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nServices to Crewe, Manchester Piccadilly, Glasgow Central and Birmingham International from Euston were among those delayed because of a limited staff presence.\n\nAround 1,000 Border Force workers began strike action on Friday at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports, as well as the Port of Newhaven.\n\nBorder disruption has been minimal, with military personnel and civil servants being drafted in to cover strikers.\n\nHeathrow Airport said operations were running smoothly on Saturday. A spokesperson added: \"The immigration halls are free flowing with Border Force and the military contingency providing a good level of service for arriving passengers.\"\n\nTraffic on the A13 in London as people make their Christmas Eve getaway journeys\n\nBorder Force personnel will be striking until the end of the year - with the exception of 27 December - but there are warnings strikes could last for months unless a new pay deal is negotiated.\n\nMeanwhile industrial action at Network Rail, which maintains the UK's rail system, will continue until 06:00 on 27 December.\n\nThe last train times on major routes on Christmas Eve included the 09:45 from Leeds to London, the 11:22 from London to Edinburgh, and the 12:48 from London to Manchester.\n\nFamilies at London's Paddington Station told BBC News they felt anxious over the strikes.\n\nLeela, Richard and their baby Kalinda said they were on their way to Bristol to spend their first Christmas with family since the pandemic, but had been \"checking all week that the trains were not going to be cancelled\".\n\nMeanwhile a couple of miles away at Euston Station, Kartik Aggarwal's train has been cancelled. The 24-year-old student said he faced missing a Christmas party in Birmingham.\n\n\"It's been really bad,\" he said. \"We were planning for a long time only to have two trains get cancelled with no notification.\"\n\nLeela and her family at Paddington Station on Saturday morning\n\nElsewhere, Ollie Smith, 29, was travelling from Reading to Stockport to spend Christmas with his brother, but said his train got held up outside Birmingham New Street over limited capacity at the station due to engineering works.\n\nHe said the train was then reversed back to Birmingham International and cancelled - while he was still on board.\n\nJack Couzens, head of roads policy at the AA, said traffic on the roads was moving fairly well so far on Saturday but added that rail strikes had led to more people \"jumping into their cars\".\n\n\"There have been pockets of congestion on the A13, the M25, the M5... but as things stand traffic is moving okay,\" he said at lunchtime.\n\nThe railway strikes come at a time of widespread industry walkouts, as staff across a range of sectors are involved in disputes over pay, jobs and working conditions as the cost of living soars.\n\nElsewhere, ambulance drivers, nurses and driving examiners are all set to strike at various points over the festive period and into the new year.\n\nPrevious rail strikes caused major disruption and the RMT is due to hold further walkouts on 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nUnion members have rejected offers in a dispute over pay, job security and working conditions.\n\nThe RMT said it remained available for talks. Network Rail said the deal it has put forward is \"fair and affordable\".\n\nThe government said it had facilitated talks and ensured a reasonable offer was put forward.\n\nThe number of working days lost to strike action was the highest since November 2011 in October, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\n\nWatch Make Sense of Strikes on iPlayer and find out more about why people are striking and whether industrial action works.\n\nHow are you affected by the Christmas Eve rail strikes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nFifa is investigating how celebrity chef Salt Bae and a number of other people gained \"undue access\" to the pitch at the end of the World Cup final in Qatar.\n\nSalt Bae, the Turkish chef whose real name is Nusret Gokce, was pictured holding and kissing the World Cup trophy while celebrating with Argentina players after their win over France.\n\nFifa rules state the trophy can only be held by a \"very select\" group of people, including tournament winners, Fifa officials and heads of state.\n\nIn a statement to BBC Sport, a Fifa spokesperson said: \"Following a review, Fifa has been establishing how individuals gained undue access to the pitch after the closing ceremony at Lusail stadium on 18 December.\n\n\"The appropriate internal action will be taken.\"\n\nSalt Bae owns a chain of luxury steakhouses and rose to fame in 2017 after his technique for preparing and seasoning meat became an internet meme.\n\nMany current and former footballers, including Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham, have eaten at Salt Bae's restaurants.\n\nIn November, during the World Cup, he posted a video of himself embracing Fifa president Gianni Infantino, with whom he was later pictured in the VIP seats at a game with Brazil legends Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Cafu.\n\nMessi appeared to ignore Salt Bae in the hectic scenes after Argentina's win as the chef tried to get his attention.", "Charles Sobhraj has been in jail in Nepal since 2003\n\nA French serial killer known as The Serpent, convicted of several tourist murders in Asia in the 1970s, has arrived back in France after being released from prison in Nepal.\n\nCharles Sobhraj, 78, was freed after a court ruled in favour of his age and good behaviour.\n\nHe spent 19 years in jail in Nepal for killing two North Americans in 1975.\n\nSobhraj had preyed on mostly young Western backpackers on the hippie trail in India and Thailand.\n\nHe was deported to France on Friday and has reportedly been barred from returning to Nepal for at least 10 years.\n\nThe notorious killer, whose story was covered in the TV drama The Serpent, had been concurrently serving two sentences, each 20 years, in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, for the 1975 murder of an American woman, Connie Jo Bronzich, and her Canadian backpacker friend, Laurent Carriere.\n\nHe had been convicted in two separate trials - most recently in 2014, when he was sent to a high-security prison for murdering Carriere.\n\nBut Nepal's Supreme Court ordered Sobhraj's release on Wednesday after his legal team successfully filed a petition claiming he should be given a concession on his prison term for health reasons.\n\nA provision in Nepalese law also allows inmates who have shown good character and completed 75% of their jail term to be released.\n\n\"Keeping him in the prison continuously is not in line with the prisoner's human rights,\" the verdict read, according to AFP, citing regular treatment for heart disease as another factor in his release. He had heart surgery in 2017.\n\nIn an interview with AFP ahead of his departure on Friday, Sobhraj said he felt \"great\" about being given his freedom, but would be seeking legal action against the Nepalese government.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Charles Sobhraj spoke to press on a plane after being freed\n\nSobhraj has been linked to more than 20 killings between 1972 and 1982, in which the victims were drugged, strangled, beaten or burned.\n\nHe was dubbed The Serpent or the Bikini Killer for his knack for deceptive disguises, ability to escape prison and tendency to target young women. It later became the title for a hit BBC and Netflix series about the killer, which was released in 2021.\n\nBefore his two convictions in Kathmandu, Sobhraj had already spent two decades in jail in India for poisoning a busload of French tourists.\n\nDuring that time, he briefly managed to escape from prison by drugging the prison guards. He later claimed the escape was a ploy to get his sentence extended and avoid extradition to Thailand, where he was wanted for five more murders.\n\nThai authorities had issued a warrant for him in the mid-1970s on charges of drugging and killing six women, some who were found dead on a beach near the resort town of Pattaya.\n\nFollowing his release from India in 1997, Sobhraj returned to France where he lived in Paris and gave paid interviews to journalists.\n\nBut he returned to Nepal and was arrested for Bronzich's murder in 2003 after being spotted by a reporter in a casino in Kathmandu.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. BBC forecaster Susan Powell looks in detail at the storm path\n\nNearly 1.5 million people are without power across several states as a powerful Arctic winter storm sweeps through the US and Canada.\n\nLarge parts of both countries are under winter weather alerts that stretch from coast-to-coast and as far south as the US-Mexico border.\n\nThe storm has brought damaging winds and freezing temperatures that can quickly lead to frostbite.\n\nAt least six storm-related deaths have been reported in the US.\n\nMajor airports have cancelled thousands of flights as the storm intensifies.\n\nAs of Friday morning, more than 1,400,000 people from Texas to Maine had no electricity as intense winds damaged power lines.\n\nPower outages have also been reported in Canada, affecting 317,900 people in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario.\n\nThe US National Weather Service said that over 200 million people - or roughly 60% of the US population - are under some form of winter weather advisory.\n\nMuch of Canada, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, is also under extreme cold and winter storm warnings. Several school boards in Ontario, including Toronto, have cancelled classes.\n\nThis storm is set to bring the iciest Christmas in decades, say forecasters.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Blizzard and bitter cold in North and South Dakota\n\nThe National Weather Service (NWS) said temperatures of -50F (-45C) and even -70F were possible.\n\nIn the US, the bad weather has been linked to several deaths. Three fatal car crashes have been reported in the state of Kansas due to poor road conditions.\n\nAt least three others have died in Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear said on Friday - two were killed in car accidents and another person described as \"housing insecure\" has died.\n\nIn Fort Worth, Texas, a man who was thought to be homeless died after being found outside in the bitter cold.\n\nThe Arctic air mass is projected to bring strong wind gusts and temperature of 15F (-9.4C) to El Paso, Texas, where newly arrived undocumented migrants are sleeping rough on city streets.\n\nMeteorologists have described the winter storm as a bomb cyclone, a term given to an explosive storm that intensifies rapidly, with its central air pressure dropping by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.\n\n\"This is not like a snow day, when you were a kid, this is serious stuff,\" President Joe Biden said in a White House briefing on Thursday.\n\nThe NWS has described the storm, which began in the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday, as a \"once-in-a-generation\" winter weather event, saying that more than 100 daily cold temperature records could be tied or broken over the next few days.\n\nEven Florida, a famously warm state, is projected to see its coldest Christmas in 30 years. Here's what other regions have seen so far:\n\nSeveral US states, including New York, West Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Oklahoma have declared a state of emergency, while Wisconsin declared an \"energy emergency\".\n\nSome interstate highways have closed due to dangerous driving conditions, including in Western New York and South Dakota.\n\nThe storm has also brought flooding to parts of the US east coast on Friday, shutting down rail services on the Long Island Rail Road, while Lake Ontario on the US-Canada border may see waves up to 37 feet.\n\nOhio governor, Mike DeWine, called the weather a \"unique and dangerous situation\", particularly as people travel to be with loved ones over Christmas.\n\nThe storm has already wreaked havoc from Colorado to Kansas to Wyoming, and north in Minnesota.\n\nOn Wednesday, Wyoming Highway Patrol received 787 calls for help and recorded 104 crashes in just 12 hours.\n\nIn Ontario, Canada, police reported around 100 collisions due to freezing rain, heavy snow and ice pellets that have hit the region since Friday morning.\n\nMore than 6,900 flights in the US have been cancelled on Thursday and Friday, according to the flight-tracking site FlightAware.\n\nIn Canada, WestJet alone has cancelled 266 flights on Friday.\n\nIn anticipation of travel disruptions, major airlines including United, Delta and American have offered to waive fees for travellers who wish to reschedule their flights.\n\nTravellers at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport have been met with flight delays and cancellations on Thursday\n\nHave you been affected by the severe weather in the US and Canada? Please email us: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Regulated rail fares in England will rise by up to 5.9% from March, the Department for Transport has announced.\n\nThe rise is being capped at a level well below inflation, \"to help reduce the impact on passengers\", the transport secretary said.\n\nLabour called the hike - which is still the second highest on record - \"a sick joke\", while a watchdog said passengers were not getting value for money.\n\nBefore the Covid pandemic, fares were raised in January each year, based on the retail prices index (RPI) measure of inflation from the previous July.\n\nInflation is the rate at which prices rise, and the normal formula for fares is RPI plus 1%.\n\nHowever, the government said that \"for this year only\" rail fare increases for 2023 would be capped at 5.9%, well below July's RPI figure of 12.3%.\n\nLike last year, the government is also freezing fares for January and February, so that passengers have more time to buy tickets at the existing prices.\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper said the rise represented a \"fair balance\" between passenger and taxpayer needs, and described the move as \"the biggest ever government intervention in rail fares\".\n\n\"It has been a difficult year and the impact of inflation is being felt across the UK economy. We do not want to add to the problem,\" he said.\n\nHowever, the increase to fares will be the largest since a 6.2% jump in 2012, according to the Office of Rail and Road.\n\nLabour said average fares had risen by 58% since 2010, twice as fast as wages.\n\n\"This savage fare hike will be a sick joke for millions reliant on crumbling services,\" said shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh.\n\n\"People up and down this country are paying the price for 12 years of Tory failure.\"\n\nPrices are going up rapidly - and wages are not keeping up. People are getting poorer.\n\nMeanwhile, anyone who has tried to use a train in the past couple of weeks will be well aware that the industry is not in good shape.\n\nSome networks are better than others, but industrial action has caused disruption across the country.\n\nSo just imagine if you had to tell people right now they would have to pay 13% more for their tickets next year.\n\nBecause under the normal, RPI-linked formula, that's the magnitude of the increase we would be seeing. Obviously, it would cause uproar.\n\nCapping the rise to 5.9% - a figure that is linked to earnings - might avoid that kind of political carnage.\n\nBut it is still the biggest increase in more than a decade, and some commuters will see their travel costs rise by hundreds of pounds.\n\nAnd let's not forget - these are the regulated tickets. Unregulated fares may go up by a lot more.\n\nTransport Focus warned that more needed to be done to improve the experience of passengers on the railways.\n\n\"After months of unreliable services and strike disruption, it's clear that too many passengers are not getting a value for money service,\" said its director, David Sidebottom.\n\n\"Capping fares below inflation and the delay until March is welcome and will go some way to easing the pain, but the need for reform of fares and ticketing in the longer-term must not be forgotten.\"\n\nRegulated fares cover about 45% of fares, including season tickets on most commuter journeys, some off-peak return tickets on long distance journeys and anytime tickets around major cities.\n\nThe rise affects England, and mainline services from England into Wales.\n\nIt does not apply to Transport for Wales trains, but their changes tend to match those made across the border.\n\nFares for rail services in Northern Ireland are set by state-owned operator Translink, which does not use RPI. The Scottish government has not announced its plan for next year yet, though it has said that peak fares on the publicly-owned operator ScotRail will be suspended for six months.\n\nThe pandemic saw a steep drop in the number of train passengers, as more people worked from home, and numbers have remained well below pre-Covid levels.\n\nRail passengers have also faced disruption due to a wave of strikes, with further industrial action planned over Christmas and in early January.\n\nWorkers are demanding pay rises that reflect the soaring cost of living, while also trying to stop job cuts and changes to working conditions.", "Ebbyn Josiah Trevithick Simpson was born on the HM Coastguard helicopter\n\nA woman being airlifted to hospital gave birth on board the rescue helicopter.\n\nJennie Trevithick was being flown from the Isles of Scilly to have her baby at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro on 5 December.\n\nHer labour progressed quickly and she gave birth to Ebbyn as they were coming in to land.\n\nShe said: \"I just felt so safe - I couldn't have wished for anything more.\"\n\nMs Trevithick, 41, who is a brewer on St Mary's, started having contractions on the evening of 4 December and went to the island's birth centre with her partner, Hayden Simpson, 38.\n\nDad, Hayden Simpson, had an early cuddle with baby Ebbyn\n\nThe midwife discovered some meconium when her waters broke, meaning it became an emergency and she had to be flown by helicopter to hospital - a 55 mile (89km) journey.\n\nMothers on Scilly are often flown to the mainland to give birth when there are possible complications that may need additional medical support not available on the remote islands.\n\nMs Trevithick said: \"In my first pregnancy, with my daughter, I was also flown out and when I found out the helicopter was on its way the contractions stopped and everything.\n\n\"But with this one, I could hear the helicopter getting closer but there was no sign of anything slowing down.\"\n\nBaby and mother are both doing well, and enjoying life back on Scilly\n\nWhen on board, she said the situation progressed swiftly: \"I knew we hadn't landed yet and I reached down to feel the head and I was like 'OK'.\"\n\nIt took five hours from the contractions starting to the baby being born just after 02:00 GMT.\n\n\"It was a surreal experience. I was holding the baby as we were landing and looked up and went 'where are we? What is happening?',\" Ms Trevithick said.\n\nShe added it was a \"perfect\" experience and she was grateful to the helicopter crew and the midwife who travelled with her.\n\n\"I would love to say thank you to all of them. They were all amazingly supportive.\n\n\"Everyone said it must have been so scary being in a helicopter but actually I felt super safe - I was in the best place possible.\n\n\"I couldn't have wished for anything more.\"\n\nHM Coastguard's search and rescue helicopter is based at Cornwall Airport Newquay\n\nAfter landing, Mr Simpson cut the cord and the trio were transferred to the Royal Cornwall Hospital.\n\nThey left later that day before travelling back to Scilly.\n\nEbbyn joins a select group of Scillonians born on the coastguard helicopter, including Torran in 2018 and Marcus in 2013.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section League Cup\n\nManchester City emerged victorious in a Carabao Cup thriller at Etihad Stadium as Nathan Ake's first goal since April eventually saw off the challenge of holders Liverpool.\n\nCity led three times and, on the first two occasions, they were pegged back. On the second occasion, it took Mohamed Salah only one minute to restore parity after Riyad Mahrez had cut inside off Rodri's brilliant crossfield pass and found the bottom corner.\n\nBut, just as he had done for Erling Haaland's opener - and 24th goal of the season - Kevin de Bruyne delivered a superb far-post cross after 58 minutes, which dropped just over Nat Phillips' head and perfectly for Ake, who nodded home.\n\nCity deserved their win, keeping Pep Guardiola on track for his fifth triumph in this competition, which would make him the most successful manager in its history.\n\nThe reigning Premier League champions will visit Southampton in the last eight during the week commencing 9 January, 2023.\n\nHowever, Liverpool - for whom Fabio Carvalho had scored a first equaliser midway through the first half - had their chances, with Darwin Nunez three times shooting across the face of goal and wide of the far post when he was positioned to do much better.\n\nNunez did set up Salah for his goal when he completely outpaced Aymeric Laporte, but there was no third response from the visitors, whose defence of the trophy is at an end.\n\nThe fear for City's rivals building up to the World Cup was that a fully rested Haaland - his country Norway did not qualify for the World Cup - could cause huge damage when the season resumed.\n\nHe could have scored within 20 seconds but, after his pace took him away from the Liverpool defence, the 22-year-old sent his effort sailing over both Caoimhin Kelleher and the visitors' goal.\n\nBut Haaland did not have to wait long to score. The surprise was, having set him up for the opener, that De Bruyne then chose to ignore the striker when City countered late in the opening period and instead teed up Ilkay Gundogan, who could not beat Kelleher when he really should have done.\n\nAfter doing quite a bit of chasing and harrying for little reward after the interval, Guardiola replaced Haaland with Phil Foden 17 minutes before full-time.\n\nIn the build-up to the game, Guardiola said he thought the players who have been in Qatar - and City had more than any other Premier League club - would be in better shape than those who missed out because they have been training with intensity.\n\nThere is merit in Guardiola's view but as City look to get their Premier League campaign back on track over the holiday period, the suspicion would be that three games in a week will suit Haaland better than many of those who have spent the past month trying to win the World Cup.\n\nRespective chief executives Ferran Soriano and Billy Hogan sent letters out to fans in the build-up to the game urging calm after the flashpoints that have scarred matches between the north-west heavyweights over the past few years.\n\nOne pair of supporters did not heed the message as they engaged in a furious row after one took exception to the other standing up in a corporate area to cheer Liverpool's first equaliser through Carvalho.\n\nLike Liverpool as a whole, Carvalho's season never really got going before the World Cup and his half-time exit does not hint at an immediate upturn in fortunes for the former Fulham man, who had scored for the first time since August.\n\nHis replacement, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, has had another injury-ravaged campaign, but the midfielder was pivotal in creating the space that Nunez exploited for Salah's goal.\n\nThe interesting thing now will be how Jurgen Klopp pieces his squad together as, having slipped seven points behind fourth-placed Tottenham in the Premier League, they really need to find form quickly.\n• None Offside, Liverpool. Joe Gomez tries a through ball, but Jordan Henderson is caught offside.\n• None Delay over. They are ready to continue.\n• None Delay in match because of an injury Stefan Ortega (Manchester City).\n• None Substitution, Manchester City. Bernardo Silva replaces Ilkay Gündogan because of an injury.\n• None Attempt saved. Phil Foden (Manchester City) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.\n• None Naby Keïta (Liverpool) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt blocked. Ilkay Gündogan (Manchester City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Phil Foden. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Seán Rooney's mother Natasha says he is a national hero and gave her a sense of purpose\n\nThe death of an Irish soldier killed on a UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has \"pierced the hearts of his family\", mourners at his funeral were told.\n\nPte Seán Rooney was in an armoured vehicle that came under fire while travelling to Beirut on 14 December.\n\nHis funeral was held on Thursday in the Church of the Holy Family in Dundalk, County Louth.\n\nFollowing the service, the coffin travelled to Aiken Barracks in County Louth, where he had been stationed.\n\nThe funeral cortège then travelled to Newtowncunningham, County Donegal, for the burial ceremony.\n\nThe coffin, carried by members of 27 Infantry, in which Pte Rooney served, was transferred from the hearse to a gun carriage.\n\nA lone piper played as the procession made its way to the cemetery at All Saints Catholic Church.\n\nThe funeral of Pte Rooney was held in County Louth on Thursday morning\n\nIrish President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar were among the mourners present earlier at the funeral service in County Louth\n\nIrish Defence Minister Micheál Martin, chief of staff of the Irish Defence Forces Lt Gen Seán Clancy and colleagues of Pte Rooney from Lebanon were also in attendance.\n\nPriest Fr Derek Ryan told mourners, including Pte Rooney's mother Natasha, father Paul, grandparents and fiancée Holly McConnellogue, the UN soldier was \"immersed in family life\".\n\nHe was \"wise beyond his years\", Fr Ryan added.\n\n\"When Sean was killed last week, it really did pierce the heart of his family and this close-hearted community, and even the town of Dundalk.\n\n\"It's not talked about a lot but families who have sons and daughters serving abroad, they know the risks and dangers that are always present in regions of conflict.\"\n\nMembers of the Irish Defence forces were among those to attend the funeral in Dundalk\n\nPte Rooney's mother Natasha said her son was kind and loving had done wonderful things in his short life.\n\nShe said there were no words \"strong or great enough to express the love I have for Sean and how proud I was\".\n\n\"He is a national hero,\" she said.\n\nIn a statement read by Fr Ryan, Ms McConnellogue said Pte Rooney, who was 24, would have become a \"fantastic husband and father\".\n\nThe couple had been due to marry next year.\n\n\"Seán always encouraged me in my work and my studies and everything in life,\" she said.\n\n\"He believed I could do anything - he made me feel I could do anything,\" she said.\n\nPresident of Ireland Michael D Higgins was among the mourners\n\nEarlier, hundreds of people lined the streets as Pte Rooney's coffin was carried the short distance from his grandparents' home in Dundalk.\n\n\"No-one in this community would ever have thought that your walk across Hoey's Lane to come to your beloved church would be such a difficult walk,\" Fr Ryan said.\n\nThe soldier's body will be taken to All Saints Catholic Church in Colehill, County Donegal, for a burial service with full military honours later on Thursday.\n\nThe cortege crossed the border from the Republic of Ireland into Northern Ireland on its way to Donegal\n\nIrish broadcaster RTÉ reported that dispensation had been given for the Irish Defence Forces to wear uniforms while accompanying Pte Rooney's coffin as it makes its way through Northern Ireland towards County Donegal.\n\nPte Rooney was repatriated to Ireland on Monday following a UN ceremony to honour him in Beirut the previous day.\n\nThree separate investigations are being conducted into the incident by the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, Lebanese authorities led by a military prosecutor and the Irish Defence Forces.\n\nBoth the Irish and UN flags were used to cover Pte Rooney's coffin\n\nIt is understood the vehicle was surrounded by a mob and fired on while travelling to Beirut at about 21:00 on 14 December.\n\nAnother soldier who was seriously injured in the same attack was returned home to the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday.\n\nTrooper Shane Kearney, who suffered a head injury, was flown by a medical aircraft from Beirut Airport to Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, then taken to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.\n\nTrooper Kearney is in a stable condition, the Irish Defence Forces have said.", "King Charles, visiting a community kitchen last week, has given money to help those struggling with fuel bills\n\nMoney donated in memory of Queen Elizabeth is being given by King Charles to a charity helping people unable to pay their fuel bills.\n\nBuckingham Palace has not revealed the amount, but the Fuel Bank Foundation is being given funds donated when the late Queen died in September.\n\nThe charity provides vouchers for pre-payment meters for gas and electricity.\n\nMatthew Cole, head of the charity, said it would provide respite from the \"energy and cost of living crisis\".\n\nIn the wake of the late Queen's death, there were financial contributions as well as many letters of condolence sent to the Royal Family.\n\nThat money, according to royal sources, is now being handed over to help people who are unable to pay for heat, light and power in their homes.\n\nAlong with the immediate help of topping up gas and electricity meters, the charity provides advice about bills and reducing the risk of being without energy supplies.\n\nRoyal visits and charity efforts have reflected these growing concerns about the cost of living.\n\nAs well as cards and floral tributes, there were financial donations in memory of the late Queen\n\nLast week, King Charles visited a community kitchen and food bank in Harrow, which is serving more than 10,000 people each week, where he heard about the work of volunteers supporting local people who were struggling to afford food.\n\nEarlier this month, the King donated funds to provide hundreds of fridges and freezers for food banks, to help them make better use of donated food, in a project organised by the Felix Project charity.\n\nHouse of Commons library figures, the most recent official ones which are for 2020, show about 13% of households in England are classed as \"fuel poor\", 25% in Scotland, 12% in Wales, and 18% in Northern Ireland.\n\nThe Fuel Bank Foundation, which has supported 650,000 people since being set up seven years ago, works alongside food banks and other local agencies.\n\nMr Cole, the charity's head, welcomed the \"generous donation\", which has been topped up with a personal donation from the King.\n\n\"The money will be used to help keep vulnerable people warm this winter, offering some physical and mental respite from the challenges posed by the energy and cost of living crisis,\" he said.", "Elon Musk has said he and Apple boss Tim Cook have \"resolved the misunderstanding\" over Twitter possibly being removed from the app store.\n\nOn Monday, Mr Musk accused Apple of threatening to cut the platform from its app store and said it had halted most of its advertising on the site.\n\nBut the Twitter boss tweeted on Wednesday that: \"Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.\"\n\nHe did not say if Apple's advertising was discussed at the meeting.\n\nThe meeting between the two tech leaders comes as many companies have halted spending on Twitter amid concerns about Mr Musk's content moderation plans for the site - a major blow to the company, which relies on such spending for most of its revenue.\n\nEntering a feud on Monday, Mr Musk accused Apple of \"censorship\" and criticised its policies, including the charge it levies on purchases made on its app store.\n\n\"Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?\" he said.\n\nBut he later told his followers he was meeting with Mr Cook at Apple's headquarters, adding: \"Good conversation. Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Elon Musk This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nNews of the meeting with Apple came after Mr Musk was told he faced \"huge work ahead\" to bring Twitter into compliance with new European Union rules on disinformation or face a possible ban.\n\nEU commissioner Thierry Breton made the comments in a meeting with Mr Musk on Wednesday, saying the social media site would have to address issues such as content moderation, disinformation and targeted adverts.\n\nApproved by the EU earlier this year, the Digital Services Act is seen as the biggest overhaul of rules governing online activity in decades, imposing new obligations on companies to prevent abuse of their platforms.\n\nMajor companies are expected to be in compliance with the law some time next year.\n\nIf firms are found to be violation, they face fines of up to 6% of global turnover - or a ban in the case of repeated serious breaches.\n\nIn a statement after the meeting, Mr Breton said he welcomed Mr Musk's assurances that he would get Twitter ready to comply.\n\n\"Let's also be clear that there is still huge work ahead, as Twitter will have to implement transparent user policies, significantly reinforce content moderation and protect freedom of speech, tackle disinformation with resolve, and limit targeted advertising,\" he said.\n\n\"All of this requires sufficient AI [Artificial Intelligence] and human resources, both in volumes and skills. I look forward to progress in all these areas and we will come to assess Twitter's readiness on site.\"\n\nThe EU plans to conduct a \"stress test\" in 2023 ahead of a wider audit, his office said.\n\nSince his $44bn takeover of Twitter last month, Mr Musk has fired thousands of staff, reinstated formerly banned users such as Donald Trump and stopped enforcing other policies, such as rules aimed at stopping misleading information on coronavirus.\n\nThe moves have alarmed some civil rights groups, who have accused the billionaire of taking steps that will increase hate speech, misinformation and abuse.\n\nIn a blog post on Wednesday, Twitter said none of its policies had changed, but that it was experimenting in an effort to improve the platform more quickly and would rely more on steps to limit the spread of material that violate its rules - offering \"freedom of speech but not freedom of reach\".\n\n\"Our trust & safety team continues its diligent work to keep the platform safe from hateful conduct, abusive behavior, and any violation of Twitter's rules,\" the company added.\n\n\"The team remains strong and well-resourced, and automated detection plays an increasingly important role in eliminating abuse,\" it said.", "Mark Brown had denied murdering Leah Ware, 33, from Hastings, East Sussex, and Alexandra Morgan, 34, from Sissinghurst, Kent\n\nA builder has been found guilty of murdering two women he met on an escort website.\n\nMark Brown, 41, of St Leonards, East Sussex, killed Alexandra Morgan and Leah Ware, who went missing six months apart in 2021.\n\nHe once predicted to his boss that he was \"going down\" for at least 25 years, his trial at Hove Crown Court was told.\n\nBrown, who has never revealed what happened to Ms Ware, will be sentenced on 13 January.\n\nJudge Mr Justice Nicholas Hilliard said: \"This is clearly a case of the utmost gravity and the effect on the victims' families must be absolutely devastating.\"\n\nHe said Brown will be sentenced to life in prison and he will have to decide the minimum prison term or \"indeed consider if he will ever be released for parole licence\".\n\nMark Brown had murdered the two women, a jury decided\n\nMs Ware's remains have never been found. Brown, a father of one who had a long-term partner, has always maintained that he does not know where she is - and that she is still alive.\n\nBut the judge told the court if Brown wishes to confirm what he has done with her body, that will be something he will take into consideration between now and sentencing.\n\nBrown had claimed Ms Morgan - known by her friends and family as Alex and a single mother of two - had slipped and fallen on a tool or piece of mechanical equipment in a workshop he rented at Little Bridge Farm, near Hastings, hitting her head.\n\nHe told the court there was \"a lot of blood\", and he was convinced she had died.\n\nBrown, of Squirrel Close, later admitted to disposing of her body \"in a panic\" to cover the whole thing up. He put her body in an incinerator made from an oil drum.\n\nHis trial heard a message he sent which the prosecution said referred to the process he used to dispose of the women's remains.\n\n\"I'm going to be very careful how I word this,\" the message said.\n\n\"It happened again, not very long ago when disposing of something.\"\n\n\"It's a very unpleasant thing to do - an old oil drum, five litres of diesel, and hey presto, there's not very much left.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mark Brown had previously told his boss that he expected to be arrested\n\nBrown was working at a building site in Sevenoaks when he was questioned by Kent Police after Miss Morgan disappeared in November 2021.\n\nHe told his boss Alan Downs that he expected to be arrested.\n\nBrown also sent a message to a friend which said: \"The things I have done weigh heavily on my heart, on my head and my soul. A psychopath with a conscience - it's a joke really.\"\n\nPolice decided they wanted to speak to Ms Ware about Ms Morgan, having discovered Ms Ware had been in a relationship with Brown. It was then they discovered she had not been seen since May 2021.\n\nWhile searching Brown's van, Kent Police officers found prescription drugs in Ms Ware's name.\n\nShe had also met Brown through her escort work, but had moved to Little Bridge Farm after being in a relationship with him for about three years.\n\nTamsin Gregory, a friend of Ms Ware said she had \"concerns\" about Brown's relationship with her.\n\n\"It seemed like he was very controlling of her,\" she said.\n\nMs Ware lived at the farm with her two dogs, Duke and Lady, to whom she was devoted.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police used phone mast technology to track down Brown and Ms Ware's movement\n\nBrown killed her on or around 7 May 2021 after tensions grew when she pressed him to leave his partner of 14 years, the jury was told.\n\nIn the days immediately after the prosecution say she died, Duke was rehomed with Brown's sister. Ms Ware's family said she would never have agreed to this. Lady, a Pomeranian, has not been seen since.\n\nHowever, during a police search of the farm, the skeletal remains of a Pomeranian were found in a pond on the site, at the end of a collar and lead tied to a weight. The prosecution argued that these were Lady's bones.\n\nBrown admitted giving differing accounts to different people about Ms Ware's disappearance, saying she had been \"sectioned\", sent to \"a mental hospital\" or had \"killed herself\" and was \"at peace\".\n\nThe prosecution argued that he had killed her, and disposed of her body in an oil drum.\n\nMs Morgan was last seen at a petrol station with her Mini Cooper near Cranbrook on 14 November.\n\nFollowing a public appeal, Kent Police found her car and Ms Morgan's remains.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Police say the 58-year-old victim crashed his car into a nearby property after the attack\n\nA 58-year-old man killed in Newry was shot a number of times at close range, possibly as part of a feud, police have said.\n\nThe shooting occurred in Ardcarn Park, a residential area, shortly after 18:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nThe victim died at the scene. His name has not been released by the police.\n\nPolice said one line of inquiry is that the shooting was part of a cross-border crime feud, possibly involving drugs, and a murder investigation has begun.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supt Norman Haslett says the \"level of violence used was reprehensible\"\n\nThe killing was a \"brutal and a senseless attack on a defenceless man\", said Supt Norman Haslett on Friday.\n\nHe said the 58-year-old victim, who was a husband and father, crashed his car into a nearby property after the attack.\n\nEarlier reports suggest the victim was shot a number of times as he stood behind his car.\n\nShocking and brutal - that's how this killing has been described.\n\nNeighbours describe hearing what they thought was fireworks going off, only to realise someone had been killed outside their door.\n\nPolice and forensics remain at the scene, trying to establish what happened here.\n\nPoliticians have condemned the attack and urged anyone with any information to get in contact with the police.\n\nSDLP councillor Michael Savage called the attack \"a reckless act... when families would have been about\".\n\nSinn Féin assembly member Liz Kimmins said: \"This was a very brutal killing and a family have now been left grieving and the community left very, very frightened.\n\nThe man died at the scene at Ardcarn Park\n\n\"It's just horrendous news. There's just absolutely no room for this type of criminality on our streets and those responsible have nothing to offer.\"\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie described the murder as terrible.\n\n\"More guns on our streets, more victims, more families grieving. Senseless, just senseless,\" he tweeted.\n\nAlliance Party assembly member and Policing Board member Nuala McAllister said: \"This is a call back to the dark old days and we cannot allow those who want to drag us back to the past to do so.\"", "Public Health Wales wants to raise awareness of invasive Group A Streptococcal disease\n\nThe pupil at Victoria Primary School in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, died from invasive Group A Streptococcal disease (iGAS), or Strep A.\n\nParents and guardians of children are being urged to find out the symptoms, and what action to take if needed.\n\nSymptoms include a high temperature above 38C, sore throat, muscle aches, muscle tenderness and redness at the site of a wound.\n\nThe child is one of four to have died recently with Strep A, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed.\n\nLast week, a child died and another was taken to hospital after an outbreak of the infection at a primary school in Surrey.\n\nThe death of a child who attended St John's School in Ealing, West London, was announced on Friday.\n\nDr Ardiana Gjini, from Public Health Wales, said it was working closely with the Penarth school to raise awareness about the disease.\n\n\"Although it is unlikely that their child will be affected by iGAS infection, relevant individuals are being advised that they should familiarise themselves with the symptoms and what to do if these symptoms occur,\" said Dr Gjini.\n\n\"Contracting iGAS disease from a contact is very rare.\n\n\"Most people who come into contact with Group A Streptococcal Infection remain well and symptom-free, or develop mild throat or skin infections.\n\n\"We offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and all those affected.\n\n\"We ask that the privacy of the family is respected.\"\n\nVictoria Primary School and Vale of Glamorgan council said: \"Earlier this week, it was confirmed that a pupil from Victoria Primary School had tragically passed away after contracting Strep A.\n\n\"Both the school and Council would like to pass on their heartfelt condolences to the family at this incredibly difficult time.\"\n\nThey said it was unlikely other pupils would be affected and severe symptoms were extremely rare.\n\nFigures from Public Health Wales showed there were 124 Strep A infections in Wales in 2019, 69 in 2020, and 21 in 2021.\n\nThe prevalence rate was highest in the over 70s.", "Napakiak is a Yupik Alaska Native village of just under 400 people.\n\nUS President Joe Biden's administration will help fund the move of three tribal communities facing urgent threats from climate change.\n\nThe three tribes will receive $75m (£62m) divided equally between them, Mr Biden announced on Wednesday.\n\nAll are located along coastal areas and rivers in the states of Alaska and Washington.\n\nThe money will fund the move of key buildings and residential homes to higher ground, away from rising waters.\n\nMr Biden made the funding announcement at the White House during the Interior Department's Tribal Nations Summit.\n\nIn his remarks, he said the tribes receiving funding are \"at risk of being washed away\".\n\nThe money will help \"move, in some cases, their entire communities back to safer ground\".\n\nThose receiving the funding are Newtok Village and the Native Village of Napakiak in southwest Alaska, and the Quinault Indian Nation, located on Washington state's Olympic Peninsula.\n\nAll three communities have either suffered land erosion or are at a growing risk of flooding.\n\nThe Quinault nation said it will use the money to build a community centre, which will also serve as an emergency evacuation centre in case of natural disasters. The funds will help cover a quarter of the overall relocation project, they said.\n\nIn a press release, US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said: \"Indigenous communities are facing unique and intensifying climate-related challenges that pose an existential threat to Tribal economies, infrastructure, lives and livelihoods.\"\n\nEight more tribes will also receive at least $5m each to plan for relocation. In total, the US Interior Department will spend $135m to relocate the communities, which also include some communities in the states of Maine, Louisiana and Arizona.\n\nThe financial support is a move by the US government to help communities adapt to climate change by allowing them to relocate to safer ground, rather than paying for rebuilding efforts in case of damage suffered by climate change.\n\nA similar relocation fund of $48m - the first of its kind in the US - was given out by the Obama administration in 2016 to the coastal village of Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana, which lost the majority of its land to the Gulf of Mexico.\n\nResidents, however, only began the relocation process this year after some disagreement on where they should move.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Life on a Louisiana island slowly disappearing into the sea", "An aerial view of a landslide on the BR-376 federal road after heavy rains in Guaratuba, in Paraná state in Brazil\n\nA landslide on a motorway in southern Brazil has killed at least two people and left dozens missing.\n\nA torrent of mud fell on to the BR-376 highway in the state of Paraná, hitting more than 21 vehicles, authorities said.\n\nRescue workers at the scene said bad weather and the remote location were complicating the search effort.\n\nFirefighters are using a thermal camera to locate possible survivors. Up to 30 people are thought to still be missing.\n\nAt least 15 cars and six lorries were engulfed in the mudslide.\n\nAerial footage shows one lorry precariously hanging over the side of a bridge. Rescue workers found the body of its driver, who was identified as 62-year-old João Pires.\n\nA relative said he had worked as a lorry driver for most of his life and was well acquainted with the road where the accident happened.\n\nThe name of the second victim has not yet been released.\n\nAnother lorry driver whose cab was buried in the mud was rescued with only minor injuries. José Altair Biscaia, 43, recorded a video of himself on his phone as he was trapped.\n\n\"I'm alive, thank God. I'm in the middle of the mud, just in a little corner which is left of the lorry. I'm full of cuts. but I'm alive,\" he can be heard saying in the footage.\n\nThe inside of his cab looks mangled and there are blood stains. Outside the window there appears to be a wall of solid mud.\n\nSo far, six survivors have been located. Among them is the mayor of the coastal town of Guaratuba, Roberto Justus.\n\nIn a video uploaded to social media after his rescue, Mr Justus said it was \"a miracle\" he was alive.\n\n\"It was horrible,\" he said. \"The mountain just fell on top of us. It swept away every last car.\"\n\nHe told local radio station Rádio Gaúcha that he and his driver, Cláudio Margarida, had broken the windows of their car to get out.\n\n\"A sea of mud, trees, branches hit the door of the car. I was on the passenger seat and the impact was such that our car was lifted. The mud kept coming and coming and lifting us until we were on top of the vehicles on the opposite carriageway,\" he recalled.\n\nThe mudslide was triggered by days of heavy rain in Paraná.\n\nLandslides are not uncommon in Brazil and hillside communities are often swept away when sodden mountainsides collapse.\n\nIn February, more than 200 people were killed in landslides in the town of Petrópolis in Rio state.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. More heavy rain is expected across Brazil", "Families have formed a new campaign group, called Killed Women\n\nFamilies whose mums, sisters and daughters were killed by men are calling for changes to the way police and authorities deal with violence against women. They want changes to how killers are sentenced and to the way the NHS and social services respond.\n\nThree of those families have told BBC News how their loved ones were let down.\n\nNour Norris says the failure of the police and other sectors was 'outrageous'\n\nKhaola Saleem and her daughter, Raneem Oudeh, were murdered, in 2018. They were killed by Raneem's ex-partner. Multiple failings by West Midlands Police contributed to their deaths, an inquest found this month. It heard how a number of 999 calls were dismissed by police.\n\nNour Norris, Khaola's sister, wants a change to the way domestic abuse victims are treated. \"Preventing future deaths is very important. What we have seen in our case was devastating, the failure from the police and other sectors was outrageous, it was horrendous. There's a lack of understanding of domestic abuse.\n\n\"We're looking for more training on domestic abuse so police officers can deal with it as a very serious matter.\" Nour believes there is a lack of knowledge within the police about how to deal with domestic abuse - from call-handlers, to senior officers.\n\nNour says despite Raneem ringing 999, police officers \"didn't come out, even though he was attacking her\". She says. \"I don't know what it takes for change to happen. Is it more women to die? More violence?\"\n\nJulie Devey wants changes to the way killers are sentenced\n\nJulie Devey's 24-year-old daughter, Poppy, was murdered in 2018 by her ex-boyfriend, who attacked her with a kitchen knife in their flat. She suffered 49 knife wounds. Poppy was due to move out, and her bags were packed.\n\nHer killer was later jailed for 16 years, but Julie wants a fundamental change to sentencing of murderers. \"If a weapon is taken to the scene of the crime, the starting minimum-term tariff is 25 years. If the weapon is deemed to be already at the scene of crime, then the starting tariff is 15 years. So there's a 10-year disparity,\" she says.\n\n\"By leaving it as it is, it's saying that the women who have their lives taken in the homes, their lives are worth ten years less. And that's gender-based sentencing. It's misogynistic and it's just unfair and unjust.\" The government has promised to look at the sentencing guidance, but Julie wants more. \"We've all heard sympathetic voices and lots of nodding and 'oh we agree with you, that's awful, that's awful',\" she says.\n\n\"[But] Politicians just don't imagine that it could happen to them. Well, it absolutely could. And if, for five minutes, they actually really tried to get inside the pain that we feel constantly, and think 'that could be my daughter lying there', then maybe they would begin to listen and really get these changes made.\"\n\nOnjali Raúf says her aunt was not listened to\n\nOnjali Raúf says she has seen little change since the murder of her aunt, Mumtahina Jannat. Known as Ruma, she was 29 when she was strangled to death by her abusive husband, in 2011. During a custody hearing over the pair's children, a judge had earlier told Ruma how she was being a \"silly woman\" for fearing he might kill her.\n\n\"She spent five-and-a-half years trying to convince the police, the judicial system, the children's services, that he was a dangerous man - and nobody believed her. And it was only after her homicide review report came out that we realised the police, children's services, doctors, the school, everyone had nuggets of information. Nothing was shared,\" she says.\n\n\"When she went to court to try and identify to the judges and to the lawyers that this man was dangerous, she had no evidence. It was literally her word against his, even though everyone had a little piece of information.\"\n\nOnjali believes there was also discrimination against her aunt. \"The racism goes hand-in-hand with misogyny to downplay domestic violence even further than it was already downplayed,\" she says. She says she is joining other families who have lost loved ones \"to say we're no longer willing to wait any more\".\n\nShe adds: \"We want you to listen to us, is really crucial.\"\n\nAccording to the latest official crime statistics - between April 2020 and March 2021 - 177 women were murdered in England and Wales. Of those, 109 were killed by a man, 10 were killed by a woman, and in 58 cases there was no known suspect. The latest figures also show 1.7 million women experienced domestic abuse last year.\n\nThe bereaved families have formed a new campaign group, called Killed Women, to campaign for more to be done to protect women and ensure justice for victims.\n\nRaneem Oudeh (left) and her mother Khaola Saleem, and Poppy Devey (right) were all murdered in 2018\n\nThe group also includes the families of Ellie Gould, who was murdered in 2019 by her ex- boyfriend; Suzanne Van Hagen, who was killed in 2013; Banaz Mahmod, murdered in 2006 by her father and uncle; Jan Mustafa, murdered by a registered sex offender in 2019; and Gemma Marjoram murdered by her estranged husband in 2020.\n\nKilled Women says it wants to raise awareness and promote policies to tackle fatal violence against women. The group is already backed by leading charities, as well as MPs from across the House of Commons.\n\n\"The voices of those bereaved by male violence deserve to be heard,\" Ruth Davison, chief executive of Refuge, the domestic abuse charity, said. \"Their frustration and pain should galvanise policymakers to take the urgent action necessary to protect women.\"\n\nA government spokesperson said tackling domestic homicide was a \"key priority\", adding: \"In March, we published our tackling domestic abuse plan, which invests over £230m into tackling these heinous crimes.\" That includes £140m to support victims and £81m to tackle perpetrators.\n\nThe spokesman said the plan included a domestic abuse and domestic homicide prevention pilot and investment in healthcare settings to help identify and refer victims for support.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nFormer Rugby League player Rob Burrow is set to read the CBeebies Bedtime Story on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.\n\nRob, who used to play for Leeds Rhinos, lives with motor neurone disease (MND) and will be using an eye-controlled computer to read the story.\n\nThe computer recreates the words in his own native Yorkshire accent.\n\nRob says he is \"excited and honoured\" as he used to enjoy reading to his own children.\n\nHe was joined in the CBeebies studio by his wife Lindsey and two of their children, Maya, 7, and Jackson, 3.\n\nThe pair helped to direct their dad from the gallery, shouting \"Action!\" when the cameras began rolling.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"Reading and literacy are so important. It doesn't matter what your disability is, reading is accessible to everyone.\n\n\"Anyone can enjoy reading and develop a love of books and bedtime stories, just like me and my family.\"\n\nThe book chosen for his bedtime story is Tilda Tries Again by Tom Percival.\n\nIt follows the story of a young girl who one day finds her world turned upside-down and has to find a new way to solve her problems.\n\nRob, 40, spent his entire career with Leeds Rhinos, making over 400 appearances between 2001 and 2017.\n\nHe is one of the most successful players in the sport's history, winning eight Super League championships.\n\nRob Burrow is one of the most successful Rugby League players of all time\n\nIn 2019 he announced he had been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, which is a condition affecting the brain and nerves, causing worsening muscular weakness.\n\nRob was awarded an MBE in 2021 for his services to Rugby League and for his work in the Motor Neurone community.\n\nA number of high profile guests have been invited to read a bedtime story for the children's TV channel, including the Princess of Wales, Dolly Parton and Sir Elton John.\n\nRob will read the CBeebies Bedtime Story at 6.50pm on Saturday 3 December (CBeebies and BBC iPlayer).", "Boris Johnson has told his local Conservative Party he will stand again as an MP at the next general election, the BBC has been told.\n\nThe Conservatives have given their MPs until 5 December to confirm whether they wish to contest the next election - which must be held by early 2025.\n\nSo far, 11 Tory MPs have announced they will not stand for re-election.\n\nThere had been suggestions Mr Johnson would stand down from Parliament after he was ousted as prime minister.\n\nMPs can still stand down before the next election without letting the party know ahead of time.\n\nIn October, Mr Johnson ran to replace Liz Truss as prime minister and passed the threshold of 100 nominations from his parliamentary colleagues, only to withdraw from the race hours before the deadline.\n\nMr Johnson has been the MP for Uxbridge and Ruislip in west London since 2015. He was elected to the seat while still serving as mayor of London.\n\nThe next election will be the fourth time he has run to represent the constituency.\n\nMr Johnson has a 7,210 vote majority after securing a 1.8% swing to the Conservatives at the 2019 election.\n\nOn 5 December, the Boundary Commission will end its consultation on new constituency boundaries for the next election. Conservative campaign headquarters has asked Tory MPs to confirm if they plan to stand for re-election before then.\n\nUnder current proposals, Mr Johnson could gain support when his constituency is redrawn to absorb some new Tory leaning areas.\n\nLevelling Up minister Dehenna Davison, Chloe Smith, the former work and pensions secretary, and Will Wragg, the chair of the public administration select committee, have all said they will stand down.\n\nThe Uxbridge and South Ruislip Conservative association said it \"fully supported Boris Johnson as our local MP and candidate at any future election\".\n\nAssociation chairman Richard Mills added: \"We look forward to continuing to work alongside him to deliver for the residents and communities within the constituency, where he has strong connections and involvement.\"\n• None What will Boris Johnson do next?", "The creation of a National Care Service for Scotland (NCS) will end the \"postcode lottery\" in the sector, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has said.\n\nHe said new legislation would make ministers accountable for adult social care in Scotland.\n\nMr Yousaf described the move as the most significant since the creation of the NHS.\n\nIt follows an independent review into the future of adult social care triggered by the pandemic.\n\nThe service, which will be launched by the end of the parliamentary term in 2026, could cost up to £0.5bn to deliver.\n\nThe new bill proposes setting up a series of care boards that operate in the same way as health boards, with Scottish ministers directly responsible.\n\nIt means local authorities would no longer run social care services.\n\nScottish Labour have accused the government of \"the biggest power grab in the history of Holyrood\" and said it would undermine local government.\n\nAnd while some charities have welcomed the legislation, they say social care faces a crisis now.\n\nThe new service will aim to support people in their own homes or among family, friends and community wherever possible.\n\nIt will create a charter of rights and responsibilities for social care, with a robust complaints and redress process.\n\nAdditional measures include the introduction of rights to breaks for unpaid carers and visiting rights for residents living in adult care homes, giving legal force to Anne's Law.\n\nThis secures the right of care home residents to have visits from a loved one - even in a Covid outbreak.\n\nThe NCS will also ensure fair employment practices and national pay bargaining for the social care workforce and focus on prevention and early intervention before people's needs escalate.\n\nA further development will see the creation of a new National Social Work Agency to promote training and development, provide national leadership and set and monitor standards in social work.\n\nThere has been plenty of debate about how to improve community health and social care in Scotland. An ageing population with more complex health needs is increasingly putting pressure on a system short of staff and capacity.\n\nA government review published last year recommended setting up a National Care Service to level out access to services across Scotland and to help address demand.\n\nWhat we are seeing today with this new legislation is the first steps of that becoming a reality.\n\nEssentially, the government is replacing provision run by local authorities with a series of care boards answerable to Scottish ministers.\n\nThe pandemic cast a light on rights for care home relatives and carers and there are also proposals to improve those.\n\nThe health secretary has billed this legislation as the most ambitious since the creation of the NHS but given the scale of the challenge and the short timeframe to deliver, it appears that much of the detail is still to be worked out along the way.\n\nThe aim is to have the new service operational by the end of the parliamentary term, but the main issue facing social care is that there is an shortage of provision now.\n\nSpeaking on a visit to Aberdeen-based charity VSA, Mr Yousaf said: \"This is the most ambitious reform of public services since the creation of the NHS.\n\n\"The design of the NCS will have human rights embedded throughout, and the actual shape and detail of how the NCS works will be designed with those who have direct experience of accessing and providing social care.\n\n\"We are going to end the postcode lottery of care in Scotland.\"\n\nThe health secretary pledged everyone would have access to \"consistently high-quality care and support so they can live a full life\".\n\nBut Scottish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie, said: \"After years of steadfast opposition to a National Care Service, the SNP is now using the creation of such a service to disempower local government and centralise yet more power.\"\n\nShe added that the transfer of more than 100,000 staff away from local authorities was a \"recipe for chaos and \"uncertainty\".\n\nScottish Conservative social care spokesman Craig Hoy urged the SNP to scrap the plans because of the huge costs involved in setting it up.\n\nMr Hoy said: \"Social care provision in Scotland is in crisis. But the last thing we need right now is a major bureaucratic overhaul of the system which would see precious resources diverted away from the frontline and into employing hundreds more management and admin staff.\n\nWendy Dunsmore of Unite also condemned the proposals and said Scottish ministers would be \"able to unilaterally decide what services are to be delivered nationally or locally\".\n\nShe said: \"The plans to transfer services, people and property from local authorities to the Scottish government are a recipe for disaster and represent an all-out assault on local democracy.\"\n\nKeir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser, said workers \"haven't even been an afterthought\" in drafting the bill.\n\nHe added: \"Care staff who worked on the frontline throughout the pandemic and continue to care for our most vulnerable cannot afford to wait for improved terms and conditions.\n\n\"There is plenty on new executive boards of bureaucrats, and their pay and pensions, but there is no mention of how care workers can improve their pay.\"\n\nLocal government body Cosla said it would take the time to understand the breadth of the impact the legislation would have on communities across Scotland.\n\nHealth and social care spokesman Paul Kelly said: \"Our primary considerations are the effective delivery of vital social care services to the communities we serve and the wellbeing of our workforce.\n\n\"We would reiterate our previous position that local democratic accountability is central to the way in which social care services are delivered.\n\n\"We are also clear that there are underlying challenges across the system requiring urgent and significant improvement, and which cannot wait for a National Care Service.\"", "IS still launches sporadic attacks in Iraq and Syria (Mosul file pic)\n\nThe jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has announced the death of its leader, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi.\n\nAn audio message from the group's spokesman said he was killed while fighting what he called \"the enemies of God\", but he gave no further details.\n\nThe US said he was killed in an operation by the rebel Free Syrian Army in south-west Syria in mid-October.\n\nHe became leader in March, after his predecessor blew himself up during a raid by US forces in north-west Syria.\n\nThe spokesman named his replacement as Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi - another apparent nom-de-guerre.\n\nAs with the previous announcement, the spokesman refrained from revealing his real name, nationality or background.\n\nHe described Abu al-Hussein as \"one of the veteran mujahidin\" and urged the group's supporters to pledge allegiance to him.\n\nVery little was known about Abu al-Hassan, who never issued any statements in his name as leader. But on Monday, an anti-IS Telegram channel supportive of rival jihadist group al-Qaeda said he had been killed \"some time ago\".\n\nThe US military's Central Command said in a statement that Abu al-Hassan was killed in the south-western Syrian province of Deraa by the Free Syrian Army, an umbrella group for rebel factions seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad in the country's civil war.\n\nNo US forces were involved in the operation, a military spokesperson added.\n\nEarlier, a spokesman for the US National Security Council, John Kirby said: \"We welcome the announcement that another leader of [IS] is no longer walking the face of the Earth.\"\n\nIS once held 88,000 sq km (34,000 sq miles) of territory stretching from eastern Iraq to western Syria and imposed its brutal rule on almost eight million people.\n\nThe group was driven from its last piece of territory in 2019, but the UN warned in July that it remained a persistent threat.\n\nIt is estimated to have between 6,000 and 10,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, who are based mostly in rural areas and continue to carry out hit-and-run attacks, ambushes and roadside bombings.\n\nIS regional affiliates also pose threats in other conflict zones across the world. The UN said the most vigorous and well-established networks were based in Afghanistan, Somalia and the Lake Chad basin.", "Brian Hendry, third left, has travelled to Qatar with five friends from Aberdeen to attend his ninth World Cup\n\nMost Scotland fans have been assuming a familiar position on the sofa for this year's World Cup, with the men's team once again absent from the finals.\n\nThe side may not have not qualified for the World Cup since 1998 but some members of the Tartan Army have still made the trip to Qatar to enjoy the football.\n\nDespite logistical, financial and moral concerns, saltires and kilts have been spotted at the Fifa tournament.\n\nBrian Hendry, from Aberdeen, is at his ninth men's World Cup since 1982, but has only seen Scotland play at four of them.\n\nBrian is in Doha with a group of five friends, all in their 60s and originally from the Granite City.\n\n\"We're here just to watch football,\" he tells BBC Scotland. \"Supporting France one day, Brazil the next, Mexico the next, America a few times.\n\n\"If Scotland can't be there why not watch the best?\"\n\nBrian says he and his kilt-wearing friends have been mobbed at games by international fans who want a picture of Scotland's national dress.\n\n\"They love them,\" he says. \"It's hundreds of photos at every game. Hundreds – and it's people from all nationalities.\"\n\nBrian Hendry, second left, and his friends combined tartan with the stars and stripes at a USA game\n\nBrian, a retired theatre worker, has primarily been backing the USA due to family ties in the country.\n\nHe says: \"Scotland have been at the World Cup quite a few times but it doesn't matter if they're not.\n\n\"It makes it better if we're here but if they're not it's still great football.\"\n\nAmong those welcoming the travelling Tartan Army members is Zoe Clark, who moved to Doha from Aberdeen two years ago.\n\nShe lives there with her two sons and husband Michael, who runs Qatar's Scotland supporters club.\n\nZoe Clark, right, has flown the flag for Aberdeen and Scotland at World Cup games in Qatar\n\n\"For Scotland fans, obviously we haven't experienced a World Cup for a long, long time and it was almost within touching distance this year,\" Zoe says.\n\n\"So to see people then coming over and still being able to enjoy it has been incredible.\"\n\nDiscounted tickets have been offered to Qatar residents, with Zoe and her family taking in games featuring Senegal, Netherlands, France, Spain and other World Cup heavyweights.\n\nThey also hope to get tickets for the final at the Lusail Stadium on 18 December.\n\nHer son, Cameron, 12, was also selected as a flag bearer for Brazil's opening match against Serbia.\n\nZoe Clark's family show off their saltire at the Lusail Stadium, left, and her son Cameron (back left) among the flag bearers at Brazil's opening World Cup game\n\nYet perhaps more than any other World Cup, Qatar 2022 has been dominated by ethical concerns.\n\nHomosexual acts are illegal in Qatar, with punishments ranging from fines and imprisonment to death by stoning.\n\nAmnesty also says that since the World Cup was awarded to the country in 2010, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have faced human rights abuses while employed to build wider infrastructure necessary to host the tournament, as well as the venues.\n\nWorld Cup veteran Brian says this tournament has been \"wonderfully organised\" for fans, who have enjoyed \"brilliant\" weather and \"magnificent\" stadiums.\n\nBut he adds: \"We go to the stadiums and we think about the workers. That has to be addressed.\n\n\"Then LGBT rights. Of course we're aware of that and can support that but we've also got to remember there are teams here that don't support it.\"\n\nHe believes sporting events can help \"shine a light\" on such issues.\n\n\"They have to be handled, have to be highlighted and hopefully sport can do that, and it has to be done in the right way,\" Brian says. \"Now is the time.\"\n\nQatar 2022 chief executive Nasser al Khater has said laws on homosexuality will not change and visitors should \"respect our culture\".\n\nAhead of the tournament, both Fifa and Qatar's government hailed progress on labour reforms since the World Cup was awarded to the country in 2010.\n\n\"Few countries have come so far so quickly, and Qatar now leads the region on labour rights,\" a spokesman for the government said.", "The trailer uses black and white images of the couple's relationship\n\nA trailer for Prince Harry and Meghan's Netflix documentary has been released, offering a first glimpse at what the couple say is the inside story of why they stepped down from royal duties.\n\n\"No one sees what's happening behind closed doors,\" said Prince Harry.\n\n\"When the stakes were this high, doesn't it make more sense to hear our story from us?\" Meghan adds.\n\nThis comes against a backdrop of a royal race row about comments to a black guest at Buckingham Palace.\n\n\"I had to do everything I could to protect my family,\" Prince Harry also said in the teaser script for this 15-rated six-part series, called Harry and Meghan.\n\nThe minute-long trailer features images of the story of their relationship\n\nThere were also tearful images of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex\n\nThe trailer sets the scene with a fast-forward set of some previously unseen black and white images - from a young couple messing around to later tense and tearful images of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Netflix This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis is intercut with a picture of the Princess of Wales looking rather ferociously ahead.\n\nThe minute-long trailer for the series, directed by Liz Garbus, is set against increasingly ominous music - and the approach of the series will cause some royal anxiety.\n\nAn image of Kate is intercut with a tearful image of Meghan\n\nHarry is heard saying: \"I had to do everything I could to protect my family\"\n\nIt's not clear yet how hard-hitting the series might be and it will be followed by the prospect of further revelations in Prince Harry's memoir, due to be published in January.\n\nThere are likely to be worries within the Royal Family about the trailer cutting across Prince William and Catherine's high-profile visit to Boston in the US this week.\n\nTheir trip has already been threatened with being overshadowed by the race row at Buckingham Palace.\n\nPrince William's godmother Lady Susan Hussey stood down from her honorary duties for the Royal Family on Wednesday, after Ngozi Fulani, founder of the charity Sistah Space, described how she had been repeatedly asked where she \"really\" came from at a Buckingham Palace reception.\n\nA spokesman for Prince William had responded to the row by saying that \"racism has no place in our society\".\n\nBut the BBC's Daniela Relph, who is in Boston, says not to expect the Prince and Princess of Wales to comment on the Netflix series during their US trip. Royal sources say they want to concentrate on meeting communities and local people.\n\nPrince William and Catherine's visit to the US will end with a ceremony on Friday for their Earthshot Prize - which is awarded for innovative ideas for the environment. Harry and Meghan are not expected to attend the event.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales were presented with flowers by a boy dressed as a guardsman during their US trip\n\nThe Harry and Meghan Netflix series promises to show the \"clandestine days of their early courtship\" and will have commentary from friends and family who have not spoken before \"about what they'd witnessed\".\n\nThe behind the scenes story says it will reveal a \"picture of the world and how we treat each other\", including Prince Harry and Meghan's relationship with the media.\n\nNetflix has not confirmed the release date, although it is expected to begin next week.\n\nThe documentary series is expected to start next week", "Rebecca Contois' remains were discovered in May\n\nA Canadian man already accused of murdering one woman has been charged by police in the city of Winnipeg in connection with three more deaths.\n\nIn May, police charged the 35-year-old man with killing one victim, 24-year-old Rebecca Contois.\n\nOn Thursday, they charged him with three more counts of first-degree murder.\n\nAll of the victims are believed to be indigenous women, Winnipeg police said.\n\nPolice identified the suspect as Jeremy Skibicki of Winnipeg, who was first arrested on 18 May in connection to the murder of Ms Contois, a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation in the province of Manitoba.\n\nIn a Thursday press conference, investigators said they believe Mr Skibicki is responsible for three other deaths.\n\nPolice Chief Danny Smyth said \"it's always unsettling when there's any kind of a serial killing\", adding these homicides are particularly disturbing as \"they involve indigenous women\".\n\nMorgan Beatrice Harris, 39, was killed on or around 1 May, while Marcedes Myran, 26, was killed on or around 4 May. Both women are members of the Long Plain First Nation but lived in Winnipeg.\n\nPolice have yet to identify the fourth victim. They have appealed to the public for information and released photos of a reversible winter jacket that belonged to her.\n\nInvestigators, however, said they believe the unidentified victim is also an indigenous woman in her mid-20s.\n\nWinnipeg police released photos of a reversible jacket that belonged to an unidentified fourth woman killed earlier this year.\n\nThe bodies of Ms Harris, Ms Myran and the unidentified woman have yet to be recovered.\n\nMs Cantois' remains were discovered on 16 May in a bin on the northside of Winnipeg.\n\nCanada has a history of disproportionate violence faced by indigenous women, which was called a \"genocide\" by a national public inquiry in 2019.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls found that about 1,200 First Nations women in Canada had been murdered or gone missing between 1980 and 2012. Advocates believe the number is higher.\n\nThe country's federal statistics agency reported in 2014 that indigenous women were six times more likely to be the victim of a homicide than non-indigenous women.\n\nIn 2014, the murder of Tina Fontaine, a 15-year-old indigenous girl whose body was discovered in Winnipeg's Red River, galvanised national support for the better protection for indigenous women and girls.\n\nA man accused of killing Ms Fontaine was acquitted by a jury in 2018, and prosecutors did not appeal the case.", "China has signalled a new chapter in its Covid policy\n\nChina has signalled a shift in its Covid stance as it moves to ease some virus restrictions despite high daily case numbers.\n\nDozens of districts in Shanghai and Guangzhou, cities that have seen rising cases, were released from lockdown measures on Thursday.\n\nThe country's vice-premier also announced that the country was facing a \"new situation\".\n\nIt comes as China is seeing widespread protests against its zero-Covid policy.\n\nThe unrest was triggered by a fire in a high-rise block in the western Xinjiang region that killed 10 people last week. Many Chinese believe long-running Covid restrictions in the city contributed to the deaths, although the authorities deny this.\n\nIt led to days of protests across various cities, which have since ebbed amid a heavy police presence.\n\nRestrictions in major cities like Guangzhou were abruptly lifted on Wednesday, hours after the city saw violent protests that resulted in clashes between police and protesters.\n\nA community in the capital Beijing also allowed Covid cases with mild symptoms to isolate at home, according to a Reuters report - a far cry from protocols earlier this year which saw entire buildings and communities locked down, sometimes as a result of just one positive case.\n\nOther major cities like Shanghai and Chongqing also saw some rules relaxed.\n\nIt comes as one of China's most senior pandemic officials, vice-premier Sun Chunlan, said the virus' ability to cause disease was weakening.\n\n\"The country is facing a new situation and new tasks in epidemic prevention and control as the pathogenicity of the Omicron virus weakens, more people are vaccinated and experience in containing the virus is accumulated,\" she said, according to a Reuters report.\n\nThis comes in stark contrast to an earlier message from authorities that the country needed to maintain a strict zero-Covid policy.\n\nFormer state media editor Hu Xijin, who now offers pro-Communist Party commentary on Twitter, insisted the moves showed China was now \"speeding up to cast aside large-scale lockdowns\".\n\nFollowing the lifting of lockdown measures in many parts of Guangzhou, Lijin Hong, an associate professor at Sun Yat-sen University, said it would \"take a while for the city to recover. Yet is is awesome to see Guangzhou city again.\"\n\nChina has in recent days recorded its highest number of daily Covid cases since the pandemic began - with more than 36,000 cases recorded on Wednesday.\n\nHowever, the numbers are still tiny for a country of 1.4 billion people and officially just over 5,200 have died since the pandemic began.\n\nThat equates to three Covid deaths in every million in China, compared with 3,000 per million in the US and 2,400 per million in the UK, although direct comparisons between countries are difficult.\n\nIn China, the policy of so-called \"dynamic zero-Covid\" - taking action wherever Covid flares up in order to eliminate it - does not have a clear endpoint, and doesn't seem to have moved with the changing science and reality of the virus.\n\nPlenty of political and ideological reasons have been suggested for that.\n\nBut it's not helped by the vaccines on offer not being as effective, and take-up not being as strong as some other countries, especially among the groups who need it most.\n\nIt's also set up a vicious circle - long periods without mixing mean even once vaccinated, people are less likely to be exposed to the virus and benefit from the \"hybrid immunity\" which - studies suggest - affords the highest protection.\n\nIt's this wall of protection built up over nearly three years through natural exposure and effective vaccines that have made Covid something that most of the rest of the world is now willing to live with, without resorting to legally-enforced restrictions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Riot police in hazmat suits clash with protesters in China.", "Two men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of concealing a birth after police were called to Wildmill, Bridgend\n\nThree people have been released on bail after the bodies of two babies were found.\n\nOfficers were called to a property at Maes-y-Felin, Wildmill, Bridgend county, on the evening of 26 November.\n\nTwo men, aged 37 and 47, and a woman, 29, were arrested on suspicion of concealing the birth of a child.\n\nSouth Wales Police continue to investigate the discovery of the bodies of two babies.\n\nPolice confirmed that detectives were conducting several lines of inquiry at a number of scenes.\n\nAs well as the house in Wildmill, officers have carried out searches in other areas and confirmed that recent police activity more than 10 miles (16km) away in Ynyshir, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, was linked to the investigation.\n\nPolice say the increased presence of officers will continue in the area as inquiries go on\n\nDet Supt Darren George said: \"My thoughts remain with anyone affected by this traumatic incident.\n\n\"I am aware of the impact this incident has had on the community and would like to thank witnesses and local residents who have come forward and worked closely with us over the last few days.\n\n\"This is a complex and sensitive investigation and there has been an increased police presence in Wildmill since Saturday, this will continue over the coming days as inquiries continue.\n\n\"We know this update will impact on the local community where this incident happened and beyond, and I'd encourage anyone with concerns or worries to speak to their local Neighbourhood Policing team.\"\n\nPolice were called on Saturday after the bodies were found at a home in Maes-y-Felin in Bridgend\n\nSouth Wales Police has appealed to anyone with information to get in touch.", "Ngozi Fulani, born in the UK, was persistently asked where she was \"really\" from\n\nThe late Queen's lady-in-waiting Lady Susan Hussey has apologised and resigned after she repeatedly asked a black British charity boss where she was \"really\" from.\n\nNgozi Fulani, a charity founder, was questioned about her background at the charity event at the palace on Tuesday.\n\nMs Fulani, said she was \"totally stunned\" by Prince William's godmother's comments.\n\nThe palace described the remarks as \"unacceptable and deeply regrettable\".\n\nA spokesperson for Prince William said \"racism has no place in our society\".\n\n\"The comments were unacceptable, and it is right that the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect,\" they said.\n\nLady Hussey, 83, was a close confidante of the late Queen and accompanied her at the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh last year.\n\nShe was a key and trusted figure in the Royal Household for decades, and part of her latest role had involved helping to host occasions at Buckingham Palace.\n\nMs Fulani, in an interview with the Independent website, said the issue was \"bigger than one individual. It's institutional racism\".\n\n\"I was in shock after it happened and anybody who knows me knows I don't take this kind of nonsense,\" she said.\n\n\"But I had to consider so many things. As a black person, I found myself in this place where I wanted to say something but what happened would automatically be seen as my fault, it would bring [my charity] Sistah Space down.\n\n\"It would be 'oh, she has a chip on their shoulder'.\"\n\nMs Fulani said she did not want to see Lady Hussey \"vilified\".\n\nAn eyewitness to the conversation, Mandu Reid, told BBC News that Lady Hussey's questions had been \"offensive, racist and unwelcoming\".\n\nThe leader of the Women's Equality Party said she had felt a \"sense of incredulity\" about the exchange in which Ms Fulani was interrogated about where she was from, even though she had already explained she was born and lived in the UK.\n\nLady Hussey, 83, was part of the inner circle of royal aides for decades\n\nIn its statement, Buckingham Palace said: \"We take this incident extremely seriously and have investigated immediately to establish the full details.\n\n\"In this instance, unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments have been made. We have reached out to Ngozi Fulani on this matter, and are inviting her to discuss all elements of her experience in person if she wishes.\n\n\"In the meantime, the individual concerned would like to express her profound apologies for the hurt caused and has stepped aside from her honorary role with immediate effect.\n\n\"All members of the household are being reminded of the diversity and inclusivity policies which they are required to uphold at all times.\"\n\nMs Fulani was at the reception at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday representing the London-based charity Sistah Space, which supports women of African and Caribbean heritage across the UK who have faced domestic and sexual abuse.\n\nAlong with 300 guests, she had been invited to the event, where the Queen Consort, Camilla, had warned of a \"global pandemic of violence against women\".\n\nNgozi Fulani - pictured on the far left - was one of the campaigners attending a reception hosted by the Queen Consort\n\nBut afterwards, Ms Fulani described on Twitter how the royal aide moved her hair aside to see her name badge, and then challenged her to explain where she was from.\n\nIn the post, Ms Fulani referred to the palace aide only as \"Lady SH\".\n\nBut Ms Reid confirmed to BBC News the person who had made the remarks was Lady Susan Hussey, having seen her name badge. Neither Buckingham Palace nor the charity named her.\n\nBBC News has approached Lady Hussey for comment through Buckingham Palace.\n\nHere is the full conversation, as recounted by Ms Fulani:\n\nLady SH: Where are you from?\n\nSH: No, where do you come from?\n\nMe: We're based in Hackney.\n\nSH: No, what part of Africa are you from?\n\nMe: I don't know, they didn't leave any records.\n\nSH: Well, you must know where you're from, I spent time in France. Where are you from?\n\nSH: No, but what nationality are you?\n\nMe: I am born here and am British.\n\nSH: No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?\n\nMe: 'My people', lady, what is this?\n\nSH: Oh I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you're from. When did you first come here?\n\nMe: Lady! I am a British national, my parents came here in the 50s when...\n\nSH: Oh, I knew we'd get there in the end, you're Caribbean!\n\nMe: No lady, I am of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.", "San Francisco's ruling Board of Supervisors has voted to let the city's police use robots that can kill.\n\nThe measure permits police to deploy robots equipped with explosives in extreme circumstances.\n\nDr Catherine Connolly, from the group Stop Killer Robots, said the move was a \"slippery slope\" that could distance humans from killing.\n\nThe city's police - the SFPD - told the BBC they do not currently operate any robots equipped with lethal force.\n\nThey said though that there may be future scenarios in which lethal force could be used by a robot.\n\nA spokesperson for the police said \"robots could potentially be equipped with explosive charges to breach fortified structures containing violent, armed, or dangerous subjects\".\n\nThey also said robots could be used to \"incapacitate, or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspects who pose a risk of loss of life\".\n\nAdvocates for the measure said it would only be used in extreme situations.\n\nOpponents, however, say the authority could lead to further militarisation of the police force.\n\nThe measure passed, with an amendment on Tuesday specifying that officers could only use robots wielding deadly force after employing alternative de-escalation tactics.\n\nThe board also stipulated that only a limited number of high-ranking officers could authorise its use.\n\nThis type of lethal robot is already in use in other parts of the United States.\n\nIn 2016, police in Dallas, Texas, used a robot armed with C-4 explosive to kill a sniper who had killed two officers and injured several more.\n\nThe SFPD said the department does not currently own any robots outfitted with lethal force, but said the measure might be needed in the future.\n\n\"No policy can anticipate every conceivable situation or exceptional circumstance which officers may face. The SFPD must be prepared, and have the ability, to respond proportionally,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nThe federal government has long dispensed military grade equipment, camouflage uniforms, bayonets and armoured vehicles to help local law enforcement.\n\nBut a California state law passed this year now requires city police forces to inventory military-grade equipment and seek approval for their use.\n\nDr Catherine Connolly, from the campaign group Stop Killer Robots, said the move could \"make humans more and more distant from the use of force and the consequences of the use of force\".\n\nShe also said the measure could make it \"easier to make decisions to use lethal force in the first place\".", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nIt was 3.18am in Melbourne when Mathew Leckie slotted past Kasper Schmeichel - and those who had stayed up went wild.\n\nFlares lit up the darkness in Fed Square, and suddenly you could forget that football - or soccer - is, at best, the fifth most popular sport in Australia.\n\nLeckie's goal meant Australia stunned Euro 2020 semi-finalists Denmark 1-0 in Qatar to reach the knockout stage of the World Cup for the first time since 2006.\n\nWhile that Socceroos side was filled with generational Australian talent playing for top European clubs, far less was expected of this squad comprised of domestic A-League regulars, along with players from the Scottish Premiership and English Football League.\n\nThe one solid link between 2006 and 2022 is the manager, Graham Arnold. He was assistant to Guus Hiddink 16 years ago, when Australia were only stopped by eventual champions Italy via a 95th-minute penalty.\n\nArnold told BBC Two after the final whistle: \"I'm so proud of the effort. There was a short turnaround but their effort was incredible.\n\n\"These boys come in with a great mindset. We've been working on this for the last four years about the belief, the energy and the focus. I could see in their eyes, they were ready tonight.\"\n\nIt is quite the turnaround for Arnold, after an unimpressive qualification campaign in which they scraped through an inter-confederation play-off against Peru on penalties to secure their spot in World Cup Group D alongside world champions France, as well as Denmark and Tunisia.\n• None Mexico despair but Poland joy on 'crazy day of football'\n• None 'This was the night the real Argentina stood up'\n\nStill questions surrounded Arnold, however the idiosyncratic Aussie has never lacked in self-belief and has now guided his country into the last 16 - not that he will be allowing any of his players to enjoy it yet.\n\n\"No celebrations!\" he said. \"That's why we won after a great win against Tunisia. No celebrations, no emotion, sleep, and no social media.\"\n\nThis message had not quite filtered through to Australia match-winner Leckie when he spoke to BBC Two straight after the game.\n\nHe said: \"I'm proud, exhausted, everything. Hard to describe the emotions right now. We always believed as a group we could do it.\n\n\"We had our doubters but with our spirit, our belief, our work ethic and how close we are as a group, it shows on the pitch. That last 15-20 minutes, we battled until the end and it didn't matter what they threw at us. We weren't conceding.\n\n\"We'll make the most of it tonight but then it's all about recovery because we've got another coming up.\"\n\nThe doubters will have looked at the make-up of this Australia team, which on paper has none of the star power of 16 years ago.\n\nGermany 2006 saw an Australian team featuring Liverpool's Harry Kewell, captained by Mark Viduka and with Mark Schwarzer in goal, both of who had just played in the Uefa Cup final for Middlesbrough. Tim Cahill, at 26, was in his prime.\n\nThe Australian team at Qatar 2022 has no Premier League footballers, and eight from the comparatively less well-regarded A-League compared to three domestic-based players in 2006.\n\nThere is more a sense of a new generation coming through for Australia. Arnold has nine players under 25 in his squad, compared to three in 2006.\n\nBut on Wednesday in Qatar, it was the experienced names who stood up to be counted. Leckie, 31, scored his 14th international goal - six more than the next highest.\n\nFormer Brighton and Arsenal goalkeeper Ryan won his 76th cap against Australia, the most in the squad. The captain made a fine save from Mathias Jensen in the first half, and he calmed nerves late on in the second, scrambling to clear a ball behind with his feet after a 94th-minute defensive mix-up.\n\nThe star of the show, however, was Stoke defender Harry Souttar. With him, Australia kept a second consecutive World Cup clean sheet, having had only one in 17 finals matches previously.\n\nHe made nine clearances - more than double any other Australian player - and won 13 of 17 duels, seven on the ground and six in the air. No wonder a sign in the crowd demanded he win the next Ballon d'Or.\n\nIt all came after Australia, for two-and-a-half minutes, looked to be heading out of the World Cup. That was the period of time between Wahbi Khazri giving Tunisia a shock lead against France, and Leckie finding the back of the Danish net.\n\nTunisia's win meant Australia needed to do the same, and an as-it-stands table was displayed in the Al Janu Stadium after Khari's goal showing both Australia and Denmark as eliminated.\n\nWhether or not it solely inspired Australia into life can be debated - but Leckie produced the game's only real moment of magic to send his country through.\n\nAnother sign in the crowd asked Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to authorise a public holiday if the team won. Either way, it should be expected not many of those in Fed Square at 3.18am made it into work.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "David says his grocery bill has shot up\n\nDavid McGinley and his wife Ashlie are both working, but the rising cost of living means they are struggling financially.\n\n\"It angers me,\" says Mr McGinley, from Bamber Bridge, Lancashire. \"We feel like we are doing the right thing but are being punished.\"\n\nHe says the family are in emergency credit on the electricity meter \"every other day\", their grocery bill has risen by 50%, and sometimes a meal is beans on toast. That is adding to the pressure of existing debts.\n\n\"Once you start falling behind, you are chasing a never-ending debt,\" he says.\n\nPeople like Mr McGinley are slipping further into debt to pay for basics like rent and bills, Citizens Advice has warned.\n\nHalf of the charity's debt assessment clients have a negative budget - meaning they are left in the red after paying for essentials. This is up from 36% in early 2019, it says.\n\nGroups who rarely asked the charity for help, like homeowners and pensioners, are now seeking debt advice.\n\nThe soaring cost of living seems to be changing the nature of problem debt. Whereas once ballooning credit card bills were the norm, now more and more people face long-term financial issues because they do not have enough for the basics such as heating, food and council tax bills.\n\nDame Clare Moriarty, chief executive of Citizens Advice, says: \"With costs skyrocketing, we are seeing people who are saddled with debt sinking further into hardship. More people are seeking debt support who have never had to turn to us before - like homeowners who are living in one room to save on heating costs.\n\n\"This alarming trend is creating a ticking time bomb. Every day our advisers hear from people left with less than zero each month, unable to repay debts and slipping further into the red to afford the basics.\"\n\nCitizens Advice carries out debt assessments for people seeking help from the charity. Data from these cases shows that the amounts people owe are less than the past, but an increasing proportion are in the red after covering their basic outgoings, known as a negative budget.\n\nGroups already in debt - primarily renters, single parents and the self-employed - are now less likely to be able to pay that off.\n\nAs a whole, those going through debt assessments typically have 1p left at the end of the month after essential spending, reflecting the impact of rising prices and bills.\n\nThat may cause extra issues at this time of year. Mr McGinley says he is \"feeling guilty\" about Christmas.\n\nThe government has stepped in to help millions of people like him on universal credit and other benefits with a huge package of cost-of-living payments, as well as a cap on energy bills.\n\nThese payments will be repeated and, in some cases, extended next year, although the cap will become less generous.\n\nDebt charity StepChange says the support has been reflected in a fall in the proportion of new clients who had gas and electricity bill arrears.\n\nIt says soaring prices meant next year is \"looking precarious for millions of households\".\n\nStepChange says a fifth of new clients are still citing the cost of living as their main reason for debt, and seven in 10 of them are women.\n\nCredit report company Clearscore says that its data suggests use of overdrafts has increased by 7.1% since August 2021, as people dip into this debt to pay for everyday costs.\n\nMeanwhile, charity National Energy Action estimates that the number of UK households in fuel poverty will increase from 4.5 million last October to 8.4 million in April.", "Brexit added £210 to the average household food bill in the two years to the end of 2021, new research suggests.\n\nAcademics at the London School of Economics (LSE) found that the cost of food imported from Europe went up because of extra red tape and checks.\n\nThey said that rule changes for items going across the border had pushed food prices up by 6%, or £5.84bn overall.\n\nA government spokesperson said that it was cutting costs and reducing red tape for firms.\n\nThe research noted that UK food producers had faced reduced competition since Brexit.\n\nResearchers at the LSE's Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) looked at data tracking the flow of trade and prices of food products between the UK and the European Union (EU) to work out how shoppers were being affected by the UK's exit.\n\nIt also found that price rises hit poorest households hardest because they spend more of their pay packets on food.\n\nHow is the rising cost of living affecting you? What questions do you have about the increase in food prices? Get in touch.\n\nTheir calculations sought to isolate the effects of Brexit and separate them out from other supply chain issues that caused disruption during the pandemic.\n\nThe research found the increase in food prices was due to a rise in \"non-tariff barriers\" to trade between the UK and the EU, which included things like new customs checks at the borders, new paperwork requirements and broader measures affecting the movement of animals and plants.\n\nAlthough the extra checks didn't come into force until 2021, one of the co-authors of the research, Nikhil Datta, said it was likely firms made \"anticipatory\" changes around the \"hard Brexit\" pursued by former prime minister, Boris Johnson.\n\nMr Datta added that these non-tariff barriers should be a \"first-order concern\" for politicians and policymakers.\n\nThe paper also looked at the cost of setting up for new systems, such as hiring specialist staff to be able to manage the trade in products that are subject to more checks.\n\nThe CEP suggested that between 50% and 88% of price rises seen by these EU exporters and UK importers were being passed on to customers.\n\nInflation, which tracks how prices rise over time, has hit its highest rate in 40 years.\n\nRichard Davies, a professor at the University of Bristol and co-author of the study, said: \"Many factors, affecting both supply and demand for goods and services, are involved. One factor in this high inflation has been the rise in non-tariff barriers for trade with the EU.\n\n\"In leaving the EU, the UK swapped a deep trade relationship with few impediments to trade for one where a wide range of checks, forms and steps are required before goods can cross the border,\" he added.\n\nThe report said that immediately after the December 2019 general election, food prices from the EU spiked as businesses reliant on products and ingredients from the bloc started to pass costs on.\n\nThe price rises varied according to the type of product, but was generally higher for those products like meat with lots of extra paperwork and checks required, whereas those for vegetables like onions, carrots and broccoli, which might also depend on seasonal availability, was lower.\n\nThe report said overall that less well-off households had seen bigger price rises as a result, due to the fact they spend a higher proportion of their income.\n\nIt suggested that one benefit seen from Brexit was that food producers in the UK now faced less competition from farmers and producers in Europe.\n\nBut it added that overall the gain seen was outstripped by the losses seen by shoppers by more than £1bn.\n\nA spokesman for the Department for International Trade said: \"We recognise that people are struggling with rising prices due to global inflationary pressures here in the UK, EU and across the world.\"\n\nHe added that the government is \"protecting millions of the most vulnerable families\" through the energy price guarantee aimed at keeping bills down, as well as specific support for lower-income and pensioner households.\n\n\"Our trade agreement with the EU is the world's largest zero-tariff, zero-quota deal, and by also removing tariffs on £30bn of goods, we are cutting costs and reducing red tape,\" he added.", "An independent investigation will be launched into the treatment of a five-year-old boy who died after being sent home from hospital.\n\nYusuf Mahmud Nazir's uncle said he had \"begged\" staff at Rotherham Hospital to treat Yusuf's severe throat infection.\n\nHe said he was told the children's ward had \"not got the doctors\" and \"not got the beds\". Yusuf died on 23 November.\n\nHospital chief executive Dr Richard Jenkins said investigators from outside South Yorkshire would review his care.\n\nIn a letter to Sarah Champion MP, who represents the family's constituency in Rotherham, Dr Jenkins said he was working with NHS England to \"identify appropriate independent investigators\".\n\nHe said: \"It is vital that a thorough and independently conducted investigation takes place as soon as possible so the family can have answers to their concerns and we can identify where changes need to be made.\"\n\nHe said the family would be involved in deciding the terms of reference for the investigation.\n\nDr Jenkins said he spoke to Yusuf's uncle Zaheer Ahmed to \"directly express my condolences and to apologise to the family\".\n\nRotherham NHS Hospital Trust previously said it would carry out an internal investigation into Yusuf's treatment.\n\nSarah Champion MP said the investigation should be \"robust and independent\"\n\nMs Champion said: \"I'm so relieved that the wants and needs of the family have been listened to and we are going to get this independent inquiry.\n\n\"Independent is the key bit. It has to be really robust and independent.\"\n\nShe said the investigation was important because it could help prevent a similar tragedy in future.\n\nYusuf's uncle Zaheer Ahmed said the family wanted answers from the hospital and the government\n\nMr Ahmed said Yusuf fell ill with a sore throat on 13 November. The following day he went to his GP and was prescribed antibiotics.\n\nWhen the boy's condition worsened he was taken to Rotherham Hospital but was not admitted.\n\nOn Friday, 18 November, Yusuf was unable to speak, eat or drink so was taken by ambulance to Sheffield Children's Hospital.\n\nHe was given intravenous antibiotics. However, his condition deteriorated and he died on Wednesday 23 November.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Stephen Flynn has been MP for Aberdeen South since 2019\n\nAn SNP MP has denied reports that he was set to challenge Ian Blackford to become the party's Westminster leader.\n\nStephen Flynn said he had \"no intention of standing\" for the role, following newspaper reports that he had advised senior party figures of the move.\n\nThe Aberdeen South MP was said to have been \"on manoeuvres\" by SNP colleagues.\n\nMr Blackford has made clear he intends to stand for re-election at the SNP Westminster group's annual general meeting in December.\n\nIn March, Mr Blackford denied rumours he was considering resigning from the post amid further reports of infighting.\n\nThere have been a series of stories surrounding the Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP's position during 2022.\n\nIn March, the Politico website said the MP was considering his position due to a \"weeks-long row\" over statements he had made about pensions in an independent Scotland.\n\nBut Mr Blackford insisted there was \"nothing in it\", adding: \"I have a good team, a strong team, we are getting on with the job.\"\n\nThere was a further row in June over the handling of complaints against Glasgow MP Patrick Grady, who was suspended from parliament for two days after he was found to have made a sexual advance to a teenage staffer.\n\nMr Blackford was recorded during a subsequent group meeting urging members to \"give as much support as possible\" to Mr Grady - something he later apologised for, with the party launching an external review of its complaints system.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Stephen Flynn MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Times reported on Wednesday that Mr Flynn was lining up a challenge to Mr Blackford's position, and that he had informed senior party figures of the move.\n\nThe newspaper said supporters of the Aberdeen South MP believed they had the numbers to win a vote against Mr Blackford at the group's AGM in December.\n\nBut Mr Flynn dismissed the story, tweeting that he had \"no intention\" of standing.\n\nAnd Mr Blackford, who appeared on the BBC's Question Time programme later that evening, has made it clear he intends to stay in post and will put himself forward for re-election.\n\nThere have been rumblings of a leadership challenge within the SNP Westminster group for some time.\n\nPart of that is due to some disquiet about Mr Blackford's performance, most recently over the handling of harassment complaints against Patrick Grady. Another part is that there are a few ambitious characters in the group, eager to supplant him at the top.\n\nBut perhaps the main catalyst for this kind of bickering is that the group doesn't have much else to focus its energies on. In one MP's words, the rows are a symptom of \"people with the luxury of too much time on their hands\".\n\nUnlike colleagues at Holyrood, the SNP are not in government at Westminster. And unlike the official Labour opposition, they do not aspire to be in charge of the House of Commons.\n\nWithout an active independence campaign on the go, MPs spend less time talking about the core issue that binds them together, and more time scratching around for things to argue about.\n\nMr Blackford and the rest of the party leadership will obviously be hoping that next week's Supreme Court ruling will move the constitutional debate along - both in their quest for independence, but also for party unity.", "Lady Susan Hussey, who has stepped down from her role as a senior palace aide, was a key and trusted figure in the British royal household for decades.\n\nThe 83-year-old is godmother to Prince William, the Prince of Wales, and was one of Queen Elizabeth II's closest confidantes.\n\nShe was her longest-serving lady-in-waiting - with the title Woman of the Bedchamber - having first been recruited in 1960. Lady Hussey was also portrayed briefly in the current season of popular Netflix series, The Crown.\n\nSusan Katharine Hussey, Baroness Hussey of North Bradley, was born in 1939, the fifth and youngest daughter of the 12th Earl Waldegrave and Mary Hermione, Countess Waldegrave.\n\nShe is the sister of former Conservative cabinet minister, William Waldegrave, and her late husband, Marmaduke Hussey, was a former chairman of the BBC.\n\nShe has two children - one of whom, daughter Katharine, followed her mother into royal service, and serves as an official companion to Camilla, the Queen Consort.\n\nLady Susan Hussey gathers bouquets during a walkabout with the Queen on her Jubilee Tour, 2002\n\nLady Hussey started working for the Royal Family in the same year the Queen gave birth to her third child, Prince Andrew.\n\nAt first her role was to help answer letters, eventually becoming part of a close-knit inner circle of ladies-in-waiting with unrivalled knowledge of the workings of the palace.\n\nAs a courtier she was often charged with helping new arrivals adjust to the ways of the Royal Household - these included Meghan Markle and Princess Diana. According to author Christopher Wilson writing in his book The Windsor Knot, Diana had taken a \"personal dislike\" to Lady Susan.\n\nThe role of lady-in-waiting was typically given to wealthy aristocrats who were not paid a salary but becoming Woman of the Bedchamber was considered an extremely prestigious role.\n\nLady Susan was promoted to Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in the 2013 Birthday Honours, and also received several long service awards for her faithful service to the Queen.\n\nLady Susan Hussey (far right) accompanying the Queen and Prince Philip at the State Opening of Parliament, 2004\n\nShe sat alongside the Queen in the royal Bentley on the journey to the funeral of Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh, in 2021, and led members of the royal household at her funeral at Westminster Abbey in September of the following year.\n\nBuckingham Palace announced last week that Lady Hussey and the other former ladies-in-waiting who assist the Queen would help King Charles III to host events and would be known as \"ladies of the household\".\n\nShe resigned that role, and apologised, after she repeatedly asked a black British charity boss where she was from at a palace event for campaigners against sexual violence against women.", "Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said meeting Ukrainian refugees in Poland was \"deeply moving\"\n\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury has praised the \"extraordinary courage\" of the Ukrainian people, on a visit to the capital Kyiv.\n\nThe Most Reverend Justin Welby said the visit was about \"showing solidarity\" as Ukraine faces a \"humanitarian catastrophe\".\n\nAcross Ukraine, missile and drone strikes have left millions without electricity, heating or water.\n\nUkrainian and Western leaders have condemned the strikes as war crimes.\n\nBefore going to Kyiv, Mr Welby met Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, Poland, which he said was \"deeply moving\".\n\nIn a speech on Wednesday, the first day of his three-day visit, the Archbishop praised Ukrainians for their \"extraordinary courage in the face of Russia's illegal, unjust and brutal invasion.\"\n\nSpeaking about meeting Ukrainian refugees, he said: \"In this season of Advent, we remember that Jesus was born into conflict and persecution - and became a refugee when his parents fled violence and persecution to seek safety in Egypt.\"\n\nHe added: \"I urge Christians in the Church of England and around the world to keep praying for the people of Ukraine in this Advent season - along with all people caught up in conflicts around the world - and offering our solidarity and support in every way we can.\"\n\nHe is being accompanied on the visit by the Anglican Bishop of Europe, the Rt Revd Dr Robert Innes.\n\nThe Church of England's most senior cleric said the country needs \"active external support\" ahead of a tough winter.\n\nHe cited the need for the most basics things: \"heat, warmth and shelter,\" whilst saying they will also need moral support.\n\nThe Archbishop said the effects of war will be felt in Ukraine for some time\n\nWhile in the Ukrainian capital, the pair will also meet members of Christ Church Kyiv, the Church of England church in Kyiv.\n\nBishop Robert added: \"I am very grateful to have this opportunity to travel to Ukraine to show my personal support for our brothers and sisters in Christ here at this difficult and painful time.\n\n\"Archbishop Justin and I are here to show solidarity with all the churches in Ukraine as we continue to pray for a peaceful and just end to the war.\"", "Rishi Sunak spoke with police chiefs to discuss their tactics dealing with protest groups like Just Stop Oil\n\nRishi Sunak has said it is \"completely unacceptable\" that people were having their lives disrupted by a \"selfish minority\" who join illegal protests.\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman has met with police chief constables to discuss tactics used by some environmental protest groups, such as Just Stop Oil.\n\nThe prime minister said: \"My view is that those who break the law should feel the full force of it.\"\n\nSpeaking after the meeting at No 10 he said the police had his support.\n\nMs Braverman and policing minister Chris Philp met with police chiefs on Thursday and were joined by Mr Sunak at the start.\n\nThe prime minister said the police were already being given new powers to clamp down on illegal protests and would have his full support in acting decisively to end \"the misery and disruption\" caused to ordinary families.\n\n\"I've said to them [the police] whatever they need from government they will have in terms of new powers, we're already giving them some, and I want to back them to use them.\"\n\nFollowing the talks in Downing Street, police chiefs described the meeting as \"constructive\".\n\nChief Constable BJ Harrington said the police were \"not anti-protest, but we are anti-crime\".\n\nA statement said: \"Police are committed to responding quickly and effectively to activists who deliberately disrupt people's lives through dangerous, reckless, and criminal acts.\"\n\nHe said the meeting showed a commitment to tackling criminal activism while respecting lawful protest.\n\nEarlier Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said Just Stop Oil protesters were being \"much less assertive\" because their suspected leaders are in custody.\n\nHe suggested that efforts by officers were having an effect, but admitted some criminal trials might not take place for two years amid delays in the criminal justice system.\n\nSpeaking at the London Assembly, Sir Mark said he was \"absolutely determined\" that anything that goes beyond lawful, reasonable protest would be \"dealt with robustly\".\n\nEarlier this week, Jan Goodey - a Just Stop Oil protester - who took part in a protest which saw \"mile after mile\" of tailbacks on the M25 after climbing up a gantry was jailed for six months. He admitted causing a public nuisance.\n\nThe 57-year-old had been part of a demonstration which forced authorities to close sections of one of the UK's biggest motorways on 7 November.", "A damning report from a panel of legal experts into accusations that President Cyril Ramaphosa covered up the theft of $4m (£3.3m) in cash from his farm in 2020 has raised uncomfortable questions for South Africa's leader.\n\nThe panel - headed by a former chief justice - described some of his explanations as \"improbable\".\n\nMr Ramaphosa has a case to answer, not just to parliament but to all South Africans, critics say.\n\nJudging by the fervent reaction from opposition parties, some of whom are calling for him to step down immediately, this scandal has the potential to cost him his job.\n\nIn a 138-page submission made to the panel, President Ramaphosa denied that there was anything untoward about the money stolen on his private farm, saying it was from the proceeds of buffalo sold for $580,000 in cash to a Sudanese national, Mustafa Mohamed Ibrahim Hazim, in late 2019.\n\nHowever, Mr Hazim has not appeared in public and little is known about him.\n\nThe panel questioned why the invoice presented to them didn't contain any details that would make him identifiable. There was only his name, no business address or ID number.\n\n\"I respectfully submit that all of the 'charges' I have been called to answer are without any merit,\" Mr Ramaphosa wrote, adding that many of the allegations were based on \"hearsay\". He requested that the matter not be taken any further.\n\nBut it has not gone away and there is pressure on the president to resign or face impeachment proceedings.\n\nIt is it hard to miss the irony of the claims and the quagmire the president finds himself in.\n\nThis is after all the man whose political image and rise to the presidency was built on fighting corruption, which dogged both the governing African National Congress (ANC) and the country as a whole under his predecessor President Jacob Zuma.\n\nWhat then is to be made of Mr Ramphosa's handling of \"Farmgate\"?\n\nHis party is feverishly debating how the president should handle the report, party sources have told the BBC.\n\nWhile some want him to adopt a wait-and-see approach, others, presumably from an opposing ANC faction, want him gone to prevent further damage to the party, they say.\n\nSome ANC members have been calling for Mr Ramaphosa to resign for months\n\nOfficially, the president's office has said he will address the report once he has finished studying it.\n\nMr Ramaphosa enjoyed some grace when he assumed power not only from the public but business and civil society - even local media in some ways.\n\nHe made grand promises of a new dawn for South Africa under his leadership and implored citizens to believe that he could turn things around, that the days of corruption scandals would be a thing of the past. But that grace is now lost.\n\nThe country's main opposition says that based on this report, the president has been found wanting.\n\nThe Democratic Alliance announced that it will use parliament's sitting next week to put forward a motion calling for early elections - saying the damning allegations against Mr Ramaphosa show that the ANC must be removed from power.\n\n\"The report is clear and unambiguous. President Ramaphosa most likely did breach a number of Constitutional provisions and has a case to answer. Impeachment proceedings into his conduct must go ahead, and he will have to offer far better, more comprehensive explanations than we have been given so far,\" the party said in a statement.\n\nThe report - made up of three volumes - raises questions around Mr Ramaphosa's written submission:\n\nIn Mr Ramaphosa's explanation, a lodge manager at the farm first stored the money in a safe, but later moved it to a sofa in a spare bedroom \"inside my private residence, because he thought it was the safest place, as he believed nobody would break into the president's house\".\n\nThe panel believed that explanation needs further scrutiny.\n\nThe judges' scope was limited to recommending that parliament take action.\n\nIf MPs decide that an impeachment committee should investigate further and they find the president guilty of serious misconduct, that would set in motion the process for an impeachment vote.\n\nUltimately it will come down to a vote - the motion to impeach needs a two-thirds majority in parliament to pass.\n\nWhile the ANC has the numbers to prevent that from happening, the party is also hugely divided. Those against him may see this as an opportunity to vote with opposition parties to remove him.\n\nWe are some way from such a vote but in the court of public opinion what has already been established has been damaging.\n\nLocal radio stations and social media have been abuzz with mixed views from South Africans - some believe he's being targeted by his political foes, while others have expressed disappointment and want him gone.\n\n\"This is very bad for the ANC,\" political analyst Oscar Van Heerden told Newzroom Afrika.\n\n\"No organisation wants a leader who is being questioned in this manner. The ANC has to think about political considerations. Is it in our best interest to get rid of our leader at this time? The ANC has to make a call that will stand them in good stead for the 2024 elections.\"\n\nAt best this debacle puts Mr Ramphosa's moral standing into question. At worst it suggests an abuse of power and perhaps the constitution - the same constitution he helped draft in the early 1990s.\n\nHis party, which has defended its leaders through many a scandal in the past, is only compelled to sack him if he is the subject of criminal charges - and he is not.\n\nStill, these developments, ahead of an ANC conference this month, where Mr Ramaphosa had seemed to be a shoe-in to be re-elected as party leader, have placed the veteran politician and game farmer in a rather precarious situation.", "Up to half of all hospitals beds in England could be occupied by patients with respiratory infections, including Covid and flu, NHS England says.\n\nThe warning came as NHS bosses set out further details of its plans to help the health service cope this winter.\n\nThis includes rapid response teams to help people who have fallen at home and \"data war rooms\" to monitor pressures.\n\nThe return of normal winter viruses along with Covid will place huge strain on hospitals, NHS England said.\n\nIt said the modelling, which has not been published, was very much a worst-case scenario - even during the peak of the pandemic, Covid did not lead to such high levels of beds being occupied.\n\nBut NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said it was important to be prepared.\n\n\"Winter comes hot on the heels of an extremely busy summer - and with the combined impact of flu, Covid and record NHS staff vacancies - in many ways, we are facing more than the threat of a 'twindemic' this year,\" she said.\n\n\"So it is right that we prepare as much as possible - the NHS is going further than it ever has before in anticipation of a busy winter.\"\n\nShe said every local area would have a data-driven war room where clinicians could monitor pressures at individual hospitals in real-time so that ambulances could be diverted to the sites with greatest capacity to treat patients.\n\nShe said it was also important for everything to be done to keep patients out of hospital.\n\nThe use of rapid response teams to treat patients who have fallen at home is one solution that is being increasingly adopted.\n\nAreas such as London and Hull have set up systems whereby teams including non-paramedics such as firefighters attend to patients who have fallen but are not deemed to be an emergency.\n\nIt has allowed quick support to be provided and reduced the numbers being taken to hospital.\n\nAnother scheme being rolled out is dedicated care hubs to support care homes to reduce unnecessary admissions.\n\nThese projects are being partly supported by the extra £500m the government has provided for the NHS this winter.\n\nIt comes on top of the NHS winter plan published in the summer which will see an extra 5,000 beds opened, bringing the total to close to 100,000 as well as 2,500 \"virtual ward spaces\" with patients monitored at home.", "South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is facing a possible impeachment threat over the \"Farmgate\" scandal.\n\nThe president has been accused of covering up a $4m (£3.3m) theft from his farm in 2020, including kidnapping and bribing the burglars into silence.\n\nA three-volume report from an independent panel has found that Mr Ramaphosa abused his position and may have broken an anti-corruption law.\n\nHe has denied wrongdoing, and said just $580,000 of cash was stolen.\n\nHe said the money was from selling buffalo.\n\nThe panel's findings have been handed to parliament, which is set to examine them and decide whether or not to launch impeachment proceedings next week.\n\nThe report has led to calls for him to resign.\n\nMr Ramaphosa is less than a month away from a conference which will decide if he can run for a second term with his party, the African National Congress (ANC), in 2024. The incident could be particularly damaging as Mr Ramaphosa ran for office on an anti-corruption ticket.\n\nThe top body of the ANC is meeting later on Thursday and is expected to discuss the report.\n\nThe president's meeting with provincial lawmakers, planned for Thursday, has been postponed to give Mr Ramaphosa time to study the panel's findings - perhaps the first indication that the president is facing pressure to not continue with business as usual.\n\nThe report raises several uncomfortable questions for the president. Judging by the fervent reaction from opposition parties, some of whom are calling for him to step down, this has the potential to cost him his job.\n\nIn particular, the panel asks:\n\nIt's difficult to escape the irony of the claims and the quagmire the president finds himself in. This is after all the man whose political image and rise to the presidency was built on fighting corruption, which dogged the country under his predecessor President Jacob Zuma.\n\nThe panel's scope was limited to recommending that parliament act.\n\nIf MPs decide that an impeachment committee should investigate further - and they find the president guilty of serious misconduct, that would set in motion the process for an impeachment vote.\n\nWe are some way from that but in the court of public opinion what has already been established is damning.\n\nAt best it puts Mr Ramaphosa's moral standing in question, at worst it suggests an abuse of power and perhaps a violation of the constitution - the same constitution he helped draft in the early 1990s.\n\nHis party, which has defended its leaders through many a scandal in the past, is only compelled to sack him if he is the subject of criminal charges - and he is not.\n\nStill, these developments, ahead of the party's elective conference later this month, where Mr Ramaphosa had seemed a shoe-in to be re-elected, have placed the veteran politician and game farmer in a rather precarious situation.\n\nThe Farmgate scandal erupted in June, when a former South African spy boss, Arthur Fraser, filed a complaint with police accusing the president of hiding a theft of $4m in cash from his Phala Phala farm in the north-east of the country in 2020.\n\nMr Fraser, a close ally of Mr Zuma, alleged that the money could have been the proceeds of money-laundering and corruption, and accused the president of kidnapping and bribing the burglars.\n\nHolding such a large amount of money in dollars could violate foreign exchange control laws.\n\nMr Ramaphosa has confirmed a robbery, but said the amount stolen was less than that alleged, and denied attempting to cover it up.\n\nSome $580,000 which had been paid in cash for buffalo was stolen from under sofa cushions in the farmhouse, he said.\n\n\"I did not 'hunt' for the perpetrators of the theft, as alleged, nor did I give any instructions for this to take place,\" he wrote in a submission to the panel's report, according to AFP news agency.\n\n\"We think that the president has a case to answer on the origin of the foreign currency that was stolen, as well as the underlying transaction for it,\" the report said. It added: \"The president abused his position as head of state to have the matter investigated and seeking the assistance of the Namibian president to apprehend a suspect.\"\n\nNamibian President Hage Geingob has previously denied any involvement in the incident.\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Lady Susan Hussey was a senior assistant to the late Queen and at the heart of the Royal Family for decades\n\nThis began as an awkward private conversation but soon became a big public embarrassment for the Royal Family.\n\nIt is a sign of how seriously it has been taken that Buckingham Palace reacted so rapidly.\n\nWithin hours of a social media post reporting the persistent questioning of a black British charity boss about where she was \"really\" from, there was a resignation and apology.\n\nIt should have been a positive occasion, with Camilla, the Queen Consort, inviting about 300 guests to Buckingham Palace to support her campaign against domestic violence.\n\nA witness described the incident as beginning with \"chit chat\" between a guest at the reception, Ngozi Fulani, and a member of the Royal Household later identified as Lady Susan Hussey.\n\nWhat turned the conversation into such a car crash was the apparent unwillingness to accept a black woman's response that she was from Britain - with the questioning assuming she must really be from elsewhere.\n\nThere seemed to be an underlying misconception that she could not \"really\" be from the UK.\n\nAnd what makes it so toxic is that it once again raises difficult questions about the Royal Family and their ability to reflect a diverse modern Britain.\n\nIt touches raw nerves about a sense of belonging and identity. It suggests Buckingham Palace as a starchy and unwelcoming place.\n\nNgozi Fulani (left) was a guest at the Buckingham Palace reception this week\n\nThe subjects of race and racism and inclusion and diversity have become very difficult territory for the royals - particularly after suggestions by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, of prejudice within the Royal Family and Royal Household.\n\nThe timing could scarcely be worse.\n\nLady Susan Hussey is the godmother of Prince William, who has arrived in Boston, US, wanting to carve out an international role as a modern, empathetic figure, as he hands out an environmental prize.\n\nThis is his first overseas trip as Prince of Wales and he won't want it to be overshadowed by a race row. A spokesman distanced Prince William from the comments.\n\nMeanwhile, the family has been very publicly trying to send a message about supporting diversity and inclusion.\n\nThe King has talked of wanting his reign to reflect Britain as a \"community of communities\", drawing strength from diversity.\n\nThe latest appointments to the prestigious Order of Merit were mostly people from ethnic minorities.\n\nLady Hussey's role as a lady-in-waiting had itself been swept away in a modernising move by Camilla, but she had retained a less senior role as a lady of the household following the Queen's death.\n\nLady Hussey, in the back row of this family photograph taken in March 1997, wearing a green suit, was one of the late Queen's most trusted confidantes\n\nPrince Harry and Meghan's documentary series is due to be released on Netflix next week - and there will be great scrutiny of whether it reignites claims about racism within the Royal Family.\n\nOne unresolved question, raised during their interview with Oprah Winfrey, concerns the identity of the person supposed to have questioned the colour of their then unborn child.\n\nThe Sussexes are also due to collect a prize in New York next week which commends their efforts to stand up to racism.\n\nIn a recent interview, Meghan suggested there may be more to say about her experiences as a working royal.\n\n\"I think forgiveness is really important. It takes a lot more energy to not forgive,\" she told The Cut.\n\n\"But it takes a lot of effort to forgive. I've really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything.\"\n\nThe incident this week adds more urgency to the King's efforts to modernise the institution he has taken over.", "Gordon Jackson KC has denied watching football on his phone during the inquiry\n\nLawyers at the Sheku Bayoh inquiry have been reprimanded for using their mobile phones and pulling faces during evidence.\n\nLord Bracadale, who is leading the probe, also rebuked KCs for having \"lengthy\" conversations.\n\nMr Bayoh's sister had earlier accused a lawyer representing police officers of watching football at the hearing.\n\nThe inquiry in Edinburgh is looking into the circumstances of Mr Bayoh's death after he was restrained by police in May 2015.\n\nHis sister Kadi Johnson accused Gordon Jackson KC of watching football on his phone during Wednesday's proceedings.\n\nShe said the alleged behaviour had \"smacked of contempt\" for the inquiry and left the family angry and dismayed.\n\nMr Jackson denied the allegation and declined to comment further when approached by BBC Scotland.\n\nWhen evidence finished on Wednesday, Claire Mitchell KC raised the incident with the inquiry chairman, saying it sounded like \"football\". She did not say who was responsible for the interruption.\n\nOn Thursday, Lord Bracadale opened the session by addressing the behaviour of KCs.\n\nHe said he was made aware that \"a legal representative appeared to use a mobile phone for a purpose clearly unrelated to the proceedings\".\n\nThe former judge continued: \"While that was a particularly egregious example, it was not the first occasion in which the sound of mobile phones has disturbed proceedings.\n\n\"I have no difficulty with mobile phones being used silently to make communications for matters relating to the inquiry, but inappropriate use within the hearing room is both distracting and disrespectful.\"\n\nHe also raised concerns about lawyers \"engaging in lengthy conversations\" while evidence was being heard.\n\n\"This can be distracting to others in the hearing room and to those watching on YouTube,\" Lord Bracadale said.\n\nHe added: \"I have received representations to the effect that certain legal representatives have, on occasion, reacted to some of the evidence by adopting inappropriate facial expressions.\n\n\"If that has been happening, it would on any view be very disrespectful, and wholly unacceptable.\n\n\"May I remind legal representatives that these proceedings are being broadcast and watched around the world. It is therefore as surprising as it is disappointing to have to address members of the Scottish legal profession in these terms.\n\n\"I very much hope that I will not have to do so again.\"\n\nMr Jackson, who acted for Alex Salmond during his sex assault trial, was found guilty of professional misconduct in April for discussing the case on a train.\n\nHe was caught on video making comments about the former first minister and two of his accusers.\n\nA disciplinary panel decided the KC's conversation - which was leaked to a newspaper - breached a court order protecting the accusers' identities.\n\nMr Jackson apologised at the time, saying he \"deeply regrets the distress and difficulties\" caused by the footage.\n\nHe referred himself to the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission and in April 2020 announced he would quit as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates.\n\nMr Salmond was cleared of all 13 charges of sexual assault.", "The property remained sealed off on Monday\n\nPolice have been given an extra 36 hours to question three people after the bodies of two babies were found.\n\nTwo men, aged 37 and 47, and a woman, 29, were arrested on suspicion of concealing the birth of a child.\n\nPolice were called to a property in Maes-y-Felin, Wildmill, Bridgend county, on Saturday evening.\n\nA further 36-hour extension to their detention was granted at Merthyr Magistrates Court on Monday, South Wales Police said.\n\nThe force said it is awaiting the results of post mortems and forensic examinations, which took place on Monday, to determine the causes of the deaths.\n\nDetective Superintendent Darren George, from South Wales Police thanked the local community for its patience given significant police activity in the area over the past 36 hours.\n\n\"In addition, I want to remind members of the public to demonstrate responsibility when sharing information through social media and other means. Some information has been both upsetting for people connected to the incident and could compromise the investigation,\" he said.\n\nThe leader of Bridgend council, Huw David, called it \"shocking and tragic\" and appealed for people to remain calm and avoid speculation.\n\nThe council offered help and support to residents.\n\nCharmaine Gardener-Ponting, 27, who lives next to the people who have been arrested, said she had never seen babies or children next door and it had come as a \"complete shock\".\n\nCharmaine Gardener-Ponting says she had never seen the woman with a child or noticed she was pregnant\n\nShe said she and her partner had heard a knock on the door at about 22:30 GMT on Saturday from one of the many police officers who had arrived at the scene.\n\n\"They were just asking questions about if we'd seen the neighbours next door, did we know their names,\" she said.\n\n\"Questions about if we'd ever noticed she was pregnant, or any children around there, which we haven't.\n\n\"You normally know when someone next door has a baby. You can hear them crying or see them walking around.\"\n\nShe added: \"We knew something bad must have happened with the blue tape and police not leaving. But babies being found is not something that we thought would have been happening.\"\n\nA vigil is scheduled to take place at Wildmill Community Centre at 17:00 GMT on Tuesday, organised at the request of local residents by Steven Bletsoe, who is councillor for Bridgend Central and grew up in Wildmill.\n\nAnother resident, Jordan Mansell, said he noticed a police presence in the area on Sunday.\n\nPolice were called on Saturday after the bodies were found at a home\n\n\"It is a bit of a shock, a shock to everyone really,\" he said. \"You wouldn't expect it to happen on this street, would you.\"\n\nMr David said: \"Residents of Wildmill are supporting one another closely while South Wales Police carry out their ongoing investigations.\"\n\nAnother resident, Richard Davies, said: \"It's a crazy world, isn't it?\n\n\"Shocking, isn't it? I found out on the news. Everybody in the community is talking about it.\"\n\nMr Bletsoe said it was \"extremely upsetting\" and urged anyone affected by the news to contact their councillor or the council for support.\n\n\"It's important that we don't feed the speculation. We need to allow the police to carry out a full investigation so that answers can be found,\" he said.\n\n\"Social media is what it is. There is already speculation out there and we need to temper that as much as we can.\"\n\nPolice say they will maintain a \"visible presence\" in the area and want anyone with information to get in touch\n\nThe house is taped off and guarded by police officers at the front and rear. People here are shocked.\n\nThose that live in the house are not well known in the community and people did not know there were any babies in the household.\n\nOn Saturday night when the bodies of the babies were discovered, neighbours say there were many police vehicles in the street which arrived and left throughout the night.\n\nThere is a sense of disbelief here.", "Little Simz will share the best album prize with London newcomer Knucks\n\nRappers Little Simz and Knucks have been named joint winners of the best album prize at this year's Mobo Awards.\n\nIt was the first-ever tie in the 25-year history of the awards, which celebrate black music and culture.\n\nThe win was a further accolade for Simz' intensely personal Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, which won last month's Mercury Prize last month.\n\nKnucks was honoured for his jazz-rap debut, Alpha Place, named after the London estate he grew up on.\n\nJudges said \"both artists showed where British rap can go, both production-wise and lyrically\".\n\nCraig David performed a medley of his hits, including Fill Me In, Re-Rewind and When The Bassline Drops\n\nThe ceremony also saw R&B star Craig David and Chic legend Nile Rodgers win lifetime achievement awards.\n\nOn stage at London's Wembley Arena, David dedicated his award to his father, George.\n\n\"Thank you to my dad, who was part of the Windrush era,\" he said. \"He came over to this country and he experienced racism, he experienced being bullied... but he nurtured me and showed me love.\n\n\"He always said to me, 'Never dim your light'. And I love you dad for that, because that's served me so well throughout my life.\"\n\nThe star's honour came 22 years after his first Mobo win, for best newcomer, in 2000.\n\n\"I feel the same way I did back then - just really thankful,\" he told BBC News.\n\n\"But I know that the bit in between, which we call life, has been the most beautiful thing - and I would never change it for the world.\"\n\nNile Rodgers has been making hit records for more than five decades\n\nRodgers, the New York musician whose credits include Madonna's Like A Virgin, David Bowie's Let's Dance and Beyoncé's Cuff It, said he had always felt at home in London.\n\n\"The UK has always supported me and always supported my efforts when sometimes in America racism played a part in my development,\" he said. \"I always say to people, I have been swimming upstream my entire life.\"\n\nHe went on to close the show with a medley of his hits, from Chic's Le Freak to Daft Punk's Get Lucky.\n\nElsewhere at the ceremony, London rapper Central Cee made good on his 2021 best newcomer award, returning to the ceremony to pick up best male artist and video of the year, for his provocative street anthem Doja.\n\nBBC Sound of 2022 winner PinkPantheress was named best female, recognising the home-spun, sample-heavy of hits like Just For Me and Break It Off.\n\nThis year's Mobos also featured two new categories - best alternative act and best dance/electronic act - in response to calls for the awards to diversify.\n\nJungle musician Nia Archives led the campaign, posting an open letter in April saying it was \"frustrating\" that the ceremony didn't represent \"black music in all its forms\".\n\nWhen the new categories were announced, she was among the nominees - and ultimately won best dance/electronic artist.\n\n\"I weren't expecting that, I can't lie,\" said the Bradford-born musician. \"Jungle is music of black origin and I'm proud to be flying the flag for my community and my scene.\"\n\nBob Vylan became the first band to win best alternative act at the awards\n\nBest alternative act went to grime-punk duo Bob Vylan, whose gripping second album The Price Of Life is a furious polemic about wealth inequality and the cost of living crisis.\n\n\"There's a lot of anger in it, but it's righteous anger,\" singer and guitarist Bobby Vylan told BBC News. \"If you look at the news on any given day, the people of Britain should be angry with what's going on.\n\n\"We're working-class musicians. We're on the ground, we're not removed from any of the struggle. We're here at an award show but we've got to pay our rent.\"\n\nBurna Boy beat Beyoncé, Drake and Kendrick Lamar to be named best international act\n\nNigerian superstar Burna Boy claimed two prizes, winning best international and best African act; while D-Block Europe won best hip-hop.\n\nSong of the year went to dancer-turned-musician Dreya Mac for her viral smash Own Brand (Baddie).\n\nBest known for the line \"I ain't never been with a baddie\", her imminently-quotable earworm became a sensation on TiKTok last year, ultimately soundtracking more than eight million videos.\n\nKnucks' album draws on his love of jazz music and Sade\n\nKnucks, aka north London rapper Ashley Nwachukwu, went into the ceremony with the most nominations - five in total.\n\nAlthough the shared best album trophy was his only victory, the musician was happy with the result.\n\n\"It's definitely validating\" he told BBC News. \"I feel like I've been doing this for a long time, so to finally have people acknowledge all the effort I put in really feels good.\"\n\nHe described his album as \"an origin story that shows where I came from and what kind of person I am\".\n\nKane Robinson - aka rapper Kano - won best performance in a TV show for his role as drug kingpin Sully in the Netflix drama Top Boy.\n\nReflecting on how his life had changed since winning best newcomer at the 2005 Mobos, the star had some advice for his fellow musicians.\n\n\"I just want to say to all artists that have other interests - you can do what you [expletive] want.\n\n\"No boxes, no boundaries. Your artistry don't stop in one medium. If you're interested in something else, do it.\"\n\nBBC One will show highlights from the ceremony - including performances by Kojey Radical, Fireboy DML, Cat Burns and FLO - in a special programme next Wednesday, 7 December.\n\nThe full list of nominees and winners is:\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Locals gathered outside a local community centre after expressing shock at what happened\n\nAbout 100 people have gathered and lit candles at a vigil in memory of two babies found dead at a house.\n\nTwo men, aged 37 and 47, and a woman, 29, continue to be questioned by police in connection with the discovery in the Wildmill area of Bridgend.\n\nLocal people have spoken of their shock and said little was known about those who lived in the house.\n\nThe property remained cordoned off on Tuesday with a police forensics van still parked outside.\n\nAbout 100 people gathered for the vigil, some with their children\n\n\"I want to just support the community and especially the babies,\" said Tia Robbins, 21, who lives in the estate.\n\n\"It's a very close community in Wildmill.\n\n\"I think we would all like answers to what happened, mostly for the babies and what they went through. I think everyone will be emotional until we find out what's happened.\"\n\nRhiannon Thomas, who travelled about eight miles (13km) from Porthcawl for the vigil, said she came because she wanted to mourn, grieve and support the community.\n\nEarlier, floral tributes were left nearby by local residents as well as a balloon and a purple soft bunny.\n\nPolice continue to question three people in connection with the discovery\n\nLocal councillor Steve Bletsoe, who organised the vigil after being contacted by residents, said a lot of young families who live in the area were feeling very upset and distressed.\n\n\"They wanted to get together as a community to bond and go through the shared experience of the emotions that they are going through and to realise that they are not going through these feelings alone,\" he said.\n\nLocal pastors are also involved in the vigil to offer help and support to the community.", "Lava can be seen spewing into the air and flowing across the volcano's surface.\n\nIt started erupting on Sunday, for the first time since 1984.", "How the TV audience saw Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) and Iorek Byrnison, a giant talking polar bear\n\nThe compass-like \"truth telling\" alethiometer used in hit TV series His Dark Materials is among the objects going on show in a public exhibition.\n\nFans of the drama will also be able to see other props, costumes and visual effects used to bring Philip Pullman's trilogy of novels to life.\n\nThe free exhibition opens at Swansea's Glynn Vivian Art Gallery on Friday and runs until next April.\n\nThe show was filmed in studios in Cardiff and some nearby locations.\n\nThe story follows Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen), an orphan who lives in a parallel universe in which human souls live outside the body in the form of animals called dæmons.\n\nLyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) did not really ride on the back of a polar bear for the TV adaption\n\nA \"truth telling\" alethiometer is among the props being exhibited in Swansea\n\nAmong the props are the amber spyglass, from which one of Pullman's novels takes its name, and visual effects which made his otherworldly creatures move and talk.\n\nA lot of the BBC and HBO series was filmed at Wolf Studios in Cardiff creating, among other things, a frozen palace of armoured bears.\n\n\"The level of artistry that goes into every costume, set and prop on His Dark Materials is beyond anything I have seen produced before,\" said boss Jane Tranter.\n\nKaty Freer, council exhibitions officer, said costumes on display will \"tell the story of Lyra's journey and the people and worlds she encounters\"\n\n\"To have the Glynn Vivian Gallery celebrate the art, imagination and craft of His Dark Materials is an absolute honour.\n\n\"I am certain visitors will be amazed and delighted by what our teams have created in Wolf Studios Wales.\"\n\nKaty Freer, council exhibitions officer, said large set pieces from several different worlds form part of the exhibition \"showing the scale and different techniques and materials used\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. His Dark Materials: Lin-Manuel Miranda shows us behind the scenes\n\nShe said through the selection of costumes, \"we tell the story of Lyra's journey and the people and worlds she encounters along the way, as well as more intimate objects including the three 'hero props' from each series\".\n\nSwansea council cabinet member Elliott King said he was \"delighted\" the gallery could \"welcome this world-first exhibition to Swansea\".\n\n\"It celebrates Wales as a truly creative nation,\" he added.\n\nLyra (Dafne Keene) with her daemon Pantalaimon, seen here as an ermine\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Prince William and Catherine speak with a young mother during a visit to a charity in Chelsea, Massachusetts\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales have visited a charity that works with young people at risk of urban violence, as their US trip continues.\n\nThey are in America to hand out awards for their Earthshot Prize - given to innovative ideas for the environment.\n\nBut the trip risks being overshadowed by a racism row involving Prince William's godmother.\n\nLady Susan Hussey resigned after asking a black British charity boss where she was \"really\" from.\n\nPrince William's spokesperson has said \"racism has no place in our society\".\n\nThis is the royal couple's first big international appearance since the death of the Queen, and since they became the Prince and Princess of Wales.\n\nWilliam and Catherine took their first walkabout of their US trip on Thursday\n\nThe couple met royal fans and posed for photos\n\nTheir trip will culminate in a star-studded prize ceremony on Friday, in Boston - home town of former US President John F Kennedy, on whose \"Moonshot\" challenge the Earthshot Prize is based.\n\nThe prince's brother Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and Meghan are not expected to attend the awards ceremony.\n\nBut on the second day of Prince William and Catherine's trip, the trailer for Harry and Meghan's \"behind closed doors\" Netflix series was released.\n\nThe minute-long clip features previously unseen pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, including tearful images of Meghan.\n\nThe BBC's Daniela Relph, who is in Boston, says not to expect the Prince and Princess of Wales to comment on the Netflix series during their US trip. Royal sources say they want to concentrate on meeting communities and local people.\n\nPrince William and Catherine visited Greentown Labs, near Boston, which brings together start-ups and investors that are trying to create technology that will support the environment.\n\nIt is described as a community for climate pioneers, and has supported more than 500 companies since it was founded in 2011.\n\nDuring the visit, eight-year-old Henry Dynov-Teixeira, dressed as a guardsman complete with replica bearskin, handed the Princess of Wales a bunch of red roses.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe royals visited Boston Harbour with the city's mayor and Reverend Mariama White-Hammond (right)\n\nThe royals later visited Roca, a charity supporting disadvantaged young people at risk of or involved with urban violence, praising their \"incredible\" work.\n\nThe couple were introduced to Molly Baldwin, chief executive officer of Roca, who founded the organisation in 1988 to work with a small group of high-risk young people.\n\nWilliam said: \"It's trying to get the message across that there's a grey area between when you look at a young person and see a gap between the potential they have and the trouble they cause.\n\n\"As a society how do we tackle that? There is so much happens in between and there is so much potential there.\"\n\nWilliam and Catherine took their first walkabout of the trip in Chelsea, which is close to Boston, where they received an enthusiastic welcome, with one young woman collapsing in tears.\n\nLater in the day, they toured the Boston Harbour Defences with the mayor of the city, to hear about how the area is contending with rising sea levels.\n\nThe visit to Boston was carefully planned, each public engagement considered and researched.\n\nBut sometimes events, not always in your control, can just take over.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales have tried to keep the focus on the people they're meeting and the projects they're learning more about.\n\nBut it has all had to happen against the backdrop of the racism row at Buckingham Palace and then the release of the trailer for Harry and Meghan's new Netflix series that hints at revelation and torment.\n\nTheir final day in Boston will include two significant events.\n\nPrince William will meet President Biden at the JFK Library in a late addition to the schedule. The President is in Boston for a party fundraiser.\n\nThen it is the Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony - the centrepiece of the whole trip. Five projects will win £1m for their ambitious, innovative work.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales will hope the end of this trip will be more straightforward and free of the unexpected challenges of recent days.\n\nFive winners of the Earthshot Prize will be announced in Boston on Friday - each of whom will be given £1m ($1.2m) to develop their environmental projects.\n\nThe awards ceremony will be a mix of good causes and entertainment - performers include Billie Eilish, Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding and Chloe x Halle.\n\nEnvironmental campaigner Sir David Attenborough will voice the opening of the ceremony.\n\nPrince William has said the Earth is at a \"tipping point\" and the awards are intended to support innovative ways of reducing environmental damage.", "Tests of missile fragments did not show abnormal levels of radioactivity, Ukraine's military says\n\nRussia is now using nuclear-capable missiles with non-explosive warheads to exhaust Ukraine's air defences, the Ukrainian military has said.\n\nIt displayed what it said were fragments of Soviet-made X-55 cruise missiles - designed for nuclear use - found in Ukraine's two western regions.\n\nThe rockets are being launched to \"exhaust the air-defence system of our country,\" a Ukrainian official said.\n\nHe said tests on the fragments did not show abnormal levels of radioactivity.\n\nUkrainian military experts say Russia may have significantly depleted its vast missile arsenal after carrying out wave after wave of massive strikes on Ukraine's critical infrastructure in recent weeks.\n\nMoscow is now resorting to using blunt projectiles that still cause devastation, they say. A UK intelligence report in November came to similar conclusions.\n\nRussia - which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February - has made no public comments on the issue.\n\nAt a briefing on Thursday in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, military official Mykola Danyliuk showed reporters what he described as fragments of X-55 cruise missiles (known as AS-15 by Nato) found in the Lviv and Khmelnytsky regions.\n\nHe said the projectiles were designed in Soviet times to hit \"strategic targets with predetermined co-ordinates\".\n\nThe UK said the missiles were designed \"exclusively as a nuclear delivery system\".\n\nHowever, it is believed the Russian military removed the nuclear warheads from the missiles fired at Ukraine and replaced them with an inert system.\n\nMr Danyliuk stressed that even a missile armed with a non-explosive warhead \"posed a significant danger\" because of its kinetic energy and fuel residues.\n\n\"This is evidenced by the latest strike when a X-55 missile hit a residential building.\"\n\nTesting indicated \"no contact [of the missile] with nuclear elements\", he added.\n\nOn Thursday, an air alert was briefly in place across all of Ukraine - with the exception of the Russian-annexed southern Crimea peninsula - after reports that Russian war planes may be preparing to carry out a fresh wave of missile strikes. The alert was later discontinued.\n\nIn other developments on Thursday:", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Angela Rayner on Chester by-election: Rishi Sunak failed in first test as leader\n\nRishi Sunak has \"failed\" his first electoral test as Labour held Chester in a by-election with an increased vote share, Angela Rayner has said.\n\nLabour's deputy leader said voters \"have given a big message to the Conservatives that they want change\".\n\nSamantha Dixon was elected with a 10,974 majority, and a 61% vote share - Labour's best ever result in the seat.\n\nRepeating the 13.6% swing from the Tories nationally would win Labour a majority, pollster John Curtice said.\n\nCulture Secretary Michelle Donelan said that the result was \"pretty much expected\".\n\nMs Donelan argued the Conservative Party was \"focused on delivering for the British public\".\n\nLord Hayward, a Conservative peer and elections analyst, said: \"Rishi has to convince the public at large that he can manage out of this crisis, whichever crisis one's looking at - and there's a lot of them.\"\n\nMs Rayner said Chester voters had shown they \"want a Labour government\".\n\nLabour Leader Keir Starmer, called the election \"a very, very good result for the Labour Party\".\n\nSir Keir said: The Labour Party has been putting forward a positive plan for the future, how we stabilise and grow our economy.\n\n\"The government is worn out, tired and crashed the economy and the verdict was very clearly given.\"\n\nIn her victory speech, Ms Dixon said voters had delivered a message to Mr Sunak that the Conservatives \"no longer have a mandate to govern\".\n\nLabour had been expected to retain the seat, which it won in 2019 by a majority of 6,164.\n\nIn that election, the Conservatives came second, winning 38% of the vote. Labour and the Liberal Democrats secured 50% and 7% respectively.\n\nThis time around, Ms Dixon won with a 61% share, easily defeating Conservative Liz Wardlaw on a 41% turnout.\n\nVery little about this result is surprising, but that doesn't mean it's not significant.\n\nLabour held the seat and boosted their share of the vote, while support for the Conservatives dropped.\n\nSir Keir Starmer can point to this win as evidence that Labour's lead in the opinion polls is reflected in the real world.\n\nConservatives say they've been given a \"bloody nose\", as is often the case for governments mid-term, and a message from voters that they need to deliver.\n\nLabour insiders are talking up the win as a \"thumping result\", with the party's biggest ever majority in the city of Chester.\n\nBut Tories in the region, braced for defeat, say with some relief that it could've been worse.\n\nIt's always risky projecting by-election results onto the national picture - but as a snapshot, this one tells us Labour has built on its support in a seat that's been Conservative in the past and for the Tories, the electoral outlook is bleak.\n\nSir John Curtice told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"Labour are in a stronger position than they have been at any point in the last 12 years.\"\n\nThe 13.6% swing from Conservatives to Labour would be enough for Labour to form a new government, Sir John said, but \"wouldn't produce an enormous majority\" were it to be replicated in a general election.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Labour's Samantha Dixon won the city's by-election, securing more than 61% of the vote.\n\nThe contest was triggered by the resignation of previous Labour MP Christian Matheson.\n\nHe stood down after Parliament's watchdog recommended his suspension for \"serious sexual misconduct\".\n\nThe Conservatives have performed badly in recent by-elections, losing Wakefield to Labour and the historically safe Tory seat of Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats.\n\nThose defeats increased political pressure on Boris Johnson, who later resigned as prime minister.\n\nThursday's by-election was the first to take place since Mr Johnson quit and his successor Liz Truss caused market turbulence with her mini-Budget.\n\nEven though it wasn't a completely unexpected result, people from the Labour Party here in Chester are very happy with a near 11,000 majority.\n\nThis has been a Labour seat since 2015 and, out speaking to people on the streets, there were more people saying they were going to vote for them.\n\nThe Labour campaign was a lot more active too. We saw a lot of shadow ministers coming to visit - big hitters like Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves and former leader Ed Miliband.\n\nSam Dixon - a former leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council - was keen to showcase her local links.\n\nThat localness has mattered - some of the candidates told me the first question asked of them was: \"Are you from Chester?\"\n\nWith a Conservative candidate living in a neighbouring council area and minimal ministerial visits, the question can be asked: Did the Conservatives really have their heart in this one?", "Mr Trump, who plans to run for the White House again in 2024, has long fought to keep his tax records sealed\n\nDonald Trump's tax returns have been handed over to a committee of the US House of Representatives after the former president lost a long legal battle to keep them sealed.\n\nThe Treasury Department said it had complied with a Supreme Court order that the records should be given to a panel in the Democrat-controlled House.\n\nIt is not clear if the returns will be made public, or what they will reveal.\n\nMr Trump is yet to comment, but has previously denied any wrongdoing.\n\nHe declined to release the documents during his 2016 presidential run or subsequently - breaking a decades-old presidential custom.\n\nMr Trump recently announced a bid to run for the White House again in 2024, and has described the efforts to obtain his tax documents as politically motivated.\n\nVarious details about his finances have already emerged as he faces a range of investigations, including into his business dealings.\n\nAmong the revelations so far:\n\nIt is unknown whether the tax return information will yield any major new information.\n\nFollowing Wednesday's announcement from the Treasury Department, a congressional committee now has access to his returns for the years 2015-2020.\n\nIt was not disclosed whether the committee had immediately accessed the documents.\n\nThe panel in question - the Ways and Means Committee - is investigating whether presidents are being properly audited, and whether new laws are needed.\n\nHowever, it may not have long to do its work.\n\nThe House will only be controlled by the Democratic Party for a few more weeks, before Mr Trump's Republicans take over in January - after winning a slim majority in last month's midterm elections.\n\nThe committee made its first request for Mr Trump's tax documents in 2019, after the Democrats took over the House.\n\nMr Trump took legal steps to block any such release, though ultimately failed when the Supreme Court last week cleared the way for his papers to be accessed by the panel.", "Inspectors said the House of Commons lacked \"adequate daily cleaning\"\n\nThe House of Commons has been given a low hygiene rating by Westminster City Council after mouse droppings were found in 19 different places.\n\nCatering areas received a rating of two out of five, a freedom of information request sent by The Spectator revealed.\n\nThis comes after a 2014 report revealed previous issues with pests such as moths and flies.\n\nCommons staff have now been asked to not store food in their offices.\n\nCouncil inspectors found excrement in several areas including the Brasserie, the Terrace Cafeteria and the Members' Dining kitchen, when they visited last month, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.\n\nWestminster City Council's report also said there was a lack of \"adequate monitoring\" and inspectors believed \"thorough daily cleaning\" was not regularly taking place.\n\nPest issues are not new to the Houses of Parliament, as the 2014 revealed.\n\nIt found that moths, mice, rats, flies, feral pigeons and herring gulls have all been known to cause issues at Westminster.\n\nMouse droppings were found in almost 20 different locations\n\nAccording to the report, \"controlling these pests is a major undertaking\", and is conducted by a full-time pest control technician provided as part of the Houses' pest control contract and a contract for bird control.\n\nMoths are a particular concern for some of Westminster's public collections, in particular the art collection.\n\nThe report added: \"The Parliamentary Art Collection, which includes one of the largest collections of contemporary art textiles in public ownership, is also at significant risk from infestation.\n\n\"All [artworks] are irreplaceable, expensive to repair and it is more cost-effective to prevent this damage in the first place by controlling moth populations.\"\n\nBirds of prey have been used to stop smaller birds damaging stonework\n\nParliamentary staff were also worried about mice chewing through electric cables, and spreading disease.\n\nThere have also been issues with birds causing damage to the Commons' stonework in the past.\n\nTo tackle this, birds of prey have been used to scare off other birds from nesting or feeding.", "UK MP Alicia Kearns and Joseph Wu, Taiwan's minister of foreign affairs, in Taiwan\n\nChina has accused British lawmakers of \"gross interference\" in its internal affairs as a group of MPs visit Taiwan.\n\nMembers of the Foreign Affairs Committee arrived on Tuesday and have met high-level officials, including Taiwan's foreign minister, Joseph Wu.\n\nTaiwan is self-ruled - but China sees it as a breakaway province that will eventually unite with it.\n\nA controversial visit in August by senior US politician Nancy Pelosi enraged Beijing.\n\nChina responded to that visit by holding their biggest-ever military exercises in the seas around Taiwan, and also blocked some trade with the island.\n\nMrs Pelosi is the US Speaker of the House of Representatives - second in like to the presidency - and was the most senior US politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years.\n\nShe said at the time that China couldn't \"prevent world leaders or anyone from travelling to Taiwan\".\n\nOn Thursday, the Chinese embassy in the UK said the MPs' visit to the \"Taiwan region of China\" took place despite Beijing's \"firm opposition\".\n\n\"This is a flagrant violation of the one-China principle and a gross interference in China's internal affairs,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nThe statement added that any moves to undermine China's interests would be met with \"forceful responses\".\n\nThe comments follow a speech by UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, earlier this week in which he said that the so-called \"golden era\" of relations with China was over.\n\nMr Sunak said the closer economic ties of the previous decade had been \"naïve\" - but added that China's global significance could not be ignored.\n\n\"We recognise China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests, a challenge that grows more acute as it moves towards even greater authoritarianism,\" he said.\n\nThe MPs' visit is one of a number of recent incidents to cause friction in UK-Chinese relations.\n\nOn Wednesday, the Chinese ambassador to the UK was summoned to the Foreign Office over the journalist's arrest.\n\nThe Foreign Affairs Committee - which is separate from the government and made up of politicians from different parties - has held discussions with their Taiwanese counterparts over issues including security.\n\nTaiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that Mr Wu held a banquet for the UK delegation and spoke about \"increasing authoritarian threats\" as well as \"worrying issues at home and abroad\".\n\nTheir visit is part of an investigation into Britain's shifting economic and political focus towards the Indo-Pacific region, following its exit from the European Union.\n\nThe committee met Taiwan's Premier Su Tseng-chang on Thursday and is due to see President Tsai Ing-Wen on Friday.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nBelgium have been knocked out of the World Cup at the group stage as Croatia progressed at their expense with a goalless draw in Qatar.\n\nRoberto Martinez's side, who finished third in Russia four years ago and are ranked second in the world, have had a disappointing tournament with just one win and one goal in their three matches.\n\nThey produced another lacklustre display against Croatia despite knowing victory was necessary to progress to the last 16.\n\nSubstitute Romelu Lukaku had numerous chances in the second half but his failure to convert any sealed his country's fate.\n\nLukaku, searching for sharpness following injury, hit the post from in front of goal, poked an effort wide when well-placed and reacted too slowly when the ball hit him in the six-yard box in stoppage time.\n\nCroatia, finalists in 2018, got the point they needed to progress from Group F as runners-up, with Morocco taking top spot thanks to a 2-1 win against Canada.\n\nZlatko Dalic's side will face the winners of Group E - which is currently Spain - in the last 16.\n\nBelgium players fell to the turf at full-time as their supporters behind the goal politely applauded them off the pitch.\n\nLukaku, who replaced Dries Mertens at half-time, came into the game with intent and immediately brought energy and purpose to his side.\n\nBut his missed opportunities in the second half proved costly, with each one bringing an audible collective groan from the stands and the on-loan Inter Milan striker punched the dugout in frustration after the final whistle.\n\nCroatia were not especially convincing - their most threatening moment was a first-half penalty award being ruled out by VAR because of an offside infringement in the build-up - but did enough to secure progression.\n\nThey did however look a level below what they showed to reach the final in Russia four years ago and their celebrations were fairly subdued after scraping through.\n\nThis Belgium side were ranked number one in the world in February and their collection of star names have been fancied to do well in recent tournaments - but this is the latest in a list of disappointments for their supporters.\n\nOn the biggest stages, their 'golden generation' has not lived up to expectations, failing to reach a major final despite their array of talented players.\n\nBelgium, whose key players are approaching the latter stages of their careers, probed for a breakthrough at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium but even Kevin de Bruyne - captain in place of the dropped Eden Hazard - could not inspire his side.\n\nCroatia had the best chances in a poor first half as Ivan Perisic fired wide while Andrej Kramaric thought he had won a penalty following a foul by Yannick Carrasco, but the decision was cancelled by VAR for offside.\n\nLukaku's introduction had an immediate impact as he pounced on a rebound from Carrasco's shot but struck it against the inside of the post.\n\nReal Madrid midfielder Luka Modric went close when his poked effort was held by club-mate Thibaut Courtois in a rare Croatia second-half attack.\n\nBut the biggest chances fell Lukaku's way, not least in the closing minutes when he deflected a cross wide then was slow to react and allowed the ball to hit his body and fall tamely into the goalkeeper's arms from about two yards out.\n\nIt was indicative of his country's lacklustre campaign and Belgium cannot have many complaints at their failure to progress to the knockout stage.\n• None Attempt saved. Romelu Lukaku (Belgium) with an attempt from very close range is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Thorgan Hazard with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Romelu Lukaku (Belgium) left footed shot from very close range is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Thomas Meunier.\n• None Attempt missed. Thomas Meunier (Belgium) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left.\n• None Offside, Croatia. Bruno Petkovic tries a through ball, but Ivan Perisic is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jan Vertonghen (Belgium) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Thorgan Hazard with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Elon Musk's satellites are to be part of a UK trial to get high-speed internet to remote homes and companies.\n\nThe enhanced package of connectivity - operated by his Starlink technology - is part of government plans to ensure everyone can access reliable coverage.\n\nIt will test how more than 3,000 low-Earth orbit small satellites can be used to help more than a dozen \"very hard to reach\" places.\n\nThe rollout will initially be trialled at three remote locations.\n\nThey are the 12th-Century Rievaulx Abbey in North York Moors National Park, Wasdale Head in the Lake District and within Snowdonia National Park.\n\nAfter the trials, the government will consider the viability of using the technology.\n\nRecent tests have shown that in many locations, Starlink satellites can deliver internet speeds of up to 200 megabits a second - four times faster than the current UK average of just over 50Mbps, said the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.\n\nDigital Secretary Michelle Donelan said satellites could \"be the answer\" to getting isolated places connected and that it was \"crucial\" to the government's Levelling Up plan.\n\n\"These trials aim to find a solution to the prohibitively high cost of rolling out cables to far-flung locations,\" she said.\n\nBroadband signals beamed down by relatively low-flying satellites can be an effective way for remote areas to get high-speed internet access, especially when they cannot be reached by copper cables.\n\nParts of Ukraine, for example, have had free access to the Starlink service to help people there stay connected after Russia's invasion.\n\nMr Musk made the commitment to continue funding the project, despite it running at a loss.\n\n\"Even though Starlink is still losing money and other companies are getting billions of taxpayer dollars, we'll just keep funding Ukraine government for free,\" he tweeted.\n\nStarlink has been vital for Ukraine's military and people to stay online.\n\nThis is the latest announcement in the government's £5bn Project Gigabit initiative, with the ambition of getting rid of the UK's notspots - areas where there is no internet. There are still many more than you may think.\n\nSatellite broadband is a decent option where operators can't get cables or it simply isn't economically viable to install them - but it's also the most expensive for consumers.\n\nIt's not clear how much the government will be paying Starlink, but it costs about £75 per month for ordinary customers, after the £460 fee for the equipment.\n\nWhat has raised eyebrows is that it has chosen not to use OneWeb, the British satellite broadband firm in which it invested hundreds of millions of pounds just two years ago to save it from bankruptcy.\n\nThat firm is now being taken over by French company Eutelsat. The UK said it went with the technology which was \"available and ready\" to use - which does not sound like a huge vote of confidence in its own stake.", "The case against a former political adviser accused of raping a colleague inside Australia's Parliament House has been dropped.\n\nBruce Lehrmann, 27, denies sexually assaulting Brittany Higgins on a minister's sofa after a night out in 2019. He maintains no sex took place.\n\nMr Lehrmann's trial collapsed in October because of jury misconduct.\n\nThe ongoing risk to Ms Higgins's mental health means a retrial is not in the public interest, prosecutors say.\n\nNew medical advice found that a planned retrial for February posed a \"significant and unacceptable risk to the life of the complainant\", said Australian Capital Territory Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold.\n\n\"The evidence makes it clear that this is not limited to the harm of giving evidence in the witness box,\" he told reporters on Friday.\n\nMr Drumgold said this outweighed his belief there would be a reasonable prospect of securing a conviction.\n\nMs Higgins is currently in hospital to help deal with the trauma of the alleged incident and its aftermath, according to her friend Emma Webster.\n\n\"The last couple of years have been difficult and unrelenting,\" Ms Webster said in a statement.\n\n\"While it's disappointing the trial has ended this way, Brittany's health and safety must always come first. Brittany is extremely grateful for all the support she has received, particularly from our mental health care workers.\"\n\nThe jury in October's trial was discharged after 12 days of evidence and five days of deliberation, when it emerged one member had brought in academic research papers looking at false accusations in sexual assault cases.\n\nJuries are required to reach a verdict only on evidence presented in the courtroom.\n\nBefore giving her account to police in early 2021, Ms Higgins gave up her right to anonymity and went public with her claims in high-profile newspaper and television interviews.\n\nHer allegations were a catalyst for what has been called Australia's \"Me Too moment\", sparking huge protests over the safety of women, particularly in politics.\n\nIt also led to a damning review which found that a third of employees in federal parliament had been sexually harassed.\n\nMr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins had worked in the same office - for then-Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds. On 22 March 2019, they both had drinks with colleagues and others in Canberra.\n\nMs Higgins told police she had later fallen asleep on a sofa in Ms Reynolds's office and had woken to find Mr Lehrmann having sex with her.\n\nShe reported the alleged rape in the days afterwards but initially did not proceed with her complaint because she feared for her career, a jury heard.\n\nMr Lehrmann chose not to give evidence at the trial, but in a police interview said what was alleged \"simply didn't happen\".\n\nHis lawyer, Steven Whybrow, had argued parts of Ms Higgins's evidence were \"totally and utterly inconsistent\".\n\nIf you are feeling emotionally distressed and would like details of organisations in the UK which offer advice and support, go to bbc.co.uk/actionline.\n\nSamaritans provide a safe place to talk where calls are completely confidential. From UK and Ireland call 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.\n\nIf you are in Australia, you can call Lifeline on 131114.", "Special Constable Paul Hoile denies several charges in his trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court\n\nAn off-duty police officer raped a woman by the side of a road after showing his warrant card and quizzing her about her driving licence, a court has heard.\n\nMetropolitan Police officer Paul Hoile was drunk at the time of the attack in Shropshire in July, jurors heard.\n\nHe allegedly snatched the woman's phone before attacking her.\n\nThe special constable denies several charges and says sexual activity was consensual.\n\nThe 40-year-old, of The Chase, Benfleet, in Essex, has entered not guilty pleas at Wolverhampton Crown Court to misconduct in public office, three counts of oral and anal rape, and a charge of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.\n\nProsecutor Caroline Goodwin KC said the officer was staying in the Shropshire area and approached the woman with a friend.\n\nShe said Mr Hoile abused and was \"hiding behind\" his police powers in speaking to the woman as she prepared to drive away from him and his friend.\n\n\"In drink, he was acting as if he was in charge, like a police officer... questioning her about her [driving] licence,\" Ms Goodwin said.\n\n\"She asked for his warrant card and he produced it - he kept his thumb over where his name was.\"\n\nThe woman began Googling the powers of a special constable and information given to her by Mr Hoile, before he asked for her name, which she confirmed, the court heard.\n\nShe then walked away after booking a taxi, but he followed.\n\n\"He was drunk and you will hear her say she thought he was capable of anything,\" Ms Goodwin said.\n\nMr Hoile was alleged to have said the woman would be in \"more trouble\" if she hit him, before she \"did what he wanted\" despite being sick.\n\nJurors were told the woman was left \"confused, upset... emotionally distraught\".\n\n\"But in those moments after, when she thought about what had occurred, she had sufficient [wits] about her that, in spite of the deeply personal nature of these assaults, she made an immediate complaint,\" Ms Goodwin said.\n\nAfter Mr Hoile's arrest, he told officers he had consumed numerous drinks, including about five double vodkas.\n\nHe said he had engaged the woman in \"general chit chat about sex\" before she performed oral sex on him.\n\nThe trial, estimated to last a week, continues.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Mr Blackford will continue as the SNP MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber\n\nIan Blackford is to stand down as leader of the SNP group at Westminster, it has been confirmed.\n\nMr Blackford said he believed it was time for \"fresh leadership\" after five years in the role.\n\nHe said he would formally stand down at the group's annual general meeting next week.\n\nThere has been speculation in recent weeks that some SNP MPs were plotting to replace Mr Blackford as group leader.\n\nMr Blackford said he would continue in his role as the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber and had also accepted a new role at the centre of the SNP's independence campaign.\n\nAnd he insisted he had not been pressured into resigning, telling BBC Scotland: \"No, not at all. I've taken the decision\".\n\nHe added: \"The first minister has asked me to take on a role as her business ambassador. I'm absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to take on the engagement with the business community.\n\n\"In order to do that, it's right that I stand down as the SNP Westminster leader.\n\n\"I've done it for five and a half years so it's time for others to come forward and take the Westminster group through on the next part of its journey and helping the party towards independence.\"\n\nMr Blackford has become as well-known figure in the House of Commons through his weekly appearance at Prime Minister's Questions and is seen as being a close ally of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader.\n\nHe faced calls to resign from political opponents after the Daily Mail reported in June that it had obtained a recording of Mr Blackford urging fellow MPs to give \"absolute full support\" to SNP MP Patrick Grady, who was suspended for sexual misconduct.\n\nMr Grady, a former SNP chief whip, was suspended from Parliament for two days over a sexual advance towards a colleague in 2016, and also suspended from the SNP's Westminster group for a week.\n\nMs Sturgeon subsequently said that the support expressed for Mr Grady had been \"unacceptable\".\n\nThere have been reports that some SNP MPs were also unhappy at Mr Blackford's handling of the case, with Aberdeen South MP Stephen Flynn recently dismissing suggestions that he was \"on manoeuvres\" with a view to replacing him as group leader.\n\nAfter announcing he was stepping down, Mr Blackford told BBC Scotland: \"I'll always speak up to make sure that we speak out against any kind of intimidation, any kind of bad behaviour, sexual exploitation. And in my new role I'll continue to do that when it's right to do so.\"\n\nSNP MP Stephen Flynn recently denied claims he was seeking to replace Mr Blackford as group leader\n\nAt the time, Mr Blackford made clear that he intended to stand for re-election to the post at the upcoming AGM.\n\nHe also denied rumours in March that he was considering resigning amid further reports of party infighting.\n\nSNP sources have told BBC Scotland that they expect Mr Flynn to stand for the leadership, and that he has ''broad support'' among their MPs and may be the only candidate to succeed Mr Blackford.\n\nThe Westminster group's AGM will be held next Tuesday, with the leader being selected by the 44 MPs who currently hold the SNP whip.\n\nIt means the new leader will be in place to face Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister's Questions the next day,\n\nMr Blackford defeated former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy to become the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber in 2015, with his campaign being mired in controversy over online abuse aimed at Mr Kennedy and his long-running battle with alcoholism.\n\nBrian Smith, who was convenor of the SNP's Skye and Lochalsh branch, later resigned after it was reported that he had called Mr Kennedy a \"drunken slob\" and \"quisling-in-chief\" in a series of more than 130 tweets.\n\nMr Kennedy died of a major haemorrhage linked to his alcoholism just three weeks after the election.\n\nIt is only a fortnight since Ian Blackford made clear he would stand again for the leadership of the SNP group at Westminster at their annual meeting next week.\n\nAt that point, his MP colleague Stephen Flynn insisted he did not intend to put his name forward, despite reports suggesting he was preparing to challenge for the job.\n\nMr Flynn is now expected to stand and may be the only candidate. So what's changed?\n\nIt seems a majority of SNP MPs made clear they favoured a leadership change and that Mr Blackford decided to stand down, avoiding a potential challenge he might not win or being stuck leading a disgruntled group.\n\nThere have been rumblings about his position for a while, not least since the controversy over his handling of a harassment complaint against the MP Patrick Grady.\n\nOthers say his leadership has not been inclusive enough with high profile MP Joanna Cherry - who has criticised the leadership over women's rights and its independence strategy - sacked from the party's front bench team.\n\nMs Sturgeon said Mr Blackford had led the party's Westminster group at a time of \"huge electoral success\".\n\nShe added: \"I would like to place on record my thanks for Ian's diligence, tenacity, friendship and loyalty in his time as group leader.\n\n\"I look forward to working with Ian's successor as group leader at Westminster, as we continue to make the case for the people of Scotland to have a democratic choice on the country's future.\"\n\nSNP MP Joanna Cherry, who has been an outspoken critic of Ms Sturgeon's leadership, tweeted that she was \"pleased to hear\" that Mr Blackford was standing down as it was \"time for fresh leadership and tolerance of debate and diverse viewpoints.\"\n\nShe added: \"I hope the SNP Westminster group will be now be left to choose our new leader without outside interference and in accordance with our standing orders.\"\n\nMr Blackford, pictured with Ms Sturgeon in 2019, is seen as being a close political ally of the first minister\n\nLabour's shadow Scottish secretary Ian Murray said Mr Blackford's decision to stand down showed that the SNP was in \"total disarray\".\n\nHe added: \"Nationalist MPs know Nicola Sturgeon's plan for a de facto referendum is finished before it is even started and are worried about Labour gaining seats.\"\n\nScottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said Mr Blackford should have been \"sacked immediately\" by Ms Sturgeon over his support for Mr Grady, and accused the first minister of showing a \"total lack of judgement\".\n\nHe added: \"It is clear that, unlike Nicola Sturgeon, SNP MPs were not prepared to forgive how Ian Blackford put the needs of the perpetrator above the victim who had bravely come forward in this case.\n\n\"The SNP Westminster group are clearly in a state of disarray and Nicola Sturgeon is rapidly losing her grip over her party.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA black British charity boss who was repeatedly asked where she was \"really\" from at a royal reception has told the BBC the encounter was \"abuse\".\n\nNgozi Fulani was questioned about her background by Lady Susan Hussey, Prince William's godmother, at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. The late Queen's lady-in-waiting has since resigned.\n\nMs Fulani likened the conversation with Lady Hussey, 83, to \"an interrogation\".\n\nThe palace described the remarks as \"unacceptable and deeply regrettable\".\n\nAnd a spokesperson for Prince William said \"racism has no place in our society\". The incident has overshadowed the Prince and Princess of Wales's visit to the US to hand out awards for his Earthshot Prize.\n\nMs Fulani was a guest at the reception representing domestic violence charity Sistah Space when she described Lady Hussey moving her hair to see her name badge, and then challenging her repeatedly to explain where she was from.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Fulani said: \"It was like an interrogation. I guess the only way I can explain it, she's determined: 'Where are you from? Where are your people from?'\"\n\nMs Fulani also rebuffed suggestions that Lady Hussey's remarks had anything to do with her age.\n\n\"Let us be clear what this is. I've heard so many suggestions it's about her age and stuff like that, and I think that's kind of a disrespect - an ageism kind of thing.\n\n\"I have to really question how this can happen in a space that's supposed to protect women against all kinds of violence.\n\n\"Although it's not physical violence - it is an abuse.\"\n\nMs Fulani continued: \"If you invite people to an event, against domestic abuse, and there are people there from different demographics, I don't see the relevance of whether I'm British or not British.\n\n\"I'm very proud of my African heritage. This is like the Windrush thing to me. You're trying to make me unwelcome in my own space.\"\n\nShe added she felt like she was being asked to \"denounce my British citizenship\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rishi Sunak reflects on his own experiences of racism amid royal race row\n\nRishi Sunak said the UK must \"continually learn the lessons\" from acts of racism. The prime minister said it \"wouldn't be right\" for him to comment on the incident at the palace, adding \"they've acknowledged what's happened and made an apology for it\".\n\nAsked about his own experiences, Mr Sunak said that while he had experienced racism, the country had made \"incredible progress\".\n\n\"But the job is never done,\" he added, \"and that's why whenever we see it we must confront it and it's right that we continually learn the lessons and move to a better future.\"\n\nLady Susan Hussey was a key and trusted figure in the British royal household for decades\n\nLady Hussey was a key figure in the Royal Household for many decades, having started working for the Royal Family in the same year the Queen gave birth to Prince Andrew in 1960, eventually becoming her longest-serving lady-in-waiting.\n\nBuckingham Palace announced last week that Lady Hussey and the other former ladies-in-waiting would subsequently be known as \"ladies of the household\" - a role which involves helping to host occasions at the palace.\n\nAsked if she had wanted Lady Hussey to resign or if she would have been content with an apology, Ms Fulani said: \"I would have preferred it did not happen...\n\n\"I have to keep the focus where it should be and that's against violence against women and girls.\"\n\nAn eyewitness to the conversation, leader of the Women's Equality Party Mandu Reid, told BBC News that Lady Hussey's questions had been \"offensive, racist and unwelcoming\".\n\nNazir Afzal, former chief prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) who was also at the reception, said Lady Hussey also asked him about his heritage once and \"seemed to accept my answer - Manchester currently\".\n\nThe now chancellor of the University of Manchester added \"racism is never far away\".\n\nLady Hussey, in the back row of this family photograph taken in March 1997, wearing a green suit, was one of the late Queen's most trusted confidantes\n\nIn its statement on Wednesday, Buckingham Palace said: \"We take this incident extremely seriously and have investigated immediately to establish the full details.\n\n\"In this instance, unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments have been made. We have reached out to Ngozi Fulani on this matter, and are inviting her to discuss all elements of her experience in person if she wishes.\n\n\"In the meantime, the individual concerned would like to express her profound apologies for the hurt caused and has stepped aside from her honorary role with immediate effect.\n\n\"All members of the household are being reminded of the diversity and inclusivity policies which they are required to uphold at all times.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Prince William said \"racism has no place in our society\", adding: \"The comments were unacceptable, and it is right that the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect\".\n\nNgozi Fulani - pictured on the far left - was one of the campaigners attending a reception which was hosted by the Queen Consort (centre)\n\nMs Fulani later told BBC News: \"Now, violence isn't always physical, it can be verbal.\n\n\"And that felt like violence to me, and when you put your hand in my hair like I'm not even a person - you can just do what you want and say what you want - I don't want to be in your presence.\"\n\nIn an interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain, Ms Fulani also said Buckingham Palace had not contacted her about the incident, insisting she would accept an invitation to discuss it with them.\n\n\"See, what we're about is positive results, so absolutely, I think a discussion should be held,\" she said.\n\nMs Fulani, who was representing her charity which supports women of African and Caribbean heritage across the UK who have faced domestic and sexual abuse, was one of 300 guests at the event where the Queen Consort, Camilla, had warned of a \"global pandemic of violence against women\".\n\nBBC News has approached Lady Hussey for comment through Buckingham Palace.\n\nHere is the full conversation, as recounted by Ms Fulani:\n\nLady SH: Where are you from?\n\nSH: No, where do you come from?\n\nMe: We're based in Hackney.\n\nSH: No, what part of Africa are you from?\n\nMe: I don't know, they didn't leave any records.\n\nSH: Well, you must know where you're from, I spent time in France. Where are you from?\n\nSH: No, but what nationality are you?\n\nMe: I am born here and am British.\n\nSH: No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?\n\nMe: 'My people', lady, what is this?\n\nSH: Oh I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you're from. When did you first come here?\n\nMe: Lady! I am a British national, my parents came here in the 50s when...\n\nSH: Oh, I knew we'd get there in the end, you're Caribbean!\n\nMe: No lady, I am of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.", "A black British charity boss who was repeatedly asked where she was \"really\" from by royal aide Lady Susan Hussey has described the encounter as \"abuse\".\n\nNgozi Fulani was questioned about her background at a charity event at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. Lady Hussey has resigned since the incident.\n\nMs Fulani likened the conversation with Lady Hussey to an \"interrogation\".", "A jury in Los Angeles has failed to reach a verdict in a rape case against US actor Danny Masterson.\n\nMr Masterson, who is best known for his role in the sitcom That 70s Show, was accused of raping three women at his home in Hollywood in the early 2000s.\n\nHe had denied the charges, saying he was being persecuted for his membership of the Church of Scientology.\n\nThe office of the Los Angeles County District Attorney said it was considering its next steps in the case.\n\nLawyers for Mr Masterson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press.\n\nA retrial has been scheduled for March.\n\nMr Masterson, 46, was charged in 2020 with raping three women, who were all in their 20s, between 2001 and 2003.\n\nThe accusations were made in 2017, during the #MeToo movement which saw many Hollywood stars accused of sexual assault.\n\nAs a result, Mr Masterson was written out of the Netflix show The Ranch. He responded by saying that he had not been charged or convicted of a crime, and that in the climate at the time \"it seems as if you are presumed guilty the moment you are accused\".\n\nIf convicted, he could face 45 years to life in prison.\n\nDeliberations in the case began in mid-November, but soon reached a deadlock which could not be resolved.\n\nIn a statement, the attorney's office said: \"While we are disappointed with the outcome in this trial, we thank the jurors for their service.\" It added: \"We also want to give our heartfelt appreciation to the victims for bravely stepping forward and recounting their harrowing experiences.\"\n\nTwo of the women involved in the case alleged that the Church of Scientology, to which they and Mr Masterson belonged, had discouraged them from reporting the alleged rapes.\n\nThe charges came after a three-year investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department. Prosecutors did not file charges in two other cases because of insufficient evidence and the statute of limitations expiring.\n\nMr Masterson played the role of Steven Hyde in That 70s Show between 1998 and 2006, alongside Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis.", "Two men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of concealing the birth of a child\n\nPolice have been given an extra 24 hours to question three people after the bodies of two babies were found.\n\nOfficers were called to a property at Maes-y-Felin, Wildmill, Bridgend county, on Saturday evening.\n\nTwo men, aged 37 and 47, and a woman, 29, were arrested on suspicion of concealing the birth of a child.\n\nIt is the second extension granted after South Wales Police was given an extra 36 hours to question the three suspects on Monday.\n\nThe order for the latest extension was granted at Newport Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.\n\nA vigil took place at Wildmill Community Centre at 17:00 GMT on Tuesday, organised at the request of residents by Steven Bletsoe, a councillor for Bridgend Central and grew up in Wildmill.\n\nSouth Wales Police said the investigation continues, and appealed to anyone with information to get in touch.\n\nPolice were called on Saturday after the bodies were found at a home in Maes-y-Felin in Bridgend", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Protesters dance in Sanandaj and honk car horns in Tehran after the football team's World Cup elimination\n\nA man is reported to have been killed by security forces in northern Iran, as anti-government protesters publicly celebrated the national football team's elimination from the World Cup.\n\nActivists said Mehran Samak was shot in the head after he honked his car's horn in Bandar Anzali on Tuesday night.\n\nVideos from other cities showed crowds cheering and dancing in the streets.\n\nMany Iranians refused to support their football team in Qatar, seeing it as a representation of the Islamic Republic.\n\nState-affiliated media blamed hostile forces both inside and outside Iran for putting unfair pressure on the players following their 1-0 loss to the USA in the final group game.\n\nThe players did not sing the national anthem before their first game, a 6-2 defeat by England, in an apparent expression of solidarity with the protesters.\n\nBut they did sing at the Wales game, which they won 2-0, and at the politically-charged showdown against the USA.\n\nSome protesters saw that as a betrayal of their cause even though there were reports that the team came under intense pressure from Iranian authorities.\n\nThe unrest started 10 weeks ago following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab.\n\nAuthorities have responded to what they have portrayed as foreign-backed \"riots\" with a violent crackdown in which the Norway-based group Iran Human Rights says at least 448 people have been killed, including 60 children. More than 18,000 others are reported to have been arrested.\n\nActivists say Mehran Samak was shot by security forces after he honked a car horn as a sign of protest\n\nIran Human Rights reported that security personnel shot and killed Mehran Samak, 27, when he honked his car's horn in the Caspian Sea city of Bandar Anzali on Tuesday night to celebrate the Iranian football team's defeat.\n\nBBC Persian obtained a video that showed Mr Samak's burial on Wednesday morning. The mourners can be heard chanting \"You are the filth, you are the immoral, I am a free woman\" - a slogan frequently used during the protests.\n\nOther videos showed men and women celebrating the World Cup elimination in Tehran and a number of cities in the predominantly Kurdish north-west of the country. Dozens of protesters have reportedly been killed in recent weeks there as security forces intensified their crackdown.\n\nIn footage from Mahsa Amini's home city of Saqqez, dozens of people could be seen cheering and waving scarves in a main square before fireworks are set off.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Farzad Seifikaran This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nCrowds were also filmed dancing to music in Sanandaj, an epicentre of the unrest, while in Kermanshah and Marivan they were heard chanting \"Woman, life, freedom\" - one of the main slogans of the protests.\n\nKurdish human rights group Hengaw reported that at least 30 people were shot and wounded by security forces while celebrating in Marivan, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Saqqez, Ilam and Bukan.\n\nIn Tehran, students at Imam Sadiq University gathered outside a hall of residence and chanted \"Death to the dishonourable\" - an adjective protesters have used against security forces and which was shouted by fans inside the stadium during Iran's match against England.\n\nThere was also a confrontation between opponents and supporters of the government outside the Al Thumama Stadium in Qatar after Tuesday's match.\n\nDanish journalist Rasmus Tantholdt filmed several men carrying Iranian flags shoving a man wearing a T-shirt saying \"Woman, life, freedom\" in English. A woman with him is then heard complaining that she was attacked and asking for help to leave the stadium safely.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Rasmus Tantholdt TV2 This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAnother video obtained by BBC Persian showed a male protester being violently arrested by security guards outside the stadium while shouting \"Woman, life, freedom\".\n\nAsked about the treatment of Iranian spectators who staged protests in Qatar, football's world governing body Fifa said it continued \"to work closely with the host country to ensure the full implementation of related regulations and agreed protocols\".\n\nState-affiliated media in Iran meanwhile praised the national football team despite their failure to qualify for the World Cup's knockout stages.\n\nThe conservative Farhikhtegan newspaper said \"we are proud of Iran\", while the Revolutionary Guards-linked daily Javan said the team had \"won the real game: the game of uniting people's hearts\".\n\nBefore the match, the hard-line Tasnim news agency rejected a report by CNN, which cited an unnamed security source as saying that the Revolutionary Guards had threatened the families of the Iranian players with \"imprisonment and torture\" if they did not \"behave\".", "Doddie Weir died on Saturday six years after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease\n\nA service to celebrate the life of rugby legend Doddie Weir - who died on Saturday - is to be held in the Scottish Borders.\n\nIt will take place at Melrose Parish Church on 19 December.\n\nNumbers will be restricted at the service so the audio will be relayed to The Greenyards - the home of Melrose Rugby Club.\n\nAnyone attending has been asked to wear any form of tartan as requested by Weir himself.\n\nThe memorial service will be held at Melrose Parish Church\n\nA post on the My Name'5 Doddie website confirmed the arrangements for the memorial service.\n\n\"No flowers please,\" it added.\n\n\"Donations if desired may be sent to My Name'5 Doddie Foundation.\"\n\nTributes have poured in to the former Scotland international who died on Saturday, six years after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND).\n\nHe raised more than £8m for research into the disease through his foundation.\n\nThe audio of the service will be relayed the home of Melrose Rugby Club\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak joined the tributes at Westminster on Wednesday saying Weir's MND campaign had made a \"big difference\".\n\nMeanwhile, a campaign calling for a stand at Murrayfield to be named in his honour is gathering momentum.\n\nMore than 11,500 have backed the call in the space of just three days.", "UK house prices saw their biggest monthly fall for more than two years in November as rising interest rates put off buyers, the Nationwide has said.\n\nPrices fell 1.4% from October, which was the largest month-on-month fall since June 2020.\n\nAnnual house price growth saw a \"sharp slowdown\", the building society said, falling to 4.4% from 7.2% in October.\n\nThe lender added the housing market looked set to \"remain subdued\" in the coming months.\n\nEarlier this month, the government's official forecaster predicted that house prices will fall by 9% over the next two years as affordability issues weigh on demand.\n\nThe average property price fell to £263,788 last month from £268,282 in October, the Nationwide said.\n\nIt said the housing sector was still being affected by the fallout from September's mini-budget, which triggered a rise in mortgage rates and also led lenders to suspend hundreds of mortgage products amid turmoil on the financial markets.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Today programme, Nationwide's chief economist, Robert Gardner, said: \"A lot of this reflects the fallout of the mini-budget and the big rise that we saw in mortgage rates, because that really did change the affordability calculations for prospective buyers and really made things a lot less affordable.\"\n\nAre you affected by issues covered in this story? Get in touch.\n\nHe added: \"If you look at the typical mortgage payment as a share of someone's take-home pay, for the typical first-time buyer that was running at close to long-run averages of 30%. But as a result of the mini-budget it's moved up to around 45% of take-home pay, which is clearly a massive difference.\"\n\nMr Gardner said the market was likely to remain under pressure for some time, with inflation - the rate at which prices rise - set to remain high and the Bank of England likely to raise interest rates further.\n\nBut he added that while the outlook was uncertain, a \"relatively soft landing\" for the market was still possible, given that employment rates remain high and there is a lack of properties coming up for sale.\n\nHe also noted that the cost of borrowing had started to fall in recent weeks.\n\nLast week, figures from financial information service Moneyfacts showed that the average five-year fixed mortgage rate had fallen below 6% for the first time in nearly two months.\n\nRecent data has been pointing to a sharp slowdown in the housing market. Earlier this week, the Bank of England said the number of mortgages approved in October fell to its lowest level since June 2020.\n\nThese figures are evidence of a shift in the housing market - a predictable shift, but a significant one all the same.\n\nOfficial forecasters say this will be the start of two years of house price falls - but, remember, that follows a period of big rises.\n\nFalling property prices may be a relief to some first-time buyers, but the big increase in the general cost of living may limit their ability to save for a deposit.\n\nOther buyers may feel that now is the time to negotiate hard on price, and sellers will have to give some extra thought to pricing and how quickly they want to move.\n\nAll these are general points, but there is not one single UK housing market to navigate. Instead, there are a series of local markets where price, demand and supply are affected by a host of variables from local schools and housing developments to job opportunities and transport.\n\nThe next few months could be \"something of a nightmare\" for the housing market, according to Sarah Coles, senior personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.\n\nShe said that we were \"not seeing anything like the full impact\" of the mini-budget in Nationwide's figures, as on average it takes about three months to complete a sale.\n\nAs a result, the latest data is likely \"to include only around a week of sales agreed after mortgage chaos was unleashed. Even at that point, sales being settled were highly likely to have been funded by mortgages agreed well before everything kicked off, so all we're seeing is the effect of a sudden and possibly catastrophic loss of confidence.\"\n\nShe added that while mortgage rates have since dipped, and are expected to fall further, \"the damage may well have been done\".\n\nAre you affected by issues covered in this story? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Koulla's family have received an apology from the hospital over the problems with her care\n\nWhen 85-year-old Koulla fell at home, her family immediately rang for an ambulance. She was in agonising pain - she had broken her hip.\n\nIt was around 8pm. It took another 14 hours for an ambulance to get to her, leaving her pregnant granddaughter to care for her through the night.\n\nWhen they arrived the crews were able to give her pain relief and quickly transported her to the Royal Cornwall Hospital.\n\nBut there the wait continued - there were around 30 ambulances queuing to handover patients to A&E staff.\n\nIt was another 26 hours before she was taken inside to A&E.\n\nShe then faced many hours in A&E before being taken for surgery.\n\nKoulla's daughter, Marianna Flint, 53, said: \"It was awful. You feel helpless because you're giving your trust over to them to look after a family member who's in agony and who needs surgery.\"\n\nShe has since received a written apology from the Royal Cornwall for the care provided to her mother in August.\n\nThe trust said it was \"sincerely\" sorry for the failings.\n\nMs Flint said: \"I almost feel sorry for those looking after her. It's not down to them. There was no room inside to accept her in.\"\n\nBut Koulla is just one of many thousands of patients getting caught up in these delays.\n\nWhen ambulance crews bring patients to hospital they are meant to be able to handover their patients to A&E staff within 15 minutes.\n\nBut an analysis by the BBC shows by late November more than 11,000 ambulances were spending over an hour stuck in queues outside hospital every week.\n\nThat is one in seven of all arrivals and the highest since records began in 2010.\n\nRishi Sunak said he will sit down with the NHS \"relatively soon\" to discuss the issues around ambulance waiting times.\n\nSpeaking on Thursday evening, the prime minister said he wanted to see waiting times come down and the government had put more money into the NHS to help address the issue.\n\nHe said more money had also been put into social care to allow people to move out of hospitals and back into their homes.\n\nHe added: \"I want to make sure the extra funding we're putting in is actually going to make a difference on the ground.\"\n\nThe College of Paramedics said crews were facing a \"perfect storm\", with the queues outside A&E preventing them reaching patients who need a 999 response.\n\nCollege chief executive Tracy Nicholls said: \"We all know patients are coming to harm and in some cases severe harm.\"\n\nAnd even when patients are admitted into A&E they can face long waits for a bed on a ward, with hospital bosses blaming a shortage of beds and problems discharging patients back into the community.\n\nExperts believe these problems are a contributing factor to the high levels of deaths being recorded - in recent months 1,000 more deaths a week are being seen than would be expected.\n\nThe Royal College of Emergency Medicine believes disruption to emergency care may account for around a quarter of these deaths.\n\nCollege president Dr Adrian Boyle said ambulances had effectively become \"wards on wheels\".\n\nBoth ambulance response times and A&E waits have hit their worst levels on record in all parts of the UK in recent months.\n\nIn Cornwall, patients facing emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes are now waiting more than two hours on average for an ambulance. The target is 18 minutes.\n\nThey are thought to be among the worst delays in the country, but none of England's ambulance services is close to the target, while Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are all missing their targets.\n\nAlongside Cornwall, parts of Gloucestershire, Lincolnshire, Somerset and Bristol have the longest waits, Freedom of Information requests by the Liberal Democrats have revealed.\n\nThe problems come as NHS staff prepare to take strike action.\n\nUnions have cited the problems facing the emergency care system as one of the factors motivating members to vote for a walkout.\n\nA strike by members of the Royal College of Nursing is planned for 15 and 20 December in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, while earlier this week the two main unions representing ambulance staff said their members had also backed walkouts.\n\nThe government said the NHS will publish its emergency care recovery plan in the new year, which will set out proposals to improve ambulance response times and A&E performance in England.\n\nA spokesman for the Department of Health said an extra £500m was being made available to speed up hospital discharges and free up space in A&E, creating the equivalent of at least 7,000 more beds this winter\n\n\"This will be supported by an additional £6.6bn in the NHS over the next two years to enable rapid action to improve urgent and emergency care performance towards pre-pandemic levels,\" he added.\n\nHave you experienced a long wait for an ambulance or at A&E? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC News journalist. You can also make contact in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page but cannot see the form, visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit a question or comment, or email HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Police are appealing for information after a woman was attacked with cleaning fluid on 26 November\n\nA man has been arrested after a woman was allegedly attacked with cleaning fluid.\n\nDyfed-Powys Police said a 41-year-old man had been arrested after reports of a substance being thrown into a woman's face in Talgarth, Powys, on Saturday.\n\nThe force said the man was arrested on suspicion of assault and had been taken into custody.\n\nIt added it had taken a statement from the victim and said anyone with information should get in touch.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Students sitting exams in 2023 will have experienced serious disruption because of the pandemic.\n\nExam students will not have to memorise formulae and equations for some GCSE subjects next year.\n\nIn mathematics, physics and combined science, pupils will be provided with a sheet containing formulae and equations, similar to the 2022 exams.\n\nMany of the students sitting exams will have experienced serious disruption to their studies because of the pandemic.\n\nThe exams regulator Ofqual said the move would offer the support students needed \"as we move towards normality.\"\n\nIn September, it announced exams in England would mostly return to normal next summer.\n\nStudents will no longer have advance information of exam content.\n\nAnd after three years of adjustments, grades, though still \"protected\", will be \"much closer\" to pre-pandemic levels.\n\nA consultation on the proposal to allow supporting materials found 93.7% of teachers and students working towards 2023 GCSEs said it was necessary.\n\nThe students \"will have faced significant disruption to their education due to Covid-19\" and it would be a challenge to \"get through all of the specification\", one teacher said.\n\nAnd one of the students highlighted how they had gone into lockdown in Year 9, after the start of their GCSE maths course.\n\nChief regulator Dr Jo Saxton said: \"In 2023, students will again have the opportunity to show what they know and can do in exams,\" and \"together with some protection on grading\", Ofqual would \"offer the degree of support students need as we move towards normality\".", "McAvoy took the lead role in Cyrano de Bergerac in London, Glasgow and Brooklyn, New York\n\nJames McAvoy's co-stars in Cyrano de Bergerac were racially abused on a \"daily basis\" while the play was on tour in Glasgow, the actor has claimed.\n\nThe star, who was born in the city's Drumchapel area, said the harassment experienced by female cast members left him \"delighted to leave\" his home town.\n\nHe told GQ magazine, the experience was \"horrible\" and he regretted taking the production to Scotland.\n\nThe two-week run at Glasgow's Theatre Royal in March was a sell-out.\n\nMcAvoy said that instead of a \"homecoming\", the performances were marred by the \"sexually explicit and violent\" abuse his colleagues experienced beyond the theatre.\n\n\"The cast were amazing, it was brilliant,\" he said. \"But I was really saddened, to be honest with you, because most of the women of colour in the cast got racially abused pretty much on a daily basis when we were there.\"\n\nHe added: \"I was just really saddened. I was absolutely shocked and dismayed and to use a Scottish word, scunnered.\n\n\"We were delighted to get to Brooklyn, and leave Glasgow. It was horrible.\"\n\nJamie Lloyd's adaptation saw a diverse cast conversing in the style of a poetry slam\n\nThe adaptation of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac had an award-winning run in London before travelling to Glasgow and then on to New York.\n\nIn Jamie Lloyd's production an ethnically diverse cast conversed in the style of a poetry slam or rap battle with a live beatbox soundtrack.\n\nRegarding the staging in Glasgow, McAvoy said: \"I was going on stage every night going, I don't want us to be here. I brought this cast here and I don't want to be here.\"\n\nA spokeswoman for the Theatre Royal said they were \"extremely upset\" by the incidents which happened elsewhere in Glasgow city centre.\n\nShe added: \"Diversity and inclusion remain a priority for us and we offered appropriate support to the company at the time.\"\n\nIt felt like a live gig rather than a piece of classic theatre.\n\nJames McAvoy - back on stage in Glasgow for the first time in 20 years - has to pause to allow the whooping and cheering to subside before delivering his first line at the Theatre Royal.\n\nThe Cyrano de Bergerac production by the Jamie Lloyd company is a stripped back version of a 19th Century play reinvented many times - perhaps most memorably by Steve Martin in the film Roxanne. No props, no period costumes, no false nose (Cyrano's gift being his poetry, not his looks).\n\nThe star is McAvoy but the 18-strong ensemble give the show a power and energy - taking the mic, and their moment in the spotlight to deliver lines like a slam poetry event.\n\n\"I love words, that's all\" - says Cyrano, and by the end of the show James McAvoy convinces the audience that words are everything.\n\nIt's sad then to contrast that ecstatic welcome, with the verbal abuse cast members experienced in the city outside.\n\nAccording to the actor, female performers faced racism \"on a daily basis\" during their time in Glasgow.\n\nFor callers to BBC Radio Scotland's Mornings show, there was sadness but acceptance that it happens.\n\n\"I'm absolutely not surprised at all,\" said Afua. \"We have this perception that Scotland is exempt from racism somehow, but it's not.\"\n\nMost talked of a lifetime of everyday racism in a city which likes to bill itself as friendly and welcoming.\n\nMost of us are. But incidents like this are a reminder that we can't be complacent.\n\nJames McAvoy is right to be ashamed, and right to call it out.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ian Blackford: \"I have a good team, a strong team, we are getting on with the job.\"\n\nSNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford has denied rumours that he is considering quitting from the post.\n\nThe Politico website had claimed the MP was considering his position due to infighting among the party's MPs.\n\nMr Blackford told BBC Scotland there was \"nothing in it\".\n\nOther SNP members came to the Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP's defence, with Stewart McDonald saying the story had been \"made up by people with the luxury of too much time on their hands.\"\n\nMr Blackford took over as the party's Westminster leader in 2017 after Angus Robertson lost his seat in that year's general election.\n\nPolitico's daily newsletter said it had spoken to four party officials who said they believed his departure could come before May's council elections.\n\nIt said there had been a \"weeks-long row\" over statements Mr Blackford had made about pensions in an independent Scotland, quoting an unnamed MP as describing his position as an \"unforced error\".\n\nThe article also said there had been tension between Mr Blackford and other senior MPs, including Mr McDonald and the party's foreign affairs spokesman Alyn Smith.\n\nHowever both men have rejected the story, with Mr McDonald tweeting that Politico \"has been had\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Stewart McDonald MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMr Blackford himself told BBC Scotland that it was \"like silly season has arrived early\".\n\nHe said: \"I have a good team, a strong team, we are getting on with the job.\n\n\"I'll be doing that safe in the knowledge that I have a group that's behind me and a government in Edinburgh that we work closely with.\n\n\"Let's focus on the day job of holding the government to account, dealing with the crisis in Ukraine and delivering the Scottish government's manifesto commitments.\"\n\nAsked if MPs were restless about the lack of progress towards holding a fresh referendum on Scottish independence, Mr Blackford said the party was \"serious\" about delivering a vote.\n• None Resignation rumour is evidence of 'silly season' Video, 00:01:08Resignation rumour is evidence of 'silly season'", "Judy Murray will oversee tennis events for school and university students and taster sessions for children\n\nJudy Murray's role as a tennis coach at a tournament in Saudi Arabia next week would be used as sportswashing, a human rights organisation has said.\n\nMurray, mother of Grand Slam winners Jamie and Andy, agreed to hold tennis classes for girls in Saudi Arabia during the Diriyah Tennis Cup.\n\nAmnesty International urged her to to use the opportunity to speak out about The Gulf kingdom's human rights abuses.\n\nMurray has said she wanted to remove barriers to tennis participation.\n\nSaudi Arabia has been accused of using events to \"sportswash\" its reputation.\n\nThe state's reputation for human rights violations and oppressing women has come under intense international scrutiny and boxing, Formula 1 and golf have all been criticised for holding events in the country in recent years.\n\nMurray's younger son - Sir Andy Murray - previously turned down a seven-figure sum to play in Saudi Arabia because of his concerns about human rights.\n\nAn Amnesty International spokeswoman said: \"While promoting women's sport in a country which has long stifled women and girls' human rights is a positive thing, it is important that Judy Murray should realise she's being asked to perform a sportswashing role in Saudi Arabia.\n\n\"We encourage Judy Murray, as we would other attendees at the Diriyah Tennis Cup, to use the opportunity to speak out and show solidarity with those who are being persecuted in Saudi Arabia's relentless crackdown on human rights.\"\n\nA 2021 report by human rights group Grant Liberty said Saudi Arabia had spent upwards of $1.5bn (£1.32bn) to bring international sport to the country.\n\nSome of the high-profile cases to have drawn criticism in the country include the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the war in Yemen and the execution of 81 people in a single day.\n\nThe Diriyah Tennis Cup runs from 8 to 10 December in the UNESCO heritage site Ad Diriyah, on the outskirts of Riyadh, and has a a top prize of $1m.\n\nTwelve male players will take part in the exhibition contest, including Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka, Olympic medallist Andrey Rublev and British number one Cameron Norrie.\n\nMurray will oversee tennis events for school and university students and taster sessions for children and their parents at the tournament.\n\nIn a statement, Judy Murray said she wanted to \"remove barriers to participation\" in the sport.\n\n\"Throughout my involvement in tennis, I have championed the cause of giving as many people as possible the opportunity to try tennis and to fall in love with it the way I have, and the way Jamie and Andy have,\" she said.\n\n\"I am particularly keen to ensure girls and women are given an equal opportunity to enjoy and experience tennis, whether for fun, for fitness or for friendship.\"\n\nShe added: \"I look forward to bringing that message and the practical skills and knowledge to the tennis community in Saudi Arabia in the effort to introduce more girls and women to tennis.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Diriyah Tennis Cup This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDiriyah Tennis Cup said on Tuesday they were \"thrilled\" she would be at the tournament to \"oversee a series of events as coach\" and inspire girls and women to pick up a racket.\n\nArij Almutabagani, president of the Saudi Tennis Federation, said she was looking forward to Murray´s visit and was \"committed to the development of women's tennis\".\n\n\"Murray brings a breadth of experience and skill which will further encourage girls' participation in tennis\", she said.\n\nCameron Norrie said he was \"not a politician\"\n\nAmnesty International last month urged the players at the tournament to speak out on Saudia Arabia's human rights record.\n\nAt the time they said they would not tell players where they should not play tennis, but they called on Cameron Norrie to support University of Leeds student Salma al-Shehab who was jailed for 34 years for tweets considered critical of the state.\n\nWorld number 14 Norrie said he was \"not a politician\".\n\n\"I don't feel it's right for me to get involved with individual government politics,\" he said, adding that the event would help him train for the Australian Open.", "There are worries that this winter will be very tough, with pressure on health and care systems\n\nThe health and care system in England is gridlocked with patients at risk because they cannot access the support they need, regulators say.\n\nThe Care Quality Commission's annual report warned the problem was creating long waits for ambulances and in A&E.\n\nA major factor is most patients cannot leave hospital when they are ready, it said, because of a lack of support in the community.\n\nThe system could no longer operate effectively, the CQC said.\n\n\"People are stuck - stuck in hospital because there isn't the social care support in place for them to leave, stuck in emergency departments waiting for a hospital bed to get the treatment they need and stuck waiting for ambulances that don't arrive because those same ambulances are stuck outside hospitals waiting to transfer patients,\" chief executive Ian Trenholm said.\n\nThis winter would be particularly tough, he warned, and he was worried about how the health and care systems would cope.\n\nAlongside delays in accident-and-emergency departments and with 999 services, 500,000 people are waiting for council-funded care - an increase from just under 300,000 in a year.\n\nThe CQC report blamed staffing shortages, with one-in-10 posts in both the NHS and social-care sector vacant.\n\nThe regulator was also heavily critical of maternity care, pointing out two out of five services were rated not good enough.\n\nThe signs were services were becoming worse, it added. \"It's unacceptable,\" Mr Trenholm said.\n\nIt comes after an inquiry into maternity care at East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust found evidence of significant harm to babies, due to a \"clear pattern of suboptimal care\" during an 11-year period from 2009.\n\nThe review, published on Wednesday, said up to 45 babies may have survived with better care.\n\nMr Trenholm said maternity services, like the rest of the system, suffered from a lack of staff but there also seemed to be a cultural problem where the concerns were not being listened to as they should or prompting the necessary response.\n\nThe East Kent report comes just months after similar failings were identified at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.\n\nThe numbers in the CQC report paint a picture of a health and care system where the indicators are flashing red. Inevitably that only tells part of the story. Far harder to measure is the human cost in terms of families and care staff.\n\nOver the months I've heard from many families confronted by a care system that they believe has failed them.\n\nA daughter who described the fight she faced to find enough care to allow her mother to leave hospital so she could spend her last days in her own home. The family called it a totally broken system.\n\nAnother daughter who found the only way to provide her mother with the care she needed was by giving up paid work. Others who weep as they talk about their exhaustion, up through the night caring for a person they love who has dementia - the respite care which could make a difference hard to find.\n\nAnd then there are the care workers who worry about having to tell desperate families they just don't have enough staff to help them.\n\nIt perhaps adds to the emotional burn-out many feel in the wake of the pandemic. Combine such stories with the CQC statistics and even at a time of political and economic turmoil, it underlines the urgency of fixing a problem that many governments have ducked.\n\nThe wider issues across health and care, Mr Trenholm said, were undoubtedly linked to \"historic under-investment\" - and without action, would only worsen.\n\nThis would be especially visible in poorer areas, where access to care outside hospitals was most under pressure, he said.\n\nIn addition to the increased risk of harm, more people would be driven out of the labour market through ill-health or because they were supporting family members who needed care, Mr Trenholm added.\n\nNHS England says the public's confidence in what support it can expect is being affected\n\nLouise Ansari, from the patient group Healthwatch England, said the findings echoed what many patients had been telling her.\n\nThe problems would be putting \"lives at risk\" and widening health inequalities, she said.\n\n\"It's starting to affect the public's confidence that the NHS will be there for them when they need it,\" Ms Ansari added.\n\nNHS England medical director Prof Sir Stephen Powis accepted that it was going to be an \"incredibly challenging\" few months.\n\nExtra support was being provided to keep patients out of hospital, he said, including the rollout of rapid-response teams to treat patients at home after incidents such as falls.\n\n\"NHS staff are working hard to keep patients safe despite the record demand and pressures,\" Sir Stephen added.\n\nHave you been affected by NHS delays? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The royal couple are in the US to hand out awards for their Earthshot Prize\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales have visited Boston as part of a tour of the US that has been overshadowed by a row over racism in the UK.\n\nThe couple are in the country to hand out awards for their Earthshot Prize.\n\nThe trip comes as the prince's godmother, Lady Susan Hussey, resigned after she repeatedly asked Ngozi Fulani, a black British charity boss, where she was \"really\" from.\n\nPrince William's spokesperson has said \"racism has no place in our society\".\n\nNgozi Fulani, who founded domestic violence charity Sistah Space, was repeatedly questioned by Lady Hussey about her background at an event to support the Queen Consort's campaign against domestic violence at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.\n\nMs Fulani recounted how Lady Hussey, 83, approached her and moved her hair to one side to allow her to read her name tag - before quizzing the charity campaigner over her origins. Ms Fulani responded three times that she was British.\n\nShe told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday that the encounter had led her to question how a situation like this could happen in a space \"supposed to protect women against all kinds of violence\".\n\n\"Although it's not physical violence, it is an abuse,\" she said.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales with governor-elect Maura Healey and mayor Michelle Wu as they lit up Boston in green\n\nLady Hussey, who was the late Queen's longest serving lady-in waiting, resigned on Wednesday from an honorary role which includes helping to host occasions at the palace.\n\nBuckingham Palace announced she would be stepping aside, saying the comments had been \"unacceptable and deeply regrettable\" and that she wanted to \"express her profound apologies for the hurt caused\".\n\nShortly after the prince arrived in the US, his spokesperson also described the comments by Prince William's godmother as unacceptable and that it was right that she had stepped aside with immediate effect.\n\nMs Fulani said she did not want to see Lady Hussey \"vilified\".\n\nIt is far from the ideal start to this visit.\n\nEvents at Buckingham Palace have been embarrassing and distracting.\n\nThe focus for the Prince and Princess of Wales in the United States was due to be environmental innovation, optimism about the future and meetings with a wide range of communities in Boston.\n\nBefore the royal couple had even arrived in the city, their spokesperson had issued a strongly worded statement condemning racism and supporting the decision of Prince William's godmother, Lady Susan Hussey, to step aside.\n\nTiming mattered here. Condemnation of her remarks from both Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace was swift and unequivocal.\n\nIn issuing a statement at the very start of their American visit, the Prince and Princess of Wales have made their position and feelings on the matter explicitly clear - there is no place for this kind of comment and questioning within the royal household.\n\nAnd all this just a few days before the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are due in New York to receive a human rights award from the Robert F Kennedy Foundation. Robert Kennedy's daughter, Kerry, says Harry and Meghan were chosen for the honour due to their \"heroic stand\" against \"structural racism\" within the royal family.\n\nThe royal couple launched the countdown to Friday's Earthshot Prize - which seeks to find and support innovative solutions to problems facing the planet - by lighting up Boston's landmarks in green on Wednesday.\n\nCrowds stood in the rain to welcome William and Catherine to the city hall in Boston, home town of former US president John F Kennedy, on whose 'Moonshot' challenge the Earthshot Prize is based.\n\n\"Like President Kennedy, Catherine and I firmly believe that we all have it in ourselves to achieve great things, and that human beings have the ability to lead, innovate and problem-solve,\" Prince William told the crowd.\n\nOn his first overseas visit since the death of the Queen Elizabeth II, the prince said he wanted to thank the people of Boston for \"their many tributes\" to the late Queen.\n\n\"My grandmother was one of life's optimists. And so am I. That is why last year we launched the Earthshot Prize with the ambition to create a truly global platform to inspire hope and urgent optimism as we look to save the future of our planet,\" he said.\n\nThe royal couple attended an NBA basketball game between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat following the Earthshot launch event\n\nCatherine hands Princes William a basketball during the match they attended on Wednesday night\n\nPrince William and Catherine posed for photographs with some basketball fans\n\nIt comes after a planned trip to New York by the royal couple earlier this year was cancelled following the death of the Queen.\n\nOne of the guest speakers launching the Earthshot event, Reverend Mariama White-Hammond, gave a lecture on the legacy of colonialism and racism and \"its deep connection to the degradation of land and our planet that we are all seeking to reverse\".\n\nAt a basketball game attended by the Prince and Princess of Wales following the launch, some boos could be heard in the arena when the royal couple were introduced by a stadium announcer and shown on a big screen.\n\nFive winners of the Earthshot Prize will be announced in Boston on Friday - each of whom will be given £1m ($1.2m) to develop their environmental projects.\n\nAmong the 15 finalists is a London start-up Notpla which makes packaging from seaweed and plants as an alternative to single-use plastic.\n\nPrince William has described the people in the shortlist for the prize - now in its second year - as \"innovators, leaders and visionaries\".\n\nThe royal couple will also meet President Joe Biden over the course of their visit, the White House has said.", "Rachael Watts survived the 1990 attack and her testimony put Russell Bishop behind bars\n\nA woman who at age seven was abducted, sexually assaulted and left for dead by Brighton killer Russell Bishop has said she wants people to know the damage he did and that she remembers everything.\n\nRachael Watts survived the 1990 attack and her testimony put him behind bars.\n\nBishop had already killed two girls and walked free from court when he grabbed her.\n\nAfter his death this year, she said: \"I want to be heard. I want people to know how much damage he caused.\"\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour in her first broadcast interview, Ms Watts said it felt good to speak out.\n\nThe deaths of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows, whose bodies were found in Wild Park in 1986, cast a shadow over the city for decades and became known as the Babes in the Wood murders.\n\nA trial came in 1987, but Bishop walked free.\n\nHe abducted Ms Watts and drove her to local beauty spot Devil's Dyke, where he attacked her. She later identified him and he was convicted in 1990 for attempted murder, kidnapping and indecent assault.\n\nHe was convicted for the murders of Karen Hadaway and Nicola Fellows in 2018, following a DNA breakthrough.\n\nMs Watts, pictured when she was young, has told her parents she remembers everything about the attack\n\nNow 40, Ms Watts said her family protected her anonymity for as long as possible, but she \"wanted to finally come out with it and sort of release myself from the secret that I've been hiding for so long\".\n\nEverybody had thought she was unconscious during the attack, she said, but she was only recently able to tell her parents she was not.\n\nShe said: \"I was fully conscious when he did all those things.\n\n\"Of course everybody had hoped that I would never remember, but I do remember and I remember everything.\n\n\"So I'm hoping that one day I will be better, because I can't see myself living like a prisoner for the rest of my life, which is essentially what I've become.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Woman's Hour This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nThis World Cup is only just getting started, but England are where we want them to be - comfortably into the last 16, and the only problems Gareth Southgate has right now are good ones.\n\nIt gets everyone buzzing when we play like we did in the second half against Wales. Yes, there are bigger tests to come, but let's enjoy a good performance which sets us up perfectly for Sunday, and Senegal.\n\nWe talk about different sides having an identity, and that was a great example of what I want England's identity to be: we had a high press, lots of energy and we were on the front foot.\n\nThat won't work in every game, but we are a much better team when we play that way.\n\nWe looked lively in the forward positions and our midfield was strong, plus the defence did whatever was asked of them - the same as in each of our three games in Group B.\n\nThe team are full of belief, which is great to see, and we look like we are in a good place in every way.\n\nI am happy with what I've seen - and excited about what is to come.\n\nIt is fantastic for Southgate that he has so many options in our frontline, and choosing who should play is a nice problem to have.\n\nWe have got lots of attacking talent, so when any of them get an opportunity in this England team, they have to make the most of it.\n\nWhen Southgate brought in Phil Foden and Marcus Rashford for the Wales game, he was basically saying 'Over to you, I want to see what you can do'.\n\nThey certainly showed him that.\n\nThere are still arguments for Raheem Sterling and Bukayo Saka to play, and Jack Grealish too, but I would expect Foden and Rashford to start against Senegal on Sunday too - they definitely did enough.\n\nBoth Rashford's goals were fantastic and I am so pleased Foden got on the scoresheet too. Lots of people, including myself, were shouting for him to play and he justified that with his performance.\n\nSouthgate got some big calls right too\n\nI am delighted for Southgate that his decisions came off.\n\nHe gets plenty of stick for not making the right tactical or selection decisions, or using the right substitutes at the correct time, so we have to give him credit for being spot on against Wales.\n\nHe not only brought Foden and Rashford in on the flanks, but at half-time he decided to switch their positions around and it made a big difference - they looked happier like that, and they got our goals.\n\nIt was not just Southgate's selection that worked, though. It was his tactics too.\n\nWe were measured and mature in the first half, but we upped the tempo after the break and got our reward. Once we went 1-0 up, the game was over, and it was just a question of how many we would get.\n\nThis win was not down to individuals; the balance of the whole team was right.\n\nI loved the energy Jude Bellingham gave us in midfield - he has got some engine on him. He kept driving us forward for more goals, and was always trying to get up there to get on the end of things.\n\nWe got our second goal by pressing Wales, virtually from the kick-off after the first goal, and the whole team did it together, high up the pitch.\n\nHarry Kane still hasn't had a shot on target at this World Cup, but he now has three assists, and his cross for Foden to score was ridiculously good - he put the ball exactly where he would have wanted it to put it away himself.\n\nRashford's third goal was probably the one I enjoyed the most, because it happened at high speed and it was lovely to see him work it on to his left foot and put it away. By the time the Wales defender adjusts to his run, it is too late.\n\nThey were all really good goals, and scoring them is clearly not a problem - we are currently top scorers in the tournament with nine. From open play or set-pieces, other teams will be wondering how they can keep us out.\n\nThis is not the time to get carried away, but what we do have after that is some momentum and that is so important now.\n\nI don't think England would have been affected too much by their disappointing draw with the United States, but this performance had everything which was missing from that game and we can take all of it forward.\n\nSenegal will still be dangerous opponents, even without the injured Sadio Mane, but I am really confident that England will have enough to beat them and reach the quarter-finals.\n\nAlan Shearer was speaking to Chris Bevan in Doha, Qatar.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nGermany crashed out of the Fifa World Cup on a remarkable night of drama despite victory over Costa Rica at Al Bayt Stadium.\n\nJapan's controversial 2-1 victory against Spain would have eliminated Germany anyway, but Hansi Flick's side needed three points to give themselves any chance of reaching the last 16.\n\nThey completed their part of the bargain, but it was to no avail as the four-time champions finished third in the group and were eliminated on goal difference.\n\nIt could have been a different story after Japan's winning goal in the other Group E match was initially ruled out because the officials thought the ball had gone out of play before it was put into the net, but the decision was overturned by VAR.\n\nGermany were in complete control and in front through Serge Gnabry's 10th-minute header, only for Costa Rica to turn the match on its head to raise the remarkable possibility of Spain also going out.\n\nYeltsin Tejeda equalised after Germany keeper Manuel Neuer pushed out Kendall Waston's header in the 58th minute, before Neuer was deemed to have the final touch for the second goal 12 minutes later when Juan Pablo Vargas bundled in from close range.\n\nAt that stage, Costa Rica were going through with Japan, and Spain were heading for the exit.\n\nIt would have capped one of the most astonishing nights in World Cup history, but Germany substitute Kai Havertz restored a measure of normality with two clinical finishes to extinguish Costa Rica's hopes of springing a major shock.\n\nSubstitute Niclas Fullkrug added a last-minute fourth to confirm victory, but it will be of no consolation as Germany failed to reach the knockout stage of the tournament for the second time in succession.\n\nThis was also a match that made history as an all-female officiating team took charge of a men's World Cup game for the first time, with France's Stephanie Frappart refereeing, joined by assistant referees Neuza Back from Brazil and Karen Diaz Medina from Mexico.\n\nGermany's second successive exit at the group stage will come as another shock to their system and they can have no complaints as they leave Qatar.\n\nThe skids were under their campaign when they lost 2-1 to Japan in their opener and, despite showing real character to come from behind to draw 1-1 with Spain, the first-game defeat left them vulnerable.\n\nA Germany win looked a formality as they controlled the first half hour with embarrassing ease and led through Gnabry's strike.\n\nCosta Rica were overpowered but Germany's complacency gave them an entry into the game and suddenly it was they who looked like qualifying as they went ahead, although it did not last long.\n\nGermany have some fine players in the brilliant Jamal Musiala, who was outstanding and hit the post twice in the second half, but this World Cup may spell the end for the older generation such as goalkeeper Neuer and forward Thomas Muller. Neuer was uncertain and could have done better with both goals while Muller missed an easy headed first half chance and was substituted after the break.\n\nThere is certainly likely to be a lengthy inquest into another failure at the finals.\n\nCosta Rica looked for all the world like they were heading for a heavy defeat, in the manner of their 7-0 loss to Spain, in the opening half as they were just unable to deal with the Germans.\n\nOnly the brilliance of Keylor Navas' goalkeeping kept Germany at bay, but what resilience Costa Rica showed to hang in and take their chances when they were presented with them.\n\nAnd the world of football watched in anticipation of a gripping finale after Neuer's own goal put them 2-1 up, leaving Luis Suarez Fernandez's side on course for a remarkable qualification and Germany going out along with Spain.\n\nThe dream only lasted three minutes, but would have felt like an age for those two giants of the game.\n\nGermany had too much quality for Costa Rica in the end, but what a superb effort this was and they have a victory over group winners Japan to savour on their sixth appearance at the World Cup.\n• None Attempt saved. Jamal Musiala (Germany) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Serge Gnabry.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jamal Musiala (Germany) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Joshua Kimmich.\n• None Attempt missed. Niclas Füllkrug (Germany) header from the left side of the six yard box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Kai Havertz.\n• None Attempt blocked. Niclas Füllkrug (Germany) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Serge Gnabry.\n• None Goal! Costa Rica 2, Germany 4. Niclas Füllkrug (Germany) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Leroy Sané.Goal awarded following VAR Review.\n• None Attempt saved. Mario Götze (Germany) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt saved. Kai Havertz (Germany) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jamal Musiala.\n• None Goal! Costa Rica 2, Germany 3. Kai Havertz (Germany) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Serge Gnabry with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Jamal Musiala (Germany) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Ambulance crews are facing crippling delays when they arrive at A&E with sick patients, NHS bosses are warning.\n\nOver the past week, nearly three in 10 ambulances were caught queuing outside hospitals in England.\n\nIt is the worst start to winter since records began - before the pandemic about half the number of delays were recorded, NHS England data shows.\n\nAmbulance chiefs said the problems were leading to patients dying and being harmed on a daily basis.\n\nMartin Flaherty, managing director of the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE), said: \"These crippling delays are a twin threat - they cause significant harm to patients who are forced to wait in the back of our ambulances, while our crews are stuck and therefore unable to respond to patients who need us out in the community.\n\n\"As the colder winter weather approaches we have serious concerns that things will get worse in the coming weeks and months.\n\n\"The life-saving safety net that NHS ambulance services provide is being severely compromised by these unnecessary delays, and patients are dying and coming to harm as a result on a daily basis.\"\n\nAACE said its own analysis of the delays seen during October suggested about 44,000 patients may have come to harm because of delays.\n\nAmbulance crews are meant to be able to hand over their patients to hospital staff within 15 minutes of arrival.\n\nBut in 29% of the nearly 80,000 arrivals seen in the seven days up to last Sunday, crews had to wait 30 minutes or more.\n\nThat compares to 23% last year at the start of winter, and 15% in 2019 before the pandemic began.\n\nAt about a tenth of hospitals, more than half of ambulance crews arriving were delayed, the weekly report by NHS England - the first of this winter - showed.\n\nThe report also showed there were nearly 400 patients in hospital with flu.\n\nThis is three times higher than the peak seen last winter despite it only being the start of the flu season.\n\nHowever, last year did see very low levels of flu as people were still cautious about mixing because of Covid.\n\nProf Sir Stephen Powis said the figures showed fears of the so-called \"tripledemic\" - high levels of flu, Covid and a respiratory infection called RSV - were very real.\n\nHe said hospitals were facing huge pressures with 19 out of 20 beds occupied with difficulties discharging patients who needed support in the community a key problem.\n\nSir Stephen said this was a major cause of the handover delays ambulances were facing as staff were struggling find beds for new patients.\n\nMatthew Taylor, of the NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, said the data showed the NHS was facing \"one of the worst winters for decades\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Lucy Letby is accused of murdering seven babies and trying to kill 10 others\n\nLucy Letby helped make a celebration banner to mark a baby girl's 100 days birthday just hours before attempting to kill her, the nurse's trial heard.\n\nMs Letby is accused of attempting to murder the premature baby, referred to as Child G, three times at the Countess of Chester Hospital in September 2015.\n\nOn one occasion, Child G's mother found her daughter \"freaking out and screaming\" after being left in Ms Letby's care.\n\nManchester Crown Court heard how Child G was born almost 16 weeks prematurely at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral and weighed just over 1lb.\n\nShe was transferred to the neonatal unit in Chester at 13 weeks.\n\nThe court heard Ms Letby was on the last of a run of four night shifts when the baby suddenly became ill in the early hours of 7 September 2015.\n\nThe babies were being cared for on the neonatal ward at Countess of Chester Hospital\n\nShe had vomited violently and was bleeding from the throat before suffering a collapse.\n\nDoctors were called and the baby was moved to intensive care where she was resuscitated.\n\nIt is alleged Ms Letby had over-fed Child G.\n\nThe jury has previously been told the baby survived but suffered irreversible brain damage and has multiple disabilities including quadriplegic cerebral palsy.\n\nIn a statement read to the court, Child G's mother described an occasion when Ms Letby had told her that she needed to take her daughter's blood readings.\n\nShe said: \"She said 'wait in the parents' room' which was not unusual, because nurses often say 'go out and come back later'. So I went for a coffee but something pinched me, and so I went back early.\n\n\"[Child G] was freaking out and screaming. She looked so puzzled.\n\n\"Lucy was with another member of staff trying to calm her down, they let me hold her in the end because that's what calmed her down - cuddles\".\n\nIn a separate statement, Child G's father said he \"never saw anything\" that caused any concerns about any of the nurses or doctors.\n\nHe also said in his statement that his daughter was given a 5% chance of survival upon her birth, and was so tiny she was no bigger than his hand.\n\nThe day after Child G's collapse, the court was told that at 16:25 BST Ms Letby texted a former nursing colleague, who cannot be named for legal reasons.\n\nShe asked: \"How are parents?\"\n\nThe colleague replied: \"Devastated but determined she'll get through as always. Thought that if she got to 100 then they would feel confident she'd be fine.\"\n\nMs Letby responded: \"Awful isn't it. We'd all been sat at desk at start of the shift making banner.\"\n\nThe other nurse replied: \"Yup. Mary brought her cake in.\"\n\nAn hour later, Ms Letby asked: \"Any idea what's caused it.\"\n\nThe nurse replied: \"Nope. Just seems to be a [circulatory] collapse. Chest seems clear\".\n\nMs Letby replied: \"Hmmm. What can cause that? Is it that she's been an extreme prem who had long term inotrope and vent dependency and now she's older and doing more for herself and it just takes a little bug or something to tip her over as no reserves and chronic lung etc.\"\n\nThe nurse replied: \"We are going with sepsis, and yes to no reserves, she looks grim\".\n\nMs Letby denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others.\n\nA court order bans the reporting of the identities of the children allegedly attacked by Ms Letby, while identifying parents or some witnesses is also banned.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. CCTV footage from a recycling plant shows what is believed to be exploding batteries shooting across the room\n\nBatteries thrown in household rubbish bins cause about 700 fires every year in dustcarts and waste-processing centres, local authorities say.\n\nLithium-ion batteries can explode if damaged or crushed.\n\nThe Environmental Services Association says resulting fires cost fire services and waste operators some £158m a year.\n\nNon-profit organisation Material Focus, which surveyed local authorities, runs an online search tool to help people find their nearest recycling point.\n\nFound in small, rechargeable devices such as toothbrushes, toys, phones and laptops, lithium-ion batteries have become more powerful in recent years.\n\nSmaller, frequently used and cheaper devices - even some musical greeting cards - often have \"hidden batteries\".\n\nBen Johnson, from the Environmental Services Association (ESA), told BBC News \"more and more people were putting devices containing these batteries in with household rubbish\" or mixing them with other recycling.\n\n\"That causes a real problem, because they have a tendency - when damaged - to explode or ignite,\" he said.\n\n\"And when you put them in general rubbish or recycling, they're likely to be crushed, compacted, smashed or they might get wet.\n\n\"That can cause them to short-circuit. And of course they're then in the presence of other flammable material like plastic, paper and card and that can lead to quite big fires.\"\n\nThe main type of rechargeable battery in portable consumer electronics, they consist of two electrodes divided by a separator that allows charged particles - lithium ions - to flow, through a solvent, from one to the other.\n\nRecharging the battery pushes the ions back to where they started.\n\nIf the battery is intact and contained, it is generally very safe.\n\nBut if the electrodes make direct contact with each other, it can cause all the charged particles to suddenly discharge in an explosion, which, as the chemicals inside the battery are flammable, can quickly cause a fire.\n\nThe source of a major fire at a recycling centre in Aberdeen was not confirmed but the company says it was most likely linked to a discarded battery\n\nNational Fire Chiefs Council waste-fires lead Mark Andrews said the problem was growing as people used and disposed of more electronic devices.\n\n\"We urge people to recycle electricals and batteries and not to dispose of them with general household waste,\" he said.\n\n\"These fires can be challenging for fire services to deal with, have a significant impact on local communities and present a real risk to staff working on lorries and waste plants.\n\n\"Everyone can do their bit and prevent fires by ensuring they dispose of electrical items correctly.\"\n\nLaura Fisher, from waste-management company FCC Environment, said: \"The best thing is for people to bring any batteries to their local recycling centre or to any major supermarket - most of them tend to have a recycling bin for batteries there.\"\n\nFire safety experts and electrical-waste campaigners are also calling for clearer rules on the safe disposal of batteries - including how to recycle them. The government has now delayed a consultation on this issue until 2023.", "Sam Bankman-Fried said he had not deliberately misled investors\n\nSam Bankman-Fried, the former boss of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has denied committing fraud.\n\nMaking his first public appearance since the collapse, the man once hailed as the 'King of Crypto' told The New York Times he had had a \"bad month\" and had almost no money left.\n\nFTX fell apart last month, having once been valued at $32bn (£26.5bn).\n\nMany investors have not been able to withdraw their funds from the now bankrupt global exchange.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried, 30, also said his lawyers had advised him not to speak publicly, but he had ignored them.\n\nHe denied having moved any personal money out of FTX himself - saying he now has \"close to nothing.\"\n\nSpeaking from The Bahamas, he said he had one credit card left which had around $100,000 of debt on it.\n\nIn the interview he said he had not deliberately misled investors, adding: \"I didn't ever try to commit fraud.\"\n\nHowever, asked several times about details of money movements between FTX and other entities, including the trading firm he owned, Alameda Research, he at times seemed sketchy in detail.\n\nHe also said the company had indulged in \"greenwashing\" where firms engage in environmental projects for publicity.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried was once viewed as a young version of legendary US investor Warren Buffett, and as recently as late October had a net worth estimated at more than $15bn.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Are crypto-currencies the future of money?\n\nHowever, he says, he underestimated the sheer amount of cash needed to cover FTX customers' withdrawals - leading to a run on the exchange.\n\nMany crypto firms have struggled with the downturn in the broader economy and amid concerns about the viability of crypto currencies more generally.\n\nFTX declared bankruptcy soon after. Mr Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO on 11 November.\n\nAccording to a court filing earlier this month, FTX currently owes its 50 largest creditors almost $3.1bn.\n\nMr Bankman-Fried had become well known in Washington DC as a political donor, supposedly supporting pandemic prevention and improved crypto regulation.\n\nBut in his talk with Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin, Mr Bankman-Fried confessed much of his Washington DC work had been PR \"masquerading as do-gooderism.\"\n\nSam Bankman-Fried was speaking from the Bahamas\n\nMr Bankman-Fried said for now he was not concerned about potential criminal or civil liability.\n\n\"There's a time and a place for me to think about myself and my own future,\" he said after starting and stopping several times. \"I don't think this is it.\"\n\nWhen asked if he had been truthful in his responses, Mr Bankman-Fried said he was as truthful as he knowledgeably could be. \"I don't know of times when I lied,\" he said.\n\nThough he did not provide evidence to support it, SBF said he believed FTX US was solvent and could in fact pay back American investors.", "Grand Union Trains' managing director Ian Yeowart said the decision was a \"shock\"\n\nPlans to run extra trains between south Wales and London have been rejected by an industry regulator.\n\nGrand Union Trains wanted to run seven daily return services between Cardiff Central and Paddington from December.\n\nIt also hoped to extend services to Carmarthen from December 2023.\n\nThe Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said uncertainty over economic recovery and passenger demand because of Covid could pose \"significant risks to the success of this specific operation\".\n\nBut its main reason for rejecting the application was because of a financial forecast which suggested it would have cost millions to the Department for Transport, as well as Great Western Railway (GWR).\n\nThe ORR has to consider the impact open-access services have on franchised services as well as the impact on public sector funding.\n\nGrand Union Trains managing director Ian Yeowart said the decision had come as a \"shock\" as he felt the figures were within acceptable limits.\n\n\"We are not going to accept the decision as it is because it is not right,\" he said.\n\n\"Our lawyers are looking at it to see how we progress.\"\n\nGrand Union announced its plans in July 2019 saying, if agreed, they would create 135 jobs.\n\nIt planned to run seven return services a day between Cardiff Central and London Paddington, calling at Newport, Severn Tunnel Junction and Bristol Parkway from December.\n\nFrom December 2023, it hoped to extend the services between Carmarthen and London Paddington, with limited stops at Llanelli and Swansea and then calling at Newport, Severn Tunnel Junction and Bristol Parkway.\n\nThe ORR report said: \"New open-access services can offer new travel opportunities for users and create competition on existing flows.\n\n\"However, greater competition can also mean a loss of revenue for the services operated by existing operators, for example franchisees.\n\n\"In situations where franchised operators bear revenue risk, this revenue loss is expected eventually to lead to lower premium payments by franchised operators to the Department for Transport (DfT), or higher subsidy payments from DfT to operators.\"\n• None The Office of Rail and Road The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "University Hospitals Birmingham is one of the largest teaching hospital trusts in England\n\nWhistleblowers at one of England's worst performing hospital trusts have said a climate of fear among staff is putting patients at risk.\n\nFormer and current clinicians at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust allege they were punished by management for raising safety concerns, a BBC Newsnight investigation found.\n\nOne insider said the trust was \"a bit like the mafia\".\n\nThe trust said it took \"patient safety very seriously\".\n\nIt said it had a \"high reporting culture of incidents\" to ensure accountability and learning.\n\nStaff concerns included a dangerous shortage of nurses and a lack of communication leading to some haematology patients dying without receiving treatment, an investigation by BBC Newsnight and BBC West Midlands found.\n\nThe trust - which is rated \"requires improvement\" by healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission - is one of the largest in the UK, with four hospitals serving more than two million patients a year.\n\nThe deaths of 20 patients in the haematology department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which is run by the trust, led to a review in 2017 by consultant Emmanouil Nikolousis.\n\nMr Nikolousis, who left the trust in 2020, told the BBC he was shocked by the failings he found and believes patients' lives could have been saved.\n\nA report by Mr Nikolousis criticised a lack of \"ownership\" of patients and a lack of communication among senior clinicians. In some cases this led to patients dying without having received treatment, he said.\n\n\"Certainly there should have been different actions done,\" he said. \"They could be saved. Certainly, when you don't have an action done, then you don't really know the outcome.\"\n\n\"All these diseases in haematology, they're highly complex…they require immediate management and they require ownership of the patient. And quite a lot of times they require coordination of the teams, and that certainly hasn't happened.\"\n\nMr Nikolousis said he felt he had no option but to quit after his findings were ignored and his position was made \"untenable\". He left the NHS after 18 years.\n\n\"They were trying, as they did with other colleagues, to completely sort of ruin your career,\" he said.\n\nAnother clinician, who the BBC has agreed not to identify, said when they and other consultants raised safety concerns they would be \"punished quite quickly and quite harshly\".\n\n\"They will make all kinds of spurious investigations and they will try to intimidate you that way,\" the whistleblower said.\n\nIn the past decade, the trust has referred 26 of its doctors to the General Medical Council, which can investigate a doctor's fitness to practise, a Freedom of Information Act request by an NHS safety campaigner found. In all cases the GMC took no further action.\n\nEye surgeon Tristan Reuser was referred to the GMC in 2017, several months after raising concerns about a lack of nurses to support operations at the Heart of England NHS Trust, which merged with UHB in 2018. On one occasion he needed to perform emergency eye surgery, but there were no nurses to help and he resorted to using an untrained, non-clinical staff member to assist the procedure.\n\nHe said that whistleblowers were subjected to \"victimisation and retribution using GMC referrals\".\n\n\"I think my case particularly, I have no doubt that that was true,\" he said.\n\n\"If you criticise senior management, they'll have you.\"\n\nThe GMC took no further action against Mr Reuser, but issued a formal warning against the hospital's medical director David Rosser for not telling them the eye surgeon was a whistleblower. It said his conduct risked \"bringing the profession into disrepute and it must not be repeated\". Mr Rosser is now chief executive of UHB. He is due to stand down at the end of the year for another NHS role in the region.\n\nAlthough the tribunal found that Mr Reuser was unfairly dismissed, the trust told the BBC that the tribunal did not support his claim that he was dismissed because of his whistleblowing and pointed to other whistleblowing doctors against whom they say no action was taken.\n\nMr Reuser said he remains worried that patients would suffer if senior management did not listen to criticism about safety issues.\n\n\"Somebody has to speak up on behalf of the patients,\" he said. \"I felt a moral obligation to speak out about this, because what happens in Birmingham, what happens to Birmingham patients is just shocking.\"\n\nIn the 12 months from April 2020, there were 12 \"never events\" - serious safety incidents which should never happen if proper safety procedures are correctly implemented. That was the highest figure in the country for the period. The number fell to four in the following 12-month period.\n\nThe trust said: \"All patient safety concerns and incidents are rigorously investigated to prevent harm to our patients.\"\n\nIt said there were well-established routes and support in place for staff to raise concerns, and it promoted and encouraged this.\n\nHave you been affected by issues covered in this story? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "As we report on the Prince and Princess of Wales's visit to Boston in the US, the racism row involving a member of the Royal Household has provoked much reaction in the UK.\n\nAcross the BBC, we've been hearing the reaction of some black British people to the incident, as well as their own experiences of being asked the question: \"Where are you from?\"\n\nQuote Message: As a black woman born and living in the UK - a melting pot of different cultures - I find this question a loaded one, one that seeks to put me in a box: where am I in relation to you? A judgement based on the colour of my skin when my very identity is made up of so many things. I am not a single narrative, I am not a stereotype and until we share a diversity of stories, dangerous assumptions will persist. from Amanda Mukwashi Author As a black woman born and living in the UK - a melting pot of different cultures - I find this question a loaded one, one that seeks to put me in a box: where am I in relation to you? A judgement based on the colour of my skin when my very identity is made up of so many things. I am not a single narrative, I am not a stereotype and until we share a diversity of stories, dangerous assumptions will persist.\n\nQuote Message: “I don’t think that there is a person of colour who hasn’t had those experiences.... It’s wearying, it’s exhausting, but one sort of lives with it, and the time has come for us not to have to live with it any longer. from Margaret Casely-Hayford Board member of Coop, chair of Shakespeare's Globe, and lawyer “I don’t think that there is a person of colour who hasn’t had those experiences.... It’s wearying, it’s exhausting, but one sort of lives with it, and the time has come for us not to have to live with it any longer. Board member of Coop, chair of Shakespeare's Globe, and lawyer\n\nQuote Message: I've had similar experiences... maybe not necessarily the consistency of the line of inquiry - I don’t think I’ve ever had that type of experience - but certainly people have asked me, 'Where are you from?' or 'Where are you really from?' But having said that, to be honest, you just learn to move on with these things. from Samuel Kasumu Former advisor to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson I've had similar experiences... maybe not necessarily the consistency of the line of inquiry - I don’t think I’ve ever had that type of experience - but certainly people have asked me, 'Where are you from?' or 'Where are you really from?' But having said that, to be honest, you just learn to move on with these things. Former advisor to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson\n\nQuote Message: These types of experiences are commonplace across every facet of society, and it’s something that people of colour have to learn to navigate and understand and deal with as a normal part of our existence in British society... It’s not just in these particular elite spaces if you will… but in the workplace, walking down the road, shopping, just general living. from Prof Nicola Rollock Author and Professor of Social Policy and Race at King's College London These types of experiences are commonplace across every facet of society, and it’s something that people of colour have to learn to navigate and understand and deal with as a normal part of our existence in British society... It’s not just in these particular elite spaces if you will… but in the workplace, walking down the road, shopping, just general living. Author and Professor of Social Policy and Race at King's College London", "Great Western Railway currently operates trains between London Paddington and south west Wales\n\nPlans for a new rail service from south west Wales to London have been approved by an industry regulator.\n\nThe new service will start running from the end of 2024, and allow for a significant increase in services, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said.\n\nGrand Union Trains plans to operate five daily return services between Carmarthen and London Paddington.\n\nThe decision opens up the route to competition for the first time, potentially bringing lower fares.\n\nDirector of Strategy, Policy and Reform at ORR, Stephanie Tobyn said: \"This decision supports more choice for passengers, new direct journey opportunities, more price competition, and new comfortable trains.\n\n\"The added competition should also make a significant contribution to innovation in terms of the routes served, ticketing practices and service quality improvements, by both Grand Union and through the response of existing operators.\"\n\nTrains will also call at Bristol Parkway, Severn Tunnel Junction, Newport, Cardiff, Gowerton and Llanelli stations.\n\nCurrently the route is operated by Great Western Railway.\n\nGrand Union Trains says passengers will have bigger seats with more legroom\n\nThe approved plans also include a commitment by Grand Union Trains to build a new \"parkway\" station at Felindre, north of Swansea, which would reduce journey times from Carmarthen and Llanelli to Cardiff and onto London by around 20 minutes.\n\nGrand Unions Trains managing director Ian Yeowart said the operator may have to use the line through Gowerton and Swansea for the first few years until the new station at Felindre, near junction 46 of the M4, is built.\n\n\"But Swansea City Council and Carmarthenshire council are supportive of the new station.\n\n\"The challenge will be to get the station built and the new trains built but there is every possibility of this happening,\" Mr Yeowart said.\n\n\"We would expect to start in December 2024 and be fully operational well in to 2025. But this is great news for south Wales.\"\n\nGrand Union Trains has also said it plans to upgrade facilities and improve access at Severn Tunnel Junction station.\n\nCeri Thomas uses the train to visit family\n\nCeri Thomas, 57, from Neath, Port Talbot, welcomed any competition on the line that might bring down the price of train fares.\n\n\"And if it's going to give better service, and also it's electric, that's the way forward,\" she added.\n\n\"We're all looking at prices at the end of the day.\"\n\nAndrii Zhuravskyi, 23, from Cardiff agreed lower fares would be welcome.\n\nAndrii Zhuravskyi says currently travelling to London means either an expensive train ticket or a long coach journey\n\n\"I don't know what the prices are going to be but one of the biggest problems that I've seen in the UK while I've been here is that trains are very expensive,\" he said.\n\n\"I've heard various reasons as to why that is the case but being able to get a plane to Poland or to the Netherlands and have a return that is cheaper than a return [from London] to Cardiff is very weird.\"\n\nGrand Union Trains' application was disputed by infrastructure company Network Rail due to concerns about capacity on the network.\n\nBut the regulator said that, after \"careful consideration and analysis\", it had directed Network Rail to enter into a contract with the operator.\n\nA fleet of new bi-mode trains powered by electricity or diesel will be used.\n\nPassengers will benefit from \"best experience in the market\" with bigger seats, more legroom, increased luggage space and a buffet car on every service, according to Grand Union Trains.\n\nThe project is being developed in partnership with European investment company Serena Industrial Partners and Spanish train operator Renfe.\n\nThe new service will run from London Paddington to Carmarthen\n\nGrand Union Trains will be an open access operator which means it will not receive subsidies from public funds.\n\nThe government issues contracts for most train services on Britain's railways.\n\nThe four existing open access operators are Grand Central, which runs trains from Bradford and Sunderland to London King's Cross; Heathrow Express which runs between Heathrow Airport and London Paddington; Hull Trains, which runs services from Hull/Beverly to London King's Cross and Lumo, which operates on the line between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley.", "Marlene Asare, Niamh Fotheringham and Emma McDougall know fellow pupils who have struggled with anxiety\n\nChildren missing from school for long periods will be supported instead of being punished under a new pilot programme in Glasgow.\n\nOverall school attendance has dropped across Scotland since the disruption of the Covid pandemic.\n\nUnder the new scheme, psychologists and community workers will visit homes to help pupils overcome anxiety, stress and mental health issues.\n\nThe project is being launched across all of Glasgow's schools next week.\n\nThe 12-month pilot will initially target children who attend school less than 60% of the time and is expected to work one-on-one with at least 250 pupils from secondary and primary schools.\n\nThe scheme, called REACH, is being run jointly by Glasgow City Council and the charity Quarriers.\n\nThe Scottish government said it was providing local authorities with funding to help with poor wellbeing and mental health.\n\nGlasgow City Council's principal educational psychologist, Barry Syme, said the aim was to intervene early to support young people and help divert them from the adult mental health system and much worse outcomes and more expensive interventions.\n\nHe said: \"Instead of looking at it as a problem and punishing families for non-attendance, we looked at the underlying reasons for that.\"\n\nMr Syme said the term \"emotionally based school non-attendance\" was used to describe when a child feels unable to attend school because of stress or other wellbeing barriers.\n\nHe added: \"Covid prevented a lot of young people experiencing opportunities because they were at home and that is going to be a real challenge and we probably haven't seen what the impact of that has been.\"\n\nColin Simpson, service co-ordinator for schools services with Quarriers, told BBC Scotland: \"What is different about this service is that we are able to go into schools and spend time with them and their families in the home to overcome some of these anxieties and mental health challenges by providing a supportive relationship in the home.\"\n\nHead teacher Lisa Pierotti said some children lacked confidence and resilience\n\nSt Paul's Roman Catholic school in the Pollok area of Glasgow will be involved in the pilot.\n\nHead teacher Lisa Pierotti said the project was part of a range of strategies in place to support young people who had found it very difficult post-Covid to settle back into some kind of normality in school.\n\nShe said there were a number of reasons why children were not attending.\n\n\"It's a lack of confidence and a bit of a lack of resilience for some young people,\" she said.\n\n\"They need lots of support and that's what schools are here to offer along with working with families in partnership.\"\n\nRobert Smith attends regularly but understands why other pupils might find it difficult\n\nRobert Smith, 17, is a pupil at the school.\n\nHe attends regularly but understands why other pupils might find it difficult.\n\n\"A reason people might not come to school is because there might be family issues, so there's not someone in the house pushing them to go to school,\" he said.\n\n\"And if you don't have someone behind you encouraging you to go, as a teenager you're not going to go because there's no repercussions, there's no-one moaning at you if you don't go.\"\n\nEmma McDougall, 17, said: \"It's not only exam pressures that people felt when they came back from Covid it was also social pressures like they felt anxious to talk to new people because they were away from people for so long it caused even more anxiety.\"\n\nMarlene Asare, 17, loves school but said it can make others anxious.\n\n\"For one of my friends it was a big struggle for them to come to school,\" she said.\n\n\"They said they always felt anxiety and nervous - you know that feeling that everyone is looking at you but they're not.\"\n\nEducation Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: \"Poor wellbeing and motivation can be some of the underlying causes that can have an impact on attendance and learning.\"\n\n\"It is important that school should also work with families to support and engage pupils in attendance at school,\" she said.", "Clothing chain Joules has been rescued from administration by retail giant Next and founder Tom Joule.\n\nUnder the £34m deal, Next says it intends to keep about 100 Joules stores open and save 1,450 jobs.\n\nHowever, 19 stores will be closed with immediate effect with the loss of 133 posts.\n\nJoules, known for its premium, brightly-coloured clothes, collapsed into administration last month after failing to secure emergency investment.\n\nLike other retailers, the Leicestershire-based firm has struggled against a backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic and cost-of-living pressures.\n\nUnder the terms of the deal, Next will take a 74% stake in the business, with Tom Joule owning the rest. Next has also paid £7m to buy the current Joules head office.\n\nNext will continue to operate Joules' website but will also sell Joules-branded clothing through its own e-commerce platform from 2024.\n\nThe chief executive of Next, Lord Wolfson, said: \"We are excited to see what can be achieved through the combination of Joules' exceptional product, marketing and brand building skills with Next's Total Platform infrastructure.\"\n\nTom Joule, who founded Joules in 1989, said the deal would protect the future of the company for its \"loyal customers, its employees and also for the town of Market Harborough, which have been so central to Joules' success\".\n\nMr Joule stepped back from designing Joules' products in 2019, but recently returned to be the company's product director.\n\nNext said that after completion of the rescue deal, Mr Joule would \"take the lead in re-establishing the clear identity of both brand and product\".\n\nThis is a good outcome for Joules. And it's the second business Next has bought out of administration in the space of about a month.\n\nJoules had been seen as a success story, valued at £140m when it floated on the stock exchange in 2016. Today though, after tough competition, Next snapped up most of it for £34m.\n\nJoules had lost its way. It spent £20m on a new head office less than a year ago and it also bought an online furniture accessories business, adding complexity and cost.\n\nStore closures are painful but this swift rescue deal means Joules will survive as a brand on the High Street as well as benefit from Next's online infrastructure to drive sales.\n\nSusannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the deal was \"not without risk\" for Next.\n\n''The deal with founder Tom Joules will see the distinctive wellies, coats and fleeces sold alongside its directory of other brands at a time when consumer spending power has taken a hit,\" she said.\n\n\"Although this is a tried and tested strategy with Reiss, Gap and Victoria Secret Secret also sold on the Total Platform [Next's e-commerce platform], with Next scooping up commissions on sales there are niggles of worry that this retail powerhouse could soon be biting off more than it can chew.\"\n\n\"Next also has to devote attention to the effect of soaring inflation on its wider business, which is looming large over the group's customer base, and regardless of management's best efforts, it's likely to squeeze margins,\" she said.\n\nJoules is the latest brand to be picked up by Next after getting into trouble.\n\nLast month, Next bought furniture retailer Made.com's brand name, website and intellectual property after that company fell into administration.\n\nIn April, Next took a 44% stake in baby goods retailer JoJo Maman Bebe as part of a deal which saw the rest of the business acquired by a group of finance firms.\n\nThere are fears other retailers could struggle as the cost of living soars.\n\nHigh Street giant Marks and Spencer has warned of a \"gathering storm\" of higher costs for businesses and pressure on household budgets, adding that \"all parts\" of retail will be affected.", "Dawn Lewis admitted stabbing Glenn Richards, but said it was in self-defence\n\nA yoga teacher has been found guilty of murdering her lodger after he refused to move out.\n\nDawn Lewis, 54, stabbed Glenn Richards, 61, on the evening of 18 April at her cottage in Glastonbury.\n\nLewis claimed she had acted in self-defence, but was convicted by jurors at Bristol Crown Court earlier.\n\nAn expert said knife wounds to her leg were probably self-inflicted and she previously told friends she planned to stab the victim and then herself.\n\nThe jury deliberated for less than nine hours, coming to a majority verdict of 11-1.\n\nLewis will be sentenced on Friday and Judge William Hart told her to expect a life sentence.\n\nGlenn Richards lived in Dawn Lewis' house for five months before he died\n\nLewis said Mr Richards, who she had known for 12 years, started changing his behaviour not long after he moved in at the end of last year.\n\nShe said he became \"very distressed and depressed\" due to losing his job in the charity shop where they met.\n\nAngry text messages shown to the jury revealed their relationship rapidly deteriorated in the five months they were living together.\n\nThe court heard Mr Richards had asked Lewis to marry him so she could have his pension when he died, despite her being gay and in a relationship. She said he grew jealous of all of her male friends.\n\nShe told the court his behaviour became \"stalkerish\" and he intentionally walked in on her in the shower or in bed, even when he knew she was having sex.\n\nDuring the trial, the court heard Mr Richards had served time in prison for stabbing his ex-wife to death in front of their two children in 2002 while in the grip of mental illness.\n\nMr Richards served nine years for manslaughter and was released in 2011.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The moment Dawn Lewis is arrested in Glastonbury\n\nHe had been living in council housing in Street, Somerset, before moving in with Lewis.\n\nFriends of Lewis said she had previously discussed at a dinner party how she might get away with murder by stabbing someone then turning the knife on herself.\n\nPeter Bredell told the court on Wednesday that in a video call on the day of the killing, Ms Lewis told him: \"I am going to stab him and stab myself\".\n\nHe then mimed the stabbing motion to the leg she allegedly made with the knife.\n\nNeighbour George Schomburg said Lewis had made a similar claim at a dinner party a few months earlier.\n\nThe jury was told the doctor who stitched up Ms Lewis's three wounds suggested they might have been self-inflicted because they were all in the same place and of decreasing severity.\n\nDoctor Imran Khan said often if the first wound was painful, the following were more hesitant and less severe.\n\nLewis told the court she began carrying a knife out of fear Mr Richards might hurt her, but she said she did not contact the police because she did not want to put him in jeopardy owing to his previous convictions.\n\nBut prosecutor Eloise Marshall KC challenged Lewis and said: \"You weren't scared.\"\n\nWhen Lewis called 999 on 18 April, paramedics found her covered in blood and Mr Richards on the floor.\n\nJudge Hart reminded jurors of Lewis' evidence in which she claimed to have heard Mr Richards pacing upstairs before there was an \"almighty bang\".\n\nShe said she kicked down the door to his room and found him holding a knife before he lunged at her.\n\nLewis claimed she managed to grab the knife from him and stabbed him back.\n\nBut the prosecution argued Lewis had intended to kill Mr Richards and had stabbed him in the back as he walked away, before mocking-up the scene to make it look like he had attacked her.\n\nDet Insp Neil Meade of Avon and Somerset Police said Mr Richards had been \"estranged from his sons for a number of years\" but had recently begun to reconnect.\n\n\"They were due to meet up in the near future but Lewis' actions robbed them of this opportunity,\" he said.\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Family courts have powers to make significant interventions in family life\n\nFor the first time, journalists will be able to report what happens in family courts, under a pilot scheme.\n\nUntil now, reporters have been able to observe hearings but could only report what was allowed by a judge.\n\nThe 12-month pilot, which will not allow journalists to identify families, takes place in Leeds, Cardiff and Carlisle from the end of January.\n\nFamily courts have powers to make drastic interventions - such as ordering children be taken into care.\n\nThey also decide where children should live when parents cannot agree or where there are allegations of abuse.\n\nThe changes being trialled are potentially very significant, affecting a court system which involves at least half a million people every year.\n\nFrom the end of January, accredited journalists will be able to report what they see and hear as long as they protect the anonymity of families.\n\nLeeds, Cardiff and Carlisle have been chosen as a representative mix of rural and urban communities.\n\nDespite the fact that family courts have the power to make significant interventions in the lives of families, they are often criticised as \"secretive\" and there is very little reporting of them.\n\nThat is because, until now, journalists have been able to observe hearings but only report what is allowed by a judge, unless they go to the Court of Appeal.\n\nSir Andrew MacFarlane, the president of the family courts, has said \"there is a need for greater openness to build public confidence\".\n\nUnder the pilot, journalists will be able to name local authorities in care proceedings, as well as the director of local children's services. They won't, however, be able to name individual social workers, unless ordered by the court.\n\nThey will be allowed to name the lawyers involved, and the court-appointed experts, but not medical professionals treating children or any family member involved in a case.\n\nJournalists will be able to interview families about their cases, as long as they protect their identity.\n\nReporters will also be allowed to see some of the legal documents in cases, but will not be able to view any expert or medical reports without permission from the courts.\n\nAll of this is done through transparency orders, issued by the judge in each case. Judges will retain the right to refuse to issue one of these orders, and restrict reporting.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Levi's mum has shared the last video message from him sent just hours before he disappeared\n\nThe mum of a British rugby player who disappeared in Barcelona says the weeks since have been \"an emotional whirlwind\".\n\nLevi Davis has been missing in Spain for over a month, and mum Julie says the investigation has been \"very slow\".\n\nThe 24-year-old Worthing Raiders winger travelled by boat from Ibiza, where he visited a friend, on 29 October.\n\nHe was last seen on CCTV leaving the Old Irish Pub in the centre of Barcelona at about 22:00.\n\nThe rugby union player has not been seen or heard from since.\n\nJulie, from Solihull in the West Midlands, last had contact with her son a few hours before he went missing.\n\nHe sent her a video taken on board his boat from Ibiza, showing the view from the deck and telling her: \"It's beautiful here\".\n\nSince the end of October there have been a few possible sightings of Levi - but none have been confirmed as him.\n\nThen, almost two weeks ago, his passport was discovered at Barcelona's port area.\n\nSpanish police have confirmed this to the BBC, but say they can't comment on the investigation any further at this stage.\n\nJulie says she's frustrated by the lack of information on her son's whereabouts\n\n\"Since the last thing we heard about the passport, there's been no more information,\" she says.\n\nThe last few weeks have been \"the scariest time\" of her life and \"an emotional whirlwind\".\n\nShe travelled to Barcelona with her son Nathan a few weeks ago to search for Levi herself, and is planning to go back again soon.\n\nThe Irish Pub where Levi was last seen is on La Rambla - a touristy part of the city.\n\nIt's quiet when I go in at lunch time, but the staff tell me it gets busy on an evening - they're showing a lot of World Cup games at the moment.\n\nThe barmaid who served him isn't working, but other staff tell me Levi ordered a pint and watched sport on the TV before leaving.\n\nI ask lots of people on the street if they've heard about Levi - many of them have, but they don't know more than he's missing.\n\nJust a short distance from the bar - maybe a five to 10-minute walk - is the port.\n\nIt's busy, with a constant stream of ferries coming and going.\n\nThis is where Levi arrived into the city, and where his passport was discovered a couple of weeks ago.\n\nBut since then the trail has gone cold.\n\nJulie says Levi was very open about his mental health, and in the last few months he'd been dealing with a knee injury.\n\nShe thinks he needed some time to himself - as \"the accumulation of all the struggles and the injury\" had taken a toll mentally.\n\nAccording to his friend Tom Varndell, Levi had been trying to \"deal with things a bit more on his own\" in recent months.\n\n\"Rather than going out there and trying to seek help - or ask people for support,\" the former England rugby player adds.\n\nJulie says Levi's family are waiting for him: \"No matter what the problem is please don't think it can't be solved - it can\"\n\nWhen Levi's passport was found, Tom says his hopes were dashed a little bit.\n\nBut both Julie and Tom still believe there will be good news in the future.\n\nAnd Julie has this message for Levi: \"We're all missing you, all the family care for you so much. We just want you home, son.\n\n\"Please come home and we can sort out whatever is going on, together.\"\n\nLevi previously played for Bath Rugby, which shared the appeal over his disappearance a month ago.\n\nHe's also known for his TV appearances in ITV's Celebrity X Factor in 2019 and E4's Celebs Go Dating in 2020.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nArgentina completed the turnaround from the shock opening World Cup loss to Saudi Arabia by qualifying for the last 16 in impressive style against Poland - who went through on goal difference having finished level on points with Mexico.\n\nLionel Messi was the catalyst for the crucial win against Mexico that got Argentina's campaign back on track, and he was instrumental again as they illustrated why they were regarded as one of the tournament favourites to set up a second-round match against Australia.\n\nPoland were set to progress by virtue of the Fifa Fair Play rule for having fewer yellow cards than Mexico - until Saudi Arabia pulled one back deep into stoppage time in their 2-1 loss to the Concacaf side. That meant goal difference was decisive for the Poles, who will next face France.\n\nArgentina ran out comfortable winners with second-half goals from Brighton's Alexis Mac Allister and Manchester City striker Julian Alvarez, but the game still held real drama and jeopardy in the closing stages as Poland knew another goal conceded, or another goal for Mexico against the Saudis, would send them out on goals scored.\n\nArgentina dominated throughout but had to wait until after the second half to make the breakthrough as Messi had a first-half penalty saved by Poland keeper Wojciech Szczesny after the pair collided in an aerial challenge, a harsh award after a video assistant referee consultation.\n\nMac Allister gave Argentina the lead they deserved when he swept home Nahuel Molina's cross a minute after the break and Alvarez sealed victory with a fine finish into the top corner in the 67th minute.\n• None Mexico despair but Poland joy on 'crazy day of football'\n• None 'This was the night the real Argentina stood up'\n\nArgentina's improvement continued as they produced their best performance of the World Cup to outclass a disappointing Poland.\n\nThe Argentines shook off the shock of that stunning loss to Saudi Arabia to settle their nerves with a Messi-inspired win against Mexico then stepped up to another level to confirm a last-16 game against Australia.\n\nMessi's first-half penalty miss was a minor interruption on their path to victory as they held complete command of territory and possession against a passive Poland, especially given what was at stake.\n\nArgentina keeper Emi Martinez did not have a moment of anxiety and once Mac Allister put them ahead the game was virtually over, Alvarez confirming it with a superb strike past the excellent Szczesny that hinted at his own rich potential.\n\nMessi showed flashes of his mercurial best but this was a complete performance from Argentina who played with greater intensity and fire than they have so far.\n\nThey have taken their time to show why they are so highly regarded but produced plenty of evidence here to illustrate just how dangerous they will be in the knockout stage.\n\nIt was symbolic of this lacklustre Poland performance that their greatest show of passion all night came after the game had finished when they punched the air as news of Saudi Arabia's goal against Mexico that confirmed their place in the last 16 filtered down on to the pitch.\n\nPoland's players revelled in the good tidings as they waved red and white flags on the pitch, barely able to believe they were through to face France.\n\nThey can consider themselves fortunate to be there after this poor performance in which they never troubled Argentina and the great striker Robert Lewandowski did not receive any service worthy of the name.\n\nOne exception to the mediocre fare from the rest of his colleagues was former Arsenal goalkeeper Szczesny, who was magnificent throughout, saving Messi's penalty and producing other stops in a faultless display.\n\nPoland are through and enjoyed their celebration but they will have to step up several levels to trouble France.\n• None Attempt blocked. Nicolás Tagliafico (Argentina) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Thiago Almada.\n• None Attempt missed. Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left.\n• None Grzegorz Krychowiak (Poland) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt missed. Julián Álvarez (Argentina) right footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Lionel Messi with a through ball. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Labour has said it would \"fast-track\" asylum applications from countries considered safe, to help clear a mounting backlog of claims.\n\nThe party says it would cut the number of Albanians put up in hotels after crossing the Channel in small boats.\n\nLess than 1% of Albanian applications in the past year have been decided.\n\nThe asylum backlog has ballooned in recent years, with the number of people awaiting an initial decision on their application standing at 143,377.\n\nThe government has not ruled out setting up a fast-track system for Albanians, similar to what is being proposed by Labour.\n\nThe asylum process allows people to apply to live in the UK to escape war, persecution and human rights abuses in their home countries.\n\nMinisters are under pressure to speed up the claims process, because the backlog has led to a multimillion-pound daily bill to put them up in hotels whilst their claims are heard.\n\nLabour says it would fast-track applications from countries designated safe - a list including countries like India and Brazil as well as Albania.\n\nShadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said this would mean \"clearly unfounded\" cases could be decided quickly as a way of clearing the backlog.\n\nShe told the BBC that \"more complex\" cases would require further consideration.\n\n\"But we also know there are very straightforward cases that should be able to be decided very swiftly,\" she added.\n\nThe party has not provided detail of how the fast-tracking would work, but said it would be based on similar schemes in Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.\n\nIt points out that the UN's refugee agency has said an accelerated process for clearly unfounded claims can comply with international refugee law, as long as certain safeguards are met.\n\nCurrently, asylum claims from designated safe countries are normally considered unfounded - unless the person applying can show otherwise.\n\nIf that fails, they generally do not have the right to appeal. They can, however, try to argue the decision was unlawful on procedural grounds.\n\nLabour introduced a fast-track scheme for safe countries when it was last in power in 2002, which involved detaining applicants at a former army barracks near Cambridge whilst their applications were processed.\n\nThat scheme was mired in legal challenges, however, and was eventually suspended in 2015.\n\nMs Cooper said the \"existing system\" would apply to asylum applicants waiting for a decision under Labour's latest proposals, suggesting the party is not looking to replicate detention in its new plan.\n\nShe said her party wanted to \"properly resource\" the asylum system, as part of a broader package of measures to grip the \"chaotic\" backlog in claims.\n\nThe Home Office says it has increased the number of asylum caseworkers, and is increasingly digitising the process to speed up case handling.", "Northern Ireland Office officials were debating flag policies in the 1990s, archived memos reveal\n\nAn end to flying the union flag from government buildings on 12 July would \"redress the effects of patriotic exuberance\" by a unionist government in NI, a government memo from 1994 says.\n\nThe note is among almost 500 documents from the 1990s now published online.\n\nIn it, Northern Ireland Office (NIO) officials were debating whether to bring government flag policy into line with that in England and Wales.\n\nThe files were previously available at the Public Record Office of NI (PRONI).\n\nAnother memo notes that \"only one (Irish) chair had been smashed up by a guest in the early hours\" at a St Patrick's Day party for Irish and British diplomats.\n\nThe documents are available on the Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN) website, as part of a partnership between PRONI and Ulster University.\n\nAt one point, it had been under threat of closure but its future was secured by new funding in 2021.\n\nThe decision to fly the union flag on government buildings on the Twelfth had originally been taken by the Northern Ireland cabinet in April 1933.\n\nIn 1994, both the IRA and Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) declared ceasefires.\n\nIt was in that context that NIO officials debated whether the policy on flying the union flag should change.\n\nThey also considered some designs for a new Northern Ireland flag suggested by an academic called Dr Martin Ball.\n\nAn artistic impression of the \"proposed new flag for Northern Ireland\" based on a design suggested in the 1995 memo\n\n\"There is much to be said for an early initiative to demonstrate government's readiness to grasp the nettle of identity issues rather than appearing to concede to pressure from Sinn Féin at a later stage,\" one NIO memo stated.\n\n\"Regrettably, the union flag lacks in Northern Ireland the politically neutral connotations which it enjoys in the rest of the United Kingdom.\n\n\"However, any decision to remove 12 July from the list of prescribed days - even though the day itself would continue to be a bank and public holiday - may be expected to provoke some strong unionist reaction.\n\n\"The day is redolent with unionist political overtones and the delisting of it for flag-flying purposes would be interpreted as a dissociation by the state from the unionist tradition.\"\n\nAnother memo also warned that not flying the union flag on government buildings on 12 July \"would undoubtedly provoke unionist ire\".\n\nAnother official, though, asked: \"Is this what we want? Now?\n\n\"Surely there are better arguments than to say we are kicking unionists before Sinn Féin ask us to?\"\n\nAn artistic impression of the \"South African-style proposal\" which was among the suggestions for a new NI flag in the 1995 memo\n\nNevertheless, the writer of that memo, an official called PN Bell, said the move was a \"courageous (in the 'yes, minister' sense) proposal\".\n\n\"Slán agus beannacht,\" he signed off his memo, an Irish-language phrase often translated as goodbye and God bless.\n\nIn the event, the Flags (Northern Ireland) Order 2000 eventually brought official flag-flying in Northern Ireland more closely into line with the rest of the UK with little fanfare or protest.\n\nHowever, there were widespread loyalist protests following a later decision by Belfast City Council in 2012 to fly the union flag at City Hall only on designated days.\n\nA vote to reduce flag-flying at Belfast City Hall led to protest marches and rallies in 2012\n\nA later memo from March 1997 lauds the success of a St Patrick's Day reception held for NIO and Irish government officials at the Anglo-Irish Secretariat building outside Belfast.\n\n\"The Irish side reckoned that, although the numbers were slightly down on the last Christmas reception, approximately 250 people had attended, and only one (Irish) chair had been smashed up by a guest in the early hours,\" it recorded.\n\nOther NIO memos from the time include the government's responses to Orange Order requests for \"confidence-building measures\", including that the Order was \"a cultural group worthy of funding on the same scale as Gaelic language groups, Gaelic schools, Gaelic Athletic Association etc\".\n\n\"By and large, the requests cannot be met to any great extent,\" the NIO memo stated.\n\nMany of the state papers reflect the run-up to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and the politics of the time.\n\nBut some now published online reflect other events.\n\nFor instance, minutes of a meeting between the then secretary of state Peter Brooke and Catholic bishops in 1989 reflected the bishops' concern that education reform would favour integrated schools over Catholic schools.\n\nThere is also a letter from the former owner of Harrods department store Mohamed Al-Fayed to the former Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MLA Sir John Gorman.\n\nSir John was the chair of the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue, a body set up in 1996 to try to bring politicians together before the Good Friday Agreement.\n\nSir John had written to Mr Al-Fayed to offer condolences after his son Dodi was killed alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, and their driver in a car crash in Paris in 1997.\n\nA tribute to the late Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed was erected in Harrods in the late 1990s\n\n\"Dodi was always kind, gentle and decent,\" Mr Al-Fayed wrote in reply.\n\n\"The whole family loved Princess Diana but Dodi cherished her friendship more dearly than his own existence.\n\n\"As his father, of course I think he was special.\n\n\"But I am sure that a wonderful woman like Princess Diana, with that unique star-bright quality, would never have given her affection to anyone outside that part of the heavens that is set aside for the truly exceptional.\n\n\"I take some comfort from my absolute belief that God has taken their souls to live together in paradise.\"", "Zef Eisenberg, pictured in July 2017, had previously survived a high-speed crash at the same airfield\n\nA fitness firm founder who was killed attempting a land speed record had taken one hand off the wheel to deploy a parachute, an inquest has heard.\n\nMillionaire Zef Eisenberg died during the attempt in a Porsche 911 Turbo at Elvington Airfield, near York, in 2020.\n\nHe may have also braked then deployed the parachute, causing the car to take off, the hearing was told.\n\nMr Eisenberg suffered fatal injuries in the crash after his car barrel-rolled and spun end over end.\n\nThe inquest was told the Maximuscle founder's modified Porsche was fitted with a parachute which required him to take his left hand off the steering wheel to deploy it using a lever.\n\nSteve Gardner, a collision investigator for North Yorkshire Police at the time, said an alternative method was to deploy a button mounted on the steering wheel, but that was not fitted to the vehicle.\n\n\"The movement to deploy the parachute was quite substantial,\" he said.\n\nFootage from inside the car also showed a \"minimal\" but \"noticeable\" twitch on the steering wheel in the moments before the loss of control, Mr Gardner added.\n\nFamily members had also expressed concerns about whether he was correctly strapped into the Porsche.\n\nBut Jamie Champkin, from Motorsport UK - the body which provided Mr Eisenberg, who lived on Guernsey, with a permit for the record attempts, said the forces involved in the crash were huge, and could not have been survived.\n\n\"The car became airborne very quickly, it travelled 513 metres before coming to a rest,\" he said.\n\nWe know it barrel-rolled, but it had also tumbled, he said, adding: \"There came a point in that tumble that the car came down nose first.\n\n\"Our estimates were it was probably still doing 150mph, but it hit the ground and our very basic calculations would suggest an impact force 218 times Mr Eisenberg's body weight.\n\n\"This incident was not survivable in that context,\" he added.\n\nMr Eisenberg had amassed more than 90 land speed records on two wheels and four\n\nCoroner Jon Heath said he would make a report aimed at preventing future deaths, asking Motorsport UK to consider its regulations about the strength of the chassis at which point harnesses are mounted.\n\nHowever, he said that was not a factor in Mr Eisenberg's case.\n\nMr Eisenberg, who was from north London, had previously survived a motorcycle crash at the same airfield in North Yorkshire in 2016 when his turbine-powered motorbike failed to stop at the end of the runway.\n\nHe returned to racing in 2017, despite concerns he would never walk again, and in 2018 became the fastest biker to ever ride on sand, recording a speed of 230mph (370km/h).\n\nIn 2019, Mr Eisenberg set the record for the \"flying mile\" at Pendine Sands in Wales.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 2-9 December.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nKyle Brown says his 71-year-old dad, Kenneth, refuses to wear gloves even in the snow - picture taken near his house in the Pentland Hills on the outskirts of Edinburgh.\n\nJamie Corstorphine caught this sunset over Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh. He spends a lot of time there as City of the Dead Tours manager.\n\nKaren McGibbons caught the sun setting over Lendalfoot reflecting on her car on her commute home.\n\nMichael Kitchener took this picture while attending the St Conan's Kirk Christmas tree festival.\n\nGraham Reid took this photograph of a Kingfisher near Kirkcudbright on a visit to Dumfries & Galloway.\n\nJoanna McManus captured this sunrise in Strathcarron in Torridon.\n\nPeter Dunn took this reflective picture in Glen Affric\n\nLaura Gartshore was on a winter break in the Outer Hebrides when she took this shot watching the Glasgow to Barra flight arrive on the beach runway on Barra.\n\nJim Nangle said this otter was having a stretch (definitely not sunbathing), on a beach in north Yell, Shetland.\n\nGeorge Allison took this image of the new frigate HMS Glasgow entering the water for the first time.\n\nJames Barrie captured low-lying fog flowing into the sea at New Slains Castle, Aberdeenshire.\n\nMorton Gillespie took this picture at Culloden Battlefield.\n\nDouglas Holms said his daughter, Izzi, took this photograph while he was driving on the M74 by Rutherglen.\n\nTerri Gauld said \"Not something you see everyday at a service station\" at Annandale on the A74.\n\nJohn ingram, took this picture in Glencoe while walking from Bridge of Orchy to Kinlochleven\n\nSophia Lyons took this snap of her children in Heriot Watt University grounds, Edinburgh.\n\nRuth Walsh snapped this serene scene at the Christmas Tree Festival at St Conan's Kirk, Lochawe,\n\nTony Marsh was just chilling at the top of Arthur's Seat.\n\nMartin Holt caught this picture of Broughton Heights rising above the misty Tweed Valley.\n\nRichard Bristol captured the sunrise on the River Clyde at the old Oil Depot in Old Kilpatrick.\n\nRobert Booth enjoyed hanging out with these dudes in a garden in Muthill\n\nLorraine MacPherson took this image while driving home to Aird of Sleat.\n\nGavin McWhirter sat with this wee Robin at Slioch, Loch Maree.\n\nAlana Willox took this photo at Sean Spittal Bridge, Glenshee.\n\nRobert Booth captured all the action of leaf blowing at Auchterarder.\n\nBrian Colston said this sparrowhawk was keeping an eye on his birdfeeders in Falkirk.\n\nDavid Millar went all pastel colours with this sunrise at Loch Ewe.\n\nAlec Davies got angular with this shot of St Monans Pier\n\nGraham Rosie caught this breathtaking murder of crows above Whitfield Farm in West Linton.\n\nAlister Firth took this picture of 500 teddies and hundreds of red bags of joy being delivered to the Night Before Christmas campaign aboard the 43A Stagecoach bus.\n\nSunrise on the Red Clydeside from Ronnie Watson.\n\nMoira Carrigan said this was definitely worth the early alarm on her day off...the perfect spot for her morning coffee, watching the sunrise over the Forth Valley from the top of Dumyat, Stirling.\n\nCaroline Smith was lucky enough to catch this coal tit trying to share a red squirrel's breakfast at Loch an Eilein\n\nJohn Stenhouse took this picture on Beinn Sgritheall above Arnsdale on the west coast.\n\nJim Hughes took this picture of The Boness and Kinneil Santa train getting ready to set off.\n\nMark Reynolds caught this sunset to remember as he walked out of Mallaig High School.\n\nRoy Moore took this photograph from his kayak while on a calm Loch Etive with Ben Starav on the right and Bidean Nam Bian visible in the distance.\n\nGavin Henderson took this sunset from the Change House on the South shore of Loch Ness\n\nSam Ross said he witnessed a very surreal still scene of submerged benches and perfect reflections at Loch Achray in the Trossachs while on a short break.\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "A serving Metropolitan Police officer has been charged with two counts of rape.\n\nPC Rupert Edwards, attached to the South West Basic Command Unit, was arrested on suspicion of rape on 5 September.\n\nThe charges relate to alleged offences in Lambeth and Surrey against two women aged in their 20s and 30s.\n\nPC Edwards, who has been suspended from duty, will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court later.\n\nThe rapes are said to have been committed in Surrey on 26 August, and in Lambeth on 5 September, while he was off duty.\n\nCommander Jon Savell, from the Met's professionalism command, said: \"This news is deeply worrying and I recognise the concern it will cause the public and other police officers.\n\n\"We took immediate action to suspend PC Edwards from duty when he was first arrested in September.\n\n\"Legal proceedings are now active and it is important that I do not comment while that process takes place.\"\n\nThe force said both women were being supported by specially trained officers.\n\nThe Met's Directorate of Professional Standards and the Independent Office for Police Conduct have been informed.", "Jet Black, the original drummer for 1970s and 80s punks The Stranglers, has died aged 84, the band has confirmed.\n\nThe musician, who was born Brian Duffy, was a founding member of the Guildford group, playing on hits like Golden Brown, Peaches and No More Heroes.\n\nHe last performed with them in 2015, announcing his retirement a few years later due to ill health.\n\nIn a statement online, his ex-bandmates described him as an \"elder statesman\" of British music.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The Stranglers (Official) This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The Stranglers (Official)\n\nBassist and co-frontman JJ Burnel said: \"After years of ill health, Jet has finally been released. He was a force of nature. An inspiration.\n\n\"The Stranglers would not have been if it wasn't for him. The most erudite of men. A rebel with many causes.\"\n\nSil Willcox, the band's manager, added: \"Jet Black was the real deal. Astute in business, a talented drummer and an obsessive perfectionist.\n\n\"I will cherish the times we planned, pranked, ate, drank and laughed on so many great nights together.\"\n\n(Left to right) Dave Greenfield, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Jet Black and Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers in 1980\n\nThe Stranglers, formed in Surrey in 1974, went on to became an integral part of the riotous UK punk and new wave scenes.\n\nDespite the indolent, youthful rage associated with the genre, Black - a semi-professional drummer in the late 1950s and early 1960s - was, in fact, by then a successful businessman in his mid-30s.\n\nHe owned a fleet of ice cream vans and later an off-licence called The Jackpot and a home brewery. In the early days, the Stranglers used one of the vans as a tour bus and his shop as their headquarters.\n\nSpeaking to the band's official website in a 2010 interview, Black said he never doubted the decision to shift his focus away from business and back into music.\n\n\"Once I had made the decision, and then the commitment, I then pretty much burnt my bridges, there was no turning back,\" he said. \"I told myself that one way or another I was going to succeed.\n\n\"Now, there were many, many problems, but my thoughts were focussed on how to solve them, not on questioning whether I had made the right decision.\"\n\nBlack, who always rejected the term \"punk\" to describe his band, later told BBC Breakfast: \"We were on a mission to break all the rules and create something new and exciting; and that's what we've been doing for the past 40 years.\n\n\"We've developed a style of music that is very aggressive and exciting.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Drummer Jet Black: \"We on a mission to break all the rules\"\n\nSupporting US punk stars the Ramones and Patti Smith at their UK gigs, The Stranglers' musical virtuosity set them apart from the more DIY aesthetic of their peers.\n\nAfter original frontman Hugh Cornwell left in 1990, the band continued touring and recording. According to Cornwell's autobiography, when he phoned Black to announce his resignation, the drummer's response was simply \"OK, fine\".\n\nOn Thursday, Cornwell paid tribute to Black, noting how they had \"shared a special period\" of their lives together, achieving their dreams of becoming musicians.\n\n\"We were immediately drawn to one another, he had a singular sense of purpose that I identified with,\" wrote Cornwell. \"He threw everything in his previous life out, to dedicate himself to our common goal.\"\n\nAdding: \"The Stranglers success was founded on his determination and drive... His timing was faultless.\"\n\nThe Stranglers, pictured in 1988, had seven UK top10 singles\n\nIn 2007, the band announced that Black was suffering with heart issues and he took a step back from performing, being temporarily replaced by his drum technician.\n\nHe resumed his duties full-time for the band's tours in 2010 and 2011, but the following year he was taken to hospital after falling ill just before he was due on stage in Oxford.\n\nThe musician, who had suffered respiratory issues since childhood, began to restrict his live work to the UK, although he vowed to \"carry on until I'm incapable of doing it\".\n\nDespite difficulties in performing towards the end of his career, he remained a fan favourite. Audiences would often chant his name as he took his place behind the kit, until he finally retired in 2015.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by stranglersofficial This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nBlack wrote several books chronicling his time in the band - most notably The Stranglers' infamous 1980 arrest in Nice, France, where they had allegedly incited a riot (they also famously clashed with members of the Clash, Sex Pistols and Ramones, as well as journalists).\n\nAn enthusiastic furniture designer, he also patented the Jet Black Power Bass Drum Pedal.\n\nWhen asked how he would like be remembered by the band's website in 2010, Black replied: \"I guess if we are actually remembered, then that will do.\"\n\nIn a statement, his representative confirmed the musician had passed away \"peacefully\" on Tuesday 6 December at his country home in Wales.\n\nHe leaves behind his wife Ava, and his two children Charlotte and Anthony.\n\nBlack's death comes two years after The Stranglers' keyboard player Dave Greenfield died at the age of 71 after testing positive for coronavirus.\n\nGreenfield, originally from Brighton, had contracted the virus following a prolonged stay in hospital for heart problems.\n• None The Stranglers: 'We broke the rules'", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jessie and Austin: The Bodies in the Suitcase\n\nA US landlord has been found guilty of murdering two tenants in a case that made headlines when TikTok refused to take down video of the victims' bodies.\n\nMichael Dudley of Burien, near Seattle, was convicted of killing Jessica Lewis, 35, and Austin \"Cash\" Wenner, 27.\n\nIn June 2020, Dudley, 64, shot and mutilated the victims before disposing of their remains in suitcases.\n\nLater that month, three teenagers were making TikTok videos on a Seattle beach when they found the bodies.\n\nTheir footage of the discovery was viewed more than 30m times, but TikTok initially said the video did not violate their terms of service.\n\nThe company came under pressure from relatives of the victims, and the video was taken down several months later - although it is unknown whether it was deleted by TikTok or the teenager who initially posted it.\n\nThe three teenagers called police as soon as they discovered the suitcases, leading to the murder investigation.\n\nThe court in Seattle saw testimony from a neighbour who had heard gunshots and a man pleading for his life.\n\nPolice initially went to the home, but nobody answered. Dudley was later arrested.\n\nCourt documents indicate Lewis and Wenner got into a dispute over unpaid rent with Dudley, in whose home they were living.\n\nDudley will be sentenced in March and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.\n• None Jessie and Austin: The Bodies in the Suitcase. Video, 00:04:39Jessie and Austin: The Bodies in the Suitcase", "Fortnite has become one of the most lucrative game franchises in the world by selling character \"skins\"\n\nA Canadian judge has approved a class-action lawsuit brought by three parents who say their children became addicted to the video game Fortnite.\n\nThe plaintiffs say their children would forgo sleeping, eating and showering because they were hooked on the game.\n\nIn court filings, they noted that the World Health Organization recognised video-game addiction in 2018.\n\nThe lawsuit is against the game's maker, Epic Games, and its Canadian subsidiary.\n\nIn a statement, Epic Games said it had \"industry-leading parental controls that empower parents to supervise their child's digital experience\".\n\n\"Parents can receive playtime reports that track the amount of time their child plays each week, and require parental permission before purchases are made,\" the company said.\n\n\"We plan to fight this in court. We believe the evidence will show that this case is meritless,\" it added.\n\nThe popular online game has amassed more than 350 million players online.\n\nWhile the game is free to play, players pay to use in-game money called \"V Bucks\". The game has reportedly made more than $9bn (£7.3bn) worldwide.\n\nOne of the children cited in the lawsuit played over 7,700 hours of the game in less than two years.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Millions enjoy gaming but for a few it can lead to addiction\n\nThe legal action claims the game was deliberately developed to be \"highly addictive\".\n\nQuebec Superior Court Justice Sylvain Lussier ruled the lawsuit was not \"frivolous\".\n\nHe likened current understanding of video-game addiction to early awareness of tobacco addiction: \"The harmful effect of tobacco was not recognised or admitted overnight.\"\n\nHe ruled that players who live in Quebec and experienced symptoms of addiction after playing the Battle Royale edition of Fortnite since 1 September 2017 can join the legal action.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Women discuss the lengths they have to go to to avoid street harassment\n\nSexual harassment on the street will be made a crime with jail sentences of up to two years, the government has said.\n\nCatcalling, following someone and blocking their path will be criminalised in England under plans backed by the Home Secretary.\n\n\"Every woman should feel safe to walk our streets,\" Suella Braverman said.\n\nSexual harassment is already illegal but it is hoped creating a new offence for street harassment will encourage more people to report it to police.\n\n\"We are putting the needs of victims at the heart of our decision, which will mean the criminals who commit these acts face the consequences they deserve,\" Ms Braverman said.\n\nA survey by pollsters YouGov for the BBC, published in March, suggested two-thirds of women did not feel safe walking alone at night, at least some of the time.\n\nFemales under 34 are most likely to be the target of sexual offences but the least likely to report them, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service, which decides whether to take cases to court, recently updated its advice to staff about street harassment. The new guidelines also cover offences like exposure, stalking and sexual assault.\n\nThe murder of Sarah Everard, who was abducted and killed by a serving policeman while walking home in south London last year, has also increased concerns over women's safety and attitudes towards women.\n\nSix months later, primary school teacher Sabina Nessa, 28, was murdered in south London by a man she had never met.\n\nThe government will now back legislation tabled by former business secretary Greg Clark.\n\nMr Clark said the intention of the bill is \"to reinforce a change in the culture that establishes that it is completely unacceptable to abuse women in the streets\".\n\nDuring a debate in the House of Commons, Mr Clark said: \"Public sexual harassment can affect men and boys, but we should be clear that it disproportionately affects women and girls.\"\n\nAs it stands, the bill will also introduce harsher sentences - increasing the maximum sentences from six months to two years.\n\nCampaigners have also called for wolf-whistling and staring intently to be criminalised.\n\nIn July, then home secretary Priti Patel launched a consultation on making street harassment a specific crime. The Home Office has now concluded it should be introduced after \"the significant majority\" of respondents were in favour.\n\nEarlier this year, the Independent Government Adviser for Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls, Nimco Ali claimed the government had blocked the legislation.\n\nShe said: \"Any action to tackle the epidemic of violence against women and girls is welcome, but the government must now go further and faster.\"\n\nThe government recently launched its Enough campaign about street harassment\n\nThe Home Office - the government department in charge of policing - recently launched a campaign encouraging people to call out harassment.\n\nIt's called Enough and you might have seen posters for it popping up on public transport over the past month or so.\n\nThe adverts - mainly aimed at men - suggest ways for people to intervene if they see someone being harassed.", "A hospital trust has apologised to a woman for failing to admit a surgeon had been responsible for a massive haemorrhage that almost killed her after a Caesarean section.\n\nFor seven years, East Kent Hospitals Trust maintained the size of Louise Dempster's baby was to blame.\n\n\"It was just continuous lies,\" the 34-year-old told BBC News.\n\nLouise Dempster gave birth in May 2015 but the surgeon's error only emerged during an inquiry into poor maternity care at East Kent Hospitals Trust which reported this year.\n\nIt was Louise's first pregnancy and had been uneventful, until she developed two potentially dangerous conditions in the days before she was due to give birth.\n\nA scan showed excessive growth of her baby, and that Louise had pre-eclampsia and a liver condition, which put her at risk of bleeding after birth.\n\nShe went into her local hospital, The Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in Margate, part of the East Kent Hospitals Trust, to be induced.\n\nIn October, an inquiry by Dr Bill Kirkup found at least 45 babies who died at the Trust's maternity services between 2009 and 2020 could have survived with better treatment.\n\nWhen Louise's labour stalled, she was taken for a Caesarean section and her son was born large and healthy.\n\nLouise was left by staff in the recovery room with her family, but her mother, Linda, noticed she appeared to be losing consciousness: \"I was talking to her and I just saw her drift away and her eyes roll back.\"\n\nThe 61-year-old lifted her daughter's sheets and found \"blood from head to toe\".\n\nLinda is a senior nurse who has worked nationally on quality and infection control. It didn't require her level of expertise to realise her daughter was in serious trouble.\n\n\"I tried to pull the emergency buzzer… but it didn't work,\" she remembers.\n\nLouise says she thought she was dying: \"All I remember is my mum screaming for help. And her stroking my hair and telling me she loved me. I knew that something was wrong\".\n\nLouise was taken back to surgery. After her operation the surgeon told her the bleeding had happened because her uterus hadn't shrunk back to its normal size after birth.\n\nHe inserted an instrument called a Bakri balloon to stop the bleeding - but a few hours later Louise was rushed back to surgery after Linda again spotted she was still losing a lot of blood.\n\nHer original surgeon called in another surgeon, a cancer specialist, to help. Louise needed an extensive blood transfusion, but eventually recovered after several days in hospital.\n\nThe family felt there must have been something wrong with Louise's treatment and set about getting all her documents together and speaking to the clinicians involved.\n\nBut they felt like they hit a brick wall. All the notes confirmed her original surgeon's version of events. The Trust didn't consider what happened to be a serious incident and the investigation stopped.\n\nLouise says she was told she was lucky to have a baby, and she should just \"get on with it\".\n\nBut the psychological impact was significant: \"I think my mental health has probably been affected by it. I also feel like I've never had the opportunity to have another baby, which I really wanted to. I have lots of triggers from that time and lots of flashbacks I have to deal with,\" she says.\n\nIn 2020 Louise and her mother gave evidence to the Kirkup inquiry.\n\nA few weeks before the findings were made public, inquiry chairman, Dr Bill Kirkup, asked to meet them.\n\nHe said he had discovered a document that had not been disclosed to the family, which showed Louise's bleeding had been caused by a surgical error, not by the size of her son as they had been led to believe.\n\nLouise was furious her suspicions about what happened to her had been confirmed.\n\n\"They had so many points, they could have told me what actually happened. And they didn't,\" she says. \"I spent so much time after the birth, visiting professionals trying to find out what happened.\"\n\nThe Kirkup report found evidence of staff \"omitting key details in accounts given to families as well as to official bodies\" and \"the effect... was to cover up the truth.\"\n\nThe Trust says it is determined to improve clinical practice and will review Louise's care.\n\nIts chief executive Tracy Fletcher said: \"We apologise unreservedly to Louise and her family for the mistakes in her care and for failing in our duty to explain what went wrong, which falls far short of the standards and compassion patients should expect and deserve.\"", "William MacDowell was jailed following a trial in September\n\nAn 81-year-old man jailed for the 1976 murder of his former lover and their son has abandoned an appeal over his conviction.\n\nWilliam MacDowell was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in September for murdering Renee, 36, and three-year-old Andrew MacRae in the Highlands.\n\nHe was convicted of disposing of the bodies. The remains were never found.\n\nMacDowell's legal team had indicated that he intended to appeal, but the deadline has now passed.\n\nThe Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service said he does not have a live appeal as the appropriate paperwork had not been submitted in time.\n\nMacDowell, from Penrith, Cumbria, could still seek an appeal through the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission.\n\nThe bodies of Andrew and his mother Renee have never been found\n\nHe had denied all the charges against him during his trial at the High Court in Inverness. His lawyers had lodged special defences of incrimination and alibi.\n\nMrs MacRae and Andrew disappeared on 12 November 1976. Her car was found that night on fire in a lay-by on the A9 at Dalmagarry, south of Inverness.\n\nThe trial heard that the discovery exposed married MacDowell's affair with Mrs MacRae, and that she had believed they would be meeting up for a weekend away before a planned move to Shetland.\n\nMacDowell had told police he did not meet with Mrs MacRae and he had no plans to move away with her.", "Mr Flynn made his first appearance as group leader at prime minister's questions on Wednesday\n\nThe SNP's new Westminster leader has denied plotting to oust his predecessor Ian Blackford.\n\nStephen Flynn was elected group leader on Tuesday after Mr Blackford abruptly announced he was standing down.\n\nSeveral MPs have since resigned from the SNP's front bench team, with Pete Wishart saying he was \"bemused\" about why Mr Flynn had sought a change.\n\nBut Mr Flynn, 34, told BBC Scotland that he only decided to stand for the job after Mr Blackford's resignation.\n\nThis is despite the fact he had distanced himself from the role only two weeks earlier, saying he had \"no intention of standing\" amid rumours that he was \"on manoeuvres\".\n\nMr Blackford, a close ally of SNP leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, announced last week that he was standing down from the post he had held for five years - but will be staying on as MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber.\n\nThis followed months of speculation about his future in the role, which included claims that Mr Flynn was seeking to replace him.\n\nMr Flynn then won a leadership vote against another ally of Ms Sturgeon, the Glasgow Central MP Alison Thewliss.\n\nAllies of the new leader say he plans to set up a smaller front-bench team, which they say would allow other MPs to focus on constituency work and campaigning for independence.\n\nAnd three prominent members of the front bench group have already stepped back, with defence spokesman Stewart McDonald and international development spokesman Chris Law joining Mr Wishart, who was its agriculture spokesman.\n\nPete Wishart said he was \"bemused\" about why Stephen Flynn had sought to replace Ian Blackford as leader\n\nMr Wishart was the most outspoken in his criticism, writing in his resignation letter to Mr Flynn that he was \"bemused as to the reasons why you felt it was necessary to seek a chance in our leadership\".\n\nHe also suggested that the new leader had been \"canvassing opinion for a leadership challenge\" prior to Mr Blackford's departure.\n\nHowever, in an interview with BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme, when asked if he had plotted to oust his predecessor, Mr Flynn said \"no, of course not\".\n\nHe said: \"Some folk have been watching a little bit too much House of Cards. There has been some very uninformed opinion in the public domain.\n\n\"Ian was very clear about this in his comments when he stepped down that now was the time for fresh leadership. I was quite keen to put myself forward, Alison did as well and I'm glad I received the backing of colleagues.\"\n\nWhen pressed about Mr Wishart's criticism, Mr Flynn said he wanted to keep the veteran MP \"on board\".\n\nHe said: \"Ian himself took the decision to stand down, and its for Ian to address any concerns Pete might have in relation to that. I can't speak for Ian in that regard.\n\n\"It was off the back of Ian's decision that I decided to put myself forward to be SNP group leader at Westminster.\n\n\"I am looking forward to us all coming together to really put pressure on the Tories and highlight the issues facing the people of Scotland in relation to the cost of living crisis, the damage being caused by Brexit, the complicity of the Labour Party in relation to that and of course the fact that Scotland has a democratic right to choose its own future.\"\n\nMr Flynn said he was putting together a \"dynamic\" team to lead the SNP at Westminster\n\nMr Flynn described the three MPs who resigned as \"incredibly valued colleagues\", adding that he was putting together a \"dynamic set of folk\" to lead the party at Westminster.\n\nHe also pledged his loyalty to Ms Sturgeon, who he referred to as \"perhaps the most effective and efficient politician in the entire of Western Europe\".\n\nHe said: \"Ultimately we are SNP MPs, and that means we are not concerned about which bench we sit on in Westminster, be that a front bench or a back bench.\n\n\"What we are interested in is making sure that Scottish MPs don't sit on those green benches, and that is our ultimate aim. When it comes to that myself and all of my colleagues will be at the forefront of that battle.\"\n\nPolitical opponents have accused the SNP of \"fighting like ferrets in a sack\", with the Scottish Conservatives claiming that \"the party's reputation for iron discipline\" was disintegrating.\n\nBut MP Stewart Hosie told BBC Scotland on Tuesday - the day before Mr Wishart quit - that talk of division was \"complete fiction\", saying he had \"no idea where these stories have come from\".\n\nAfter Pete Wishart lifted the lid on the rows behind the scenes of the SNP's Westminster leadership change, Stephen Flynn has moved swiftly to clamp it back on.\n\nAt this point his insistence that nothing untoward has gone on and that everyone remains on the very best of terms has a hint of unreality about it.\n\nBut nowadays, political parties find themselves in such positions relatively frequently.\n\nPlenty of rumours swirled around the Scottish Tory leadership change in 2020, when Jackson Carlaw disappeared in similarly sudden fashion and was smoothly replaced by Douglas Ross - who also denied talk of a \"stitch-up\".\n\nSo Mr Flynn is following a time-honoured approach by gritting his teeth and setting his sights on the horizon, in the hope he can slog through the questions until the story moves on.\n\nRegardless of how either he or Ms Sturgeon feel about how things have played out, they will now feel compelled to put these rows behind them and aim to forge a united front in the campaign for independence.", "Paul Hoile was an off-duty special constable with the Met Police at the time of his encounter with the woman\n\nA former special constable has been cleared of raping a woman by a roadside while off duty.\n\nPaul Hoile, who was a special constable with the Metropolitan Police at the time, had in total faced five charges in connection with his interaction with her in Shropshire in July.\n\nDuring the trial, he told the jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court that the sexual activity was consensual.\n\nThe 40-year-old was found not guilty on all counts on Friday.\n\nHe had been accused of three counts of rape, one of misconduct, and causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.\n\nThe prosecution alleged Mr Hoile, from Essex, had used his warrant card while drunk to \"exert control\" over the woman, \"inappropriately interrogate\" her, and compel her to answer questions.\n\nThe defendant said he had produced his warrant card at the request of the woman and disputed claims he had snatched her phone.\n\nHe also denied the woman's account that he had instructed her not to drive.\n\nMr Hoile, who had since resigned from the Met, told the jury he had \"stupidly\" propositioned the woman, but that sexual activity took place consensually and \"without fuss\".\n\nHe said she had performed a sex act on him by the side of the road, before further activity took place near a fence in a \"dark lane\".\n\nFollowing his acquittal, he was allowed to personally thank the jury members from the dock after asking to speak.\n\nJudge Jonathan Gosling also thanked the jury, saying they had faced \"incredibly difficult decisions to take\".\n\nHe added the defendant still faced a further indictment relating to a single allegedly indecent image - a charge he described as a \"menial matter by comparison\" and granted Mr Hoile bail.\n\nA further hearing on the outstanding charge is due to be held at the same court next week.\n\nThe Metropolitan Police said it had no comment to make after Hoile's acquittal.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA huge fire has ripped through a major shopping complex on the edge of Moscow killing at least one person, Russia's Emergencies Ministry has said.\n\nVideo of the blaze showed explosions at the massive Mega Khimki mall.\n\nArson is being investigated as a possible cause of the fire, but an electrical fault is thought to be a more likely trigger.\n\nThe centre had housed major Western retail outlets, until they pulled out after February's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nThe fire spread across the roof of the OBI superstore at the complex early on Thursday morning, and at one point covered 18,000 sq m (194,000 sq ft).\n\nBy around 08:30 Moscow time (05:30 GMT) firefighters quoted by Russian media said it had been contained to an area of 7,000 sq m.\n\nTwo hours later, an Emergencies Ministry official said what he described as the \"open fire\" had been put out.\n\nAt least one explosion at OBI, which sells home and garden improvement wares, caused the structure to start collapsing, firefighters said.\n\nThe blasts are thought to have been caused by exploding aerosols and paint tins.\n\nRussia's Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the incident. Losses from the fire have been estimated at $320m-$480m (£261m-£390m).\n\nThe German hardware chain OBI no longer owns the store, having sold all its Russian outlets - including 27 superstores - over the summer.\n\nA 60% stake was bought by Russian-born German-Israeli businessman Josef Liokumovich for just $10 (£8).", "A secondary school pupil has died with suspected strep A in East Sussex, officials have said.\n\nThe child attended Hove Park School in Hove, a joint statement from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Brighton & Hove City Council said.\n\nAs of Thursday, 15 UK children had died after invasive strep A infections since September.\n\nThe death of the pupil in Brighton with suspected strep A brings that number to 16.\n\nMost strep A infections are mild, but more severe invasive cases - while still rare - are rising.\n\nPublic health officials in Brighton and Hove said they were working with the school to raise awareness among parents about the signs of strep A infections and what to do if a child develops them.\n\nThe age and gender of the child have not been disclosed.\n\nDr Rachael Hornigold, consultant in health protection at UKHSA South East, said: \"We are extremely saddened to hear about the death of a young child, and our thoughts are with their family, friends and the local community.\"\n\nAlistair Hill, director of Public Health at Brighton & Hove City Council, said: \"We are working with the UK Health Security Agency and Hove Park School following the death of a pupil who attended the school.\n\n\"We offer our heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and the whole school community who will all be deeply affected by the very tragic loss of this young child, and we are providing our support to them at this incredibly sad time.\"\n\nNormally, mild strep A infections cause symptoms like a sore throat or skin infections.\n\nThe bug can also cause scarlet fever - with a sore throat, skin rash that feels like sandpaper, a high temperature and a so-called \"strawberry tongue\".\n\nIt is treated with antibiotics which may also help reduce the risk of complications and spread of the bug.\n\nData as of Thursday from the UKHSA showed 13 children aged under 15 had died in England since September.\n\nTwo other deaths of children had been recorded in Belfast and Wales, taking the UK total to 15 at that point.\n\nMr Hill said that contracting strep A from another person was \"very rare\" and most people who come into contact with strep A infections \"remain well and symptom-free - and therefore there is no reason for children to be kept home if well\".\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "Angharad Paget-Jones says she has been hit and had several \"near misses\" with e-scooters\n\nA blind woman who was hit by an e-scooter has said encountering them now makes her frightened and anxious.\n\nAngharad Paget-Jones, who is severely sight impaired, lives in Port Talbot with her guide dog Tudor.\n\nThe disability rights campaigner and data analyst said she was left \"scraped and bruised\" after being hit.\n\nHer comments come as MPs and activists have called for more to be done to raise awareness of the law on electric scooters ahead of Christmas.\n\nNewport East MP Jessica Morden led a debate in the Commons on the issue, telling UK ministers there was a \"dangerous lack of knowledge\" on the rules.\n\nE-scooters are widely sold and seen, but can only be ridden legally on private land or as part of UK government hire trials, none of which operate in Wales.\n\nUK ministers said they were working to tackle the problem and support the police.\n\nAngharad Paget-Jones says the e-scooter collision had made her and her guide dog Tudor \"more anxious\"\n\nMs Paget-Jones said the accident was \"minor\" but she had also had many \"near misses\" when walking around Cardiff.\n\n\"It could have been a lot worse. If my dog had been hit that would have been my independence gone. It would have been really scary,\" she said.\n\nMs Paget said the person on the e-scooter was on his phone, and not paying attention, and she was lucky her friend was there and pulled her dog out of the way, otherwise they both would have been hit.\n\n\"We should be able to walk through the city centre without fear of being hit by anything and yet these scooters are just springing out of nowhere.\n\n\"It does make me a lot more anxious, and I've noticed my dog gets anxious, since these near misses keep happening he kind of does a stop to pull me in - it shouldn't be like that.\n\n\"Going at high speeds past us is frightening, our dogs aren't expecting it, and we're not expecting it. They just go so quickly.\"\n\nShe added: \"It worries me about Christmas that everyone is going to start buying them for their children.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lean green commuting machines? Will electric scooters soon be on Welsh roads?\n\nMs Morden told MPs that residents in her constituency felt \"intimidated and annoyed\" by people using e-scooters illegally.\n\nShe complained of e-scooter riders \"breaking speed limits, running red lights and weaving in and out of traffic\".\n\n\"Gwent Police and other forces have taken a lead with social media campaigns making the public aware of rules for e-scooters before they are purchased as Christmas presents, but there seems to be little national steer from either the Home Office or the Department for Transport,\" she added.\n\nShe also urged retailers to \"behave more responsibly\" when it came to e-scooter marketing and the wording of adverts.\n\nPrivately owned e-scooters cannot be legally used on public roads and pavements in the UK\n\nSeveral police forces have urged people to think twice before gifting an e-scooter this Christmas.\n\nInspector Gareth Morgan, from South Wales Police, said: \"If you are thinking of purchasing one please be aware that they can only be used on private land with the landowner's permission.\n\n\"There are trial areas in England but if you own an e-scooter you can't just take it and use it there, they have to be rented from a hirer that is participating in the scheme because they provide you with the necessary insurance.\"\n\nRiding a privately owned e-scooter on public land could result in it being seized, fines of up to £300 and even penalty points.\n\nResponding to Ms Morden in the Commons, UK Transport Minister Jesse Norman said he had written to all major retailers selling private e-scooters to remind them of their responsibility to make the law clear to customers.\n\nA Department for Transport spokesperson said: \"Safety is at the heart of our e-scooter trials, looking to protect riders, pedestrians and other road users.\n\n\"While riding a privately owned e-scooter on public land is currently illegal, we are considering how best to design future regulations.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: \"Do you know where you're going?\"\n\nTen months after she left the US to play basketball in Russia, WNBA star Brittney Griner has landed in her home state of Texas.\n\nGriner was jailed for carrying cannabis oil at a Moscow airport in February, and was exchanged for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout on Thursday.\n\nShe was flown into San Antonio, where she will receive medical care.\n\nThe White House's John Kirby told MSNBC on Friday morning that Griner is in \"good spirits\" and \"good health\".\n\nPresident Joe Biden first announced that Griner was returning home on Thursday. Her wife, Cherelle Griner, who attended Mr Biden's announcement at the White House, was expected to meet her in San Antonio.\n\n\"Brittney has had to endure an unimaginable situation and we're thrilled that she is on her way home to her family and friends,\" NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement about her return.\n\nGriner was arrested in February - just days before Russia invaded Ukraine.\n\nShe is one of the best-known sportswomen in America. During the US basketball season the double Olympic champion was a star centre for Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA.\n\nHer reason for flying to Moscow was to play in Russia during the off-season in the US. During her trial in Russia, she said the cannabis oil found in her bag had been an \"honest mistake\".\n\nThe Biden administration proposed a prisoner exchange in July, aware that Moscow had long sought the release of Bout, a convicted arms trafficker known as the Merchant of Death. He has been held in an American prison for 12 years.\n\nFootage on Russian state media showed them crossing on the tarmac with their respective teams. In the video, apparently provided by Russian security services, Bout was warmly greeted by two Russian officials as Griner, who is 6ft 9in (206cm), looks on. Part of the swap was then edited out, before showing the two parties going their separate ways.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout crossed on airport tarmac\n\n\"The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland,\" the Moscow foreign ministry said in a statement.\n\nLive television in Russia showed Bout arriving in Moscow. Pictures showed him hugging his mother and wife at the airport tarmac.\n\n\"I made it. That's the main thing,\" he told reporters at the airport.\n\n\"In the middle of the night they simply woke me up and said 'Get your things together,'\" he added.\n\nGriner, who turned 32 in October, will be welcomed in Houston with a light show, the city's Mayor Sylvester Turner said.\n\nIn a tweet, the US special envoy for hostage affairs, Roger D Carstens, welcomed Griner home. \"So happy to have Brittney back on US soil,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How did Brittney Griner get here?\n\nIt is unclear how long she will remain in San Antonio before travelling to Houston, which is around 200 miles (320km) to the east.\n\nOn Friday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Griner was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio where she was offered \"a range of support options\".\n\nShe declined to speculate on how long Griner would be at the facility. \"They'll take as much time as they need,\" she said.\n\nIt is thought she will join the Department of Defense programme known as Pisa (Post Isolation Support Activities), which is reportedly designed to help former detainees adapt back to normal life.\n\nOn Thursday, state department spokesman Ned Price said the government would speak to Griner about what she needs.\n\n\"She may seek the assistance that the US is going to provide, and we are going to make all of that available to her,\" he told MSNBC.\n\nSeveral Republicans criticised the White House for agreeing to the deal.\n\n\"What a 'stupid' and unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA!!!\" former President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.\n\n\"This is a gift to Vladimir Putin, and it endangers American lives.\"\n\nAnd Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger - a high profile critic of Mr Trump's - wrote on Twitter that the Biden administration had shown \"weakness\" by agreeing to release Bout.\n\nRussian state TV showed images of Bout being reunited with his family in Russia\n\nThe swap involved two private planes bringing Bout and Griner to Abu Dhabi airport from Moscow and Washington, before flying them home.\n\nWhen negotiations began to secure Griner's release during the summer, the US said it had made clear it wanted ex-Marine Paul Whelan to be included in an exchange.\n\nOn Friday, Russian president Vladimir Putin said at a news conference that future prisoner swaps between Russia and the US were possible, and that the two countries' intelligence services remain in contact.\n\nBut Whelan, jailed in 2018 on suspicion of spying, was not included in Thursday's swap, dashing his family's hopes.\n\nIn a phone call from the penal colony where he is being held, Whelan told CNN he was \"greatly disappointed\" more had not been done to free him, as he said he had carried out no crime.\n\n\"I don't understand why I'm still sitting here,\" he said. \"I was led to believe that things were moving in the right direction, and that the governments were negotiating and that something would happen fairly soon.\"\n\nMr Carstens told Whelan in a tweet to \"stay strong and don't lose faith\".\n\n\"We are working to get you home,\" the special envoy said.\n\nRepublican leader Kevin McCarthy, who is expected to become the next Speaker of the House of Representatives wrote on Twitter that failing to secure Whelan's release as part of the deal was \"unconscionable\".\n\nViktor Bout sold arms to warlords and rogue governments, becoming one of the world's most wanted men. His exploits inspired the 2005 Hollywood film Lord of War.\n\nHis secretive career was brought to an end by an elaborate US sting in 2008, when he was arrested at a hotel in the Thai capital Bangkok, to the anger of the Russian government.\n\nHe was extradited two years later and has spent the past 12 years in an American jail for conspiring to support terrorists and kill Americans.\n\nFootage released by Russian state media showed him disembarking from his flight carrying a bouquet of flowers before embracing his mother and his wife.\n\nSpeaking after her husband's return home, Bout's wife Alla told the state news agency Tass that her husband was well-fed and \"treated very nobly\" during the prisoner swap.\n\n\"He was not shackled, not handcuffed, he was treated very generously,\" she said.", "Snow has already fallen in parts of Scotland, including Calton Hill in Edinburgh\n\nMillions of people will be struggling to stay warm, a charity has warned - as parts of the UK are set to be hit with snow and freezing conditions.\n\nNational Energy Action said people faced a \"vicious choice\" between a cold home and falling into debt.\n\nTemperatures are set to drop below zero overnight and could reach -10C (14F) in rural areas, the Met Office said.\n\nFour yellow weather warnings for snow and ice are in place across the UK from now and over the weekend.\n\nSnow has already fallen in parts of Scotland and northern England, and forecasters are predicting snow for London, the South East and East of England on Sunday.\n\nBBC Weather's Sarah Keith-Lucas said the cold snap was going to \"stay with us for at least the next week or so, so there is no let up in these very low temperatures\".\n\nFriday night into Saturday will see \"sharp frosts, some snow flurries and some icy conditions as well as some fog\", she said, with the potential for snow showers in some parts.\n\nMs Keith-Lucas added that overnight temperatures would widely drop to -4C and -6C, although temperatures could fall even lower in some places.\n\nSunday will be another cold day, she added, \"with the potential for some sleet and snow in the south east\" of England.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency has also issued a level three cold weather alert covering England until Monday.\n\nIn Scotland, the Met Office said temperatures are set to drop below zero overnight and could reach -10C (14F) in rural areas - with up to 5cm of snow at lower levels.\n\nHeavy snow has already caused traffic disruption across the north east of Scotland, with reports of vehicles becoming stuck on some routes.\n\nNetwork Rail said a normal train service was planned across Scotland, but with cold temperatures expected into next week, a meeting would be held to go over the weather forecast.\n\nAdam Scorer, chief executive of fuel poverty charity National Energy Action - which works across England, Wales and Northern Ireland - warned people were being forced to turn their heating off.\n\nThe charity called for the government to do more to help \"those at greatest peril\" stay warm.\n\nPeople on the lowest incomes in many parts of England and Wales are set to receive a £25 Cold Weather Payment. The system is different in Scotland, where those on low incomes and benefits may receive the Winter Heating Payment.\n\nThe Met Office warned the wintry conditions could continue over the next seven days.\n\nMet Office spokesman Grahame Madge said: \"Along with the cold air there are a number of weather-related hazards including freezing fog, especially for Sunday and Monday mornings in the south of England.\n\n\"Overnight temperatures are likely to dip widely below zero with some more sheltered spots dropping to -10C.\n\n\"Our forecasters are looking at the possibility of snow affecting the south-east of England on Sunday night and into Monday morning. If this happens it could bring some disruption to Monday's rush hour.\"\n\nMotorists have been urged to drive with extra care this weekend\n\nA woman clears a light dusting of snow outside Rosslyn Chapel in Midlothian\n\nConsett in County Durham was blanketed by snow overnight\n\nA woman clears snow from outside her home in County Durham\n\nHow have you been affected by the cold snap? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home video of Archie features in Harry and Meghan documentary\n\nArchie Mountbatten-Windsor may be only three, but he has already decided upon a favourite song, his doting parents have revealed in their new Netflix documentary\n\nLuckily for Harry and Meghan, the song happens to be one by their close friend Elton John, Bennie And The Jets.\n\nThe little boy, sixth in line to the throne, is also heard to speak, describing a red sky as \"beautiful\".\n\nThe couple have been careful to control media access to their two children.\n\nArchie and Lilibet have been largely kept out of the public eye since they were born in 2019 and 2021 respectively.\n\nHowever, Archie has already appeared in a number of outlets - albeit rarely showing his face. Notably, his voice had previously been heard on Meghan's podcast, and - more recently - he featured in an August interview his mother did with US magazine The Cut.\n\nPrince Harry spoke about their choices as part of the documentary, Harry & Meghan, which was released on Netflix on Thursday morning, UK time.\n\n\"As a dad, and as parents, I think consent is a really key piece to this,\" he tells the cameras. \"That if you have children it should be your consent as to what you share.\"\n\nHarry also reveals they are keen not to make \"the same mistakes that perhaps our parents did\" in raising their two children, with Meghan noting: \"There's so much from anyone's childhood that you bring with you into the present. Especially when you're the product of divorce.\"\n\nHarry - who also speaks of his pride in having mixed-race children - says he hopes that he will be able to give his children \"an answer\" if they ever turn to him and ask \"what did you do in this moment?\".\n\n\"I think it is such a responsibility as human beings that, if you bring a small person into this world, that you should be doing everything you can to make the world a better place for them,\" he says.", "Viktor Bout spent more than two years in a Bangkok jail\n\nViktor Bout, one of the world's most infamous arms dealers, has been released from US custody as part of a prisoner exchange with US basketball star Brittney Griner.\n\nGriner had been in custody since February after Moscow airport officials found cannabis oil in her luggage while she was returning to the US after playing in Russia.\n\nRumours had circulated in US media for months that senior state department officials had sought to secure Griner's release in exchange for the arms dealer's freedom.\n\nSo notorious are the exploits of the former Soviet air force officer that they inspired a Hollywood film, and garnered him an impressively fearsome nickname.\n\nBut who is the man known as the Merchant of Death?\n\nBout was extradited from Thailand to the US in 2010, after a sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) two years earlier.\n\nAgents from the DEA posed as potential buyers from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as Farc. That group - which has since disbanded - was classified as a terrorist organisation by the United States.\n\nBout claimed he was simply an entrepreneur with a legitimate international transport business, wrongly accused of trying to arm South American rebels - the victims of US political machinations.\n\nBut a jury in New York didn't believe his story.\n\nHe was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April 2012 after being found guilty of conspiracy to kill Americans and US officials, delivering anti-aircraft missiles and aiding a terrorist organisation.\n\nHis three-week trial heard that Bout had been told the weapons would be used to kill US pilots working with Colombian officials. Prosecutors said he replied: \"We have the same enemy.\"\n\nBout - a Russian national born in Soviet-ruled Tajikistan - began his career in air transport in the early 1990s, after the fall of the USSR.\n\nAccording to a 2007 book - Merchant of Death, by security experts Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun - Bout built up his business using military planes left on the airfields of the collapsing Soviet empire in the early 1990s.\n\nBout was extradited from Thailand to the US after efforts by Russian diplomats to have him released failed\n\nThe sturdy Antonovs and Ilyushins were up for sale along with their crews, and were perfect for delivering goods to bumpy wartime airstrips around the world.\n\nBout - who was 45 when he was sentenced - is said to have begun channelling weapons through a series of front companies to war-torn parts of Africa.\n\nThe UN named him as an associate of former Liberian President Charles Taylor - who was convicted in 2012 on charges of aiding and abetting war crimes during the Sierra Leone civil war.\n\n\"[Bout is a] businessman, dealer and transporter of weapons and minerals [who] supported former President Taylor's regime in [an] effort to destabilise Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds,\" UN documents state.\n\nMedia reports in the Middle East claimed he was a gun-runner for al-Qaeda and the Taliban.\n\nHe is also alleged to have armed both sides in Angola's civil war and supplied weapons to warlords and governments from the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Sudan and Libya.\n\nIn an interview with the UK's Channel 4 News in 2009, he flatly denied ever dealing with al-Qaeda or the Taliban.\n\nBut he did admit to flying arms to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, saying they were used by commanders fighting against the Taliban.\n\nHe also claimed to have helped the French government transport goods to Rwanda after the genocide, and to have transported UN peacekeepers.\n\nBut law enforcement agencies pursued him throughout the 2000s. He left his home in Belgium in 2002 when the authorities there issued an arrest warrant.\n\nIt is thought Bout travelled under several aliases, moving through countries such as the United Arab Emirates and South Africa before resurfacing in Russia in 2003.\n\nIn the same year, British Foreign Office minister Peter Hain coined the nickname Merchant of Death\n\nAfter reading a 2003 report about him, Mr Hain said: \"Bout is the leading merchant of death who is the principal conduit for planes and supply routes that take arms... from East Europe, principally Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine to Liberia and Angola.\n\n\"The UN has exposed Bout as the centre of a spider's web of shady arms dealers, diamond brokers and other operatives, sustaining the wars.\"\n\nRussian authorities have called for Bout’s return since his 2011 conviction\n\nThe US made moves against Bout throughout the 2000s, freezing his assets in 2006, but there was no law he could be prosecuted under in the US.\n\nInstead, US agents bided their time until 2008 when they posed as buyers for Colombia's Farc rebels and gained an introduction to Bout through one of his former associates.\n\nShortly after the undercover officers discussed arms shipments to Farc with Bout, Thai authorities arrested him and lengthy legal proceedings began to bring him to the US.\n\nBout said the US case against him was politically motivated; his wife has been quoted as saying his only connection with Colombia was \"tango lessons\".\n\nThe Russian authorities supported him throughout his legal proceedings, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov vowing to fight to secure his return to Russia and labelling the Thai court's decision \"unjust and political\".\n\nThe 2005 film Lord of War, loosely based on the arms dealer's life, has the anti-hero escaping justice at the end.\n\nPerhaps it seemed unlikely Bout would ever achieve the same - but after 12 years behind bars, he has now been flown home to freedom.", "Nick Carter's lawyer called the claim \"legally meritless\" and \"entirely untrue\"\n\nA Backstreet Boys Christmas special has been pulled by US TV network ABC following news that a woman is suing singer Nick Carter, alleging he raped her during a 2001 tour when she was 17.\n\nA Very Backstreet Holiday was slated to run on 14 December, but is no longer listed in ABC's holiday specials guide.\n\nOn Thursday, a civil case was filed in Las Vegas by Shannon Ruth, now 39, who said she had been a fan at a 2001 show.\n\nCarter's lawyer said it was \"legally meritless\" and \"entirely untrue\".\n\nThe news of ABC's decision to pull the festive show, which was filmed in LA this month, was reported by Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, which added that comedy repeats would be shown in its place.\n\nMs Ruth, who has cerebral palsy and is autistic, filed her sexual battery case on Thursday, accusing the singer of raping her and infecting her with HPV.\n\nHer lawyer Mark Boskovich told a virtual press conference the assault happened after she had queued for an autograph after a concert in Tacoma, Washington.\n\nHe said Carter invited her onto the bus, \"gave her a funny tasting beverage that he called VIP juice\" and ordered her to \"perform sexual acts on him\" and raped her.\n\nAccording to the lawyer, the singer said \"no-one would ever believe in her\" because of her disability, the AFP news agency reported.\n\nCarter's lawyer, Michael Holtz, responded in a statement to Variety: \"This claim about an incident that supposedly took place more than 20 years ago is not only legally meritless but also entirely untrue.\n\n\"Unfortunately, for several years now, Ms Ruth has been manipulated into making false allegations about Nick - and those allegations have changed repeatedly and materially over time.\"\n\nHe called the announcement a \"press stunt\", adding: \"There is nothing to this claim whatsoever, which we have no doubt the courts will quickly realise.\"\n\nThe BBC has approached his representatives for comment.\n\nA Very Backstreet Holiday was to feature Carter, AJ McLean, Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell and Howie Dorough performing hits from their 10th album A Very Backstreet Christmas, with appearances from other stars including Seth Rogen and Meghan Trainor.", "Ukraine has accused Iran of sending drones to Russia, which the Middle Eastern country denied then later admitted\n\nRussia and Iran's relationship has warmed to a fully fledged defence partnership, the US has said.\n\nRussia is giving an unprecedented level of military support, says US national security council spokesman John Kirby.\n\nThe US has seen reports that the two countries are considering joint production of lethal drones, he adds.\n\nIt comes after Ukraine accused Iran of supplying Russia with \"kamikaze\" drones used in deadly attacks on 17 October, which Tehran initially denied.\n\nThe Middle Eastern country later admitted sending Moscow a limited number of drones, \"many months\" before the war.\n\nIn response, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said this was a lie and that many more Iranian drones were being used.\n\nThe Ukrainian air force said it downed 10 of 15 such drones used to attack southern regions in the early hours of Saturday.\n\nThe strikes left more than 1.5 million people without power in Odesa, Mr Zelensky said in his evening address, adding it could take days for electricity to be restored.\n\nEarlier, Australia announced it was sanctioning three Iranians and one Iranian business for supplying Russia with drones to use against Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking on Friday, Mr Kirby said that a partnership between Iran and Russia to produce drones would be harmful to Ukraine, Iran's neighbours and the international community.\n\n\"Russia is seeking to collaborate with Iran in areas like weapons development, training,\" he said, adding that the US fears that Russia intended to \"provide Iran with advanced military components\" including helicopters and air defence systems.\n\n\"Iran has become Russia's top military backer...\" he said. \"Russia's been using Iranian drones to strike energy infrastructure, depriving millions of Ukrainians of power, heat, critical services. People in Ukraine today are actually dying as a result of Iran's actions.\"\n\nIn response to Mr Kirby's comments, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that Iran had become one of Russia's main military supporters and that the relationship between them was threatening global security.\n\nThe \"sordid deals\" between the two countries have seen Iran send hundreds of drones to Russia, he said.\n\n\"In return, Russia is offering military and technical support to the Iranian regime, which will increase the risk it poses to our partners in the Middle East and to international security,\" he added.\n\nHe said the UK agreed with the US that Iranian support for the Russian military would grow in the coming months as Russia tried to get hold of more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles.\n\nRussia's war on Ukraine continues to affect many cities and regions, including Bakhmut in the Donbas\n\nOn Saturday, Penny Wong, Australia's foreign minister, said in a statement: \"The supply of drones to Russia is evidence of the role Iran plays in destabilising global security. This listing highlights that those who provide material support to Russia will face consequences.\"\n\nShe also announced measures against 19 other people and two entities, including Iran's Morality Police, for the brutal treatment of anti-government protesters following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in custody earlier this year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Operating on a baby in the dark after missiles hit Kyiv", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nTournament favourites Brazil were knocked out of the World Cup on penalties as Croatia kept their nerve to edge through to the semi-finals.\n\nCroatia, beaten finalists four years ago, scored with all four of their spot-kicks as Rodrygo - taking his team's first kick - was denied by the brilliant Dominik Livakovic and Marquinhos' crucial fourth effort struck the post.\n\nAs the ball hit the foot of the woodwork and bounced away, Croatia's team sprinted to celebrate with their goalkeeper, while the Brazil players hit the turf, knowing their dream of a sixth crown had come to an end.\n\nAfter an engrossing 90 minutes, Tite's men thought they had won it in extra time when Neymar scored a thumping effort to equal Brazil's 'official' men's goalscoring record.\n\nBut substitute Bruno Petkovic had other ideas, stroking in a 117th-minute equaliser with Croatia's first shot on target in the match to take the game to the nerve-shredding shootout.\n\nAnd it was the European side who emerged victorious once more, having done so by the same method against Japan in the last 16, to set up a semi-final meeting with the Netherlands or Argentina on Tuesday.\n• None Neymar hints at Brazil retirement as coach Tite steps down\n\nThis wasn't in the script.\n\nBrazil were supposed to dance through to the last four in their quest for another star on their shirt but their hopes were ended in the cruellest fashion.\n\nNeymar, who scored his 77th international goal to equal Pele's official mark, now shares a record recognised by Fifa but not the national team - as they also counted goals netted by their three-time World Cup winner in friendlies against club sides.\n\nAnd the Paris St-Germain forward will not get the opportunity to surpass the legend at this tournament, as Brazil suffered woe against a European nation once again. Since beating Germany in the 2002 final, they have been knocked out of five successive World Cups by a team from Europe.\n\nThis was supposed to be Neymar's moment, standing up for his side when they needed him most with a clinical finish to complete a slick team move, but he was left in tears after the shootout.\n\nHe should have won it for them in normal time but neither he nor Lucas Paqueta could find a way past the inspired Livakovic, who made a total of 11 saves, the most by a goalkeeper at this tournament.\n\nThough most were routine, Livakovic had to be in the right place at the right time to make the stop and he certainly was with Brazil's first penalty, diving the right way to push out Rodrygo's strike.\n\nCroatia are a well-organised and stubborn outfit, but they did not managed a shot on target until three minutes from the end of extra time, as Petkovic's side-footer beat Alisson.\n\nZlatko Dalic's men displayed their mental fortitude and powers of endurance once more to go through - as eight of their past nine knockout matches at major tournaments have now ticked into extra time.\n\nOnce this one went to penalties, Nikola Vlasic, Lovro Majer, the evergreen Luka Modric and Mislav Orsic were all successful with their efforts, while Neymar was not among the first four Brazilians penalty-takers, left to take a decisive fifth which never came.\n\nThe second successive shootout success for Croatia sends them through to their third World Cup semi-final.\n• None Penalty missed! Still Croatia 1(4), Brazil 1(2). Marquinhos (Brazil) hits the left post with a right footed shot.\n• None Goal! Croatia 1(4), Brazil 1(2). Mislav Orsic (Croatia) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Croatia 1(3), Brazil 1(2). Pedro (Brazil) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Goal! Croatia 1(3), Brazil 1(1). Luka Modric (Croatia) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Croatia 1(2), Brazil 1(1). Casemiro (Brazil) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Croatia 1(2), Brazil 1. Lovro Majer (Croatia) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Penalty saved! Rodrygo (Brazil) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Croatia 1(1), Brazil 1. Nikola Vlasic (Croatia) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the high centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt saved. Casemiro (Brazil) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box is saved in the centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt blocked. Marquinhos (Brazil) header from the centre of the box is blocked.\n• None Antony (Brazil) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Lovro Majer (Croatia) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Josip Juranovic. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTemperatures have sunk to the lowest level of the year in Scotland as many cut back on spending to stay warm.\n\nForecasters recorded -9.2C at Eskdalemuir in Dumfries and Galloway on Friday night.\n\nSnow and ice weather warnings have been extended to most parts of the country this weekend.\n\nIt comes as almost half of households in Scotland have had to cut back spending due to rising energy bills, according to a charity.\n\nCitizens Advice Scotland analysed polling data from YouGov, in which 1,002 adults were questioned.\n\nIt suggested 9% - equivalent to 198,854 people - have reduced spending on hobbies and leisure activities for their children, such as after-school clubs, parties and school trips.\n\nCAS chief executive Derek Mitchell called the findings \"heartbreaking\", adding: \"That is a horrible situation for any parent to be in, and we would encourage anyone worried about energy bills and the cost of living to seek advice from the CAB network.\"\n\nThe charity National Energy Action has also warned that millions around the UK will struggle to stay warm.\n\nA Met Office yellow weather warning in northern Scotland has been extended until noon on Sunday. An alert across central and southern areas took effect on Saturday morning.\n\nMeanwhile a further warning for ice and snow affecting coastal areas in the north and west as well as Orkney and Shetland will take effect from 12:00 on Sunday until 12:00 on Monday.\n\nBBC Scotland Weather reporter Kirsteen Macdonald said the cold spell was expected to last for 10 days, making it the coldest December in over a decade.\n\nShe said: \"Tomorrow night is looking even colder with the mercury set to dip to -10C to -12C.\n\n\"Cold weather isn't at all unusual for the time of year, but, given that we experienced a record-breaking mild November, this continued cold spell may come as a shock to people, at a time of great worry regarding energy bills and the cost of living crisis.\"\n\nMotorists have been urged to drive with care as Arctic air brings treacherous conditions.\n\nForecasters said up to 5cm of snow is possible at lower levels, with up to 15cm in areas above 200m - especially across the North Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire.\n\nHeavy snow has already caused traffic disruption across the north east, with reports of vehicles becoming stuck on some routes.\n\nTraffic Scotland said snow gates were closed on the A939 at Cock Bridge and the B974 at Cairn O'Mount in Aberdeenshire.\n\nAberdeenshire Council urged people to plan ahead if they are travelling over the weekend. Police in Dumfries and Galloway also warned drivers to be braced for the freezing temperatures.\n\nMotorists have been urged to drive with extra care this weekend\n\nNetwork Rail said a normal train service was planned, but with cold temperatures expected into next week, a meeting would be held to assess the forecast in detail.\n\nBBC Scotland weather presenter, Joy Dunlop, said that while there will be treacherous conditions in the warning areas, it will be a dry and sunny winter weekend for many.\n\nShe said: \"Despite the sunshine, it's going to feel cold, with a very cold night ahead - especially on Sunday, when we could see lows of -10C or even lower.\n\n\"This cold feel with remain into next week, with snow showers developing more widely by the end of the week.\"\n\nThe charity National Energy Action has said millions of people will struggle in the cold. It said people faced a \"vicious choice\" between a cold home and falling into debt.\n\nChief executive Adam Scorer said: \"Millions will have been dreading the onset of winter.\n\n\"Impossibly high prices and now cold weather will leave millions struggling to stay warm and safe at home.\"\n\nAn abandoned shopping trolley on a frozen pond in Robertson Park, Renfrew\n\nMeanwhile, families are being urged to keep their pets away from frozen water due to the risk of falling through ice.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) teamed up with Park Rangers from Pentland Hills Regional Park to highlight the dangers.\n\nJonathan Honeyman, a fire investigation officer, said: \"While ice can look and feel solid, it can suddenly crack and cause a person or a dog to fall through and potentially become trapped under the ice.\"\n\nHe said pets should be kept on leads and owners should avoid throwing objects onto the ice for them to retrieve.\n\nMr Honeyman added: \"If anyone does get into difficulty on the ice, do not attempt to rescue them.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The dugong is said to have inspired ancient legends of mermaids\n\nA \"sea cow\" that evoked tales of mermaids is being driven to the edge of extinction, conservation experts warn.\n\nAccording to an update of the official extinction list, the dugong is almost wiped out in some parts of the world.\n\nScientists have also sounded alarm over the loss of other marine creatures, including exotic coral and shellfish.\n\nThey said humans had created a \"perfect storm\" that threatens marine life across the globe.\n\nThe International Union for Conservation for Nature (IUCN), which compiles the official Red List of endangered species, revealed the latest findings at the UN biodiversity conference, COP 15.\n\n\"We simply cannot afford to fail,\" said Dr Bruno Oberle, head of the IUCN.\n\nHe warned of the urgent need to address the linked climate and biodiversity crises, or \"risk losing the crucial benefits the oceans provide us with\".\n\nThe latest update to the list, which has now assessed more than 150,000 species, revealed \"a perfect storm of unsustainable human activity decimating marine life around the globe,\" he said.\n\nThe pillar coral is one of 26 corals in the Atlantic Ocean listed as critically endangered\n\nCountries are meeting in Montreal, Canada, to try to agree targets for addressing the loss of nature amid an extinction crisis threatening a million species on Earth. High on their agenda is a plan to protect 30% of land and sea for nature across the globe by 2030.\n\nEnvironmental groups say progress in the first week has been slow and are calling for a step change in both pace and ambition.\n\n\"We will continue to see threats to marine life and our whole natural world unless we secure an ambitious deal,\" said Bernadette Fischler Hooper of WWF.\n\nThe latest extinction list highlights risks to a type of pillar coral that forms finger-like structures found throughout the Caribbean. It is now classed as critically endangered. The coral is dying due to disease, climate change and pollution.\n\nMeanwhile, many species of abalone, the world's most expensive seafood, are threatened with extinction, due to poaching and unsustainable harvesting, made worse by disease, pollution and climate change.\n\nMarine biologist, Prof Amanda Vincent, of the University of British Columbia, Canada, said the \"awful status\" of these species should shock us and engage us for urgent action.\n\n\"These magical marine species are treasured wildlife, from the wonderful abalone to the charismatic dugong and the glorious pillar coral, and we should safeguard them accordingly,\" she added.\n\nTwenty of the world's 54 abalone species are threatened with extinction\n\nDugongs belong to the Sirenia, an order of aquatic mammals sometimes known as \"sea cows\". The Sirenia family also includes manatees.\n\nIn 2015, the IUCN classified dugongs as vulnerable to extinction worldwide due to a myriad of threats, including being caught up in fishing gear or struck by boat propellers, ocean pollution and the loss of the sea grasses on which they graze.\n\nThey are now particularly concerned about two populations. One, living in waters off Mozambique, is down to just 250 individuals and is regarded as critically endangered. The other, in New Caledonia, east of Australia, is deemed endangered.\n\nThe dugong grazes on sea grasses in shallow coastal waters\n\nThere are still dugongs living in the waters off around 40 countries. Australia has the world's largest population of dugongs today, largely thanks to having a sparsely populated coast with lots of sea grasses.\n\nEarlier this year the dugong was declared functionally extinct in China. \"Functional extinction\" means that even if some dugongs are still alive off China's coast, their numbers are too small to maintain a viable population.", "The band said it was \"important that people change and make improvements no matter how far down the line they are\"\n\nBritish punk band Slaves have changed their name, saying it \"doesn't represent who we are as people or what our music stands for any longer\".\n\nThe duo, who have had three UK top 10 albums and a Mercury Prize nomination, will now be known as Soft Play.\n\nThey said their original name \"was intended solely as a reference to the grind of day-to-day life\".\n\nA statement added: \"We want to sincerely apologise to anyone we've offended.\"\n\nThe name caused controversy when the group made their breakthrough in 2014/15, with The Fader publishing an article headlined: \"Why Would A Band Of White Dudes Name Themselves Slaves?\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by samantha urbani This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Kent band defended their choice at the time, posting a statement explaining that they had been \"working tedious 9-5 jobs when we started playing together, stacking shelves and mopping floors\".\n\nThey said: \"Our name and music is aimed at being a slave to day-to-day life and routine. It is a metaphorical use of the word...\n\n\"Cease Fire and Wishing Well are the first two tracks we ever wrote, they address people addicted to smoking and the struggle of the day-to-day rat race: 'It doesn't matter if they're taken because they'll take you'.\"\n\nNow, they are returning after a three-year break and have put out a new statement saying: \"As younger men, we responded to criticism of the name from a place of fear and defensiveness.\n\n\"Feeling backed into a corner, our own pride caused us to fight for a name we weren't even sure we wanted any more. It felt at times as if our band name had defined us and we were scared of what might happen if we changed it.\n\n\"However, we now recognise that our original intent doesn't change the fact that the name Slaves is an issue. In this day and age we believe it is very important that people change and make improvements no matter how far down the line they are.\"\n• None Slaves: From Introducing to Main Stage at R+L", "Camila Rose Burns, four, fell severely ill after contracting a severe case of the Strep A bacterial infection\n\nThe grandmother of a four-year-old girl who was fighting for her life in hospital with strep A says she is starting to get better.\n\nCamila Rose Burns was put on a ventilator at Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital after falling ill.\n\nFifteen UK children have now died after invasive strep A infections since September.\n\nMost strep A infections are mild, but more severe invasive cases - while still rare - are rising.\n\nExperts say cases are higher than normal this year because of increased social mixing after Covid.\n\nDawn Burns said her granddaughter Camila was making progress after being initially taken to hospital in Bolton last weekend when her father Dean Burns found her hallucinating.\n\nShe told Radio 4's Today programme: \"She gradually came off the different meds... when we first got there the consultant said she was the illest child in the UK and she was as close to death as you could be without actually dying - that's what he said to us.\n\n\"She was on absolutely tons of support meds, ventilator, dialysis et cetera. But slowly and surely, she managed to pull it round.\"\n\nProf Kamila Hawthorne, of the Royal College of GPs, added on the programme that children who have had chicken pox are more likely to get strep A or scarlet fever, which is one of many types of infections caused by strep a.\n\nShe later advised: \"If a child has temperature over 39C (102.2F) and their behaviour is changing we are more than happy to see them.\"\n\nProf Sir Andrew Pollard, chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), also told Radio 4 on Friday that he is not aware of any \"national shortage\" in antibiotics to treat strep A.\n\nHe said: \"I can't tell you about supply chain issues but my understanding is that overall we do have plenty of antibiotics.\n\n\"Of course, you could have a local situation where there's a shortage, but I'm not aware of any national shortage, particularly given that this bug is treatable with one of our oldest antibiotics, penicillin, and it's always sensitive to penicillin, so it should be perfectly treatable when it's recognised.\"\n\nMs Burns also advised parents to look out for signs of the infection as she said Camila had originally complained of having pain in the top left hand corner of her chest, but a doctor said it was likely due to her pulling a muscle.\n\nEarlier this week, Camila's father Dean Burns told parents who had any concerns about their children's health to \"scoop them up\" and to get checked.\n\nHe added Camila's family were \"hoping and praying for a miracle so that she heals and comes back to us\".\n\nHanna Roap, a primary school pupil from Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, in Wales, is among the children who have died from strep A, with her family saying their hearts had been \"broken into a million pieces\".\n\nPublic Health Wales said on Friday that levels of strep A were now similar to 2016, despite having doubled in recent weeks.\n\nAnd leading paediatrician Dr Ray Nethercott added cases of strep A in Northern Ireland are expected to level off within weeks.\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency has said there is no current evidence that a new strain is circulating and that the rise in cases is more likely because of high amounts of circulating bacteria and increased social mixing.\n\nHave you and your family been affected by strep A? If so, have you struggled getting medication? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "BBC News NI has been granted exclusive access to the emergency department at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast as part of a BBC-wide spotlight on emergency care across the United Kingdom.\n\nThroughout the day, staff manoeuvred trolleys through very tight areas as they attempted to find available space for the patients.\n\nIn one area, known as acute care, trolleys were lined up head to toe with staff having to squeeze between them in order to check patients and to deliver food.\n\nMichael Thompson is lead nurse in charge of patient flow between the department and wards.\n\n\"It's like a massive game of Jenga,\" he said.\n\n\"There's just no flow going out. Our front door is massive but our back door is tiny and it just keeps shrinking.\"", "Busy, noisy, highly stressful - and sometimes violent. This is the reality of A&E as the NHS gears up for what will be an incredibly difficult winter.\n\nThat much is clear from the experience of staff and patients at Royal Berkshire Hospital's emergency department.\n\nLike all units, it is struggling to see patients quickly - more than a third of patients wait more than four hours.\n\nThe stress and frustration means tempers can easily boil over.\n\nReceptionist Tahj Chrichlow says it can get so busy patients end up \"packed like sardines\".\n\n\"Sometimes people can be not as nice to us as we like,\" he adds, explaining how earlier this week the window of the reception office had been smashed by one angry person.\n\n\"Luckily we have got a very nice security team who can come down and help us - they're pretty much on our speed dial, just in case.\"\n\n'Sometimes people can be not as nice to us as we like', says Tahj Chrichlow.\n\nStaff nurse Harriet Nicholls ended up getting slapped and bitten on the arm as she and a colleague tried to put a drip in a patient.\n\nThe individual had dementia - so it was not necessarily related to the delays seeing patients - but such episodes were not uncommon in the department.\n\n\"We're overloaded and there are not enough staff,\" she says.\n\nThe latest figures show the emergency care system has never seen such huge pressures - certainly since modern recording-keeping began 20 years ago.\n\nThe proportion of patients waiting more than four hours to be seen has reached its highest level ever with more than 30% of patients facing delays.\n\nAnd for those patients who cannot be treated on the spot and need a stay in hospital, there can then be long waits for a bed.\n\nOne of those was Anne Whitfield-Ray who was taken to her local hospital last month after she fell at home and broke her hip.\n\nShe spent 15 hours on a trolley until a bed could be found for her.\n\n\"It was absolute chaos - like something out of a third world country,\" said the 77-year-old from Worcestershire.\n\n\"Patients were being squeezed in everywhere they could. It was horrific.\"\n\nBut she said that despite her experience she cannot fault the staff: \"They are doing the best they can.\"\n\nHayley's six-month-old spent more than 30 hours waiting for a bed on a ward\n\nHayley, 34, from Ashford in Surrey, had an even longer wait with her six-month-old.\n\nShe was told to go straight to A&E by her GP after her baby became unwell.\n\n\"It was totally rammed. We spent 33 hours in A&E waiting for a bed on the wards.\n\n\"The staff tried their best to help us. I can't complain about the care we've had as it's been very good. But the NHS is totally overwhelmed.\"\n\nThe Royal College of Emergency Medicine is warning delays like these are putting patients at risk.\n\nVice president Dr Ian Higginson says hospitals are \"full to bursting\".\n\n\"When our hospitals are full, we can't get patients out of our emergency departments.\n\n\"That means emergency departments become overcrowded and we see patients waiting for long periods on uncomfortable trollies in corridors or other rubbish places.\"\n\nDr Higginson says his colleagues are \"very worried\" and unable to deliver the care they would like to give to patients.\n\n\"It's just not possible,\" he adds.\n\nDr Vin Diwakar, of NHS England, said staff were working \"round-the-clock\" to try to see and treat patients as quickly as they can.\n\nHe said the problems in A&E were caused by a lack of beds, with 19 out of every 20 currently occupied.\n\nHe said the \"fundamental challenge\" was the difficulty hospitals were facing discharging patients who were medically fit to leave, but could not be released because of a lack of care in the community.\n\nEvery day more than half of patients ready to be discharged cannot be discharged.\n\nDr Diwakar said steps were being taken, including investment in community teams to stop people ending up in hospital,\n\nA network of regional \"war rooms\" has also been created, he added, which monitor the pressures on local hospitals in real time, so they can try to manage demand by diverting ambulances away from the most under-pressure hospitals.\n\nAre you currently waiting in A&E? If you feel well enough to do so, tell us what it's like by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "J Alexander Kueng was one of four police officer involved in the May 2020 arrest of George Floyd\n\nA former Minneapolis police officer who knelt on George Floyd's back has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for his role in Mr Floyd's death.\n\nJ Alexander Kueng pleaded guilty to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in October.\n\nHe was one of four officers involved in the arrest, filmed by bystanders, of the 46-year-old.\n\nMr Floyd was killed by police in May 2020 while lying prone and handcuffed.\n\nHis death sparked global outrage and a wave of demonstrations against racial injustice and police use of force.\n\nKueng will serve his new sentence for state charges concurrently with a previous federal sentence for violating Mr Floyd's civil rights.\n\nIn April 2021, former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on state murder and manslaughter charges for kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes and sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in jail. He is serving that sentence concurrently with a 20-year sentence on federal civil rights charges, for which he pleaded guilty in December 2021.\n\nIn February, Kueng, along with two other responding officers, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao, were also found guilty on federal civil rights charges. The officers were charged with showing \"deliberate indifference to [Mr Floyd's] serious medical needs\" during the attempted arrest.\n\nVideo footage of the arrest shows Kueng and Lane assisting Chauvin by helping to hold Mr Floyd down. Thao, meanwhile, kept concerned bystanders away. Chauvin was a field training officer to both Lane and Kueng.\n\nAs well as Chauvin, the other officers involved were given sentences of varying lengths for the federal charges:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What role did these police have in Floyd’s death?\n\nSpeaking in court ahead of the sentencing, prosecutor Matthew Frank said that Kueng \"was not simply a bystander in what happened that day\", but instead played an \"active part\".\n\nWhile Kueng declined to address the court directly, his defence attorney, Thomas Plunkett, argued that city and police officials had \"failed\" Mr Floyd, Kueng and the community alike.\n\nAttorneys representing George Floyd's family said that the sentencing represented \"yet another piece of justice for the Floyd family\".\n\n\"While the family faces yet another holiday season without George, we hope that moments like these continue to bring them a measure of peace, knowing that George's death was not in vain,\" they added.", "A plan to remove a cap on bankers' bonuses is one of the few mini-budget policies to remain after most measures were unwound by the new chancellor.\n\nJeremy Hunt made no mention of a U-turn on removing the cap on banker's bonuses as he reversed many of his predecessor's other policies on Monday.\n\nKwasi Kwarteng said last month the cap would be lifted, as part of a shake-up of rules governing the City of London.\n\nA Treasury source told the BBC the plan to remove the cap was going ahead.\n\nIt is understood the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) will hold a consultation on the plans later this year.\n\nCritics argued the move benefited wealthy people at a time when many households were struggling with living costs.\n\nBut Mr Hunt did not mention any reversal of the policy, which was designed to boost growth through a post-Brexit shake-up of the rules covering the financial sector.\n\nLabour MP Siobhain McDonagh asked the chancellor following his emergency statement in the House of Commons why he decided to carry on \"boosting bankers' bonuses in the heart of a cost-of-living crisis\".\n\nMr Hunt said the previous policy didn't work and argued the government would get more tax from rich bankers by removing the cap.\n\nCity bosses have long complained about the EU-wide bonus rules which cap bonuses at twice an employee's salary, arguing they lead to higher base pay that pushes up banks' fixed costs.\n\nUnlike bonuses, those costs cannot be adjusted in line with the firm's financial performance, they add, making the UK a less attractive place to locate their business than the US or Asia.\n\nHowever, critics have argued that uncapped bonuses lead to the kind of excessive risk-taking that led to the financial crisis of 2008.\n\nOn Friday, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said City bonuses had increased at more than twice the speed of wages since the 2008 financial crash.\n\nThe union body said its analysis found bonuses in the finance and insurance sector were now worth, on average, around £20,000 a year - their highest level on record.\n\n\"Everyone who works for a living deserves to earn a decent living, but ministers are holding down the pay of millions of key workers, while lining the pockets of City financiers,\" said Frances O'Grady, the TUC's general secretary.\n\nThe TUC called on the government to boost the minimum wage to £15 an hour. The minimum wage, which is known officially as the National Living Wage is currently £9.50 an hour for over-23s.\n\nAndrew Sentance, a former member of the Bank of England's rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee, has previously told the BBC that the move sends a \"rather confused signal when people are being squeezed in terms of the cost of living, and the government is trying to encourage pay restraint in the public sector\".\n\nThe Labour Party has previously said the government's decision to lift the cap was \"bizarre\" and will \"do nothing to support growth\".\n\nLabour Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said in the House of Commons on Monday that \"ordinary working people\" were paying the price for the recent market turmoil describing it as a \"Tory crisis made in Downing Street\".\n\n\"All that is left after these humiliating u-turns are higher mortgages for working people, and higher bonuses for bankers,\" she said.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nLionel Messi's World Cup dream lives on after Argentina edged out the Netherlands on penalties after a hugely dramatic quarter-final at Lusail Stadium.\n\nMessi looked to have inspired Argentina into a last-four meeting with Brazil's conquerors Croatia when he set up Nahuel Molina's opener 10 minutes before the break and then added the second from the penalty spot in the 73rd minute after Denzel Dumfries fouled Marcos Acuna.\n\nLouis van Gaal, in his final game as Dutch coach, went for broke and it paid off as substitute Wout Weghorst led a sensational comeback by scoring twice, the second following an audacious free-kick routine 11 minutes into stoppage time.\n\nA game of many flashpoints, including 17 yellow cards plus a red for Dutch defender Denzel Dumfries at the end, went to penalties, during which Aston Villa's Argentina keeper Emi Martinez emerged as the hero, saving from Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis.\n\nMessi scored his penalty and even though pressure mounted on Argentina when Enzo Fernandez dragged his spot-kick wide, Lautaro Martinez made the decisive contribution to spark wild scenes of celebration.\n• None Brazil out of World Cup as Croatia win on penalties\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nThe ecstasy in the vast stands at Lusail Stadium and among Argentina's players carried extra joy because they knew how close they came to throwing away a position of comfort in this thunderous World Cup quarter-final.\n\nArgentina were cruising with a two-goal lead in the final 10 minutes but even the hordes of blue and white clad fans were silenced momentarily as their team, seemingly gripped by desperation as the Netherlands utilised the giant duo of Weghorst and Luuk de Jong, conceded those two late goals.\n\nIt needed Emi Martinez's rescue act in the penalty shootout, although it was Argentina making all the running and the Dutch hanging on in the extra period, with Enzo Fernandez hitting the post with virtually the last kick of the added period.\n\nArgentina held their nerve to win the shootout and will now meet Croatia in the semi-finals after they also won on penalties against Brazil, a result which added another layer to the celebrations as they not only saw a historic rival go out, but also one of the main threats to their hopes of winning the World Cup.\n\nThis was a close-run thing for Argentina but they now stand only one game away from reaching the World Cup final, having falling victim to one of the biggest shocks of the tournament when they lost their opening game to Saudi Arabia.\n\nLouis van Gaal disguised what was surely bitter disappointment in his final game as Netherlands coach as he clasped opposite number Lionel Scaloni in a warm embrace at the conclusion of a sometimes chaotic quarter-final.\n\nVan Gaal must have been dreaming of another World Cup semi-final to follow 2014, which he lost on penalties to Argentina, when the Netherlands drew level in the closing seconds of that lengthy period of added time.\n\nAnd what an equaliser it was, a superb free-kick routine which fooled Argentina completely as they waited for Tein Koopmeiners to shoot, only for him to slip a perfect pass into the waiting Weghorst to score.\n\nVan Gaal can leave his post with his head held high, as can his team, after they showed resilience and character to overcome Argentina's supremacy, only to lose out on the lottery of penalties.\n\nTime will tell whether 71-year-old Van Gaal, an occasionally divisive but always a charismatic and entertaining figure, will resurface elsewhere but his finale as Dutch coach was a case of so near and yet so far again in a World Cup.\n• None Goal! Netherlands 2(3), Argentina 2(4). Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Netherlands 2(3), Argentina 2(3). Luuk de Jong (Netherlands) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Penalty missed! Bad penalty by Enzo Fernández (Argentina) right footed shot is close, but misses to the left. Enzo Fernández should be disappointed.\n• None Goal! Netherlands 2(2), Argentina 2(3). Wout Weghorst (Netherlands) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Netherlands 2(1), Argentina 2(3). Gonzalo Montiel (Argentina) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Netherlands 2(1), Argentina 2(2). Teun Koopmeiners (Netherlands) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Netherlands 2, Argentina 2(2). Leandro Paredes (Argentina) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty saved! Steven Berghuis (Netherlands) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, left footed shot saved in the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Netherlands 2, Argentina 2(1). Lionel Messi (Argentina) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty saved! Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Enzo Fernández (Argentina) hits the left post with a right footed shot from outside the box. Assisted by Lionel Messi following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Ed Sheeran gave a speech and handed out prizes at Thomas Mills High School's awards ceremony\n\nEd Sheeran told pupils to do what they love doing as he made a surprise appearance at his former high school, a head teacher said.\n\nThe singer-songwriter from Framlingham, Suffolk, gave a speech and handed out prizes at Thomas Mills High School's awards ceremony on Thursday.\n\nThe comprehensive's head teacher Phil Hurst said the visit was \"so special\".\n\nTom Turner, a pupil who was presented a prize by the star, said it was \"incredible\".\n\nThe annual awards were to recognise pupils' commitment to learning.\n\nMr Hurst said that during Sheeran's speech, he told the pupils to \"do what you love doing and to work hard at school because it gives you such good routines for the future\".\n\nHe said it was \"generous\" of the musician, who has a home near the town, to \"give up his time in such a busy schedule\".\n\nPupil Tom Turner said it was \"amazing\" to be presented with his award by the singer\n\nMr Hurst said Sheeran was given a tour of his former school and was \"delighted\" to meet some of his old teachers.\n\nTom, who is in his final year, said it was \"amazing\" for Sheeran to present him with his community service award.\n\n\"It was such a surreal experience having the number one music artist in the world on a stage in front of you,\" the frontman of Framlingham band Ikarus added.\n\nTom, who is the front man of Framlingham band Ikarus, said it was a \"surreal experience\" having Sheeran award the prizes\n\nHe has also been spotted in the county filming his new music video - and has previously filmed other videos in Suffolk, most notably Castle on the Hill, which features Framlingham's ruined medieval castle.\n\nFramlingham Castle featured in Sheeran's Castle on the Hill video\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion get in touch via eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout crossed on airport tarmac\n\nThe US and Russia have exchanged jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, held in an American prison for 12 years.\n\nPresident Joe Biden said Griner was safe and on a plane home from the United Arab Emirates.\n\n\"I'm glad to say Brittney's in good spirits... she needs time and space to recover,\" he said at the White House.\n\nBout - widely known as the \"merchant of death\" - has arrived back in Moscow, Russian media reports.\n\n\"In the middle of the night they simply woke me up and said 'Get your things together' and that was it,\" Bout said in brief remarks to a reporter from national television, after landing in Russia.\n\nBout reportedly came down the aeroplane steps carrying a bouquet of flowers before embracing his mother and his wife.\n\nGriner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possessing cannabis oil and last month she was sent to a penal colony.\n\nThe Biden administration proposed a prisoner exchange in July, aware Moscow had long sought Bout's release.\n\nThe elaborate swap involved two private planes bringing the pair to Abu Dhabi airport from Moscow and Washington, and then flying them home.\n\nFootage on Russian state media showed them crossing on the tarmac with their respective teams. In the video, apparently provided by Russian security services, Bout is warmly greeted by two Russian officials as Griner, who is 6ft 9in (206cm), looks on. Part of the swap is then edited out before the two parties go their separate ways.\n\n\"The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland,\" the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.\n\nSpeaking in the Oval Office, Brittney Griner's wife Cherelle praised the efforts of the Biden administration in securing her release: \"I'm just standing here overwhelmed with emotions.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Cherelle Griner thanks those who have helped end her wife Brittney's imprisonment\n\nAccording to a joint Saudi-UAE statement, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman played a leading role in mediation efforts, along with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.\n\nThe heir to the Saudi throne has good relations with Russia's Vladimir Putin and in September he helped co-ordinate a complex swap of hundreds of prisoners held by Russia and Ukraine.\n\nBut the White House denied any mediation had been involved. \"The only countries that negotiated this deal were the United States and Russia,\" said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.\n\nWhen negotiations began to secure Griner's release during the summer, the US made clear it wanted ex-marine Paul Whelan to be included in an exchange.\n\nBout's lawyer, Alexei Tarasov, told Russian TV that from the start the US wanted two of its citizens returned, and Russia's foreign ministry complained that \"Washington categorically refused to engage in dialogue\".\n\nBut it became clear that Whelan, jailed in 2018 on suspicion of spying, would not be part of the Russian swap, dashing his family's hopes.\n\nPaul Whelan told CNN he was \"greatly disappointed\" more had not been done to free him, as he had carried out no crime: \"I don't understand why I'm still sitting here,\" he said.\n\nPresident Biden finally signed the order for Bout's release, commuting his 25-year jail term, in a direct swap for Griner.\n\nBout's wife Alla told Russian TV she had spoken to him only two days ago: \"He was supposed to call me tonight. Now we'll see each other and hug each other. That's better than any phone call.\"\n\nViktor Bout sold arms to warlords and rogue governments, becoming one of the world's most wanted men.\n\nDubbed the \"merchant of death\" for gun-running in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian's exploits inspired the 2005 Hollywood film Lord of War, which was loosely based on his life.\n\nRussian state TV showed images of Bout being reunited with his family in Russia\n\nHis secretive career was brought to an end by an elaborate US sting in 2008, when he was arrested at a hotel in the Thai capital Bangkok, to the anger of the Russian government.\n\nHe was extradited two years later and has spent the past 12 years in an American jail for conspiring to support terrorists and kill Americans.\n\nBout's circumstances could hardly be more different from that of his opposite number in the prisoner swap.\n\nBrittney Griner, 32, is one of the best-known sportswomen in America. During the US basketball season the double Olympic champion is a star centre for Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: \"Do you know where you're going?\"\n\nHer only reason for flying to Moscow was to play in Russia during the off-season in the US. She told her Russian trial that the cannabis oil found in her bag had been an \"honest mistake\".\n\nSecretary of State Antony Blinken singled out the efforts of presidential envoy Roger Carstens, who accompanied Griner on the plane from the UAE.\n\nLeading figures in US basketball welcomed her release, among them twice WNBA champion Breanna Stewart of the Seattle Storm.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Breanna Stewart This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nGriner was moved last month to a penal colony in Mordovia, a remote area some 500km, (310m) south-east of Moscow. She was held not far from where Paul Whelan is serving his 16-year jail term on spying charges.\n\nIn his statement President Biden said Russia had treated Whelan's case differently from Griner's for totally illegitimate reasons.\n\n\"While we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release we have not given up; we will not give up,\" he vowed.\n\nWhelan's brother, David, praised Griner's release and said US officials had warned the family in advance that Paul Whelan was not part of the exchange.\n\n\"It's clear the US government needs to be more assertive,\" he said in a statement. \"If bad actors like Russia are going to grab innocent Americans, the US needs a swifter, more direct response.\"\n\nFormer White House national security advisor John Bolton condemned the deal as a not a swap but a surrender by the Biden administration.\n\n\"Terrorists and rogue states all around the world will take note of this and it endangers other Americans in the future,\" he said.\n\nThe deal was also criticised by Robert Zachariasiewicz, a former agent with the US Drug Enforcement Administration, who helped lead the team that arrested Viktor Bout.\n\n\"Today's actions just placed a target on back of every United States citizen travelling throughout the world and they just became a commodity,\" he told the BBC's World Tonight.\n\n\"I think we just sent the message that it's really good business to illegally detain and if not kidnap American citizens, and it's really great to have one in your back pocket if you need them for a trade at some point.\"\n\nViktor Bout was extradited to the US from Thailand in 2010 (file pic)\n\nVladimir Osechkin - a former Russian MP who led a parliamentary investigation into Bout, and who is now a dissident in France - told the BBC's Outside Source programme he believed Vladimir Putin wanted Bout back because of what he knew.\n\n\"Putin and the generals were worried that Viktor Bout might start providing detailed and consistent evidence of what he knew about Russian intelligence helping terrorist organisations and organising sabotage abroad,\" he said.\n\n\"It was a matter of honour for them to take their agent back.\"\n\nHowever, the US Bring Our Families Home Campaign suggested Russians saw Bout in a very different light. \"Over the years they built him up like the spy of the century. There's a domestic political problem in Russia to keep the lie going,\" said Jonathan Franks from the campaign.\n\nThursday's prisoner exchange is not the first between Russia and the US this year. US marine Trevor Reed spent three years in jail for assault before being traded last April for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted of smuggling cocaine.\n\nSpeaking from a Russian penal colony, Paul Whelan said he had been told that Russia \"put me at a level higher than what they did with Trevor and Brittney\", because he had been accused of spying.\n\nPresident Biden urged Americans to take precautions before travelling overseas, and warned of the risk of being wrongfully detained by a foreign government.", "Strikers called for the removal of Royal Mail boss Simon Thompson\n\nThousands of postal workers at Royal Mail are on strike over pay and conditions, potentially causing disruption to customers' festive deliveries.\n\nMore than 115,000 staff walked out on Friday, with more strikes to follow in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nRecent talks between the CWU union and Royal Mail have broken down.\n\nMembers of the union are expected to continue striking on Sunday as well as on 14, 15, 23 and 24 December.\n\nAlthough there are no letter deliveries on Sundays, there are parcel deliveries, and Royal Mail also processes mail on a Sunday for delivery on a Monday.\n\nLast week, Royal Mail advised people to post Christmas mail earlier than usual due to the strikes.\n\nMillions of letters have reportedly been piling up as negotiations have stalled, while it has brought forward the final suggested date for sending second class post to 12 December from 19 December, and for first class to 16 December from 21 December.\n\nThe union has said staff want a pay rise that matches the soaring cost of living and has accused management of trying to \"force through thousands of compulsory redundancies\".\n\nWorkers carrying placards demanding the removal of Royal Mail's chief executive Simon Thompson gathered outside the Mount Pleasant Mail Centre in London - the company's largest sorting site in the UK.\n\nOne employee Nick, who has worked for Royal Mail for 38 years, told the BBC that although he had walked out during previous strikes, the distance between management and unions appeared to him to be wider in this wave of industrial action.\n\n\"It seems to me there's not really a negotiation. It is a take it or leave it deal where they are attacking our terms and conditions.\"\n\nInside the sorting office, parcels and letters continued to be sorted by a skeleton crew of 100 people, compared to the 1,000 employees who normally work at the centre.\n\nOn Friday a skeleton crew continued to work at Royal Mail's Mount Pleasant sorting office\n\nJoy, who has been with Royal Mail for 28 years, told the BBC he had chosen to come to work on a strike day because \"I want to please my customers because of the peak time\".\n\nHe said that firms are worried about business after the height of the pandemic. \"They need their letters and their mail ASAP,\" he said.\"I want to keep moving the mail.\"\n\nMembers of the CWU also staged a rally on Friday afternoon outside Parliament in central London.\n\nThe union's general secretary, Dave Ward, said at the rally that the union was preparing a fresh ballot over further strike action in January.\n\nBut speaking during a visit to an RAF base in Lincolnshire, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that he was not ruling out extending \"tough\" new anti-strike laws to prevent walkouts by emergency service workers.\n\nHe said the government was \"looking at all options\" when he was asked about the potential changes to the law to limit the impact of strikes.\n\nThe most recent dispute in the postal industry began this summer after Royal Mail rejected demands for a pay rise that matched inflation - the rate at which prices rise - which is currently 11.1%.\n\nRoyal Mail has been struggling as it moves from its traditional business of delivering letters, which is no longer profitable, to parcel deliveries.\n\nIt wants to cut 10,000 jobs by next August, which will include 6,000 redundancies and thousands of other roles that will not be filled as staff leave.\n\nIt also argues that it needs to modernise how the business works to accommodate a rise in parcel deliveries, which would mean changing workers' hours.\n\nDave Ward, the CWU general secretary, said: \"Royal Mail bosses are risking a Christmas meltdown because of their stubborn refusal to treat their employees with respect.\n\n\"Postal workers want to get on with serving the communities they belong to, delivering Christmas gifts and tackling the backlog from recent weeks.\n\n\"But they know their value, and they will not meekly accept the casualisation of their jobs, the destruction of their conditions and the impoverishment of their families.\"\n\nTalks have broken down between the union and Royal Mail, a spokesman said, adding that Royal Mail managers are \"refusing to budge with their 'best and final' offer\".\n\nThat offer includes a 9% pay deal over 18 months and \"a number of other concessions to terms and agreements\", Royal Mail said.\n\nA spokesman said: \"We spent three more days at [conciliation service] Acas this week to discuss what needs to happen for the strikes to be lifted.\n\n\"In the end, all we received was another request for more pay, without the changes needed to fund the pay offer,\" he said, adding that the union \"knows full well\" that the business is losing more than £1m a day.\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The six sent messages over WhatsApp about victims of domestic abuse, people with disabilities and women in general\n\nSix police constables have lost their jobs for being part of a WhatsApp group sharing \"grossly offensive\" messages.\n\nMore than 6,000 messages were viewed by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), including racist and homophobic comments, derogatory remarks about domestic abuse victims, people with disabilities, and women.\n\nThe officers from three forces were found to be guilty of gross misconduct.\n\nTwo were sacked and the others would have been if they had not already left.\n\nThe IOPC found the six officers breached police standards of professional behaviour for discreditable conduct; authority, respect and courtesy; challenging and reporting improper conduct; and equality and diversity.\n\nServing PCs Gary Bailey, of the Met, and Matthew Forster, of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, were dismissed.\n\nThe former officers given dismissal notices are PCs Joel Borders, Jonathon Cobban and William Neville of the Met, and PC Daniel Comfort from the Norfolk Constabulary.\n\nAll of them apart from Pc Forster, who is subject to different regulations, will be added to the College of Policing barred list preventing them from future employment with the police service.\n\nThe chat group was called the Bottles and Stoppers and dated back to February 2019, according to the IOPC.\n\nIts messages also included jokes about the Auschwitz concentration camp in which at least 1.1 million people were murdered by the Nazis.\n\nIOPC regional director Sal Naseem said: \"The views expressed by these officers do not belong in a civilised society and, as we have said before, social media cannot be a hiding place for them whether on a public platform or as part of a private group.\n\n\"Behaviour of this kind undermines public confidence in policing and the dismissal rulings by the panel today send out a strong message that it will not be tolerated.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The deadline by which hosts of short-term lets in Scotland need to get a licence has been delayed by six months.\n\nThe scheme, which could see fines of up to £2,500 imposed on people who rent out property without permission, was set up by the government in October.\n\nIt is aimed at reducing the impact of Airbnb-style lets on local communities and the availability of housing.\n\nHosts had until 31 March 2023 to apply for a licence, but this has now been pushed back until the start of October.\n\nHousing Secretary Shona Robison said the \"one-off\" extension was agreed due to the impact of the cost-of-living crisis, but stressed that hosts should continue to apply.\n\nHospitality groups had raised concerns about the impact of the proposals on the tourism sector, particularly over the summer in Edinburgh when many people travel to the city for the annual festivals.\n\nThe licensing scheme was set up in a bid to ensure consistent safety standards across short-term lets, as well as making sure hosts are fit and proper people and giving councils more control over the number of rentals.\n\nSome areas, such as Edinburgh and the Highlands, see a large number of properties let out on a short-term basis, leading to concerns about a lack of housing for permanent residents and some complaints about anti-social behaviour and noise.\n\nCompanies such as Airbnb have met with opposition from some residents in Edinburgh\n\nApplications to the scheme - which are handled by local authorities - were opened in October, and new hosts have to obtain a licence before they can operate a rental.\n\nExisting hosts were given a deadline of 31 March 2023 to apply, but Ms Robison confirmed in a letter to Holyrood's housing committee that this has now been pushed back to 30 September.\n\nShe said: \"This is a one-off six month extension, which recognises the wider economic circumstances of the cost-of-living crisis that is placing pressure on existing short-term let hosts and businesses.\n\n\"This is not a pause and we encourage hosts to continue to apply throughout this period. It will not make any changes in our primary aim of ensuring all short-term lets across Scotland meet consistent safety standards and are provided by fit and proper people.\"\n\nThe Association of Scotland's Self-Caterers welcomed the move.\n\nChief executive Fiona Campbell said: \"The ASSC has been pressing hard for a pause to the implementation of the scheme due to the cost-of-living crisis so it's good to know our voices are being heard.\n\n\"Our ongoing concern however is that it is not long enough to give our members the breathing space they need to get their licence applications approved in the current climate.\"\n\nThe UK Short Term Accommodation Association (STAA) said the scheme could have a damaging effect on Scotland's tourism economy.\n\nCEO Andy Fenner said: \"We are pleased that the Scottish government has made its decision for a six month delay.\n\n\"We have heard from the likes of the Edinburgh Festival that its future could be severely compromised because this licensing scheme will effectively limit the amount of accommodation on offer.\"\n\nCouncils also have a separate power to set up short-term rental control zones, where hosts would need to get planning permission in order to let out a property.", "With the cost of heating so high, how are people managing to cope this winter?\n\nSharon Lines is a family support worker who volunteers at the Oasis Hub in south Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and she's seen an increase in the number of people accessing the charity's support services.\n\n\"More people are accessing our food banks, more people are accessing our living rooms [to] come and get a warm hot meal in a warm space, more people [are] accessing support with their bills, and emotional support as well,\" she told the BBC.\n\nMolly Todd, a parent who uses and volunteers at the hub, says it's \"a community away from home\".\n\n“I'll definitely say I was struggling with my gas and electric in recent weeks,” she said.\n\n\"Sharon has been great support. She's helped me put them in the right direction. She's given me a fuel voucher, which I was able to then put on my gas and it's just saved me from the worry at the minute.\n\n“The struggle [is] I've got a prepayment metre which I can't change over from but obviously with that, the gas and everything just falls off - as soon as you put it on it goes again.”", "Russian state media release footage showing the WNBA star's final moments in prison before she packs her bags, walks out of the gates and boards a plane.", "The captain of the fishing vessel has been named as Michael Michieli, an experienced and respected fisherman\n\nA search for three fishermen who went missing after their boat sank off the coast of Jersey has ended.\n\nThe captain and two crew members of the L'Ecume II remain missing after a collision with the Commodore Goodwill ship just after 05:30 GMT on Thursday.\n\nThe Jersey Coastguard, RNLI, Channel Islands Air Search and local fishermen have been involved.\n\nThe Ports of Jersey (POJ) said all rescue options had \"been exhausted\" in efforts to find the men.\n\nThe search had entered a second day after the L'Ecume II sank in about 131ft (40m) of water.\n\nIts captain has been named as Michael Michieli, the owner of L'Ecume II and an experienced and respected fisherman.\n\nThe POJ said: \"All possible rescue activities [have] been exhausted in an effort to find the three missing fishermen.\n\n\"We are aware that this is very difficult for friends and family of the men, and we extend our deepest sympathies to all those affected by this tragic incident.\"\n\nA remotely operated underwater craft will conduct a \"more detailed survey\" of the collision site to inform the recovery phase of the operation in the next week.\n\nAn investigation, led by Maritime Standards with support from police, has been commissioned.\n\nThe Jersey Lifeboat Association has deployed its two lifeboats to aid in the search\n\nThe search by Jersey Lifeboat Association has covered at least 100 nautical miles.\n\nEarlier, coxswain Andy Hibbs said: \"We're pressing on with the search... [there are] many more to go,\" he said.\n\nLifeboats, two French rescue helicopters and a French naval plane were among those involved in the search on Thursday\n\nThe decision to resume the search for a second day was made after reviewing the footage from a remotely operated underwater vehicle that was used to examine the sunken vessel.\n\nWilliam Jackson, from the Fresh Fish Company, said he had known Mr Michieli since he was a boy.\n\nHe said: \"I've known him most of my life since I was a kid, he's part of the furniture down here, he's been here as long as I can remember as long as anyone can remember really.\n\n\"He's probably one of the most prominent fishermen on the island and in the community. I was just shocked, absolutely shocked the whole thing didn't make any sense really.\n\n\"He was here at four o'clock in the morning getting ready to go out and spirits were high and morale was high and there were perfect conditions, everyone was ready to go fishing and then you just hear that, and it's just sort of difficult to comprehend it.\"\n\nThe Commodore Goodwill remains docked at the harbour\n\nCondor Ferries confirmed its freight ship had been involved in the collision.\n\nBecause its vessel is registered in the Bahamas, a separate \"safety-focused investigation\" will be run by the Bahamas Maritime Authority in collaboration with Jersey authorities.\n\nReferring to the search being called off John Napton, CEO of the firm, said: \"All at Condor are deeply saddened by this latest news and our sympathies are with the families, friends and loved ones of the fishermen at this extremely difficult time.\"\n\nHe said the firm would \"continue to engage and comply with the authorities in the ongoing investigation into this tragic incident\".\n\nBailiff Sir Timothy Le Cocq said he was \"deeply saddened\" by the situation.\n\nHe said: \"As a maritime people with a close fishing community, this news is particularly shocking and will resonate through our island.\n\n\"There will be an occasion to reflect on what has occurred, but at this time the families of those involved, and indeed those who are carrying out the coordinated and thorough search are at the forefront of my thoughts.\"\n\nSigns of a collision are visible on the hull of the ship\n\nThe Commodore Goodwill, which was carrying five passengers and 24 crew, was sailing from Guernsey to Jersey when the collision happened.\n\nCommercial shipping has been rerouted to the east of Jersey.\n\nFreight truck driver Richard Henry was a passenger on the Goodwill and said he felt a bang and then the ferry moved.\n\n\"I heard five big long blasts on the horn and then literally not a minute later we felt a big thud from the boat collision,\" he said.\n\n\"The captain was on it straight away, saying 'This is not a drill, all crew to boats'.\"\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "British teen Harry Dunn was killed in August 2019 when his motorcycle was hit by Anne Sacoolas's vehicle. The US citizen was driving on the wrong side of the road.\n\nHer husband worked on a US intelligence base in the UK, which meant she had diplomatic immunity.\n\nHarry Dunn's family have fought for justice for over three years. In December 2022, Sacoolas was handed a suspended custodial sentence at the Old Bailey, but she did not appear in person.\n\nWatch the BBC's home and legal correspondent Dominic Casciani explain the case.", "Joining Schengen would mean no need for border checks like these on the Bulgarian border with Greece\n\nEuropean Union interior ministers have voted to accept Croatia into the 26-nation, border-free Schengen zone, but to reject Romania and Bulgaria.\n\nThe vote was greeted with relief in Zagreb, but anger and dismay in Bucharest and Sofia.\n\nGermany's foreign minister said it was a bad day for Europe.\n\nThe European Commission had backed all three countries as meeting the criteria necessary for joining the zone, which includes 420 million people.\n\nCroatia joined the EU in 2013; Romania and Bulgaria had become member states six years earlier.\n\nCroatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic praised the decision, which means that Croatia will decommission its border crossings with EU neighbours Slovenia and Hungary on 1 January, the same day as it joins the euro.\n\nCreated in 1985, the Schengen area allows people and goods to travel freely, usually without showing travel or customs documents.\n\nIt includes 22 of the EU's 27 states as well as Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein.\n\nAustria and the Netherlands voted against admitting Romania and Bulgaria, citing concerns that both were soft on illegal migration. The most vehement opposition came from Austria.\n\n\"It is not right for a system that is not working in many places to be expanded at this time,\" said Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, explaining his country's veto.\n\nAs its main reason for keeping Romania and Bulgaria out of Schengen, the government in Vienna cited a rapid increase in the number of migrants entering Austria illegally through the West Balkan route.\n\nHowever, political leaders in Romania and Bulgaria argue that relatively few cross their territory, and that their bid to join Schengen has been derailed for political reasons. They say the Austrian and Dutch governments are looking to attract the anti-immigrant vote.\n\nEU Border Agency Frontex has reported 128,000 \"irregular entries\" into the EU so far this year from the West Balkans, a 77% increase on 2021, with 22,300 in October alone. These figures include multiple attempts by the same people.\n\nThe Austrian government says 75,000 irregular migrants are currently in the country. Some 40% are from India and Tunisia, after flying into non-EU country Serbia legally under a no-visa scheme; a further 40% are from countries led by Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria.\n\nRomania said it did not understand Austria's \"inflexible decision\".\n\nThe head of the ruling Social Democrats, Marcel Ciolacu, went further: \"European unity and stability received a tough blow today from a state that chose, in difficult times, to abandon its European comrades and serve instead the interests of Russia.\"\n\nBut Bulgaria's acting interior minister, Ivan Demerdzhiev, was more diplomatic: \"Austria has made it clear it is ready for compromise and wants a complete reform of the Schengen area in those places where the mechanisms do not work,\" he said, holding out hope that Thursday's decision would be reversed next year.\n\nThere was criticism inside Austria as well, with migration researcher Judith Kohlenberger pointing out that the majority of people who had come to Austria for protection were already in the EU.\n\n\"To blame Romania and Bulgaria but not Hungary or even Croatia, which continue systematic push-backs, is both irrational and hypocritical,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Chris Morris explains how the Schengen area was created", "Yashin told his supporters the verdict was \"hysterical\" and the government had merely shown its weakness\n\nOne of Russia's most prominent opposition figures, Ilya Yashin, has been jailed for eight-and-a-half years for spreading \"fake news\" about the country's military.\n\nOne of few Kremlin critics to stay in Russia after it invaded Ukraine, Yashin continued to speak out against the war.\n\nHe was arrested after he condemned suspected Russian war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.\n\nSoon after the invasion, Russia made reporting \"false information\" a crime.\n\nSeveral Russians have since been given jail terms, but Yashin's sentence is the longest so far.\n\nHe denied the charge, but Judge Oksana Goryunova said he had knowingly disseminated fake information about the Russian armed forces.\n\nLast April, he had spoken on his YouTube channel about the killing of hundreds of Ukrainian civilians by Russia's occupying forces in Bucha, outside the capital, Kyiv.\n\nHe told the court that he had given both the official Russian and Ukrainian versions of the story. During the video, he shared images and stories from the scene by the BBC and others. Russia's defence ministry has condemned the accusations as a fabricated \"provocation\" and images of dead civilians as \"staged\".\n\nProsecutors had called for a nine-year jail sentence. His lawyer Maria Eismont said they would appeal against the verdict.\n\nIn a post on the Telegram messaging app, Yashin told supporters there was no reason to be sad: \"We told the truth about war crimes and called for an end to the bloodshed.\"\n\nRussia's best-known opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, said the \"shameless and lawless verdict by Putin's court will not silence Ilya\", describing him as probably the first friend he had made in politics.\n\nInterviewed by BBC Russian in July, Yashin said his arrest had not come as a surprise, as Russian authorities had made clear that there were only two alternatives for Kremlin opponents: emigration or jail.\n\nAsked whether he could still challenge Russia's president from prison, he said it was important there were people in the opposition prepared to resist.\n\nSpeaking outside the court on Friday, Yashin's supporters condemned the jail sentence as unfair and a violation of the right to freedom of speech.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Nimco Ali is a close friend of Boris and Carrie Johnson\n\nThe government's independent adviser on violence against women has said she does not want to serve under Suella Braverman and will not continue.\n\nOn live radio, Nimco Ali said she was on a \"completely different planet\" to the home secretary when it came to women's rights and ethnic minorities.\n\nMs Ali was appointed when her friend Boris Johnson was prime minister.\n\nA source close to the home secretary said Ms Ali's contract was coming to an end before Christmas.\n\nThey added: \"The home secretary is determined to make our streets and homes safer for women and girls.\n\n\"She will continue to focus on this policy and the rights of women and girls to live safely in our country.\"\n\nThe Home Office said they had not received any formal resignation and were therefore not commenting.\n\nMs Ali was being interviewed on Times Radio when she said she would not \"feel comfortable in serving under Suella\".\n\n\"Suella and I are on completely different planets when it comes to the rights of women and girls and also the way that we talk about ethnic minorities,\" she said.\n\nMs Ali said Ms Braverman had different approaches to \"people like me who are from a refugee background\".\n\nShe also questioned if the home secretary shared her \"feminist ideals\".\n\nWhen pressed on whether she would remain as an adviser, she said \"ultimately no, I'm not going to continue\".\n\nThe move comes hours after the home secretary agreed to back a bill criminalising street harassment.\n\nMs Ali had a major role in preparing the ground work for the bill and led a consultation into making street harassment a specific crime while serving under former home secretary Priti Patel.\n\nMs Ali was appointed to her role by Ms Patel in October 2020.\n\nLabour says Ms Ali's decision is \"damning for Suella Braverman\"\n\nThe BBC understands there has been no decision about appointing someone else to the role of Independent Adviser on Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls.\n\nMs Cooper said: \"Those around her clearly don't think she's capable of doing the job.\n\n\"It shows how weak Rishi Sunak was to appoint her. More chaos at the heart of this Tory government.\"\n\nAn ally of Ms Braverman indicated she had not met Ms Ali in her three months as home secretary.", "Stormont has had no ministers in post since October\n\nNorthern Ireland's ministers left office at the end of October and since then Stormont's nine government departments have been left in the hands of senior civil servants.\n\nBut, who are the officials running Northern Ireland?\n\nWith no ministers in place, the powers of civil servants are severely limited.\n\nThey can only implement policies previously agreed by politicians and their ability to react to changing circumstances is negligible.\n\nIn a statement to BBC News NI, The Executive Office (TEO) outlined how Northern Ireland is currently being run.\n\n\"Departments will continue to deliver services as far as possible and business as usual will continue for the majority of services in the immediate future,\" said a spokesperson.\n\nThe statement spelled out the limitations faced by civil servants.\n\n\"The courts have made clear what departments can do in the absence of a minister. The Court of Appeal confirmed in July 2018 that the role of the civil servant is to advise ministers and be accountable to them.\n\n\"The court also stated that any matter, which as a matter of convention or otherwise would normally go before the minister for approval, lies beyond the competence of a department in the absence of a minister.\"\n\nSo who are Northern Ireland's top civil servants?\n\nMs Brady became Head of the Civil Service in June 2021 and leads a workforce of 23,000 civil servants.\n\nUnlike most top Stormont officials she was appointed from outside the civil service having previously worked as Belfast City Council's digital innovation commissioner.\n\nShe holds an MBE for Services to Economic Development in Northern Ireland and describes herself as \"an engineer at heart\".\n\nAddressing the current challenge facing senior officials Ms Brady said: \"There is no doubt that what we are faced with is very difficult but we will continue to do our best to serve citizens.\"\n\nThe NI Civil Service offers a salary of up to £166,000 for its top job.\n\nThe role of Permanent Secretary at the Executive Office (TEO) previously included the function of head of the civil service. This changed when Jayne Brady was appointed.\n\nThe role was divided and long-term civil servant Denis McMahon became the leading official at TEO.\n\nIn normal times, it is the department at the heart of government and headed by the first and deputy first ministers.\n\nTEO's official role includes \"the effective operation of the institutions of government in the delivery of an agreed programme for government\" - a tough job given the absence of an executive, or a programme for government.\n\nMr McMahon was previously permanent secretary at the Department of Agriculture and began his career as a statistician.\n\nHis many jobs have included a spell as principal private secretary to former first minister Ian Paisley.\n\nResponsibility at the head of the remaining eight executive departments transferred to their individual permanent secretaries when the politicians lost their ministerial posts.\n\nSome of them have been civil servants for all of their working lives, others have experience working in business, academia and the voluntary sector.\n\nMr Boyle was appointed to the top job at the department in April 2022.\n\nHe had previously been interim permanent secretary in the Department of Finance.\n\nThe role of the Department for Communities includes responsibility for the social welfare system, housing and support for local government.\n\nMs Godfrey is an experienced senior civil servant, having spent three years as permanent secretary at the Department for Infrastructure.\n\nShe's the first woman to fill the top job at the Department of Agriculture.\n\nIn addition to her Stormont duties, the permanent secretary is a visiting professor at Ulster University where she teaches on the Masters in Public Administration course.\n\nMr Gibson was the chief economist for Ireland in the consultancy firm EY before becoming permanent secretary in the department that holds Northern Ireland's purse strings.\n\nHe replaced Sue Gray, who had been highly tipped for the post of head of the civil service but subsequently returned to a career in Whitehall.\n\nNeil Gibson is also a visiting professor of Economic Policy at Ulster University.\n\nMr Browne is a familiar figure at Stormont having spent 36 years in the civil service.\n\nHe started out as a statistician in the Department of Finance in 1985.\n\nMr Browne was appointed permanent secretary at the education department in March 2021 having previously served as deputy secretary in TEO since 2013.\n\nMr May took the helm at the department in May following a job swap with Richard Pengelly, who took over his position at the Department of Justice.\n\nHe has had a long civil service career at a senior rank. In addition to his period with the Justice Department, he previously held the top job at the Department for Infrastructure and the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure.\n\nMr May recently grabbed the headlines for comments he made regarding the future of Northern Ireland health service.\n\n\"Ultimately, we get the health service we pay for,\" he said.\n\n\"Without sustained investment, we will need as a society to recalibrate our expectations of what our health and social care system can deliver.\"\n\nRichard Pengelly is the top civil servant in the Department for Justice\n\nRichard Pengelly became the top official at the Justice Department in May following a stint of eight years as permanent secretary at the Department of Health.\n\nHis time at health coincided with the Covid pandemic when he worked alongside then Health Minister Robin Swann.\n\nMr Pengelly started out as a chartered accountant in private practice and worked in the Northern Ireland Audit Office before joining the Department of Finance and Personnel in 1998.\n\nHe is married to the Lagan Valley MLA, Emma Little-Pengelly.\n\nMs Harrison worked in a number of jobs outside the civil service before her appointment as deputy secretary in the Department of Justice in 2020.\n\nShe assumed the top job at infrastructure in April, where she heads a department employing 3,000 people.\n\nMs Harrison previously served as Northern Ireland chair and UK board member of the National Lottery Community Fund.\n\nMike Brennan took on the top job at economy in December 2020 having spent much of his civil service career at the Department of Finance.\n\nHe served as deputy secretary in the EU Exit Policy Group.\n\nPrior to joining the civil service, Mr Brennan was an economist at the Northern Ireland Economic Council.", "Billie Eilish became the youngest person to headline Glastonbury festival this summer\n\nBillie Eilish, Sam Fender and Lewis Capaldi have been announced as headliners of next year's Reading and Leeds festivals.\n\nImagine Dragons, Foals and The Killers will also be starring on the main stages.\n\nGreg James revealed the line-up on his Radio 1 Breakfast Show earlier.\n\nThe three-day festival will take place on 25 to 27 August, returning to Richfield Avenue, Reading, and Leeds' Bramham Park.\n\nBecky Hill, who's also appearing on the bill, tells Newsbeat she \"can't wait to feel the energy\" of the crowds.\n\n\"The energy is unmatched by any other festival,\" she says. \"It's one of my favourite crowds to perform to.\"\n\nWet Leg, MUNA, Eliza Rose, Loyle Carner, slowthai, Bicep, Central Cee and Baby Queen will also be playing.\n\nThey'll be joined on the bill by Don Broco, Tion Wayne, Nessa Barrett, Declan McKenna and You Me At Six.\n\nAfterglow singer Becky has been performing at the festival for a number of years and says she \"loves the fact that I've worked my way up the bill\".\n\nBecky Hill told BBC Newsbeat she \"can't wait\" to perform at the festivals next year\n\n\"The show now has really found its beat,\" says Becky.\n\n\"I'm very excited to to have so many people enjoying themselves from all different backgrounds.\"\n\nHer performance features drag artists and Becky says inclusion is \"so important\" to her set.\n\n\"There shouldn't be any exclusion in dance music, and in any music anywhere, but particularly when people party, it should be for everybody and anyone.\"\n\nSam Fender is listed to perform at the festival\n\nAfter the pandemic, there was criticism that festivals had \"forgotten\" targets to be more representative and include more female-led acts.\n\nFor next year's line-up, just one in six headliners are female-led performers at Reading and Leeds.\n\n\"There's always room for improvement,\" Becky says.\n\n\"I think, not only for women, but for people of colour, for queer people, for non-binary artists.\"\n\nBut she says \"it's beautiful to see things changing\".\n\nLewis Capaldi joins The Killers, Foals and Wet Leg as headline acts\n\nReading and Leeds also drew criticism last year when a number of acts pulled out at short notice.\n\nThe 1975 replaced headliners Rage Against the Machine at two weeks' notice and Eurovision winners Måneskin and US rapper Jack Harlow also cancelled their sets.\n\nTrouble flared on the final day of the 2022 Leeds festival with tents set on fire. It followed the death of 16-year-old David Celino, who fell ill after taking a particular type of ecstasy at the festival.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Sam Ryder now avoids surfing, in case it brings his music career to an untimely end\n\nSam Ryder - Eurovision runner-up, human ray of light and possessor of pop's most piercing falsetto - is a man who emanates serious surfer vibes.\n\nFrom his long blonde locks and laid-back demeanour to his tie-dye shirts and total lack of cynicism, he seems like he'd be perfectly at home performing a cutback or hanging 10 on the crest of a wave.\n\nAnd that was true until four years ago, when he was almost killed in a wipeout.\n\n\"I was surfing in Hawaii and my board snapped. Then I got hit by a wave and I very nearly drowned,\" he says.\n\n\"It pushed me down so far into the water. And the turbulence of the water, the power, is incredible. Fighting against it, you feel like you've been hit by a bus.\"\n\nWith his muscles pummelled and his body battered, it took Ryder a week of bed rest to recover. Time in which he re-evaluated his life.\n\n\"Obviously, the golden rule in surfing is 'never underestimate the sea', but until it goes wrong, you can't fathom it,\" he says. \"You're like, 'I am insignificant in this body of water'.\n\n\"But that day was important to me because I wanted to be very good at surfing and ride the big waves - but [the accident] put me back on my true purpose.\n\n\"I was like, 'You can't do the thing you love most, which is music and singing, if you're at the bottom of the sea'.\"\n\nThe singer has toured all over Europe since his near-victory at Eurovision\n\nThe rest of the story you probably know. Ryder built an army of 14 million fans on TikTok during lockdown, thanks to his covers of Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan and Britney Spears.\n\nHe was promptly signed by Parlophone Records, then selected by Dua Lipa's management team to represent the UK at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest.\n\nHis song, Space Man, written in just 10 minutes, recalled the classic 1970s rock sounds of Queen and Sir Elton John, and ultimately earned the UK its best position at Eurovision since 1998.\n\n\"Eurovision was like being in a church,\" he recalls. \"In that arena, there was so much joy and togetherness.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Eurovision Song Contest This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nSuccess came relatively late in life. At 33, Ryder is older than chart contemporaries like Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift, but he has been making music for just as long.\n\n\"When I think back now to those years, I'm flabbergasted,\" he says of his pre-fame days. \"What the hell was keeping me going? The crumbs of hope were so few and far between.\"\n\nHe made his debut in 2006 as the singer with rock band The Morning After, whose '80s-indebted power chord anthems arrived just as the music industry pivoted away from the rock revivalism of The Darkness and towards the R&B-infused pop of Justin Timberlake and Rihanna.\n\nWhen The Morning After split in 2010, he became a stand-in guitarist for Christian rock group Blessed By A Broken Heart, then joined US hardcore band Close Your Eyes (as Sam Robinson), replacing original singer Shane Raymond.\n\n\"I joined them, I think, because I wanted my friends to see that I was still doing something cool. Like, 'Don't worry about me, I'm still almost making it in music. Look, I'm on tour in America. That's impressive, right?'\"\n\nBut his heart wasn't truly in it. While he had been a fan of bands like Sum 41 and Good Charlotte as a teenager, he began to realise he had outgrown the music.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by closeyoureyesVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nDeflated, he went back home and joined his father's carpentry business - helping to lay the floor at Wembley Stadium, instead of singing under its famous arches.\n\nAfter his surfing accident, he quit construction to set up a vegan cafe with his girlfriend Lois, and started singing in wedding bands, \"initially because I wanted to earn some money, if I'm being completely honest\".\n\nIt was a decision that changed his outlook on music forever.\n\n\"I remember the first time I did one [wedding], I was singing Whitney Houston and I had my eyes closed, and in my head I was telling myself, 'I'm smashing this song'.\n\n\"Then it ended, and I opened my eyes and no-one even realised I'd started the song, let alone finished it. It took me aback, like, 'Did I do something wrong?'\n\n\"But I quickly realised, of course, no-one cares about you. They're there for their family. You're there to provide the atmosphere.\n\n\"And that was crucial because, at that point, I stopped linking music with the perception of my friends and I started doing it from my heart.\"\n\nThe singer has been with his partner, Lois Gaskin-Barber, for 11 years\n\nWhen the UK entered Covid lockdown in 2020, his diary emptied overnight. Undeterred, he started posting videos on TikTok, reckoning that \"singing into my phone brought me the same amount of happiness as a live show\".\n\nThe clips were simple - a man, his beard, a green lamp and an incredible voice - but there was something infectious about his joy in performing, whether he was blasting through Adele's Set Fire To The Rain or turning Aretha Franklin's Respect into an anthem about the great toilet paper shortage of 2020.\n\nPretty soon, stars like Alicia Keys, Sia and Justin Bieber were reposting his videos. As was the man who became his manager, David May.\n\n\"I was absolutely blown away by what I heard,\" he says. \"His voice is... intimidating isn't the right word, but it's definitely impactful when you're stood next to him and it just comes out.\n\n\"It really does take you by surprise, how skilled he is.\"\n\nThe singer's infectiously sunny demeanour is part of his appeal\n\nThis time last year, Ryder was deep into recording his debut album when the invitation to Eurovision came through.\n\nIt was by no means a simple decision, especially given the UK's recent woeful track record in the contest, but the singer's hard-earned experience paid off. This time, when he opened his eyes, everyone had noticed after all.\n\nThe experience put a rocket under his career and crystallised the theme of his debut album, There's Nothing But Space Man, which is out this week.\n\n\"I wanted to focus on the tenets of hope and faith and how to retain those things,\" he says.\n\n\"I've been making music since I was 13 years old, and it was always foot on the gas, full belief, full faith - even though I was absolutely bombarded with failure.\n\n\"You start asking yourself, 'What's gonna happen? Maybe I'm finished?' All these stupid thoughts that I know we all have.\n\n\"But now sitting here, looking back, I'm thinking, 'Wow, you should have been so excited.' I had no idea what was around the corner. And therein lies the lesson, I suppose. To remain hopeful over a long period of time.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 3 by Sam Ryder This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nOn his album, Ryder's story manifests as a lyrical obsession with stormy weather.\n\nRain falls, tempests rage and people are dragged under the surface - but the singer always finds the light, whether it's through the sheer force of self-belief (Tiny Riot) or the support of family and friends (Put A Light On Me, whose fleet-footed dance beats are a perfect foil for Ryder's booming voice).\n\nIt's not what you would call an unassuming record. Ryder is seizing his moment with both hands - and who can blame him?\n\nThis time last year, he says, he was still plagued with doubts about his career. But since coming second at Eurovision, he's sung at the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, toured Europe with Lewis Capaldi, and performed with Queen at Wembley Stadium - where he laid floorboards 15 years ago.\n\nRyder performed Somebody To Love with Queen at the tribute concert for Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins\n\nLater this month, he will ring out 2022 by hosting BBC One's New Year's Eve concert, accompanied by Mel C, Sigrid and Justin Hawkins from The Darkness.\n\nThe whole year has been \"absolutely bonkers\", he admits. \"My feet have just about touched the ground, but not quite.\"\n\nYou could say he's still floating in space, man.", "Aymen Alkhawlani, 31, worked as an English teacher in Yemen\n\nAymen Alkhawlani wakes each morning and asks himself the same question: Do I buy a bus ticket and go hungry, or eat and be alone?\n\nSuch dilemmas are familiar to people in the UK asylum system.\n\nWith most barred from working, they rely on UK government support. Typically this is £40.85 a week, or £5.84 a day. Others in hotels are given £8.24 a week, or £1.18 a day.\n\nAymen is one of several people in the asylum system who have spoken to BBC Scotland about the crisis they face as the cost of living soars at the fastest rate in 40 years. The self-titled \"new Scots\" want to be allowed to work while awaiting decisions on their applications.\n\nThe Home Office says its payments are to cover essential needs for people \"who would otherwise be destitute\".\n\nBut recipients say they are often unable to afford transport, good quality clothing, food, internet access and medicine.\n\nAymen is from Yemen and arrived in the UK in April 2021. He was placed in a hotel in Falkirk for a year before getting Home Office accommodation in Airdrie in October.\n\nHe said he feels alone and cannot afford to buy return train or bus tickets for the 30-minute trip to Glasgow where he meets up with other people in the asylum system.\n\nHe explained: \"The only way to meet people is to go to Glasgow. And I need to spend a lot, at least £10, to go to Glasgow and back.\n\n\"If I decide to go to Glasgow, I won't be able to eat for two days.\"\n\nThere are approximately 5,200 people in the asylum support system in Scotland with about 4,700 accommodated and/or financially supported by the Home Office. They can apply for £40.85 per week from the UK government.\n\nSome can request permission to work if they have been waiting for more than a year for a response on their claim, but most of those granted permission are only allowed to work in jobs on the official shortage occupation list, which was recently expanded to include nursing and care roles.\n\nAymen says he is only given about £35 a week because he received an extra £40 payment when he was offered housing in England, which he rejected.\n\nHe said he will not receive the full weekly allowance until he pays back the £40, which he says he has no way of doing.\n\nThe 31-year-old, who worked as an English teacher in Yemen, said: \"I can't even eat three meals a day nowadays because I only receive £35 a week. I have to skip dinner most of the time. Breakfast and lunch is pretty much all I have.\"\n\nHe added: \"Because I don't have the money to buy bus tickets, I stay home all the time. So that also adds to my depression.\"\n\nFor those in hotel accommodation, which is provided by private contractors, the level of government support is lower.\n\nIn Scotland, between 500 and 600 people in the asylum system live in 10 hotels across eight local authorities.\n\nSince they are provided with \"full board\", they can only apply for £8.24 in support per week, or £1.18 a day. The Home Office says this should cover clothing, non-prescription medicine and travel.\n\nBut Hawre, a Kurdish man in his 30s who asked to remain anonymous, said: \"The £8 does literally nothing, especially in this cost of living crisis.\"\n\n\"We can't even go to a barbershop to get a haircut.\n\n\"We are at the point where we give each other haircuts, regardless of the quality of what we can do.\"\n\nHe has spent a year in a hotel in Aberdeen, awaiting news on his asylum application.\n\nHaving worked as a painter and decorator in Iraq, Hawre says he is frustrated about his inability to earn his own money.\n\nHe explained: \"Financial gain wasn't something on my mind when I came here. If I didn't have a big issue in Iraq, if it wasn't life-threatening, I wouldn't come here to live under these circumstances living on £1 a day.\n\n\"It makes me feel less human, like we're being treated inhumanely.\"\n\nHerberth, 35, is from El Salvador and currently lives in Glasgow with his partner\n\nHerberth, a poet from El Salvador, arrived in Scotland in April having also fled his home country due to fears for his safety.\n\nHe applied for financial support in October but has been told he is unlikely to hear back until January.\n\nHerberth lives in Glasgow with his partner, a UK citizen, so does not rely on Home Office housing support. But he says not being able to earn money is damaging his mental health, as well as his finances.\n\nThe author of two poetry books in his homeland, the 35-year-old is studying for a psychology degree which he started in El Salvador but can complete online.\n\nHe would like to study for a masters degree in clinical psychology in Scotland, but he is struggling to get access to higher education due to his immigration status.\n\nHerberth has managed to enrol on an advanced English course at City of Glasgow College. \"That's a big help,\" he said. \"But of course, I would like to get a job, study here in Scotland, those type of things I'm missing out on and it's affecting my life. I'm 35 years old and I'm in my most productive years and I'm unable to work, so it's a very stressful situation.\"\n\nThe Maryhill Integration Network (MIN), an organisation which supports people in the asylum system in the Glasgow area, provides a haven to both Herberth and Aymen.\n\nPinar Aksu, human rights and advocacy coordinator at MIN, said: \"With the cost of living crisis, people seeking asylum are forced to live in extreme poverty having to choose between buying food, clothes, or travelling.\"\n\nPinar Aksu is from asylum seeker support organisation the Maryhill Integration Network\n\nShe backed the Lift the Ban coalition, a campaign urging the UK government to give people the right to work after six months in the UK.\n\nMIN has also called on Holyrood to follow the Welsh government by providing free bus passes for people seeking asylum. Aksu said the move would allow people to travel without being \"forced to pick between food, travel and essential needs\".\n\nThe Scottish government said it continued to consider plans to provide free bus travel to refugees and people in the asylum system.\n\nCampaign group Refugees for Justice told BBC Scotland that people in the asylum system are especially vulnerable during the cost of living crisis, and called for the UK government to increase weekly payments.\n\nA Home Office spokesperson said the Nationality and Borders Act, which became law in June, \"will fix the broken asylum system\" by speeding up the application process and \"focusing on those genuinely fleeing persecution\".\n\nThey continued: \"For asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, we provide accommodation and a weekly allowance for food, clothing, transport and sundries.\n\n\"The Home Office ensures all spending is carefully scrutinised to make sure that every pound of taxpayers' money is spent in the most effective way. We review the allowance rates on an annual basis and we have commenced this year's annual review.\"", "The US is entering a legal battle with Xbox-maker Microsoft to block its plan to purchase the gaming firm behind hit titles such as Call of Duty.\n\nRegulators cited competition concerns, saying they feared that if the deal went through, Activision Blizzard's games would stop being offered on non-Microsoft gaming consoles.\n\nThe Activision purchase was set to be the biggest in Microsoft history.\n\nThe company said it would fight to complete the $69bn (£56bn) deal.\n\nMicrosoft president Brad Smith said the company had \"complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present our case in court\".\n\nThe complaint against Microsoft is among the most-high profile legal fights to emerge from US President Joe Biden's pledge to take a harder line against monopolies.\n\nThe planned deal had already raised concerns in other countries, including the UK.\n\nActivision Blizzard owns some of the most popular games in the world, including the Call of Duty series, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Candy Crush.\n\nThe Federal Trade Commission, the US consumer watchdog that filed the complaint, said that Activision was one of a small number of top video game developers that made high-quality games for multiple devices.\n\nThe deal would give Microsoft \"both the means and motive to harm competition\" by manipulating pricing, making games worse on its competitors' video game consoles, \"or withholding content from competitors entirely, resulting in harm to consumers,\" the agency said in a press release.\n\nThe FTC pointed to Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax, which owns video game studio Bethesda Softworks. Microsoft has said several of the studio's future games will be exclusive to Microsoft consoles.\n\nMicrosoft earlier this week said it had agreed to make Call of Duty available on Nintendo for 10 years if the purchase went through and made a similar offer to rival Sony.\n\n\"This sounds alarming, so I want to reinforce my confidence that this deal will close,\" Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick wrote in a letter to staff that was shared on the company's website. \"The allegation that this deal is anti-competitive doesn't align with the facts, and we believe we'll win this challenge.\"\n\nContent is king, or so the saying goes.\n\nHistorically, you would choose which games to buy depending on which bit of hardware you owned - whether that was a Nintendo, Sony, Sega (remember them?) or Microsoft. Back then you could argue consoles were king.\n\nBut in recent years more and more big titles like Fifa, Call of Duty and Fortnite offer the same experience on multiple platforms, making the device you own less of a fundamental issue to accessing the games you love.\n\nThis has led to a battle over content - with big companies like Tencent, Microsoft and Sony buying up games developers to try and make sure they are offering something unique in such a competitive marketplace.\n\nWhat's different here is the sheer scale of the purchase and the massive mainstream appeal of the games under discussion.\n\nGiven everything that has been said publicly by Microsoft and Activision it is unlikely that should this deal go through it would mean that one day in the near future PlayStation users would be unable to play the latest Call of Duty.\n\nHowever, it could mean that people who pay for Microsoft's GamePass get the game first, as part of the subscription price or have some bespoke content unique to them.\n\nPlayStation and now the FTC claim that this in and of itself is enough to distort the market. Microsoft argues it boosts player choice.\n\nNow it is up to a judge to decide.\n\nWhen it announced the deal, Microsoft said it was aiming to expand the games available on GamePass, its Netflix-style subscription gaming service and for the increasing number of people using phones to play games.\n\nThe takeover was set to make the company the third largest gaming firm in the world by revenue, behind China's Tencent and Japan's Sony, which owns PlayStation and has criticised the deal.\n\nIt could be forced to pay a breakup fee of as much as $3bn if the deal fails.\n\nFTC chair Lina Khan, who made her name critiquing the US government's historic failures to rein in Big Tech, and two Democratic commissioners voted in favour of filing the lawsuit. The Republican commissioner opposed the move.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Forecaster Simon King says cold weather is expected to last into next week\n\nThousands of people on the lowest incomes in over 300 postcode districts will receive a £25 Cold Weather Payment as temperatures plunge below zero.\n\nTemperatures went as low as -9.1C (15F) in the Scottish Highlands and -8.9C in Cumbria, overnight figures showed.\n\nA cold weather alert for England will run until 09:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nIt is issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) when the weather is cold enough to be likely to affect people's health.\n\nAs parts of the UK are hit by freezing conditions, a fuel poverty charity has called on the government to provide more support for \"those at greatest peril\".\n\nThe government has triggered Cold Weather Payments for eligible people across large parts of England and Wales. It is paid once in a seven-day period and people can check if they will receive it online.\n\nThe payments will be made in parts of Cumbria, North East and North West England, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Coventry, Staffordshire and Brecon.\n\nIn Scotland, those on low incomes and benefits may receive a one-off Winter Heating Payment, but this is not tied to temperatures.\n\nCurrent forecasts predict unseasonable temperatures - well below average for the time of year - in many places, with the cold weather continuing into next week.\n\nHeavy snow has been causing traffic disruption across the north east of Scotland, with reports of vehicles becoming stuck on some routes.\n\nThe wintry weather also caused delays to flights at Aberdeen Airport, with bus services also facing disruption.\n\nNational Energy Action says people are struggling to heat their homes as a result of \"impossibly high prices\" and they now face \"dreadful consequences\".\n\nCEO Adam Scorer said \"millions have been dreading the onset of winter\" and people are choosing between \"either huge debt or an unheated home\".\n\n\"Despite the current programme of support, the government must step in with more help for those at greatest peril this winter,\" he said.\n\nWintry scenes near Bassetts Pole on the Warwickshire-Staffordshire border\n\nThe Met Office has several weather warnings in place - including across the western and eastern coasts of England and Wales, parts of Northern Ireland and northern Scotland/\n\nMore widely, temperatures dipped to about -6C and -7C across much of the UK overnight.\n\nBBC Weather presenter Chris Fawkes said the cold weather would last well into next week as the high pressure over Greenland continues to push cold Arctic air across the country.\n\n\"Snow showers will continue to affect north and east Scotland\" on Thursday afternoon, he said.\n\nA few centimetres of snow is also expected to accumulate in the north east of England.\n\nTemperatures could plummet to -10C on Thursday night, with a risk of slippery surfaces caused by hard frost, following the quick drop in temperature.\n\nThe Met Office has warned people to take care on the ice, with the risk of injuries and slips on icy surfaces heightened on Thursday morning.\n\nIn Sheffield, hundreds of homes are still without a gas supply after water leaked into the mains six days ago.\n\nJosh, 30, who lives with his girlfriend and two children in Stannington, is one of those affected.\n\nAs he tucked his four-year-old son into bed on Tuesday, Josh wrapped him in five quilts. By midnight he said the house felt \"as cold as Iceland\" and he spent an hour with a tiny electric heater trying to warm the boy's room.\n\n\"Still that wasn't enough,\" Josh said. \"He woke up at half five this morning, crying, cold. What more can we do?\"\n\nThere are concerns the situation could last until the end of this week and \"maybe longer\" before gas is restored to everyone.\n\nResidents in Stannington, Sheffield, are using electric heaters to keep warm after their gas supply was cut off\n\nThe UKHSA has reiterated its long-standing advice for people who cannot heat every room - saying they should warm the living room during the day and bedrooms just before going to sleep, ideally to at least 18C.\n\nThe cold weather alert for England also requires health care providers to activate special plans, such as arranging gritting services to allow access to critical services and to cover pedestrian hotspots.\n\nBut many local councils in England and Wales - who have collectively stockpiled 1.4 million tonnes of salt for this winter - said they were struggling to attract and retain gritter drivers.\n\nMotorists are being advised to keep warm clothes, blankets and flasks of tea in their vehicles. The RAC said people driving in frosty, icy conditions should prepare to keep warm in the event of breakdowns, which are expected to surge this week.\n\nAn emergency protocol in London has been activated to provide extra accommodation for rough sleepers.\n\nHow are you keeping warm? Will you be receiving a cold weather payment? Please share your experiences, tips and questions by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "CFeleven is not classed as a public house, so cannot sell alcohol to people who are not guests\n\nA gin bar must close due to a planning condition dating back more than 40 years.\n\nJason Hamer, owner of CFeleven in Pontcanna, Cardiff, does not have \"open to non-residents\" permission for his bar.\n\nMr Hamer said the 1979 planning document means he can only sell alcohol to residents who are staying at his B&B, and not the general public.\n\nCardiff council said CFeleven was a bed and breakfast, not a public house.\n\nMr Hamer, 58, said: \"We had someone from planning come in and say there's something come to light - you don't have an open to non-residents permission for your bar.\n\n\"We went to get the condition removed, first time with planning, and we found out that they hadn't removed it the week before Christmas during Covid.\"\n\nHe appealed against that decision, but has now been given three months' notice to close the bar, which will close in February.\n\n\"We asked for longer and they said 'no, three months' notice is reasonable for anybody in hospitality',\" he said.\n\n\"I thought everything was in order, we hadn't got a clue.\"\n\nMr Hamer said he had spent about £16,000 on legal costs.\n\nMr Hamer said he intends to keep the bar open until February, but does not see a way to just run the bed and breakfast after that.\n\n\"Years ago, the B&Bs used to be open all week with contractors and then people on the weekends.\n\n\"But in the week you're pretty quiet because in Cardiff there's more than enough hotels in the week, but never enough for internationals with rugby.\"\n\nCardiff council said: \"Any business owner or developer must check all regulatory aspects relating to their property and its use, and whether it has the required consents in place or not, for the use that it is being used for.\n\n\"Licensing applications were received from this business in February 2017 to sell alcohol at the guest house, with revisions put forwards in August 2018 to try to ease some of the conditions that were imposed originally.\n\n\"Despite a significant number of objections from local residents, the results of both these applications were favourable to the business owner.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: King Charles and Queen Camilla met Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney on Wrexham's pitch\n\nThe King and the Queen Consort have met Wrexham AFC's Hollywood co-owners on a visit to the area to celebrate its new city status.\n\nThe royal couple chatted with actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and players on the pitch and learned about the football club's redevelopment.\n\nKing Charles and Queen Camilla were in Wrexham to formally confer city status.\n\nIt is one of eight places around the UK which became a city this summer as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.\n\nTalk sport: The King and Ryan Reynolds on the field at the Racecourse ground, home to Wrexham AFC\n\nThe event came a day after the launch of the Netflix series Harry & Meghan provoked intense renewed interest in the Royal Family.\n\nThe King and Queen Consort walked through the players' tunnel, and were accompanied onto the pitch by Reynolds and McElhenney.\n\nThe two actors bought the oldest club in Wales in 2021, with the goal to grow the team and return it to the English Football League.\n\nReynolds and McElhenney joked that they had etiquette lessons beforehand.\n\nThe two actors bought the oldest club in Wales in 2021\n\nAhead of the visit, Reynolds said: \"I would say that we're impossibly excited to welcome him to the Racecourse ground, this historic church that resides in the heart of Wrexham and is the heart of Wrexham.\n\n\"Rob and I both said early on, and this holds true and for the rest of our lives, we will do anything to uplift and elevate this community and this club and having the King pay a visit is certainly one way to do it. That's for sure.\"\n\nThe actors said they had not watched the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's controversial Netflix show. McElhenney added: \"I've never heard of it.\"\n\nThe stars also worked on a Disney+ docuseries chronicling the purchase and stewardship of the club, who currently play in the National League, which was being filmed when the King and Queen Consort visited.\n\nMcElhenney said he hoped the King is a Wrexham supporter, adding: \"If not, we'll make him a fan.\"\n\nReynolds said he hoped to talk to the King about the work they were doing to improve the club and stadium.\n\nHe said: \"I would love to tell him a little bit about what it is that we're hoping to achieve with the renovation of the Kop stand, and it's not even a renovation, I would say that it's a complete reimagining of the Kop stand, and what that will mean to not just the club, but the community of Wrexham as well.\"\n\nAsked if he might offer them a gift of Aviation Gin, the company which he owns, Reynolds joked: \"I don't want to compete with the royal gin now, that might create a conflict of interest.\"\n\nThe King was heard wishing players luck for their upcoming game on Saturday, while Camilla told another player: \"It's an extraordinary story.\"\n\nRyan Reynolds hoped to tell the king about work being done to improve the stadium\n\nThe club's oldest fan, 97-year-old Alex Massey, was also seen chatting with the King, while the royal couple also met Wrexham AFC disabled liaison officer, Kerry Evans.\n\nShe said : \"It's very, very special, what an honour, the King and Camilla both said it's absolutely amazing the work we've been doing here.\n\n\"I never thought we'd have royalty at the club, now we've had Hollywood royalty and real royalty!\"\n\nAs well as the Racecourse, the couple visited St Giles' Church and went on an impromptu walkabout in Wrexham city centre.\n\nHundreds lined the streets to greet the royal visitors, despite the freezing temperatures.\n\nCharles shook hands and asked about the cold before telling the crowds to \"have a stiff drink\".\n\nThe couple then met Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford before moving into the church for a service to mark Wrexham becoming a city.\n\nThe King and Camilla were visiting Wrexham to mark its new city status\n\nDuring that, the King formally marked the conferral of city status.\n\nHe told the congregation he and Camilla were delighted to be there to celebrate its designation.\n\n\"City status was granted to eight different communities in order to celebrate my late mother's platinum jubilee,\" he said.\n\n\"As we now mark this historic occasion, we also look back, with mingled sadness and pride, at that extraordinary reign, during which, as you know, my mother's great love for Wales was always apparent.\"\n\nCharles said the church \"truly deserves\" its designation as one of the \"Seven Wonders of Wales\".\n\nWhile there the King met Wales' first minister, Mark Drakeford\n\nHe said: \"A little earlier today, I had the opportunity to see one of the other wonders of Wrexham, namely the football club, which is busy putting Wrexham on the map as never before.\n\n\"And, of course, this comes after the Welsh national team has brought unprecedented international recognition to Wales through qualifying for the World Cup.\n\n\"The motto of Welsh football - gorau chwarae, cyd chwarae - sums up the spirit of community, and of joint endeavour, which is so important to Wales, and which, over the years, I have come to know and value more than I can possibly say.\"\n\n\"Gorau chwarae, cyd chwarae\" means \"team play is the best play\".\n\nOutside the church he greeted members of the public\n\nWrexham is now Wales' seventh city, joining Bangor, Cardiff, Newport, St Davids, St Asaph and Swansea.\n\nThe bid was Wrexham's fourth attempt to become a city following three failed attempts in 2000, 2002 and 2012.\n\nAt St Giles' Church the King and Camilla were shown a first edition King James Bible by Rev Dr Jason Bray\n\nThe royal couple also saw the church's treasures, which include a first edition King James Bible and an early 14th Century chalice which is still in use.\n\nIn September the King and Queen Consort made their first visit to Wales since Charles became monarch in Cardiff.", "The couple share photos of their affectionate moments\n\nMore than two million people watched the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's new Netflix series in the UK on Thursday.\n\nThe first episode of Harry & Meghan was seen by 2.4 million people on TV sets on its launch day, ratings show.\n\nThat is the biggest single-day audience for any Netflix show since the streamer joined ratings body Barb in October.\n\nIt is more than double the first-day figure for the latest series of The Crown, and the same number as watched BBC One's EastEnders on Thursday.\n\nThe first three episodes in the duke and duchess's highly-publicised six-part series became available on Netflix at 08:00 GMT.\n\nAs well as the 2.4 million viewers for the first instalment, episode two had 1.5 million viewers on the first day, and the third part attracted 800,000.\n\nThat compares with 1.1 million people who saw the first episode of the fifth series of royal drama The Crown - which features a fictionalised version of a younger Harry - on its launch day last month.\n\nOn traditional TV channels on Thursday, BBC One's The One Show also attracted 2.4 million, ITV soap Coronation Street was watched by 3.5 million, and the most-watched programmes of the day were the BBC News At Six and subsequent regional news, both with 4.1 million.\n\nOne of the photos of the couple released by Netflix\n\nNetflix's viewing model is more geared to longer-term viewing than traditional TV channels, and series like Harry & Meghan and The Crown will be watched over a longer period, rather than the audience tuning in on the same day.\n\nHarry & Meghan includes interviews with the couple and their friends, as well as their video diary - covering a range of topics, including their difficult relationship with the press and the Royal Family's response to racist articles about Meghan.\n\nHarry said some members of the family felt a negative experience with the media was \"a rite of passage\".\n\n\"Some of the members of the family were like, 'My wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?\"'\n\n\"I said, 'The difference here is the race element'.\"\n\nHarry and Meghan say they tell their \"great love story\"\n\nHarry also said how proud he was that his children are mixed race, and that it makes him want to \"make the world a better place for them\".\n\n\"But, equally, what's most important for the two of us is to make sure that we don't repeat the same mistakes that perhaps our parents made,\" he added.\n\nThe couple also spoke about meeting other royals, with Meghan saying she found it surprising that the formality \"carries over\" even when not in public.\n\n\"When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot. I was a hugger. I've always been a hugger, I didn't realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.\n\n\"I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside.\"\n\nHarry and Meghan stepped back as senior royals in 2020 and now live in California with their two young children, Archie and Lilibet.\n\nThey have blamed racist coverage in the tabloid press as one reason for their decision.\n\nThe final three episodes of their series will be available on Thursday, 15 December.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nThe Netherlands are out of the World Cup after a dramatic defeat on penalties by Argentina in the quarter-finals, but one of their players stood out above the rest.\n\nWout Weghorst was named player of the match by BBC Sport readers with the forward scoring twice as a substitute to receive an average rating of 7.99.\n\nThe next highest-rated player was Lionel Messi, who set up Argentina's opening goal and scored their second from the penalty spot.\n• None Reaction to Argentina's dramatic last-eight win over the Netherlands\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Concept art shows what the new fighter jet might look like in the skies\n\nRishi Sunak has announced a collaboration between the UK, Italy and Japan to develop a new fighter jet that uses artificial intelligence.\n\nThe prime minister says the joint venture aims to create thousands of UK jobs and strengthen security ties.\n\nThe nations will develop a next generation fighter - due to enter service in the mid-2030s - that will eventually replace the Typhoon jet.\n\nIt is hoped the new Tempest jet will carry the latest weapons.\n\nMr Sunak said the partnership would \"keep the country safe from the new threats that we face\" as he visited RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire on Friday.\n\nHe said: \"We're one of the few countries in the world that has the capability to build technologically advanced fighter aircraft.\"\n\nWork on developing it is already under way - with the aim to create a combat aircraft that will provide speed stealth, use advanced sensors and even artificial intelligence to assist the human pilot when they are overwhelmed, or under extreme stress.\n\nIt could also be flown without a pilot's input if required and could be able to fire hypersonic missiles.\n\nBut building such a complex aircraft is extremely expensive - developing the F35 jet was the most expensive programme ever undertaken by the Pentagon - so Britain has been looking for partners.\n\nItaly was already on board, and the addition of Japan is a significant move - at a time when Britain is building closer ties with allies in the Indo-Pacific region worried about a more assertive China.\n\nOther countries could still join the programme. France, Germany and Spain are already working together on their own separate design - as is the United States.\n\nBAE Systems at Warton and Samlesbury will play a key role in developing Tempest in Britain. Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Italy's Leonardo are among the other companies involved.\n\nFor the UK, this agreement is not just about security but also economics. The hope is that developing a new fighter jet could create and sustain thousands of UK jobs and open doors to more arms exports.\n\nAhead of the visit to RAF Coningsby, Mr Sunak said: \"The security of the United Kingdom, both today and for future generations, will always be of paramount importance to this government.\n\n\"That's why we need to stay at the cutting-edge of advancements in defence technology - outpacing and out-manoeuvring those who seek to do us harm.\n\n\"The international partnership we have announced today with Italy and Japan aims to do just that, underlining that the security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions are indivisible.\n\n\"The next-generation of combat aircraft we design will protect us and our allies around the world by harnessing the strength of our world-beating defence industry - creating jobs while saving lives.\"\n\nJohn Healey, Labour's shadow defence secretary, said his party backed the partnership but warned about training.\n\n\"Ministers must make clear how this fits with wider plans for the RAF's future, including how they will prevent delays in fast-jet pilot training,\" he said.", "Downing Street has not ruled out mounting a court challenge to a law set to be passed later this month by the Scottish Parliament, which will simplify the legal process for anyone in Scotland who wants to change their gender.\n\nThe Scottish bill will shorten the timescale for anyone who wants to obtain a gender recognition certificate, a document allowing someone to change their legal sex on their birth certificate, from two years to three months.\n\nThe certificate means people can change some legal documents, and can also affect areas such as entitlement to benefits and pensions.\n\nThe Westminster government is also considering refusing to recognise certificates issued under the new Scottish system, which could cause problems for people with them who want to move to other parts of the UK.\n\nSince 1999 some laws which apply in Scotland are made by MSPs in Edinburgh, while others are made by MPs at Westminster.\n\nUK government ministers are responsible for gender laws in England and Wales, and have no plans to move in the same direction as the Scottish government.\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman said: \"We've made no decisions on any potential action at this time.\n\n\"As the Equalities and Human Rights Commission and UN special rapporteur have set out, the Scottish government's proposals currently raise a number of clear concerns.\"\n\nIn November, the UN rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem warned the legislation could increase risks to their safety by potentially allowing \"violent males\" to \"abuse\" the system.\n\nScottish ministers say there is \"no evidence\" women or girls will be harmed by the bill.\n\nThe Downing Street spokesman said: \"In order to understand the potential impact of the bill across the United Kingdom we will obviously monitor its progress closely as we do with any potential Bill.\"\n\nAsked if the UK government could challenge the legislation in the courts, he replied: \"We've made no decisions at this time.\"\n\nScottish ministers have said they are happy to meet their UK counterparts to discuss their concerns - and officials in Edinburgh said they tried to set up talks in October, without any response.\n\nThe SNP-led government believes the bill encompasses powers held solely in Edinburgh, so the UK government would not have grounds to mount a legal challenge.\n\nEqualities Secretary Kemi Badenoch has now written to the Scottish government expressing concerns about the legislation, and has offered to meet Scottish ministers to discuss it.\n\nScottish Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison has said she would be \"happy to meet\" Ms Badenoch.\n\nA UK government source told the BBC they had concerns people from elsewhere in the UK might relocate to Scotland to change gender.\n\nThey claimed Scottish ministers wanted to paint Scotland as a \"haven of inclusivity\" in comparison to a \"nasty Westminster\".\n\nThe source described the Scottish legislation as a \"test case scenario\" of how a bill passed by the Scottish Parliament could \"undermine Westminster competencies\" - in other words, handing Holyrood powers beyond Scotland.\n\nA separate UK official told the BBC there was \"genuine concern\" about the impact the legislation could have across the rest of the UK. They added that they hoped a legal battle could be avoided.\n• None MSPs vote for changes to gender recognition bill", "In the past couple of years Audrey Roberts has spent most of her time living in her bedroom\n\nA 78-year-old woman has described how she spends most of her time living in her bedroom because she cannot afford to heat the rest of her home.\n\nAudrey Roberts said she has been like this for years and is used to it, but this is the coldest she has known.\n\nTo highlight the issue Friends of the Earth has shared thermal images to show how people are affected by the cold.\n\nIt is campaigning to get UK governments to improve insulation in homes, and provide more help with heating bills.\n\nMs Roberts has gas central heating in her home in Rhyl, Denbighshire, but said she cannot afford to put it on as much as she needs to keep it warm.\n\nShe tries to put it on once a week to prevent the small redbrick two bedroom house from becoming damp.\n\nBut when she ran the heating for 10 hours overnight once this week, Ms Roberts used up £15 of the £40 credit she had on her gas smart meter.\n\n\"You have to air the house every now and again, because the cold comes up through the floorboards,\" said Ms Roberts, who estimates her bills would be hundreds of pounds more each month if she was to use her central heating as much as she would like.\n\nThermal images shared by Friends of the Earth show that the tips of Ms Robert's fingers are badly affected by the cold in her home\n\nTo keep her bills under control, Ms Roberts, who has arthritis and poor circulation, relies on a small electric heater instead, which she keeps by her bed. It costs between £6 and £10 each night she leaves it on.\n\nShe has had a triple heart bypass, and wears extra layers, and at least two pairs of socks in a bid to keep the worst of the cold at bay.\n\nHer home of more than 30 years has a kitchen, and two living areas. She has moved her kettle and a TV set into her bedroom, so she can remain upstairs in the one room as much as possible.\n\nMs Roberts said that having been born in the last years of World War Two, and lived through the tough post-war years, she said she can cope with the bleak conditions she faces now. But her real fear is for her children and grandchildren in the years ahead if the cost of heating a home continues to spiral upwards.\n\n\"I want to stick up for the children because eventually they are not going to be able to afford to keep warm.\n\n\"The way they are carrying on, with the central heating - up and up and up - people will have to have coal fires again, and they'll be burning rubbish to survive.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A minute of money-saving tips with the BBC's Matt Taylor and Colletta Smith\n\nFriends of the Earth has identified 100 of the coldest neighbourhoods in Wales and England for the campaign. Rhyl is among those with houses which are hardest to heat, with bills higher than average, and where most people are also living on low incomes.\n\nAs part of its United for Warm Homes campaign, the group is urging the Welsh government to urgently introduce its new Warm Homes programme, to help those most in need, and through street-by-street insulation in neighbourhoods.\n\nCatriona Currie, warm homes campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said there are millions of people facing an \"incredibly bleak\" winter ahead.\n\n\"We've heard how people are making every adjustment they can to ease the enormous cost pressures they're facing.\n\n\"Harrowing stories like the ones captured in these striking photos are shamefully all too common right now.\n\n\"No-one should have to live in a freezing home, just so they can afford to pay for food or meet other rising living costs.\"\n\nA Welsh government spokesperson said: \"We are working hard to support people during the cost of living crisis - targeting help to those who need it the most and continuing to provide programmes which put money back in people's pockets.\n\n\"We have bold ambitions to meet our energy needs through renewable sources and are currently rolling out a wide range of measures to increase the energy efficiency of homes across the country.\"\n\nThe UK government has announced that it will give £1bn in grants to help people insulate their homes to make them more energy efficient.", "The taxi driver was advised to apply for Universal Credit when temporarily out of work\n\nA Stormont department has repaid more than £11,000 to a taxi driver after he successfully complained that he lost out on benefits due to poor advice.\n\nHe was temporarily unable to work after a car crash so he phoned a government support centre to claim benefits.\n\nHe was advised to apply for Universal Credit, but was not warned of the risk he could lose £54 a week in tax credit.\n\nThe Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman upheld his complaint and said it amounted to \"maladministration\".\n\nMargaret Kelly said the taxi driver suffered \"injustice\" because he had been denied the opportunity of making \"a fully informed decision\" about how his Universal Credit (UC) application would affect his existing benefits, in this instance his working tax credit.\n\nWelfare campaigners said the case highlights how some people risk losing their entitlement to their existing social-security benefits when they apply for UC, even if their UC application is turned down.\n\nIn his complaint, the taxi driver told the ombudsman that he applied for UC within an hour of his phone call with the Department for Communities' Employment Support Centre. His application was turned down.\n\nHe said he later found out that by applying for UC, he had effectively ended his right to claim working tax credit ever again and there was \"no right of appeal\".\n\nThe taxi driver said his working tax credit had amounted to £216 over each four-week period and losing this money left him in financial hardship.\n\nThe ombudsman's investigation concluded that the complainant had \"a reasonable expectation that he would not be left worse off by following the advice given by the department's adviser\".\n\nShe added that the adviser did not \"raise any flag, even of a general nature, that making a claim for UC may affect existing benefits\".\n\nMargaret Kelly said the taxi driver \"suffered a huge amount of stress and financial hardship through no fault of his own\"\n\nA recording of the taxi driver's call was deleted by the department before it could be heard by the ombudsman.\n\nBut Ms Kelly said on the balance of the available information, she found no evidence that the adviser had told the man about the availability of independent telephone advice or online benefits guidance.\n\n\"I am satisfied that had the complainant been fully informed, he would not have claimed UC and would not have lost out financially,\" she said.\n\nMs Kelly recommended that the department repay all the money the taxi driver lost out on from the time he applied for UC in April 2018 through to the date of her report - a total of £11,412.\n\nShe also said the complainant should get a written apology from the department's permanent secretary \"for the injustice caused as a result of the maladministration\".\n\nShe added the department should also apologise for prematurely deleting a recording of his telephone conversation with a call handler before his complaint was investigated.\n\nThe Department for Communities said it \"acknowledges the findings of NIPSO in respect of this complaint\".\n\n\"An action plan addressing all of the recommendations was immediately developed following receipt of the draft investigation report earlier this year and the ombudsman has been advised that all recommendations have been implemented,\" its spokeswoman added.\n\nUC rolls several existing social welfare benefits into one fortnightly or monthly payment, depending on a claimant's eligibility for each benefit.\n\nThese include payments like housing benefit; jobseeker's allowance; child tax credit and working tax credits.\n\nThe process of moving claimants from these older \"legacy benefits\" has taken several years and is far from complete.\n\nIn June 2022, the charity Advice NI said more than 250,000 claims for legacy benefits were still active in Northern Ireland.\n\nIt warned it would be an \"incredibly complex\" process to move them all to UC by the target date of December 2024.\n\nAdvice NI's head of policy, Kevin Higgins, said he hoped the investigation would raise awareness about the financial risks of transferring from older, non-means-tested benefits to UC.\n\nKevin Higgins said benefits claimants need to seek independent advice before they transfer to UC\n\n\"Once you leave your legacy [benefit] and claim Universal Credit there's no going back, so it's very important that you're clear on what you are doing and why you're doing it,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"Some people will be worse off; some people might be better off; some people are roughly the same.\"\n\nMr Higgins explained that personal savings can be taken into account in a UC application, preventing a new claim and invalidating existing claims in certain circumstances.\n\n\"People shouldn't shouldn't take a risk on this. They should get independent advice, and they should be very clear before they do anything,\" he said.\n\n\"Don't gamble on UC. Stay put if you're worried about anything.\"\n\nSpeaking about the 250,000 existing legacy claims that are due to be transferred into the UC system over the next two years, Mr Higgins said the government was planning safeguards for those who are at risk of losing money during the migration process.", "The Malayan tapir is an \"odd-toed\" animal, having four toes on each front foot and three toes on the back\n\nA rare Malayan tapir, a species which is related to both the horse and the rhinoceros, has been born at Chester Zoo.\n\nThe female calf, named Nessa, weighed 9kg (20lb) and has a distinctive coat featuring both spots and stripes.\n\nThe zoo said the \"highly significant\" arrival, after a 13-month pregnancy, was an \"important moment\" for conservation of the endangered species.\n\nThe species' numbers had halved in 40 years, it added.\n\nFewer than 2,500 are estimated to remain across Malaysia, Sumatra, Thailand and Myanmar.\n\nDirector of animal and plants at Chester Zoo, Mike Jordan, said the Malayan tapir was \"under enormous pressure\" because its numbers had \"crashed\" over four decades to \"frighteningly low levels, with hunting and habitat destruction being the main threats to its survival\".\n\nThe calf's patterning will slowly change over the first six months of life to mirror the unique black and white pattern of its parents, Margery and Betong.\n\nMargery had been pregnant for 391 days\n\n\"We're over the moon that Margery has delivered a healthy female calf - a birth that marks an important moment in our efforts to prevent the extinction of this wonderfully charismatic but sadly endangered species,\" Mr Jordan said.\n\nZookeeper Rosie Owen said: \"It's so lovely to once again hear the pitter-patter of tiny, spotty and stripy Malayan tapir feet.\"\n\nShe said the birth of the \"really special\" animal had \"put huge smiles on all our faces\".\n\nMs Owen said Nessa was a \"real bundle of energy\" and was confidently looking to explore but Margery was \"extremely attentive and always has a watchful eye on her\".\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nEngland's World Cup campaign ended in disappointment as they went out despite a fine performance in the quarter-finals against France at Al Bayt Stadium.\n\nHarry Kane's late penalty miss proved decisive after he had earlier equalled Wayne Rooney's England record of 53 goals from the spot.\n\nFrance took a 17th-minute lead when Aurelien Tchouameni's 25-yard drive beat Jordan Pickford low to his right.\n\nEngland were the better team for long spells and created chances, deservedly pulling level nine minutes after the break when Kane beat Tottenham team-mate Hugo Lloris in convincing fashion with his penalty after Tchouameni fouled Bukayo Saka.\n\nFrance regained the lead 12 minutes from time when Olivier Giroud headed in Antoine Griezmann's perfect cross but England had a swift chance to draw level when Theo Hernandez fouled substitute Mason Mount in the box.\n\nKane had the opportunity to make history but uncharacteristically blazed his penalty over the top and England's World Cup dream was over as France look forward to a semi-final against Morocco.\n• None All the reaction as England lose to France\n\nEngland have been accused of making timid exits at major tournaments in the past but this charge cannot be levelled at Gareth Southgate and his players here.\n\nThey matched France and were superior for long spells, with Saka and Declan Rice outstanding, so this will be a painful loss as a route to their first World Cup final since 1966 appeared to be opening up.\n\nSadly for England and Southgate, they were unable to take the chances that came their way, and they ran into France keeper Lloris at his best.\n\nAnd it will be captain Kane who feels the disappointment most acutely after missing that second England penalty six minutes from time with the all-time England goalscoring record at his feet.\n\nThere was a palpable sense of disbelief around the stadium as this most reliable of penalty takers fired his spot-kick horribly high into England's fans behind the goal.\n\nIt was a rare lapse and manager Southgate was swift to come on to the pitch at the final whistle to console a player who has been one of his outstanding contributors.\n\nEngland's players looked devastated at the end - understandably, after performing so well.\n\nThe irony as they make their departure from Qatar is that while they have exited this World Cup one round earlier than they did four years ago, this England team is much richer in promise. This will, of course, be no consolation to Southgate and his squad.\n\nThe pre-match talk centred on how England could stop France's superstar Kylian Mbappe - but in the end, their inspiration came from elsewhere to set up that semi-final against Morocco.\n\nAnd the primary source was the superb Griezmann, who pulled the strings throughout, providing the pass for Tchouameni's strike and later delivering a perfect cross for Giroud to demonstrate his penalty-box expertise by edging in front of Harry Maguire to head powerfully past Pickford.\n\nMbappe carried real menace throughout but England's plan to subdue France's biggest threat worked to a large degree - only for the experienced Giroud, at 36, and 31-year-old Griezmann to combine to put the World Cup holders into the last four again.\n• None Attempt missed. Marcus Rashford (England) right footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high from a direct free kick.\n• None Substitution, England. Jack Grealish replaces John Stones because of an injury.\n• None Harry Maguire (England) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Antoine Griezmann (France) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Mason Mount (England) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Jude Bellingham.\n• None Mason Mount (England) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page", "Harry and Meghan tell their \"great love story\"\n\nIf you watched the trailers and thought Harry & Meghan, Netflix's heavily-promoted new series, was going to be explosive, prepare to be disappointed.\n\nUnless you are an individual member of the Royal Family, in which case, you might be opening the champagne - a drink, we learnt from this new show, that Harry doesn't usually enjoy.\n\nTo put it kindly, this is slow-burn television.\n\nVolume One, as it was rather grandiosely titled, came out in three episodes on Thursday.\n\nOne of the photos of the couple released by Netflix\n\nPerhaps Volume Two, for which we must wait another week, will get to the details so tantalisingly alluded to in those trailers: who leaked and planted stories about the couple? Who was fighting a \"war against Meghan to suit other people's agendas\"? Who was playing a \"dirty game\"?\n\nWhat we got - over almost three hours - were new, private details of their \"great love story\", as Harry put it. Think soft focus lenses, Nina Simone playing in the background, lots of private photographs, videos and even, apparently, a call between Meghan and a friend as she was getting engaged (\"OMG it's happening\" she says).\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Harry and Meghan's unseen video moments - the BBC's Jonny Dymond takes a look.\n\nAlso discussed at length through the first volume is harassment by the media. Harry calls it his duty to \"uncover this exploitation and bribery\".\n\nMore damagingly, the programmes build up a sense that Britain has an endemic problem with structural racism, particularly in relation to the Royal Family and the media.\n\nHistorian and TV presenter David Olusoga describes the optimism many Britons of colour (and others) felt about Meghan's arrival into the heart of the Royal Family. \"There was a hope maybe of having difficult conversations that have been pushed away so many times\". Subtext, addressed later - it wasn't to be.\n\nBut these three episodes were broadbrush, rather than aimed at specific individuals.\n\nNetflix has billed Harry & Meghan as an \"unprecedented and in-depth documentary series\".\n\nBut the programme, unsurprisingly, was heavily one-sided and selective.\n\nAt one point, Meghan describes the media interview and photocall the couple gave when they got engaged as an \"orchestrated reality show\".\n\nThe couples went on an unexpected walkabout together in Windsor, ahead of the funeral of the Queen\n\nIs that what Netflix's Harry & Meghan, produced in association with the couple's company, is?\n\nInterestingly, they began recording video diaries in March 2020, as they stepped away from royal duties. That was many months before their Netflix deal was announced.\n\nThis is their truth in the hands of the Netflix professionals, a slickly produced narrative about a couple who fell in love and had to sacrifice everything as they butted up against systems, protocols and racism.\n\nThe Royal Family - we are told at the start - didn't choose to make any comment for the programme makers. Both Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace confirmed they received an email purporting to be from a production company from an unknown organisation's address and attempted to verify its authenticity with Archewell Productions and Netflix, but did not receive a response, PA reported.\n\nA source told PA the substance of the email did not address the entire series.\n\nSo what we have is carefully curated to back up the couple.\n\nNetflix is adept at the modern language of television which steers us through the story. The couple met on social media - perhaps the first royals to do so and certainly a great advert for Instagram. Their early messages are shared with us, popping up on screen in a device so often used by TV in our tech age.\n\nThe interviews with Harry set up his wife as the true heir to his mother, Princess Diana. He says Meghan has the \"same empathy, the same warmth\". The show regularly cuts to archive footage of Diana, as Harry discusses his fears that history could repeat itself.\n\nPrince Harry (seen here with Princess Diana in 1988) says she made decisions from her heart, and he says he is \"his mother's son\"\n\nThere are also narrative cliffhangers to keep us watching.\n\nHarry describes trying to deal with the loss of his mother \"without much support or help or guidance\", and describes his \"second family\" in Africa, a group of friends \"that literally brought me up\".\n\nWhere was his father? We can't help asking.\n\nHe talks about how male royals tend to marry women \"who fit in the mould\" instead of for love. Is he inferring that's what his brother did? Does Volume Two answer that question?\n\nMeghan mentions her first meeting with Kate and William, when as \"a hugger\" she was informal and tactile. She says that is \"jarring for some Brits\". Are we supposed to read more into that, after all the stories about the breakdown of relations between the couples?\n\nThese teasers frankly help along a narrative that gets a little repetitive at times.\n\nThe programme seems made primarily for an American audience. And Harry has embraced the language of the US West Coast. He talks about how, just before news of their relationship broke, they went out for one last secret night and managed to \"pull the pin on the fun grenade\".\n\nWe hear about \"lived experience\" and \"cause-driven work\".\n\nBut if you were tuning in for jaw-dropping revelations, Prince Charles on Dimbleby, Prince Andrew on Newsnight, Princess Diana on Panorama this was not.\n\nIn Jonathan Dimbleby's ITV documentary in 1994, Prince Charles said he was faithful to his wife until it became clear that the marriage was \"irretrievably broken\"\n\nThis new Netflix show wasn't even Meghan and Harry on Oprah.\n\nThat was the last time the couple endeavoured to tell their truth.\n\nIn that bombshell interview, they told Oprah about overt racism by a member of the Royal Family about what colour their future son's skin might be. We don't hear anything about that over the three episodes. Who said it still remains a mystery.\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex told Oprah Winfrey that there were \"several conversations\" within the Royal Family about how dark their baby might be\n\nBut Harry does talk about his own journey to understand \"unconscious bias\". He also addresses some of the racism of which he has been accused in the past, describing how \"ashamed\" he felt after he wore a Nazi uniform costume to a party in 2005.\n\nThe programme shows him on a journey of constant discovery and self analysis about racism.\n\nIt's left to other contributors to raise Britain's history around the slave trade, as well as the \"skeletons in the closet\" in the Royal Family.\n\nBut in the end, will this programme persuade anyone to change their opinions?\n\nAfter the show and then Harry's book, Spare, is published in January, the couple's \"truth\" will be fully out there. Will that be enough for them?\n\nTheir currency might begin to wane as they struggle with the law of diminishing returns. They may still want to battle royal institutions and the media, but it may turn out that their real battle will be with ongoing relevancy.", "More than 40,000 people have already made crossings in small boats from France to the UK this year - a record number\n\nFrance says it is increasing the number of rescue boats in the English Channel to deal with the growing number of migrants trying to reach the UK.\n\nTwo additional vessels are being deployed in what the French Coastguard describes as an \"unprecedented\" move.\n\nIt follows criticism of the French response to the incident in November 2021 in which 27 people drowned trying to cross to the UK in a dinghy.\n\nMore than 40,000 people have made such crossings this year - a record number.\n\nThe French Coastguard says the Lapérouse survey vessel has just arrived in the port of Calais, while the Kermorvan patrol ship will be there in the next few days.\n\nIt says that their deployment will strengthen the coastguard's rescue capabilities in the Channel-North Sea sector.\n\nLast month, the UK agreed to increase payments to France by £8m ($10m) more a year to £63m to try to stop channel crossings in small boats.\n\nThe money will pay for increased surveillance of French beaches, while UK police officers will also be able to observe patrols within France.\n\nIt is thought French officers patrolling the coast will rise in number from about 250 to 350 over five months.\n\nThe higher numbers of migrants making the crossing this year of the Channel (known as La Manche in France) has been partly blamed on a big rise in the number of Albanian nationals making the journey.\n\nSo far this year 12,000 Albanians have arrived in the UK using small boats, compared with just 50 in 2020.", "King Charles lll and Camilla, the Queen Consort, met Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney on the pitch at Wrexham football club.\n\nReynolds and McElhenney, who own Wrexham football club, gave King Charles and Camilla a tour of the ground and spoke to them about redevelopment plans.\n\nThe visit was to mark Wrexham achieving city status.", "Santander has been fined £107.7m over \"serious and persistent gaps\" in its anti-money laundering controls which opened the door to \"financial crime\".\n\nThe financial watchdog said the bank \"failed to properly oversee and manage\" systems aimed at verifying information provided by business customers.\n\nSantander also failed to properly monitor the money customers had going through their accounts.\n\nThe bank said it was \"very sorry\" for the failings and had taken action.\n\nMark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said: \"Santander's poor management of their anti-money laundering systems and their inadequate attempts to address the problems created a prolonged and severe risk of money laundering and financial crime.\n\nThe failings affected the oversight of accounts held by more than 560,000 business customers between 31 December 2012 and 18 October 2017, and led to more than £298m passing through the bank before it closed accounts.\n\nThe FCA said that in one case, a new customer opened an account as a small translations business with expected monthly deposits of £5,000. Within six months it was receiving millions in deposits, and swiftly transferring the money to separate accounts.\n\nAlthough the account was recommended for closure by the bank's own anti-money laundering team in March 2014, the FCA said that poor processes by Santander meant that it was not acted upon until September 2015.\n\nAs a result, the customer continued to receive and transfer millions of pounds through its account.\n\nThe City watchdog identified several other business banking accounts which Santander failed to manage correctly, leaving the bank open to \"serious money laundering risk\".\n\nSantander chief executive Mike Regnier said: \"We are very sorry for the historical anti-money laundering related controls issues in our Business Banking division between 2012-17 highlighted in the FCA's findings.\"\n\nHe said the bank took action to address the issues once they were identified, but accepted that its anti-money laundering controls at the time should have been stronger.\n\n\"We have since made significant changes to address this by overhauling our financial crime technology, systems and processes, he said, adding that more than 4,400 Santander staff are now focused on preventing financial crime.\n\nRegulators have been busy cracking down on banks for money-laundering failures.\n\nThe biggest UK fine was for NatWest, which was penalised £265m in December 2021 after it admitted three offences of failing to comply with money laundering regulations between 2012 and 2016. It failed to prevent money-laundering of nearly £400m by a Bradford gold trading business, which in one instance deposited £700,000 in cash into a branch in black bin bags.\n\nHSBC was also fined in December 2021, paying £64m after the FCA found \"unacceptable failings\" in its anti-money laundering systems between 2010 to 2018. The bank had previously been fined £1.4bn for failing to prevent laundering by Mexican drug cartels after an investigation by the US Department of Justice.\n\nIn June this year, Credit Suisse was fined for involvement in money laundering related to a Bulgarian drugs ring. It was fined around £1.7m and ordered to pay £15m to the Swiss government.\n\nIf you have information about any of the issues raised in this story and would like to speak to a BBC journalist, please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nYou can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Dr. Anthony Fauci is standing down as Chief Medical Advisor to the US President later this month\n\nAmerica's top infectious disease expert, who became the face of the pandemic with his daily television updates, has spoken out against \"low-life\" trolls harassing his wife and children, figuring out where they live and their phone numbers.\n\n\"I have good security protection, but I really think it's so cowardly to harass people who are completely uninvolved, including my children,\" Dr Anthony Fauci told the BBC's Americast podcast.\n\nDr Fauci, who became a target for online conspiracy movements after advising on the Covid-19 pandemic, said he tries his best not to be distracted by online hate that \"takes away from your ability to do your job\".\n\nAs chief medical adviser to the US President he was the country's top medical expert and the voice of the government's pandemic response, during both the Trump and Biden administration, providing daily updates to the American public, encouraging mask use and vaccination.\n\nHe frequently clashed with former President Donald Trump, who once threatened to fire him.\n\nConspiracy theorists accused Dr Fauci of playing a key role in a sinister plot to control and harm people with Covid-19 and vaccines, contrary to the evidence.\n\nTwo people have previously been arrested and imprisoned in the US for what Dr Fauci described as \"credible attempts on [his] life.\"\n\nHe warned about a \"tsunami of misinformation and disinformation\" in his country, including on social media. But he refused to comment on Twitter's recent decision to stop labelling and removing Covid-19 misinformation, because he feared being accused of \"trying to suppress people's freedom of speech\".\n\nThe 81-year-old is stepping down as chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden this month and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by BBC Sounds This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDr Fauci has served under seven presidents, including Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Barack Obama, starting with Republican Ronald Reagan during the HIV AIDS epidemic.\n\nBut he was thrust further into the public eye during the Covid-19 pandemic, where decisions he and other scientific advisers made about restrictions and medical advice were under scrutiny.\n\nAt times, he clashed with Donald Trump's approach to managing the pandemic.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nHe said it was not easy to publicly disagree with a sitting president and that it \"generated an extraordinary amount of hostility\" from \"far-right\" activists in the US.\n\nWhen asked whether the severity of lockdowns in some American states was misjudged, Dr Fauci disagreed.\n\nHe dismissed the approach taken by Sweden, which did not immediately go into lockdown, but advocated voluntary social distancing.\n\n\"I would not under any circumstances adopt the Swedish model because if you look at the deaths and hospitalisations in Sweden compared to other Scandinavian countries, it's much, much worse,\" Dr Fauci told Americast.\n\nDr Fauci, who will turn 82 on 24 December, said he will continue to work in healthcare.\n\nListen to the BBC's Americast podcast on BBC Sounds", "Motorcyclist Harry Dunn died after being struck by a car outside a US military base in Northamptonshire\n\nA US citizen responsible for the death of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn has been sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for a year.\n\nAnne Sacoolas was driving on the wrong side of the road when she hit the 19-year-old outside a US military base in Northamptonshire in 2019.\n\nThe case led to a transatlantic row between the US and UK governments.\n\nCharlotte Charles said of the family's three-year wait for justice \"we didn't back down because we have values\".\n\nMrs Charles, Harry's mother, added that her \"promise\" to get justice for her son through the UK courts was \"well and truly complete\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Harry, we done it,' says mother of Harry Dunn\n\nFollowing the crash, Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US administration and left the country 19 days later. She never returned to the UK.\n\nSacoolas, who admitted earlier this year to causing death by careless driving, appeared at London's Old Bailey via video-link after her employer, the US government, advised her not to travel to the UK to attend in person.\n\nMrs Charles said the 45-year-old's failure to attend was \"despicable\", adding she was \"absolutely disgusted\" at the actions of the US.\n\nMr Dunn's father, Tim Dunn, said: \"It's been such a relentless time, we as a family fought off everything we can to get to this point.\"\n\nMrs Charles added: \"Anne Sacoolas has a criminal record for the rest of her life.\n\n\"That was something she never thought she'd see, something the US government never thought they'd see.\n\n\"Harry we done it. We're good, we're good.\"\n\nMrs Charles also spoke about being unable to say goodbye to her son because he was too injured by the time she reached the hospital.\n\n\"I couldn't comfort him at all. I couldn't let him know that I was there. So for me, the next best thing was to kiss that bruised lip of his and just let him know that I would fight for justice,\" she told Sky News.\n\nShe said the family was no longer interested in meeting Sacoolas, adding: \"The time for any contact, for any remorse, is long gone.\"\n\nFamily spokesman Radd Seiger said they wanted a parliamentary inquiry and hoped to work with the Foreign Office to prevent others from going through the same thing.\n\nForeign Secretary James Cleverly has requested to meet the family, he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSacoolas, who was also disqualified from driving for 12 months, was originally charged with causing death by dangerous driving, but the UK's Crown Prosecution Service accepted her guilty plea to the lesser charge.\n\nIn her sentencing remarks, which were broadcast live, Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said: \"There is no doubt that the calm and dignified persistence of these parents and the family of that young man has led, through three years of heartbreak and effort, to your appearance before the court and the opportunity for you to acknowledge your guilt of a crime.\"\n\nMr Cleverly also paid tribute to the \"incredible resolve\" of the family.\n\n\"Anne Sacoolas has finally been sentenced in a British court,\" he said.\n\nHe added her appearance via video-link was \"the most viable way to bring the case to court and give justice to Harry's family\".\n\nAnne Sacoolas (right) appeared via video-link at the Old Bailey with her lawyer Amy Jeffress\n\nThe judge could not give Sacoolas a community order because, in her words, \"it's obvious no enforcement can be carried out\".\n\nAn immediate jail sentence would have needed Sacoolas to surrender to the court, so the judge's only real option was a suspended sentence.\n\nProsecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the court that on 27 August 2019, Sacoolas turned out of RAF Croughton and drove 350 metres (1,148ft) on the wrong side of the road for 26 seconds.\n\nShe then hit Mr Dunn, who was riding his motorbike on the correct - left - side of the road.\n\nWhen a witness reached the scene, Sacoolas said to her: \"It's all my fault. I was on the wrong side of the road. I have only been here a couple of weeks.\"\n\nThe witness then rushed over to Harry and he said: \"Don't let me die.\"\n\nAnne Sacoolas, pictured here in 2020, appeared via video-link from Washington in the US\n\nWhen the police arrived, Sacoolas was said to be co-operative but in total shock, with her head in her hands.\n\nShe confirmed it had been her fault, Mr Atkinson said.\n\nHe said she told police she was on \"the American side\" of the road, from the base to the brow of the hill where the collision occurred.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Harry Dunn: Teen's death case explained in under three minutes\n\nIn a statement read to the court, Sacoolas said: \"My tragic mistake led to the loss of Harry and I live with this regret every single day.\n\n\"There is not a day that goes by that Harry isn't on my mind and I am deeply sorry for the pain that I have caused.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The plans to ease regulations on financial services are being described as a second \"Big Bang\"\n\nThe government has announced what it describes as one of the biggest overhauls of financial regulation for more than three decades.\n\nIt says the package of more than 30 reforms will \"cut red tape\" and \"turbocharge growth\".\n\nRules that forced banks to legally separate retail banking from riskier investment operations will be reviewed.\n\nThose were introduced after the 2008 financial crisis when some banks faced collapse.\n\nThe package of changes, the \"Edinburgh Reforms\", is being presented as an example of post-Brexit freedom to tailor regulation specifically to the needs and strengths of the UK economy.\n\nHowever, critics say it risks forgetting the lessons of the financial crisis.\n\nBetween 2007 and 2009 the then-Labour government spent £137bn of public money to bail out banks.\n\nOverall, taxpayers have lost £36.4bn on those bailouts, according to the latest estimate from independent forecaster the Office for Budget Responsibility.\n\nThe plans to ease regulations on financial services are being described as another \"Big Bang\" - a reference to the deregulation of financial services by Margaret Thatcher's government in 1986.\n\nThe government has already announced it will scrap a cap on bankers' bonuses and allow insurance companies to invest in long-term assets such as housing and windfarms to boost investment and help its levelling up agenda.\n\nRules governing how senior finance executives are hired, monitored and sanctioned will be overhauled.\n\nThere will also be new rules around bundling investments together into tradeable units - a process called securitisation.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt said the changes would secure \"the UK's status as one of the most open, dynamic and competitive financial services hubs in the world\".\n\nThe reforms \"seize on our Brexit freedoms to deliver an agile and home-grown regulatory regime that works in the interest of British people and our businesses\".\n\nMr Hunt met bosses of the UK's largest financial services in Edinburgh on Friday to discuss the reforms.\n\nWhile in Edinburgh he was asked whether the reforms risked sowing the seeds of the next financial crash.\n\nHe said: \"We have learned the lessons of that crash, we put in place some very important guardrails which will remain, but the banks have become much healthier financially since 2008.\"\n\nHowever, Labour's shadow City minister Tulip Siddiq said the reforms would bring more risk.\n\n\"That this comes after the Tories crashed our economy is beyond misguided,\" adding that the reforms were part of a \"race to the bottom\".\n\nGreen charity the Finance Innovation Lab said the government \"is taking major risks with the stability of the economy\".\n\n\"Weakening the essential protections that were put in place after the global financial crisis is an incredibly dangerous move - they help keep the system stable and our money safe,\" said its chief executive Jesse Griffiths.\n\nBut Chris Hayward, policy chairman at the City of London Corporation, said the reforms would not weaken standards.\n\n\"It's a chance to actually grow our economy and I think we should be very excited about it,\" he said.\n\nAfter the financial crisis of 2008, when the government had to spend billions supporting the UK banking system, a new regime was brought in to increase the personal accountability of senior risk-taking staff.\n\nIt allowed for fines, bans and even custodial sentences, although there have been very few examples of enforcement.\n\nBut City insiders say a major disadvantage it imposes is the lengthy process of getting the movement of senior staff to the UK approved by the regulator - making London less attractive to foreign firms.\n\nAfter the financial crisis, large banks were forced to separate or \"ring fence\" their domestic banking operations - mortgages and loans for example - from their investment banking operations, which expose their own cash to market volatility and were deemed riskier.\n\nThe cost of having two separate shock-absorbing cushions of spare money was seen by some as placing extra costs on the sector.\n\nMost of the big banks have spent billions on this ring fencing and are not calling for its reversal.\n\nThe reforms of ring fencing are aimed at mid-size banks such as Virgin Money and TSB.\n\nLondon's position as the pre-eminent European financial centre has been dented in recent years\n\nThe government also re-announced more freedom for the pensions and insurance industry to invest in longer term, illiquid assets - those that are hard to sell quickly such as social housing, windfarms, and nuclear - which the government will say helps their levelling up ambitions.\n\nIt is worth noting that although this will be billed as a Brexit freedom, the EU is undertaking similar reforms.\n\nThere was a nod to developing the UK as a centre for crypto assets, but with some caveats given the recent bloodbath after the demise of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.\n\nMost financial industry leaders say they are crypto curious but do not feel the need to be first on this. \"Let the shipwrecks of others be your seamarks,\" said one.\n\nLondon's position as the pre-eminent European financial centre has been dented in recent years.\n\nThe UK's capital city briefly lost its long-time crown of most valuable European stock market to Paris before gains in the pound pushed it narrowly back ahead, while Amsterdam took the title of busiest European share dealing centre.\n\nLeading hedge fund manager Sir Paul Marshall of Marshall Wace recently described the London financial markets as a \"Jurassic Park\" of old-fashioned companies and investors, and it has struggled to attract the world's fastest growing companies to list on UK exchanges, often losing out to New York, Shanghai or even Amsterdam.", "Amy Cregor studies at the University of Leeds, where a Swastika was spray-painted on to the walls of student accommodation in 2020\n\nAmy Cregor, a drama student at the University of Leeds, was on her way to campus for a crunch-time rehearsal when she heard the antisemitic slur.\n\nThe next thing she knew, her hair and clothes were covered with barbecue sauce. Then her attackers drove away.\n\n\"I was a bit in shock,\" she said. \"I had a bit of a cry to myself, but I was just like, 'Pull yourself together'.\"\n\nAmy had been wearing a Star of David necklace that day, which all four of her grandparents had clubbed together to buy her when she was a baby.\n\nShe doesn't wear it around her university city any more.\n\nThe Union of Jewish Students (UJS) says it has lost confidence in the UK's top student activists to fight for the rights of its members like Amy - after a series of controversies at the National Union of Students (NUS).\n\nA report into claims of antisemitism within the NUS is due out in the coming weeks. The UJS hopes it will bring about change, and the NUS says it is prepared to take action.\n\nThe controversies that sparked investigations this year include a planned appearance by \"the UK's most political rapper\" at an NUS event, and the election of a president who had made controversial comments in the past. They relate to tensions rumbling on more than 2,000 miles away - between the state of Israel and Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank.\n\nThe rows have centred on what constitutes criticism of Israel, the world's only state with a majority Jewish population, and what can be described as antisemitism.\n\nThe investigations are adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism, which, in part, describes it as \"a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews\".\n\nJoel Rosen says the NUS seems to have \"abandoned proud anti-racist traditions\"\n\nAmy's university says it encourages students to report incidents, but she says she didn't think she had enough information to do so.\n\n\"For every traumatic incident that gets reported, there are many that go unreported,\" according to Joel Rosen, president of the UJS.\n\nThese are accompanied by what he sees as \"more subtle, more insidious cases of political antisemitism\" relating to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, he says - an antisemitism that he believes has been present in the NUS in recent years.\n\n\"It's an antisemitism that sees all Jewish students as being agents of a government many of them have no connection to, and many certainly don't support,\" he said.\n\n\"There is an exclusionary political culture within NUS where Jews are marginalised within student discourse. The prejudice they face is denied. They feel ostracised.\"\n\nThe row over antisemitism allegations prompted the NUS to launch two independent investigations, both led by a lawyer, Rebecca Tuck KC.\n\nWhile students await the results of a wider investigation into accusations of antisemitism in the NUS as a whole, former president Shaima Dallali was dismissed last month after the first inquiry examined claims against her, and found what the NUS described as \"significant breaches\" of its policies.\n\nIts findings are confidential and her lawyers told the BBC her dismissal is under appeal.\n\nMs Dallali had been criticised over a tweet she posted in 2012, which referenced what has been described as a massacre of Jews in the 7th Century, and which she has since apologised for.\n\nAnother controversy included an article published under her name, in which a Muslim cleric who once described suicide attacks on Israelis as \"martyrdom\", was described as a \"moral compass\".\n\nMs Dallali's critics say these comments went beyond legitimate criticism of Israel and amounted to anti-Semitism. Ms Dallali disputes this and told the Guardian in April that it was absolutely not true she didn't like Jewish people.\n\nHer lawyers have previously said she rejects the allegations and the panel's findings. They maintain she was discriminated against because of \"her beliefs concerning the plight of the Palestinian people\" - and because she is a black Muslim woman. They added that the news of her dismissal was leaked to news outlets before she was told about it.\n\nThey declined a BBC request for comment, and for an interview with Ms Dallali.\n\nShaima Dallali, who was elected as president in March, was dismissed in November over antisemitism allegations\n\nOne element of the wider report will look at how the NUS handled complaints about its invitation of the rapper, Lowkey, aka Kareem Dennis, to its conference in March.\n\nLowkey, whose tracklist includes a song called Long Live Palestine, has previously called the state of Israel a \"racist endeavour\".\n\nHe hosts a podcast about stories he says are \"routinely ignored by the mainstream media\".\n\nIn one episode, which aired shortly before the NUS conference, he said the media had \"weaponised the Jewish heritage\" of Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky in an effort to \"stave off\" questions about the presence of extremists in the country's Azov battalion.\n\nLast year, the rapper defended a professor who was sacked from the University of Bristol after making a series of comments, which included telling the Jewish Chronicle that Israel was using Jewish students \"as political pawns\". An investigation cleared Prof David Miller of unlawful speech but MPs accused him of \"inciting hatred against Jewish students\". Lowkey said Prof Miller was sacked following \"pressure from the Israel lobby\".\n\nJewish students who complained about Lowkey's scheduled appearance were allegedly told they could \"segregate themselves\" in a separate room, according to a list of allegations in the Terms of Reference for the NUS investigation.\n\nLowkey's appearance did not go ahead. The rapper told the BBC this was \"part of a far wider campaign to deplatform\" him.\n\nMr Rosen thinks the invitation itself demonstrated \"just how disconnected NUS has become from Jewish students\".\n\n\"If the most senior elected student officials in the country are allowed to act with impunity, that creates a culture of impunity that trickles down,\" he claimed.\n\n\"How can I turn around to a student union and say 'that's unacceptable', if that thing is allowed to fly in the NUS? It makes the fight against antisemitism much harder.\"\n\nJosh Cohen, the 20-year-old president of Nottingham Trent University's Jewish Society, says he is tired of people making \"digs\" about the Israel-Palestinian conflict when they find out he is Jewish.\n\n\"It's something Jews have kind of just got used to,\" said Mr Cohen, who is also on the UJS national council.\n\nJosh Cohen says \"the last thing he wants\" is for student politics to be \"empty of Jews\"\n\nMr Cohen feels that Jewish students have been \"edged out of democratic spaces\" like the NUS and some student unions.\n\n\"It matters a lot, because those are the spaces where Jewish issues get discussed, whether it's voting or campaigning on how a university responds to antisemitism... or even just something as simple as campaigning to get sort of religious provision on campus,\" he said.\n\n\"If it's seen as a bit of a no-go space for Jews, you're not accurately representing everyone. And actually also you're missing out on students who could be really engaged.\"\n\nA spokeswoman for the NUS said the organisation knew that antisemitism was \"real within society, and within education and the student movement\", and was \"deeply concerned about the hurt and pain being expressed\".\n\n\"We are prepared to be accountable, to listen, and to take action,\" she said - including through complaints processes, education, and culture change.\n\n\"This is not Jewish students' fight to take on alone, and we want to play our part. There is no place for antisemitism within NUS because Jewish students have the right to feel safe and welcome in every corner of our movement - and our society.\"\n\nThe wider NUS investigation will look at incidents that have arisen since an NUS inquiry back in 2005, when the organisation was criticised over its handling of complaints, but cleared of demonstrating apathy towards antisemitism.\n\nIt is likely to look at how the NUS dealt with controversies in 2016 and 2017, relating to comments made by an earlier NUS president - who denied being antisemitic, saying at the time that her comments were a criticism of media outlets and their reporting of the Israel-Palestinian situation.\n\nThe NUS has continued to campaign this year, supporting university staff strikes in November and publishing research into students struggling with the rising cost of living.\n\nBut students have said it has been distracted by the investigations.\n\nA former NUS employee, who asked to remain anonymous, said issues like the cost of living appear to have been \"sidelined\" while the NUS has been grappling with the fallout.\n\n\"Hopefully there is a productive outcome, a path outwards,\" he said. \"There is a lot of work to do... proving that the NUS is relevant.\"\n\nThe Federation of Student Islamic Societies has accused the NUS of being \"absent\" while students struggle with finances. It has called for an investigation into Islamophobia within the NUS over the investigation into Ms Dallali.\n\nThe Palestine Solidarity Campaign has defended Ms Dallali since her dismissal. It said there had been a \"conflation of antisemitism with legitimate critique of Israeli oppression\", which has been \"utilised to silence Palestinians and those who support their rights\".\n\nIn February, the group accused Nadhim Zahawi, who was education secretary at the time, of trying to \"chill and delegitimise activism for Palestine\", after he reportedly said that student activists who chanted \"from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free\" should be reported to the police.\n\nThe NUS, in a joint statement at the time, called on Mr Zahawi to withdraw his comments, which it said were part of \"a wider attempt to silence\" activists.\n\nMr Rosen said the student movement had a \"proud history of standing together, Jewish students along with other marginalised groups, and fighting racism\", adding: \"I really hope that can be recovered\".\n\n\"Jewish students don't just want another investigation,\" he said. \"We want to see action.\"", "After Big Bang introduced electronic trading, the London exchange's trading floor became redundant\n\n\"I was used to the hustle and bustle, the crowd on the floor,\" says Alasdair Haynes.\n\n\"And on the Monday there was no one there. There was a complete hush, it was extraordinary,\" says Mr Haynes who used to work on the floor of the London Stock Exchange, and is now chief executive of the trading venue Aquis Exchange.\n\nThe Monday he's referring to was 30 years ago. It was the day of the Big Bang - when, in one fell swoop, the City of London was deregulated, revolutionising its fortunes and turning it into a financial capital to rival New York.\n\nLondon's switch in 1986 from traditional face-to-face share dealing to electronic trading helped it outpace its European competitors and become a magnet for international banks.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Thirty years ago today the City changed for ever after radical new rules were introduced.\n\nEven if London now loses access to the single market, many believe the Big Bang's legacy is a financial infrastructure with foundations too deep to be moved.\n\nBut many also say it sowed the seeds of the 2008 financial crisis.\n\nThere were three key elements to the Big Bang revolution:\n\nBritish Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with her Chancellor Nigel Lawson (left) were the architects of Big Bang\n\nBy ending fixed commissions Big Bang allowed more competition; by ending the separation of dealers and advisors it allowed mergers and take-overs; and by allowing in foreign owners it opened London's market to international banks.\n\nCoupled with the new magic of electronic trading, the City jumped from the 19th Century to the threshold of the 21st.\n\nIt is generally thought that Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister drove through Big Bang as part of a programme of deregulation, but there were already powerful forces at work.\n\nBy the early 1980s the competition authorities were threatening to take the stock exchange to the Restrictive Practices Court.\n\nNicholas Goodison, then chairman of the Stock Exchange, believed it would be better to pre-empt the lawyers and avoid being forced to tear up its rule book.\n\nIn any case the world was already changing. The US had abolished fixed commissions in 1974, and in 1979 the Conservative government abolished exchange controls - triggering for many the UK's financial and economic rebirth.\n\nThe old stock exchange at Capel Court, where \"waiters\" watered the floor to keep down the dust\n\n\"And there were other developments,\" says David Buik, now a market commentator at Panmure Gordon.\n\n\"You have to remember that LIFFE (the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange) had started up in 1982 and already attracted the big American and Japanese banks - not to mention the privatisations of British Gas, British Airways and so on.\"\n\nIn the end it was Mr Goodison, Trade and Industry Secretary Cecil Parkinson, and Chancellor Nigel Lawson, who persuaded Mrs Thatcher to back the reforms that changed the City for ever.\n\nCity traders were then strictly divided into two; jobbers and brokers. Brokers liaised with clients and then gave their orders to jobbers who did the actual trading, face-to-face in \"open outcry\", on the exchange floor.\n\nFor years, trading was done at the old Capel Court exchange, known as The House, where \"waiters\" would water the floors with watering cans to keep down the dust.\n\nLIFFE, London's financial futures exchange, was the first in the City to attract foreign investment banks\n\nNowadays the pre-Big Bang City has a bowler hat image, where a good lunch and long friendships were more important than profit. But it wasn't all like that, according to Brian Winterflood, later the founder of Winterflood Securities, who had been a jobber at Greener Dreyfus since the 1950s.\n\n\"We had lunch but we never stopped trading,\" he said in a 1990 interview. \"If we were too busy for lunch we wouldn't go to lunch, and you'd snatch a half an hour now and again.\"\n\nCrucially for the subsequent development of London as an international financial centre, the Big Bang produced a free-for-all, as brokers, jobbers and the City's traditional merchant banks merged.\n\nSome were bought by UK clearing banks but many more were snapped up by much bigger US, European and Japanese banks.\n\nThe 300 member firms of the stock exchange had all been domestic - but within a year 75 were foreign-owned. With this came electronic trading, cutting costs as the competition increased. The jobbers vanished and the trading floor became deserted.\n\nAll this meant that the volume of trade that flooded through the new terminals soared, averaging more than $7.4bn a week after Big Bang compared with $4.5bn a week beforehand.\n\nAnd costs also came down.\n\n\"When I started out it cost a fortune to trade, the spreads between buying and selling were huge. Now you can trade on your mobile phone for a fiver,\" says Mr Haynes.\n\nIt is said that Big Bang created 1,500 millionaires. Some 95% of the firms had been owned by partnerships, and dazzled by the massive sums on offer many sold up and retired.\n\nA Canary Wharf advert promised it would \"feel like Venice and work like New York\"\n\nIt also changed the geography of London. Until then the Bank of England had insisted that all of London's banks had to be within 10 minutes' walking distance of the governor's office so, it was said, in a crisis he could summon the lords of finance to his parlour with half an hour's notice.\n\nBut the Securities and Investments Board (later the Financial Services Authority) replaced the Bank's regulatory role.\n\nOn the day of Big Bang an advertisement in the Financial Times promised a new financial centre, three miles to the east of the City at Canary Wharf, which would \"feel like Venice and work like New York\".\n\nYet not everything went to plan. In the short term there was a problem of massive overcapacity. The banks found they had overspent.\n\nThe following years saw them closing down venerable firms like Vickers da Costa, Scrimgeour Kemp-Gee, Fielding Newson-Smith, Wood Mackenzie; names that now appear only in history books and at the bottom of senior financiers' resumes.\n\nBy 1992 Canary Wharf was forced into bankruptcy as it struggled to find tenants.\n\nBut in the 1990s and 2000s, profits, salaries and bonuses boomed. Even Canary Wharf recovered and thrived.\n\nThe City of London's trading culture has changed radically in 30 years\n\nThe result was a financial sector many believe is Brexit-proof. \"The banks built a huge infrastructure in technology, transport, education and telecoms, and that infrastructure is unique,\" says Mr Haynes.\n\n\"People who say we are going to move off to Paris or Frankfurt don't understand you can't build an infrastructure like that overnight. It can't be rebuilt quickly just anywhere in the world.\"\n\nBut with the wealth came something more ambiguous, and dangerous - a change of attitude. \"It became much more of a dog-eat-dog environment,\" says David Buik.\n\n\"In the old days you would have been very careful to look after your client, you had a relationship. But it became a competition on rate and pricing. And the earnings became colossal.\"\n\nMuch of this was based around a bonus culture which rewarded the best deal, while short-term trumped long-term.\n\nSome people understood better than others what was happening.\n\nDavid Willetts, later a Conservative minister, warned of the potential dangers of Big Bang\n\nDavid Willetts, who was then working in the No 10 policy unit but went on to be a Conservative minister, co-authored a paper for Mrs Thatcher on the likely impact of the Big Bang.\n\nHe expressed concern about \"unethical behaviour\" and that financial deregulation could lead to \"boom and bust\" But he concluded while there might be \"individual financial failures\" he did not expect \"a systemic problem\".\n\nOn this he was wrong. The 2008 financial collapse was systemic. It prompted a new wave a regulation, trimming some of the City's freedoms.\n\nHowever, no one, save perhaps the odd elderly broker, dozing now in his Surrey mansion, would dream of returning to the days of bowler hats when the waiters watered the floors in Capel Court.\n\nCorrection 24 January 2017: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the Capel Court Stock Exchange closed in 1967 - this referred to a temporary shutdown.\n• None Banking reform: What has changed since the crisis?", "Hundreds of thousands of people were affected by passport processing delays and many experienced travel disruptions this year, a watchdog has found.\n\nAs coronavirus pandemic travel restrictions were lifted, the Passport Office struggled to keep up with an \"unprecedented demand\", said the National Audit Office (NAO).\n\nSome 360,000 customers waited more than 10 weeks to receive their passports in the first nine months of 2022.\n\nWhitehall's spending watchdog has urged the Home Office agency to prepare, with up to 10 million applications potentially submitted next year.\n\nDespite preparations, the NAO said there were problems with recruitment, system limitations and unsuccessful efforts to deal with the levels of demand this year.\n\nThis contributed to \"longer than expected waits\", according to findings published on Friday.\n\nIn July, mounting delays forced would-be holidaymakers to queue for hours in London during a heatwave.\n\nQueues outside the Passport Office in London last July\n\nGareth Davies, the head of NAO, said the Passport Office processed a \"record number of applications\" but dealing with a higher-than-average demand led to \"delays for hundreds of thousands of people\".\n\nThis created \"anxiety\" for people with travel plans and hampered people using passports as forms of identity, he said.\n\n\"HMPO [His Majesty's Passport Office] must now learn the lessons from this year and prepare for similar levels of demand that are expected in 2023.\"\n\nThis year, between January and September, more than seven million people applied and 6.9m passports were processed by the Passport Office. This was a 21% increase compared to the same period in 2019.\n\nIn May, more than 1.2m applications were received - with the busiest week seeing 340,000 requests submitted.\n\nHowever, the NAO acknowledged that in the first nine months of 2022, 95% of customers received their passports within 10 weeks.\n\nThe report said about three million passport applications are still anticipated from people who did not renew or apply during the pandemic - meaning a further 9.8m applications could be made in 2023.\n\nDuring the coronavirus pandemic, significantly fewer people renewed or applied for passports, leading officials to plan for an \"expected surge\" in applications when travel rules were lifted this year.\n\nHMPO prepared for 9.5m applications - 36% more than an average year. This was based on the number of applications missing from the previous two years.\n\nThe Home Office said the impact to passport services is \"not unique to the UK\" and said it has worked to rectify this.", "The NI secretary is set to cut the pay of assembly members - who have not legislated since May - by 27%\n\nA fifth attempt to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland since May's assembly election has failed.\n\nThe attempt to elect a speaker was blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party as part of its ongoing protest against Brexit trading arrangements.\n\nNI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he would implement new powers to cut assembly members' salaries \"very soon\".\n\nIrish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has suggested that pay cut would take effect from January.\n\nMr Heaton-Harris confirmed he would implement a 27% cut \"very, very soon\", after a law giving him the power to cut Stormont salaries came into effect on Tuesday night.\n\nMr Coveney told Evening Extra: \"I hope that the decision around that - which won't take effect until January - will be very short lived because we have to find a way to get devolved institutions back up and running again, which will make salary a non issue.\"\n\nThe new law also means the NI secretary is under a new legal obligation to call a fresh Stormont election, which would take place no later than 13 April if the institutions are not restored by mid-January.\n\nThe legislation also clarifies the limited decision-making powers provided to civil servants while there is no Northern Ireland Executive in operation.\n\nThe assembly sat on Wednesday after a Sinn Féin recall request - a move backed by the Alliance Party and the Social Democratic and Labour Party.\n\nThe motion called on the DUP to end its boycott of power-sharing to help deal with the cost-of-living crisis.\n\nBut the DUP again refused to vote for any of the candidates for Speaker - a position that must be filled before any other business can be heard.\n\nNorthern Ireland has been without a functioning government since February, when the DUP walked out of the first minister's role in protest against the protocol.\n\nSinn Féin won the largest number of seats in May's election, but no new power-sharing executive could be formed due to the DUP's ongoing boycott.\n\nUnionist politicians argue the post-Brexit trading arrangement undermines Northern Ireland's position in the UK.\n\nIt keeps Northern Ireland aligned with some EU trade rules to ensure goods can move freely across the Irish land border.\n\nNegotiations between the UK government and the EU to resolve differences over the protocol are continuing.\n\nThe last failed recall was in October, ahead of a deadline to restore power-sharing.\n\nSpeaking on Wednesday, Sinn Féin's would-be first minister, Michelle O'Neill, accused the DUP of abandoning the public \"to a Tory government intent on inflicting cuts and austerity in society\".\n\n\"We do not have months to ponder, but rather weeks to take action and create stability and certainty for society, businesses and politics,\" she said.\n\nThe DUP's Gordon Lyons said the recall was \"nothing more than a farce\".\n\n\"Devolution needs a firm foundation to succeed and that foundation will never be in place as long as the issues around the protocol are unresolved,\" he said.\n\nThe plot followed a familiar path with much the same script lines building to the same anti-climatic conclusion.\n\nFor the fifth time assembly members (MLAs) tried and failed to elect a speaker to restore the assembly as the DUP refused to end its Stormont boycott.\n\nMindful of those suffering to pay their bills, the exchanges were full of passion and at times anger.\n\nBut there was no hint of a DUP climbdown any time soon as Gordon Lyons doubled down on his party's stand-off with some stinging digs at the Sinn Féin benches - digs which Sinn Féin dismissed as \"dead cat\" distractions.\n\nThe only note of remorse came from Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie when he apologised after being accused of making a misogynistic remark.\n\nMLAs left the chamber as they entered it - no closer to restoring the Stormont institutions and braced for a pay cut.\n\nThe Alliance Party's Kellie Armstrong said she did not expect the DUP to end its boycott.\n\n\"I expect every household in Northern Ireland to face a cold winter without the same level of help that is being provided to others across the UK,\" she said.\n\nThe SDLP's Matthew O'Toole accused the DUP of \"always shirking, always deflecting, it's always somebody else's fault\".\n\n\"The tragedy is that the DUP are addicted to power but hate responsibility,\" he said.\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie landed himself in hot water with some of his comments\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie described the recall of the assembly as gesture politics which was born out of frustration.\n\n\"The reality is this, like three years before with Sinn Féin, the DUP simply do not care\", he said.\n\nHe accused the DUP and Sinn Féin as \"two sides of the same damn coin\".\n\nBut Mr Beattie faced criticism after accusing some DUP members of screaming and \"whinging like a girl from the side lines\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Doug Beattie under fire for 'whine like a girl' remarks\n\nLagan Valley assembly member Emma Little-Pengelly tweeted that she was proud \"of the many strong girls and women\" she knows.\n\nA new law giving the Irish language official status, also received Royal Assent on Tuesday.\n\nThe culture, language and identity bill will allow the use of Irish in courts and see the appointment of Irish and Ulster Scots/Ulster British commissioners.", "Julian Knight has accused the Conservative Party of denying him the right to a fair hearing, after he was suspended as a Tory MP following a report to police involving allegations of sexual assault.\n\nMr Knight said he was \"entirely innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever\".\n\nIn a letter to the party's chief whip, Simon Hart, Mr Knight strongly objected to the way he was named by the whip's office on Wednesday night, when they confirmed his suspension from the parliamentary Conservative party.\n\nHe has demanded an \"immediate and unequivocal answer\" as to why he was suspended and publicly named.\n\nThe MP for Solihull said the whips - who are responsible for party discipline - must have known their actions would \"entirely prejudice\" any prospect of getting a fair hearing in any inquiry, court or disciplinary hearing.\n\n\"By unilaterally and publicly suspending the whip you have stripped me of the rights to anonymity or a fair hearing in any judicial forum or, indeed, in the court of public opinion,\" he wrote.\n\nIn the letter, posted on his Twitter account on Thursday, Mr Knight said he was making the statement after his name was linked with an \"apparently serious but entirely unspecified offence\".\n\nHe said he was making his letter public \"in the interests of natural justice\" and has asked the chief whip does the same with this reply.\n\nOn Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the chief whip said in a statement Mr Knight had been suspended as a Conservative MP after a complaint to the Metropolitan Police.\n\nMr Knight said he found out he had been suspended from the media, after the statement from the chief whip's office was released.\n\nHe said no one from the whip's office spoke to him before his suspension and he had heard nothing from the police about \"any allegation apparently made against me\".\n\nThe BBC has been told the chief whip was in touch with Mr Knight on Wednesday night.\n\nBut when asked for a response to Mr Knight's position, the chief whip's office would not comment further given the police investigation.\n\nOn Thursday, the Metropolitan Police said that on 28 October it had received allegations of sexual assault against unnamed victims reported to have taken place on unknown dates at undisclosed locations.\n\nIn his letter to the chief whip, Mr Knight asked whether his suspension was related to those allegations.\n\nThe statement added: \"On 7 December, a further referral relating to the incident[s] was made and an investigation was launched.\"\n\nPolice said inquiries were ongoing and there have been no arrests.\n\nIn a tweet earlier, Mr Knight said he believed his suspension was \"wrong and unjustified\".\n\n\"Subsequently, I have received what my lawyers advise are explicit threats involving blackmail as well as being at the centre of a campaign of rumour and innuendo,\" he said.\n\n\"All matters are now with my lawyers and I will be recusing myself from Parliament until the matter is resolved.\"\n\nMr Knight, who entered Parliament in 2015, is chairman of the Commons culture committee.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: A clip from the first episode of the Harry and Meghan Netflix series\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex have said they never cited privacy as a reason for stepping back from royal life.\n\nPrince Harry and Meghan's global press secretary said a \"distorted narrative\" had been created.\n\nIt follows suggestions from some commentators that their Netflix series, which launched this week, is at odds with their reasons for leaving the UK.\n\nThe statement said this was \"entirely untrue\".\n\nIt said they always intended to keep up public duties after leaving the royal family.\n\nTheir decision to step back from royal life in early January 2020 was announced in two coordinated statements from the duke and duchess and Buckingham Palace.\n\nIn their statement at the time, the Sussexes said: \"We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America, continuing to honour our duty to the Queen, the Commonwealth and our patronages.\n\n\"This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity.\"\n\nAt the time, one interpretation of their decision led to commentary suggesting that press intrusion, particularly that affecting their then-newborn son Archie, may have been a factor.\n\nThe couple have engaged in separate legal battles against newspaper publishers, including over privacy, since they told several of the UK's biggest tabloid titles they would no longer cooperate with them.\n\nPress intrusion is a theme that runs throughout the first three episodes of the new Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan, which is co-produced by the couple.\n\nAnd since the release of the episodes and two minute-long trailers, some commentators cited in the media have suggested they have changed their tune on the subject of privacy.\n\nFor example, Dickie Arbiter, a former press secretary to the late Queen, told GB News after watching the first three episodes on Thursday: \"They left because they wanted privacy.\n\n\"Well, so much for privacy in this documentary because we are seeing a lot of family photographs.\"\n\nAnother critic responding to one of the trailers was quoted by a newspaper as saying: \"They've blown their own protestations out of the water and detonated their own privacy policy.\"\n\nThe Sussexes' global press secretary, Ashley Hansen, said in a written statement: \"The Duke and Duchess have never cited privacy as the reason for stepping back. This distorted narrative was intended to trap the couple into silence.\n\n\"In fact, their statement announcing their decision to step back mentions nothing of privacy and reiterates their desire to continue their roles and public duties. Any suggestion otherwise speaks to a key point of this series.\n\n\"They are choosing to share their story, on their terms, and yet the tabloid media has created an entirely untrue narrative that permeates press coverage and public opinion. The facts are right in front of them.\"", "A SpaceX picture of the Starship spacecraft that the artists would travel on\n\nA commercial DJ, K-pop rapper, and a space YouTuber are to go on a trip around the Moon, after they were picked by a Japanese billionaire for a private SpaceX flight.\n\nBusinessman Yusaku Maezawa revealed his crew on Friday after a global search for creative individuals last year.\n\nAmerican DJ Steve Aoki and Korean star TOP are the most high-profile picks.\n\nThe flight, scheduled for next year, could be the first lunar journey by humans since 1972.\n\nThe proposed fly-by would see a spacecraft circle the moon, coming within 200km (124 miles) of the surface. The trip would take eight days from launch to return.\n\nHowever, US regulators are yet to give permission for the Starship rocket from Elon Musk's SpaceX company that the crew is supposed to travel on.\n\nThe ship has not even been approved for an orbital journey around the Earth and has been grounded for the past 18 months in Texas, after it completed a test launch in May 2021.\n\nBut Mr Maezawa made no mention of this delay in his video announcing the crew for the mission he's dubbed dearMoon.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by 前澤友作@MZDAO This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe opening scene shows Mr Maezawa in a Japanese garden looking up at the moon. It then cuts to show the first crew member - DJ Aoki - at one of his shows.\n\n\"I can't miss this opportunity. My soul is begging for this,\" the Billboard-charting artist says in the video.\n\nThe next passenger revealed is Youtuber Tim Dodd - also known as the Everyday Astronaut- who has 1.4 million followers online for his educational videos on spaceflight and astrophysics.\n\nIn his own video released on Friday the vlogger said he couldn't believe he'd been selected. He added that SpaceX's announcement in 2017 that it would send a civilian to the moon was \"ironically, or poetically... actually what got me started making videos on Youtube.\"\n\nThe other announced dearMoon mission members are:\n\nUS Olympic snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and Japanese dancer Miyu were named as back-ups.\n\n\"I hope each and every one will recognise the responsibility that comes with leaving the Earth, travelling to the moon and back,\" Mr Maezawa said.\n\n\"They will gain a lot from this experience and I hope they will use that to contribute to the planet, to humanity.\"\n\nMr Maezawa, who made his fortune in online fashion retailer Zozo, has become prominently involved in commercial space travel. Last year he went to the International Space Station on a Russian rocket for 12 days.\n\nIn 2018, he was named as the first private passenger due to be flown around the moon by SpaceX and said he would sponsor the cost of eight other passengers on board.\n\nThe price Mr Maezawa agreed to pay for his ticket to space has not been disclosed, but according to Mr Musk it was \"a lot of money\".\n\nIn 2020, he also launched a documentary search for a new girlfriend to join him on his moon voyage, before cancelling due to \"mixed feelings\".", "Putin was speaking at an awards ceremony in the Kremlin\n\nVladimir Putin has vowed to continue attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure despite millions being left without electricity or water.\n\n\"Yes, we do that. But who started it?\" the Russian president said at an awards ceremony in the Kremlin.\n\nHe said that criticism of Russian strikes would \"not interfere with our combat missions\".\n\nMoscow has been battering Ukraine's power grid since 10 October, following a string of heavy military defeats.\n\nSome Western leaders have called the strategy a war crime, because of the huge amount of damage caused to civilian infrastructure.\n\nBut President Putin said that growing global criticism would not stop the strikes.\n\n\"There's a lot of noise about our strikes on the energy infrastructure of a neighbouring country. Yes, we do that. But who started it?\" he said to recipients of state awards, including the \"Hero of Russia\" medal.\n\nHe said the strikes were in response to a blast on the Russian bridge to annexed Crimea on 8 October. He also accused Ukraine of blowing up power lines from the Kursk nuclear power plant and of cutting water supply to Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.\n\n\"Not supplying water to a city of more than a million people is an act of genocide,\" Mr Putin said, accusing the West of \"complete silence\" on these claims and of bias against Russia.\n\nUkrainian Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin said last month that Russia's attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure amount to genocide.\n\nThe Russian president said that when Moscow responds to Ukrainian aggression \"there is uproar and clamour spreading through the whole universe\".\n\nUkraine is now seeing snow and sub-zero temperatures in many regions, including Kyiv\n\nUkraine is now seeing snow and sub-zero temperatures in many regions, and millions are without electricity and running water, raising fears people may die of hypothermia.\n\nThe country switched to emergency shutdowns to stabilise its power grid after a fresh wave of Russian missile attacks on Monday.\n\nExperts have told the BBC that Russia's tactic of hitting energy infrastructure is most likely designed to demoralise and terrorise the population, rather than gain any concrete military advantage - a move that would violate international law.\n\nFrank Gardner looks at what lies ahead as winter arrives in Ukraine.\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "The cut will reduce annual incomes of Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) by 27.5%\n\nStormont's 90 assembly members will have their salaries cut by more than £14,000 from 1 January, Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris has said.\n\nFurther cuts may come if the political stalemate continues, he added.\n\nAssembly members have not governed for 10 months due to a boycott by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).\n\nMr Heaton-Harris also told BBC News NI he could not confirm a date for a delayed £600 energy bill discount to be issued to Northern Ireland households.\n\nHe said the best way for this to be delivered was through a functioning power-sharing executive.\n\nHowever, he insisted: \"Everyone in Northern Ireland will get the complete payment before everybody in the rest of Great Britain.\"\n\nIn Great Britain, payments began being released in six monthly instalments from October.\n\nNorthern Ireland has been without a functioning government since February, when the DUP walked out of the executive in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol.\n\nUnionists argue the post-Brexit trading arrangement undermines Northern Ireland's position in the UK, as it keeps the nation aligned with some EU trade rules to ensure goods can move freely across the Irish land border.\n\nA motion called on the DUP to end its boycott to help deal with the cost-of-living crisis, but the party again refused to vote for a new Speaker - a position that must be filled before any other business can be heard.\n\nEarlier this week, Mr Heaton-Harris was granted new legal powers to cut by 27.5% the annual incomes of Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs).\n\nThe pay cut will reduce their salaries by £14,163 - from £51,500 to £37,337.\n\nIt will mean a cut of about £800 to their pay packet in January.\n\nThe lack of a functioning executive is complicating the delivery of a £600 energy support scheme\n\nMr Heaton-Harris said there was a strong argument to keep the matter under review.\n\n\"I've asked my officials to give me some more legal basis and check if they can do more,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"People will also have seen that when this was being debated in the House of Commons, there was a big push to go further so I'm going to keep it under review.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Chris Heaton-Harris says MLAs' pay will stay under a review after a 27% cut in January\n\nAsked if he was doing enough to try to restore power sharing, the secretary of state said he would convene talks with the parties next week.\n\nIt will be the first series of round-table discussions he has held since taking on the job in September.\n\n\"I'm putting as much pressure on all parties to go back into the executive, and I do that whenever I see them, and I see them a lot,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm talking to the parties all the time but they could do this themselves.\"\n\nMr Heaton-Harris also confirmed the government was \"taking soundings\" on whether to change the date of next year's scheduled local government election.\n\nThe election is due to happen on 4 May, but there have been calls to move it so that the counting of votes does not clash with the coronation of King Charles III, which is happening two days later.\n\nIn a letter to all MLAs on Thursday, the secretary of state said he was also increasing the required number of days they must attend Stormont in order to claim travel allowances.\n\nHe said it will increase from a minimum of 72 days to 100 with effect from 1 April.\n\nFor each working day less than this that an MLA attends the assembly the allowance will be cut by 1%.", "The so-called Kingdom of Germany is a self-proclaimed state, complete with its own monarch\n\nIn the depths of the countryside in eastern Germany, there's an invisible border.\n\nThe turrets of an imposing castle loom out of the treetops. A sign on its front door solemnly informs the visitor that they've entered - in effect - a new country.\n\nThe \"Königreich Deutschland\" (Kingdom of Germany) is a self-proclaimed independent state - complete with its own self-appointed king.\n\nPeter the First, as he prefers to be known, receives us in a rather gloomy wood-panelled hall.\n\nIt's about a decade since his coronation - there was a ceremony, complete with orb and sceptre - and the foundation of his so-called kingdom, which mints its own money, prints its own ID cards and has its own flag.\n\nHe's what's known in Germany as a \"Reichsbürger\" (Citizen of the Reich), one of an estimated 21,000 people who are defined by the country's intelligence agencies as conspiracy theorists who don't recognise the legitimacy of the post-war German state.\n\nThey've risen to prominence this week, with the arrest of 25 people in raids on Reichsbürger suspected of plotting to storm the German parliament building, the Reichstag, in a violent overthrow of the government.\n\nKing Peter says he has no such violent intentions.\n\nBut he does believe the German state to be \"destructive and sick\".\n\n\"I have no interest in being part of this fascist and satanic system,\" he says.\n\nKing Peter told the BBC his kingdom now has 5,000 citizens\n\nWe settle in another room to talk, on plush armchairs under a glittering chandelier.\n\nBut this is no salon; we're surrounded by lights and cameras. This is King Peter's own TV studio - he hopes to start a TV channel - and I learn that one of his subjects will be recording every moment of our interaction.\n\nHe felt, he said, that he had no choice but to found his kingdom, having tried, unsuccessfully, to run as a mayor and a member of the German parliament.\n\n\"People who are corrupt, criminal or willing to be used thrive in the German system and those with an honest heart, who want to change the world for the better, in the interests of the common good, don't have a chance.\"\n\nHis real name is Peter Fitzek, and his activities have brought him into frequent conflict with the German law.\n\nGermany doesn't recognise the kingdom or its documents: Mr Fitzek has several convictions for driving without a licence and running his own health insurance programme. He also went to prison for several years for embezzling his citizens' money but the conviction was later quashed.\n\nThe regional intelligence service, which has been watching him and his kingdom for nearly two years, told us they regarded it as a threat. They liken it to a cult which exposes people to conspiracy theories and extremist ideology.\n\nSuch theories and ideology have proliferated in Germany in recent years, fuelled by the pandemic. And Covid-19 appears to have increased support and membership of the kingdom.\n\nMr Fitzek tells us he has about 5,000 citizens. He's expanding the kingdom, buying up land in Germany in order to set up a number of communities in which those people can ultimately live.\n\nThe self-proclaimed kingdom has even minted its own currency\n\nWe visited one such outpost about 150 miles (240km) away from the king's castle.\n\nAncient trees surround the site of another old castle in the village of Bärwalde, an hour and a half's drive south of Berlin. Around 30 people live on the site either in the main building or caravans which scatter the lawn along the main driveway.\n\nDespite the faded beauty of the castle, it's a bleak place. They're still renovating the buildings and clearing the grounds. Tree trunks still grow through the skeleton of an old greenhouse.\n\nBut the people here are proud of their home which they also consider to be kingdom territory.\n\nCitizens don't pay German tax and won't send their children to school, which is illegal in Germany. They are bound by their own legal structure - presided over, I'm told, by King Peter - and ultimately they intend to have their own healthcare system.\n\n\"The kingdom can provide everything that you need in daily life. Food and nourishment, social security, all these systems are there,\" says Benjamin, who recently moved in with his young family and is responsible for PR.\n\nFor all their plans to build a sustainable green community, using modern technologies, citizens appear to have little faith in modern medicine.\n\nNo-one here is vaccinated against Covid-19, Benjamin told me. It's a common position for Reichsbürger, many of whom joined protests against measures to control the pandemic.\n\n\"People who think for themselves today will often be condemned as conspiracy theorists,\" says Benjamin. \"But it's a fact that these are often the people who stay up at night thinking about problems, not just their own but those of society and politics.\"\n\nAs we left the commune and drove back through the village, a neighbour was standing on his front lawn.\n\nWhen I asked what he thought of his neighbours, he frowned. They should pay tax he said. After all, they still accessed Germany's resources. But what worried him the most, he added, were his own children. \"What kind of influence will this lot have on them?\"\n\nFor many years Reichsbürger were a bit of a national joke. Germany is learning to take them seriously.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: A clip from the first episode of the Harry and Meghan Netflix series\n\nSome royals questioned why Meghan should be protected from press harassment, Prince Harry has claimed in the couple's new Netflix documentary.\n\nHarry said some members of the family felt negative treatment in the media was \"a rite of passage\" - but he added: \"The difference is the race element.\"\n\nThe first three episodes of the six-part bombshell series, titled Harry & Meghan, were released on Thursday.\n\nThe couple talk about life in the Royal Family, press intrusion and racism.\n\nBuckingham Palace has not yet responded to the claims.\n\nAt the start of episode one, a message says members of the Royal Family declined to comment on \"the content within this series\".\n\nBoth Kensington Palace and Buckingham Palace confirmed they received an email purporting to be from a production company from an unknown organisation's address and attempted to verify its authenticity with Archewell Productions and Netflix, but did not receive a response, PA reported.\n\nA source told PA the substance of the email did not address the entire series.\n\nThe episodes released on Thursday - which include sit-down interviews with the couple and their friends, as well as a video diary - cover a range of topics, including the couple's difficult relationship with the tabloid press, and the Royal Family's response to racist news articles written about Meghan.\n\n\"The direction from the Palace was don't say anything,\" says Harry. \"But what people need to understand is, as far as a lot of the family were concerned, everything that she was being put through, they had been put through as well.\n\n\"So it was almost like a rite of passage, and some of the members of the family were like 'my wife had to go through that, so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently? Why should you get special treatment? Why should she be protected?\"'\n\n\"I said 'the difference here is the race element'.\"\n\nHe says there is a \"huge level of unconscious bias\" in the Royal Family, adding: \"It is actually no one's fault. But once it has been pointed out, or identified within yourself you then need to make it right.\"\n\nThe Duke of Sussex - who is fifth in line to the throne - says he is really proud that his children are mixed race, and it makes him want to \"make the world a better place for them\".\n\n\"But, equally, what's most important for the two of us is to make sure that we don't repeat the same mistakes that perhaps our parents made.\"\n\nThe couple also spoke about meeting other royals, with Meghan saying she found it surprising that the formality \"carries over\" even when not in public.\n\nShe says: \"When Will and Kate came over, and I met her for the first time, they came over for dinner, I remember I was in ripped jeans and I was barefoot. I was a hugger. I've always been a hugger, I didn't realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits.\n\n\"I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside.\"\n\nIn much of episode one, the duke and duchess spoke about their relationship - including how they met via a friend on Instagram and met for drinks in London's Soho for their first date.\n\nHarry describes it as a \"great love story\", adding: \"I think for so many people in the family, especially obviously the men, there can be a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit in the mould, as opposed to somebody who you are perhaps destined to be with.\n\n\"The difference between making decisions with your head, or your heart. And my mum certainly made most of her decisions - if not all of them - from her heart. And I am my mother's son.\"\n\nHe adds: \"She (Meghan) sacrificed everything she ever knew, the freedom that she had, to join me in my world. And then pretty soon after that I ended up sacrificing everything that I know to join her in her world.\"\n\nPrince Harry tells the docuseries: \"My job is to keep my family safe. But the nature of being born into this position... and the level of hate that is being stirred up in the last three years especially against my wife and my son, I'm generally concerned for the safety of my family.\"\n\nThe duke adds that, as a royal, it is his \"duty to uncover this exploitation and bribery that happens within our media\".\n\nMeghan, meanwhile, says she felt that \"no matter how hard I tried, no matter how good I was, no matter what I did, they [the media] were still going to find a way to destroy me\".\n\nIn other moments from the series:\n\nMeghan describes a BBC interview that took place as part of the announcement of her and Prince Harry's engagement as an \"orchestrated reality show\", adding: \"We weren't allowed to tell our story... it was, you know, rehearsed.\"\n\nThe interview was conducted by news presenter Mishal Husain, who said on Thursday she remembers the \"discreet\" and \"very small scale\" interview for its atmosphere of infectious joy.\n\n\"I don't know what kinds of conversations went on between them and their team ahead of the day,\" she says. \"I can speak to my recollection of that day and that was two people who were happy to be talking about each other.\"\n\nThe couple were \"happy to be sharing their love\" and \"full of plans for the future and what they could do as a team\", she says, adding that their sense of excitement about what the future held \"was very infectious\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Home video of Archie features in Harry and Meghan documentary\n\nAre Prince Harry and Meghan the victims of an oppressive royal system? Or are they the millionaire moaners of Montecito?\n\nHowever the public views their TV show, there will be one set of delighted viewers - and that's in Buckingham Palace and the rest of the Royal Family.\n\nThey might get a bit of a frosty blast from the series, described as unable to hug and getting married for the wrong reasons. But there are no real bombshells or direct hits and nothing specific about any individuals.\n\nIt's a love letter to themselves. They present themselves as under siege, facing prejudice and threats, at war with the media. And as such it's a view looking inwards rather than outwards, with a supporting chorus of friends and experts.\n\nFor a Royal Family worried at the prospect of being painted as out of touch and unsympathetic, or even worse as racists, the programmes so far have not landed anything really embarrassing or awkward.\n\nThe eagerly-anticipated docuseries - which will culminate in its final three episodes at 08:00 GMT on 15 December - faced controversy earlier this week when two trailers allegedly appeared to use footage and photos in misleading ways.\n\nThe trailers showed archive clips and pictures as Prince Harry and Meghan spoke about being sidelined by the Royal Family and hounded by the media - but it is thought at least three such images were taken from events that had nothing to do with the couple. Netflix and the Sussexes' production company Archewell have not commented.\n\nOn Tuesday, Prince Harry and Meghan faced awkward questions from reporters including \"are you putting money before family?\" and \"are you harming your family, Harry?\" as they attended a New York event to receive a human rights award.\n\nHarry and Meghan - who met via a friend on Instagram - share new pictures in the documentary\n\nThe royal couple stepped back as senior royals in March 2020 and now live in California with their two young children, Archie and Lilibet.\n\nSince their exit, they have given several interviews about life in the Royal Family - including their famous Oprah interview last year when they accused an unnamed member of the family of racism, and Meghan said she had had suicidal thoughts.\n\nThe couple have also spoken about their relationship with the media - blaming racist coverage in the tabloid press as a reason why they decided to step back as senior royals.\n\nThey have gone on to secure interviews, produce podcasts and carry out campaigning work. In January, Prince Harry's memoir - called Spare - will be published.", "Emiliano Sala found his place on the football pitch and said all he wanted in his life was to kick a ball\n\nCardiff City is suing an insurance company for more than £10m over the death of footballer Emiliano Sala.\n\nSala, 28, died in a plane crash over the English Channel in January 2019 after completing a £15m transfer to Cardiff from French club Nantes.\n\nThe club claims broker Miller Insurances LLP failed to properly communicate the process for immediately insuring new players.\n\nThe club said Miller Insurance failed to act with the reasonable skill and care expected of an insurance broker in its bid to the High Court.\n\nIt said it was the broker's responsibility to tell the club it would not be insured for a new player's death until its policy was amended to cover that new signing.\n\nClub bosses said they would have requested £20m-worth of coverage for Sala two days before the fatal crash if they had known.\n\nThe club said it was also not told about the risks of not immediately notifying the insurance company about a new player following a transfer deal or about how it could reduce or eliminate these risks.\n\nBusiness flight organiser David Henderson, 67, hired unqualified pilot, David Ibbotson, to fly the plane from Nantes to Cardiff airport.\n\nLast year, Henderson of Hotham, East Riding of Yorkshire, was jailed for 18 months for recklessly endangering the safety of an aircraft and trying to arrange a flight for a passenger without permission or authorisation.\n\nMr Ibbotson's body has never been found.", "American basketball star Brittney Griner has been released after nearly 10 months in Russian custody, as part of a long-rumoured prisoner exchange brokered by officials in Washington and Moscow.\n\nGriner is arguably the greatest female basketball player of all time and is the marquee player for the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in the US.\n\nThe 32-year-old disappeared on 17 February - just days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine - as she was passing through Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport.\n\nShe was later charged with carrying cannabis oil in her luggage and sentenced to nine years in prison.\n\nThe future WNBA star was born on 18 October 1990 to Raymond and Sandra Griner in Texas. Her father was a veteran of the Vietnam War, where he served two tours of duty as a US Marine, and he later became a police officer in Houston.\n\nShe grew up in a strict household and later wrote in her autobiography that her father had \"so many damn rules\" designed to keep her safe and \"on the right path\".\n\nThe star - who is 6ft 9in (2.05 metres) tall - recalled being bullied for her height and tomboyish appearance as a child.\n\nShe wrote in her autobiography that she spent much of her time \"wishing away so much of what would eventually make me successful at basketball: my size, strength, and tenacity\".\n\nDespite wishing to be \"normal\", her unique talent on the basketball court was quickly noticed by coaches at the Nimitz High School in Houston.\n\nWhile playing for the school's team, the Nimitz Cougars, her ability to dunk a basketball attracted massive attention.\n\nDuring her junior season, a video compilation of her dunks racked up 6.6 million views on YouTube and lead to a meeting with LA Lakers legend Shaquille O'Neal.\n\nGriner with NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal, an early admirer of her talent.\n\nAfter leading the Nimitz Cougars to a state championship game in her senior year - during which she dunked the ball a record 52 times in 32 games - she was named to the illustrious Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) All-American team, and scored 20 points in its showpiece game.\n\nGriner came out as gay at the age of 22, at the start of her promising career, becoming one of the most prominent LGBT athletes in the world.\n\nComing out in an interview with Sports Illustrated, she told the publication that the decision \"wasn't hard at all\".\n\n\"I've always been open about who I am and my sexuality,\" she said. \"If I can show that I'm out and I'm fine, then hopefully the younger generation will feel the same way.\"\n\nIn 2013, Griner became the first openly gay player to be endorsed by Nike in a multi-million dollar deal.\n\nTamryn Spruill, a sports journalist who is writing a book on the WNBA and Griner's contributions to the league, told the BBC earlier this year that her decision was groundbreaking for the sport.\n\n\"Before Griner, there was this shadow over the league, where it was like 'don't say gay,'\" Ms Spruill said. \"She was just like 'screw that, this is who I am.'\"\n\n\"BG's always been one to be a pioneer,\" Griner's teammate, Diana Taurasi has said.\n\nIn 2019, she married her partner Cherelle Watson after a heavily publicised divorce from her ex-wife and fellow WNBA player Glory Johnson.\n\nAfter a successful college career with Baylor University, Griner was drafted as the number one pick in the 2013 WNBA draft by the Arizona-based Phoenix Mercury.\n\nThe star went on to become one of the WNBA's most dominant players in history, widely considered the best offensive player in the league - and her ability to dunk remains unmatched.\n\nShe has won a WNBA championship, eight WNBA All-Star awards, four EuroLeague titles and two Olympic gold medals.\n\n\"She's every bit the Tom Brady of her sport,\" Melissa Isaacson, a sportswriter and professor at Northwestern University in the US state of Illinois, said, adding: \"You could argue very accurately that she is one of the best athletes in the world.\"\n\nDespite all this, Griner had a second job, and that was why she flew to Russia - to play for EuroLeague team UMMC Ekaterinburg, who she has played for during the WNBA off-season since 2014.\n\nRoughly half of WNBA players compete overseas in the off-season. For most, it's a way to boost their income: WNBA players receive roughly five times more in Russia than they do in the US.\n\n\"If she were Steph Curry or LeBron James, she wouldn't be over there at all because she'd be making enough money,\" Ms Spruill said.\n\nGriner's counterparts in the men's league make more than 200 times the maximum WNBA salary.\n\nFollowing Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the EuroLeague suspended all Russian teams, and US and WNBA officials began calling players out of the country.\n\nBut it was too late for Griner, who is believed to have entered Russia one week earlier, on 17 February, though the timing remains unclear.\n\nInitially, US authorities and representatives for Griner were largely silent, other than to say they were working to bring her home.\n\nIn early May, however, the State Department said it considered Griner to be \"wrongfully\" detained, and a lengthy campaign to secure her release began.\n\nGriner's wife, Cherelle, posted on Instagram in April about the painful wait.\n\n\"People say 'stay busy.' Yet, there's not a task in this world that could keep any of us from worrying about you. My heart, our hearts, are all skipping beats everyday that goes by,\" she wrote.\n\n\"There are no words to express this pain. I'm hurting, we're hurting\".\n\nOn Thursday, following Griner's release, her wife embraced US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.\n\n\"I'm just standing here overwhelmed with emotions,\" she said.", "\"The bears know the ice will be back soon - they're waiting,\" says Alysa McCall, from Polar Bears International (PBI).\n\nAlysa and her team are in the Canadian Arctic just outside Churchill, Manitoba, in a tundra buggy - an observation lab on tracks, which allows them to watch bears in safety.\n\nChurchill is dubbed the \"polar-bear capital\" of the world.\n\nDay-to-day life is shaped by the polar bears' proximity to the town. Residents have bear-proof rubbish bins and the province employs bear-patrol guards to accompany children when they are trick-or-treating at Halloween.\n\nIt is common practice for people to leave their parked-car doors unlocked so others have somewhere to run to should they encounter a wandering bear.\n\nIn Churchill's frozen Hudson Bay, bears use the sea-ice as a platform to hunt seals.\n\nBut the sea-ice-free season in this part of the Canadian Arctic is lengthening, leaving bears unable to hunt for long periods.\n\nAbout 2,000km south in Montreal, world ministers are gathering at the UN biodiversity summit in an effort to reach an agreement that will to protect wild spaces and reverse the human-driven loss of nature.\n\nBut as the polar bear becomes an icon of climate change, the bears' plight in Churchill embodies the inextricable link between preserving the natural world and fighting global warming. The polar-bear capital of the world is simply getting too warm for polar bears.\n\nA polar bear ice sculpture in Montreal, where the UN biodiversity summit is taking place\n\nBy 2050, conservation scientists now say, the length of the season during which there is no ice could push bears to the point of starvation.\n\n\"Looking over the last couple of decades, it forms later and later and it breaks up earlier and earlier in spring,\" Dr Flavio Lehner, of conservation charity PBI, says.\n\n\"So this season in between - where the bears are on land and can't take advantage of those hunting opportunities - that's is getting longer and longer, with warming.\"\n\nTundra buggies allow the team to watch and study the bears in safety\n\nBears depend on the blubber of seals for energy. Mothers raising cubs, in particular, need to consume sufficient fat.\n\nScientists have studied the link between the length of the so-called \"fasting season\" and polar bear survival. \"At 180 days [without sea-ice], we start to see impacts on their reproductive success,\" Dr Lehner says. \"So beyond that, we're likely to see declines, simply because they can't reproduce successfully any more.\"\n\nThese omnivorous predators will eat just about anything they can find on land, including berries, eggs, small rodents and even reindeer, Ms McCall says, \"but nothing replaces that [high fat] seal blubber\".\n\nThese changes are bringing bears and humans into closer proximity, making places such as Churchill, where polar bears and people coexist, riskier for both.\n\nA US Geological Survey study, using data from satellite tracking collars on more than 400 polar bears in Alaska, shows the time they spend onshore has grown significantly in recent decades.\n\nPolar bears in Alaska have been seen onshore earlier in the year\n\n\"Back in the 1980s, polar bears would only spend a couple of weeks onshore each summer,\" USGS research wildlife biologist Dr Karyn Rode says.\n\n\"Now, many spend nearly two months ashore each year.\"\n\nAnd communities along Alaska's North Slope have been seeing bears earlier.\n\nLife in Churchill is shaped by the bears' proximity to the town\n\nThe fate of Churchill, its seasonal sea-ice and Hudson Bay's hundreds of polar bears fundamentally depends on what every country in the world does to reduce emissions of the planet-heating gases that are changing this place so rapidly.\n\n\"The sea-ice projections are strongly dependent on the temperature - and the temperature is dictated by how much greenhouse gas we emit into the atmosphere,\" Dr Lehner says.\n\n\"So, from a scientific perspective, there is a beautiful relationship between how much we emit and what that means for the sea-ice and for the bears.\"\n\nMs McCall says the western Hudson Bay subpopulation of bears, which she and her colleagues study, has declined up to 30% in the past 30-40 years, because of less access to sea-ice.\n\n\"They are warning us what's to come for polar bears that live farther north [where icy winters are currently longer],\" she adds.\n\nAt this critical time for the Arctic, polar scientists also say they are being prevented from working in much of the region, because of Russia's war in Ukraine.\n\nProf Gareth Rees from the Scott Polar Research Institute says: \"We have a big gap now in the Russian Arctic, it's half the Arctic and we are increasingly losing the ability to monitor it.\n\n\"It's essential we collect data from all over - we can't assume it's all responding to climate change in the same way.\"\n\nAs well as changing the polar regions, climate change, Dr Lehner says, has transformed how we need to think about conservation. \"It permeates all life on this planet,\" he tells the BBC.\n\n\"So something like setting up a national park is not bad, but it's not going to help if that ecosystem fundamentally changes because of warming.\n\n\"These are not separate issues - if you care about animals, if you care about conservation, you have to care about climate change.\"\n\nHear a special episode of Inside Science from the UN Biodiversity summit in Montreal on BBC Sounds", "Nations have agreed to protect a third of the planet for nature by 2030 in a landmark deal aimed at safeguarding biodiversity.\n\nThere will also be targets for protecting vital ecosystems such as rainforests and wetlands and the rights of indigenous peoples.\n\nThe agreement at the COP15 UN biodiversity summit in Montreal, Canada, came early on Monday morning.\n\nThe summit had been moved from China and postponed due to Covid.\n\nChina, which was in charge of the meeting, brought down the gavel on the deal despite a last minute objection from the Democratic Republic of Congo.\n\nUN Secretary General Antonio Guterres hailed the deal and said: \"We are finally starting to forge a peace pact with nature.\"\n\n\"It is truly a moment that will mark history as Paris did for climate,\" Canada's Minister for the Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault told reporters. The Paris climate deal saw nations agreeing in 2015 to keep world temperature rise below 2C.\n\nThe summit in Montreal had been regarded as a \"last chance\" to put nature on a path to recovery. Throughout the talks there was division over the strength of ambition and how to finance the plans.\n\nOne big sticking point was over how to fund conservation efforts in the parts of the globe that harbour some of the world's most outstanding biodiversity.\n\nBiodiversity refers to all the Earth's living things and the way they are connected in a complex web of life that sustains the planet.\n\nBiodiversity includes all living things, big and small, and the way they fit together in a web of life\n\nA new text of the agreement was released by China on Sunday.\n\nDelegates convened a full session of the summit early on Monday morning after hours of delays, but then agreed to the text quickly.\n\nThe president of COP 15, Minister Huang Runqui, declared the deal approved despite objections from the Democratic Republic of Congo, which said it couldn't back the deal.\n\nGeorgina Chandler, senior international policy advisor for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said people and nature should both be better off thanks to the deal struck in Montreal.\n\n\"Now it's done, governments, companies and communities need to figure out how they'll help make these commitments a reality.\"\n\nSue Lieberman of the Wildlife Conservation Society said the agreement was a compromise, and although it had several good and hard-fought elements, it could have gone further \"to truly transform our relationship with nature and stop our destruction of ecosystems, habitats and species\".\n\nThe agreement follows days of intense negotiations. On Saturday, ministers made impassioned speeches about the need to agree on clear goals to put nature on a path to recovery by the end of the decade.\n\nThe UN Development Programme said the \"historic agreement\" meant people around the world could hope for real progress to halt biodiversity loss.\n\nScientists have warned that with forests and grasslands being lost at unprecedented rates and oceans under pressure from pollution, humans are pushing the Earth beyond safe limits.\n\nThis includes increasing the risk of diseases, like SARs CoV-2, Ebola and HIV, spilling over from wild animals into human populations.\n\nA key sticking point has been finance. In echoes of the climate summit, COP 27, in Egypt, some countries have been calling for a new fund to be set up to help preserve biodiversity, but this was rejected by others.", "Doddie's wife Kathy has thanked people for the support shown to their family Image caption: Doddie's wife Kathy has thanked people for the support shown to their family\n\nA statement issued by Doddie Weir's wife Kathy on behalf of the family offered thanks to all those who had been \"incredibly supportive\" over the past two weeks.\n\n\"As a family, we have been overwhelmed by the many messages we have received from all over the world,\" she said.\n\n\"They have brought great comfort to me and the boys.\n\n\"We really appreciate people taking the time to share their own memories of Doddie and let us know we are in their thoughts.\"\n\nShe said the service, which has just concluded at Melrose Parish Church, gave everyone attending a chance to pay their respects.\n\n\"We understand not everyone will be able to make it, particularly given the time of year, but we know you're all thinking of us,\" she added.", "A member of a Russian military band in Moscow last year (file picture)\n\nRussia says it will deploy musicians and singers to the front lines of its war in Ukraine to boost troops' morale.\n\nThe defence ministry announced the formation of the \"front-line creative brigade\" this week, saying it would also include circus performers.\n\nThe UK's Ministry of Defence highlighted the brigade's creation in an intelligence update on Sunday.\n\nMeanwhile, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited frontline troops in Ukraine, Moscow said.\n\nIn a statement posted to Telegram, the defence ministry said Mr Shoigu \"flew around the areas of deployment of troops and checked the advanced positions of Russian units in the zone of the special military operation\", referring to Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched on 24 February.\n\nThe ministry added that he \"spoke with troops on the front line\" and at a \"command post\" - but the BBC cannot confirm when the visit took place or whether Mr Shoigu visited Ukraine itself.\n\nCommenting on Mr Shoigu's reported visit, Ukraine's military spokesman Serhiy Cherevatyi told Ukrainian TV channels: \"I don't really believe that he is so brave\" to travel to the battlefield.\n\nThis comes as UK defence officials said low morale continues to be a \"significant vulnerability across much of the Russian force\".\n\nThe UK said the new creative brigade - which follows a recent campaign, urging the public to donate musical instruments to troops - is in keeping with the historic use of \"military music and organised entertainment\" to boost morale.\n\nBut they questioned whether the new brigade would actually distract troops, who have been primarily concerned about \"very high casualty rates, poor leadership, pay problems, lack of equipment and ammunition, and lack of clarity about the war's objectives\".\n\nAccording to the Russian outlet RBC news, the brigade will consist of troops mobilised under President Vladimir Putin's recruitment drive, as well as \"professional artists who voluntarily entered military service\".\n\nThe new unit will be tasked with maintaining \"a high moral, political and psychological state [among] the participants of the special military operation,\" the outlet cited the defence ministry as saying.\n\nIntense fighting has continued around the Ukrainian-controlled town of Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region on Saturday, Ukraine's military said.\n\nThe area has seen heavy clashes between Ukrainian and Russian troops for months, as Russia seeks to fully seize the region following a string of heavy defeats in north-eastern and southern Ukraine earlier this year.\n\nWestern intelligence officials have previously said Russian attacks on the town are being spearheaded by Russia's private military contractor, Wagner Group.\n\nMoscow hopes to use Bakhmut as a staging ground to launch attacks on the Ukrainian-held cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk further west.\n\nElsewhere, heating has been restored to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, after Russian launched widespread strikes on Friday that targeted power and water infrastructure, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.\n\nMoscow launched 76 missiles on Friday, hitting nine power supply stations and plunging much of the country into darkness. Ukraine said it intercepted 60.\n\nIn a separate development, President Putin is due to visit Belarus on Monday, amid media reports that he will be putting further pressure on Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally, to officially join in Russia's war effort and send troops to Ukraine.\n\nSince the start of the war, Russian troops have been using Belarusian territory as a launchpad - but Mr Lukashenko has so far resisted all Moscow's attempts to deploy his armed forces in Ukraine.\n\nIn Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky held a meeting with top military and security officials to discuss the possible risks from Belarus, the country's northern neighbour.\n\n\"We are preparing for all possible defence scenarios. Whoever inclines Minsk to whatever, it will not help them just as any other sick idea in this war against Ukraine and Ukrainians,\" Mr Zelensky said in his video address late on Sunday.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nIt was an iconic moment that will live forever in World Cup history and Middle East imagery.\n\nThe great Lionel Messi was called up on stage to lift the trophy he had craved for so much of his glittering and unparalleled career.\n\nAt the other end of the podium were his Argentina team-mates, ready to party after overcoming France on penalties in one of the greatest finals ever witnessed.\n\nAt his end, Messi shook hands with Fifa president Gianni Infantino and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim, who twice playfully clipped the 35-year-old round the head.\n\nMessi was then adorned in a black bisht - a traditional men's cloak popular in the Arab world - before doing a jig and lifting the famous trophy.\n\nNot only was it Messi's moment, but it was Qatar's too - on its national day, bringing to an end the first World Cup to be held in a Muslim country.\n\nIt may have been a big honour for Messi to be dressed in the Arab attire, but others have seen it as disrespectful and overshadowing the day he had been waiting for.\n\n\"It is a dress for an official occasion and worn for celebrations,\" Hassan Al Thawadi, secretary general of Qatar's tournament organising committee, told BBC Sport. \"This was a celebration of Messi.\n\n\"The World Cup had the opportunity to showcase to the world our Arab and Muslim culture. This was not about Qatar, it was a regional celebration.\n\n\"People from different walks of life were able to come, experience what was happening here and get to understand that we may not see eye to eye on everything, but we can still celebrate together.\"\n\nSheikh Tamim said on Twitter: \"We have fulfilled our promise to organise an exceptional championship from the Arab countries.\n\n\"It provided an opportunity for the peoples of the world to learn about the richness of our culture and the originality of our values.\"\n• None 'Now hard to argue against Messi being football's greatest'\n• None Reaction to one of the most dramatic World Cup finals\n\nIt almost didn't happen for Argentina.\n\nThe brilliant Kylian Mbappe wanted his say with a hat-trick - the first in a World Cup final since England's Sir Geoff Hurst in 1966 - but Argentines always believed the late Diego Maradona was watching over them.\n\nIn the end, the hopes and dreams of Messi and all of Argentina eventually turned into reality at a rocking Lusail Stadium.\n\nThe song that has swept through Qatar and all the way back home in Argentina was on repeat once again.\n\nThe one where Don Diego is looking down from the sky, \"cheering Lionel on, and to be champions again, and to be champions again\".\n\n'Muchachos' is a cover of the track by Argentine band La Tosca, with the verse translating as: \"Boys, we have got our hopes up again.\"\n\nMore than three decades of hurt were banished as Lionel Scaloni's men, led by the mercurial Messi, celebrated their third World Cup triumph, after 1978 and 1986, in their sixth final.\n\n'Where's Messi?' There is your answer\n\nThe tournament started in shocking manner for Argentina.\n\n\"Where is Messi? Where is Messi?\" the Saudi Arabia fans were asking after their side's incredible 2-1 victory in the opening group game.\n\nThose jibes were echoing around Doha in the following days and went viral on social media.\n\nBut come the showpiece on Sunday, the question was emphatically answered as Messi confirmed his footballing magnitude, standing on the podium with his captain's armband on his bicep and the golden prize lifted above his head.\n\nAs soon as we landed in Qatar's capital city on 16 November, it felt like a Messi World Cup - the sense that expectation and excitement may carry the little magician to the one piece of silverware missing from his cabinet.\n\nArgentina shirts bearing his famous number 10 were everywhere - in the streets, the souq and the stadiums, and worn by men, women and children alike.\n\nA few Maradona ones were scattered around, but not anywhere close to those of the main man on today's global stage.\n\nThat 'Muchachos' song echoed around the metro and shuttle buses too. There was no escaping it, not even in your sleep.\n\nAnd it was no different on the day of the final.\n\nArgentina flags were hanging off rooftops and balconies, and in shop windows in local neighbourhoods of Doha. There was only one team they wanted to see taking home the trophy.\n\nEn route to Lusail, about 11 miles north of Doha, you got carried by the wave of thousands of Argentina supporters, singing their songs and breaking out into chants of \"Messi, Messi\".\n\nA section of raucous fans from the South American country had been inside the stadium long before kick-off, smashing their drum, jumping up and down and swinging blue-and-white scarves over their heads.\n\nWhen pictures of the players getting off the bus flashed up on the big screen, a deafening roar reverberated around for star player Messi, and he was given the same ovation when the teamsheet was read out.\n\nIt had to be the man-of-the-moment Messi who scored the opener from the penalty spot, coolly sending Hugo Lloris the wrong way.\n\nTeam-mates piled on top of him when he slid off to celebrate, sharing a warm embrace with Rodrigo de Paul.\n\nThere was further joy when Angel di Maria swept home a second to cap a stunning team move, with 'Muchachos' ringing out once more as the fans bounced up and down in the stands.\n\nBut Mbappe had other ideas.\n\nFrance's own superstar Mbappe netted a quick-fire double - just 97 seconds apart - to take the game into extra time.\n\nMessi thought he had won it, pouncing from close range, but Mbappe showed his credentials for one day being in the 'greatest of all time' debate.\n\nArgentina kept their nerve in the shootout to spark incredible celebrations, substitutes piling on to the pitch and a group of players surrounding Messi in a circle by the halfway line.\n\nThen came the tears, coach Scaloni, penalty shootout hero Gonzalo Montiel - all followed by man of the match and player of the tournament Messi, who waved up to his family in the stands.\n\nArgentina players celebrated with their families on the pitch, posing for photographs with the trophy in front of one of the goals - supporters staying behind long after the final whistle.\n\nHaving carried their burden, Argentina players paid one final tribute to Messi by lifting him on to their shoulders and carrying him around the pitch with the trophy aloft.\n\nThe show was over. The baton had been passed from Maradona to Messi. Greatness was confirmed. The debate was over.\n• None Why is the Qatar 2022 World Cup controversial?\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe government has said it is \"resolute\" on pay after nursing unions threatened to escalate strike action if ministers do not join talks within 48 hours of Tuesday's walkout.\n\nMembers of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) are due to stage a second strike on 20 December.\n\nCabinet minister Oliver Dowden insisted ministers were \"reasonable\" but had a duty to keep finances under control.\n\nHe insisted that nurses' pay should be decided by the NHS pay review body.\n\nIn July, this body recommended a £1,400 rise, with slightly more for experienced nurses - an increase of about 4% on average.\n\nThe RCN is calling for a pay rise of 19%, but union leader Pat Cullen said this was a \"starting point\" and any new offer would be put to members.\n\nUrging the unions to call off the strike, Mr Dowden told the BBC's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: \"We will be resolute to this, because it would be irresponsible to allow public sector pay and inflation to get out of control and we owe a wider duty to the public to make sure we keep our public finances under control.\"\n\nChallenged about the government's reluctance to engage on pay, the cabinet minister in charge of contingency planning for strikes, said the government was \"always willing talk\".\n\n\"We're trying to be reasonable, we're trying to be proportionate and we're trying to be fair,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the government was trying to \"take the politics out\" of the issue of pay by accepting the NHS review body's recommendations.\n\nBut Ms Cullen says ministers are using the recommendations as \"cover\" and her union was \"seriously looking at whether we take part anymore\".\n\n\"We have been hoodwinked into lending credence to this process for years and if we aren't being listened to then it cannot be independent,\" she added.\n\nA small number of Conservative MPs have called on the government to revisit its offer to nurses. The latest to do so, former minister Caroline Nokes, called for the government to take \"another look at the negotiations\".\n\nSome Tories, including former cabinet minister Robert Buckland, have also said the pay review body should be asked to make fresh recommendations.\n\nMr Dowden repeated the government's claim that inflation-matching pay rises across the public sector would cost a further £28bn - insisting the figure was \"robust\" despite criticism from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank who provided a figure of half of this.\n\nThe Labour-run Welsh government, which is responsible for the NHS in Wales, has also accepted the pay review's recommendations, saying it was taking this decision to protect spending.\n\nOn Sunday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said the UK government had not given it a big enough budget to pay for a higher increase, and funding a rise from its existing budget would reduce treatment for patients.\n\nIn Northern Ireland, the power-sharing government would normally negotiate pay but is suspended due to a political stalemate over post-Brexit rules.\n\nThe Scottish government has offered NHS workers pay rises averaging 7.5% in a bid to avoid industrial action. It has been accepted by Unite and Unison, two major NHS unions representing paramedics, midwives, nurses and support staff. However, it has been rejected by another, the GMB.\n\nMeanwhile, a ballot of RCN members in Scotland closes on Monday. It is not clear when results will be announced.\n\nThe RCN's strike on Thursday was the largest in its history. Across England around 9,999 staff were absent, while nearly 16,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries were rescheduled.\n\nIt involved around a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all trusts in Northern Ireland and all but one health board in Wales.\n\nMs Cullen said an escalation would involve a greater number of hospitals and scaling back support for non-emergency services.\n\nDuring action so far, the RCN has said it will still staff chemotherapy, emergency cancer services, dialysis, critical care units, neonatal and paediatric intensive care.\n\nSome areas of mental health and learning disability and autism services are also exempt.\n\nThe action by nurses will be followed on 21 December by a strike by ambulance staff, when Unison, GMB and Unite members take action on 28 December. GMB union members will go on strike again on 28 December.\n\nAround 1,200 members of the military are being drafted in to cover for ambulance workers, as well as striking Border Force staff.\n\nHowever, health unions warn military staff are not \"sufficiently trained\".\n\nSara Gorton, head of health at Unison, said there was \"unfortunately more risk\" to patients during a strike, but said: \"Every single day patients are being put at risk because of the staffing crisis\".\n\nThe Chief of the Defence Staff's words are carefully calibrated.\n\nWhen asked about the strikes, he does not criticise the government for calling in the armed forces, nor those who're taking industrial action.\n\nAdmiral Sir Tony Radakin knows the armed forces must stay out of politics and he makes clear the military is there to serve the nation, whatever the task.\n\nBut his words do reflect some of the frustration within the armed forces at once again being called out to do someone else's job. It's by no means the first time.\n\nThey were heavily relied on during the Covid pandemic. In 2012 they had to provide security for the London Olympics.\n\nWhen asked about the strike action, the head of the armed forces reminds the public that's not their primary role - it's to defend the nation.\n\nBeing pulled away to fulfil other roles can often have an impact on training, although it will not affect military operations.\n\nAdmiral Radakin's comments do reflect frustration, rather than anger over what they're being asked to do. He also knows that when the armed forces help out most people are grateful.\n\nIndustrial action has also been taken by rail workers, Royal Mail staff and other sectors in recent weeks over pay disputes as the cost of living rises.\n\nThe government has announced it will publish a new \"resilience framework\" on Monday, aimed at improving how the UK prepares for and responds to critical issues like strikes.\n\nWill you be taking part in strike action in the coming days? Tell us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The man who went on a shooting spree at a Canada apartment complex killed five of his neighbours, including members of the building's board, police said.\n\nThe 73-year-old suspect went from apartment to apartment looking for his victims, though police have not disclosed his motive.\n\nThe alleged gunman, a longtime resident of the building, was shot and killed by police.\n\nPolice have yet to formally identified the victims.\n\nYork Region police first responded to reports of a shooting at an apartment building in Vaughan, about 30km (19 miles) north of Toronto, at 19:20 (00:20 GMT) on Sunday.\n\nPolice chief Jim MacSween said officers found a \"horrendous scene\" when they arrived, with five victims in three separate apartments.\n\nAt a press conference on Monday, a spokeswoman for Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, which probes police-involved deaths, said responding officers shot the gunman in a hallway.\n\nThe official added that the gunman, identified as Francesco Villi, used a semi-automatic handgun.\n\nThree of the five victims were members of the apartment building's board of directors, police say.\n\nAn injured person has also been taken to hospital in a serious condition.\n\nAuthorities are investigating the motive, including a possible connection between the gunman and the building's management board.\n\nSocial media accounts under the alleged gunman's name feature several recently posted videos, in which he expressed grievances with the building's management because of an electrical unit underneath his apartment.\n\nThe Toronto Star reported the shooter was a longtime resident who had for years targeted the condo board with lawsuits as part of a running dispute with board members.\n\nSpeaking to local media, residents said they were stunned that a shooting rampage took place in their otherwise quiet neighbourhood.\n\n\"I feel pretty safe here so I'm pretty shocked to hear something like this happened,\" Jordan Bennett, a resident in the building, told CBC News.\n\nCondolences have poured in from politicians, including Vaughan Mayor Stephen Del Duca and Ontario Premier Doug Ford.\n\nPrime Minister Justin Trudeau also offered his condolences to the families in a tweet, writing: \"I'm keeping you in my thoughts.\"\n\n\"To the person who was injured: I'm wishing you a fast and full recovery,\" Mr Trudeau added. \"And to the first responders: Thank you for your hard work and your professionalism.\"\n\nWhile it has fewer mass shootings than the US, Canada has seen several recent high-profile violent incidents as of late.\n\nIn 2020, the country's worst mass shooting in history unfolded in the province of Nova Scotia, where a gunman disguised as a policeman killed 22 people.\n\nCanada's government has since introduced new legislation that will ban the purchase and import of handguns and \"assault-style\" firearms, increase penalties for firearms smuggling and trafficking, and establish a so-called \"red flag\" law that would allow guns to be temporarily seized from people who pose a risk to themselves and others, among other measures.\n\nThe move has been criticised by some, including Canadian hunters who argue it could affect several rifles and shotguns primarily used for hunting and sport.\n\nOthers have said the law doesn't address the issue of illegal weapons smuggling into Canada - a majority of which cross through the US-Canada border.\n\nThe legislation is currently before a parliamentary committee. Mr Trudeau announced a national freeze on the sale, purchase and transfer of handguns earlier this year as a stopgap until the bill is passed.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Officer Harry Dunn is still traumatised by the attack on the Capitol\n\nFormer US President Donald Trump has been charged with plotting to overturn his 2020 election defeat.\n\nHe is accused of four counts including conspiracy to defraud the US, tampering with a witness and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.\n\nThe indictment caps an inquiry into events which led up to the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol - when supporters of Mr Trump stormed Congress in a bid to thwart the certification of Joe Biden's election victory.\n\nMr Trump, who is again running for president, denies wrongdoing.\n\nHere are the key moments from 6 January 2021.\n\nPresident Donald Trump tweets allegations of vote fraud ahead of his rally in Washington DC.\n\nMembers of the Proud Boy movement, a right-wing militia, are seen heading towards the Capitol. Speaking to Newsnight's US correspondent David Grossman, one member of the group says: \"We're taking our country back.\"\n\nOne of the group has a radio. \"It was clear he was communicating - getting messages, sending messages to somebody,\" our correspondent said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What the Proud Boys were doing before Trump's speech that day\n\nPresident Trump begins his speech to supporters in Washington. Some 15 minutes into it, he starts urging them to converge on the Capitol.\n\n\"I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We will never give up, we will never concede\", Trump tells supporters\n\nAs the president speaks, a crowd outside the Capitol is swelling. They begin marching towards the police barrier and get past officers. The police, outnumbered, try to contain them.\n\nTrump supporters wield flags and weapons. One man stands on a makeshift gallows, complete with a noose. The crowd chants: \"Fight for Trump.\"\n\nSome have argued in court that they went to the riot because Donald Trump told them to\n\nMinutes later, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi commences the certification process.\n\nMr Trump ends his speech with the words: \"We fight. We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.\"\n\n\"They're throwing metal poles at us,\" he says. \"Multiple law-enforcement injuries,\" he adds in a panicked voice.\n\nProtesters surge past Capitol police protecting the west steps, the side facing the White House.\n\nMinutes later, an officer declares there is a riot at the Capitol. \"We're going to give riot warnings,\" he says. \"We're going to try to get compliance but this is now effectively a riot.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch dramatic new footage of police under attack at the Capitol riot\n\nMeanwhile Vice President Mike Pence is continuing to preside over the session.\n\nSecret Service quickly and suddenly evacuate Mr Pence from the Senate floor.\n\nThe protesters break through the windows. They push inside, hopping through the broken glass. They then kick open the doors to let others in. Some wear hoods and helmets, some hold cameras or Confederate flags.\n\nAn immediate recess of the Senate is called.\n\nA minute later, Officer Eugene Goodman runs to respond to the initial breach. He warns Senator Mitt Romney that the mob is approaching. Mr Romney turns and runs through a capitol hallway to safety.\n\nThe mob, a floor below them, has already begun to search for the Senate chamber.\n\nOfficer Goodman makes his way down to the first floor where he encounters the mob.\n\nThe officer was seen confronting a rioter during the attack\n\nHe lures the armed rioters away from the upper chamber. Many of these individuals have been calling for Mr Pence to be hanged.\n\nBy that point, the rioters are \"within 100ft\" (30m) of Mr Pence and a foot away from one of the doors to the chamber. Many senators are still inside.\n\nAt the same time, Ms Pelosi is rushed from the house floor. She is evacuated entirely from the Capitol complex to a secure off-site location.\n\nHer staff barricade themselves into a conference room, hiding under a table.\n\nStaff members of the House leader speak softly, frantically, to each other. Just outside, rioters are spreading out across the building, searching for Ms Pelosi herself.\n\nThe rioters chant: \"Where are you Nancy?\" In an audio clip, we hear one staff member whisper: \"They're pounding on doors trying to find her.\"\n\nOne man breaks open the outer door to the office where the staff are hiding, but not the inner door. Another tries as well, but eventually moves on.\n\nAt the same time, Mr Pence is evacuated to a secure location.\n\nRioters start to spread through the buildings. Others break in from outside through various doors around the building.\n\nThey open the east side door of the rotunda to let more people in, flooding through the doors and overwhelming the officers.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. See how close the mob got to Mike Pence, Mitt Romney and other lawmakers\n\nThe House floor debate is suspended to update members. House members are told to reach for tear gas masks and be prepared to use them.\n\nThe House is called back into session in the hope of continuing the count.\n\nBut minutes later the House is abruptly recessed. Members are told to get down under their chairs if necessary.\n\n\"Folks have entered the rotunda and are coming this way,\" lawmakers are told.\n\nDemocratic Congressman Eric Swalwell sends a text to his wife: \"I love you and the babies. Please hug them for me\".\n\nThe mob outside the chamber grows larger and they get within feet of the house door.\n\nPresident Trump called Senator Mike Lee, according to the Utah Republican who has provided the trial lawyers with a copy of a log from his mobile phone.\n\nAccording to his office, he received a call from the White House switchboard number - and the call lasted four minutes. Mr Lee has said that apparently the call was meant for Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville, and that he handed his phone to his colleague.\n\nMr Tuberville told reporters that he informed Mr Trump that Mr Pence had been evacuated from the Senate floor. \"I said: Mr President, they've taken the vice-president out. They want me to get off the phone, I gotta go.\"\n\nHouse impeachment managers say it is further evidence that the president knew how much danger his vice-president was in.\n\nAshli Babbit is seen turning the corner towards the House lobby doors as members are leaving.\n\nHouse Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern is spotted by the mob as he leaves the House floor.\n\nIn a hallway outside the House chamber, a group attempts to force its way through a set of locked doors. The glass window panes on the doors are shattered. A rioter uses a baton to smash through as the crowd around him chants \"break it down, break it down\".\n\nFootage shows the hands of an officer on the other side, holding a gun and pointing it toward the mob. We hear a shot and see Babbitt fall to the ground.\n\nPeople still inside the gallery of the chamber are trapped. They tell each other to take off their congressional pins.\n\nIn the meantime, a number of rioters reach the inside of the Senate gallery.\n\n\"Is this the Senate?\" one demands to know. \"Where are they?\" another asks, apparently referring to the evacuated senators.\n\nVideo footage shows some rioters rifling through papers and materials left behind by lawmakers. \"There's got to be something we can use against these scumbags,\" one says.\n\nTrump tweets asking for people to \"remain peaceful\".\n\nMeanwhile the mob are still at the Capitol.\n\nFootage shows a sprawling mob, a sea of people on the Capitol grounds. A Confederate flag waves in the foreground.\n\nTrump releases a video in which he tells the mob to go home.\n\nFifteen minutes after police confirm Ashli Babbitt has died, Trump tweets again.\n\nHe refers to those at the Capitol as \"great patriots\".", "Football audiences don't want to hear Gary Neville discuss politics, Rishi Sunak has said after the ex-England footballer attacked the UK government.\n\nSpeaking on ITV ahead of the World Cup final, Mr Neville criticised Qatari working conditions as \"abhorrent\".\n\nHe said such conditions should not be accepted in Qatar or any region and then accused UK ministers of \"demonising\" rail workers and nurses.\n\nAnd he said UK nurses - who are taking strike action - were paid a \"pittance\".\n\nSpeaking to the Daily Mail, the prime minister argued that as chancellor he had exempted NHS workers from a public sector pay freeze.\n\nResponding to Mr Neville's comments he said: \"I think when most people are tuning in to watch Gary Neville they want to hear about the football and watch the football. They don't want to discuss politics.\"\n\nQatar has come under scrutiny for its treatment of the tens and thousands of migrant workers employed to build the stadiums and hotels ahead of the World Cup.\n\nAsked about the country's treatment of workers, Mr Neville said: \"It's abhorrent and we should detest low pay, detest low pay, poor accommodation and poor working conditions.\n\n\"That is something we can never ever accept in this region or in any region.\n\n\"It is just worth mentioning that we've got a current government in our country, who are demonising rail workers, ambulance workers and terrifyingly, nurses.\n\n\"So in our country, we've got to look at workers' rights but certainly where football goes now, we have to pick up on workers' rights wherever we go because people have to be equally treated.\n\n\"We can't have people being paid a pittance to work, we can't have people in accommodation which is unsavoury and disgusting, we can't have that. It shouldn't happen with the wealth that exists and it shouldn't happen in our country that our nurses are having to fight for an extra pound or two pounds.\"\n\nHis comments attracted criticism from some MPs, with senior Conservative Simon Clarke tweeting: \"It is beyond ridiculous that Gary Neville is given free rein by ITV Sport to overtly politicise a major sporting event.\n\n\"Quite apart from the fact every nurse is receiving a pay rise of £1400, to compare workers' rights in Qatar with the UK is grotesque.\"\n\nAnother Conservative MP, Lee Anderson, described Mr Neville's comments as a \"party political broadcast by a millionaire\".\n\n\"Looks like ITV is on my banned list now - talk about football Gary and keep your nose out of politics. You don't know what you're talking about.\"\n\nHitting back on Twitter, Mr Neville said he was glad he had upset Mr Anderson and described the Conservatives as \"the biggest set of charlatans to ever be in power\".\n\nAsked about Mr Neville's comments during the ITV broadcast, the prime minister's spokesman said: \"It is clearly not a legitimate or appropriate comparison in any way.\"\n\nLabour MP Rushanara Ali also questioned the comparison, telling the BBC's Politics Live: \"These are very different societies and countries.\"\n\nAn ITV spokesman said: \"Gary Neville was expressing his own personal views in the context of a discussion about treatment of workers in Qatar within a live broadcast. His views are his own and were not endorsed by ITV.\"\n\nMedia regulator Ofcom confirmed it had received complaints on the subject but had not yet decided whether or not to investigate.\n\nIn recent years, Mr Neville has become an outspoken critic of the Conservative government, describing former Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a \"calamity\".\n\nHe has also joined Labour and appeared at the party's recent annual conference, but has ruled out becoming a politician himself.\n\nDuring the World Cup, in addition to providing punditry for ITV, Mr Neville has also worked for Qatari broadcaster beIN - a decision which has attracted criticism.\n\nDefending the move on the BBC's Have I Got News For You programme, he said: \"You've got a choice - my view has been, you can highlight the issues and challenges in these countries and speak out about them, or basically you don't say anything and don't go.\"", "The man said he wanted to sell six gold chains to a jewellers in Merthyr Tydfil but swapped the 18-carat originals for costume jewellery in the exchange.\n\nShop owner Tony Peach, 86, is offering a £10,000 reward for help identifying the conman.\n\nHe said: \"He was filmed switching the gold, it was sleight of hand but I shouldn't have been taken in.\"\n\nThe trickster removed six gold chains from around his neck to sell inside Jane Allen Jewellers shop on Merthyr's High Street.\n\nStaff tested the jewellery in the workshop and offered him £6,000 for the 18-carat gold chains.\n\nMr Peach said: \"He turned it down saying he'd have to ask his mother and we handed the chains back.\n\n\"But he changed his mind so we gave him the £6,000 and he handed over the chains inside a gauze bag.\n\n\"Minutes after he'd gone I looked inside the bag and knew straight away he'd switched the chains for worthless trinkets weighing about the same.\"\n\nA jeweller for 70 years, Mr Peach now wants other gold dealers to be on the look-out for the man.\n\nHe said: \"I'm sure he's done this before and he will do it again unless he's stopped.\n\n\"He came in as bold as brass and must have been aware we have security cameras everywhere.\"\n\nHe added: \"My revenge will be to get him caught and prevent this from happening to anyone else.\"\n\nSouth Wales Police said it was investigating the theft.", "Jeremy Clarkson is the star of Amazon Prime series Clarkson's Farm and hosts Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for ITV\n\nBroadcaster Jeremy Clarkson has said he is \"horrified\" after \"causing so much hurt\" in a column he wrote in the Sun about the Duchess of Sussex.\n\nMore than 20,000 complaints have been made to the press regulator after Clarkson wrote on Friday that he \"hated [Meghan] on a cellular level\".\n\nIn a tweet on Monday, he said: \"Oh dear. I've rather put my foot in it.\"\n\nThe column has now been removed from the Sun's website, at Clarkson's request, and replaced with his tweet.\n\nIn his message to followers, posted on Monday, described a reference he made to a scene in Game of Thrones as \"clumsy\".\n\n\"I'm horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future,\" he said.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jeremy Clarkson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people.\"\n\nIpso, the independent press standards organisation, told BBC News the complaints were being assessed in accordance with its standard procedure.\n\nNearly 21,000 complaints have been made to Ipso so far, making it the organisation's most complained about article. The Sun told BBC News on Monday it did not have anything further to add.\n\nIpso replaced the Press Complaints Commission in 2014. The PCC's most complained about article was one by Jan Moir about the death of Boyzone singer Stephen Gately, published in the Daily Mail in 2009. It attracted more than 25,000 complaints but they were rejected.\n\nClarkson's comments were widely criticised on social media over the weekend.\n\nOn Sunday, Clarkson's own daughter Emily said: \"I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle.\"\n\nWriting in his original column, Clarkson said: \"At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her.\n\n\"Everyone who's my age thinks the same way,\" he added. \"But what makes me despair is that younger people, especially girls, think she's pretty cool. They think she was a prisoner of Buckingham Palace, forced to talk about nothing but embroidery and kittens.\"\n\nHis column followed the release of the last three episodes of Netflix's docuseries Harry & Meghan on Thursday.\n\nPosting on her Instagram page on Sunday, podcast host Emily Clarkson said she supports those \"targeted with online hatred\".\n\n\"My views are and have always been clear when it comes to misogyny, bullying and the treatment of women by the media,\" she wrote.\n\n\"I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle.\"\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex met with Nicola Sturgeon in 2018\n\nElsewhere in the article, Clarkson compared his hatred of Meghan with that of Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nHe said: \"Meghan, though, is a different story. I hate her. Not like I hate Nicola Sturgeon or Rose West. I hate her on a cellular level.\"\n\nWest is a serial killer who, along with her husband Fred, murdered at least 12 young girls over 20 years.\n\nOn Monday, Sturgeon told BBC Scotland: \"The overwhelming emotion I have for men like Jeremy Clarkson is pity.\n\n\"I can't imagine what it must be like to be so consumed and distorted by hate of other people, and in his case it appears women in particular, that you end up writing that toxic, vile abuse.\"\n\nShe added: \"Freedom of speech is really important and one of the values all of us cherish. But all of us, as we exercise those important rights, have to behave with a degree of responsibility.\"\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been critical over how they're covered in the press\n\nIn last week's final instalment of their Netflix series, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spoke about the mental health impact the tabloid media has on them.\n\nThe couple argued that Meghan's biracial heritage was often an underlying factor in what they described as a relentless tabloid campaign against her, and in racist abuse she suffered online.\n\nEmily Clarkson has previously criticised the media for being \"poisonously misogynistic\" in its coverage of the Duchess, as well as other women.\n\nOther high-profile Twitter users who criticised Clarkson's column included Carol Vorderman, Edith Bowman, and John Bishop.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Carol Vorderman This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut Alex Phillips, a journalist and former Brexit Party MEP, defended Clarkson, telling ITV's Good Morning Britain she believed he is \"deliberately pushing boundaries to be offensive\".\n\nShe said he's \"not there to be taken seriously\" and \"his word is there to be found funny, and it always has been\".\n\nPhillips added: \"Taking something that happened in Game of Thrones, one of the most widely-watched TV series... Does he mean it? Of course he doesn't mean it.\"", "Schools in the UK should teach about antisemitism as part of a wider drive to tackle anti-Jewish hatred, a report from a government adviser says.\n\nLord John Mann, who is the UK's antisemitism adviser, is urging ministers to work with social media companies to eradicate hatred online.\n\nIt comes after reports of antisemitic incidents reached a record high in the UK last year.\n\nThe government said they supported schools discussing antisemitism.\n\nThe Holocaust is a compulsory part of the curriculum in secondary schools but learning about modern antisemitism is not.\n\n\"It is not enough to teach about the Holocaust,\" the report said, and urged ministers to guarantee funding for schools to teach about contemporary anti-Jewish hatred.\n\nEfforts to promote a more diverse curriculum reflecting the legacy of colonialism must \"recognise that all forms of racism should be addressed\", the report said.\n\nIt cited evidence suggesting that of more than 600 antisemitic incidents in the UK after a spate of Israeli-Palestinian violence in 2021, a quarter took place in schools and universities.\n\nLord Mann, a former Labour MP, was made the UK's first independent adviser on antisemitism in 2019. His report, Anti-Jewish Hatred, was prompted by the rising reported incidents of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the UK.\n\nHe said social media had \"led to an exponential increase in online hate and falsehoods reaching a mass audience of all ages with limited means of restriction or clarification\".\n\n\"The growing spread of antisemitism among young people should be a matter of deep concern to all of us, not least because it is often leading to hate crime and violence against members of the Jewish community, including schoolchildren.\"\n\nThe report cites a survey of 1,315 secondary schools in England, carried out by the Henry Jackson Society think tank in July, which found antisemitic incidents recorded rose from 60 in 2017 to 164 in 2022.\n\nThe National Education Union, which represents teachers, backed the report's call for all secondaries to be required to teach about contemporary antisemitism.\n\n\"Government should act on this recommendation, involving teachers in the work,\" said Mary Bousted, the joint head of the union.\n\n\"But it must treat the fight against racism as indivisible. When ministers and MPs attack asylum seekers, they create a hospitable environment for xenophobia and actively obstruct the work of schools in teaching against race hate, including antisemitism.\"\n\nLord Mann also said social media companies should be forced to identify users who promote hate crime anonymously.\n\nElon Musk's purchase of Twitter and his lighter approach to content moderation was a \"game-changer\", Lord Mann said, and added urgency to the need to act.\n\nTwitter's hateful conduct policy says it is \"committed to combating abuse motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, particularly abuse that seeks to silence the voices of those who have been historically marginalized\".\n\nThe UK government has said the Online Safety Bill, which is designed to regulate social media and tech giants, will require tech companies to tackle harmful content posted anonymously.\n\nMinisters recently removed measures from the bill which would have forced big technology platforms to take down material that was considered harmful, but was not illegal.\n\nThe Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan said the government was not changing the legislation relating to children. And she said adults would still have more control over the material they saw online.\n\nLord Mann's report makes a number of other recommendations including improving safety for Jewish students on university campuses, a review into barriers to reporting hate crime incidents, and an investigation into why so few prosecutions of antisemitic hate crime take place.\n\nA government spokesperson said: \"The atrocities of the Holocaust are a compulsory part of national curriculum for history at Key Stage 3, and we support schools to construct a curriculum that enables the discussion of important issues such as antisemitism.\n\n\"The Online Safety Bill will mean that what is unacceptable offline is also unacceptable online. Where the abuse is illegal, social media companies will need to take robust action to tackle it.\"", "Vladimir Putin (L) and Alexander Lukashenko shake hands before their meeting at the Palace of Independence in Minsk\n\nUkraine is tightening up the defence of its border with Belarus over fears that Russia may be preparing a fresh attack, a government official has said.\n\nDeputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin told the BBC Ukraine would be bolstering the Belarusian border with armed forces and ammunition.\n\nThe news came as Vladimir Putin travelled to Minsk to meet Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.\n\nBelarus shares a border with Russia as well as Ukraine.\n\nThe Russian president later ordered the strengthening of Russia's borders and of social control within Russia. He said the security services should quickly thwart any attempt to violate Russia's borders, combat risks coming from abroad, and identify traitors and saboteurs.\n\nHe also said the special services should ensure the safety of people living in the parts of Ukraine that Moscow claims as its own. In some of these areas, most notably Kherson, Russia recently suffered significant military reverses.\n\nRussia's defence ministry announced that its troops stationed in Belarus would conduct joint military exercises with Belarus.\n\nReacting to this and the visit Mr Yenin confirmed: \"We are building up our defence lines all across the border with Russia and with Belarus.\"\n\nWhile Belarus has not become involved in the war directly, it did allow Russian troops to use its territory to launch the invasion in February.\n\nRussia and Belarus held joint military drills near the Ukrainian border in February - just days before Russia's full-scale invasion\n\nMinsk is coming under increasing pressure from Moscow to step up its support in the \"special military operation\".\n\nBut Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the reports \"as totally stupid, groundless fabrications\".\n\nPresident Putin flew to Minsk for talks with Mr Lukashenko - the first time in three-and-a-half years the pair have met in Belarus.\n\nBelarus's authoritarian leader has been in power since 1994 but his re-election in 2020 has not been recognised by the EU.\n\nThe meeting between the two men has been described as a \"working visit\" and lasted for more than two hours.\n\nSpeaking at a joint press conference Vladimir Putin said Russia did not want to \"absorb\" anyone. He also said that unspecified \"enemies\" wanted to stop Russia's integration with Belarus.\n\nSpeaking later on Monday, US state department spokesperson Ned Price said Putin's statement was the \"height of irony\" given he was currently seeking to absorb Ukraine.\n\nSomething rare happened today: Vladimir Putin got on a plane and flew to Minsk. Now, President Putin and President Alexander Lukashenko meet a lot - but in Russia.\n\nFor the first time in three-and-a-half years, here was President Putin in Belarus. So why did he go… and why now?\n\nThere were few clues at the joint press conference as the two leaders spoke a lot about economic relations, trade, but also security.\n\nPresident Putin indicated that some Belarusian military aircraft have been re-equipped to potentially carry nuclear missiles and that Russia is helping to train their crews.\n\nIn return, President Lukashenko thanked him for providing Belarus with an S-400 air defence system and Iskander ballistic missile system.\n\nThe word \"Ukraine\" was hardly mentioned - in public.\n\nBut the visit has fuelled speculation that the Kremlin leader may be trying to pressure the leader of Belarus into joining a possible new ground offensive in Ukraine.\n\nThis may indeed be just a rumour. Or a ploy by Moscow to make Ukraine expect a Belarusian offensive and so tie up Ukrainian soldiers in the north.\n\nBut, there are reportedly several thousand Russian soldiers already in Belarus and there have been joint exercises.\n\nUntil now Alexander Lukashenko has been reluctant to commit his own troops to fighting in Ukraine.\n\nAll eyes are on Minsk to see if that remains the case.", "The cost of living crisis is forcing many people from their homes, the Simon Community says\n\nNorthern Ireland is heading into a \"homelessness disaster\" this Christmas, a charity has warned.\n\nThe chief executive of the Simon Community, Jim Dennison, has said that the cost-of-living crisis is making many people unable to afford payments on their homes.\n\nHe said the charity is also seeing more people sleeping out on the streets.\n\n\"We are rapidly turning from a homelessness crisis into a homelessness disaster,\" Mr Dennison has said.\n\nSpeaking to BBC News NI, he said that the Simon Community is seeing cases of \"individuals who simply can't afford to keep their own homes\".\n\n\"They can't pay mortgages, they can't pay escalating rents so poverty is a real issue.\"\n\nMr Dennison said the charity is seeing an increase in people living on the streets because some people feel they have exhausted all options and are desperate.\n\nJim Dennison said the Simon Community's services \"are extremely stretched\"\n\n\"It's very visible, particularly in places like Belfast, we are seeing a lot more street homelessness and street activity, it's absolutely heartbreaking,\" he said.\n\n\"Even just being out with a coat on in -2 degrees is bad, but having to sleep through the night in that is absolutely horrendous.\"\n\nThe organisation and its partners manage about 480 beds in emergency accommodation.\n\nResources are \"are extremely stretched\", he added.\n\n\"We run at full occupancy nearly all the time and for every bed we have there is a demand that is 15 times greater than supply,\" Mr Dennison said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What is it like to be sleeping on the streets in winter?\n\nDamien told BBC News NI that his alcohol addiction spiralled out of control and resulted in him living on the streets.\n\n\"I was on the streets for about a year,\" he said.\n\n\"I wasn't the easiest person to get on with back then, there were no doors open to me really and I had no choice but to go out onto the streets.\n\n\"It was hard and I was embarrassed. You were begging off people from your own town.\n\n\"Winter was the hardest, like at Christmas time, people would be out buying their presents for their family and yet there was you asking them for spare change.\n\n\"Some people were so cruel. We were not even asking for pounds or fivers but just pennies.\n\n\"That really hurt inside, but it was the only way I could survive. I lost all dignity then, I had no self-worth or nothing.\"\n\nDamien has since gone on to find accommodation and is receiving treatment and support for his addiction issues.\n\nIf you, or someone you know, have been affected by any of the issues in this video you can find information about organisations that can help on the BBC Action Line website.\n\nMr Dennison said the Simon Community has never seen things as bad as they currently are in Northern Ireland.\n\n\"We are looking at 4,000 children in emergency accommodation this Christmas - like B&Bs, hotels and homeless hostels.\n\n\"We're looking at about 44,500 people and families being on social housing waiting lists, many of those individuals are in acute housing need.\n\n\"We are also looking at, on average, 1,000 people in Northern Ireland legally being deemed homeless here every month.\"\n\nMr Dennison said those figures are based on data published by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and also from information gathered by the Simon Community's research and development department.\n\nSinead McFadden, from First Housing Aid in Londonderry, said a lack of suitable accommodation means more and more people were finding themselves struggling to find places to live in the north-west.\n\n\"There's been more than a 50% increase in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area alone in the past four years,\" Ms McFadden said.\n\n\"We now have over 1,000 people in temporary accommodation in that area and unfortunately we are now looking at a situation where demand is outstripping supply.\"\n\nThe most recently published Housing Executive figures show that there were 44,426 applicants on the social housing waiting list as of 31 March 2022.\n\nWithin that figure, 31,407 of those applicants were deemed as being in \"housing stress\". These are people who are classed as being higher priority cases for housing.\n\nThe areas with the highest number of applicants on the social housing waiting list were Belfast (12,237) and Derry City and Strabane (5,531).\n\nThe highest proportion of people presenting as homeless were families and single males.\n\nThere were 10,135 households accepted as statutorily homeless by the Housing Executive from April 2021 to March 2022.\n\nThe Housing Executive is responsible for providing accommodation for anyone who is deemed \"legally homeless\".\n\nFor a person to be defined as \"legally homeless\", it does not mean that they need to be living on the streets.\n\nThey need to satisfy four conditions: eligibility, homelessness, priority need and intentionality.\n\nSomeone can be legally homeless, for example, if they are living in a place that is damaging to their health, they are at risk of violence, living in overcrowded conditions or staying with friends.", "The former president at Mar-a-Lago on the night he announced he'll run again.\n\nDonald Trump should be charged with crimes related to the assault on the US Capitol, according to the congressional committee investigating the 6 January, 2021 attack.\n\nThe committee claimed the former president instigated the attack by his supporters and provided \"aid and comfort\" to the rioters in violation of multiple federal laws. \"None of the events of January 6 would have happened without him,\" the summary of its final report says.\n\nMembers say there's evidence to pursue the prosecution of Mr Trump on four charges:\n\nThe vote provided a dramatic finale to an 18-month inquiry into the chaotic last days of Mr Trump's presidency - but the implications for him will be mostly political, not legal.\n\nIf Mr Trump were convicted of the crimes the committee has accused him of committing, he could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, up to 20 years in prison and be prohibited from running for future political office. The committee's vote, however, is largely symbolic.\n\nCongress does not have the ability to charge Mr Trump with any of the listed federal crimes. That power lies solely in the hands of the US Justice Department, which is part of President Joe Biden's administration.\n\nWith its vote, the congressional committee members have, in effect, recommended the Justice Department act. They have laid out the case - the means, the motive and the opportunity - as they see it. And, perhaps most importantly, they have provided a trove of the supporting evidence gathered over nearly two years of interviews, subpoenas, document reviews and legal battles.\n\nWhat the Justice Department does with all this, however, is entirely out of the committee's control.\n\nWhile the January 6 committee's recommendations may have little legal weight, there are plenty of indications that the Justice Department is already well into the kind of investigation of possible criminal conduct by the former president that the committee desires.\n\nA grand jury convened by federal attorneys has already issued subpoenas to dozens of Mr Trump's administration and campaign officials and requested many of the same Trump administration documents reviewed by the congressional committee.\n\nLast month, US Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to handle all aspects of the inquiry into the former president. He cited Mr Trump's announcement of his 2024 presidential bid, and the possibility that Mr Trump could face off against Mr Biden in the general election, as grounds for separating the investigation from the Justice Department's day-to-day operations.\n\nSince then, Mr Smith's office has issued its own subpoenas to officials in seven states who had been contacted by Mr Trump or his advisers during their attempts to dispute the 2020 presidential election results. The independent council investigation appears to be wasting little time picking up where career Justice Department lawyers left off.\n\nThe Capitol attack is not Mr Trump's only source of legal concern, either. Mr Smith is also investigating the former president's handling of classified material at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left office. A Georgia district attorney continues to dig into whether Mr Trump's contact with state officials violated Georgia election law. And there are a host of civil cases too.\n\nMr Trump has long attempted to paint the entirety of the criminal and civil investigations and lawsuits directed at him as part of a partisan \"witch hunt\" whose ultimate goal is to thwart his return to political power.\n\nThe nature of the congressional committee's criminal referral - voted on by seven Democrats and two vehemently anti-Trump Republicans - will do little to counter these claims, and may in fact be cited by Mr Trump as further evidence of the partisan nature of the allegations if and when they turn into actual criminal charges.\n\nThe referrals, however, will generate days of negative coverage for Mr Trump, as newspaper and television headlines recount the nature of the recommended charges and remind Americans of the violence of 6 January and Mr Trump's months-long efforts to challenge his election defeat.\n\nAlready, there are indications that Mr Trump may be facing increasingly stiff political headwinds as he tries to gear up another bid for the presidency in 2024. Recent polls show that he continues to be unpopular with vast swaths of the American public, and that his support is dropping even among Republican voters. Hypothetical head-to-head election matchups show him losing ground to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the Republican presidential nomination and trailing Mr Biden in a general election contest.\n\nSince announcing his presidential bid just a week after the Republican Party and Mr Trump's handpicked candidates underperformed in the November 2022 midterm congressional elections, Mr Trump has taken few visible steps to advance his campaign efforts. While there are rumours of hirings and talk of new policy announcements, the biggest news came from the former president's touting of Trump-themed action-hero digital collector cards, sold for $99 apiece.\n\nAs the calendar turns to 2023, and the Republican presidential nomination contest comes into focus, Mr Trump may require some remarkable feats of political strength to regain his political footing.", "A weather warning for fog and ice across Northern Ireland ended on Sunday morning with conditions to become blustery later in the day.\n\nThe Met Office has forecast strong south-easterly gales along the County Antrim coast.\n\nThere will be heavy outbreaks of rain with a maximum temperature of 8C.\n\nA brief spell of warmer air will continue into next week as temperatures reach 14C on Monday.\n\nTemperatures will then fall back closer to average towards Christmas weekend.", "South Africa's scandal-hit President Cyril Ramaphosa has been re-elected as the governing ANC's leader to wild cheers from his supporters.\n\nHe defeated his rival Zweli Mkhize by 2,476 votes to 1,897.\n\nMr Ramaphosa won despite being dogged by allegations of money laundering, and a last-minute surge in support for Mr Mkhize, who has also been accused of corruption. Both deny the allegations.\n\nHis victory puts him in pole position to lead the ANC in the 2024 election.\n\nBut he is still at risk as he is being investigated by police, the tax office and central bank over allegations that he stashed at least $580,000 (£475,000) in a sofa at his private farm, and then covered up its theft.\n\nA panel of legal experts, appointed by the speaker of parliament, said that he had a case to answer as he may have both violated the constitution and broken an anti-corruption law.\n\nHis supporters burst into song and dance after he was declared the winner, in a result that saw him win by a bigger margin than when he first ran for the leadership of the governing party - the African National Congress - in 2017.\n\nMr Ramaphosa's re-election bid was bolstered by the fact the ANC used its parliamentary majority to vote down the findings of the panel.\n\nThe president has denied any wrongdoing, and has launched legal action to annul the panel's report.\n\nHe said the $580,000 came from the sale of buffaloes, but the panel said there was \"substantial doubt\" over whether a transaction took place.\n\nMr Mkhize was the health minister in Mr Ramaphosa's government until he was forced to resign last year over allegations of misspending funds set aside to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nHe too has denied any wrongdoing, and his supporters saw the allegations as an attempt to discredit him.\n\nMr Ramaphosa was the odds-on favourite to win, but some of Mr Mkhize's supporters looked stunned after the result was announced.\n\nThey were confident of victory after offering key posts to other powerful leaders in deals struck just ahead of delegates casting their ballots at the conference.\n\nThe ANC has been in power since white-minority rule ended in 1994, and is hoping to secure a sixth term in the 2024 parliamentary election. But opinion polls suggest that its vote has shrunk considerably because of widespread corruption in government, high unemployment and poor public services - including constant power cuts.\n\nThe ANC elected a new deputy leader, Paul Mashatile, who defeated Mr Ramaphosa's preferred candidate for the second-most powerful post in the party.\n\nMr Mashatile is now the front-runner to become South Africa's deputy president, and president in the event Mr Ramaphosa is forced out of power.\n\nThe president's allies won other powerful posts in the party, including that of secretary-general and national chairperson.\n\nDefeated candidates embraced the winners in a show of unity after a bruising conference.\n\nSupporters of ex-President Jacob Zuma had heckled Mr Ramaphosa during his opening speech at the conference last week.\n\nBut no leader from KwaZulu-Natal, the political heartland of Zuma, was elected to any of the ANC's top seven posts, in the latest sign of his and the region's declining influence in the party.\n\nZuma was sentenced for contempt of court last year after defying an order to appear before a judge-led inquiry that investigated corruption during his presidency.\n\nHe has also been charged with corruption linked to a multi-billion dollar arms deal that South Africa negotiated more than two decades ago. He has denied the charges.", "Martyn Hett was 29 when he was killed in the attack\n\nNew legislation will be introduced to tighten security at venues in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing.\n\nThe new rules, dubbed Martyn's Law, will cover all of the UK and require venues and local authorities to have preventative action plans against terror attacks, the government said.\n\nMartyn Hett was among 22 people killed in the 2017 attack and his mother Figen Murray has campaigned for the measures.\n\nDraft legislation is due in early spring, the prime minister said.\n\nRishi Sunak said he was committed to working with Ms Murray to deliver \"this vital legislation to honour Martyn's memory and all of those affected by terrorism\".\n\nTwenty-two people died in the bombing on 22 May 2017\n\nMartyn's Law will follow a tiered model linked to the type of activity taking place and the size of the expected audience, and will seek to improve how prepared a venue is without putting an undue burden on business.\n\nA standard tier will apply to locations with a maximum capacity of more than 100 people.\n\nVenues will need to undertake low-cost effective measures such as training, information sharing, and completion of a preparedness plan.\n\nAn enhanced tier will focus on high-capacity locations.\n\nThose that can hold 800 or more will be required to undertake an additional risk assessment that will inform the development and implementation of a thorough security plan.\n\nFigen Murray said she wanted this law be introduced in the current session of Parliament\n\nThe government will also establish an inspection and enforcement regime, issuing sanctions for breaches, and will provide statutory guidance and bespoke support.\n\nMs Murray, who was recently made an OBE for her counter-terrorism work, said this \"common-sense security\" could mean \"fewer suffer what myself and the families of Manchester have had to endure\".\n\nSpeaking days after the day her son would have celebrated his 35th birthday, she said: \"The government taking this seriously and promising to act is the best birthday present I could have asked for.\n\n\"Now we need urgent action to get this into place.\n\n\"I hope that this law will now be introduced in the current session of Parliament so we can get this done as soon as possible.\"\n\nPraising Ms Murray's campaign, Mr Sunak said: \"The way the city of Manchester came together as a community in the wake of the cowardly Manchester Arena attack, and the amazing work of campaigners like Figen Murray who have dedicated their lives to making us safer and promoting kindness and tolerance, is an inspiration to us all.\"\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman thanked Ms Murray and her campaign for their \"tireless efforts\" and support in the development of this \"vital reform.\"\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jeremy Clarkson is the star of Amazon Prime Video's Clarkson's Farm and hosts Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for ITV\n\nMore than 6,000 complaints have been made to the press regulator regarding Jeremy Clarkson's column about the Duchess of Sussex for the Sun.\n\nIpso, the independent press standards organisation, told BBC News the complaints are being assessed in accordance with its standard procedure.\n\nClarkson wrote he \"hated [Meghan] on a cellular level\" in an article published in the newspaper on Friday.\n\nHis comments were widely criticised on social media over the weekend.\n\nOn Sunday, Clarkson's own daughter Emily said: \"I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle.\"\n\nThe Sun told BBC News it doesn't have anything further to add. Jeremy Clarkson's representative has also been contacted.\n\nThe total number of complaints made to Ipso in 2021 was 14,355.\n\nWriting in his original column, Clarkson said: \"At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her.\n\n\"Everyone who's my age thinks the same way,\" he added. \"But what makes me despair is that younger people, especially girls, think she's pretty cool. They think she was a prisoner of Buckingham Palace, forced to talk about nothing but embroidery and kittens.\"\n\nHis column followed the release of the last three episodes of Netflix's docuseries Harry & Meghan on Thursday.\n\nPosting on her Instagram page on Sunday, podcast host Emily Clarkson said she supports those \"targeted with online hatred\".\n\n\"My views are and have always been clear when it comes to misogyny, bullying and the treatment of women by the media,\" she wrote.\n\n\"I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle.\"\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex met with Nicola Sturgeon in 2018\n\nElsewhere in the article, Clarkson compared his hatred of Meghan with that of Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.\n\nHe said: \"Meghan, though, is a different story. I hate her. Not like I hate Nicola Sturgeon or Rose West. I hate her on a cellular level.\"\n\nWest is a serial killer who, along with her husband Fred, murdered at least 12 young girls over 20 years.\n\nSturgeon told BBC Scotland: \"The overwhelming emotion I have for men like Jeremy Clarkson is pity.\n\n\"I can't imagine what it must be like to be so consumed and distorted by hate of other people, and in his case it appears women in particular, that you end up writing that toxic, vile abuse.\"\n\nShe added: \"Freedom of speech is really important and one of the values all of us cherish. But all of us, as we exercise those important rights, have to behave with a degree of responsibility.\"\n\nThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been critical over how they're covered in the press\n\nIn last week's final instalment of their Netflix series, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex spoke about the mental health impact the tabloid media has on them.\n\nThe couple argued that Meghan's biracial heritage was often an underlying factor in what they described as a relentless tabloid campaign against her, and in racist abuse she suffered online.\n\nEmily Clarkson has previously criticised the media for being \"poisonously misogynistic\" in its coverage of the Duchess, as well as other women.\n\nOther high-profile Twitter users who criticised Clarkson's column included Carol Vorderman, Edith Bowman, and John Bishop.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Carol Vorderman This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut Alex Phillips, a journalist and former Brexit Party MEP, defended Clarkson, telling ITV's Good Morning Britain she believed he is \"deliberately pushing boundaries to be offensive\".\n\nShe said he's \"not there to be taken seriously\" and \"his word is there to be found funny, and it always has been\".\n\nPhillips added: \"Taking something that happened in Game of Thrones, one of the most widely-watched TV series... Does he mean it? Of course he doesn't mean it.\"\n\nJeremy Clarkson is the star of Amazon Prime Video series The Grand Tour and Clarkson's Farm and also hosts Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for ITV.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jim Thewliss said the Scottish government's spending plans would lead to cuts in schools\n\nSome school subjects will have to scrapped as a result of the Scottish government's budget, a teaching union chief has said.\n\nThe general secretary of School Leaders Scotland claimed the number of pupils per class would also rise, with teacher vacancies to remain unfilled.\n\nIt comes as Cosla warned of job losses and service cuts in local authorities.\n\nThe government says it will work with local authorities to \"protect what matters in Scottish society\".\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney laid out the draft budget on Thursday, announcing a change to Scotland's tax rates that will put more of the burden on those earning more than £43,000.\n\nHe also pledged a £1bn increase in health and social care spending as well as a £550m year-on-year increase for local government.\n\nHowever, analysis published by Cosla suggests the cash increase could be just £71m once Scottish government-mandated policies are paid for, while it claims capital funding will remain flat for next year.\n\nThe organisation had called for a £1bn cash injection to maintain current services and fund pay deals for staff.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nJim Thewliss, general secretary of the School Leaders Scotland union, said the spending plans would lead to cuts in schools.\n\n\"We are now at a stage where we really have a service where if you're going to start to cut any more you're cutting into the basic functions of the service, which is essentially … the number of teachers in front of young people in schools,\" he told BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show.\n\n\"Vacancies which are already identified within schools - head teachers have been told these are not going to be filled.\"\n\nMr Thewliss said teachers across the country were expecting increases in class sizes and said some subjects would be removed if \"deemed as non-viable\".\n\nHe gave the example of higher modern languages subjects, which he said often had small class sizes of four or five pupils.\n\n\"We're now starting to find even greater pressure coming upon what is deemed as non-viable in terms of class sizes,\" the union chief told the programme.\n\nHe added: \"We have bought entirely into the whole notion of young people having the best educational experience and the best life chances that they can have.\n\n\"We are now in the position … of managing expectations to a degree. And I've no idea where we're going to move with this but it's becoming much, much more challenging in managing those expectations at the same time as promoting aspiration.\"\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nKatie Hagman, an SNP councillor and Cosla resources spokesperson, said the budget announcement had been met with \"extreme disappointment\" after the organisation said it received less than a tenth of what it had asked for from the government.\n\nShe told The Sunday Show: \"If we got the £1bn that would save, potentially, job cuts.\n\n\"What it translates to is equivalent of, say, 17,500 teachers. We're looking at essential services, things like youth work, things like economic development, working with our third sectors as well for domestic abuse and family support services.\n\n\"All these are considered essential services and we're at the front line of local government and it's these types of services that we will be desperately trying to protect.\"\n\nMr Swinney defended his budget announcement but acknowledged he had set out a \"bleak picture\" in parliament.\n\nHe told the programme that the war in Ukraine had increased inflation and the financial stress had been \"compounded by some of the significant strategic mistakes\" by the UK government.\n\nHe disputed claims the councils had been short-changed, saying their funding had increased by £570m year-on-year.\n\nIn response to warnings of service and jobs cuts, he said: \"Local government came to me and asked for £1bn and I said up front there was just no way I was going to be able to achieve that. But I have managed to put £570m into the local government settlement.\n\n\"I've said to local authorities we need to work together to ensure that we protect what matters in Scottish society, which is preventative early intervention services where we do our best to change the outcomes for people within our society.\"\n\nWhile the Deputy First Minister said councils would have to be \"open to the concept of public sector reform\", he insisted education was the government's priority.\n\n\"There's sustained investment being made in local authority expenditure, there is sustained investment being made in the Scottish attainment challenge, sustained investment in early learning and child care, key elements of how we deliver the curriculum and how we ensure people are well supported and young people are well supported to fulfil their potential,\" Mr Swinney added.", "Two GPs on out-of-hours cover faced a backlog of nearly 400 calls in Belfast by the early hours of Monday - a spike on the normal 10 calls, a senior doctor has said.\n\nDr Alan Stout, co-chair of the British Medical Association's GP committee, said there would have been \"some very unwell patients among them\".\n\nSunday night meant \"huge and unsafe pressure\" for those involved, he said.\n\nHe also warned of significant knock-on effects in GP practices on Monday.\n\nThe Department of Health said it remained concerned about the situation.\n\nA spokesperson said the current increase in demand was mainly down to parents seeking advice on the need for antibiotics for children with \"mostly minor\" upper respiratory symptoms\n\nIn a tweet on Monday morning, Dr Stout appealed for people to be patient.\n\n\"We will try hard but it's not our fault,\" he said.\n\nDr Stout told BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster programme that he had heard \"harrowing stories\" over the weekend.\n\nDr Alan Stout said there was an \"utter inability\" to deal with callers\n\n\"Anyone who is contacting a GP late on Sunday night is going to have a significant level of concern. We have huge sympathy,\" he said.\n\n\"There will be unwell people there and a complete and utter inability to deal with them.\"\n\nIn answer to his tweet on Monday, one woman said her daughter called Belfast out-of-hours at 22:50 GMT on Saturday.\n\nHer call back came more than 14 hours later at 13:17 GMT on Sunday.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Alan Stout This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nEarlier this year, the British Medical Association warned almost 100 GP practices in Northern Ireland had sought emergency support or were in crisis.\n\nDepartment of Health figures show that the number of GPs in Northern Ireland has risen by almost 20% since 2014.\n\nIn that same time period, the number of practices fell from 350 to 319.\n\nA spokesperson from the Department of Health said the health trusts were trying to increase the number of staff who could work.\n\nThey added the most urgent calls would be given priority and that advice had been issued to prescribers about the prioritisation of antibiotics.\n\nEarly in December, a surge in cases of the Strep A infection led to added pressure\n\nThe pressures facing Northern Ireland's health service have been well documented - from overcrowded emergency departments and overstretched staff, to long waiting lists and busy GP surgeries.\n\nEarlier in December, the BBC News NI was given access to the emergency department at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital.\n\nStaff said they were treating the acutely unwell in areas which were \"overcrowded and undignified\" and a senior consultant likened the scenes to \"battlefield\" medicine.\n\nIn November, a senior manager at the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald said the pressure on hospital beds was \"worse than it was during Covid\".\n\nThe pressures on the service were further compounded by a surge in cases of the bacterial infection, Strep A, in Northern Ireland.\n\nOn one day in early December, a record 227 children attended the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, although it is not clear how many had Strep A.\n\nLast week, nurses across Northern Ireland joined their colleagues in England and Wales in the largest NHS strike in its history.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing said staff had been given no choice but to take strike action after ministers refused to reopen pay talks.\n\nA further day of strike action is planned for Tuesday 20 December.", "Those graduating in Bangor on Friday showed their support for Hamza\n\nThe Strictly Come Dancing winner \"won the country over\" just as he did everyone at his old university, his former lecturer has said.\n\nWildlife presenter Hamza Yassin lifted the glitterball trophy after Saturday's live final on BBC One.\n\nJulia Jones, professor of conservation science at Bangor University said he is \"a nice chap through and through\".\n\nShe said he returns every year to lecture year two undergraduates and \"we couldn't be more behind him\".\n\nAt Friday's graduation ceremony, hundreds of former pupils and staff posed with a giant cardboard Hamza to wish him luck.\n\nThe Animal Park, Let's Go For A Walk and Countryfile host had never had any dance lessons before taking part, but soon became the bookmakers' favourite.\n\n\"Words can't describe how I feel\" said Hamza, who thanked his dance partner Jowita Przystal and the viewers who voted for them.\n\nHe beat Molly Rainford, Fleur East and Helen Skelton to the coveted prize, with the 32-year-old known for his daring lifts during series 20.\n\nHamza has a degree in Zoology with conservation from Bangor University\n\nAfter the three advisory scores were given by the judges, Hamza and Jowita were bottom on 113 points.\n\nBut it was the public vote that decided who took the title for 2022.\n\n\"I was very nervous - what it says is it's about the journey, not just what they do on the night. He's won the country over with his humble passion,\" Julia said.\n\nShe added: \"He's just one of those people who throws himself into everything. He was always in the front row (in lectures at Bangor), putting his hand up, answering questions. Really engaging in it.\"\n\nAfter Hamza won, Julia tweeted: \"Whoop whoop. Hamza won Strictly Come Dancing. We just hope you still have time to come back and teach our students this year.\n\n\"So well done you and Jowita. So well deserved.\"", "The unidentified remains of some of those killed in Izyum are being kept in a container in Kharkiv\n\nOleh Podorozhnyy leads the way through the dimly lit corridors of his morgue, past windows covered with sandbags, to a large white container in the back yard.\n\nAs soon as its heavy metal door is cracked open, the cloying smell of death rushes out.\n\nPiled inside in white bags are the remains of civilians killed when the town of Izyum was occupied by Russian troops. Many have been dead for months.\n\nThe body bags are marked with numbers and the barest of details, scrawled in black pen. Weeks after Izyum was liberated, the remains of 146 people found there have still not been identified.\n\nThey're here because the main morgue is overwhelmed with more unidentified bodies from Russian missile strikes and mass graves across the Kharkiv region.\n\n\"The number of bodies we have right now is really high,\" explains Oleh, a pathologist at the Kharkiv Bureau of Forensic Expertise.\n\n\"They all remain here while DNA tests are done.\"\n\nThere is a generator now but keeping the container cool during regular power cuts caused by Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure is challenging.\n\nA couple of hours' drive east in Izyum, the destruction from Russia's invasion is staggering.\n\nA high-rise block of flats has a giant hole blown through the middle and all around, detached houses have been flattened.\n\nA man up a cherry-picker is repainting a bright mural on to a fire-blackened building but there are big Zs daubed on a row of garages nearby, the tag of Russian soldiers during their seven-month-long occupation.\n\nLiving amongst all this are the families searching for relatives they know were killed, but who still have no body to bury.\n\nAuthorities take mouth swabs from relatives, hoping to identify their loved ones\n\nIzyum police station was destroyed, so officers have set up an incident room at an art college where they collect DNA samples as well as evidence of the atrocities here.\n\nThey call people in one by one and gently swab the inside of their cheeks. The samples are then sent to a forensics laboratory to extract a DNA profile in the hope of finding a genetic match with a body at the morgue.\n\nAfter her turn, Tetyana Tabakina pauses in the middle of the room, hand over her mouth like she's stifling a sob.\n\nHer sister, Iryna, and nephew, Yevheniy, were killed in a Russian airstrike on their block of flats in early March. They'd been sheltering in the basement where they thought they'd be safe.\n\nTetyana managed to identify Yevheniy by a tattoo on his arm but she has never found her sister.\n\n\"Ira was torn apart in the blast. I can't even find a piece of her,\" she says softly. \"I'm waiting to find even a little piece of my sister, so I can bury them both together.\"\n\nIryna and her son Yevheniy were killed by a Russian airstrike in March - Iryna's body has still not been found\n\nBut the war that created Tetyana's nightmare is also making the identification process painfully slow.\n\nWhen the Kharkiv region was invaded, forensics experts were among those fleeing to safety.\n\n\"We're training new people, but for now we only have eight people in our department and the workload's enormous,\" Viktoria Ionova explains.\n\nShe's a specialist at the laboratory trying to establish genetic profiles of the dead and of those searching for them.\n\n\"We also have issues with power cuts. The high-precision equipment suddenly stops working so we have to start all over again,\" Viktoria says. \"We have a generator, but there have been times when we had no power for a whole day.\"\n\nThe way people died further complicates the scientists' work: many were badly burned in shelling and air strikes.\n\n\"When there is the maximum degree of burns, there is almost no genetic material,\" explains Oleh Podorozhnyy, the pathologist. \"We send fragments of bone, but sometimes the experts can't extract a genetic sample so they ask for more. That's why it's so slow.\"\n\nAuthorities have exhumed nearly 900 bodies so far in the Kharkiv region\n\nAnd not all the dead have close relatives still in Ukraine to provide swabs.\n\nThe prosecutor's office has published instructions of how refugees can provide samples abroad, and send them back for testing, but few have taken advantage of that.\n\nThe unidentified of Izyum were mostly found buried in a pine forest on the edge of town, beneath long rows of simple wooden crosses.\n\nThey were taken there by volunteer grave diggers when Izyum was occupied.\n\nWhen Ukrainian forces retook the town in September, the bodies were exhumed and moved to Kharkiv. Police say some died of natural causes, but many were killed in shelling or explosions and 17 showed clear signs of torture, including rope around the neck and bound hands.\n\nThey've now exhumed 899 bodies across the region.\n\n\"It's very difficult, of course. We've never seen so many corpses. On average, we're exhuming about 10 a day and this work isn't over,\" explains Serhiy Bolvinov, head of police investigations for Kharkiv region.\n\nThis week his officers found the body of a man killed by a cluster bomb and buried in his garden by his wife.\n\n\"What happened here, the crimes Russia committed, will never be erased from our memory and we will investigate each one of them,\" he says.\n\n\"God teaches us to forgive, but I will never forgive the murderers,\" Olena Ihnatenko said at the funeral for her murdered son\n\nIn total, 451 bodies were found in Izyum, including seven children. Buried in the forest in haste and under fire, most had no coffin nor even a body bag.\n\nMany also had no name: the wooden crosses on their graves were marked only with numbers.\n\nOne just reads: Lenin Avenue, 35/5, old man.\n\nBut the body that was buried as number 319 has now been identified. DNA tests established it as Volodymyr Vakulenko, a children's writer and poet.\n\nNine months after he died, his family were finally able to give him a funeral.\n\nThe poet was detained and interrogated by Russian forces in late March, then released. The next day, witnesses saw two soldiers leading him away again. They say he shouted \"Glory to Ukraine!\" then was bundled into a car with a Z on it.\n\nWhen his skeleton was recovered from the pine forest, two bullets were found in his grave.\n\n\"You jackals! How could you?\" his mother demanded of his killers at his funeral, bending over the coffin draped in the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag.\n\n\"God teaches us to forgive, but I will never forgive the murderers,\" Olena Ihnatenko said, hugging a framed photograph of her only son tightly to her chest.\n\n\"I will live in the hope and belief that the investigation finds who's responsible and that the killers will be punished. I will live for that dream.\"\n\nVolodymyr Vakulenko's friends found a diary he kept at the start of the Russian invasion\n\nHer son's friends have found a diary he kept at the beginning of the war and buried beneath a tree before his arrest. It talks of his fears as a prominent Ukrainian patriot in a small village occupied by the Russians.\n\n\"It is extremely dangerous for me to be encircled by the enemy,\" he wrote.\n\nThe last entry, scrawled on chequered notepaper, describes seeing a flock of cranes overhead: \"Through their chirps I seemed to hear 'Everything will be Ukraine!'. I believe in victory!\" the poet wrote.\n\nSo far, only five bodies from Izyum have been identified using DNA. The forensics teams admit some are so badly damaged they may never be named.\n\nFor relatives, like Tetyana Tabakina, it's an agonising wait.\n\nShe says a neighbour recently buried seven family members killed in the same attack as her nephew and sister.\n\n\"He told me that the morning after their funerals it was like a great weight had been lifted and he was finally able to sleep again,\" Tetyana says.\n\n\"I just want to get through that moment, then maybe it will be easier for them. Or for me.\"", "The light needs to be right for this red star of Christmas - and remember, they don't like draughts!\n\nWherever there are Christmas decorations, the vibrant red poinsettia flower is likely to be found.\n\nAnd although the plant is native to Mexico, every year thousands are grown in Northern Ireland for the festive season.\n\nAt the Greenmount campus of the College of Agriculture Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), the plants are grown by horticulture students.\n\nBut timing them to bloom and colour in time for Christmas takes a lot of care.\n\nSecond year student Amy Copeland says poinsettias change colour when there is less light\n\n\"It is quite difficult in terms of the lighting they need,\" says second-year CAFRE student Amy Copeland.\n\n\"They change colour when there is lower light so trying to get that in time for Christmas is definitely a challenge.\n\n\"But it's a good crop to grow.\"\n\nJames Crawford, the horticulture manager at CAFRE, says the plant is very popular among students.\n\n\"They colour naturally at the end of November and beginning of December,\" says Mr Crawford.\n\nHorticulture technologist Lucile Gilpin says CAFRE is moving away from peat products in its plant growing\n\n\"They have these nice red bracts which remind people of Christmas and they've become a very popular Christmas plant.\"\n\nThe poinsettia grow all year round in their native Mexico, where they can reach heights of up to six feet (1.8m), according to Mr Crawford.\n\n\"They like the heat - their preferred temperature is around 20C which is a bit contradictory for a Christmas plant,\" he says.\n\nThe college has taken a more sustainable approach to growing the plants in recent years by moving away from using peat products.\n\nLucile Gilpin, a horticulture technologist at CAFRE, says the peat-free substrates used are showing impressive results.\n\n\"At the moment we are able to reproduce what we would have been able to with peat,\" she says.\n\nAlthough native to Mexico, every year thousands of poinsettia plants are grown in Northern Ireland ahead of the festive season\n\n\"Traditionally, our fathers and generations before us have grown with peat - so it was a massive challenge for our generation to be able to grow without peat,\" she says.\n\n\"We are successfully able to do it here but it is a different growing - it's a different method to what would have been used before.\"\n\nWhile the star-shaped flowers are perfect for Christmas, many don't last long into the new year. But student Amy Copeland says that with the right care, they could.\n\n\"You need to keep them in a draught-free area,\" Ms Copeland advises.\n\n\"Nowhere near a window or a door that opens and closes quite regularly. And you want to keep them in an area that is around 15-22C and you should get a few months out of them at least.\"", "Here's where we stand after a dramatic day in Congress.\n\nThe committee recommended four criminal charges against Donald Trump: Obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to make a false statement; and inciting or assisting an insurrection.\n\nThese are not legally binding: It's up to the Department of Justice to now decide whether to officially file criminal charges against the former president. The department is not obliged to pursue the recommendation.\n\nAll eyes on the justice department: A department spokesperson told the BBC's US partner CBS that they had no comment on the committee's actions. It remains to be seen if it will follow the recommendations.\n\nThe full report is still to come: The committee released a summary of its final report after voting unanimously to approve it. It accused Trump of a “multi-part conspiracy” to thwart the 2020 election. The report is expected to be published on Wednesday.", "Aberaeron is one of the areas that has been hit by the loss of water\n\nWelsh Water said it hopes to restore water supply to about 4,500 affected homes by the end of Tuesday.\n\nSome homes in Ceredigion were left without little or no water since Saturday after water supply pipes burst following a period of bad weather.\n\nMeanwhile, nine schools across the county have been forced to close.\n\nThe water company apologised, saying its response to the \"significant issue\" has been hampered by heavy rain.\n\nBurst pipes have also caused \"significant damage\" to the Royal Welsh Museum in Brecon, Powys.\n\n\"Due to the incredible efforts of the curator and museum volunteers, most of the priceless regimental artefacts were recovered, but significant damage was caused,\" a spokesman said.\n\nAs a result, the museum has now closed for a winter break, with a review to determine the future opening date in 2023.\n\nA water distribution set up in Llandysul has run out of bottles\n\nDistribution centres have been set up to provide water in some areas.\n\n\"We have been without water since yesterday (Sunday) afternoon but areas in Cardigan, up to Llandysul and Horeb (Carmarthenshire) are without water since Saturday,\" Ms Evans told BBC Radio Cymru's Dros Frecwast programme.\n\n\"At least 3,000 houses are without water. Councillors in Cardigan have been distributing water.\"\n\nTourism worker Rhian Miles, from Cardigan, said she has \"a trickle\" coming from her tap, but her parents have been cut off since Saturday.\n\n\"I am particularly worried about my parents who are in their 70s and have had no water for drinking or flushing toilets,\" she said.\n\nThe leader of Ceredigion council has rejected criticism that the council did not do enough on Sunday to help vulnerable people who are still without water.\n\nBryan Davies said staff have been distributing about 35,000 bottles of water donated by Ty Nant mineral water company.\n\n\"Obviously it's Welsh Water's job really to make sure everybody has a clean, fresh supply of water. But I think Ceredigion county council has gone above and beyond what it's needed to do.\"\n\nThe following schools are closed on Monday due to the water shortage:\n\nSome people managed to source a water bowser as many were left without supply\n\nAll day centres in the mid and south of the county are closed, as well as the County Hall in Aberaeron and the town's only \"warm hub\", the Ray Centre.\n\nAberaeron Leisure Centre is closed, but all other council-operated leisure facilities remain open.\n\nThe Albion Hotel in Cardigan has also been forced to shut.\n\n\"Fortunately, we are normally closed on Sundays but now we want to know what to do the rest of the week and cannot tell people for certain when we will reopen,\" said owner Steffan Walker.\n\nIcy road conditions in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, gave way to heavy rain on Sunday\n\nPeter Perry, Chief Executive of Dwr Cymru Welsh Water said freezing temperatures caused a huge number of bursts across its networks.\n\n\"If you combine that with an awful lot of bursts on privately owned supply pipes, we've effectively seen that plus a tripling of our normal rate of burst pipes on our own network,\" he said.\n\n\"We've been working around the clock over the last 48 hours to find as many leaks as we can and start the process of fixing them.\"\n\nHe added that the company is \"incredibly sorry if we have over promised in its response time\" but \"the scale of the problem we're dealing with is pretty massive\".\n\nHe also said about 50,000 bottles of water were distributed in west Wales, water bowsers have been stationed on streets and work is being done to fix hundreds of leaks.\n\nPeter Perry hopes the issue will be resolved by the end of Tuesday\n\nDespite the millions of pounds it will cost to fuel its response, Mr Perry said customers' bills will not be affected.\n\nHe said he hopes the problem could be fixed by the end of Tuesday, but added there is \"no doubt we will see other issues emerging\".\n\n\"I can't say for definite it'll be everybody back in supply, but I would really, realistically hope that by late tomorrow, we will have everyone back in supply.\"\n\nWelsh Water is also dealing with two burst water mains in Carmarthenshire - one is affecting the Efailwen, Clynderwen and Whitland areas.\n\nAnother is causing problems in the Ferryside and Kidwelly areas.\n\nPowys council said Tuesday's meeting of cabinet will be online as County Hall will be closed.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. IVF patients Rachel Rowlands says she felt \"quite devastated\" by remarks about her weight\n\nA woman who has been trying to have a baby for more than two years said she was told to \"lose weight and come back\" by a fertility clinic.\n\nRachel Rowlands said she was not given any help or support about how best to get her body mass index (BMI) down to the appropriate range.\n\nThe 33-year-old of Nelson, Caerphilly county, said it left her \"devastated\".\n\nThe Welsh government said all clinicians should support families with fertility issues.\n\nMs Rowlands said she was upset at the lack of support offered to address how her long-term health problems were preventing her losing the weight she knew she needed to in order to access fertility treatment.\n\nThe university lecturer, who is a clothes size 16-18, has endometriosis and a chronic pelvic pain condition, and was referred to a fertility service.\n\nShe understood the need to lose weight, but after being told her BMI was 36, was upset at the way she was spoken to.\n\nRachel Rowlands says she was not offered support to address how her long-term health problems prevented her losing weight\n\nMs Rowlands recalled how she walked into the room with the doctor and, before she had sat down, was told \"you need to lose weight, you're overweight, you're quite overweight, and the first thing you need to do is go away and lose weight, and then come back to us\".\n\nNICE guidelines say women should be informed that female BMI should ideally be 19-30 before commencing assisted reproduction, as being outside that range reduces the likelihood of success.\n\nConsultant obstetrician and gynaecologist Dr Sean Watermeyer said if women with a BMI of more than 30 do get pregnant there is an increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and congenital abnormalities.\n\nCampaigners have said patients should be shown how to get help because \"desperate women take desperate measures\".\n\nMs Rowlands said: \"I had no offer of any professional support or advice whatsoever.\n\n\"I do understand how to lose weight, but weight issues are multifactorial, and it's not just about going away and eating less food, or doing more exercise, there are a lot of things that can impact somebody's weight, and those need to be addressed as well.\"\n\nMs Rowlands described food as \"quite a sensitive issue\" for her\n\nShe has since been diagnosed with an eating disorder.\n\n\"I want doctors and nurses to really think about how they address weight management issues with people who are struggling with fertility, and just approach it in a kinder way.\"\n\nDee Montague-Coast at the Fair Treatment for the Women of Wales charity, said Ms Rowlands' experience was \"not rare\".\n\n\"There's often a lot of assumption why someone is in a bigger body, from what we see with our members often they're living with really complex, chronic health conditions that can really impact their energy levels, their ability to exercise, and their ability to eat well.\n\n\"Desperate women will take desperate measures - they will crash diet, go into exercise overdrive, and this can be catastrophic for their health, so what we need is person-centred care.\"\n\nDee Montague-Coast says women are often blamed for not looking after themselves\n\nThe charity suggested signposting patients to services such as mental health support, a nutritionist or exercise referral schemes.\n\nCwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board did not treat Ms Rowlands. However, it wants to support people like her and is launching a weight management service for its patients in the new year.\n\nDr Watermeyer said he was \"excited\" to be able to refer into it.\n\n\"We've a doctor who's there to advise, who's got experience in this and may also prescribe, we've got a psychologist because it's behavioural patterns that we need to sometimes change within these patients who need to lose BMI.\"\n\nHe added that there were also physiotherapists and dieticians to further support patients.\n\nThe Welsh government said it believed in an equal Wales, where anyone who wanted to have a family could access the clinical support they need to achieve that goal.\n\n\"All clinicians should support families with fertility issues, and may refer them into specialist services where appropriate,\" it added.", "Pupils at Eirias High School will return to class on 10 January\n\nA rat infestation which cancelled a school's Christmas concert will keep children out of school for the rest of term.\n\nPupils at Eirias High School in Colwyn Bay, Conwy county, were due to perform on Thursday but reports of rats in abandoned toilets prevented this.\n\nThe school has been closed since Friday while children learn from home.\n\nHead teacher Sarah Sutton said further cleaning is required and pupils will return to school on Tuesday 10 January.\n\nParents were sent a letter last week informing them about evidence of rodent activity in three classrooms in one block of the school.\n\nExperts said this activity would have been exacerbated by the cold weather.\n\nOne teacher who wanted to remain anonymous described the school as \"filthy\", adding: \"Rats have run across classrooms with pupils there, there have been rat droppings on chairs and tables, walls, computer keyboards.\"\n\nIn a letter, parents were told on Monday that enhanced cleaning measures had been sued over the weekend, which revealed \"no further rodent activity\".\n\n\"It is important that the school is able to re-open with full confidence for staff, learners and for you as parents and carers,\" it said.\n\n\"For this reason, the school will continue to engage with pest control experts and in turn the industrial cleaners over the next three days prior to and including, the Christmas break.\n\n\"The building will be monitored by pest control over the course of the holiday period and industrially cleaned prior to school re-opening.\"\n\nThe school's Christmas concert will be rescheduled in the new year.", "CCTV shows the gunmen fleeing the scene of Mark Hall's murder\n\nPolice have formally linked the murders of Sean Fox and Mark Hall, who were killed in west Belfast almost one year apart.\n\nSean Fox, 42, died after being shot multiple times inside the Donegal Celtic Sports and Social Club off the Suffolk Road on 2 October.\n\nMark Hall, 31, was shot dead at his family home in Rodney Drive on 18 December 2021.\n\nDetectives believe the murders were carried out by the same two gunmen.\n\nDet Sup Int Eamonn Corrigan, head of the PSNI's Major Investigation Teams said: \"It is now our assessment the murders were carried out by an organised group of criminals who operate like terrorists and who may be, or have been, members of terrorist organisations.\"\n\nHe added that the police did not want to attribute the murders to a particular organisation at this time. However, he stated that the two deaths bore \"the hallmarks of dissident republican killings\".\n\nMark Hall was in the living room of his mother's house when he was shot\n\nPolice released new images taken from CCTV of both crime scenes, which \"clearly shows they are the same two men\".\n\nDet Sup Int Corrigan said there were a number of similarities in the two murders including the location of west Belfast as well as the brazen and reckless style of the shootings in public in broad daylight.\n\n\"It is clear the gunmen have an in-depth knowledge of these areas in west Belfast and felt comfortable carrying out these executions in front of a number of people and witnesses.\" he said.\n\nPolice said Mr Fox was \"singled out\" as he socialised in a busy function room at the social club.\n\nSean Fox was shot by two masked gunmen\n\nDet Sup Int Corrigan said the gunmen were inside the premises for approximately 21 seconds and fired 20 bullets.\n\nAt one point, both gunmen stood over Mr Fox shooting him, as he collapsed to the floor.\n\n\"Anyone in that room or indeed nearby, could have been killed or seriously injured,\" he added.\n\nThe suspects travelled to and from the crime scene on bicycles between 14:20 and 14:30 on 2 October.\n\nOne gunman was riding a silver or light grey \"generic mountain bike\" with a plastic bag over the seat.\n\nPolice released images of the gunmen arriving and fleeing the scene on bikes\n\n\"He was wearing a light grey hoodie with distinctive three orange lines down the arms.\n\n\"He is carrying a dark black holdall, which I believe contained the guns,\" said Det Sup Int Corrigan.\n\nThe other suspect used a \"racer bike with a distinctive rear point to the saddle which appears to be a Fizik Arione\".\n\nHe was wearing a blue hoodie, dark-coloured bottoms and light grey gloves.\n\nThe same disregard for the public's safety was shown during Mark Hall's killing, police added.\n\nThe gunmen fired several shots into his mother's home and fired directly at his sister as they fled.\n\nThe gunmen arrived in St James's Crescent in a silver-coloured Skoda Superb taxi, registration GM16 YCA, just before 16:30 on 18 December\n\nAn image of the taxi used by the gunmen to travel to the crime scene was also released.\n\n\"The taxi has never been recovered and I would appeal to anyone who has information on the car and its whereabouts to contact police,\" added Det Sup Int Corrigan.\n\nDetectives have conducted a number of searches and arrests this week in west Belfast in relation to both murders.\n\nThey appealed for anyone with information to contact them.", "Scottish Water has seen a rise of up to 150% in burst pipes in recent days as the sub zero temperatures turned to a rapid thaw.\n\nThe utility firm said this had led to an extra 100 million litres of water a day passing through the network.\n\nIt has repair teams out in affected areas which include Ayrshire, Glasgow, South Lanarkshire, West Lothian and Stirling.\n\nIt warned that some response times were likely to extend well into next week.\n\nKevin Roy, Sottish Water's customer service general manager, said: \"The weather conditions this week have caused a significant impact on our supply network across the country.\n\n\"On top of the usual daily distribution of water and demand from customers, we've seen an additional 100 million litres a day flowing through the network and unfortunately that's the result of leaks and bursts.\n\n\"The deep freeze has developed into a quick thaw with temperatures on the increase leaving some pipes cracked.\"\n\nHe said some bursts would be visible and in publicly accessible places while others would be more challenging to locate.\n\n\"We would ask property owners, residents, keyholders and businesses to check their properties, including unoccupied buildings, for any sign at all of leaks or burst pipes,\" he said. \"We can all collectively help reduce the amount of water being lost in the current conditions.\n\n\"We're doing all we can to manage the situation as effectively as possible and trying to reduce disruption for customers. Our response is likely to extend well into next week as we approach the Christmas weekend.\"\n\nCustomers are advised that Scottish Water's customer contact centre is expected to be exceptionally busy and to avoid phoning in except for emergencies. Leaks can be reported on the company's website, where further winter advice on protecting pipes and property is available.\n\nIf a leak is discovered within the boundary of a property, householders are advised to seek the services of a registered plumber.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "China has been experiencing a surge in Covid cases since many restrictions were eased earlier this month\n\nA top Chinese health official says he believes China is experiencing the first of three expected waves of Covid infections this winter.\n\nThe country is seeing a surge in cases since the lifting of its most severe restrictions earlier this month.\n\nThe latest official figures appear to show a relatively low number of new daily cases.\n\nHowever, there are concerns that these numbers are an underestimate due to a recent reduction in Covid testing.\n\nThe government reported only 2,097 new daily cases on Sunday.\n\nEpidemiologist Wu Zunyou has said he believes the current spike in infections would run until mid-January, while the second wave would then be triggered by mass travel in January around the week-long Lunar New Year celebrations which begin on 21 January. Millions of people usually travel at this time to spend the holiday with family.\n\nThe third surge in cases would run from late February to mid-March as people return to work after the holiday, Dr Wu said.\n\nHe told a conference on Saturday that current vaccinations levels offered a certain level of protection against the surges and had resulted in a drop in the number of severe cases.\n\nOverall, China says more than 90% of its population has been fully vaccinated. However, less than half of people aged 80 and over have received three doses of vaccine. Elderly people are more likely to suffer severe Covid symptoms.\n\nChina has developed and produced its own vaccines, which have been shown to be less effective at protecting people against serious Covid illness and death than the mRNA vaccines used in much of the rest of the world.\n\nDr Wu's comments come after a reputable US-based research institute reported earlier this week that it believed China could see over a million people die from Covid in 2023 following an explosion of cases.\n\nThe government hasn't officially reported any Covid deaths since 7 December, when restrictions were lifted following mass protests against its zero-Covid policy. That included an end to mass testing.\n\nHowever, there are anecdotal reports of deaths linked to Covid appearing in Beijing.\n\nHospitals there and in other cities are struggling to cope with a surge, which has also hit postal and catering services hard.\n\nMeanwhile, China's largest city, Shanghai, has ordered most of its schools to take classes online as cases soar.", "Health secretary Steve Barclay was told by the mother of a child with cystic fibrosis that she was scared for \"the length\" of her daughter's life and what the government \"might do to the NHS\", during a visit to King's College Hospital in south London.\n\nMr Barclay defended the government, saying that an extra £6.6bn for the NHS over the next two years was announced in the Autumn Statement.", "The majority of the roles will be based in Samlesbury and Warton in Lancashire and Barrow in Cumbria\n\nBAE Systems has announced it is to recruit more than 2,600 new apprentices and graduates in 2023.\n\nThe majority of the roles will be based in Samlesbury and Warton in Lancashire and Barrow in Cumbria.\n\nOpportunities are also available across the South of England and Scotland including in cyber security, software development and aerospace engineering.\n\nBAE said it was essential \"to equip young people with the skills they need to achieve their full potential\".\n\nThe defence giant said: \"Successful applicants will work on some of the world's most advanced technology programmes, playing an important role in delivering essential equipment and services to the armed forces to protect the nation's defence and security.\"\n\nBAE said it invests approximately £100m in education, skills and early careers activities in the UK annually and currently has almost 4,300 apprentices and graduates in training across its UK businesses,.\n\nAround 95% of apprentice trainees who complete their apprenticeship go on to secure full time employment with the company, it added.\n\nBAE announced in August it would recruit 1,000 engineers to help develop the new Tempest fighter jet.\n\nThe Tempest fighter jet plans were announced in 2018. It is hoped they will be operational by 2035.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "US actress Amber Heard will pay Johnny Depp $1m (£820,000) in a settlement of their defamation suit, lawyers for Mr Depp told the BBC.\n\nThe former couple faced off in court this spring in a high-profile battle.\n\nIn June, a Virginia jury mostly sided with Mr Depp, 59, finding that Ms Heard had defamed him in an article in which she called herself a victim of abuse.\n\nAnnouncing the settlement earlier on Monday, Ms Heard, 36, said the decision was \"not an act of concession\".\n\nEarlier this month, she filed an appeal in the case, asking for the jury's verdict to be reversed or for a new trial entirely.\n\nBut in her statement on Monday, the Aquaman actress said she had made the choice to settle \"having lost faith in the American legal system\".\n\n\"Even if my US appeal is successful, the best outcome would be a retrial,\" she said. \"I simply cannot go through that.\"\n\nMr Depp had sued his ex-wife for defamation based on a 2018 op-ed written by her and published in the Washington Post newspaper, in which she described herself as a \"public figure representing domestic abuse\", without naming Mr Depp. Ms Heard filed a countersuit.\n\nThe six-week televised trial drew widespread public scrutiny. The former couple, who divorced in 2017, presented starkly different accounts of their five-year relationship, both accusing the other of misbehaviour and violence. Mr Depp vigorously denied his ex-wife's testimony, in which she claimed he had subjected her to emotional, physical and sexual abuse.\n\nThe jury sided mostly with Mr Depp, awarding him $15m (£12m) in damages.\n\nThe verdict surprised some legal experts, especially as it followed Mr Depp's loss in a similar case in the UK two years ago.\n\nOn Monday, lawyers for Mr Depp said in a statement they were happy to \"formally close the door on this painful chapter for Mr Depp\", adding that the actor would be donating the $1m settlement to a number of charities.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Amber Heard and Johnny Depp - the trial so far, in their own words\n\nIf you have been affected by any issues raised in this video, you can visit BBC Action Line here.", "Hamza Yassin and Jowita Przystal have been crowned Strictly Come Dancing champions\n\nResidents of a Scottish village have said seeing their friend Hamza Yassin win Strictly Come Dancing was \"like winning the World Cup\".\n\nThe cameraman and TV presenter was crowned champion with dance partner Jowita Przystal on the BBC One show.\n\nThe Sudan-born wildlife photographer has lived in Kilchoan, on the Ardnamurchan peninsula, for 11 years.\n\nLocals who gathered in the community hall to watch the Strictly final have expressed their delight at his victory.\n\nFrom left: Sine, Innes and Caitlin Ferguson cheered on their friend in the Strictly final\n\nAmong those cheering on Hamza were siblings Sine, Caitlin and Innes Ferguson.\n\n\"It was like an eruption in the hall,\" said Sine, 29, reflecting on the moment the final results were announced.\n\n\"It was unreal. It was like winning the World Cup, I think, for Ardnamurchan.\"\n\nHamza had never had a dance lesson before taking part in the show, but villagers believe his talent was honed at ceilidhs.\n\nInnes, 21, who has known Hamza since he was in primary school, said his athletic ability was evident.\n\n\"I always knew he had the underpinning fitness because he's been lifting people around here, doing the famous lift,\" he told BBC Scotland.\n\n\"[He's been] up the hills and he's been a rugby player as well throughout his youth so he's got the fitness.\"\n\nInnes added: \"We knew he was fit but didn't know he had the twinkle toes that he was showing.\n\n\"I hope he's going to perform a bit better at all the ceilidhs from now on.\"\n\nHamza Yassin modelled his friend's merchandise while on Strictly Come Dancing with partner Jowita Przystal\n\nCaitlin, 28, is a graphic designer who also sells Gaelic-themed clothing. She has seen orders sky-rocket after Hamza wore her Ardnamurchan jumper on Strictly.\n\n\"It was mum's bright idea to post him one. I didn't know anything about it.\n\n\"And then I saw him on the TV with it and I thought wow that's so cool.\n\n\"I was so surprised when orders just started coming in. I sold out twice and now I'm taking pre-orders so it's been quite crazy.\"\n\nHamza has worked on The One Show as one of their wildlife cameraman, leading him to land his own CBeebies show and Let's Go For A Walk companion book.\n\nHe also appears on Countryfile and ITV's This Morning, and has filmed and presented Channel 4 shows Scotland: My Life in the Wild and Scotland: Escape to the Wilderness.\n\nAfter weeks away while filming Strictly, locals are looking forward to have the newly crowned dancing star back at home.\n\n\"We're hoping he comes back soon because he cuts all the logs,\" said Sine. \"That'll be handy for the winter.\"\n\nShe added: \"We're excited to see him home again. We're so proud of him.\"", "Ireland has a new taoiseach (prime minister) - Leo Varadkar - as he and Micheál Martin swap roles.\n\nEighty-seven TDs in the Dáil (Irish Parliament) voted to elect Mr Varadkar, while 62 were against his nomination.\n\nMr Varadkar takes over from Mr Martin as government leader, while Mr Martin takes on his role as tánaiste (deputy prime minister).\n\nMr Martin will also be minister for foreign affairs as Simon Coveney moves to the Department of Enterprise.\n\nThe rotation of power between the Irish parties was laid down in the coalition agreement of June 2020.\n\nThe deal brought together Mr Varadkar's Fine Gael party, Mr Martin's Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in a historic compromise.\n\nMr Varadkar, a qualified medical doctor, previously served as taoiseach and minister of defence from 2017 to 2020.\n\nThe handover is a first for the Republic of Ireland's political system and takes place between two parties which dominated Irish politics as bitter rivals for almost a century.\n\nThis swap-at-the-top has never happened before.\n\nIn the past, a coalition between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would have been thought to be as unlikely as Labour and the Conservatives going into government together in London.\n\nNow, the Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has handed over the most important job in Ireland to his Fine Gael counterpart, Leo Varadkar.\n\nThe parties agreed the deal after a general election in 2020, when Sinn Féin surged to win the most first-preference votes.\n\nThe leader of the opposition - Mary Lou McDonald - was predictably scathing in her attacks on Mr Varadkar during the parliamentary proceedings.\n\nPolls suggest she is in line to replace Mr Varadkar as taoiseach in the next Dáil election, due by early 2025.\n\nDomestic politics in the next two years are set to be dominated by housing, healthcare, and the cost of living.\n\nMr Varadkar's relations with Rishi Sunak will be particularly important, as the UK and the EU continue to negotiate on Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland.\n\nThere is another interesting moment in history today - Britain and its nearest neighbour, Ireland, are now both led by men of Indian heritage.\n\nAddressing the Dáil following his appointment on Saturday, Mr Varadkar said his mission would be to build on the achievement of 100 years ago and work on what needs to done for this generation and the next.\n\nHe said he wanted to provide \"new hope and new opportunities for all our citizens\" and to see \"housing, economic opportunity and a fair start for all\".\n\nThe new taoiseach said there were many challenges.\n\n\"Ireland has never been a failed state,\" he said, \"and it is grotesque and dishonest to claim that we are or we were.\n\n\"But we are failing some of our citizens, and it is essential to our success as a country that we put this right.\"\n\nMr Varadkar reaffirmed the Irish commitment to stand with fellow Europeans through this \"harsh winter\".\n\n\"Dreams of a better future are not built on stalemate and the status quo,\" he added.\n\n\"I want to work with all parties in this house and in Northern Ireland, as well as with the British government and our partners in the European Union, to make progress on the protocol and restore the institutions of the agreement.\"\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he wished Mr Varadkar well and said the relationship between the UK and Ireland is \"so valuable\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Chris Heaton-Harris MP This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn the new line-up, Stephen Donnelly is to remain as health minister, Simon Harris will be justice minister as well as leading in further and higher education, research, innovation and science for a period and Charlie McConalogue will hold on to his role as agriculture minister.\n\nThe coalition agreement originally specified that the handover would be on 15 December but this was changed in order to allow Mr Martin to participate in the final EU leaders' summit of the year in Brussels this week.\n\nMr Martin then offered his resignation to President Higgins, automatically dissolving the government.\n\nWhile addressing the Dáil, Mr Martin referenced Northern Ireland during his speech.\n\n\"If we genuinely believe in an Ireland which includes and serves all, then we must be prepared to build new bridges,\" he said.\n\nLeo Varadkar (left) replaces Micheál Martin as taoiseach in line with a coalition agreement\n\n\"We must be prepared to reach across divides and to do the hard work of learning to understand and respect each other far more than we have in the past.\n\n\"We must stop making assumptions about each other and get to know each other,\" he added.\n\nWhen Leo Varadkar first became taoiseach in 2017, he was seen internationally as a symbol of a new and much changed Ireland.\n\nA gay man of Indian heritage, he was certainly a break with the past.\n\nHe takes the reins for a second time as issues over the Brexit-related Northern Ireland Protocol remain unresolved between the EU and the UK.\n\nUnionist opposition to the protocol means no government at Stormont.\n\nAnd that casts a shadow over planned celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement - the 1998 deal designed to end 30 years of bloody conflict in Northern Ireland.\n\nWhen he meets Rishi Sunak, another prime minister of Indian heritage, resolving difficulties over the protocol will be the key priority.\n\nInevitably the responsibility of being in government takes the sheen off most politicians who come to power promising something new.\n\nDomestically, Mr Varadkar and his fellow ministers in the three-party coalition will have to convince a sceptical electorate that they are delivering on housing, heath and the cost of living.\n\nOtherwise there is likely to be a Sinn Féin government in two-and-a-half years time with Mary Lou McDonald replacing him as taoiseach.\n\nMary Lou McDonald accused the coalition of being \"out of touch, out of ideas and out of time\"\n\nSpeaking in the Dáil on Saturday, the Sinn Féin leader said Ireland needed a general election, not a rotation of leader.\n\nMs McDonald accused the coalition of being \"out of touch, out of ideas and out of time\" and questioned Mr Martin's assertion that the government was delivering.\n\nShe also challenged his claim that there were no easy answers to Ireland's problems.\n\n\"You all say that there are no easy answers, but I don't think that's an acceptable response to those mothers frantic because their children wait and wait for vital surgery, for essential services, for assessment of needs, to families distressed because they can't pay the latest bill, the mortgage repayment or afford the rent, to a child growing up in a B&B or a hotel room,\" she said.\n\nMr Varadkar is also vacating his post as minister for enterprise, trade and employment.\n\nIt took four months to negotiate the coalition agreement following the February 2020 election. Under the deal, six senior ministerial posts were each allocated to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and three to the Green Party.\n\nFine Gael and Fianna Fáil, for decades the largest parties in the Republic of Ireland, trace their origins to the opposing sides in the Irish Civil War of the early 1920s.\n\nThe 2020 election saw a rise in popularity for the left-leaning republican party, Sinn Féin, which won the most first-preference votes and ran a close second to Fianna Fáil in the number of seats taken.\n\nRecent opinion polls have suggested that support for Sinn Féin currently stands well ahead of the coalition parties and has done for some time.\n\nA former minister for health, Mr Martin's time as taoiseach has been dominated by Covid, the war in Ukraine and the stand-off between the European Union and the UK over the Northern Ireland Protocol.", "Hamed Salahshoor's body showed the signs of severe head injuries and surgery, his family says\n\nThe body of a young protester who died in custody in Iran showed shocking signs of torture after it was exhumed, his family says, in the first such case since the anti-government unrest began.\n\nHamed Salahshoor, a 23-year-old taxi driver, was arrested near Izeh on 26 November, his cousins told BBC Persian.\n\nFour days later, they said, security forces told his father he was dead and made him declare he had a heart attack.\n\nBut his body showed the signs of severe head injuries and surgery, they added.\n\n\"His face was smashed. His nose, jaw and chins were broken. His torso from his neck to his navel, and over his kidneys, was stitched up.\"\n\nIranian authorities have not commented on the allegations.\n\nHamed Salahshoor's cousins said he had taken part in the protests that began in September following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab \"improperly\".\n\nHowever, they said, his family had not been told why he was detained.\n\n\"A few hours before his arrest, Hamed received the good news that he had got a job at the ministry of oil,\" a source close to the family told BBC Persian.\n\nHe then called his mother and told her that he had \"finally found a good job\", the source added.\n\nSalahshoor later picked up passengers in his taxi in the southern city of Isfahan and began the 185km (115-mile) journey to Izeh.\n\nHe never made it home because his taxi was stopped at a checkpoint near Izeh and he was taken into custody.\n\nSecurity forces buried Hamed Salahshoor's body in a village 30km from his hometown of Izeh\n\nSalahshoor's cousins said his father was informed on 30 November that he had died, and that he was forced to sign a document saying that he had suffered a heart attack. He also had to promise not to hold a public funeral.\n\n\"Security forces threatened Hamed's father that they would kill his two other sons,\" the family source alleged.\n\nSecurity personnel buried Salahshoor's body at night-time in a village 30km (18 miles) from Izeh, with only his parents allowed to be present, according to the cousins.\n\nThe next day, his family exhumed the body so that they could bury him in Izeh.\n\nIn addition to finding the evidence that he had been tortured and undergone a surgical procedure, they found signs that he not been given a proper Muslim burial, which requires the naked body of the deceased to be washed and shrouded in cloth.\n\n\"They buried Hamed with his clothes and shoes on. His body was not straight. And they claim they are Muslims!\" his cousins said, referring to Iran's Shia Muslim clerical establishment.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The secret diaries of women protesting in Iran\n\nSo far, at least 502 protesters have been killed and 18,450 others have been arrested during the current unrest, according to the Human Rights Activists' News Agency (HRANA).\n\nMany of those detained have reportedly been subjected to enforced disappearance, incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment.\n\nYalda Aghafazli, 19, alleged before her death that she was severely beaten in police custody.\n\n\"I'd never been beaten this much in the 19 years of my life, but to the last minute I did not express remorse and I did not cry,\" she said in an audio message that she sent to her a friend following her release.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Parham Ghobadi This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nAghafazli was arrested on 26 October in Tehran for allegedly writing anti-establishment slogans on a wall and held for 13 days.\n\nFive days after her release from prison she was found dead in her bed.\n\nThe judiciary said she had died of a drug overdose. But a source close to her family disputed the claim, saying that they had been told that the result of a toxicology test would take three months to arrive.\n\n\"The police officers who searched her room said nothing was found and the post-mortem report gave the cause of death as 'unknown',\" the source told BBC Persian.\n\nArshia Emamgholizadeh, 16, took his own life six days after he was released from prison in late November.\n\nA source close to his family told BBC Persian that he was \"given pills in prison and was beaten\", while his mother was filmed saying at his grave: \"You were not suicidal, what did they do to you in prison?\"\n\nSeyed Mohammad Hosseini says he was tortured into confessing by security forces before his trial\n\nSeyed Mohammad Hosseini, one of the protesters sentenced to death after what human rights groups have denounced as sham trials, has also been tortured in prison, according to his lawyer.\n\n\"He was beaten while tied up and blindfolded, he was tasered and beaten in the soles of his feet with a metal rod,\" Ali Sharifzadeh Ardakani said on Monday.\n\nHosseini was found guilty of the charge of \"corruption on Earth\" earlier this month in a case related to the killing of a member of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force in the city of Karaj, near Tehran, on 3 November.\n\nHosseini has alleged that he was tortured into confessing by security forces before his trial. Mr Ardakani was also denied access to his client.\n\nOne of the four other men sentenced to death in the same case, 53-year-old medical doctor Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou, is also alleged to have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment in order to extract a \"confession\".\n\nX-ray images seen by BBC Persian showed that Dr Ghare-Hasanlou's ribs were broken in custody, piercing his lung.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Hamish, Angus and Ben Weir recite a poem in memory of their father\n\nThe children of Doddie Weir have paid tribute to their father by reading a poem about him during an emotional memorial service in the Borders.\n\nThe former Scotland rugby international died six years after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND).\n\nHis sons, Hamish, Angus and Ben, wore tartan suits - similar to those worn by their father - for the service at Melrose Parish Church.\n\nAnd they recited Requiem for Doddie (The Mad Giraffe) by Timmy Douglas.\n\nWeir was once dubbed a \"mad giraffe\" for his unique playing style.\n\nHe was capped 61 times between 1990 and 2000, and after his MND diagnosis he raised millions of pounds for MND research and support through his My Name'5 Doddie foundation.\n\nIn 2019 he received an OBE for services to rugby, MND research and the Borders community. He died last month, aged 52.\n\nThe memorial service was live streamed on Scottish Rugby's website and the audio was also relayed to about 1,000 members of the public at the Greenyards rugby ground of Melrose Rugby Club.\n\nDoddie Weir, who died last month, requested that people wear tartan at the service\n\nBefore the ceremony, Weir's wife, Kathy, thanked people for their support in the two weeks since he died.\n\n\"As a family, we have been overwhelmed by the many messages we have received from all over the world,\" she said in a statement.\n\n\"They have brought great comfort to me and the boys.\n\n\"We really appreciate people taking the time to share their own memories of Doddie and let us know we are in their thoughts.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Scotland rugby union head coach Gregor Townsend pays tribute to his 'great friend and team mate'.\n\n\"The memorial service will give those attending a chance to pay their respects and come together in Doddie's name,\" she added.\n\n\"We understand not everyone will be able to make it, particularly given the time of year, but we know you're all thinking of us.\"\n\nCrowds gathered at the Greenyards rugby ground of Melrose Rugby Club\n\nHis close friend and former teammate Carl Hogg read a eulogy to the farmer, rugby player and campaigner.\n\nHe said he would \"cherish\" the memories he shared with Weir.\n\n\"Dodie had an amazing life,\" he said. \"It was action packed and full of fun, with lots of adventure and lots of love.\"\n\nFormer rugby union player Scott Hastings before the service\n\nHe concluded by paying tribute to the hope which Doddie Weir gave everyone.\n\nHis motto, he said, was: \"Enjoy life while you can - you just don't know what is round the corner\".\n\nFormer teammate Rob Wainwright and Scottish Rugby chairman John Jeffrey also gave tributes to the rugby legend.\n\nThey spoke of his playful antics on and off the rugby pitch, his determined campaigning for MND, and how he centred his life around his family.\n\nMr Wainwright called Weir \"one of the best loved icons of the game of rugby\".\n\nHe added: \"He has moved mountains, galvanised government, inspired nations and set in motion a crusade that will only end when we find a cure for this awful disease.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Fans reflect on life and legacy of Doddie Weir at memorial event in the Scottish Borders\n\nMr Jeffrey, who is also a trustee of the foundation, said Weir's impact went \"way beyond\" the rugby community in Scotland and the rest of the British Isles.\n\nHe highlighted the last six years of Weir's life, saying his jokes became more embarrassing, his humour more childish, his pranks more outrageous and his tartan suits more outlandish.\n\nHe said the success of Weir's foundation was down to him being \"dogged, determined and sheer bloody-minded\".\n\nAnd he paid a tearful tribute to Weir's wife Kathy, saying how proud he was of her and his boys.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\n\"We'll never see anything like this again.\"\n\nFormer England defender Rio Ferdinand summed up what most of us were thinking after one of the greatest finals in World Cup history.\n\nIt had everything. Superstars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe going head to head. Dramatic comeback goals. And a nerve-wracking penalty shootout decider.\n\nSocial media was sent into meltdown, sports stars around the world were transfixed and those in Lusail Stadium were treated to a mouth-watering showpiece.\n\n\"I couldn't imagine that happening - where you see two great teams going toe to toe and no-one takes a back step,\" said Ferdinand on BBC One.\n\n\"The two superstars on either team slugging it out, goal for goal...magnificent.\"\n\nEx-England striker Alan Shearer added: \"We're breathless, it was just an unbelievable final. I've never seen anything like it and I don't think I'll ever see anything like it again. It was staggering.\"\n\nArgentina manager Lionel Scaloni said he was \"calm\" afterwards, but could not hide his elation.\n\n\"The match was completely insane. I know we had a good match, we could have won in the first 90 minutes,\" he said.\n\n\"I have the best feelings ever. The most important thing is how we achieved this.\"\n• None 'Now hard to argue against Messi being football's greatest'\n\nMuch of the focus was on Argentina's Messi and France's Mbappe before kick-off as both were level in the race for the Golden Boot and seen as the superstars to lead their teams to glory.\n\nBut Mbappe barely had a sniff in the first half as Argentina took just four minutes to have their first shot on target through Alexis Mac Allister, and went on to dismantle the defending champions.\n\nMessi's first contribution came in the 23rd minute when he scored from the penalty spot to put Argentina ahead and Angel di Maria doubled the advantage 13 minutes later.\n\nFrance were in disarray, Mbappe had not been in the opposition box and had the fewest touches of any player after half an hour.\n\nHaving had enough, manager Didier Deschamps made a double substitution after 41 minutes, hooking Olivier Giroud and Ousmane Dembele and replacing them with Randal Kolo Muani and Marcus Thuram.\n\nAt half-time, with no shots on target from France and Argentina cruising at 2-0, reporters around the globe were finalising their match reports - it was surely game over.\n\nBut the drama had not even begun.\n\nFrance were still not at their best when they eventually tested Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez for the first time after 67 minutes, but the game changed in a pulsating 97-second period that followed...\n\nMuani went down under a challenge from Nicolas Otamendi in the box and Mbappe stepped up to fire a penalty past Martinez.\n\nArgentina had barely got their breath back and France supporters were still celebrating when Mbappe then volleyed in a stunning second to make it 2-2. Extra time, here we go.\n\nBut this was Messi's night - and he thought he had the final say when he poked it over the line, sparking wild celebrations, in the 108th minute.\n\nMbappe was not done, though. His hat-trick goal arrived in the 118th minute - making him the second man, after England's Sir Geoff Hurst in 1966, to score three goals in a World Cup final - and a penalty shootout followed.\n\nArgentina, who had lost their lead twice during the match, finally got their hands on the trophy for the first time since 1986, after Martinez had saved Kingsley Coman's spot-kick and Aurelien Tchouameni sent his effort wide.\n• None World Cup Daily podcast: Argentina champions after 'best game ever'\n\nWhich was the best World Cup final? Vote below\n\nIf you are viewing this page on the BBC News app please click here to vote.\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Chris Leech says there has been a surge in demand.\n\nA charity in Northern Ireland says it has been receiving up to 2,000 calls for help per week.\n\nSt Vincent De Paul (SVP) estimate that by the end of the year about 200,000 people will have contacted their branches in Northern Ireland.\n\nThat is a year-on-year increase of nearly 20%.\n\n\"Certainly the need is greater and it reflects the rising cost of food and fuel on people's fixed income,\" said Patrick Friel from SVP.\n\nMr Friel said that for many people asking for help is \"a big step for them to take\".\n\n\"There are a lot of people currently who have never made that call before. There are families who have had to make that decision because of the cost of living,\" he said.\n\nNewry's Christmas Business Charity's mission is that no child goes without a toy at Christmas.\n\nThe annual dinner is now in its 23rd year and this year an estimated 1,500 toys were donated.\n\nBut organiser Caroline Courtney says current circumstances dictated there was also an added focus on fundraising.\n\n\"This year, more than ever, because we all know the cost of living crisis has hit, there are even more people coming out and giving more because they know that the need is more,\" she said.\n\nCaroline Courtney says people have been donating more this year.\n\nIn Portadown, County Armagh, foodbank volunteer Chris Leech says Craigavon Area Foodbank has seen a surge in demand.\n\n\"We are seeing about a 50% increase in foodbank usage compared with this time last year,\" he said.\n\n\"So instead of looking at helping 400 people a month we are now looking at 600 people and beyond.\"\n\nAccording to Carla Stevenson of Regenerate, which is running a toy appeal, there has been a shift in the way help is being requested.\n\n\"Last year we relied heavily on community groups and partner organisations to give us referrals of people who were in need but wouldn't come forward to ask for help. This year a lot of those referrals are self-referrals.\"\n\nBoth the foodbank and the toy appeal are benefitting from an initiative at the local YMCA youth club, where instead of paying their 50p nightly membership dues, children have been donating a food item or making a donation.\n\n\"The young people have really bought into the message and have been really inquisitive of why we are doing it.\n\n\"It's good for our members to have an idea of the struggles that some families and young people face,\" he said.", "Will there be a day when flights depart, as the home secretary says she dreams?\n\nAppeals on the High Court's ruling are almost inevitable, and it could be months before they are dealt with. There could then be a further challenge in the Supreme Court, if there's a major dispute about what a particular point of law means.\n\nAnd then - individual migrants earmarked for a flight could try to petition the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. That’s assuming the judgement’s ruling that more care needs to be taken on each case doesn't add even more delays.\n\nSo the government is not putting a timescale on flight for good reason. It's currently winning on the principle of the law - but can it really put its policy into action before the next general election?", "The Argentina team celebrate their World Cup triumph on an open-top bus in Qatar after a thrilling final against France.\n\nLionel Messi finally achieved his World Cup dream as Argentina won their third crown on penalties in one of the greatest finals in the tournament's history.\n\nREAD MORE: 'Breathless, staggering, magnificent' - was World Cup final best ever?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Video provided by activist Sayed Alwadaei shows his confrontation with Tory MP Bob Stewart\n\nA human rights activist has complained to the Conservative Party after a Tory MP told him to \"go back to Bahrain\".\n\nSayed Ahmed Alwadaei confronted MP Bob Stewart outside an event hosted by the Bahraini embassy in London.\n\nThe campaigner repeatedly pressed him on his links to the country, asking \"did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime?\"\n\nMr Stewart has apologised for his remarks but said he was \"taunted\" and had not taken money from Bahrain.\n\nMr Alwadaei, who is director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, challenged Mr Stewart outside an event to mark the National Day of Bahrain last Wednesday.\n\nIn a video, provided to the BBC by Mr Alwadaei, Mr Stewart said in response to his questioning: \"Get stuffed. Bahrain's a great place. End of.\"\n\nHe later added: \"Go away, I hate you. You make a lot of fuss. Go back to Bahrain.\"\n\nAfter being asked again if he had accepted any money from the Bahraini regime, Mr Stewart said: \"You're taking money off my country, go away!\"\n\nThe event was also attended by former prime minister Theresa May and Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi.\n\nMr Alwadaei, who in 2020 was awarded a prize by the Index On Censorship group for his campaigning, fled Bahrain in 2011 after being arrested for taking part in anti-government protests.\n\nHe came to the UK in 2012, where he was granted political asylum and continued to campaign on human rights abuses in Bahrain.\n\nMr Alwadaei said: \"I still have the scars from where the authorities kicked me in the head, and if I went back to Bahrain I would face further torture and imprisonment. My family members are still suffering from reprisals.\"\n\nHe added: \"I don't believe I would have been told to 'go back' to the country that violently tortured me if it weren't for the colour of my skin. No-one should be subjected to racial abuse.\"\n\nMr Alwadaei said he had also complained to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, and reported the incident to the police. The Metropolitan Police have been approached for comment.\n\nMr Stewart, a former Army officer who was stationed in Bahrain in the 1960s, said he regretted his remarks.\n\n\"The protesters persistently taunted me by saying I had taken money from Bahrain. That deeply offended me. I certainly have not and told them so repeatedly,\" he said.\n\n\"I admit I fell for the taunts and should not have responded which I regret. My comments were meant to tell them they could protest safely in Bahrain... Bahrain gets a very unfair press and I feel that strongly.\n\n\"I am sorry if anyone thought I was being racist in any way. Honestly I was not. I wish now I had not been drawn by the taunts (a mistake) but I was and I repeat, I apologise for that. The last thing I meant to be was racist as I have so many good Bahraini friends.\"\n\nA Conservative Party spokesman said: \"We have an established Code of Conduct and formal processes where complaints can be made in confidence. This process is rightly confidential.\"\n\nMr Stewart has previously defended Bahrain, telling a Commons debate in January that the country \"does not have political prisoners\" and \"they are all prisoners who are there because they have committed a crime\".\n\nThe Tory MP has been on two visits to the country paid for by the Bahrain government since last year, according to parliamentary records.\n\nCharities including Amnesty International have accused Bahrain of serious human rights violations, including torture and suppression of freedom of expression.\n\nProtesters took to the streets in 2011 to demand greater rights but the government, backed by Saudi tanks, moved in to crush dissent.", "The remains were found in a garden at a house in Handsworth police had been searching\n\nA child's body has been found during searches of a garden in Birmingham.\n\nWest Midlands Police said last week officers were searching the garden of the home in Clarence Road, Handsworth, after receiving information suggesting there had been a death there in 2020.\n\nA man, aged 40, and a woman, aged 41, were arrested on 9 December on suspicion of causing or allowing the death of a child and a separate case of wilful neglect.\n\nBoth have been charged with neglect.\n\nThey have been remanded in custody.\n\nPost-mortem tests on the body are due to be held, the police force said.\n\nThe force said the home's current occupiers were not connected to the inquiry.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The Court of Protection considers cases relating to people who do not have the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves\n\nA man with physical and mental health problems is \"living\" in a hospital despite being fit to leave, a court has heard.\n\nThe man, who is in his 30s, has been in hospital for more than a year.\n\nA barrister leading the man's legal team told how he had tried to \"escape\" and broke an arm during the attempt.\n\nThe Court of Protection heard that he remained in hospital because no \"available alternative accommodation\" had been found.\n\nManchester City Council has responsibility for his care, but the NHS trust involved has apologised for \"not yet\" identifying a \"suitable community placement\".\n\nA lawyer representing another health authority told the judge that professionals involved were under pressure because of the \"state\" of the health and social care services.\n\nMr Justice Hayden, who is overseeing the case, asked why no plan for the man's discharge had been formulated and indicated that he would review the case in the near future.\n\n\"This is a case about a young man who has been in [hospital] for over a year,\" barrister Ben McCormack, who is leading the man's legal team, said in a written case outline.\n\n\"He is medically fit to be discharged.\"\n\nMr McCormack said the man was \"living\" in hospital and added: \"The real problem is that no available alternative accommodation has yet been sourced.\"\n\nHe said despite the \"wide range\" of public authorities involved, each of which supported discharge, the man remained in hospital without any \"alternative options actually yet on the table\".\n\n\"[He] dislikes being required to live in hospital,\" Mr McCormack told the judge.\n\n\"He feels imprisoned. He has tried to escape through the ceiling of the bathroom attached to his ward.\n\n\"He hurt himself, he broke his arm.\"\n\nMr McCormack said the man had \"extensive health needs\" which would need to be met outside hospital.\n\nBut he added: \"We are not attempting to land a person on the Moon here.\"\n\nMr McCormack said the man had a computer, and a television, and had watched the World Cup Final on Sunday.\n\n\"We will deploy any and every resource to try and get this man out of hospital,\" Vikram Sachdeva KC, who represented one of the health authorities involved, told the judge.\n\n\"We know the state that the health service and social care services are in.\n\n\"It is cold comfort to the individual, but the professionals do have that pressure.\"\n\nBarrister Alexis Hearnden, who represented the NHS trust involved, told the judge in a written case outline: \"The trust offers an apology to the court and [the man] that it has not yet identified a suitable community placement.\"\n\nShe said \"progress\" had been made recently.\n\n\"[His] physical health has at times been extremely precarious,\" she said.\n\n\"During the currency of this hospital admission, his health has also fluctuated and a stroke in July 2022 set back plans to discharge [him] from hospital.\"\n\nManchester City Council has been approached for comment.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jack Johnson (left), brothers Finlay and Samuel Butler and Thomas Stewart died after falling into the icy lake\n\nFour boys who fell into an icy lake last week died from drowning, an inquest has heard.\n\nFinlay Butler, eight, and his younger brother Samuel, six, died, as did their cousin Thomas Stewart, 11, and another boy, Jack Johnson, 10.\n\nThey were pulled from water at Babbs Mill Park, Kingshurst, in the West Midlands, on 11 December.\n\nThe boys were in the water more than 20 minutes after the first 999 calls, the coroner's court heard.\n\nThree were pulled out of the water 22 minutes afterwards, while the fourth boy was pulled out nine minutes after the others, Birmingham and Solihull Coroner's Court was told.\n\nStories emerged last week of a police officer attempting to punch through ice in a bid to reach them and Det Insp Jim Edmonds paid tribute to the \"heroic efforts of everybody involved\".\n\nHe said a police investigation would \"establish the facts of the boys' attendance at the lake and also how they fell into the water\".\n\nMonday's hearing was adjourned and a full inquest into all four deaths will take place on 6 July.\n\nLouise Hunt, the senior coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, offered her sincere condolences to the families and said it was a \"devastating tragedy\".\n\nShe said it was difficult to comprehend the pain and grief the families were experiencing.\n\nMs Hunt said the inquest in July would look at the circumstances leading to the deaths and the cause of death.\n\nIt will also include overviews from the three emergency services involved and their responses.\n\nThe deaths of Finlay, Thomas and Jack were confirmed by police the day after the tragedy, while Samuel, six, died in hospital on Wednesday.\n\nMs Hunt was told Jack, from Kingshurst, and Thomas, of Shard End, Birmingham, were identified by their parents at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital.\n\nThe two brothers, Finlay and Samuel, also from Kingshurst, were at Birmingham Children's Hospital.\n\nDet Insp Edmonds told the inquest police had received a series of calls from the public on the day.\n\nHe said the first call came in at 14:34 GMT on 11 December reporting \"four children playing on a frozen lake at Babbs Mill Park had fallen through the ice, into the water\".\n\nFlowers, balloons and messages of love continue to be placed near the scene\n\nHe said there were further calls from the public, but with some differences as to the number of children involved.\n\n\"Emergency services responded at pace and at arrival it became quite apparent this was a major incident and there were numerous members of the public at the location, reporting children had tragically fallen under the water,\" he said.\n\nThe officer said emergency CPR was performed on the children at the scene and they were taken to hospital.\n\nHundreds of people went to a vigil at the site near Solihull to pay tribute to the boys on Saturday.\n\nThere was a two-minute silence and people, some of whom had travelled across the country, brought candles and laid flowers and tributes.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Some missiles hit critical power infrastructure, causing a blackout across the city\n\nUkraine's capital Kyiv has been rocked by explosions as Russia launched a rare overnight attack on the city.\n\nNo-one was killed and most of the missiles were shot down, Ukrainian officials said, but some did hit \"critical infrastructure\", causing a blackout across the region.\n\nThe attack occurred before Russia's President Vladimir Putin arrived in Belarus to meet Alexander Lukashenko.\n\nUkraine has warned that Russia may be preparing a new attack from Belarus.\n\nThis latest barrage of missile attacks from Russia is the third in five days - however night time raids on the capital, Kyiv, are unusual.\n\nTwenty-three Iranian missiles were launched, of which 18 were shot down, the head of Kyiv's military administration, Serhiy Popko said.\n\nOnly two people were injured, authorities reported - a very low number considering many people would have been asleep at the time of the strikes on civilian areas.\n\nKyiv's Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko wrote on Telegram that \"critical infrastructure facilities were damaged\" and that engineers were working to restore power.\n\nTemperatures in Kyiv regularly drop below freezing and are set to fall further in January.\n\nLast Friday, Russia launched a barrage of missiles in one of the largest air strikes on the capital since the start of the war, and Kyiv has accused Moscow of using winter as a weapon, by attacking civilian infrastructure like its energy grids.\n\nAt the weekend, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia could be planning another major ground offensive early next year, using Belarus as a launching pad for the attack.\n\nHowever, several experts have said they have seen no evidence so far of preparations for a new push, and question whether Moscow would be able to do it over the winter.\n\nBelarus shares a border with both Russia and Ukraine, and Alexander Lukashenko is a close ally of President Putin.\n\nOn Monday, the Russian leader was greeted by his Belarusian counterpart at Minsk National Airport.\n\nWhile Belarus has not become involved in the war directly, it did allow Russian troops to use its territory to launch the invasion in February.\n\nMinsk is coming under increasing pressure from Moscow to step up its support in the so-called \"special military operation\".\n\nVladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko shake hands before their meeting at the Palace of Independence in Minsk\n\nBut Mr Putin's spokesperson described suggestions that Russia was pressuring Belarus to join the war as \"stupid and unfounded fabrications\".\n\nMr Putin arrived in Minsk to meet the Belarusian leader shortly after Russia's defence ministry announced that its troops stationed in Belarus will conduct joint military exercises - which will further fuel Kyiv's concerns of a fresh incursion.\n\nIn his nightly address on Sunday, President Zelensky said that protecting Ukraine's borders is a constant priority, and he was preparing defences for all scenarios.", "Francis \"Cadillac Frank\" Salemme has participated in several gang-related killings. Here, Salemme (middle) is seen after his arrest by the FBI in 1972\n\nA prominent New England Mafia boss has died while serving a life sentence in prison.\n\nFrancis \"Cadillac Frank\" Salemme died on Tuesday at the age of 89.\n\nThe mobster was best known for leading the prominent Patriarca crime family, also known as the New England Mafia, in the early 1990s.\n\nHe had been convicted of several crimes, and was recently jailed in 2018 for the 1993 killing of Boston nightclub owner Steven DiSarro.\n\nSalemme's latest conviction came after the discovery of Mr DiSarro's remains in 2016.\n\nThe murder trial evoked memories of Salemme's days as a leader of a feared and powerful mob in New England.\n\nSalemme, known by his nickname \"Cadillac Frank\", spent much of his life involved in gang wars, and had participated in several gang-related killings in Boston in the 1960s.\n\nHe had previously spent 16 years behind bars for trying to kill lawyer John Fitzgerald by blowing up his car in 1968. Mr Fitzgerald lost a leg but survived.\n\nSalemme was later convicted on racketeering charges in 1995, alongside notorious Boston gangster James \"Whitey\" Bulger and others.\n\nHe was sentenced to 11 years in prison - marking the end of his time as a Mafia boss.\n\nThe case, however, revealed that Bulger and Salemme's best friend Stephen \"The Rifleman\" Flemmi had secretly worked as an FBI informant.\n\nSalemme was released early in 2003 after serving as an informant and helping prosecutors convict a corrupt FBI agent.\n\nBut the discovery of DiSarro's remains in 2016 made him a target for law enforcement again.\n\nMr DiSarro's nightclub, The Channel, was on police's radar due to Salemme's involvement in the business. The FBI told Mr DiSarro shortly before his death that he should co-operate with the government against Salemme.\n\nSalemme had maintained that he was not involved in the death, but was convicted after his former best friend testified against him.\n\nHis attorney, Steven Boozarg, told the Associated Press on Sunday that Salemme \"regretted a lot of the things he had done in his life, particularly the effects it had on his immediate family and the families of others\".", "Elon Musk (right) at the World Cup final, alongside Jared Kushner\n\nElon Musk's poll, asking whether he should stand down as the boss of Twitter, appeared hours after he was photographed at the World Cup final in Qatar.\n\nThat photo tells us two things: firstly, Musk was standing beside Jared Kushner - the son-in-law of Donald Trump, the former US President whom Musk has tried, and failed, to entice back to the social network he now owns.\n\nMusk knows that a bombastic Trump tweet would likely provide a controversial, but 'jackpot' moment for Twitter - and bring huge audiences to the platform.\n\nTrump knows this too, of course, and has his own agenda - specifically his own social network, Truth Social, to which he has so far remained loyal.\n\nThe second point about the photo? It proves Musk was geographically in the vicinity of Saudi Arabia - home to Twitter's biggest investors. Did he drop in, and did they - along with millions of people who use Twitter every day - pose some serious questions about his leadership during the past couple of months?\n\nAnd then there's the matter of the poll itself. How we view the results - 57% of the 17.5m votes cast were in favour of Musk standing down as Twitter CEO - depends on what we think he wanted to achieve by it.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Elon Musk This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe poll has either spectacularly backfired - if Musk was looking for an ego-boost - or it has been a huge success in getting him off the rather large hook he has found himself caught on since his purchase of Twitter was, basically, forced through.\n\nLet's not forget that the Tesla owner spent months trying to get out of buying this company.\n\nThat won't be the case for long, undoubtedly. He has a track record for listening to polls. After all, he put to the vote whether or not he should buy Twitter in the first place, when this entire circus began.\n\nIn the past, he has also asked Twitter users to help him decide whether to sell valuable Tesla stock.\n\nIt's an unorthodox way of doing big business, to say the least. But with Elon Musk, we have grown to expect the unexpected.\n\nSo... if he does what he's been told by the people and quits - who takes over?\n\nHe's been a one-man band since his arrival at the social media company. There's been no regular mention of a deputy, or someone with whom he has worked closely. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg had Sheryl Sandberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos had Andy Jassy (now CEO). Musk has no obvious Twitter wingman.\n\nEven those senior figures he initially saw as allies, like Head of Trust and Integrity Yoel Roth, have since left the business and criticised Musk's leadership.\n\nBut before you dust off your CV, consider for a moment the job description of Twitter CEO. You have the world's most demanding boss; you inherit a demoralised workforce - half of it recently laid off and the remainder under instruction to work long hours. The finances are bleak according to Musk: he says Twitter is operating at a loss of $4m per day.\n\nAnd then there is the legacy of chaotic decision-making which has defined recent months at Twitter. Musk's approach to moderation was decidedly personal. The \"digital town square\" he claimed he wanted to create was rapidly beginning to feel more like you had walked into his house and were trying not to knock over the ornaments.\n\nPolicies came and went seemingly on a whim.\n\nAny future chief also faces the challenge of trying to maintain the safety of some 300 million Twitter users, posting in real time - including content which can be abusive, offensive and, sometimes, illegal.\n\nThrow into that mix the unpredictability of Musk himself - and the ongoing risk that his next tweet could cause untold reputational damage and/or regulatory scrutiny. After all, he was banned from tweeting about Tesla after causing the share price to fall when he said it was over-valued.\n\nThen again, you could say that the only way is up.\n\nA new CEO who is less intent on relentless revolution might calm investors and improve employee morale. Currently every second tweet in my timeline is people threatening to leave Twitter or complaining about it. A social network obsessed with itself is arguably not fulfilling its potential.\n\nSpace enthusiast Elon Musk thought Twitter needed a bit of rocket fuel and he's certainly provided that.\n\nBut perhaps he's now learning the hard way that social media, and the people who bring it to life, are not machines. Perhaps the future of this troubled firm lies not in the stars, but with feet firmly on solid ground. If he'll allow it.\n\nYou can follow Zoe Kleinman on Twitter @zsk.", "A man had been threatening people at a home in Borland Avenue, Carlisle\n\nA man armed with a knife has been shot dead by police at a house in Cumbria.\n\nPolice were called to reports of a man threatening people at a home in Borland Avenue, Carlisle, just after 15:30 GMT.\n\nOn arrival they found a man with a knife and a police firearm was discharged. A man aged in his 40s was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nPolice said no other members of the public were injured and the incident was not being treated as terrorism.\n\nA cordon is in place at the scene and people have been urged to stay away, with increased police patrols in the Botcherby area.\n\nThe incident has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct as a matter of routine.\n\nA spokesman for the watchdog said: \"Our investigators are attending the scene and the police post-incident procedures, where the officers involved will be providing their initial accounts.\n\n\"The investigation is at a very early stage and no further information can be provided at this time.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragic incident.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Sports Personality\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 18:45-21:00 GMT and follow live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nArgentina's World Cup-winning captain Lionel Messi has been named BBC Sports Personality's World Sport Star of the Year for 2022.\n\nMessi, 35, led Argentina to their first World Cup triumph in 36 years in Qatar.\n\nThe Paris St-Germain forward won the tournament's Golden Ball - awarded to the best player - after scoring seven goals at his fifth World Cup.\n\nThe former Barcelona star is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest footballers of all-time.\n\nMessi scored twice in the World Cup final and also converted a penalty in the shootout as Argentina beat holders France 4-2 on penalties following a thrilling 3-3 draw.\n• None Sports Personality shortlist to be named on Tuesday\n\nIt meant he added football's biggest prize to a list of trophies that includes seven Ballons d'Or titles - awarded to the best footballer each year - four Champions Leagues, one Copa America, 10 La Liga titles with Barcelona and a Ligue 1 crown with PSG.\n\nIn addition, he has scored a staggering 793 goals in his career.\n\n\"It's everyone's dream when they're little. I've been lucky enough to achieve everything and what I was missing, I found here,\" Messi said after lifting the World Cup on Sunday.\n\nWith Paris St-Germain, Messi won a first French title in April and since the 2022-23 campaign began in August, has scored 12 times and provided 14 assists in 19 club appearances.\n\nMessi will turn 39 during the next World Cup in 2026 and had hinted previously the finals in Qatar would be his last. If it was, it truly was the perfect way to end his international career following Argentina's Copa America victory last year.\n• None Watch: Just who is the real Lionel Messi?\n\nHe does not plan to retire from the national team just yet, saying after lifting the World Cup that he would like \"to continue by experiencing a few more games as a world champion\".\n\nThe BBC World Sport Star of the Year is awarded by a panel to the athlete who has achieved the most notable sporting success on the world stage during the course of the year.", "The BBC is not disclosing the identity of Mohammed, an asylum seeker in Rwanda\n\n\"I'm fighting just to survive,\" a nervous looking man tells me in a slightly trembling voice.\n\nWe're standing on a patch of wasteland in Rwanda's capital Kigali. It's surrounded by trees to hide us from prying eyes.\n\nMohammed came to this country seeking asylum. He says he fled to Rwanda from Ethiopia, where he had been taking refuge until agents from his home country attempted to kidnap him.\n\nMohammed says life in Kigali has been difficult, but he is so scared of reprisals for speaking to a journalist that he's asked me not to disclose his real name or the name of his home country, except that it is in Africa.\n\nFor days we've been trying to get an asylum seeker living in Rwanda to speak to us on the record. Time and again people agree, and then mysteriously become unavailable, often after being visited by a \"community leader\".\n\n\"The authorities don't say no, but everything is 'tomorrow', or 'come back next month'. It's been almost one year that they haven't given it to me.\"\n\nI had been speaking to Mohammed as the High Court in London was considering the legality of the UK government's controversial plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.\n\nEarlier on Monday, the judges ruled that the UK government's policy is lawful and any relocations there would be \"consistent with the (UN) Refugee Convention\", although the cases of eight individual asylum seekers had not been properly considered.\n\nThe UK government believes the prospect of being sent to Rwanda to have asylum cases processed will act as a deterrent to people crossing the English Channel on small boats.\n\nBut opposition critics say the policy is cruel, unworkable and expensive.\n\nPreviously, campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) had expressed concern about conditions in Rwanda saying there was \"repression of free speech, arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and torture\".\n\nIn its assessment published earlier this year, the UK government had said that \"notwithstanding some restrictions on freedom of speech and/or freedom of association\" it was unlikely that someone being relocated from the UK would face ill-treatment.\n\nThe plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda has proved controversial in the UK\n\nThe United Nations' refugee agency had told the court that Rwanda lacked the \"minimum components for an accessible, reliable, fair and efficient asylum system\".\n\nIt was concerned that people could be sent back to countries where they face torture.\n\nAnd in a report in June the UN agency said that \"the efficiency and timeliness of the asylum procedure is of concern, with decisions taking up to one to two years to be issued in some cases\".\n\nMohammed says he feels like his life is in limbo. He is unable to work legally because he doesn't have proper papers.\n\n\"Friends and relatives help,\" he tells me, adding that odd jobs give him a little income.\n\nBut with a wife and children to support, the uncertainty is taking its toll.\n\nHe says he'd like to leave Rwanda, and go \"anywhere there is peace, like Canada or Australia\".\n\nAmong the concerns raised by campaigners opposed to the UK plan is the treatment of LGBT people in Rwanda.\n\nUnlike in some neighbouring countries, homosexual acts are not illegal in Rwanda. But in an open letter to the UK Home Office, HRW said that \"in practice, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people face stigma in Rwanda\".\n\nIn 2021, it documented how the authorities \"arbitrarily detained, harassed, insulted and beat\" nine transgender or gay people at Kigali's Gikondo Transit Centre, an unofficial detention facility, HRW said.\n\nHRW has criticised the Gikondo Transit Centre in Rwanda's capital, shown above in a file photo\n\n\"Those interviewed said they had been targeted due to their sexual orientation or gender identity and treated worse than other detainees. Police officers or guards accused them of being homeless, thieves, or delinquents and held them in a room reserved for \"delinquent\" men, the campaign group said.\n\nOne person who understands the stigma associated with homosexuality in Rwanda is Patrick Uwayezu.\n\nHe's a gay member of the Evangelical Church of God in Africa in Rwanda, the only one in Kigali which welcomes LGBT members.\n\nA slight man, with a powerful singing voice, he leads the choir on the Sunday that we visit the church.\n\nAfterwards he tells me that LGBT people often find it difficult to access services such as healthcare because of attitudes towards them. It can even affect people's chances of employment.\n\n\"If you hide your identity they can give you a job. But if [employers find out] your identity they'll tell you: 'Go, go, we can't work with you.'\"\n\n\"I think many people don't understand us in this country,\" he says.\n\nPatrick Uwayezu says LGBT people often find it hard to access services like healthcare in Rwanda\n\nDuring our six-day visit we repeatedly asked for an interview with the government. Although a spokesperson agreed to do it, the promised interview never materialised.\n\nWe did however get a statement in which a spokesperson said: \"Discrimination in all its forms is outlawed by our constitution and Rwanda is welcoming to everyone.\"\n\nIt added that the UN's position was \"clearly contradictory\" as it criticised Rwanda while still sending asylum seekers to the country, including more than 100 from Libya earlier this year.\n\nBut responding to the London High Court ruling that the UK government's plan was legal, the Rwandan government welcomed the decision and said it stood \"ready to offer asylum seekers and migrants safety and the opportunity to build a new life in Rwanda\".\n\nThere are also refugee success stories in Rwanda. Teklay Teame arrived here from Eritrea almost 25 years ago, in 1998.\n\nHe now runs a chain of wholesale shops and supermarkets.\n\nHis staff are busy unloading a truck with big boxes and carrying them into one of his many shops when I meet him.\n\nTeklay Teame came to Rwanda from Eritrea in 1998\n\n\"When I arrived here, everything was new to me. But the people were so friendly it didn't take me long to integrate. I started with four staff. Now I have more than 600,\" he says.\n\nUnlike many refugees, Mr Teklay had the money needed to start up his business.\n\nStill, he says, Rwanda offers opportunities for all, as long as you play by the rules.\n\nMr Teklay says he knows Eritreans who \"came here with nothing as refugees. But they've started their own life and businesses.\"\n\nI ask him if he understands the fears of those opposed to the plan to send asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda.\n\n\"I don't know what they're afraid of, but I don't see any need to be afraid here,\" he replies.\n\nThe view as the sun sets over Kigali is spectacular: a bright red sun disappearing behind lush green hills.\n\nBoth the traffic and city below are orderly and efficient, something countries around the world would envy.\n\nThose who opposed the UK government deal had said that beneath the surface lies a real sense of fear.\n\nThat is why - as was widely expected - opponents to this plan are likely to appeal.\n\nIt means the argument about whether Rwanda is safe for those seeking refuge will not end today.", "A man has been charged after four people died in the Channel when a migrant boat got into trouble.\n\nThirty-nine people were rescued when a dinghy ran into difficulties off the Kent coast on Wednesday, but four died.\n\nIbrahima Bah, 19, of no fixed address, was charged with facilitating the attempted arrival in the UK of people he knew or had reasonable cause to believe were asylum seekers.\n\nKent Police said officers were still working to identify those who died.\n\nEight children were among those who were successfully rescued.\n\nA dramatic rescue operation saw people in T-shirts and thin lifejackets shouting for help as people were pulled from the water. The incident happened at night and helicopters lit the scene as people were airlifted away.\n\nLifeboats and a nearby fishing boat helped with the rescue\n\nAuthorities were alerted at 03:05 GMT to reports that the small boat was in distress, which was in difficulty off the coast of Dungeness, 30 miles west of Dover.\n\nTemperatures had dropped to 1C overnight on Tuesday and it was likely to have been colder at sea.\n\nA yellow weather warning was in place across Kent at the time.\n\nCrews on a nearby fishing boat helped lifeboats and the UK coastguard with the rescue.\n\nFrench navy and air and land ambulances were also deployed.\n\nOn Tuesday, the government announced measures to stop small boat crossings, including a new command centre and more funding to tackle immigration crime.\n\nNearly 45,000 people have made the journey so far in 2022.\n\nA statement issued by Kent Police said the Crown Prosecution Service had authorised the charge against Mr Bah. He is due to appear before magistrates on Monday.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nLionel Messi finally achieved his World Cup dream as Argentina won their third crown on penalties in one of the greatest finals in the tournament's history.\n\nArgentina won the shootout 4-2 after a spectacular game which developed into the much-anticipated confrontation between the 35-year-old maestro Messi and his France opposite number Kylian Mbappe.\n\nFrance's own superstar scored a hat-trick - the first in a Fifa World Cup final since 1966 - but still ended up on the losing side at Lusail Stadium.\n\nMessi looked to be securing the one major honour missing from his glittering collection in comfort as Argentina cruised into a two-goal lead.\n\nThis all changed when an explosive intervention from Mbappe, who scored two goals inside two minutes late on, turned this frantic, magnificent match for the ages on its head.\n\nMessi had given Argentina the lead from the penalty spot in the 23rd minute following Ousmane Dembele's foul on Angel di Maria. It made him the first player in World Cup history to score in the group stage, last 16, quarter-final, semi-final and final of a single tournament.\n\nHe then contributed a delicate touch within a magnificent counter-attack that ended with Brighton's Alexis Mac Allister setting up Di Maria for the second 13 minutes later.\n• None 'Now hard to argue against Messi being football's greatest'\n• None 'Breathless, staggering and magnificent' - was final one of best ever?\n\nArgentina were untroubled until the closing stages, only for Mbappe to give France a lifeline from the penalty spot with nine minutes left - then restore equality with a magnificent volley moments later.\n\nMessi bundled Argentina back in front in extra time, but Mbappe completed his treble from the spot two minutes from the end of a frantic, chaotic added spell.\n\nAnd so it went to penalties, with the two greats opening the scoring. But Argentina and Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez saved from Kingsley Coman, before Aurelian Tchouameni missed, leaving Gonzalo Montiel to win the World Cup.\n\nMessi, a World Cup winner at last, collapsed to his knees in the centre circle and was engulfed by jubilant Argentina team-mates.\n• None World Cup Daily podcast: Argentina champions after 'best game ever'\n• None Reaction to one of the most dramatic World Cup finals\n\nMessi stood at the pinnacle of his career as Argentina closed out time in the World Cup final, only for great rival Mbappe to threaten to knock him off and leave him in despair.\n\nInstead, this World Cup - which will now have Messi's name attached to it forever, along with a final that will rank alongside the greats - gave the iconic Argentine the conclusion he wanted.\n\nMessi was imperious for 80 minutes in his final World Cup game as Argentina exerted complete control over a strangely laboured France, scoring his penalty with ease before contributing crucially to a second goal which was a team creation of beauty finished off by Di Maria.\n\nAnd then came Mbappe. And then came France.\n\nIn an atmosphere of disbelief among the massed ranks of Argentina fans who were starting to celebrate victory, Lionel Scaloni's team had to lift themselves once more from the double blow inflicted by Mbappe.\n\nInevitably it was Messi who gave them hope again, showing he was happy to do the dirty work by turning home a scrambled finish in the box in the second period of extra time - only for Mbappe to answer again.\n\nBut Argentina prevailed on penalties and Messi was the centre of attention when Montiel sent the decisive penalty past France keeper Hugo Lloris.\n\nAmid wild scenes of celebration, Messi fell to his knees in tears and raised his arms to the skies, before disappearing beneath a mountain of team-mates.\n\nMessi then took to the microphone to address Argentina's jubilant fans, his Holy Grail reached, another piece of evidence assembled in the argument that would have many declare him the game's greatest player.\n\nMbappe cemented his status as one of the game's modern greats with only the second hat-trick in a World Cup final, following Sir Geoff Hurst's when England beat West Germany in 1966. But the 23-year-old still suffered the pain of defeat.\n\nMbappe was as anonymous as most of his team for the first 80 minutes, ill-served amid an unfathomably poor France display - which they put in despite seeking to become the first side to retain the trophy since Brazil did so 60 years ago, and only the third ever after Italy won in 1934 and 1938.\n\nManager Didier Deschamps even made two substitutions before half-time, replacing Olivier Giroud and Dembele with Marcus Thuram and Randal Kolo Muani.\n\nAnd yet it was Mbappe who revived France in those sensational seconds when they went from looking like timid losers to potential winners, then getting his third from the spot after Messi had put Argentina back in front.\n\nIn a stunning period of extra time during which both sides exchanged chances, France could have won but for a superb last-gasp save by Martinez with his outstretched boot from Muani.\n\nInstead, Mbappe will find history no consolation as he was embraced by his team-mates and French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of this enthralling spectacle.\n• None How you rated the Argentina and France players\n• None Goal! Argentina 3(4), France 3(2). Gonzalo Montiel (Argentina) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3(3), France 3(2). Randal Kolo Muani (France) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the high centre of the goal.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3(3), France 3(1). Leandro Paredes (Argentina) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty missed! Bad penalty by Aurélien Tchouaméni (France) right footed shot is close, but misses to the left. Aurélien Tchouaméni should be disappointed.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3(2), France 3(1). Paulo Dybala (Argentina) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Penalty saved! Kingsley Coman (France) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3(1), France 3(1). Lionel Messi (Argentina) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3, France 3(1). Kylian Mbappé (France) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner.\n• None Attempt missed. Lautaro Martínez (Argentina) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Gonzalo Montiel following a fast break.\n• None Attempt saved. Randal Kolo Muani (France) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Ibrahima Konaté with a through ball.\n• None Offside, Argentina. Lionel Messi tries a through ball, but Lautaro Martínez is caught offside.\n• None Goal! Argentina 3, France 3. Kylian Mbappé (France) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom left corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nLionel Messi has fulfilled a destiny which has been his since before birth and has brought spring back to Argentina - so say his country's newspapers.\n\nThe Argentine press is filled with poetic prose, conveying the emotion of the journalists who have waited 36 years to see their side on top of the world again.\n\nIn newspaper Pagina 12, Jose Luis Lanao wrote that \"it is spring once again\", describing Argentina's flag as \"sky blue and white like a cherry blossom illuminated by the open sky\".\n\nHe describes the country as \"the world champion in soccer and joy\" .\n\nIn another newspaper, Clarin, journalist Juan Cruz reminds readers that \"football is made of roses and thorns\" - while also inadvertently raising a question over Messi's age. While Fifa's squad list suggests he is 35, Cruz has him a year younger.\n\n\"Messi, at 34 years old, is the world champion, a trophy that he was destined for before he was even born,\" Cruz said.\n\nArgentina president Alberto Fernandez thanked the team, writing on Twitter: \"Always together, always united.\"\n\nFernandez' Chilean counterpart Gabriel Boric offered \"a giant embrace to our Argentine brothers\", adding: \"Your happiness crosses the mountains.\"\n\nHere is how the rest of the world reacted to Argentina's win.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nArgentina's victory over France in the World Cup final was watched by a peak of 14.9m people on BBC One.\n\nWith a TV audience share of 58%, the dramatic penalty shootout win was also streamed 7.1m times on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport Online.\n\nITV, who also broadcast the Qatar final, saw a peak of 4.4m with a TV audience share of 17.8%.\n\nBBC TV coverage had a total reach of 38.8m throughout the duration of the World Cup.\n\nIn addition, the tournament was streamed a record-breaking 104.7m times on BBC iPlayer and Sport Online.\n\nBarbara Slater, director of BBC Sport, said: \"One of the greatest World Cup Finals of all time, Argentina and Messi's victory last night closed off a thrilling four weeks of football.\n\n\"A first ever winter World Cup was a new experience for fans and the BBC has once again demonstrated the value of sport when made freely available to all, breaking new streaming records and providing the highest quality coverage, analysis and entertainment across TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport Online and BBC Sounds.\"\n\nThe BBC Sport website welcomed 52.8m unique browsers during the World Cup, while World Cup programming was played 10.4m times on BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and BBC Sport Online.\n\nEngland's 3-0 win over Wales in group B was the most watched game on BBC TV with a peak of 17.6m, while the Three Lions' opening 6-2 victory over Iran was the most requested live game across BBC Sport Online and BBC iPlayer with 7.9m requests.\n\nThe five-minute peak of 21.31m during England's quarter-final defeat by France - broadcast by ITV - was the most-watched single channel TV moment of 2022 so far.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: 'All that matters is winning', Trump aide recalls\n\nA US congressional inquiry into last year's Capitol riot says ex-President Donald Trump should face criminal charges, including insurrection.\n\nThe Democratic-led committee voted unanimously for the justice department to prosecute Mr Trump.\n\nThe panel also aired a new clip of former Trump aide Hope Hicks on her warning to him about his legacy.\n\nMr Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, released a statement slamming the panel as a \"kangaroo court\".\n\nAfter spending around 18 months investigating the riot, the House of Representatives select committee recommended at their final meeting on Monday that Mr Trump face four charges:\n\nThe justice department - whose prosecutors are already considering whether to charge Mr Trump - does not have to follow a congressional committee's referral.\n\nWhile the panel's actions are mostly symbolic, the chairman described the proposed charges as a \"roadmap to justice\".\n\nA justice department spokesman declined to comment on Monday about the referral.\n\n\"An insurrection is a rebellion against the authority of the United States,\" said congressman Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who serves on the committee.\n\n\"It is a grave federal offence, anchored in the Constitution itself.\"\n\nThe panel's seven Democrats and two Republicans released their preliminary 161-page executive summary on Monday.\n\nIt accused Mr Trump of a \"multi-part conspiracy\" to thwart the will of voters in the run-up to the Capitol riot and during the riot itself.\n\nThe House committee has argued Mr Trump spread claims that he knew were false about the 2020 presidential election being stolen, before pressuring state officials, the justice department and his own vice-president to help overturn his defeat. The panel accuses him of inciting the riot at Congress in a last-ditch bid to block the peaceful transfer of power to Mr Biden.\n\nThe full report, spanning hundreds of pages, is due to be released on Wednesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Monday, the panel also released a new video from their deposition with longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks, who said she had warned Mr Trump that by continuing to make false claims about the election, he and his team were \"damaging his legacy\".\n\nMr Trump had shrugged off her concern, she said.\n\nThe then-Republican president, she testified, \"said something along the lines of, 'Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won't matter.\n\n\"'The only thing that matters is winning.'\"\n\nThe committee also criticised the president's eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, a former White House aide, for not being \"forthcoming\" with investigators.\n\nMs Trump and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany \"displayed a lack of full recollection of certain issues, or were not otherwise as frank or direct\" as other aides to Mr Trump, the report said.\n\nMr Trump's presidential campaign, which he launched last month, released a statement accusing the committee of holding \"show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country's history\".\n\n\"This Kangaroo court has been nothing more than a vanity project that insults Americans' intelligence and makes a mockery of our democracy.\"\n\nA Trump bust being held up during the day of the riot at the US Capitol\n\nThe committee also said it would refer four Republican members of Congress to the House ethics committee, including Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, for failing to comply with the committee.\n\n\"If we are to survive as a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again,\" said committee chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.\n\n\"If the faith is broken, so is our democracy. Donald Trump broke that faith,\" he added.\n\nMore than 900 people have been charged in relation to the Capitol riot.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as a peaceful vigil turned into two hours of violence and chaos\n\nEighteen people have been locked up for their part in a \"disgraceful\" riot in Swansea last year.\n\nViolence erupted in the Mayhill area in May 2021 during a vigil for a local teenager who had died.\n\nThe area was described as a \"warzone\" after cars were torched, homes vandalised and residents and police attacked during two hours of disorder.\n\nJudge Paul Thomas said the trouble was the \"worst outbreak of mass violence that has occurred here in my lifetime\".\n\nAt Swansea Crown Court, 17 men and one woman from the Swansea area were sentenced while another three youth defendants will be sentenced on Tuesday.\n\nThe defendants, aged between 18 and 45 were sentenced for a range of offences, including riot and arson, to a total of over 83 years in prison.\n\nCars were burnt out and windows smashed in Mayhill on 20 May 2021 after a balloon release for local teenager Ethan Powell, 19, who collapsed and died the day before.\n\nThe sentences were as follows:\n\nHanding Hurley the longest sentence after his version of events was rejected at a Newton Hearing, Judge Thomas said: \"You filmed what was going on, you celebrated and exulted in what was happening.\"\n\nJudge Thomas described Parsons as playing a \"leading role in the violence\" and playing a \"significant\" role encouraging others as an \"older individual\".\n\nMeredith was called a \"major rabble-rouser\" was sentenced at the same time for domestic violence charges against his former girlfriend and given six years in prison and a five-year restraining order.\n\nFour defendants were sentenced to young offenders institutions\n\nEach defendant will serve half of their sentence in prison, at which point they will be eligible for release on license.\n\nA total of 27 people aged between 15 and 44 were charged with offences relating to the riot - an incident which made headlines around the UK.\n\nAll pleaded guilty except for Kye Dennis, 25, of Fforestfach, Swansea, who was found not guilty following a jury trial.\n\nSpeaking at Swansea Crown Court, the judge described the impact of the disorder on the community, including reputational damage to Mayhill, the effect on children and damage to property.\n\nThe Mayhill street looked \"like a war zone\", one of the residents said\n\nJudge Thomas said: \"Those of us privileged to live in the city of Swansea consider it a generally safe, peaceful place to live and to raise a family.\"\n\nFollowing the riots, however, he said seven families in Mayhill have either left or wanted to leave the area.\n\nHe described how Ethan Powell's death was \"shamelessly and cynically hijacked\" by rioters whose primary motivation was \"a desire for mass entertainment\".\n\nIn particular, he highlighted the impact of the events on the Romain family, whose house was pelted with bricks while a four-year-old child and 16-month old baby were inside.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Adam Romain pleads for police help as his children scream during riot\n\nJudge Thomas also referred to the criticism of South Wales Police in an independent review.\n\nHe said although he could see why this was made, the force's subsequent investigation was of the \"absolutely highest standard\" and he was \"awestruck\" by how it had been handled.\n\nSouth Wales Police said it was pleased \"justice has been served\" and thanked the public for coming forward with evidence.\n\nDet Insp Gareth Jones said: \"This was violence of an extreme nature and was a calculated defiance of the law and a deliberate attack on the police that attended.\n\n\"The numbers involved caused real fear to the local residents who witnessed the events or whose property was damaged during the course of the disorder.\n\n\"They joined together, armed with weapons, sticks and bricks and spared no thought for residents or the potentially fatal consequences that could have occurred.\"", "Dennis McGrory was found guilty after he raped, stabbed and strangled a 15-year-old girl in 1975\n\nA man who brutally raped and murdered a teenager almost 50 years ago in the oldest double jeopardy case in England and Wales has been found guilty.\n\nDennis McGrory was 28 when he sexually assaulted, stabbed and strangled 15-year-old Jacqui Montgomery in her home in Islington, north London, in 1975.\n\nMcGrory was tried on a circumstantial case but was cleared of murder in 1976.\n\nHe was summoned again after swabs from Ms Montgomery's body made a one-in-a-billion DNA match decades later.\n\nHuntingdon Crown Court heard how the girl's body was found by her father, Robert Montgomery, in their living room in Offord Road on 2 June 1975.\n\nShe had suffered fatal stab wounds, blunt force trauma to her face and was strangled with the flex of an iron.\n\nJurors were told McGrory had been \"wild with rage\" when he killed the teenager as he tried to track down his ex-partner Josie Montgomery, who was the victim's aunt.\n\nThe CPS released images from the day after the murder, which shows Dennis McGrory with cuts and bruises behind his ears and on his hands\n\nProsecuting, Sarah Przybylska said: \"No doubt furious with rage and wanting to attack Josie, the defendant took out his anger on the next best thing, Jacqui Montgomery, both raping and murdering her.\"\n\nDuring the attack, he ripped out a page of the teenager's diary with her aunt's address on it.\n\nMcGrory had threatened to rape Jacqui in the past and, on that night, he \"made good\" on those words, jurors were told.\n\nFollowing a 2003 change in the law on double jeopardy, which meant that retrials could take place if new and compelling evidence came to light, McGrory's case was referred to the Court of Appeal and sent for a fresh trial at the Old Bailey.\n\nThat trial, in March, was halted when McGrory, of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, fell ill.\n\nHe appeared for his retrial at Huntingdon Crown Court by video link and was found guilty of rape and murder.\n\nMax Hill KC, director of public prosecutions, hailed the guilty verdict, saying: \"This crime took place a full decade before the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) opened its doors so it's certainly the oldest case that I've encountered.\n\n\"It is one of the very small handful of double jeopardy cases that I've personally authorised to be taken to the Court of Appeal.\n\n\"It is an extremely serious and rare step to ask the Court of Appeal, as I did, to set aside an acquittal for murder, whether that acquittal took place five years ago or 50 years ago,\" he added.\n\nJacqui Montgomery suffered fatal stab wounds, blunt force trauma and was strangled with the flex of an iron\n\nMr Hill praised the \"excellent\" work of the police and CPS in bringing McGrory to justice.\n\nHe described it as a \"particularly vicious murder\" where a sexual assault was part of the \"murderous attack\".\n\n\"That meant that on further investigation, we were able to prove that there was a scientific link between McGrory and the body of Jacqueline Montgomery.\n\n\"His DNA was found on her body in circumstances where he denies to this day that he was even at the scene or at the house in which she was murdered.\n\nHe said it formed new evidence in addition to finding a page torn from Ms Montgomery's diary.\n\n\"When you put those two elements together, it became impossible for him to explain his possession of the diary page and the DNA sample that he left on this poor girl's body in any way other than him being present and being the killer himself,\" Mr Hill added.\n\n\"I'm sure that this individual McGrory believed that he had gotten away with murder,\" Mr Hill continued.\n\n\"But since the double jeopardy principles were enshrined in statute in 2003, I and my recent predecessors have had the ability to try to put matters right,\" he said.\n\nMr Hill said \"although these cases are rightly rare\", the message was \"the system will catch you in the end\".\n\nActing Det Supt Rebecca Reeves described the murder as an \"extremely brutal attack\" and said she hoped the conviction would bring Ms Montgomery's family \"some element of comfort\".\n\n\"This has been an extremely challenging investigation lasting a number of years,\" she said.\n\nDet Supt Reeves praised the family members who gave evidence in the trial for being brave \"because McGrory was a violent bully who terrified the women in his life and that impact, that influence, was something that some of them still felt today\".\n\nClaire Prodger, from the CPS, said McGrory had \"finally faced justice for his murderous actions\" after \"selfishly and brutally\" ending the teenager's life.\n\nThe jury deliberated on Monday for just over an hour to find McGrory guilty on both charges against him.\n\nMcGrory was remanded into custody to be sentenced on 13 January.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Thai navy says 31 sailors are missing after a warship carrying more than 100 crew capsized and sank during a storm in the Gulf of Thailand.\n\nHTMS Sukhothai sank after water flooded its power controls on Sunday night. Images shared by the navy showed some crew who survived in a life raft.\n\nOn Monday, authorities said they had rescued 75 sailors, but 31 were still missing in rough seas.\n\n\"We will keep looking,\" a navy spokesman told the BBC.\n\nSearch crews worked through the night to find survivors, with the operation continuing on Monday with air force assistance.\n\nThe navy also announced an investigation into the cause of the disaster.\n\n\"This has almost never happened in our force's history, especially to a ship that is still in active use,\" spokesman Admiral Pogkrong Monthardpalin told the BBC.\n\nFootage shared by the navy on Twitter showed crew members wrapped in blankets and receiving treatment after they had been rescued. Some were being airlifted to hospital.\n\nOther images showed sailors from the Sukhothai in a life raft, having jumped from the sinking vessel.\n\nOne unnamed crew member said he had been in the water for several hours before he was rescued.\n\n\"The waves were quite high, about three metres when the ship sank,\" he said in a clip shared on local media. \"I put on the life jacket and jumped. I swam for three hours.\"\n\nOfficials said the ship went down after it took on water, which flooded its hull and short-circuited its power room.\n\nWith the power lost, the crew battled to retain control of the ship which listed on to its side before sinking around 23:30 local time Sunday (16:30 GMT).\n\nThe ship had been on a patrol 32km (20 miles) east of Bang Saphan, in the Prachuap Khiri Khan province, when it got caught in the storm on Sunday.\n\nDramatic pictures posted on the Thai Navy's Twitter account show the vessel listing onto its side, and back-up rescue ships trying to find survivors in choppy waters.\n\nThree naval ships and helicopters were sent to assist, but only warship HTMS Kraburi reached the vessel before it sank.\n\nThe frigate picked up most of the Sukhothai's crew, the navy said. Sailors wearing life jackets were found in the water and in life rafts. The navy has disclosed scant detail on their condition. Local media published pictures showing medical personnel at the dock taking crew members off in stretchers.\n\nPrime Minister Prayut Chan-o-Cha released a statement on Monday confirming officials were investigating the disaster.\n\n\"I am following the news closely - about five people are seriously injured,\" he said.\n\nHTMS Sukhothai was built for the Thai navy in the US in the mid-1980s (file pic)", "The UK's cold snap has given way to soaring temperatures with warnings of heavy rain and some flooding, as people prepare for the Christmas getaway.\n\nYellow alerts for rain are in place until 06:00 GMT on Tuesday in southern England and South Wales.\n\nAfter freezing conditions last week, forecasters said Monday could bring highs of up to 15C in some parts.\n\nThe Met Office said flooding could hit homes and businesses, as well as causing disruption to road travel.\n\nIt added that bus and train journeys could also be impacted as downpours hit areas including Brighton, Plymouth and Portsmouth in the south of England, and Newport in Wales on Monday.\n\nThere are nine flood warnings in place and 49 flood alerts issued across the country.\n\nMore people may also choose to travel on the roads as thousands of members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) strike from 18:00 on Christmas Eve.\n\nThe RAC predicts 7.9 million journeys will be made over the two days immediately before Christmas Day, with the worst congestion expected between 10:00 and 19:00 on Friday, and between 12:00 and 13:00 on Saturday.\n\nRAC spokesman Rod Dennis said: \"If possible, drivers should try to make their trips on a quieter day earlier this week if they possibly can.\"\n\nThe AA also issued an \"amber traffic warning\" for Friday and Saturday, as they urged motorists to carry out car checks including levels of fuel, oil, coolant and screen wash, along with ensuring tyres are correctly inflated.\n\nPeter Jenkins from Water UK urged people to check that their water pipes were well insulated, following the freezing weather.\n\n\"The last thing we want is for people to experience further disruption as temperatures rise... putting many homes at risk of burst pipes due to freeze-thaw.\"\n\nScottish Water said it had seen a rise of 150% in burst pipes in recent days as sub zero temperatures tuned to rapid thaw, with an extra 100 million litres of water a day passing through them.\n\nWelsh Water also said there had been a number of leaks due to the \"rapid thaw\" - with one pub facing a huge clean up after pipes burst and water poured in from the ceiling.\n\nWarnings for snow and ice were previously in place for much of the country up to Sunday - including an amber alert for ice in parts of northern England.\n\nThe severe weather caused widespread disruption - bringing temperatures as low as -17.3C in Scotland on Tuesday - the coldest temperature since February 2021.\n\nBut BBC Weather said on Sunday that the bitterly cold, frosty weather was turning \"to something much milder, wetter and windier\".\n\nPresenter Jennifer Bartram said: \"The big swing in temperatures will be noticeable on Monday, and though it is unusual to see such a dramatic change, it's not unheard of.\n\n\"The change is all linked to where our air is coming from - we're replacing bitterly cold Arctic air with something much milder from the Atlantic.\"\n\nA sledger made the most of the snow in the Brecon Beacons National Park on Sunday\n\nHow have the weather conditions affected you? Share your pictures, video and experiences.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nAll the talk before Sunday's incredible World Cup final between Argentina and France was understandably about Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, but by the end, another name was on everyone's lips - Emiliano Martinez.\n\nAfter an enthralling, twisting, turning and emotionally draining 120 minutes and the game level at 3-3, penalties were needed to determine who would lift football's greatest prize.\n\nWhile Argentina's takers did their job by calmly converting all four of their spot-kicks, Martinez stepped up to break French hearts.\n\nMbappe had scored two penalties in the game so there was little surprise he converted France's first of the shootout, although Martinez was not far off getting a hand to it.\n\nFrom then on, though, the Aston Villa goalkeeper took centre stage.\n\nHe went the right way again to deny Kingsley Coman, before the mind games were ramped up to further unsettle the French players.\n\nAs Aurelien Tchouameni walked up for his turn, perhaps already feeling the weight of expectation, Martinez rolled the ball away from the Real Madrid midfielder, forcing him to have to walk over to collect it.\n\nThere is a word for such antics by Martinez that can't be stated here, but they had the desired effect as the 22-year-old Tchouameni dragged his penalty wide, prompting a dance reminiscent of Alan Pardew's mesmerising moves in Crystal Palace's 2016 FA Cup final against Manchester United.\n\nThat put Argentina within touching distance of a first World Cup since 1986 and, although Randal Kolo Muani fired home France's next penalty, it only delayed the celebrations from the South Americans as substitute Gonzalo Montiel scored to kick off the party.\n\n\"Emi Martinez is a very positive guy and told his team-mates he was going to save some penalties,\" revealed Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni.\n\nBBC Sport's pundits at the game were all in agreement too that Martinez's antics played a huge part in the victory.\n\n\"There is no doubt he had a massive impact mentally in the shootout,\" said former England midfielder Jermaine Jenas.\n\nEx-England striker Alan Shearer added: \"He was trying to wind them up, he was kicking the ball away, he was talking to the players, he was putting as much pressure as possible on them.\"\n\nFormer England defender Rio Ferdinand said: \"Even his movements behind the line, he was moving, trying to catch the eye of the person striking the ball.\"\n\nThe game may have not even got to a shootout if not for a brilliant save by Martinez in the final seconds of extra time.\n\nLiverpool defender Ibrahima Konate hit the ball forward and Muani raced through, only to be denied by Martinez who rushed out to close down the gap before spreading himself out to block the finish.\n\nIt was one of a number of big saves Martinez made in Qatar, earning him the tournament's Golden Glove award for the most clean sheets with three.\n\nHe has certainly had a big impact in his short time with the national team. Since making his debut last year he has helped Argentina win the Copa America and now the World Cup.\n\nHe has had to be patient for his career to kick off. Martinez spent eight years at Arsenal, going out on loan six times and playing just 11 Premier League games for the Gunners, before joining Villa two years ago and growing in stature.\n\n\"I have no words for it. I was calm during the penalty shootout and everything went as we wanted,\" Martinez said after Sunday's final.\n\n\"All that I have dreamed of has been achieved.\"\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "It is the week when families across the UK gear up for Christmas - but before settling down to turkey and sprouts there will be further industrial action to deal with first.\n\nIn the coming days, ambulance drivers, nurses, driving examiners and highway workers will all be striking.\n\nThen a fresh walkout by postal workers will disrupt last-minute deliveries of cards and presents - while further stoppages on the railways from Christmas Eve will make travelling home a challenge for many.\n\nThis is a bumper edition of my latest strike briefing, with lots of useful information on what is happening - and how it might affect you.\n\nSo what is the week ahead looking like?\n\nAcross England, Wales and Northern Ireland, nurses from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union are walking out on Tuesday 20 December.\n\nThe strike will involve staff in about a quarter of hospitals and community teams in England, all health boards in Northern Ireland and all but one in Wales.\n\nUnder trade union laws, life-preserving care has to be provided - so all nursing staff are expected to work in services such as intensive and emergency care.\n\nBut the action will affect routine services, such as planned operations, district nursing and mental health care.\n\nWatch Make Sense of Strikes on iPlayer and find out more about why people are striking and whether industrial action works.\n\nAmbulance staff across most of England and Wales will go on strike on Wednesday 21 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nThe co-ordinated walkout by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls only.\n\nHowever, it could mean people who have had trips and falls not being responded to.\n\nNational Highways traffic officers in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) working in London and the south-east of England will stop work from 22 to 25 December.\n\nThe strike will involve control centre staff. Traffic officers who work in the aftermath of accidents will also stop work.\n\nPCS says its rolling programme of strike action \"will have a significant impact\". However, National Highways says no roads will be closed and it has \"well-rehearsed resilience plans in place\".\n\nThe next strikes by Royal Mail staff are due to take place on 23 and 24 December - some of the busiest days for pre-Christmas deliveries.\n\nOn strike days Royal Mail says it will not be able to deliver first and second-class letters.\n\nHowever, it will deliver as many parcels and Special Delivery letters as possible.\n\nRoyal Mail delivery offices and customer service points will be closed. Letters will not be collected from post boxes.\n\nBorder Force staff are going on strike for eight days over Christmas at Heathrow and Gatwick airports.\n\nBirmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Manchester airports, as well as the port of Newhaven, will also be affected.\n\nThe strike will take place from 23-26 and 28-31 December.\n\nHeathrow has warned passport checks may take longer on strike days. The government says travellers could face \"serious disruption\".\n\nAnd if you're thinking about booking a last-minute flight, here is an extra spanner in the works - British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have stopped selling new tickets for inbound flights to Heathrow on the days of the Border Force strikes.\n\nThe RMT rail workers' union has announced further strikes from 18:00 GMT on Saturday 24 until 06:00 GMT on Tuesday 27 December.\n\nPrevious strikes by the RMT have had a major impact on services throughout England, Scotland and Wales.\n\nNetwork Rail says passengers should check their train-operating company's website and only travel if absolutely necessary.\n\nDrivers in south and west London who are in the Unite union and work for operator Abellio will walk out on 24 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nCivil servants in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) - including driving examiners and some job centre workers - are striking most days until early January.\n\nBut the industrial action is regional - with different areas affected each week. This week, until 24 December, the walk-outs will be in north-west England and Yorkshire and the Humber.\n\nSome vehicle testing and enforcement services might also be unavailable.\n\nCheck out our full rundown of all the December and January strikes.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The government has extended a freeze on alcohol duty for six months.\n\nChancellor Jeremy Hunt had said in his Autumn Statement that prices would go up in February, reversing a decision made by his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng.\n\nBut the Treasury is now freezing the duty until August 2023 when a new system for calculating taxes on alcohol is also due to come into force.\n\nLifting the freeze would have added 7p on a pint of beer and 38p on a bottle of wine.\n\nMr Kwarteng had originally announced the freeze during his short time as chancellor in September, saying he had \"listened to industry concerns\" over planned rises in the tax during a time when the cost of living is rising at the fastest pace for 40 years.\n\nBut after Mr Hunt said the duty would rise in line with retail prices index (RPI) inflation from February, industry leaders were disappointed.\n\nThe Scotch Whisky Association said many distillers were \"furious\" at the move that it said would amount to an average increase of 12% in price, or £1.35p to the average bottle of whisky.\n\nThe duty paid on alcohol is revalued each year to keep pace with inflation - though it has been either cut or frozen in every budget since 2013.\n\nMonday's news was welcomed by the hospitality trade, but Michael Kill from the Night Time Industries Association called for more government support for the sector, which over the last few years has been hit by Covid lockdowns, and more recently train strikes leading to cancelled bookings and lower trade.\n\n\"The alcohol duty freeze will give businesses some breathing space but will not repair the damage already done or solve the immediate challenges faced by the sector following three years of disruption,\" said Mr Kill.\n\nEmma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, whose members represent over 20,000 UK pubs, said: \"This freeze will allow £180m to be reinvested into our sector at a critical moment and inject a much-needed flurry of festive cheer for pubs and breweries.\n\n\"We look forward to working with the government to implement the promised duty reforms in 2023 ensuring a fair and modernised rates system in the UK that support lower-strength products and our country's pubs.\"\n\nUnder new measures being introduced in August 2023, duty will be reduced on all drinks with alcohol content below 8.5%, and a blanket tax of 12.5% will be introduced for wines with alcohol content between 11.5% and 14.5%. The measures will run for 18 months from 1 August 2023 to 1 February 2025.\n\nThe government says that by removing \"arbitrary\" thresholds it will cut red tape for pubs and other small venues.\n\nTreasury minister James Cartlidge told MPs on Monday that the extension would give \"maximum certainty\" to the industry ahead of challenging times.\n\nBut while Labour said the sector would welcome the announcement, the party branded it a \"U-turn\" and said claims to be providing certainty were \"laughable\".", "A care worker in England is paid on average £8,000 a year less than NHS staff with the same skills, research for a care provider suggests.\n\nThe charity, Community Integrated Care, also told BBC News it was having to provide food parcels for some staff who were struggling to pay their bills.\n\nSeparate research shows low pay is the most common reason why care staff quit.\n\nThe government said it was \"incredibly grateful\" to carers and recognised their \"extraordinary commitment\".\n\nA spokesperson added: \"That's why we prioritised social care in the Autumn Statement, providing up to £7.5bn over the next two years.\"\n\nMany health professionals are struggling financially, with nurses due to strike over pay for a second time on Tuesday.\n\nHowever, Community Integrated Care - one of the UK's largest providers of support for people with learning disabilities and autism - says pay pressures facing social care are now \"untenable\" and \"immoral\".\n\nThe research, by job evaluation experts Korn Ferry, found care workers' wages have risen since last year, but the pay gap with the NHS has increased by about £1,000.\n\nOther jobs with similar skill levels, such as senior teaching assistants, are paid an average of £26,327, again significantly more than care workers, Korn Ferry found.\n\nMollie Moorby, 23, works with adults with physical and learning disabilities in Stockport, Greater Manchester. \"This is my dream job, helping people,\" Mollie told the BBC.\n\nMollie Moorby is working in her \"dream job\"\n\nShe is trained to support people with their daily life, including with their health needs and food.\n\nMollie started looking after her own mother as a teenager, and gradually realised she wanted to work in a caring role. However, on £10 an hour she struggles to put food on the table and cannot afford to turn on her heating.\n\n\"When you're working 40 to 50 hours a week and you put in everything, not only physically, but mentally, emotionally - for lack of better words - it doesn't seem fair.\"\n\nWith the cost-of-living crisis, things became so difficult that Mollie asked her bosses at Community Integrated Care for help. As a result, they started providing food parcels for staff in need, and they have given out more than 80 since September.\n\n\"With the food parcels, it has been a lot easier,\" says Mollie. \"You get necessities, things that are expensive, like laundry detergent. That was stressing me out for a while.\"\n\nThe charity says it has already used its financial reserves to increase wages for Mollie and her colleagues. However, it says it cannot raise them further because it is now running at a loss - as the fees it receives from councils for providing support are not enough.\n\n\"We are subsidising the contracts that local authorities are asking us to provide,\" says Teresa Exelby, from the charity. \"We want to do absolutely everything we can, but as a charity that is not sustainable. Fundamentally, the system is absolutely broken.\"\n\nA separate report, published on Monday by the Homecare Association, which represents companies caring for people in their own homes, reaches a similar conclusion, with almost all the firms that responded saying it is harder than ever to recruit and keep staff.\n\nThe latest official figures, published in October, show 165,000 job vacancies in adult social care in England, up 52% in a year.\n\nThe Homecare Association study says among staff, the most common reason for leaving is needing to earn more money and more than half say they feel burnt out, stressed or exhausted.\n\nThe government says its Made With Care recruitment campaign aims to boost careers in adult social care and it is also investing £15m in hiring from overseas.\n\nIn England, the national living wage for over-23s will rise to £10.42 from next April.", "Mr O'Neill's family hope to repatriate his body in the coming days\n\nA 22-year old man has died after his boat capsized while kayaking in Thailand.\n\nOdhran O'Neill from Lurgan, County Armagh was last seen in Khao Sok National Park on Saturday at 13:00 GMT.\n\nMr O'Neill's uncle David O'Dowd told the BBC his nephew was only 4.5m (15ft) from a jetty when his boat capsized.\n\nHe had taken a break from an apprenticeship in Newry to travel to Thailand with a friend last week.\n\nThe pair had based themselves outside Bangkok and had been planning to travel around the country for a few months.\n\nOdhran O'Neill had been kayaking in Khao Sok National Park\n\nMr O'Dowd said the family was currently working to have Mr O'Neill's body repatriated.\n\nHe said it was expected to take between seven and 10 days.\n\nA statement from Clann Eireann GAC said after the kayak capsized, Mr O'Neill said he would swim to shore but was not seen again.\n\nIt is believed his body was found in the early hours of Sunday morning.\n\nThe club thanked everyone who assisted the search efforts by sharing the social media post and said their thoughts and prayers were with the family.\n\n\"Unfortunately, it is not the outcome we had all hoped and prayed for,\" the statement added.", "Gaby Hutchinson died in hospital in the early hours of Monday\n\nA second person has died after being injured in a crush at a gig at London's Brixton O2 Academy.\n\nGaby Hutchinson, 23, who was working as a security contractor that night, died in hospital in the early hours of Monday.\n\nThe concert, by Afro-pop singer Asake, was cut short on Thursday after a \"large number of people\" tried to force their way inside, the Met Police said.\n\nA 21-year-old woman remains in a critical condition in hospital following the crush at Asake's third sold-out show at the south London venue last week.\n\nIn its initial statement, the Metropolitan Police stated that a second woman had died following the crush.\n\nHowever, Scotland Yard issued a further press release on Monday evening, updating the name and gender to that of Gaby Hutchinson.\n\nThe Met said: \"At this time we have established that the three people who were critically injured, including Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson who have tragically died, were all in the foyer of the building.\"\n\nIt added detectives were \"working hard to establish exactly what happened on Thursday night\", and described the investigation as \"large and complex\".\n\nPolice are reviewing CCTV, phone footage, speaking to witnesses and conducting forensic examinations.\n\nThe first officers were reported to be on the scene at 21:11 GMT, seven minutes after they were called.\n\nVideos on social media showed the crowd stretching from the road outside to the venue's doors, one of which was smashed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCh Supt Colin Wingrove, policing commander for Lambeth and Southwark, said: \"It is devastating news that a second person has lost their life following the events on Thursday.\n\nHe expressed \"heartfelt condolences\" to the families.\n\nThe O2 Academy tweeted its \"heartfelt condolences\" to Gaby Hutchinson's family and friends.\n\n\"We continue to be devastated by this tragic situation and are fully supporting the ongoing situation,\" it said.\n\nFlorence Eshalomi, the MP for Vauxhall whose constituency includes Brixton, said she felt \"utterly heartbroken\" by the deaths.\n\nLondon's mayor Sadiq Khan said he was \"devastated\".\n\nMs Ikumelo was a nursing graduate who had been attending the concert.\n\nHer cousin Babatunde Oyejide told the BBC she was a \"true, special person\" and encouraged people to send prayers to Ms Ikumelo's partner and children.\n\nHe said: \"She was a very loved person in the neighbourhood and a very caring person, family orientated. She is going to be truly missed and we love her forever.\"\n\nThe south London venue was evacuated on Thursday night\n\nAsake, who had urged fans without tickets not to turn up at the venue before his first Brixton concert, released a statement following Ms Ikumelo's death in which he said he was \"devastated\".\n\n\"I am overwhelmed with grief and could never have imagined anything like this happening,\" he wrote.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rail passengers are being warned to avoid travel on Christmas Eve when further strike action over pay and conditions is due to take place.\n\nThe planned walkout by RMT members on 24 December will have a severe impact on services, said Network Rail.\n\nIt advised passengers to travel only if \"absolutely necessary\" or consider travel on another day.\n\nMost people should try to complete their journeys by 15:00, ahead of union members walking out at 18:00, it added.\n\nThe strike by RMT workers will continue until 06:00 on 27 December.\n\nNetwork Rail added that some rail companies will be unable to run any services on Christmas Eve, with further \"significant impacts\" between Christmas and New Year.\n\nAndrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail said: \"I am so sorry that our passengers are having to bear the brunt of the RMT's needless strike when a fair [pay] offer is on the table.\"\n\nPrevious strikes by the RMT have had a major impact on services throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Union members have rejected offers in a dispute over pay, job security and working conditions.\n\nThe RMT has announced further strikes for 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nNetwork Rail said the industrial action meant some rail companies would be unable to run any services on 24 December, with \"very limited\" services on Boxing Day also.\n\nChief executive Mr Haines added that the strikes over the busy Christmas period were \"causing needless misery\" to the railway and to the country's economy.\n\nBut RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has described Network Rail's pay offer to workers as \"substandard\".\n\n\"Our members, along with the entire trade union movement will continue their campaign for a square deal for workers, decent pay increases and good working conditions,\" Mr Lynch said in a statement last week, adding that members were prepared to take further strike action \"in pursuit of a negotiated settlement\".\n\nThe railway strikes come at a time of widespread industry walkouts, including those by ambulance drivers, nurses, driving examiners and highway workers who will all be striking over the festive period.\n\nThousands of postal workers also walked out last week in a dispute over pay and working conditions, with further strikes by Royal Mail workers belonging to the CWU due to take place on 23 and 24 December - some of the busiest days for pre-Christmas deliveries.", "Lionel Messi strode alone into a single spotlight amid the darkness at Lusail Stadium to finally take possession of the one prize that has remained painfully out of reach throughout his silver-lined career.\n\nThe 35-year-old Argentina maestro rubbed his hands together in glorious anticipation of his crowning glory, donning the traditional Arab robe known as a bisht, before finally lifting the World Cup to the sky amid an explosion of flashlights and pyrotechnics.\n\nMessi had achieved his dream. The gap in his glittering collection had been filled - the set complete after arguably the most spectacular World Cup final in history, a game for the ages that tore at the emotions and played havoc with the pulse rates before Argentina's icon reached his summit.\n\nHe can now add the World Cup to seven Ballons d'Or, four Champions Leagues, one Copa America, 10 La Liga titles with Barcelona and a Ligue 1 crown in France with Paris St-Germain.\n\nThis was the one. This was the trophy that Messi's millions of advocates will now use as 'Exhibit A' in their argument that he is the greatest to have played the game.\n\nThis is a trophy, almost 15 inches of solid gold, that will now have many saying Messi is the greatest - and those with a counter-argument will have an added degree of difficulty presenting their case.\n\nComparisons are expanded over generations, which adds a different frame to all the arguments, but no-one can now deny Messi belongs in the same pantheon as Pele and another whose image was across many Argentina banners at Lusail Stadium on Sunday.\n\nInevitably, Diego Maradona, his legendary predecessor in Argentina's number 10 shirt, had a forceful case for the best. The point of difference was always his World Cup triumph in Mexico 36 years ago - a triumph Messi did not have. It has now been removed.\n\nMessi will always be in any conversation about the greatest, and the fact he now has the biggest honour the global game has to offer makes for a more powerful discussion as to his merits.\n\nHow do you even begin to tell the tale of how Messi reached his pinnacle? How do you recount events that eventually led to Argentina's World Cup win and the climax of a tournament that will have the name Lionel Messi attached to it forever?\n• None Reaction to one of the most dramatic World Cup finals\n• None World Cup Daily podcast: Argentina champions after 'best game ever'\n\nMessi should have known, given his history of World Cup heartache and disappointment stretching back to 2006 and including a losing final to Germany at Rio's Maracana in 2014, that this was an honour which would not be won easily.\n\nThe fact that this spectacular night at Lusail Stadium contained so much suffering before Argentina and Messi hit the heights of their third World Cup win may make it even sweeter.\n\nAnd it was all done in the face of brilliance from the 23-year-old who will, if he is not there already, join Messi in any debate about the sport's true elite in years to come: France's Kylian Mbappe.\n\nFrance appeared to be rolling out the red carpet for Messi's coronation as they barely threatened for 80 minutes. Lusail was Messi's playground as he scored Argentina's opener from the penalty spot, making him the first player in World Cup history to score in the group stage, round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final and final in a single tournament.\n\nMessi then helped to create Angel di Maria's second, the game taking a routine course with celebrations started among Argentina fans until the much-anticipated battle with Mbappe was joined in stunning fashion.\n\nMbappe pulled one back from the spot with 10 minutes left, then fired in a brilliant volley seconds later. Messi's smile that stretched across the giant screens in each corner of the stadium was one of \"not again\" disbelief.\n• None 'Breathless, staggering and magnificent' - was final one of best ever?\n\nArgentina coach Lionel Scaloni pulled off a masterstroke of selection with the inclusion of 34-year-old Di Maria, who ran Jules Kounde ragged, but then appeared to give way to fatal conservatism by taking him off with his side on top after 64 minutes for the workmanlike Marcos Acuna.\n\nMessi, of course, pulled Argentina round with his second in extra time but France, revived from the earlier mediocrity, were level again through Mbappe's penalty.\n\nIn an atmosphere of near hysteria, Argentina keeper Emiliano Martinez saved with his foot from Randal Kolo Muani with the World Cup at his mercy in the closing seconds, although there was still time for Lautaro Martinez to head wide of an unguarded goal at the other end.\n\nTo say extra time was highly charged would be an understatement, with some fans even tearing their gaze away from the action, such was the unbearable tension.\n\nMagnificently stressful, it went to penalties which Argentina won 4-2, a painful way to settle a game that will now be talked about whenever the World Cup is discussed.\n\nWhen Gonzalo Montiel scored the decisive kick, Messi slumped to his knees in tears in the centre circle, arms raised to the heavens before he was buried under an avalanche of light blue and white striped shirts.\n\nHe then claimed a microphone to address Argentina's supporters amid scenes of celebratory mayhem.\n\nMessi picked up the Golden Ball for player of the tournament, the first player to win it twice since it was introduced in 1982, after also winning the honour in 2014.\n\nHe has now been involved in 21 goals for Argentina at World Cups - 13 goals and eight assists, the most by any player for any nation. The goals in this World Cup final give him 793 in his career. He was also the first player to score in every round in the same men's World Cup tournament.\n\nThere was one statistic that mattered above all others on this night: Messi was a World Cup winner - at last.\n\nHe sat astride the figure-of-eight stage on which he had received the World Cup with his team, basking in the fact he can at last fill that one space in his trophy cabinet. It was a stage later filled with friends and family of the Argentina squad, their country now back on top of the football world for the first time since 1986.\n\nArgentina's supporters stayed in their seats for well over an hour, going through the songbook that has been the soundtrack to their World Cup campaign, paying homage to the man they counted on. The man who had delivered.\n\nThe seismic shock of that opening loss to Saudi Arabia seemed an age away. It was Messi who got Argentina's World Cup into gear with a brilliant goal against Mexico and he was unstoppable as he carried it through to the finish.\n\nMessi had the golden trophy in his hands. It was mission accomplished - a mission stretching back more than 16 years to when he came on as a scoring substitute in a 6-0 win over Serbia and Montenegro in Germany.\n\nThe final chapter of Messi's World Cup story was a thriller from first to last against France, with the plot taking so many twists. It delivered the perfect ending on a never to be forgotten night in Qatar.\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "King Charles III reacts after an egg was thrown in his direction as he arrived for a ceremony at Micklegate Bar in York\n\nA man has been charged after eggs were allegedly thrown at the King and the Queen Consort during a visit to York.\n\nUniversity of York student Patrick Thelwell, 23, will appear at York Magistrates' Court on 20 January charged with a public order offence following the incident in November.\n\nA figure in the crowd appeared to throw four eggs as the royal couple arrived to unveil a statue in honour of the late Queen at York Minster.\n\nThe incident occurred on the second day of an official royal visit to Yorkshire, during which the King and Camilla later travelled to Doncaster.\n\nThe King continued shaking hands with a member of the public as the eggs flew in his direction, pausing briefly to look at the shells cracked on the ground.\n\nHe was ushered away by security, alongside Camilla, shortly after.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nPolice officers were then seen restraining a man on the ground behind temporary fencing set up for the royal visit.\n\nPeople in the crowd started chanting \"God save the King\" and \"shame on you\" after the eggs were thrown.\n\nAnnouncing the charges in Mr Thelwell's case, Nick Price, head of the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said: \"The CPS has authorised North Yorkshire police to charge Patrick Thelwell with threatening behaviour contrary to Section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986.\n\n\"This follows an investigation by police into an incident in which eggs were thrown at HM The King in York on November 9 2022.\"\n\nThe CPS added that Mr Thelwell has the right to a fair trial.\n\nIt follows a separate incident where the King was allegedly attacked with eggs in Luton.\n\nA 28-year-old man, who has not been named, was charged with a public order offence, and bailed to appear at Luton Magistrates' Court next month.", "Michelle Mone is on a leave of absence from the House of Lords\n\nThe government is suing a company that supplied it with personal protective equipment (PPE) for £122m plus costs.\n\nPPE Medpro won contracts through the so-called VIP lane in 2020, after being recommended by Tory peer Baroness Mone.\n\nThe government is attempting to get its money back on one of the deals in the High Court, claiming the medical gowns supplied \"did not comply with the specification in the contract\".\n\nPPE Medpro said it would \"rigorously\" defend the claim.\n\nThe company accused the government of a \"cynical attempt\" to recover money from suppliers who had acted in good faith and to contract specifications.\n\nThe government says along with the £122m contract, it has so far spent £6.9m on storage costs for the kit and each week it costs over £61,000 to store the gowns. It estimates the cost to dispose the gowns would be £4.7m.\n\nAccording to legal documents seen by the BBC, the government claims the \"the gowns did not comply with the specification in the contract\" and could not be used in the NHS. It also accuses PPE Medpro of a \"breach of contract and unjust enrichment\".\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said: \"We can confirm that we have commenced legal proceedings in the High Court against PPE Medpro Limited for breach of contract regarding gowns delivered under a contract dated 26 June 2020.\n\n\"We do not comment on matters that are the subject of ongoing legal proceedings.\"\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said: \"After nearly a year of hiding behind a mediation process with a company linked to one of their own peers, Conservative ministers have finally been shamed into action to recover taxpayers' money after damning revelations, public outcry and Labour pressure.\n\n\"Time will now tell if the shoddy contracts they drew up are sufficiently robust to retrieve the public money they carelessly handed over.\"\n\nThe government has previously described the PPE Medpro medical gowns deal as an \"underperforming\" contract.\n\nIn a statement, the company said it was clear by the end of 2020 that the government had \"vastly over-ordered\" PPE and would never be able to use it all.\n\nIt said consultants had been brought in to \"pick over all the contracts\" on \"technicalities\".\n\n\"PPE Medpro will demonstrate to the courts that we supplied our gowns to the correct specification, on time and at a highly competitive price,\" the company said.\n\n\"The case will also show the utter incompetence of DHSC to correctly procure and specify PPE during the emergency procurement period.\"\n\nThe company said while it was examining the allegations made by the government it refuted all of them and said its case would \"seek to dismantle\" them and \"make uncomfortable reading for both the government and DHSC\".\n\nThe government revealed last year that Baroness Mone was the \"source of referral\" for PPE Medpro getting a place on the so-called VIP lane for PPE offers coming from ministers, officials or peers.\n\nIn other words, she recommended the company.\n\nVIP lane offers were treated with greater urgency and were 10 times more likely to result in contracts than offers being made outside this route.\n\nBaroness Mone contacted Lord Agnew, the Cabinet Office minister, about the firm and he directed the offer to the VIP lane.\n\nShe is taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords, meaning she will not sit as a Conservative peer. She says she wants to clear her name amid allegations she benefitted from the contracts.\n\nIn December 2020, lawyers for Baroness Mone said she \"had no role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro\".\n\nThe House of Lords commissioner for standards has launched an investigation into her \"alleged involvement in procuring contracts for PPE Medpro\".\n\nBut the Commissioner's website says his investigation has been paused while the matter is investigated by the police or another agency as part of a criminal investigation.", "Terry Hall, the frontman of socially conscious ska band The Specials, has died at the age of 63.\n\nKnown for his dour image and sharp wit, the singer found fame in the 1970s and 80s with hits like Ghost Town, Gangsters and Too Much Too Young.\n\nHe left The Specials in 1981 to form Fun Boy Three with fellow-bandmates Neville Staple and Lynval Golding, scoring another run of hits.\n\nThe singer died after a brief illness, The Specials said in a statement.\n\n\"Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls,\" they wrote.\n\n\"His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but mostly the love.\n\n\"He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity.\"\n\nIn a separate message, Staple told the BBC he had learned of his friend's passing as he landed in Egypt for a holiday with his wife.\n\n\"It's really hit me hard,\" he said. \"We fronted The Specials and Fun Boy Three together, making history.\n\n\"Terry, he surely will be missed.\"\n\nJane Wiedlin, co-founder of band The Go Gos who co-wrote the band's hit Our Lips Are Sealed with Hall, said he was a \"lovely, sensitive, talented and unique person\".\n\n\"Our extremely brief romance resulted in the song Our Lips Are Sealed, which will forever tie us together in music history.\"\n\nSinger Elvis Costello described Hall's voice as \"the perfect instrument for the true and necessary songs on The Specials\".\n\n\"That honesty is heard in so many of his songs in joy and sorrow,\" he said.\n\nThe band asked for respect for Hall's family's privacy. No cause of death was shared.\n\nThe musician was born in 1959 and raised in Coventry, where most of his family worked in the city's then-booming car industry.\n\nBut his life took a dark turn when, at the age of 12, he was kidnapped by a teacher.\n\n\"I was abducted, taken to France and sexually abused for four days,\" he told The Spectator in 2019. \"And then punched in the face and left on the roadside.\"\n\nHall said the incident left him with lifelong depression and caused him to drop out of education at the age of 14, after becoming addicted to the Valium he had been prescribed.\n\n\"I didn't go to school, I didn't do anything. I just sat on my bed rocking for eight months.\"\n\nMusic was some form of solace; and Hall joined a local punk band called Squad, receiving his first writing credit on their single Red Alert.\n\nHe was spotted by The Specials' Jerry Dammers, who recruited him as a frontman by deploying a terrible pun.\n\n\"He worked in a stamp shop\" the musician told Mojo magazine. \"I told him, Philately will get you nowhere'\".\n\nAfter gaining a fearsome live reputation at home, the band rose to national prominence after Radio 1's John Peel played their debut single, Gangsters, on his show.\n\nThe song - a tribute to Prince Buster's ska classic Al Capone - established the band and their record label 2-Tone as a major force in British music.\n\nThey were a multi-racial group, documenting the turbulent Thatcher years by playing songs directly indebted to Jamaican ska - a pre-reggae style that remained popular in Britain's West Indian communities.\n\nBut Hall, never one for hyperbole, said the band's success was almost an accidental by-product of the punk movement.\n\n\"When I saw the Pistols and The Clash I realised it didn't seem that difficult,\" he told The Big Issue. \"They didn't seem like they could play very well either, so the thing was to form a band then work it out.\n\n\"We didn't even know who was going to play what - we passed around all the instruments until we found what we were comfortable with. I wasn't comfortable with any of them so I became the singer.\"\n\nNonetheless, the band rode an extraordinary wave of popularity, scoring seven consecutive top 10 singles between 1979 and 1981.\n\nThat period culminated with 1981's Ghost Town, a hypnotic, menacing song that seemed to predict and then soundtrack that summer's riots on the streets of London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham - a response to the police's use of stop-and-search tactics.\n\nHall said his political awakening came in his teenage years \"when I discovered that working men's clubs had a colour bar on their doors\".\n\n\"That really shook me,\" he said, and resolved to take a stand.\n\n\"When you see injustice, all you can do is think: what can I do to help, what can I say about this, how can I make people aware of this?\"\n\nGhost Town spent three weeks at number one, and is widely regarded as one of the all-time great British pop songs.\n\nBut Hall - who was only 22 - found it hard to bridge the discrepancy between chart fame and the band's political message.\n\n\"When we picked up a gold disc for Ghost Town, I felt really bad about it,\" he said. \"You are being told to celebrate this number one record that is about what is happening, the mess that we are in, and I felt very uncomfortable.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by The Specials This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video by The Specials\n\nHall left the band to start Fun Boy Three with Golding and Staple, abandoning ska for a more experimental, skeletal pop sound.\n\nTheir debut single The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum) picked up where Ghost Town left off, and Hall wrote about his childhood abuse on the album track Well Fancy That.\n\nBut the band found more commercial success by teaming up with the era's biggest girl groups.\n\nThey duetted with Bananarama on Really Saying Something and a cover of the jazz standard It Ain't What You Do.\n\nHall also teamed up with Wiedlin of The Go Gos to write Our Lips Are Sealed, a song that both bands recorded and took into the charts separately.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by Chrysalis Records This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nAfter Fun Boy Three, Hall formed numerous other bands, including The Colourfield; Terry, Blair, and Anouchka; and Vegas, a collaboration with Eurythmics star Dave Stewart.\n\nHe launched a solo career in 1994 with the critically acclaimed Home, by which time he was being cited as a key influence by artists like Massive Attack and Damon Albarn (who appeared on the song Chasing A Rainbow).\n\nFor new fans, he offered some listening advice: \"The Specials and Fun Boy Three should be played loud with gay abandon and my solo/personal records need to be listened to with a healthy dose of melancholy & self-pity.\"\n\nHe went on to record with trip-hop artist Tricky and Albarn's hip-hop side project Gorillaz, before reuniting with The Specials for a tour in 2008, and performed at the 2012 London Olympics closing concert.\n\nIn 2019, the band released a new album, Encore, which gave them their first ever number one; and spawned gigs up and down the UK, before Covid put their comeback to an unexpected halt.\n\n\"The arrival of the pandemic affected me enormously,\" Hall later told The Quietus. \"I spent around three months trying to figure out what was going on. I couldn't write a single word. I spent the time trying to figure out how not to die.\"\n\nThe solution, he later decided, was to record an album of covers, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.\n\nReleased in October 2021, it featured new versions of Bob Marley's Get Up, Stand Up, and The Staples Singers' Freedom Highway among others.\n\nSimply called Protest Songs, it charted at number two, marking Hall's final appearance in the Top 75 - and a fitting bookend to a legacy of powerful, meaningful music that defined an era of outspokenly political British pop.\n\nHall is survived by his wife, the director Lindy Heymann. They had one son, while Hall has two older sons with his ex-wife, Jeanette Hall.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Singer Terry Hall was 'truly one of the greats'", "More than 130 bus operators outside London will begin capping single adult fares at £2 next month as part of a government-funded scheme to help people save money.\n\nNational Express and Stagecoach will be among those to introduce the cap in England from 1 January to 31 March.\n\nSingle local bus fares in England cost £2.80 on average but can exceed £5 in rural areas, the government says.\n\nLabour has said it was a \"half measure\" after \"years of soaring fares\".\n\nThe cities of Manchester, Liverpool and West Yorkshire - all of which have Labour mayors - have already introduced £2 caps as part of longer-term schemes.\n\nThe Department for Transport, which originally announced the scheme in September, said buses were the most popular form of public transport in England, making up half of all journeys.\n\nIt said the government was spending £60m on the cap to \"help families, students and commuters\" while taking \"two million car journeys off the road\".\n\nAccording to latest official figures, the number of people travelling by bus has been rising but remains well below pre-Covid levels.\n\nAt the same time local bus fares in England were up 4.2% in the three months to 30 June when compared with the same period last year.\n\nThe government says the scheme will help the bus industry's recovery, while also enabling passengers to save.\n\nIt also said the cap was \"an important step\" in ensuring passengers got a fair deal.\n\nIn a statement on Monday, Go-Ahead said its UK bus operating companies would be capping fares at £2 per single journey from 1 January as part of the scheme.\n\nIt said a £2 single fare on one of its bus journeys can you take you 40 miles or further.\n\nRoutes covered include the Go North East's X10 between Newcastle and Middlesbrough, which usually costs £8, and the Regency Route between Brighton and Tunbridge Wells, which usually costs £6.20.\n\nThe Campaign for Better Transport, a charity, welcomed the cap but said it should be extended.\n\nSpokesman Norman Baker said: \"Capping bus fares will help struggling households, cut traffic congestion and carbon emissions, and inject new life into dwindling bus services.\n\n\"It's such a win-win that it shouldn't be restricted to three months, but should be extended indefinitely, for the sake of our pockets, our economy and our environment.\"", "The annual report highlighted prolonged handover delays due to ambulance wait times outside A&E units\n\nHospital and health care in Wales remain under \"intense pressure\" due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, inspectors have found.\n\nSustained pressure on emergency care and concern about patient safety have been highlighted in a report into NHS and independent care services in Wales.\n\nAccess to face-to-face GP appointments was also a problem for some.\n\nThe Welsh government welcomed the report, adding it highlighted a \"good quality of care across services\".\n\nThe report comes as NHS leaders have said there was a \"national emergency\" in health and social care in Wales.\n\nIndependent regulator Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) carried out more than 200 inspections and examined 500 concerns from the public and staff in the 12 months to March.\n\nBut, overall, its 2021-22 report found the \"quality of care provided across Wales has been of a good standard\".\n\nThe report has been published as the Welsh NHS Confederation, which represents NHS Wales organisations, said up to 1,500 medically fit patients could not leave hospital because of a lack of social care.\n\nThe HIW report highlighted prolonged patient handover delays due to ambulance wait times outside emergency departments, saying it remained a \"regular occurrence\".\n\nIt said it had a \"detrimental impact upon the ability of the health care system to provide responsive, safe, and dignified care to patients\".\n\nThe report found an overall good standard of care across Wales\n\n\"Scheduled care areas, such as oncology and cardiac wards, where the staff have more control over admission and patient flow, had fewer areas for improvement,\" it said.\n\nHIW sent out questionnaires to health workers which indicated low staff morale, including challenges around staffing numbers and high demand for services.\n\nIt also found changes introduced to deal with Covid continued to alter the way patients accessed services, such as getting access to face-to face GP appointments.\n\n\"People told us that they could not always get appointments when they needed them, and found it difficult in some areas to access practices by phone,\" it said.\n\n\"We also found that an element of digital exclusion has continued, with some people unable to access services due to a focus on online and telephone consultations.\"\n\nIn the report foreword, HIW chief executive Alun Jones said that \"healthcare services continued to be under intense pressure from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic\".\n\n\"It is clear there are many challenges ahead for services, for the staff who work within them and for the people of Wales whilst the immense task of service recovery continues,\" he said.\n\nWelsh Conservative health spokesman Russell George MS said: \"Wales' backlog for NHS treatment is lengthier than it has ever been and this year has seen the longest A&E and ambulance wait times on record.\n\n\"Labour needs to get a grip on the NHS and stop breaking all the wrong records.\"\n\nA Welsh government spokeswoman said: \"We recognise the ongoing pressures on healthcare professionals and the impact on their wellbeing.\n\n\"Staff wellbeing, engagement and retention are core priorities in our workforce strategy for health and social care.\"\n\nShe added changes to GP contracts would improve access to appointments while health boards had been tasked with increasing capacity at hospitals over winter.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The assembly cannot function unless a Speaker is elected\n\nThe Stormont Assembly is set to be recalled for a fifth time on Wednesday in a bid to elect a new Speaker.\n\nSinn Féin proposed a motion to bring it back to debate the cost-of-living crisis. It was also backed by the SDLP and Alliance.\n\nThirty signatures were required for it to be successful.\n\nThe last failed recall was in October, ahead of a deadline to restore power-sharing.\n\nThe Sinn Féin motion calls on the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to end its boycott of the assembly and reform an executive.\n\nThe assembly has previously been recalled four times since May's election but on each occasion, the DUP has refused to support a new Speaker being chosen.\n\nNo other business can take place until a Speaker is elected.\n\nAlex Maskey is the outgoing Speaker of the assembly\n\nThe DUP has said it will not vote for a Speaker until the Northern Ireland Protocol is significantly changed.\n\nThe party has protested against the protocol, a part of the UK-EU Brexit deal which keeps Northern Ireland aligned with some EU trade rules.\n\nThis was designed to ensure goods could move freely across the Irish land border, from the UK into an EU member state, the Republic of Ireland.\n\nHowever, in turn, the protocol imposed some new checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.\n\nMeanwhile, a bill to give the Northern Ireland secretary powers to cut MLA salaries is being fast-tracked through the House of Lords.\n\nIt has already been passed by MPs and is currently being debated by peers.\n\nThe bill also extends the time period for parties to return to power-sharing government at Stormont.\n\nIf the DUP refuses to end its boycott of the Stormont institutions by 8 December, the bill will give Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris the option to either:\n\nIf nothing changes by that extended deadline, an election could take place by 13 April.\n\nThe legislation will also clarify the \"limited decision-making\" powers that civil servants now have in the absence of ministers.\n\nExtra provisions are also being made to allow a regional rate to be set, should an executive not be in place, as well as powers for the approval of some public appointments.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Stephen Flynn says he will push the impact of the cost of living and Scotland's right to choose its future\n\nStephen Flynn has been elected as the SNP's new Westminster leader following the resignation of Ian Blackford.\n\nThe Aberdeen South MP defeated Alison Thewliss - who is seen as being closer to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon - by 26 votes to 17 in a vote of the party's MPs.\n\nMr Blackford announced last week that he was standing down amid rumours that Mr Flynn was plotting to replace him.\n\nMr Flynn will face Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday.\n\nHe has already said that he will appoint Mhairi Black as his deputy.\n\nMr Flynn, 34, had initially been expected to be the only candidate to replace Mr Blackford, who was also regarded as being a close ally of Ms Sturgeon.\n\nBut Ms Thewliss unexpectedly threw her hat in the ring after sources close to Mr Flynn were quoted in the media as saying he intended to replace much of the party's front bench team in the Commons.\n\nThere had also been speculation that he could return Joanna Cherry - an outspoken critic of Ms Sturgeon - to a prominent role.\n\nBut she posted on social media that her position as chairwoman of the UK Parliament Human Rights Committee made a return to the SNP front bench \"impossible\".\n\nAlison Thewliss is seen as being closer to SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon than Mr Flynn\n\nMr Flynn had been the party's business, energy and industrial strategy spokesman.\n\nHe told the BBC that he aimed to \"build on the legacy\" of Mr Blackford, who he described as being a \"giant of the Scottish independence movement\", and pledged to work closely with Ms Sturgeon.\n\nBut he said he and Ms Black could offer a \"fresh approach here at Westminster that people in Scotland will certainly buy into\".\n\nMr Flynn added: \"We have a lot to do. We have to make that positive, decisive case for Scottish independence and our democratic right to choose.\n\n\"But also to hold the Conservative UK government's feet to the fire on the fact that we have a cost of living crisis and people in Scotland are struggling\".\n\nMs Sturgeon tweeted that Mr Flynn and Ms Black would make a \"truly formidable team\" and said she was looking forward to working with them both.\n\nThe SNP is currently the third-largest party in the House of Commons with 44 MPs.\n\nSeveral SNP MPs were angry at Mr Blackford's support for former SNP chief whip Patrick Grady, who was suspended for sexual misconduct\n\nMr Blackford announced last Thursday that he was stepping down after five years in the role but insisted he had not been pressured to do so despite reports that Mr Flynn had gathered enough support among the party's MPs to defeat him in a vote at the Westminster group's AGM.\n\nHe has said he will continue as the MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber and has also accepted a new role as a business ambassador for the SNP's independence campaign.\n\nMany SNP MPs were said to have been angry at Mr Blackford urging them to give \"absolute full support\" to former chief whip Patrick Grady, who was suspended from the party and the Commons for sexual misconduct earlier this year.\n\nOnly last month, Stephen Flynn said he had no intention of standing for the SNP group leadership when he was first linked to efforts to oust Ian Blackford.\n\nHaving now successfully secured the post, he faces an immediate test - questioning the prime minister in the Commons on Wednesday.\n\nHis supporters expect a robust performance in parliament and in the media but the job is much bigger than that.\n\nPerhaps his biggest challenge will be to manage a fractious group of MPs and tensions with party HQ and the leadership team in Edinburgh.\n\nAlison Thewliss is widely seen as being closer to Nicola Sturgeon than Stephen Flynn is and he may have work to do to build that relationship.\n\nThe new Westminster leader has been installed just a fortnight after the Supreme Court ruled that the Scottish government cannot hold a second independence referendum without the UK government's consent.\n\nMs Sturgeon had wanted to hold a vote next October but now says she will use the next general election as a \"de facto referendum\". - a move that is said to have unsettled some SNP MPs.\n\nScottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said the defeat of Ms Thewliss - widely assumed to be Ms Sturgeon's preferred candidate - was a \"personal humiliation\" for the first minister and \"lays bare the deep splits within the SNP\".\n\nHe added: \"It is clear that the first minister's once-iron grip on her party is slipping.\n\n\"This result is sure to lead to increased tensions between the SNP leaders at Westminster and Holyrood, not least over oil and gas policy, where Mr Flynn - a serial flip-flopper on this issue - is, for the moment, at odds with Ms Sturgeon.\"\n\nIan Murray, Labour's shadow Scottish secretary, described the election of Mr Flynn as a \"two finger salute to Nicola Sturgeon\" by her own MPs, adding: \"The fact is that this is nothing more than shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic.\"\n\nScottish Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said: \"Stephen Flynn takes over a divided Westminster group obsessed with completely the wrong priorities.\"\n\nMr Flynn will face Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday\n\nMr Flynn was born in Dundee and raised in the city and in nearby Brechin.\n\nHe studied politics at Dundee University before moving to Aberdeen - although he still travels back down the A90 to support Dundee United.\n\nHis hip gave way when he was a teenager, and he spent 17 years in \"constant pain\" and facing a \"daily physical and mental battle\" until eventually having replacement surgery in September 2020.\n\nHe was elected to Aberdeen City Council in a by-election in 2015, and served as the SNP's group leader from 2016 until he became an MP in 2019 when he took Aberdeen South from the Conservatives.\n\nMhairi Black, the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, will be Mr Flynn's deputy leader\n\nMr Flynn's maiden speech in the Commons saw him warn Conservative members that \"we will not forget, and we will not forgive this government\", adding: \"Scotland rejects your austerity and Scotland rejects your Brexit, just as Scotland rejected your prime minister.\"\n\nHe became a prominent member of the so-called Tuesday Club of male SNP MPs who regularly meet for five-a-side football, beer and curry nights.\n\nMr Flynn has previously opposed imposing an windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas firms - a policy enthusiastically backed by party leader Nicola Sturgeon - over the potential impact on jobs in Aberdeen.\n\nHe had been linked to the leadership role for some time, with newspaper reports claiming he was \"on manoeuvres\" to oust Mr Blackford - which he denied at the time.\n\nHowever Ms Sturgeon has insisted that the change of leadership at Westminster was \"not a coup\".", "CCTV video showed the moment five cars worth more than £700,000 were stolen from an industrial unit.\n\nThieves cut the bolts on a front gate in Brentwood Road, in Bulphan, near Thurrock, Essex, just after midnight on 11 November and were later seen driving the vehicles away.\n\nThey included two Porsches, a Mercedes and a rare Ariel Atom car.\n\nEssex Police appealed for CCTV or dashcam video from the area.", "Munro Vehicles will hand-build 50 cars in East Kilbride next year\n\nA car maker is aiming to bring mass production back to Scotland for the first since the 1980s, with an electric 4x4 vehicle.\n\nMunro Vehicles says it will hand-build 50 cars in East Kilbride next year before moving to a purpose-built factory near Glasgow.\n\nIt aims to produce 250 units in 2024, then ramp up to 2,500 a year by 2027.\n\nThe company, which plans to create 300 jobs over time, said it had already received orders from around the globe.\n\nThe Munro MK_1 will be the first car to be built at scale in Scotland for decades.\n\nThe Hillman Imp was mass produced in Linwood, Renfrewshire, throughout the 1960s and 70s. In 1981 Peugeot-Talbot closed down the plant.\n\nAccording to Munro, the all-electric car can run for up to 16 hours on a single battery charge.\n\nMunro Vehicles was founded by Russell Peterson (left) and Ross Anderson\n\nThe idea for the MK_1 came from Munro Vehicles co-founders Russell Peterson and Ross Anderson.\n\nThe pair were on a camping trip in the Highlands, when they found the car they were driving was struggling with steep climbs.\n\nMr Peterson said: \"It dawned on us that there was a gap in the market for an electric-powered, four-wheel-drive, utilitarian workhorse.\n\n\"We envisioned a vehicle with ultimate, go-anywhere, off-road ability, unrestricted by road-derived underpinnings that limit the all-terrain ability of vehicles such as the 4x4 pick-up trucks that have come to dominate the market.\"\n\nMunro launched in 2019 with private funding provided by Mr Anderson and Mr Peterson.\n\nA further injection of capital was raised in late 2021 through London-based Elbow Beach Capital.", "Lucy Letby is accused of murdering seven babies and trying to kill 10 others\n\nA former colleague of Lucy Letby has told how nursing staff were \"surprised\" by how \"very poorly\" a previously stable baby became on her 100 days birthday.\n\nMs Letby is accused of attempting to murder the premature girl, referred to as Child G, three times at the Countess of Chester Hospital in September 2015.\n\nShe denies murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others.\n\nThe colleague told Manchester Crown Court the baby had deteriorated.\n\nIn a statement read to the jury, the nurse, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said there had been a celebration to mark Child G's 100 day birthday, with cake and balloons.\n\nShe said: \"I remember this day as [Child G] was 100 days old.\n\n\"We celebrate this birthday as it is seen as a milestone. We baked a cake and there was balloons around the cot side.\n\n\"She was very poorly that day, it surprised me and staff as prior to 7 September [Child G] was stable.\"\n\nThe babies were being cared for on the neonatal ward at Countess of Chester Hospital\n\nThe court has heard the baby projectile vomited after 02:00 BST over that night shift and her abdomen appeared \"purple and distended\".\n\nHer oxygen levels dropped and she stopped breathing several times over the next few hours before she responded to breathing support on ventilation, the jury was told.\n\nThe prosecution alleges Ms Letby, originally of Hereford, overfed Child G with milk through a nasogastric tube or injected air into the same tube.\n\nMs Letby is said to have made two further attempts to murder the girl on 21 September.\n\nThe jury has previously been told the baby survived but suffered irreversible brain damage and was left with disabilities including quadriplegic cerebral palsy.\n\nMs Letby is charged with murdering seven babies and attempting to murder 10 others between 2015 and 2016.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ukraine is becoming colder, and the authorities are struggling to maintain power supplies\n\nUkraine is switching to emergency shutdowns to stabilise its power grid after a fresh wave of Russian missile attacks hit the country on Monday.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky said many regions were affected, and officials said half of the Kyiv region would go without electricity in the coming days.\n\nFour people were killed in Monday's attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure.\n\nAnd overnight more missiles hit critical facilities near the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, officials said.\n\nIn a separate development on Tuesday, the governor of Russia's Kursk region said a drone attack on an airfield set an oil storage tank alight. Videos showed fierce flames and dense black smoke billowing from the site.\n\nThat came after a series of explosions at two military airfields deep inside Russia on Monday, which Moscow blamed on Ukrainian drones.\n\nThe fire at an airfield in Kursk was burning hours after an oil storage tank was blown up\n\nIn Ukraine, the energy minister said he hoped to significantly reduce the power deficit caused by the latest Russian strikes by bringing nuclear power stations back onto the grid.\n\nThe country is now seeing snow and sub-zero temperatures in many regions, and millions are without electricity and running water, raising fears people may die of hypothermia.\n\nMarina, a resident of Vyshgorod, in the Kyiv region told the BBC how she gathers with her husband and children in one room to keep warm during scheduled power outages.\n\n\"We turn on electric heaters and warm up the room well, and then we are all in this room together, without opening the door. We have enough heat for four hours,\" the 39-year-old said.\n\nShe described how she tries to do everything she can while the lights are working, as they can go out for long periods.\n\n\"I'd rather sit here in the cold than leave,\" she told the BBC.\n\nPresident Zelensky said 70 Russian missiles were fired across the country on Monday but that most of them were shot down.\n\nBut Ukraine's leader said that there were power shutdowns in regions spanning the country.\n\nElectricity supplies were also affected in neighbouring Moldova, he said, adding that Russia's actions were \"a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to our entire region\".\n\nThe Russian defence ministry claimed it had carried out massive high-precision strikes on Ukraine's military command and control systems, and on other targets.\n\nIn Kyiv, people have been taking shelter in metro stations when there are warnings of Russian missile attacks\n\nMonday's strikes were Russia's eighth massive missile attack in eight weeks.\n\nThey came hours after a series of explosions at two military airfields housing Russian strategic bombers deep inside Russia, which Moscow blamed on Ukrainian drones intercepted by Russian air-defences.\n\nThree servicemen were killed and two aircraft were lightly damaged at the airfields in the Ryazan and Saratov region. Ukraine has not commented.\n\nMeanwhile, President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting of Russia's security council on Tuesday - a meeting that usually happens on Fridays.\n\nState TV showed a clip from his opening remarks, in which the Kremlin leader said the subject of the meeting would be state security.\n\nBefore the latest Russian strikes, officials in Kyiv were talking about moving from highly disruptive emergency blackouts, which often last for many hours, to more manageable scheduled power cuts which offer civilians some badly needed predictability.\n\nMoscow has been battering Ukraine's power grid since 10 October, following a string of heavy military defeats on the battlefield.\n\nSome Western leaders have called the strategy a war crime, because of the huge amount of damage caused to civilian infrastructure.\n\nExperts have told the BBC that Russia's tactic of hitting energy infrastructure is most likely designed to demoralise and terrorise the population, rather than gain any concrete military advantage.", "Strep A symptoms can look similar to cold and flu symptoms at first\n\nA mother is warning other parents to be aware of the symptoms of Strep A infections after both her daughters came down with the disease.\n\nJoanne Jones, from Llandudno, Conwy county, initially thought her daughter had a chest infection.\n\n\"If something doesn't seem right, go straight to the doctor,\" Ms Jones warned after she had to wait over nine hours in A&E for treatment.\n\nConwy County Council said it was advising parents through schools.\n\nEight children across the UK have died from complications caused by the disease.\n\nMs Jones' daughter developed scarlet fever as a result of her Strep A infection.\n\nMs Jones said: \"My daughter started off with a cough, which got worse, I thought she maybe had a chest infection.\n\n\"Then it turned into some kind of sickness bug, so I thought she had one of those 24-hour things.\n\n\"But after four days of hardly eating, I knew it wasn't just a bug. At times she seemed OK. Then her temp would spike to 40 degrees.\"\n\nMs Jones described how her daughter's skin would go red and felt extremely hot. Her cough also worsened as days went by and she became very drowsy.\n\n\"She was leaning into me, falling asleep on the street.\n\n\"Then I noticed she had a rash like a strawberry on her tongue, and a rash came out on her cheeks, but it can also be on children's chest and back.\"\n\nA pink-red rash on the tongue, chest or back is a symptom of scarlet fever\n\nMs Jones took her daughter to A&E and said she had to wait nine and a half hours before her daughter was seen, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.\n\nShe was given a prescription for penicillin and her mother was advised to keep all her children off school.\n\nMs Jones' youngest daughter aged three, also caught the infection and is being treated with antibiotics.\n\nSpeaking on behalf of Public Health Wales, Dr Graham Brown, consultant in communicable disease control, said: \"Some children with cold and flu-like symptoms - sore throat, headache, fever - may be experiencing some of the early symptoms of scarlet fever, which also circulates at this time of year.\n\n\"These children will go on to develop scarlet fever-specific symptoms, including a fine pink-red rash that feels like sandpaper to touch, and parents should contact their GP.\n\n\"The best thing that parents can do is to provide the care they would usually provide for a child with cold and flu-like symptoms, but to familiarise themselves with the symptoms of scarlet fever and iGAS as a precaution.\"\n\nConwy County Council said: \"As this subject has been in the national media over recent weeks, we have shared Public Health Wales' guidance about streptococcal disease with all our schools.\"\n\nJoanne's daughter is being treated with antibiotics", "A rail union has been told not to \"hold the country to ransom\" by a government minister after it announced plans for new strikes from Christmas Eve.\n\nWorkers at the UK's biggest rail union, the RMT, will walk out from 6pm on 24 December until 27 December as the row over pay and conditions escalates.\n\nThe strike could hit travel and celebrations over the festive weekend.\n\nGovernment minister Nick Gibb said the union had rejected a pay offer without even consulting its own membership.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Gibb, the Schools Minister, said the new strikes would affect the Christmas plans of \"hundreds of thousands of people up and down the country\" and urged the union to call them off.\n\nRMT general secretary Mick Lynch said he regretted the inconvenience that was being caused by the strikes but argued it was \"caused by the government who are running the playbook and the strategy for the railway companies and directing what's going on\".\n\nAs well as the strikes on 24-27 December, industrial action across four 48-hour periods will take place on:\n\nAbout 40,000 rail workers across Network Rail and train companies are expected to walk out. There is likely to be disruption in the days around the strikes as well.\n\nJulian Gold from Cambridge says the new strike dates will disrupt his family's Christmas.\n\nHis daughter is a student in London, but has a part-time job that will see her work until 19:00 on Christmas Eve.\n\n\"Travelling to London on Christmas Day to get her is not ideal, but nor is the prospect of my daughter spending Christmas Day alone,\" he said.\n\nJulian Gold says the strikes feel like a \"PR fail\" for the RMT\n\nHe says he understands the difficulties with the cost of living, but \"this just feels like a massive PR fail\" for the RMT.\n\nMeanwhile Sarah Harris, 28, lives in Kent but works in London. Her work's Christmas party is on 15 December but with strikes the next day, trains will finish early that evening.\n\n\"So I'll either be stranded in London or I'll have to leave early, which I'd rather not do as it's a big event,\" she says.\n\nSarah Harris needs to travel between Kent and London by train on the day before strike action\n\nOther travel plans she has before Christmas are also set to be disrupted. \"I get the rail workers want a salary increase but don't we all,\" she says.\n\nMr Lynch said the new strike starting on Christmas Eve was targeted at planned engineering works by Network Rail, although he acknowledged that passenger services would \"wind down\" earlier than usual on 24 December.\n\nNews of the extra strikes was met with dismay by the hospitality sector, which is facing disruption to trade at its busiest and most lucrative time of the year.\n\nUK Hospitality chief Executive Kate Nicholls said the strikes would be \"hugely damaging\" .\n\n\"Our estimate of the cost of these strikes already stood at £1.5bn in lost sales and it's incredibly frustrating that a solution has yet to be reached,\" she said.\n\nWhile Michael Kill of the Night Time Industries Association said it \"will be the death knell\" for many bars and nightclubs.\n\n\"In previous strike action days, we have seen in some cases up to 40% lost in trade, with billions of pounds in revenue in the balance over the holiday period, which they are relying on to survive,\" he said.\n\nThe rail sector is not the only industry facing strike action, and walkouts are expected to affect postal deliveries, bus services and teaching in schools this month. On Tuesday, ambulance staff across many parts of England and Wales said they will strike on 21 December.\n\nWorkers are seeking better working conditions and pay increases to keep up with the soaring cost of living, as prices rise at the fastest rate for 41 years.\n\nThe RMT is involved in two sets of talks. One is with Network Rail, where RMT members include signallers and maintenance workers. The other talks are with the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents the 14 train companies.\n\nNetwork Rail had said the latest offer was its \"best and final\". It includes:\n\nOn Monday, the RMT said it would put the new offer from Network Rail to its members in an electronic referendum. But it is calling for the offer to be rejected, describing it as \"not acceptable\".\n\nLabour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said the pay offer seemed \"low\" given the current cost of living crisis.\n\n\"Every single day that those workers have been on strike they've lost pay so they don't want to do this, they want to find a resolution,\" she added.\n\nOn Sunday, the RMT rejected the first offer from the RDG. The offer included:\n\nHow will you be affected by the strikes? Share your experiences haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The market on St Enoch Square was sealed off following the gas explosion\n\nTwo people have been hurt in a gas canister explosion at a Christmas market in Glasgow.\n\nEmergency services, including three fire engines, were called to St Enoch Square following reports of the incident at about 11:00.\n\nThe Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said the two casualties were handed into the care of the Scottish Ambulance Service.\n\nPolice sealed off the area while they were taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary.\n\nA Police Scotland spokesperson said: \"Work is ongoing to establish the full circumstances.\"", "The UK is \"sleepwalking\" into a food supply crisis and the government must step in to help farmers, the National Farmers Union (NFU) has warned.\n\nYields of tomatoes and other crops will likely slump to record lows this year, it said, with potential supply problems ahead as already seen with eggs.\n\nSoaring fuel, fertiliser and feed costs were putting farmers under severe pressure, it added.\n\nThe government said the UK has a \"highly resilient food supply chain\".\n\nSome supermarkets are rationing egg sales after farmers cut back or halted production because of rising costs - a situation made worse by the Avian flu outbreak.\n\nHowever, the NFU warned that food producers in other areas were now facing difficulties.\n\nIt said yields of energy-intensive crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and pears were likely to hit their lowest level this year since records began in 1985.\n\nIt also said milk prices were likely to fall below the cost of production, while beef farmers were considering reducing the number of cows they breed.\n\nRising costs were to blame, it said, with fertiliser prices for farmers more than tripling since 2019 and the cost of feed and diesel up by 75%.\n\nSoaring energy costs, Brexit red tape and worker shortages were also factors, it added.\n\nWatch Make Sense Of Food Prices, on iPlayer now.\n\nNFU president Minette Batters said British food was \"under threat\" with the future of British fruit and vegetable supplies \"in trouble\".\n\nAlready high food prices were sure to rise further if products became harder to source, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.\n\n\"This is about government prioritising food security, and if they fail to do so we will continue to see greater contradiction in our production, a reliance on more imports, and availability is just not going to be there,\" she said.\n\n\"We are self-sufficient in eggs - it's been a massive success story - and we now have 320 million less eggs for the same period this year than last year.\"\n\nBut Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said that retailers were used to managing pressures across their supply chains.\n\n\"Supermarkets source, and will continue to source, the vast majority of their food from the UK and know they need to pay a sustainable price to farmers,\" he said, although they are facing additional costs.\n\nShoppers have been under pressure from the rapid pace of food price rises, although there are signs this may be starting to ease, according to market analysis firm Kantar.\n\nAlthough food price inflation in the four weeks to 27 November was 14.6%, this edged down 0.1% from a record high in October.\n\nThis is the first time food price inflation has slowed in two years.\n\nThe war in Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic have driven up the price of food, energy and fuel over the last year, affecting consumers and businesses alike.\n\nGrocery prices rose at their fastest rate for 45 years in the year to October, official figures show, with the cost of staples such as milk, cheese and eggs surging.\n\nSteve Dresser, the boss of Grocery Insight, told the BBC that the big challenge comes from consumer appetite.\n\n\"Customers' focus is on saving money and local foods generally come at a higher price, which can be difficult,\" he said.\n\nHe said that rising prices meant farming \"has taken a real battering this year\".\n\nHe went on: \"Food security is increasingly important, as we saw during lockdown restrictions and indeed the period afterwards that led to empty shelves.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\n\"It's clear that we face real challenges in our supply chain and as a nation, we should be looking to back our farming community, especially as Brexit has made things harder around importing foods.\"\n\nThe NFU urged the government to do more to help farmers being pushed out of business, saying there were currently 7,000 fewer registered agricultural companies in the UK than in 2019.\n\nAnd it wants ministers to consider giving emergency support to egg producers, given the recent disruption seen by consumers and farmers.\n\nThe NFU said the government should also lift the cap on seasonal overseas workers to tackle labour shortages and establish a new \"food security\" target to ensure enough food is produced domestically.\n\nA Defra spokesman said: \"Our high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes.\"\n\nHe added that the government is in touch regularly with farmers and that the food and farming minister will meet with businesses in the egg industry on Tuesday.", "There is evidence that \"rocket and feather\" fuel pricing happened in 2022, a competition watchdog has said.\n\nThis is when fuel prices rise as wholesale costs rise, but then fall more slowly than costs come down.\n\nThe Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it would look into whether this drove greater profits for retailers.\n\nThe RAC said this was a widespread problem and Christmas fuel prices were more expensive than they should be.\n\nThe CMA found evidence of rocket and feather pricing across all retailers in March and April 2022, in particular for diesel prices, the watchdog said in a report.\n\nHowever, motoring organisation the RAC said there was \"clear evidence of it happening this time last year and in 2018 and 2019\".\n\n\"When wholesale prices trend down for weeks at a time drivers should see pump prices do the same at a similar rate - unfortunately our data shows that this is not often the case,\" said RAC fuel spokesman Simon Williams.\n\n\"What's happening now - as it was last December - is a massive downward shift in the price of wholesale fuel with a slow dropping of forecourt prices. Consequently, drivers are set for a more expensive time on the roads this Christmas than it should be,\" he added.\n\nWholesale diesel has \"plummeted\" 33p since the beginning of October, but pump prices have only fallen 8.4p, he said.\n\nMeanwhile, the wholesale price of petrol has fallen from 130p a litre to 109p - a drop of 21p, he said. But the average price of unleaded petrol has only fallen 8p.\n\n\"We strongly urge the biggest retailers to lower their prices. Unfortunately, we fear they are holding out, hoping for a rise in the price of oil later this month,\" Mr Williams added.\n\nThe price of fuel has jumped due to factors including Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has pushed up the price of diesel more, the CMA said. Most diesel in north-west Europe has historically come from Russia.\n\nRefineries have been charging more for wholesale fuel relative to the cost of crude oil, and the pound has been weaker against the dollar, which has also pushed up prices.\n\nCrude oil is priced in dollars, so a weaker pound makes it relatively more expensive to buy in the UK.\n\nMeanwhile, people in rural areas, who tend to be much more reliant on cars, are paying more for petrol and diesel compared to those living in towns, adding to cost of living pressures, the CMA said.\n\nFuel is on average 1.2p per litre more expensive in rural places, it said.\n\nHowever, rural petrol stations face higher costs due to selling less fuel than urban forecourts and higher transportation costs.\n\nAlso, the higher prices may allow rural petrol stations to stay afloat in sparsely populated areas - if they closed, that would be a concern to local drivers, the CMA added.\n\nDepending on where people buy their fuel, there could be about a 4p per litre difference in cost between local petrol stations, in both towns and the countryside.\n\nIn general, the highest priced forecourts have fewer competitors, raising some competition concerns.", "The government has agreed to water down housing targets for local councils, in order to put down a rebellion from Conservative MPs.\n\nNearly 60 rebels had pledged to back a plan to ban mandatory targets in England, delaying votes on the Levelling Up Bill.\n\nHousing Secretary Michael Gove has now offered councils more flexibility over meeting the government-set targets.\n\nRebels had argued they are excessive, and undermine local councils.\n\nFormer minister and leading rebel Theresa Villiers said the government's plans were a \"compromise\" that would \"rebalance\" planning rules.\n\nOther Conservative MPs had expressed concern about the rebels' plans, warning they would lead to fewer homes being built.\n\nThe public accounts committee has said the government is unlikely to meet its housebuilding targets and not enough socially-rented homes are being built.\n\nThe government said Mr Gove had now agreed to give councils more leeway to depart from government housing targets.\n\nIn a press release, the Department for Levelling Up said the targets would become a \"starting point\" for development, with new flexibilities to \"reflect local circumstances\".\n\nThese targets, calculated using a government formula, have to be incorporated into councils' 15-year housebuilding plans. Councils that fail to do so can have their power to block new developments curbed.\n\nThe government is yet to set out the changes in detail, with the Department for Levelling Up promising to do so on Tuesday.\n\nIsle of Wight MP Bob Seely, another prominent rebel, said ministers had agreed that councils should be able to take an area's density and \"existing character\" into account when applying the targets.\n\nIn another concession to rebels, the government has also agreed to introduce registration schemes for holiday lets.\n\nA consultation will also be launched on making homeowners get planning permission to convert their homes for tourist use.\n\nHoliday rentals have been a big issue in a number of rural beauty spots, with MPs representing them complaining of a big expansion in lets during the Covid pandemic pushing up housing prices for locals.\n\nThe rebels also say Mr Gove has agreed that councils with an up-to-date local housebuilding plan won't have to set aside a rolling five-year stock of land for future development.\n\nThis planning requirement, designed to make sure councils allocate enough land to fulfil their targets, had also been unpopular with rebels, who had backed a plan to scrap it completely.\n\nSpeaking to reporters, Mr Gove said the government's proposed changes would help it meet its target of building 300,000 homes a year by the mid 2020s.\n\nHe added, however, that the pledge would be \"difficult\" to deliver in the next year because of the economic slump and rising inflation.\n\nBut Labour's shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said the government's plans for housing targets were \"unconscionable in the middle of a housing crisis\".\n\nShe added that the government was \"weak,\" adding that the prime minister and Cabinet \"are in office but not in power\".\n\nConservative rebels claimed to have the support of at least 100 MPs who were willing to vote against the government.\n\nWhether genuine or not, Rishi Sunak couldn't afford to risk a rebellion of that size.\n\nI'm told the deal with the rebels was done towards the end of last week - and that there's concern in government that the changes would now mean significantly fewer homes get built.\n\nBoth backbenchers and ministers are claiming this compromise is a success, but there's no doubt prime minister's authority has taken a hit.\n\nMinisters accept the manifesto pledge to build 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s will now be difficult, blaming inflation, though there's no doubt these changes won't help.\n\nFew at Westminster disagree with the need to build more homes, but this tussle over targets has shown it's far harder to reach a consensus on how and where.\n\nNext in the government's bid to get its Levelling Up Bill through Parliament is a battle over onshore windfarms, another notoriously divisive subject on which Conservative MPs don't see eye to eye.\n\nThe government is falling short of its housebuilding targets by 32,000 homes from its original 2016 and 2021 goals for affordable homes, a report by the public accounts committee published on Wednesday has revealed.\n\nMPs on the committee have noted that amongst all the building targets there is not one for affordable or socially rented homes.\n\nCommittee chair Dame Meg Hillier said local authorities know where and what type of homes need to be built \"to address the national housing crisis but don't have the power to act\".\n\n\"The human cost of inaction is already affecting thousands of households and now the building programme is hitting the challenges of increased building costs,\" she said.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nPortugal coach Fernando Santos dropped Cristiano Ronaldo to the bench for the last-16 meeting with Switzerland and was rewarded with a hat-trick from replacement Goncalo Ramos and a stunning team display.\n\nSantos expressed his displeasure at gestures made by Ronaldo when he was substituted in the last group game against South Korea and it was the first time in 31 games stretching back to 2008 that he had not started in a major tournament.\n\nPortugal made light of the 37-year-old's absence to put it mildly, as 21-year-old Benfica striker Ramos hit the first treble of this tournament on his first international start, to help set up a quarter-final against surprise package Morocco after their win against Spain on penalties.\n\nRamos started the rout after 17 minutes when he drilled a finish past Swiss keeper Jan Sommer at the near post before veteran 39-year-old defender Pepe doubled Portugal's lead when he headed home Bruno Fernandes' corner in the 33rd minute.\n\nThe dream full debut continued when Ramos effectively ended the contest with a near post swoop on Diogo Dalot's cross six minutes after the break, the striker turning provider to set up Raphael Guerriero to round off a sweeping move with a powerful strike four minutes later.\n\nManchester City defender Manuel Akanji pulled one back for Switzerland but Ramos swiftly got his third with a clever chip, which was the signal for the crowd at Lusail Stadium to noisily demand Ronaldo's introduction.\n\nPortugal coach Ramos obliged with the game won, Ronaldo entering to rapturous applause, but his team-mates deserve all the acclaim for a high-class performance.\n\nRonaldo had the ball in the net but was ruled offside so it was another young pretender to his crown, 23-year-old Rafael Leao, who crowned a dazzling display when he curled in the sixth.\n• None Who is Goncalo Ramos, the man who upstaged Ronaldo?\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nCristiano Ronaldo's absence did not remove the spotlight and attention from the fading superstar but actually made it shine even more brightly in his direction at Lusail Stadium.\n\nRonaldo was swarmed by photographers in the dug-out after the national anthems then received a pop star's welcome when he came on as substitute after 74 minutes following prolonged and noisy demands for his introduction, particularly from the locals who had come to see him in the flesh.\n\nThe focus should not be Ronaldo though.\n\nThe credit must go to a Portugal team who looked more mobile, fluid and unified without the man who is currently searching for his next club having left Manchester United.\n\nPortugal is a team full of talent even without Ronaldo and Ramos made an instant impact, not just with his goals but also his movement and team play.\n\nAnd the sweet late strike from Rafael Leao was another demonstration of Portugal's bright future, one that hardly looked in jeopardy without Ronaldo as they swept Switzerland aside.\n\nPortugal coach Santos is a stern-faced individual but a shrewd operator with a Euro 2016 triumph on his CV. He would be fully justified in allowing himself a smile after his brave, but ultimately correct decision, to leave out his team's towering presence.\n\nThis was such a complete performance from Portugal that there is surely no starting place for Ronaldo in the upcoming World Cup quarter-final against Morocco.\n\nSwitzerland made their way into the World Cup last 16 with a reputation as a stubborn, well-organised and hard to beat team under the direction of experienced coach Murat Yakin.\n\nIf so, this was a pale imitation of their true quality as they were picked apart by Portugal and barely threatened goalkeeper Diogo Costa, with Xherdan Shaqiri - their main hope of inspiration - rendered anonymous throughout.\n\nSwitzerland may regard reaching the knockout phase as par for the course at this tournament but there must still be huge disappointment at the meek and mediocre manner in which they have left Qatar, because previous evidence suggests they are a much better side than the one thrashed here.\n• None Attempt blocked. Rúben Dias (Portugal) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Vitinha with a cross.\n• None Goal! Portugal 6, Switzerland 1. Rafael Leão (Portugal) right footed shot from the left side of the box to the top right corner. Assisted by Raphaël Guerreiro.\n• None Offside, Switzerland. Haris Seferovic tries a through ball, but Noah Okafor is caught offside.\n• None Attempt blocked. Noah Okafor (Switzerland) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Haris Seferovic.\n• None Offside, Portugal. William Carvalho tries a through ball, but Cristiano Ronaldo is caught offside.\n• None Attempt missed. Granit Xhaka (Switzerland) header from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Xherdan Shaqiri with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Breel Embolo (Switzerland) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Xherdan Shaqiri. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Youth centres are currently applying for funding from the Education Authority for 2023/24\n\nYouth leaders have warned the wider community will suffer if planned cuts to youth centres go ahead.\n\nSome have told BBC News NI they will have to reduce both the number of staff they employ and the number of nights that centres can open for young people.\n\nThe Department of Education (DE) is responsible for youth services but the Education Authority (EA) provides funding for centres.\n\nThe EA has been contacted for comment by BBC News NI.\n\nYouth centres are currently applying for funding from the EA for 2023-24.\n\nBut EA guidance documents on the \"assessment of need\" in each council area in Northern Ireland indicates that many are set to get less funding than in 2022-23.\n\nStephen Mallett, from North West Youth Services in Londonderry, said many youth centres in the city were facing cuts to their funding - including one of the largest facilities, St Mary's Youth Club in the Creggan area.\n\nAccording to EA documents, it received £130,000 in 2022-23, but the maximum available funding it and other centres in the area can apply for in 2023-24 is £102,021.\n\nAccording to the EA's own assessment of multiple deprivation measures, Creggan is one of the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland.\n\nMr Mallett said the proposed cut in funding would have a major impact on the area.\n\n\"St Mary's currently works with in excess of 180 children and young people per day and opens seven days a week,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"Staffing will suffer the brunt of the cuts and the team will be significantly reduced due to the reduction of the budget, which equates to almost a 24% cut.\n\n\"If these cuts go ahead, programming will be reduced to four nights a week, and they will have to limit the number of young people attending per session.\n\n\"The number who can attend will be almost cut in half because of staff supervision ratios.\n\n\"That's going to have a major impact on young people and additionally the wider community will suffer.\"\n\nCreggan is one of the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland\n\nMr Mallett said the situation was \"currently being replicated right across the region and it is the voluntary youth sector that's facing the bulk of the cuts with statutory services being relatively unscathed\".\n\n\"North West Youth Services currently administers 76 staff across 10 voluntary youth programmes in the city,\" he added.\n\n\"I've had to tell them that we can't extend their current contracts beyond 31 March so they're facing a very uncertain future.\"\n\nIn Belfast, Stephen Hughes is the leader of the St Peter's Immaculata Youth Centre in the lower Falls Road.\n\nStephen Hughes said St Peter's Immaculata in west Belfast faced losing a quarter of its funding\n\nYouth workers from the club were among those from both sides of the community who tried to keep teenagers away from rioting in west Belfast in Easter 2021.\n\nThe EA's own assessment of the Divis and lower Falls area said that there were a number of \"social issues\" like:\n\n\"Youth centres have been acknowledged as safe spaces where young people can meet friends and make new friendships,\" said the EA's assessment.\n\n\"Young people recognise the opportunities they can avail of including participation in programmes, access volunteering opportunities and develop employment skills.\"\n\nBut Mr Hughes said St Peter's Immaculata faced losing more than a quarter of its funding.\n\nHe said St Peter's had received more than £130,000 from the EA in 2022-23, but the maximum funding available in 2023-24 is £96,823.\n\n\"The reality is that this will result in us reducing the nights that the centre will be open for young people from six nights a week to four,\" he told BBC News NI.\n\n\"We'll see a removal of detached and street-based youth workers, including those who respond to civil unrest.\n\n\"This will directly affect young people in our most vulnerable communities.\"\n\nHe explained that the youth club would be limited to 35 young people per night and would exclude many others with additional needs as it would not have safe ratios of staff to admit them.\n\n\"It'll also affect summer programmes, removing educational activities for young people during the summer months when they have most free time,\" he said.\n\n\"Some of our staff are also facing unemployment after 31 March 2023 and that affects their mental health as a result of ongoing financial uncertainty.\"\n\nThe Youth Work Alliance, which represents voluntary youth centres across Northern Ireland has also warned that cuts to funding will have a detrimental impact on the lives of young people.\n\nIn the recent budget, the Department of Education was told it needed to make significant cuts to its \"current spending trajectory\".\n\nThe EA has also previously warned that it is facing is facing a \"serious degree\" of financial risk and budget deficit.", "Prosecutors accused the company of having a \"culture of fraud and deception\" during the trial in Manhattan\n\nFormer US President Donald Trump's family real estate company has been found guilty of tax crimes.\n\nThe Trump Organization was convicted on all counts on Tuesday after two days of jury deliberations in New York.\n\nThe business is synonymous with the former president, but neither Mr Trump nor his family members were personally on trial.\n\nVowing to appeal against the verdict, Mr Trump said he was \"disappointed\" and again called the case a \"witch hunt\".\n\nThe company was convicted of enriching its top executives with off-the books benefits for more than a decade.\n\nUntaxed perks included luxury cars and private school fees, prosecutors said, which made up for lower salaries and therefore reduced the amount of tax the business was required to pay.\n\nThe company is expected to face a fine of around $1.6m (£1.3m) and may also face difficulty in securing loans and financing in the future.\n\nMr Trump previously criticised the trial as being politically motivated. He also attacked his long-serving former chief financial executive Allen Weisselberg after he pleaded guilty in August and testified against the business.\n\nIn his most recent statement, attacking the verdict, the former Republican leader asked why the Trump Organization should be prosecuted for Mr Weisselberg's \"personal conduct\" - accusing him of \"committing tax fraud on his personal tax returns\".\n\n\"There was RELIANCE by us on a then highly respected and expensive accounting firm, and law firm, to do this work,\" Mr Trump said in the statement issued by his office.\n\n\"This case is unprecedented and... is a continuation of the Greatest Political Witch Hunt in the History of our Country,\" he said, adding that New York City was now a \"hard place to be a Trump\".\n\nProsecutors accused the Trump Organization - which operates hotels, golf courses and other properties around the world - of having a \"culture of fraud and deception\" during the six-week trial.\n\nThey said it ran a scheme that allowed some executives to \"understate their compensation\" so that their taxes \"were significantly less than the amounts that should have been paid\".\n\n\"The smorgasbord of benefits is designed to keep its top executives happy and loyal,\" prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told the jury during closing arguments.\n\nTwo subsidiaries of the Trump Organization - Trump Corp and Trump Payroll Corp - were convicted on all 17 charges of tax fraud and falsifying business records.\n\nManhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg praised the verdict on Tuesday, saying the case was \"about greed and cheating\".\n\n\"For 13 years the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation got away with a scheme that awarded high-level executives with lavish perks and compensation while intentionally concealing the benefits from the taxing authorities,\" he said.\n\nAllen Weisselberg, who worked for Donald Trump for decades, pleaded guilty to tax crimes in August (file image)\n\nMr Weisselberg, 75, testified against the company as part of a plea deal he struck with prosecutors that will mean he spends no more than five months in jail.\n\nHe will be jailed at the notorious Rikers Island prison and must pay back more than $1.7m (£1.4m) in concealed income.\n\nFollowing the verdict, the judge set a sentencing date of 13 January.\n\nMr Trump and his three eldest children are facing a separate civil lawsuit which could see them banned from doing business in the state.\n\nNew York Attorney General Letitia James, who is leading that civil case, issued a statement hailing Tuesday's verdict as a \"big victory\".\n\n\"[It] shows that we will hold individuals and organisations accountable when they violate our laws to line their pockets,\" she said.", "Tory peer Michelle Mone is to request a leave of absence from the Lords \"to clear her name\", amid allegations she benefitted from a company she recommended for a Covid contract.\n\nIt means she would not attend sittings of the House, vote on any proceedings or be able to claim any allowance.\n\nBaroness Mone has been linked to PPE Medpro, which won government contracts during the pandemic.\n\nHer spokesman said the allegations had been \"unjustly levelled against her\".\n\nIt was Baroness Mone's decision to seek a leave of absence, her spokesman added.\n\nHer request could be rejected by the Lords authorities - but if it is approved she does not have to register any changes to her financial interests.\n\nA House of Lords spokesman said a decision would be made once a formal request had been received.\n\nBaroness Mone, who joined the House of Lords in 2015, has not taken part in a vote since April this year and has not spoken in a debate since March 2020.\n\nOn Tuesday, Labour won a vote calling on the government to release correspondence, documents and advice relating to government contracts awarded to PPE Medpro. Conservative MPs were instructed to abstain from the vote.\n\nLabour want the documents to be released to the Public Accounts Committee.\n\nThe vote committed the government to publishing the documents, although ministers may argue they can be redacted for legal reasons or because of commercial sensitivity.\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was \"too weak\" to remove the whip from Baroness Mone - which would mean she was expelled from the parliamentary party - and had left her \"to finally read the writing on the wall\".\n\nSpeaking in the House of Commons, Ms Rayner said \"the public needs answers\" about the government's \"shameful dealings\" with companies that received contracts through the VIP fast track procurement process during the pandemic. Releasing documents would be the \"first step in restoring faith\", she added.\n\nLiberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper also called for Mr Sunak to suspend the whip from Baroness Mone, adding: \"This is more proof if any were needed that Sunak's pledge of integrity has been reduced to dust.\"\n\nHealth Minister Will Quince said the government is \"committed to releasing information when all investigations are concluded,\" but added it was \"engaged in commercially sensitive mediation with\" PPE Medpro.\n\nThe government would work with the Public Accounts Committee \"on the terms in which information may be shared\", Mr Quince added.\n\nHe defended the government's action in the height of the pandemic, claiming \"the public would never have forgiven us\" if they hadn't changed procurement rules to secure PPE.\n\nDowning Street would not comment on Baroness Mone's decision because of an ongoing mediation process between PPE Medpro and the Department of Health.\n\nA No 10 spokesman said it was a matter for the whips whether she should be expelled from the parliamentary Conservative party.\n\nLabour's Angela Rayner has been critical of how contracts were awarded during the pandemic\n\nBetween May and June 2020, PPE Medpro was awarded two government contracts worth £203m to supply masks and medical gowns.\n\nUnusually, the company was only a few weeks old when it signed the first of these agreements.\n\nIn December 2020, BBC News reported that millions of medical gowns the firm supplied, worth £122m, had never been used.\n\nPPE Medpro said at the time that it had delivered 100% of the contract to the terms specified and that it had supplied equipment \"fully in accordance with the agreed contract, which included clear terms as to technical specification and performance criteria of the products\".\n\nAn investigation in the Guardian based on leaked documents alleged Baroness Mone had financially benefited from the company.\n\nGlasgow-born businesswoman Baroness Mone is being investigated by the Lords commissioners for standards over her \"alleged involvement\" in procuring contracts for the company.\n\nHowever, the commissioners says he is unable to finalise or publish his report because \"the matter is under investigation by the police or another agency as part of a criminal investigation\".\n\nProperties linked to the company were searched by the National Crime Agency earlier this year.\n\nEmails released under Freedom of Information laws show Baroness Mone referring the company to a government minister during the pandemic.\n\nAsked in December 2020 about reports she was linked to the company, Baroness Mone's lawyers told BBC News she \"had no role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro\".\n\nThe Department of Health said: \"Due diligence was carried out on all companies that were referred to the department and every company was subjected to the same checks.\n\n\"We acted swiftly to procure PPE at the height of the pandemic, competing in an overheated global market where demand massively outstripped supply.\"\n\nThe department is currently in mediation with PPE Medpro over what it has described as an \"underperforming contract\" and said it was unable to comment on specifics.\n\nSeparately, Matt Hancock has accused Baroness Mone of being aggressive and threatening when trying to secure another government contract for Covid tests.\n\nIn his book, Pandemic Diaries, Mr Hancock claimed she had demanded \"urgent help\" to secure contracts in an email in June 2021, when he was health secretary.\n\nHe said he was later told the tests had not won any contracts because they had not passed the standards required and he chose not to reply to the \"extraordinarily aggressive email\".\n\nMr Hancock did not name the company but The Guardian claims it is LFI Diagnostics, which the newspaper believes is linked to Baroness Mone's husband Douglas Barrowman.\n\nThe BBC has not been able to verify this report yet.\n\nPPE Medpro is the majority shareholder in LFI Diagnostics, which was formed in February last year, according to documents filed with Companies House.\n\nBaroness Mone and her husband have previously denied various claims about their involvement in PPE contracts.", "Nurses in Northern Ireland went on strike for the first time in 2019\n\nHealthcare workers from two of Northern Ireland's biggest unions have begun industrial action in a dispute about pay.\n\nUnison members are taking similar action on Monday and will follow that with a one-day strike on 12 December.\n\nThose unions announced their action after the Royal College of Nursing said its members would strike on 15 and 20 December.\n\nNipsa members are taking the action over three issues: pay, staffing levels within the health service and travel reimbursement.\n\nUnison's action is over pay for its members.\n\nHealth workers in Northern Ireland have yet to receive an increase in pay for the 2022-23 financial year.\n\nIn July an independent pay review body recommended that they should receive a rise of £1,400.\n\nUnison representative Anne Speed told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster programme the union was seeking an \"inflation-busting pay rise\" for its members.\n\n\"What it means is inflation is 11%, and a pay rise actually has to match that in order to protect workers,\" she said.\n\n\"What's being awarded is only half of inflation, and health workers are just frustrated, fed up, very disappointed and they're choosing to speak out now.\"\n\nMs Speed added that unions were prepared to negotiate, but the responsibility fell on Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, due political stalemate at Stormont.\n\nThe Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) withdrew from the executive earlier this year in protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is part of the Brexit deal.\n\nIn England and Wales, NHS staff have been given a rise of at least £1,400.\n\nUnions in Scotland are considering a government offer averaging 7.5%.\n\nThere are several reasons why workers are taking industrial action, including the failure by the Stormont executive to trigger a pay increase while the cost of living soars.\n\nWorkers in the Unison and Nipsa unions want staff shortages addressed and feel their efforts during the pandemic should be recognised financially.\n\nIt will take a lot to resolve the industrial dispute.\n\nBut the unions say that for starters, in the absence of devolved government, civil servants could agree to pay workers the recommended rate that has been granted elsewhere.\n\nThe Nipsa and Unison action will take the form of work to rule - members will only take on work required in their contracts.\n\nNipsa deputy general secretary Pádraig Mulholland said those who were taking the action were the \"heroes who brought us through Covid and are now standing up for the health service\".\n\nHe said that during the action members would:\n\nUnison said its members were frustrated and angry and \"are now the lowest paid part of the UK NHS workforce\".\n\nThe union said the cost-of-living crisis was biting deep and it was foolish to assume workers would \"suck it up\".\n\nRegarding the strike planned for 12 December, Unison said employers would be advised in the coming days of the full scope of the action.\n\nIn a joint statement the unions said the safety of health service patients was \"very important for health staff who will take industrial action\".\n\n\"Discussions have already begun to ensure the employers take the necessary steps to protect patients during the dispute,\" they said.\n\nStormont's Department of Health said the health authorities would work to protect critical services as much as possible during the industrial action.\n\nBut it warned that there would \"inevitably be an impact on patient care\".\n\nHealth staff in Northern Ireland last went on strike in late 2019 and early 2020 in protest over pay and staffing levels.", "Takayo Nembhard and his partner were expecting their first child at the time of the stabbing\n\nA man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after an aspiring rapper was stabbed to death at the Notting Hill Carnival.\n\nTakayo Nembhard, 21, from the Fishponds area of Bristol, was attacked in Ladbroke Grove, west London, during the event in August.\n\nThe Met said an 18-year-old had handed himself in at a police station on Tuesday following a recent CCTV appeal.\n\nHe remains in police custody, the force added.\n\nDetectives said they still wanted to trace another man in connection with Mr Nembhard's death.\n\nTakayo Nembhard was considered a rising star in the drill rapping world\n\nMr Nembhard, who rapped under the name TKorStretch, had been visiting the carnival with his sister and friends, and was in a large crowd when he was attacked at about 20:00 BST on 29 August.\n\nPolice pulled him free from the crush and gave him first aid, but he later died in a west London hospital.\n\nA post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as a stab wound to the right groin femoral artery.\n\nThe Met has urged anyone with any information about what happened \"no matter how small\" to come forward, including those who were filming or photographing in the area at the time.\n\nMr Nembhard's partner, O'shian Edwards gave birth to their baby nine weeks after he died\n\nIn October, a 23-year-old man, an 18-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy were arrested in Bristol on suspicion of murder.\n\nA 20-year-old woman was also arrested in Islington on suspicion of assisting an offender.\n\nThe 23-year-old man was released under investigation, while the 18-year-old man, 17-year-old boy and 20-year-old woman were all bailed pending further inquiries.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Passengers had already been warned to plan their travel well in advance over the Christmas period\n\nFresh rail strikes have been announced for Christmas Eve with the walkout threatening to hit celebrations and travel over the festive weekend.\n\nWorkers at the UK's biggest rail union, RMT, will walk out from 18:00 GMT on 24 December until 06:00 GMT on 27 December amid a row over pay and conditions.\n\nThe move comes after the union urged workers to reject the latest pay offer.\n\nThe new strikes could also affect many restaurants and bars at a key time of the year for the hospitality industry.\n\nThe fresh walkouts are in addition to strikes by rail workers that have already been announced and begin next week.\n\nTim Shoveller, Network Rail's chief negotiator, said the RMT was \"playing fast and loose with people's Christmas plans and the new strike dates announced deliberately target vital engineering work designed to improve the railway\".\n\nThe RMT represents staff at Network Rail, who maintain the railways and include signallers and maintenance workers. The union also represents workers at 14 train operating companies.\n\nRMT general secretary Mick Lynch told the BBC's Today programme that he regretted the inconvenience that was being caused by the strikes. But he said \"this inconvenience is being caused by the government who are running the playbook and the strategy for the railway companies and directing what's going on\".\n\nTransport Secretary Mark Harper said the latest developments were \"incredibly disappointing\", adding the RMT had \"failed to play its part\".\n\nAs well as the strikes on 24-27 December, industrial action across four 48-hour periods will take place on:\n\nAbout 40,000 rail workers across Network Rail and train companies are expected to walk out. There is likely to be disruption in the days around the strikes as well.\n\nPassengers had already been warned to plan their travel well in advance over Christmas, with some 5% of the rail network shut for engineering works - although many trains do not run over Christmas Day and Boxing Day.\n\nNigel Goddard in Croydon, south London, says the industrial action means that his family's Christmas has been \"ruined\".\n\nHe will not be able to see his son in Newcastle this December, and will miss visiting his six-month old granddaughter over the holidays.\n\n\"We have three possible days that we can meet up for Christmas lunch but there are strikes on all three of the days,\" he told the BBC.\n\nNigel Goddard says he will not be able to see his son and granddaughter over Christmas\n\nThe last time Nigel saw his son was September 2021. He said he will also miss out on his staff Christmas party.\n\nThe rail sector is not the only industry facing strike action, and walkouts are expected to affect postal deliveries, bus services and teaching in schools this month.\n\nWorkers are seeking better working conditions and pay increases to keep up with the soaring cost of living, as prices rise at the fastest rate for 41 years.\n\nThe RMT is involved in two sets of talks - one with Network Rail and one with the train operating companies.\n\nNetwork Rail had said the latest offer was its \"best and final\". It includes:\n\nOn Monday, the RMT said it would put the new offer from Network Rail to its members in an electronic referendum. But it is calling for the offer to be rejected offer, describing it as \"not acceptable\".\n\nOn Sunday, the union rejected the first offer from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents the 14 train companies.\n\nThe RMT will continue to hold talks with the RDG on Tuesday.\n\nThe rail industry is under pressure to save money after the pandemic left a hole in its finances, and bosses say reforms are needed to modernise the railway and make pay rises affordable.\n\nHow will you be affected by the strikes? Share your experiences haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Domestic abuse campaigner Ngozi Fulani was persistently asked where she was \"really\" from at the Palace event\n\nA black British charity boss who was repeatedly asked where she was \"really\" from during a royal reception says she has suffered \"horrific\" abuse on social media after speaking out.\n\nNgozi Fulani says her family has been under immense pressure, but she has been heartened by messages of support.\n\nHer comments come after she felt she was \"interrogated\" by Lady Susan Hussey at Buckingham Palace last Tuesday.\n\nLady Hussey has since left her honorary role within the Royal Household.\n\nMs Fulani - who had been at the Palace representing the London-based charity Sistah Space which supports women of African and Caribbean heritage who have faced domestic and sexual abuse - felt she has had to highlight an issue which \"occurs on an all too regular basis\".\n\nIn a statement Ms Fulani has described her experiences since speaking out as \"an emotional whirlwind\".\n\n\"The last week has been an extremely difficult time for us all at Sistah Space,\" she said.\n\n\"My team, family and I have been put under immense pressure and received some horrific abuse via social media.\n\n\"Yet throughout this time I have been heartened by the huge amount of support we have received.\"\n\nLady Susan Hussey was a key and trusted figure in the British royal household for decades\n\nLady Hussey was the late Queen's lady-in-waiting and was seen as a key and trusted figure in the Royal Household for decades.\n\nPart of her latest role had involved helping to host events at Buckingham Palace - which is how she met Ms Fulani.\n\nAfter the event, Ms Fulani described on Twitter how Lady Hussey - who is Prince William's godmother - moved her hair aside to see her name badge, and then challenged her to explain where she was from.\n\nThe conversation, as recounted by Ms Fulani, consisted of Lady Hussey pushing her about her background and nationality.\n\nLady Hussey is said to have asked what part of Africa Ms Fulani was from, to which Ms Fulani replied she was born in the UK.\n\nMs Fulani told Lady Hussey her parents arrived in the UK in the 1950s adding that she was of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.\n\nIn her statement issued on Monday, Ms Fulani added: \"What took place at the event is now well documented, and sadly is something that occurs on an all too regular basis.\n\n\"Incidents like this not only cause emotional harm to those involved but do also have wider repercussions within the community.\n\n\"I have experienced first-hand what happens when a black woman faces adversity and has to overcome additional barriers when trying to report it.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe BBC understands Lady Hussey remains willing to make a personal apology should it be welcomed.\n\nLast week a spokesperson for Prince William, who is Lady Hussey's godson, said \"racism has no place in our society.\n\n\"The comments were unacceptable, and it is right that the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect.\"", "Moroccan fans in Doha and elsewhere are celebrating a historic win, after the north African team reached the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time.", "Matt Lucas (far right) was a Bake Off presenter across three series\n\nMatt Lucas has said \"farewell\" to the Great British Bake Off tent, as the comedian confirmed he was stepping down as a presenter of the show.\n\nThe 48-year-old said his three-series stint had been a \"delicious experience\" but the time needed to oversee bakes alongside other projects was too much.\n\n\"I am cheerfully passing the baguette on to someone else,\" the former Little Britain star wrote on Twitter.\n\nIn his statement, Lucas said the decision came after trying to balance the requirements of Bake Off and other projects such as Sky Max comedy Fantasy Football League.\n\nHe said: \"I would like to give my warmest thanks and gratitude to everyone at Love Productions and Channel 4 and to Noelipops [co-presenter Noel Fielding], Paul [Hollywood], Dame Prue [Leith], the crew and, of course, the wonderful bakers for welcoming me into the tent.\n\n\"I wish whoever takes over all the very best and I can't wait to tune into the next series without already knowing who won!\"\n\nLucas said he was \"cheerfully passing the baguette on to someone else\"\n\nFielding, who presented alongside Lucas, said: \"I will miss your big smile and your sense of fun and silliness. I will miss our writing days in that ridiculous room with the high ceilings and I will miss us giggling like naughty schoolboys when Paul says 'eggy' in his Scouse accent.\n\n\"You were so lovely to work with and so kind to the bakers. Have fun on your next adventure.\"\n\nShow judge Hollywood wished Lucas luck, while fellow judge Dame Prue thanked Lucas for \"bringing so much laughter and fun to the tent\".\n\nLove Productions, which makes the programme, said it was thankful to Lucas for his work on the show, including during Covid, \"which required a great sacrifice and an enormous dollop of humour\".\n\n\"We consider Matt to be very much part of the Bake Off family and are extremely grateful for his part, along with Noel, in looking after very many bakers,\" the show's producers added.\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by noel_fielding This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIan Katz, chief content officer at Channel 4, echoed that sentiment, saying Lucas \"brought warmth, wit and a large helping of endearing silliness to the tent and produced some of the most memorable moments of recent series\".\n\nBake Off first aired in 2010 and transferred from the BBC to Channel 4 in 2017. Its 13th series ended last month, and overnight figures showed its finale attracted about 5.2 million viewers.", "Orion passed a mere 130km (80 miles) from the lunar surface at closest approach\n\nThe US space agency's Orion capsule is heading home.\n\nThe vehicle conducted a big engine burn on Monday in the vicinity of the Moon that now commits it to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.\n\nIt was the last major powered manoeuvre for the next-generation crew ship on what has been, so far, a highly successful demonstration flight.\n\nA trouble-free return at the weekend will see astronauts climb aboard Orion for its next mission in late 2024.\n\nNasa is planning a series of ever more complex outings for the capsule and its launch rocket - as part of its Artemis programme.\n\nThis first flight, Artemis-1, has been all about testing systems in the absence of astronauts. They will get their opportunity on the next mission, Artemis-2.\n\nArtemis-3 is most eagerly anticipated - an attempt to land people back on the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years. It could take place in late 2025 or in 2026.\n\nBut the whole plan depends on the current venture ending without incident.\n\nOrion set off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 16 November. It was put into an extended loop around the Moon that saw it reach some 430,000km (270,000 miles) beyond Earth - the furthest any spacecraft designed to carry humans has travelled.\n\nTwo big engine firings from Orion's European Space Agency-provided propulsion unit - the first occurring last Thursday, and the second in the past few hours - have since turned the ship for home.\n\nNasa is describing the return as its \"priority one\" for the mission. Engineers want to see proof that the vehicle can survive the heat of re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.\n\nArtwork: This is a demonstration before astronauts step aboard the capsule\n\nOrion will be moving at about 39,500km/h, which is far faster than a spacecraft coming back from the International Space Station.\n\nAs the vehicle pushes up against the air in front of it, pressure and friction will generate temperatures approaching 3,000C.\n\nNasa and spacecraft manufacturer Lockheed Martin need to know the shield on the capsule's underside is absolutely fit for purpose before astronauts are asked to ride aboard.\n\nAssuming the shield works and the 11 parachutes deployed to further slow the spacecraft also work, a controlled splashdown off the California coast should occur not long after 09:30 local time (17:30 GMT) on Sunday.", "Teachers who are members of the SSTA and NASUWT unions will strike on Wednesday and Thursday. It will lead to the closure of some schools, the partial closure of others, while some will remain open.\n\nThu 8 Dec - Secondary schools will be closed to pupils in S1-S4.\n\nThu 8 Dec - Where possible, all schools will remain open but action will affect each school in different ways. This means the closure or partial closure of some schools and disrupted timetables in others. Parents will be notified by their schools.\n\nThu 8 Dec - Only secondary schools will be affected. Arrangements will be confirmed by schools.\n\nWed 7 Dec - One secondary school closed to all pupils. Arrangements for others to be confirmed.\n\nWed 7 Dec - Secondaries will be open to all students but there may be some disruption to classes.\n\nWed 7 Dec - There will be some disruption to classes in secondary schools. Each school will write to parent/carers directly with the arrangements for their school.\n\nThu 8 Dec - All secondary schools will be open only to S5 and S6 pupils. Individual secondary schools may have some S4 pupils attending where staffing allows. Contact will be made with families by schools.\n\nWed 7 Dec - All secondary schools and three primaries will be closed.\n\nThu 8 Dec - All secondary schools will be closed to S1-S3 students. One will be closed to all students. The other four will be open to some senior students but the details vary between schools.\n\nWed 7 Dec - All secondary schools closed to S1, S2 and S3 pupils.\n\nThu 8 Dec - Around 10% of teachers are expected to strike. Some secondary schools will be closed or partially closed. More information will be provided to parents by their schools.\n\nThu 8 Dec - The council is planning to open all schools but education provision and delivery will be restricted in line with the number of teachers participating in the strike. Head teachers will advise.\n\nThu 8 Dec - All secondary schools will be closed to students.\n\nWed 7 Dec - The impact of the strike on primary, secondary and ASL schools will vary across the city and schools will take their own decisions on what they will be able to deliver.\n\nWed 7 Dec - Parents will be notified of the impact of the industrial action. So far, no complete or partial closures of secondary schools have been announced.\n\nWed 7 Dec - Four of its seven secondaries will only be open to S4, S5 and S6 pupils next Wednesday. The other three will be open to all students.\n\nThu 8 Dec - All secondary schools will be closed.\n\nThu 8 Dec - All Moray secondary schools will be closed to S1-3 pupils with variable arrangements in place for young people in S4-6, depending on staff availability. Head teachers will inform families directly of their individual arrangements over the coming days.\n\nWed 7 Dec - Ardrossan Academy, Auchenharvie Academy, Garnock Community Campus, Greenwood Academy, Irvine Royal Academy, Kilwinning Academy, St Matthew's Academy and Whiting Bay Primary School all closed to pupils. Largs Academy will remain open to S5-6 pupils and Stanley Primary School will be closed to P4 and P5 pupils.\n\nWed 7 Dec - All early years facilities, nursery classes, primary, secondary and ASN schools will be open but because the number of teachers taking strike action varies from school to school, there are whole year groups and individual classes in some schools that will be affected.\n\nWed 7 Dec - Papdale Primary closed to one P3 class. Stronsay Secondary will face partial closure and Kirkwall Grammar and Stromness Academy will be closed to all pupils.\n\nThu Dec 8 - All secondary schools except Pitlochry High School will be closed to pupils in S1-S4. S5 and S6 pupils should attend school as normal.\n\nWed 7 Dec - Where possible, all schools will remain open but the industrial action will affect each school in different ways. This means the closure or partial closure of some schools and disrupted timetables in others. Parents will be notified by their schools.\n\nWed 7 Dec - Five of eight secondary schools will be closed to pupils. Two will be open to S4, S5 and S6 students.\n\nAll schools open. But individual schools will have different arrangements for specific year groups.\n\nThu 8 Dec - Some year groups will be able to attend and schools will notify pupils, parents and carers. Bannockburn High School will be open to all pupils in S1 to S6.\n\nWed 7 Dec - All schools open with some individual classes affected.\n\nThu 8 Dec - Secondary schools are expected to close to S1 to S4 pupils. The only exception to this is Winchburgh Academy, which will be open for S1 pupils. Arrangements are being made to allow as many S5 and S6 pupils as possible to attend schools as normal to minimise disruption to those preparing for exams.", "Harry Dunn died following a collision outside RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire in 2019\n\nA woman who killed a motorcyclist will not attend a sentencing hearing in person after advice from her employer, the United States government.\n\nAnne Sacoolas, 45, admitted causing the death of Harry Dunn, 19, by careless driving via video-link at the Old Bailey in October.\n\nShe had been urged by judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb to return to the UK to face justice on Thursday.\n\nBut a renewed application for her to appear via video-link has been granted.\n\nSacoolas, a US citizen, was driving on the wrong side of the road near RAF Croughton, a US air base in Northamptonshire, when she crashed her Volvo and killed the motorcyclist in August 2019.\n\nAnne Sacoolas, pictured here in 2020, will not have to appear for her sentencing hearing in person\n\nShe had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US administration following the collision, and left the UK 19 days later.\n\nThe US government advised Sacoolas not to attend her sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey on Thursday.\n\nConfirming a renewed application for her to appear via video-link had been granted, an Old Bailey spokesman said: \"The application made jointly by the prosecution and defence for Mrs Sacoolas to participate and be sentenced by live link, has been renewed.\n\n\"The defence have supplied material in support of the application including evidence that Mrs Sacoolas' government employer has advised her not to attend in person.\n\n\"The judge has granted the application.\"\n\nCharlotte Charles, Radd Seiger and Tim Dunn (left to right) campaigned for the case to go to court\n\nRadd Seiger, spokesman for the Dunn family, said they were \"horrified to learn that the United States government is now actively interfering in our criminal justice system\".\n\n\"Harry's family are victims of a serious crime and they have been kept in the dark completely about what is to come at Thursday's hearing since Mrs Sacoolas's guilty plea,\" he said.\n\n\"Their ongoing cruel treatment of Harry's parents is nothing short of inhumane and it continues to take a heavy toll on their mental health.\n\n\"If there is a genuine reason why Mrs Sacoolas should not appear in court on Thursday, as directed by the judge, then the parents would happily accept that.\n\n\"But, on the face of it, it appears that this is nothing short of a cowardly act on the part of an oppressor.\"\n\nMr Seiger said he had asked for an urgent meeting with the Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to understand what action the British government would take.\n\nHarry Dunn was killed close to RAF Croughton, near Brackley in Northamptonshire, in August 2019\n\nSacoolas has attended both previous court hearings via video-link from her lawyer's offices in Washington DC.\n\nAdjourning sentencing at the previous hearing, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Sacoolas that although she could not compel her to face justice in person, it would provide \"weighty evidence\" of \"genuine remorse\".\n\nAfter a plea was entered, Mr Dunn's mother Charlotte Charles said \"of course\" she wants Sacoolas to return to the UK to be sentenced.\n\nThe US State Department and Sacoolas's representatives have been contacted for comment.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk", "People will need to speak at least a \"courtesy\" level of basic Welsh in order to get jobs with the Welsh government in future.\n\nThis includes answering the phone bilingually, as well as pronouncing and understanding simple words.\n\nCandidates will be expected to show the skills either on appointment or within six months of recruitment.\n\nThe Conservatives said the government's priority \"should be recruiting the best person for the job\".\n\nThe move is part of what the Welsh government called a \"significant change\" to its recruitment policies, as part of an aim to become bilingual.\n\nJob adverts for civil servants working in the Cathays Park administration will no longer say Welsh language skills are not required, but that it will be \"desirable, essential or to be taught on the post\" for every vacancy or new post.\n\nThe Welsh government's Cymraeg 2050 plan, which aims to increase the number of Welsh speakers to one million, includes civil servants being able to understand the language.\n\nAll posts advertised will require people to demonstrate at least a basic \"courtesy\" level of Welsh language skills \"within an agreed timeframe\" - usually within six months of starting.\n\nCourtesy-level Welsh is defined as an ability to:\n\nA Welsh Conservative spokesman said the party was \"committed to delivering one million Welsh speakers, but at a time of national recovery, the Welsh government's priority should be recruiting the best person for the job\".\n\n\"Currently a large majority of people in Wales - nearly three-quarters - do not speak Welsh, but that shouldn't prohibit them from working in the civil service and contributing to Welsh public life.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. How do you run Welsh Government when social distancing?\n\nThere were 34 million page views of the Welsh government's website in English over the past year, compared to 652,000 in Welsh.\n\nMinisters' private offices received 41,037 items of correspondence - 970 (2.36%) were in Welsh.\n\nOf the phone calls received from outside the Welsh government, 4.3% were in Welsh and 95.7% were in English.\n\nThe Welsh government said \"everyone has the potential to be a Welsh speaker and this strategy does not conflict with our commitment to being open, inclusive and diverse\"\n\nIt said, although Welsh-language skills will progressively be needed for more posts, \"developing a bilingual workforce does not mean (or imply) those skills being a universal pre-requisite for joining the Welsh government\".\n\nIt also said it would be \"investing in staff and providing opportunities to learn Welsh and develop language skills\", as well as people being given \"both time and motivation\" to improve their skills.\n\nSince 2018, all posts advertised in the Senedd Commission - which runs the Welsh Parliament from day to day and is separate from the government - also required \"at least a basic level\" of Welsh, with candidates \"expected to either evidence those skills on appointment or commit to gain those skills as part of the induction process\".\n\nThere are about 5,500 full time equivalent staff at the Welsh government.\n\nOf the 112 posts advertised externally during 2020-21, 25 deemed Welsh language skills not necessary, 64 desirable, three \"learnt on appointment\" and 20 essential.\n\nBetween 2020 and 2021, there was a 44% increase in requests from Welsh government staff for weekly Welsh lessons.", "Let's tease out a little more detail now from some of those people who called in to put their points to RMT union boss Mick Lynch on BBC Radio 5 Live earlier.\n\nPhilip in Gateshead said his brother was due to travel from Leeds to Newcastle to spend Christmas with their dad who’s in a care home, but is now unable to do so because of the rail strikes.\n\nHe said: \"They’re holding the country to ransom.\"\n\nPhilip believes “the tide has turned” in regards to people’s opinions on the railway strikes. “The people I spoke to yesterday have turned. They’re in favour of the NHS [strikes] and understand where they’re coming from, but in regards to the railway workers, they’re losing patience now,” he said.\n\nHe asked Lynch to “give [rail strikes] a break until the new year, give it time for people to sit back around the table again”.\n\nJulie in Cardiff voiced support for the strikes, agreeing with Lynch that it was important to keep railway stations well staffed.\n\nShe described an incident in which her mother, who has dementia, was accidentally left on a train, leaving her father panicked as he tried to unpack bags from the carriage.\n\n“There was no rail worker there to have a word with, but he managed to get hold of somebody,\" she recounted. \"In the meantime my mother is on the train terrified travelling to the next station.\"\n\nJulie says her concern is for disabled people “who are trying to get off a train... there’s nobody on the platform to help them”.\n\nDespite the fact her 93-year-old father will be unable to travel over the Christmas period, she said her dad “supports the strike 110%, and so do I, because we want safety on the railways”.\n\nShe added that rail workers would \"lose their jobs unless we stand up\".", "Body-cam shows the top police officer showing the deputy her badge\n\nThe police chief of Tampa, Florida, has resigned after it emerged that she used her position to dodge a ticket for using her golf cart on the street.\n\nBody-cam video shows Mary O'Connor and her husband being stopped last month by a Pinellas County sheriff's deputy near the gated community where they live.\n\nShe identified herself, flashed her badge and told the deputy: \"I'm hoping you'll just let us go tonight.\"\n\nThe mayor of Tampa said on Monday that the police chief broke ethics rules.\n\n\"Tampa Mayor Jane Castor has requested and received the resignation of Police Chief Mary O'Connor,\" the mayor said in a statement released by her office, adding that she violated policies on \"standard of conduct\" and \"abuse of position or identification\".\n\nVideo released last week shows the 12 November incident in a suburb outside of Tampa, Florida's third largest city.\n\nThe deputy is seen explaining that Mrs O'Connor and her husband were being pulled over for driving an unlicensed vehicle on the street.\n\nMrs O'Connor explains that she's going to pick up food, and that she doesn't normally drive the car on public streets.\n\nShe then asks the deputy if his body-cam is on. When he says it is, she tells him, \"I'm the police chief in Tampa.\"\n\nThe deputy is heard telling her they have \"a lot of problems with golf carts around here\". She is seen handing him her business card before being let go without a ticket.\n\nIn an apology last week, Mrs O'Connor said she understood how \"this matter could be viewed as inappropriate, but that was certainly not my intent\".\n\nMayor Castor's statement on Monday said that the police chief was expected to lead by example and be held to \"high standards for ethical and professional behaviour.\"\n\n\"That clearly did not happen in this case,\" she said calling it \"unacceptable for any public employee, and especially the city's top law enforcement leader, to ask for special treatment because of their position.\"\n\nMrs O'Connor was sworn into office in March after serving for 22 years on the city's police force.\n\nIn 1995 she was fired as an officer after being arrested for attacking deputies during a traffic stop before being re-hired the following year.", "Residents of Kyiv crowded into the metro to take shelter from Russian missiles\n\nRussia has fired a barrage of missiles at targets across Ukraine for the eighth time in eight weeks.\n\nSignificant disruption to the power grid was reported, mainly in the east. In the south, Odesa was without power. Ukraine says four people were killed.\n\nBut the strikes, which came nearly two weeks after the last, may have done less damage than on previous occasions.\n\nUkraine says it shot down 60 of the 70 missiles fired by Russia. Moscow says it hit all 17 of its targets.\n\nIn his video address late on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes had also hit electricity supplies in neighbouring Moldova.\n\n\"This once again proves that Russia's ability to carry out such massive terrorist attacks is a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to our entire region.\"\n\nPrevious Russian attacks have hit Ukraine's energy grid, leaving millions without electricity and heat as winter arrives.\n\nWarnings that Russia was planning a fresh wave of attacks have been circulating for several days. They eventually arrived just hours after a series of explosions at two airbases deep inside Russia, which Moscow blamed on Ukrainian drones intercepted by Russian air-defences.\n\nThree servicemen were killed and two aircraft were lightly damaged in the explosions, Russia's defence ministry said. Ukraine has yet to comment.\n\nFor Ukraine's hard-pressed electrical engineers, Monday's missile strikes are likely to mean another round of emergency repairs, often to facilities hit repeatedly in recent weeks.\n\nBefore today's strikes, officials in Kyiv were talking about moving from highly disruptive emergency blackouts, which often last for many hours, to more manageable scheduled power cuts which offer civilians some badly needed predictability.\n\nThose plans may now be on hold, but it seems Monday's damage could be less extensive than in previous attacks.\n\nAnother striking feature of the latest Russian strikes is the apparent absence of Iranian-made \"kamikaze\" drones.\n\nUkrainian officials recently said Russia had used up its supply of the unmanned vehicles. Another Ukrainian military official said cold weather had prevented Russia from deploying them.\n\nEither way, they do not appear to have been used since mid-November.\n\nUkraine says it shot down the majority of the 70 missiles fired by Russia\n\nRussia began its large-scale, co-ordinated attacks on Ukraine's power grid on 10 October. Since then, around half of the country's energy infrastructure has been damaged, leaving millions of Ukrainians disconnected from electricity just as winter temperatures dropped below zero.\n\nSome Western leaders have called the strategy a war crime, because of the huge amount of damage caused to civilian infrastructure. Attacks on power grids are not necessarily violations of international law, but they do have to be proportionate to any military advantage gained.\n\nExperts have told the BBC that Russia's tactic of hitting energy infrastructure is most likely designed to demoralise and terrorise the population, rather than gain any concrete military advantage. This would be a violation of international law, as set out by Addition Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions.", "Stephen Bear denies voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photographs and films\n\nReality TV star Stephen Bear shared footage of him having sex with an ex-girlfriend \"for profit\" on the website OnlyFans, a court has heard.\n\nMr Bear, 32, from Loughton, Essex, is on trial at Chelmsford Crown Court accused of voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photographs and films.\n\nGeorgia Harrison, his ex partner, claims when she found out about the footage she told him never to share it.\n\nMr Bear denies all charges against him.\n\nRepresentatives of Ms Harrison, who has appeared on TV shows such as The Only Way Is Essex, Love Island and Olivia Meets Her Match, said she had waived her right to anonymity in relation to the case.\n\nJacqueline Carey KC, opening the prosecution, said: \"In August 2020 the complainant Georgia Harrison met up with her former boyfriend Stephen Bear.\n\n\"They had some lunch and had some drinks and ended up back at his house in Loughton, in Essex.\n\n\"They engaged in consensual sexual intercourse in his garden.\n\n\"What she didn't know - but he did - was Mr Bear had CCTV cameras in his garden that recorded them having sex.\"\n\nThe barrister said later that day Mr Bear, who appeared in the MTV show Ex On The Beach, told Ms Harrison and showed her the footage.\n\nMs Carey said Bear later uploaded the footage \"either himself or had it uploaded to OnlyFans and profited financially\".\n\n\"The defendant was effectively selling the footage to get money,\" Ms Carey said.\n\nThe alleged offences are said to have taken place in August 2020 and in November 2020.\n\nMs Carey said Mr Bear's OnlyFans account was opened in October 2020, closed in December 2020 and had 1,061 subscribers, with 273 people paying 9.99 US dollars (£8.15) to watch the footage.\n\nShe said the defendant was arrested at Heathrow airport on his way back from Dubai on 15 January 2021, but the phone he was using in Dubai \"was never recovered\".\n\nMs Harrison, 27, giving evidence from behind screens, said she and Mr Bear had sex in his garden and she had \"absolutely no idea I was on camera during the time we were having sex\".\n\nShe said Mr Bear told her later the pair may have been \"accidentally recorded\" on CCTV and she asked to see the footage.\n\n\"I was really drunk and I knew in the morning I was going to want to know what was on there,\" she said.\n\n\"I told him it would completely ruin my life and ruin his career and if he was to send it to anyone it's revenge porn and you can go to prison for revenge porn.\"\n\nShe said that, weeks later, she was told the footage was online and, after enlisting the help of an \"ethical hacker\", she \"found out it originated from [Mr Bear's] OnlyFans\".\n\nHer mother, who was her manager at the time, subscribed to the account and saw a post from 8 November 2020 with a screenshot from the footage, she told the court.\n\nShe said she sent the screenshot to police, adding: \"To actually be monetising off of it - it's absurd.\"\n\nAsked by Ms Carey why she waived her right to anonymity, Ms Harrison said: \"My right to anonymity realistically disappeared the moment it [the footage] surfaced.\"\n\nThe trial, expected to last at least four days, continues.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Fresh rail strikes have been announced for Christmas Eve as the row over pay and conditions escalates\n\nThis is a country where, right now, posting a letter, getting a train, catching a flight, having a driving test, even going to school or seeing a nurse is, depending on where you live, potentially jeopardised, unlikely or subject to postponement.\n\nLots of stuff which we can normally take for granted isn't working.\n\nThe breadth and scale of strikes in the coming weeks presents the government with obvious political peril, for this very reason.\n\nA sense of almost contagious unrest; overlapping anxieties about wages, terms and conditions as prices spiral.\n\nThere is deep irritation across the trades union movement about the government's approach.\n\n\"They're trying to wrap themselves in the cloak of Margaret Thatcher,\" one senior figure put to me.\n\nAnother claimed ministers are not willing to meaningfully engage with them.\n\nThe government argues, on the rail dispute, that the transport secretary has facilitated talks to find a deal.\n\nAnd ministers say inflation busting pay rises are unaffordable and they must focus on getting inflation down.\n\nI am picking up some chat about whether, in some sectors, the government might consider the case for some sort of one off payment to some workers given the current rate of inflation.\n\nBut this could be a very tricky thing to make work. And, of course, comes with a cost.\n\nLabour claim there is now a \"militant government\" unwilling to deal with what it is confronted by.\n\nBut industrial action, particularly on this scale, is awkward for Labour - you can already hear the verbal contortions they perform when they are asked whose side they are on.\n\nWhich brings us to public opinion.\n\nWhen so, so many are struggling to cope with the cost of living and economic woe, where does sympathy lie?\n\nWhere does it end up - does it shift - as the disruption caused by such widespread industrial action becomes increasingly obvious?\n\nAnd, in turn, where does that leave the government? And where does it leave the prospect of resolutions to these disputes?", "The RCN has been demanding a pay rise of 5% above inflation, which is currently at 11.1%\n\nNurses in Scotland are to be consulted on the Scottish government's latest pay offer, their union has announced.\n\nThe offer would mean a pay rise of 11.3% for the lowest paid and an average rise of 7.5%, the government said when it outlined the proposal last week.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing said at the time the offer was \"credible\" but \"still falls short\".\n\nIt will now ask its members whether to accept the deal.\n\nThe union said it was making no recommendation on whether they should do so.\n\nAccording to the Scottish government, the deal would see NHS workers in Scotland remain the best paid in the UK, with workers getting flat rate pay rises ranging from £2,205 to £2,751, depending on what band they are in.\n\nThe new offer for NHS staff on Agenda for Change contracts including nurses, paramedics, allied health professionals and healthcare support staff also proposes a review into reducing the working week from 37.5 hours to 36 hours with no loss of pay.\n\nThe RCN has been asking for pay rises of at least 5% above inflation, which is currently 11.1%.\n\nBut Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said the latest offer was his \"best and final\" one, and told BBC Scotland last week that there was \"zilch, nada, nothing left in the coffers\" to improve it further.\n\nHe added: \"It's a great offer, it's a record offer, and I hope that nurses and other NHS staff take a look at it and realise it's a fair offer too, given the financial constraints that we're under.\"\n\nHumza Yousaf described the latest proposal as the best and last one that could be made\n\nJulie Lamberth, the chairwoman of the RCN Scotland board, said the Scottish government had \"repeatedly failing to recognise the clinical skill, expertise and leadership of registered nurses\".\n\nShe said none of the pay offers made so far would attract more people into nursing or retain nurses who were thinking of leaving the profession.\n\nMs Lamberth added: \"If our members vote to reject the latest revised offer, the RCN will act on the clear mandate for strike action voted for by members.\"\n\nThe vote will last from 5 December until midday on 19 December.\n\nThe Unite and GMB unions have both already suspended planned industrial action in Scotland and confirmed that the latest offer will be put to their NHS members in a ballot, while Unison has recommended that its members accept the deal.\n\nIt comes as the RCN confirmed that up to 100,000 nursing staff will take part in their biggest ever strike across England, Wales and Northern Ireland - which have separate pay negotiations to Scotland - on 15 and 20 December.", "Celebrities from around the world graced the red carpet in London at the Fashion Awards 2022 on Monday.\n\nCatwalk models including Lila Moss - the daughter of Kate Moss - and Bella Hadid were among those in the running to win the coveted Model of the Year award at the ceremony.\n\nMs Hadid, a regular on the catwalks of fashion capitals Paris, Milan and New York, clinched the award; while environmentalist and Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard won the Outstanding Achievement Award.\n\nIn September, Mr Chouinard said he was giving away the apparel company to a trust that will use its profit to fight the climate crisis.\n\nFashion company Wales Bonner was presented with the Independent British Brand Award at the Royal Albert Hall and Valentino designer Pierpaolo Piccioli was crowned Designer of the Year.\n\n\"To me fashion has a responsibility, I feel (I) have a voice and I want to use my voice even for who doesn't have a voice,\" he told Reuters on the red carpet before the awards.\n\nLila Moss, daughter of Kate Moss, was in the running to win the Model of the Year award\n\nThe event brought supermodels, fashion designers and celebrity muses together to recognise excellence in the fashion industry.\n\nHollywood stars James McAvoy and Florence Pugh; rapper Stormzy and Olympian Tom Daley were some of the famous faces to grace the red carpet.\n\nAlso among the guests at the awards ceremony were TV presenters Maya Jama and Rochelle Humes, singer Liam Payne, and royal relative Lady Amelia Windsor.\n\nOlympic diver Tom Daley was among the stars to grace the red carpet in London", "\"If I can't deliver the cancer care that I need to, the question is why I'm here in the first place.\"\n\nConsultant urologist Tim Appanna said staff shortages mean “inevitably patient care is going to suffer”.\n\nHe called it \"unbelievably frustrating\", while another consultant said the impact on her patients was \"heart-breaking\".\n\nStaff morale is at \"rock bottom\", a doctors' union said, with many thinking about leaving the profession.\n\nThe Welsh government said it was working on a plan to deal with the pressures.", "Meta has threatened to remove news content from Facebook in the US.\n\nIt objects to a new law that would give news organisations greater power to negotiate fees for content shared on Facebook.\n\nA similar law, passed in Australia, led to news on Facebook being briefly suspended last year.\n\nMeta claims their platform, in fact, provides increased traffic to struggling news outlets.\n\nIt says publishers put their content on Facebook because \"it benefits their bottom line.\"\n\nThe legislation, known as the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) was introduced in Congress by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and has bipartisan support.\n\nIt would give publishers and broadcasters greater powers to collectively bargain with social media companies for a larger share of ad revenue.\n\nMedia companies argue that Meta generates huge sums of money from news articles shared on the platform.\n\nLocal news in particular struggled during the pandemic, as Meta made huge profits.\n\nHowever Meta argues that this narrative is wrong. Instead, it says, Meta drives traffic to news sources.\n\nMeta spokesperson Andy Stone said: \"If Congress passes an ill-considered journalism bill as part of national security legislation, we will be forced to consider removing news from our platform altogether\".\n\nMeta also argues that sharing news on Facebook accounts for only a fraction of its revenue.\n\nA similar Australian law, which took effect in March 2021, led to a brief shutdown of Facebook news feeds in the country.\n\nThe company quickly reversed the decision after wide-ranging criticism - brokering a deal with the Australian government.\n\nIn a statement about Australia's proposed law last year, a spokesperson for Meta said, \"for Facebook, the business gain from news is minimal. News makes up less than 4% of the content people see in their News Feed.\"\n\nThe US legislation is part of a larger set of laws aimed at tackling the dominance of Big Tech.\n\nSupporters of the JCPA say social media will become America's \"de facto local newspapers\" if the act doesn't pass.\n\nMatt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project, said media outlets were being \"eaten alive\" by Meta.\n\n\"Meta's efforts to blackmail Congress prove again why this monopoly is a threat to democracies worldwide,\" he said.", "Prof Nathan Abrams said identity \"doesn't depend on the person themselves, it depends on the people around\"\n\nNative Welsh speakers need to do a lot more to help incomers feel more welcome, an award-winning learner said.\n\nProf Nathan Abrams said he felt like an \"outsider in north Wales\", despite having lived there for 16 years.\n\nThe Welsh government wants to have one million Welsh speakers by 2050, a goal Prof Abrams thinks Welsh speakers must help accomplish.\n\nWelsh language minister Jeremy Miles said the Welsh language belonged to everyone.\n\nProf Abrams won the best Welsh ambassador at work award for 2018-19 after inspiring his colleagues at Bangor University to start learning.\n\nOriginally from London, Prof Abrams and his wife Danielle - who has also learnt Welsh and is from Birmingham - send their children to their nearby Welsh school in Bangor, Gwynedd.\n\n\"I haven't been allowed to feel like a Welshman. I speak Welsh, the children speak Welsh, but I don't come from the area,\" he said.\n\n\"The community isn't making an effort to open the doors to people like us, because I haven't married someone from Wales.\"\n\nProf Abrams, who works at Bangor University, said it was hard for his family to \"fit in\" at first\n\nProf Abrams also believes Welsh speakers should do more to help immigrants feel part of the community.\n\nGwynedd Council has plans to try to help immigrants settle into Welsh life, including Hunaniaith, an initiative aimed at increasing the opportunities for people to access the language through things such as walks, quizzes or \"a chat and a coffee\".\n\nHunaniaith principal officer Iwan Hywel said: \"I think we could do more in general as entities and as Welsh people.\n\n\"But maybe one thing is that we have to consider the next step, when someone has learned Welsh, how they can step into the Welsh world.\"\n\nProf Abrams believes it is hard for people to \"feel Welsh\" when they do not fit in certain categories.\n\n\"People think, what is identity in Welsh? Speaking the language, coming from Wales, going to chapel, being a Christian? I don't fit into the categories.\"\n\nHunaniaith's principal officer Iwan Hywel said he believes more can be done to support Welsh learners\n\nMr Hywel said helping new Welsh speakers feel they belong was vital.\n\n\"Yes there's more we can do as Welsh people to welcome people and also it's worth remembering I don't think people who aren't minority language speakers need to think about these things.\n\n\"I think there need to be two elements - the confidence to step in from the learners, but also guide Welsh people to show what is possible.\n\n\"Hopefully we can give people guidance on how to talk to learners. We have to remember, it's not something you can just walk into.\"\n\nWelsh language minister Jeremy Miles said: \"We want to grow our language and, as Welsh speakers, we should do everything we can to support people who want to learn Welsh.\n\n\"It is our priority to maintain and protect Welsh as a community language and to increase opportunities for adults to learn and use Welsh in all aspects of their lives.\"\n\nHe said free lessons for 16 to 25-year-olds and people working in education would be available from next month.", "China has bid its farewell to former leader Jiang Zemin in a state memorial service in Beijing.\n\nJiang, who took power after the 1989 crackdown of the Tiananmen Square protests, will be remembered for leading the country through a decade of burgeoning economic growth and prosperity.\n\nHe oversaw notable events like China's entry into the World Trade Organization, and the handover of Hong Kong from the British to the Chinese.\n\nThe Chinese Communist Party said he died last Wednesday from leukaemia and multiple organ failures. He was 96.\n\nPresident Xi Jinping delivered the eulogy in a near hour-long ceremony in the Great Hall of the People, where he hailed \"Comrade Jiang's\" decisive leadership.\n\n\"He had the extraordinary courage to make bold decisions and the great courage to carry out theoretical innovation at critical moments,\" he told a packed hall of dignitaries in black suits.\n\nMourners observed three minutes of silence outside Jiang's former home in Yangzhou, in Jiangsu province\n\nSome people on Shanghai's streets also observed the silence. However observers said that life largely went on as normal\n\nJiang died in Shanghai. A plane carrying his glass coffin arrived in Beijing last Thursday for the formalities\n\nChinese President Xi Jinping and other party leaders paid their final respects to Jiang in a smaller ceremony at a Beijing hospital on Monday. He was cremated later that day.", "The head of Morelands Primary School said the community was devastated by the loss\n\nAn eighth child has died from a severe strep A bacterial infection, it has been confirmed.\n\nMorelands Primary, in Waterlooville, Hampshire, said it was \"absolutely devastated\" by the loss of one of its pupils.\n\nSuch deaths are rare, but, since September, seven other UK children have lost their lives due to complications of the disease.\n\nEarlier, it emerged a 12-year-old pupil in south-east London had also died.\n\nAnd there have been five deaths of under-fives in England and a death of a seven-year-old in Wales.\n\nReports say there are eight cases of severe strep disease in Scotland, but no deaths. It is not known whether there are any ongoing severe cases in Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nHowever, a cluster of scarlet fever cases has been identified at a primary school in County Down. Some people who have Strep A develop scarlet fever, which causes a skin rash (that feels like sandpaper) and flu-like symptoms, including a high temperature.\n\nMorelands Primary School head teacher Alison Syred-Paul said: \"We are absolutely devastated by the loss of one of our young pupils and offer our sincere and heartfelt condolences to the child's family at this extremely sad time. We ask that the privacy of the family is respected.\n\n\"As a precaution, we have been raising awareness amongst parents, carers and our school community of the signs and symptoms...and what to do if a child develops these.\"\n\nRichard Russell, head of Colfe's School in Lee, London, where the 12-year-old Year 8 pupil died, said the tragedy was \"wholly unexpected\" and had affected \"all members of the school community\".\n\nHe said the school was doing what it could to support the pupil's family \"who are seeking to come to terms with their devastating loss\".\n\nDean Burns wants parents to be aware of the signs and symptoms\n\nHealth experts say parents and doctors need to be vigilant and have a low bar for treating the contagious disease that is circulating earlier than usual this year.\n\nThey say the UK must brace itself for more cases, as levels of the bacteria circulating are thought currently to be high.\n\nMost strep A infections are mild and get better with antibiotics. But some people who catch it can get very sick.\n\nFour-year-old Camila Rose Burns is critically ill and on a ventilator in hospital because of a severe strep A infection, known as invasive group A Strep (iGAS).\n\nHer father, Dean Burns, from Liverpool, told the BBC's Today programme: \"She is still fighting for her life. She is really poorly, it is just devastating to us as a family. We can't believe this has happened.\n\n\"It progressed to something called invasive group A strep, which has now gone into her bloodstream and has devastated her body.\n\n\"I'm at a loss with it all, I just want our family back. The pain is unimaginable. She is just so beautiful and precious. She is just our special little girl.\"\n\nThe UK Health Security Agency's (UKHSA) chief medical adviser, Dr Susan Hopkins, said: \"We are concerned, and concerned enough to ensure that we wanted to make the public aware of the signs and symptoms that they should watch out for and of course to alert clinicians to prescribe antibiotics for these conditions.\"\n\nShe says an early start to the strep A infections season in the UK could be a side effect of the easing of pandemic restrictions.\n\n\"We are back to normal social mixing and the patterns of diseases that we are seeing at the moment are out of sync with the normal seasons, as people mix back to normal and move around and pass infections on.\"\n\nStrep A can cause a range of illnesses. Most cases are mild - a sore throat or a skin infection that can be easily treated with antibiotics.\n\nSome people develop scarlet fever, which causes a skin rash (that feels like sandpaper) and flu-like symptoms, including a high temperature.\n\nVery rarely, strep A can cause something called invasive group A streptococcal infection or iGAS, which can be deadly.\n\nInvasive disease happens when the bacteria get past your body's immune defences.\n\nThe UKHSA advises that anyone with a high fever, severe muscle aches, pain in one area of the body and unexplained vomiting or diarrhoea should call NHS 111 and seek medical help immediately.\n\nStrep A can be treated with antibiotics.\n\nSeven-year-old Hanna Roap, from Penarth, died from Strep A in the latest outbreak\n\nProf Jim McManus, current president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, said the UK should expect more cases: \"It is a function of numbers. There are many more cases of group A strep around, and because there are many more cases, the number of severe cases will rise.\n\n\"We had four deaths in 2017-18,\" he added, comparing that figure to this year's total.\n\n\"It is a case for real vigilance. We seem to have forgotten that strep A is around, so we have to think strep A when children present with symptoms that could be Strep A. In some cases perhaps we had thought this had gone away because we had been thinking about other infections.\"\n\nAs a parent, if you feel that your child seems seriously unwell, you should trust your own judgement. Contact NHS 111 or your GP if:\n\nCall 999 or go to A&E if:", "Two Just Stop Oil protesters have been found guilty of causing criminal damage to a John Constable masterpiece.\n\nEben Lazarus, 22, and Hannah Hunt, 23, both from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, taped a \"dystopian version\" of The Hay Wain on to the original artwork on 4 July.\n\nThey then glued their hands to its frame in The National Gallery, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard.\n\nProsecutor Jonathan Bryan KC said the painting was restored and fitted with a glass sheet before it was re-exhibited.\n\nThe protesters told the court they had made \"a deliberate effort\" to avoid damaging Constable's painting.\n\nThe original masterpiece, which was painted in 1821, shows a rural Suffolk scene of a wagon returning to the fields for another load.\n\nMr Bryan described the painting as \"a national treasure\".\n\n\"Important works of art which form part of a nation's heritage need to be protected,\" he added.\n\nThe original artwork was described in court as a \"national treasure\"\n\nThe court heard the protesters taped three printed posters on the artwork.\n\nCCTV footage, which showed Lazarus and Hunt gluing themselves to the painting's frame while wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts, was played in court.\n\nIt also showed them making statements on camera, before they were arrested.\n\nThey will be sentenced at a later date\n\nThe court heard The Hay Wain was not itself affected but the varnish on top and the surrounding frame suffered damage.\n\nMr Bryan read out a statement from the head of conservation at the gallery, Larry Keith, which said the painting was restored at a cost of £1,081.\n\nGiving evidence, Lazarus and Hunt claimed they enlisted advice from an art expert who told them \"low tack tape\" and a small amount of glue would not cause damage to the painting or its frame.\n\nHunt also said she aimed to \"inspire others\", suggesting she \"brought hope\" to a group of schoolchildren who she said had clapped and cheered in the gallery at the end of her public address.\n\nThe pair also argued that Articles 10 and 11 under the European Convention of Human Rights - the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly respectively - gave them lawful excuse for their actions, but this was rejected.\n\nDistrict Judge Daniel Sternberg said the damage was \"significant not trivial\" and that the defendants \"were reckless\" and caused it \"without lawful excuse\".\n\nThey will be sentenced at a later date.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Angela Rayner has been critical of how contracts were awarded during the pandemic\n\nThe \"VIP lane\" to fast track companies recommended by MPs and peers for Covid contracts was a \"scandal of epic proportions\", Labour has said.\n\nDeputy leader Angela Rayner said it \"allowed the shameful waste of taxpayers' money and inexcusable profiteering by Tory cronies\".\n\nBut Minister Nick Gibb said at the start of the pandemic \"we were desperate\" to get protective equipment.\n\nLabour is trying to force ministers to publish correspondence about contracts.\n\nAt a Commons debate later, the party will present a motion to MPs calling for the release of documents and advice relating to government contracts awarded to one company, PPE Medpro.\n\nThe government has faced questions over the company's alleged links to Conservative peer Michelle Mone.\n\nIf Labour's motion passes then the government would have to publish the documents, although they may argue they can be redacted for legal reasons or because of commercial sensitivity.\n\nConservative MPs are expected to abstain from the vote, which would allow the motion to pass.\n\nThe idea of the so-called VIP lane was to treat offers of personal protective equipment (PPE) with greater urgency if they came from a supplier recommended by ministers, government officials or MPs and peers from any party.\n\nSchools Minister Mr Gibb said the government saved \"hundreds of thousands of lives\" by procuring PPE at speed at the beginning of the pandemic.\n\n\"The government had to do everything it could to persuade manufacturers to shift their production,\" he told BBC Breakfast.\n\nHowever, Ms Rayner told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"I don't accept that cronyism and this level of scandal is to do with a panic.\"\n\nBetween May and June 2020, PPE Medpro was awarded two government contracts worth £203m to supply masks and medical gowns.\n\nUnusually, the company was only a few weeks old when it signed the first of these agreements.\n\nIn December 2020, BBC News reported that millions of medical gowns the firm supplied, worth £122m, had never been used.\n\nPPE Medpro said at the time that it had delivered 100% of the contract to the terms specified and that it had supplied equipment \"fully in accordance with the agreed contract, which included clear terms as to technical specification and performance criteria of the products\".\n\nThe Department of Health said: \"Due diligence was carried out on all companies that were referred to the department and every company was subjected to the same checks.\"\n\nThe department is currently in mediation with PPE Medpro over what it has described as an \"underperforming contract\" and said it was unable to comment on specifics.\n\nGlasgow-born businesswoman Baroness Mone, who joined the House of Lords in 2015, is being investigated by the Lords commissioner for standards over her \"alleged involvement\" in procuring contracts for the company.\n\nHowever, the commissioner says he is unable to finalise or publish his report because \"the matter is under investigation by the police or another agency as part of a criminal investigation\".\n\nProperties linked to the company have previously been searched by the National Crime Agency.\n\nEmails released under Freedom of Information laws show Baroness Mone referring the company to a government minister during the pandemic.\n\nLast month, Ms Rayner accused the government of a \"total failure of due diligence\" and a \"conflict of interest\" in awarding the contracts to PPE Medpro.\n\nShe was responding to an investigation in the Guardian based on leaked documents that alleged Baroness Mone had financially benefited from the company.\n\nShe told MPs it appeared \"tens of millions of pounds\" from the money awarded to the company \"ended up in offshore accounts connected to the individuals involved\".\n\nBaroness Mone has not responded to requests for comment.\n\nHowever, asked in December 2020 about reports she was linked to the company, her lawyers told BBC News she \"had no role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro\".\n\nSeparately, Matt Hancock has accused Baroness Mone of being aggressive and threatening when trying to secure another government contract for Covid tests.\n\nIn his book, Pandemic Diaries, Mr Hancock claimed she had demanded \"urgent help\" to secure contracts in an email in June 2021, when he was health secretary.\n\nMr Hancock has not named the firm but the Daily Mail reported it was not PPE Medpro.\n\nHe said he was later told the tests had not won any contracts because they had not passed the standards required and he chose not to reply to the \"extraordinarily aggressive email\".", "Passengers are being warned to expect Christmas rail disruption, with 5% of the rail network shut over the festive period for engineering works.\n\nThe disruption includes no trains running into or out of London Liverpool Street station from 25 December through to 2 January, Network Rail said.\n\nIt urged passengers to plan their journeys in advance.\n\nRail strikes could also impact services in the run-up to Christmas, with union bosses set to announce further action.\n\nNetwork Rail said most of the engineering works has been planned for when passenger trains don't run, such as on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and overnight.\n\nIt said 95% of the network would be open as usual, but key routes will be affected such as:\n\nThe works will cost a total of £120m, Network Rail said.\n\nIts chief executive Andrew Haines said: \"Christmas is an important time for the railway as it gives us the opportunity to get a lot of work done to improve the railway when trains aren't running, and therefore keep disruption for our passengers at a minimum.\n\n\"We've worked closely with our train operators to ensure the vast majority of the network is open for business over the festive period so people can travel by rail to spend time with their families and friends.\n\n\"However, some of these key upgrade projects will have an impact on services, so we're asking passengers to plan their journeys before travelling.\"\n\nMr Haines said the engineering work would mean \"more reliable journeys\" for passengers in future.\n\nSeparately, there are no dates set yet for rail strikes over the festive period, but workers are likely to stage more walkouts, with the RMT union warning it is likely to announce further action on Tuesday.\n\nUnion bosses accused train companies of refusing to make \"their promised written proposals\", and said Network Rail had \"refused to make any proposals promised at the conclusion of intensive talks last week\".\n\nMick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT, said he would be \"recommending that we set out further phases of sustained industrial action in support of our members\".\n\n\"While we will remain available for meaningful negotiations it is now obvious that the other side is unwilling or unable to progress matters appropriately, so our action will be reinstated,\" he added.\n\nThere is already a rail strike set for 26 November which could affect travel to Christmas markets as well as some major sporting events.\n\nThe action by the train drivers' union Aslef at 12 train companies means only an extremely reduced service will operate on a limited number of routes on the day.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, said recent talks had let to firms believing they could see \"the outline of a credible deal\".\n\nIt said any further strikes \"will only cause further misery for customers and struggling businesses in the run up to Christmas and beyond\".\n\n\"The RMT leadership should now remove any uncertainty around Christmas and commit to protecting everyone's first festive period post-Covid from any strike disruption,\" the industry body said.\n\nTim Shoveller, Network Rail's chief negotiator, said striking would only make the \"precarious financial hole\" that he claimed the industry was in, bigger.\n\n\"Only through reform, that will not result in anyone losing their job, can savings be made that can then be converted into an improved offer.\"\n• None Which train services are affected by the latest strikes?", "Donnie McKinnon died after a shooting on the Caribbean island on Saturday\n\nA 48-year-old man from Scotland has died after a bar shooting on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.\n\nDonnie McKinnon is understood to be from Lochaber in the Highlands. He was previously a manager at the Marcliffe Hotel in Aberdeen.\n\nAnother British man, Peter Jackson from Lancashire, was hurt in the incident in Soufriere on Saturday.\n\n\"Everyone knew them,\" one resident told St Lucia Times. \"They were community people. This is sad.\"\n\nThe Royal Saint Lucia Police Force said the shooting was under investigation.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"We are taking statements from individuals and we have officers on the ground.\"\n\nThe death in St Lucia is being investigated\n\nIt is understood Mr McKinnon moved to St Lucia several years ago, after working at the Marcliffe Hotel where he was a manager from 2007 until 2009.\n\nThe hotel said in a statement: \"All of us at the Marcliffe are devastated to hear of the death of Donnie McKinnon in such terrible and violent circumstances.\n\n\"We are all part of the Marcliffe family - staff past and present - and to lose Donnie in such a way has deeply saddened us all.\n\n\"We will remember him as the lovely, unassuming and very popular guy we all knew; he will be sorely missed. We send our love and condolences to his family and friends at this sad time.\"\n\nThe Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a statement: \"We are supporting the family of a British man who has died and a British man who has been injured in St Lucia.\"", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nAchraf Hakimi made himself a hero with a chipped winning penalty as Morocco stunned Spain 3-0 in a shootout after a goalless draw to reach the World Cup quarter-finals.\n\nThe two teams couldn't be separated after 120 minutes and Spain failed to convert any of their three penalties, with goalkeeper Yassine Bounou brilliantly saving two.\n\nThat left Paris St-Germain's Hakimi - born and raised in Madrid no less - to win it with his nerveless spot-kick and spark jubilant scenes in the stands.\n\nEducation City Stadium was filled mostly by Morocco fans, who went wild at the final whistle as their side reached the last eight for the first time, where they will face Portugal or Switzerland on Saturday (15:00 GMT).\n\nThe north African side's fans had been making themselves heard all game but the atmosphere in the stands did not match the attritional battle on the pitch.\n\nSpain hogged the ball and Morocco sat back plugging the gaps, with very few clear-cut chances being created.\n\nLuis Enrique's side came closest to breaking the deadlock courtesy of Dani Olmo, who struck an arrowed drive from the angle which Bounou pushed away and the goalkeeper also did brilliantly well to keep out Olmo's dangerous free-kick late on.\n\nMorocco were playing on the counter and should have scored in the opening period but Nayef Aguerd sent his unmarked header over, while their only shot on target came via Noussair Mazraoui's long-range drive which was gathered by Unai Simon.\n\nWith the sides not being able to be separated, the game went into extra time and substitute Walid Cheddira had Morocco's best chance but scuffed his shot straight at Simon from eight yards out.\n\nSpain notched over 1,000 passes in the contest and almost won it in the 123rd minute, but Pablo Sarabia's volley agonisingly flicked the outside of the far post.\n• None What next for 'boring' Spain after 'great fiasco'?\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nIt was a cauldron of noise inside the stadium from kick-off as Morocco fans vastly outnumbered their Spanish counterparts and it was the 'Maghreb' who were left celebrating at the final whistle.\n\nMorocco become just the fourth African side to reach the quarter-finals at a World Cup, matching the achievements of Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010).\n\nTheir supporters sang, chanted and banged their drums for the entire 120 minutes, with loud piercing whistles ringing around every time Spain were on the ball.\n\nAnd Sevilla goalkeeper Bounou seemed to feed of that energy, saving penalty efforts from Carlos Soler and Sergio Busquets, while Sarabia struck the post.\n\nStar player Hakimi stepped up and was the coolest man under the most intense pressure, dinking his penalty - a 'Panenka' - straight down the middle as Morocco surged into the quarters.\n\nPlayers ran around the pitch in a daze, manager Walid Regragui had his head in his hands in disbelief at what he had just witnessed, before they lay prostrate on the turf and then jumped up and down in front of supporters.\n\nMorocco's only previous appearance in the last 16 came in 1986, but they have now extended their unbeaten run in the World Cup to five games and kept a clean sheet in six out of their last seven in all competitions.\n\nFor 2010 winners Spain, their campaign ends in misery after such an optimistic start when they hammered Costa Rica 7-0 in their opening game.\n\nThey tried to pass Morocco into submission but the opposition held firm, the favourites having just one shot on target from their 1,019 passes.\n\nEnrique had said his side needed to do their homework on penalties, practising over 1,000 in training in the lead-up to the match, but they will need to go back to the drawing board after missing all of their spot-kicks.\n\nIt is Spain's second successive exit by penalties at the last-16 stage of a World Cup, having also lost to Russia in 2018.\n• None Goal! Morocco 0(3), Spain 0. Achraf Hakimi (Morocco) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Penalty saved! Sergio Busquets (Spain) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty saved! Badr Benoun (Morocco) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom left corner.\n• None Penalty saved! Carlos Soler (Spain) fails to capitalise on this great opportunity, right footed shot saved in the bottom right corner.\n• None Goal! Morocco 0(2), Spain 0. Hakim Ziyech (Morocco) converts the penalty with a left footed shot to the centre of the goal.\n• None Penalty missed! Still Morocco 0(1), Spain 0. Pablo Sarabia (Spain) hits the right post with a left footed shot.\n• None Goal! Morocco 0(1), Spain 0. Abdelhamid Sabiri (Morocco) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.\n• None Pablo Sarabia (Spain) hits the left post with a right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box. Assisted by Rodri with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Carlos Soler (Spain) header from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Pablo Sarabia with a cross.\n• None Attempt blocked. Sergio Busquets (Spain) left footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Pablo Sarabia.\n• None Attempt missed. Abdelhamid Sabiri (Morocco) right footed shot from more than 35 yards is high and wide to the right. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The company is working to develop a brain implant which it says could potentially help paralysed people walk again\n\nElon Musk's medical device company is reportedly being investigated for alleged animal welfare violations.\n\nThe investigation into Neuralink Corp - which is developing a brain implant - was opened in the US following complaints from staff, Reuters reports.\n\nStaff have complained that animal testing is being rushed and is causing needless suffering and deaths, according to the news agency.\n\nThe BBC has contacted Neuralink and the US government for comment.\n\nReuters, citing sources familiar with the investigation and internal company documents, reports that the company has killed about 1,500 animals since 2018 including pigs, sheep and monkeys.\n\nThe number is not necessarily indicative of malpractice or wrongdoing, as medical companies of various kinds routinely use animals in experiments.\n\nBut dozens of documents seen by the news agency suggest growing concern within the company about the animal tests. Some failed tests reportedly had to be repeated, increasing the number of animals that died in the process.\n\nSome employees' reportedly tied the failed tests to pressure from Mr Musk to accelerate research as the company works to develop its brain implant, which it has said could potentially help paralysed people walk again and address other neurological diseases.\n\nThe San Francisco company - which was launched in 2016 - has already missed several of Mr Musk's deadlines to win regulatory approval and begin human clinical trials, several sources told Reuters.\n\nMr Musk has not commented on the report.\n\nThe 51-year-old, who is the world's richest person, wrote on Twitter last week that he was \"confident the Neuralink device is ready for humans, so timing is a function of working through the approval process\".\n\nThe report adds to growing public scrutiny of Mr Musk, who completed his $44bn (£36.16bn) takeover of Twitter last month.\n\nHe has fired thousands of staff, reinstated formerly banned users and stopped enforcing other policies, including rules aimed at stemming the flow of misleading Covid-19 information.", "A protester wears a T-shirt saying \"We will fight. We will die. We will take back Iran\" at a protest in Karaj on 3 November\n\nA former Iranian president has made rare public comments praising anti-government protesters and urging the authorities to heed their demands \"before it is too late\".\n\nMohammad Khatami, 79, said the \"beautiful slogan\" of \"woman, life, freedom\" showed Iranian society was moving towards a better future.\n\nHe also criticised arrests of students in the security forces' crackdown.\n\nThe comments came in a statement to mark Student Day on Wednesday.\n\nStudents have been at the forefront of the unrest that began in mid-September following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, \"improperly\".\n\nThe women-led protests have spread to more than 150 cities and 140 universities in all 31 of the country's provinces and are seen as one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.\n\nIran's leadership, including hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, has portrayed them as \"riots\" instigated by the country's foreign enemies and ordered security forces to \"deal decisively\" with them.\n\nSo far, at least 473 protesters have been killed and 18,215 have been detained, including 586 students, according to the Human Rights Activists' News Agency (HRANA). It has also reported the deaths of 61 security personnel.\n\nMr Khatami, a reformist who served two terms as president between 1997 and 2005, praised in his statement what he called the \"perhaps unprecedented\" involvement of students and professors in the protests and criticised the punishments and restrictions they had faced as a result.\n\n\"It should not be allowed that freedom and security are placed in opposition to one another, and that as a result freedom is trampled under the pretext of maintaining security, or that security... is ignored in the name of freedom,\" he said.\n\nAddressing Mr Raisi's government directly, he said: \"I advise officials to appreciate this presence and, instead of dealing with it unjustly, extend a helping hand to them and, with their help, recognise the wrong aspects of governance and move towards good governance before it is too late.\"\n\nIn a separate development, Iran's judiciary said that five protesters had been sentenced to death after being convicted of \"corruption of Earth\".\n\nThe unnamed defendants were accused of killing a member of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force in Karaj, west of Tehran, on 3 November during demonstrations marking the 40th day of mourning for Hadis Najafi, a young woman who has become a symbol of the anti-government unrest.\n\nEleven other defendants, including three children, were handed lengthy prison terms for \"their role in the riots\", according to the judiciary.\n\n\"These people are sentenced after unfair processes and without due process,\" Iran Human Rights director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told AFP news agency. \"The aim is to spread fear and make people stop protesting.\"\n\nTuesday's announcement means a total of 11 people have been sentenced to death in connection with the protests. The judiciary chief said on Monday that \"some\" of the sentences had been upheld and would be carried out \"soon\".", "The government has pledged to relax restrictions on building onshore wind farms in England after a threatened rebellion from Conservative MPs.\n\nA rule requiring new turbines to be built on pre-designated land will be rewritten, the levelling up department said.\n\nOver 30 backbenchers had threatened to make the change through a planning bill going through Parliament.\n\nNew wind farms would still be subject to local approval.\n\nThe precise method of measuring local opinion will be part of a wider consultation which will conclude by next April.\n\nThe concession comes after the government agreed to water down housing targets on Monday, to put down a separate rebellion from Tory MPs.\n\nThe rebellions had prompted the government to delay the progress of its Levelling Up Bill through Parliament.\n\nFormer minister Simon Clarke, who led the rebellion on wind farms, said the concessions offered by the government were a \"really sensible package\".\n\nHe added that it would ensure decisions on new projects are made locally \"rather than have Whitehall rule it out\".\n\nAn amendment from Mr Clarke to the bill to ease planning rules had been signed by 34 Tory MPs - including former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.\n\nLabour's shadow levelling up secretary Lisa Nandy said ministers had been \"forced into this position because they're too weak to stand up to another backbench rebellion\".\n\nShe said her party would \"need to see the detail\" - but warned against a possible \"fudge that leaves in place a very restrictive system for onshore wind\".\n\nShe added that Labour's own plan, under which the approvals process would be aligned with other energy infrastructure, would lead to a doubling of capacity.\n\nUnder current planning rules, companies in England can only apply to build onshore wind turbines on land specifically identified for development in the land-use plans drawn up by local councils.\n\nThe guidance, introduced under former PM David Cameron in 2015, has led to a sharp decline in the number of sites granted approval.\n\nRishi Sunak had promised to keep this effective ban in place during his unsuccessful summer campaign to replace Boris Johnson as Tory leader.\n\nIn a statement, Housing Secretary Michael Gove said the government now intended to rewrite planning guidance to enable local areas to identify sites \"suitable for onshore wind\".\n\nHe added this would allow ministers to \"move away from the overly rigid requirement for onshore wind sites to be designated in a local plan\".\n\nThe government will also seek views on developing local partnerships for \"supportive communities\" - by, for example, granting them energy bill discounts in exchange for hosting new wind farms.\n\nA consultation on this had previously promised by Mr Johnson's government three months before he was ousted from office.\n\nGreenpeace called the government's reversal of the effective ban \"an absolute no-brainer\".\n\nThe campaign group's policy director Dr Doug Parr said: \"This imminent U-turn is like a long-delayed train - we're wondering why on earth it's taken so long but we're glad it's finally here.\n\n\"Onshore wind could have been designed as the perfect solution to the climate and energy crisis.\"", "Pte Joshua Kennington was described as a \"young and popular\" member of the squadron based at Catterick\n\nA soldier has died at an Army garrison in North Yorkshire following a \"non-operational incident\".\n\nPte Joshua Kennington died at Catterick on 24 November, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.\n\nPte Kennington, of 24 Squadron, 5 Medical Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, was described as a \"young and popular\" member of the squadron.\n\nIn a statement, his family said he was \"kind, compassionate, always having time for others, putting them first\".\n\n\"He died doing what he loved. Not a goodbye from us: wherever you will be, you will always be in our hearts,\" they added.\n\nPte Kennington died following a \"non-operational\" incident at Catterick garrison, the Ministry of Defence said\n\nMaj Tony Morgan, officer commanding 35 Squadron, 5 Medical Regiment, said Pte Kennington had only been with the squadron for a short time.\n\nHowever, he was \"the epitome of our most talented younger generation\", he said.\n\n\"His death is a sad loss, at such a young age and at the beginning of a bright military career ahead of him,\" Maj Morgan added.\n\nLt Col Catherine Masling, commanding officer of 5 Medical Regiment, said Pte Kennington was \"a superb soldier with ability beyond his years and a bright future before him\".\n\nShe added: \"He was a true professional, determined to do well whatever the task, and keen to take advantage of everything which the Army has to offer.\"\n\nA Ministry of Defence spokesman said an investigation into Pte Kennington's death was continuing.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The King was ushered away from the crowd by close protection officers while meeting members of the public in Luton\n\nA man has been arrested on suspicion of common assault after an egg was reportedly thrown in the direction of the King.\n\nThe alleged incident happened while King Charles was on a walkabout in Luton town centre on Tuesday.\n\nBedfordshire Police said a man in his 20s was detained and is in custody.\n\nThe monarch was steered away from crowds by his security staff before continuing to meet members of the public.\n\nThe latest incident comes just weeks after a 23-year-old student was arrested after eggs were thrown at the King and Queen Consort during their visit to York.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Luton pupils shocked to hear they would sing to the King\n\nThe royal couple had just arrived in the city on 9 November to unveil a statue in honour of the late Queen at York Minster when four eggs were thrown, all of which missed.\n\nMany of those who greeted King Charles at Luton Town Hall wished him a \"Merry Christmas\", while some had brought presents to give to him.\n\nThe King also met community leaders, including from the Ghana Society, the Royal British Legion and the Luton Town football academy, as well as officially opening the Guru Nanak Gurdwara temple.\n\nLater, the King boarded the DART (Direct Air-Rail Transit) - a new airport shuttle which will connect people travelling from Luton Airport Parkway station to the terminal.\n\nThe first sign of anything unexpected happening was when the King was suddenly and firmly steered away from the crowd by his security team.\n\nIt had been one of King Charles's trademark walkabouts - friendly, close up and with lots of handshakes and a sea of camera phones.\n\nHe was getting an enthusiastic reception from hundreds of people gathered on a cold morning outside Luton town hall.\n\nThere was some kind of flurry in the crowd that seemed to prompt the security scare. I was standing only a few feet away, there was nothing obviously shouted and nothing seemed to land near the King. Although steered, he didn't seem stirred.\n\nA few moments later the walkabout began again across the square. Most of the people waiting to see him would have been unaware anything had happened.\n\nEven if it gives his security team nightmares, these walkabouts, hands-on and with some joking exchanges, seem to be something that the King really enjoys, more so perhaps than the choreographed lines of dignitaries and official guests.\n\nAfter some tea drinking and signing a book inside the town hall - with his own pen, not one provided - he went back for some more handshakes with the crowd outside. On a cold day, people were warming to him.\n\nIt was also a noticeably diverse crowd. Sally Grant from Dunstable had come wearing an outfit which she said celebrated her Kenyan family background and she wanted to show her support.\n\nThe local mayor, Sameera Saleem, said she appreciated the King's visit and spending so much time with the public. Her dad Raja Saleem was there too, and he told the King that he'd been mayor when the late Queen had visited in 1999. He showed me the picture of him and the Queen on his mobile phone, still proud of the moment. How many people in the crowd will one day show their children the day they met the King in Luton?\n\nDynasties were meeting again in the day to day business of monarchy.\n\nSally Grant, who told the BBC she chose her outfit in celebration of her Kenyan heritage\n\nThe mayor of Luton, Sameera Saleem, and her father, former mayor Raja Saleem", "Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner has accused the government of a \"total failure of due diligence\" and a \"conflict of interest\" when it awarded contracts to get personal protective equipment from a company called PPE Medpro.\n\nThe Guardian has published allegations based on leaked documents that Conservative peer Michelle Mone financially benefitted from the company.\n\nThe Glasgow-born businesswoman, who joined the House of Lords in 2015, has been previously linked to PPE Medpro.\n\nEmails released under Freedom of Information laws show her referring the company to a government minister during the pandemic.\n\nBaroness Mone is being investigated by the House of Lords Standards Commissioner in connection to PPE Medpro. Properties linked to the company have previously been searched by the National Crime Agency.\n\nReferencing the Guardian story during an urgent question in the House of Commons, Ms Rayner said it appeared \"tens of millions of pounds\" from the money awarded to the company \"ended up in offshore accounts connected to the individuals involved\".\n\nIn response, Health Minister Neil O'Brien told MPs it had been widely reported PPE Medpro had an \"underperforming contract\" and the government could claim for damages, which can be followed by litigation if an agreement isn't reached.\n\nHe said a satisfactory agreement had not been reached with PPE Medpro yet. He also stressed the urgency of securing supplies of PPE during the pandemic.\n\nAt the time, he said, the government was operating under \"extraordinary circumstances\" to quickly get PPE to the frontline.\n\nMedpro has previously said that its gowns passed technical inspection and met the contractual requirements.\n\nBaroness Mone has previously told the BBC through her lawyers she never had any role or function in the company, or in the process in which contracts were awarded.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nBrazil delivered an ominous message to their World Cup rivals with a dazzling display of attacking brilliance to dismantle South Korea and set up a quarter-final against Croatia.\n\nNeymar made a goalscoring return to action after injury at Stadium 974, but Brazil's superstar was only one element of a devastating performance that ripped South Korea to shreds and settled this last-16 game well before half-time.\n\nVinicius Jr set the tone with a composed penalty-area finish from Raphinha's cross after seven minutes, and Neymar doubled Brazil's advantage from the spot six minutes later for a foul on Richarlison.\n\nIt was Neymar's 76th goal for Brazil, leaving him just one behind the legendary Pele's all-time record.\n\nRicharlison then added to his personal showreel of great goals at this World Cup when he followed his spectacular volley against Serbia with a real work of art, controlling the ball three times with his head and foot before moving into position to take Thiago Silva's pass in his stride and score.\n\nBrazil went four up with another gem after 36 minutes, Vinicius picking out Lucas Paqueta for West Ham's expensive acquisition to score with a well-placed volley.\n\nSouth Korea, to their great credit, continued to compete and forced several fine saves from Brazil keeper Alisson, before substitute Paik Seung-ho pulled one back with a glorious 30-yard strike to add to the night's collection of special goals.\n\nFor 45 minutes at Stadium 974, Brazil hit heights no other team has reached at this World Cup, demonstrating the level that will be required to overcome Tite's team, producing a collection of goals constructed in their country's best traditions.\n\nAnd it was all achieved with the smooth freedom of expression that is Brazil's trademark, a four-goal half-time advantage going some way to demonstrating their supremacy.\n\nRicharlison's goal was a golden moment of the tournament, followed by a team dance that rather incongruously included coach Tite.\n\nNeymar eased himself back into action with silky touches and his goal, before being replaced late on after proving his fitness following the ankle injury sustained against Serbia that forced him out of two group games.\n\nHe is part of a potent Brazil attacking triumvirate alongside Richarlison and Vinicius, both on the scoresheet and both making a serious mark on this World Cup.\n\nTite was so comfortable with Brazil's position that he was able to give Alisson a rest and send on third-choice keeper Weverton for a taste of World Cup action.\n\nBrazil will now be heavy favourites against Croatia after putting down a marker with the best display - or at least 45 minutes before they eased up - by any team in Qatar so far.\n• None Fifa World Cup: Schedule and route to the final\n\nAlisson outstanding as Brazil also shine in defence\n\nBrazil's three-goal victory margin was convincing and deserved, but there was another aspect to this win that showed just how strong Tite's squad is.\n\nSouth Korea may have been outclassed for large parts of the game but they still had plenty of chances, only to run into one of the world's best goalkeepers in Liverpool's Alisson.\n\nFor all the understandable attention on Neymar and his attacking cohorts, Brazil have a last line of defence that stands comparison with anyone at this tournament, with Manchester City's Ederson a world-class deputy and Weverton seeing action here.\n\nSouth Korea never gave up trying to create opportunities but Alisson was outstanding, tipping over a long-range effort from Hwang Hee-chan before reacting quickly to block him after the break, and racing off his line to thwart Tottenham's Son Heung-min when he was clean through.\n\nBrazil may be full of attacking options but they also have the protection of Alisson, who has taken his outstanding form at club level this season on to the world stage.\n• None Attempt missed. Dani Alves (Brazil) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the left. Assisted by Rodrygo.\n• None Attempt missed. Hwang Hee-Chan (Korea Republic) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Hong Chul.\n• None Attempt missed. Bremer (Brazil) header from very close range misses to the left. Assisted by Raphinha with a cross following a corner.\n• None Attempt blocked. Dani Alves (Brazil) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Gabriel Martinelli.\n• None Offside, Korea Republic. Kim Min-Jae tries a through ball, but Cho Gue-Sung is caught offside.\n• None Goal! Brazil 4, Korea Republic 1. Paik Seung-Ho (Korea Republic) left footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner following a set piece situation.\n• None Cho Gue-Sung (Korea Republic) wins a free kick on the right wing. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Let's be honest: when politicians talk about the structures of government - how politics works, or doesn't - it doesn't set many hearts racing.\n\nI must admit to the odd flutter, but then I am paid to be a bit weird about this stuff.\n\nWhat really matters are outcomes, rather than processes.\n\nLabour's bet is that things won't improve without a re-wiring of who takes decisions and where.\n\nOr, to put it another way, better processes, as they see them, will lead to better outcomes, they hope.\n\nBut how much of this will they deliver if they win?\n\nThey haven't absolutely committed to any of it yet; that will wait for their programme for government, their manifesto, a few weeks before the next general election.\n\nSenior figures tell me Keir Starmer does believe in everything in Gordon Brown's weighty and lengthy treatise — he would have insisted on anything he didn't like going in the bin before the document saw the light of day.\n\nOn the face of it, you might wonder what connects the House of Lords, the future integrity or otherwise of the United Kingdom and communities that feel left behind.\n\nLabour's thesis is that a perceived lack of political influence in all sorts of spots around the UK, away from the south east of England, drove many people to back Brexit and many in Scotland to back independence.\n\nPerhaps, but then plenty were motivated by a more straightforward belief in the propositions they endorsed in those referendums.\n\nKeir Starmer commissioned former PM Gordon Brown to write Labour's report on constitutional change\n\nLabour is also arguing such a centralised political system reinforces a sense of dislocation, irritation and economic under-performance.\n\nPerhaps, but governments for around a century have sought to address the inequalities of geography in the UK, with at best limited success.\n\nAnd there isn't likely to be much extra new money about for a Labour government to give all this a kickstart, if indeed they concluded money would make an important difference.\n\nThe Conservatives argue this all amounts to navel-gazing and they've done plenty of devolution themselves — handing power away from Westminster.\n\nAnd the Scottish National Party reckon Labour's idea of giving more power to the Scottish government and parliament are underwhelming and reheated.\n\nThen there's the issue of what, in the end, Labour chooses to focus on.\n\nTo govern, or aspire to govern, is to prioritise —and an incoming government, of whatever complexion, will inherit one heck of an in-tray.\n\n\"It's not the first one hundred days stuff, this,\" as one party source acknowledged.\n\nBut the announcements reveal a willingness for Labour to embark on a wholesome conversation beyond immediate short-term political horizons, in the hope a roadworthy set of ideas emerges for it to attempt to deliver.\n\nAnd that, in itself, is indicative of a confidence, borne of opinion polls that now suggest Labour can win the next election.\n\nA criticism that has dogged the Labour leader has been that few people know what he stands for.\n\nSir Keir Starmer is beginning - at last, some say - and albeit in rather general terms, to paint the broad canvas of his vision for a Labour government.\n\nHe knows the demand for detail will soon grow, as will the scrutiny.\n• None Can Labour revive its fortunes in Scotland?", "There were protests against the new code on Monday\n\nIndonesia's parliament has approved a new criminal code that bans anyone in the country from having extramarital sex and restricts political freedoms.\n\nSex outside marriage will carry a jail term of up to a year under the new laws, which take effect in three years.\n\nThe raft of changes come after a rise in religious conservatism in the Muslim-majority country.\n\nCritics see the laws as a \"disaster\" for human rights, and a potential blow to tourism and investment.\n\nSeveral groups of mainly young people protested against the legislation outside parliament in Jakarta this week. It is expected the new laws will be challenged in court.\n\nThey apply equally to locals and to foreigners living in Indonesia, or visiting holiday destinations such as Bali. Under the laws, unmarried couples caught having sex can be jailed for up to a year.\n\nThey are also banned from living together - an act for which people could be jailed for up to six months. Adultery will also be an offence for which people can be jailed.\n\nSex before marriage was already banned prior to the approval of this new criminal code, but the law was often not enforced.\n\nThe old law defined adultery as sex between a married man and someone who was not his wife, while the new law bans all sex outside of marriage, including between unmarried couples. The sentencing for those caught has also been increased from nine months to a year.\n\nSupporters of the new legislation say changes were made to accommodate concerns of critics - for prosecutions to start a complaint must be filed by the children, parents or spouse of the accused couple.\n\nAjeng, a 28-year-old Muslim woman living in the West Java city of Depok, said she was now at risk for living with her partner for the past five years.\n\n\"With the new law, both of us can go to jail if one of the family decides to make a police report,\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"What if there's one family member who has a problem with me and decides to send me to jail?\n\n\"I think living together or having sex outside of marriage is not a crime. In my religion, it's considered a sin. But I don't think the criminal code should be based on a certain religion.\"\n\nShe said she had joined the nationwide protests in 2019 when the law had first been broached. She took the sign: \"For the right to cuddle, I took to the streets.\"\n\nHowever on Tuesday, parliament unanimously approved the new code of over 600 articles.\n\nRights groups say the new provisions disproportionately affect women, LGBT people and ethnic minorities.\n\nMany businesses had also been opposed to the legislation, saying it discouraged visitors and investment. But lawmakers have celebrated overhauling laws dating back to Dutch colonial rule.\n\n\"It is time for us to make a historical decision on the penal code amendment and to leave the colonial criminal code we inherited behind,\" law minister Yasonna Laoly told parliament.\n\nThe new legislation contains scores of new clauses criminalising immorality and blasphemy and restricting political and religious expression.\n\nHuman Rights Watch's Asia Director Elaine Pearson told the BBC it was a \"huge setback for a country that has tried to portray itself as a modern Muslim democracy\".\n\nThe group's Jakarta-based researcher, Andreas Harsano, said there were millions of couples in Indonesia without marriage certificates \"especially among Indigenous peoples or Muslims in rural areas\" who had married in specific religious ceremonies.\n\n\"These people will be theoretically breaking the law as living together could be punished up to six months in prison,\" he told the BBC.\n\nHe added that research from Gulf states, where there are similar laws governing sex and relationships, showed women were punished and targeted by such morality laws more than men.\n\nThere are now also six blasphemy laws in the code, including apostasy - renouncing a religion. For the first time since its independence, Indonesia will make it illegal to persuade someone to be a non-believer.\n\nNew defamation articles also make it illegal for people to insult the president or criticise state ideology.\n\nHowever legislators said they had added defences for free speech and protests made in the \"public interest\".\n\nIndonesia is not a secular state. Atheism is unacceptable - technically you need to follow one of six prescribed religions. So it is a multi-religious state with an official ideology, Pancasila, which prioritises no faith over any other. That was Indonesia's post-independence leader Sukarno's idea, to discourage large parts of the archipelago where Muslims are not a majority from breaking away.\n\nBut since the fall of his successor Suharto - who ruthlessly suppressed political Islamic groups - there has been growing mobilisation around Islamic values, the sense that Islam is threatened by outside influences and more conservatism in many areas of the island of Java, where more than half of Indonesians live. Political parties have responded to this and demanded tougher laws to police morals.\n\nCurrent leader Joko Widodo is from the syncretic Javanese tradition that adheres to a more flexible form of Islam, but his main preoccupation is his legacy of economic development rather than tolerance and liberal values. He has shown, for example in the jailing of former Jakarta governor Ahok on blasphemy charges, that he is willing to give hardline Muslims some of what they want.\n\nBy the time the new code comes into effect, Jokowi will have left office at the end of his second term.\n\nSince Indonesia's democratic transition in 1998, strict religion-based laws on sex and relationships have been introduced in some parts of the country of 267 million people.\n\nThe province of Aceh already enforces strict Islamic law and has punished people for gambling, drinking alcohol and meeting members of the opposite sex.\n\nMany Islamic civil groups in Indonesia have been pushing for more influence in shaping public policy in recent years.\n\nA previous draft of the code was set to be passed in 2019 but sparked nationwide protests with tens of thousands taking part in demonstrations.\n\nMany, including students, took to the streets and there were clashes with police in Jakarta.\n\nAjeng said many Indonesians who were not affected by the law had also protested in 2019 because \"people don't want their taxes to be used to send people to jail just for sex\".\n\n\"People are angry that their liberty is being taken. Indonesia has plenty of problems like poverty, climate change and corruption, but instead of solving a problem they've created a bill that only adds to the problem.\"", "Prince Harry speaks of the \"leaking and... planting of stories\" as part of a \"dirty game\" in a new trailer for the Harry and Meghan series on Netflix.\n\nHe describes the \"pain and suffering of women marrying into this institution\" in an apparent reference to his wife, Meghan, and mother, Princess Diana, and their experience of royal life.\n\nThe issue of the royals and race is raised, with a commentator saying: \"It's about hatred. It's about race.\"\n\nThe latest trailer from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex reveals a series of hard-hitting comments which show no sign of offering any olive branches to the Royal Family.\n\nInstead there is a commentary that claims \"there was a war against Meghan to suit other people's agendas\".\n\nKiss and tell: The Netflix series promises an inside story of the couple's relationship\n\nOver an image of senior royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony, Prince Harry says: \"There's a hierarchy of the family. You know there's leaking, but there's also planting of stories.\"\n\nPrince Harry and Meghan, who are no longer \"working royals\", were not allowed on to that symbolic balcony for the late Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Netflix This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nA previous trailer last week drew comments about the choice of a stony-faced picture of Catherine, Princess of Wales and this latest teaser includes another austere picture of her, alongside Camilla, the Queen Consort, and Sophie, the Countess of Wessex.\n\nThe series is being released in two sections of three episodes, the first on 8 December at 08.00am, and then a week later on 15 December.\n\nThe latest trailer shows a quickfire narrative of the couple's difficult relationship with other royals, the media and the public - which ended with Prince Harry and Meghan moving to the US.\n\nIt begins with Meghan being warmly received by the public - treated like a \"royal rock star\".\n\nBut then it suggests \"everything changed\", with Prince Harry talking of leaks and planted stories. Christopher Bouzy, who founded a company specialising in tackling social media misinformation, appears in the trailer and says: \"It's about hatred. It's about race.\"\n\nMr Bouzy has been a supporter of Meghan and warned about online attacks against her.\n\nThe Netflix series will be followed by Prince Harry's memoir\n\nThe trailer links Meghan's experience to the pressure faced by Princess Diana using images of the intense press attention surrounding her - with Meghan saying \"I realised, they're never going to protect you\".\n\n\"We know the full truth,\" says Prince Harry at the end, introducing a series which will have a 15 rating, with the Netflix series warning it deals with \"discrimination\".\n\nBut questions have been raised on social media about some of the footage shown in the trailer - with some of the pictures apparently coming from events not involving the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.\n\nA brief image of photographers rushing to take pictures was claimed on Twitter to have been filmed at Crawley Magistrates' Court, rather than an engagement involving the couple. Netflix has been approached for a comment.\n\nA security guard outside the court in a recording from last year\n\nThe Netflix series shows a clip of photographers rushing to take pictures\n\nBuckingham Palace has not officially responded to the latest glimpse of the revelations ahead from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.\n\nBut there is likely to be concern about what accusations might be made, and whether the Harry and Meghan show will overshadow the efforts of other royals.\n\nThe TV show in the run-up to Christmas will also be followed by the publication of Prince Harry's memoir in the new year.\n\nLast week, a teaser for the Netlix series was released at the same time as Prince Harry's brother, the Prince of Wales, was in the US to present his Earthshot environmental prize.\n\nThe documentary promises a \"behind closed doors\" account of why Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back from royal duties in 2020 - and audiences will be looking to see if they say more about the issues raised in an interview with US talk show host Oprah Winfrey.\n\nMeghan had described a lonely and isolated life within the Royal Family and had complained about a lack of support.\n\nShe also suggested an unnamed family member had asked \"how dark\" their son Archie's skin might be.\n\nThe trailer for the upcoming documentary comes against a backdrop of a race row over comments to a black British guest at Buckingham Palace.\n\nLady Susan Hussey, Prince William's godmother, stood down from her honorary palace duties last week after Ngozi Fulani, the founder of the charity Sistah Space, described how she had been repeatedly asked where she \"really\" came from at a reception.\n\nA spokesman for Prince William responded to the row by saying that \"racism has no place in our society\".", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Passengers were evacuated and bomb disposal unit was sent to Glasgow Airport\n\nPassengers were evacuated and flights were cancelled at Glasgow Airport over a suspicious luggage item - which bomb disposal teams found was \"innocent\".\n\nPolice were called to the scene at about 06:00 and passengers were moved into the car park for two hours.\n\nStaff provided emergency blankets to protect against the cold and handed out water.\n\nGlasgow Airport confirmed 22 flights had been cancelled and three had been diverted.\n\nPolice sealed off the central search area and domestic arrivals area before a Royal Navy bomb disposal unit was sent to the scene.\n\nQueues built up outside Glasgow Airport following concern of an item in a passenger's bag\n\nThe Explosive Ordnance Disposal team (EOD) team confirmed the item was \"innocent in nature\".\n\nA spokesperson said: \"Around 05:55 police were called to a report of a suspicious item within the security search hall of Glasgow Airport.\n\n\"As a precautionary measure, and in accordance with procedures, the check-in and security search hall areas were closed to the public and a cordon implemented.\"\n\nAt about 12:30 Police Scotland said passengers were allowed back into the building.\n\nGlasgow Airport said staff had welcomed passengers back into the terminal and provided assistance.\n\nA spokesperson added: \"We would like to thank our passengers for their patience.\"\n\nSome flights had departed from the airport over the course of the morning.\n\nMike McPherson, from Glasgow, told the BBC that phone signal kept dropping in and out as passengers checked for flight updates online.\n\nHe had been waiting in the car park from 10:00 with a flight booked to London for a conference.\n\nHe said many people continued to arrive expecting flights to take off, but there were no announcements provided.\n\nLaura and Ian Snee from Kirriemuir are hopeful their travel plans will not be cancelled\n\nIan Snee and wife Laura, 55, had arrived at the airport at 07:00 and had spent most of the morning waiting outside in the cold.\n\nThe couple from Kirriemuir, Angus were due on a 10:45 flight to the Canaries for a cruise.\n\nIan said: \"We stepped off the bus and at that point it didn't look like anything untoward was happening - but we did notice there wasn't anyone getting in the building.\n\n\"At that point the terminal was full - then we tried further up to get into building and police stopped us. They moved us to car park but we couldn't get any information.\"\n\nIan said the crowd outside the airport had been in good spirits.\n\nHe added. \"Staff are going round with emergency blankets to make sure people are warm and we've got water.\n\n\"Although it's cold there's nobody moaning asking why we're delayed - these things are meant to keep us safe.\"\n\nIan said he was hopeful that they would make their 23:00 sailing.\n\nPolice officers sealed off areas of Glasgow Airport following reports of a suspicious package\n\nThis is not the first time there's been a security alert at Glasgow Airport.\n\nThe most serious was in the summer of 2007 when two men drove a burning Jeep at the main entrance of the departures hall, attempting to use gas cylinders in the vehicle to cause a huge explosion.\n\nThe scene at Glasgow Airport after the 2007 attack\n\nThey were tackled by staff at the airport, one of whom, John Smeaton, became something of a local hero and was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.\n\nThe attack prompted a major rethink of how vehicle access to the airport is managed. Now all traffic apart from buses and taxis are routed away from the front of the building and substantial barriers are in place.\n\nThe difficulty for those who try to make public buildings secure is that groups or individuals who want to threaten them will always seek new ways to get round any measures put in place in response to previous attacks.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section Rugby Union\n\nEngland have sacked Eddie Jones, leaving the team without a head coach nine months before the Rugby World Cup.\n\nForwards coach Richard Cockerill will take over the running of the team on an interim basis.\n\nJones departs after a dismal year of results, with only five wins from 12 Tests in 2022.\n\nThe 62-year-old won three Six Nations titles in his seven years in charge and led the team to the 2019 World Cup final, which they lost to South Africa.\n\nJones' sacking follows a review into England's disappointing autumn campaign, which saw one win from four matches.\n\n\"I am pleased with much that we have achieved as an England team and I look forward to watching the team's performance in the future,\" said the Australian.\n\n\"Many of the players and I will no doubt keep in touch and I wish them all well in their future careers.\"\n• None How Jones ran out of road as England boss\n• None O'Gara signs new deal with La Rochelle after ruling out England job\n\n\"He has the highest win ratio of any previous England head coach and has helped develop the leadership skills of many players and coaches,\" said Sweeney.\n\n\"I am grateful to Eddie for all he has done for England across many areas of the game and the professional way in which he has approached reviewing the performance of the team.\n\n\"He has provided the panel with astute insight and meaningful lessons that will support the team performance going forward.\"\n\nThe RFU said it \"will now conclude the long-term work it has been undertaking on coach succession planning\" with a full-time appointment \"set to be announced in the near future\".\n\nEngland's next fixture is home to Scotland in the opening round of the 2023 Six Nations on 4 February. The World Cup, hosted by France, starts in September.\n\n\"It's probably not what the RFU really wanted to do at this stage of a World Cup cycle,\" said ex-RFU director and former England fly-half Rob Andrew.\n\n\"But it's been done before, so it's not unusual. South Africa 1995 and 2019. Both won the World Cup and both changed their coach 12 months out from the World Cup.\n\n\"England did it as well, Andy Robinson went after the Autumn internationals of 2006 and Brian Ashton took over and got to the final of the 2007 World Cup.\n\n\"It's probably not how you plan to run a World Cup campaign but, if you feel it's in the best interests of the team, then that's obviously what the RFU feel at the moment.\n\n\"This was one of those moments where you have to stick or twist - and they've decided to twist.\"\n\nBorthwick among contenders to take over\n\nWhile the RFU initially hoped an English coach would succeed Jones, chief executive Bill Sweeney said earlier this month that another overseas coach is a possibility.\n\nHowever, former Ireland fly-half Ronan O'Gara - head coach of French side La Rochelle - ruled himself out of the running, while Warren Gatland, who has led the British and Irish Lions on their past three tours, returned to Wales on Monday.\n\nLeicester's Steve Borthwick, who served as England forwards coach under Jones between 2016 and 2019, is the leading domestic contender, with Sale's Alex Sanderson an outside option.\n\nBorthwick was supposed to hold a Leicester news conference on Tuesday, but this has been postponed until Friday.\n\n\"He's (Borthwick) probably been on top of the list for some time. It's a question of when,\" added Andrew.\n\n\"They'll have either sorted it and we'll get an announcement in the next 24 hours, they'll still be discussing it or will Steve want to come in a year out from a World Cup?\n\n\"There will be a million and one discussions going on, but it's pretty clear I think that Steve Borthwick is probably the next cab off the rank.\"\n\nJones took charge of England after a pool-stage exit from their home World Cup in 2015, and won his first 17 matches in charge.\n\nThat run included a Grand Slam in his first Six Nations campaign, a successful title defence and a first series whitewash of the Wallabies in Australia.\n\nHis team upset two-time defending champions New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup semi-final, but were overwhelmed by a powerful South Africa performance in the final.\n\nJones' hopes of leading England to a second World Cup have been dashed by a poor run of form.\n\nEngland won only one match - a comfortable victory over Japan - from four Tests in the autumn and were booed by some fans after their final defeat by South Africa.\n\nThe RFU began a review a day later, saying results \"were not where we expect them to be\".\n\nHowever, Jones leaves his England post with a better Test win percentage - 73% - than any of his predecessors.\n\nFormer England captain Lewis Moody told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"The eye-opening thing for me was the number of personnel changing in the backroom, whether it's coaches or physios or performance.\n\n\"So for me that looked like Eddie was no longer able to get the people in, behind the scenes, that he really wanted.\n\n\"There's been rumours about Eddie being a hard driving taskmaster. He expects high standards which is great but it would seem some of those high standards were pushing people away and have been challenging to meet.\n\n\"It's left him in the position where he couldn't employ the people he really needed and wanted. It had sort of made his position untenable which is why we have seen the sacking.\"\n\nEddie Jones arrived at Twickenham at the end of 2015 to much fanfare - England's first foreign coach, with a proven track record at international level and a brief to return English rugby to the game's top table.\n\nHis regime started magnificently with 17 straight wins and two Six Nations titles, and in 2019 Jones almost completed the remarkable turnaround as his side lost in the World Cup final, with the semi-final demolition of New Zealand arguably England's greatest performance.\n\nBut England have struggled since that night in Yokohama, and despite much talk of transition and development the results this year are of a team in stagnation or even regression; an obsession with the World Cup from coach and Union coming at a cost.\n\nWhile Richard Cockerill will take over on an interim basis, Leicester's Steve Borthwick is expected to be the RFU's long-term choice to replace Jones.\n• None How can a manager control his emotions? Sacked in the Morning discusses anger on the sideline", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nActress Kirstie Alley, best known for featuring in the comedy Cheers in the 1980s and 90s, has died of cancer at 71, according to a family statement.\n\nAlley won an Emmy award and a Golden Globe for her role as bar manager Rebecca Howe on the popular TV series.\n\nThe Kansas-born star also appeared in the Look Who's Talking film franchise and the TV sitcom Veronica's Closet.\n\nHer former castmates Ted Danson and John Travolta led the tributes, noting her warm heart and wicked humour.\n\n\"We are sad to inform you that our incredible, fierce and loving mother has passed away,\" her children wrote, in a statement that did not specify what cancer she had, but said it was \"only recently discovered\".\n\n\"As iconic as she was on screen, she was an even more amazing mother and grandmother,\" they continued, saying she had been surrounded by her family when she died.\n\nThey also praised her \"zest and passion for life, her children, grandchildren and her many animals, not to mention her eternal joy of creating\".\n\nThe cast of NBC's Cheers: (Left to right) George Wendt, Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley, Ted Danson, Rhea Pearlman, Kelsey Grammer and John Ratzenberger\n\nIn Cheers, the beloved NBC sitcom set in a Boston bar, Rebecca Howe - bar manager and cocktail waitress - soon became a fans' favourite, fending off advances from Danson's womanising bar owner Sam Malone.\n\nFirst appearing as a strong independent woman, the character repeatedly had failed romances, often with rich men, becoming more insecure and frustrated as a result.\n\nShe appeared in 147 episodes after joining the show at the height of its popularity in 1987 and continued to appear until its end in 1993.\n\nIn a statement to Deadline, Danson said: \"Her ability to play a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown was both moving and hysterically funny.\n\n\"She made me laugh 30 years ago when she shot that scene, and she made me laugh today just as hard,\" he added, referring to having caught an old episode of Cheers on a flight this week.\n\n\"As I got off the plane, I heard that Kirstie had died,\" he went on. \"I am so sad and so grateful for all the times she made me laugh. I send my love to her children. As they well know, their mother had a heart of gold. I will miss her.\"\n\nKelsey Grammer, who played the psychiatrist Frasier Crane, told the PA news agency he had \"loved\" the actress.\n\nJohn Travolta and Kirstie Alley starred in the 1989 film Look Who's Talking\n\nIn a separate statement provided to PA, Rhea Perlman, who played head-waitress Carla Tortelli, said she had \"never met anyone remotely like\" Alley and would miss her \"very, very much\".\n\n\"Kirstie was a unique and wonderful person and friend,\" Perlman said. \"Her joy of being was boundless.\"\n\nShe added: \"We became friends almost instantly when she joined the cast of Cheers. She loved kids and my kids loved her too.\"\n\n\"I feel so thankful to have known her,\" she continued.\n\nSpeaking to US chat show host David Letterman in 1993, after having wrapped up filming on the final series of Cheers, Alley explained she had called a meeting of all the actors and director, pitching the idea that the show should return for six more episodes so \"we go out with style and class and we don't let the fans down\".\n\nShe jokingly explained how her best laid plans then fell apart as she began sobbing uncontrollably while delivering her pitch.\n\n\"It was like a group therapy session where people were saying this literally, 'go with it... let it out!'\" she smiled.\n\n\"It was so degrading. Then I thought, screw you people are old and I'm young, I still have a career!\"\n\nShe later starred in another TV sitcom, Veronica's Closet\n\nBorn in Wichita, Kansas, Alley dropped out of university and moved to Los Angeles to work as an interior designer and pursue her interest in Scientology.\n\nIt was an interest she kept throughout her life, reportedly donating $5m (£4.1m) to the church in 2007.\n\nShe made her film debut in 1982 in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.\n\nFollowing her success in Cheers, Alley starred alongside Travolta in the big screen family rom-com Look Who's Talking, and its two sequels.\n\nTravolta took to Instagram to pay his respects, saying theirs was \"one of the most special relationships I've ever had.\" \"I love you Kirstie,\" he wrote alongside a photo of her. \"I know we will see each other again.\"\n\nIn 1993, Alley won a second Emmy for best lead actress, for the TV movie David's Mother.\n\nFrom 1997 to 2000, she starred as lead in the sitcom Veronica's Closet, earning additional Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her role as the head of a New York City lingerie company.\n\nShe also featured in the 1999 film Drop Dead Gorgeous, a dark comedy about a beauty pageant.\n\nShe finished runner-up on Celebrity Big Brother in the UK in 2018\n\nAlley, who was a spokesperson for American weight loss management company Jenny Craig, gave a glimpse of the irony and humour with which she approached her battle to lose weight and get back on TV regularly in the 2005 comedy series Fat Actress.\n\nAnd more recently, she worked with Jamie Lee Curtis on the satirical comedy horror Scream Queens.\n\nCurtis posted online that the pair had had a \"mutual respect and connection\".\n\n\"She was a great comic foil in Scream Queens and a beautiful mama bear in her very real life. She helped me buy onesies for my family that year for Christmas.\n\n\"We agreed to disagree about some things but had a mutual respect and connection. Sad news.\"\n\nVocal Donald Trump-supporter Alley said, in an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox Nation last year, that she was advised in 2015 to keep her political views private.\n\nHaving not done so, she claimed she was subsequently \"blackballed\" by Hollywood afterwards.\n\nReacting to the news of her death, Trump posted on Truth Social: \"Kirstie was a great person who truly loved the USA. She will be missed!\".\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by The Masked Singer This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video by The Masked Singer\n\nAlley's charms found a new audience later in her career as she appeared on a string of reality TV shows, finishing as runner-up on both Dancing with the Stars as well as the UK edition of Celebrity Big Brother\n\nEarlier this year she was unveiled as the performer inside the \"Baby Mammoth\" character costume on the US version of The Masked Singer.\n\n\"I've done a lot of things in my career,\" she beamed, \"but I've never gotten to be in the circus!\".\n\nAlley was married twice, once to the actor Parker Stevenson with whom she adopted two children.", "Billie Eilish is the first person born in the 21st Century to win an Oscar. The 20-year-old singer tells BBC 100 Women she has struggled with impostor syndrome, and that growing up in the public eye was a \"bruising experience\".\n\nIt's three hours before the start of her penultimate concert of Happier Than Ever, a world tour that has taken Billie Eilish across four continents over seven months. The final stint is in Perth, in the far west of Australia.\n\nSoon, a trapdoor in the arena will open and she will spring up from under the stage, as if emerging from an underground toaster, landing in a crouch to strobing white lights. The sell-out 15,000-person crowd will scream in ecstasy.\n\nFor the next 90 minutes she will beguile an audience made up mostly of young women born this century, with her dreamy, two-octave, sliding voice. She will move across the stage in freestyled tip-toes and mosh-pit-style jumps that end in squats, with the grace of someone trained as a dancer from the age of eight.\n\nBetween songs she will talk to the crowd like they are her best friends, telling them that she loves them.\n\nBillie is one of the women featured on the BBC 100 Women list, which each year names 100 inspiring and influential women around the world. This year the list is honouring the progress that has been made since the list's inception 10 years ago.\n\n\"I was doing an interview earlier today,\" she will say when she pulls her hair free from two tight buns. \"And I was saying that when a new person comes into my life - any sort of romantic anything - you guys are the first thing I mention… 'Just so you know, this comes with me!'\"\n\nAnd the crowd will scream again.\n\nBut all that is still three hours away, and right now Billie Eilish is in the BBC 100 Women interview that she will mention on stage, talking about a career that is less than a decade old.\n\nBillie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell was born and raised in Los Angeles to actor-musician parents, who had background parts in shows like Friends and The West Wing. Billie was home-schooled with her brother, guitarist-singer-songwriter Finneas O'Connell. She was writing songs from the age of four. Her ascent to stardom is now the stuff of legend.\n\nOne night in 2015, the 14-year-old Billie uploaded Ocean Eyes, written by Finneas, to SoundCloud so that her dance teacher could hear it.\n\nWhen she woke up, thousands had. A record deal - and a series of awkward meetings with older men - followed.\n\n\"I look back fondly for the most part, but, you know, it was so funny to be a 14-year-old girl with my 17-year-old brother and, you know, just doing hundreds of meetings constantly,\" Billie tells the BBC. \"It was a lot of meetings with people that didn't know how to talk to 14-year-old girls.\"\n\nAs Billie's fame exploded, so did her social media accounts. Currently sitting at 100 million on Instagram and more than 60 million on TikTok, a post from Billie Eilish will fire up a global engine of commentary. She says she knows about the intoxication and acidity of the comment boxes, having been on so many herself, so it's scary being the subject of a million conversations.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Billie Eilish: It's like, 'OK I am part of the discussion now'\n\nWorldwide fame meant worldwide interest from some of the biggest media outlets. Comments she made, from the trivial to more serious and personal subjects like living with depression and suicidal ideations, were analysed and repeated by people twice her age.\n\nIt's a bruising experience to grow up in the public eye, she says, and hard to keep defending things you said as a teenager.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Billie Eilish: I was in a downward spiral of impostor syndrome\n\nIt's almost impossible to fathom how such a young person could have coped under this intense spotlight, and the weight of outsiders' expectations.\n\nA June 2021 issue of British Vogue, showed the then 19-year-old singer in a skin-tight satiny corset dress that was slashed at the knee, a departure from the baggy and genderless emo outfits she had been synonymous with. The cover generated commentary not just from the internet but the New York Times, which commented that some had been unhappy with her defiance of gender stereotypes.\n\nBillie says she doesn't feel the need to display just one version of herself, though she does feel most powerful when she feels \"masculine\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Billie Eilish: I like to feel more masculine than feminine\n\nBillie's personal favourite song, Your Power, with lyrics like \"you might not wanna lose your power, but having it's so strange\" resulted in a particularly electric moment on the final night of the tour in Perth, when dozens of young women held up pieces of paper saying \"thank you\" while she sang the ballad.\n\nThe signs were made by 19-year-old Australian Alyssah Louise, who distributed them to fans outside. For Alyssah, the song is about a period of abuse in her own life.\n\n\"Your Power is a song that almost everyone can relate to,\" she tells the BBC. \"When I hear this song, I think of the man who abused his power when he was with me, how much trauma he has caused me, physically and emotionally.\"\n\nBillie says that the song is about several people she has met, who have had influence over others and struggled with that.\n\n\"It's really hard to have this much power, just in general,\" she says. \"It's hard to have power and it's really hard when you really don't have any power and suddenly you have a lot of power. It's hard not to take advantage of it and abuse it. Besides what the song's about, that goes for everything in life.\"\n\nThere's a moment in her Apple TV documentary The World's A Little Blurry, just before she takes the stage at Coachella in 2019, where the star Katy Perry gently pulls her aside and invites Billie to call her if she ever needs to talk to someone who understands a life so few ever will. As much as things were exciting in 2019, the pace would only intensify, Perry said.\n\nBillie says she hasn't taken up the offer yet.\n\n\"I should call her up. At the time I just didn't believe her. It was already so crazy. I couldn't imagine it being crazier.\" She says it's impossible to describe to other people what it's like to be so famous. \"It's like trying to explain a colour that doesn't exist.\"\n\nAnd with that it's time for Billie to get into her pre-performance mindset, which involves a vegan meal - the tour is carbon-neutral and plant-based, influenced by her environmentalist mother Maggie Baird - and a series of physio exercises.\n\n\"I don't look at myself like I am something to explain,\" the 20-year-old says. \"I just exist. I'm a person.\"\n\nBut as she springs up on to the stage, thousands of phones in the audience are pointed towards her, wanting to understand her, the bona fide voice of a generation.\n\nIn an exclusive interview in Perth, Australia, 20-year-old superstar Billie Eilish tells the BBC's Megha Mohan about growing up in the public eye, overcoming impostor syndrome, taking control of her career and her excitement that so many women artists are now topping charts and headlining festivals.\n\nBBC 100 Women names 100 inspiring and influential women around the world every year. Follow BBC 100 Women on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Join the conversation using #BBC100Women.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nExplosions were heard and smoke could be seen from 15 miles away as fire broke out in Wolverhampton.\n\nOne resident reported the whole sky turning red and another said they had seen a fireball going into the air.\n\nEvacuation centres were set up, roads were closed and some rail passengers were stuck on trains for two hours.\n\nMore than 100 firefighters were called to deal with the fire, which involved a number of derelict factories, at 21:00 GMT on Monday.\n\nThe fire continued on Tuesday, causing further disruption in the area, with site workers unable to access the area and pick up their goods.\n\nNational Rail said train users can expect \"major disruption through Wolverhampton\" until the end of the day, with services being cancelled, delayed or diverted.\n\nTrains in the city were affected because the scene of the blaze is close to the main railway line and Wolverhampton railway station.\n\nCrossCountry, Avanti and West Midlands Railway are among operators affected.\n\nFirefighters remain at the scene of the blaze\n\nAvanti West Coast apologised to passengers who reported being stuck on their trains for up to two hours on Monday and said services resumed, via an alternative route, by 01:00.\n\nGroup commander Mark Price from West Midlands Fire Service said the fire had been a \"large scale and complex incident\" which covered an area of roughly 200m by 200m (656ft by 656ft).\n\nHe said there was concern about nearby homes and the railway track and the first priority had been to prevent it from spreading further.\n\nThere were no reports of anybody hurt, with all the business units successfully evacuated, while a search of the buildings would take place once they were safe.\n\nWest Midlands Fire Service said an investigation into the cause of the fire would start soon\n\nFirefighters said their priority was to prevent the flames from spreading\n\nFive fire engines were still at the scene on Tuesday with the service saying it was looking to \"draw the incident to a safe conclusion\".\n\nOn Monday, residents in the area were told to shut windows and doors and the city council arranged for people living nearby to be evacuated to two leisure centres, but later said they were not used.\n\nLorry driver Roger Cartwright was unable to get to work on Tuesday and was waiting for updates\n\nOne woman, who lives in the Bradmore area of the city, about three miles (5km) from the fire, told BBC WM: \"The sky is red.\"\n\nA man who lives in Barr Beacon, 11 miles (18km) away, called the radio station to report seeing \"a big fireball go up\" and \"large flames\".\n\nSeveral roads in Horseley Fields were shut and remained closed to traffic on Tuesday, affecting Lower Walsall Street, Lower Horseley Fields, and Colliery Road.\n\nMotorists have been advised to avoid the area and and allow extra time for journeys.\n\nLorry drivers were unable to get to vehicles behind the police cordon on Tuesday and said they were frustrated at not being able to work.\n\nOne said he had vehicles which needed to be in London and at a nearby building site.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by West Midlands Fire Service This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nMeanwhile, West Midlands Metro said it would try to make more trams available and accept tickets from people who were due to travel by train.\n\nIt warned this could mean its vehicles were more crowded than usual.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Nathan This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Protesters clashed with police in Thessaloniki as the teenager lay in a critical condition in hospital\n\nA teenager is fighting for his life in a Greek hospital after a policeman shot him in the head as he fled a petrol station, allegedly without paying.\n\nThe officer fired two shots at the 16-year-old Roma boy in the second biggest city Thessaloniki.\n\nProtesters took to the streets on Monday, throwing petrol bombs at police.\n\nThe shooting has highlighted the recurrent issue of police violence in Greek cities.\n\nLast year an 18-year-old Roma man called Nikos Sampanis was fatally shot in a car chase near Athens and on 6 December 2008 a 15-year-old boy was shot dead in the capital during a police night patrol.\n\nAlexis Grigoropoulos's death in the central district of Exarchia is remembered every year with big protests in Athens and other cities. Several thousand officers were deployed in the capital on Tuesday to prevent trouble.\n\nIn the latest shooting, the teenager filled up his vehicle with €20 (£17) of petrol and then left. CCTV released on Tuesday revealed that four policemen were inside the petrol station at the time.\n\nThe 16-year-old drove away chased by police on motorbikes. Police said he then turned his vehicle towards them with the aim of ramming into them.\n\n\"I fired once in the air and once towards the vehicle. Colleagues' lives were at risk,\" the 34-year-old officer was quoted as saying. He was later suspended from duty and charged with carrying out the shooting.\n\nNews of his shooting prompted protests from the local Roma community outside the hospital in Thessaloniki where the boy had surgery to remove the bullet from his head. Protesters joined friends and relatives at the scene and stones were thrown at police, who responded with stun grenades.\n\n\"And what if he didn't pay? Did they have to kill him?\" his father told Greek media, adding that the boy had made a mistake and police should have arrested him at home.\n\nLocal reports say Roma protesters burned tyres and rubbish bins in the west of the city. The police officer charged with the shooting appeared in court accused of attempted homicide and other offences.\n\nVideo from outside the court later went viral showing a man identified as the boy's father being manhandled by police outside the court. The man is seen being thrown to the ground, surrounded by riot police.\n\nAccording to the Council of Europe, the Roma (Gypsies) are Greece's biggest minority and number some 270,000, mostly living in makeshift accommodation.\n\nAs the boy lay in a critical condition in hospital in Thessaloniki, his lawyer told reporters that they did not want him to become another Alexis Grigoropoulos.\n\nTheofilos Alexopoulos told Thess Today that his life was hanging by a thread but they wanted him to survive and for the plight of Roma people to be recognised.", "Gaga is often accompanied by her dogs at award shows.\n\nA man who shot and wounded Lady Gaga's dog walker during a dog theft has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.\n\nJames Howard Jackson pleaded no contest - similar to a guilty plea - to attempted murder.\n\nRyan Fischer was walking the singer's three French bulldogs in Hollywood in February 2021 when Jackson shot him in the chest, the court heard.\n\nMr Fischer said he had to have part of his lung removed after the attack.\n\nHe attended Monday's court hearing and said the shooting had changed his life forever, CBS News reported.\n\nSeveral other charges Jackson faced were dismissed as part of a plea deal.\n\nJackson and one of four other accomplices took two of the dogs, Koji and Gustav, following the shooting.\n\nA third bulldog, Miss Asia, ran away and was later found by police.\n\nAt the time, police said that they thought the dogs were targeted because of their breed - and not because of who their owner was.\n\nThe two stolen dogs were returned unharmed two days later after Gaga offered a $500,000 (£359,000) reward.\n\nOne accomplice, Harold White, pleaded guilty on Monday to breaking the law that prevents former convicts from possessing firearms. He is due to be sentenced next year.\n\nWhite's son, Jaylin Keyshawn White, and Lafayette Shon Whaley both pleaded guilty last year to second-degree robbery and were sentenced to four and six years in prison respectively.\n\nThe person who returned the dogs, Jennifer McBride, was later charged with being an accessory to attempted murder and her case remains pending, according to the District Attorney's Office.\n\nJackson's day in court was delayed after he was wrongly released from prison in April in what the US Marshals Service described at the time as a \"clerical error\". He was re-arrested the same month.", "The 1,300-year-old necklace was found in an early medieval burial site in Northamptonshire\n\nArchaeologists have found a \"once-in-a-lifetime\" gold necklace dating back to 630-670 AD and described as the richest of its type ever uncovered in Britain.\n\nThe jewellery, found near Northampton, has at least 30 pendants and beads made of Roman coins, gold, garnets, glass and semi-precious stones.\n\nThe 1,300-year-old object was spotted in a grave thought to be of a woman of high status, such as royalty.\n\nExperts hailed the discovery during the summer as internationally significant.\n\nArchaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) found the necklace during excavations ahead of a housing development in Harpole, west of Northampton.\n\n\"When the first glints of gold started to emerge from the soil we knew this was something significant,\" said Levente-Bence Balazs, who led a team of five from Mola.\n\n\"However, we didn't quite realise how special this was going to be.\n\n\"We are lucky to be able to use modern methods of analysis on the finds and surrounding burial to gain a much deeper insight into the life of this person and their final rites.\"\n\nThe first glimpses of the necklace are carefully revealed by archaeologists\n\nThe necklace is made up of 30 pendants and beads made from Roman coins, gold and semi-precious stones\n\nThe rectangular pendant with a cross motif forms the centrepiece of the necklace and is the largest and most intricate element.\n\nMade of red garnets set in gold, Mola specialists believe it was originally half of a hinged clasp before it was re-used.\n\nThe burial also contained two decorated pots and a shallow copper dish.\n\nHowever, X-rays taken on blocks of soil lifted from the grave also revealed an elaborately decorated cross, featuring highly unusual depictions of human faces cast in silver.\n\nMola conservators said the large and ornate piece suggests the woman may have been an early Christian leader.\n\nOther findings include decorated pots, a copper dish and a decorated cross with depictions of human faces cast in silver (pictured)\n\nConservator Liz Barham has been one of a number of people working on the burial finds\n\nExperts said the skeleton had fully decomposed apart from tiny fragments of tooth enamel. However, the combination of grave finds suggested it was of a very devout high-status woman such as an abbess, royalty, or perhaps both.\n\nAn artist impression shows what the grave of the high-status woman may have looked like\n\nA handful of similar necklaces from this time have previously been discovered in other regions of England, but none are as ornate as the \"Harpole treasure\", experts added.\n\nThe closest parallel is the Desborough necklace, found in Northamptonshire in 1876 and is now in the British Museum's collections.\n\nSimon Mortimer, RPS Archaeology Consultant, said: \"This find is truly a once-in-a-lifetime discovery - the sort of thing you read about in textbooks and not something you expect to see coming out of the ground in front of you.\n\n\"It shows the fundamental value of developer-funded archaeology. Had they not funded this work this remarkable burial may never have been found.\"\n• 5th-6th Centuries: People from modern day Germany, southern Scandinavia and The Netherlands settle in southern and eastern Britain\n• Late 6th-7th Centuries: Christianity gradually spreads across southern and eastern Britain and starts to appear in elite burials\n• 640-680 AD: The Harpole Treasure, a high-status burial, is buried in Northamptonshire\n• 793 AD: A Viking raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne, off the coast of modern-day Northumberland, marks the start of Viking raids on Britain\n• 1066 AD: William the Conqueror defeats Harold and becomes King of England, ending the Early Medieval period\n\nLiz Mordue, archaeological advisor for West Northamptonshire Council, said: \"This is an exciting find which will shed considerable light on the significance of Northamptonshire in the Saxon period.\"\n\nThe discoveries will be featured on BBC Two's Digging for Britain in January, with Prof Alice Roberts getting an exclusive look at the objects and delving deeper into the ongoing conservation and analysis.\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Apple is being sued by two women who say AirTags were used to stalk them.\n\nThe small trackers are designed to be placed on wallets or keys, to prevent them from being lost.\n\nHowever earlier this year the BBC reported that several women had found unwanted AirTags tracking them.\n\nApple has not yet responded to the BBC's request for comment.\n\nPreviously the company has said that its AirTags contain several measures that prevent unwanted tracking.\n\nThe lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco federal court.\n\nThe two women say the AirTags were used by their former partners to track them down.\n\nThey also argue that AirTags have been linked to murders this year of women in Akron, Ohio and Indianapolis.\n\nApple has long been aware, before it released AirTags, that they could be used for criminal activity. On releasing them, Apple said that \"AirTags are designed to track items not people\".\n\nThe devices use a bluetooth signal which can be detected by Apple's Find My Network.\n\nThe company says it has created a series of safeguards that protect people from being tracked.\n\nAirTags make a beeping noise when separated from an owner for a period of time.\n\nIf an AirTag is found moving with a person the AirTag is not registered with, a message should appear on their phone alerting them to it.\n\nThe BBC has previously spoken to several women who say they were either notified of, or found, rogue AirTags. One said she found the AirTag taped to her suitcase.\n\n\"If you create an item which is useful for tracking stolen items, then you have also created a perfect tool for stalking,\" Eva Galperin, Director of Cyber Security at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the BBC earlier this year.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. It is \"heart-breaking\" to see patients treated in corridors, doctors say\n\nDoctors have described the \"heartbreak\" of seeing patients being treated in corridors and 14-hour ambulance wait times become \"the norm\".\n\nStaff morale is at \"rock bottom\", with many thinking about leaving the profession, a doctors' union said.\n\nThere is \"no way that anybody could continue working like this\", consultant Nicky Leopold said.\n\nThe Welsh government said it was working on a plan to deal with the pressures.\n\nBMA Cymru chairwoman Dr Iona Collins said: \"Ever since the NHS has been in existence we have always been, what I feel is now in hindsight, crying wolf.\n\n\"We always say 'we don't have enough staff, we don't have enough resources, patients are coming to harm' and this is what we hear, year after year.\n\n\"Now, as far as I see this, the wolf is here. I don't see how things can get any worse.\"\n\nMs Leopold, 42, a consultant geriatrician from Swansea, has started to question her future in the NHS.\n\n\"Sometimes I just think: 'Can I carry on doing this?' In its current form, there's no way that anybody could continue working like this.\n\n\"We're trying to find innovation and efficiencies every single day, but I can't see where there is more efficiency to be had.\n\n\"All around me staff are leaving, staff are crying... many people are already voting with their feet and leaving. But of course that just strips the service even barer.\"\n\nConsultant geriatrician Nicky Leopold said doctors' \"working conditions are becoming untenable\".\n\nShe said her elderly patients faced long and \"extremely distressing\" waits for admission to hospital.\n\nThose \"horrible\" experiences, she said, were a regular occurrence for people with chronic conditions or cancer, leaving some afraid of having to call an ambulance.\n\nOne of the biggest barriers to timely treatment, she said, was the inability of hospitals to discharge patients because of a lack of social care options.\n\nThose in hospital longer than a week lose their existing care package, a situation she called a \"truly heartbreaking\".\n\n\"If it took them eight or nine days to get better and they could now go home, they go to the back of the queue to wait for care again. And that can be several months.\"\n\nTim Appanna says his job as a consultant urologist has become \"unbelievable frustrating\"\n\nConsultant urologist Tim Appanna, 52, said staff shortages in everything from radiography to diagnostics had an effect on timely treatments.\n\n\"We're literally just able to see cancer patients and urgent patients,\" he said. \"We're not able to see much in the way of routines at all.\n\n\"Patients who are on routine lists are going to be waiting a very long period of time before they get seen. And if they need a procedure, they'll be waiting even longer.\n\n\"I'm in this because I want to do the best for my patients, but it's unbelievably frustrating when I know I could do a better job.\"\n\nOne member of staff in the NHS, who asked to remain anonymous, said added pressure during the busy winter period would mean having to put two patients in cubicles meant for one.\n\nThey added: \"Waiting for 12-14 hours in the emergency department is now the norm. Practices such as using corridors, which was stopped during the first waves of Covid, unfortunately has now restarted.\n\n\"There is no room to see patients and those diagnosed with significant illnesses and requiring emergency surgery are sat waiting in waiting rooms or chairs.\"\n\nLast month it emerged NHS leaders in Scotland had discussed whether a \"two-tier\" health service was an option, with the wealthy paying for treatment.\n\nMr Appanna said, while unappealing, it \"may become an inevitable thing\".\n\n\"I am a valleys boy, I was born and brought up in Wales and I'm heavily invested in the NHS but think we've got to make decisions.\n\n\"If we can't actually deliver health care for our patients, then we have to look at what else we can do.\"\n\nDr Iona Collins says many professionals leaving the NHS do so with a sense of guilt\n\nDr Collins said workforce numbers might suggest all is well, but many staff are no longer working full time, with some realising their own health and livelihoods were being harmed.\n\n\"It's little wonder that as a consequence doctors are having to look at themselves and unfortunately, with guilt, they leave.\"\n\n\"There is no exaggeration. There is no pathos here. This is the reality of the here and now,\" she said, adding there was \"no shadow of a doubt\" that this was the worst she had seen.\n\n\"I would say that now, the people we have are left in the NHS now are the idealists who really believe in the principles of the NHS of delivering treatment on the basis of clinical priority and free at the point of care,\" Dr Collins said.\n\n\"And we absolutely want to stick to those basic principles but I'm afraid that the doctors and nurses who are in there who have the choice to work elsewhere but they stay in the NHS to try and keep this system afloat.\n\n\"They are less and less able to justify to themselves why they should remain in that NHS system, because it is hurting them.\"\n\nShe also warned that too few issues were being captured correctly, such as a lack of privacy for patients or no patient dignity, or people being treated in ambulances which are stuck outside A&E.\n\nThe reporting system currently in place, which is not anonymous, was not being used to improve patient safety, she added.\n\nThe Welsh government said a short-term plan to deal with current pressures on NHS staff was being developed in addition to its existing workforce strategy.\n\nA spokesperson added: \"We greatly value their tireless commitment to serving the public and understand their frustrations.\n\n\"There are more staff working in NHS Wales than ever before and this year we are investing record levels in training and professional education, £262m, including more training places than ever before.\"", "Ambulance staff across most of England and Wales will go on strike on 21 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nThe coordinated walkout by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls only.\n\nBut it could mean people who have had trips and falls not being responded to.\n\nMembers of GMB, which represents nearly a third of the 50,000-strong workforce, will then follow that up with another walkout on 28 December.\n\nIt comes as Royal College of Nursing members are also preparing to go on strike on 15 and 20 December in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe impact of the first ambulance walkout will be patchy as Unison, which is the largest union in the sector, only has a strike mandate for half of England's 10 regional services for the 21 December walkout.\n\nThe walkouts will involve paramedics as well as control room staff and support workers, with the military on standby to help out.\n\nThe start times and lengths of the walkouts vary between unions and services, but all will last between 12 hours and 24 hours.\n\nThe only service which will be completely unaffected, however, is the East of England.\n\nThe full extent of the cover striking staff will provide has yet to be decided - detailed negotiations will take place between local ambulance bosses and unions ahead of the walkout.\n\nUnder trade union rules, life-preserving care has to be provided so the two highest category calls - covering everything from heart attacks and strokes to major trauma - will still be responded to.\n\nBut Matthew Taylor, of the NHS Confederation, which represents health managers, said he was worried the action would \"undoubtedly\" affect patient care and how quickly ambulance services could respond and may even deter people from seeking help.\n\n\"The prospect of industrial action over Christmas is very concerning,\" he added.\n\nLast month the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives warned patients were dying because of the \"crippling delays\" that ambulance crews faced when arriving at A&E.\n\nUnison head of health Sara Gorton said: \"The government will only have itself to blame if there are strikes in the NHS before Christmas.\n\n\"Ambulance staff and their health colleagues don't want to inconvenience anyone. But ministers are refusing to do the one thing that could prevent disruption - that's start genuine talks about pay.\n\n\"Wages are too low to stop health workers quitting the NHS. As more and more hand in their notice, there are fewer staff left to care for patients. The public knows that's the reason behind lengthy waits.\"\n\nAll the unions have asked for above-inflation pay rises.\n\nBut the governments in England and Wales have given NHS staff an average rise of 4.75%, with staff guaranteed a minimum of £1,400.\n\nEngland Health Secretary Steve Barclay said paying what was being asked for was \"unaffordable\" and he has pointed out the award met the requirements of the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body.\n\nJust over two thirds of ambulance staff are thought to be members of one of the three unions.\n\nThe last time ambulance staff were involved in strike action was in 2014.\n\nAre you an ambulance worker, or a patient affected by the strike? Please email us and let us know how you feel about the industrial action: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Netflix has so far released two trailers promoting the Harry & Meghan docuseries\n\nTwo trailers for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's new Netflix docuseries have been criticised for allegedly using footage and photos in misleading ways.\n\nThe trailers show archive clips and pictures as Prince Harry and Meghan talk about being sidelined by the Royal Family and hounded by the media.\n\nHowever, it is thought at least three such images were taken from events that had nothing to do with the couple.\n\nNetflix and the Sussexes' production company Archewell have not commented.\n\nThere are further allegations that an image was cropped to suggest the couple were left on the edge of a royal event, when they were in fact front and centre.\n\nThere is also a suggestion that another photo has been used to illustrate press intrusion, when it was actually taken at an event with a small number of photographers whose attendance was controlled and agreed upon in advance.\n\nOn Tuesday, veteran royal correspondent Jennie Bond criticised the trailers for their \"extremely sloppy production values\", after ITV host Lorraine Kelly described the use of the images and footage as \"bizarre\".\n\nHere are five instances that have been highlighted from the first teaser trailer, released last week, and the extended trailer, released on Monday. The first three episodes from the series will come out on Thursday.\n\nA photograph of paparazzi appears in the first trailer, just before a clip of Harry saying he \"had to do everything I could to protect my family\".\n\nHowever, it is said to have actually been taken at a Harry Potter premiere, five years before the duke and duchess met.\n\nAnalysis of the image by the Sun shows a large number of similarities between the paparazzi scrum at the film premiere, and the photo used in the Harry & Meghan trailer.\n\nThe image of the photographers is the first one that comes up if you search the word \"paparazzi\" on picture agency site Alamy.\n\nAlamy says it was taken on 7 July 2011 - the date of the London premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.\n\n\"Of course, that's not to say that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have never been hounded by a tonne of photographers before - we all know that they've struggled with press intrusion and being so in the spotlight in the past,\" noted Cosmopolitan.\n\n\"But the inclusion of this particular image, while demonstrative of what they've experienced, isn't a factual representation of a real day/time that the Sussexes were feeling stressed by the press.\"\n\nA clip in the second trailer, which apparently illustrates paparazzi hounding the couple, was actually taken when former model Katie Price arrived at Crawley Magistrates' Court last December.\n\nShortly before that shot, the Duke of Sussex is heard speaking of the \"pain and suffering\" of women marrying into the Royal Family, adding that he did not want \"history to repeat itself\", as a clip shows men apparently chasing someone with cameras.\n\nThe clip was in fact recorded as Price arrived to be sentenced over a drink-driving charge, according to analysis by news outlets including Sky News, LBC and Metro.\n\nThe analysis says the footage has been flipped horizontally, so the photographers who were in reality facing to the left, are facing right in the trailer.\n\nPhotographs of the same incident, which feature a cameraman wearing the same clothes, are on Getty Images.\n\nOne section of the second trailer also features clips of reporters, photographers and cameramen apparently in close pursuit of the couple.\n\nHowever, one particular media crush seen by viewers was not targeting the royal couple, but rather President Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen.\n\nHe was surrounded by photographers as he left his New York apartment in 2019 to serve time in prison for financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress.\n\nThe use of this footage in the Harry & Meghan trailer was noted by publications including the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail.\n\nSimilar footage, which was filmed in the aftermath of the Cohen trial and shows the same group of photographers outside his apartment, is available on Getty Images.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Robert Jobson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nOne shot sees Harry and Meghan being photographed from above, as Harry's voiceover talks about the leaking and planting of royal stories in the media.\n\nHowever, the royal editor of the Evening Standard, Robert Jobson, who has been critical of the Sussexes in the past, said these pictures were not taken invasively.\n\n\"This photograph used by Netflix and Harry and Meghan to suggest intrusion by the press is a complete travesty,\" he wrote on Twitter.\n\n\"It was taken from a accredited pool at Archbishop Tutu's residence in Cape Town. Only three people were in the accredited position. H & M agreed the position. I was there.\"\n\nHis account was backed up by ITV's royal editor Chris Ship, who tweeted: \"The filming of Archie at Archbishop Tutu's residence was highly controlled.\n\n\"And the ITN Productions camera filming the Sussexes' Africa documentary was there with their permission. It was not a media scrum. They spoke to [ITV News presenter] Tom Bradby inside.\"\n\nIn the teaser, the Duke of Sussex tells viewers there is a \"hierarchy of the family\", as an image of the Royal Family standing on the Buckingham Palace balcony is shown.\n\nIt was taken during Trooping the Colour in June 2019.\n\nHowever, analysis by the Telegraph showed the image had been cropped in such a way as to make the now Prince and Princess of Wales appear close to the centre, with the late Queen to the right.\n\nIn fact, the newspaper noted, Queen Elizabeth II was standing in the middle of the balcony for the RAF flypast, and Harry and Meghan were actually standing closer to her than the Cambridges, as the couple were then known.", "Beauty salons and tattoo parlours have prospered on High Streets while the number of banks and department stores has fallen, BBC analysis shows.\n\nPlaces to eat and drink have also increased - despite social distancing.\n\nTo find out how the High Streets and shopping areas near you have changed since the beginning of the pandemic, type in your postcode below.\n\nHow have high streets changed in my area? Please use a modern browser to see an interactive map showing high streets in your area.\n\nIf you can't view the postcode lookup, click here. For further detail on the Ordnance Survey data used in the postcode search above, please see full methodology at the bottom of the page.\n\nThe full extent of changes to Britain's High Streets after two years of Covid lockdowns and trading restrictions is revealed in data from Ordnance Survey.\n\nOverall, there were 9,300 fewer retail outlets in March 2022 than March 2020, as shoppers switched to online stores.\n\nThe findings illustrate the changing face of the British High Street from a place to buy things to a place to do stuff - like get your nails done and meet friends for a coffee or a cocktail.\n\nThe figures are revealed by BBC analysis of 1.5 million records contained in the Ordnance Survey's \"Points of Interest\" mapping data, a comprehensive quarterly survey of businesses, facilities and services operating in England, Scotland and Wales.\n\nDebenhams and Beales were among the landmark High Street retailers to close their doors during the pandemic, contributing to a 13.4% drop in department stores across Great Britain. Two years on from the first lockdown in 2020, there were 328 fewer such stores.\n\nKendal in Cumbria was one of the towns to lose its Beales store, now boarded up. But developer Geri Ward has begun turning the building into what she calls a celebration of Cumbria.\n\n\"This town was dying when Beales closed, people stopped coming here,\" she says, standing in the old perfume hall as a workman rips a Chanel sign from the wall.\n\nGeri Ward is transforming an empty department store into somewhere to showcase Cumbrian businesses\n\n\"We are a traditional nation of small shopkeepers. We decided we would provide more of a location where tourists and locals can come to with smaller, independent retailers inside - the fantastic artisans, the entrepreneurs, the producers of Cumbrian food.\"\n\nThe number of clothes shops operating in Britain is down 4,300, a fall of 8.5%. The collapse of the Arcadia retail empire in 2020 saw Burtons, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Topshop and Miss Selfridge all disappear from our shopping streets.\n\nMore than 800 High Street banks and building societies closed their doors during the pandemic (-8.1%) along with the loss of more than 6,000 cash machines (-13.2%).\n\nThe changes suggest the pandemic accelerated the move away from physical cash-based retail to card-based online shopping.\n\nHigh Streets and shopping centres have become a magnet for hair and beauty services in the past few years - an additional 5,100 premises now operate compared with pre-pandemic - an increase of 5.9%.\n\nIn the G1 and G2 postcodes of central Glasgow, hair and beauty services are now the most prevalent type of shop - overtaking pubs and bars which were the most prevalent in March 2020.\n\nTattoo parlours and piercing studios have proved particularly popular with 350 more in March this year than before the Covid restrictions, a rise of 8.2%. Many areas have acquired one for the first time.\n\nSheffield had 15 more tattoo parlours in March 2022, Kingston upon Hull had 11 more, while Stockport and Cornwall each had an extra 10. South Lakeland, straddling the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, had more than twice as many as pre-Covid - up from four salons to 10.\n\nTony Davis says tattoo parlours have become mainstream businesses in recent years\n\nThere are half a dozen tattooists operating in Kendal. Tony Davis is the artist at Samsara in the High Street.\n\n\"You can't get a tattoo online. If you want a tattoo you've got to go to a tattoo parlour,\" he says. \"Our industry is definitely mainstream now and if you go to some cities in England there are three, four, five, six studios down the same street.\"\n\nThe town mayor, Doug Rathbone, agrees that service-based businesses are transforming the High Street experience.\n\n\"It's about not just shopping, it's about going to the shops and having a cup of coffee as well, popping into various different places,\" he says. \"It is so important that we celebrate and do something about the vitality of our town centres and High Streets.\"\n\nHowever, High Streets and shopping areas appear to be evolving into more service and hospitality-based venues. And despite the restrictions of lockdowns and social distancing rules, eating and drinking establishments saw growth of almost 4%.\n\nThe Ordnance Survey data found 700 more pubs and bars were operating after the pandemic. There were also 2,000 more cafes or tea rooms and 4,600 more fast-food outlets.\n\nThe great British chippie proved its popularity during Covid - 300 more fish and chip shops were operating in March this year than two years earlier.\n\nThe government announced a number of financial support schemes for the hospitality and leisure sectors during the Covid pandemic, helping them survive the loss of trade during coronavirus restrictions. As well as \"eat out to help out\", the Treasury introduced a temporary business rates relief package and other measures.\n\nNot all hospitality thrived, however. There were almost 150 fewer nightclubs post-pandemic - a fall of one in 10 - as an already-declining sector was hit by social distancing rules.\n\nFood shops did well over the pandemic.\n\nIndependent convenience stores increased by 1,600, a rise of almost 3%. The big supermarket chains operated 194 more stores by the end of the Covid restrictions, up 2.5%. There was a similar rise in the number of organic and other speciality food shops.\n\nIn Kendal, a new local butcher has recently opened. Owner Robert Unwin says business is good because he offers a service you cannot get online.\n\n\"It's the little advice you give,\" he says. \"All I think about is meat, literally. A lot of people want quality but they don't really know what exactly they're looking for.\"\n\nThe data highlights regional and local differences in the resilience of High Streets and town centres.\n\nScotland saw the largest growth in eating and drinking outlets, with a rise of 6%. In north-west and north-east England, the increase was around 5%. The south-west of England and Wales saw the lowest increases in eating and drinking businesses.\n\nThe variation is even more marked at local authority level. For example, Oxford saw close to a 9% fall in retail while Gravesham in Kent experienced a 6% increase.\n\nEast Dunbartonshire, Barnsley and Knowsley each saw a big rise in eating and drinking establishments, up more than 15%. The number of eating and drinking establishments on Shetland fell by more than a fifth (21.3%), while Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales experienced a 10% reduction.\n\nJamie Howe is Cumbria's surveyor for Ordnance Survey. He walks the county's streets to measure changes in the landscape or amenities - sometimes to the nearest centimetre. He says he has seen significant changes, for better and worse.\n\n\"A lot of shops have been closing down, but lots of other shops and local community shops have been opening up. Coffee shops, breweries, hair and beauty - and maybe the community has come closer together because of these changes.\"\n\nProduced by Will Dahlgreen, Nassos Stylianou, Daniel Dunford, Callum May and Mark Easton.\n\nThe data is a combination of two datasets from Ordnance Survey (OS).\n\nTo report which businesses have opened and closed we have used the Points of Interest dataset.\n\nThis is a comprehensive, location-based directory of all public and privately-owned businesses, education and leisure services in England, Scotland and Wales. Points of Interest contains over four million records and is updated four times a year. The BBC has analysed data from a selected number of categories within the Points of Interest database.\n\nFor the purpose of this research we have used one data release in March 2020 and one in March 2022, to give a snapshot of the points of interest across Great Britain that were active at those times.\n\nFor the interactive postcode look-up, to report the number of businesses on 10 of the High Streets and shopping areas close to the postcode entered, we have used the OS Retail Geographies dataset.\n\nThis is an experimental dataset from the Ordnance Survey describing the geography of shopping across Great Britain. It clusters retail areas using street names and includes local High Streets, retail parks and shopping centres. Longer streets are divided into smaller sections where there is a change of road name or retail addresses are more then 150m apart. The resulting clusters must also meet the minimum threshold of 15 retail addresses for highly populated urban areas and five retail addresses for smaller rural areas.\n\nTo find the 10 nearest shopping areas to the postcode you have entered, we have chosen the 10 where the middle of the box surrounding the area is closest to the centre point of the postcode boundary as the crow flies. There may be some streets that are very close to the postcode, but do not quite fit this criteria; or there may be some which are very close as the crow flies as we have defined it, but may not be the easiest to travel to.\n\nEverywhere else that we have reported the number of businesses, we have counted the number of points from the Points of Interest dataset that fall within the relevant geographic area, regardless of whether they fall within a street as defined by the Retail Geographies dataset.", "Matthew's mother Frances McCallan has raised concerns about the speed of the initial police response\n\nThe Police Ombudsman has been asked to assess the initial police response in the search for a teenager who was later found dead in Fintona.\n\nMatthew McCallan, 15, was reported missing at 03:30 GMT on Sunday, when he did not arrive home from an event.\n\nHis body was discovered in a ditch at about 11:45 on Monday, two miles from the event venue.\n\nPolice said they acted after Matthew's family raised concerns about the speed of officers' initial response.\n\nTwo senior officers are to meet the family, said the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).\n\n\"Due to the family's concerns we have decided at an early stage to make a notification to the Office of the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland, for its assessment,\" said Det Supt Gareth Talbot.\n\nThe PSNI said it was continuing to investigate Matthew's death and that a post-mortem examination would take place on Tuesday.\n\nDet Supt Gareth Talbot said the force's thoughts were with the McCallans, who were being supported by specially trained officers.\n\n\"The pain they are experiencing is difficult to comprehend,\" he said.\n\nDetectives added they were keeping an open mind and appealed for anyone with information to come forward.\n\nMatthew was last seen at the Ecclesville Centre in Fintona, County Tyrone, at about 01:20 on Sunday.\n\nDetectives said they had ruled out speculation on social media that the teenager had been seen getting into a silver car.\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Facebook The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Facebook content may contain adverts.\n\n\"We have now identified and spoken to the occupants of the car and eliminated them from our enquiries,\" said Det Supt Talbot.\n\nOn Monday, tributes were paid to the teenager and volunteers who took part in the search effort.\n\nMatthew's mother Frances McCallan said: \"To all the wonderful people who came out to help look for my beautiful son you were amazing, the community spirt was unbelievable.\n\n\"I can't thank you all enough.\n\n\"He is now a angel in Heaven and is going to be missed so much by his mummy, daddy and loving family, sleep tight my darling.\"\n\nSt Patrick's College in Dungannon paid tribute to the Year 12 student.\n\n\"He had a slow smile, that spread and lit up his face, then the twinkle hit his eyes,\" said a statement on the school's Facebook page.\n\n\"We have not just lost a member of our school community - the world has lost a young man full of potential, ready and eager to start out on his journey of life and work.\"", "A 14-year-old girl has died and another, aged 13, has been seriously injured after they were attacked by a man with a knife while walking to school in southern Germany.\n\nPolice say the suspect came out of a refugee shelter in the village of Illerkirchberg on Monday morning and attacked the pupils.\n\nThe older girl later died in hospital.\n\nGerman police arrested a 27-year-old man, who they said was an asylum seeker from Eritrea.\n\nThe 13-year-old girl suffered serious knife wounds but reports said her life was not in danger.\n\nThe man had fled to the refugee shelter after the stabbing and police said they had found him with a knife thought to have been used in the attack.\n\nThe suspect was taken to hospital with serious wounds, thought to have been caused by the knife, and he was later questioned by police.\n\nProsecutors were trying to establish whether the suspect had psychiatric issues and whether he had known the two girls before the attack.\n\nIn a statement, police urged the public not to use the incident to stoke suspicion of foreigners or asylum seekers.\n\n\"Everything connected to this is completely unclear so far,\" police spokesman Wolfgang Jürgens told reporters. However, the far-right AfD were quick to blame Germany's immigration policy for failing to protect primary school children.\n\nIllerkirchberg is a village with a population of less than 5,000 according to the 2015 census.\n\nThe 14-year-old girl who died was a German citizen with a family of Turkish origin.\n\nTurkish ambassador Ahmet Basar Sen was expected to visit the village later on Tuesday with the deputy leader of Baden-Württemberg state.\n\nMayor Markus Häußler said everyone there was in shock, while German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the \"terrible news\" had shaken her.\n\n\"I mourn the girl who was killed and sincerely hope that the injured girl will recover... The police are investigating all the backgrounds with intensity,\" the minister wrote on Twitter (in German).", "Matt Hancock has accused Tory peer Michelle Mone of being aggressive and threatening when trying to secure a government Covid contract for a firm.\n\nMr Hancock said she asked for help to secure contracts in an email in June 2021, when he was health secretary.\n\nThe Daily Mail reported the company was not PPE Medpro, which has been linked to Baroness Mone and won government contracts worth more than £200m.\n\nBaroness Mone has been contacted for comment.\n\nIn his book, Pandemic Diaries, which is being serialised in the Mail, Mr Hancock claimed the Glasgow-born businesswoman had demanded his \"urgent help\" with a company, which he has not named.\n\nOn 18 June 2021, he wrote: \"Baroness Michelle Mone has sent me an extraordinarily aggressive email complaining that a company she's helping isn't getting the multi-million-pound contracts it deserves.\n\n\"She claims the firm, which makes lateral flow test kits, 'has had a dreadful time' trying to cut through red tape and demanded my 'urgent help' before it all comes out in the media.\n\n\"'I am going to blow this all wide open,' she threatened.'\"\n\n\"By the end of the message, she seemed to have worked herself into a complete frenzy and was throwing around wild accusations. 'I smell a rat here. It is more than the usual red tape, incompetence and bureaucracy. That's expected! I believe there is corruption here at the highest levels',\" he said.\n\nHe added: \"She concluded by urging me to intervene 'to prevent the next bombshell being dropped on the government'.\n\n\"I read the message again, stunned. Was she threatening me? It certainly looked that way.\"\n\nMr Hancock said he was told the tests had not won any contracts because they had not passed the standards required.\n\nHe said he chose not to reply to the email, adding: \"I won't be pushed around by aggressive peers representing commercial clients.\"\n\nMatt Hancock was health secretary at the height of the pandemic\n\nBaroness Mone, who joined the House of Lords in 2015, is facing questions about her alleged links to PPE Medpro.\n\nThe House of Lords commissioner for standards is investigating her \"alleged involvement\" in procuring contracts for the company.\n\nHowever, the commissioner says he is unable to finalise or publish his report because \"the matter is under investigation by the police or another agency of a criminal investigation\".\n\nProperties linked to the company have previously been searched by the National Crime Agency.\n\nBetween May and June 2020, PPE Medpro was awarded two government contracts worth £203m to supply masks and medical gowns.\n\nEmails released under Freedom of Information laws show Baroness Mone referring the company to a government minister during the pandemic.\n\nLast month, Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner accused the government of a \"total failure of due diligence\" and a \"conflict of interest\" in awarding the contracts to PPE Medpro.\n\nShe was responding to an investigation in the Guardian based on leaked documents that alleged Baroness Mone had financially benefited from the company.\n\nShe told MPs it appeared \"tens of millions of pounds\" from the money awarded to the company \"ended up in offshore accounts connected to the individuals involved\".\n\nAt a Commons debate on Tuesday, Labour will try to force ministers to release \"all papers, advice, and correspondence\" about the government contracts awarded to PPE Medpro.\n\nAsked in December 2020 about reports she was linked to the company, Baroness Mone's lawyers told BBC News she \"had no role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro\".\n\nIn December 2020, BBC News reported that millions of medical gowns the firm supplied, worth £122m, had never been used.\n\nPPE Medpro said at the time that it had delivered 100% of the contract to the terms specified and that it had supplied equipment \"fully in accordance with the agreed contract, which included clear terms as to technical specification and performance criteria of the products\".\n\nThe Department of Health and Social Care has since been in mediation with the firm over what it has described as an \"underperforming contract\" and last month MPs were told that no \"satisfactory agreement\" had been reached at this stage.", "Polar bears are the most studied specimens in the world\n\nThe polar bear population in Canada's western Hudson Bay has dropped by 27% in just five years, a report has said.\n\nA government report estimates that 618 animals lived in the area last year, down from 842 in 2016.\n\nIt says adult female bears and cubs are particularly affected and that climate change may be a factor in the decline.\n\nThe Arctic is now warming faster than the rest of the world, and the sea ice on which bears depend for seal hunting forms later and melts sooner each year.\n\nBy 2050, conservation scientists now say, the length of the season during which there is no ice could push bears to the point of starvation.\n\nAdult female bears and cubs are particularly vulnerable, the report says\n\n\"The observed declines are consistent with long-standing predictions regarding the demographic effects of climate change on polar bears,\" the Canadian government report says.\n\nAt the same time, the document cautions against making a direct link between the decline and the loss of sea ice, pointing that four of the past five years have seen good ice conditions.\n\nIt suggests that changes in the local seal population could be a contributing factor.\n\nThe report also cites the bear's migration to neighbouring regions.\n\nThe mammals - the largest living land carnivorous animals - pass along the western Hudson Bay coast in Manitoba province every autumn as they return to the sea ice.\n\nThey are the most studied specimen in the world, and their migration attracts millions of dollars' worth of tourism to the Manitoban town of Churchill, dubbed \"the polar bear capital of the world\".\n\nIt is common practice for town residents to leave their car doors unlocked so others have somewhere to run to should they encounter a wandering bear.", "Rhianon Bragg fears justice officials have given the jailed stalker fresh \"ammunition\" against her and her family\n\nAn investigation has been launched after justice officials shared intimate details about a victim with her jailed stalker.\n\nIn 2019 Rhianon Bragg was held hostage at gunpoint by her ex-partner Gareth Wyn Jones at her home in north Wales.\n\nHe was jailed for four-and-a-half years in 2020, and will have a parole hearing in the new year to discuss his potential release.\n\nThe Ministry of Justice has apologised to Ms Bragg.\n\nAs part of that parole process, public protection officers put together documents about the case.\n\nThey included confidential and sensitive reports from a clinical psychologist about the impact Jones' crimes had on his victim and her children.\n\nThose full reports should never have been shared.\n\nMs Bragg fears the information given to 58-year-old Jones could be used as a new weapon against her.\n\n\"It's horrific,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Rhianon Bragg says at times she thought she would never see her children again\n\nShe said learning of the privacy breach was a fresh \"trigger\" for her, that brought back the trauma of her ordeals at the hands of Jones.\n\nShe ended what she previously described as a controlling and threatening five-year relationship with the mechanic in 2019.\n\nBut the threats and harassment continued. On the night of 15 August, he arrived at her home near Caernarfon, armed with a shotgun.\n\nHe held her hostage until she convinced him to let her attend a doctor's appointment, and he was arrested in the car park.\n\nHe was jailed for stalking, false imprisonment, making threats to kill, and a firearms offence.\n\nMs Bragg has since called for improvements in the way police and the justice system deals with stalking and domestic abuse, including more investment in prevention services.\n\nShe said she now had \"no faith\" in the criminal justice system.\n\n\"They have blown away what miniscule rights I had,\" she added.\n\nRhianon Bragg said her ex-partner was controlling and abusive during their five year relationship\n\n\"As innocent victims I thought me and my children would be protected.\"\n\nShe said she felt her jailed stalker's privacy was protected more than hers.\n\n\"I've been made to feel inconsequential - that my rights don't matter as much as his.\"\n\nMs Bragg said she was determined to highlight the mistake by justice officials, for fear it had happened to others going through similar ordeals.\n\nShe has received the backing of local politicians, including Senedd member Sian Gwenllian.\n\nThe Arfon MS said the error by the Ministry of Justice was \"completely unacceptable\".\n\n\"Sharing sensitive and confidential information with the perpetrator is a serious and shocking incident that should never have happened,\" she said.\n\n\"Steps need to be taken to ensure that even more pressure is not placed on victims due to the incompetence of the system.\"\n\nA Ministry of Justice official said: \"The government has made significant changes in recent years to better protect stalking victims, so we are deeply sorry for this unacceptable mistake and the distress it has caused Ms Bragg.\n\n\"We take this type of error extremely seriously and an investigation is underway to understand what happened.\"\n\nIf you've been affected by any issues in this story you can find support via the BBC Action Line.", "Tourists heading for the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem gather for a selfie\n\nTens of thousands of visitors have gathered in Bethlehem for a Christmas procession, after the town's economy was badly hit by lockdowns.\n\nTwo years of muted celebrations have given way to bustling streets, but numbers have not matched 2019's record.\n\nPalestinian Christians and pilgrims attended midnight Mass at the 4th-Century Nativity Church.\n\nFestivities follow a deadly escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank and Israel.\n\nScout bands playing bagpipes and drummers escorting church leaders entered Manger Square after making their way from Jerusalem, ahead of midnight Mass at the nearby Church of the Nativity - which is built on the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.\n\nThe grotto inside the church is the oldest site continuously used as a place of worship in Christianity.\n\nAccompanying Palestinian Christians from as far away as Galilee and the Gaza Strip, there are visitors from around the world.\n\nAlthough numbers are still lower than the record level seen in 2019, the streets are bustling and just as in the Nativity story, there is not a room to be found, with local hotels fully booked.\n\nWhile businesspeople here are optimistic about an economic recovery, there is also concern about the impact of a recent increase in violence between Israelis and Palestinians and how the policies of the incoming far-right Israeli government could increase tensions.\n\nThe new government, considered the most right-wing in Israel's history, sees Benjamin Netanyahu's return to a historic sixth term in power.\n\nEarlier this month, Israel said its forces unintentionally killed a 16-year-old Palestinian girl during a gun battle with militants in the occupied West Bank. In November, five Palestinian men were killed by Israeli forces in four separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.\n\nFor Rayson Kamalayos visiting from India, it is a \"dream\" to be in Bethlehem.\n\n\"We as Christians are blessed to come here, I am happy to be here,\" he added.\n\nAfter record tourism numbers in 2019, hopes had been high that 2020 would be even better - but those hopes were dashed when Covid led to strict lockdowns across the occupied West Bank.\n\nDuring that time, people had to stay indoors from 19:00 to 06:00 every night and throughout the entire day on Fridays and Saturdays, the Palestinian weekend, which limited festive family gatherings.\n\nWatching the parade from packed balconies with friends and relatives was not allowed.\n\n\"The occupancy rate was over 90%. Everyone was investing in this sector... Now, it's dead. It's very sad to see,\" Mariana al-Arja, a hotel manager, told the BBC two years ago.\n\nBut now Bethlehem, where the economy is reliant on tourism, is seeing \"more and more tourists\", said Palestinian Tourism Minister Rola Maayah.\n\n\"Last year we celebrated Christmas during the pandemic and without any tourists.\n\n\"This year, we are celebrating Christmas with tourists that arrive to Palestine, to Bethlehem from all over the world.\"\n\nPilgrims from India celebrate at Manger Square, next to the Nativity Church", "Last updated on .From the section Man City\n\nManchester City manager Pep Guardiola says England midfielder Kalvin Phillips was \"overweight\" when he returned to training from the World Cup.\n\nThe 27-year-old was a surprise omission from the City squad for Thursday's Carabao Cup victory over Liverpool.\n\nGuardiola's initial explanation was to say Phillips, who joined City from Leeds in July, was not fit.\n\nHowever, the City boss later stated: \"He is not injured. He arrived overweight.\"\n\nWhen asked why, Guardiola replied: \"I don't know.\n\n\"He didn't arrive in the condition for the training sessions and to play.\"\n• None All the latest Manchester City news, analysis and fan views in one place\n\nPhillips played twice for England in Qatar after recovering from shoulder surgery, coming on as a substitute against Wales and Senegal.\n\nHe joined City in a £45m deal last summer but has made just one Premier League appearance this season, coming on as a last-minute substitute at West Ham in August.\n\nWhen it was pointed out Phillips would have benefited from the best training and nutritional advice when he was on international duty, Guardiola said: \"Absolutely.\"\n\nGuardiola refused to explain what he had said to Phillips about the situation, saying it was a private conversation.\n\nIn total, Phillips has made four appearances for City, all from the substitutes' bench.\n\nHis last was against Chelsea in the EFL Cup on 9 November.\n\nIt is not known whether Phillips is in contention to face old club Leeds on 28 December but, despite his disappointing time at City so far, Guardiola says the 27-year-old will be welcomed back into his squad.\n\n\"When he will be ready, he will play,\" he said. \"We need him. We need him a lot.\"\n• None You can now get Man City news notifications in the BBC Sport app - find out more\n• None Our coverage of Manchester City is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment\n• None Everything City - go straight to all the best content", "Want to get a sense of how cold it is in the US state of Montana?\n\nWatch this person toss a pot of boiling water into the air and see it immediately transform into snow.\n\nLarge parts of the US and Canada have seen temperatures plummet as a bomb cyclone sweeps across North America.", "The King's first Christmas Day message was filmed at St George's Chapel in Windsor\n\nKing Charles is set to include a tribute to his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in his first Christmas message as monarch.\n\nAn image of Charles delivering his speech, which is due to be broadcast on Christmas Day at 15:00 GMT, shows the King in St George's Chapel, Windsor.\n\nIn her final Christmas message, the late Queen spoke of \"passing the baton\" to the next generation.\n\nAnd her son's first Christmas Day message will remember her legacy.\n\nThis will be the first televised annual royal Christmas Day broadcast not to be presented by the late Queen, who appeared in the first TV message in 1957.\n\nThe photo of the King shows him recording this year's message in the chapel where a committal service was held during the Queen's funeral in September.\n\nBoth his mother and father, Prince Philip, are buried in the George VI Memorial Chapel within St George's Chapel.\n\nThe picture, released by Buckingham Palace, shows King Charles standing in front of a Christmas tree with plastic-free, recyclable decorations and arrangements of holly and ivy in the background.\n\nThis year sees the King and Camilla the Queen Consort return to the tradition of spending Christmas in Sandringham, Norfolk, after concerns about Covid and Queen Elizabeth's health kept the Royal Family in Windsor last year.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales are among the senior royals expected to be with King Charles for Christmas.\n\nIn her 2021 Christmas message, the Queen gave a highly personal tribute to her \"beloved\" Prince Philip, who died in April of that year.\n\nHer broadcast was the most watched programme on Christmas Day in 2021, drawing almost nine million viewers.\n\nQueen Elizabeth presented the first televised Christmas message in 1957\n\nThe first royal Christmas broadcast was a live radio speech in 1932, delivered from Sandringham by George V, with the script written by the author Rudyard Kipling.\n\nIn 1957, Elizabeth II delivered the first televised message, saying that it was a technological landmark that \"television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes on Christmas Day\".\n\nThe message became part of many families' Christmas celebrations and the first televised broadcast in 1957 set a familiar pattern.\n\nThe national anthem was followed by the monarch speaking directly to the camera, with a speech that included Christmas greetings, a religious lesson, support for the Commonwealth, a round-up of the royal year and a moral message for the times.\n\nIn 1957 it meant a warning about values in public life, criticising a culture of \"self-interest\".\n\nThe timing of the Christmas broadcast was originally set for 15.00 GMT as best for reaching the most countries in different time zones around the world.", "The Miller & Carter steakhouse restaurant has been partially submerged in the waters of Alexandra Lake at the shopping centre in West Thurrock\n\nA floating restaurant has partially sunk into a lake at a major UK shopping centre.\n\nPictures showed part of the Miller & Carter restaurant, located in a converted paddle steamer at Lakeside in Essex, starting to submerge.\n\nEssex County Fire and Rescue Service said it heard about the sinking at 11:00 GMT but crews were not required to attend.\n\nThe shopping centre said about half a dozen staff were on board.\n\nA Miller & Carter spokesman said refunds would be issued \"as quickly as possible\"\n\nA spokesman for Miller & Carter Lakeside said: \"Regrettably, due to the scale of damage we were forced to close immediately.\n\n\"Our priority is our guests, and our teams are working hard to contact everyone who holds a booking with us to inform them of the unforeseeable incident and issue refunds as quickly as possible.\"\n\nA further post on the branch's Facebook page reported the restaurant would be closed until \"further notice due to structural issues\".\n\nThe page said the restaurant was refurbished in October 2019.\n\nLakeside's centre director Howard Oldstein said the boat appeared to have stopped sinking and was sitting on the water at about a \"30% decline\".\n\nHe told the BBC that about half a dozen staff were preparing to open for lunch when water started to \"ingress\".\n\nMr Oldstein said they shut down all energy supplies before evacuating the restaurant.\n\n\"The important thing is to make sure it is safe and we are discussing that with the restaurant's owners,\" he said, adding that the cause of the incident was as yet unknown.\n\nLakeside centre director Howard Oldstein said the boat appeared to have stopped sinking but said it was too early to say whether any damage could be repaired\n\nThe Lakeside Shopping Centre is made up of dozens of retail outlets and restaurants\n\nThe rest of the shopping centre, apart from a section of the Boardwalk, was open to customers.\n\nBen Stanley, manager at the nearby Casco Lounge restaurant, said the shopping centre \"quickly\" cordoned off an area beside the boat.\n\nHe said: \"There is a security guard in the way blocking people from getting through, but they have now opened up the walkway.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "It could be a white Christmas for many Scots after a winter weather warning was issued.\n\nThe Met Office yellow alert for snow and ice is from 21:00 on Christmas Day until 18:00 on Boxing Day.\n\nUp to 10cm (4in) of snow is expected on higher ground, with blustery snow showers forecast.\n\nThe warning covers Aberdeenshire, Moray, Perth and Kinross, Stirling, the Highlands and large swathes of west and central Scotland.\n\nLast year was declared a white Christmas after snow fell in Braemar and Aboyne in Aberdeenshire, Strathallan in Perthshire and across Shetland.\n\nThe year before was also technically a white Christmas, with 6% of weather stations reporting some snow falling in 2020 but in most places it did not lie on the ground.\n\nOn Friday, the Met Office said: \"Strengthening west-northwesterly winds will bring increasingly frequent wintry showers to the west of Scotland through Sunday night and into Monday morning.\n\n\"These may fall as snow to low levels for a time where temporary accumulations of 1-3cm are possible, with 5-10cm of snow over the hills. Icy surfaces will be an additional hazard.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Met Office This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\n\"Snow will become increasingly confined to higher ground through Monday morning, with a further 10cm or so possible by the end of the day.\n\n\"Strong to gale force winds bring the risk of drifting and blizzards for upland areas, with a small risk of isolated power outages as the snow and strong wind affects power lines.\"\n\nThe weather service said road and rail journeys could be affected as it warned of icy patches forming on roads, pavements and cycle paths.\n\nIn recent times, about half of Christmas Days have seen some snowfall recorded somewhere in the UK but the widespread coverings evoked by Dickensian Christmas scenes are now a rare event.\n\nThere has only been a widespread covering - where more than 40% of weather stations in the UK reported snow on the ground at 09:00 - four times since 1960, in 1981, 1995, 2009 and 2010, according to the Met Office.", "Close relatives of Zara Aleena have been \"completely destroyed\" by her murder, her aunt has said.\n\nSix months after the law graduate's death in east London, Farah Naz said they \"don't feel well, physically, emotionally\" and were \"constantly tormented\" by thoughts of how she died.\n\nMs Naz also said \"we will never have peace\", despite Zara's killer having been jailed recently for 38 years.\n\nJordan McSweeney was sentenced after admitting killing Zara, 35, in Ilford.\n\nHe attacked her as she walked home from a night out on 26 June. She was later found in the early hours having been badly beaten and died later that day.\n\nMs Naz, the sister of Zara's mother, spoke to BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour about the traumatic effect it had had on their \"tight-knit\" family.\n\n\"In the last six months we all feel we've aged 10 years, the change feels tangible inside us,\" she said.\n\n\"We feel stuck in time, we feel lost, we find it difficult to connect with each other.\"\n\nLater she added: \"At the same time we feel we can't be hurt anymore - the very worst has happened, nothing more can happen to us.\"\n\nZara Aleena was killed walking back from a night home by a sexual predator, only recently released from prison, labelled a \"danger to any woman\".\n\nHer niece, whom she described as \"our Zara\", had aspired to be a lawyer from a young age, was hard working, loved animals and contributed to community life by volunteering, she said.\n\nMcSweeney, from Dagenham, east London, had followed two lone women in the hours before he killed Ms Aleena, CCTV footage revealed.\n\nAt his sentencing last week, the judge described him as a \"pugnacious and deeply violent\" man.\n\nMrs Justice Cheema-Grubb also said McSweeney had shown \"no spine whatsoever\" as he did not turn up for his sentencing.\n\nJordan McSweeney had only recently been released from prison when he murdered Zara\n\nMs Naz told the programme's presenter Krupa Padhy that McSweeney should have been forced to attend court: \"It felt so wrong, it felt disrespectful to Zara and like and somehow the court proceedings felt incomplete.\"\n\n\"We needed some retribution, we needed to see his face,\" she added.\n\nMs Aleena's family previously described her as \"a carefree spirit, with the most caring heart\"\n\nNearing the end of the emotional interview, she said the family had not yet been able to adjust to life without Zara, which she described as a \"new horror\".\n\n\"We know we can't stay there, we know we have to enter some kind of normal normality, but at the moment it doesn't even feel like we're living.\"\n\nLater she said \"one way forward\" for the family may be to work with and help families of other women who die in similar circumstances, \"to change society, to work with leaders and to give that very special insight that victims can give\".\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"It's an outrage that we're dependant on food banks\"\n\nWales' Anglican and Catholic archbishops have mourned the loss of Queen Elizabeth II in a first joint Christmas message.\n\nAndrew John, Archbishop of Wales, and Archbishop of Cardiff Mark O'Toole also noted the many struggles faced in 2022.\n\nThey highlighted the people still grappling with Covid-19, conflicts abroad and the cost-of-living crisis.\n\nThe archbishops also spoke of the kindness shown and friendships formed throughout a year of many hardships.\n\nBoth of Wales' archbishops are relatively new to their roles, with Mr John having been elected last December and Mr O'Toole selected by the Pope in April.\n\nWales Anglican and Catholic archbishops have issues a joint Christmas message for the first time\n\n\"Over the past year we have met many challenges. People are still grappling with the effects of the coronavirus. We mourned the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,\" said the pair.\n\n\"Conflicts rage on in many countries across the world. Compounding this, the cost-of-living crisis is pushing many deeper into poverty as they struggle with day-today living costs.\"\n\nHowever, despite the moments of \"difficulty and despair\", they said there had been \"flickers of light in the darkness\".\n\n\"The kindness of a neighbour continuing friendships that grew out of the pandemic, buying groceries for someone down the road. Millions of people honouring the memory of a selfless and dedicated Queen.\n\nArchbishop Mark O'Toole met King Charles III on his first visit to Wales as monarch in September\n\n\"Schools, churches and other community organisations welcoming refugees with open arms into their places of sanctuary.\n\n\"Here in Wales especially we want to be known as a place of sanctuary, a land of peace.\n\n\"A Happy and Blessed Christmas to you all.\"", "It is forty years since The Snowman hit the small screen at Christmas, entrancing audiences with its animation and soundtrack.\n\nComposer Howard Blake had actually written the famous track Walking in the Air some years earlier as part of his recovery from what he describes as a near 'breakdown'. Now Blake has teamed up with TikTok violinist Esther Abrami and is releasing a new arrangement of the track.\n\nThe BBC went to meet the pair.", "The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have criticised the Sun's apology over a column by Jeremy Clarkson as \"nothing more than a PR stunt\".\n\nThe column, in which Clarkson said he hated Meghan \"on a cellular level\", received more than 20,000 complaints.\n\nA spokesperson for the couple accused the Sun of profiting off and exploiting \"hate, violence and misogyny\".\n\n\"A true apology would be a shift in their coverage and ethical standards for all,\" they said.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we're not holding our breath.\"\n\nThe spokesperson described Clarkson's comments as \"dangerous\", adding: \"The fact that the Sun has not contacted The Duchess of Sussex to apologise shows their intent. This is nothing more than a PR stunt.\"\n\nOn Friday, the Sun said it regretted publishing the broadcaster's column and was \"sincerely sorry\".\n\nIt said columnists' opinions were their own, but, as a publisher, \"with free expression comes responsibility\".\n\nThe piece became the Independent Press Standards Organisation's (Ipso) most complained-about article. Clarkson asked for it to be removed from the Sun's website.\n\nIpso said it had received more than 17,500 complaints by 09:00 GMT on Tuesday - which rose to 20,800 by 17:00.\n\nIn place of the article, the Sun's website now has a copy of a tweet from Clarkson in which he said he was \"horrified to have caused so much hurt\" and \"would be more careful in future\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jeremy Clarkson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nClarkson's column, published on 16 December, was widely criticised on social media and his daughter, Emily, said she stood against everything her father wrote about the duchess.\n\nKevin Lygo, ITV's media and entertainment boss, described the comments made by Clarkson as \"awful\" but said there were no plans to replace him as a host of the gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.\n\nThe column came after the release of Prince Harry and Meghan's Netflix six-part series, in which the couple talked about their relationship with the UK media.\n\nIn the original column, Clarkson said: \"At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her.\n\n\"Everyone who's my age thinks the same way,\" he added. \"But what makes me despair is that younger people, especially girls, think she's pretty cool. They think she was a prisoner of Buckingham Palace, forced to talk about nothing but embroidery and kittens.\"\n\nIn his tweet following the criticism, Clarkson said he had made a \"clumsy\" reference to a scene in Game of Thrones which \"has gone down badly with a great many people\".\n\nElsewhere in the column, Clarkson had also compared his hatred of the Duchess of Sussex with his feelings towards Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and serial killer Rose West.\n\nIn response, Ms Sturgeon said Clarkson's comments about Meghan were \"deeply misogynist and just downright awful\".", "Last updated on .From the section European Football\n\nArgentina captain Lionel Messi has reached an \"agreement in principle\" to renew his contract at Paris St-Germain, says BBC Sport's Guillem Balague.\n\nMessi, 35, who led Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar, is out of contract at the French club in June 2023.\n\nEarlier this week Barcelona president Joan Laporta said he \"would love\" Messi to return to the Spanish club where he spent 21 years.\n\nBut Balague says Barca have not approached Messi about a return.\n\nHe will sign a one-year deal with the option of another year and the agreement has come after four months of talks between PSG director of football Luis Campos and Messi's father Jorge.\n\nThat was followed by a key meeting in Doha with PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi.\n\n\"It is practically all agreed with PSG,\" says European football expert Balague. \"Barcelona have not approached him or his dad to offer anything.\n\n\"So it is not that Messi does not want to return to Barcelona. He has not been asked the question.\n\n\"Messi is happy with it all and when back from his holidays the agreement will speed up.\n\n\"His life in Paris is balanced, happy, everybody is enjoying it and he has a real possibility of winning the Champions League again. Plus, it will help him be a candidate again for the Ballon d'Or.\"\n\nThe seven-time Ballon d'Or winner was named player of the tournament at the World Cup as Argentina won the title for the third time with a penalty shoot-out victory over France.\n\nAfter leaving Barcelona, Messi signed a two-year contract as a free agent, with the option of a third year, in 2021.\n\nHe has made 53 appearances for the Ligue 1 side so far, scoring 23 goals in all competitions.\n\nThe Argentine has now won one World Cup, four Champions League titles, one Copa America, 10 La Liga trophies with Barcelona and a Ligue 1 crown in France with PSG.\n\nConsidered one of the greatest players of all time, he scored a record 672 goals in 778 games for Barcelona, the club he joined as a 13-year-old.\n\nHe ended his association with the Catalan club in 2021, when they could no longer afford to honour the new contract they agreed with him because of La Liga's salary limit.", "Rapper Tory Lanez has been found guilty of shooting fellow hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion in 2020.\n\nA jury in Los Angeles convicted the 30-year-old Canadian of felony negligent discharge of a firearm, assault with a semi-automatic firearm, and carrying a loaded and unregistered firearm.\n\nHe faces more than 20 years in prison.\n\nMegan Thee Stallion, a 27-year-old Grammy-winning rapper, earlier testified that she was shot in the feet after leaving a pool party.\n\nLanez showed no reaction as the verdict was read out. He was remanded in custody and is due to be sentenced on 27 January.\n\nIt was not immediately known whether he planned to appeal.\n\nSpeaking after the case concluded, one of Megan Thee Stallion's lawyers told reporters \"the jury got it right. I am thankful there is justice for Meg\". The rapper was not in court to hear the verdict.\n\nMegan Thee Stallion says she was shot in the feet in July 2020\n\nDuring the trial, Megan Thee Stallion, whose real name is Megan Pete, testified that she was shot and wounded at the party in the Hollywood Hills on 12 July 2020.\n\nThe rapper argued that Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, became enraged after she had disparaged his musical talent. She said she had demanded to be let out of a luxury car before he fired five rounds at her.\n\nShe told the jury the Canadian had told her to \"dance\" before opening fire.\n\nShe also testified that he had offered her $1m (£830,000) to keep quiet about the attack because he claimed to be on probation for a weapons offence. She initially said to police that she had cut her feet on glass.\n\nLanez denied the charges relating to a dispute with the fellow artist and his lawyer, George Mgdesyan, unsuccessfully argued that the investigation had been botched.\n\nHe said it was Megan Thee Stallion's friend Kelsey Harris who had shot her, adding that it was all about \"jealousy\".\n\nSeveral bullet fragments were removed from Megan Thee Stallion's feet after the shooting, but some remain.\n\nShe also acknowledged in her testimony that she had been \"intimate\" with Lanez.\n\nMegan Thee Stallion - who won a Grammy for best new artist in 2021 - is best known for her hit Savage, which features Beyoncé.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA gunman has opened fire in central Paris, killing three people and wounding three others.\n\nThe attacker targeted a Kurdish cultural centre and shot members of the local community. A possible racist motive is being investigated.\n\nA suspect, aged 69, was quickly arrested and it soon emerged he had been freed from prison recently.\n\nClashes later broke out between police and a group who had gathered at the scene in the aftermath of the attack.\n\nFootage showed people starting fires in the middle of the street and smashing car windows, with officers in riot gear responding by throwing tear gas.\n\nThe unrest came after a man, described by witnesses as tall, white and elderly, shot dead two men and a woman on Rue d'Enghien in the 10th district of Paris.\n\nOf the three people injured, one was said to be in a critical condition and the others were receiving treatment for serious injuries.\n\nThere is no confirmed motive for the shooting, but Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the suspect had previously been charged with racist violence.\n\nThat incident - in which he attacked tents at a migrant camp in Paris with a sword - took place at Bercy on 8 December 2021. It was not clear why he had recently been released.\n\nFrench Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who earlier travelled to the scene, said there was currently no known link between the suspect and \"ultra-right\" groups.\n\nLocal Mayor Alexandra Cordebard said the gunman was also wounded in the shooting and that three places had come under fire: the Kurdish community centre, a restaurant and a hairdresser.\n\n\"We were walking in the street and heard gunshots,\" a witness, Ali Dalek, told the BBC. \"We turned around and saw people running left and right.\n\n\"And then, five or six minutes later, because we know people who work at the hair salon, we went in and we saw that they had arrested a guy.\"\n\nAnother witness, a shopkeeper, told AFP she had locked herself in. She said she had heard seven or eight bursts of gunfire.\n\nPolice eventually detained the suspect without resistance and reportedly recovered the weapon used in the attack. Prosecutors said they had opened a murder investigation.\n\nThe Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDF-K), which runs the Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish centre that was hit, condemned the attack in a short statement.\n\nLe Monde newspaper quoted Agit Polat, a spokesperson for the centre, as saying French authorities had \"once more\" failed to protect Kurds living in Paris.\n\nFrench President Emmanuel Macron said the capital's Kurdish community had been the \"target of a heinous attack\" and praised police for their \"courage\".\n\nThe shooting came almost 10 years after the murder of three Kurdish women activists in Paris in January 2013, including a co-founder of the militant nationalist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).\n\nA Turkish man was charged with the killings but he died in 2016 before being tried.\n\nThe CDF-K referred to the historic case in its statement, saying the attack on Friday occurred \"shortly before the 10th anniversary of the the triple assassination of Kurdish activists in Paris on 9 January 2013\". No official link between the two incidents has so far been identified.\n\nA meeting is due to take place on Saturday morning between Laurent Nunez, head of the Parisian police, and leaders of the Kurdish community, the force said in a statement.\n• None Police on the scene after three dead in Paris shooting", "Female students in the capital - Kabul University and others reopened in the spring following the Taliban takeover\n\nThe Taliban have banned women from universities in Afghanistan, sparking international condemnation and despair among young people in the country.\n\nThe higher education minister announced the regression on Tuesday, saying it would take immediate effect.\n\nThe ban further restricts women's education - girls have already been excluded from secondary schools since the Taliban returned last year.\n\nSome women staged protests in the capital Kabul on Wednesday.\n\n\"Today we come out on the streets of Kabul to raise our voices against the closure of the girls' universities,\" protesters from the Afghanistan Women's Unity and Solidarity group said.\n\nThe small demonstrations were quickly shut down by Taliban officials.\n\nFemale students have told the BBC of their anguish. \"They destroyed the only bridge that could connect me with my future,\" one Kabul University student said.\n\n\"How can I react? I believed that I could study and change my future or bring the light to my life but they destroyed it.\"\n\nAnother student told the BBC she was a woman who had \"lost everything\".\n\nShe had been studying Sharia Islamic law and argued the Taliban's order contradicted \"the rights that Islam and Allah have given us\".\n\n\"They have to go to other Islamic countries and see that their actions are not Islamic,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThe United Nations and several countries have condemned the order, which takes Afghanistan back to the Taliban's first period of rule when girls could not receive formal education.\n\nThe UN's Special Rapporteur to Afghanistan said it was \"a new low further violating the right to equal education and deepens the erasure of women from Afghan society.\"\n\nThe US said such a move would \"come with consequences for the Taliban\".\n\n\"The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all in Afghanistan,\" said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement.\n\n\"No country can thrive when half of its population is held back.\"\n\nWestern countries have demanded all year that the Taliban improve female education if they wish to be formally recognised as Afghanistan's government.\n\nHowever in neighbouring Pakistan, the foreign minister said while he was \"disappointed\" by the Taliban's decision, he still advocated engagement.\n\n\"I still think the easiest path to our goal - despite having a lot of setbacks when it comes to women's education and other things - is through Kabul and through the interim government,\" said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.\n\nThe Taliban had promised a softer rule after seizing power last year following the US' withdrawal from the country. However the hardline Islamists have continued to roll back women's rights and freedoms in the country.\n\nThe Taliban's leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his inner circle have been against modern education - particularly for girls and women.\n\nThere has been opposition to this stance from more moderate officials, and analysts say this issue has been a point of factional division all year.\n\nYet on Tuesday, the education ministry said its scholars had evaluated the university curriculum and environment, and attendance for girls would be suspended \"until a suitable environment\" was provided.\n\nIt added that it would soon provide such a setting and \"citizens should not be worried\".\n\nHowever in March, the Taliban had promised to re-open some high schools for girls but then cancelled the move on the day they were due to return.\n\nThe crackdown also follows a wave of new restrictions on women in recent months. In November, women were banned from parks, gyms and public baths in the capital.\n\nA university lecturer and Afghan activist in the US said the Taliban had completed their isolation of women by suspending university for them.\n\n\"This was the last thing the Taliban could do. Afghanistan is not a country for women but instead a cage for women,\" Humaira Qaderi told the BBC.\n\nThe Taliban had just three months ago allowed thousands of girls and women to sit university entrance exams in most provinces across the country.\n\nBut there were restrictions on the subjects they could apply for, with engineering, economics, veterinary science and agriculture blocked and journalism severely restricted.\n\nPrior to Tuesday's announcement, universities had already been operating under discriminatory rules for women since the Taliban takeover in 2021.\n\nThere were gender segregated entrances and classrooms, and female students could only be taught by women professors or old men.\n\nHowever, women were still getting education. Unesco noted on Tuesday that from 2001 and 2018 - the period between Taliban rule - the rate of female attendance in higher education had increased 20 times.\n\nSeveral women have told the BBC they gave up after the Taliban regained rule because of \"too many difficulties\".\n\nThere has been speculation for over a month now that the Taliban government would ban university education for women.\n\nOne female student predicted it a few weeks ago. \"One day we will wake up and they will say girls are banned from universities,\" she had said.\n\nAnd so, while many Afghans might have expected that sooner or later this decision would be taken, it still comes as a shock.\n\nLast month women were barred from parks, gyms and swimming pools. In March this year, the Taliban government did not deliver on its commitment to open secondary schools for girls.\n\nFrom conversations with Taliban leaders over the past year, it is evident that there is disagreement within the Taliban on the issue of girls' education.\n\nOff the record, some Taliban members have repeatedly said they are hopeful and working to try and ensure girls get an education.\n\nGirls were allowed to sit for graduation exams for secondary schools two weeks ago, in 31 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, even though they haven't been allowed to be in school for more than a year.\n\nThat provided a glimmer of hope, which has now been extinguished.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Women in Afghanistan face an uncertain future following the Taliban's takeover", "Central areas of Kherson were hit in the attack\n\nAt least 10 people have been killed and dozens injured in Russian air strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, officials say.\n\nResidential and administrative buildings in central areas of the city were damaged in the blasts.\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there were no military facilities in the area.\n\nKherson, the only regional capital captured by Russia since the invasion, was liberated by Ukraine last month.\n\nSince then it has been frequently targeted by Russian forces positioned on the other side of the Dnipro river.\n\nVideos from the aftermath of the attack show several bodies on the ground, cars in flames and damaged buildings.\n\nMr Zelensky wrote on his Telegram channel: \"Social networks will most likely mark these photos as 'sensitive content'. But this is not sensitive content - it is the real life of Ukraine and Ukrainians.\"\n\nHe described the attacks as \"killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure\".\n\nRussia has frequently denied targeting civilians in its attacks.\n\nThe strikes came exactly 10 months after the beginning of the invasion.\n\nAs well as the 10 people who died, 18 others were in a critical condition because of their injuries, the governor of the wider region said during an update on national television.", "LadBaby have now overtaken the Beatles as the act with the most Christmas number ones in chart history\n\nCharity campaigners LadBaby have gained their fifth consecutive Christmas number one with Food Aid - a cover of Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas.\n\nThe song, which is raising money for UK food banks and the Band Aid trust, sold 65,000 copies to beat Wham's much-loved Last Christmas.\n\nLadBaby, aka Mark and Roxanne Hoyle, now have more Christmas number one singles than any act in chart history.\n\n\"It's unbelievable, isn't it?\" said Mark. \"All we can say is thank you.\"\n\nLadBaby made chart history last year when their collaboration with Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John, Sausage Rolls For Everyone, became their fourth consecutive UK Christmas number one.\n\nNow, with their fifth chart-topper, the Nottinghamshire couple have overtaken The Beatles as the act with the most Christmas number ones overall.\n\nThe Beatles had four in total: I Want To Hold Your Hand in 1963, I Feel Fine in 1964, Day Tripper in 1965 and Hello, Goodbye in 1967.\n\n\"A massive apology to The Beatles, and to all The Beatles' fans,\" said Mark. \"I'm sorry! The charity wins.\"\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, he added: \"If there was anything important enough to take a record from the Beatles, it was to shine a light on 14 million people who are struggling.\n\n\"I think it's an amazing moment [and] hopefully it gets everyone talking and gets everyone supporting food banks all year.\"\n\nLadBaby's run started with 2018's We Built This City, a sausage-roll themed cover of Starship's soft rock classic. They followed it up with 2019's I Love Sausage Rolls and 2020's Don't Stop Me Eatin'.\n\nMartin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company, said: \"Securing one Christmas number one is a huge achievement in itself. To do it five times, in successive years, is unprecedented and frankly incredible.\"\n\nTheir latest cover featured money saving expert Martin Lewis, and a host of celebrity look-a-likes, including an \"Adele\", a \"Paul McCartney\" and a belligerent \"Liam Gallagher\".\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by LadBaby This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThe success means that Do They Know It's Christmas, originally written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to combat the Ethiopian famine, is the only song ever to top the charts with five different recordings.\n\nIn doing so, it breaks a tie with Unchained Melody, which has been taken to number one by Jimmy Young, the Righteous Brothers, Robson & Jerome and Gareth Gates.\n\nProfits from Food Aid will be shared between the Trussell Trust food bank charity, and Band Aid's ongoing efforts to fight poverty and famine around the world.\n\nWham's Last Christmas, which was denied the number one spot by the original Band Aid single in 1984, again has to settle for being the chart's second-biggest song.\n\nYouTube supergroup Sidemen, who had hoped to become the first drill act to top the festive chart, ended the week in third position.\n\nTheir track, Christmas Drillings, was also raising money to fight food poverty in the UK, and featured vocals from KSI and grime legend JME.\n\nMariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You came fourth, with Ed Sheeran and Elton John's Merry Christmas rounding off the Christmas top five.\n\nThe highest-charting non-Christmas single was Raye's kaleidoscopic club anthem Escapism, which landed at number six.\n\nTaylor Swift's Midnights returned to the top of the album charts for its third week in pole position\n\nA political protest song about the Conservative government, the title of which is unprintable here, was a new entry at seven.\n\nIt was the fourth such song to make the Christmas charts for an act whose stage name is also unprintable on the BBC News site.\n\nMeanwhile, the surprise new single by London rapper Central Cee, Let Go (a reworking of Let Her Go by Passenger) outsold dozens of Christmas perennials to enter the chart at 10.\n\nIn total, 28 of the Top 40 singles were Christmas classics, including Fairytale Of New York, Santa Baby and Feliz Navidad, as listeners continue to stream Christmas playlists in huge numbers.\n\nTheir stranglehold will continue in next week's chart, which will count streams from Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, after which streams tend to drop off dramatically.\n\nIn the album charts, Taylor Swift's eighth album Midnights regained the top spot, with Cliff Richard's Christmas With Cliff at number two.\n\nLadBaby refused to say whether they would make a sixth attempt on the charts next year.\n\nBut if they do, they could be within breathing distance of matching The X Factor's tally of seven Christmas number ones between 2005 and 2014.\n\nThe couple said they sympathised with accusations they'd ruined the Christmas charts, but felt the cost of living crisis was too important to ignore.\n\n\"We didn't want to come back this year but unfortunately the food banks are in emergency crisis,\" Roxanne told the BBC.\n\n\"We didn't want to turn our backs on so many people. We get messages every day from nurses, teachers, children and families who are struggling.\n\n\"You don't want music to become something people get annoyed with [but] that's why we did it.\"\n\n\"We want to do whatever we can at Christmas to support food banks,\" added her husband. \"And if that isn't in the form of a song, it doesn't mean we won't show up somewhere else.\"\n\n\"Plans are always afoot. Don't rule us out. You think we can't sing? Wait until we go somewhere else and can't do that, too.\"\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Jeremy Clarkson is the star of Amazon Prime series Clarkson's Farm and hosts Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? for ITV\n\nThe Sun newspaper says it regrets publishing a Jeremy Clarkson column about the Duchess of Sussex and is \"sincerely sorry\".\n\nMore than 20,000 complaints were made to the press regulator after the broadcaster wrote last week that he hated Meghan \"on a cellular level\".\n\nHe later asked for the column to be removed from the Sun's website.\n\nThe Sun said columnists' opinions were their own, but as a publisher \"with free expression comes responsibility\".\n\nThe piece became the Independent Press Standards Organisation's (Ipso) most complained-about article.\n\nIpso said it had received more than 17,500 complaints by 09:00 GMT on Tuesday - which rose to 20,800 by 17:00.\n\nIn place of the article, the Sun's website now has a copy of a tweet from Clarkson in which he said he was \"horrified to have caused so much hurt\" and \"would be more careful in future\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Jeremy Clarkson This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nClarkson's column, published on 16 December, was widely criticised on social media.\n\nHis daughter, Emily, distanced herself from her father's words.\n\nShe said last week: \"I want to make it very clear that I stand against everything my dad wrote about Meghan Markle.\"\n\nKevin Lygo, ITV's media and entertainment boss, described the comments made by Clarkson as \"awful\" but said there were no plans to replace him as a host of the gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?.\n\nThe column came after the release of Prince Harry and Meghan's Netflix six-part series, in which the couple talked about their life in Royal Family.\n\nIn its apology, which has been published on its website, the Sun said: \"We will continue to campaign for good causes on behalf of our readers in 2023.\"\n\nThe Sun said it had a \"proud history of campaigning\", including work on bringing about legislation on domestic abuse, providing beds in refuges and closing harmful loopholes in the law.\n\nThe newspaper added the article had been removed from the website and the archives.\n\nIn the original column, Clarkson said: \"At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she [Meghan] is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her.\n\n\"Everyone who's my age thinks the same way,\" he added. \"But what makes me despair is that younger people, especially girls, think she's pretty cool. They think she was a prisoner of Buckingham Palace, forced to talk about nothing but embroidery and kittens.\"\n\nIn his tweet following the criticism, Clarkson said he had made a \"clumsy\" reference to a scene in Game of Thrones which \"has gone down badly with a great many people\".\n\nElsewhere in the column, Clarkson had also compared his hatred of the Duchess of Sussex with his feelings towards Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and serial killer Rose West.\n\nIn response, Ms Sturgeon said Clarkson's comments about Meghan were \"deeply misogynist and just downright awful\".\n\nShe said she feels \"pity\" for men like Clarkson, adding: \"I can't imagine what it must be like to be so consumed and distorted by hate of other people, and in his case it appears women in particular, that you end up writing that toxic, vile abuse.\"\n\nNeil Wallis, media commentator and former editor at the Sun and News Of The World, told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme Clarkson was failed by the editorial team.\n\n\"The bottom line of this is this is a dreadful failure of editing,\" he said.\n\nHe added: \"At least three points it seems to me there were opportunities for people in senior responsible positions for putting their hand up and saying 'we can't publish this, this is just wrong'. The job of being an editor is to sometimes protect a columnist from themselves.\"\n\nThe column also received complaints from political figures.\n\nConservative MP Caroline Nokes wrote to the editor of the Sun, Victoria Newton, on Tuesday demanding \"definitive action is taken to ensure no article like this is ever published again\".\n\nThe letter was signed by more than 60 MPs.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A people carrier with a crew of Santas on board gets stuck in a Cornish lane\n\nAn armoured personnel carrier filled with Santas had to be freed by police after getting stuck in a Cornish lane.\n\nThe Santas, who were believed to be on a pub crawl, got wedged in a hedge at Marsh Lane near Hayle in Cornwall.\n\nDevon and Cornwall Police were called at about 19:40 GMT on Thursday after reports that a vehicle had been damaged. No-one was arrested.\n\nFisherman Ian Jepson, who shot video of the Santa jam, said the lane was blocked for about two hours.\n\nHe said the Santas were on an annual pub crawl.\n\n\"They shot past me singing and we later found them stuck where the lane narrows,\" he added.\n\n\"They were quite tightly jammed but it says no parking.\n\n\"It was quite funny as they tried to free themselves.\"\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.", "Father Christmas has been having an underwater adventure ahead of his busy festive schedule.\n\nHe took part in a charity fundraiser in full scuba kit and had an elfin hand from one of his team.", "There were 348,740 NHS sight tests of patients in Wales according to latest figures\n\nPlans to reduce financial help for some of the \"poorest and most vulnerable\" people in Wales towards the cost of their NHS glasses has been criticised.\n\nProposals to lower the current £39.10 contribution for children and adults on some benefits to £22 in a cost of living crisis have been called \"wrong\".\n\nThe Welsh government has said the amount was agreed by the group that represents optometrists in Wales.\n\nThe Welsh Parliament is expected to discuss the proposal in the new year.\n\nOpticians and opposition parties have said the majority of children and people eligible for NHS glasses would get less of a contribution than those in the rest of the UK if the new proposals come into force.\n\nPatients who get financial help - or optical vouchers - towards glasses from the NHS are split into 10 bands - from the least to the most complicated prescriptions.\n\nThose needing glasses with the least complex eyesight problems are the most popular in Wales as latest official figures show almost 75% of the 132,000 patients were in that lowest band.\n\nSali Davis, the chief executive of the body that represents opticians in Wales, said in a recent interview that children and adults that claim certain benefits who are in that lower band could see their £39.10 contribution towards glasses lowered to £22.\n\nOptometry Wales has expressed \"significant concerns\" about the plans and while the government claimed it \"agreed\" with the proposals, Optometry Wales said in a statement on their website it was \"not in favour of supporting the changes to the voucher system in Wales\"\n\n\"We fought for Welsh government to consider both retaining the current system and when details of the 2% increase were announced in the middle of the negotiations for England, we also argued for this to be reflected as historically has happened,\" the statement read.\n\nOpposition parties in Wales have also accused the Labour government in Wales of taking money away the from \"those that need it the most\".\n\n\"I think it is totally wrong for the Welsh government to take a different approach and take funds away from those that need the most,\" said Russell George MS, health spokesman for the Welsh Conservatives.\n\n\"By doing this, Labour ministers are making a conscious choice to make it more expensive for the poorest people to literally see - and a choice to take a different decision to what is happening elsewhere in the UK.\"\n\nPlaid Cymru also called the proposal \"unfair\" and called on the Welsh government to \"rethink\" the plans.\n\nAll children in Wales are entitled to glasses paid for by the NHS\n\n\"We don't want people not to make the right choices in terms of their eye health,\" said Plaid's health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth MS.\n\n\"We're talking about essential vision correction here and I don't want to see people who are struggling financially deciding not to take necessary steps in terms of their eyesight because they can't afford it.\"\n\nWales' chief optometric advisor David O'Sullivan said in a briefing in September that 112,610 people in Wales were waiting longer than clinically agreed - with about 70% of those at risk of irreversible sight loss.\n\nThe Welsh government has said it wants to reduce the number of referrals into hospital eye departments by one-third by training up community opticians to undertake certain procedures.\n\nYou can get NHS vouchers towards the cost of glasses or contact lenses in Wales if:\n\nA record 134,285 people are waiting for optical treatment in Wales - with almost half, some 63,649, of patients waiting longer than the agreed Welsh Government target.\n\nThe plan by Welsh ministers is for those patients that would have been seen in hospitals to have their follow up appointments in community opticians, therefore increasing capacity in hospital's eyecare departments.\n\n\"There are elements of the changes that are welcome,\" added Mr ap Iorwerth.\n\n\"But when we look at the reduction being proposed in the voucher, I think that's a matter of asking the very poorest in society to pay for implementing these changes.\n\n\"I don't think that's acceptable at any time, especially during a cost-of-living crisis.\"\n\nBoth Plaid and the Conservatives said the Welsh government should pay for any health reforms in general taxation.\n\n\"We've got some of the biggest challenges in the Welsh NHS,\" said Mr George.\n\n\"We've got longer waiting times for treatment and longer response times for ambulances.\n\nHigh street opticians in Wales are to treat more complex eye problems to help ease the pressure on ophthalmology departments in hospitals\n\n\"I understand why the Welsh government want to make reforms but their mismanagement of the Welsh NHS over the past 20 years shouldn't be taken out on those that need this glasses contribution the most.\"\n\nMoney to help patients buy glasses comes from the UK government but distributed within Wales by the Welsh government - so while the contribution could reduce in Wales, the voucher in the other UK nations will remain the same.\n\nOther groups representing opticians have also expressed concern about the Welsh government's proposals.\n\nThe Association of Optometrists has done research which \"shows many patients are already struggling to afford adequate eyecare\".\n\n\"It would be simply wrong for the Welsh government to implement cuts to benefits for the poorest in our society at such a time,\" said AOP chief executive Adam Sampson.\n\nAnother association that represents eye care providers is worried about the \"negative impacts of cutting patient benefits to part fund reforms, especially during a cost-of-living crisis\".\n\nFODO, whose members do more than 18 million eye examinations in the UK every year, called it a \"regressive policy\".\n\nThe Welsh government said its new contract and voucher values were agreed by Optometry Wales.\n\n\"We are providing an extra £30m over two years for this new contract, and the value of most vouchers have actually increased,\" a government spokesperson said.\n\n\"We are committed to ensuring all those eligible do not have to pay for the optical appliances they need and that optometrists costs are covered.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mark Ormrod is hoping to set a new record\n\nA veteran who lost both his legs and his right arm in an Afghanistan bomb blast may have won the world record for the fastest triple amputee 1km swim.\n\nFormer Royal Marine Mark Ormrod MBE, from Plymouth, suffered the catastrophic injuries when he stood on a landmine in 2007.\n\nMr Ormrod completed his time in about 35 minutes and is now waiting for confirmation he has beat the record.\n\nHe said it \"wasn't too cold\" and he \"enjoyed it\".\n\nThe swim in Plymouth earlier marked 15 years since the incident.\n\nMoney raised will go to Reorg, which helps people from the armed forces and emergency services suffering from physical and psychological trauma.\n\nMr Ormrod said: \"We're helping to change and save people's lives, give them a new purpose and a new focus.\"\n\nMr Ormrod has completed various physical challenges over the years\n\nSam Sheriff, founder of Reorg, said: \"It's been incredible. We've been able to change hundreds of lives because of Mark and his endeavours.\"\n\nIn March Mr Ormrod raised more than £150,000 in a 5km (3.1m) run using prosthetic legs.\n\nFollow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Ms Mohammadi heard details of abuse from women detained with her in Evin prison\n\nA leading human rights activist in Iran has written from prison to give the BBC details of how women detained in recent anti-government protests are being sexually and physically abused.\n\nNarges Mohammadi said such assaults had become more common in recent protests.\n\nShe is serving a lengthy sentence in Tehran's notorious Evin prison.\n\nThe protests were triggered by the death in custody in September of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, arrested for violating strict dress codes.\n\nShe was detained by morality police in mid-September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, \"improperly\".\n\nMore than 500 protesters, including 69 children, have been killed, while thousands of others have been arrested, human rights activists say. Dozens of Iranian security personnel are also reported to have been killed.\n\nMany of those arrested have allegedly been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in custody.\n\nMs Mohammadi is deputy head of Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi's Defenders of Human Rights Center. She has received several jail sentences since 2011 and is currently in prison for \"spreading propaganda\".\n\nThis year she was also included in the BBC's 100 Women - a high profile list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world.\n\nProminent political prisoners in Iran like Ms Mohammadi, who are not in solitary confinement, are often able to communicate with the outside world via their families or fellow activists.\n\nMs Mohammadi says in her letter that some of the women arrested during the recent demonstrations were transferred to the women's ward in Evin prison.\n\nThat gave her a chance to hear shocking details of the abuse they suffered.\n\nShe says that one well-known activist had her hands and legs tied to a hook above her head in the vehicle taking her to prison - and was then sexually assaulted by security officers.\n\nMs Mohammadi, pictured here in 2007, is serving a lengthy sentence in Evin prison\n\nMs Mohammadi says she saw bruises and scars on her body.\n\nShe says another woman who was arrested in the street was taken on a motorbike by two security officers - one in front and one behind - and was repeatedly assaulted.\n\nIran's state broadcaster has denied reports of security forces using rape and sexual abuse against female protesters.\n\nA report on 19 December said female prisoners were kept in facilities run by all-female staff, adding that claims of rape in the Western media were \"rumours\" and \"baseless\".\n\nBut Iran also continues to heavily repress domestic reporting of the protests, with one recent report suggesting it was now the third largest jailer of journalists in the world.\n\nMs Mohammadi says that even though reporting abuse may lead to intimidation of the families of women in detention, she believes it's necessary to expose what's happening - in order to try to put a stop to it.\n\n\"Not revealing these crimes would contribute to the continuation of application of this repressive methods against women,\" she says.\n\n\"Therefore, it seems that the assault on women activists, fighters, and protesters in Iran should be widely and powerfully reported at the global level.\"\n\nShe added that this was especially important given the pressure on civil society in Iran.\n\n\"In the absence of powerful independent civil organisations, the attention and support of the media and international human rights organisations and global public opinion is essential,\" she said.\n\nMs Mohammadi ended the letter by expressing the belief that Iran's \"brave, resilient, lively and hopeful women\" would attain victory.\n\n\"Victory means establishing democracy, peace and human rights and ending tyranny,\" she added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The secret diaries of women protesting in Iran", "Rishi Sunak has surprised public servants working across the world over Christmas with a personal phone call to thank them for their efforts.\n\nInstead of a traditional message to the nation, the PM called diplomats, Royal Navy crew and a childcare provider in Pakistan, Somalia, Ukraine and the UK.\n\nMr Sunak said he was grateful for their \"sacrifice\" over the festive period.\n\nLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer used his message to pay tribute to the Ukrainian people and those working at Christmas.\n\nIn the UK, Mr Sunak spoke to Chris Mitchell, who runs Smart Play, a government-funded holiday activities and food programme in Barnet, north London.\n\nThe prime minister also called Svita Yavorska, who works for the UK's embassy in Ukraine. She told Mr Sunak how she had fled to Poland, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, helping to set up a temporary base there, before returning to the city of Lviv in western Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking to diplomat Nic Guffog, who is based in Mogadishu, Mr Sunak heard how staff at the UK's diplomatic compound were living in containers under the threat of terror attacks, as they supported the Somalian government to counter the militant Al-Shabaab group and deal with the hunger crisis facing the country.\n\nHe also spoke to some of the crew of HMS Protector, which is currently deployed off the coast of the South Sandwich islands in Antarctica.\n\nIt comes as the UK is facing a wave of industrial action, including by NHS and Border Force staff, with members of the armed forces stepping in to cover striking workers.\n\nThe prime minister's official Christmas card shows him baking with his family\n\nAlthough Mr Sunak did not follow the tradition of recording a Christmas message that is broadcast to the UK, he did issue a statement.\n\nMr Sunak said: \"Whether you are working in Mogadishu or Milton Keynes this Christmas, I want you to know that I am personally grateful for your sacrifice.\n\n\"This year has been an extraordinary year for so many reasons, but most of all, it's been a year in which the true spirit and resilience of the United Kingdom has been on show, from the support given to our Ukrainian friends, to the work being done to ensure essential aid reaches the most vulnerable overseas.\n\n\"And closer to home, those who have checked on friends and neighbours, volunteers, public servants and essential service staff all working over Christmas - I am truly humbled by your dedication and I know your selflessness this festive season will spread cheer across the country.\"\n\nMr Sunak also tweeted a short video to the people of Ukraine, writing: \"This Christmas, we're with you...\"\n\nAnd in a Christmas message on Twitter, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the prime minister and British public, saying he was \"grateful\" for their support and \"warmth of your hearts\".\n\nSir Keir used his Christmas message to pay tribute to \"our friends in Ukraine\"\n\nIn his annual Christmas message, Labour's leader acknowledged that for many people in Britain \"life is tough at the moment\".\n\n\"But Christmas is a reminder that we will endure, that things will get better,\" Sir Keir Starmer added.\n\n\"I hope this Christmas is a joyous and relaxing time for you, however you are spending it. I'm looking forward to sharing my time with my family, away from the day to day of work,\" he said.\n\n\"But as I do I will be keeping in my heart all those who are working to keep us safe. Those looking after the less fortunate, and our friends in Ukraine, facing the horror of Putin's appalling attacks. Their struggle for freedom inspires us all.\"\n\nSNP leader Nicola Sturgeon used her festive message to offer a \"heartfelt thanks\" to public sector workers and noted \"tough times\" for Scotland.\n\nShe said: \"Especially after the past two Christmases, I know most of us will be really looking forward to this festive period.\n\n\"Of course, the cost-of-living crisis is making this a very hard winter for many. So this Christmas, it's important for all of us to also think about how we can help others.\"\n\nIn his message, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: \"For me, the message of Christmas is for us to treat others as we would wish to be treated and the symbol of Christmas is light - the light of hope, in the darkest week of the year.\n\n\"Hope that we all desperately need for these most challenging of times.\"", "Firefighters have encouraged people to ensure electrical items are unplugged after use\n\nA dog is believed to have caused a fire in a house on Christmas Eve after accidentally turning a hairdryer on.\n\nEssex Fire Service said crews were called to Hockley, Essex, following reports of a smoke-filled house.\n\nFirefighters worked quickly to extinguish the fire after locating it in the bedroom.\n\nThe dog was waiting by the front door when the homeowner returned and both were treated for smoke inhalation, the service said.\n\nCrews were called to Hawkwell Road, Hockley, on Christmas Eve at 18:43 GMT\n\nWatch manager Gary Shinn said: \"The homeowner was out and came back to find her house full of smoke.\n\n\"We believe the fire started because a hairdryer was left plugged in and on a bed.\n\n\"We think the dog may have then jumped on the bed and turned the hairdryer on, eventually causing it to catch alight to the bedding and mattress.\n\n\"Once you've finished with any electrical appliances such as hairdryers and straighteners please take a moment to unplug them.\"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Heather Smedley was the \"glue that held our family together\", a tribute said\n\nA family has paid tribute to a \"kind and gentle\" mum-of-three who died after being hit by an unmarked police car.\n\nThe car was pursuing a different vehicle, suspected to have been stolen, when it collided with Heather Smedley's car in Royton, Oldham.\n\nThe 53-year-old was taken to hospital with serious injuries after the collision at about 10:00 GMT on Friday and died a short time later.\n\nHer family said she was \"the glue that held our family together\".\n\nIn a statement the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said: \"We understand that the police car had been pursuing a separate, suspected stolen vehicle prior to the collision.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with the woman's family and friends at this awful time and all those affected by this tragic incident.\n\n\"Our investigation will examine the circumstances leading up to the collision and whether police actions were in accordance with policies and procedures.\"\n\nPaying tribute, Mrs Smedley's family said she was the \"most wonderful mother\" to Benjamin, Olivia and Jamie, and daughter to Hilda and Fred and wife to Damian.\n\nThey said \"the world was a much better place\" with her in it.\n\nThey added she was the most \"kind, gentle, beautiful soul inside and out\".\n\n\"She faced all of life's challenges with her beautiful smile, and her bravery and courage never wavered,\" they added.\n\n\"We could not have asked for a better role model growing up, giving everything she had to all of those she loved, and always supporting those around her.\n\n\"She was the glue that held our family together. Her resilience and kindness inspired us all to be better.\"\n\nGreater Manchester Police Ch Supt Chris Bowen said his \"sincere thoughts and condolences\" were with Mrs Smedley's family and friends.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The van, which allows Rob Burrow to travel in his wheelchair, was damaged on Friday night\n\nRugby league star and motor neurone disease fundraiser Rob Burrow's wheelchair accessible van was vandalised while his family were out for a Christmas meal, his father has said.\n\nGeoff Burrow said his son had been out in Castleford, West Yorkshire, on Friday when the vehicle was targeted.\n\n\"They made quite a lot of deep scratches on the back of the van where we wheel Rob in on the ramp,\" he said.\n\nHe described the culprits as \"cowards\".\n\nThe family had been out for an evening meal at the Rockello restaurant in the Glasshoughton area and found the damage at about 21:00 GMT.\n\nFollowing a tweet sent by Rob's father, the family said they have been inundated with offers to pay for the repairs and businesses willing to carry out the work for free.\n\nThe vehicle, pictured in March, now has \"deep scratches\" on the rear door\n\nSpeaking to the BBC, Mr Burrow said: \"How anybody can do anything like that, it clearly had a disability sign on it and Rob's disability badges on the front.\n\n\"The outpouring of kindness shows you that there's more nice people than scumbags like this person, but we could have done without it - we're going through enough without having to deal with this.\"\n\nHe said the vehicle was parked near the restaurant and was not obstructing any driveways or on any yellow lines.\n\n\"It spoilt a good night out, they're cowards,\" he said.\n\n\"How could someone do it to a disability van, how they sleep is their problem I suppose.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Geoff Burrow This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nWest Yorkshire Police has been asked to comment.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Central areas of Kherson were devastated in the Russian attack on Saturday morning\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged his people to persevere in the face of Russian attacks as the country celebrates Christmas.\n\nIn a defiant speech on Saturday, he said: \"Freedom comes at a high price. But slavery has an even higher price.\"\n\nRussia's missile and drone attacks have left millions of Ukrainians without power, heating and running water.\n\nEarlier on Saturday, Russian air strikes killed 10 people in Ukraine's southern Kherson city, officials said.\n\nThe regional authorities said another 68 people were injured and called on local residents to urgently donate blood.\n\nDescribing Russia as a \"terrorist country\", Mr Zelensky accused Russian troops of \"killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure\".\n\nIn a post on social media, he showed pictures of streets strewn with bodies and burning cars, saying \"the world must see and understand what absolute evil we are fighting against\".\n\nKherson, the only regional capital captured by Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion on 24 February, was liberated by Ukraine last month.\n\nSince then it has been frequently targeted by Russian forces positioned on the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro river.\n\nMoscow has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in its attacks. However, President Vladimir Putin has recently admitted that Russian troops have been hitting Ukraine's critical energy facilities.\n\nMost Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians, and mark Christmas Eve - the main day of the festive season in the country - on 6 January.\n\nHowever, a growing number of worshippers have been celebrating the day on 24 December, in line with the majority of Christians around the world.\n\nPresident Zelensky: \"We will not wait for a miracle. After all, we create it ourselves\"\n\nIn a video address to the nation late on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said: \"We endured at the beginning of the war. We endured attacks, threats, nuclear blackmail, terror, missile strikes. Let's endure this winter because we know what we are fighting for.\n\n\"We will celebrate our holidays! As always. We will smile and be happy. As always. The difference is one. We will not wait for a miracle. After all, we create it ourselves.\"\n\nFor many Ukrainians, Christmas will be in the dark and in the cold, says the BBC's Hugo Bachega in Kyiv.\n\nBut Ukrainians say the hardships have only made them stronger, as the war enters its 11th month, our correspondent adds.\n\nOn Saturday, fierce fighting continued in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region where Russian troops attacked the strategic town of Bakhmut.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nNearly 250 million Americans and Canadians are feeling the icy grip of a massive winter storm linked to at least 19 deaths ahead of the holiday weekend.\n\nMore than 1.5 million people lost power and thousands of flights have been cancelled since Thursday.\n\nThe vast storm extends more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) from Texas to Quebec.\n\nA bomb cyclone, when atmospheric pressure plummets, has brought blizzard conditions to the Great Lakes on the US-Canada border.\n\nNear white-out conditions have been reported in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Buffalo, New York, where the US National Weather Service (NWS) reported \"zero mile\" visibility.\n\nIn Canada, Ontario and Quebec were bearing the brunt of the Arctic blast, with power cut to hundreds of thousands.\n\nMuch of the rest of the country, from British Columbia to Newfoundland, was under extreme cold and winter storm warnings.\n\nTemperatures in Elk Park, in the US state of Montana, dropped to -50F (-45C), while the town of Hell, Michigan, has frozen over.\n\nIt was 1F (-17C) in the snow-covered community on Friday night. Emily, a bartender at Smitty's Hell Saloon, told the BBC: \"It's pretty cold here, but we're having a hell of a time.\"\n\nIn South Dakota, snowed-in Native Americans burned clothes for warmth after running out of fuel, said tribal officials.\n\nHeavy snowfall was forecast in areas of Pennsylvania and Michigan.\n\nMore than eight million people remained under blizzard warnings, said the NWS.\n\nCoastal flooding has been seen in New England, New York and New Jersey, inundating communities and downing power lines.\n\nCows walk in the snow following a blizzard in Sturgis, South Dakota\n\nIn the Pacific Northwest, some residents ice-skated on frozen streets in Seattle and Portland.\n\nEven the usually milder southern states of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and Georgia were experiencing hard-freeze warnings.\n\nA number of the storm-related fatalities have involved road traffic accidents, including a 50-car pile-up in Ohio that killed four motorists. Another four died in separate crashes in the state.\n\nTravel problems across the country were being exacerbated by a shortage of snowplough operators, with low pay rates being blamed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Nick Miller has the latest weather forecast for North America\n\nMore than 5,900 US flights were cancelled on Friday, according to the tracking site FlightAware, as flyers battled to make it home for Christmas. Another 1,600 Saturday flights have already been cancelled.\n\nHundreds of thousands of people across the US have been without power since Friday, according to PowerOutage.us.\n\nUtilities throughout the Tennessee Valley were implementing rolling blackouts to save power.\n\nThe NWS says more than 100 daily cold temperature records could be tied or broken over the next few days. Decades-old records have already been matched:\n\nHave you been affected by the severe weather in the US and Canada? Please email us: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Carter was asked to be a mascot in September by Wrexham striker Paul Mullin\n\nA boy whose parents were told he would not walk until he was seven has defied the odds and is playing in his first pair of football boots, aged four.\n\nCarter was diagnosed with a form of cerebral palsy called spastic diplegia when he was 18 months old.\n\nNow, three years earlier than doctors predicted, he is enjoying a kickabout in his first pair of football boots.\n\nThe Wrexham season ticket holder hopes to use his new boots to \"play just like\" his hero, striker Paul Mullin.\n\nHis mother Alison Murphy, 26, said her son could not wait to get his new boots on when he got them this week: \"We tried them on him and as soon as he got them on he got a little ball in the house and started kicking it about.\"\n\nMs Murphy said being able to give her son his new boots has \"made her Christmas\".\n\n\"When I take him to school they've got a little goal there and he has to play football before he goes in,\" she said.\n\n\"He's now been tackling his friends in school and coming home covered in mud - which is making me very happy because I know he's happy.\"\n\nCarter was absolutely delighted with his new football boots\n\nShe described a \"difficult few months\" trying to get her son football boots as the splint he wears means he has to wear a pair \"three or four sizes\" too big to accommodate them.\n\n\"We went into a shop on the off chance that we would find some that would possibly fit his splints. We took them home, and they fit him perfectly.\"\n\nEarlier this season, Carter was personally invited by Wrexham striker Mullin to be his mascot.\n\n\"I make quite a few TikToks about Carter because there's quite a few other parents who don't have support or anybody else to talk to,\" said Ms Murphy.\n\n\"I put one on Twitter and Paul Mullin saw it - he messaged me in August and asked for Carter to be his mascot in September a week after his birthday.\"\n\n\"We go to watch Wrexham every week,\" said Carter's mum\n\nMs Murphy is now looking for ways for Carter to put his new boots into action.\n\n\"He's been offered to go to a football club in Oldham - they have a cerebral palsy football team. So we are thinking about that,\" she said.\n\n\"He wants to go and practice his football now - so we're going to take him to a field by where we live.\n\n\"His dad practises with him - he passes him the ball for him to score the goal.\"\n\nCarter got some trainers to wear as a Wrexham mascot which are specifically designed for children with cerebral palsy", "Doctors say most clinics offer gift vouchers now but that does not mean standards are slipping\n\nHow would you feel if someone got you a voucher towards Botox for Christmas?\n\nWell for some, it's exactly what they want with \"more and more\" gift vouchers on the market, according to the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation (BDDF).\n\nOne aesthetician said procedures had stigma because people associated them with the excess of some celebrities.\n\nHowever, the BDDF worries \"normalising\" gifting non-surgical treatments could have a negative impact on young people's mental health.\n\nCosmetic procedures can include facials, cosmetic tattoos on areas like eyebrows, and Botox - beloved by those seeking a wrinkle-free face.\n\nOne study in 2022 found an estimated 900,000 facial injections of Botox are carried out every year in the UK.\n\nHowever, Sara Chenney, who works at a clinic in Wrexham, said the confidence that can come from procedures is more than skin deep, claiming it was \"no different\" to buying someone a voucher for a hairdresser, as long as a proper consultation has taken place.\n\nHer clinic, like many others, offers monetary vouchers that can be used towards the non-surgical procedures they offer, such as Botox.\n\nDr Kathryn Lloyd-Thomas says a gift voucher for Botox is the same as one for your hair\n\nDr Kathryn Lloyd-Thomas has been a doctor for over 22 years and started her aesthetic clinic in Cardiff five years ago.\n\nShe thinks gift vouchers are a good thing because it means people can afford to have the procedures they want with qualified professionals and \"it'll stop people from going to places they really shouldn't to get stuff done on the cheap\".\n\nShe said women were made to feel a lot of shame still and as long as the vouchers were from a reputable clinic, it was the same as buying a voucher towards any other large purchase.\n\n\"People don't have an opinion or comment on if you go and have your haircut, or if you have your nails done,\" she said.\n\n\"But I feel that there's a lot of stigma still around people potentially having anti-wrinkle injections or lip fillers.\"\n\nShe said older women especially felt \"racked with guilt\" but were often \"just wanting a boost\".\n\n\"We always tend to see celebrities who have had things done badly and that's what people associate it with,\" she said.\n\n\"Women a certain age shouldn't feel guilty about wanting to look nice and I think if that is normalising it, then that's not a bad thing.\"\n\nShe added there was a misconception that it was younger people wanting unsuitable procedures but \"the whole industry needs to be a little bit more regulated\".\n\n\"I don't mean to be negative, but possibly there are beauticians out there who shouldn't be doing it but I don't know if that will actually ever change,\" she said.\n\n\"I can understand how there may be some potential for some criticism [about gift vouchers] but I'd like to think that if you go to a reputable person or clinic, that they would still only ever perform a procedure on someone after a medical questionnaire and a consent form.\"\n\nShe said in her experience, vouchers were given on a \"very individual basis\", with an increase at Christmas.\n\n\"Everyone wants to look nice and for the parties beforehand\", she said, adding her number one request was anti-wrinkle injections and filler.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'I hate that young people seek cosmetic procedures because of me,' says Love Island star\n\nMs Chenney, who is clinical director of Pure Perfection Clinic, said people still associated cosmetic procures with \"overfilled lips\" like some celebrities.\n\n\"Every patient who walks in our door has a consultation before we do anything,\" she said.\n\nShe added it was not just procedures such as filler as people gifted treatments for acne and rosacea that can \"change the lives\" of people with insecurities.\n\nShe said seeing people's mental transformation was \"what gives me the massive job satisfaction\".\n\nMs Chenney said now with longer NHS wait times, people may be asking for vouchers to help deal with skin conditions rather than wait.\n\nShe added, however, it was down to individuals to make sure they were purchasing responsibly.\n\nKitty Wallace says often small procedures can be the most damaging as a \"quick fix\" to anxiety\n\nKitty Wallace, from the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Foundation, said \"normalising\" gifting procedures could have a real impact on people's mental health.\n\nBody dysmorphic disorder (BDD), or body dysmorphia, is a mental health condition where a person spends a lot of time worrying about flaws in their appearance.\n\nIn more extreme cases it can lead to depression and suicide and the charity said one in 50 people have it.\n\nSo gift vouchers for cosmetic procedures could, she said, be damaging for a number of reasons.\n\n\"When we start talking about things like cosmetic treatments, in my mind it is always the worst case scenario,\" she said.\n\n\"For the vast majority of people getting these treatments it can boost how you feel about yourself.\"\n\nBut, she said, it creates a stigma around aging which is particularly concerning for people in their early twenties \"getting a lot of Botox or filler really altering their appearance before they've necessarily matured into how they look\".\n\n\"If those young people are getting these treatments because they are trying to suppress a huge amount of anxiety about their appearance they might do that without considering the consequences of what could go wrong.\"\n\nShe added vouchers \"trivialise how large that impact could be on someone\" and often loved ones can mistakenly think they are just helping help their confidence and anxiety.\n\n\"It can actually play into fears\" and \"inadvertently play into people's obsession about appearance,\" she said.\n\nMs Wallace said she was also concerned about how young people might afford the procedures once the voucher runs out, having worked with people who had gotten into so much debt they could not afford Christmas presents.\n\n\"Treatments aren't often a one-off and require maintenance,\" she said.\n\n\"Does that person have the ability to continue this on? And is it fair to start them on that journey?\"\n\nMs Wallace, who herself has BDD, said she was grateful she got treatment for it before the influx of cosmetic procedures by influencers on platforms such as Instagram as it means people see more and more warped images\n\n\"It's important that people are educated. We can't make a decision for people about what they choose to do,\" she added.\n\n\"But more people need to know what BDD is and what the risks are.\"\n\nIf you want more information on what support is available, visit BBC Action Line.", "The Taliban have used a water cannon to disperse a group of women protesting against the ban on female students in Afghanistan attending university.\n\nVideo on social media shows women taking cover in a lane in the city of Herat to escape a stream of water.\n\nDozens of women holding a protest march could be heard shouting slogans including: \"Education is our right\".\n\nIn one clip, women could be heard shouting: \"The Taliban are cowards.\"\n\nWomen have also been banned from working for national and international NGOs, confirmed Abdel Rahman Habib, spokesman for the ministry of economy.\n\nHe said a letter had been sent to NGOs imposing a ban \"until further notice\" and offered the reason that women were not following Sharia law with respect to their wearing of the hijab.\n\nEarlier this week, the Taliban's ban on female students attending higher education triggered an international outcry.\n\nThe Taliban said women had not been wearing appropriate Islamic attire at university and had been interacting with their male counterparts.\n\nThe new ban was implemented with immediate effect by Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem on Tuesday, with public and private universities ordered to bar women from attending.\n\nMr Nadeem said female students had been \"dressing like they were going to a wedding\".\n\nThe Taliban arrested five women taking part in a protest in the Afghan capital, Kabul, earlier this week. Three journalists were also arrested.\n\nGuards stopped hundreds of women from entering universities on Wednesday, a day after the ban was announced.\n\nGirls in Afghanistan have already been excluded from most secondary schools.\n\nThe Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, two decades after being removed from power by a US-led military coalition.\n\nWomen protesters attended a march against the Taliban's ban on female students attending university", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Firefighters extinguish burning cars following a day of unrest in Paris\n\nParis has witnessed a second day of violent unrest after Friday's deadly attack on the city's Kurdish community.\n\nProtesters who gathered on Saturday overturned cars, setting some on fire, and hurled objects at police. Officers responded by firing tear gas.\n\nThree people were killed in Friday's attack, which took place at a Kurdish cultural centre and a restaurant.\n\nThe suspect, who has reportedly described himself as racist, has been transferred to a psychiatric facility.\n\nThe 69-year-old was released from custody for health reasons following an examination on Saturday, prosecutors said. He is yet to appear before a judge.\n\nIn the wake of the shootings, the suspect said he hated foreigners, a police source earlier told the AFP news agency.\n\nThe same source said the gunman launched his attack with a \"much-used\" pistol and was found with a box of at least 25 cartridges and \"two or three\" loaded magazines.\n\nWitnesses said the attacker - tall, white and elderly - shot dead two men and a woman in the city's 10th district.\n\nThree others were injured, one of whom remains in a critical condition.\n\nThree places came under fire - the Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish centre, as well as a nearby restaurant and a hairdresser - before the gunman was arrested without a fight.\n\nThe suspect, a retired train driver, was detained on suspicion of murder and attempted murder, and was later also charged with acting with a racist motive.\n\nHe has a history of weapons offences and it has emerged that he was released on bail just days before the assault.\n\nLast year, he was charged with racist violence over a sword attack at a migrant camp elsewhere in the French capital.\n\nUnrest began soon after Friday's shootings. Footage showed people starting fires in the streets and smashing car windows.\n\nPolice used tear gas as the protesters attempted to break through a security cordon.\n\nSaturday's renewed violence unfolded after hundreds of Kurds gathered peacefully in the Place de la République to pay tribute to the three victims. It was not clear what sparked the clashes.\n\nPolice said 31 officers and one protester had been injured, and 11 arrests were made.\n\nIn the aftermath of the shootings, Kurds have called for better protection from the French authorities. Community leaders met the Parisian police chief on Saturday.\n\nFriday's attack came almost 10 years after the murder of three Kurdish women activists in the French capital - an unresolved crime.\n\nThe community was again \"afraid\", having been \"traumatised\" by January 2013 murders, said a lawyer for the Kurdish democratic council in France (CDK-F).\n• None Paris shooting leaves three dead and three injured", "A recent House of Lords committee report found that those leaving the labour market were more likely to be ending their careers early\n\nThe government is considering plans to coax retired middle-aged workers back into jobs to boost the economy.\n\nOlder people who have given up work could be offered what is being dubbed a \"midlife MoT\" to entice them back into employment, the Times reports.\n\nThe paper says the MoT would assess finances and opportunities for work.\n\nIt follows a recent House of Lords committee finding that a wave of early retirement following the pandemic has caused a huge labour shortage.\n\nThe report by the influential economic affairs committee examined the jump in economic inactivity - the number of people not in work or looking for work - and rising vacancies since 2020.\n\nEconomic inactivity has increased by 565,000 people since the start of the pandemic, according to the analysis.\n\nThe report highlighted retirement, increased sickness, changes to migration and the UK's aging population all contributed to the current tightness in the labour market.\n\nRecent figures in October revealed that nearly 2.5 million people are not looking for jobs because of long-term sickness - adding to labour shortages\n\nThe boss of John Lewis said in August that the company faced an exodus of over-50s staff leaving the company during the Covid pandemic.\n\nAs the House of Lords report was published on Tuesday, Lord Bridges called on the government to do more to support the economy.\n\nIn response the Department for Work and Pensions said it has already expanded its Jobcentre midlife MoT service.\n\nNow, according to the Times, a source close to the work and pensions secretary Mel Stride said he is also keen to find innovative ways to address economic inactivity.\n\nHe confirmed that he met Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to discuss plans before the Christmas break.\n\nA public information campaign focusing on people over the age of 50 could begin as early as spring.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC a Downing Street source said plans are being worked on to bring older people back to the workforce, but added that nothing had been decided on yet.", "Wiltshire Police were called to the resort in Longleat Forest\n\nA four-year-old boy has died after a \"serious medical incident\" at a Center Parcs holiday resort, police have said.\n\nThe BBC has been told the incident happened in a swimming pool.\n\nWiltshire Police said officers attended the leisure complex at Longleat Forest in Wiltshire in support of the South Western Ambulance Service at about 11:00 GMT.\n\nThe force added the boy's death was not believed to be suspicious and its thoughts were with the child's family.\n\nNo further information about the nature of the incident was disclosed.\n\nA spokesman from Center Parcs said: \"We are deeply saddened by the tragic news that a young guest has passed away.\n\n\"We are offering our support to the family and to our employees who provided immediate assistance.\n\n\"Our thoughts remain with the family at this very difficult time.\"\n\nA holidaymaker staying at the Center Parcs site for Christmas told PA News agency there was a temporary barrier across the entrance to the pool.\n\nThe mother-of-five, from the Midlands, said the resort had made public announcements that the Subtropical Swimming Paradise water park would remain closed for Christmas Eve.\n\n\"If I hadn't been on the group or seen the announcement on the news, I'd have been none the wiser,\" she said.\n\n\"It's very quiet though... it does say there'll be an announcement later on today re the pool.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The centre in Llandudno is one of two specialist centres run by Blind Veterans UK\n\nChristmas is a tough time for anyone to be alone, but it can be especially hard for those coping with a disability.\n\nThat is why 30 veterans of the British armed forces, who suffer from a range of sight problems, will be spending the festive period together in Llandudno, Conwy county.\n\nThey will be celebrating at one of the two specialist centres run by Blind Veterans UK.\n\nOne veteran said the work the organisation does is \"second to none\".\n\nElywn Thomas who served with the 1st Battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers in the 1950s, is spending his second Christmas at the centre after the death of his wife Joan, in 2021.\n\n\"I don't think people from outside realise what these people do. It's second to none, there is no substitute for it, none at all. It's helped that many people.\n\n\"I can't get over it, the camaraderie, like they had in the Army, it's still there - it's absolutely fabulous.\"\n\nMr Thomas was born and brought up on Anglesey, and joined the army when he was 17, serving in Germany, where he caught glimpse of Nazi war criminals Rudolf Hess and Admiral Karl Deonitz when he was on guard duty.\n\nAfter leaving the Army, Elwyn Thomas's working life included a spell as a coal miner in Nottinghamshire, and many years working as an undertaker\n\nLike most of those staying at the home in Llandudno this year, Mr Thomas is now in his eighties, and his eyesight began to fail long after he left the Army.\n\nLike many others who use the services Blind Veterans offer, Mr Thomas only came to learn of the charity's existence when someone gave him a contact number at an AgeUK event.\n\nMr Thomas, who still lives at the home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, he shared with his late wife, said he was unsure of what the charity could do for him.\n\nHe contacted them a week later, after finding the number in his pocket and was offered the chance to stay at the Llandudno centre.\n\n\"I had a cultural shock at what they could do for me, you wouldn't believe it.\"\n\nBlind Veterans UK also uses its centres in Llandudno and Brighton to teach those with sight loss how to adapt their lives to live as independently as possible.\n\nIt can be accessed by anyone who has spent time as a member of the UK armed forces, including former reservists.\n\nRosina Hearn says veterans who use the centre say entering the centre feels like a big hug\n\nAs well as being together on Christmas Day for their lunch, the veterans staying in Llandudno have been able to take part in a range of activities this week, including a trip to the pantomime, archery sessions, and arts and crafts workshops.\n\nRosina Hearn, one of the staff members, said they get a huge demand, because they take members from all over the country.\n\n\"One member described it as a place where miracles happen, so they come here and they're supported by us, and we can welcome them to Christmas,\" she said.\n\nMr Thomas added that he urged anyone who qualifies to use the services offered to get in touch.\n\n\"Anyone who says 'I'm not going there', all I can say is you're a bloody fool.\"", "A frog that turns itself mostly transparent while sleeping may hold clues for understanding blood clotting in humans.\n\nScientists have long known about the glass frog but did not understand how it made itself see-through.\n\nNow research has discovered that it is able to pool blood in its body without being negatively affected by clots.\n\nThe findings could advance medical understanding of dangerous blood clotting - a common serious condition.\n\nThe glass frog - which is about the size of a marshmallow - spends its days sleeping on bright green leaves in the Tropics.\n\nIn order to escape the attention of predators, the creature turns itself up to 61% transparent, disguising itself on the leaf.\n\nGlass frogs sleeping on leaves become transparent and hidden from predators\n\n\"If you turn these frogs over, you could watch their heart beating by itself. You can see through the skin and see the muscle, the majority of the body cavity is really transparent,\" Jesse Delia, a researcher at the Museum of Natural History in New York, US told BBC News.\n\nNow findings by Mr Delia and Carlos Taboada at Duke University, US have uncovered how the glass frogs perform this very unusual function.\n\nBy shining different wavelengths of light through the animals while active and sleeping, the scientists measured their opacity. They discovered that the creatures pool blood into their liver.\n\n\"They somehow pack most of the red blood cells in the liver, so they're removed from the blood plasma. They're still circulating plasma... but they do it somehow without triggering a massive clot,\" Mr Delia explains.\n\nThe frog has different levels of red blood cells circulating when asleep and when active\n\nUp to 89% of the animal's blood cells become packed together, almost doubling the size of the liver, and allowing the frog to become transparent.\n\nAt night, when the creature wants to become active again to hunt or mate, it releases the red blood cells back into circulation and the liver shrinks back again.\n\nMr Taboada explains that the frog is still able to clot blood when necessary, for example when injured.\n\nThis ability to selectively pool and clot blood is the creature's \"superpower\", he says, and could open doors to a better understanding of blood clotting more generally.\n\nIn most animals, pooling blood together leads to clotting which can be life-threatening, for example leading to heart attacks in humans.\n\nBut the researchers stress that transferring that knowledge to practical application in human medicine could be decades away.\n\nThe research is published in the scientific journal Science.", "Auditors discovered at least £122m was allegedly not properly accounted for\n\nSpecialist investigators have been called in to Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board after auditors discovered at least £122m was allegedly not properly accounted for.\n\nAudit Wales is also conducting a \"high level review of board effectiveness\" to understand what went wrong and how.\n\nThe Welsh government said it was unable to comment on an active investigation.\n\nIssues were first uncovered earlier in the year when auditors found a number of \"significant errors\" in the health board's account for the 2021-22 financial year.\n\nThey allegedly found there was £72m of unpaid invoices and bills listed in the accounts, but could not find evidence that they existed.\n\nOverall, auditors are said to have raised concerns that £122m of expenditure was not properly accounted for.\n\nThe Welsh financial watchdog, Audit Wales, said it was still investigating to work out whether and how the money was spent.\n\nAccountancy and consulting firm EY were commissioned to review the accounts after auditors raised concerns.\n\nFollowing their report, the NHS Counter Fraud Service Wales was asked to investigate.\n\nThe NHS Counter Fraud Service is an independent body which looks into allegations which can include economic crime in the NHS, including fraud, bribery and corruption.\n\nBBC Wales understands none of the issues being investigated involve anyone making personal gain.\n\nAudit Wales said: \"The audit of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board's 2021-22 accounts identified significant errors.\n\n\"The health board was unable to provide sufficient audit evidence to demonstrate the existence of £72m of expenses incurred, but not paid in the year.\"\n\nThey added there was also insufficient evidence to confirm that expenditure of £122m occurred in the year or was properly accounted for in the correct accounting period.\n\n\"Audit Wales is aware that in response to our recommendations, the health board commissioned EY to undertake an external review of the circumstances that led to the errors identified,\" the Audit Wales spokesperson continued.\n\n\"Audit Wales is also currently undertaking a high-level review of board effectiveness as part of his annual programme of performance audit work at the health board.\"\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr is the largest NHS organisation is Wales, employing more than 19,000 staff and with an annual budget of £1.87bn.\n\nIt is run by a board including executives - the most senior doctors, nurses, finance and personnel managers - and non-executive members, who are people who are not medical professionals, but who scrutinise and advise on the work of the NHS in north Wales.\n\nBetsi Cadwaladr health board is the largest NHS organisation is Wales\n\nSeparately, the health board confirmed an investigation was also taking place into \"working relationships at a senior leadership level\".\n\n\"Concerns have been raised through the NHS Wales Raising Concerns Policy about governance and leadership,\" the health board said in a statement.\n\n\"They will be investigated independently in line with existing procedures and policies.\"\n\nThe health board confirmed that the NHS Counter Fraud Service is carrying out an investigation on the request of Audit Wales.\n\n\"We have a duty of care to our staff and no further comment will be made,\" the health board added.\n\nGovernance had previously been among the areas of concern which led, in 2015, to Betsi Cadwaladr health board being put in special measures, the Welsh government's highest level of oversight.\n\nIn November 2020, it was de-escalated and is currently under \"targeted intervention\".\n\nPlaid Cymru's health spokesperson, Rhun ap Iorwerth MS, questioned whether it was possible to turn the health board around.\n\nHe said: \"I am of a firm belief now that the best thing for patients and the best thing for hard-working staff is to scrap this health board and start again.\"", "Bottled water has been distributed throughout the week\n\nSome households in Kent and Sussex are still without water after a week of disruption.\n\nSouth East Water said problems were persisting in the Tunbridge Wells and Staplehurst areas of Kent.\n\nBottled water stations were operated in Pembury, in Kent, and Crowborough, East Sussex, until 16:30 GMT on 24 December.\n\nSouth East Water said low water pressure in Crawley Down, Turners Hill and Selsfield, West Sussex, was due to a burst in the area.\n\nThousands of homes have been affected since a thaw on 18 December following freezing weather, which the company said caused pipes to burst.\n\nDouglas Whitfield, South East Water incident director, said: \"We are continuing to investigate and repair leaks and as soon as they are discovered, making repairs to bring those customers back into supply as quickly as possible.\n\n\"We're still urging customers to use water wisely.\"\n\nNeil Greatorex said the situation had got more stressful in the build-up to Christmas\n\nNeil Greatorex, from West Hoathly, West Sussex, said: \"Having got our water back yesterday, we have woken up to no water again, only now it's Christmas Eve which makes the situation a whole lot worse.\n\n\"South East Water are now saying the completion time is 6am tomorrow.\n\n\"This situation is now so stressful it is seriously affecting the people in our village and surrounding areas.\"\n\nHartley House Care Home in Cranbrook, Kent, has resorted to using baby wipes to keep residents clean, with staff at \"breaking point\", according to deputy manager Claire Brodericak.\n\n\"This morning we were debating whether to cancel relatives coming for Christmas Day,\" she said. \"But due to Covid isolation we can't do that to the residents.\"\n\nStaff at a care home are using baby wipes\n\nBusinesses have also been hit, with Adam Casettari, manager of the Kings Head in Staplehurst, becoming frustrated.\n\nHe said: \"Every day it's 'it will be done, it's been fixed'. Even this morning they said it was going to be fixed.\n\n\"I came down, tested all the water, still nothing, I've since found out that another pipe has burst somewhere so it's going to be at least another day.\"\n\nPub manager Adam Casettari says he has had daily promises water will be restored\n\nMid Sussex MP Mims Davies tweeted she had contacted South East Water over the persistent problems.\n\nIn a statement South East Water said: \"We know that those who have been without water due to the bursts were off for an unacceptable period and we understand the concern this has caused, particularly in the run up to Christmas, and are sorry to all customers who have been affected.\n\n\"The network is continuing to stabilise and once that's complete we will write to customers very soon regarding compensation.\"\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Maxi Jazz, the lead singer of British dance act Faithless, has died aged 65.\n\nThe musician and DJ, whose real name was Maxwell Fraser, was a core member of the group which is best known for its club classic Insomnia.\n\nFormer bandmate Sister Bliss said he died \"peacefully in his sleep\" in his south-London home on Friday night.\n\n\"Sending love to all of you who shared our musical journey. Look after each other y'hear,\" she said on Twitter.\n\nFaithless were known for singles including We Come 1, which reached top three in the charts in 2001 and dance hit Insomnia, which reached third in 1996.\n\nReggae band UB40, who toured with Jazz in 2017, paid tribute to the singer with a reference to the Insomnia single: \"A lovely guy, again who has gone too soon, but finally Maxi you can get some sleep.\"\n\nA statement shared on Jazz's Instagram and signed by his former bandmates said: \"He was a man who changed our lives in so many ways. He gave proper meaning and message to our music.\n\n\"He was also a lovely human being with time for everyone and a wisdom that was both profound and accessible. It was an honour and, of course, a true pleasure to work with him.\n\n\"He was a brilliant lyricist, a DJ, a Buddhist, a magnificent stage presence, car lover, endless talker, beautiful person, moral compass and genius.\"\n\nBorn in Brixton, Jazz also fronted a band called Maxi Jazz & The E-Type Boys and released music with the group Soul Food Cafe.\n\nDJ David Pearce said Faithless became an \"iconic force in UK dance music from the mid 90s and touched so many lives\". He said Jazz was \"dance music's poet\" and a \"warm, cool, friendly soul\".\n\nJazz headlined the MTV stage at V Festival in 2016\n\nFaithless formed in 1995 and were pioneers of stadium dance music. They headlined some of the world's biggest festivals including Glastonbury, taking to the Pyramid stage in 2002. They were nominated for Best UK Dance Act at the Brit Awards in 1999 and 2002.\n\nThe band split in 2011 but returned to release a new studio album almost a decade later, during the Covid pandemic. However, they weren't joined by Jazz, who had formed another band, Maxi Jazz & The E-Type Boys.\n\nThe guitar band marked a new sound for Jazz, who began writing the material in 2013, during Faithless's hiatus.\n\nOn their website, the band described their sound as incorporating \"melodic funk and blues mixed with reggae beats, dub baselines [and] Jamaican melodies\".\n\nJazz was a huge fan of Crystal Palace FC, becoming an associate director of the football club in 2012.\n\nThe premier league club said the \"legendary musician\" was a regular at Selhurst Park, and the team would walk out to Faithless on Boxing Day in tribute to the late singer.", "The judge told Joseph Jones: \"You are someone who's supposed to be upholding the law, and instead you've undermined it\"\n\nA former senior police officer has been jailed for 14 months for misusing the police database and lying in court in an attempt to avoid a conviction.\n\nJoseph Jones, who was a South Wales Police chief inspector, used a computer system to find details of a couple who were tenants of his cleaner.\n\nKelly Roberts was involved in a civil dispute with the couple.\n\nJones, 48, looked up records about them and their children and passed the information on to her.\n\nJones had also been involved in a brief sexual relationship with Ms Roberts, of Swansea.\n\nWhen she later became involved in the supply of Class A drugs, his association with her was discovered, along with his use of the computer system.\n\nDuring interviews by the South Wales Police Anti-Corruption Unit, Jones, who was based at Fairwater police station in Cardiff, insisted he only accessed the database for legitimate policing purposes.\n\nIn November 2021, he was charged with securing unauthorised access to computer material and went on trial at Newport Crown Court in February.\n\nIn his defence statement, Mr Jones had accused those investigating him as being motivated by \"an underlying unexplained grievance\" against him.\n\n\"The fact that you are a police officer and a senior police officer is a seriously aggravating feature,\" said the judge\n\nOn the first day of the trial he claimed to have found his \"daybook\" from 2015 which contained notes proving that he did have a legitimate purpose for accessing the information.\n\nThe jury was discharged and a retrial was ordered to allow for forensic tests to be carried out on the notebook after doubts were expressed about the colour of the ink used in the relevant entries.\n\nThe daybook was never handed over and Jones has refused to explain what happened to it.\n\n\"You had waited to declare this miracle discovery until the jury had been sworn,\" said Judge Daniel Williams, \"hoping that as a chief inspector your word would be accepted and you could leave court with your good character, job and pension intact.\n\n\"It was an act borne of arrogance on your part which was an insult to the court and to the justice system which you have served so many years.\"\n\nJones was sentenced to two months' custody for the offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, which he will serve concurrently with the 14-month sentence for perverting the course of justice.\n\nSouth Wales Police held a misconduct hearing on December 14, where it was found the allegations against Jones were proven and that they amounted to gross misconduct.\n\nHe was dismissed without notice and a referral was made to the College of Policing barring him from returning to the profession.\n\n\"Police officers should be trusted to the ends of the earth, they hold so much authority and access to personal information, the public rightly expect our officers to uphold the highest professional standards,\" said chief constable Jeremy Vaughan.\n\n\"Misusing personal private information in such circumstances means that dismissal is the only outcome in this matter.\"", "Here in Michigan, we’re used to frigid winter weather.\n\nDuring several winters when I was growing up, temperatures frequently fell as low as 10F (-12C), including a brutally cold polar vortex in 2014, when wind chill temps hit -30F (-34C).\n\nOur coldest temperature on record is an astounding -51F (-46C), which hit the northern town of Vanderbilt in 1934.\n\nAs a result, we are probably better prepared than many US states for this Arctic storm, which has brought chilly temperatures, strong winds and up to a foot (30 cm) of snow to some parts of our Great Lake state.\n\nOur snow ploughs are prepped and ready to go after an overnight blizzard. I saw several on the roads during a 15-minute drive this morning.\n\nOur residents are used to the morning winter routine of sprinkling salt on their steps and spending 20 minutes scraping stubborn frost off car windshields.\n\nHome heating costs can be expensive in our cold state, but Michiganders are used to footing the bill.\n\nThat said, the freezing weather can still claim lives in Michigan, especially among vulnerable populations like the homeless. In 2019, two men in Michigan’s biggest city of Detroit were found dead outside during another polar vortex.\n\nOfficials say they're taking several steps to ensure residents’ safety this week during the Arctic storm, including sending extra troopers to help drivers on the roads and coordinating with humanitarian groups such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army.", "Welsh Water had supplied free drinking water to the thousands of homes that had lost water supply in the last week\n\nA \"handful\" of homes in Wales are still without water supply on Christmas Eve following bad weather last weekend.\n\nAbout 4,500 properties in Ceredigion lost their water supply on Saturday 17 December after supply pipes burst.\n\nWelsh Water, which initially said it planned to restore all properties by Tuesday, said it has now done so for an \"overwhelming majority\" of homes.\n\nThe company said there are no large communities without supply, just a \"handful of isolated properties\".\n\nWelsh Water boss Peter Perry said: \"Lessons have and will be learned from this incident, and once again please accept my sincerest apologies for the issues that you have encountered.\"\n\nIn a letter to customers, Mr Perry outlined the compensation available to households and businesses that went without water.\n\nHouseholds can receive £70 compensation for every day they were without their water supply. Businesses will also be able to claim for any losses incurred.\n\nThe company set up bottled drinking water stations in place in some areas as a \"precaution\" and said staff would be working throughout the night to restore supply and monitor the network.\n\nA Welsh Water spokesperson said: \"We know that there are still a few local issues with intermittent or low pressure supplies and this is caused by 'air locks' in our network as it re-pressurises.\n\n\"Our teams are working round the clock to sort this as soon as possible but it needs to be done carefully to avoid the pipes bursting again.\"\n\nAre you without water this Christmas? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The latest edict comes after women were banned from attending universities - which is being enforced by armed guards\n\nAn order by the Taliban banning women from working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has been condemned by the United Nations, which said the move violated fundamental rights.\n\nThe Islamist rulers justified the move by saying female NGO staff had broken dress codes by not wearing hijabs.\n\nThe decree comes just days after female students were banned from universities.\n\nThe US Secretary of State also criticised the move saying it would be \"devastating for the Afghan people\".\n\nFemale Afghan NGO workers acting as the main earners in their household told the BBC of their fear and helplessness.\n\nOne asked: \"If I cannot go to my job, who can support my family?\" Another breadwinner called the news \"shocking\" and insisted she had complied with the Taliban's strict dress code.\n\nA third woman questioned the Taliban's \"Islamic morals\", saying she would now struggle to pay her bills and feed her children.\n\n\"The world is watching us and doing nothing,\" said another female interviewee. The BBC is not publishing the women's names in order to protect them.\n\nSaturday's order came in a letter from the Ministry of Economy to both national and international NGOs. It threatened to cancel the licence of any organisation that did not swiftly comply.\n\nBy way of explanation, it said women were breaking Sharia law by failing to wear the hijab.\n\nThe move has sparked international outrage, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying he was deeply concerned, adding that it \"will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions\".\n\n\"Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people,\" Mr Blinken said.\n\nIt was also described as a \"clear breach of humanitarian principles\" by a senior United Nations official.\n\nUN agencies have a significant presence in the country, carrying out relief and development work. An urgent meeting of the Humanitarian Country Team was planned for Sunday to respond to the news.\n\nAn employee of Save the Children told BBC News the organisation was planning to meet Taliban authorities, saying that if women were not allowed to work then some NGOs would have to close.\n\nIt is also feared that Afghan women could be left unable to receive aid directly, if organisations are only allowed to employ men. Taliban rules prevent men from working with women.\n\nFemale employees were \"essential\" for reaching other women and girls, explained Melissa Cornet from Care International.\n\nShe added: \"Without them, the humanitarian situation might deteriorate rapidly, in a situation where most of the country is already facing life-threatening levels of hunger.\"\n\nThe South Asian branch of Amnesty International described the ban as \"yet another deplorable attempt to erase women from the political, social and economic spaces\" of Afghanistan.\n\nOne doctor working in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and nearby remote villages said she was \"sad and devastated\" at the development.\n\nShe predicted \"great difficulty\" for women trying to access medical treatment, as they \"can't fully tell their problems to men\".\n\nMeanwhile, one imam - whose identity is again being protected by the BBC - said the Taliban were \"not committed to any Islamic value\".\n\nHe explained: \"Islam has not said that men can educate and women cannot. Or men can work and women cannot. We are confused about this decision.\"\n\nA ban on women attending Afghan universities earlier this week met similar criticism. It triggered protests - including in Herat on Saturday - which were rapidly suppressed by the Taliban.\n\nSince seizing back control of the country last year, the group has steadily restricted women's rights - despite promising its rule would be softer than the regime seen in the 1990s.\n\nAs well as the ban on female university students - now being enforced by armed guards - secondary schools for girls remain closed in most provinces.\n\nWomen have also been prevented from entering parks and gyms, among other public places.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Students in Afghanistan protest for the education of women after university ban", "Phoebie Turley said Gaby \"would literally do anything for anyone\"\n\nThe partner of one of the people who died following the O2 Brixton Academy crush has demanded justice, saying \"someone must be held accountable\".\n\nGaby Hutchinson, 23, and Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, died from their injuries after fans surged to try to get into a show at the venue on 15 December.\n\nGaby's partner, Phoebie Turley, said Gaby - who used \"they\" and \"them\" pronouns - \"did not deserve this\".\n\nGaby was working at the venue\n\nThey had been at the south London venue working as a security dog handler when the crush began as fans tried to get in to see Afrobeat artist Asake perform.\n\nThey died on 19 December while Ms Ikumelo, a mother of two, died two days earlier.\n\n\"Justice needs to be served and someone needs to be found accountable for what happened. Not just for Gaby, but just for Rebecca as well,\" said Ms Turley.\n\n\"This consequence has come out of people turning up with no tickets or turning up trying to kick through a door.\n\n\"For what? What purpose did that serve? Because now you have killed innocent people.\"\n\nGaby Hutchinson died in hospital in the early hours of Monday\n\nShe added: \"I have to keep reminding people, Gaby wasn't there for the concert.\n\n\"They didn't go to cause trouble. They went there precisely to do their job and keep people safe.\n\n\"And that's the only thing that gives me comfort is they did save some people that night whether they lost their life or not. They saved other people in the process.\"\n\nThe Met Police has launched an investigation.\n\nRelatives said Gaby Hutchison (pictured with parents) was fiercely protective of their family\n\nThe couple, both from Gravesend in Kent, had been dating for more than three years.\n\n\"They were just a good person,\" Ms Turley said.\n\n\"Gaby literally would have done anything for anyone at the drop of a hat.\n\n\"They weren't bothered who you were, Gaby would have given you the shirt off their back if someone else needed it. And they were like that our entire relationship. They did everything for me from the minute we met.\"\n\nMs Turley said she became aware something was wrong when her partner stopped answering her messages.\n\n\"The last thing they said to me was, 'I'll wake you up when I'm home'. And I just had a gut feeling the whole time that something wasn't right.\n\n\"Normally, they would still reply here and there when they got five minutes, and I heard nothing.\"\n\nMs Turley went to St Thomas's Hospital after receiving a call from Gaby's manager.\n\n\"Nobody was really aware of the situation at that point,\" she said.\n\n\"He'd obviously been given very little information because he wasn't at the event. And then we all got to St Thomas's as fast as we could.\"\n\nMs Turley and a family friend have set up two crowdfunding pages to help pay for funeral costs. So far, more than £5,000 has been raised.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Christmas Eve commuters rush to get trains at Waterloo Station in London\n\nRail passengers scrambled to catch the last trains as further strikes ended Christmas Eve services.\n\nSome roads were hit with congestion as rail services stopped ahead of a 18:00 GMT walkout by RMT union members.\n\nBut the AA said disruption was \"not as bad as expected\" as people headed home for the festive period.\n\nPostal workers and Border Force staff also took part in the latest walkouts over pay in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nServices to Crewe, Manchester Piccadilly, Glasgow Central and Birmingham International from Euston were among those delayed because of a limited staff presence.\n\nAround 1,000 Border Force workers began strike action on Friday at Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow airports, as well as the Port of Newhaven.\n\nBorder disruption has been minimal, with military personnel and civil servants being drafted in to cover strikers.\n\nHeathrow Airport said operations were running smoothly on Saturday. A spokesperson added: \"The immigration halls are free flowing with Border Force and the military contingency providing a good level of service for arriving passengers.\"\n\nTraffic on the A13 in London as people make their Christmas Eve getaway journeys\n\nBorder Force personnel will be striking until the end of the year - with the exception of 27 December - but there are warnings strikes could last for months unless a new pay deal is negotiated.\n\nMeanwhile industrial action at Network Rail, which maintains the UK's rail system, will continue until 06:00 on 27 December.\n\nThe last train times on major routes on Christmas Eve included the 09:45 from Leeds to London, the 11:22 from London to Edinburgh, and the 12:48 from London to Manchester.\n\nFamilies at London's Paddington Station told BBC News they felt anxious over the strikes.\n\nLeela, Richard and their baby Kalinda said they were on their way to Bristol to spend their first Christmas with family since the pandemic, but had been \"checking all week that the trains were not going to be cancelled\".\n\nMeanwhile a couple of miles away at Euston Station, Kartik Aggarwal's train has been cancelled. The 24-year-old student said he faced missing a Christmas party in Birmingham.\n\n\"It's been really bad,\" he said. \"We were planning for a long time only to have two trains get cancelled with no notification.\"\n\nLeela and her family at Paddington Station on Saturday morning\n\nElsewhere, Ollie Smith, 29, was travelling from Reading to Stockport to spend Christmas with his brother, but said his train got held up outside Birmingham New Street over limited capacity at the station due to engineering works.\n\nHe said the train was then reversed back to Birmingham International and cancelled - while he was still on board.\n\nJack Couzens, head of roads policy at the AA, said traffic on the roads was moving fairly well so far on Saturday but added that rail strikes had led to more people \"jumping into their cars\".\n\n\"There have been pockets of congestion on the A13, the M25, the M5... but as things stand traffic is moving okay,\" he said at lunchtime.\n\nThe railway strikes come at a time of widespread industry walkouts, as staff across a range of sectors are involved in disputes over pay, jobs and working conditions as the cost of living soars.\n\nElsewhere, ambulance drivers, nurses and driving examiners are all set to strike at various points over the festive period and into the new year.\n\nPrevious rail strikes caused major disruption and the RMT is due to hold further walkouts on 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nUnion members have rejected offers in a dispute over pay, job security and working conditions.\n\nThe RMT said it remained available for talks. Network Rail said the deal it has put forward is \"fair and affordable\".\n\nThe government said it had facilitated talks and ensured a reasonable offer was put forward.\n\nThe number of working days lost to strike action was the highest since November 2011 in October, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).\n\nWatch Make Sense of Strikes on iPlayer and find out more about why people are striking and whether industrial action works.\n\nHow are you affected by the Christmas Eve rail strikes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Initial reports say the fire may have been caused by a faulty heating boiler\n\nAt least 20 people have been killed after a blaze swept through a home for the elderly in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russian officials say.\n\nAnother six people were injured. The entire top floor of the the two-storey wooden building was gutted by the overnight fire.\n\nInitial reports say it may have been caused by a faulty heating boiler.\n\nThe private home for the elderly was operating illegally, officials were quoted as saying by Tass news agency.\n\nDozens of firefighters were deployed and the blaze was extinguished early on Saturday.\n\nThe governor of the region said all similar facilities would now be inspected.\n\nLocal fire service officials told Tass that many unregistered homes for the elderly were operating across Russia. As such, they were considered private property and not be subject to fire safety inspections.\n\nIn 2018, 60 people - including 37 children - died in a leisure centre fire in Kemerovo.", "Ely hub manager Ana Cremene has seen visitor numbers rise in recent weeks\n\nWales has just come through a spell of intensely cold weather, while many struggle to heat their homes because of the rising cost of living.\n\nSo has the opening of \"warm banks\" across the country helped?\n\nMore than 300 hubs have been set up since October - in places like libraries, community centres, cafes and churches - providing a free warm place for people to go.\n\nFree drinks are offered, as well as activities, advice or simply a chat.\n\nAna Cremene, manager at the Ely hub in Cardiff, said the numbers visiting there for warmth varied day-by-day, but the library had seen a rise in all visitor numbers generally since November from 9,000 monthly visits to 11,000.\n\n\"Some days it could be quiet, some days it could be really busy. We do have a couple of regular people that I see here who say, oh, I'm going to have my morning coffee at the hub,\" she said.\n\n\"Within this background, there are vulnerable adults. We try to be as welcoming as we can, and say do you want a tea or a coffee, so they love that.\n\n\"We've had feedback, not only from the customers who are actually using it but from people who are seeing the initiative. They think it is a really great scheme.\"\n\nThe recent cold snap saw freezing temperatures across much of Wales, as pictured in Crumlin, Caerphilly\n\nThe hub has started running scheduled sessions led by a volunteer from the Cardiff Hubs' Wellbeing service on some days to give people a focus, offering board games, mindfulness colouring and other activities to boost mental health.\n\nThe Welsh government's Warm Hub initiative has provided £1m in funding to help local organisations set up spaces for local people to access.\n\nSo where can people go to stay warm over the winter months?\n\nMenter Môn social enterprise has coordinated with organisations across the six north Wales counties to provide a Croeso Cynnes/Warm Spaces network that people, especially those who are vulnerable, can access. A map giving locations and further information for each venue is available here.\n\nAnglesey has a couple of venues listed on a separate UK-wide Warm Spaces website, with Gwelfor community centre in Holyhead and Ffiws Amlwch in Amlwch both offering access.\n\nGwynedd libraries are operating as warm hubs, with activities, warm drinks or just the chance to chat on offer.\n\nThe library service in Conwy is also welcoming people in from the cold, with free snacks and drinks at certain times of the day. Further venues are also offering support in Llandudno, Penmaenmawr and Glan Conwy on certain days.\n\nIn Denbighshire, the libraries are part of the Croeso Cynnes scheme.\n\nFlintshire council has put together an interactive map of its Warm Welcome scheme, which includes facilities like its libraries and other organisations who have opted in to the project.\n\nWrexham's libraries are part of the council's Warm Places initiative. Other places welcoming people are the Community Cafe in Rhosllannerchrugog and Hope Street Church in Wrexham.\n\nCeredigion council has pulled together a map of all the warm spaces being offered across the county, with details of each organisation.\n\nIn neighbouring Powys, a directory of all participating organisations hosting warm place initiatives is listed on the council's website.\n\nPembrokeshire Community Hub is hosting an interactive \"warm welcome\" map of all the spaces across the county on its website.\n\nCarmarthenshire has also a warm hubs map of locations available on the council's website to direct people to services.\n\nSwansea has gathered all those organisations offering warm places to visit under its Swansea Spaces initiative, which is viewable as a map on the council's website.\n\nNeighbouring Neath Port Talbot has categorised the different types of venues offering help on its NPT Warm Spaces page, so people can refine their search.\n\nBridgend council has put together a comprehensive list of places offering warm places access, broken down by town or district within the county.\n\nThe Vale of Glamorgan council website has an interactive map and a list of warm space venues with details of what each offers.\n\nIn Cardiff, Refugee Cardiff has put together a list of some of the warm spaces available in the capital, including a link to the hubs and libraries which are taking part, while East Cardiff Ministry Area is providing an interactive map highlighting spaces available in the Llanedeyrn, Rumney, Llanrumney and St Mellons area of the city.\n\nRhondda Cynon Taf has a winter welcome scheme at all its library hubs and the council has also pulled together a list of all other organisations taking part in the scheme in its three districts.\n\nMerthyr Tydfil's WellbeingMerthyr service is running warm hubs at the libraries it runs for the council. There is also information available about further warm spaces in the council's cost of living newsletter.\n\nBlaenau Gwent council has put together a wellbeing hub which signposts users to organisations offering services in their local areas of Tredegar, Ebbw Vale, Abertillery and Brynmawr. Further details of centres in the county open for drop-in use are available on the national Warm Spaces website.\n\nCaerphilly council is using its library and community spaces as warm hubs.\n\nTorfaen residents can find information about warm spaces and other services on the Connect Torfaen website.\n\nNewport council has compiled a list of organisations in the county offering warm space sessions. It includes a link to the county's libraries which are part of the scheme.\n\nAnd on Monmouthshire council's website, residents can download a copy of a regularly updated document listing venues and times of available warm spaces and activities throughout the county.", "A powerful Arctic winter storm sweeping across the US and Canada has been linked to at least 19 deaths ahead of the holiday weekend.\n\nThe storm, which extends more than 2,000 miles (3,200km) from Texas to Quebec, is affecting some 135 million people on the busiest travel days of the year.\n\nSevere weather alerts stretch from coast to coast and reach as far south as the US-Mexico border and Florida, the Sunshine State.\n\nThe US National Weather Service (NWS) says more than 100 daily cold temperature records could be tied or broken in the next few days. Nashville, Tennessee, has already seen its temperatures fall below zero for the first time in 26 years.\n\nHigh winds whip around 7.5 inches of new snow at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as workers prepare a Sun Country Airlines plane for take off.\n\nMajor airports elsewhere have cancelled thousands of flights as the storm intensifies. In anticipation of disruptions, airlines including United, Delta and American have offered to waive fees for travellers who wish to reschedule their flights.\n\nSome travellers were still arriving for flights at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on Thursday - even with more warnings being issued.\n\nA storm warning in Chicago is in effect until 6:00 (CST) Saturday, with forecasts of several inches of snow and winds topping 50mph (80km/h)\n\nWorkers were already out in force clearing away as the snowfall began in a western suburb of Chicago.\n\nIn many states, people have been urged to stay indoors. As temperatures dropped, only a handful of commuters were waiting for an L train during the lighter-than-usual evening rush hour in the city.\n\nConditions deteriorated further, into what is known as a \"bomb cyclone\" - a term given to an explosive storm that intensifies rapidly.\n\nIn Colorado, temperatures dipped to a record-breaking low of -9F from 42F on Thursday.\n\nThe extreme winter driving conditions shut many roads, including the I-70, in Silverthorne, Colorado.\n\nThe governors of Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia, Georgia and Oklahoma have also declared states of emergency, while Wisconsin declared an \"energy emergency\".\n• None Winter storm leaves 1.5m without power in US and Canada", "Annick Ruedi and her daughter, Émeline, enjoying more pleasant US weather before this week's winter storm descended on their RV.\n\nAnnick Ruedi and her young daughter headed south this year in the hopes of experiencing a more pleasant winter.\n\n\"The goal always was to spend Christmas in gorgeous southern Texas,\" said the Ottawa resident. \"To finally escape the heaps of snow and freezing cold temperatures we have every year in Canada.\"\n\nBut mother nature had other plans. Like tens of millions of other people, they have been swept up in a historic winter storm that has brought brutally cold temperatures to much of North America.\n\nThe storm has wreaked havoc on highways, dumped multiple feet of snow on unsuspecting regions, and cancelled thousands of flights amid the chaos of holiday travel season.\n\nNow, Ms Ruedi, 47, and Émeline, 9, are sheltering inside their rented RV trailer on Texas' Mustang Island State Park. The small spit of land, which sits on the Gulf of Mexico not far from the city of Corpus Christi, saw temperatures on Friday afternoon drop below freezing with a biting wind chill on top.\n\nAnnick Ruedi's RV trailer parked near an overcast and windy Mustang Island beach.\n\nOutside their recreational vehicle, enormous waves crashed and palm trees bowed from the wind.\n\nMs Ruedi, a marketing specialist who works remotely, had bought the RV so her daughter could experience the wonders of the US. The two had embarked on their American adventure in October, making their way through the states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida before arriving in Texas this month.\n\nThey were on South Padre Island in Texas this week, hoping to take advantage of the pleasant weather that's typical for this time of year. Instead, they encountered gale-force winds and temperatures that froze their faces the moment they stepped outside.\n\n\"In one night I used a whole tank of propane,\" Ms Ruedi told the BBC. \"It's so cold you really go through the propane very easily. In a camper it's not very well insulated.\"\n\nAt first, she tried to find a hotel room or Airbnb, but her search was in vain. Ms Reudi then decided to drive to Mustang Island on Thursday in the hopes of finding better conditions.\n\nAnnick and Émeline Ruedi don Santa hats to fight the chill on Texas' Mustang Island beach.\n\n\"The Gulf of Mexico was rocking last night!\" the National Weather Service's Corpus Christie station tweeted on Friday. Their buoys recorded waves as high as 16 feet, and winds as high as 45 miles per hour. The city of Corpus Christi planned to open multiple warming centres, and warned residents that the wind chill could send temperatures into the single digits Fahrenheit.\n\nMustang Island's official website shows two happy beachgoers in their swimsuits. Instead, Ms Ruedi and her daughter donned multiple layers while inside their camper and closed the curtains on their windows shut to trap heat.\n\n\"I was clever enough, I packed our winter gear from Canada just to be on the safe side,\" Ms Ruedi said. She added that they'd got enough supplies and had found a sense of community among other travellers at the park.\n\nWith their winter getaway not going as planned, young Émeline was disappointed - not that it was cold, but that it wasn't cold enough.\n\n\"No!\" she declared, when the BBC asked if she wanted the storm to end. \"We want the cold because I like the snow!\"", "The pub threw open its doors to stranded motorists in East Sussex\n\nAbout 40 people were forced to take refuge in a pub overnight after heavy snowfall forced some to abandon their cars on impassable roads.\n\nThe Bear Inn, in Burwash, East Sussex, threw open its doors to those stranded, providing hot drinks, log fires, and mattresses for children.\n\nDr Alexandra Loske, who stayed at the pub, said many people slept on the floor, but all were \"happy\".\n\nThe cold spell is set to continue, with further disruption possible.\n\nThe heavy snowfall caused widespread disruption, with cancelled flights, suspended train services and treacherous conditions on the roads.\n\nDr Loske, a curator at Brighton's Royal Pavilion, said dozens of people, including babies, children and elderly people, took shelter in the Bear Inn, and described the scene as \"biblical\".\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Dr Alexandra Loske This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nDr Loske said she abandoned her car on the A265 at about 17:00 GMT on Sunday, after the situation there became \"very scary\".\n\nMany people had broken down, she said, while other cars were simply stuck and vehicles were \"sliding everywhere\".\n\n\"It was quite extraordinary. Fifteen minutes of snow, that's all it took for us to get completely stuck,\" she added.\n\nShe set off with about five families to find shelter, but the first pub they found eventually asked them to leave.\n\nCars were also abandoned on the A22 near East Grinstead, West Sussex\n\nShe said: \"Conditions were still really treacherous. Then we figured out the Bear Inn was taking in waifs and strays, and stranded people.\"\n\nShe told BBC Radio Sussex: \"It was a long night and quite scary but we made so many good friends and met so many lovely and kind people. We are safe and warm.\n\n\"It was absolutely amazing, log fires going, open arms, free food, free hot drinks, they put us all up.\"\n\nThe Bear Inn's landlady, Pauline Wilson, said the pub has eight hotel rooms but they quickly filled up.\n\n\"Once we were full, we quite quickly realised that these people have got to go somewhere, they can't stay in their cars all night,\" she said.\n\n\"We had three ladies sharing a room, that hadn't even met each other before.\"\n\nShe said all of her overnight guests have now been able to continue their journeys, with some calling her when they got home to thank her for the pub's hospitality.\n\nTom Buckley from Bexhill also found refuge in the pub.\n\nHe said: \"I got stuck on a hill just outside Burwash, got towed up the hill and dug out by the local vicar, who was a hero.\n\n\"He offered us a place to stay [but] we went to the Bear Inn who gave us a room.\n\n\"Every room was full, people sleeping in the bar. Those people couldn't be any nicer.\"\n\nNickie Wood, travelling from Somerset with her husband Gavin, also praised the vicar.\n\n\"We wouldn't be here if it weren't for the vicar and his team that pushed us up the hill, because it was treacherous,\" she said.\n\n\"It was the ice on the roads - that was scary.\"\n\nHot food was laid on for those stranded overnight\n\nOn Monday morning, some in the pub were singing carols and listening to cellist Helen Thomas play\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.\n\nHow have you been affected by the snow and ice? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Exiled Ukrainian governor Serhiy Haidai said this hotel in the town of Kadiivka, Luhansk region, was hit by the country's forces\n\nUkrainian forces have struck a headquarters of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, says the governor-in-exile of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.\n\nSerhiy Haidai said a hotel where the group met in Kadiivka, Luhansk, had been hit with major losses.\n\nThe BBC was unable to independently verify Wagner's presence at the hotel.\n\nFighting also raged in southern Ukraine over the weekend, with Russia targeting Odesa and Ukraine bombarding a target in the occupied city of Melitopol.\n\nWagner are state-sponsored mercenaries who act in the Kremlin's interests, according to Western experts.\n\nThe private military company, set up by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former restaurateur and close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly been accused of war crimes and human rights abuses.\n\nWagner units have previously been deployed in Crimea, Syria, Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic.\n\nIn the Kadiivka strike, Mr Haidai said Russia had suffered \"significant losses\" and he expected \"at least 50%\" of the surviving forces to die due to a lack of medical treatment.\n\nDuring a phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, US President Joe Biden said Washington was prioritising efforts to help boost Ukraine's air defence systems.\n\nThe pair also spoke about Mr Zelensky's desire for a \"just peace\" with Russia \"based on fundamental principles enshrined in the UN Charter\", the White House said.\n\nThe attack on the \"Wagner HQ\", in the east, came amid further fighting in southern Ukraine.\n\nOn Saturday, the Ukrainian army said it had shot down 10 drones, with another five hitting energy facilities in the port city of Odesa - leaving some 1.5 million people without power.\n\n\"The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,\" President Zelensky said in his nightly video address. \"Unfortunately the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity. It doesn't take hours, but a few days.\"\n\nKey infrastructure was hit by Russia's Iran-made drones, according to Ukrainian officials.\n\nGerman Chancellor Olaf Scholz is due to host an online meeting of G7 leaders on Monday, where further sanctions on Russia and Iran will be discussed.\n\nThe proposed measures would target Iran over its supply of drones to Russia, while the ninth package of Russia sanctions would place almost 200 more individuals on an EU sanctions list.\n\nIn Melitopol, pro-Moscow authorities said a Ukrainian missile attack had killed two people and injured 10. Images shared by a Moscow-installed official there showed a big fire.\n\n\"Air defence systems destroyed two missiles, four reached their targets,\" Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russia-installed governor of the city, said on the Telegram messaging app.\n\nHe added that a \"recreation centre\" where people were dining had been destroyed in the attack, and that Ukrainian forces had used US-supplied Himars rocket launchers.\n\nThis weapon has played a key role in Ukraine's counter-offensive, being used to target locations away from the frontlines, including Russia's command posts.\n\nIvan Fedorov, Melitopol's exiled mayor, said scores of \"invaders\" had been killed.\n\nMelitopol has been under occupation since early March and is a major logistics hub for the Russian forces in the south-east.\n\nThe city, in the Zaporizhzhia region, is strategically located between Mariupol to the east, Kherson and the Dnipro River to the west, and Crimea to the south.\n\nUkraine says its efforts to retake occupied territory are continuing, despite the arrival of winter.\n\nFrank Gardner looks at what lies ahead as winter arrives in Ukraine.\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)\n\nIn recent weeks, most of the fighting has taken place in the east of the country, especially around the city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.\n\nBut on Saturday night, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to President Zelensky, indicated that Melitopol could be a main target of Ukrainian forces.\n\n\"If Melitopol falls, the entire defence line all the way to Kherson collapses,\" he said in an interview.\n\nIf that happened, he added, \"Ukrainian forces would gain a direct route to Crimea,\" the peninsula Russia annexed in 2014 and that the Ukrainians have vowed to retake.\n\nElsewhere, the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine came under fresh bombardment on Sunday. Images showed firefighters attempting to put out a blaze at a commercial building.\n\nUkraine has denied attacking the separatist-run city on many occasions during the war.", "Wintery weather which has caused road, rail and air travel disruption across the UK is set to continue on Tuesday, forecasters say.\n\nProvisional Met Office figures show Monday was the coldest day in the UK since December 2010 with -9.3 Celsius (15F) seen at Braemar, Aberdeenshire.\n\nYellow warnings for snow and ice are in place for northern Scotland, Orkney, Shetland and north-east England.\n\nThere is also a yellow warning for ice in south-east England.\n\nAs the cold snap continues parents are being warned to tell their children about the dangers of playing near frozen lakes after three boys died in the West Midlands.\n\nThe children, aged 8, 10 and 11, died after falling into the lake at Babbs Mill Park, Kingshurst, on Sunday. A fourth boy, aged six, is in a critical condition in hospital after being pulled from the water.\n\nMet Office spokesman Oli Claydon said there will be heavy snow again on Tuesday in parts of Britain, with as much as 15-20cms (6-8ins) accumulating on higher ground.\n\n\"In terms of temperature, we could see another very cold night, especially in parts of Scotland where we've got that lying snow,\" he said, adding that \"widespread freezing conditions\" were expected.\n\nMr Claydon urged commuters across the UK to \"leave a little bit more time\" if driving and to travel with \"a bit of extra caution\".\n\nTravel will also be affected by a strike on the railways after the RMT union rejected a pay offer from Network Rail.\n\nIndustrial action is expected to affect much of the rail network on Tuesday and Wednesday, with more travellers expected to take to the roads.\n\nMotoring organisation the RAC said it had received more than 9,000 calls from drivers needing roadside assistance - about eight breakdowns every minute - which was \"50% more than we'd expect on a typical Monday in December\".\n\nIt said people should only drive if conditions allow and if they feel confident to do so, warning drivers to prepare for extremely slippery conditions.\n\nIt also urged motorists to carry a blanket and a fully-charged mobile phone when travelling.\n\nTraffic Scotland said ice was affecting driving conditions in the Strathclyde, Lothian and Borders, Central, Tayside, Fife, and South-West regions of the country.\n\nOn Monday, many airports around the UK were affected by the weather, with more than 140 flights cancelled because of ice and snow.\n\nLondon airports - Stansted, Gatwick, Luton and London City - were among the worst affected, while flights from elsewhere in the country were also cancelled due to poor weather conditions.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nSteven Facer, from Rutland, told the BBC he and other passengers were left sitting on a Barcelona-bound flight from Stansted for several hours on Sunday night before it was eventually cancelled.\n\nMr Facer then had a \"long drive home in the snow arriving back at 02:00\".\n\nAs temperatures drop below freezing councils are urging people to check on vulnerable neighbours, particularly as the cost of living crisis has made it too expensive for some to heat their homes.\n\nThe Local Government Association, which represents councils in England and Wales, said that while deaths do rise during normal winter periods, some people were more exposed to the cold this winter.\n\nIt said those most at risk were the elderly and people with respiratory conditions, circulatory diseases and dementia, adding that many councils were using libraries or other local venues to provide warm spaces for those who need them.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch the moment Orion capsule returns to Earth after moon mission\n\nThe American space agency Nasa has brought home its next-generation astronaut ship after a near-26-day mission to orbit the Moon.\n\nThe Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after a fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere and a descent that was further slowed by parachutes.\n\nBecause this was a test, there were no people aboard this time, but that will change for the next flight.\n\nNasa is planning ever more complex missions with Orion.\n\nThese will likely start in late 2024 and include, in 2025 or 2026, an attempt to put humans back on the lunar surface.\n\nThis was last achieved exactly 50 years ago to the day by the crew of Apollo 17. The agency's new project is called Artemis, who in Greek mythology was the sister of Apollo.\n\n\"[During Apollo] we did the impossible by making it possible,\" observed Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson.\n\n\"Now, we are doing that again, but for a different purpose, because this time we go back to the Moon to learn to live, to work, to invent, to create, in order to go on out into the cosmos to further explore. The plan is to get ready to go with humans to Mars late in the decade of the 2030s, and then even further beyond,\" he told reporters.\n\nMike Sarafin, the Artemis project manager who has been an ever-present in media conferences over the past three weeks, couldn't hide his delight at seeing a perfect splashdown: \"Folks, this is what mission success looks like.\"\n\nNasa had described the Sunday return of Orion to Earth as its \"priority one\" objective.\n\nVehicles coming back from lunar distances do so at very high speed - some 40,000km/h (25,000mph) at initial contact with the atmosphere.\n\nA robust heatshield is required to prevent the ship from tearing itself apart as it pushes up against the air and temperatures reach close to 3,000C.\n\nThe protective layer on the underside of Orion is a new design from previous craft, and Nasa had to be sure it was effective before risking the lives of astronauts on future missions.\n\nThe mission from beginning to end lasted just over three weeks\n\nThe spectacular sight of the capsule's 11 parachutes deploying and inflating in sequence was clear indication that the heatshield had done its job, although engineers won't pass judgement until they've inspected it.\n\nAfter the capsule's drop into the ocean, not far from Mexico's Guadalupe Island, recovery teams moved in to gather imagery that can be fed into the post-flight analysis.\n\n\"This mission is a great success for us,\" said Vanessa Wyche, director of Nasa's Johnson Space Center. \"Right now, this tells us that this spacecraft has the outer bones and everything that it needs. We are going to go and finish outfitting it so that we can put humans on board for Artemis II.\"\n\nHumans last landed on the Moon on 11 December, 1972, at 19:54 GMT. The Apollo 17 crew of Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent just over three days on the surface before coming home. This image, remastered by image processor Andy Saunders, shows the boot prints they left behind. In the absence of the erosion that occurs on Earth, these markings would look exactly the same today, half a century on.\n\nRead more: Apollo Remastered: One man's mission to show us the Moon\n\nWatching the re-entry was Nasa's partner on the mission - the European Space Agency.\n\nEsa provided the service and propulsion module that had expertly pushed Orion towards, around, and back from the Moon.\n\nIt didn't splash down with the capsule. It was detached about 20 minutes prior to re-entry and was destroyed as it fell towards Earth over the South Pacific.\n\nEurope will continue to supply further service modules for future Orion missions as a means of securing seats for its own astronauts alongside their American colleagues.\n\nThe propulsion model for the next Artemis mission - the first to carry a crew - has already been delivered to Nasa. A third vehicle - the one that will be used on Artemis III, the lunar landing mission - is in an advanced stage of assembly in Germany.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"Earthrise\": Orion saw our planet climbing above the Moon's horizon\n\nMuch still has to go right if the timelines are to be maintained for a human return to the Moon. Nasa doesn't yet have a landing system. This is being developed by the US entrepreneur Elon Musk.\n\nHe is building a mammoth rocket and crew vehicle he calls Starship. This is due to have its maiden flight above the Earth in the coming months.\n\nThe idea for Artemis III is that Orion would meet up with Starship at the Moon, with Mr Musk's vehicle taking the astronauts down to the surface.\n\n\"We have hardware today in work around the world through Artemis V,\" said Jim Free, Nasa's associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development. \"This isn't just a one flight and we're done. We are on our path to getting that base on the Moon, to getting the understanding we need to go on to Mars and doing the science that's front and centre.\"\n\nA crew for Artemis II will be chosen early next year.\n\nAs Orion returned to Earth from the Moon on Sunday, two spacecraft were headed in the opposite direction.\n\nJapanese company iSpace despatched its Hakuto-R robotic lander. This is taking a slow route to the Moon lasting several months. If it can put down safely, it will deploy a small rover from the United Arab Emirates, called Rashid, and a similarly small deformable robot from the Japanese space agency to investigate the properties of lunar soil.\n\nNasa also had a payload on the same launch rocket. Called Lunar Flashlight, this briefcase-size spacecraft will circle the Moon, using infrared lasers to search for deposits of water-ice.", "A man accused of making the bomb that downed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, 34 years ago was told he would not face the death penalty as he appeared in a US court.\n\nThe US alleges that Abu Agila Masud was a Libyan intelligence operative and played a key role in the 1988 attack, which left 270 people dead.\n\nScottish and US officials announced on Sunday that Mr Masud was in US custody.\n\nHe is the first person charged on US soil in connection with the attack.\n\nA device on board the Boeing 747 exploded as the flight was flying over the English-Scottish border, killing 243 passengers, six crew and 11 local residents on the ground - including a family of four.\n\nThe dead were citizens of 21 different countries, including 190 Americans and 43 Britons.\n\nIt remains the deadliest terrorist incident to have taken place on British soil.\n\nAt Monday's hearing, US Magistrate Judge Robin Meriweather elected to delay the formal reading of charges until after Mr Masud secures legal representation for his trial. He did not enter any plea.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Jim Swire said the trial should not take place in the US or Scotland\n\nHe spoke his full name into the record, and was informed by the judge that a translator was present to interpret court proceedings into Arabic for him. He was ordered to remain in custody at least until a detention hearing on 27 December.\n\nMr Masud is facing multiple charges, including destruction of aircraft resulting in death. Prosecutors said at Monday's hearing that they would not seek the death penalty and Mr Masud could face life imprisonment if convicted.\n\nWearing a teal prison jumpsuit, he lightly limped into court with a medical mask covering his white beard.\n\nAs the judge read out the three charges, he interrupted to say in Arabic: \"I can't talk until I've spoken to my attorney.\"\n\nHe is currently seeking legal counsel, which the judge said was his right after Mr Masud rejected the offer of free representation from the public defender's office.\n\nSome of the families of the victims were in court - they told the BBC beforehand they were nervous. They sat silently as the hearing got under way.\n\nEach of the charges he faces include a possible sentence of life in prison, the death penalty or a fine of up to $250,000 (£203,000).\n\nBut US prosecutors told the court they would not seek death, as they believe the punishment was not legally available at the time of his alleged crime.\n\nThe US justice department first announced criminal charges against Mr Masud in December 2020. At the time, US prosecutors alleged that he had worked for Libyan intelligence in a number of roles between 1973 and 2011, including as an explosives expert.\n\nThe case against Mr Masud partly rests on an interview he gave to Libyan officials in 2012 after he was taken into custody following the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi's government. In the interview, he admitted building the bomb used in the attack and setting its timer to explode while the aircraft was in flight. Mr Masud also claimed that Gaddafi had thanked him and two co-conspirators \"for their successful attack\" on the US.\n\nA number of observers have voiced concerns that the confession may have been coerced in the chaotic months following the regime's fall, when Libya did not have a fully functioning legal system.\n\nThe Pan Am flight was bombed just days before Christmas\n\nAt a news conference on Monday, Victoria Cummock - whose husband John died in the bombing - called the US prosecution a \"major milestone\" for the families of the victims.\n\nShe added that the apprehension of Mr Masud was the \"first tangible step\" by US authorities to hold anyone accountable for the bombing after what she described as a \"decades-long miscarriage\" of justice.\n\nIt remain unclear how Mr Masud came to be in US custody. In late November, it was reported that he had been kidnapped by armed militia members in Tripoli.\n\nIn 2001, one of the other co-conspirators identified by US and Scottish officials - Abdelbaset al-Megrahi - was convicted by a Scottish court convened in the Netherlands for his role in the attack. The Scottish government released him on compassionate grounds in 2009, and he died in Libya three years later.\n\nTo date, Megrahi - who always maintained his innocence - has been the only person convicted in connection with the attack.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Newsnight's Kirsty Wark recalls arriving at Lockerbie on the night of 21 December 1988\n\nScotland's Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain, who is the most senior Scottish law officer in the government, said in a statement that she would travel to Washington DC next week to meet prosecutors and attend commemoratives events with victims' families.\n\nIn a statement on Monday, she called the US prosecution of Mr Masud a \"legal breakthrough\", adding that Scottish authorities welcomed the American inquiry.\n\n\"The recent developments demonstrate that there can be no time limits placed on the pursuit of justice,\" Ms Bain said.\n\nWith additional reporting from Max Matza and Bernd Debusmann in Washington DC", "Specialist teams and a search dog are on the scene, following the collapse in St Helier on Saturday morning\n\nFive people are confirmed to have died in an explosion at flats in Jersey, with four residents still unaccounted for, police have said.\n\nStates of Jersey Police said the operation in St Helier continued as a search and recovery effort.\n\nChief of Police Robin Smith said: \"The number of islanders confirmed to have been killed in the blast is now five.\"\n\nHe added there were still a number of residents unaccounted for after the blast early on Saturday.\n\nThe fire service had attended the flats just after 20:30 GMT on Friday after the smell of gas was reported, it has been confirmed.\n\nMr Smith described earlier on Sunday how there had been a \"meticulous and painstaking search of the debris following the explosion, to start carefully identifying bodies when and if we find them\".\n\nHe told a press conference: \"That will take time. We are not going to be here for days we are likely to be here for weeks.\"\n\nThe flats at Haut De Mont are shown as they appear following the explosion and as they were prior to the blast\n\nIt is understood there were nine known residents in the block before the blast in the three-storey Haut du Mont residential block on Saturday at about 04:00 GMT.\n\nMr Smith said there were \"several areas of focus\" in the search for bodies and families of the victims \"continue to be supported by special officers\".\n\nThe police chief earlier estimated \"around 40\" people had been displaced because of the blast and the damage it had caused to nearby buildings.\n\nThere are \"several areas of focus\" in the recovery operation\n\nNone of the emergency leaders could confirm the cause, but Mr Smith said it \"looks likely\" it was down to a gas explosion.\n\nAn appeal has been set up to provide support for those affected by both the explosion and a maritime collision off the Jersey coast on Thursday in which three fishermen went missing.\n\nChief Minister Kristina Moore said islanders were \"immensely shocked and saddened\" by the two tragedies this week.\n\nJersey chief fire officer Paul Brown confirmed residents had reported smelling gas the night before the blast\n\nJersey chief fire officer Paul Brown acknowledged that something had gone \"horribly wrong\" at the block of flats.\n\nHe confirmed firefighters had been called to the building at 20.36 GMT on Friday - just hours before the blast - after residents reported smelling gas.\n\nMr Brown said the fire service would be \"co-operating fully\" with \"honesty\" and \"transparency\" with a future inquiry, but added that the main focus remained on the search operation at this time.\n\n\"The most important thing is to understand the absolute truth and also be seen to establish the absolute truth,\" he told reporters.\n\n\"We don't want any cloud around that at all.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage from the scene of the explosion shows a large fire\n\nSpecialist teams from other parts of the UK, including the Isle of Wight and Hampshire, have been drafted in to aid the response.\n\nMr Brown said mutual aid would support the numbers of firefighters on the island to ensure a \"rolling pattern of deployment\" at the scene.\n\nMr Smith said the response to the tragedy was \"as big as it gets\".\n\n\"We all practice for these things and hope they never happen,\" the police chief said.\n\nStating whether criminal activity was suspected, he added: \"We rule nothing in and we rule nothing out.\"\n\nEmergency crews are carrying out a \"painstaking search of the debris\", Chief of Police Robin Smith said\n\nAndium Homes, a state-owned but independent company which rents out thousands of properties on the island, said it was focused on supporting residents at the estate.\n\nGas supplier Island Energy said it was working with the fire service to \"understand exactly what has happened\".\n\nThe Government of Jersey said flags would be flown at half-mast on Monday \"as a sign of respect\" for the victims.\n\nA minute's silence will also be observed at 11:00 to give islanders a moment to reflect on the two tragedies.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The search paused for a minute's silence as harbour workers looked across the scene\n\nEmergency services are continuing a search and recovery operation after an explosion at flats in Jersey.\n\nJersey police said at least five people were known to have died, with four still missing. They warned they did not expect to find survivors.\n\nThe explosion happened at the three-storey Haut du Mont residential block on Saturday at about 04:00 GMT.\n\nThe chief minister said \"the past week has been one of the most difficult for our island community in recent memory\".\n\nThe explosion came just two days after three local fishermen went missing after a crash between their fishing boat and a ferry.\n\nA minute's silence was held at 11:00 on Monday.\n\nThe Government of Jersey said flags would be flown at half-mast until sunset on Friday 23 December.\n\nSpecialist teams from the UK have joined the rescue effort\n\nIt is understood there were nine residents in the block of flats but details on visitors remain unknown and authorities said the recovery may take weeks to complete.\n\nCommercial Buildings and Mount Bingham have reopened but other roads in the area remain closed.\n\nAmong those observing the silence were government officials, shop workers and police officers.\n\nNear the scene of the explosion, workers from St Helier harbour wearing orange overalls bowed their heads and paid their respects as the search paused for 60 seconds.\n\nBooks of condolence are being made available at parish and public halls to allow people to pay their respects to those affected by the explosion and also the fishing trawler that sunk.\n\nSkipper of the L'Ecume II Michael Michieli, and crewmen Larry Simyunn and Jervis Baligat, remain missing.\n\nChief Minister Kristina Moore, speaking in the States of Jersey Assembly, said: \"One tragic incident is enough to shake a small community.\n\n\"To have a second within a matter of days is not something we have ever experienced.\"\n\nShe paid tribute to the \"care, compassion and community spirit of islanders\" saying it was \"a light in these dark times\".\n\nShe also said \"we must regrettably be prepared for more bad news in the coming hours and days\".\n\nFlowers and tributes relating to both tragedies may be left on the steps of Ordnance Yard to the side of the Jersey Museum, the Bailiff Sir Timothy Le Cocq said.\n\nA vigil is planned at Town Church on Wednesday evening.\n\nSome charities are taking donations for people who have lost their housing.\n\nJohn Refault is organising a collection at the shop of brain injury charity Headway Jersey in St Helier.\n\n\"A couple of ladies came down with complete car loads, including bedding, it wasn't just clothing,\" he said.\n\n\"It was nice to see an immediate reaction from the people of Jersey. One thing Jersey is good at, is pulling together when there are these type of situations.\"\n\nHe added: \"The people that have been evicted from their homes will have lost so much and will probably not have the monies to be able to go and replace all of that, so the more we as the public of Jersey can do to support them, the better.\"\n\nThe flats at Haut De Mont are shown as they appeared following the explosion and as they were prior to the blast\n\nHooray Henri cafe stall has been offering free food and drinks to staff working at the site, and the Salvation Army is also offering support.\n\nChief of Police Robin Smith said there had been a \"meticulous and painstaking search of the debris following the explosion, to start carefully identifying bodies when and if we find them\".\n\nHe told a press conference on Sunday: \"That will take time. We are not going to be here for days, we are likely to be here for weeks.\"\n\nThe fire service had attended the flats just after 20:30 on Friday after the smell of gas was reported, it has been confirmed.\n\nNone of the emergency services leaders could confirm the cause, but Mr Smith said it \"looks likely\" it was down to a gas explosion.\n\nJersey chief fire officer Paul Brown acknowledged that something had gone \"horribly wrong\" at the block of flats.\n\nHe said the fire service would be \"co-operating fully\" with \"honesty and transparency\" with a future inquiry, but added that the main focus remained on the search operation at this time.\n\nJo Cox, chief executive officer of gas supplier Island Energy, said in a statement released on Monday afternoon: \"Along with my colleagues at Island Energy, I join everyone in Jersey in offering our prayers and thoughts to families who have lost loved ones at this tragic time.\"\n\nShe said the firm was continuing to work with emergency services on the recovery operation.\n\nMs Cox said: \"The company will conduct its own investigation into what happened, as well as helping the various official enquiries.\"\n\nShe said engineers were safety-testing the island's gas network, which would be completed in the next few days, and that \"no issues had been detected\" in the survey so far.\n\nJo Cox from Island Energy spoke to reporters on Monday afternoon\n\nSpeaking at a press conference Ms Cox said the flats had not been on the gas network.\n\nShe said an Island Energy engineer attended with the fire service on Friday night to investigate reports of the smell of gas and followed standard procedures.\n\nMs Cox said the engineer is yet to be interviewed and recordings of calls from residents are yet to be reviewed.\n\nShe it was too early to say if there had definitely been a gas explosion, but it was the most likely cause.\n\nPolice said about 40 people had been displaced because of the blast and the damage it had caused to nearby buildings.\n\nMany have been moved to tower blocks around the capital, not knowing how long for, or if they will ever be able to return home.\n\nSome residents moved from properties on nearby North Quay Parade have returned to their homes after the police cordon was reduced on Monday.\n\nAndy Rawlinson, 54, was among them and said his building was damaged by the blast, with windows smashed and debris across the doorstep.\n\nHe said: \"It's scary, it's traumatic as well. It's horrible being a few hundred yards away from where people are dying and there's not a thing you can do.\n\n\"People have lost their lives so close to Christmas, it's so so sad. I've never seen anything like that here. It's devastating.\"\n\nOne woman who left flowers in tribute on the steps of Ordnance Yard said: \"It hasn't sunk in, no - it will take a while but I think most of those families that have lost the loved ones, it won't be Christmas, ever again.\"\n\nPeople left Christmas wreaths as well as bouquets on the steps of Ordnance Yard\n\nAn appeal has been set up to provide support for those affected by both the explosion and the fishing boat incident.\n\nSpecialist teams from the UK, including the Isle of Wight and Hampshire, and Guernsey have been drafted in to aid the response to the explosion.\n\nMr Brown said mutual aid would support the numbers of firefighters on the island to ensure a \"rolling pattern of deployment\" at the scene.\n\nMr Smith said the response to the tragedy was \"as big as it gets\".\n\n\"We all practice for these things and hope they never happen,\" the police chief said.\n\nAndium Homes, a state-owned but independent company which rents out thousands of properties on the island, said it was focused on supporting residents at the estate.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.", "The Banshees of Inisherin co-stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson\n\nThe Banshees of Inisherin leads the pack for next year's Golden Globe Awards with eight nominations.\n\nThe dark comedy about friends in 1920s Ireland is up for best film, while its four stars including Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson have acting nods.\n\nMichelle Yeoh's absurdist sci-fi comedy drama Everything Everywhere All at Once is next with six nominations.\n\nTom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick, Daniel Craig's Glass Onion and TV comedy drama White Lotus are also up for awards.\n\nNominated director Martin McDonagh's Banshees of Inisherin reunites In Bruges stars Farrell and Gleeson in a sad film about friendship and toxic masculinity.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell reunite in new comedy\n\nSteven Spielberg's personal movie The Fabelmans, about how he developed his love of film, is a drama frontrunner, up against movies including the Avatar sequel and Baz Luhrmann's rock-and-roll biopic Elvis.\n\nOrganisers of the film and TV awards are attempting to rebuild its reputation after A-listers and studios boycotted last year's event over voters' lack of diversity, alleged corruption and lack of professionalism.\n\nBrendan Fraser, who is nominated for best actor for The Whale, said last month he would not attend next year's Globes ceremony after accusing their former president of assaulting him.\n\nIn 2018, he said Philip Berk, head of Golden Globes organising body the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), had groped his bottom in 2003. Mr Berk was expelled from the troubled organisation in 2021 after sharing an article describing Black Lives Matter as a \"racist hate group\".\n\nCruise was also among the big names to criticise the awards, and in 2021 he handed back his three Golden Globes in protest at its lack of diversity.\n\nScarlett Johansson had urged others in the film industry to boycott the organisation unless it made significant internal changes, while her Avengers co-star Mark Ruffalo wrote last year that the HFPA's reforms were \"discouraging\".\n\nThe awards' organisers have since embarked on a series of public reforms, including expanding its voting body to include people with more diverse backgrounds.\n\nEmpire of Light sees Olivia Colman receive a nomination for best actress in a film drama and she will go up against international stars including the US's Viola Davis for The Woman King, and Cate Blanchett for Tár.\n\nBlanchett's fellow Australian Hugh Jackman is up for best actor in a drama for The Son, about a family struggling to reunite.\n\nOther British stars up for Golden Globes include Dame Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Lesley Manville, Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan.\n\nEddie Redmayne, Emma D'Arcy, Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce, Lily James, Taron Egerton and Daisy Edgar-Jones also featured on Monday's nominations list.\n\nCarey Mulligan [L] is nominated for best actress for the film She Said\n\nThe ABC mockumentary sitcom Abbot Elementary, based in a school in Philadelphia, leads the TV nominations with five.\n\nNetflix's drama about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, which attracted huge viewing figures but also criticism from people who say it's insensitive, was recognised four times, alongside Pam & Tommy and The Crown.\n\nThe streaming giant recently added a disclaimer to its marketing for the regal drama, saying the show was a \"fictional dramatisation\", \"inspired by real-life events\".\n\nThe Globes are usually the highest-profile awards except the Oscars, but the 2022 event took place behind closed doors.\n\nTV network NBC dropped it after a series of revelations, but the broadcaster is going to screen the glitzy event next year, as it takes place in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles on 10 January.\n\nTwenty-one new members joined the HFPA last year, six of whom are black, and the organisation has also taken on more than 100 new voters, including - for the first time - those based outside of the US.\n\nMichelle Yeoh is up for best actress in a musical or comedy for Everything Everywhere All at Once\n\nIt has also implemented a ban on members receiving gifts from movie studios courting their votes.\n\n\"This is really not the old HFPA anymore,\" president Helen Hoehne recently told The Hollywood Reporter.\n\n\"I respect Brendan Fraser's decision,\" she added. \"And I personally, sincerely hope there's a way for us to move forward and we are able to regain Mr Fraser's trust, along with the trust of the entire entertainment community.\"\n\nWhy do the Golden Globes matter?\n\nEven before last year's controversy, that hasn't been a straightforward question to answer. The short, slightly blunt response is probably - because audiences and film industry personnel have decided that they matter.\n\nBut why that assessment has been made is a little trickier.\n\nWhen it comes to the Oscars and the Baftas, those awards are decided people by working in the entertainment industry. The Globes is a relatively small group of journalists who've come to wield huge power in awards season.\n\nSo why is it that it's they, rather than say the New York or LA Film Critics Association, who have traditionally been seen as an important stepping stone for Oscar hopefuls?\n\nIt's arguably not because they're seen as possessing more insight or expertise than other groups of journalists handing out awards. Indeed, over the decades they've been righty criticised for some of their more eccentric choices.\n\nHowever, the most important factor in helping the Globes achieve its profile has probably been its TV deal. A large audience on a network TV ceremony in the US in the run-up to the Oscars has given films a huge opportunity to fix in the eyes of both the public and awards voters the idea that they're of exceptional quality.\n\nWhen hundreds of films are entered for the Oscars each year, most voters will never have the time to see even the majority of the films. But a nomination or win at the Globes makes it more likely that a voter will pick that film or performances out and prioritise watching it when they're making their voting choices.\n\nAnd that's what's helped make the Globes one of Hollywood's most golden awards ceremonies.", "Planes at Stansted were seen blanketed in snow on Sunday night\n\nPassengers face delays and cancellations at airports on Monday after snow, ice and freezing fog swept the UK.\n\nGatwick and Stansted airports closed their runways on Sunday due to the bad weather.\n\nFlights have since resumed but many have been cancelled or pushed back.\n\nA yellow weather warning is in place for Scotland, Northern Ireland, much of England and parts of Wales, with disruption set to continue.\n\nTrains have also been delayed and drivers warned to take care after several motorway accidents.\n\nThose travelling to UK airports have been urged to check their travel plans and flight status with their airline before setting off.\n\nA total of 316 flights were cancelled across Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Glasgow, Belfast International and Bristol airports over the weekend, roughly 11% of all scheduled flights, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.\n\nAbout 37 flights were cancelled from Gatwick before lunchtime on Monday, with EasyJet the worst affected airline.\n\nMore than 40 flights had also been cancelled at Stansted.\n\nLondon City Airport said it was \"experiencing some disruption this morning\" due to aircraft being out of position after the \"significant amount of cancellations\" on Sunday night.\n\nEdmund O'Leary told the BBC he was stranded in Malta after his return flight to Gatwick with British Airways was cancelled twice.\n\nHe said that he hoped to have an idea by Monday evening when he would be able to return to the UK.\n\nAlthough he felt communication had been poor, he said the British Airways staff on the ground were very helpful in terms of sorting out accommodation on Sunday night for passengers.\n\nAbout 50 flights were cancelled at Heathrow on Monday, after freezing fog resulted in air traffic control restrictions on the number of aircraft that could land and depart per hour over the weekend.\n\n\"We encourage passengers to check their flight status with their airline for the latest information,\" a spokeswoman said.\n\nBritish Airways, Heathrow's biggest airline, said it had apologised to customers and was refunding or rebooking anyone whose flight had been cancelled and providing refreshment and hotel vouchers where needed.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Gatwick Airport LGW This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nGatwick Airport temporarily closed one of its runways at 17:55 GMT on Sunday due to snow and reopened it at 20:00 when conditions were safer.\n\nOn Monday, it said there were still delays and cancellations affecting the airport and urged passengers to contact their airlines directly.\n\nA spokesperson for London Luton Airport warned that there could be disruption to flights and also advised passengers to allow extra time when travelling to the airport.\n\nSome passengers complained on Sunday about a lack of information from airlines on the cancellations.\n\nOthers said they had been unable to get off planes due to the icy conditions.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Stephen Curry This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHeavy snowfall caused a series of traffic collisions on Sunday, as many drivers were faced with treacherous conditions.\n\nMotorists were urged to adjust their driving to the freezing conditions on Monday morning.\n\nThe RAC's spokesman said that by 17:00, 9,000 people had called in asking for help, having broken down.\n\nThey added that drivers should only set off if they feel confident enough to do so, and that sticking to main roads which are more likely to be gritted would help.\n\nThey also told drivers to pack a blanket and fully-charged phone in case of a breakdown.\n\nSam told BBC 5 Live that she and her family had been stuck in their car for more than eight hours without food and only one small bottle of water during an arduous journey home from London to Thame in Oxfordshire.\n\nThe family left the O2 Centre in London at 23:00 on Sunday night after attending the Jingle Bell Ball and had not left their car since, travelling along the M11 and M25.\n\nNational Highways has said that the section of the M25 that was closed in both directions between junctions 23 and 25 has now reopened.\n\nHowever, there are still about 11 miles of congestion in the anti-clockwise direction, it added.\n\nOther roads in the area with long delays include the M11, M2, A21, A27 and A249, according to the agency.\n\nTrain lines across the country have also been affected by the weather.\n\nPassengers at a busy King's Cross station waited for further information on their services.\n\nSoutheastern Railways has lifted its advice not to travel on the railway today. But customers are advised to check their routes before they set off.\n\nMeanwhile, Avanti West Coast said it was seeing some last-minute cancellations because of the weather and staff sickness.\n\nThere will also be no trains between Wrexham Central and Bidston until the end of the day.\n\nThe Met Office has also issued a fresh weather warning for ice for the East Midlands, the east of England, London and south-east England.\n\n\"Lying snow and icy patches will lead to difficult travel conditions during Monday and into Tuesday,\" it says.", "Giorgia Meloni (L) posted a photo of herself with Nicoletta Golisano\n\nThree women including a friend of Italy's new prime minister were killed when a man opened fire at a cafe in Rome, injuring four other people.\n\nThose inside were meeting as part of a local block's residents' committee.\n\nRoberto Gualtieri, mayor of Rome, described the shooting as a \"grave episode of violence\" and said he would attend an emergency meeting on Monday.\n\nA suspect, 57, is in custody. He has a history of disputes with some of the committee's board, reports say.\n\nLuciana Ciorba, the committee's vice-president, was at the cafe in the Fidene district, Italy's La Repubblica newspaper reports.\n\nShe said the gunman had entered the bar on Sunday shouting \"I'll kill you all\" before using his pistol. He was reportedly overpowered by other residents before being detained by police.\n\nOf those people injured, believed to be two women and two men, one remains in a serious condition.\n\nPrime Minister Giorgia Meloni named one of the women killed as her friend Nicoletta Golisano. The other dead women were named as Elisabetta Silenzi and Sabina Sperandio.\n\nIn a Facebook post, where she sent her condolences to Ms Golisano's family, Ms Meloni said she would always remember her friend for being \"beautiful and happy\".\n\n\"Nicoletta was a protective mother, a sincere and discreet friend, a woman strong and fragile at the same time,\" she wrote.\n\n\"But above all she was a professional with a sense of duty out of the ordinary... Nicoletta was my friend.\"\n\n\"It's not right to die like that,\" she added. \"Nicoletta was happy, and beautiful, in the red dress she bought for her 50th birthday party a few weeks ago. For me she will always be beautiful and happy like that.\"\n\nMs Meloni also said that a shooting range from which the suspect had allegedly stolen the gun used in the attack had been closed and was under investigation.\n\nPolice are yet to comment on the motivation of the suspect, who has been named by the Italian press but not officially. The attack is not thought to have been political.\n\nReports suggest the suspect and the apartment block's board of residents have been locked in a bitter dispute for some time.\n\nGiorgia Meloni, leader of Italy's far-right Brothers of Italy party, became the country's first female prime minister in October.\n\nForensic teams examined the scene of the shooting", "The Pan Am flight was bombed just days before Christmas\n\nA Libyan man who has been accused of being the Lockerbie bomber is due to appear in court in the United States.\n\nAbi Agila Masud was allegedly a member of the Libyan intelligence services when Pan Am flight 103 was brought down in 1988, killing 270 people.\n\nThe US justice department announced charges against Masud on the 32nd anniversary of the atrocity in 2020.\n\nThe Scottish and US authorities have now confirmed he is in custody in Washington.\n\nHe is expected to appear in court at 18:00 GMT.\n\nIt comes as a leading campaigner for families of the Scottish victims has called for Masud to be tried in a court chosen by the United Nations.\n\nDr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, said the trial should not take place in the US or Scotland.\n\nOther families have welcomed news he will be tried in the United States.\n\nAbdelbaset al-Megrahi remains the only man to be convicted over the attack but Dr Swire doubts the involvement of both Megrahi and Masud in the bombing.\n\nDr Swire told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme that Nelson Mandela had said that \"no one country should be complainant, prosecutor and judge\" in the case of the Lockerbie bombing.\n\nHe made the intervention at a Commonwealth heads of government meeting in 1997 in Edinburgh.\n\n\"There are so many loose ends that hang from this dreadful case, largely emanating from America, that I think we should remember what Mandela said to the world and to us then, and seek a court that is free of being beholden to any nation directly involved in the atrocity itself,\" Dr Swire said.\n\nHe added: \"I think (the trial) should not take place in America. I think, in view of what we now know about how Scotland handled the case, it should not take place in Scotland.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Jim Swire said the trial should not take place in the US or Scotland\n\nHe said the United Nations should instead choose an \"appropriate\" court to hold Masud's trial and also review the evidence against Megrahi.\n\n\"What we've always been after amongst the British relatives is the truth and not a fabrication that might seem to be replacing the truth,\" he added.\n\nThe Rev John Mosey, whose daughter Helga died in the bombing, also questioned why Masud would face trial in the United States.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"What is he doing in America? This was a crime committed above Scottish soil.\"\n\nThe Lockerbie bombing is the deadliest terrorist incident to have taken place on British soil.\n\nAll 259 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 747 bound to New York from London died while another 11 people were killed in Lockerbie when wreckage destroyed their homes.\n\nMegrahi was jailed for life but was released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer. He died in Libya in 2012.\n\nLast month it was reported that Masud had been kidnapped by a militia group in Libya, leading to speculation that he was going to be handed over to the American authorities to stand trial.\n\nA US Justice Department spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that Masud would make an initial appearance in a federal court in Washington.\n\nKara Weipz said there was 'finally a sense of justice' for loved ones\n\nKara Weipz, whose brother Richard Monetti was killed in the atrocity, said families felt a sense of justice for their loved ones.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Scotland, Ms Weipz said: \"This is what the families have been fighting for, for almost 34 years - they've been fighting for justice, to see those who are guilty of this crime to be held accountable.\n\n\"To know now there's going to be a trial… there is a sense of finally justice for our loved ones.\n\n\"It's a victory in that sense. At the same time it doesn't change the fact that our loved ones were murdered and they're not here with us.\"\n\nMs Weipz also said there had been a strong desire among some of the victims' families to have any suspects tried under US law.\n\nShe said: \"It's not a disrespect to Scottish law, it's just what we know. It's our system and this was a terrorist attack against a US carrier, there were 190 Americans on the plane.\n\n\"This is a terrorist attack against America too - the second largest in our history. I think that it's very important for us to have this trial in the US under our laws - it means everything to the US families.\"\n\nHer father, Bob Monetti, said they faced difficulties keeping track of the Megrahi trial in the Netherlands\n\n\"If it's in the US, and especially Washington DC, there'll be a lot of press coverage and people will hear what's going on. There will be no confusion about what happened,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Newsnight's Kirsty Wark recalls arriving at Lockerbie on the night of 21 December 1988\n\nFive years ago, Masud was serving a prison sentence in Libya for bomb-making.\n\nIt is alleged that during this time he confessed to being involved in the conspiracy with Megrahi to blow up the flight.\n\nMegrahi's lawyer Aamer Anwar said Masud was actually in the custody of a war lord \"widely condemned for human rights abuses\".\n\nHe said the circumstances in which such a confession was extracted would be \"strongly opposed\" in any US or Scottish court.\n\nMegrahi, who always proclaimed his innocence, launched two appeals against his 27-year sentence. One was unsuccessful and the other was abandoned.", "Lissandro is a fan of Elvis Presley and Bruno Mars\n\nFrance has won this year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Yerevan, Armenia.\n\nThirteen year old Lissandro won with 203 points for his song Oh Maman! beating hosts Armenia in second place, Georgia third, and Ireland fourth.\n\nThe United Kingdom came fifth overall with 146 points - although it did win the public vote.\n\nThe UK's entrant, Freya Skye, performed live after suffering with vocal issues during rehearsals.\n\nAccepting his award an excited Lissandro said: \"I'm so happy, thank you everyone. Vive La France\".\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Junior Eurovision Song Contest This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThis year marks the 20th anniversary of the contest, with 16 countries competing, and is the first time the contest was broadcast on the BBC, with Lauren Layfield and HRVY commentating.\n\nIt's also the first time in more than 15 years that the UK has taken part in the junior version, where entrants have to be aged between nine and 14.\n\nFreya Skye has been described as \"a great ambassador for the UK\"\n\nThe result is determined by a 50/50 vote, with half of the votes deriving from online voting, and the other half from professional juries - which are based on the final dress rehearsal.\n\nSerbia's act did not perform live due to \"medical reasons\", with viewers seeing a rehearsal performance instead.\n\nThe voting system is slightly different from the adult edition, as viewers were able to vote for their own country.\n\nJunior Eurovision apologised for issues with the online voting element that prevented some viewers from picking their favourite during Sunday's show.\n\nRosa Linn, the Armenian entrant at this year's \"senior\" Eurovision competition in Turin, performed her hit Snap before the results. Her song went viral around the world after May's contest, and charted around the globe.\n\nFreya was chosen because of her \"genuine star quality\", the BBC said when she was selected.\n\nThe team behind her song, titled Lose My Head, has previously worked with the likes of Ava Max, Pharrell Williams and Megan Thee Stallion. The lyrics talk about friendships, moving on and leaving the past behind.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by Junior Eurovision Song Contest This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThe UK previously participated in the competition between 2003 and 2005 with the support of ITV, while broadcaster S4C decided to go it alone for Wales in 2018 and 2019.\n\nThe BBC is also preparing to host the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, which will take place in Liverpool next May on behalf of Ukraine.\n\nLast month organisers announced several changes to the voting after anomalies occurred in the 2022 contest.", "The government have been discussing contingency plans for upcoming strikes, including using the military and civil servants to cover Border Force staff, at an emergency Cobra meeting.\n\nThe armed forces will also be deployed to hospital trusts ahead of an ambulance strike, the government says.\n\nBut Downing Street warned there would still be \"serious disruption\".\n\nCobra is an emergency response committee made up of ministers, civil servants and others.\n\nIt comes amid a wave of strikes over pay this month from nurses, paramedics, rail workers, and Border Force staff.\n\nCabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden, who chaired the meeting, urged unions to call off the strikes.\n\nHe said the government had been \"fair and reasonable\" by honouring the recommendations of independent pay review bodies.\n\nMr Dowden said ministers were \"straining every sinew\" to minimise the risks from strikes but it would never be able to eliminate them.\n\nThe prime minister's official spokesman stressed that even with members of the armed forces driving ambulances, the number available to attend calls would be reduced \"significantly\".\n\nThe country is facing \"a challenging number of days\", he said.\n\nBorder Force officers employed by the Home Office are set to walk out at Gatwick, Heathrow, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff airports for eight days from 23 December to New Year's Eve.\n\nMembers of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) - who represent 75% of all passport control staff - voted to take action in support of a 10% pay rise which they say will help border workers who are \"struggling with the cost-of-living crisis\".\n\nSome military personnel are already being trained up as part of contingency planning in a bid to avoid widespread disruption at Christmas.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nArmed forces will be sent to hospital trusts to familiarise themselves with vehicles ahead of an ambulance worker strike in England and Wales on 21 and 28 December.\n\nParamedics and control room staff will walk out in coordinated strike action by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - in a dispute over pay. The action will affect non-life threatening calls only.\n\nNurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are also set to strike on 15 and 20 December.\n\nUnions are calling for bigger pay increases to help their members cope with rising prices, but Downing Street has argued that \"inflation is everyone's enemy\" and meeting union calls would embed higher prices.\n\nNo 10 also said talk of coordinated strikes was \"concerning\" as that would \"exacerbate the misery\" the public is facing.\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has previously pledged to introduce \"new tough\" anti-strike laws.\n\nSome unions have said instead of meeting each other, ministers should meet them and negotiate pay.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing met Health Secretary Steve Barclay earlier but the union's general secretary Pat Cullen said he refused to discuss pay, which she described as \"disrespectful\".\n\nShe said planned strikes on 15 December would now go ahead.\n\n\"I needed to come out of this meeting with something serious to show nurses why they should not strike this week. Regrettably, they are not getting an extra penny,\" she said.\n\n\"I expressed my deep disappointment at the belligerence - they have closed their books and walked away.\"\n\nMs Cullen has previously said this week's strikes could be paused if the health secretary \"seriously\" negotiated over pay.\n\nA Department of Health spokesperson said that during the meeting Mr Barclay reiterated the government's position that it had agreed to the recommendations of the independent pay review body and that any further pay increase would mean taking money away from clearing the post-Covid backlog.\n\nThe spokesperson said he would continue to engage with the union on non pay-related issues.\n\nThe nurses' union have called for their members to be given a pay rise of 5% above the RPI inflation rate, which in October was 14.2%.\n\nMeanwhile, members of health unions Unison and Unite have voted to accept the Scottish government's pay offer of around 7.5%. Members of the Royal College of Nursing and GMB are still voting on whether to accept.\n\nShadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a Labour government would not be able to afford such a rise but added that it \"would be willing to meet and negotiate\" to avoid a strike.\n\n\"I think the government's stubborn refusal to engage in serious negotiations shows they are spoiling for a fight and they want to blame nurses, blame paramedics and blame NHS staff for challenges in NHS services that are the direct fault and responsibility of 12 years of Conservative mismanagement,\" he said.\n\nUnison's head of health Sara Gorton said: \"The wage rise given to health workers this year simply hasn't been enough to stop staff leaving in droves. Without enough employees in the NHS, patients will go on waiting too long for ambulances and for treatment to start.\"\n\n\"Instead of putting plans in place for the strike days, ministers should be concentrating all their efforts on ending the disputes,\" she added.", "The image was captured by Sam Hussein at this year's Braemar Games\n\nKing Charles and the Queen Consort have chosen a photograph taken days before Queen Elizabeth's death for their official Christmas card this year.\n\nThe image selected for the couple's first festive card since Charles became King was taken at the Braemar Royal Highland Gathering on 3 September.\n\nCharles, then still the Prince of Wales, and Camilla are pictured smiling in the shot taken by Sam Hussein.\n\nThe Queen did not attend the annual event due to her declining health.\n\nShe passed away five days later on 8 September, aged 96.\n\nThe image, released by Buckingham Palace, captures the King in profile, dressed in a tweed suit with a red, green and beige tie.\n\nHis wife is wearing a green suit, matching hat with a pheasant motif and pearl earrings.\n\nAnne, the Princess Royal, Charles and Camilla all attended this year's Highland Games event\n\nThey were joined by crowds from around the world to watch competitors take part in the caber toss, hammer throw and tug of war.\n\nDuring the popular Highland Games event, Charles officially opened a new structure celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee at The Princess Royal and Duke of Fife Memorial Park.\n\nTo mark the opening of the Queen Elizabeth Platinum Jubilee Archway, he cut a heather rope.\n\nBefore the Games got under way, Camilla and the Princess Royal were presented with heather posies by Chloe Guy, 10, and Cassie Stewart, 12, both members of the Braemar Royal Highland Society's dancing class, before the Games got under way.\n\nCamilla appeared to take a sprig of flowers and put it in her buttonhole, which can be seen in the Christmas card photograph.", "Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hold his traditional big year-end news conference, the Kremlin has said, for the first time in 10 years.\n\nBut spokesman Dmitry Peskov said \"we hope the president will after all find an opportunity to talk\" to the media.\n\nNo reason was given for the cancellation, but it comes amid growing unease among Russians over Mr Putin's decision to invade Ukraine in February.\n\nRussian troops have suffered a series of painful reverses since then.\n\n\"Regarding the big press conference, yes, it won't happen before the New Year,\" Mr Peskov told reporters on Monday.\n\nBut he added that Mr Putin could find a way to talk to the media, stressing that \"he does it regularly\".\n\nOver the past 10 years, the carefully choreographed annual press conferences attended by dozens of journalists - both Russian and foreign - usually lasted for hours in Moscow.\n\nMr Putin went to great lengths to be seen on national TV as a leader directly involved with ordinary Russians, patiently answering a wide range of questions - from regional reporters about fixing poor roads in remote villages and publicly castigating local officials, to the world of grand geopolitics.\n\nBut a number of opposition Russian experts have said that - in the absence of press freedom - such gatherings resembled staged shows, where pro-Kremlin reporters were reduced to asking the country's all-powerful ruler mostly flattering questions.\n\nThey said the fact a handful of independent journalists were also present - but not always given a chance to ask questions - did not change the overall picture.\n\nStill, such conferences were closely monitored by politicians around the world, who were trying to gauge the direction the Kremlin leader was keen to take Russia.\n\nIn June the Kremlin also postponed President Putin's annual televised marathon phone-in with members of the public - and did not set a new date for it.\n\nThe Kremlin leader is also required by the constitution to make an annual State of the Union speech to parliament by the end of the year. Mr Peskov said this issue was under review.", "On the roads, National Highways , which maintains motorways and major A roads in England, said there are delays of up to two hours between junctions 18 and 19 of the M6 northbound following a collision, though it didn't say if the incident was weather-related.\n\nTraffic Scotland , the equivalent body for Scotland, reports ice continuing to affect driving conditions in the regions of Strathclyde,Lothian and Borders,Central, Tayside & Fife, and theSouthwest.\n\nOn the rail network , disruption to Southern and Thameslink trains is still expected to last until the end of the day. Customers are advised to only travel if \"absolutely necessary\" and to factor in delays.\n\nThe Gatwick Express, which earlier was suspended altogether, is now running but with a reduced service.\n\nGreat Northern has also now said it is having to cancel services because of the weather and that the disruption is likely to last until the end of the day.\n\nAll four operators have warned that services could also be affected by preparations for the 48-hour strike action set to take place tomorrow and Wednesday.\n\nSoutheastern has said its network continues to be impacted by the weather, though has said services will not be affected by strike action until Tuesday morning.\n\nOn the London underground , as of 17.30, severe delays continue on the Central, Jubilee, and Piccadilly lines, as well as parts of the District line, while there are minor delays on the Circle, Hammersmith & City, Northern, and Victoria lines.\n\nThe Overground is also suffering minor delays and is suspended between Watford Junction and Willesden Junction.", "A total of 270 people died in the Lockerbie bombing on 21 December 1988\n\nA Libyan man accused of making the bomb which destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie 34 years ago is in United States custody, Scottish authorities have said.\n\nThe US announced charges against Abu Agila Masud two years ago, alleging he had played a key role in the bombing on 21 December, 1988.\n\nThe blast on board the Boeing 747 left 270 people dead.\n\nIt is the deadliest terrorist incident to have taken place on British soil.\n\nAll 259 passengers and crew on board the jumbo jet bound to New York from London died while another 11 people were killed in Lockerbie when wreckage destroyed their homes.\n\nLast month it was reported that Mr Masud had been kidnapped by a militia group in Libya, leading to speculation that he was going to be handed over to the American authorities to stand trial.\n\nA US Justice Department spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that the suspect would make an initial appearance in a federal court in Washington.\n\nFive years ago he was serving a prison sentence in Libya for bomb-making.\n\nIn 2001 Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was convicted of bombing Pan Am 103 after standing trial at a specially convened Scottish court in the Netherlands.\n\nHe was the only man to be convicted over the attack.\n\nMegrahi was jailed for life but was released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer.\n\nHe died in Libya in 2012.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Newsnight's Kirsty Wark recalls arriving at Lockerbie on the night of 21 December 1988\n\nIt is alleged that while in jail in Libya, Mr Masud confessed to being involved in the conspiracy with Megrahi to blow up the flight.\n\nAamer Anwar, Megrahi's lawyer, said Mr Masud was actually in the custody of a warlord \"widely condemned for human rights abuses\" - he said the circumstances in which such a confession was extracted would be \"strongly opposed\" in any US or Scottish court.\n\nMegrahi, who always proclaimed his innocence, launched two appeals against his 27-year sentence. One was unsuccessful and the other was abandoned.\n\nIn the 34 years since Pan Am 103 was brought down, the story of the Lockerbie bombing has taken many twists and turns.\n\nThe prospect of a first Lockerbie trial, let alone a second, seemed extremely unlikely until Nelson Mandela brokered a deal which led to two Libyan suspects being handed over to a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands.\n\nOne of them was convicted of bombing the plane, but it was always the prosecution case that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi acted with others.\n\nThe collapse of Colonel Gaddafi's regime in 2011 raised hopes that more suspects could be brought before a court until the country fell back into violent political instability.\n\nIn 2020, the outgoing US Attorney General William Barr announced charges against Abu Agila Masud and behind the scenes, prosecutors at the Crown office, detectives from Police Scotland and their US counterparts continued to work on the case.\n\nThe announcement that Mr Masud is now in US custody means a second trial over the biggest mass murder in British legal history could now happen, under American rather than Scots law.\n\nBut many challenges lie ahead, not least the legal status of the suspect's alleged confession when he was held in prison in Libya.\n\nIts contents also appear to undermine and strengthen the prosecution case against Megrahi.\n\nAs ever with this story, it's wise to expect the unexpected.\n\nA spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said: \"The families of those killed in the Lockerbie bombing have been told that the suspect Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi (\"Mas'ud\" or \"Masoud\") is in US custody.\n\n\"Scottish prosecutors and police, working with UK government and US colleagues, will continue to pursue this investigation, with the sole aim of bringing those who acted along with Al Megrahi to justice.\"\n\nPolice Scotland said it remained \"deeply committed\" to the investigation and to supporting the families and communities who suffered such devastating losses.\n\nA spokesperson added: \"We continue to work closely with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in Scotland, along with our partners within the UK government and the authorities in the United States, in supporting the continued pursuit of justice against those responsible\"\n\nThe Pan Am flight was bombed just days before Christmas", "Mr Turner spent three weeks in hospital but is now back home\n\nA delivery driver was praised for saving the life of a 90-year-old man who had slipped on his driveway and broken his hip.\n\nKeith Turner managed to drag himself to his car in Garden City, Flintshire, and started tapping an SOS signal in Morse code in mid-October.\n\nDelivery driver Sam Speechley, from the Asda store in Queensferry, heard what she thought was \"someone in distress\".\n\nAfter three weeks in hospital, Mr Turner is now back home recovering.\n\n\"Sam saved my life, she really did, and I can't thank her enough,\" he said.\n\n\"I'd been laying there in the rain and cold for half an hour and if she hadn't come along when she did I don't think I'd have made it.\"\n\nMr Turner described hearing the van pull up, and trying desperately to get the driver's attention, adding: \"I didn't want to press it (the horn) continuously as people may have thought it was the car alarm going off, so I pressed it intermittently so it probably sounded like SOS.\"\n\nColleagues at Asda have praised Ms Speechley's intervention and nominated her for an award\n\nThe retired panel beater praised Ms Speechley, saying she chatted to him and distracted him from the pain he was in.\n\nMs Speechley, 45, described pulling up outside a customer's house in the Garden City area and hearing the toot of a car horn.\n\n\"It kept going on and it was like a Morse code pattern. It just sounded like an SOS to me, something just didn't feel right,\" she added.\n\nShe found Mr Turner lying half on the drive, half in the car, and rushed to a neighbour's house to call an ambulance, as well as his son, Philip.\n\n\"At the time he'd suspected he'd broken his hip, as he couldn't move his legs,\" Ms Speechley added.\n\n\"I asked if I could go into his house and made him a cup of tea, got him a blanket and some cushions. As it was pouring down and freezing, his neighbour got two large umbrellas to put over him.\"\n\nMs Speechley also called the store to tell them what was going on and they sent another driver to pick up her deliveries so she could help look after Mr Turner.\n\nShe stayed with him until Philip arrived after about an hour.\n\nMr Turner's daughter-in-law Emma said: \"We can't thank Sam enough for what she did. She is amazing. We are so happy that she was there. She never left him at all, she reassured him and was so lovely, caring and kind. She really did go above her job role.\"\n\nHome shopping manager Nicky Fitzgerald, who has nominated Ms Speechley for an Asda service superstar award, said the whole store was proud of her.\n\n\"To look after the gentleman for all that time is Sam all over. She's just such a caring person,\" she added.", "Train strikes are set to go ahead this week after members of the UK's largest rail union rejected a pay offer.\n\nRail workers will walk out on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in the latest action of the long-running dispute over pay and working practices.\n\nNetwork Rail, which owns and maintains the railways, had offered a 5% pay rise this year and a 4% rise in 2023.\n\nBut RMT union boss Mick Lynch described the deal as \"substandard\", as 63.6% of members who voted rejected the deal.\n\nAndrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, urged passengers to \"only travel if absolutely necessary\", saying further strikes would cause \"further misery\" for the rail industry.\n\nThe RMT is involved in two negotiating battles, one with Network Rail, where it represents around 20,000 signallers and maintenance workers, and the other with the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), where it represents about 20,000 workers at 14 train companies.\n\nRMT members at both groups will stage walkouts across Britain this week, and then again on 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nIn addition, RMT members at Network Rail will go on strike from 18:30 on Christmas Eve until 06:00 on 27 December.\n\nThe industrial action is part of a long-running dispute between the RMT, and the train operators and Network Rail over pay, jobs and conditions.\n\nAlong with the pay rises, Network Rail offered its staff other benefits including discounted rail travel for family and friends.\n\nBut the deal also depended on big changes to working practices in its maintenance teams, which would involve 1,900 job losses, though Network Rail has insisted this could be achieved by voluntary means.\n\nThe company has said there would be a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies until the end of January 2025.\n\nThe RMT leadership had recommended its members reject the latest pay offer, which Network Rail had described as its \"best and final\".\n\nGeneral secretary of the union Mick Lynch said the vote, which saw an 83% turnout, represented a \"huge rejection\" of Network Rail's offer.\n\n\"The government is refusing to lift a finger to prevent these strikes and it is clear they want to make effective strike action illegal in Britain,\" he said.\n\n\"We will resist that and our members, along with the entire trade union movement will continue their campaign for a square deal for workers, decent pay increases and good working conditions.\"\n\nBut Network Rail boss Mr Haines said the result of the vote showed there was \"clearly a significant number of Network Rail colleagues who want this deal, but are caught up by these needless strikes and collective bargaining\".\n\nThe Department for Transport said it had helped facilitate a \"fair and improved offer\", with a pay increase above those seen in the private sector and no compulsory redundancies.\n\nRail Minister Huw Merriman said the continuing strikes were \"very damaging across the industry and the government's resolve is clear: we want these strikes taken down, and we want a better and more resilient railway for the future.\"\n\nHe called on Mr Lynch to \"come back to the table\" and \"do the right thing\".\n\nOther unions with smaller rail worker memberships are also involved in the dispute. Unite, which represents just over 50 electrical control room operators, accepted Network Rail's pay offer and called off its planned industrial action in December and January.\n\nThe TSSA has suspended its strike action at Network Rail while its members vote on the deal.\n\nNetwork Rail's Mr Haines said: \"The RMT are the outliers here, they need to stop playing politics and work with us to bring this dispute to an end.\"\n\nIn its dispute with the train companies, the union has rejected an offer from the Rail Delivery Group, which included a 4% pay rise both this year and next.\n\nWorkers are calling for better conditions and pay rises to match the pace of inflation, with the cost of living rising at its fastest rate for more than 40 years.\n\nOn Saturday Mr Lynch called on the prime minister to meet him to attempt to resolve the dispute.\n\nBut on Monday Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said: \"We are not seeking to impose government over and above either the independent pay review process or ongoing discussions between employers and the unions.\n\n\"We won't be changing the process.\"\n\nHow are you and your family affected by the strikes? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Eva Kaili was arrested on Saturday and has reportedly had her assets frozen\n\nThe president of the European Parliament has warned that \"European democracy is under attack\", following allegations that Qatar bribed EU officials to win influence.\n\nRoberta Metsola said that \"open, free, democratic societies are under attack\".\n\nBelgian police have arrested four people, among them European Parliament Vice-President Eva Kaili.\n\nThe four have been charged with corruption and money-laundering. Qatar has denied wrongdoing.\n\nEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the accusations were \"very serious\" and called for the creation of a new ethics body to oversee the bloc.\n\nThe BBC's Brussels correspondent, Jessica Parker, says details released by Belgian authorities in the last few days left many people's jaws on the floor.\n\nMEPs who spoke to our correspondent say they are shocked by both the scale and blatancy of the accusations.\n\nBelgian police seized cash worth about €600,000 ($632,000; £515,000) in 16 searches in Brussels on Friday. Computers and mobile phones were also taken.\n\nNo suspects have been publicly named, but Ms Kaili is understood to be among those who have been indicted.\n\nMs Kaili - an MEP for eight years - was suspended from her duties as one of 14 vice-presidents by Metsola.\n\nShe has also been suspended from the parliament's Socialists and Democrats Group and expelled from the Greek centre-left Pasok party.\n\nProsecutors in Greece have reportedly frozen all of Ms Kaili's assets.\n\nSince Friday, IT-resources of 10 parliamentary employees have been \"frozen\" to prevent the disappearance of data necessary for the investigation.\n\nWatchdogs and opposition MEPs said the bribery investigation could represent one of the biggest corruption scandals in the parliament's history.\n\nHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose country is a member state but who has frequently clashed with the bloc, mocked the EU after the allegations surfaced.\n\nTweeting a photo of former US presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush that is often used as a meme, he referred to the European Commission's recommendation to freeze billions of euros in funds earmarked for Hungary.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Orbán Viktor This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nProsecutors said they suspected a Gulf state had been influencing economic and political decisions of the parliament for several months, especially by targeting aides.\n\nLocal media has named the state as Qatar, although the Qatari government said any claims of misconduct were \"gravely misinformed\".\n\nMs Kaili's responsibilities as vice-president include the Middle East. She has been a defender of Qatar in the past.\n\nThe European Parliament is the EU's only directly elected institution. Some 705 members of parliament, elected by voters in the 27 nations which make up the EU, meet to scrutinise proposed legislation and vote through European law.", "Nurses across Wales are still set to strike after a failed meeting with Welsh government.\n\nThe nurses' strike planned for Wales will go ahead after the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Welsh government failed to come to a pay agreement.\n\nNurses in all but one health board in Wales will be striking this Thursday and 20 December.\n\nThe RCN said Health Minister Eluned Morgan had failed to put forward an increase to the current pay award.\n\nThe Welsh government said it could not make an increased pay offer without extra funding from the UK government.\n\nDoctors, consultants, GPs and nurses in Wales are being offered a pay rise of between 4% and 5.5%\n\nHelen Whyley, director of RCN Wales, said: \"Strikes are inevitable in Wales because the Welsh government is making it so.\n\n\"This is the second time in as many weeks that the Welsh government have brought RCN Wales to a meeting where they clearly have no intention of coming to a resolution on our dispute.\"\n\nShe said the trade union was open for a \"meaningful discussion\" on pay for nursing, but this must be a significant increase.\n\n\"Low pay is fanning the flames of a workforce crisis, and the rising number of registered nurse vacancies is already putting patients at risk,\" she said.\n\n\"The pressure means nurses are caught between their responsibilities to their patients, their families, and their own health.\"\n\nThe RCN said nurses were \"significantly\" worse off than 10 years ago and the pay award on offer would leave them £1,000 worse off in real terms.\n\nShe added: \"The Welsh government's prolonging of this unnecessary crisis is reckless, self-defeating, and in no one's interest.\"\n\nIn July, the lowest-paid nurses in Wales were offered a £1,400 flat pay increase, but, unions repeatedly argued this was not enough.\n\nThe strikes are expected to cause mass disruption, with thousands of routine operations and non-emergency appointments cancelled.\n\nSome services are exempt from strike action, and will run as normal including chemotherapy, dialysis, intensive care and high dependency units, neonatal intensive care, paediatric intensive care, and accident and emergency departments.\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"The minister for health and social services met again with NHS unions today.\n\n\"However, without additional funding from the UK government we are not able to make an increased pay offer without risking a reduction in services.\n\n\"Whilst we were unable to avert the forthcoming industrial action, all partners have agreed to keep talking and to continue to work together on key issues.\"\n\nThe UK government said: \"The Welsh government is well-funded to deliver on its devolved responsibilities - we are providing a record £18bn per year settlement, which is still increasing in real terms over the 2021 Spending Review period.\"\n• None What is the NHS pay offer?", "A number of people are in a critical condition after being pulled from a lake in freezing temperatures, police have said.\n\nThe BBC's Sophie Madden is in Babbs Mill Park, where emergency services are at the scene of the incident. She says a drone was spotted flying over the water.", "JK Rowling's board includes former prison governor Rhona Hotchkiss, previous Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, GP Margaret McCartney, and director of For Women Scotland, Susan Smith\n\nJK Rowling has launched a new women-only support service for victims of sexual violence.\n\nThe author says Beira's Place will provide free support and advocacy for women in Edinburgh who have experienced abuse at any time in their lives.\n\nShe said the service would meet an \"unmet need\" in response to demands from female survivors of abuse.\n\nMs Rowling said it was important that survivors had the option of women-centred and women-delivered care.\n\nRape Crisis Scotland said support should also be available to trans and non-binary people.\n\nThe Harry Potter creator has held a longstanding interest in women's and children's issues and has been a vocal critic of the Scottish government's reform of the Gender Recognition Act.\n\nOther critics of the reform are among those on the board of directors for Beira's Place.\n\nAs well as Ms Rowling, they include former prison governor Rhona Hotchkiss, previous Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont, GP Margaret McCartney, and director of For Women Scotland, Susan Smith.\n\nThe new venture is being funded by the author, who lives in Edinburgh. It is not a charity and will not rely on donations.\n\nMs Rowling said: \"I founded Beira's Place to provide what I believe is currently an unmet need for women in the Lothians area.\n\n\"As a survivor of sexual assault myself, I know how important it is that survivors have the option of women-centred and women-delivered care at such a vulnerable time.\n\n\"Beira's Place will offer an increase in capacity for services in the area and will, I hope, enable more women to process and recover from their trauma.\"\n\nNamed after Beira, the Scottish goddess of winter, it will be run by a paid staff of experienced support workers and headed by chief executive Isabelle Kerr and deputy chief executive Susan Domminney.\n\nThey previously ran the Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis.\n\nMs Kerr said: \"Violence against women and girls is an issue that crosses all cultures, classes, and religions.\n\n\"These are gendered crimes that are overwhelmingly perpetrated by men and disproportionately experienced by women.\n\n\"Beira's Place recognises that effective sexual violence services must be independent, needs-led, and provide responsive, women-centred services so that they are free from the pressure of current political agendas.\n\n\"We are committed to ensuring that our service is free, confidential, and accessible to women survivors who may need it.\"\n\nThe establishment of Beira's Place comes two months after Ms Rowling supported a rally protesting against the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.\n\nShe wore a T-shirt calling First Minister Nicola Sturgeon a \"destroyer of women's rights\".\n\nThe proposed new law will make it easier for people in Scotland to change their legally recognised gender, and is due its final vote at Holyrood next week.\n\nIt will remove the requirement for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria as a condition of acquiring a gender recognition certificate.\n\nCritics have raised concerns about the impact it could have on single sex spaces such as women's refuges and prisons.\n\nThe Scottish government has denied this, saying it will streamline a process which is currently invasive and distressing for an already marginalised group.\n\nRape Crisis Scotland - which has 17 centres across Scotland - said it welcomed any new service to support survivors of sexual violence.\n\nIt added: \"It is crucial that the life-saving support offered by rape crisis centres is available to trans and non-binary people.\n\n\"All rape crisis services in Scotland offer support to trans women and have done so for 15 years. There has not been a single incident of anyone abusing this.\n\n\"We continue to see the paths to equality for women and trans people are being deeply interconnected and dependent on shared efforts to dismantle systems of discrimination.\"\n\nWriter Suzanne Moore, who interviewed JK Rowling on the opening of Beira's Place, told BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour it was a major undertaking for the author.\n\n\"A project like this is years in the making,\" she said. \"She has gathered a team of experts, people who have worked in rape crisis centres and what she really wants to ensure is this is not a charity that is subject to the whims of power and that its funding is never under threat.\n\n\"It's really simple and in some ways it has not got a lot to do with the whole trans issue and the complex politics of Scotland. JK is doing something to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people.\"", "Ross McCullam strangled Megan Newborough in the living room of his home\n\nA man who strangled his girlfriend and cut her throat 14 times before dumping her body has been convicted of murder.\n\nRoss McCullam, a lab technician, attacked Megan Newborough, 23, at his home in Coalville, Leicestershire, on 6 August 2021. The pair had met at work.\n\nHe had admitted manslaughter but denied murder.\n\nThe 30-year-old was found guilty at Leicester Crown Court and is due to be sentenced before the same court on Friday.\n\nMs Newborough's family said she \"was the most generous, loving and caring person\"\n\nMcCullam invited Ms Newborough to his home in Windsor Close - where he lived with his family - when his parents were out.\n\nHe attacked her, throttling her to death before fetching a carving knife to cut her throat.\n\nThe defendant claimed he had not intended to harm Ms Newborough, from Nuneaton, but lost control of himself in what he said was \"blind rage\".\n\nHe said this was due to an episode of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which he claimed was caused by sexual abuse he himself had suffered as a child.\n\nIt took the jury just 90 minutes to find him guilty of murder.\n\nAfter murdering Ms Newborough, McCullam bundled her body into her own Citroen C3 and drove her to Charley Road, near Woodhouse Eaves, where he dumped her in undergrowth behind a stone wall.\n\nHe then abandoned her car in a car park in Loughborough before hailing a taxi home.\n\nHe continued to send Ms Newborough's phone messages and voicemails - including one telling her he loved her - to make it look like he thought she was still alive.\n\nBut he had thrown her phone into bushes by the roadside on the way to dump her body.\n\nMs Newborough's family reported her missing to police at lunchtime the following day after she did not return.\n\nThey tracked her phone down using a GPS app prompting police to launch a kidnap inquiry.\n\nMcCullam, who had searched on the internet for pornography and serial killers in the hours after the attack, was then arrested.\n\nHe told the arresting officers he had killed Ms Newborough, whom he had met some six weeks earlier at the Ibstock Brick factory where they both worked, and told them where her body was.\n\nShe was found in the early hours of 8 August, 2021.\n\nOfficers said McCullam had chosen such a secluded spot to hide her that, if he had not disclosed her location, she might have been undetected for weeks or months.\n\nPolice searched McCullam's house finding evidence that Ms Newborough had fought for her life, including her Fitbit watch that had been ripped from her wrist and was discovered on the living room floor.\n\nThere was also evidence that he had cleaned up bloodstains on the carpet - telling his parents a damp patch was caused by a spilled cup of coffee.\n\nThe court heard McCullam had boasted about what he had done to Ms Newborough to fellow prisoners while on remand awaiting his trial.\n\nAfter the verdict Ms Newborough's family said their lives had been \"well and truly ripped apart\" by her death and that, despite the support of those close to them, they were \"still living in a nightmare\".\n\nIn a statement, released by Leicestershire Police, they paid tribute to her saying: \"Megan shone like a star to everyone she came into contact with. She excelled at work and was an enthusiastic dancer, teaching children of all ages.\n\n\"She had a bright future ahead of her.\"\n\nThey added: \"She was an incredibly good judge of character. She knew who she could and couldn't trust. She left home that night in a very happy mood. The thought of what happened to her just hours later - and the evil facing her - is something we can't escape.\n\n\"The same thoughts constantly go around in our heads - should we have known? Is there anything we could've done? We're still overcome with guilt for not protecting her.\n\n\"Everything still doesn't seem real and when we're at home, we still expect Megan to walk through the front door. It's an expectation we don't think will ever leave us.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Majidreza Rahnavard was executed only 23 days after his arrest\n\nIran says it has publicly hanged a 23-year-old in what is the second execution linked to the recent anti-government protests.\n\nMajidreza Rahnavard, 23, was hanged early on Monday in the city of Mashhad, the judiciary said.\n\nA court convicted him of \"enmity against God\" after finding he had stabbed to death two members of the paramilitary Basij Resistance Force.\n\nRahnavard was hanged just 23 days after his arrest.\n\nHuman rights groups have warned that protesters are being sentenced to death after sham trials with no due process.\n\nHis mother was not told of the execution until after his death.\n\nHis family were then given the name of a cemetery and a plot number. When they turned up, security agents were burying his body.\n\nOpposition activist collective 1500tasvir tweeted that the family were telephoned by an official at 07:00 local time and told: \"We have killed your son and buried his body in Behesht-e Reza cemetery.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by 1500tasvir_en This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe judiciary's Mizan news agency said Rahnavard was hanged \"in the presence of a group of Mashhadi citizens\" and posted several pre-dawn photographs reportedly showing the execution.\n\nIn the images a man could be seen hanging from the cable in front of onlookers - it is not clear how many people attended the execution, or who they were.\n\nRahnavard was denied a lawyer of his choice for his trial. The lawyer he was given did not put up a defence.\n\nMizan had previously reported that he was accused of stabbing to death two members of the Basij on a street in Mashhad on 17 November. The Basij is a volunteer force often deployed by Iranian authorities to suppress dissent.\n\nMahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, director of Norway-based Iran Human Rights, said on Twitter that Rahnavard's sentencing was based on \"coerced confessions, after a grossly unfair process and a show trial\".\n\n\"This crime must be met with serious consequences for the Islamic Republic,\" he said, adding that there was a \"serious risk of mass execution of protesters\".\n\nThe women-led protests against Iran's clerical establishment were sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police on 13 September for allegedly wearing her hijab, or headscarf, \"improperly\".\n\nThey have spread to 161 cities in all 31 provinces and are seen as one of the most serious challenges to the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution.\n\nIran's leaders have portrayed the protests as \"riots\" instigated by the country's foreign enemies. However, the overwhelming majority of protesters have been unarmed and peaceful.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The secret diaries of women protesting in Iran\n\nA video broadcast by state TV after his arrest on 19 November showed Rahnavard blindfolded and with his left arm in a cast. In the footage, he said he did not deny attacking the Basij members, but did not remember the details, because he had not been in the right state of mind.\n\nState TV also showed on Monday what it said was his subsequent \"confession\" before a Revolutionary Court.\n\nActivists say Iranian state media routinely broadcast false confessions by detainees that have been coerced through torture and other ill-treatment.\n\nLater on Monday, the EU sanctioned Iranian state TV and its director for broadcasting forced confessions. It also imposed sanctions on Iran's army chief and regional commanders of the Revolutionary Guards over the repression of protesters.\n\nIran has said it plans to sanction several German and British political figures who have denounced Tehran's actions.\n\nThe first execution of a protester took place last Thursday, triggering international condemnation. Mohsen Shekari, 23, was convicted of \"enmity against God\" after being found to have attacked a Basij member with a machete in Tehran.\n\nBBC Persian's Kasra Naji says it is not clear whether the executions will help end the protests that have been sweeping the country or pour fuel on the fire.\n\nMashhad was the scene of an anti-government demonstration on Sunday night, while people were heard chanting \"Martyr of the country Majidreza Rahnavard\" in a video apparently filmed at Rahnavard's grave on Monday.\n\nSo far, at least 488 protesters have been killed by security forces and 18,259 others have been detained, according to the Human Rights Activists' News Agency (HRANA). It has also reported the deaths of 62 security personnel.\n\nIran is second only to China in the number of executions carried out annually.", "England captain Owen Farrell says the Rugby Football Union's decision to sack Eddie Jones as head coach was \"unbelievably disappointing\".\n\nJones was sacked a week ago after only five wins from 12 Tests in 2022.\n\nThe 62-year-old won three Six Nations titles in his seven years in charge and led the team to the 2019 World Cup final, which they lost to South Africa.\n\nFarrell said the run of poor results in 2022 \"doesn't happen because of one person, it's everyone\".\n\nSpeaking to BBC rugby correspondent Chris Jones after Saracens' Heineken Champions Cup win over Edinburgh on Sunday, Farrell added: \"It's unbelievably disappointing.\n\n\"Eddie had been a big part of England Rugby for a long time now and he has been one of the best coaches I have ever had so, for that, I'm massively thankful.\n\n\"We are disappointed it has finished early and we owe a lot to him. I have been around for a while now and not been around too many changes, both at club and international level. It's not pleasant to go through.\n\n\"I don't think it has come from the players. There is obviously stuff we all want to get better at from the results but as players you look at yourself and see what you can do.\"\n\nJones' sacking followed a review into England's disappointing autumn campaign, which saw one win from four matches.\n\nAsked if he had spoken to Jones since the Australian was relieved of his duties, the 31-year-old Saracens fly-half said: \"We have exchanged a few messages and hopefully I will see him.\"\n\nEngland are now without a head coach nine months before the 2023 World Cup, while their Six Nations campaign begins against Scotland at Twickenham on 4 February.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video has been removed for rights reasons\n\nSnow and ice are continuing to cause widespread travel disruption across the UK.\n\nThe coldest night of the year so far saw heavy snow fall in Scotland and south-east and eastern England, with delays hitting road, rail and air travel.\n\nSchools from Cornwall to the Scottish Highlands were forced to close.\n\nThe Met Office has issued fresh snow and ice warnings covering large parts of the UK on Tuesday morning.\n\nScotland is on course to record its coldest December in over a decade after temperatures plummeted to -15.7C in Aberdeenshire.\n\nElsewhere a low of -8.8C (16.1F) was recorded at Sennybridge in Wales, -8.7C (16.3F) in Katesbridge, Northern Ireland, and -9.7C (14.5F) in Levens Hall, Cumbria. Unofficial observations say 15cm (5.9 inches) of snow fell near Stansted Airport.\n\nA snow and ice warning is in place for northern Scotland and north-east England from midnight Tuesday until noon on Thursday, while an ice warning covers south-east England from 09:00 to 11:00 on Tuesday.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.\n\nMore than 140 flights due to serve UK airports were cancelled because of ice and snow - with Stansted, Gatwick, Luton and London City among the worst impacted. Flights from other airports - including Belfast and Aberdeen - were also cancelled due to poor weather at other airports.\n\nLondoners have also been facing severe difficulties getting around on Monday, with most Tube lines experiencing delays or part closure. There have been delays on several London Underground lines - as well as the London Overground - including the Central, District, Northern and Piccadilly lines, according to Transport for London (TfL).\n\nRailway lines - particularly in the south-east and east of England - continue to be disrupted, with services being cancelled. The cold weather prompted Southeastern Railway to advise passengers not to travel after cancelling the first early morning trains on all routes to allow safety checks.\n\nSnow and ice has caused travel disruption across much of the UK on Monday\n\nDriving conditions across the UK remain difficult. The AA said that although the snow has made for a \"beautiful winter wonderland\", it also created a nightmare scenario for motorists. Some caught up in chaos last night on the M25 and M11 reported being stuck in their cars for more than eight hours overnight.\n\nDrivers in Burwash, East Sussex, decided to abandon their cars altogether and took refuge in a pub after snow made roads impassable and dangerous. About 40 people took shelter in the Bear Inn, which opened its doors to those stranded, providing hot drinks, log fires, and mattresses for children.\n\nWarnings remained in place on the M25, with drivers advised to take care when travelling due to snow and ice. Although a section that had been shut between junctions 23 and 25 has now reopened, warnings are still in place.\n\nTraffic Scotland, the Scottish motorways body, reported ice affecting driving conditions in several regions.\n\nPolice and fire services have warned parents to remind their children of the dangers of ice following the deaths of three boys, aged eight, 10 and 11, who fell into an icy lake near Solihull, in the West Midlands, on Sunday.\n\nIt will continue to be a cold week for the vast majority of people in the UK - temperatures are not due to rise by much, and snow and ice will be persistent in many regions.\n\nAlthough more snow is not expected, the Met Office urged people to be careful as it issued a weather warning for ice for the east Midlands, the south-east and east of England, saying that lying snow and icy patches will lead to difficult travel conditions into Tuesday.\n\nThis could make some untreated roads, pavements and cycle paths dangerous and lead to injuries from slips and falls.\n\nParts of Scotland have a weather warning for snow and ice stretching into the week until midday Thursday.\n\nThe rest of the week will stay bright but cold conditions mean frost and fog overnight will be slow to clear in places.\n\nThe latter part of the week could bring yet more snowfall, or perhaps rain if a transition to milder weather gets underway as expected.\n\nDespite sub-zero temperatures across the country, is a concern that many people may put off turning the heating on to warm their homes due to the exceptionally high cost of energy.\n\nHowever, Age UK spokesperson Sophie Barrett urged people to put the heating on and ensure it reaches a level high enough to stay warm at home.\n\nAt low temperatures, those who already have poor heart health and the elderly become even more susceptible to serious health issues.\n\nHow are you being affected by the cold weather? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Writer, broadcaster and satirist Victor Lewis-Smith - known as a TV critic and for the hoax phone calls he made to the likes of Princess Diana - has died aged 65 after a short illness.\n\nMr Lewis-Smith died in Bruges on Saturday, Borkowski PR said in a statement, describing him as \"a unique and irreplaceable talent\".\n\nThe Essex-born broadcaster began his career at the BBC.\n\nHis surreal style of comedy inspired comedians such as Sacha Baron Cohen.\n\nBBC Gardener's World presenter Monty Don paid tribute to Mr Lewis-Smith, calling him \"biting, very rude and above all, very funny\".\n\n\"I admired and enjoyed his work hugely,\" he tweeted.\n\nAfter presenting for Radio York, Mr Lewis-Smith moved to Radio 4 where he was a staff producer for Midweek and Start The Week during the mid-1980s.\n\nHe brought his anarchic style to the long-running show Loose Ends.\n\nHe then worked as chief television reviewer for the London Evening Standard for more than 15 years and as a columnist for the Daily Mirror for a decade.\n\nHe also ran a TV production company, Associated Rediffusion Productions, which has been behind programmes like TV Offal and Keith Meets... with stand-up Keith Allen for Channel 4.\n\nBut it was the hoax phone calls he made as part of his radio shows which stick out in many minds.\n\nTargets included the department store Harrods and television series Jim'll Fix It - fronted by paedophile predator Jimmy Savile.\n\nMore recently, it was revealed he had posed as astrophysicist Stephen Hawking using the same electronic voice technology as the professor to hoax Princess Diana. Their freewheeling conversation, covering the current King and the Clinton family, was released in full in 2015 after being kept in a safe for two decades.\n\nHis final production, Hitler's Jazz Band, will be broadcast by Sky Arts on 14 December at 21:00.\n\nHe is survived by his wife Virginia and his daughter Lucia.", "Top row, left to right: Derek and Sylvia Ellis, Romeu and Louise de Almeida. Bottom row, left to right: Raymond Brown, Billy Marsden and Peter Bowler\n\nSeven of the nine people feared dead or missing after an explosion that destroyed a block of flats in Jersey have been named by police.\n\nThey are Peter Bowler, 72, Raymond Brown, 71, Romeu de Almeida, 67, Louise de Almeida, 64, Derek Ellis, 61, Sylvia Ellis, 73, and Billy Marsden, 63.\n\nJersey police said the families of the seven had agreed to the release.\n\nIt said the other missing islanders would be named at a later date.\n\nNine people were believed to have been in the flats when they exploded. Jersey police said four of them were still missing and at least five people were known to have died. They warned they did not expect to find survivors.\n\nThe explosion happened at the three-storey Haut du Mont residential block on Pier Road, St Helier, on Saturday at about 04:00 GMT.\n\nTony Palmer said he knew Peter Bowler through his judo club, and that the news of what had happened had \"knocked him for six\".\n\nA recovery operation has continued at the blast scene throughout Monday\n\nHe said: \"He was only a white belt, he was just starting out, but he was such a lovely nature...\n\n\"He was calming and he'd get on with what he was doing but he'd have a laugh... I'd never see him lose his temper, he was so placid... One of those nice guys.\"\n\nGas supplier Island Energy confirmed the flats had not been on the island's gas network, but added that engineers were safety testing the network and that \"no issues had been detected\" so far.\n\nJo Cox, chief executive officer, said on Monday: \"I want to reassure people we believe that this was an isolated incident and not an issue with our gas network.\n\n\"We will work with emergency services and the various channels to ensure we are providing the data needed to understand exactly what happened.\"\n\nTony Palmer said Peter Bowler had started judo aged 71 and was \"very outgoing\"\n\nDerek Shearer who lives at the Haut du Mont site said he had been rehomed until he was able to go back.\n\n\"Terrible, when you're that close to people that have been killed,\" he said.\n\nMr Shearer said he did not know his neighbours \"that well\" but that they were \"all nice people\".\n\nHe said he had told it would likely be \"weeks\" before he could return home.\n\n\"We may not be able to go back into those places... just because ours is still standing doesn't mean to say there's no structural problems in there,\" he said.\n\nDerek Shearer said it was \"terrible\" knowing his neighbours had died so suddenly\n\nIslanders have been paying respects to those involved in the blast by leaving floral tributes on the steps of Ordnance Yard.\n\nPeople gathered for a minute's silence at 11:00 GMT on Monday and flags will be flown at half-mast until sunset on 23 December, the Government of Jersey said.\n\nBooks of condolence are also being made available at parish and public halls and a vigil will be held on Wednesday at Town Church.\n\nA spokesperson for Andium Homes which runs the residential block, said their thoughts and prayers were with those who lost their lives in the \"devastating incident\".\n\nThey said 42 residents had to relocate from the site, the majority of which it had provided with alternative accommodation.\n\nThey said they received no reports of leaks or smells of gas the day before the incident or at any other time and added that they had not been carrying out any significant maintenance works at Haut du Mont.\n\nFirefighters and a gas engineer had been to the flats on Friday evening after a smell of gas had been reported and Island Energy said standard procedures had been followed.\n\nThe explosion happened just two days after three local fishermen went missing after a crash between their fishing boat and a ferry.\n\nFollow BBC Jersey on Twitter and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The UK economy will get worse before it gets better, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said after figures revealed it shrank further between August and October.\n\nThe economy contracted by 0.3% during the three months as soaring prices hit businesses and households and the UK is forecast to be heading into recession.\n\nHe said: \"These figures confirm that this is a very challenging economic situation here and across the world.\n\n\"And it will get worse before it gets better.\"\n\nOver the three months, economic activity in the UK slowed across all the main sectors including production, construction and services.\n\nA country is in recession when its economy shrinks for two three-month periods in a row.\n\nIn his Autumn Statement last month, Mr Hunt said the UK was already in recession. This is expected to be officially confirmed at the beginning of next year when economic figures for October to December are released.\n\nWhen a country is in recession, it is a sign that its economy is doing badly. During a downturn, companies typically make less money and the number of people unemployed rises. Graduates and school leavers also find it harder to get their first job.\n\nIt also means that the government receives less money in tax to spend on public services such as health and education.\n\nThe Bank of England recently said the UK is facing its longest downturn since records began, expecting it to continue next year and into the first half of 2024.\n\nThe independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility, said recently that it expected the recession to last just over a year.\n\nThere was a brief respite in October alone when the economy grew by 0.5% compared with the previous month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). However, this rebound came after output was affected in September by the additional bank holiday for Queen Elizabeth's state funeral, which meant that some businesses closed or had shorter opening hours.\n\nMartin Beck, chief economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said that although the current quarter had started positively with October's rise, there is \"a good chance\" the economy will contract.\n\n\"The near-term outlook remains gloomy, as consumers continue to struggle under the weight of high inflation and with much of the impact of this year's interest rate rises still to be realised,\" he said.\n\nLast month, the Bank of England raised interest rates from 2.25% to 3% - the biggest jump since 1989. The Bank is expected to announce a further increase on Thursday by half a percentage point to 3.5%.\n\nDonald Nairn, owner of Edinburgh-based retailer Toys Galore, said rising interest rates were one of the reasons his customers were being more cautious about their spending.\n\n\"Most people are struggling because they've seen all their costs go up - interest [rates], fuel, food - and yet their wages just haven't kept up so everything's squeezed.\"\n\nToy shop owner Donald Nairn says times are more challenging than he could have ever imagined\n\nHe said that while people will still buy toys for a birthday or Christmas present, they may not make the trip into town to buy it or it will be smaller.\n\n\"If you'd asked me in 2019 what the next few years would be like I could not have possibly imagined in my wildest dreams it would have been as challenging as it has been,\" he added.\n\nLabour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said Monday's figures \"underline the failure of this Tory government to grow our economy, leaving us lagging behind on the global stage\".\n\nDarren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said that some companies had said that strike action had affected their business.\n\n\"We speak to about 40,000 businesses every fortnight and one in eight of them tell us they were affected by industrial action in October,\" Mr Morgan told the BBC's Today programme.\n\n\"They told us the most common impacts were they were not able to get the necessary goods or services and were unable to operate fully.\"\n\nThe UK is facing more strikes over pay and working conditions this month and into the New Year. Around 40,000 train and rail workers will walk out on Tuesday as part of a series of strikes.\n\nRoyal Mail workers will also continue industrial action this week, with strikes planned for Wednesday and Thursday.\n\n\"Businesses are telling us the rail strikes hit hospitality pretty hard in particular,\" Mr Morgan said.\n\nHe added that industrial action at ports such as Felixstowe had \"hit logistics and shipping companies\".\n\nEmployment figures from the ONS, which are due out on Tuesday, will give details of the number of days lost due to strikes in October.\n\nAt first glance, growth of 0.5% between September and October looks as if it defies all predictions of ongoing slump.\n\nGrowth of that scale in a month is actually quite a bounce-back. But then you realise it's only for artificial reasons rather than a mini-recovery. Car sales and other consumer facing services did bounce back sharply month-on-month, but that's only because in the previous month the Queen's funeral meant we all had an extra day off.\n\nOther figures point clearly to recession. The weakness of consumer-facing services - everything from shops to restaurants to sport and leisure - which are still 8.9% below their pre-pandemic levels. And the sharp reduction in electricity and gas use in October, down 4% against the year before.\n\nBut it's the three-month figures that are more reliable and show us the real picture. With activity down 0.3%, the UK economy, in common with much of the rest of the world, is forecast to see the economy continue to shrink through to the end of next year.\n\nWhat we don't yet know is how long it might continue beyond that - or how deep the contraction will be.", "Alina Zagorska moved to the UK with her 11-year-old son under the Homes for Ukraine scheme\n\nAbout 51,000 people who came to the UK under the Homes For Ukraine scheme have now reached the end of their six-month sponsorship period, the BBC has found.\n\nUK sponsors agreed to house Ukrainians for a minimum of six months - and BBC analysis suggests almost half of those who arrived under the scheme have now reached the end of their sponsorship.\n\nCouncils say some are already homeless after leaving their sponsors' homes.\n\nThe government says it is working to ensure they all have somewhere to live.\n\nThe scheme, which was launched in March, allowed Ukrainians who were fleeing the war with Russia to come to the UK - if a sponsor agreed to provide accommodation for at least six months.\n\nAs that period ends for many Ukrainians, some councils have increased the £350-a-month payment sponsors have received to encourage more households to keep housing Ukrainians.\n\nBut it is not a national policy. And many hosts and their guests aren't sure what the plan is at the end of six months.\n\nIt comes as the latest figures - up until 18 November - show more than 2,000 Ukrainian families with children, as well as 900 individuals, have registered with local councils as having no where to live.\n\nSome are homeless because sponsorships have broken down, others because they have been in the UK for more than six months and don't have anywhere else to go. The figure is likely to be an underestimate, as not all councils provided figures.\n\nLiz Robinson recently hosted two Ukrainians and their children\n\nLast Christmas, Alina Zagorska was in Kyiv, but she moved to the UK with her 11-year-old son under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, in May.\n\nLike many Ukrainians who came to Britain her sponsorship should have finished and she's struggling with what happens next. She has a job and can afford the monthly rent but, without a guarantor, she is finding it difficult to even be allowed to view properties.\n\n\"I can't find the accommodation because the agents don't want to show me the property because I don't earn enough money, so they said I need to earn more to just show me the property. So this is not very fair.\"\n\nShe says she needs someone who will guarantee she will pay her rent, adding: \"But I don't have it here because I'm alone with my son…I want to be an independent person, this is my dream.\"\n\nIgor and his two daughters - 23-year-old Viktoria and 11-year-old Svitlana - have registered as homeless after the relationship with their sponsor broke down.\n\nThey told the BBC that they could not find a new sponsor with more than one room available, and have been forced to move between temporary accommodation organised for them by a charity.\n\n\"We are tied to this area because of schooling\", they told the BBC. \"We've been to hotels twice already. The problem with them is that there is no kitchen. We then have to eat out.\"\n\nIn Buckinghamshire, Liz Robinson recently hosted two Ukrainian women and their children. It was a positive experience, she says, but again they hit problems when her guests tried to find their own flat.\n\n\"There was no way that they were going to give it to her without me as the guarantor,\" Liz says. So she offered to be the guarantor. She felt she could trust her guest, but admits she has some worries about the financial implications - especially if they suddenly decided to return home.\n\nThe Local Government Association, which represents hundreds of councils in England and Wales, said it was \"deeply concerned\" about the situation, adding: \"We anticipate more families needing to present as homeless in the coming weeks without urgent intervention.\"\n\nThe Department for Levelling Up said the \"vast majority of sponsors want to provide support for longer than six months\".\n\n\"We are working closely with councils to ensure all those who have fled Putin's war have a safe place to live and, in the minority of cases where family or sponsor relationships break down, councils have a duty to ensure families are not left without a roof over their head.\"", "China has deactivated a phone app that has tracked people's movements during the pandemic.\n\nThe national app, which has been operational for three years, went offline at the end of Monday.\n\nIt is the latest policy change that signals Beijing is abandoning its controversial zero-Covid strategy.\n\nThe move is highly symbolic but will not have a huge impact on people's daily lives because of the local apps still in use in cities across China.\n\nThe state-run Communications Itinerary Card app, which uses phone signals to track whether someone has travelled to an area considered to be high-risk, was seen as a central part of China's zero-Covid policy.\n\nPeople were required to enter phone numbers in the app in order to produce a green arrow indicating they were able to travel between provinces and enter events.\n\nNow travel between provinces has been eased with the removal of Covid-prevention restrictions, the national app has been deemed to be obsolete by officials.\n\nMany social media users in China have welcomed the app's retirement.\n\nBut it is only one of several tracking apps that have governed everyday life in China, with many people still using scanning systems run by their city or province to access local amenities and public buildings.\n\nThe policy change is symbolic for a nation which is turning away from its controversial zero-Covid strategy following widespread protests in several cities.\n\nRecent unrest was triggered by a fire in a high-rise block in the western Xinjiang region that killed 10 people in November, with long-running restrictions blamed for hampering the rescue effort.\n\nThe green arrow on the app\n\nFollowing policy changes, people with Covid can now isolate at home rather than in state facilities, and there has been a broad relaxation of mass testing.\n\nChina is now experiencing a surge in Covid cases, with authorities in Beijing saying more than 22,000 patients had visited hospitals across the city on Sunday - 16 times the number a week earlier.\n\nChina reported 8,626 domestic cases on Sunday, but with testing no longer widespread the numbers are believed to be much higher.\n\nDespite its loosening of measures, China is still regarded as having some of the most hard-line Covid restrictions in the world.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Officer tried to punch through ice to get boys - police\n\nThree boys aged eight, 10 and 11 have died after falling into an icy lake near Solihull.\n\nA police officer tried to punch through the ice as he and others attempted to rescue the children in Babbs Mill Park, Kingshurst, on Sunday.\n\nA fourth boy, aged six, remains in a critical condition in hospital after being pulled from the water.\n\nFamily members affected by the tragedy are \"absolutely devastated\", said Supt Richard Harris of West Midlands Police.\n\nSupt Harris said all police who went to the scene had entered the water with no regard for their own safety or with any special clothing - some going in waist-deep.\n\n\"One of my officers was trying to punch through the ice to actually rescue the children themselves,\" he said.\n\n\"That officer, as a result of that, had some mild hypothermia yesterday. I'm pleased to say he's now been released from hospital and he's absolutely fine.\"\n\nSearches are continuing at the lake and Supt Harris said teams wanted to be \"100% certain that there is no-one else possibly in the water at this time\".\n\n\"It's important to stress though that we've had no contact from anybody suggesting that there is anybody else missing.\"\n\nA search is continuing to make \"100% certain\" no others are in the water, police said\n\nSupt Harris added officers were still trying to work through all the details of the incident and could not say how long the boys had been in the water before emergency services arrived.\n\nHowever, he said officers had arrived within minutes of the first call, which came in at about 14:30 GMT.\n\nPolice were being guided by the families as to how much information was made available to the media, he said, and they were doing \"everything we possibly can to support them\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Firefighters lay flowers for boys who died after falling in icy lake\n\nMembers of the public and police officers initially went into the freezing water to try to get the boys out, before the children were reached by specialist fire crews.\n\nFirefighters from Sheldon fire station - about five miles away from the park - were among those who had tried to rescue the boys.\n\nOn Monday, they laid flowers alongside a growing number of tributes at the scene and were applauded by onlookers.\n\nTemperatures are thought to have plunged to 1C (34F) in the area at the time of the incident, falling to -3C (26F) overnight.\n\nAfter their rescue, the children were rushed to Birmingham Children's Hospital and Heartlands Hospital, but police said they could not be revived.\n\nA mass of flowers, balloons, toys and messages is growing just outside the police cordon, a few hundred metres from where the boys fell through the ice on the partially frozen lake.\n\nFamilies continue to come to pay their respects, many of them in tears, hugging their small children and lighting candles.\n\nIt's often a cliché to talk about close-knit communities, but Kingshurst feels like a place where that description holds true.\n\nIt's a story that's struck a nerve here after a tough 24 hours during which we learned three young lads lost their lives and another, the youngest of all, is still in a critical condition.\n\nSt Anthony's Primary School, in Kingshurst, closed to pupils on Monday but said it would reopen on Tuesday \"to support our children and families the best we can\".\n\n\"Never has our motto being (sic) more meaningful,\" it tweeted, \"actions speak louder than words\".\n\nThe BBC understands at least one of the boys went to the school.\n\nAnother school, Park Hall Academy, in Castle Bromwich, also said it was aware of the tragic event at Babbs Mill lake and that thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved.\n\n\"Please rest assured that anyone affected will be supported,\" it said.\n\nPolice said their thoughts were with the families and friends of the boys \"at this deeply devastating time\" and they would have specialist officers on hand to support them.\n\nRichard Stanton, West Midlands Fire and Rescue Area Commander, described the deaths as \"a tragedy beyond words\".\n\nHe said the incident served as a reminder of the dangers of frozen water.\n\n\"It can look picturesque but can be lethal,\" he said. \"Please help avoid this from happening again.\"\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak said his thoughts were with the families.\n\nHe spoke to Meriden MP Saqib Bhatti, who was visiting the scene, and said it was particularly hard thinking about the case as a father of two young daughters.\n\nMr Bhatti said the community had been left in shock.\n\n\"It's just hard to put into words right now what I'm feeling... as a parent. The whole community's going to be feeling this and my heart goes out to the families of those young children and my thoughts and prayers are with them.\"\n\nNish Chauhan, from BBC Radio WM, spoke to one resident. Dan, who told him how he had heard the sirens and had seen people running down to the site. He grabbed his jacket and ran down to see if he could help.\n\n\"It's shocking, I haven't really been able to sleep to be honest,\" he said.\n\nSupt Harris said there were a number of witnesses officers still wanted to speak to and appealed for anyone with information to contact the force.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Dr Jim Swire said the trial should not take place in the US or Scotland\n\nThe Libyan man in US custody accused of being the Lockerbie bomber should be tried in a court chosen by the United Nations, according to a leading campaigner.\n\nDr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, said the trial should not take place in the US or Scotland.\n\nAbu Agila Masud is accused of making the bomb which killed 270 people.\n\nHe is expected to appear in court in Washington DC later on Monday.\n\nOther families have welcomed news he will be tried in the United States.\n\nAbdelbaset al-Megrahi remains the only man to be convicted over the attack but Dr Swire doubts the involvement of both Megrahi and Masud in the bombing.\n\nDr Swire told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland that Nelson Mandela had said that \"no one country should be complainant, prosecutor and judge\" in the case of the Lockerbie bombing.\n\nHe made the intervention at a Commonwealth heads of government meeting in 1997 in Edinburgh.\n\n\"There are so many loose ends that hang from this dreadful case, largely emanating from America, that I think we should remember what Mandela said to the world and to us then, and seek a court that is free of being beholden to any nation directly involved in the atrocity itself,\" Dr Swire said.\n\nHe added: \"I think (the trial) should not take place in America. I think, in view of what we now know about how Scotland handled the case, it should not take place in Scotland.\"\n\nHe said the United Nations should instead choose an \"appropriate\" court to hold Masud's trial and also review the evidence against Megrahi.\n\n\"What we've always been after amongst the British relatives is the truth and not a fabrication that might seem to be replacing the truth,\" he added.\n\nThe Pan Am flight was bombed just days before Christmas\n\nThe Lockerbie bombing is the deadliest terrorist incident to have taken place on British soil.\n\nAll 259 passengers and crew on board the Boeing 747 bound to New York from London died while another 11 people were killed in Lockerbie when wreckage destroyed their homes.\n\nMegrahi was jailed for life but was released on compassionate grounds by the Scottish government in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer. He died in Libya in 2012.\n\nLast month it was reported that Masud had been kidnapped by a militia group in Libya, leading to speculation that he was going to be handed over to the American authorities to stand trial.\n\nA US Justice Department spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that Masud would make an initial appearance in a federal court in Washington.\n\nKara Weipz said there was 'finally a sense of justice' for loved ones\n\nKara Weipz, whose brother Richard Monetti was killed in the atrocity, said families felt a sense of justice for their loved ones.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Scotland, Ms Weipz said: \"This is what the families have been fighting for, for almost 34 years - they've been fighting for justice, to see those who are guilty of this crime to be held accountable.\n\n\"To know now there's going to be a trial… there is a sense of finally justice for our loved ones.\n\n\"It's a victory in that sense. At the same time it doesn't change the fact that our loved ones were murdered and they're not here with us.\"\n\nMs Weipz also said there had been a strong desire among the victims' families to have any suspects tried under US law.\n\nShe said: \"It's not a disrespect to Scottish law, it's just what we know. It's our system and this was a terrorist attack against a US carrier, there were 190 Americans on the plane.\n\n\"This is a terrorist attack against America too - the second largest in our history. I think that it's very important for us to have this trial in the US under our laws - it means everything to the US families.\"\n\nHer father, Bob Monetti, said they faced difficulties keeping track of the Megrahi trial in the Netherlands\n\n\"If it's in the US, and especially Washington DC, there'll be a lot of press coverage and people will hear what's going on. There will be no confusion about what happened,\" he added.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Newsnight's Kirsty Wark recalls arriving at Lockerbie on the night of 21 December 1988\n\nFive years ago Masud was serving a prison sentence in Libya for bomb-making.\n\nIt is alleged that during this time, he confessed to being involved in the conspiracy with Megrahi to blow up the flight.\n\nMegrahi's lawyer Aamer Anwar said Masud was actually in the custody of a war lord \"widely condemned for human rights abuses\".\n\nHe said the circumstances in which such a confession was extracted would be \"strongly opposed\" in any US or Scottish court.\n\nMegrahi, who always proclaimed his innocence, launched two appeals against his 27-year sentence. One was unsuccessful and the other was abandoned.\n\nOne British relative, the Rev John Mosey whose daughter Helga died in the bombing, questioned why Masud would face trial in the United States.\n\nHe told the BBC: \"What is he doing in America? This was a crime committed above Scottish soil.\"", "Twitter's paid-for verification feature is rolling out once again on Monday. It was paused last month after being swamped by impersonators.\n\nIt is still $8 per month - but there is now an increased fee of $11 for those using the Twitter app on Apple devices.\n\nTwitter's owner Elon Musk has previously said in tweets that he resents the commission fee Apple charges on in-app purchases.\n\nThis has long been a feature requested by many Twitter users, although there are others who argue that it increases the potential for the spread of disinformation, if a tweet is altered after being widely shared.\n\nBlue-tick subscribers will also see fewer ads, have their tweets amplified above others, and be able to post and view longer, better quality videos, the platform says.\n\nPreviously a blue tick was used as verification tool for high-profile accounts as a badge of authenticity. It was given out by Twitter for free - but only the firm itself decided who got one.\n\nMr Musk argues that this was unfair.\n\nThose who had a blue tick under the previous regime currently still have them, but now some of these users also have a message which appears if the tick is pressed saying the account is a \"legacy verified account\" and \"may or may not be notable\".\n\nHowever, those check marks will now eventually be replaced with either gold (for businesses) or grey (for others such as authorities) badges, according to Twitter's own account.\n\nUnder the new system, subscribers who change their names or display photos will lose their blue tick until the account has been reviewed by Twitter.\n\nThe service had a chaotic initial launch in November, when people started impersonating big brands and celebrities and paying for the blue-tick badge in order to make them look authentic.\n\nMany pretended to be Elon Musk himself.\n\nIn one instance, a user claiming to be the US pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly tweeted \"insulin is free\", causing the real firm's share price to tumble - however, Eli Lilly has since agreed that insulin prices could indeed be lower.\n\nHaving said that, anecdotally, quite a few accounts appeared to take the opportunity to subscribe for legitimate reasons.\n\nElon Musk has made a number of sweeping changes since he took over Twitter at the end of October after buying it for $44bn (£38bn).\n\nHe said the firm was operating at a loss of $4m per day, and that it needed to become profitable.\n\nHe has laid-off around half its workforce, introduced bedrooms at Twitter HQ in San Francisco for the remaining staff working long hours, and begun re-instating controversial banned accounts, including the rapper Ye (Kanye West), former US president Donald Trump and influencer Andrew Tate.\n\nMr Musk also says Twitter accounts which have been inactive for a certain period of time will be deleted. This has caused dismay among those who say they cherish the accounts of loved ones who have died.\n\nFilm director Rod Lurie tweeted that his \"heart was broken\" at the thought of the account of his late son, Hunter, disappearing.\n\nUnlike Facebook, Twitter users cannot nominate someone to take control of their account after their death although state executors can contact the firm with requests.\n\nYou can follow Zoe Kleinman on Twitter @zsk.", "Dog walkers braved the frost and fog in Primrose Hill in north London\n\nSnow, ice and freezing fog that is sweeping across parts of the UK will continue for days, forecasters said.\n\nThe conditions have caused travel disruption, with delayed trains, motorway accidents and flights from Heathrow cancelled on Sunday morning.\n\nA number of people are in critical condition after being pulled from a lake amid freezing temperatures in Solihull, according to police.\n\nTemperatures could drop as low as -15C (5F) in northeast Scotland overnight.\n\nIf so, it would be the lowest temperature the UK has seen since February last year.\n\nBBC weather presenter Darren Bett said: \"It looks set to stay very cold for the week ahead. Snow and ice, as well as freezing fog, will continue to be a hazard and frosts will continue to be widespread and severe.\n\n\"From Tuesday, the cold northerly wind will develop and bring most of the snow to northern Scotland with as much as 20cm (7.8in) of fresh snow falling in the hills.\"\n\nEarlier, the Met Office warned power cuts and mobile phone coverage might also be affected.\n\nSnow has been settling in Devon and Wales as well as parts of Scotland and areas of north-west England.\n\nA yellow weather warning for snow and ice is in place for Scotland, London and south-west England until Monday morning.\n\nBut the Met Office ended its weather warning for Northern Ireland, despite the cold weather leading to some sporting fixtures being cancelled.\n\nChildren in Northwich, Cheshire, built a snowman after the snow fall\n\nHeavy snowfall caused a series of traffic collisions on Sunday, leaving drivers in treacherous conditions.\n\nIn Shropshire, the M54 between junctions 3 and 2 was shut, while major congestion was also reported on the M5 slip road to the M6.\n\nThe southbound M5 in Gloucestershire was shut after a multi-vehicle crash between junctions 11A and 12 near Quedgeley, Highways England said.\n\nDrivers in north-west England were also being advised to take care following accidents on other motorways including the M58, M62, M61.\n\nTrains across the West Midlands have also been hit by delays.\n\nHeathrow Airport confirmed scores of flights were cancelled on Sunday morning due to the fog.\n\nOn Saturday, Manchester Airport closed both runways due to \"heavy snow fall\", with dozens of flights affected.\n\nMet Office chief meteorologist Steve Willington said: \"It is staying cold with daytime temperatures remaining only a few degrees above freezing in many places over the coming days and overnight temperatures dropping to -10C or lower in isolated spots.\n\n\"Although below average, these temperatures are not that unusual for this time of year.\n\n\"There is still a risk we could see some freezing fog in places particularly southern England.\"\n\nSnow had settled in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, on Sunday\n\nRowers on the river Avon during a cold sunrise in Warwick\n\nPeople are being advised to check on vulnerable family and friends to ensure they have access to warm food and drinks as the wintry conditions hit.\n\nThe UKHSA added that people should make sure indoor temperatures in their homes are at least 18C.\n\nDr Agostinho Sousa, consultant in public health medicine at UKHSA, said: \"Cold weather can have serious consequences for health and older people and those with heart or lung conditions can be particularly at risk.\n\n\"If you have a pre-existing medical condition, you should heat your home to a temperature that is comfortable for you.\n\n\"In rooms you mostly use such as the living room or bedroom, try to heat them to at least 18C if you can. Keep your bedroom windows closed at night. Wearing several layers of clothing will keep you warmer than one thicker layer.\"\n\nGritters will be out this weekend to help clear the roads and ease travel disruption.\n\nDarren Clark, severe weather resilience manager at National Highways, said: \"National Highways is committed to treating every road which needs to be treated - whenever it is needed.\"\n\nThe RAC has added it has been \"exceptionally busy\" in recent days due to receiving a quarter more breakdowns than is normal for this time of year.\n\nHow are you being affected by the cold weather? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Mark Hoyle wore an updated version of Band Aid's Feed The World T-shirt for the recording session\n\nYouTube stars LadBaby have unveiled plans to score an unprecedented fifth Christmas number one single in a row.\n\nThe duo, Mark and Roxanne Hoyle, will cover Band Aid's 1984 hit Do They Know It's Christmas to raise money for those affected by the cost of living crisis.\n\nThey will be joined by finance expert Martin Lewis and \"icons from the music industry\", who are yet-to-be revealed.\n\n\"I don't think everyone is ready for Martin Lewis's singing voice,\" Mark told BBC News. \"He puts me to shame\".\n\nProceeds from the song will be shared equally between food bank charity The Trussell Trust and the Band Aid foundation.\n\nLadBaby made chart history last year when their collaboration with Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John, Sausage Rolls For Everyone, became their fourth consecutive UK Christmas number one.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. LadBaby and Ed Sheeran helped out at a food bank last year\n\nThe Nottinghamshire couple first topped the chart in 2018 with We Built This City, a cover of Starship's 1985 hit; followed by 2019's I Love Sausage Rolls, their take on The Arrows/Joan Jett's I Love Rock 'n' Roll; and 2020's Don't Stop Me Eatin', a cheeky version of Journey's power ballad Don't Stop Believin'.\n\nThey are currently tied with the Beatles as the act with the most festive chart-toppers overall - but the Fab Four only managed three consecutive years at the top, with their run broken by Tom Jones' Green, Green Grass of Home in 1966.\n\n\"We never intended to release a fifth Christmas single but as ambassadors of the Trussell Trust we were not prepared to sit back and do nothing in a year when people are struggling more than ever,\" Mark and Roxanne said in a statement.\n\nThey approached Bob Geldof and Midge Ure (the original writers of Do They Know It's Christmas) to ask for permission six months ago.\n\n\"I wasn't as difficult as people might think,\" said Mark.\n\n\"Bob said he was excited to see what we were going to do, and they've approved everything - all the lyrics we wrote, the music video, who we got involved. Everything.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by LadBaby This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThe single is available for pre-order now and will be released on 16 December, with hopes of topping the Christmas countdown the following Friday.\n\nIt will face competition from perennial favourites like Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You and Wham's Last Christmas, but bookmakers have already made LadBaby the favourites.\n\n\"Come on, we can beat Mariah Carey,\" said Mark. \"We've done it before\".\n\nLewis said he was amazed to have been approached for help.\n\n\"I thought they'd confused me with someone else,\" he said. \"The nearest I've ever got to thinking about a Christmas number one is going to the loo on Boxing Day after too much orange juice the day before.\n\n\"Yet once I knew they were serious, and it was for the Trussell Trust, a hugely important charity I've a history with, I decided to give it a go, and do it with gusto.\"\n\nMark said he had approached the money-saving expert because \"he knows more than most how to help people in this country\".\n\nHe added that Lewis \"has got more raw sex appeal than Ed Sheeran and more legendary status than Elton John\".\n\nThe full cast of guest stars has yet to be revealed\n\nThe charity says the cost of living crisis has placed increased pressure on food banks around the UK.\n\nMore emergency food parcels were given out between April and September than ever before - 1.3 million in total, an increase of 52% compared with the same period in 2019.\n\nOne in five people referred to the charity's food banks are in working households, it added.", "Dave the cat - who became England's unofficial furry mascot - is coming to the UK\n\nThe Three Lions didn't roar to World Cup victory, but a new member of the squad will be coming home with them.\n\nFleet-footed Dave the Cat will be swapping Qatari warmth for English chill - and just in time for the January transfer window.\n\nThe purring predator has won hearts as the players' unofficial mascot.\n\nThey originally said they'd bring stray Dave back if they won the trophy, but decided to rehome him anyway despite their quarter-final heartbreak.\n\nManchester City duo John Stones and Kyle Walker have been Dave's biggest fans, posting regular updates and pictures of the cat most evenings.\n\n\"First day we got there ... Dave pops out,\" said Stones.\n\n\"Every night he's sat there waiting for his food.\"\n\n\"He was just there one day so we've just adopted him, me and Stonesy,\" Walker told the FA's official media channel.\n\nDave is primed and ready to purr\n\nDave became a regular fixture at the team's dinner table, where Walker says he was \"welcome\" - but not everyone agreed.\n\n\"Some people really don't like the cat, but I love him.\"\n\nOne of those rumoured to jump in the air when Dave arrives is Bukayo Saka.\n\nJohn Stones claims to have come up with the moggy's no-nonsense moniker \"because it's just a good name\".\n\nAnd he took to calling him \"Big Dave\" after the four-legged dinner guest started to get a bit \"greedy\".\n\nThis Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by england This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nStray cats are a common sight around restaurants and hotels in host nation Qatar.\n\nDave has won not just the hearts of the England players, but also the attention of the world's media - with questions about him in the week building up to the quarter-final against France.\n\nAnd, perhaps inspired by the drama of that game, Dave recently got into \"a little scrap with another cat\", according to Walker.\n\n\"Fighting over territory and the food. But he's doing well.\"\n\nDave joins an illustrious list of famous animals who have carved a special place in the hearts of the English public.\n\nOne of those has already tweeted his excitement at his impending arrival.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Larry the Cat This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by Larry the Cat\n\nDave left Al Wakrah just two hours after the squad had departed and will first head to a local vet.\n\nThere he will have a blood test and receive vaccinations, spending four months in quarantine before heading to his new digs.\n\nSo while football may not be coming home, Dave the cat is.\n\nListen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.", "Talks to avert strike action by nurses have failed, with the union accusing the health secretary of \"belligerence\".\n\nThe head of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Pat Cullen, said strikes in England, Wales and Northern Ireland would now go ahead on Thursday, after Steve Barclay refused to discuss pay.\n\nThe government said it would continue to engage on non-pay related issues.\n\nThe union is calling for a pay rise of 19.2% but ministers say this is unaffordable.\n\nThe Department of Health said Mr Barclay had \"again listened to the RCN's position on pay and reiterated the government has agreed to the recommendations of the independent pay review body\".\n\nA spokesperson said the health secretary had told Ms Cullen that any further pay increase would mean taking money away from frontline services and tackling the post-Covid backlog.\n\nMs Cullen said she was \"extremely disappointed at the belligerence shown\" in a meeting with the health secretary earlier.\n\nShe said pay was \"fundamental\" to the dispute and not discussing it was \"nothing short of being disrespectful to our profession\".\n\nMs Cullen had said she was \"optimistic\" ahead of the meeting but \"they closed their books and walked away from the nursing profession this afternoon\".\n\n\"We haven't come out with one single brown penny,\" she added.\n\nThe union leader has previously said the strikes could be paused if the health secretary \"seriously\" negotiated over pay.\n\nThe RCN has also failed to reach an agreement with the Welsh government, which said it could not make an increased pay offer without additional funding from the UK government or risking a reduction in services.\n\nMore walkouts are planned for 20 December.\n\nRCN members in Northern Ireland are also part of the strike action. Health sector workers from Unison, Nipsa and GMB in Northern Ireland have already been striking this week over pay and conditions.\n\nThe union is calling for a pay rise of 5% above the RPI inflation rate, which in October was 14.2%, but no UK nation has offered close to that.\n\nThe RCN says its pay demands follow years of squeezes on nurses' salaries, which have not kept up with the rising cost of living.\n\nShadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a Labour government would not be able to afford such a rise but added that it \"would be willing to meet and negotiate\" to avoid a strike.\n\nHe accused ministers of a \"stubborn refusal to engage\" and of blaming NHS staff for the challenges \"that are the direct fault and responsibility of 12 years of Conservative mismanagement\".\n\nMeanwhile, in Scotland, members of two major NHS unions, Unite and Unison, have voted to accept an improved pay offer, averaging 7.5%.\n\nHowever, ballots of GMB, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and RCN members in Scotland are ongoing.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe country is facing a wave of strikes this month, including from paramedics, rail workers, and Border Force staff.\n\nUnions are calling for bigger pay increases to help their members cope with rising prices, but the government has warned this could make inflation worse.\n\nEarlier, ministers and civil servants held an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss contingency plans for the upcoming industrial action, including using the military to cover Border Force staff.\n\nArmed forces will also be sent to hospital trusts to familiarise themselves with vehicles ahead of an ambulance worker strike in England and Wales on 21 and 28 December.\n\nDowning Street has warned there will still be \"serious disruption\".\n\nCabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden, who chaired the meeting, urged unions to call off the strikes.\n\nHe said ministers were \"straining every sinew\" to minimise the risks from walkouts but it would never be able to eliminate them.", "Russian state TV showed images of Viktor Bout being reunited with his family in Moscow last week\n\nRussia's arms dealer Viktor Bout - nicknamed the \"merchant of death\" - has joined the pro-Kremlin ultranationalist LDPR party, following his release in a high-profile US prisoner swap.\n\nIn a video posted online, LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky thanked Bout, 55, for becoming a member of \"the best political party in today's Russia\".\n\nAfter an elaborate US sting, Bout was sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2011.\n\nLast week, he was exchanged for US basketball star Brittney Griner, 32.\n\nGriner, 32, was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possessing cannabis oil and last month she was sent to a penal colony.\n\nGriner's agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, told ESPN that on Sunday, she picked up a basketball for the first time in almost 10 months, starting her light workout with a dunk.\n\nThe agent added that it did not necessarily mean that the athlete - who is currently in the city of San Antonio - would resume her sporting career at the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).\n\nIn the LDPR video published on Monday, Bout is seen standing on stage together with Mr Slutsky and other leading party members.\n\nMr Slutsky said that Bout had spent \"long years\" in prison, but \"today he is with us\".\n\n\"We will return all those who are in trouble outside our motherland,\" he vowed.\n\nMeanwhile, Bout said that for the time being he was not planning to run in any elections, Russia's Ria Novosti news agency reports.\n\nThe LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia) was founded in the early 1990s by the late Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who gained notoriety for his outrageous comments - including repeated demands for Moscow to use nuclear weapons - and his eccentric behaviour.\n\nA serious contender for power during the first years in the post-Soviet Russia, the party is now seen by many as loyal to the Kremlin on key issues, such as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.\n\nIt is not the first time the LDPR has recruited high-profile figures at the centre of big international scandals.\n\nIn 2007, Russian security agent Andrei Lugovoi - wanted in the UK on suspicion of poisoning former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko the year before - also joined the LDPR after fleeing London. He is now a member of the State Duma - the lower chamber of Russia's parliament.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout crossed on airport tarmac", "Two police officers and a member of the public have been shot dead at a remote property in Queensland, Australia.\n\nThe officers were responding to reports of a missing person in Wieambilla - 270km (168 miles) west of Brisbane.\n\nThe offenders are still at large, the police said at a news conference. Residents are being told to remain indoors \"until further notice\".\n\nKatarina Carroll, Queensland Police Commissioner, said four police officers attended the property.\n\nOne received a \"bullet graze\", while another escaped the property. Both are receiving treatment in hospital, she said.\n\nMs Carroll said the offenders are yet to be taken into custody, and that the police operation involves PolAir - which provides aerial support to police - and specialist forces.\n\nShe added that it is the largest loss of life suffered in one incident in recent times, paying tribute to the officers who \"paid the ultimate sacrifice to keep our community safe\".\n\nMark Ryan, Queensland Police Minister, also spoke at the news conference, describing the incident as \"a traumatic, confronting and devastating event for our community\".\n\nAustralian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was a \"heartbreaking day for the families and friends\" of the Queensland Police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.\n\nPeter Dutton, a former Queensland police officer who now leads the opposition Liberal Party, said the murder of police officers was \"deeply distressing\".\n\n\"Police officers face danger every day,\" he said.", "Fewer than 100 people who crossed the English Channel in small boats have been arrested for arriving illegally in the UK under a new power to deter them.\n\nThe figure represents 0.3% of those who have crossed since the law was changed.\n\nUnder the new law, anyone who arrives in the UK without proper permission or good reason commits a crime that can lead to up to four years in prison.\n\nThe BBC sought the figure under freedom of information laws after the Home Office declined to disclose it.\n\nA spokesman for the department said there has been a further 180 arrests since the summer under different immigration laws.\n\nThe new offence of knowingly arriving without permission was part of a package of measures in the Home Office's Nationality and Borders Act, passed earlier this year.\n\nIts creation coincided with ministers increasingly referring to illegal migrants crossing the Channel - a claim hotly disputed by refugee groups. They say the term is misleading and fails to acknowledge the complex reasons for crossings and the legal right to seek protection.\n\nThe government had said the law would deter migrants from risking their lives and help to secure the country's borders.\n\nIn November, the BBC asked the Home Office how many of the migrants were suspected of arriving illegally under this new offence.\n\nIt refused to say - but has now disclosed the figures following a Freedom of Information request.\n\nThe new offence came into force on 28 June.\n\nThat means anyone turning up in Kent after that date could in theory face arrest and prosecution for illegal arrival.\n\nBetween then and mid-November, when we asked for the figures, approximately 29,400 people arrived in small boats.\n\nOf those, the Home Office has now confirmed that:\n\nDuring the law's passage through Parliament, ministers told MPs that the new crime would \"deter migrants from risking their lives\" and help to take back control of the borders.\n\nAt the same time, Parliament was told the new crime would not target people who were \"genuine refugees\" - and over the course of the year almost 90% of those who have arrived have sought asylum.\n\nA spokesman for the Home Office said the new illegal arrival offence was just one important tool to combat people smugglers.\n\n\"Our Nationality and Borders Act is beginning to break through this exploitative business model, with more than 280 people already arrested since it became law.\n\n\"The figures referenced only detail those arrested for illegal arrival not illegal entry or anyone arrested for a breach of a deportation order under the new act.\"\n• None How is the UK stopping Channel crossings?", "Four children were taken to hospital in critical condition after being rescued from an icy lake near Birmingham.\n\nThey are believed to have fallen into the water after playing on ice in Babbs Mill Park, Kingshurst. They were taken to two hospitals in Birmingham.\n\nWest Midlands Ambulance Service said the children had been in cardiac arrest when they were rescued, but offered no further update on their condition.\n\nThe Met Office has warned of the risks of ice as the UK faces a cold spell.\n\nDuring a news conference on Sunday evening, West Midlands fire chief Richard Stanton said crews were told on arrival that up to six people had been in the lake.\n\nHe said: \"We have continued search operations in order to confirm whether there were any more in the water.\"\n\nBut he later clarified that \"this would no longer be a search and rescue operation\", citing the coldness of the water, the age of those who had entered, and the time they may have been in there.\n\nThe ambulance service said during the news conference that its resources had been stood down.\n\nSupt Richard Harris, of West Midlands Police, added that his officers would \"hold the scene tonight\", but he could not confirm they were looking for anyone else at this stage.\n\nHe said one officer had suffered \"mild hypothermia\" during the rescue operation, but was making a recovery after being taken to hospital \"as a precaution\".\n\nAll three emergency services said they were called shortly after 14:30 GMT on Sunday, with the first ambulance arriving within seven minutes after it was called.\n\nBy the time firefighters arrived, both police office officers and members of the public were involved in rescue attempts, Mr Harris said.\n\nTemperatures of 1C (34F) were reported in the area at the time. They are expected to plummet to -3C overnight.\n\nThe UK is expected to continue experiencing a cold spell - with snow, ice and freezing fog expected for days, according to forecasts.\n\nTemperatures could drop as low as -15C in northeast Scotland overnight, which would be the lowest temperature recorded in the UK since February last year.\n\nThe four children received immediate treatment on site, said Cameron McVittie, a tactical commander with the West Midlands Ambulance Service.\n\nThey were then taken under blue lights to hospital, each with an advanced care team, Mr McVittie said - two going to Birmingham Children's Hospital and two to Heartlands Hospital.\n\nHe added: \"There are no updates. They were all in critical condition when they arrived in hospital.\"\n\nThe officials declined to provide any further information about the children involved in the incident.\n\nConcerned members of the community had gathered near the scene in a residential area, as emergency services worked at the lake.\n\nA drone was also spotted flying over the water.\n\nBabbs Mill Park is a local nature reserve with a lake, river, wildflower grasslands and woodlands.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nWest Midlands Mayor Andy Street tweeted to say it had been a \"deeply concerning incident\", adding: \"I know we'll all be praying for the children to pull through\".\n\nThe Met Office warned of the dangers posed by ice during the UK's cold spell.\n\nA spokesperson said: \"With temperatures set to struggle to get much above freezing over the coming days across much of the country, stretches of water such as rivers and ponds are at risk of freezing.\n\n\"While frozen rivers and ponds can be fascinating, they can be dangerous and a hazard to life.\"\n\nDo you live in the area? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "A firefighter works to extinguish a fire at a power infrastructure object in Odesa on 6 December\n\nOperations have resumed at the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa after Russia used Iranian-made drones to hit energy facilities in the city.\n\nThe port in the south of the country was closed after strikes on Saturday left 1.5 million people and all non-critical infrastructure without power.\n\nUkraine's president said it could take days to restore electricity, with sub-zero temperatures expected this week.\n\nOdesa is one of three ports being used to ship grain under a UN-brokered deal.\n\nThe agreement, mediated by Turkey and the UN, allows Ukrainian products to be transported safely to the rest of the world. The deal has helped bring down soaring global food prices.\n\nAlthough operations at Odesa port were briefly stopped on Sunday, Ukraine's agriculture minister said grain exports would not be suspended.\n\nIn total, Russia launched 15 Iranian-made drones at the regions of Odesa and neighbouring Mykolaiv, 10 of which were shot down, Ukraine's armed forces said.\n\n\"The situation in the Odesa region is very difficult,\" Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address. \"Unfortunately the hits were critical, so it takes more than just time to restore electricity. It doesn't take hours, but a few days.\"\n\nThousands of people have made use of the region's \"points of invincibility\" - facilities which supply electricity and warmth to residents during blackouts.\n\nImages posted on social media showed dozens of people crowding round power points charging their phones.\n\nThe strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, which intensified in mid-October, have left millions of people in nearly all regions of the country without power, as temperatures drop below zero.\n\nA complete blackout across the entire country is a now realistic scenario, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told German television on Sunday.\n\nRussia's frequent attacks on Ukraine's power grid have led to calls for the West to supply Kyiv with better air defence weapons.\n\nOn Sunday, US President Joe Biden told President Zelensky that Ukraine's air defence was a priority for Washington.\n\nThe two spoke in a phone call before a meeting of G7 leaders on Monday, where further sanctions against Russia and Iran will be discussed.\n\nThe proposed measures would target Iran over its supply of drones to Russia, while EU foreign ministers are set to discuss a ninth package of sanctions which would place almost 200 more individuals and entities on its sanctions list.\n\nFrank Gardner looks at what lies ahead as winter arrives in Ukraine.\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)\n\nEast of Odesa, Ukrainian strikes killed two people in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol over the weekend, according to Moscow-installed local authorities.\n\nThe city has been under occupation since early March and is a major logistics hub for Russian forces in the south-east.\n\nIt is strategically located between Mariupol to the east, Kherson and the Dnipro River to the west, and Crimea to the south.", "Members of two major NHS unions in Scotland have voted to accept an improved pay offer.\n\nThis ends the risk of strike action in the health service by members of Unite and Unison.\n\nBut ballots of GMB, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) and Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members are ongoing.\n\nHealth Secretary Humza Yousaf welcomed the decision by Unite and Unison to accept the \"record pay offer\".\n\nLast month the Scottish government tabled an improved deal averaging 7.5% to health workers threatening industrial action.\n\nIt will see most NHS staff in Scotland get a rise of just over £2,200 a year.\n\nIt confirmed 64% of its health membership voted to accept the proposal which was tabled following talks involving unions, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Health Secretary Humza Yousaf and NHS Scotland.\n\nSharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: \"The improved offer for NHS Scotland workers which is worth over 11% for the lowest pay bands is a testament to the resolve of our members.\n\n\"They were prepared to take the difficult step in taking industrial action but only because they had no other option left.\n\n\"Unite makes no apologies for fighting for better jobs, pay and conditions in the health service because NHS Scotland workers should be fairly rewarded for the outstanding work that they do day in and day out.\"\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing has voted to take strike action\n\nUnison, Scotland's largest NHS union, announced that 57% of health members voted to accept the offer after a digital ballot closed at noon.\n\nThe union said negotiators would now work with the Scottish government, NHS employers and other unions to process the pay award as soon as possible.\n\nWilma Brown, chairwoman of Unison's Scotland's health committee said: \"Whilst this decision ends the immediate threat of industrial action, it is not a win for government - it is a warning.\n\n\"It was far from a unanimous decision and many of the NHS professional grades feel badly let down.\n\n\"Almost half of Unison NHS staff voted to reject this latest pay offer, and many who did vote to accept, did so reluctantly.\"\n\nUnison Scotland represents 50,000 NHS workers including nurses, midwives and support staff, such as domestics, porters and administrative workers.\n\nThe Scottish government will be hugely relieved that Unison and Unite members have accepted the latest pay offer.\n\nBut it does not mean the threat of industrial action in the NHS has gone.\n\nThe GMB will say on Wednesday whether its members have voted for the deal. A ballot by the Royal College of Nursing continues until next Monday.\n\nThe RCN result in particular is not a foregone conclusion.\n\nStill the pay deal accepted by Unison and Unite will be looked at closely by their colleagues in the rest of the UK.\n\nIt is likely to be a line in the sand for them - something they can judge their offers against.\n\nIt will also give negotiators an insight into the least amount that might be acceptable to their members.\n\nGMB Scotland last month suspended a 26-hour ambulance strike and has put the new deal to more than 4,000 members in a vote.\n\nSenior organiser Keir Greenaway said staff needed to be valued to \"tackle the chronic understaffing crisis across NHS front line services\" after a decade of cuts and the Covid pandemic.\n\nThe union is expected to announce the results of its ballot on 14 December.\n\nThe CSP's consultation will also close on Wednesday. It has recommended its members accept the pay offer.\n\nMeanwhile, the RCN, which has yet to confirm strike dates after members across the UK voted for action, said the new deal \"still does not meet our members' expectations\".\n\nIt had asked for at least 5% above inflation, which is currently 11.1%.\n\nThe RCN's ballot of its 30,000 NHS members closes on 19 December but it is not clear when the result will be announced.\n\nThe Scottish government previously said the new deal was an unprecedented pay deal for front-line employees, including nurses, paramedics, allied health professionals and healthcare support staff.\n\nAnnual pay rises under the latest deal would range from a flat rate payment of £2,205 for staff in Bands 1 to 4 and up to £2,660 for staff in Bands 5 to 7, backdated to April.\n\nThis represents an increase of 11.3% for the lowest paid workers and delivers an average uplift of 7.5%, a government spokesperson said.\n\nMr Yousaf said: \"We have engaged tirelessly with trade union representatives over recent weeks, leaving no stone unturned to reach an offer which responds to the key concerns of staff across the service.\n\n\"This offer of over half a billion pounds underlines our commitment to supporting our fantastic NHS staff.\"\n\nHe added that a newly qualified nurse would see a pay rise of 8.7%, and experienced nurses and would get uplifts of between £2,450 and £2,75.\n\nThe health secretary said: \"We are making this offer at a time of extraordinary financial challenges to the Scottish government to get money into the pockets of hard working staff and to avoid industrial action, in what is already going to be an incredibly challenging winter.\"", "Elan Arfor Connor had to \"push and push\" to be issued with a certificate which officially recorded Elis's birth\n\nWomen who lose their babies before 24 weeks in Wales should get certificates to formally recognise their pregnancy, campaigners have said.\n\nIn July, it was announced that women experiencing miscarriage, ectopic or molar pregnancies in England could get a certificate at any stage.\n\nNow, people want Wales to follow suit, with one woman who lost her son saying they help with the grieving process.\n\nThe Welsh government said all families who experienced a loss were supported.\n\nBut there is currently no way to register miscarriages before six months.\n\nInstead, the law requires the birth of a baby who was born showing no signs of life from 24 weeks to be registered as a stillbirth.\n\nFamilies are also offered memory boxes which include a certificate of birth.\n\nBaby Elis died just minutes after he was born\n\nElan Arfor Connor from Anglesey lost her son after giving birth at 22 weeks last August.\n\nElis was born alive, but died minutes later.\n\n\"After that I was given the option to leave the hospital or stay in a bereavement room overnight and I stayed with him the entire night. He was put into a cold cot,\" she said.\n\n\"It was traumatic to have to go through labour and try to emotionally prepare for the fact you're going to give birth and you don't know if your son is going to be alive or not.\n\n\"Nothing prepares you for the feeling of having to hold your son after giving birth and watching him die in your arms. It was the most traumatic thing I've ever been through.\"\n\nElan said she wanted an official certificate to recognise Elis's life, but was told she was not entitled to one because she lost him before 24 weeks - despite the fact he was alive at birth - and was told she may even have to go to court to fight for it.\n\n\"I had videos and pictures to prove he was alive when he was born,\" she said.\n\n\"The midwife came back and asked if this is something I'm sure I'd want to go through and if it would make me feel any better.\n\n\"I said 'I'm very happy to go all the way because I know what I saw'. I pushed and pushed for one.\"\n\nElis was \"very much real\" says Elan\n\nAfter two months, Elan was issued with an official birth certificate for Elis.\n\nThis is registered as a neonatal death, meaning a baby delivered either before or after 24 weeks who shows signs of life but subsequently dies within 28 days.\n\nBut Elan said if certificates of loss before 24 weeks were available, she would have never had had to fight for one.\n\n\"It was horrible having to fight for that. When you're trying to grieve and manage everything and contact all these people, you feel really alone and like you're fighting with a wall.\"\n\nElan said having a certificate helped with the grieving process.\n\n\"For me, because I couldn't bring my son into the world the way I wanted to, it felt like it was something I needed to do for him and me.\n\n\"He was very much real and I needed that certificate to prove that he was here and he existed in this world.\"\n\nThe certificates that are being introduced in England will be optional and do not come with the legal benefits for registration, such as maternity leave, but campaigners and charities say for many people they will provide comfort and acknowledgement.\n\nJessica Evans says having an official certificate would help 'legitimise' loss for grieving families\n\nZoe Clark-Coates, CEO of SayingGoodbye.org, was at the forefront of the campaign in England.\n\nShe has experienced pregnancy loss herself and said giving parents the option to have a certificate was crucial.\n\n\"Some are often left with no physical existence that this baby ever existed,\" she said.\n\n\"What people told us they wanted was an official certificate so they can pass that down through the generations.\"\n\nJessica Evans, baby loss campaign lead at the Fair Treatment for the Women of Wales charity, calls the current situation a \"postcode lottery\".\n\nShe added: \"Ultimately I think the certificates will help to legitimise people's grief and help to process their grief.\"\n\nThe Welsh government said: \"All families who experience pregnancy loss at maternity units in Wales are supported by bereavement midwives, in conjunction with Sands, and offered memory boxes which include a certificate of birth.\n\n\"Our women's health implementation group is continuing to support a range of women's health issues, ahead of the publication of NHS Wales' 10-year women's health plan.\"\n\nThe UK government said: \"Work on this is ongoing and we will set out more in due course.\"", "National Grid has stood down two coal plants that it had put on standby to generate electricity in case supplies were disrupted because of cold weather.\n\nThe company had asked Drax, which owns Britain's biggest power station, to prepare two coal-fired units on Monday.\n\nIt is still planning to run a test of its scheme that offers discounts on bills for households who cut peak-time electricity use on Monday evening.\n\nThe move comes as the UK experiences a snap of freezing temperatures.\n\nIt means demand for energy rises as more people heat their homes, and a lack of wind has reduced the amount of renewable energy available.\n\nIt is understood because of the cold temperatures, Monday will be the highest demand day for electricity so far this winter.\n\nNational Grid said earlier on Monday that while it had asked Drax to warm up its two coal-fired units at its site near Selby, North Yorkshire, the plants might not be used. It confirmed at lunchtime the power station had been told to stand down.\n\nIt said households should \"continue to use energy as normal\".\n\nThe UK receives electricity via subsea cables from other European countries including France, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands, but higher demand in Europe could potentially disrupt supplies to the UK and would trigger the need for coal-generated energy.\n\nIn October, National Grid warned there was a risk of blackouts over the winter months as a last resort if energy supplies reach low levels.\n\nFintan Slye, executive director of National Grid, told the BBC on Monday that power outages were \"still a possibility\", but said the network operators remained \"cautiously optimistic through the winter that we will be able to manage it\".\n\n\"We have enough supplies secured through the rest of the day that we can manage that and ensure there's no disruption to customers' supplies,\" he told the BBC's Today programme.\n\nHowever, the electricity system operator (ESO) arm of National Grid said it was running a test of a scheme on Monday that offers discounts on bills for households who cut their electricity use at peak times between 17:00 and 19:00.\n\nIt allows people to save cash if they avoid high-power activities, such as cooking or using washing machines, when demand is high. National Grid has said this could save households up to £100 over the winter.\n\nBut only homes with smart meters and whose supplier is signed up to the \"Demand Flexibility Scheme\" will be able to take part. About 14 million homes, less than half of all households in England, Scotland and Wales, have a smart meter installed.\n\nMr Slye said the test had been triggered because National Grid wanted to \"test how consumers would respond when the weather was really cold\". It is understood a decision was made by National Grid at 14:30 GMT on Sunday.\n\nAccording to National Grid ESO's website, British Gas, EDF, Eon and Octopus are signed up to the scheme but Scottish Power appears not to be.\n\nOctopus told the BBC that almost 250,000 of its customers had signed up to Monday's two-hour test so far, adding that its customers across the country had been paid £1m so far from taking part in previous \"saving sessions\".\n\nBritish Gas also confirmed it would be contacting customers to take part in Monday's scheme, but EDF said it would not be participating as it was finalising its plans.", "Sergei (not his real name) says his son was beaten with a pistol for refusing to go back to the frontlines\n\nWhen his son was sent to fight in Ukraine, Sergei begged him not to go.\n\n\"You've got relatives there. Just refuse,\" Sergei recalls telling Stas, who was already an army officer. \"But he said he was going. He believed it was right. I told him that he was a zombie. And that, unfortunately, life would prove that.\"\n\nSergei and Stas are not the real names of this father and son. We've changed them to protect their identities. Sergei has invited us to his home to tell us their story.\n\n\"So off he went to Ukraine. Then I started getting messages from him asking what would happen if he refused to fight.\"\n\nStas told his father about one particular battle.\n\n\"He said the [Russian] soldiers had been given no cover; there was no intelligence gathering; no preparation. They'd been ordered to advance, but no one knew what lay ahead.\n\n\"But refusing to fight was a difficult decision for him to take. I told him: 'Better to take it. This is not our war. It's not a war of liberation.' He said he would put his refusal in writing. He and several others who'd decided to refuse had their guns taken off them and were put under armed guard.\"\n\nSergei made several trips to the front line to try to secure his son's release. He bombarded military officials, prosecutors and investigators with appeals for help.\n\nEventually his efforts paid off. Stas was sent back to Russia. He revealed to his father what had happened to him in detention: how a \"different group\" of Russian soldiers had tried to force him to fight.\n\nThere are reports of mobilised Russian troops locked in cellars and basements for refusing to fight in Ukraine\n\n\"They beat him and then they took him outside as if they were going to shoot him. They made him lie on the ground and told him to count to ten. He refused. So, they beat him over the head several times with a pistol. He told me his face was covered in blood.\n\n\"Then they took him into a room and told him: 'You're coming with us, otherwise we'll kill you.' But then someone said they'd take my son to work in the storeroom.\"\n\nStas was a serving officer when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. President Vladimir Putin promised that only professional soldiers would take part in his \"special military operation.\"\n\nBut by September that had all changed. The president announced what he called a \"partial mobilisation\", drafting hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens into the armed forces.\n\nMany of the newly mobilised troops were quick to complain that they were being sent to a war zone without sufficient equipment or adequate training. From Ukraine there have been multiple reports of mobilised Russian troops being detained - in some cases, locked in cellars and basements - for refusing to return to the frontline.\n\n\"It's a way of making people go back into that bloodbath,\" says Elena Popova from Russia's Movement of Conscientious Objectors. \"The commanders' aim is to keep the soldiers down there. The commanders know only violence and intimidation. But you cannot force people to fight.\"\n\nFor some Russians, refusing to return to the front line may be a moral stand. But there's a more common explanation.\n\n\"Those refusing to fight are doing so because they've had more than their fair share of front line action,\" explains Elena Popova. \"Another reason is the foul way they're being treated. They've spent time in the trenches, getting cold and hungry, but when they come back they just get shouted and sworn at by their commanders.\"\n\nThe Russian authorities dismiss reports of disillusioned soldiers and detention centres as fake news.\n\n\"We do not have any camps or incarceration facilities, or the like [for Russian soldiers],\" President Putin insisted earlier this month. \"This is all nonsense and fake claims and there is nothing to back them up with.\"\n\n\"We do not have any problems with soldiers leaving combat positions,\" the Kremlin leader continued. \"In a situation when there is shelling or bombs falling, all normal people cannot help but react to it, even on the physiological level. But after a certain adaptation period, our men fight brilliantly.\"\n\nAndrei, a Russian lieutenant, stopped fighting. Deployed to Ukraine in July, Andrei was placed in detention for refusing to carry out orders. He managed to contact his mother, Oxana, back in Russia to tell her what was going on. Once again, we have changed their names.\n\n\"He told me he had refused to lead his men to a certain death,\" Oxana tells me. \"As an officer he understood that if they went ahead, they wouldn't get out alive. For that they sent my son to a detention centre. Then I got a text message saying he and four other officers had been put in a basement. They haven't been seen for five months.\n\n\"Later I was told that the building they were in had been shelled and that all five men were missing. They said no remains had been found. Their official status is missing in action. It doesn't make sense. It's absurd. The way my son was treated wasn't only illegal, it was inhuman.\"\n\nBack in his living room, Sergei tells me that what happened to Stas in Ukraine has brought them closer together.\n\n\"We're on the same wavelength now,\" Sergei tells me. \"The wall of misunderstanding between us has gone. All his bravado has gone. My son told me, 'I never thought my own country would treat me this way.' He's changed completely. He gets it now.\"\n\n\"People here don't understand how much danger we're in. Not from the opposing side. But from our own side.\"\n\nProduced by Will Vernon. Images by Anton Chicherov.\n\nFrank Gardner looks at what lies ahead as winter arrives in Ukraine.\n\nWatch now on BBC iPlayer (UK only)", "Hospitals in England have paid out as much as £5,200 for a shift by a doctor through an agency, according to figures obtained by Labour through Freedom of Information requests.\n\nThat is the latest in an intensifying debate over workforce shortages in the NHS in England.\n\nLabour blamed the high agency fees on Conservatives, arguing they had failed to train enough doctors and nurses.\n\nA Conservative spokesperson said \"record numbers\" had been recruited.\n\nThe information on payments for agency workers comes from Freedom of Information requests to NHS trusts in England made by Labour covering the financial year 2021/22.\n\nThe most expensive reported shift was £5,234 - paid by Northern Care Alliance NHS Trust in northern England. This covers the agency fee and other employer costs as well as the money going to the doctor.\n\nThere was a response rate of about 40% of major hospital trusts in England. Labour says one in three of those who responded paid an agency more than £3,000 for a single doctor's shift last year, while three quarters paid more than £2,000.\n\nThe NHS Confederation said the \"staffing crisis\" was so \"desperate\" that NHS trusts were being forced to pay large fees to make sure rotas were \"staffed safely\".\n\nMatthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: \"Trusts are having to breach the caps on how much they pay for agency doctors because of the extremely high levels of demand they are facing for their services.\n\n\"The staffing crisis is so desperate that they either pay these fees or find that their rotas cannot be staffed safely, leading to reduced services for patients. This is particularly true in parts of the country where the NHS can struggle to recruit new staff.\"\n\nLabour's shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said: \"Desperate hospitals are forced to pay rip-off fees to agencies, because the Conservatives have failed to train enough doctors and nurses over the past 12 years.\"\n\nMr Streeting said that, if elected, Labour would train 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses a year, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status - the status which allows UK residents whose permanent homes are abroad not to pay UK tax on overseas income.\n\nA Conservative spokesperson said 4,000 more doctors and 9,000 more nurses had been hired since September 2021.\n\nThey added: \"Labour cannot be trusted to support our NHS - they have no plan to grip inflation, resolve strikes or boost the workforce.\"\n\nIn November, BBC News revealed that spending on agency health workers in England rose by 20% to £3 billion last year.\n\nSome NHS bosses told us how they had to breach government pay cap guidelines to ensure staffing ratios were maintained.\n\nThe cap is set at 55% above what a normal employee would earn. One cancer specialist told BBC News he was offered work for £130 an hour and described the fees available as \"astonishing\".\n\nPreviously reported figures suggest spending also appears to be rising in other parts of the UK.\n\nIn Scotland it has doubled in the past year, while in Wales it has risen by more than 40%. In Northern Ireland, it is four times higher than it was three years ago.\n\nIn response to the latest findings, Miriam Deakin of NHS Providers, representing trusts in England, said: \"Funding is very tight but agency costs will remain part of the picture while staff are in short supply. Trusts are doing all they can to avoid unnecessary costs\".\n\nNHS England is to publish a long-term workforce plan in the spring to present to ministers who will decide how to fund it.\n\nThe medical director of NHS England, Sir Steve Powis, told the Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that the NHS needed more staff and \"if you ask me personally, when it comes to doctors, we need more medical student places\".", "Most train companies are likely to be affected, and Network Rail advises to \"only travel if absolutely necessary\"\n\nTrain passengers are braced for major disruption this week, as a series of strikes is set to bring the UK's rail network to a standstill.\n\nAbout 40,000 rail workers are walking out on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday as part of a long-running row over jobs, pay and conditions.\n\nIt comes after members of the UK's biggest rail union, the RMT, rejected fresh pay offers and vowed to fight on.\n\nBut the government says it will not back down, despite the \"damage\" done.\n\nMost train companies across Britain are likely to be affected, and Network Rail has urged passengers to \"only travel if absolutely necessary\".\n\nTravellers are advised to check their train-operating company's website before setting out, with delays and cancellations also likely on the days around the strikes.\n\nThere are likely to be no services early in the morning or late at night, with only one in five services operating between 07:30 - 18:30 GMT.\n\nThe RMT has held a series of strikes since the summer that have shut much of the rail network in England, Scotland and Wales and threaten to hit businesses in the run-up to Christmas.\n\nIt comes as workers in many other industries down tools, with bus drivers, Royal Mail workers, nurses and highways workers and baggage handlers also striking this week.\n\nRail workers are calling for better conditions and pay rises to match the pace of inflation, with the cost of living rising at its fastest rate for more than 40 years.\n\nBut the government has ruled out inflation-linked wage increases, and rail bosses say big changes are needed to modernise the railway.\n\nOn Monday, Network Rail, which operates the UK's rail infrastructure, said the union was causing \"misery\" after its members rejected a fresh pay deal.\n\nThe Transport Secretary Mark Harper meanwhile said that the strikes by rail workers will be \"very damaging\".\n\nMr Harper told the BBC he was \"very disappointed\" that the RMT had rejected the latest pay offer \"out of hand\" and that isn't \"a bottomless pot\" of money.\n\n\"A fair and reasonable offer has been made, we do also need to see reform agreed at the same time,\" he added.\n\nBut Mr Lynch said the government was doing nothing to stop the walkouts and effectively wanted to ban such action with tough new anti-strike laws.\n\n\"Our members, along with the entire trade union movement will continue their campaign for a square deal for workers, decent pay increases and good working conditions,\" he said.\n\nEmma Godivala, who runs the York Gin distillery, said the strikes were hitting her business ahead of the vital Christmas trading period.\n\nThe company has closed one of its shops in York railway station as they didn't think there would be any customers, and bookings for tasting events this week have been cancelled too.\n\n\"Lots of independent traders make most of their trade at Christmas time, so it's having a disproportionately large effect because of the time of year,\" she told the BBC.\n\nSarah Czarnecki, vice chair of the Hospitality Association York, said some hotels in the city had seen bookings, conferences and meetings cancelled \"because of the nervousness around getting here and getting back\".\n\n\"This happening in the week before Christmas is obviously going to hurt because everybody's trying to bolster their bank balance in order to deal with the first quarter of next year,\" she said.\n\nThe RMT is involved in two negotiating battles, one with Network Rail, where it represents around 20,000 signallers and maintenance workers, and the other with the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), where it represents about 20,000 workers at 14 train companies.\n\nLast week, the union rejected an offer from the Rail Delivery Group which would allow for a 4% pay rise this year and another 4% next year, arguing it did not meet its criteria for pay or conditions.\n\nAmong other changes it would have seen ticket offices closed or repurposed, more Sunday working and greater use of part-time contracts.\n\nBut Mr Lynch said it would mean \"the loss of thousands of jobs\" and the use of \"unsafe practices\".\n\nMeanwhile, 63.6% of RMT members at Network Rail who voted rejected a deal on Monday that would have given them a 5% pay rise this year and a 4% rise in 2023.\n\nThe union said the offer was \"substandard\" and depended on big changes to working practices, as well as 1,900 job losses, although Network Rail insisted the cuts could be achieved voluntarily.\n\nAfter this week's walkouts, RMT members at both groups will strike again on 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nIn addition, members at Network Rail will go on strike from 18:30 on Christmas Eve until 06:00 on 27 December.\n\nMr Lynch has called on the prime minister to meet him to attempt to resolve the dispute.\n\nBut on Monday Rishi Sunak's official spokesman said: \"We are not seeking to impose government over and above either the independent pay review process or ongoing discussions between employers and the unions.\n\n\"We won't be changing the process.\"\n\nOn Monday, ministers discussed contingency plans for upcoming strikes, including using the military and civil servants to cover Border Force staff, at an emergency Cobra meeting.\n\nThe armed forces will also be deployed to hospital trusts ahead of an ambulance strike, the government says.\n\nBut Downing Street warned there would still be serious disruption and added that the country is facing \"a challenging number of days\".\n\nHow are you affected by the rail strike? Are you taking part in the strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Police officers at the scene in Babbs Mill Park in Kingshurst, Solihull on Monday\n\nA search is continuing after four children were rescued from an icy lake near Solihull.\n\nThe children were in cardiac arrest when they were helped from the water. It is thought they had been playing on ice in Babbs Mill Park, Kingshurst.\n\nSearch operations are continuing to determine if there was anyone else in the water. Emergency crews were told six people had been seen on the ice.\n\nPolice have not confirmed they are looking for anyone else at this stage.\n\nEmergency services were sent to the scene at about 14:30 GMT on Sunday.\n\nMembers of the public lay flowers near to the scene in Babbs Mill Park\n\nOn Monday, West Midlands Fire Service chief Richard Stanton said specialist police diving teams would be continuing to search as a precaution.\n\nHe added there was no update on the condition of the four children who were pulled from the water.\n\nMr Stanton said up to six people had potentially been in there and that teams had continued to extensively search \"in very difficult conditions in very difficult temperatures\".\n\nEmergency workers rescued four children from Babbs Mill Lake on Sunday\n\nSt Anthony's Primary in Kingshurst, a few minutes walk away from the park, tweeted it would be shut on Monday, because of the incident.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by St Anthony's Primary This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nKamren Whyte said he had been in shock when he had first heard the news\n\nBBC WM reporter Nish Chauhan was at the scene on Monday and said residents were arriving with hot drinks for the emergency workers.\n\n\"That gives you a true reflection of what the people are like round here,\" he said.\n\nThe park is a popular place year-round, he said, with basketball courts and grassland used by many dog walkers. There is also a children's play area and a skate park, both near the lake.\n\nOn Sunday, Kamren Whyte, from New Testament Church of God, in Kingshurst, handed out warm drinks to emergency service workers.\n\n\"If it was anybody going into the water it would have been a tragedy, but especially children,\" Mr Whyte said.\n\nResidents were bringing hot drinks to the rescue workers\n\nIan Courts, leader of Solihull Council, and deputy leader Karen Grinsell visited the cordon at Babbs Mill lake on Monday with both praising the bravery of emergency service rescue teams.\n\nMr Courts said: \"This is just about as bad as it gets... a dreadful situation.\n\nMeriden MP Saqib Bhatti also visited the scene, praising emergency services for their heroic efforts to pull four children from the water.\n\n\"In these conditions not to worry about your own safety and just to go after those children is heroic,\" he said.\n\nOn Sunday, Supt Richard Harris, of West Midlands Police, said one officer had suffered \"mild hypothermia\" during the rescue operation, but was making a recovery after being taken to hospital as a precaution.\n\nBy the time firefighters arrived at the lake on Sunday afternoon, police officers and members of the public were involved in rescue attempts, he said.\n\nTwo children were taken to Heartlands Hospital in Solihull and another two taken to Birmingham Children's Hospital.\n\nTemperatures of 1C (34F) were reported in the area at the time. They plummeted to about -3C (26F) overnight.\n\nThe UK is expected to continue experiencing a cold spell - with snow, ice and freezing fog expected for days, according to forecasts.\n\n\"While frozen rivers and ponds can be fascinating, they can be dangerous and a hazard to life,\" the Met Office said.\n\nDo you live in the area? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "Jamie Douglas-Hamilton was told he only had 12 months to live if he did not have the open heart surgery\n\nA man is to attempt one of the world's most dangerous rows in the Antarctic in honour of the \"forgotten hero\" of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance voyage - just months after open heart surgery.\n\nJamie Douglas-Hamilton will row from Elephant Island to South Georgia.\n\nThe grandson of the 14th Duke of Hamilton will brave the Scotia Sea - the roughest and coldest on Earth.\n\nHe is also calling for the Polar Medal to be awarded posthumously to Harry McNish, the carpenter on Endurance.\n\nMcNish was on Shackleton's ill-fated voyage, which ended with the expedition vessel being sunk by pack ice in October 1915.\n\nThe group managed to reach Elephant Island and McNish, from Port Glasgow, adapted the James Caird lifeboat to make it seaworthy for the voyage. Some of the crew made it to South Georgia to seek help.\n\nMr Douglas-Hamilton, 41, from Edinburgh, will be the only Britain in a team of six hoping to row the 950-mile route sailed by the James Caird, which has never been attempted before in a rowing boat.\n\nThe adventurer, who is a seven times Guinness World record holder, told BBC Scotland he had read the unpublished diaries of Harry McNish after befriending his great nephew, John McNish.\n\nJamie Douglas-Hamilton will row with a team from Elephant Island to South Georgia in the Antarctic\n\nHe said: \"I've read all of his personal diary and it is a myth that Shackleton was the greatest leader of all time. The truth is quite different.\n\n\"None of the crew would have made it back if it was not for Harry McNish.\n\n\"Not only did he build the boat that saved the whole crew with the most limited of tools, but he created the sledges and the crampons using nails from the boat for Shackleton to cross the mountains of South Georgia to the whaling station on the other side.\n\n\"Without McNish speaking up to Shackleton on the pack ice, the lifeboat hulls would have been irreparably damaged. He was portrayed as a mutineer but was the real hero.\"\n\nMr Douglas-Hamilton said he died destitute in New Zealand, unable to use his hands due to frostbite from the trip.\n\nJamie Douglas-Hamilton is still recovering from his surgery\n\nJohn McNish, said, \"Our family are incredibly touched that Jamie is rowing the treacherous seas of the Antarctic which my great uncle sailed in the early 1900s and that the journey will be made in honour of him.\n\n\"Our family is incredibly proud of my great uncle, and we have always believed it to be very unjust that Chippy wasn't given the Polar Medal.\n\n\"It is very exciting that this expedition, The Harry McNish Row, will highlight just how brave and courageous my great uncle was.\"\n\nThe trip was originally planned for December 2021 but had to be postponed as Mr Douglas-Hamilton discovered he had a heart condition that he believes would have killed him on the journey.\n\n\"I was born with a bicuspid aortic valve where you've only got two valves going to the aorta not three,\" he said.\n\nHe went to the hospital for scans after drifting in and out of consciousness during a cycling race in May and was told he needed immediate open heart surgery.\n\n\"I couldn't believe it, I went in there trying to get antibiotics and then had to go through this process, my heart was double the size,\" he said.\n\n\"It had been leaking for 20 years.\"\n\nSurgeons replaced the aorta and valve using metal, fabric and a bovine cusp.\n\nIt is only in the last week that he has been able to train at full capacity since having the operation in August, which left him unable to even pick up a kettle for the first six weeks.\n\nBy the time he leaves for the challenge on 10 January he will only have had five months to recover.\n\nBut Mr Douglas-Hamilton told BBC Scotland he was not scared to take on the row, which he is undergoing to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.\n\nHe said: \"The best thing to do with these things is to throw yourself into the situation and then there is no way of getting out so you have to carry on.\n\n\"While you are on the boat you don't have very much time to daydream as you are fighting for every second.\n\n\"It's afterwards you look back and think that was pretty scary.\"\n\nMr Douglas-Hamilton is the only British member of a team of six who will row three at a time in 90-minute shifts around the clock over the course of the journey, which is expected to take two and a half to three weeks.\n\nThe boat will be captained by Icelandic explorer, Fiann Paul, who has more than 40 world records.\n\nMr Douglas-Hamilton knows what is in store for him after completing three other dangerous rowing challenges.\n\nThe former East Lothian's Belhaven Hill School pupil - who was previously part of a team which rowed from Chile to Antarctica in 2019, said: \"On my last trip a string in my boot rubbed so much it went through to the bone.\n\n\"The pain was so bad I couldn't sleep for two days and nights.\n\n\"My toes froze and my hands went numb. The carbon fibre boat is in very cold water which you're sitting on and the constant spray and waves mean your are constantly cold and wet with no heaters to dry you.\n\n\"The pain you go through is tremendous and I remember feeling in agony.\"\n\nMr Douglas-Hamilton was inspired by his grandfather, Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, to be an adventurer. His grandfather was the first man to fly over Mount Everest in 1933 in an open cockpit plane.\n\nMr Douglas-Hamilton said: \"I wish I had been born in that time of exploration.\n\n\"Most things have been done now although the oceans are the last frontier so that's why I've chosen rowing.\"\n\nHe added: \"It does get pretty concerning out there when you're being tossed around like you are in a washing machine. The secret is to trick your sub-conscious mind.\"\n\nHe said his father, James Douglas-Hamilton, a member of the House of Lords as a life peer, and mother were fully supporting him.\n\nHe will be leaving the UK on 2 January 2023 from Edinburgh Airport and will meet his crew in Ushuaia, Argentina.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "\"They were happy to lie to protect my brother, they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us,\" says Prince Harry in the latest trailer for the Harry and Meghan series on Netflix.\n\nAhead of the second half of the series, the trailer shows the couple saying why they stepped down from royal duties.\n\n\"I wasn't being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves,\" says Meghan.\n\nBut there is some confusion about the most controversial and headline-grabbing moment in the trailer, with its reference to lying to protect Prince William.\n\nThe commentary from Prince Harry claims: \"They were happy to lie to protect my brother\", but without saying who \"they\" were or the context in which Prince William was being protected.\n\nAgainst a backdrop of Buckingham Palace, one version of the trailer accuses \"they\" of lying without specifying who\n\nIn another version, the accusation is aimed at the \"British media\"\n\nBut another version of the same Netflix trailer seems to suggest an explanation - with a different subtitle for the same commentary that says: \"The British media are happy to lie to protect my brother.\"\n\nThe voiceover doesn't change, but it might suggest that the context is going to be a more generalised attack on the press, rather than a more damaging accusation against an individual or the Royal Family.\n\nNetflix has been approached for a response about the differences in this key moment between the two trailers, one on YouTube and the other on the Netflix website.\n\nLater the version of the trailer on Netflix showed a message that it wasn't available and it then appeared to have been taken down.\n\nThe tone of the latest trailer suggests some more hard-hitting claims, after the first half of the documentary series had fewer bombshells or specific revelations than expected.\n\nThe trailer suggests allegations of a campaign against the couple, \"gaslighting\" them and leaving them feeling unsafe.\n\n\"I said, 'We need to get out of here,'\" says Prince Harry in the trailer for the final three episodes being released on Thursday.\n\n\"I wonder what would have happened to us had we not got out when we did?\" says Prince Harry, who now lives with Meghan in California.\n\nMeghan speaks of security worries - and a clip shows Prince Harry saying they were on a \"freedom flight\", suggesting that this was their departure away from the pressure they felt around them in the UK.\n\nThe couple have started a new life in California\n\nAlso appearing in the trailer was Christopher Bouzy, who set up a tech company that researches abuse and misinformation on social media. He says: \"They were actively recruiting people to disseminate disinformation.\"\n\nThere are clips of the couple enjoying their new life in the sunshine, but Prince Harry adds: \"To move to the next chapter, you've got to finish the first chapter.\"\n\nBuckingham Palace has so far not commented on the Netflix series and has not responded to these latest clips.\n\nAfter so much hype, the first three episodes drew mixed reviews on both sides of the Atlantic, with questions about how much of the information was new.\n\nAudience figures in the UK on the launch day of the first part of the series showed 2.4 million viewers watched the first instalment, episode two had 1.5 million viewers on the first day, and the third part attracted 800,000.\n\nThese were higher audience figures than for The Crown, but below the 3.5 million who watched that evening's episode of the soap opera Coronation Street.", "Nato-led Latvian soldiers in Kosovo inspect a truck blocking the way to the border with Serbia\n\nSerbian President Aleksandar Vučić has met his national security council as tensions rise in Kosovo between the authorities there and ethnic Serbs.\n\nOn Saturday a stun grenade was thrown at EU police in north Kosovo, where Serbs form a majority, and local police exchanged fire with unknown groups.\n\nEthnic Serbs set up road blocks after Kosovan police were deployed in a dispute over car number plates.\n\nSerbia refuses to recognise Kosovo as an independent state.\n\nKosovo, which has an overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian majority, broke away from Serbia after a war in 1998-99.\n\nNato, which has peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, called on all parties to avoid provocations. The EU has done likewise, warning that it will not tolerate attacks on EU police or criminal acts.\n\nOn Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell repeated his call for de-escalation from both Kosovo and Serbia. \"They have to find a way to end the tendency to fighting in the streets, to creating blockades,\" he said.\n\nThe latest unrest was triggered by the arrest of a Serb former police officer on Saturday.\n\nSpeaking to Reuters news agency after meeting his national security council, Mr Vučić said he wanted to defuse the situation.\n\nKosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the protesters as \"criminal gangs\" and asked the Nato-led peacekeeping Kosovo Force (KFOR) to remove the barricades.\n\nKosovo police said they had come under fire in different locations close to a lake bordering Serbia late on Saturday, with officers returning fire in self-defence.\n\nKosovo deployed police to majority-Serb areas - which do not recognise the Kosovo government in the capital Pristina - at the end of last week. This heightened tensions further, after they were already raised for months over a row about vehicle license plates.\n\nMr Vučić said the use of police violated previous peace agreements. He said he planned to ask Nato peacekeepers for permission to send Serbian police and troops to the area, though acknowledged there was little chance of this being granted.\n\nWhenever tensions rise between Kosovo and Serbia - or between Kosovo's Serb minority and the authorities in Pristina - Nato's KFOR peacekeepers play a crucial role.\n\nThey do not have to do anything in particular. The mere presence of the 4,000 multinational troops has been enough to prevent any serious issues for the best part of two decades.\n\nThe authorities in Belgrade rely on KFOR to guarantee the safety of Kosovo-Serbs. They fear a repeat of the violence in 2004 which resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen Serbs, hundreds more injuries and the displacement of thousands of Serb families.\n\nAt the same time, KFOR's presence also acts as a guarantee that Serbia will not send any of its own forces into Kosovo. Belgrade is aware that engaging with Nato troops would be extremely unwise.\n\nSo while tensions may remain high, any incidents are likely to be isolated. Even so, the EU will be working overtime to bring both sides around the table to reach a long-term solution.\n\nKosovo declared independence in 2008, following the bloody year-long war a decade earlier. Serbia does not recognise it as a sovereign state, however does accept the governing authority under an agreement brokered in 2013 to normalise relations.\n\nOf the 1.8 million people living in Kosovo, 92% are Albanian and 6% are Serbian.\n\nThe police officer arrested on Saturday was one of some 600 ethnic Serbs who resigned from the force in November in protest after authorities in Kosovo said they would require Serbs to swap Serbian licence plates dating to before the war for Kosovan ones.\n\nSome 50,000 people in majority-Serb areas have so far refused to use Kosovo number plates because they do not recognise its independence from Serbia.\n\nA deal brokered by the EU at the end of November saw an uneasy agreement reached between the two sides, with Kosovo dropping plans to fine people who did not swap the plates, and Serbia agreeing to stop issuing registrations with the initials of towns in Kosovo.", "The pups were seized by DAERA and Belfast City Council and Harbour Police\n\nOfficials have rescued 29 puppies at Belfast Port as part of a crackdown against illegal puppy trafficking.\n\nThe dogs were rescued in the early hours of Thursday morning and will now be rehomed, said the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera).\n\nThe puppies were taken after officials found discrepancies in the paperwork provided for transporting them.\n\nThe department said it has \"zero tolerance to this type of activity\".\n\n\"Reputable breeders will be able to prove origin and destination, and have all their paperwork in order,\" it added.\n\nThe rescue is part of the Paws for Thought initiative, where dogs and puppies are given welfare checks before boarding.\n\nThe Paws for Thought Group appealed to anyone who had any information about illegal breeding to come forward\n\nThe group overseeing the initiative includes Daera, Belfast City Council, Mid and East Antrim Council, Belfast Harbour Police, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, HMRC and ferry operators.\n\nA Daera spokesperson said: \"At this time of year, the demand for a Christmas puppy is high, which fuels the trafficking of low welfare pups through our ports to sell them at an inflated price in Great Britain.\"\n\nThey said those seeking a puppy are \"often duped into believing these pups have come from a reputable breeder\" but quite often they are illegally bred at puppy farms, often in horrendous conditions.\n\nThe Paws for Thought Group said: \"We wish to reiterate our message that people think long and hard before deciding to get an animal this Christmas.\n\n\"Prospective dog owners should check the guidance available online before thinking about getting a pup. If you must buy a pup, only use a licensed breeder.\"\n\nThey urged anyone with information on illegal breeding to report it to the police or other authorities.", "The boss of the RMT rail union has said that both sides involved in the long-running dispute over pay and jobs need to \"work quickly\" to end the strikes.\n\nMick Lynch told the BBC that there had been \"an exchange of views\", but it was important that employers, ministers and unions were getting together.\n\nHe said he would like to see improved proposals on pay and working conditions for its members.\n\nBut he told Sky News that he believes a deal is \"achievable\".\n\n\"We need to work quickly, and we need a bit of goodwill from all parties,\" Mr Lynch said.\n\nOn Friday, rail workers began another 48-hour walkout following strikes earlier this week.\n\nThe union leader's language this week has appeared to be a bit more conciliatory, raising hopes that a deal can be reached.\n\nThere is also industrial action scheduled from 18:00 on Christmas Even until 27 January as well as strikes in early January.\n\nRail passengers are being advised to travel only when absolutely necessary and significant disruption is also likely on non-strike days.\n\nEurostar said its services will not run to and from St Pancras in London on Boxing Day due to the UK high-speed line being closed because of strike action.\n\nAsked how much of a pay increase would be enough for RMT union members, Mr Lynch declined to give a figure but said: \"We'll discuss that behind closed doors with the employers.\n\n\"We've asked for substantial increase in pay. We don't put a figure either publicly or to the employers in our claims.\"\n\nThe union leader also said that the pay offer which he would describe as \"acceptable\" would depend on the conditions attached.\n\n\"The government is insisting that all this money is self generated from our own members' working practices so it depends what can be generated through the savings and efficiencies they're demanding,\" he said.\n\n\"It's not as [simple] as me saying 'I'd like this amount of money' and them saying we'll see what we can do. Unfortunately it's very complex.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. RMT boss Mick Lynch says he wants to have a \"serious dialogue\" to resolve the rail dispute\n\nThe RMT is involved in two sets of negotiations.\n\nOne is with Network Rail, where the RMT represents around 20,000 signallers and maintenance workers. The other is with the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), where it represents about 20,000 workers at 14 train companies.\n\nA spokesman for the RDG told the BBC on Friday that talks were a \"painstaking process\", but added they had been \"constructive\" so far.\n\nDan Panes said he remained hopeful a resolution could be found between the unions and train companies.\n\nHe said he believed most people recognised that the way people use the railway had changed as passenger numbers and revenue were still down on pre-pandemic levels, leaving many firms in the industry with a hole in their finances.\n\n\"We need to make sure that colleagues across the country get a fair pay rise that is balanced by a sensible set of reforms that make sure that the railway is safeguarded for the future,\" he added.\n\nAlong with pay rises, Network Rail, which owns and operates the tracks across Britain, offered its staff other benefits including discounted rail travel for family and friends.\n\nBut the deal also depended on big changes to working practices in its maintenance teams, which would involve 1,900 job losses, though Network Rail has insisted this could be achieved by voluntary means.\n\nThe company has said there would be a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies until the end of January 2025.\n\nMr Lynch also hit out at claims from rail company bosses that changes to working conditions and schedules would not compromise staff safety.\n\n\"At the moment we have planned preventative maintenance which ensures we have a safe regime. They're going to move to risk-based maintenance which means 50% of the current level of inspections and maintenance work will be cut,\".\n\n\"So there'll be half the work getting done compared to previously and we believe that compromises safety.\"\n\nHe suggested that more night shifts being required for workers would also have a bad impact on their wellbeing.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Tell us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. John Swinney explains why he is asking higher earners to pay more in tax\n\nEveryone earning more than £43,662 in Scotland will have to pay more income tax next year.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney said the higher rate of tax will increase from 41p to 42p in the pound in April, and the top rate from 46p to 47p.\n\nThe tax threshold for the top rate will also be lowered from £150,000 to £125,140.\n\nThis change has already been announced for other parts of the UK by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.\n\nMr Swinney described the increase as an \"extra penny to enable spending on patient care in our National Health Service\".\n\nAnd he said he was asking people to \"pay their fair share\" so they could \"help to create the fairer society in which we all want to live\".\n\nBut the Scottish Conservatives said making higher and middle earners in Scotland pay more more tax than their counterparts elsewhere in the UK risked undermining the country's potential for economic growth.\n\nScottish Labour said the extra money would be used to \"fix some of the damage done by 15 years of SNP cuts and failure\" and predicted that people will not accept rising tax bills \"if all they see is further decline in services\".\n\nMr Swinney had been due to deliver his budget statement at 14:30 - but Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone suspended the session for 30 minutes so she could investigate how details of the tax rises had been revealed by the BBC two hours earlier.\n\nMs Johnstone later allowed Mr Swinney to speak after receiving \"categoric assurance\" from him and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that the information had not been shared by the government.\n\nIncome tax rates in Scotland, as well as several other taxes, are set by the Scottish government rather than at Westminster.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nAbout 500,000 people in Scotland are in the higher rate bracket while a further 33,000 pay the top rate of income tax, according to the government.\n\nThe threshold for the 41p higher rate will remain frozen at £43,663 in Scotland - lower than the £50,271 elsewhere in the UK.\n\nAnd there will be no changes to the rate paid by lower earners, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon previously saying this would be counterproductive in a cost of living crisis.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The presiding officer suspended parliament to investigate how details of the tax rises were given to the BBC in advance of the budget statement\n\nThe changes mean that everyone earning more than that threshold will pay more income tax than they did last year, and more than people earning the same salary elsewhere in the UK.\n\nThe increases are a significant departure from the SNP's manifesto aim not to alter income tax rates for the duration of this parliament.\n\nMr Swinney said that the changes will raise a total of £553m next year when taken alongside changes to other taxes including Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) - the Scottish equivalent of stamp duty.\n\nThe second homes tax part of LBTT will rise from 4% to 6%.\n\nThe deputy first minister also confirmed an extra £550m for local government next year. Local authorities had been asking for much more, but will be given full flexibility to set their own council tax rates.\n\nMr Swinney said councils should \"consider carefully the cost pressures facing the public\" when deciding the rate they will charge people.\n\nThe Scottish Child Payment will remain at the increased level of £25 per child per week, with all other social security benefits under the control of the Scottish government being increased by the rate of inflation in September of 10.1%.\n\nThe chancellor had already confirmed that benefits and pensions paid by the UK government would also rise by that figure.\n\nSpending on health and social care in Scotland will increase by £1bn, Mr Swinney said.\n\nAnd funding of £20m that had been set aside for a referendum on Scottish independence will instead be used to help people at risk of fuel poverty.\n\nThe Supreme Court recently ruled that the Scottish government does not have the power to hold a vote without the formal consent of Westminster.\n\nMeanwhile, the basic rate of business rates, which is also called the poundage, will be frozen at 49.8p. The intermediate property rate, at 51.1p, will be charged on properties with a rateable value of between £51,001 and £100,000. The threshold for the higher property rate will increase from £95,000 to £100,000.\n\nThis is likely to be one of the most memorable budgets in Holyrood's short history.\n\nNot because the statement was delayed after the BBC established some of the key details in advance.\n\nInstead, because of the significant tax changes it contains - with higher and top rates of income tax now two pence above the comparable rates elsewhere in the UK.\n\nThis is a big political choice by the Scottish government which abandons their manifesto intentions not to tinker with tax rates at all before the next election.\n\nThe Conservatives think they're making a mistake that could damage economic recovery while trades unions have welcomed the tax rises albeit they would have liked them to be higher.\n\nMinisters expected this criticism and suspect the political and financial pain would have been much greater if their decisions had gone the other way.\n\nMr Swinney said the budget was being announced against the backdrop of the \"most turbulent economic and financial context most people can remember\".\n\nHe added: \"War is taking place in Europe, leading to the suffering and displacement of millions of Ukrainians. As a result of the conflict, energy and fuel prices are surging. Inflation is now corroding our economy having reached a 40-year high.\n\n\"If these challenges - faced by countries around the globe - were not enough, the UK has added to the turmoil by a disastrous approach to Brexit which has damaged labour supply through the loss of free movement of people and undermined frictionless trade with our nearest markets.\n\n\"All of these difficulties have been compounded by the utterly catastrophic decisions of the UK government in the September mini-budget, which have driven increases in interest rates and saddled the country with much higher debt, undermining the public finances for generations to come.\"\n\nScottish Conservative finance spokesman Liz Smith said Mr Swinney should \"stop blaming the UK government for every single predicament\".\n\nAnd she said she was concerned about the tax differential between Scotland and the rest of the UK, which she fears could make Scotland a less attractive place to work, live and invest.\n\nScottish Labour finance spokesman Daniel Johnson said: \"The fact is that this money is going to have to be used to fix some of the damage done by 15 years of SNP cuts and failure.\n\n\"It is down to John Swinney to show how this money will be used to support our public services, and not to swell the ranks of spin doctors, quangos and apparatchiks.\"\n• None SNP budget may go down in left-leaning history", "Northern Ireland has been experiencing low temperatures recently, but that wasn't enough for BBC Good Morning Ulster presenter Chris Buckler.\n\nHe took the plunge into an ice bath produced by Belfast company CET CryoSpas.\n\nThe baths are used by top athletes from across the world, including footballers in the blistering heat of the World Cup in Qatar.\n\nIt was a bracing experience, to say the least.\n\nImmerse yourself fully in the story on BBC Sounds.", "The injured woman and two children were found by police at a property in Petherton Court, Kettering\n\nA woman and two children have died after they were found with serious injuries in a property, police said.\n\nOfficers were called to flats in Petherton Court, Kettering, at 11:15 GMT where a boy and a girl, believed to be aged six and four, were found.\n\nParamedics attended to the woman but she died at the scene, police said. The two children later died in hospital.\n\nA 52-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody.\n\nNorthamptonshire Police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the case at this moment in time.\n\nSupt Steve Freeman of Northamptonshire Police says justice will be sought for the woman and children who died\n\nSupt Steve Freeman said: \"It is a desperately sad incident and I want to be absolutely clear on our unwavering commitment in establishing what has happened here and in seeking justice for this woman and these young children.\n\n\"We understand that the local community, and indeed many people across the country, will be shocked by this event.\n\n\"There are no words to describe how upsetting this incident is, but I want to reassure the public that we have a team of detectives working on the case, absolutely determined to get justice.\"\n\nDetectives are appealing for anyone with information to come forward\n\nThe officer appealed for witnesses and any information in connection with the deaths.\n\nPost-mortem examinations were expected to take place in the coming days.\n\nOfficers were called to an address at Petherton Court, Kettering on Thursday morning\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Flowers, balloons and messages of love continue to be placed near the scene\n\nThe fourth boy to die after being pulled from an icy lake at the weekend has led to an outpouring of emotion from the community gathering at the scene since his loss.\n\nThe deaths of the three others - aged eight, 10 and 11 - were confirmed at the start of the week following events at Babbs Mill Park in Kingshurst, near Solihull, on Sunday.\n\nBut the fourth, aged six, had been in a critical condition in hospital.\n\nLocals hoping he would pull through have called his death \"simply tragic\".\n\nWest Midlands Police, whose officers had battled to smash ice and save the children, said it could not \"comprehend the enormity of the pain\" the boys' families must feel.\n\nMany residents, with tears in their eyes, left their homes and made their way to the memorial site when news broke of the fourth boy's death.\n\nOn a Christmas card, one wrote to the children: \"You will be forever in my thoughts and prayers\".\n\nAn easel board has been left too for people to write \"messages to heaven\".\n\nThe 10-year-old has been named locally as Jack Johnson, but the identities of the other three boys are yet to be confirmed.\n\nFootballers John McGinn and Tyrone Mings came to pay their respects\n\nPolice said searches at the site had been completed, with cordons lifted on Wednesday evening.\n\nEarlier that day, England footballer Tyrone Mings and his Aston Villa teammate John McGinn went to the scene to lay flowers.\n\nMings said it was a \"personal decision\" to pay their respects and added: \"I think it's impacted the whole city [of Birmingham].\n\n\"Sometimes, as we've seen with other things that have happened across the city, there are things more important than football,\" he added.\n\nThe Kingshurst community was praised at Prime Minister's Questions, as were emergency services staff who responded.\n\nOne police officer who physically punched through the ice to try to rescue the boys has since returned to work where he is being supported by colleagues.\n\n\"That punching of the ice has become symbolic of just how desperate we were to try and get those children safe,\" said Rich Cooke, chair of the West Midlands Police Federation.\n\nA vigil for the boys is due to be held on Saturday. Solihull Moors Football Club has said it will raise money for the families at its next two home fixtures.\n\nSearches of the lake continued until Wednesday evening\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Frosty conditions are continuing in Northern Ireland, with temperatures having dipped close to -10C on Friday.\n\nThe bitter cold is due to remain until Saturday, posing a risk to sports fixtures, park runs and other events.\n\nAll three of Friday's Irish Premiership matches and one of three scheduled for Saturday have been called off due to frozen pitches.\n\nUlster Rugby said they would decide on Friday whether their game against La Rochelle on Saturday could go ahead.\n\nUlster have been working to make sure their frost-hit Kingspan Stadium pitch is ready for the Champions Cup clash against their French opponents.\n\nThe Mourne mountains in County Down have a dusting of snow on their summits\n\nOther sporting events throughout the country have been cancelled, including park runs that had been scheduled for Saturday.\n\nNorthern Ireland shivered through its coldest night of the year so far on Wednesday, with -10C recorded at Castlederg, County Tyrone - the lowest temperature recorded anywhere on the island this year.\n\nThe town also holds the record for Northern Ireland's lowest-recorded temperature of -18.7C.\n\nThat all-time low was recorded during the big freeze back in the winter of 2010.\n\nPeople crossing the Peace Bridge in Londonderry were well wrapped up\n\nIn the Republic of Ireland a Status Orange warning - the second highest alert - is in place across much of the country until midday on Friday.\n\nThe first Status Orange warning issued in the Republic came into force at 18:00 on Wednesday and lasted until 12:00 on Thursday. The second warning remains in place.\n\nMany of Northern Ireland's councils have set up dedicated web pages providing information on their services and those run by different organisations in the boroughs.\n\nThey serve as a directory of timetables and contact details on a range of cost-of-living issues, such as food banks, warm spaces and financial support.", "Officers from West Midlands Police laid flowers near to the scene where three boys died after falling into an icy lake.\n\nThe children, aged eight, 10 and 11, died after emergency calls to Babbs Mill Park, near Solihull, on Sunday.\n\nThe 10-year-old has been named as Jack Johnson but the identities of the other two boys are yet to be confirmed, as mourners leave tributes near the lake.\n\nAnother boy, six, rescued from the water remains in a critical condition.\n\nThe police visit on Tuesday afternoon followed a similar mark of respect from West Midlands Fire Service on Monday.", "Retail sales saw a surprise fall last month after Black Friday failed to give its expected boost to online shopping.\n\nWith household budgets remaining under pressure from rising prices, sales volumes dropped 0.4% in November, official figures showed.\n\nThe fall could be bad news for some stores, which are entering a crucial time of the year for sales.\n\nHowever, there were signs people were buying Christmas food early in order to spread the cost of the festive season.\n\nSales at food stores rose 0.9% last month with people \"stocking up early\" for Christmas, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.\n\nResearch carried out for the BBC has suggested Christmas dinner will be nearly 22% more expensive this year than in 2021.\n\n\"Retail sales fell overall in November, driven by a notable drop for online retailers, with Black Friday offers failing to provide their usual lift in this sector,\" said ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan.\n\nBut he pointed out that department stores had reported better sales, with bosses saying a longer Black Friday sales period had drawn in more customers.\n\nSales at clothing stores rose by 2.1%, the ONS said, mainly due to a better performance from shoe stores.\n\nThe figures suggest shoppers are \"focusing on essentials like food and footwear\", said Kevin Bright, an analyst at McKinsey & Co.\n\nThe UK is predicted to face its biggest drop in living standards on record as wages struggle to keep up with rising prices.\n\nFigures out this week showed prices went up by 10.7% in the year to November, indicating the cost of living is still rising at its fastest pace for about 40 years.\n\nMelanie Thompson says her customers are buying one or two bottles of wine this Christmas, rather than a whole case\n\nMelanie Thompson, who runs a wine and cheese shop at the Piece Hall in Halifax, said people were being more careful about what they spend.\n\n\"Before, people might have bought a full case of wine. Now they're buying one or two bottles and using up some of the spirits they have at home,\" she added.\n\nThe shop has also seen a mixed effect from the recent train strikes, with fewer customers from further away, but more locals visiting.\n\nRetail analyst Natalie Berg said it was no surprise that Black Friday had been a \"damp squib\".\n\n\"The appeal of Black Friday has also been diluted because shoppers have cottoned on to the fact that it's a manufactured event and prices are not always at their lowest on the day,\" she said.\n\n\"The problem is exacerbated by the fact that retailers are sitting on a lot of inventory right now, so we've seen a constant stream of discounts since September.\"\n\nSales volumes are still below pre-Covid levels, according to the ONS, and the boss of the Waterstones bookshop chain, James Daunt, told the BBC most retailers were still \"probably expecting 2023 to be a time to batten down and concentrate on the basics because it is going to be tough\".\n\nShoppers have less money to spend because they are dealing with higher energy bills and higher interest rates, he added.\n\n\"In our case, books do very well and continue to be resilient, but we also rely on our neighbours being full of people and the general health of retail footfall. When everything is going down, everyone suffers a bit,\" Mr Daunt told the BBC's Today programme.\n\nNon-store sales - which mainly covers online retailers - fell by 2.8% last month, the ONS said. This figure has been declining for some time since Covid restrictions were lifted and people could return to shops, although online sales still remain well above pre-pandemic levels.\n\nBut the chairman of toy retailer The Entertainer, Gary Grant, told the BBC that worries over postal strikes and the weather had led to \"a swing from the web sales to our shops\".\n\n\"If I was buying anything for my grandchildren this Christmas, I think I'd be strolling down the High Street and walking out of the shop with it under my arm knowing there's no worry about the carton arriving,\" he said.\n\nEarlier this week, a retail group and Waterstones advised people to use stores rather than rely on online shopping if they want to get Christmas gifts on time.\n\nRetail sales had been expected to rise last month, so the surprise fall is not a good sign for the Christmas trading period, which is the most important time for many shops.\n\nMr Grant said a quarter of The Entertainer's annual sales take place in one month, and next week will account for 8% of its entire year's turnover.\n\nJacqui Baker, head of retail at consultancy firm RSM, said industrial strikes and extreme weather had created \"further barriers for consumers to splurge\".\n\n\"It's likely to be a disappointing end to the year for the retail sector,\" she added.", "Warhammer, the popular miniature table-top wargame, is to be made into a movie and TV show, starring Henry Cavill.\n\nThe ex-Superman actor will also executive produce the adaptation, which he called a \"lifelong dream come true\".\n\nUK firm Games Workshop, which makes the game, said on Friday it has \"reached an agreement in principle\" for Amazon to develop its intellectual property.\n\nThe project will initially involve developing the Warhammer 40,000 universe, it confirmed.\n\nThe news comes just days after Cavill confirmed he will not be returning to play Superman in the DC Comics universe.\n\nCavill has previously spoken about his enthusiasm for Warhammer, a fantasy war game where players paint intricate miniature figures and have them battle each other.\n\nIn a statement on Friday, the British actor, 39, said: \"I have loved Warhammer since I was a boy, making this moment truly special for me. The opportunity to shepherd this cinematic universe from its inception is quite the honour and the responsibility.\"\n\nAnother popular table-top gaming franchise Dungeons and Dragons has its own new movie coming next year, starring Chris Pine.\n\nThe Warhammer deal is still to be officially confirmed and a further announcement will be made \"in due course\", the Nottingham-based games company noted.\n\nFounded by friends in London in 1975, as a company selling board games and writing a fanzine for roleplaying adventures, Games Workshop has grown into the dominant player in the miniature wargaming world.\n\nWith shops in high streets and shopping malls across the globe Games Workshop is known, in the main, for producing Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar miniature games.\n\nTo play, models and terrain need to be assembled and (often with great artistry) painted. They are used on a table-top where friends can then do battle in fantastical worlds, telling stories based on 40 years' worth of rules and backstory, created especially for the games.\n\nDespite its stores being closed during lockdown its sales soared - meaning the company's shares at one point, it's reported, were even outperforming those of Tesla.\n\nHowever, Games Workshop has been more than just a miniatures company for years. It has its own book publishing division, and there have been many video game adaptations made - in-house anime, deals with Marvel Comics and toy manufacturers - all based upon the worlds created to host table-top battles.\n\nToday's news of a TV series deal is no surprise therefore, because Games Workshop has been carefully leveraging its intellectual property for a long time. Similarly to how comic book houses are no longer just the creators of comics, but have instead taken over Hollywood.\n\nPrevious attempts to get a high-end Warhammer adaptation over the line have failed, leaving endless discussion in fan forums and on social media as to who could play the setting's famous characters.\n\nThere's a lot of speculation that Warhammer fan Henry Cavill, no longer in-line to continue as Superman on the silver screen, could be a key part of this adaptation. Perhaps there could be roles for other celebrity 40k fans Ed Sheeran and Vin Diesel?\n\nFans will hope that this isn't another false dawn, and that the creators of this adaptation take good care of worlds that they know and love - despite the Games Workshop depiction of the 41st Millennium being exceedingly grim.\n\nFinancial analyst Andrew Wade, from Jefferies, told the AFP news agency this was \"very exciting news\" for Games Workshop, whose share price rose on Friday as a result.\n\n\"Licensing income has built strongly in recent years, from £2m in full-year 2015 to around £17m in full-year 2023, but we saw a more limited progression ahead, believing that only a major film deal would support another step-change,\" he said.\n\n\"With today's news, that is now a very real possibility.\n\n\"Moreover, a mainstream TV/film product could be game-changing in terms of Warhammer's brand reach and awareness.\"\n\nElsewhere on Friday, it was also announced the acclaimed 2019 action video game Death Stranding will also be adapted for the silver screen, according to its Japanese creator Hideo Kojima.\n\nIn a statement, Kojima, who will co-produce the film, called the decision \"a pivotal moment for the franchise.\n\nThe PlayStation and PC game is set in the US following a catastrophic event which caused destructive creatures to start roaming the planet.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A mother from Kryvyi Rih recalls helping her child to do homework when their building was hit\n\nUkraine's second city of Kharkiv was for hours left without power after the latest wave of Russian strikes targeted energy stations across the country.\n\nLocal officials said as many as nine power facilities were hit as Russian forces fired 76 missiles and carried out drone attacks on Friday.\n\nKharkiv's mayor said the city suffered \"colossal\" damage. By the evening, 55% of residents had electricity back.\n\nOne resident, Anastaisa, told the BBC the strikes began on Friday morning.\n\n\"In a matter of minutes, the lights started blinking,\" the mother of a two-month-old child said. \"Just 10 seconds later, we were out of power, everything just went still and that's it.\n\n\"At the moment, there is also no water because the pumping stations cannot work when there's no power in the city, so technically, what we have now is a city without power and water supply.\"\n\nIn the evening, Oleg Synegubov, head of Kharkiv's regional administration, said electricity supplies had been restored to 55% of city residents and 85% of those living in the north-eastern region. He added that energy sector employees were working to restore full power by midnight.\n\nHowever, Ukraine's power grid operator, Ukrenergo, warned that the scale of the damage could mean it will take longer to restore supplies.\n\nThe body said in a statement that the energy system had lost more than half of its capacity because of the latest strikes, adding that priority would be given to \"critical infrastructure - hospitals, water supply facilities, heat supply facilities, sewage treatment plants\".\n\nDefence Ministry adviser Yuriy Sak told the BBC that emergency services were working to restore electricity supplies, but the situation was \"still difficult\". Russia's frequent attacks mean that repairing the damage is getting harder.\n\nElsewhere, three people were killed and 13 more injured when a residential building was hit in Kryvyi Rih and a third died in Kherson. In the capital, Kyiv, the city's metro was left at a standstill.\n\nThe alarm was raised across Ukraine on Friday and Commander-in-Chief General Valeriy Zaluzhny said air defences had intercepted 60 of the 76 missiles fired, most of them cruise missiles.\n\nKyiv city officials said about 40 missiles had been fired at the capital alone - one of the biggest barrages since Russia's 24 February invasion. Thirty-seven were brought down by air defences, the officials added.\n\n\"It's very stressful, but now I'm used to this,\" said 42-year-old Oksana, who lives in the capital. \"I don't want our children to live through this, to be in basements, shelters, I don't want this for them.\"\n\nUkraine has accused Russia of \"weaponising winter\" by striking essential facilities, as temperatures in much of the country are below freezing.\n\nFriday's attack on Kherson was the third in as many days on the southern city, a month after Russian forces retreated\n\nRussia's attacks also cut power in the north-eastern Sumy region that borders Russia, and also in the central cities of Poltava and Kremenchuk.\n\nFifteen rockets were reportedly fired at Zaporizhzhia in the south, while Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said several areas of the capital were hit. Damage to energy infrastructure had affected its water supplies, while city metro lines were for the moment not running, he said.\n\nRussia has launched more than 1,000 missiles and Iranian-made attack drones since the wave of strikes began on 10 October, although most of them have been intercepted by air defences. The biggest barrage, in mid-November, involved more than 100 missiles and drones.\n\nUN human rights commissioner Volker Turk warned on Thursday that further attacks on power facilities could \"lead to a further serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation and spark more displacement\".\n\nPrime Minister Denys Shmyhal described the latest wave of strikes as \"another attempt to commit genocide against the Ukrainian people\".\n\nIn some areas, electricity is available for just a few hours a day.\n\n\"I'm angry,\" said Yelyzaveta, 21. \"They [Russia] are destroying our lives. We are used to it now. The most important thing is that Russia isn't here.\"\n\nAnd Anastasia said that life was becoming more difficult as winter sets in.\n\n\"When it's daytime it is still OK, it is tolerable and I can manage the situation, but when it's dark outside, this is when my problems begin because I need to see clearly, to measure baby formula and also to attend to the baby - those are stressful,\" she said\n\n\"And, of course, just the effect that we are out of power creates a lot of tension and lots of stress. So we just survive through the night and when the day breaks, it gets a bit better, but we cannot compare it to our normal day.\"\n\nThe strikes came as the EU announced a ninth wave of sanctions against Russian officials and businesses. Almost 200 individuals and entities were added to an asset freeze and visa ban blacklist.\n\nAmong those sanctioned was Larisa Falkovskaya - head of Russia's Department of State Policy for the Protection of Children's Rights - who was accused of \"the illegal transportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and their adoption by Russian families\".\n\nSeveral Russian regional governors were sanctioned on identical charges. The EU said the officials had been involved in the forced deportation and adoption of more than 2,000 Ukrainian children since the war began.\n\nUkrainian officials say the deportations amount to a war crime under Article 49 of the Geneva Convention.\n\nMeanwhile, Russian-backed proxy officials in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region accused Ukrainian forces of shelling a town and a village overnight in the Luhansk region. Details of the deaths could not be confirmed.", "Rhys and Lisa Williams used people's money to fund their expensive lifestyle\n\nA husband and wife who lived a \"lavish lifestyle\" with other people's money have been sentenced for their part in a multi-million pound fraud.\n\nRhys Williams, 41, and Lisa, 40, from Anglesey, spent the money on cars, luxury properties and shopping.\n\nThey were part of a wider fraud case involving four other people at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday.\n\nThe sentences in total amounted to more than 49 years in prison.\n\nRhys Williams admitted two charges of possessing criminal property and one charge of making false representation, while Lisa Williams pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing criminal property.\n\nOne of the victims, Michael McVicar, described Williams as \"the most heartless man\" he had ever encountered, who \"soaked\" his \"evil into every part of our lives\".\n\nWilliams, a former Anglesey care home owner and property developer, from Llys Meddyg, Llangristiolus Bodorgan, Anglesey, became involved in the running of Dubai-based company CWLJ, which managed investment schemes.\n\nWilliams had acquired £179,000 from Mr McVicar in 2014. But when Mr McVicar realised the investment was not legitimate, he repeatedly asked for his money back, which he did not get.\n\nIn 2016, Williams acquired another £120,000 from Mr McVicar for a purported investment but Williams and his wife spent it.\n\nIn a victim impact statement read out in court, Mr McVicar blamed Williams for the loss of his family home and the destruction of his family life, saying he had thought of taking his own life.\n\nThe court heard that Williams had also acquired £350,000 from CWLJ in 2013.\n\nThe pair were sentenced along with four other people\n\nThe Williamses withdrew £72,000 in cash in Spain, spent £46,000 on retail shopping, £9,000 on restaurants and nightclubs, £7,000 on holiday accommodation and £7,000 on an international school in Spain for their children's education.\n\nA total of £63,000 was paid to family members, including Lisa Williams' father, father-in-law and sister.\n\nIn her interview to the police, Lisa Williams agreed she had enjoyed a lavish lifestyle but she thought the source of the money was genuine, and the result of her husband's deals.\n\nShe later admitted having £120,000 of illegally obtained money in her bank account.\n\nWhen her husband was challenged by one of the victims about his money, he said it had been spent on living expenses.\n\nJudge Carr said some of Williams's offences involved a high degree of culpability and were aggravated by the fact they occurred across borders and that the money was used to fund \"a lavish lifestyle\".\n\nRhys Williams was jailed for nine years for fraud and acquiring criminal property.\n\nLisa Williams was sentenced to 16 months, suspended for two years, for possessing criminal property.\n\nOne victim called Rhys Williams the most heartless man he had known.\n\nMr McVicar said he was \"very pleased\" with the sentences.\n\n\"It recognises the brutality of his actions on me and the others involved. And for me it's justice finally being done.\"\n\nThe couple were sentenced alongside four other people who were associates or had dealings with CWLJ. They all pleaded not guilty.\n\nFormer solicitor Jonathan Denton, 63, of Woodlark Grove, Apley, Telford, Shropshire, was jailed for a total of 15 years for fraud by abuse of position of trust in the sum of £7m and fraud by false representation in the sum of £18m.\n\nSusan Gillis, 54, of Warwick Avenue, London, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years for money laundering.\n\nShe spent her money on substantial payments for a Range Rover, rental properties in north London and on her wedding day. She also used it to repay debts she owed to friends and family.\n\nWilliams's business associate Jason Curtis, 53, of The Warren, Abersoch, Pwllheli, Gwynedd was imprisoned for nine years for possession of £630,000 of criminal property and theft of £179,000 from Mr McVicar.\n\nThe court heard how he lived the \"high life\", buying property, high-value cars, a boat and jet skis on top of a £21,000 box at the FA Cup final.\n\nJamie Halfpenny, 46, of The Old George, Middle Wallop, Stockbridge, Hampshire, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years for fraud by false representation of £1.15m.\n\nJudge Carr said all the defendants will spend half of their sentences in custody and the remainder on licence.", "Military chiefs believe the war in Ukraine has reached a stalemate\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has asked for an assessment of the progress of the war in Ukraine, BBC Newsnight has learnt.\n\nSenior figures fear the PM may be taking an overly cautious approach as the war enters a key phase.\n\nOne Whitehall source likened the exercise to a \"Goldman Sachs dashboard\" examination of the war and how UK military supplies are used.\n\nDowning Street insists that Mr Sunak is strongly supportive of Ukraine.\n\nIn a tweet, Mr Sunak said the UK was with Ukraine \"all the way\" during a visit to the country last month, his first overseas trip as prime minister.\n\nA Downing Street source added that it was not true that Sunak was being overly cautious and that \"the UK government's support for Ukraine is unwavering\".\n\nBut the request has raised alarm bells in some corners of Whitehall as military chiefs say weapons supplies to Ukraine may prove decisive in the winter months ahead.\n\nThe Whitehall source said: \"Wars aren't won [by dashboards]. Wars are won on instinct. At the start of this it was Boris (Johnson) sitting down and saying: 'Let's just go for this.' So Rishi needs to channel his inner Boris on foreign policy though not of course on anything else.\"\n\nThe source said the audit, known as a data-driven assessment, is designed to assess the progress of the war and the significance of the UK's military contributions to Ukraine. The source said: \"This is about looking at what we have put in, what we have got out.\"\n\nThe UK has been one of the biggest suppliers of military aid to Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces invaded the country in February.\n\nBBC Newsnight has been told that Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, is aware of the debate within the UK and is encouraging Mr Sunak to maintain strong military support for his country.\n\n\"President Zelensky has sensed what is going on,\" the source said. \"So he has been talking to Rishi. He is trying to inspire him, saying the UK are the great liberators, the great fighters. We need you. Rise to that.\"\n\nThe proposed assessment of the war comes at a crucial point in the conflict. Key figures in Whitehall believe that Ukraine and Russia have fought themselves to a standstill.\n\nThe only way, they say, for one side to pull ahead is by substantially increasing their supply of weaponry. Russia has effectively run out of supplies. Ukraine can only resupply weapons with the help of the US and the main military powers in Europe, led by the UK.\n\nWhitehall sources say that Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the defence staff, delivered that message in diplomatic terms in a lecture this week.\n\nSir Tony made clear the Russian military \"cupboard is bare\" and he appeared to issue a rallying cry for continued support for Ukraine.\n\nThe chief of the defence staff told the Royal United Services Institute: \"Extraordinary times call for an extraordinary response. This explains why Russia is losing. And the free world is winning… Providing we maintain our cohesion and resolve, the real victory within our grasp is much more significant.\"\n\nUkraine also made an appeal this week for more weaponry. General Valery Zaluzhny, the head of the Ukrainian armed forces, told the Economist: \"I know that I can beat this enemy. But I need resources. I need 300 tanks, 600-700 ifvs [infantry fighting vehicles], 500 Howitzers.\"\n\nThe US Congress gave the Pentagon approval in principle earlier this month to buy substantial weaponry for Ukraine. But the Economist reported that this may not arrive in time for a spring offensive next year.\n\nSome in Whitehall see this approach as a sign of the innate caution on Ukraine by US President Joe Biden who is understood to be concerned about provoking a wider global conflict. There are some fears in Whitehall that Mr Sunak may end up encouraging Mr Biden's caution.\n\nThe source told Newsnight: \"We have stiffened the US resolve at all levels - pressure from us but always friendly. We don't want Rishi to reinforce Biden's caution. We want him to pushing in the way Boris did.\"\n\nYou can watch Nicholas Watt's full report on Newsnight at 22:30 GMT on BBC Two", "Jet2.com turned up at Sian's door earlier this week with her luggage\n\nA woman has told how she was shocked to find her suitcase on her doorstep five months after it went missing on a five-star holiday to Turkey.\n\nSian Armour, 42, from Fife, was left without her belongings on a two-week trip to the Liberty Fabay resort in Dalaman in July with her family.\n\nShe told the BBC she had given up hope of seeing her suitcase again until it arrived earlier this week.\n\nA Jet2.com spokeswoman confirmed Sian was now reunited with her luggage.\n\nThe scientist, from Ladybank, said the luxury holiday was her first big trip in three years but it was blighted by the loss of her bag.\n\nShe said: \"When we realised my luggage was missing the rep put me in a taxi to a very cheap market and told me not to spend more than £100.\n\n\"There were no shoes my size so I had to wear flip flops and jelly shoes that were both two sizes too small.\n\n\"I ended up buying kids clothes in order to find things that fitted.\n\n\"It was so embarrassing going for dinner each night in a five star resort when all the ladies were wearing dresses and heels and I had a vest and flip flops on, it was absolutely terrible.\"\n\nSian Armour spent the two week luxury holiday in children's clothes from a cheap market\n\nThe holiday firm has since agreed to pay Sian £1,436 in compensation for all the replacement items she had to buy - but she feels the disappointment and stress she felt during the holiday has not been addressed.\n\nShe recalled how she bought a bikini but after three days it snapped while she was at the pool because it was low quality.\n\nShe had no make-up or perfume or jewellery to wear to the evening meals.\n\n\"I asked the rep every day if my suitcase had turned up but I got the feeling he wasn't doing anything about it,\" she said.\n\nAs the days wore on she needed more clothes than the initial emergency ones that were meant to tide her over for a few days until her luggage turned up.\n\n\"I spent three days in total in shopping malls and markets buying clothes and sun cream and all the things we needed when I should have been at the pool.\n\n\"I was gutted about the situation but I tried not to let it show to my husband and daughter.\"\n\nSian Armour said every night everyone dressed up at the five star resort while she just had shorts and a vest to wear\n\nHer husband, Mark, 42, and 10-year-old daughter, Courtney, had their luggage but all the shared items for the family such as sun cream had been in Sian's bag.\n\nOn one occasion they went on a day trip, which they had booked back in the UK, along a gorge to a waterfall.\n\nShe said: \"They told us we needed water shoes for the trip so I bought some in the UK to take. They were in my suitcase. We were advised not to wear flip flops so that's when I bought jelly shoes out there but they only had a size six and I'm a size eight.\n\n\"I was very uncomfortable in them and the soles were so thin I could feel every stone I walked over.\"\n\nWhen they returned home she spent weeks calling Jet2 and even Tweeted the chief executive in a bid to find her luggage.\n\n\"I had given up on my luggage so when it appeared on my doorstep on Monday I was in disbelief,\" Sian said.\n\nSian Armour had to walk up a gorge in slippery jelly shoes\n\nJet2.com told her the bag had turned up at Edinburgh Airport and that they did not know what had happened although tags show it had gone to Munich via Frankfurt.\n\nA Jet2.com spokeswoman said: \"Our teams always do everything they can to look after customers, and we have continued to assist Ms Armour. We can confirm that Ms Armour has now been reunited with her luggage.\"\n\nSian Armour had to spend the first day of her hot holiday in the jeans and jumper she had worn the day before to travel in\n\nThe holiday firm said it had issued a compensation cheque, and it is believed to be in the post.\n\nSian said: \"I hope it turns up because I've spent a lot of money rebuying all the electrical goods and dresses I had bought for my holiday.\"\n\nShe said in future she will take valuables in her hand luggage and mix up the shared items between her husband and daughter's suitcases.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Avanti West Coast was awarded millions of pounds worth of taxpayers' money in performance bonuses last year, new figures show.\n\nThe train operator has been criticised by passengers over delays and poor service this year.\n\nBut the government handed the firm more than £6.5m in 2021 for \"operational performance\" and \"customer experience\".\n\nThe government said the performance fee was \"based on data from before the current period of disruption\".\n\nBut Labour has called the payments a \"scandalous\" waste of taxpayers' funds.\n\nDetails of the Department for Transport's (DfT) payments to passenger rail operators show that the bonuses related to Avanti's performance between April and September 2021.\n\nIt was rewarded for \"operational performance, customer experience, financial performance and management fees\".\n\nHowever during some of that period, between July and September 2021, Avanti train services fell by 21.1% and its trains were punctual only 55.8% of the time.\n\nIt also received 9,000 complaints over the same period, the highest of any train operator.\n\nSince then, Avanti has come under fire for slashing its timetables in August, with trains between London and Manchester the worst affected.\n\nServices were cut from seven trains per hour to a minimum of four and ticket sales were suspended, blaming \"severe staff shortages\".\n\nThe company's contract had been due to expire on 16 October but the government has given it until 1 April to improve its performance.\n\nThe operator launched a new timetable this month with an increased number of trains.\n\nShadow transport secretary Louise Haigh accused ministers of rewarding \"abject failure\" and \"handing over millions of pounds in performance bonuses and fees to this failing operator\".\n\n\"Rather than hold operators to account for shambolic performance, ministers are doling out taxpayer-funded bonuses,\" she said.\n\nThe DfT said that the performance score was independently assessed and Avanti was being held to account for the operations and delivery that falls within its control.\n\n\"We have put Avanti on a short term, six month contract, as they roll out vital improvements and service upgrades and continue to monitor the situation closely,\" a statement said.\n\nAvanti referred press queries about the payments to the Department for Transport.", "Four people are in a critical condition after a suspected crush outside a concert at the Brixton O2 Academy.\n\nPolice were called there at 21:35 GMT on Thursday, during the gig by afro-pop singer Asake.\n\nVideo from social media appears to show people trying to get past security at the venue's front door.", "Australian Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton repeatedly called the deputy Speaker Sharon Claydon \"Mr Speaker\" in parliament on Thursday.\n\nAlthough Claydon reminded him that she is “not Mr Speaker”, Mr Dutton continued referring to her in that way throughout the speech.", "Andrew Western currently leads Trafford Council within the Stretford and Urmston constituency\n\nSir Keir Starmer has said \"it's time for a Labour government\", after the party comfortably held Stretford and Urmston in a by-election.\n\nThe Labour leader said the result, which saw the party increase its share of the vote, showed people were \"fed up of 12 years of Tory failure\".\n\nAndrew Western secured 70% of the vote, with an 11% swing from the Tories.\n\nLabour had been expected to retain the Greater Manchester seat, which they have held since it was created in 1997.\n\nBut the fact the result was in little doubt, plus the bitterly cold weather on polling day, led to only a quarter of eligible voters turning out.\n\nAnother factor in the low turnout may have been problems with postal ballots amid ongoing industrial action.\n\nMr Western, who has led Trafford Council within the constituency since 2018, achieved a majority of 9,906.\n\nThe 37-year-old succeeds Kate Green, who resigned last month after being nominated as deputy mayor of Greater Manchester.\n\nSir Keir congratulated Mr Western on Twitter, although he is not expected to visit the constituency following the result.\n\nTory peer and pollster Lord Hayward said the result was \"disappointing but not bad\" for the Conservatives, pointing out that the swing to Labour was smaller than in a recent by-election in Chester.\n\nHowever, he told Sky News other Tory MPs in the area, including Sir Graham Brady, who represents nearby Altrincham and Sale West and is chairman of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers, would be \"concerned\".\n\n\"There's been a trend away from the Conservatives in that belt of south and west Manchester,\" he added.\n\nIf you take this and Labour's victory in the Chester by-election earlier this month together, they are basically consistent with the evidence of the opinion polls - Labour are now in a stronger position than they have been at any point since David Cameron entered 10 Downing Street as prime minister in 2010.\n\nTherefore the challenge that the Conservatives are facing is certainly a very substantial one. Can Prime Minister Rishi Sunak persuade voters to ignore what happened in the Liz Truss administration?\n\nMr Sunak does have a personal reputation for economic competence that does not, at the moment, extend to his party.\n\nCan he, in the very difficult economic circumstances the government now faces, have any chance of turning things around?\n\nThe Stretford and Urmston constituency includes the Old Trafford area around Manchester United's stadium.\n\nThe count was held in a large suite there because the usual venues had long been booked for Christmas parties.\n\nMr Western said the result sent out a \"strong message\", showing 12 years of Conservative government was \"coming to an end\".\n\nEmily Carter-Kandola trailed a distant second for the Tories, with a 16% share of the vote.\n\nThanking voters who braved -6C conditions to back him, Mr Western said it \"must hold the record for the coldest polling day\".\n\nHe added: \"It's clear from the result, and from the conversations I have had with voters throughout the campaign, that the public want a general election.\n\n\"The Tories have given up on governing and it is increasingly clear that the British people are giving up on them.\n\n\"Labour stands ready to deliver for our country and only Labour has a plan for working people and to create a fairer, greener, future.\"\n\nIt is the second by-election victory for Labour this month, after the party easily held Chester.\n\nRecent national opinion polls suggest Labour have a substantial lead over the Conservatives, which grew with the turbulence of Liz Truss's premiership.\n\nThe government is also grappling with soaring prices, an economic downturn and a wave of strike action.\n\nAs expected, this was a resounding victory for Labour.\n\nThe freezing temperatures on polling day and a lack of jeopardy appear to have contributed to a low turnout but it's the percentage share of the vote that the parties are focused on.\n\nBy-elections are always tricky for a party of government and this one - in a Labour stronghold, in a cost-of-living crisis - was always going to be harder than most for the Tories.\n\nBut it does all add to the growing sense of momentum that Labour are building as they become increasingly bullish about their chances of returning to power at the next general election.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Brittney Griner was freed last week and reunited with her wife Cherelle\n\nWNBA star Brittney Griner has said she will soon return to the basketball court after she was freed from a Russian jail.\n\nGriner was released last week in a prisoner swap for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.\n\nShe spoke for the first time since the exchange on Friday, thanking President Joe Biden and vowing to return for Phoenix Mercury this season.\n\n\"It feels so good to be home,\" she said in a statement on Instagram.\n\n\"The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn. I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going.\"\n\n\"I also want to make one thing very clear: I intend to play basketball for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury this season,\" Griner said.\n\nThe two-time Olympic gold medallist said she had departed Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, where she spent a week recovering after landing in the US.\n\nGriner also pledged to use her platform to help Mr Biden secure the release of Paul Whelan, an ex-Marine who has been in Russian custody for nearly four years on charges of spying.\n\nThe Biden administration faced criticism for failing to include Whelan in the Griner-Bout prisoner swap. The US said it had the choice of bringing home Griner or no-one.\n\nMr Biden is \"committed to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans home\", Griner said, urging \"everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts\" to secure his release.\n\n\"Every family deserves to be whole,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The moment Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout crossed on airport tarmac\n\nGriner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possessing cannabis oil and later sent to a penal colony.\n\nShe spent 10 months in Russian custody before the US government - under pressure from activists, politicians and those close to Griner - struck a deal with Russia to release her for Bout, who was flown back after 12 years in US custody.\n\nThe elaborate swap involved two private planes bringing the pair to Abu Dhabi airport from Moscow and Washington, and then flying them home.\n\nGriner, 32, is one of the best-known sportswomen in America. During the US basketball season the double Olympic champion is a star centre for Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA.\n\nHer agent recently said the star had played basketball for the first time since her arrest during her stay at the US army post in Texas.\n\nHer first move was a dunk, Lindsay Kagawa Colas told ESPN.", "Ross McCullam strangled Megan Newborough in the living room of his home\n\nA man who strangled his girlfriend and cut her throat 14 times before dumping her body in undergrowth has been jailed for life for murder.\n\nRoss McCullam attacked Megan Newborough, 23, at his home in Coalville, Leicestershire, on 6 August 2021.\n\nThe pair had been in a short relationship, having met at work.\n\nLaboratory worker McCullam, 30, was sentenced to a minimum of 23 years at Leicester Crown Court on Friday.\n\nHe was found guilty following a six-week trial, after which it took a jury just 90 minutes to convict him.\n\nHis victim's family wept and embraced after McCullam was sentenced.\n\nAddressing the court, Ms Newborough's father Anthony said: \"Megan had no idea of the evil terror she was about to face at the hands of the man she had met at work and trusted, none of us did.\n\n\"We still ask ourselves if we should have known, if we missed something, and we are overcome with guilt for not protecting Megan.\"\n\nMcCullam invited Ms Newborough to his house in Windsor Close - where he lived with his family - when his parents were out.\n\nHe attacked her and strangled her to death before fetching a carving knife to cut her throat, in what the prosecution said was an attempt to decapitate her.\n\nMcCullam then bundled her body into her own car, driving her to Charley Road, near Woodhouse Eaves, where he dumped her in undergrowth behind a stone wall.\n\nThe court heard McCullam discarded Ms Newborough's mobile phone but failed to turn it off.\n\nHe then attempted to cover up the murder by leaving phone messages professing love and supposed concern for her.\n\nMs Newborough's older sister Claire said the family \"fully believes\" McCullam tried to decapitate her.\n\n\"This brutalisation of my sister's body is something we will never be able to come to terms with,\" she said.\n\n\"The thing Megan hated most was feeling cold, and as her big sister, the very thought of her so cold and alone for all those hours, has destroyed me.\"\n\nTurning to McCullam, who was crying to himself in the dock, Claire called him \"an unpredictable menace\" and \"a danger to women\".\n\n\"She always thought she could fix people, but fixing evil people is not possible,\" she said. \"You tricked her, murdered her, brutalised her and left her in such an undignified way.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Footage of McCullam's arrest has been released\n\nClaire added: \"Megan's loss is so profound words cannot begin to describe the emptiness we feel as a family.\n\n\"We have been given a life sentence and one that we will never recover from.\n\n\"Megan was the glue that kept our family together. She was always there to offer support and would have helped anyone that needed it, she was a sensitive soul and all she ever wanted was to be loved.\n\n\"She wasn't as strong or as confident as she appeared.\n\n\"In the last couple of years of her life, she went through difficult times, the break-up of a relationship, Covid and the death of her beloved grandad, whom she helped give end-of-life care to.\n\n\"We believe that this made her more susceptible to the manipulative actions of the defendant.\"\n\nMcCullam claimed he had not intended to harm Ms Newborough, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, but lost control of himself in what he said was \"blind rage\".\n\nHe said this was due to an episode of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which he claimed was caused by sexual abuse he had suffered as a child.\n\nHe had admitted manslaughter but denied murder.\n\nMcCullam told officers he had killed Ms Newborough, whom he had met some six weeks earlier at the Ibstock Brick factory where they both worked, and revealed where her body was.\n\nShe was found in the early hours of 8 August.\n\nMs Newborough's body was found in Charley Road near Woodhouse Eaves\n\nSentencing, Judge Philip Head said Ms Newborough was a \"stellar\" personality, who was \"supportive, patient and caring\" of friends, colleagues and family.\n\nAddressing McCullum, he said: \"I regard you cutting her throat as a very substantial aggravating factor.\n\n\"It was the truly dreadful and sustained way you ensured that intention to kill was achieved.\n\n\"It was her dreadful misfortune to become involved in a relationship with you.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ms Newborough's family gave their reaction to the sentence outside court\n\nJudge Head told McCullam: \"No sentence I can now pass can begin to equate to the value of the life that you took away.\n\n\"Megan Newborough was 23. She had already achieved so much and she had a glowing future.\"\n\nHe praised Ms Newborough's family, who sat through the entire trial, for their dignity throughout.\n\nAfter the sentencing, Ms Newborough's brother John, who in the search for his sister had found her mobile phone using a tracking app, in bushes where McCullam had tossed it, thanked the police, prosecution and the jury.\n\nHe said: \"I know how difficult it's been for my parents and sister to sit at court every day listening to the web of lies being spun by someone Meg not only knew but whom she trusted. Someone who clearly had no love for her at all.\n\n\"We're the ones who are now serving a life sentence. No amount of time in prison will bring Megan back. We have to carry on with our lives as best we can, but Meg will never leave our thoughts.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The product should be thrown out, authorities say\n\nToxic spinach has sparked an urgent health alert in Australia after people who consumed it suffered severe sickness and hallucinations.\n\nNine people have needed medical care after eating the Riviera Farms baby spinach from Costco.\n\nHealth authorities say their symptoms have also included delirium, spiked heart rates and blurred vision.\n\nRiviera Farms says it believes the spinach was contaminated by a weed, but no other products have been affected.\n\nNew South Wales Health has warned any packets of the brand's spinach with an expiry date of December 16 are not safe to consume and should be thrown out.\n\nIt also urged anyone who has experienced any unusual symptoms after eating the spinach to immediately seek hospital care.\n\n\"No one has died, so we're very happy with that and we hope it remains that way, but these people are quite sick... to the point of marked hallucinations, where they are seeing things that aren't there,\" Dr Darren Roberts, from the state's Poisons Information Centre, told the Sydney Morning Herald.\n\nA Riviera Farms spokesperson said they had taken action immediately, asking shops to remove them from shelves.\n\n\"There is no suggestion, and to our knowledge no possibility, that any other products have been impacted by this weed,\" they said.\n\nAll of those affected so far are from Sydney, NSW Health said, but it has alerted authorities in other states as it investigates.", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nFifa is to reconsider the format of the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, says president Gianni Infantino.\n\nThe teams will increase from 32 to 48 for the competition and were set to be divided into 16 groups of three, with the top two progressing to the last 32.\n\nInfantino said that would be looked at after the \"success\" of the four-team groups at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.\n\n\"Here the groups of four have been absolutely incredible,\" said Infantino.\n\n\"Until the last minute of the last match you would not know who goes through.\n\n\"We have to revisit or at least re-discuss the format. This is something that will certainly be on the agenda in the next meeting.\"\n\nThe group stages in Qatar included some exciting final games as countries tried to secure a top-two place to qualify for the last 16.\n\nThe four-team group format, with the top two going through to the knockout stages, has been used since the men's World Cup expanded to 32 teams in 1998.\n\nThe best World Cup ever - Infantino\n\nInfantino was speaking at a news conference in Qatar after attending a Fifa council meeting.\n\nWith the third-place play-off and final to go, he said 3.27 million spectators had attended the games compared with an overall 3.3 million at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.\n\n\"Thanks to everyone involved, Qatar, all the volunteers to make this the best World Cup ever,\" said Infantino.\n\n\"Matches have been played without incidents. It has been a very joyful atmosphere.\n\n\"There is something happening when we talk about football becoming truly global, with an African team [Morocco] reaching the semi-final for the first time.\n\n\"We also had a woman [Stephanie Frappart] referee a match for the first time.\n\n\"It has been an incredible success, approaching five billion in terms of viewing figures. The fans meeting the Arab world, it has been very important for the future of all of us.\"\n\nA number of European nations planned to wear a OneLove armband during matches to promote diversity and inclusion but did not do so because of possible sanctions from world football governing body Fifa.\n\nGermany manager Hansi Flick said his players covered their mouths during the team photograph before their World Cup opener against Japan \"to convey the message that Fifa is silencing\" teams.\n\n\"When it comes to regulations, prohibitions, it is not about prohibiting, it is about respecting regulations,\" said Infantino.\n\n\"Everyone is free to express beliefs as long as it is done in a respectful way but when it comes to the field of play, you need to respect and protect football.\n\n\"There are 211 football teams, not heads of state, and their fans want to come and enjoy football. This is what we are here for. I believe we are defending values, defending human rights, defending rights of everyone in Fifa, in the World Cup.\n\n\"But I also believe these fans who come to the stadium and all those billions watching on TV maybe - and we should think about that - they feel everyone has their own problems, they just want to spend 90 minutes without having to think about anything else than just enjoying a little moment of pleasure, joy or emotion.\"\n\nQatar's treatment of migrant workers, along with its stance on same-sex relationships and its human rights record, were among the main controversies overshadowing the build-up to the World Cup.\n\nThe chief executive of the Qatar World Cup was criticised by Human Rights Watch for displaying \"a callous disregard\" when he said \"death is a natural part of life\" when asked about a migrant worker's death at the tournament.\n\nHuman Rights Watch also said the 2022 World Cup was \"ending with no commitment from Fifa or Qatari authorities to remedy abuses, including unexplained deaths, that migrant workers suffered to make the tournament possible over the past 12 years\".\n\nHuman rights organisations and a number of football associations have been asking Fifa to establish a compensation fund for migrant workers and their families, as well as the establishment of a migrant worker centre in Doha.\n\n\"Unless Fifa and Qatar provide a remedy for the widescale unaddressed abuses suffered by migrants who prepared and delivered the tournament, they will have chosen to leave behind a legacy of exploitation and shame.\" said Rothna Begum, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.\n\nInfantino said: \"For us every loss of life is a tragedy and whatever we could do to change the legislation to protect the situation of the workers, we did it and it happened. Whatever we can still do for the future, we are doing it.\n\n\"We want to bring this experience into the future and make sure we can help and leverage the World Cup and spotlights on it to make lives of people and their family a bit better.\"\n\nBBC presenter and former England striker Gary Lineker said while there had been positives to the World Cup, he did not think there would be any long-term legacy from the tournament.\n\n\"You see the diverse nature of fans in the stadiums and there are lots of positives in terms of the globalisation of football,\" he told BBC Sport.\n\n\"The legacy of a World Cup is very short-lived. People have different memories of their experiences of different places, and they are usually pretty positive because in the end it's football that excites us.\n\n\"We then go away and carry on with rest of our lives.\"\n\nA migrant worker died at a World Cup facility earlier in December. A report by the Guardian newspaper last year said 6,500 migrant workers had died in Qatar since the country was awarded the World Cup in 2010.\n\nThat figure has been denied by the Qatari authorities, who say there have been three work-related deaths in construction related directly to the tournament, and a further 37 non work-related deaths.\n\nWorld Cup officials say a number of reforms to improve the health and safety standards for migrant workers have been implemented in recent years, and that they are \"committed\" to making more improvements as a legacy of the tournament.\n\nLineker said at the start of the tournament that he was there to \"report, not support\" issues in Qatar\n\n\"There is no getting away from fact the stadiums are incredible and the infrastructure they are building are extraordinary - but at what price?\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Twitter has blocked its users from sharing some links to its social media rival Mastodon.\n\nMastodon is divided into groups, called servers, based on many topics including the UK, snooker, and security.\n\nTwitter has blocked links to some of the largest servers which users would join, including the most popular \"social\" channel.\n\nAnd Twitter is also stopping users from adding links to their Mastodon account in their bios - calling them \"malware\".\n\nThere is absolutely no evidence to support the suggestion that Mastodon contains malware - malicious software that can harm your device.\n\nMastodon said it gained hundreds of thousands of users in November, with some Twitter users seeking alternative platforms.\n\nThe same result occurs if the link is posted in the location or website field\n\nThe BBC has been unable to post links to the most popular mastodon.social server, as well as more than 10 others - including a server for journalists and another for people in the UK.\n\nBut not all links to Mastodon have been blocked, and there are ways around it.\n\nThe BBC's technology editor Zoe Kleinman was able to successfully tweet a reference to her Mastodon account - zsk@mastodonapp.uk - because it is not a clickable link.\n\nA subsequent attempt to turn the reference into a clickable link to her Mastodon page cannot be posted to Twitter.\n\nIt is not clear how many Mastodon servers have been blocked on Twitter, or why.\n\nUsers attempting to post links to blocked servers will receive an error message instead, which says: \"We can't complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.\"\n\nAs well as blocking certain links to Mastodon, Twitter has taken action against its rival's main account.\n\nThe Twitter account @joinmastodon, which advertised the site and its features, was unexpectedly suspended on Thursday alongside those of several notable journalists covering Twitter owner Elon Musk.\n\nThis has led the EU to threaten Mr Musk with sanctions, with commissioner Vera Jourova warning that the EU's Digital Services Act requires respect of media freedom.\n\n\"Elon Musk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon,\" she tweeted.\n\nA Twitter spokeswoman told tech website The Verge that the journalists' ban was related to the live sharing of location data.\n\nThis came after Mr Musk vowed to sue the owner of a Twitter account that tracked his private jet. This account has also been suspended.\n\nWhile no reason has been given for the Mastodon suspension, there is a coincidence in timing - in the few hours beforehand, @joinmastodon shared a link showing where the person tracking Mr Musk's jet can be found on the rival social media site.\n\nScreenshot captured from the Internet Archive, just a few hours before the page was suspended\n\nWill Moy, chief executive at fact-checking charity Full Fact, said he knew of \"no reason\" for there to be \"a general block on Mastodon\".\n\n\"It is concerning that a vitally important social media company like Twitter appears to be making erratic and unaccountable decisions that affect what we can all see and share online,\" he said.\n\n\"If we're serious about defending our democracy and recognising the powerful influence that social media can have in shaping our democratic debate, we have to be serious about holding that power to account.\"\n\nThe BBC has approached Twitter and Mastodon for comment.", "The compensation was approved at the High Court in Belfast\n\nA man who suffered \"catastrophic\" injuries when a car driven by his brother crashed into a lamppost is to receive more than £9m in compensation.\n\nAaron Glover, 27, sustained severe brain damage in the incident on Hillhall Road near Lisburn, County Antrim, in December 2014.\n\nHe was treated in intensive care and spent nearly a year in hospital.\n\nThe money, to cover damages and future care arrangements, was approved at the High Court in Belfast on Friday.\n\nMr Glover had been the front seat passenger when his brother, Curtis Glover, lost control of the car and collided with a lamppost.\n\nA passing doctor who provided help at the scene had probably prevented him from dying, the court heard.\n\nIn an action brought through his mother, Mr Glover sued over the alleged negligence of his brother's driving.\n\nThe case included claims for damages, loss of earnings, adaptions to the family's home near Belfast and the cost of providing care for the rest of his life.\n\nUnder the terms of a settlement reached, a compensation package was endorsed by Mr Justice McAlinden.\n\nDuring the hearing he met with Mr Glover and his parents before paying tribute to the love and care they have shown.\n\n\"It's a very sad case, a life living with very, very severe injuries,\" he said.\n\n\"I am at a loss for words in terms of admiration for them in their dedication towards their son.\"\n\nOutside court, the family's solicitor, Lynn Day, confirmed the scale of the settlement.\n\n\"We are very pleased to have reached a settlement which will be in excess of £9 million pounds in this tragic case,\" she said.\n\n\"This settlement now allows his family the financial security to enable them to continue to provide the continuous 24-hour attention they have unstintingly provided since he was released from hospital into their care and which he will require for the rest of his life.\"", "The community spirit in Shetland is really shining through despite hundreds of homes still without power.\n\nSince the arrival of engineers, there’s been a real push to get people reconnected.\n\nA break in the bad weather has helped, but there’s still a long with to go, with folk living in the west side of Shetland having to wait until Monday to see their power back on again.\n\nA network of community halls is providing warm spaces, hot meals and drinks as well as a place for people to charge their phones and even do their washing.\n\nWith the countdown to Christmas well and truly on, there’s still a festive spirit in the islands.\n\nLast night the local drama group was able to stage the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk once again after it had been postponed for three nights.\n\nAll Shetland wants for Christmas is the lights back on for everyone.\n• Around 1,600 Shetland properties still without power", "Engineers are working on lines in Shetland\n\nTeams of engineers have been battling to restore power to homes in Shetland, with about 1,700 properties still without supplies.\n\nEnergy firm Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) said its engineers had to rebuild the \"critical backbone\" of the network to allow more homes to be connected.\n\nMany of those without power are residential homes.\n\nMore than 100 schools are closed in Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Highlands.\n\nMany roads have been badly affected by snow drifts.\n\nA yellow weather warning is in place in the north of Scotland with the central belt due to be hit by snow and ice on Friday morning.\n\nA Shetland mother whose twins were born prematurely eight weeks ago and who told how she was trying to keep them warm and fed now has power back on.\n\nSiobhan Bradley's babies Danny and Annie were born five weeks early.\n\nSiobhan Bradley and her twins now have power back\n\nWhen the power failed on Monday, Siobhan, the twins and her nine-year-old son Benjamin moved into the home of her partner's mother, a mile-and-a-half away, and were in a room with a wood burner to keep them warm.\n\nWith power now restored, the 37-year-old, who is in Whalsay, told BBC Scotland it was a \"massive relief\".\n\nShe said: \"We can get home, we can get settled, ready for Christmas, and get warm and cosy again and enjoy time together as a family.\"\n\nA broken pole in Semblister on the west of Shetland\n\nA number of power lines have been brought down\n\nHeavy snowstorms disrupted electricity supplies in Shetland, with many left without power for days.\n\nSSEN said that on Wednesday power was successfully restored to customers in the Out Skerries, parts of Voe, northern parts of Whalsay, and clusters elsewhere on Shetland.\n\nAbout 1,700 properties remained off supply in Voe, Brae and the West Mainland late on Thursday.\n\nMeanwhile helicopters were sent to assess damage on the west of the island and parts of Voe where access on foot was a \"significant challenge\".\n\nSSEN has warned that some of them may be without power over the weekend.\n\nThe company said it had replaced core infrastructure and points of damage in Voe and Yell and replaced kilometres of overhead line.\n\nOn Thursday afternoon, Mark Macdonald, head of region at SSEN Distribution, said a 125-strong team had been \"working tirelessly\" to repair significant damage.\n\nHe added: \"I'd continue to encourage customers to visit warm welfare locations, organised in collaboration with our partners, which are serving hot drinks, offering kitchen facilities, and providing a warm space for customers without power.\n\n\"I'd also urge anyone who has any concerns for themselves or others, particularly family members or neighbours who may need extra support, to give our teams a call on 105.\"\n\nKaela, Susan, Astryd and Carol are trying to keep warm in the Hillswick practice\n\nDr Susan Bowie, who works at the Hillswick practice in the northernmost part of mainland Shetland, has no electricity in her home or at the surgery.\n\nThe surgery is using a diesel generator but it does not provide heating.\n\nShe told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme: \"It's really cold at the surgery. You can't stay there too long because your hands get so cold, but there's been a real community spirit about this situation.\n\n\"The roads are terrible but the staff have come in, they have done their best. We are wearing coats, jumpers and fleeces just to stay warm.\"\n\nThe surgery has had to move some of its medicines into a fridge at a nearby hotel in order to ensure they are not wasted.\n\nMore engineers and poles arrived on Thursday\n\nSSEN crews started arriving in Lerwick by ferry on Wednesday to help with reconnection efforts, which have been hampered by continuing poor weather.\n\nMore engineers and poles arrived in a Shetland off the ferry from Aberdeen on Thursday morning.\n\nThe power cuts have been caused by \"significant\" network damage as a result of line icing, where snow and ice accumulate on overhead power lines and the additional weight causes them to break.\n\nCustomers can claim up to £30 per person for meals for every 24 hours they are without power. This is in addition to statutory compensation.\n\nHow have you been affected by power cuts? You can share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: 'Terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me', says Harry\n\nPrince Harry has described how \"terrifying\" it was to have his brother \"scream and shout\" at him when they met to discuss his and Meghan's future.\n\nIn a Netflix series, Prince Harry says it was his decision, not Meghan's, to leave after plans for a half-in, half-out royal life were rejected during a family meeting at Sandringham.\n\nHe says his father said things that \"just simply weren't true\" as his grandmother, the Queen, looked on.\n\nIn the latest and final instalments of the docuseries, Harry and Meghan describe why they decided to give up their royal duties and move to the US, claiming they were not supported by the Royal Family during a barrage of negative press that was mainly directed at Meghan.\n\nMeghan talks in detail about how she considered taking her own life. Harry describes how he feels shame looking back at how he reacted, reverting to \"Institutional Harry\" rather than \"husband Harry\".\n\nIn 2020 the duke went to Sandringham, the royal estate in Norfolk, to discuss scenarios for the couple's royal role with Harry's father King Charles - then Prince Charles - as well as his brother and grandmother, the late Queen.\n\nHe recalls how the meeting went, saying: \"It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that just simply weren't true, and my grandmother quietly sit there and sort of take it all in.\"\n\nPrince William attended a carol concert with his family on Thursday\n\nHe says his preference was to be half in, half out of the Royal Family, with him and Meghan doing their own jobs but also supporting the Queen.\n\n\"It became very clear, very quickly that that goal was not up for discussion,\" he says.\n\nAs for the Queen, he says her ultimate responsibility was the institution of the Royal Family.\n\nHarry also says a joint statement was put out after the meeting without his permission in his and his brother's name. The statement denied a story that William had bullied him out of the Royal Family.\n\nHe describes the move as a \"lie to protect my brother\", adding: \"There was no other option at this point. I said, 'we need to get out of here'.\"\n\nHe says Meghan had not asked to leave and that saying she drove the decision was \"misogyny at its best\".\n\nThe Netflix trailers had hinted at explosive revelations about the monarchy, but in the end the final three episodes of the series had a different kind of impact. It was emotional rather than political.\n\nIt was a battle between brothers, with an underlying sense of angriness and betrayal.\n\nPeople sometimes call the royals a soap opera. This was the Christmas omnibus edition, with claims of shouting matches, underhand dealing, and a big walk out.\n\nAnd it will set up another chain reaction of stories when they next all meet in front of the public - next year's coronation isn't far away.\n\nIn the latest episodes, Meghan also speaks about how she considered taking her own life, before stepping back from the Royal Family.\n\n\"It was like 'all of this will stop if I'm not here,'\" she says.\n\nMeghan's mother, Doria Ragland, says hearing her daughter's thoughts \"broke my heart\".\n\nPrince Harry says he was devastated after his wife confided in him about her struggles,\n\nBut he had been \"trained\" to worry more about what people were going to think, and he \"hated himself\" for that, he says.\n\n\"What she needed was so much more than I was able to give,\" he adds.\n\nMeghan says that she wanted to seek help but \"wasn't allowed to\".\n\nWithout being specific as to who \"they\" were, she says: \"They were concerned about how that would look for the institution.\"\n\nThe prince adds: \"They knew how bad it was. They thought 'Why couldn't she just deal with it?' As if to say, well, 'everybody else has dealt with it, why can't she deal with it?' But this was different. It was really different.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Meghan: 'They were concerned how that would look for the institution'\n\nMeghan's mother is seen looking teary-eyed as she shares her account of that time, adding that her daughter's words were \"not easy for a mum to hear\".\n\nIn a reference to press intrusion in her daughter's life, Ms Ragland said: \"I knew it was bad, but to just constantly be picked at by these vultures, just picking away at her spirit, that she would actually think of not wanting to be here.\"\n\nOther revelations from the series include:\n\nThe final three episodes of the six-part series, titled Harry & Meghan, were released on Thursday.\n\nThe filming of the series was completed before the Queen's death in September this year.\n\nPrince Harry's memoir, Spare, will be published in January.\n\nInformation and support: If you or someone you know is feeling emotionally distressed, these organisations offer advice and support. For mental health issues, there are these organisations.", "Lady Susan Hussey has given a personal apology to Ngozi Fulani, after asking her where she was \"really from\" at a Palace reception.\n\nLady Susan, a former lady in waiting, met black British charity boss Ms Fulani at Buckingham Palace on Friday.\n\nShe offered her \"sincere apologies for the comments... and the distress they caused\", said Buckingham Palace.\n\nA statement said Ms Fulani had accepted the apology and recognised the comments had not been malicious.\n\nMs Fulani, founder of the Sistah Space charity, was a guest at a Buckingham Palace reception last month when she described Lady Susan moving her hair to see her name badge, and challenging her to explain where she was \"really from\".\n\nLady Susan, a godmother to Prince William, asked what part of Africa Ms Fulani was from, despite Ms Fulani explaining that she worked in London and had been born in the UK.\n\nMs Fulani felt that she had been \"interrogated\" at the reception hosted by the Queen Consort for those working to tackle domestic abuse.\n\nFollowing the controversy, Lady Susan, aged 83, stepped down from her honorary palace role.\n\nThe row prompted Prince William's spokesman to say that \"racism has no place in our society\".\n\nIn a joint statement issued with Ms Fulani, Buckingham Palace described Friday's reconciliation between the two women as \"filled with warmth and understanding\".\n\nLady Susan has \"pledged to deepen her awareness of the sensitivities involved\" and the Royal Households would continue to \"focus on inclusion and diversity\", the statement said.\n\nThe Royal Households also made a commitment to training programmes, including \"examining what can be learnt from Sistah Space\".\n\nThere was recognition that Ms Fulani had \"unfairly received an appalling torrent of abuse on social media\".\n\nLast week the Sistah Space domestic abuse charity said it had ceased many of its operations because of concerns over safety.\n\nThe statement on Friday said both Lady Susan and Ms Fulani wanted their meeting to show that \"resolution can be found with kindness, co-operation and the condemnation of discrimination wherever it takes root\".\n\nBuckingham Palace will have wanted to draw a line under what had been an embarrassing row. And King Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, were said to have been kept informed and welcomed the outcome.", "Glen Allen was jailed for 14-and-a-half year in 2010 for the murder of William Meek in 2008\n\nA convicted murderer is at large after failing to return to Maghaberry Prison following temporary release.\n\nGlen Allen, 34, was jailed for 14-and-a-half years in 2010 for the murder of William Meek.\n\nMr Meek was stabbed 51 times in the head, face and neck in June 2008.\n\nThe Department of Justice said Allen went missing on Wednesday. He is described as being about 5ft 9in tall and of medium build, with dirty fair hair and blue eyes.\n\nHe also has scars on his right hand, left finger and knee.\n\nThe police said that despite searches to arrest Allen, they have so far been unable to find him.\n\nThey have appealed for anyone who has seen him or knows where he is to get in contact.\n\nThe police also appealed directly to Allen to hand himself in.\n\nThe Department of Justice has appealed for anyone with information to contact the police.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Malaysia: Authorities searching for survivors after deadly landslide at campsite\n\nMalaysian search and rescue teams are scouring a holiday campsite in the Selangor state for survivors after a landslide killed at least 21 people.\n\nFamilies were sleeping in their tents when the landslide happened around 03:00 Friday (19:00 GMT Thursday) at a farm stay in Batang Kali township.\n\nSome 400 rescue workers spent Friday digging through mud to find 12 missing people, local media reported.\n\nAmong the victims are five children and 12 women, officials announced.\n\nFire Chief Norazam Khamis also told local media that two of the bodies were found \"hugging each other\" and are believed to be mother and daughter.\n\nThe farm's managers said at least 30 children and 51 adults were registered for an overnight stay, and Health Miniser Zaliha Mustafa said one of those injured was a pregnant woman.\n\nMore than 20 primary school teachers and their family members were also at the campsite, according to a New Straits Times report.\n\nMalaysia's fire and rescue department said a 30m (100ft) high slope impacted the campsite in \"a terrible tragedy\". Government authorities noted that the landslide involved about 450,000 sq m of soil.\n\nThe camp site had been operating illegally, according to local government development minister Nga Kor Ming. He added that the operator had government approval to run an organic farm, but was not permitted to run camping activities.\n\nIf found guilty of violating the law, the owner could be jailed up to three years or fined up to 50,000 ringgit (£9,306; $11,318).\n\nMr Nga also said he ordered all \"high-risk\" camping sites - those located along rivers, waterfalls and hillsides - across Malaysia to immediately shut down for seven days.\n\nDeputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi echoed the message, warning that the weather was expected to worsen in the coming days.\n\n\"We have to learn from what has happened today,\" he said.\n\nMeanwhile, a spokesperson for Singapore's foreign ministry said three of its citizens were among those rescued. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong expressed \"heartfelt condolences and sympathies to all those affected by the landslide\".\n\nIt is unclear what triggered the landslide, which happened in a forested, hilly area next to the side of the road in Batang Kali, close to the Genting Highland region.\n\nLocals reported some light rain, but no heavy downpours or any earthquakes in the lead up to it. However, monsoon season is currently underway in Malaysia.\n\nPictures posted online by Malaysia's rescue agencies showed crews of helmeted workers clambering up uneven ground, past uprooted trees and other debris.\n\nOne camper, Teh Lynn Xuan, said she and her mother had survived, but her brother had died and another brother had been injured and taken to hospital.\n\n\"We felt the tents becoming unstable and soil was falling around us,\" she told Malaysian newspaper Berita Harian.\n\n\"My mother and I managed to crawl out and save ourselves.\"\n\nShe said they had been camping with a big group of more than 40 people.\n\nAnother survivor, Leong Jim Meng, said he and his family were woken by an explosion before the ground began to shift.\n\nThey were briefly trapped in their tents by debris before managing to escape.\n\n\"It was too dark to see clearly what was happening,\" he said.\n\nAnd a campsite worker, Thawng Uk, told the Reuters news agency that they had narrowly survived the disaster after being roused by neighbours.\n\n\"I have never seen such a horrible incident. I feel so shocked and terrified,\" the 35-year-old said. \"We could bring nothing at all as we urgently ran. We are asking around where to get shelter and food.\"\n\nPrime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was due to arrive at the site later on Friday, following visits from several other government ministers.\n\nHe offered condolences to the victims and prayers for more survivors on his Facebook page.\n\nRescuers have been shovelling mud to get to the victims feared trapped in the ground", "The fire is said to have started on the ground floor\n\nTen people, including five children, have been killed in a fire in an apartment building near Lyon, France, the local government says.\n\nOfficials released a statement saying a \"sizeable fire\" broke out in a seven-storey block of flats in the suburb of Vaulx-en-Velin.\n\nFour people are in a critical condition and 15 others reported minor injuries, including two firefighters.\n\nThe fire is now out and prosecutors are investigating its cause.\n\nThe flames appear to have started on the ground floor before spreading upwards.\n\n\"I was awakened by the screams... we wanted to help people but the smoke was too heavy. I saw a dead woman... it's dramatic,\" a local resident told Le Progres de Lyon newspaper.\n\nAnother resident told the AFP news agency that his friends had caught a 10-year-old boy who was thrown to safety from an upper-floor window by his mother.\n\nInterior Minister Gerard Darmanin said the children who died were all aged between three and 15.\n\nHe praised the firefighters for taking considerable risks by \"climbing the building from the outside... saving children and babies up to the seventh floor\". Without their \"heroism\" the death toll would have been much higher, he said.\n\nThe block of flats where the fire broke out is part of a housing project in the Lyon suburbs. It underwent emergency repairs in 2019 and was described as \"rundown\" by Lyon city authorities.\n\nMr Darmanin said the area was a known drug-dealing spot.\n\nThe neighbourhood has had a poor reputation for problems of urban decay and crime, but is undergoing a multi-million euro renovation.\n\nAre you in the area? Only if it's safe to do so, you can get in touch by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Michael Cox spotted ice pancakes on the Wharfe while walking his dog on Wednesday morning\n\nPlunging temperatures have brought \"ice pancakes\" to a river in North Yorkshire.\n\nThe phenomenon, which is caused when foam floating on the top of a river freezes, was spotted on the River Wharfe near Bolton Priory on Wednesday.\n\nThey were photographed by dog walker Michael Cox, who said he visits the area regularly but had never seen the ice pancakes before.\n\nIt comes as freezing temperatures have gripped the country for several days.\n\nMr Cox, who lives in nearby Silsden, said the riverside walk had been transformed into something of a \"winter wonderland\".\n\n\"There had been a hard frost that day, it was all very picturesque,\" he said\n\nAlthough he had never seen ice pancakes before, he said he knew what he was witnessing having seen previous news stories about the phenomenon.\n\nDays of sub-zero temperatures have allowed the ice pancakes to form\n\nThe distinctive circular shapes are formed when the foam freezes, and the ice chunks then bump into each other and become rounded.\n\nThe spectacle has already been witnessed on a Glasgow river earlier this week, and ice pancakes were also captured on the River Swale in Richmond in 2019.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.", "Poland's top police chief has been hurt after a gift given by Ukrainian officials exploded at his headquarters.\n\nJarosław Szymczyk suffered minor injuries on Wednesday after opening the present at his Warsaw offices.\n\nIt is not clear what the object was but local reports suggested it was a grenade launcher. The officer was given the gift on a recent visit to Ukraine.\n\nPoland has asked for an explanation, but Kyiv has not yet made a public statement on the incident.\n\nThe explosion happened in a room next to the commander-in-chief's office at 07:50 (06:50 GMT) on Wednesday.\n\nA civilian employee at the HQ was also hurt but did not need hospital treatment, Poland's interior ministry said.\n\nThe present was a gift from one of the heads of Ukraine's police and state emergency services who Mr Szymczyk had visited a few days earlier.\n\nThe incident comes a month after a missile strike during an attack by Russia on Ukraine killed two people in Poland close to the Ukrainian border.\n\nNato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the missile was most likely Ukrainian air defence, but that the blame for the deaths lay with Russia due to its attack on Ukraine.\n\nPolish President Andrzej Duda said at the time that the deaths appeared to be an \"unfortunate accident\".\n\nYou may also be interested in:\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The missiles Ukraine prosecutors say are being kept as evidence", "GMB senior organiser Amanda Gearing said workers should be applauded for their determination\n\nAmazon workers at the company's warehouse in Coventry have voted to take strike action in what is believed to be a UK first.\n\nThe GMB union said hundreds of workers voted to walk out over a 50 pence per hour pay offer.\n\nA majority of more than 98% of workers voted to strike on a ballot turnout of more than 63%, the union said.\n\nAmazon has previously said it offered \"competitive pay\" and gave workers \"comprehensive benefits\".\n\nThe company said it was 178 people who had voted to walk out and that it was 98% of union members at the site who voted to strike, not of the 1,400 total workforce.\n\nA spokesperson said it was proud to offer competitive pay which starts at a minimum of between £10.50 and £11.45 per hour, depending on location.\n\n\"This represents a 29% increase in the minimum hourly wage paid to Amazon employees since 2018,\" the spokesperson added.\n\n\"On top of this, we're pleased to have announced that full-time, part-time and seasonal frontline employees will receive an additional one-time special payment of up to £500 as an extra thank you.\"\n\nThe ballot shut on Friday, but any industrial action is likely to take place in the new year. Workers had wanted their hourly pay to rise from £10 an hour to £15.\n\nAmanda Gearing, GMB Senior Organiser, said the workers were making history by being the first Amazon workers in the UK to take part in a formal strike.\n\n\"The fact that they are being forced to go on strike to win a decent rate of pay from one of the world's most valuable companies should be a badge of shame for Amazon,\" she said.\n\n\"Amazon can afford to do better. It's not too late to avoid strike action; get round the table with GMB to improve the pay and conditions of workers.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Deputy First Minister John Swinney said councils would benefit from more than £550m in extra funding\n\nSome local services may have to be scrapped due to funding shortages, council leaders have warned following the Scottish government's budget.\n\nLocal authority chiefs have unanimously backed a motion arguing the budget will be detrimental to services.\n\nIt follows Deputy First Minister John Swinney announcing that councils will benefit from a funding increase of £550m.\n\nThe Scottish government says its budget will ensure councils are \"protected\".\n\nIn his budget announcement, Mr Swinney said that local authorities would receive more than £550m extra - instead of a flat cash settlement.\n\nAt a meeting of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla), the leaders said that most of that sum was for existing commitments - claiming the settlement meant another massive real-terms cut in funding, leaving them \"extremely disappointed\".\n\nThey urged ministers to prioritise local government funding and pause plans for a National Care Service, which is expected to cost between £664m and £1.2bn over five years.\n\nCouncil chiefs said funding should instead be reallocated to social care and prevention measures within local government.\n\nKatie Hagmann, Cosla's resources spokeswoman, said: \"Council services will now be at absolute breaking point and some may have to stop altogether.\n\n\"This is a result of cuts to our councils' core budgets and direction on spend towards other Scottish government priorities over the last few years.\n\n\"Yesterday's budget announcement compounds this and there is a real risk that many of our essential services will not only be cut, but may have to stop altogether.\"\n\nAnalysis published by Cosla suggests the cash increase could be just £71m once Scottish government-mandated policies are paid for, while it claims capital funding will remain flat for next year.\n\nThe Fraser of Allander Institute said the funding was equal to a 4.9% real-terms decrease based on spending last year, while the Institute for Fiscal Studies accused the government of overstating the spending increases by comparing spending next year to last year's budget and not taking into account in-year rises.\n\nBut the Scottish government rejected the claims by Cosla.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"We have protected councils in the most challenging budget since devolution to provide more than £13.2bn in the 2023-24 local government settlement.\n\n\"This represents a cash increase of over £550m, or 4.5%, which is a real-terms increase of £160.6m, or 1.3%.\"\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nAs part of the budget announcement, local authorities were also given full flexibility to set their own council tax rates.\n\nMr Swinney said councils should \"consider carefully the cost pressures facing the public\" when deciding the rate they will charge people.\n\nScottish Conservative local government spokesman Miles Briggs said: \"Services that residents rely on could be lost forever under John Swinney's current budget proposals. He should stop with the shameless spin and instead step up and ensure our councils have the funding they need.\n\n\"While tough decisions have to be made, our councils should not always have to bear the brunt of SNP-Green cuts. Many of them simply have no more room to manoeuvre when it comes to managing their finances, while still delivering local services.\"", "Heavy snow on the A9 towards Perth\n\nThe wintry weather is set to continue across much of Scotland, with warnings of further snow and ice.\n\nFollowing sub-zero conditions in some areas on Saturday, more snow is likely on Sunday.\n\nThe Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings for the whole country that are in place until 21:00 on Sunday.\n\nIt comes after heavy snow fell across central Scotland on Friday, causing disruption for commuters.\n\nSome of the worst conditions were seen on the A9 around Dunblane and the A83 and A85 in Argyll and Bute.\n\nPolice received numerous reports of vehicles getting stuck on the A82 and A85 near Crianlarich due to the conditions.\n\nA rest centre was set up at Crianlarich Village Hall and 58 people stayed there overnight.\n\nThe roads were later cleared and vehicles freed, allowing those at the rest centre to return home on Saturday morning.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Andreas G. Wolff, MA This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nInsp Barbara Hughes, of Stirling Police Station, said: \"Thanks to the hard work of our officers and our partners we have been able to clear the roads and allow those people whose vehicles were stuck on the A82 and A85 last night to return home.\n\n\"I would also like to thank the local volunteers who assisted those at the village hall for their kindness in supplying resources and refreshments.\"\n\nShe reminded everyone to plan ahead and have sufficient fuel and supplies such as warm clothing, food, water, and a fully charged mobile phone.\n\nAt some points on Friday, the M73, M80, M8 and M90 were also affected affected by snow and ice.\n\nPolice issued a travel warning for the whole of Scotland and advised people to travel with caution.\n\nThere were tricky conditions for commuters on the M80 northbound on Friday\n\nBBC Weather Watcher Nellington woke up on Friday to a blanket of snow in Methven\n\nAll Megabus and Scottish Citylink services northbound from Glasgow and Edinburgh were temporarily suspended until the A9 and M90 reopened at midday.\n\nGlasgow Airport's runway was closed on Friday until 11:30 while it was cleared of snow and ice. Some flights were severely delayed or cancelled.\n\nSome schools were closed in the Highlands, Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Aberdeenshire, Orkney, and Perth and Kinross.\n\nMelissa Kelly said travelling to work was a struggle\n\nMelissa Kelly, a nurse at Forth Valley Royal Hospital, told BBC Scotland that road conditions on her way to work were \"absolutely horrendous\".\n\nShe said some staff have not been able to get in for their shift.\n\nTransport bosses said 240 gritters were deployed from 40 depots across the country.\n\nA major incident was declared in Shetland earlier in the week when thousands were left without power, while more than 100 schools were closed in Aberdeenshire, Moray and the Highlands.", "Danielle and Katie Campbell were walking at Keeper's Pond when their dogs skidded into the water\n\nA woman has described how she and her sister dived into an icy pond to try to rescue their two dogs which \"skidded into the water\".\n\nOne, French bulldog Hugo, is missing after Katie and Danielle Campbell walked their pets at Keeper's Pond in Blaenavon, Torfaen, last weekend.\n\nBoth sisters were taken to hospital for treatment.\n\nIt comes as the Royal Life Saving Society repeated warnings of the dangers of frozen water.\n\nEarlier this week, four children died in Solihull, Birmingham, and there have since been reports of young people spotted playing on icy ponds in south Wales.\n\nOvernight temperatures dropped to -10C (14F) in parts of Wales.\n\nKatie, 21, said she and Danielle had been taking Hugo and her own dog, Azailya, on their usual walk around the pond when she noticed their pets had made their way onto the ice.\n\n\"We turned away for five seconds,\" she said.\n\nKatie and Danielle Campbell, with Jordan Pegler and Hugo\n\n\"They ran over the ice into the middle of the pond and as they've tried to stop they skidded into the water.\n\n\"We started pulling all of our immediate clothing off and my sister, Danielle, jumped in.\n\n\"She was breaking through the ice with her elbow because it was completely frozen until halfway in.\n\n\"My sister started struggling then to catch her breath because it was so cold.\"\n\nAfter entering the water herself, Katie was able to reach Azailya, but by that time Hugo was gone.\n\n\"My sister was in absolute hysterics calling for Hugo,\" she said. \"She wouldn't come out of the water so I just had to grab her.\"\n\nFrench bulldog Hugo has been missing since going into the frozen pond\n\nBoth Katie and Danielle were taken to hospital, where Katie was told she had developed frostnip, an early symptom of frostbite.\n\n\"Initially getting into the water my body couldn't process how cold it was,\" she said.\n\n\"When we came out we couldn't walk, we had to be carried out. I literally can't feel anything at all in my fingertips. They said it could take a couple of weeks or it could never come back.\"\n\nHugo's other owner, Jordan Pegler, 27, described Hugo as the \"sweetest, softest dog ever\" and said losing him was devastating.\n\n\"He just likes to sleep and cwtch and play with balls. He's such a softie,\" she said. \"It's just really hard to comprehend.\"\n\nAfter going back to the pond the following day to continue searching for Hugo, the group say they saw other people out walking and playing on the lake's surface.\n\n\"There were two boys who had gone up there literally just to film themselves stood on the ice,\" said Jordan. \"They just don't seem to comprehend how dangerous it really is.\"\n\nKatie said that after their experience, she would never take her own dogs near frozen water again. \"It's just scary,\" she said. \"Stay as far away from the ice as possible.\"\n\nParts of Cardiff Marina have frozen over during the cold snap\n\nMatt Croxall of the Royal Life Saving Society told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast that people should \"never\" go on ice.\n\n\"It's simply not safe,\" he said.\n\n\"It might appear so on the edges of banks of ponds and rivers and canals, but the further you get out into the centre, the thinner the ice is likely to become, and that's where people can unfortunately get themselves into danger.\"\n\nPeople are also urged not to try to rescue anyone who has fallen through ice. Instead, they are urged to throw something that floats, like a long branch or pole, and call the emergency services as soon as possible.\n\nGwent Police said officers received reports of young people playing on the frozen Beaufort Pond in Ebbw Vale, Blaenau Gwent.\n\nFootsteps can be seen on the ice on Beaufort Pond\n\nIdris Davies School in Abertysswg, near Rhymney, also sent an urgent message to parents which said: \"We have just received a message from a member of the public regarding young children walking on ice across a pond in Abertysswg.\n\n\"Can you please check where your children are and remind them of the dangers on walking on frozen ponds.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nSouth Wales Fire and Rescue Service urged people not to walk on icy water, adding: \"If you see someone fall through the ice, shout for help and call 999 immediately.\"\n\nThe Met Office has issued a yellow warning for ice and snow that covers much of Wales from 21:00 GMT Friday until 10:00 on Saturday.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The boys were found at an address on Cornwallis Road on Friday afternoon\n\nAn investigation has started after two boys were found dead at a home in Dagenham, east London, the Metropolitan Police said.\n\nA man and a woman have been arrested in connection to the incident.\n\nThe boys, aged two and five, were found at the property in Cornwallis Road by emergency services, and both were confirmed dead at the scene.\n\nPolice and London Ambulance Service crews attended after being called at about 14:00 GMT.\n\nOfficers said family had been informed about the boys' deaths and were being supported.\n\nThe arrested woman and man were known to both children, the police force said.\n\nThe area around the crime scene has been cordoned off\n\nOfficers said the woman was arrested after police were called to a disturbance at a residential address near to the scene.\n\nThe man was arrested near to the scene in connection with the incident, the Met said.\n\nDet Insp Sean Treweek said: \"This is clearly an extremely distressing incident with many unanswered questions, however at this very early stage, nobody else is sought in connection with the deaths.\n\n\"I want to thank local people for the assistance they have given officers as they begin work along with partner agencies to establish the full circumstances of these two tragic deaths.\n\n\"They will see additional officers in the area, and anyone with information or concerns should speak with those officers.\"\n\nCouncillor Elizabeth Kangethe, who lives a short distance from Cornwallis Road, said there was a \"heavy police presence\" on Friday evening.\n\n\"They are talking to the locals to reassure us and they have told people who they can contact if they have any concerns, because people will be traumatised,\" she said.\n\n\"It will be upsetting for everyone, not just the local community, anyone hearing this will be affected, everybody will be shocked, especially being so near Christmas.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Cold water swimmers walk across a snow covered beach at Cullercoats Bay on the North East coast\n\nMore snow is set to fall across the UK this weekend, bringing further travel disruption in already icy conditions.\n\nWarnings are in place for snow and ice in the majority of Scotland, Wales, and much of England for Sunday.\n\nA fresh yellow warning for ice was issued for south west England on Saturday morning.\n\nHeavy snow is causing major problems for roads and air travel in central Scotland. But the cold snap is due to end later on Sunday.\n\nThe Met Office's Ellie Wilson said there could be 8cm of snow in Wales and 15cm in the north of Scotland over the weekend.\n\n\"Because of the current cold conditions that we've seen, any of that snowfall will be falling onto cold frozen surfaces so there is a risk of ice here.\"\n\nThere is also an amber alert for ice in the East Midlands, West Midlands, north east England, north west England and Yorkshire and Humber ending at 20:00 on Sunday.\n\nA level three cold weather alert was earlier issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) for all of England until midnight on Sunday.\n\nFrozen dykes surround the St Thomas Becket church on Romney Marsh in Kent\n\nBut Ms Wilson added that snow would be followed by some rain on Sunday afternoon.\n\n\"A band of rain and snow is going to be moving north-eastwards across the country through Sunday.\n\n\"It's bringing milder air behind it, but that milder air bumps into the cold air that's where we're seeing where the snow is likely to fall.\"\n\nShe went on to say the warmer air would end the recent wintry conditions \"for the time being\".\n\nBBC forecaster Nick Miller also warned of difficult travel conditions before the rain starts to thaw the ice.\n\nHe said: \"A change to milder weather will begin on Sunday but as that process takes place many places will see a spell of snow before it turns to rain.\n\n\"Temperatures will continue to rise on Sunday night and on Monday, highs of 10C to 15C across the UK can be expected.\"\n\nHeavy snowfall in the Shetland Islands after Scotland was hit by freezing temperatures this week\n\nSevere weather in recent days has already led to serious disruption and damage.\n\nEngineers from Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Distribution have been working to restore power to about 2,400 properties which remain off supply in Voe, Brae, Yell and the West Mainland on Shetland following extreme conditions across Scotland.\n\nThe Scottish government declared a major incident on Tuesday after thousands of homes lost power in Shetland when heavy snow brought down electricity lines.\n\nAs of Saturday morning, around 700 homes were still without power.\n\nThe adverse weather conditions on the roads and railways come as rail strike action also takes place across the country.\n\nFind out the weather forecast for your area, with an hourly breakdown and a 14-day lookahead, by downloading the BBC Weather app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nThe BBC Weather app is only available to download in the UK.", "The United Nations has joined the European Union in condemning Twitter's decision to suspend some journalists who cover the social media firm.\n\nReporters for the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post were among those locked out of their accounts.\n\nThe UN tweeted that media freedom is \"not a toy\" while the EU has threatened Twitter with sanctions.\n\nA Twitter spokesman told a US tech news website the bans were related to the live sharing of location data.\n\nMelissa Fleming, the UN's under secretary general for global communications, said she was \"deeply disturbed\" by reports that journalists were being \"arbitrarily\" suspended from Twitter.\n\n\"Media freedom is not a toy,\" she said. \"A free press is the cornerstone of democratic societies and a key tool in the fight against harmful disinformation.\"\n\nEarlier on Friday, EU commissioner Vera Jourova threatened Twitter with sanctions under Europe's new Digital Services Act which she said requires \"the respect of media freedom and fundament rights\".\n\n\"Elon Musk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon,\" she added.\n\nMr Musk has not commented directly on the suspensions, but said in a tweet that \"criticising me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not\".\n\nThe technology tycoon later set up a poll asking whether he should unsuspend the accounts \"now\" or \"in seven days\", suggesting the decision could be reversed sooner rather than later.\n\n\"Same doxxing rules apply to 'journalists' as to everyone else,\" he added, using a term to describe the release of private information online about individuals.\n\nA spokesman for the New York Times called the suspensions \"questionable and unfortunate\".\n\nThe suspensions come after Mr Musk vowed to sue the owner of a profile that tracks his private jet.\n\nHe said a \"crazy stalker\" had used live location sharing to find and accost a vehicle carrying his children in Los Angeles.\n\nBut following the suspensions, the German Foreign Office warned Twitter that \"press freedom cannot be switched on and off on a whim\".\n\nMr Musk took control of Twitter in October in a $44bn ($36bn) deal.\n\nWhen he completed his takeover, the billionaire told advertisers he bought the site because he wanted to \"try to help humanity\", and for \"civilisation to have a digital town square\".\n\nHe has made a host of changes to its moderation practices. The moves have alarmed some civil rights groups, who have accused the billionaire of taking steps that will increase hate speech, misinformation and abuse.\n\nAny sanctions placed on Mr Musk's business over the account suspensions could be applied under the bloc's new Digital Services Act, which was approved by the EU earlier this year.\n\nUnder the terms of the proposed new law, the EU Commission will be allowed to impose fines of up to 6% of the global turnover of a firm that it finds breaks its rules.\n\nIn extreme cases, the EU could ask a court to suspend a rogue service, but only if it is \"refusing to comply with important obligations and thereby endangering people's life and safety\".\n\nMatt Binder, a journalist for Mashable and one of those suspended, said he didn't know why he had been banned.\n\n\"I've been very critical of Musk in my reporting,\" he told the BBC. But he said that Mr Musk's claim \"that everyone that got suspended was doxxing him - due to the jet tracker\" was not true.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Journalist Matt Binder tells the BBC he's baffled by Twitter's decision to suspend his account.\n\nHe said he had never tweeted a hyperlink to the tracker, but had mentioned the account after it had been suspended.\n\n\"Clearly the people who were suspended were handpicked, because there are literally hundreds of accounts per minute who tweeted the link.\"\n\nMr Binder, who has been on Twitter since 2008 and has been reporting on the developments at the social media site, said he was surprised at the ban on journalists.\n\n\"I knew it was a possibility but really thought he wouldn't because it would entirely wreck the facade of being a free speech platform.\"\n\nOn Friday, it emerged that NBC News executives had made the decision to pull their disinformation reporter, Ben Collins, from broadcasts due to his tweets earlier this month that were critical of Mr Musk.\n\nMr Musk later spoke to journalists on Twitter Spaces, part of the social media app that allows live audio conversations, but after answering a few questions about the ban he left and Twitter Spaces itself has since appeared to be suspended.\n\nTwitter also suspended the official account of Mastodon, which has emerged as an alternative to Twitter since Mr Musk's takeover.\n\nLinks to individual Mastodon accounts also appeared to be banned. An error message notified users that links to Mastodon had been \"identified\" as \"potentially harmful\" by Twitter or its partners.\n\nAt the heart of all this is a father raging about the sharing of location data of his private jet, which he claims led to a security incident involving his young son X. The Twitter feed that started it all was scraping publicly available flight data. Not very decent, perhaps, but not illegal.\n\nHis fury has now extended to journalists who he claims also shared his location.\n\nBut this is a fundamentally flawed approach to moderation. I bet many of us wish we could suspend or ban social media accounts that post content we dislike.\n\nIt's not the first time Elon Musk has taken a very personal approach to content moderation. He refused to allow Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back on Twitter because he had used the death of children to further his career - and mentioned the loss of his own child, 10-week-old Alexander.\n\nHe has also suspended accounts which impersonated him.\n\nFundamentally, Elon Musk has shot down in flames his much-trumpeted commitment to \"free speech\". Free speech as long as it doesn't upset him personally, appears to be the message.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ukrainian refugee children living on Anglesey are learning to speak Welsh\n\nA group of Ukrainian children have been learning Welsh to help settle into life in the country.\n\nMore than 1,000 miles away from home they have been welcomed with open arms into their communities on Anglesey.\n\nAfter 11 weeks, Natalia, nine, is almost fluent. She comes from Odesa, a city that has borne the brunt of some of the most fierce fighting, and she said she loves Welsh.\n\nHer and her friends' grasp of the language has been called \"astounding\".\n\nSofiia, Natalia and Danylo have all been attending a specialist Welsh immersion unit at Ysgol Moelfre every day since September.\n\nEight-year-old Sofiia from Kryvyi Rih, which is also President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown, said she enjoyed writing, reading and singing in Welsh.\n\nNatalia said: \"I'm learning about animals, clothing, weather, eating and fruit, I want to learn Welsh because it helps me.\"\n\nDanylo, 11, is from Bronytsia in the Lviv region and said he enjoyed speaking to his friends in Welsh.\n\nDanylo said he enjoyed playing football with his freinds\n\nAnglesey has a language policy that means all the county's primary schools teach in Welsh and all pupils are fully bilingual by 11.\n\nThe island has two specialist Welsh immersion units to fast track pupils coming from outside Wales.\n\nOnce the 12-week course is completed, the children return to their primary schools and can continue their education.\n\nThrough work with Eira Owen, Natalia has discovered that her favourite word in Welsh is archfarchnad (supermarket)\n\nEira Owen, one of the unit's teachers, said it was very important that the children could see the different language and culture on Anglesey.\n\n\"The way we immerse the children, it's a very effective way of teaching and helps the children to become fluent.\n\n\"It happens in a way they don't realise, by playing games, acting, rapping and singing,\" she said.\n\nShe said the children had \"thrown themselves into all the experiences\".\n\nNesta Davies, lead teacher of the language centres of Anglesey, said the children's parents had been very supportive.\n\n\"The families have been so happy, we have texts on the phone saying how well the children have been doing.\"\n\nMs Davies said it would be nice to have the stability of knowing that the money is constant, rather than working from one year to the other\n\nBut Ms Davies said Anglesey was \"lucky\" to have the language centres and she hoped to be able to work with others across Wales in future.\n\nThe Welsh government said it was continuing to invest in the Welsh language \"including a £6.6m commitment to immersion provision until the end of this Senedd term\".", "The men have been returned to their families and given military burials\n\nThe remains of two World War Two airmen whose plane crashed during a secret mission were found 76 years later by a family investigating a blocked septic tank, an inquest heard.\n\nBone fragments from Pilot Officer Alfred Milne and Sgt Eric Stubbs, who died in 1944, were found on the North York Moors in March 2020.\n\nThe men were identified by forensic experts and DNA matches.\n\nThe inquest, held in Northallerton, heard how the family from Chop Gate, near Helmsley, went into a next door paddock to check their shared septic tank, when they spotted a bone.\n\nOne of them, a medical professional, recognised it as a human jawbone and called police.\n\nOfficers found bone fragments spread across the field with forensic experts later identifying tell-tale green staining, thought to have been caused by the copper in brass aircraft fittings or helmet straps, as well as dental work used by the RAF.\n\nThe airmen's remains were found at a remote location near Chop Gate in the North York Moors\n\nSamples of DNA were taken from Sgt Stubbs' nephew David Peterson and a cousin of PO Milne to confirm their identities.\n\nPO Milne and navigator Sgt Stubbs, both 22, were on a secret flight from RAF Beccles in Suffolk to Turnberry in Ayrshire when their plane went down.\n\nTheir de Havilland Mosquito was carrying a Barnes Wallis-designed Highball, a smaller version of a bouncing bomb to be used on shipping.\n\nThe plane was originally thought to have crashed when, flying in low visibility, the pilot spotted high ground too late.\n\nBut coroner Richard Watson heard a young farm worker nearby had witnessed the engines sputtering before the crash, suggesting a mechanical failure or shortage of fuel.\n\nKen Luck told local military historian Richard Allenby what he had seen when the Mosquito was destroyed on 11 October 1944.\n\nMr Luck, then a young man, watched the plane's nose dip before it crashed into the hillside and saw the bomb roll down the hillside into the farm's orchard. Had it exploded, it would have destroyed the farmhouse and a swathe of Bransdale.\n\nThe two men were flying in a de Havilland Mosquito\n\nAfter the crash the two men's bodies were recovered and buried, but wartime procedures meant inquests were not held.\n\nMr Watson said the men's remains had now been buried in the south of England with full military honours.\n\nReaching a conclusion of accidental death, he said: \"It's 77 years since the end of the Second World War, and 78 years since this incident. This year would have been Sgt Stubbs' centennial, and PO Milne's would have been last year.\n\n\"This is a timely reminder to us all of those young men who made the supreme sacrifice during those difficult times, and it's a reminder of the cost of war.\"\n\nWhen the remains were first found in March 2020, a 72-year-old man was arrested in connection with the discovery.\n\nNorth Yorkshire Police later said the investigation had concluded without any charges being brought against the man.\n\nThe Crown Prosecution Service had determined there was not enough evidence to pursue suspected offences, the force said.\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Jack Johnson (left), brothers Finlay and Samuel Butler and Thomas Stewart died after falling into the icy lake\n\nTwo young brothers and their cousin were three of the four boys who died when they plunged into an icy lake in the West Midlands.\n\nFinlay Butler, eight, and his younger brother Samuel, six, died, as did their cousin Thomas Stewart, 11, and another boy, Jack Johnson, 10.\n\nThey were pulled from water at Babbs Mill Park, near Solihull, on Sunday.\n\nThe families of the three young relatives have paid tribute to their \"beautiful boys\".\n\n\"As a family we are devastated at the loss of our beautiful boys Tom, Fin and Sam in such tragic circumstances,\" said their parents in a statement released by West Midlands Police.\n\n\"We would like to thank the emergency services for all they did in rescuing the boys and to the community for their support - it has been overwhelming.\n\n\"We would like to pass on our condolences to Jack's family at this very sad time, and ask for privacy from the media to begin to grieve.\"\n\nJack, Finlay and Thomas died in hospital on Sunday.\n\nOn Wednesday, police confirmed the youngest of the boys Sam had also died.\n\nThomas's older brother released a tribute to his \"beautiful\" and \"lively\" sibling with \"such a big heart\".\n\n\"He loved being outside playing with his mates. I love you Tom, big bro will take care of the family and I will see you soon,\" it said.\n\n\"Make sure you keep practising on warzone and get a win, will you?\"\n\nWriting before he learned his younger cousin had also died, the boy added he could not forget \"dinosaur man, Fin\".\n\n\"He loved dinosaurs so much and always showing me new things he built on Minecraft, and all the new stuff he learnt on it. Gonna miss you little man.\"\n\nAmbulance workers who tried to help the boys laid flowers at the scene\n\nSt Anthony's Catholic Primary School, where Jack was a pupil, said its community remained \"in a state of shock\" at the tragic news.\n\n\"Jack was a loving, bubbly pupil with a heart of gold. Someone who would always check in on others and make sure they were doing OK,\" said head teacher Cieran Flaherty.\n\n\"He was a joy to teach and a child who we are all so very proud of. A ray of sunshine who would never fail to make us all smile. We can only say thank you to him for brightening up our lives.\"\n\nStaff from the school visited the scene on Thursday to pay their own tributes.\n\nDr Toby Close, associate head teacher at Park Hall Academy, confirmed the death of their pupil, 11-year-old Thomas, \"with the heaviest of hearts\".\n\n\"Tom was a well-liked, caring pupil with real character who went out of his way to look after those around him,\" he said.\n\n\"He was a fiercely loyal friend to so many in our school community. In the short time he was at Park Hall, his outgoing personality, energy and wit shone through.\n\n\"We will miss him brightening every day with his great sense of humour. He radiated a love for learning with his infectious smile and enthusiastic manner.\"\n\nHundreds of tributes have been left near the shore of the lake in Babbs Mill Park, Kingshurst\n\nEarlier on Thursday a mass was held as a \"beautiful tribute to Jack\", St Anthony's Primary School tweeted.\n\n\"We were joined by Jack's family and our school family,\" it said.\n\nFirefighters from Sheldon fire station also attended the service. Crews from the station were among those who had tried to rescue the boys on Sunday.\n\nAmbulance workers who had tried to save the four boys placed a wreath near the scene.\n\n\"We are all human,\" said assistant chief officer Nathan Hudson.\n\n\"Nobody comes to work to perform advanced care on four children that have drowned in a lake, so it's a very difficult moment for them professionally.\"\n\nA police cordon at the scene of the accident was lifted on Wednesday evening, after specialist diving teams completed their searches.\n\nSupt Rich Harris, of West Midlands Police, said officers would remain in the area over the coming days.\n\n\"This is a tragedy beyond words and a grief that is unimaginable for the families and friends of the boys,\" added Supt Harris.\n\n\"The support from the community has been overwhelming, not just for the bereaved families, but also for the emergency services, for which we are extremely grateful.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk", "There are around 2.6 million dairy cows in the UK\n\nLivestock farms in England polluted rivers 300 times last year, causing 20 major incidents, according to the latest government figures.\n\nYet only six farms were prosecuted in 2021, with the Environment Agency giving out warning letters instead.\n\nThe dairy industry - mostly thanks to the waste its millions of cows produce - is the worst environmental offender, linked to half of all farm pollution.\n\nThe government said prosecution was a last resort for persistent offenders.\n\nThe National Farmers Union (NFU) said all farmers took their environmental responsibilities seriously and that they were taking \"voluntary action through industry-led initiatives to drive improvements that benefit the water environment\".\n\nMuch of the environmental threat to rivers from farming comes from cow waste called slurry - a mix of manure and water that farmers store and spread as fertiliser.\n\nEach of the UK's 2.6m dairy cows produces up to 53 litres of manure a day. That's approximately 50 billion litres of manure a year - enough to fill Wembley stadium more than 12 times.\n\nThe slurry produced has to be stored but it can leak from badly-maintained containers or, if too much is applied to the land or if it rains heavily, it can run off from fields.\n\nSerious pollution incidents can lead to prosecution.\n\nOne offender is Michael Aylesbury, a director of Cross Keys Farms Ltd. In June this year, he was ordered to pay more than £25,000 for polluting the River Frome in Somerset with slurry in 2020.\n\nHe had been prosecuted before for polluting the same stretch of the Frome in 2016, an incident that killed more than 1,700 fish.\n\nSue Everett lives close to the river and took footage of the most recent event in 2020.\n\n\"The first thing was the smell - it was appalling,\" she said. \"As I approached the river, I could see that it was black. The next morning I went out with my camera and took some videos of the dead fish.\"\n\nShe fears the public are not aware of the threat posed by farm slurry to rivers, saying: \"I think farm pollution has been hidden away for far too long.\"\n\nBut the government, farmers and the dairy industry say they are all taking steps to tackle slurry pollution in rivers.\n\nOne farmer that is leading the way is Kate Hoare, based near Saltash in Cornwall.\n\nShe not only carefully manages her slurry but has installed one of the UK's first covered slurry lagoons which can capture methane for use to power her tractor.\n\nShe describes slurry as \"liquid gold\" and says every farmer knows the value of keeping it on the land and out of rivers.\n\n\"It helps the soil, and it helps the grass, and it helps the cows to produce the milk that we need to sell,\" she said.\n\n\"So, I think it's at the forefront of every dairy farmer's mind - how they can improve their slurry store and stop it from filling with rainwater and make the most of that product.\n\n\"Because we're all good at recycling, as you know. It's what we do as farmers.\"\n\nTo ensure best practice, farms are inspected by the Environment Agency. In 2021, 721 inspections were carried out on 693 farms.\n\nMore than half of inspections found farmers were breaking the regulations governing slurry storage.\n\nThe freshwater fish conservation group Wildfish is currently suing the government over how it deals with water companies pumping sewage in rivers and seas.\n\nBut its chief executive Nick Measham is equally concerned about the threat posed by dairy farming and the slurry it produces.\n\nHe said: \"Increasingly, we see across the country industrial-scale farming units, particularly dairy and beef units. The slurry that they produce has to go somewhere.\n\nInvertebrates found on a riverbed are a valuable indicator of how clean the water is\n\n\"Frequently, farmers actually do view the river as an open sewer. This slurry is really potent stuff. I mean, it's much more powerful in terms of its impact on water than human sewage.\"\n\n\"They've increased the number of farming inspectors, but until a couple of years ago, the probability of you as a farmer getting an inspection was about one in 200 years. So clearly, that is not a big incentive to clean your act up.\"\n\nThe Environment Agency said it is working \"constructively\" with farmers to reduce water pollution and that it had increased the number of inspections to more than 3,000 since January this year.\n\nIt added that since April 2021 it has issued at least 140 warning letters and required 6,169 improvement actions on farms, with 2,791 completed.\n\nIt said its focus was on \"high-risk locations, previously non-compliant businesses, and those farming sectors of greatest concern\".\n\nBut it admitted only six agricultural prosecutions took place in 2021/22, saying court action was used as \"a last resort when there is persistent non-compliance\".\n\nDefra said it has doubled the funding for its Catchment Sensitive Farming programme, which provides free advice to farmers to help them better manage manure and soils.\n\nAnd, earlier this month, it made available a £13m slurry infrastructure grant for farmers to improve their storage.\n\nThe NFU welcomed the funding, saying that farmers had already made a 75% reduction in serious pollution incidents year-on-year compared to 2000.\n\nNFU deputy president Tom Bradshaw said: \"The NFU will continue to work with Defra and the Environment Agency through their advice-led approach to infringements, in order to effectively communicate the farming rules for water guidance to its members.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the UK's largest dairy company, Arla, said it is now paying its farmers to work in more environmentally-friendly ways.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"Our farmer owners are rewarded through their milk price for covering slurry stores, using certain slurry spreading techniques and using slurry to make biogas, a type of renewable energy that can be used to generate electricity and power vehicles.\"", "The air in London's Tube network is polluted with metallic particles small enough to enter the human bloodstream, according to a study.\n\nResearchers at the University of Cambridge analysed dust samples from ticket halls, platforms and train driver cabins.\n\nHigh levels were found of a type of iron oxide called maghemite.\n\nThe academics did not investigate whether the particles pose a direct health risk.\n\nThe findings, however, could be used in future studies.\n\nThe university's earth sciences department concluded the presence of maghemite particles indicated they are suspended for long periods due to poor ventilation, particularly on platforms.\n\nPaddington Tube station was one of the places samples were taken\n\nSamples were collected in 2019 and 2021 from stations including Oxford Circus, King's Cross St Pancras and Paddington.\n\nPollution levels are normally monitored using standard air filters, which cannot capture ultrafine particles or identify particles. Some of the particles had a diameter of just five nanometres, making them small enough to be inhaled.\n\nProf Richard Harrison, senior author of the study, said: \"If you're going to answer the question of whether these particles are bad for your health, you first need to know what the particles are made of and what their properties are.\n\n\"Our techniques give a much more refined picture of pollution in the Underground.\n\n\"We can measure particles that are small enough to be inhaled and enter the bloodstream.\n\n\"Typical pollution-monitoring doesn't give you a good picture of the very small stuff.\"\n\nTransport for London's chief safety officer Lilli Matson said: \"We have been working for many years to improve air quality on the Tube, and will continue to do so.\n\n\"Our monitoring has shown that dust levels on the Tube remain well below limits set by the Health and Safety Executive, but we are going further and have developed a number of cleaning regimes.\n\n\"This includes the use of industrial backpack dust cleaners, which are one part of our multimillion-pound Tube cleaning programme.\"", "Please ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).", "Teddies, flowers and candles have been left at a tree near the lake in Kingshurst, Solihull\n\nChristmas lights twinkling on one side, blue police tape on the other. The lake in between the scene of utter devastation just weeks before Christmas.\n\nThree boys aged eight, 10 and 11 were playing on the icy water at the beauty spot near Solihull in the West Midlands on Sunday afternoon when they fell in.\n\nHeroic actions from the public and emergency services - they raced down on foot and jumped into the freezing water, and one police officer tried to punch through the ice - were sadly not enough.\n\nAfter being pulled from Babbs Mills Lake, the children later died. A fourth boy, aged six, died days later in hospital.\n\nBut what has become apparent in the midst of this tragedy is a tight-knit community pulling together to help one another.\n\nAbout nine miles to the east of Birmingham, Kingshurst is an area that has faced hardship - financial and food insecurities have been cited by some - but at the heart of it is a thriving community spirit, with families from as many as five generations living here.\n\nHeartwarming tales have emerged of centres, churches and the local scout hut opening their doors and residents offering food and hot drinks to the emergency services as they worked into the night searching the water.\n\nComfort Konfor says her children go to the same school as the boys who died and are similar ages\n\nMother-of-four Comfort Konfor said she had found out what had happened late on Sunday night via her children's school, and was at the Connection Church Centre in Kingshurst on Monday.\n\nNew to the area, she praised the local community for coming together.\n\n\"It's a very wonderful community. People are lovely, they are friendly,\" she said.\n\n\"Here, it's not been empty since, people are walking in and out. Everybody is concerned and taking it personally and taking ownership of the whole thing.\"\n\nTalking about the tragedy, she added: \"It's a sickening situation. The moment I heard of it I got dizzy, almost fainting because the first thing that came to mind was 'they could be my children'. It's a big shock.\n\n\"I couldn't sleep last night. I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of the parents, what must they be going through right now?\n\n\"It's really a sad situation. Was it foreseeable, could it have been avoided? How many children have gone, just like that? Something could be done to stop this happening again in future.\"\n\nA woman lays flowers among the tribute left near the park in Kingshurst\n\nA vigil was held on Monday night for the boys who died\n\nChurch Pastor Emil Kerekes was quick to open their doors to the community on Sunday.\n\nHe said: \"It was a heavy atmosphere [on Sunday night]. Everyone was shocked to hear what was happening. Knowing there were some children involved you can imagine the feeling.\n\n\"I woke up and thought 'why not open the church for the community' and if they want to come and have a chat about what's happening, have a drink and be a support for them. People are feeling down and want to talk to somebody.\n\n\"We need each other and we need to stand up for each other.\"\n\nDozens of local people, including many schoolchildren, placed bunches of flowers and balloons in tribute to the three boys at the base of a tree near the northern entrance to Babbs Mill nature park.\n\nMother-of-four Katie O'Driscoll, who was accompanied by her five-year-old daughter, said: \"Anyone that has got kids can really relate to that; we feel heartbroken as a community. The whole community cares - they will be kids that we know because we are a close-knit community.\n\n\"It's affected everybody. It's devastating and it's sad.\"\n\nAmie Hopkins was at the church to offer her support to the local community\n\nAmie Hopkins was also at the church offering support to those who needed it.\n\nShe said: \"I've got a 12-year-old boy myself that probably would have done something similar as well. It really hits home when you hear they're children of similar ages to your own that have lost their lives so close to Christmas as well.\n\n\"It's a tragic loss to the community and something you wouldn't expect to happen from children having some harmless fun.\n\n\"It's heartbreaking, the loss of such young children from the community and in such a tragic way.\"\n\nJo Cole has lived in Kingshurt for 27 years and has run projects in the area to raise awareness of some of the issues it is facing, such as food insecurity and financial insecurity.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio WM, she said: \"One of the marvellous things about Kingshurst is that it's so tight as a community. We have got quite a lot of difficulties around us that we're dealing with.\n\n\"We're sending out all our love as a community. We pull together and we work together. We're a good bunch over here.\"\n\nBorough councillor for Kingshurst Marcus Brain said the whole community was in \"absolute shock\" and devastated.\n\n\"It's going to take a long time to sink in. We are all in a complete state of shock,\" he said.\n\nHe described Kingshurst as a very close-knit community where everyone knew everybody and with families who had been there for five generations.\n\nHe added: \"The local community has rallied around amazingly and supported the emergency services as best they can.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Nurses in Northern Ireland joined tens of thousands in England and Wales striking for better pay\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing could announce a fresh wave of strikes if Health Secretary Steve Barclay does not agree to reopen pay negotiations.\n\nSpeaking on the BBC's Question Time, the union's leader Pat Cullen said if the government continued to refuse to \"get in a room and talk\" then the dispute could escalate in the new year.\n\nThe UK government says the union's demands are unaffordable.\n\nNurses are already planning to strike on Tuesday.\n\nTens of thousands of nurses took industrial action across England, Wales and Northern Ireland on Thursday, with tens of thousands of patient appointments cancelled or postponed.\n\nUnion sources have told the BBC that if there is no move to reopen pay talks, then new strike dates will be announced before Christmas with a series of walkouts likely in January.\n\nThe level of disruption could also increase, with nurses striking across more NHS trusts in England and for longer periods of time - perhaps over two consecutive days. Industrial action is also taking place in Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, has urged ministers to act to avoid strikes in the new year which it said could be \"more severe\" and coordinated with other health unions.\n\nThe government said the nurses' demands for a 19% pay rise are unaffordable and it has followed the recommendation of an independent pay review body in setting wages.\n\nNurses got an extra 3% last year after the pandemic and another rise recommended by a pay review body.\n\nSpeaking outside a hospital in London on Thursday, the UK health secretary said the government was \"hugely grateful\" to nurses but the 19% pay rise they wanted was \"not affordable given the many other economic pressures that we face\".\n\nMr Barclay said three-quarters of trusts had not gone on strike that day and many nurses had continued working in areas excluded from the strike because of the risk to life.\n\nUnder strike rules, emergency care must still be provided during action, for example in intensive care and A&E, and urgent cancer treatment and dialysis should run as normal - which means the biggest impact will have been on routine services. These include planned knee and hip replacements and out-patient appointments.\n\nNurse Emily Leitch was striking in Leeds in the first of two days of walkouts in December\n\nRebecca, a nurse striking outside St Thomas' Hospital in London on Thursday, said her job was \"too tiring, it's too much, it's just not safe for either the staff or the patients to continue the way it is now\".\n\nUnder-staffing was a major concern for Kelly Hopkins, who has been a nurse for 25 years in Liverpool, as well as the financial struggles of her colleagues.\n\n\"They're having to use food banks, they're coming in cold, they're going without food to feed their children, it's just crazy,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch this video quiz to test your knowledge of nurses' pay\n\nIn England and Wales, most NHS staff have received a pay rise of roughly £1,400 this year - worth about 4% on average for nurses.\n\nThe political situation in Northern Ireland meant there was a delay in processing the increase - but nurses should receive backdated payments before the end of the financial year.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing (RCN) wants a larger rise, of 5% above the RPI inflation rate, which currently stands at 14%, saying its members have received years of below-inflation pay increases.\n\nThe government says it has followed the recommendation of the independent NHS Pay Review Body, which said in July NHS staff should receive the £1,400 increase, with slightly more for the most experienced nurses.\n\nThe RCN has criticised this body for not being independent enough. It is made up mainly of economists and human resources professionals.\n\nWelsh ministers said they were unable to enter pay talks without extra funding from the UK government.\n\nIn Scotland, the RCN's strike action was \"paused\" after ministers made a fresh offer worth just over £2,200, or 7.5%, a year for most NHS staff. Nurses have been asked to vote on that deal, with results due next week.", "Katherine Jenkins is due to perform for the Pope on Saturday evening\n\nKatherine Jenkins is to go ahead and sing for the Pope after fearing she would have to cancel, when she accused British Airways of losing her luggage.\n\nThe Welsh singer posted on social media that her bags were lost while travelling to Rome for the Christmas concert on Saturday.\n\nShe initially said that she would \"not be able to perform\" - but later posted that \"the show must go on\".\n\nBritish Airways said it was \"doing everything\" to recover the bags.\n\nJenkins is due to perform at the annual concert at the Auditorium Conciliazione but, on Thursday night, had said she would be unable to do so if her luggage was not found.\n\nPosting to her 262,000 followers, she added: \"OMG! @British_Airways have lost my bags AGAIN!\n\n\"I'm supposed to be singing tomorrow for the Pope's Christmas concert in Rome. I feel so let down as I will not be able to perform. Please sort this out.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Katherine Jenkins This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe official British Airways account replied to her social media post asking her to send them a direct message so they could help trace her luggage.\n\nThe airline said: \"We're doing everything we can to reunite our customer with their delayed baggage as soon as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.\"\n\nSorry, we're having trouble displaying this content. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nBut, on Friday, the classical singer posted a video of concert rehearsals to Instagram, wearing a black coat, with the caption: \"The show must go on\".", "Peak fares on ScotRail are to be suspended for six months in a bid to make train travel more affordable.\n\nThe pilot scheme will begin at some point in 2023/24 and will be subsidised by £15m from the Scottish government's latest budget.\n\nThe move will see the cost of some peak hour, or anytime, ScotRail fares nearly halve.\n\nUnions and passenger groups have welcomed the plan as a way of coaxing people back to the railways.\n\nDeputy First Minister John Swinney made the announcement in his 2023/24 budget statement, saying that removing peak time fares was \"a way of making rail travel more affordable and attractive to travellers\".\n\nFull details of the pilot project for the publicly-owned train operator will be announced as part of Transport Scotland's Fair Fares Review due to be published early next year.\n\nScotRail and other train operators have still to see passenger numbers return to pre-Covid levels with changes in working patterns resulting in peak time services being less busy.\n\nTrain driver union Aslef, which has been campaigning to get rid of peak time fares, said Mr Swinney's announcement was \"very welcome news\".\n\nKevin Lindsay, the union's full-time organiser in Scotland, added: \"However, ending peak fares should not be a temporary measure.\n\n\"Peak fares are a tax on workers and if we are to encourage more people from road travel on to trains to help Scotland meet its climate targets, we need to invest for the long term and make this a permanent policy.\"\n\nRobert Samson, of passenger watchdog Transport Focus, said: \"This is a welcome initiative that will benefit thousands of passengers and act as an incentive for non-users to change to a more sustainable travel mode.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) has announced it will not increase fares on the Glasgow Subway next month as originally planned.\n\nSPT said it had taken the decision in light of continuing positive growth in passenger numbers, which are now at more than 90% pre-Covid figures.\n\nSPT chairman Councillor Stephen Dornan said: \"We have decided to pause the previously agreed increase in Subway fares to help our passengers who are already facing a cost of living crisis and numerous hardships.\"\n• None Higher earners in Scotland to pay more income tax", "The fixture will now be played at The Stoop Image caption: The fixture will now be played at The Stoop\n\nTurning to sport now and the Big Game at Twickenham between Harlequins and Bristol Bears, which was due to host 82,000 spectators, has changed venues because of the rail strikes.\n\nThe fixture on 27 December, which was sold out, will now be played at The Stoop stadium with a capacity of 14,800, meaning many ticket holders will not be able to attend.\n\nIn a statement, Harlequins said: \"Despite 27 December not being a designated day for industrial action, the club has been informed this week that mainline train services into Twickenham station will not operate at all on the event day, alongside severe restrictions across the train and underground network feeding the local area.\"\n\nLaurie Dalrymple, the club's chief executive, said: \"Ultimately, we must put the safety of our supporters and those working at the event first.\n\n\"It is clear that, without the functioning rail network, we cannot safely deliver a large-scale event at Twickenham.\"\n\nHarlequins added that the annual showpiece Big Game 14 event at Twickenham stadium would now take place on 4 March and Harlequins would face Exeter Chiefs in a change of opposition.", "As we reported earlier, Russia appears to be settling in for a winter of “traditional” trench-style fighting, according to observations from the UK’s Ministry of Defence.\n\nThis reflects the fact the war has settled into a “slugfest”, military analyst Justin Crump tells the BBC.\n\nAlthough Russia’s initial ambition was to outmanoeuvre Ukraine’s troops, its battlefield setbacks mean it has had to “resort” to a more “attritional” style, he explains.\n\nTrenches are a key part of Russia’s “waiting game” as it looks to rebuild its forces and hang onto its territorial gains over the colder months, says Crump.\n\n“Digging in is about the first thing every soldier learns – and learns to hate – until you have to do it,” he remarks. “At that point your shovel becomes your best friend.”\n\nCrump - the head of security consultancy Sibylline - says trenches have been seen in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region since the start of conflict there in 2014.\n\nRussia is well-equipped to build them, he says, on account of its ex-Soviet engineering equipment.\n\nAnd for its part, the Ukrainian military occasionally looks to show off its more elaborate trench constructions - which may be “wood-lined with a sauna”, Crump jokes.\n\nBut conditions in a trench can be “pretty miserable” at the best of times, says the former British serviceman, highlighting how soldiers are exposed to the elements.\n\nCrump recalls spending a few days in a trench during a training exercise in Yorkshire. “That was bad enough,” he remembers, “and that was without anyone actually trying to kill me”.", "Rail passengers have felt the brunt of transport disruption so far this week - but on Friday they'll be joined by travellers on roads and buses.\n\nJust one in five trains will run so the advice is once again only travel if you have to. Other workers - including traffic officers who work in the aftermath of road accidents - are walking out for the first time.\n\nHowever, if you were planning a pre-Christmas getaway from Heathrow Airport, you'll be pleased to know that a planned strike by baggage handlers has just been cancelled.\n\nThis is my latest strike briefing, with lots of useful information on what is happening - and how it might affect you.\n\nSo what is Friday looking like?\n\nMembers of the UK's biggest rail union the RMT will walk out from midnight for 48 hours until the end of Saturday, hitting services throughout England, Scotland and Wales.\n\nThe union is also planning further action over Christmas and in the New Year.\n\nWatch Make Sense of Strikes on iPlayer and find out more about why people are striking and whether industrial action works.\n\nNational Highways traffic officers in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) working in north-west England, north east England, and Yorkshire and the Humber will stop work for 48 hours.\n\nNational Highways says no roads will be closed and it has \"well-rehearsed resilience plans in place\". About 125 out of 1,500 operational staff will take part - 10-25 people per region.\n\nThe strike will involve members of control centre staff who monitor the road network's CCTV and do a number of jobs including programming the electronic warning signs we see on major roads. Traffic officers who work in the aftermath of accidents will also stop work.\n\nThere's good news for travellers using Heathrow.\n\nA 72-hour strike by baggage handlers from staff working for Menzies Aviation has been called off after talks between the private contractor and the Unite union.\n\nUnite said the decision was a \"gesture of goodwill\" after a revised pay offer, which it will now ballot members on.\n\nCivil servants in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) - including driving examiners - are striking most days now until early January.\n\nBut the industrial action is regional - with different areas affected each week. This week, until Sunday 18 December, the walk out is in north-east England and Scotland.\n\nThe government said the union's demands were \"unaffordable\".\n\nDrivers in south and west London who are in the Unite union and work for operator Abellio will walk out for 48 hours in a dispute over pay.\n\nUnite said it had invited Abellio to pay talks in September but had no response, and accused the company of paying among the lowest rates for bus drivers in London, causing a severe \"retention crisis\".\n\nWe will have another briefing for you from teatime on Friday - looking ahead to Saturday's continued rail disruption.\n\nHow are you affected by the strikes? Are you taking part in strike action? You can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n• None Who could have to work during a strike?", "Santino was one of the chimpanzees who were shot\n\nA zoo in Sweden has been criticised for shooting dead three chimpanzees and injuring another after they escaped their enclosure.\n\nThe zoo, in Furuvik, explained that attempting to tranquilise the animals instead of shooting them would have posed a threat to people's lives.\n\nAnother three chimpanzees have still not been secured back in their enclosure.\n\nThe animals were well known in Sweden, and their deaths have provoked anger.\n\nResearcher Mathias Osvath, who knew them for several years, insisted they posed no real danger. \"If I'd met them in the park my pulse would have risen but I wouldn't have been afraid for my life. It's a tragedy,\" he told the BBC.\n\nThe incident began at around noon (11:00 GMT) on Wednesday when the chimpanzees got out of their enclosure and began roaming freely around the zoo.\n\nIt is not known how they escaped.\n\nThe zoo is currently closed for the season so members of the public were not present, but zoo officials said the escaped animals still posed a threat and staff were evacuated or ordered to stay indoors.\n\n\"Chimpanzees can be thought to be peaceful but they are extremely dangerous. They are fast, very strong and generally fearless,\" a company statement said on Facebook.\n\nFor this reason, the zoo said it was forced to shoot the animals rather than sedate them using tranquiliser darts which can only be fired from close range.\n\n\"This, combined with the fact that it can take up to 10 minutes before the anaesthesia appears, would pose great danger to human safety,\" the statement said.\n\nBut the decision to shoot the animals has been widely criticised. A former caretaker, who worked with the animals for 30 years, accused the zoo of acting unprofessionally.\n\nOn Friday, the zoo confirmed the identities of two of the dead chimpanzees, Linda and Torsten. A third was also confirmed dead and another feared dead - they were named as Santino and Manda.\n\nAfter years spent researching the chimpanzees, cognitive zoologists from the University of Lund have now suspended their co-operation with the zoo.\n\n\"I knew them personally, I would say. I've hugged Manda, I've kissed Linda and I've had tugs of war with Santino,\" said Mathias Osvath, who pointed out the chimpanzees had broken out of their enclosure many years ago, when there were visitors inside the zoo.\n\nSantino was well known beyond Sweden for his artistic skills and was reported to be a favourite of Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria.", "Kettering General Hospital described Anju Asok, pictured with her daughter Janvi Saju, as a \"compassionate\" staff nurse\n\nThe victims in a triple murder inquiry in Northamptonshire are believed to be an NHS nurse and her two children.\n\nAnju Asok, 35, Jeeva Saju, 6, and Janvi Saju, 4, were discovered seriously hurt by police at Petherton Court in Kettering on Thursday morning.\n\nThe woman, who worked at the town's general hospital, died at the scene and the two children died in hospital, police said.\n\nA 52-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.\n\nHe remains in custody and is being questioned by detectives.\n\nFormal identification of the woman and children is due to take place, police said.\n\nMs Asok worked mainly on an orthopaedic ward since starting in Kettering last year\n\nNorthamptonshire Police said forensic post-mortem examinations would take place on Friday and Saturday\n\nSenior investigating officer, Det Insp Simon Barnes, said forensic post-mortem examinations would happen over the next two days and a neighbourhood policing team was patrolling the area.\n\n\"We continue to work around the clock in order to progress this investigation and establish the timeline of events which led to these tragic deaths,\" said Mr Barnes.\n\nHe said detectives were not tracing anyone else in connection with the deaths.\n\nKettering General Hospital chief executive Deborah Needham said Ms Asok was an \"internationally-trained nurse\" who had worked mainly on Barnwell B on one of the hospital's orthopaedic wards since joining in 2021.\n\n\"She was a committed and compassionate staff nurse, who was loved and respected by her dear friends and colleagues,\" said Ms Needham, who said the news was \"extremely upsetting\".\n\n\"All our thoughts are with her friends and family as they come to terms with this sudden loss.\"\n\nBouquets of flowers and cuddly toys have been left at the scene in Petherton Court\n\nPolice and paramedics tried to save the woman and children but they later died\n\nPolice said the hospital was \"offering appropriate professional support\" to her colleagues.\n\nSarah Powell, head teacher at Kettering Park Infant Academy - where the two children attended - said the school was \"devastated\" by the news and added: \"They were delightful and caring children who had many friends at our school.\n\n\"They will be sadly missed by us all.\"\n\nSarah Haylett, who works as a nurse, laid a teddy bear near the police cordon and told BBC Look East: \"Things like this don't happen in Kettering, so [it was] the biggest shock when we heard it on the news yesterday.\"\n\nPierino Geranio, who runs a barber shop near to the cul-de-sac, said on Friday: \"You speak to people about it and they just can't believe it.\n\n\"I come here every day to work and you never expect anything like this - it's so tragic. It's totally terrible, beyond comprehension.\"\n\nPolice said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the deaths\n\nThe head teacher at the children's school described the pair as \"delightful and caring\"\n\nAnother local resident, who asked not to be named, said: \"It's terrible to hear about anything like this anywhere, but when there's children involved it's beyond words.\"\n\nSupt Steve Freeman, said: \"There are no words to describe how upsetting this incident is, but I want to reassure the public that we have a team of detectives working on the case, absolutely determined to get justice for this woman and the two children.\"\n\nFind BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk\n• None Murder inquiry after woman and two children die\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A nasal spray vaccine that protects children against flu may also help protect against strep A infections, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says.\n\nIt found that rates of strep A were lower in areas where the vaccine was offered to all primary-age children when it was first being used.\n\nEveryone eligible for a flu vaccine is urged to get one after a sharp rise in hospital admission levels last week.\n\nChildren under five and the over-85s are the most vulnerable age groups.\n\nThere are unusually high rates of Group A strep infections in the UK at present, including scarlet fever and strep throat. Most are mild and easily treated, often with antibiotics, but occasionally the infection causes serious problems when it becomes invasive.\n\nThere have been 18 confirmed deaths of children in the UK with this form of the infection since September - the highest since the winter of 2017-18.\n\nThe UKHSA study of data from 2013-17, which is not yet peer-reviewed, found that rates of strep infections were lower in areas where the flu vaccine was piloted - 73.5 per 100,000 children aged two to four years old - compared to areas where it was not offered as widely - 93 per 100,000 children.\n\nThere was no difference in the number of children reported to have scarlet fever or invasive group A strep (iGAS), however, the analysis said.\n\nParents of any primary school age children who have missed out on the nasal spray flu vaccine can still get it by contacting their GP surgery, school or local vaccination clinic.\n\nThe vaccine is free on the NHS for:\n\nThis winter, the vaccine is also being offered to the youngest secondary school aged children in December and January.\n\n\"Children who catch influenza are at greater risk from subsequent infections, including group A strep, so these findings provide yet more reasons for parents of eligible children to bring them forward for the flu vaccine,\" Dr Jamie Lopez Bernal, from UKHSA, said.\n\nHospital admission rates for flu have risen sharply in the past week and have now overtaken admissions for Covid-19 in England, latest figures show.\n\nWhen compared to the actual number of people in hospital with Covid, the number of patients with flu is relatively small - still below 2,000. But it is the speed of increase that is being watched carefully - up by two-thirds in a week.\n\nThe under-fives and over-85s are most likely to become ill with flu, but vaccine take-up is low in young children (less than 40%).\n\nAs people mix more indoors than in previous years, winter viruses are rising, including flu and Covid, with health officials warning they are expected to continue going up.\n\nFlu, particularly, is putting more people in hospital in England than at any point since the winter of 2017-18, when there was a large wave.\n\nAdmission rates have doubled in the over-85s and children under five years old in the past week, says the UK Health Security Agency's (UKHSA) latest weekly winter briefing - increasing to 6.8 per 100,000 people overall.\n\nWhile most older adults are getting jabbed against flu, fewer than a third of pregnant women and fewer than half of the extremely vulnerable under-65s have had a flu vaccine.\n\n\"The flu vaccine offers the best protection against severe illness and it's not too late for everyone eligible to get it,\" said Dr Conall Watson, consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA.\n\nCovid is also beginning to increase again, infecting one in 50 people.\n\nSerious illness from Covid is affecting the oldest age groups the most, and they are the ones most likely to end up in hospital.\n\nThe UKHSA said anyone who is over 50 or has an underlying condition that makes them high risk should come forward to get their booster jab.\n\nThe latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest 1.3 million people tested positive for coronavirus in the week to 5 December - up from 1.1 million the week before.\n\nInfection levels are now similar to where they were at the end of September.\n\nCovid rates by nation, according to the ONS, are:\n\nThese figures are based on random tests of thousands of people in households across the UK, whether or not they have symptoms.\n\nThe data was collected by the ONS for the week ending 5 December 2022 for England, Wales and Scotland, and the week ending 3 December 2022 for Northern Ireland.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Video from social media appears to show people trying to get past security\n\nThree women remain in a critical condition after being injured in a crush at a gig at the Brixton O2 Academy that left several others hurt.\n\nThe concert, by Afro-pop singer Asake, had to be abandoned part-way through. A \"large number of people\" tried to force their way inside, the Met Police said.\n\nOne of the crush victims said: \"I couldn't breathe and I completely passed out. I thought I was dead.\"\n\nThe woman, who was taken to hospital from the venue on Thursday night with suspected internal bleeding, said: \"I took my last breath and I could not get any more oxygen. I was so scared.\"\n\nAll three of those in critical condition are women, aged 21, 23 and 33 years, police said.\n\nTheir next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Video posted on social media shows police pushing a woman outside the Brixton O2 Academy\n\nVideos on social media show the crowd stretching from the road outside to the venue's doors.\n\nThe Met Police said more than 4,000 people were in attendance and it has urged those with relevant photos and videos to submit them.\n\nIn a statement outside Brixton police station on Friday afternoon, Cdr Colin Wingrove said officers were called by staff at the venue, \"following reports that a large number of people were attempting to force entry\".\n\nHe added: \"Some officers provided first aid and CPR to members of the public in order to save life.\"\n\nThe first officers were reported to be on the scene at 21:11 GMT, seven minutes after they were called.\n\nA woman has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.\n\nIn a separate incident footage on social media shows an officer pushing a woman from the steps.\n\nThe force said this had been assessed by the Directorate of Professional Standards and there was no evidence of misconduct.\n\nIt is also to review footage from cameras worn by officers at the scene.\n\nThe Met has also made a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which it said was standard practice following all incidents where police have been in attendance and members of the public have been seriously injured.\n\nThe concert was the final performance of three sold-out shows at the venue by Nigerian singer Asake, sometimes known as Mr Money. Before the gig, he had posted on Twitter asking fans not to try to gain entry unless they had tickets.\n\nIn a statement on his Instagram account, Asake said: \"My heart is with those who were injured last night and caused any form of discomfort. I pray you get well soonest.\"\n\nPolice said eight people were taken to hospital from the venue\n\nThe woman who passed out at the venue spoke to press agency UKNIP after being discharged from hospital. She said: \"I was trying to get up, people were stepping on my head, all over me. I had more than 10 people on top of me.\n\n\"A man pulled me out so when I woke up I was in the back of the ambulance.\"\n\nThe woman, from Battersea in south London, suffered skinned knees and a black eye. \"I'm just grateful that I've come away with no broken bones; they thought I had internal bleeding but thank God they did a CT scan and I'm good,\" she said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOne of the security staff working at the event, who wished to remain anonymous, said it initially seemed like many of the other events they have worked on, until people started arriving in large numbers just before Asake went on stage.\n\n\"The people that were coming had no tickets. At the first barrier we were saying to everyone, 'have your ticket ready, have your phone in the air, show it to us' and then they could walk through.\n\n\"But what you got was people from other directions trying to queue-jump.\"\n\nA member of security staff at the event said: \"One of my younger colleagues tried to save a girl, gave her CPR\"\n\nThey added: \"People were falling over. People were running in and trampling over people on the floor, there was blood everywhere.\n\n\"The defibrillators were gone - the emergency services were trying to save people's lives.\"\n\nAkin Oluwaleimu, 53, from Kirby Cross near Colchester, went to the gig with his daughter Elsie, 14, but decided to return home after things turned \"rowdy\" outside with \"a lot of pushing\".\n\n\"We didn't get inside. When we were leaving we were told the show had been stopped.\n\n\"Two ladies fainted and were carried up high away... I was not worried about myself but I was worried about my daughter's safety.\"\n\nAnother witness, Jay Taylor, 24, from Greenwich in south-east London, described how a minority of apparently ticketless fans tried to force their way into the venue.\n\nShe said: \"People were literally jumping on each other and even on to the police.\"\n\nFlorence Eshalomi, MP for Vauxhall, whose constituency includes Brixton, called the incident \"deeply concerning\".\n\nShe said: \"It is very clear ticketing and security procedures have not performed as they should have for this incident to have occurred.\n\n\"We need answers about exactly how this happened and safeguards against it in future.\"\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4 World at One, she added it was \"really important\" for professional standards to review police body-worn footage in relation to how officers responded.\n\nJames Hooker, director of operational management at AP Security, which worked at the gig, said: \"We are working with our lawyers, the operators of the premises and the authorities to provide all information that is needed.\n\n\"We will continue to work with all parties and are unable to provide any information at this time while those inquiries are completed.\"\n\nThe Academy, which has a standing capacity of nearly 5,000 people, is opposite Brixton police station\n\nSerious crushes at British gigs are very rare.\n\nIn 1974, a 14-year-old David Cassidy fan died at the pop singer's concert at the White City Stadium in west London, with another 700 people injured.\n\nAt the Monsters of Rock festival in 1988, two people lost their lives in a crowd surge when Guns N' Roses played at a muddy Castle Donington in Leicestershire.\n\nEarlier this year, the Liverpool M&S Bank Arena - where next year's Eurovision Song Contest will be held - launched an investigation after fans complained of overcrowding at a concert by local hero Jamie Webster, although no injuries were reported.\n\nIt has become common for artists to pause their shows if they suspect there may be a problem in the crowd, with heightened awareness of such dangers in the wake of the tragedy at Travis Scott's Astroworld festival, in Texas in November 2021, in which 10 people died.\n\nAsake is touring his debut album, Mr. Money With The Vibe\n\nAsake, whose real name is Ahmed Ololade, was nominated for BBC Radio 1's Sound of 2023 award.\n\nDescribed on the Brixton Academy website as \"one of the hottest breakout stars from Nigeria\", he is touring his debut album Mr. Money with the Vibe.\n\nBorn and raised in Lagos State, Asake's songs are part of the Nigerian street-pop subgenre that blends Afrobeats with Amapiano, pop melodies and street-smart rap lyrics.\n\nHe had a breakout hit in 2020 with his single Lady.\n\nWere you at the concert or in the area? If you'd like to get in touch you can email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Fonda revealed in September she had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma\n\nActress Jane Fonda has said she feels \"so blessed, so fortunate\" that her cancer is in remission and that she can stop chemotherapy.\n\nThe actress, who will turn 85 on Wednesday, called the news the \"best birthday present ever\".\n\n\"I thank all of you who prayed and sent good thoughts my way. I am confident that it played a role in the good news,\" she wrote in a blog post.\n\nThe star had been receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.\n\nShe told her 1.9 million Instagram followers in September that it was \"a very treatable cancer... so I feel very lucky\", adding that she would have six months of chemotherapy.\n\nSpeaking about being in remission and being told by her oncologist that her chemotherapy could end, she added: \"I'm especially happy because while my first four chemo treatments were rather easy for me, only a few days of being tired, the last chemo session was rough and lasted two weeks, making it hard to accomplish much of anything.\"\n\nNon-Hodgkin's lymphoma is a less common cancer that develops in the lymphatic system - the vast network of vessels and glands in the body.\n\nJane Fonda had said in September she would have six months of chemotherapy\n\nThe Oscar-winning actress made her debut in 1960, becoming famous for films including Barbarella, Nine to Five and On Golden Pond.\n\nHer most recent performance was in the Netflix comedy series Grace and Frankie.\n\nFonda is also well known as a political activist. In the 1960s, she vocally opposed the Vietnam War.\n\nShe said the effects of her most recent chemotherapy \"wore off just as I went to DC for the first live, in-person Fire Drill Fridays rally\", where she invites firefighters in the US to \"demand a cleaner, greener, healthier world\".\n\n\"Thank heavens for that because it was a busy week,\" she added, detailing her other campaigning for the climate and environment.", "British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have stopped selling new tickets for inbound flights to Heathrow on the days Border Force staff strike over Christmas, the BBC understands.\n\nBorder Force has asked airports who are expecting passenger numbers on strike days to be above 70-80% of 2019 levels to \"supress demand\".\n\nThe move is to better manage the flow of people through border control.\n\nWorkers will stage the first walkout on Friday 23 December.\n\nA source at Heathrow told the BBC the airport had met with BA and Virgin, its two home-based airlines, to request a restriction on new ticket sales, which the airlines had agreed to.\n\nAround 1,000 Border Force staff who work in passport control will walk out on 23-26 and 28-31 December at Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Gatwick, Heathrow and Manchester airports as well as at the Port of Newhaven.\n\nThe Home Office has warned passengers should expect disruption.\n\nBritish Airways has stopped selling inbound flights on all eight days that staff are expected to strike.\n\nVirgin Atlantic is restricting ticket sales on 23, 28, 29 and 30 December, with the expectation that those will be the busiest passenger days at Heathrow, the UK's biggest airport.\n\nAbout 75% of Border Force staff are members of the PCS union, which balloted for strike action after it said the government had refused to increase a 2% pay rise offer.\n\nMilitary personnel, civil servants and volunteers are being trained to check passports when Border Force staff walk out.\n\nThe Home Office said it was \"extremely disappointed\" with the PCS union's decision to strike, adding it would cause a \"significant inconvenience\" to travellers over the Christmas period.\n\nA statement said the government had \"robust plans\" in place to minimise any delays, but warned \"passengers should be prepared for disruption and take action to plan ahead\".\n\n\"Those intending to travel into the UK over strike days should keep up-to-date with the latest advice from operators to check how the proposed strike action will affect their journey,\" a spokesperson said.\n\nHeathrow Airport and both airlines have not commented on the ticket restrictions.\n\nThe airport said it expects the majority of passengers to be unaffected by the strike action, and that it has not asked for flights to be cancelled or removed from the schedule.\n\n\"Our priority is to ensure passengers get through the border safely and as quickly as possible,\" the airport said.\n\n\"We are working closely with airlines and Border Force on mitigation plans for potential strike action by Border Force officers and these plans will now be implemented for the notified days.\n\n\"We encourage all parties to resolve this dispute quickly,\" a spokesperson added.\n\nVirgin Atlantic said its priority was getting its customers to their destinations and to make them \"prepared for longer waits at border control\".\n\nSeveral airlines are allowing passengers with flights arriving in the UK on strike days to change their tickets free of charge.\n\nEasyJet said any passengers flying into Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham or Glasgow between 22 and 31 December could transfer to another flight on the same route 14 days before or after the strike date.\n\nBA said it was operating the same policy for all passengers with a final destination at Heathrow or Gatwick, or those with a connecting ticket booked as part of their journey to another airport in the UK or Ireland.\n\nVirgin Atlantic said passengers booked on flights into Manchester and Heathrow on strike dates can change tickets with the admin fee and fare difference waived, with the new travel date completed no later than 14 January 2023.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Wes Streeting says left-wing critics of his proposals for the NHS are \"the true Conservatives\".\n\nShadow health secretary Wes Streeting has said he would not \"pretend the NHS is the envy of the world\" as he promised reforms under a Labour government.\n\nHe gave a speech setting out Labour's plan to fix the NHS in England, which he said was in \"existential\" crisis.\n\nLabour would train more staff and use the private sector to bring down waiting lists, he said.\n\nHe branded left-wing critics of his proposals \"the true Conservatives\".\n\nSpeaking at the right-leaning Policy Exchange think tank, Mr Streeting suggested the NHS was not \"delivering a standard of care that patients should be satisfied with\".\n\nLabour, he said, \"will give the NHS the investment and staff it needs, but that has to result in better standards for patients\".\n\nMr Streeting's reformist agenda has thrust him into the centre of a fractious debate about the future of the NHS at the time when nurses are locked in a dispute over pay with the government.\n\nThe shadow health secretary said Thursday's unprecedented strike by nurses was the result of \"12 years of failure to get our economy growing\", pay freezes and funding cuts.\n\nBut in wide-ranging speech lasting about 15 minutes, Mr Streeting said the NHS's problems went beyond the strikes and laid out what a Labour government would do to address them.\n\nIn recent years, the NHS - which was founded under a Labour government in the 1940s - has faced significant financial and workforce challenges, made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic.\n\nThe care backlog is at a record high, with NHS England figures showing 7.2 million people were waiting to start routine treatment at the end of October.\n\nMr Streeting said it was clear NHS staff were \"working as hard as they can\", but added: \"We cannot continue pouring money into a 20th-century model of care that delivers late diagnosis and more expensive treatment\".\n\nThe shadow health secretary, who was last year treated successfully for cancer in an NHS hospital, said reform was the only option.\n\nHe said he endorsed a report by Policy Exchange, which lays out a roadmap for how Labour could achieve its target of training 15,000 medical students a year, if it wins the next general election.\n\nOn top of this, Mr Streeting said Labour's plan would involve:\n\nAttempts to reform the NHS have proved politically contentious, especially for Labour, some of whose MPs are ideologically opposed to private-sector involvement in the health service.\n\nBut Mr Streeting said Labour would not shy away from reform under the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer, who had planted the party \"firmly in the centre-ground\".\n\n\"It is plain to see for anyone who uses the NHS that it is failing patients on a daily basis,\" Mr Streeting said. \"So yes, we are going to reform it and make the NHS fit for the future.\"\n\n\"Ironically, it is those voices from the left who oppose reform, who prove themselves to be the true conservatives.\"\n\nMomentum, the left-wing group set up to support Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, criticised Mr Streeting's speech as a \"deeply worrying and self-defeating intervention\".\n\n\"His refusal to back nurses' demands for fair wages or a public NHS free from private-sector involvement fly in the face of public opinion and Labour's own mission and history,\" said Momentum's co-chair Hilary Schan.\n\nIn a recent interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Streeting was quoted as saying the NHS must \"reform or die\".\n\nMr Streeting said some \"online bad-faith actors\" had suggested he was \"ambivalent about which my preferred option would be\".\n\n\"I do believe the crisis is existential for the NHS,\" he said.\n\n\"And it is in defence of the NHS's founding principles, funded through progressive taxation, free at the point of use, that I make the reform argument.\"\n\nThe shadow health secretary was keen to distance himself not only from the current government, but also from Labour's recent past.\n\nHe denounced opponents of reform as \"Conservatives\" - including Momentum.\n\nThe line echoed Tony Blair's conference speech more than two decades ago, when he described New Labour as \"progressive politics distinguishing itself from the conservatism of left or right\".\n\nIndeed, if Momentum respond to their tail being tweaked this would further illustrate the growing gulf between the current leadership and the previous one.\n\nUsually, even the most moderate of Labour politicians won't say a word against the NHS and those who work in it.\n\nBut Mr Streeting felt comfortable telling what he would see as home truths about Labour's relationship with the NHS.\n\nHis political positioning was not exactly subtle, speaking to a centre-right think tank and describing the NHS not just as his party's finest achievement, but Britain's.\n\nAll this was designed to make people who don't usually vote Labour sit up and listen. But there is little doubt that some who usually back his party won't entirely like what they are hearing.", "Ukrainian servicemen near Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region, where heavy fighting has been taking place\n\nUkraine has accused Russia of planning a wide-ranging ground offensive for early in the new year, despite recent Russian military setbacks.\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky and senior officials have warned that Kyiv and its allies must guard against complacency.\n\nThe offensive could come in the eastern Donbas region, in the south, or even towards Kyiv, senior generals say.\n\nWestern analysts say Russia's ability to conduct successful offensive ground operations is rapidly diminishing.\n\nBritain's most senior military officer Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said this week that the war would only get worse for Moscow, which he added was now facing a critical shortage of artillery munitions.\n\nIn a series of briefings to the media, Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said evidence was mounting that Russia, which has suffered a series of battlefield losses, plans a broad new offensive.\n\nHe speculated this could occur in February when half of the 300,000 troops conscripted by Russia in October to support the Ukraine war would complete training.\n\n\"The second part of the mobilisation, 150,000 approximately... do a minimum of three months to prepare. It means they are trying to start the next wave of the offensive probably in February, like last year. That's their plan,\" Mr Reznikov told the Guardian.\n\n\"The Kremlin is trying to find new solutions [for] how to get the victory,\" he added, stating that he expects Russia to further mobilise more citizens.\n\nMoscow's new offensive could happen as soon as January but more likely in the spring, the Economist reported on Thursday, saying the assessment came from President Zelensksy, General Valery Zaluzhny and General Oleksandr Syrskyi in recent interviews.\n\n\"The Russians are preparing some 200,000 fresh troops. I have no doubt they will have another go at Kyiv,\" said General Zaluzhny, the head of Ukraine's armed forces.\n\nRussia is \"100% being prepared\", he said, adding that Ukraine's \"very important strategic task...is to create reserves and prepare for the war, which may take place in February, at best in March, and at worst at the end of January\".\n\n\"It may start not in Donbas, but in the direction of Kyiv, in the direction of Belarus, I do not rule out the southern direction as well,\" he said.\n\nBoth sides have ruled out a Christmas truce and there are currently no talks aimed at ending the conflict.\n\nMilitary analysts say a winter deadlock could set in, even as fierce fighting continues, especially in the Donetsk region, where Russian forces are pushing to capture the town of Bakhmut.\n\nUkraine has significantly improved its air defences against Russian missiles with Western support, but is calling for more advanced weaponry.\n\nOn Thursday, western allies stepped up their support with additional funding and military training.\n\nEuropean Union leaders agreed to provide €18bn (£15.7bn) in financing to Ukraine next year and hit Moscow with a ninth package of sanctions.\n\nIn Washington, the US military announced it will expand training in Germany of Ukrainian military personnel. Starting in January, 500 troops a month will be trained, building on more than 15,000 Ukrainians trained by the US and its allies since April.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Scenes of devastation after tank explosion at Berlin hotel\n\nA giant aquarium containing a million litres of water in the lobby of the Radisson Blu in Berlin has burst, flooding the hotel and nearby streets.\n\nThe \"AquaDom\" - home to 1,500 fish - is 15.85m high (52 ft) and was described as the largest free-standing cylindrical aquarium in the world.\n\nTwo people were injured by falling glass after the blast.\n\nPolice said there had been \"incredible\" damage. Video showed an empty tank with water pouring into the hotel lobby.\n\nGuests have been moved out of the hotel following the incident at 05:50 (04:50 GMT).\n\nA spokesman for Berlin's fire brigade told the BBC the vast majority of the fish had died, while the cold weather had made rescue attempts more difficult. The tank had contained more than 100 different species.\n\nHowever, fire brigade official James Klein later told local media that \"several dozen\" fish had been found alive in places where residual water had collected. He said they were being rehoused in other aquariums.\n\nAlso, the Associated Press quoted officials as saying they were working to rescue another 400-500 fish in smaller tanks under the hotel lobby which had been deprived of oxygen because of the disaster.\n\nOutside the Radisson Blu, a pile of debris lay in front of what were the front doors, which now hang into the street - twisted at an angle by the force of the exploding tank.\n\nMore than 100 fire fighters were in attendance at the incident in Berlin on Friday morning\n\nPaul Maletzki was staying on the fourth floor with his girlfriend.\n\nHe described being woken up by a loud bang and shaking. When he looked down into the lobby, he saw water flowing across it. They and other guests were later escorted out of the hotel by armed police.\n\nThe Mayor of Berlin Franziska Giffey went to the hotel to see the damage and described the tank burst as being like a tsunami.\n\nShe expressed relief it had happened so early in the morning - saying an hour or so later, and the lobby and street outside would have been busy with visitors, many of them children.\n\nSandra Weeser, a member of the German federal parliament who had been staying at the hotel, told local television that she had been woken up by \"a kind of shock wave\" and described the scene outside the hotel as a \"picture of devastation\".\n\nShe said fish which may have been saved had frozen to death and recalled seeing a \"large parrotfish lying on the ground, frozen\".\n\nThe aquarium was modernised two years ago, and there is a clear-walled lift built inside for use by visitors. Some of the rooms in the hotel are advertised as having views of it.\n\nBerlin's fire brigade said more than 100 firefighters were sent to the scene and it was not clear what caused the break.\n\nIt said it used rescue dogs to check the area inside the hotel for anyone potentially injured, with nobody found.\n\nPolice said \"massive amounts\" of water were flowing into nearby streets and people in the area should drive cautiously.\n\nThe AquaDom in Berlin contained about 1,500 fish and over a million litres of water\n\nA police source told local media there is no evidence the break was the result of a targeted attack.\n\nBut there has been speculation that freezing temperature - which dropped as low as -6C overnight - may have caused a crack in the tank.\n\nBerlin's public transport authority said Karl-Liebknecht street outside the hotel had been closed off due to \"an extreme amount of water on the road\". Trams service in the area was also stopped.\n\nAquaDom was opened in December 2003 and was given the Guinness World Record for being the world's largest cylindrical aquarium.\n\nAccording to reports at the time of its construction, it cost about €12.8m (£11.2m) to build.", "Ambulance staff across most of England and Wales will go on strike on 21 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nThe coordinated walkout by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls only.\n\nBut it could mean people who have had trips and falls not being responded to.\n\nMembers of GMB, which represents nearly a third of the 50,000-strong workforce, will then follow that up with another walkout on 28 December.\n\nIt comes as Royal College of Nursing members are also preparing to go on strike on 15 and 20 December in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nThe impact of the first ambulance walkout will be patchy as Unison, which is the largest union in the sector, only has a strike mandate for half of England's 10 regional services for the 21 December walkout.\n\nThe walkouts will involve paramedics as well as control room staff and support workers, with the military on standby to help out.\n\nThe start times and lengths of the walkouts vary between unions and services, but all will last between 12 hours and 24 hours.\n\nThe only service which will be completely unaffected, however, is the East of England.\n\nThe full extent of the cover striking staff will provide has yet to be decided - detailed negotiations will take place between local ambulance bosses and unions ahead of the walkout.\n\nUnder trade union rules, life-preserving care has to be provided so the two highest category calls - covering everything from heart attacks and strokes to major trauma - will still be responded to.\n\nBut Matthew Taylor, of the NHS Confederation, which represents health managers, said he was worried the action would \"undoubtedly\" affect patient care and how quickly ambulance services could respond and may even deter people from seeking help.\n\n\"The prospect of industrial action over Christmas is very concerning,\" he added.\n\nLast month the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives warned patients were dying because of the \"crippling delays\" that ambulance crews faced when arriving at A&E.\n\nUnison head of health Sara Gorton said: \"The government will only have itself to blame if there are strikes in the NHS before Christmas.\n\n\"Ambulance staff and their health colleagues don't want to inconvenience anyone. But ministers are refusing to do the one thing that could prevent disruption - that's start genuine talks about pay.\n\n\"Wages are too low to stop health workers quitting the NHS. As more and more hand in their notice, there are fewer staff left to care for patients. The public knows that's the reason behind lengthy waits.\"\n\nAll the unions have asked for above-inflation pay rises.\n\nBut the governments in England and Wales have given NHS staff an average rise of 4.75%, with staff guaranteed a minimum of £1,400.\n\nEngland Health Secretary Steve Barclay said paying what was being asked for was \"unaffordable\" and he has pointed out the award met the requirements of the recommendations of the independent NHS Pay Review Body.\n\nJust over two thirds of ambulance staff are thought to be members of one of the three unions.\n\nThe last time ambulance staff were involved in strike action was in 2014.\n\nAre you an ambulance worker, or a patient affected by the strike? Please email us and let us know how you feel about the industrial action: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "Kennedy was shot during a visit to Dallas, Texas, in 1963\n\nThe White House has ordered the release of thousands of documents on the murder of US President John F Kennedy in full for the first time.\n\nWith the publication of some 13,173 files online, the White House said more than 97% of records in the collection were now publicly available.\n\nNo huge revelations are expected from the papers, but historians hope to learn more about the assassination.\n\nKennedy was shot during a visit to Dallas, Texas, on 22 November 1963.\n\nA 1992 law required the government to release all documents on the assassination by October 2017.\n\nOn Thursday, President Joe Biden issued an executive order authorising the latest disclosure.\n\nBut he said some files would be kept under wraps until June 2023 to protect against possible \"identifiable harm\".\n\nThe US National Archives said that 515 documents would remain withheld in full, and another 2,545 documents would be partly withheld.\n\nA 1964 US inquiry, the Warren Commission, found that Kennedy was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, a US citizen who had previously lived in the Soviet Union, and that he acted alone. He was killed in the basement of the Dallas police headquarters two days after his arrest.\n\nJFK's death spawned decades of conspiracy theories, but on Thursday the CIA said the US spy agency had \"never engaged\" Oswald, and did not withhold information about him from US investigators.\n\nLong-time JFK academics and theorists have hoped the latest release would reveal more information about Oswald's activities in Mexico City, where he met a Soviet KGB officer in October 1963.\n\nIn its latest statement, the CIA said that all information held by the agency relating to his trip to Mexico City had previously been released, adding: \"There is no new information on this topic in the 2022 release.\"\n\nBut researchers with the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a non-profit that sued the government to release the files, said the CIA was withholding information about Oswald's time in Mexico.\n\nThe foundation said some CIA records were never submitted to the archives and therefore were not part of the batch just released.\n\nOne newly revealed document shows the president of Mexico helped the US place a wiretap on the Soviet embassy in Mexico without the knowledge of other officials in the Mexican government.\n\nThis nugget of information was hidden by redactions in a previously released version of the file, reports the BBC's US partner CBS News.\n\nThe White House said the release of the files would provide the public with greater understanding of the investigation into the assassination.\n\nPresident Biden wrote in his order that \"agencies have undertaken a comprehensive effort to review the full set of almost 16,000 records that had previously been released in redacted form and determined that more than 70 percent of those records may now be released in full\".\n\nThe Trump administration released thousands of pages over the course of his presidency, but withheld others on the basis of national security, despite the 1992 law forcing the release of all the information by 2017.\n\nIn October 2021, Mr Biden released around 1,500 documents, but said he was keeping the others sealed.\n\nPhilip Shenon, a former New York Times reporter and author of A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination, says the new files could shed light on whether the government may have known of Oswald's intentions.\n\n\"I suspect there may be information in these documents to suggest that other people knew before the Kennedy assassination that this man Lee Harvey Oswald was a danger and that he may have talked openly about his intention to kill the president,\" he tells BBC News.\n\n\"And the question has always been did the agencies of government, the CIA and FBI, have some sense that this man was a danger to President Kennedy, and if they had acted on that information could they have saved the president?\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. A British nurse was in the Dallas hospital when JFK was shot", "Nurses in Cambridge join tens of thousands across the UK who are striking for better pay\n\nPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that the pay offer to nurses is appropriate and fair, despite pressure from health leaders and some former Conservative ministers to rethink.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing (RCN) went on strike on Thursday and is staging a second walkout on Tuesday.\n\nAnd it has warned that more strikes could follow in the new year.\n\nTens of thousands of nurses took action across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, affecting many appointments.\n\nAt least 19,000 patients had their surgeries and appointments postponed yesterday because of striking nurses, according to figures released by NHS trusts in England and Northern Ireland.\n\nBut ministers had predicted that a larger number of around 70,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries would be lost as a result of the strike.\n\nIn England alone, 9,999 staff were absent from work due to the strike.\n\nThe government says it has followed the recommendation of the independent NHS Pay Review Body, which said in July NHS staff should receive the £1,400 increase, with slightly more for the most experienced nurses.\n\nBut union sources have told the BBC that if there is no move to reopen pay talks after next week's action, then new strike dates will be announced before Christmas, with a series of walkouts likely in January.\n\nPat Cullen, the General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: \"If the prime minister continues to take the position that he is holding now along with his Secretary of State then it will be for him and on his shoulders that further action perhaps will have to take place - but this is for him to decide now\".\n\nSaffron Cordery, the interim chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts in England, said the first nurses' strike had a \"significant impact\" on patients.\n\n\"It was particularly pressured across a number of emergency departments. We know that there was slow transfer of patients out of those departments...but there was a lot of support for staff whether or not they were striking,\" she told BBC News.\n\nThe level of disruption could also increase, with nurses striking across more NHS trusts in England and for longer periods of time - perhaps over two consecutive days. Industrial action is also taking place in Wales and Northern Ireland.\n\nFormer Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry and ex-health minister Dan Poulter want the government to improve its offer.\n\nSir Jake told Times Radio: \"It is time for pragmatism and talking between the government and the unions. I don't see why that is controversial.\n\n\"There is no do-nothing option except continued strikes. And I just think the cancellation of probably literally hundreds of thousands of non-urgent appointments yesterday has huge repercussions for an already-overstretched health service.\"\n\nMr Sunak said the government remained open to talks with nurses, but that a demand for a 19% pay rise by the RCN was unaffordable.\n\nNurses received an extra 3% last year after the pandemic, and another rise recommended by a pay review body.\n\nSpeaking while on a visit to Belfast, Mr Sunak told BBC News NI: \"The health secretary has always been clear that his door is always open for talks - we want to be reasonable, we want to be constructive.\n\n\"We've got enormous gratitude for all public sector workers for the job they do, and I know things are difficult right now.\n\n\"That's why the government is providing lots of support for people, particularly with energy bills.\"\n\nThe NHS Confederation, which represents hospitals, has urged ministers to act to avoid strikes in the new year, which it said could be \"more severe\" and co-ordinated with other health unions.\n\nFormer Conservative health minister Steve Brine told the BBC's World At One programme on Thursday: \"Everyone needs to cool it, and I think sending it back to the pay review body to have a look would be a sensible answer.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch this video quiz to test your knowledge of nurses' pay\n\nIn England and Wales, most NHS staff have already received a pay rise of roughly £1,400 this year - worth about 4% on average for nurses.\n\nThe political situation in Northern Ireland meant there was a delay in processing the increase - but nurses should receive backdated payments before the end of the financial year.\n\nThe RCN wants a larger rise, of 5% above the RPI inflation rate, which currently stands at 14%, saying its members have received years of below-inflation pay increases.\n\nThe RCN has criticised the NHS Pay Review Body, who recommended the £1,400 rise, for not being independent enough. It is made up mainly of economists and human resources professionals.\n\nWelsh ministers said they were unable to enter pay talks without extra funding from the UK government.\n\nIn Scotland, the RCN's strike action was \"paused\" after ministers made a fresh offer worth just over £2,200, or 7.5%, a year for most NHS staff. Nurses have been asked to vote on that deal, with results due next week.\n\nNote January 4 2023: This article was amended to make clear that the Prime Minister indicated the door was open for talks. But he did not suggest that might include pay, other than stating that a 19% rise was unaffordable.", "Several Madrid stations were forced to close due to flooding after heavy rains on Wednesday.\n\nVideos posted on social media showed waist-deep waters at one, and floodwater gushing down the steps of another's entrance.\n\nEarlier this week, Storm Efraín saw large parts of Spain affected by torrential rain.", "Last updated on .From the section Wales\n\nManager Robert Page says Wales need to use the \"hurt\" and \"disappointment\" of their World Cup exit to lift them to further major tournaments.\n\nWales qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1958 under Page, but disappointed in Qatar.\n\n\"We didn't meet expectations... and that's why it has taken me this long to speak - it hurts me,\" Page explained.\n\nPage also said he expects Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey to continue to play a key role for Wales.\n\nWales' lacklustre World Cup performance saw them score only once in three group games and Page said he has \"mixed emotions\" over his side's performances.\n\n\"If I am honest it is a mixture of emotions. I am really proud to have got there and want to thank all the supporters who made the effort to go, but I have a bit of disappointment, I can't lie,\" he told BBC Sport Wales.\n\n\"It has not been an easy couple of weeks. It hurts watching World Cup games. But that speaks volumes about how far we have come as a nation.\n\n\"Look how far we've come. We have to build on that now. We have to learn from what we've done in Qatar and build on it for the future.\n\n\"It felt like we were just happy to get there and as a group we will address it and look to move forward.\n\n\"We didn't reach the levels we know we can, that is the disappointment. I take full responsibility for that.\"\n• None Wales' next journey starts with a new identity\n• None What comes next for Wales after World Cup exit?\n• None Watch - Bale vows to keep going for Wales\n\nPage received a vote of \"complete confidence\" from Football Association of Wales chief Noel Mooney, despite their World Cup disappointment.\n\nAfter taking over from Ryan Giggs as interim head coach, Page oversaw qualification to League A in the Nations League for the first time, reached the last 16 of the Euro 2020 finals, and made history in June as Wales reached the World Cup finals for the first time since 1958.\n\nHowever, the achievement of reaching Qatar - ending a 64-year wait - was tempered as they fell at the first hurdle.\n\nAn opening group-stage draw against the USA was followed by a 2-0 defeat by Iran and a 3-0 loss against England as Wales were knocked out.\n\nPage was confirmed as permanent boss in September 2022, signing a deal that should see the 48-year-old in charge for the qualifying campaigns for Euro 2024 and the 2026 World Cup.\n\nHe says Wales are now entering a \"transition\" period where they must learn from their experiences at the World Cup.\n\n\"The level of performance we showed in the Nations League against Netherlands and Belgium, we fell below that,\" he said.\n\n\"If we'd have met those standards I feel we would have given USA, Iran and England more of a game.\n\n\"Of course there are lessons learned - could we have gone with fresher legs from the start? It's easy to say now, in hindsight.\n\n\"We need to get the next group of players coming through now. We've seen the athleticism from some of the teams at the World Cup and we need that to keep us at the top table.\n\n\"We need energy and pace in the team. We are already in the process of doing what we need to make us competitive.\n\n\"We know we need some fresh blood and new blood in the dressing room and changes will be made.\"\n\nPage says he is still keen to see the continuation of Bale and Ramsey's international careers, despite his desire to get more youth into the squad.\n\nBale, 33, is Wales' men's leading goalscorer, most-capped player and has been their talisman since making his debut as a teenager.\n\nRamsey, 31, has been almost as important for his country, with the Nice midfielder starting all Wales' games in Qatar.\n\nHowever, despite Bale scoring Wales' only goal of the World Cup, he and Ramsey fell way short of the exceptional standards they have set.\n\nFormerly the most expensive player in the world at Real Madrid, Bale has already made clear he intends to continue for Wales, saying he'll \"keep going as long as I can,\" and \"as long as I'm wanted\".\n\nPage feels it would be foolish for Wales to move on from senior stars such as Bale and Ramsey, feeling they still have a \"massive\" part to play.\n\n\"When you are talking about the senior players, the likes of Aaron [Ramsey], Gareth [Bale] and Joe [Allen] and all the senior players there, they still have a massive part to play for us going forward,\" he added.\n\n\"How we use them might be slightly different, but they still have a massive part to play for Welsh football.\"\n\nPage says that limited game time for their clubs negatively impacted Bale and Ramsey's form in Qatar.\n\nBale featured mostly as a substitute for MLS side Los Angeles FC this season, while Ramsey has only completed 90 minutes three times for Nice since joining on a free transfer from Juventus.\n\n\"Lack of match minutes was a big part of it [their lack of form] and that was the dilemma I had out there - it is your heart versus your head,\" Page said.\n\n\"They had both earned the right to be there. It isn't Gareth's fault he hasn't played as many minutes as he wanted. Does he still have the quality? Absolutely.\n\n\"Gareth still has a big part to play, whether starting games or coming off the bench and scoring winning goals for us.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Ash and Pikachu in the first Pokemon movie in 1998\n\nPokemon main man Ash Ketchum and his loyal Pikachu are set to leave the anime series after 25 years.\n\nProducers said on Friday that a new adventure featuring fresh faces will begin in April 2023.\n\nActress Sarah Natochenny, who has provided the English voice for Ash and other characters since 2006, said it had been \"an extraordinary privilege\".\n\n\"No matter what lies beyond his final chapter, he'll live forever in the hearts of many generations to come.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Sarah Natochenny This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Japanese anime show, which has also spawned several movies, has followed Ash in his quest to become a Pokemon master trainer since 1997, when the character met electric mouse creature Pikachu on his 10th birthday.\n\nAnd last month, he finally completed his quest when he won the Pokemon World Championship.\n\nFrom next spring, viewers will be introduced to two new protagonists - a young girl named Liko and a boy named Roy, who will be accompanied by three Paldea starter Pokemon.\n\n\"It will represent everything [fans] love about Pokemon animation, including action, adventure, friendship and Pokemon,\" the producers said.\n\nBefore that, on 13 January, an 11-episode epilogue series to the current run, titled Pokémon Journeys in the West, will tell the final chapter of Ash and Pikachu's story.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by The Official Pokémon YouTube channel This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video by The Official Pokémon YouTube channel\n\nResponding to Natochenny, who took over Ash's vocal duties from Veronica Taylor at the end of series eight, fans have been paying their tributes online.\n\n\"I've been a fan of this anime since it came to the US when I was in fifth grade,\" posted one.\n\n\"As a lifelong fan, I am truly grateful for your dedication to a character that defines many of our childhoods. Thank you for being such an excellent role model.\"\n\n\"Thanks for all the adventures you and Veronica Taylor have given us through seven regions,\" wrote another.\n\n\"For the countless Pokemon you've voiced alongside Ash, and for giving a voice to a character that is as iconic as Goku is to DBZ. Ash has realised his dream of becoming a Pokémon master and champ.\"\n\nThe Pokemon franchise has grown to include Pokemon Go, a landmark mobile game using online maps and augmented reality to place the characters in real world locations.\n\nThe latest Pokemon video games for the Nintendo Switch have already sold more than 10 million copies since their release at the end of last month.", "Hospitals should free up beds to prepare for \"extensive disruption\" caused by ambulance staff strikes in England, NHS bosses have urged.\n\nThey said patients need to be safely discharged where possible to enable ambulance staff to hand over patients.\n\nAmbulance staff are to walk out on 21 and 28 December in a dispute over pay.\n\nDr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said freeing up more beds would be very difficult for hospitals to achieve.\n\n\"We don't hold up ambulances for fun,\" he told Radio 4's Today. \"It really is difficult. We always want ambulances to return to the front line as quickly as possible and we've been struggling to do this in the last three years.\"\n\nAsked what the solution was, he said it was not just provision of social care to enable elderly people to be discharged from hospital.\n\n\"We run our hospitals very tight compared to our European comparators,\" he said, adding: \"It's not just about social care but about making sure our hospitals are big enough to cope.\"\n\nThe strike by ambulance staff on 21 December comes the day after a nurses' strike.\n\n\"It's something that makes everyone who works in this sector pretty anxious,\" said Dr Boyle\n\nThe co-ordinated walkout in England and Wales by the three main ambulance unions - Unison, GMB and Unite - will affect non-life threatening calls only.\n\nUnison, Unite and GMB are taking action on 21 December. GMB union members will go on strike again on 28 December.\n\nThe walkouts will involve paramedics as well as control room staff and support workers.\n\nIn a letter addressed to hospital bosses, NHS chiefs in England have called for patients who complete emergency medical care to be moved out of emergency departments as quickly as possible.\n\nMeasures, such as placing additional beds in hospitals and creating \"observation areas\" should be put in place to ensure that patients arriving by ambulance are handed over to A&E in less than 15 minutes, they said.\n\nSir David Sloman, NHS England's chief operating officer, wrote in the letter co-signed by national medical director for England Professor Sir Stephen Powis and chief nursing officer for England Dame Ruth May that plans should be in place by Monday, 19 December.\n\nSome outpatient appointments could be cut back to allow senior medical staff to be redeployed to emergency departments. But NHS chiefs say \"every effort\" should be made to maintain urgent cancer diagnostics or cancer treatment, with rescheduling to be considered as a last resort.\n\nAmbulance handover delays in England have hit a new high, according to recent NHS data. Last week, one in six patients waited for more than an hour to be passed on to A&E teams.\n\nNHS Providers' interim chief executive Saffron Cordery also said reducing handover delays would be \"incredibly difficult to implement\" because of factors including staff absences and rising flu admissions.\n\nMs Cordery said: \"We understand why ambulance staff have voted for industrial action but it's vital that the government and unions talk urgently to find a way to prevent this and further strikes from happening.\"\n\nThe letter sent to NHS trusts and Integrated Care Boards said bosses should create and co-ordinate plans on how to handle strike days by 19 December.\n\nStaff have been offered an average rise of 4.75%, with a guaranteed minimum of £1,400 - but the unions have asked for above-inflation pay rises.\n\nBusiness Secretary Grant Shapps said pay rises for ambulance workers and nurses were decided by independent pay review bodies.\n\nAsked on Radio 4's Today how the government could afford to increase state pensions in line with inflation, but not NHS staff pay, Mr Shapps said: \"Nurses and ambulance workers would have a pay rise that was recommended independently which I think is the right way to do this.\"\n\nHe said expectations for pay increases were greater since energy prices began rising and the subsequent high inflation rates, but people will \"all end up much worse off\" if ministers award inflation-busting pay rises.\n\nMr Shapps added that following the advice of the pay review bodies was \"right and proper\".\n\nIt is clear that NHS leaders are very concerned about the possible impact of the ambulance strikes planned for Wednesday 21 December and a more limited walkout a week later.\n\nThe letter to hospitals urging rapid preparations, including moving as many medically fit patients as possible out, is evidence of that - with references to a \"very challenging period\" and involving \"extensive disruption\".\n\nA senior NHS England official Sir Jim Mackey has said that action by ambulance teams represented a completely different order of magnitude of risk compared to nurses strikes. Tuesday's second nurses strike will see thousands more appointments and procedures cancelled.\n\nThe letter from health leaders suggests there may have to be more postponements of appointments on Wednesday when ambulance staff go on strike in order to allow senior doctors to be redeployed to emergency departments. All this with no sign of ministers and unions being in any hurry to start pay talks.\n\nFollowing an emergency Cobra meeting on Monday, the prime minister's official spokesman said the number of ambulances available to attend calls would be reduced \"significantly\".\n\nArmed forces could be deployed to hospital trusts ahead of the strikes, Downing Street has confirmed.\n\nThe Police Federation has also suggested police officers may also be called upon to drive ambulances.\n\nNurses took strike action on Thursday in parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland in a dispute over pay.\n\nFigures released by NHS trusts in England and Northern Ireland show at least 19,000 patients had their surgeries and appointments postponed because of strike.\n\nMinisters had predicted that a larger number of around 70,000 appointments, procedures and surgeries would be lost.\n\nRoyal College of Nursing members are expected to walk out for a second time on 20 December\n\nNHS England bosses have warned of \"extensive disruption\" ahead of ambulance strikes\n\nIf you work for the ambulance service do you plan to go on strike or not? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The administration building in the heart of Kherson was hit on Wednesday and shelling continued near by on Thursday\n\nTwo people have been killed, say Ukrainian officials, in a second day of Russian attacks on central Kherson, recaptured by Ukraine last month.\n\nHeavy shelling on critical infrastructure in the port area left the entire city without power, according to the regional governor.\n\nThe retreat of Russian forces from Kherson was one of Moscow's biggest setbacks since the February invasion.\n\nFor weeks it has targeted power facilities in Ukrainian cities.\n\nMillions of Ukrainians have been left without heating or power as winter temperatures have fallen below freezing.\n\nShells reportedly landed 100m (328ft) from the main administration building in Kherson city, officials said, a day after the building itself was badly damaged. A 32-year-old paramedic and a 70-year-old man were killed in the attack which hit a medical aid point, Ukrainian media said.\n\nExplosions also went off in Ukraine's second biggest city Kharkiv. Mayor Igor Terekhov said Russia was shelling infrastructure facilities and appealed to residents to stay in shelters if possible.\n\nUN human rights commissioner Volker Turk warned that Russia's attacks were exposing millions of Ukrainians to \"extreme hardship\" and further attacks on power facilities could \"lead to a further serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation and spark more displacement\".\n\nMeanwhile, Russian-backed proxies said Ukrainian forces had launched their \"most massive strike\" on the centre of occupied Donetsk since 2014, when the separatists triggered a conflict by seizing parts of the Donbas region.\n\nRussian-appointed official Alexei Kulemzin said 40 rockets were fired, killing one person and leaving nine more wounded.\n\nRussian-appointed official Alexei Kulemzin said shells were fired at the city at 07:00 local time\n\nDetails of the attack could not be confirmed, but Mr Kulemzin posted pictures of damaged buildings in the city.\n\nIn his speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk said the war had left 18 million people in need of humanitarian aid. He gave details of summary executions of civilians by the Russian military between February and April, including the infamous murders in the town of Bucha outside Kyiv.\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to EU leaders on Thursday to help defeat \"Russia's energy terror\", by maintaining Ukraine's energy supply with around 2bn cubic metres of gas and electricity worth about €800m (£697m; $851m) worth of electricity.\n\nIn the past six months he said Ukraine had achieved tangible victories and had begun building an air shield for Ukraine. The capital Kyiv was also targeted by 13 drones on Wednesday, the president said, but the military had been able to repel it.\n\nThis was the scene inside the Kherson administration building after Wednesday's attack", "Countries have pledged new funds to restore nature as biodiversity talks reach a crunch point over finance.\n\nLeaders are meeting in Montreal to try to agree a roadmap for reversing nature loss.\n\nProgress has stalled amid disagreement on how to fund conservation efforts in poorer countries.\n\nIt's hoped the new commitments will provide momentum for an agreement on protecting a third of the planet for nature.\n\nBut environmental groups have warned that political will must be turned into concrete agreement if the talks are to succeed.\n\nThe announcements came on the first day of high-level talks by ministers at the UN biodiversity summit, COP 15.\n\nThe conference is into its second week but progress has been slow with rows over finance and little sign of compromise.\n\nThe UK government has promised nearly £30m to help developing countries to reach the goal of setting aside a third of the planet for nature.\n\nIt is also giving £5m to support biodiversity projects in the British overseas territories.\n\nEnvironment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said: \"A healthy and thriving natural environment underpins the social and economic prosperity of our livelihoods, which is why it is pivotal for the international community to put nature on the road to recovery.\"\n\nThe conservation projects range from supporting endangered sea turtles on the Cayman Islands to reintroducing threatened birds to the Falkland Islands.\n\nHotspots of biodiversity are concentrated in the global south\n\nOn Thursday, a number of countries, including Spain, the Netherlands, France and Canada, put forward plans to increase the amount of funding for conservation efforts across the world, particularly in the most vulnerable countries.\n\nIt is hoped that philanthropic organisations and international banks will follow suit.\n\nThe announcements followed concerns that the pace of negotiations in Montreal has stalled amid disagreements over finance.\n\nOn Wednesday some countries walked out of a meeting in protest at the lack of progress on how to fill a multi-billion dollar funding gap.\n\n\"This week has been challenging as expected around issues of resource mobilisation, with walk-outs and late-night impasses,\" said a spokesperson from The Nature Conservancy.\n\n\"That said, the train feels like it's back on track and conversations are again moving. \"\n\nOn Saturday marches were held in Montreal over ensuring rights for indigenous peoples\n\nThe COP 15 UN biodiversity summit in Montreal is regarded as a \"last chance\" to save the nature upon which the world depends.\n\nMinisters arrived on Thursday for high-level talks aimed at resolving outstanding issues.\n\nClaire Blanchard, head of global advocacy at WWF International said the new announcements were a good signal of much-needed political will in Montreal.\n\n\"This political will must now be translated into concrete agreements and convergence in the negotiation room over the next couple of days, to rescue a desperately needed deal for nature to save our life support systems,\" she said.\n\nBiodiversity refers to all living things, from polar bears to plankton, and the way they fit together in an intricate web of life, supplying food, clean air and water.", "British Airways has apologised after flights due to depart from the US were grounded for several hours.\n\nThe airline said a technical issue that affected some of its long-haul flight planning systems overnight had now been resolved.\n\nBA passengers reported waiting for several hours in airports, with flights eventually departing after long delays.\n\nA spokesman for the airline said the company was \"sorry for the disruption caused to our customers' travel plans\".\n\nIt is understood that short-haul flights were not affected by the technical problems and there were no safety concerns.\n\nThere were long delays on long-haul flights, including those between London's Heathrow airport and the US and Canada, and other flights serving Gatwick airport, including arrivals from Cancun, Mexico.\n\nFlights at Heathrow impacted by the delays are now operating, but Terminal 5 is expected to be busy this afternoon as a result.\n\n\"We have additional colleagues on hand to support passengers and get them on their journeys as quickly as possible,\" a spokesperson for the airport said.\n\nIt is not the first time BA has been hit by technical problems.\n\nIn February, the airline apologised after cancelling all short-haul flights from Heathrow due to IT issues.\n\nOn Monday night passengers took to Twitter to report waiting at John F Kennedy International Airport for more than three hours.\n\nOthers said they had been sitting on planes parked on runways for hours, before being moved back to the airport.\n\nOne of those delayed was British actress and model Elizabeth Hurley, who tweeted on Tuesday morning: \"@British_Airways Stranded at Antigua airport with no food or water, taxis or hotels offered yet. Plane delayed 20 hours.\"\n\nAn hour later she said: \"Still stranded - no food, water or hotel. Pretty dodgy service @British_Airways.\"\n\nIn a statement in the early hours of Tuesday, BA said: \"Our flights due to depart the USA tonight are currently delayed due to a technical issue with our third-party flight planning supplier, which we are urgently investigating.\"\n\nIt confirmed hours later that the problem had been fixed.\n\nSeparately, the airline has been dealing with delays resulting from the cold weather last week, as some flights were held up due to planes needing to be de-iced.\n\nThis has had a knock-on effect on baggage handling, with people on social media sharing pictures of bags piled up at Heathrow.\n\n\"We're doing everything we can to reunite our customers with their delayed baggage as soon as possible,\" BA said.\n\nWas your journey affected? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The former Love Island contestant says an amendment to the Online Safety Bill is vital.\n\nGeorgia Harrison is seen by most reality TV fans as the fun and adventurous type, best known for appearing on shows like Love Island and The Only Way is Essex.\n\nBut for the past two years, the 28-year-old has been absent from our screens.\n\nIn December 2020, she started criminal proceedings against her ex-partner, Stephen Bear, who she also met on a reality show.\n\nIt was after he used CCTV cameras in his garden to capture them having sex and then sent it to a friend and sold the video online - none of which she consented to.\n\nLast week, Bear was found guilty of one count of voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private sexual photographs or films with the intent to cause distress.\n\n\"It's just been such a whirlwind - I've had so much love and support ever since the verdict,\" Harrison tells the BBC.\n\nShe says she has been passed over for several TV projects and other opportunities since Bear shared the video of them on subscription site OnlyFans two years ago.\n\n\"My agent had conversations with brands, but when they looked at who they wanted to book for a specific job, because of what happened, I was just a red flag,\" she says.\n\n\"It's been really hard and there's been a couple of times that I did just have a massive breakdown, television was always my passion and [producers] just couldn't consider me.\"\n\nHarrison had a right to remain anonymous in her case due to voyeurism being a sexual offence, but chose to waive it to raise awareness of the effects that so-called \"revenge porn\" can have on victims.\n\n\"Something like this makes you feel completely worthless - people are looking at you and having sexual gratification over you and it's completely out of your control,\" she says.\n\n\"It affects you for a really long time, I've always compared it to grief - sometimes you think you're ok and then suddenly you are just in sheds of tears and you just can't help it.\"\n\nSince Bear's conviction, Harrison says she's received \"a concerning number of messages\" from other revenge porn victims.\n\nShe hopes that the Online Safety Bill, which was put forward by the government in November, is made into law to give further protection to those who have their images or videos shared without consent.\n\nThe bill proposes removing part of the current revenge porn law, which was introduced in 2015 and requires the prosecution to show there was intent behind the perpetrator's actions.\n\n\"There's no need to say or prove that you intended to cause embarrassment or distress,\" Harrison says.\n\nGeorgia has starred on shows like Love Island and The Only Way is Essex\n\n\"Whether you send [a private image] to 10 people or one person, you need to know the effects that that could cause on someone's life - it's going to upset someone, embarrass them and change their life unspeakably,\" she adds.\n\nBear is due to be sentenced at the end of January and could face prison time.\n\nCampaigners are calling this case one of the highest profile revenge porn convictions of all time in the UK, and there are hopes it could deter people from committing the crime in the future.\n\n\"I'd like to potentially speak in schools about my experience, just so that young people can understand the effect these sorts of things can cause to people's lives,\" Harrison says.\n\n\"I really want to get across the point that if someone wants to get power over you and they want you to send a picture, then they don't really have respect for you.\"\n\nShe adds: \"I say to my younger sisters, if someone really cares about you, you won't have to send them something to make them like you.\"", "Nurses are striking in around a quarter of NHS services across England.\n\nStaff will continue to provide \"life-preserving\" and some urgent care but routine surgery and other planned treatment is likely to be disrupted.\n\nYou can see if an organisation is affected in your area using our interactive table below.\n\nYour device may not support this visualisation\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The disgraced film producer is already serving 23 years in jail\n\nFormer Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty by a Los Angeles jury of raping a woman.\n\nThe two-month trial heard how Weinstein used his influence to lure women into private meetings before attacking them.\n\nThe 70-year-old Oscar winner is facing up to 24 years in prison when he is sentenced.\n\nHe is already serving 23 years in jail after he was convicted of rape and sexual assault at his first trial in New York two years ago.\n\nWeinstein was found guilty on Monday of rape and two sexual assault charges involving an accuser, known as Jane Doe 1 to protect her anonymity.\n\nThe jury could not reach verdicts on allegations by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, and a woman known as Jane Doe 2. A mistrial was declared on those counts.\n\nHe was also acquitted of sexual battery against an accuser known as Jane Doe 3.\n\nThe Shakespeare in Love and Pulp Fiction producer and co-founder of the entertainment company Miramax was wearing a grey suit and looked pale at the court in Los Angeles on Monday.\n\nHe was not using a wheelchair as he had done at previous court appearances.\n\nWhen he heard guilty on count one, the former Hollywood producer looked down. Then the court clerk read guilty on count two and he looked at his lawyer. At one point he stared at the jury.\n\nThe trial heard from dozens of witnesses in more than four weeks of often emotional testimony.\n\nBut Monday's verdict focused on allegations by four women stemming from 2005-13.\n\nThe jury of eight men and four women spent nine days deliberating on three charges of rape and four other sexual assault counts.\n\nThe woman whom Weinstein was convicted on Monday of raping, Jane Doe 1, was a Russian-born model.\n\nThe trial's first witness, she testified that she was in Los Angeles for an Italian film festival in February 2013 when the producer arrived uninvited at her Beverly Hills hotel room and raped her.\n\nShe said after the verdict: \"Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get that back.\n\n\"The criminal trial was brutal and Weinstein's lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand, but I knew I had to see this through to the end, and I did.\n\n\"I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime.\"\n\nMs Siebel Newsom gave emotional testimony that she was a documentary filmmaker when she was raped by Weinstein in a hotel room in 2005.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: I was hired by Weinstein to extract information on celebrities\n\nCalifornia's first lady said in a statement on Monday after the verdict: \"Throughout the trial, Weinstein's lawyers used sexism, misogyny, and bullying tactics to intimidate, demean, and ridicule us survivors.\n\n\"The trial was a stark reminder that we as a society have work to do.\"\n\nThe only other of the four main accusers to publicly identify herself was Lauren Young.\n\nShe said she was a model and aspiring actress and screenwriter when she met Weinstein about a script in 2013.\n\nMs Young said he had trapped her in a hotel bathroom and sexually assaulted her.\n\nThe jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charges involving her.\n\nA massage therapist, Jane Doe 3, testified that Weinstein had trapped and sexually assaulted her in a hotel bathroom in 2010. He was cleared of that attack.\n\nHis conviction in New York in 2020 was a landmark moment for the #MeToo movement, which had been calling out widespread sexual abuse and harassment in the film industry for several years.\n\nWeinstein is currently appealing against the New York conviction.\n\nMore than 80 women have come forward with accusations of sexual assault and misconduct against Weinstein spanning several decades.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Health Minister Will Quince: \"There will be disruption on the day (Wednesday)\"\n\nA health minister has suggested people should avoid contact sport and unnecessary car journeys during ambulance strikes on Wednesday.\n\nWill Quince said people should take \"extra care\" due to disruption, and he wouldn't go running on icy roads due to the additional risk.\n\nAround 750 armed forces staff are being drafted in to cover the walkouts in England and Wales.\n\nMr Quince said ambulances should still respond to the most serious calls.\n\nSpeaking on BBC Breakfast earlier, he said people should avoid \"risky activity\" during the strikes, without specifying what he was referring to.\n\nLabour MP Chris Bryant called the comments \"an admission of government failure\".\n\nPressed on his earlier comments in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, Mr Quince said: \"If there is activity that people are undertaking tomorrow, whether it's - for example - contact sport, they may want to review that\".\n\nAsked if people should go running, he said this was not \"hugely risky\", but added: \"Would I go running tomorrow if it was still icy? No I wouldn't, because that would encompass additional risk\".\n\nBut Downing Street would not be drawn on a definition of \"risky activity\", with the PM's spokesman telling reporters \"I'm not going to get into a list\".\n\nHe added: \"We would never recommend anyone put themselves in harm's way on any given day.\"\n\nEarlier, Mr Quince said ministers wanted ambulances to respond to category 1 and 2 situations, including cardiac arrests and strokes, during the strikes. Health Secretary Stephen Barclay will meet unions later to discuss service levels.\n\nMr Quince said military staff would not be able to drive ambulances under blue lights, go through red lights or break the speed limit - but would help ambulance staff to get people to A&E more quickly.\n\nHealth chiefs have warned of \"extensive disruption,\" and urged hospitals to free up beds by safely discharging patients ahead of industrial action.\n\nMeasures should also be put in place to make sure ambulance patient handovers are kept to no more than 15 minutes, they advise.\n\nMr Quince added that for less serious categories, NHS trusts would be block-booking taxis to take people to hospital, and \"encouraging people wherever possible\" to find treatment by making journeys themselves.\n\nDr John Martin, president of the College of Paramedics, told MPs on Tuesday that using taxis could prove \"far less safe\" than ambulances for some patients.\n\nSpeaking at the Commons health committee, he said pain relief would not be available, and without an on-site medical assessment some people might be sent to hospital unnecessarily.\n\nAmbulance availability during the strikes will depend on local agreements between unions and NHS trusts.\n\nRachel Harrison, national secretary at the GMB, one of the striking unions, told the committee most of these deals have now been signed off.\n\nShe added that \"life and limb\" cover would be provided across the board, but warned services would vary by area.\n\nAlong with the GMB, Wednesday's action will also involve members of the Unison and Unite unions. GMB members are also due to on strike again on 28 December.\n\nUnions representing NHS staff in England and Wales are pushing for higher pay after being offered a below-inflation average 4.7% rise this year.\n\nUnison has said troops are \"no substitute for trained ambulance staff\" - and a rethink on NHS wages from the government could have averted action.\n\nThe strike will follow strikes from nurses on Tuesday in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, who are taking their second day of action this month over pay.\n\nHave you been affected by the strike? Are you an ambulance worker? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The landslip has covered a branch of the West Highland Line and reached the A85 below\n\nAbout 100 tonnes of boulders, trees and waterlogged soil fell on to a road and railway line during a landslip in Argyll on Monday.\n\nThe debris has closed the Oban branch of the West Highland Line and initially shut a stretch of the A85.\n\nNetwork Rail said the landslip occurred on the lower slopes of the mountain Ben Cruachan, covering the tracks before reaching the road 30m (98ft) below.\n\nIt said it was too early to say when the debris would be cleared.\n\nThe incident between near Falls of Cruachan, on a shore of Loch Awe, has disrupted train services between Glasgow Queen Street and Oban.\n\nOne lane of the A85 reopened under traffic signal controls on Tuesday afternoon.\n\nRoads company Bear Scotland said it was working with Network Rail on a safety inspection and an investigation to identify the cause of the landslip.\n\nEddie Ross, of Bear Scotland, said: \"Safety is our top priority, and a full assessment is currently being undertaken.\n\n\"We thank the local community and road users for their patience and assure them we're doing everything we can alongside our partners in Police Scotland and Network Rail, to address this challenging situation as quickly and safely as we can.\n\n\"Road users should also check Traffic Scotland for the latest information.\"\n\nThe landslip initially closed the A85, leading to an 85 mile diversion", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Officer Harry Dunn is still traumatised by the attack on the Capitol\n\nFormer US President Donald Trump has been charged with plotting to overturn his 2020 election defeat.\n\nHe is accused of four counts including conspiracy to defraud the US, tampering with a witness and conspiracy against the rights of citizens.\n\nThe indictment caps an inquiry into events which led up to the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol - when supporters of Mr Trump stormed Congress in a bid to thwart the certification of Joe Biden's election victory.\n\nMr Trump, who is again running for president, denies wrongdoing.\n\nHere are the key moments from 6 January 2021.\n\nPresident Donald Trump tweets allegations of vote fraud ahead of his rally in Washington DC.\n\nMembers of the Proud Boy movement, a right-wing militia, are seen heading towards the Capitol. Speaking to Newsnight's US correspondent David Grossman, one member of the group says: \"We're taking our country back.\"\n\nOne of the group has a radio. \"It was clear he was communicating - getting messages, sending messages to somebody,\" our correspondent said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What the Proud Boys were doing before Trump's speech that day\n\nPresident Trump begins his speech to supporters in Washington. Some 15 minutes into it, he starts urging them to converge on the Capitol.\n\n\"I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard,\" he said.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"We will never give up, we will never concede\", Trump tells supporters\n\nAs the president speaks, a crowd outside the Capitol is swelling. They begin marching towards the police barrier and get past officers. The police, outnumbered, try to contain them.\n\nTrump supporters wield flags and weapons. One man stands on a makeshift gallows, complete with a noose. The crowd chants: \"Fight for Trump.\"\n\nSome have argued in court that they went to the riot because Donald Trump told them to\n\nMinutes later, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi commences the certification process.\n\nMr Trump ends his speech with the words: \"We fight. We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.\"\n\n\"They're throwing metal poles at us,\" he says. \"Multiple law-enforcement injuries,\" he adds in a panicked voice.\n\nProtesters surge past Capitol police protecting the west steps, the side facing the White House.\n\nMinutes later, an officer declares there is a riot at the Capitol. \"We're going to give riot warnings,\" he says. \"We're going to try to get compliance but this is now effectively a riot.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch dramatic new footage of police under attack at the Capitol riot\n\nMeanwhile Vice President Mike Pence is continuing to preside over the session.\n\nSecret Service quickly and suddenly evacuate Mr Pence from the Senate floor.\n\nThe protesters break through the windows. They push inside, hopping through the broken glass. They then kick open the doors to let others in. Some wear hoods and helmets, some hold cameras or Confederate flags.\n\nAn immediate recess of the Senate is called.\n\nA minute later, Officer Eugene Goodman runs to respond to the initial breach. He warns Senator Mitt Romney that the mob is approaching. Mr Romney turns and runs through a capitol hallway to safety.\n\nThe mob, a floor below them, has already begun to search for the Senate chamber.\n\nOfficer Goodman makes his way down to the first floor where he encounters the mob.\n\nThe officer was seen confronting a rioter during the attack\n\nHe lures the armed rioters away from the upper chamber. Many of these individuals have been calling for Mr Pence to be hanged.\n\nBy that point, the rioters are \"within 100ft\" (30m) of Mr Pence and a foot away from one of the doors to the chamber. Many senators are still inside.\n\nAt the same time, Ms Pelosi is rushed from the house floor. She is evacuated entirely from the Capitol complex to a secure off-site location.\n\nHer staff barricade themselves into a conference room, hiding under a table.\n\nStaff members of the House leader speak softly, frantically, to each other. Just outside, rioters are spreading out across the building, searching for Ms Pelosi herself.\n\nThe rioters chant: \"Where are you Nancy?\" In an audio clip, we hear one staff member whisper: \"They're pounding on doors trying to find her.\"\n\nOne man breaks open the outer door to the office where the staff are hiding, but not the inner door. Another tries as well, but eventually moves on.\n\nAt the same time, Mr Pence is evacuated to a secure location.\n\nRioters start to spread through the buildings. Others break in from outside through various doors around the building.\n\nThey open the east side door of the rotunda to let more people in, flooding through the doors and overwhelming the officers.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. See how close the mob got to Mike Pence, Mitt Romney and other lawmakers\n\nThe House floor debate is suspended to update members. House members are told to reach for tear gas masks and be prepared to use them.\n\nThe House is called back into session in the hope of continuing the count.\n\nBut minutes later the House is abruptly recessed. Members are told to get down under their chairs if necessary.\n\n\"Folks have entered the rotunda and are coming this way,\" lawmakers are told.\n\nDemocratic Congressman Eric Swalwell sends a text to his wife: \"I love you and the babies. Please hug them for me\".\n\nThe mob outside the chamber grows larger and they get within feet of the house door.\n\nPresident Trump called Senator Mike Lee, according to the Utah Republican who has provided the trial lawyers with a copy of a log from his mobile phone.\n\nAccording to his office, he received a call from the White House switchboard number - and the call lasted four minutes. Mr Lee has said that apparently the call was meant for Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville, and that he handed his phone to his colleague.\n\nMr Tuberville told reporters that he informed Mr Trump that Mr Pence had been evacuated from the Senate floor. \"I said: Mr President, they've taken the vice-president out. They want me to get off the phone, I gotta go.\"\n\nHouse impeachment managers say it is further evidence that the president knew how much danger his vice-president was in.\n\nAshli Babbit is seen turning the corner towards the House lobby doors as members are leaving.\n\nHouse Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern is spotted by the mob as he leaves the House floor.\n\nIn a hallway outside the House chamber, a group attempts to force its way through a set of locked doors. The glass window panes on the doors are shattered. A rioter uses a baton to smash through as the crowd around him chants \"break it down, break it down\".\n\nFootage shows the hands of an officer on the other side, holding a gun and pointing it toward the mob. We hear a shot and see Babbitt fall to the ground.\n\nPeople still inside the gallery of the chamber are trapped. They tell each other to take off their congressional pins.\n\nIn the meantime, a number of rioters reach the inside of the Senate gallery.\n\n\"Is this the Senate?\" one demands to know. \"Where are they?\" another asks, apparently referring to the evacuated senators.\n\nVideo footage shows some rioters rifling through papers and materials left behind by lawmakers. \"There's got to be something we can use against these scumbags,\" one says.\n\nTrump tweets asking for people to \"remain peaceful\".\n\nMeanwhile the mob are still at the Capitol.\n\nFootage shows a sprawling mob, a sea of people on the Capitol grounds. A Confederate flag waves in the foreground.\n\nTrump releases a video in which he tells the mob to go home.\n\nFifteen minutes after police confirm Ashli Babbitt has died, Trump tweets again.\n\nHe refers to those at the Capitol as \"great patriots\".", "The portrait of King Charles will appear twice on banknotes\n\nThe new look of banknotes featuring the image of King Charles has been unveiled by the Bank of England.\n\nThe portrait will be the only change to existing designs of £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes and will start to enter circulation from mid-2024.\n\nNew notes will feature the King's portrait on the front and in the see-through security window.\n\nExisting notes will still be accepted in shops after the new notes begin to circulate.\n\nQueen Elizabeth was the first and only monarch to consistently appear on circulating Bank of England banknotes, starting in 1960. Notes issued by Scottish and Northern Irish banks do not depict the monarch.\n\nThere are about 4.5 billion individual Bank of England notes worth about £80bn in circulation at present.\n\nThe King's cypher will also appear on the notes\n\nThe Bank of England said that, following guidance from the Royal household, the new notes would only be printed to replace worn notes or to meet increased demand, in order to minimise the environmental and financial impact of the change.\n\nBank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, said he was \"proud\" of a \"significant moment\" with the new design.\n\nFifty pence coins bearing the image of King Charles III have already entered circulation via post offices across the country.\n\nAn estimated 4.9 million of the new coins are being distributed to post offices - about half of the total number earmarked for circulation - to be given in change to customers.\n\nThe new King Charles 50p coins have already entered circulation\n\nCoins carrying the image of the late Queen will still be accepted in shops, in the same way as banknotes.\n\nFor anyone taking part in a family Christmas quiz this year, it is worth remembering that, in ascending order, the reverse side of current polymer Bank of England banknotes feature Sir Winston Churchill, Jane Austen, JMW Turner and Alan Turing.\n\nCash use has become far less frequent when compared to debit cards, owing primarily to the use of contactless payments and then accelerated by the Covid pandemic. The buying power of specific coins and banknotes have also been diluted by rising prices.\n\nHowever, there is still keen interest from consumers and collectors about the images used on cash.\n\nCollectors will be particularly excited to get their hands on the lowest serial numbers of the new King Charles banknotes when they appear.", "TSB has been fined nearly £49m for an IT meltdown in 2018 that caused chaos and left its customers unable to access online accounts for several weeks.\n\nThe UK's financial regulator said the failings were \"widespread and serious\" and led to \"significant disruption\".\n\nThe problems began in April 2018 when an attempt to move data to a new computer system went wrong.\n\nAll areas of TSB's services were affected, including branch, telephone and online banking.\n\nThe problems were not fully resolved for eight months and \"a significant proportion of its 5.2 million customers were affected by the initial issues\", the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said.\n\nIt led to the departure of the bank's then chief executive Paul Pester.\n\nMark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: \"The failings in this case were widespread and serious which had a real impact on the day-to-day lives of a significant proportion of TSB's customers, including those who were vulnerable.\"\n\nThe FCA said TSB had paid £32.7m in compensation to customers who were affected by the problems.\n\nTSB chief executive Robin Bulloch said: \"We'd like to apologise again to TSB customers who were impacted by issues following the technology migration in 2018. We worked hard to put things right for customers then and have since transformed our business.\"\n\nThe problems were triggered when TSB tried to move 1.3 billion customer records from an old system run by its former parent bank, Lloyds, to one managed by its current Spanish owner, Sabadell.\n\nHowever, it proved disastrous with many customers being locked out of their accounts and some customers being given access to the confidential records of others.\n\nCases included people trying to complete house purchases and unsure whether they could move in. The BBC spoke to one couple who sat with a loaded removal van outside their new home waiting for funds to be released.\n\nAnother couple who were locked out of their wedding savings were forced to grovel to their DJ and wedding car provider because they were unable to pay them as the big day approached.\n\nBusinesses were also left in difficulty. Lee MacDonald, who played Zammo in children's TV show Grange Hill in the 1980s, told BBC Radio 5 live that he was \"having an absolute nightmare\" in his locksmith business.\n\nPaul Pester. who was boss of the bank at the time, eventually stepped down\n\nShortly after the issues emerged, Mr Pester admitted to the BBC that the bank was \"on our knees\".\n\nThe problems continued for many weeks and TSB came under fierce criticism for the IT failings. Mr Pester was directly, and unusually, criticised by MPs for the saga.\n\nThe FCA said while data itself was transferred successfully, the IT platform \"immediately experienced technical failures\".\n\n\"This resulted in significant disruption to the continuity of TSB's banking services, including branch, telephone, online and mobile banking,\" it said.\n\nMr Steward added: \"The firm failed to plan for the IT migration properly, the governance of the project was insufficiently robust and the firm failed to take reasonable care to organise and control its affairs responsibly and effectively, with adequate risk management systems.\"\n\nTSB was fined a total of £48.65m - made up of a £29.75m penalty from the FCA and a fine of £18.9m from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).\n\n\"The disruption to continuity of service experienced by TSB during its IT migration fell below the standard we expect banks to meet,\" said Sam Woods, the PRA's chief executive.\n\nIn February 2019, TSB said that the disastrous IT upgrade had cost it £330m, and about 80,000 customers had switched their account away from the bank in 2018.\n\nThe complexity of the switchover and the problems it caused has meant a long investigation and eventual fine by the regulator. In the meantime, there has been significant reputational damage for the bank.", "The boys were found dead at an address in east London on Friday afternoon\n\nA 44-year-old woman has been charged with murdering two young boys who were found dead at a home in Dagenham in east London.\n\nKara Alexander, of Dagenham, is accused of killing the boys, two and five, whose bodies were found at a property in Cornwallis Road on Friday afternoon.\n\nThe 44-year-old appeared at Barkingside Magistrates' Court on Tuesday where she was remanded in custody.\n\nMs Alexander is next due to appear at the Old Bailey on Thursday.\n\nPost-mortem examinations and formal identification will take place in due course, the Metropolitan Police said.\n\nFamily members have been informed of the deaths and continue to be supported by specialist officers, the force said in a statement.\n\nA man was also arrested but later released.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "Vladimir Putin (L) and Alexander Lukashenko shake hands before their meeting at the Palace of Independence in Minsk\n\nUkraine is tightening up the defence of its border with Belarus over fears that Russia may be preparing a fresh attack, a government official has said.\n\nDeputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin told the BBC Ukraine would be bolstering the Belarusian border with armed forces and ammunition.\n\nThe news came as Vladimir Putin travelled to Minsk to meet Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.\n\nBelarus shares a border with Russia as well as Ukraine.\n\nThe Russian president later ordered the strengthening of Russia's borders and of social control within Russia. He said the security services should quickly thwart any attempt to violate Russia's borders, combat risks coming from abroad, and identify traitors and saboteurs.\n\nHe also said the special services should ensure the safety of people living in the parts of Ukraine that Moscow claims as its own. In some of these areas, most notably Kherson, Russia recently suffered significant military reverses.\n\nRussia's defence ministry announced that its troops stationed in Belarus would conduct joint military exercises with Belarus.\n\nReacting to this and the visit Mr Yenin confirmed: \"We are building up our defence lines all across the border with Russia and with Belarus.\"\n\nWhile Belarus has not become involved in the war directly, it did allow Russian troops to use its territory to launch the invasion in February.\n\nRussia and Belarus held joint military drills near the Ukrainian border in February - just days before Russia's full-scale invasion\n\nMinsk is coming under increasing pressure from Moscow to step up its support in the \"special military operation\".\n\nBut Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the reports \"as totally stupid, groundless fabrications\".\n\nPresident Putin flew to Minsk for talks with Mr Lukashenko - the first time in three-and-a-half years the pair have met in Belarus.\n\nBelarus's authoritarian leader has been in power since 1994 but his re-election in 2020 has not been recognised by the EU.\n\nThe meeting between the two men has been described as a \"working visit\" and lasted for more than two hours.\n\nSpeaking at a joint press conference Vladimir Putin said Russia did not want to \"absorb\" anyone. He also said that unspecified \"enemies\" wanted to stop Russia's integration with Belarus.\n\nSpeaking later on Monday, US state department spokesperson Ned Price said Putin's statement was the \"height of irony\" given he was currently seeking to absorb Ukraine.\n\nSomething rare happened today: Vladimir Putin got on a plane and flew to Minsk. Now, President Putin and President Alexander Lukashenko meet a lot - but in Russia.\n\nFor the first time in three-and-a-half years, here was President Putin in Belarus. So why did he go… and why now?\n\nThere were few clues at the joint press conference as the two leaders spoke a lot about economic relations, trade, but also security.\n\nPresident Putin indicated that some Belarusian military aircraft have been re-equipped to potentially carry nuclear missiles and that Russia is helping to train their crews.\n\nIn return, President Lukashenko thanked him for providing Belarus with an S-400 air defence system and Iskander ballistic missile system.\n\nThe word \"Ukraine\" was hardly mentioned - in public.\n\nBut the visit has fuelled speculation that the Kremlin leader may be trying to pressure the leader of Belarus into joining a possible new ground offensive in Ukraine.\n\nThis may indeed be just a rumour. Or a ploy by Moscow to make Ukraine expect a Belarusian offensive and so tie up Ukrainian soldiers in the north.\n\nBut, there are reportedly several thousand Russian soldiers already in Belarus and there have been joint exercises.\n\nUntil now Alexander Lukashenko has been reluctant to commit his own troops to fighting in Ukraine.\n\nAll eyes are on Minsk to see if that remains the case.", "Two people have died and tens of thousands of households were left without power after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocked northern California.\n\nThe tremor, 215 miles (350km) north of San Francisco, has caused widespread damage to roadways.\n\n\"Anything that was on the walls broke off the walls,\" said JB Mathers, a resident of the coastal city of Eureka.\n\nAuthorities have closed several roads and warned the public to brace for aftershocks.\n\nThe quake struck at 02:34 PST (10:34 GMT) on Tuesday. It spawned up to 80 smaller quakes between magnitude 4.6 and 2.5, according to the US Geological Survey.\n\nHumboldt County Sheriff's Office said that 11 people had been injured, in addition to the two that died.\n\nThe tremor ruptured gas lines, causing leaks. One building caught fire and was quickly extinguished, while two other buildings collapsed.\n\nBy Tuesday evening local time, power was still out for over 32,000 customers, according to tracker Poweroutages.us.\n\nThe sheriff's office had said earlier said that no tsunami was expected after the quake, which occurred around two miles offshore.\n\nAuthorities are still assessing damage. Utility crews say they could take days to restore power in the remote, heavily forested area.\n\nThe California Highway Patrol has closed the Fernbridge, a 1,320ft (400m) concrete arch span crossing the Eel River, after discovering cracks in four places, according to CBS, the BBC's partner in the US.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Caroline Titus This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nIn the city of Fortuna, power was out and shattered glass littered the pavement.\n\nPeople in the area have been told by authorities to boil their water, due to the possibility that pipes have been contaminated by ground water.\n\nOn Saturday, a smaller 3.6 magnitude earthquake struck the San Francisco region, waking up thousands of people in the early hours and causing minor damage to infrastructure.", "The former president at Mar-a-Lago on the night he announced he'll run again.\n\nDonald Trump should be charged with crimes related to the assault on the US Capitol, according to the congressional committee investigating the 6 January, 2021 attack.\n\nThe committee claimed the former president instigated the attack by his supporters and provided \"aid and comfort\" to the rioters in violation of multiple federal laws. \"None of the events of January 6 would have happened without him,\" the summary of its final report says.\n\nMembers say there's evidence to pursue the prosecution of Mr Trump on four charges:\n\nThe vote provided a dramatic finale to an 18-month inquiry into the chaotic last days of Mr Trump's presidency - but the implications for him will be mostly political, not legal.\n\nIf Mr Trump were convicted of the crimes the committee has accused him of committing, he could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, up to 20 years in prison and be prohibited from running for future political office. The committee's vote, however, is largely symbolic.\n\nCongress does not have the ability to charge Mr Trump with any of the listed federal crimes. That power lies solely in the hands of the US Justice Department, which is part of President Joe Biden's administration.\n\nWith its vote, the congressional committee members have, in effect, recommended the Justice Department act. They have laid out the case - the means, the motive and the opportunity - as they see it. And, perhaps most importantly, they have provided a trove of the supporting evidence gathered over nearly two years of interviews, subpoenas, document reviews and legal battles.\n\nWhat the Justice Department does with all this, however, is entirely out of the committee's control.\n\nWhile the January 6 committee's recommendations may have little legal weight, there are plenty of indications that the Justice Department is already well into the kind of investigation of possible criminal conduct by the former president that the committee desires.\n\nA grand jury convened by federal attorneys has already issued subpoenas to dozens of Mr Trump's administration and campaign officials and requested many of the same Trump administration documents reviewed by the congressional committee.\n\nLast month, US Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to handle all aspects of the inquiry into the former president. He cited Mr Trump's announcement of his 2024 presidential bid, and the possibility that Mr Trump could face off against Mr Biden in the general election, as grounds for separating the investigation from the Justice Department's day-to-day operations.\n\nSince then, Mr Smith's office has issued its own subpoenas to officials in seven states who had been contacted by Mr Trump or his advisers during their attempts to dispute the 2020 presidential election results. The independent council investigation appears to be wasting little time picking up where career Justice Department lawyers left off.\n\nThe Capitol attack is not Mr Trump's only source of legal concern, either. Mr Smith is also investigating the former president's handling of classified material at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left office. A Georgia district attorney continues to dig into whether Mr Trump's contact with state officials violated Georgia election law. And there are a host of civil cases too.\n\nMr Trump has long attempted to paint the entirety of the criminal and civil investigations and lawsuits directed at him as part of a partisan \"witch hunt\" whose ultimate goal is to thwart his return to political power.\n\nThe nature of the congressional committee's criminal referral - voted on by seven Democrats and two vehemently anti-Trump Republicans - will do little to counter these claims, and may in fact be cited by Mr Trump as further evidence of the partisan nature of the allegations if and when they turn into actual criminal charges.\n\nThe referrals, however, will generate days of negative coverage for Mr Trump, as newspaper and television headlines recount the nature of the recommended charges and remind Americans of the violence of 6 January and Mr Trump's months-long efforts to challenge his election defeat.\n\nAlready, there are indications that Mr Trump may be facing increasingly stiff political headwinds as he tries to gear up another bid for the presidency in 2024. Recent polls show that he continues to be unpopular with vast swaths of the American public, and that his support is dropping even among Republican voters. Hypothetical head-to-head election matchups show him losing ground to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the Republican presidential nomination and trailing Mr Biden in a general election contest.\n\nSince announcing his presidential bid just a week after the Republican Party and Mr Trump's handpicked candidates underperformed in the November 2022 midterm congressional elections, Mr Trump has taken few visible steps to advance his campaign efforts. While there are rumours of hirings and talk of new policy announcements, the biggest news came from the former president's touting of Trump-themed action-hero digital collector cards, sold for $99 apiece.\n\nAs the calendar turns to 2023, and the Republican presidential nomination contest comes into focus, Mr Trump may require some remarkable feats of political strength to regain his political footing.", "Nasa hopes Perseverance and its scout drone, Ingenuity, will stay operational for a long time to come\n\nThe American space agency's Mars rover Perseverance will this week begin dropping samples of rock on to the surface of the Red Planet.\n\nThe materials have been packaged in small titanium tubes with the expectation they can be picked up by a future mission and brought home.\n\nIt's a major milestone in the quest to find out whether there is life on Mars.\n\nIt's thought only by studying rock and soil samples in Earth laboratories can the matter be resolved.\n\nPerseverance will place 10 cylinders on the ground at its exploration site in Jezero Crater.\n\nThey contain a mix of volcanic and sedimentary rocks that the robot has drilled over the past 15 months.\n\nThere'll also be examples of Martian soil and air.\n\nThe first finger-sized tube should be in position on Tuesday or Wednesday.\n\nThe location for the drop is a flat piece of terrain that's been nicknamed \"Three Forks\".\n\n\"The surface is like a pool table - really boring,\" observed Nasa's chief Mars scientist, Mike Meyer.\n\nThis will make it easier for a future mission to land and recover the store.\n\nTo be clear, the collection being laid down over the next few weeks will not form the primary return cache; it's more of a \"Plan B\".\n\nPerseverance will retain copies of the samples with the hope it can directly deliver them - and others yet to be drilled - to the mission that comes to take them home. But Nasa can't risk the scenario where the rover breaks down with all the rocks stuck inside it.\n\nThe sample tubes are being put down on flat ground known as Three Forks (Red arrow)\n\nThe Three Forks depot is critical, therefore, \"because it guarantees that a scientifically high-value sample collection will be available for Earth return in case Perseverance is unable to deliver for any reason,\" explained mission scientist Meenakshi Wadhwa from Arizona State University.\n\n\"It builds robustness into our Mars sample return plans,\" she told reporters.\n\nIf the nightmare happens and Perseverance dies, the fetch mission will be directed straight to Three Forks.\n\nIt will have two drones equipped with claws to grab the tubes and take them to the rocket system that will then blast them off Mars for the journey home.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lori Glaze, Nasa's director of planetary science: \"This is a really big deal\"\n\nScientists believe the depot samples offer a good range of analytical opportunities.\n\nThe volcanic rocks will tell them about the age of Jezero Crater and the broader geological history of Mars.\n\nThe sedimentary rocks are the ones that will have the greatest interest in trying to identify traces of ancient biology.\n\nPerseverance drilled these from the remnant delta deposits in Jezero.\n\nA delta is a structure built up from the silt and sand dumped by a river as it slows on entry into a wider body of water.\n\nIt's the kind of feature that might just have trapped evidence of past microbial organisms.\n\nThe fine-grained layered rocks of the delta may retain evidence of past microbial life on the Red Planet\n\nLori Glaze, the director of planetary science at Nasa, said the life question could only be addressed using the sophisticated techniques that were available on Earth.\n\n\"We can do a lot in situ with our remote-sensing instruments but we can't take all of our laboratory equipment and all of our human expertise to the surface of Mars. So we bring the samples back here, and then we can not only use all of our state of the art equipment but we'll have those samples for decades and we can come up with new ideas [to test the samples that] we haven't even dreamed of yet,\" she told BBC News.\n\nIt will take just over a month to lay down the store. The tubes will be placed about 6m apart from each other in a zig-zag pattern. Their exact positions will then be photographed and catalogued.\n\nIf Perseverance dies, helicopters will retrieve the tubes from Three Forks\n\nOnce this task is complete, Perseverance and its scout helicopter, Ingenuity, will climb up on to the top of the delta to start the next phase of their mission.\n\nThe rover still has more than 20 unused sample tubes on board, ready to be filled with other interesting rocks.\n\nA sample-retrieval mission comprising a landing platform, helicopters, a robotic arm and a return rocket is likely to leave Earth for Mars in mid-2028, with a roughly two-year cruise time.\n\nThe sample tubes it acquires - either from the Three Forks store or directly from Perseverance at another location - would arrive back on Earth in 2033.\n\nThe project is a joint venture with the European Space Agency. The plan was discussed at last week's American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.", "Tributes have been paid to a 10-year-old boy who died after being attacked by a dog.\n\nJack Lis died at a house in Caerphilly on Monday afternoon.\n\nThe dog was destroyed by police, who said it was \"extremely aggressive\".\n\nGwent Police said the animal belonged to the occupant of the house where Jack was killed.", "The Hobnob-style biscuit outlasted its other three competitors\n\nOat biscuits are best for dunking in your breakfast brew, a study has revealed.\n\nYou may think they are taking the biscuit but scientists in Cardiff tested the Hobnob-style, digestive, shortie and rich tea in a biscuit comparative study.\n\nAfter a two-second dunk, the oat biscuit came out on top, lasting 29 seconds before a soggy splash down.\n\nIt smashed its competitors with the rich tea breaking after two seconds.\n\nThe shortie was the runner-up, lasting an average of 17.5 seconds, and the digestive took bronze remaining intact for about 8.5 seconds.\n\nDespite this, scientists found digestives retained more of their crunch than the other morning treats and sped up how quickly a tea cools to a drinkable temperature of 61C (142F).\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by The BMJ This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. End of twitter post by The BMJ\n• None Direct Uptake of Nutrition and Caffeine Study (DUNCS)- biscuit based comparative study - The BMJ The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Health workers in Cardiff have taken to picket lines to support their nursing colleagues\n\nA striking nurse has warned it could be \"the beginning of the end for the NHS\" if pay and conditions are not reviewed.\n\nAnother union member said they would \"continue as long as it takes\" to prompt a pay negotiation.\n\nIt comes as nurses in all but one Welsh health board are taking part in a second day of strike action over pay.\n\nThe Welsh government said it needed more funding from the UK government to afford pay rises, and that nurse's pay is set by an independent review body.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: On the picket line with nurses across the UK\n\nIt added it would work with the NHS, patients and partners to ensure minimal disruption.\n\nThe UK government said it was giving a \"record\" £18bn a year in funding to the Welsh government.\n\nPlanned care is set to be the worst hit, with appointments postponed so that urgent care can be prioritised.\n\nStrikes are being held by members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) across the country.\n\nAll health boards in Wales, except for Aneurin Bevan, are affected by striking staff.\n\nMembers of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) on the picket line outside University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff\n\nKath Davies, a staff nurse on the neuroscience high care ward at University Hospital Wales and one of the picket supervisors in Cardiff, told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast: \"It feels good, a lot warmer thankfully! The rain is holding off so I think we'll have an easier day today than last week to get the message across as to why we are striking.\n\n\"We have worried the government, and you can tell by the things they are saying and trying to vilify us because of what we are doing. And the message has got across to the public.\n\n\"We cannot deliver the standard of care we want to deliver. Without new staff coming into the service it could be the beginning of the end of the NHS and none of us want that.\"\n\nCardiff nurses on the picket line over pay\n\n\"We want people around the table, to negotiate the pay rise that's agreeable to everybody and unfortunately there's no dialogue at the moment,\" she said.\n\nAddressing concerns over patient care while nurses strike, she added: \"Nobody has been left on their own today, all wards have got adequate staffing and have often got more staff on today than they have had yesterday or tomorrow or a week ago, because more effort has been made.\n\n\"We're not taking people off the wards, we're taking people away from clinics. Nobody is going to come to any harm by not having an outpatient appointment today, one day here or there is not going to make any significant difference to anybody.\"\n\nShe continued: \"I know exactly what patients are feeling like, because I am one, and I know what relatives of patients will be feeling, because I am one.\n\n\"The harm is being caused every other day because there simply aren't enough staff to do what is needed, and that's what we are standing up for.\n\nNurses gathered on the picket line at Princess of Wales Hospital, Bridgend on Tuesday morning\n\nMeanwhile in Bangor, Gwynedd, Sue Williams, RCN representative for north Wales, said the public support for strikers on her picket line has been excellent.\n\n\"I hope that we are going to make progress. We've not just come out because of pay only, we've come out because there's no staffing and because of patients safety,\" she said.\n\n\"We haven't had a decent pay rise so what you have is a knock-on effect. People are leaving, people are not coming, we're not recruiting and we're not retaining nurses. It's a profession, it's a degree level, so we should be recognised for the work that we do.\"\n\nShe said the Welsh government's claim it would need more funding from the UK government to start a pay discussion was \"not good enough\".\n\nDiscussing possible future strike action, Ms Williams added: \"I am going to stay here as long as I have to. Not one of us nurses wants to be on strike, but we have no choice.\n\n\"We will continue as long as it takes.\"\n\nOn the picket line outside the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, staff nurse Neil Evans, 51, described the dispute as a \"fight for the future of nursing\".\n\n\"We are losing nurses,\" he said.\n\n\"They're going to the private sector where the rewards are better and you can't blame somebody for that.\n\n\"We are working short-staffed every day. We need more nurses and the only way you're going to get that is to reward them for the responsibilities we have.\"\n\nNeil Evans (right) says striking is a \"last resort\" for nurses\n\nHe said taking an industrial action was a \"last resort\", but he and his colleagues believed it was the only way their concerns would be heard.\n\n\"We've tried negotiation, we've tried talking, we've tried stomping our feet. They don't seem to want to listen.\n\n\"Staff are burning out. I've seen senior nurses breaking down on shift crying. They just cannot sustain this pressure.\n\n\"If we need to be, we'll be here as long as it takes.\"", "A mortgage guarantee scheme to help people get on the property ladder is to be extended by a year.\n\nThe government said the programme, which was due to close at the end of December, would help buyers \"navigate difficult times\".\n\nIt was originally designed to encourage lenders to give home loans to people offering a 5% deposit - a product that was far less available during Covid.\n\nSome lenders still play it safe as buyers face the rising cost of living.\n\nChief Secretary to the Treasury John Glen said: \"For hard-working families facing today's challenging economic conditions, it is right that we continue to help them secure their first home or move into their dream house.\n\n\"Extending this scheme means thousands more have the chance to benefit, and supports the market as we navigate through these difficult times.\"\n\nThe mortgage scheme has a £600,000 limit, and is primarily used to help first-time buyers.\n\nThese 95% loan-to-value mortgages are often seen as riskier by banks as they are more vulnerable to falling property prices, when there is a risk that people hold more debt than their home is worth.\n\nUnder the scheme, the government takes on some of the risk and compensates the lender for some of the loan if the property is repossessed.\n\nIt began in April last year, and the government said it had helped more than 24,000 households.\n\nSome brokers have suggested the scheme had done its job by bringing more low-deposit mortgages onto the market, but others suggested only a small number of lenders had used the scheme.\n\nMany mortgage providers generally only lend to those with a regular income, irrespective of any government incentive, and still carry out affordability checks.\n\nUnemployment levels are expected to rise and the UK housing market is expected to slow.\n\nA recent survey by the Building Societies Association, suggested that 14% of people thought now was a good time to buy a property, but 47% did not think now was a good time to purchase a home.", "Ukraine's president was seen at a Polish train station ahead of his visit to the US\n\nUkraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is on his way to Washington, where he will meet US President Joe Biden.\n\nIt is his first foreign trip since Russia invaded in February.\n\nDetails of his travel are unlikely to be made public, given the security risks involved, but he was seen earlier at a Polish train station.\n\nThe US has confirmed it will supply Ukraine with a Patriot missile system, significantly increasing the country's air defence capability.\n\n\"On my way to the US to strengthen resilience and defense capabilities of Ukraine,\" Mr Zelensky wrote on Twitter.\n\nHe also said he would give a speech to Congress and hold a number of meetings.\n\nThe visit was, unsurprisingly, kept as a secret, with official confirmation coming only hours before it was due to start.\n\nThe US has been Ukraine's most important ally in the war, committing $50bn (£41bn) of humanitarian, financial and security assistance - far more than any other country.\n\nMr Zelensky has held regular phone calls with Western leaders since the start of the war. But by hosting him at the White House, President Biden will signal that Washington is committed to supporting the country for \"as long as it takes\", as has been repeatedly said.\n\nIn a speech to defence chiefs on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country was fighting against Nato forces in Ukraine.\n\n\"It's well known that the military potential and capabilities of almost all Nato's main countries is being actively used against Russia.\"\n\nIn its briefing ahead of Mr Zelensky's visit, the White House confirmed a new package of nearly $2bn of security assistance for Ukraine.\n\nThat includes a new Patriot missile system - a sophisticated air defence system that will help Ukraine to protect its cities from missiles and drones that Russia has fired at critical facilities.\n\nThe attacks, which officials here say are designed to break Ukrainian morale, have left millions without electricity and heating as temperatures across the country plummet below freezing.\n\nPresident Zelensky, however, is unlikely to receive the longer-range weapons he's been calling for, to hit Russian targets away from the front lines.\n\nIn his address to Congress on Wednesday, the Ukrainian leader will probably use the infrastructure strikes to plead for more weapons. There, he will find some Republicans who have voiced criticism about the level of US support, as Congress considers approving an extra $50bn in aid.\n\nThe monthly cost of defence for Ukraine is reportedly about $5bn (£4.1bn).\n\nThe visit to Washington comes a day after President Zelensky, dressed in combat khaki, was in Bakhmut, a front-line city in eastern Ukraine that has seen some of the fiercest battles in this war.\n\nHe met troops and handed out awards to soldiers, the presidency said.\n\nThe visit was a significant show of defiance - and a demonstration of support for Ukrainian forces on the front line.\n\nSoldiers gave Mr Zelensky a Ukrainian flag with their names signed on it and asked him to give it to President Biden and the US Congress, in a moment that was captured on camera.\n\nPresident Zelensky has vowed to take back all territory that's under occupation, including areas invaded before February. Before the visit, in his traditional evening address, he said Ukraine would do \"everything possible and impossible, expected and unexpected\" to get \"the results that all Ukrainians expect\".\n\nSince Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, the US military estimates that at least 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured, along with some 40,000 civilian deaths.\n\nThe UN has recorded 7.8 million people as refugees from Ukraine across Europe, including Russia. However, the figure does not include those who have been forced to flee their homes but remain in Ukraine.\n• None What weapons are being supplied to Ukraine?", "Health secretary Steve Barclay was told by the mother of a child with cystic fibrosis that she was scared for \"the length\" of her daughter's life and what the government \"might do to the NHS\", during a visit to King's College Hospital in south London.\n\nMr Barclay defended the government, saying that an extra £6.6bn for the NHS over the next two years was announced in the Autumn Statement.", "Hundreds of workers are unable to leave the Tyra II redevelopment project\n\nHundreds of offshore workers could spend Christmas in the North Sea after weather conditions cancelled more than 50 helicopter flights.\n\nAbout 300 staff, many of whom are Scottish, have been unable to leave platforms off Denmark as scheduled.\n\nFrench firm TotalEnergies said a phenomenon called \"triggered lightning\" was responsible for the disruption.\n\nThe company said it would never compromise with the safety of employees.\n\nIt also denied reports it was refusing to reschedule cancelled flights and put extra transport on to get workers home for Christmas.\n\nA spokeswoman said: \"Helicopter transports during wintertime around the North Sea are always challenging due to ice, fog, wind speeds and other factors.\n\n\"This year has been particularly impacted by so-called \"triggered lightning\" which is caused by polar air passing over a warmer sea surface.\n\n\"This phenomenon has led to the cancellation so far of 52 flights in November and December 2022 which can be compared to zero cancellations caused by triggered lightning during the same period in 2021.\n\n\"Unfortunately, the phenomenon cannot be eliminated with de-icing systems, as has been mentioned in the media.\"\n\nThe company, which runs the Tyra Redevelopment Project, said manned offshore installations were normally serviced by helicopters.\n\nThey usually transport 130 people back and forth every weekday out of a total offshore staff of about 1,250.\n\n\"Since the flights have not been able to take place to the required extent, there are approximately 300 people who should have left and are now awaiting transport to shore,\" the spokeswoman said.\n\n\"We never compromise with the safety of our employees, neither on the platforms offshore nor during the transport back and forth between Esbjerg [Denmark] and the fields 250km out in the North Sea.\n\n\"We are in close dialogue with our supplier of flights, Offshore Helicopter Services Denmark, and other parties, so that we can best keep our employees informed and restore flights when it is safe. \"\n\nTotalEnergies has also called in helicopters from another supplier to increase the number of flights when weather allows them to resume.\n\nThe spokeswoman added: \"In addition, we have committed three boats at short notice, which can dock close to the platforms and establish a safe footbridge if the wave height is not too great. The first one left Esbjerg harbour the night between Saturday and Sunday, and new boat trips are planned for this week.\n\n\"We will do our outmost to bring all stranded people back before Christmas.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made an unannounced visit to the front-line city of Bakhmut, where Ukrainian and Russian forces have fought a fierce, months-long battle.\n\nHe met troops and handed out awards to soldiers, the presidency said.\n\nFor months, Bakhmut has been a key target for Russian forces in the eastern Donetsk region, and has been extremely badly damaged.\n\nHowever, Ukrainian forces have been able to hold back the advance.\n\nThe visit is a significant show of defiance - and a demonstration of support for Ukrainian forces engaged in some of the fiercest battles in recent weeks.\n\nHis trip will be compared with recent public appearances by the Russian President Vladimir Putin - who on Monday travelled to Minsk for the first time in more than three years to meet Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a long-time ally.\n\nThe two leaders spoke of increasing military co-operation, amid talk of a growing threat of another potential attack on Ukraine from Belarusian territory. In last February's invasion, some Russian units attacked Ukraine from the north through Belarus.\n\nHowever, a senior US state department official told the BBC that there were conflicting views in the Russian government about whether to launch a winter offensive.\n\nHe also said the US was also seeing \"very significant\" shortages of ammunition for Russian forces and noted that the people being \"thrown into the fight\" were not trained cohesive units, which limited their effectiveness.\n\nAll that \"puts constraints\" on what the Russians might want to do, he added.\n\nReturning to Moscow on Tuesday, Mr Putin urged the security services to increase their vigilance in exposing \"traitors, spies and saboteurs\".\n\nHe told them to ensure the \"safety\" of people in Ukrainian territories illegally annexed by Russia in September, adding that the situation there was \"extremely difficult\".\n\nIn video footage shown on the Freedom TV channel on Telegram, Mr Zelensky wished his troops well.\n\n\"I think that the heroes of Bakhmut should have what every person has, that everything should be OK for their children, their families, that they're warm and healthy,\" he said.\n\n\"I'd like to wish them light, but it's such a difficult situation that there is light and then there isn't. The main thing is for there to be inner light.\"\n\nHe said the Russians had already lost 99,000 troops in the war. However, this figure cannot be independently verified, and neither Russia nor Ukraine have revealed the full extent of their casualties.\n\nMr Zelensky added: \"Since May, the occupiers have been trying to break our Bakhmut, but time goes by and Bakhmut is breaking not only the Russian army, but also the Russian mercenaries who come to replace the wasted army of the occupiers.\"\n\nHe was apparently referring to the shadowy Wagner mercenary group, which has been active in fighting near Bakhmut.\n\nPresidential spokesman Serhiy Nikiforov said Mr Zelensky had left the city before his visit was announced.\n\nThe president has previously visited other recently liberated cities, such as Kherson and Izyum.\n\nBakhmut has been devastated by months of Russian bombardment\n\nBakhmut has been a focus of the Russian campaign for months and Moscow has thrown huge resources into capturing it.\n\nIt could open the way to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the most important cities in the Donbas region still under Ukrainian control.\n\nBut with Ukraine strengthening its defences in the surrounding area, it is thought that any Russian victory here now would be only symbolic.\n\nBoth sides have sustained heavy losses, leading both Russian and Ukrainian commanders to describe it as a \"meat grinder\". Few civilians are now left in the city, which had a population of 70,000 before the war.\n\nToday is the 300th day since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar, who also visited Bakhmut, wrote on Facebook: \"What are 300 days in our more than 300-year struggle for liberation from Russia!\n\n\"We're standing. We're fighting. We're going to win!\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Video provided by activist Sayed Alwadaei shows his confrontation with Tory MP Bob Stewart\n\nA human rights activist has complained to the Conservative Party after a Tory MP told him to \"go back to Bahrain\".\n\nSayed Ahmed Alwadaei confronted MP Bob Stewart outside an event hosted by the Bahraini embassy in London.\n\nThe campaigner repeatedly pressed him on his links to the country, asking \"did you sell yourself to the Bahraini regime?\"\n\nMr Stewart has apologised for his remarks but said he was \"taunted\" and had not taken money from Bahrain.\n\nMr Alwadaei, who is director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, challenged Mr Stewart outside an event to mark the National Day of Bahrain last Wednesday.\n\nIn a video, provided to the BBC by Mr Alwadaei, Mr Stewart said in response to his questioning: \"Get stuffed. Bahrain's a great place. End of.\"\n\nHe later added: \"Go away, I hate you. You make a lot of fuss. Go back to Bahrain.\"\n\nAfter being asked again if he had accepted any money from the Bahraini regime, Mr Stewart said: \"You're taking money off my country, go away!\"\n\nThe event was also attended by former prime minister Theresa May and Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi.\n\nMr Alwadaei, who in 2020 was awarded a prize by the Index On Censorship group for his campaigning, fled Bahrain in 2011 after being arrested for taking part in anti-government protests.\n\nHe came to the UK in 2012, where he was granted political asylum and continued to campaign on human rights abuses in Bahrain.\n\nMr Alwadaei said: \"I still have the scars from where the authorities kicked me in the head, and if I went back to Bahrain I would face further torture and imprisonment. My family members are still suffering from reprisals.\"\n\nHe added: \"I don't believe I would have been told to 'go back' to the country that violently tortured me if it weren't for the colour of my skin. No-one should be subjected to racial abuse.\"\n\nMr Alwadaei said he had also complained to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, and reported the incident to the police. The Metropolitan Police have been approached for comment.\n\nMr Stewart, a former Army officer who was stationed in Bahrain in the 1960s, said he regretted his remarks.\n\n\"The protesters persistently taunted me by saying I had taken money from Bahrain. That deeply offended me. I certainly have not and told them so repeatedly,\" he said.\n\n\"I admit I fell for the taunts and should not have responded which I regret. My comments were meant to tell them they could protest safely in Bahrain... Bahrain gets a very unfair press and I feel that strongly.\n\n\"I am sorry if anyone thought I was being racist in any way. Honestly I was not. I wish now I had not been drawn by the taunts (a mistake) but I was and I repeat, I apologise for that. The last thing I meant to be was racist as I have so many good Bahraini friends.\"\n\nA Conservative Party spokesman said: \"We have an established Code of Conduct and formal processes where complaints can be made in confidence. This process is rightly confidential.\"\n\nMr Stewart has previously defended Bahrain, telling a Commons debate in January that the country \"does not have political prisoners\" and \"they are all prisoners who are there because they have committed a crime\".\n\nThe Tory MP has been on two visits to the country paid for by the Bahrain government since last year, according to parliamentary records.\n\nCharities including Amnesty International have accused Bahrain of serious human rights violations, including torture and suppression of freedom of expression.\n\nProtesters took to the streets in 2011 to demand greater rights but the government, backed by Saudi tanks, moved in to crush dissent.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nChina has outlined the way it counts Covid-19 deaths amid scepticism about the real impact of the disease.\n\nIt says the figure includes only those who die from respiratory illnesses, such as pneumonia.\n\nOfficially, there were only five Covid deaths on Tuesday, two on Monday - and none in the previous two weeks.\n\nThe counting method goes against World Health Organization (WHO) guidance - resulting in a figure that is way below the death toll in many other countries.\n\nThe WHO says countries use different processes to test and report Covid-19 deaths making comparisons between nations difficult.\n\nIt is why many countries record Covid-19 deaths as excess mortality - how many more people died than would normally be expected based on death figures before the pandemic hit.\n\nThese calculations also take into account deaths which were not directly because of Covid but were caused by its knock-on effects - including people being unable to access hospitals for the care they require.\n\nBy contrast, China has strict criteria for confirming Covid-19 cases, which include evidence in patients of lung damage caused by the virus. This must be confirmed in a scan.\n\nBut, the country is currently experiencing a surge in cases since the lifting of its most severe restrictions earlier this month.\n\nOfficial figures show a relatively low number of new daily cases and deaths. This has led to fears the numbers are an underestimate due to a recent reduction in Covid testing.\n\nIn a bid to address the concerns the State Council held a news conference on Tuesday.\n\nInfectious disease expert Prof Wang Gui-qiang clarified that only pneumonia and respiratory failure caused by the coronavirus were counted as Covid deaths.\n\nDeaths caused by underlying diseases are not included in the official count, state-owned China News Service reported.\n\nStrict lockdowns are said to account for China's official death toll staying so low since the start of the pandemic - the official figure is just over 5,200.\n\nThis is equal to only three Covid deaths in every million in China, compared with 3,000 per million in the US and 2,400 per million in the UK.\n\nChina has faced challenges with vaccines being used and particularly getting them to the most vulnerable people.\n\nOverall, China says more than 90% of its population has been fully vaccinated. However, less than half of people aged 80 and over have received three doses of vaccine. Elderly people are more likely to suffer severe Covid symptoms.\n\nChina has developed and produced its own vaccines, which have been shown to be less effective at protecting people against serious Covid illness and death than the mRNA vaccines used in much of the rest of the world.\n\nProf Wang's comments come as hospitals in the capital Beijing and in other cities struggle to cope with the latest Covid surge.\n\nThe latest wave has also hit postal and catering services hard.\n\nMeanwhile, China's largest city, Shanghai, has ordered most of its schools to take classes online as cases soar.", "Manufacturing giant 3M has said it will stop making and using so-called \"forever chemicals\", common materials that have been linked to a range of health problems including cancer.\n\nThe firm, which also makes Post-Its, cited increased regulatory and consumer concern about the substances, known as PFAS, to explain the move.\n\nThe chemicals are used in many everyday items, including food packaging.\n\nKnown for their water-resistant and non-stick properties, the substances can be found in fire-fighting foams, mobile phones, clothing and non-stick cooking pans.\n\nBut researchers have long been concerned about the chemicals - known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS - because they do not break down under normal environmental conditions.\n\nThey have been found in dangerous concentrations in water, soil and food and can also linger in the body.\n\nIn August, the US said it was considering designating some \"forever chemicals\" - of which there are thousands - as hazardous. The UK and European Union have already taken steps to ban some of them, as have some local governments in the US.\n\nCompanies are also facing pressure from lawsuits and campaigners.\n\nIn recent years, a growing number of major firms including McDonald's and Burger King, outdoor gear maker GoreTex and some UK supermarkets such as Asda and Co-op have pledged to phase out use of the chemicals.\n\nMcDonald's, for example, has said it will remove the chemicals from its fast food packaging by 2025.\n\nIn announcing its decision, 3M stood by the safety of the chemicals, which chief executive Mike Roman said \"can be safely made and used\".\n\nBut he said the firm saw an \"opportunity to lead\" and was positioning itself for long-term growth by moving to phase out the substances.\n\nThe company, which makes tens of thousands of industrial and everyday products, said it would honour current orders but stop making the chemicals by the end of 2025. It is also planning to phase out use of the substances in its own products by the end of that year.\n\n\"With these two actions, 3M is committing to innovate toward a world less dependent upon PFAS,\" the firm said.\n\nThe firm had already phased out use of two PFAS in the early 2000s. It said it currently generates about $1.3bn (£1.1bn) in sales each year by making the chemicals - less than 5% of its overall revenue.\n\nJoseph Allen, an associate professor at Harvard's School of Public Health who has studied the substances, called the decision by 3M a \"massive public health win\", writing on Twitter that it marked \"the beginning of the end of Forever Chemicals\".\n\nUS-based advocacy organisation Toxic-Free Future said it \"cautiously\" applauded the move by 3M, adding that the company must still be held accountable for its role. Lawsuits have accused the firm of being aware of the risks of the chemicals since at least the 1970s.\n\n\"While today's news is a win for public health, 3M must be held accountable for their decades of pollution,\" said Mike Schade, director of the organisation's Mind the Store campaign. \"No-one's drinking water should be polluted for a rain jacket.\"\n\nClare Cavers, senior project manager at UK-based environmental charity Fidra, also said while she welcomed 3M's decision, more needed to be done.\n\n\"Such voluntary action supports moves towards existing alternatives to PFAS, and we now need UK legislation to ensure these changes are replicated across all sectors,\" she said.", "The Court of Protection considers cases relating to people who do not have the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves\n\nA man with physical and mental health problems is \"living\" in a hospital despite being fit to leave, a court has heard.\n\nThe man, who is in his 30s, has been in hospital for more than a year.\n\nA barrister leading the man's legal team told how he had tried to \"escape\" and broke an arm during the attempt.\n\nThe Court of Protection heard that he remained in hospital because no \"available alternative accommodation\" had been found.\n\nManchester City Council has responsibility for his care, but the NHS trust involved has apologised for \"not yet\" identifying a \"suitable community placement\".\n\nA lawyer representing another health authority told the judge that professionals involved were under pressure because of the \"state\" of the health and social care services.\n\nMr Justice Hayden, who is overseeing the case, asked why no plan for the man's discharge had been formulated and indicated that he would review the case in the near future.\n\n\"This is a case about a young man who has been in [hospital] for over a year,\" barrister Ben McCormack, who is leading the man's legal team, said in a written case outline.\n\n\"He is medically fit to be discharged.\"\n\nMr McCormack said the man was \"living\" in hospital and added: \"The real problem is that no available alternative accommodation has yet been sourced.\"\n\nHe said despite the \"wide range\" of public authorities involved, each of which supported discharge, the man remained in hospital without any \"alternative options actually yet on the table\".\n\n\"[He] dislikes being required to live in hospital,\" Mr McCormack told the judge.\n\n\"He feels imprisoned. He has tried to escape through the ceiling of the bathroom attached to his ward.\n\n\"He hurt himself, he broke his arm.\"\n\nMr McCormack said the man had \"extensive health needs\" which would need to be met outside hospital.\n\nBut he added: \"We are not attempting to land a person on the Moon here.\"\n\nMr McCormack said the man had a computer, and a television, and had watched the World Cup Final on Sunday.\n\n\"We will deploy any and every resource to try and get this man out of hospital,\" Vikram Sachdeva KC, who represented one of the health authorities involved, told the judge.\n\n\"We know the state that the health service and social care services are in.\n\n\"It is cold comfort to the individual, but the professionals do have that pressure.\"\n\nBarrister Alexis Hearnden, who represented the NHS trust involved, told the judge in a written case outline: \"The trust offers an apology to the court and [the man] that it has not yet identified a suitable community placement.\"\n\nShe said \"progress\" had been made recently.\n\n\"[His] physical health has at times been extremely precarious,\" she said.\n\n\"During the currency of this hospital admission, his health has also fluctuated and a stroke in July 2022 set back plans to discharge [him] from hospital.\"\n\nManchester City Council has been approached for comment.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Three people have been arrested and released on bail\n\nAn 83-year-old woman has suffered life-threatening injuries in a dog attack.\n\nEmergency services, including firearms officers, were called to a property in Heol Fawr, Caerphilly, just after 15.00 GMT on Saturday.\n\nThe woman and a 55-year-old man were taken to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.\n\nThree people have been arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury and the dog has been put down.\n\nThe attack on the Penyrheol estate comes just over a year after another incident\n\nGwent Police said the two men, aged 20 and 31, and a woman, 28, all from the Caerphilly area, have been released on bail.\n\nDet Ch Insp Matthew Sedgebeer said the force would maintain a visible presence in the area.\n\nHe added: \"Officers will be making further inquiries at this time and will remain at the scene as the investigation progresses.\"\n\nCouncillor Steve Skivens says the attack was another tragic incident\n\nThe attack on the Penyrheol estate comes just over a year after another incident - the shocking and fatal attack on 10-year-old Jack Lis which happened just a few streets away.\n\nSteve Skivens, a Penyrheol councillor, said he was shocked when he heard the rumours about the incident.\n\n\"I spoke to my other community councillor and we couldn't believe that another incident had taken place in such a short space of time - here we are again talking about another tragic dog attack, yards away - it's terrible. \"\n\n\"This is again a tragic incident and our heartfelt condolences go out to the family,\" he said.\n\n\"But it's not just the family, it's the community in the area. We have just passed the anniversary of the previous dog attack on the estate which is still having its repercussions. \"\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jack Lis' parents said their lives would “never be the same” without their son\n\nA 10-year-old boy who was killed by a dog died as a result of \"severe injuries to the head and neck,\" an inquest has heard.\n\nJack William Lis died after being attacked at a house in Caerphilly on Monday afternoon.\n\nA 28-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with the dog attack.\n\nJack's family said they were \"absolutely heartbroken\" and their lives would \"never be the same\" without him.\n\nThey said: \"This is not something any parent should ever have to be writing. We have so many words we want to say about our beautiful boy, but they do not seem enough.\n\n\"We love him more than words can describe. Our boy made us the proudest parents and family on the planet.\n\n\"He was the sweetest of boys. He's forever in our hearts. Sweet dreams Jack, our perfect boy.\"\n\nGwent Police said the dog involved in the attack was 15 months old but it is still working to identify the breed it was.\n\nChief Superintendent Mark Hobrough said: \"Once this is completed, we will be able to establish if the breed features on the list of illegal dogs to own in this country and any other criminal offences identified will be investigated fully officers.\"\n\nAt the opening of the inquest at Newport Coroner's Court, the provisional cause of death was given as \"severe injuries to the head and neck\".\n\nFlowers have been left at the scene where Jack died\n\nThe court heard Jack was outside his house \"playing with a friend\", and then went to his friend's home.\n\nSenior coroner for Gwent, Caroline Saunders, said upon entering the home \"Jack was attacked by a dog\".\n\nThe court heard paramedics were called but Jack's injuries were \"unsurvivable\" and he was pronounced dead at 16:14 GMT on Monday.\n\nJack was identified by photos provided to the mortuary manager, the hearing was told.\n\nThe coroner said the circumstances surrounding Jack's death were \"violent and unnatural\" and so formally opened an inquest into his death.\n\nShe then adjourned the inquest for \"further inquiries\" to be made and it will be resumed at a later date.\n\nBBC Wales was told the dog, known as Beast, had been kept at a home in Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taf, until two days prior to the attack.\n\nIt was shot \"several times\" by firearms officers, a senior officer said.\n\nCh Supt Hobrough told ITV Wales the force had \"no records or reports of this dog, or any incident involving this dog, prior to this incident, but it's clear there are things that are known by the community that can assist this investigation\".\n\nThe dog is thought to have previously belonged to Lee Jenkins, 34, who voluntarily attended an interview with police on Wednesday.\n\nThe dog was called Beast and was used as a breeding stud\n\nHe said: \"I am not the owner of that dog. I told the police everything I know. They know I have nothing to do with it.\n\n\"It's not my dog and it's since been re-homed from me.\"\n\nA neighbour of Mr Jenkins has told BBC Wales that Beast was used as a breeding stud. He is known to have fathered at least 10 puppies by Mr Jenkins' other dog, Beauty.\n\nOn 29 October, Mr Jenkins posted an advert to rehome Beast on a Facebook page, describing him as \"grate (sic) with people\", but adding that he did \"not like other dogs at all\".\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "MSPs are debating final changes to controversial gender recognition reforms.\n\nThe Scottish government legislation is aimed at simplifying and speeding up the process for trans people to change their legally recognised gender.\n\nSupporters say the reforms will make the process less intrusive, bureaucratic and medicalised.\n\nCritics say they could put vulnerable young people at risk and undermine protections for women and girls.\n\nSupporters and opponents of the bill have started gathering outside Holyrood ahead of the voting process getting under way.\n\nAround 150 amendments have been put forward, with MSPs expected to sit late into the evening before a final crunch vote on Wednesday.\n\nConservative MSPs have accused the government of trying to avoid proper scrutiny by rushing the legislation through parliament before Christmas.\n\nThe Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill removes the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria to acquire a gender recognition certificate (GRC).\n\nIt cuts the need to live in their acquired gender from two years to three months, with a further three month period of reflection, and it lowers the age for applicants from 18 to 16.\n\nA member of the Scottish Family Party (left) and a supporter of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill outside the Scottish Parliament\n\nAhead of the votes, Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison wrote to three MSPs asking them to withdraw proposed changes to the legislation or risk delaying its passage through parliament.\n\nIn a letter seen by BBC Scotland, Ms Robison warned the MSPs that their amendments would put the Bill at \"serious risk\" of being outwith Holyrood's competence, adding that if they are passed, ministers would be forced to delay the final vote on the legislation.\n\nThe minister has written to Labour's Jackie Baillie regarding an amendment that seeks to clarify the application of UK-wide equality laws.\n\nThe letter was also sent to Scottish Conservative MSP Russell Findlay and SNP backbencher Michelle Thomson.\n\nThey have tabled amendments that seek to provide extra safeguards in relation to applications by sex offenders.\n\nOpponents and supporters of the bill gathered outside the parliament\n\nMs Robison said the changes risked being incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.\n\nSupporters of the bill have begun to gather outside the Scottish Parliament ahead of the first of two days of debate.\n\nMore than 60 Scottish LGBT+ organisations have written to MSPs in support of the legislation, including Highland Pride.\n\nSand Owsnett, who chairs the group, said: \"The current gender recognition process is outdated, dehumanising and excludes many trans people.\n\n\"The proposed reforms would not only bring Scotland closer to international best practice, but also uphold trans people's human rights.\"\n\nMSPs are in for a marathon session, as they debate and vote on around 150 proposed changes to the legislation.\n\nAmendments from three MSPs have caused the Scottish government particular concern. Ministers believe the changes being put forward by Jackie Baillie, Russell Findlay and Michelle Thomson could cause the legislation to fall foul of Holyrood's competence, and therefore leave the bill open to legal challenge.\n\nShould they pass, the government is warning it would have to withdraw the bill and send it back to the equalities committee for further consideration.\n\nThe Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison will be hoping her intervention deters the MSPs from pressing their amendments to a vote - and deters MSPs across the chamber from supporting them.\n\nShe doesn't want to risk this legislation falling at the final hurdle, although that risk seems small. It would be a tall order for the three MSPs to garner enough backing.\n\nThe Bill is controversial, with some concerned that it could make it easier for predatory men to access single sex spaces like refuges and prisons.\n\nThe UN's special rapporteur on violence against women and girls has warned that the reforms could allow violent men to \"abuse\" the system.\n\nThe Scottish government has repeatedly said a new law would not affect the Equality Act 2010, which allows trans people to be excluded from some single sex spaces.\n\nAn amendment from Labour's Pam Duncan-Glancy already backed by MSPs puts this assertion on the face of the Bill.\n\nMs Duncan-Glancy said the party had lodged further amendments designed to clarify the application of the Equality Act and protection of single-sex spaces.\n\n\"Labour's priority is to make this a bill both trans people and the wider public can have confidence in,\" she said.\n\n\"MSPs need to work together to protect human rights across the board and deliver a workable de-medicalised gender recognition process.\"\n\nFormer First Minister Lord McConnell says the legislation should be paused for further discussion\n\nOn Monday Lord McConnell, a former first minister, said the legislation should be \"paused\" following a Court of Session ruling last week that sex was \"not limited to biological or birth sex\".\n\n\"The Scottish Parliament was set up to pass good legislation and to improve public debate in Scotland and I think in this case, we've seen the opposite happen,\" he told BBC Scotland.\n\nHowever one of his successors as Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, wrote in support of the bill in The Times and criticised the \"populist\" tactics of its opponents.\n\nShe pointed to the findings of a UN gender identity expert who found that in countries which already use self-determination, there was no evidence the laws were being abused by predatory men.\n\nSome women's groups have raised concerns that the reforms could be abused\n\nMeanwhile, the Scottish Conservatives have warned that the debate could lead to a \"travesty of democracy\" because a 15 minute time limit for each proposal will \"shut down\" discussion.\n\nScottish Conservative equalities spokeswoman Rachael Hamilton MSP said: \"Recent polling suggests our concerns are shared by the majority of Scots, who are supportive of trans rights but also want women and girls to have safe spaces - and are rightly worried about teenagers being given the green light to do something they later regret.\n\n\"Rushing this through before Christmas is typical of the SNP's attempts to railroad this legislation through parliament without proper scrutiny.\"\n\nBut the Scottish Greens - who are in government with the SNP - described it as \"the most scrutinised Bill in the history of the Scottish Parliament\".\n\n\"This is a significant and important Bill, but it has been met with one of the most spiteful and dangerous campaigns of disinformation since the lies against repealing Section 28,\"MSP Maggie Chapman said.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that some people have \"genuinely held concerns\" about the plans but argued that others have latched on to the issue to spread transphobia.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nWorld Cup winners Argentina were greeted by jubilant crowds at Buenos Aires airport and Tuesday has been declared a bank holiday in the country.\n\nThe squad, who defeated France in Sunday's final, landed home at 02:24 local time (05:24 GMT) on Tuesday.\n\nFans lined the streets as they travelled on an open-top bus to their Football Association's headquarters.\n\nThe main celebration will be at the capital city's Obelisk monument at midday (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday.\n\nThe Argentine government said the day would be a bank holiday so fans \"can express their deepest joy for the national team\".\n\nLionel Messi led the team off the plane, which carried his picture on its tail.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The French national football team has returned from Qatar to large crowds in Paris, after their heroic defeat to Argentina in the World Cup final.\n\nKylian Mbappé, the French star who scored a hat-trick in what was one of greatest finals in the tournament's history, was front and centre.\n\nFans let off fireworks on the Place de la Concorde.\n\nFrance came from behind twice in the final, which ended 3-3, before Argentina won the penalty shootout 4-2.", "The cost of living crisis is next on the agenda, with Labour MP Sir Stephen Timms asking Rishi Sunak how he will ensure the number of people accessing support like food banks won't increase again next year.\n\nIs it realistic, Timms asks, for the PM to build a country where no one needs to use a food bank, as Sunak said in the Tory Party leadership contest?\n\n\"I'd like to think so,\" the prime minister says, adding \"it's sad that anyone needs to use a food bank\".\n\nOn how long he thinks it will take to end the need for food banks, Sunak responds: \"I think it's important for us to get the economy growing again, the best way to do that is to have an economy that's growing, providing opportunity for people and enable those to support those who can't work.\n\n\"And in the short term, we've got a range of different support for people, particularly with food, whether that's free school meals or the food programme and others that will help provide people with extra assistance this winter.\"", "As China deals with a new wave of Covid infections, BBC analysis editor Ros Atkins looks at why it’s hard to assess the scale of the outbreak.", "Major rail disruption is also expected in the first week of January\n\nRail passengers in Scotland are being warned that journeys over the Christmas period will be hit by strike action.\n\nScotRail says its services will wind down from 15:00 on Christmas Eve, ahead of the strike by RMT members of Network Rail beginning at 18:00.\n\nThere will be no trains on Boxing Day and services will start later on 27 December.\n\nMajor disruption to both ScotRail and cross-border services is also expected in the first week of January.\n\nTrain drivers across 15 rail companies - including TransPennine Express and Avanti West Coast - are planning to strike on 5 January.\n\nRMT members of Network Rail, which maintains the rails, signals and stations, plan further strikes on 3-4 and 6-7 January.\n\nThe strikes are part of a long-running dispute over pay, job security and conditions.\n\nNetwork Rail has previously warned passengers to avoid travel on Christmas Eve when further strike action by RMT members is due to start.\n\nThe walkout is scheduled to end at 06:00 on 27 December.\n\nThe full details of the impact on ScotRail services are:\n\nDavid Simpson, ScotRail's service delivery director, said: \"It's really disappointing to see more disruption across the whole Great Britain rail network as a result of the dispute between Network Rail and the RMT at a time when we need to be encouraging more people back to the railway.\n\nHe added: \"We know this is really frustrating for everyone impacted and we're urging customers to plan ahead and check their entire journey in advance.\"", "A man had been threatening people at a home in Borland Avenue, Carlisle\n\nA man armed with a knife has been shot dead by police at a house in Cumbria.\n\nPolice were called to reports of a man threatening people at a home in Borland Avenue, Carlisle, just after 15:30 GMT.\n\nOn arrival they found a man with a knife and a police firearm was discharged. A man aged in his 40s was pronounced dead at the scene.\n\nPolice said no other members of the public were injured and the incident was not being treated as terrorism.\n\nA cordon is in place at the scene and people have been urged to stay away, with increased police patrols in the Botcherby area.\n\nThe incident has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct as a matter of routine.\n\nA spokesman for the watchdog said: \"Our investigators are attending the scene and the police post-incident procedures, where the officers involved will be providing their initial accounts.\n\n\"The investigation is at a very early stage and no further information can be provided at this time.\n\n\"Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragic incident.\"\n\nFollow BBC North East & Cumbria on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The dog was seized by police and put down following the attack on 3 December\n\nAn 83-year-old woman has died from her injuries after being attacked by a dog.\n\nThe woman died on Tuesday morning after being taken to University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, following attack in Heol Fawr, Caerphilly, on 3 December.\n\nA 55-year-old man who was also taken to hospital with minor injuries has now been released.\n\nFour people arrested on suspicion of being in charge of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury have been released under conditional bail.\n\nThe attack came just over a year after another fatal incident, just a few streets away\n\nThe dog, a large black XL bully cross cane corso breed, was seized by officers and has been destroyed.\n\nThe attack comes just over a year after a 10-year-old boy, Jack Lis was attacked and killed by a dog, a few streets away from this attack.\n\nGwent Police has said officers will continue to make enquiries in the local area.\n\nDet Ch Insp Matthew Sedgebeer said: \"If you have concerns or any information regarding this dog and its previous behaviour then please do stop and talk with us.\"", "Train drivers across 15 rail companies will stage a fresh strike on 5 January in a long-running row over pay, the Aslef union has said.\n\nIt will add to major rail disruption in the first week of January, with the RMT union already planning strikes on 3-4 and 6-7 January.\n\nAslef said drivers did not want to go on strike but had been \"pushed\" to do so by the train companies.\n\nThe Rail Delivery Group said it wanted to work with Aslef to end the dispute.\n\n\"No one wants to see this strike go ahead, and we can only apologise to passengers and to the many businesses who will be hit by this damaging disruption,\" said a spokesperson for the RDG, which represents the train operating companies.\n\nBut Aslef boss Mick Whelan said: \"The train companies say their hands have been tied by the government. While the government - which does not employ us - says it's up to the companies to negotiate with us.\"\n\nThe union expects 12,500 drivers to take part in its latest strike and said the action would bring services on affected lines \"to a halt\".\n\nA Department for Transport spokesperson said Aslef's decision was \"incredibly disappointing\".\n\n\"We urge Aslef to rethink, call off strikes and speak to employers to agree a new way forward,\" they said.\n\nThe rail companies affected by the Aslef strike are:\n\nAslef has already held five one-day strikes this year in its pay dispute. It wants any pay offer to reflect the rising cost of living\n\n\"The companies need to come to the table with a proper proposal to help our members, their drivers, buy this year what they could buy last year,\" the union said.\n\nThe larger RMT union is in a long-running dispute over pay, job security and conditions with both the train operating companies and Network Rail - which maintains the rails, signals and stations.\n\nMeanwhile the rail industry is under pressure to save money, after the pandemic left a hole in its finances. Bosses say reforms need to be agreed to afford pay increases and modernise the railway.\n\nWatch Make Sense of Strikes on iPlayer and find out more about why people are striking and whether industrial action works.\n\nOn Monday, Network Rail warned passengers to avoid travel on Christmas Eve when further strike action by RMT members is due to start. The walkout is scheduled to begin at 18:00 on 24 December and continue until 06:00 on 27 December.\n\nRMT members are also taking part in an overtime ban at 14 train companies which began on Sunday and will last until 2 January.\n\nThe rail strikes come at a time of widespread industry walkouts across the country. More than 10,000 nurses walked out on Tuesday and ambulance drivers will take action on Wednesday.\n\nFurther strikes by Royal Mail workers belonging to the CWU are due to take place on 23 and 24 December - some of the busiest days for pre-Christmas deliveries.\n• University staff who are members of the University and College Union and Unison are on strike\n• Union members at 150 universities have been taking part in industrial action Read more: Will my lecture be cancelled? There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer\n• More than 1,000 Passport Office workers are on strike in a dispute about jobs, pay and conditions\n• Members of the Public and Commercial Services union have warned of delays to applications and the delivery of passports in the run-up to summer There are currently no national strikes planned for this date\n\nHow will you be affected? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n• None Which train services are affected by the latest strikes?", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Rishi Sunak is asked to give a personal message to NHS workers and others taking strike action\n\nRishi Sunak has insisted he will not back down against striking workers, as nurses walked out in England, Northern Ireland and Wales for a second day.\n\nNurses' union boss Pat Cullen has urged the prime minister to resolve the crisis before Christmas.\n\nBut there is no sign of a breakthrough between the sides.\n\nSpeaking to MPs, Mr Sunak argued the best way to help workers would be to reduce inflation as quickly as possible.\n\nThe UK is facing its biggest week of industrial strikes in recent history in the run up to Christmas, with ambulance workers, customs and immigration staff, bus drivers and postal workers all staging walk outs.\n\nThe armed forces have been drafted in to cover some jobs - but concern is growing about Wednesday's ambulance drivers strike in England and Wales, with a health minister warning people to avoid \"risky activity\".\n\nHead of the NHS confederation, and a former Labour adviser, Matthew Taylor has warned that hospital leaders cannot guarantee patient safety during the strikes.\n\nIn a letter to Mr Sunak, he said: \"It is clear that we have entered dangerous territory and we hope this warning from NHS leaders should serve to focus minds in government and in the unions that a swift resolution to this damaging dispute is needed.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Ambulance staff are tired of waiting outside hospitals with patients, says GMB\n\nMr Sunak is facing calls to reopen talks on nurses' pay and deal with the growing wave of strikes across the public services.\n\nConservative backbencher Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said that both sides \"need to get round the table and see what can be done.\"\n\nBut addressing the Liaison Committee of senior MPs Mr Sunak said: \"I've acknowledged it is difficult for everybody, because inflation is where it is.\n\n\"The best way to help them and help everyone else in the country is for us to get a grip and reduce inflation as quickly as possible.\"\n\nHe said sticking to the wage levels set by the pay review boards earlier this year was an important part of tackling high inflation.\n\nDespite the prime minister's insistence that he is holding firm, some Conservative MPs have said he will need to budge on nurses' pay.\n\nSo far only a handful have said so publicly, but others have expressed concern in private conversations with the BBC.\n\nOne former minister said the government would have to shift eventually and come up with more money,\n\nAnother suggested ministers should consider offering a slightly increased offer, albeit still well below the 19% being called for, or a one-off payment to help with rising prices.\n\nA third senior Conservative added: \"I'd be surprised if the pay offer as is on the table wins - unless they are prepared to carry this on for six months.\"\n\nHowever, even behind the scenes, government officials do not want to get into details about possible compromises.\n\nAnd some Tory MPs are urging the PM to maintain his stance, fearing any concessions would encourage future strikes.\n\n\"Give in to one group then the whole lot will cascade around him,\" said one former minister.\n\nEarlier, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing said she was \"truly sorry\" for every patient who would have their care disrupted.\n\nSpeaking to the BBC's Today programme, Ms Cullen said she would negotiate with the government, saying \"we won't dig in if they don't dig in.\"\n\n\"But we have no opportunity to do that because we can't get to a table to talk to government.\"\n\nShe has warned that if the government isn't \"prepared to do the right thing\" her union would have \"no choice\" but to continue striking in January.\n\nThe Royal College of Nursing has called for a 19% pay rise (5% above the RPI inflation rate) but the government has said this is unaffordable.\n\nAmbulance staff - who are set to walk out on Wednesday - also want above-inflation pay rises, but have not set a specific figure.\n\nHealth Secretary Steve Barclay met unions ahead of the strike on Tuesday afternoon, however Unite representative Onay Kasab described the meeting as \"entirely pointless\" because Mr Barclay had refused to discuss pay.\n\nFollowing the meeting, Mr Barclay said the pay demands were \"unaffordable\" but added that he was open to \"engaging with unions on how to make the NHS a better place to work\".", "Local authorities in the Siberian city of Chita have put up giant ice sculptures of Russian soldiers as Christmas decorations\n\nA dozen Russian soldiers armed with Kalashnikovs stand motionless on the main square of the Siberian city of Chita.\n\nAdd in the wind chill factor and it's -33C. I'm bundled up in multiple layers of clothes, but I can feel my face freezing.\n\nAs people walk past, they stop and stare at the servicemen. Some of them take selfies.\n\nThere's a good reason why the soldiers aren't moving a muscle. They're made of ice.\n\nChita lies 3,000 miles (4,830km) east of Moscow. The local authorities decided that militarised ice sculptures would be an appropriate decoration for this festive season; a way of encouraging a patriotic new year. Most of the people I talk to on the square approve.\n\n\"We're fighting a war,\" Tatyana says, \"so it's right to have these ice soldiers here. They're topical.\"\n\n\"It's an unusual way of celebrating the New Year,\" Ludmila tells me. \"Normally you'd have Santa Claus, bunny rabbits or squirrels. But it's a sign of the times.\"\n\nLudmila supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine - though she worries about friends who have been sent to fight\n\n\"We've got friends who've been mobilised and sent to fight there. We worry about them. We call to see if they're OK. But whatever we may think of our government, our motherland is our motherland. If we don't defend it, who will?\"\n\n\"Defend it from what? From whom?\" I ask Ludmila. After all, on 24 February it was Russia that launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Not the other way around.\n\n\"Defend it from Nazis. There are a lot of them around,\" Ludmila replies. \"Russia's being attacked on all fronts, including with LGBT propaganda. They're trying to force this upon us. We reject these alien ideas. We embrace Russian values. It's hard for me to explain this in words. I just feel it.\"\n\nRussians never used to say these kinds of things to me on the street. They never talked about feeling threatened by \"Nazis\" in Ukraine, or about the need to fight for so-called \"Russian values\". It's one of the biggest changes I've noticed here this year.\n\nHaving established total control of the media landscape in Russia, Kremlin propaganda has managed to convince many Russians that their country is now in some existential battle with the West. In conversations here now, I often hear people repeat - almost word for word - the anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western rhetoric they hear on Russian TV channels.\n\nYou might think that people in Chita would have more pressing concerns than repelling the onslaught of \"Western values\". Despite Siberia enjoying huge gas reserves, the city of Chita has still not been connected to Russia's domestic gas network. From the hills above the city you can see clouds of smoke rising from coal-fired power stations and from the myriad of wooden houses that are still heated by firewood.\n\nThe ice sculpture soldiers stand throughout the centre of Chita\n\nThis winter, comfort and joy feel in short supply in Chita. But there's patriotism aplenty. Outside the local concert hall, a stylised metal snowman is holding a Russian tricolour. On Lenin Square, the decorated fir tree shares centre stage with big signs bearing the letter \"Z\" - the symbol of the Kremlin's \"special military operation\" in Ukraine. Watch the news on Chita TV, and you'll see reports about local schoolchildren writing festive letters - not to Father Christmas, but to Russian soldiers in Ukraine.\n\nBut not everyone in Chita shares this particular interpretation of patriotism.\n\nAcross town I meet Ivan Losev. On social media recently, the 26-year-old sauna owner shared a bizarre dream he'd had in which he'd met President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.\n\n\"I dreamt I'd been mobilised and sent to a training camp,\" recalls Ivan. \"Suddenly the Ukrainian army, led by Zelensky, attacked. Everyone was captured. They were about to shoot us, when Zelensky pointed to me. 'I've seen your Instagram stories. Glory to Ukraine!' he said. 'Glory to the Heroes!' I replied.\"\n\nFor posting about his dream - and for other comments he'd made on social media about the \"special military operation\" - Ivan was taken to court and fined 30,000 roubles (approximately £380) for \"discrediting the Russian armed forces.\"\n\n\"The closer you get to the downfall of an empire, the more stupid the laws become,\" Ivan tells me. \"I think this will end with the downfall of Putin's Russia.\n\n\"Patriotism is loving your country, but criticising it to bring change. Patriotism is wanting to make your city better so that it prospers. So that people want to stay and live there and live well. But Russia's patriotism is about bombing Ukraine to pieces. Our leaders don't want our country to be better. They just want people in another country to live worse.\"\n\nIvan Losev was fined for posting about a dream he'd had about Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky\n\nAs I head back to the city centre, I pass another ice sculpture of a serviceman who has been left to guard a bus stop. By now it's dark. The new year illuminations have been switched on and are casting a multi-coloured glow over Lenin Square. It's such a bizarre sight. And rather unnerving. As the fairy lights change colour, so do the ice soldiers with their automatic rifles.\n\nIt may be an attempt to foster a festive feel-good factor. But as this dramatic year nears the end, what exactly do Russians have to celebrate?\n\nCertainly not peace on Earth.\n\n\"I worry that Russia will suffer from what is happening now,\" says Margarita, with whom I get chatting on the square.\n\n\"At the end of the day I would like there to be peace. I would like there to be no wars. We can do without those. But what will be will be.\"", "A woman caught allegedly trying to steal presents from beneath Robert De Niro's Christmas tree in New York City has been charged with burglary.\n\nPolice saw 30-year-old Shanice Aviles enter the actor's building's basement at 02:45 (07:45 GMT) on Monday and later found signs of a forced entry.\n\nThe 79-year-old actor came downstairs in his dressing gown after he heard the commotion, ABC News reported.\n\nA spokesperson for De Niro said the actor was fine, and had no comment.\n\nHe added the alleged burglary on the Upper East Side took place at a home he was renting temporarily.\n\nA New York police spokesperson said officers followed Ms Aviles into the apartment, where they caught her in the living room as she allegedly attempted to put presents from the tree into her bag.\n\nOfficers reportedly did not know the home was De Niro's. A police spokesperson said the investigation was ongoing.\n\nTwo-time Academy Award winner De Niro was born and raised in Manhattan.\n• None De Niro speaks out on Ukraine at Cambridge Union", "Last updated on .From the section Sports Personality\n\nCoverage: Watch live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 18:45-21:00 GMT and follow live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nArgentina's World Cup-winning captain Lionel Messi has been named BBC Sports Personality's World Sport Star of the Year for 2022.\n\nMessi, 35, led Argentina to their first World Cup triumph in 36 years in Qatar.\n\nThe Paris St-Germain forward won the tournament's Golden Ball - awarded to the best player - after scoring seven goals at his fifth World Cup.\n\nThe former Barcelona star is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest footballers of all-time.\n\nMessi scored twice in the World Cup final and also converted a penalty in the shootout as Argentina beat holders France 4-2 on penalties following a thrilling 3-3 draw.\n• None Sports Personality shortlist to be named on Tuesday\n\nIt meant he added football's biggest prize to a list of trophies that includes seven Ballons d'Or titles - awarded to the best footballer each year - four Champions Leagues, one Copa America, 10 La Liga titles with Barcelona and a Ligue 1 crown with PSG.\n\nIn addition, he has scored a staggering 793 goals in his career.\n\n\"It's everyone's dream when they're little. I've been lucky enough to achieve everything and what I was missing, I found here,\" Messi said after lifting the World Cup on Sunday.\n\nWith Paris St-Germain, Messi won a first French title in April and since the 2022-23 campaign began in August, has scored 12 times and provided 14 assists in 19 club appearances.\n\nMessi will turn 39 during the next World Cup in 2026 and had hinted previously the finals in Qatar would be his last. If it was, it truly was the perfect way to end his international career following Argentina's Copa America victory last year.\n• None Watch: Just who is the real Lionel Messi?\n\nHe does not plan to retire from the national team just yet, saying after lifting the World Cup that he would like \"to continue by experiencing a few more games as a world champion\".\n\nThe BBC World Sport Star of the Year is awarded by a panel to the athlete who has achieved the most notable sporting success on the world stage during the course of the year.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nArgentina's World Cup winners had to abandon an open-top bus parade in Buenos Aires and instead took a helicopter ride over the millions of ecstatic fans partying in the streets.\n\nThe squad showed off the trophy at the start of a planned eight-hour journey.\n\nBut the celebrations on packed roads became more chaotic, forcing a rethink.\n\n\"It was impossible to continue on the ground due to the explosion of joy,\" tweeted presidential spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti.\n\nSocial media videos appeared to show fans jumping onto the top deck of the bus carrying the players at one point when it passed underneath a bridge, with one fan falling off.\n• None Thousands gather for World Cup parade - as it happened\n\nThe Argentine government declared Tuesday would be a national holiday in the South American country after Lionel Messi and his team-mates beat France in Sunday's final.\n\nAbout four million people lined the streets of Buenos Aires, according to local estimates.\n\n\"Today Argentina experienced one of the most extraordinary parties in its history. There was only joy and gratitude during hours and hours of exciting togetherness,\" Cerruti added.\n\nAfter arriving home from Qatar in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the players left the Argentine Football Association (AFA) training complex on a 20-mile journey to the centre of Buenos Aires at 11:45 local time (14:45 GMT).\n\nThe journey was supposed to finish at the capital city's iconic Obelisk monument, where hundreds of thousands had gathered and created a party atmosphere, later that day.\n\nBut security forces would not let the bus continue to Plaza de la República - the public square where the Obelisk stands - after some of the celebrations became too chaotic.\n\n\"A thousand apologies on behalf of all of the champion players. [Such] a shame,\" tweeted AFA president Chiqui Tapia.\n\nWith the majority of the jubilant fans wearing the national team's blue and white colours, it was a sea of colour in Plaza de la República as they waited for the squad.\n\nBanners were held aloft of captain Messi and the late Diego Maradona - another iconic Argentina player, captain of the 1986 World Cup champions and regarded as one of the greatest players ever - while other fans played instruments or climbed lampposts.\n\nHundreds of fans lined the streets, with many riding scooters and running behind the bus on a motorway, as the parade made its way towards the Argentine capital.\n\n\"It's crazy, it's incredible, it's the best thing that can happen to you in life,\" said 25-year-old Matias Gomez, one of those gathered.\n\n\"It is an enormous joy to see all these happy people, all together, one with the other, holding hands, giving each other hugs, kisses. We are all one today.\"\n\nParis St-Germain forward Messi, who captained the side and cemented his place for many as the greatest footballer ever by lifting the World Cup, sat in the middle of a group of the squad on the top deck.\n\nEarlier on Tuesday, he posted on Instagram showing him waking up alongside the trophy.\n\nArgentina has been in party mode since Sunday's dramatic penalty shootout win against France in Qatar, which gave the country its first World Cup win since Maradona lifted the trophy 36 years ago.\n\nMessi, 35, finally achieved his World Cup dream as La Albiceleste won their third crown in one of the greatest finals in the tournament's history.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The Specials spearheaded the Two Tone and ska scenes in the late 1970s and early 1980s\n\nThe music world has been paying tribute to singer Terry Hall, remembering The Specials frontman as \"truly one of the greats\" who had \"a heart of gold\".\n\nHits like Ghost Town, Gangsters and Too Much Too Young soundtracked British life in the late 1970s and early 80s.\n\nTributes came from UB40, Boy George and Elvis Costello, who said his voice \"was the perfect instrument for the true and necessary songs on The Specials\".\n\nHe added: \"That honesty is heard in so many of his songs in joy and sorrow.\"\n\nThe band spearheaded the Two Tone and ska scenes, and were groundbreaking for their multi-racial membership and how they used pop music to reflect an era of upheaval, unemployment and racial tension.\n\nBilly Bragg recalled: \"The Specials were a celebration of how British culture was invigorated by Caribbean immigration but the onstage demeanour of their lead singer was a reminder that they were in the serious business of challenging our perception of who we were in the late 1970s.\"\n\nHall's friend and biographer Paul Willo told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the singer \"was the instantly recognisable voice of a generation\".\n\n\"And he was a forthright character who stood up for what he believed in. Together with the band, he was very vocal about racism and injustice in general,\" he added.\n\n\"There was so much turmoil going on in the country at that time… With the right material and the reasons to be angry, it made them more of a force and him more vocal, I suppose.\"\n\nSinger Frank Turner was born shortly after The Specials split up in 1981 but told Today their music remained relevant.\n\n\"It was talking about the fact that there are these tensions in society, there are these things that are worth being angry about, there are these divides, and there are things that we can do about them,\" Turner said.\n\n\"That was important and relevant in the early 1980s but for me as a kid, it felt important and relevant and - I don't want to say educational - when I first started listening to them.\n\n\"And I think the relevance of the music of The Specials and the words and music of Terry Hall remain completely vibrant and important today.\"\n\nSome members of the band reunited in 2008\n\nThose praising Hall and his influence ranged from singer-songwriters to pop stars and dance acts.\n\nElectronic duo Leftfield wrote on Twitter that Hall was \"such an amazing singer\", adding: \"He sang about real people and real issues. People I could identify with. Such a loss. A brave guy.\"\n\nFormer Bros singer Matt Goss said The Specials were very important because they \"made you feel alive\" and Ghost Town was \"a masterpiece\".\n\n\"The Specials represent my youth, they represent everything about my teenage years, they were THE BAND that got us out of our homes and into the school discos & clubs!\" he wrote.\n\n\"And [they] turned us on to a trend that was an all encompassing movement of music and fashion SKA!!... The Specials gave you a sense of strength, while still allowing the sensitive side of artistry to run through your veins.\"\n\nAndy Bell of the bands Ride and Oasis also recalled the impact of The Specials' songs and look.\n\n\"At 11 I suddenly wanted a Harrington [jacket] with red tartan lining, a Fred Perry shirt, black sta prest [trousers], white socks and black loafers with tassels, all because this man's music had swept through my school like Elvis in '56,\" Bell said.\n\n\"Those 2 @the specials albums are pure genius.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Boy George This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nFormer The Cure drummer Lol Tolhurst described seeing Hall live at two concerts - one in 1979 and another in 2022.\n\n\"Both times Terry Hall standing stock still at the centre of the storm, a melancholy counter point to the joyous energy of the band. Bringing the idiosyncratic and ironic songs to life beautifully.\"\n\nSqueeze's Chris Difford described Hall as \"a man of few words verbally but so many great words in song\", adding: \"I always admired and envied his sweep of the pen. Take care on the steps above young man.\"\n\nListen to more about Terry Hall on BBC Sounds\n\nCarole Donnelly, a friend of Hall's, told BBC Radio 5 Live: \"He was kind, witty, but a very shy man. He was somebody who was so talented.\n\n\"For me he inspired you to overcome adversity and hatred... turn your back on hate and turn that into love. That was the thing that it was.\n\n\"He was a legend, and he's a legend in Coventry. It was a horrible time to be in the city but they gave us hope. I was in a mixed race relationship, the political landscape and music and lyrics gave us a voice as young people. I was 16 when I met him, he was 18, we were angry young punks. We got to love music and we brought that all together and it's inspired so many generations of people.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 2 by Ian Brown This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nHappy Mondays singer Rowetta told the station: \"He just believed in everything and really with passion. He wouldn't be singing lyrics he didn't mean with no feeling. He wrote lyrics that meant something.\n\n\"He really cared about people as well, his politics weren't just for the sake of it, he really meant it and wanted to help the world. He really did believe in that. Love, love, love.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 3 by Sleaford Mods This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Specials came from Coventry, and Dave Wakeling of ska band The Beat - from nearby Birmingham - posted a photo of the pair playing football with the message: \"Cryptic, droll, a heart of gold, and he could tackle like a donkey!\n\n\"Always a proper gent to The Beat, our condolences to family and friends.\"\n\nThe group had their first UK number one album in 2019\n\nThe Proclaimers described him as \"a quite brilliant, singer, songwriter and lyricist with profound humanity\".\n\nUB40, also from Birmingham, wrote: \"Another one gone too soon! RIP Terry.\"\n\nDexy's Midnight Runners said they were \"very sorry and shocked to hear the sad news about the lovely, and brilliant Terry Hall\".\n\nOther bands paying tribute included The Coral, who said: \"Thanks Terry Hall for all the music, inspiration, and being kind to us when we were starting out. So sad.\"\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post 4 by Badly Drawn Boy This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThe Specials' influence stretched across the Atlantic, with Canadian singer Ron Sexsmith remembering how he had \"been a fan of their music ever since seeing them perform Gangsters on SNL [Saturday Night Live] when I was 16\".\n\nHe added: \"It was a pretty exciting period for music and they were definitely a huge part of it.\"", "The court ordered that pictures of Irmgard Furchner from the trial should be blurred\n\nA former secretary who worked for the commander of a Nazi concentration camp has been convicted of complicity in the murders of more than 10,500 people.\n\nIrmgard Furchner, 97, was taken on as a teenaged shorthand typist at Stutthof and worked there from 1943 to 1945.\n\nFurchner, the first woman to be tried for Nazi crimes in decades, was given a two-year suspended jail term.\n\nAlthough she was a civilian worker, the judge agreed she was fully aware of what was going on at the camp.\n\nSome 65,000 people are thought to have died in horrendous conditions at Stutthof, including Jewish prisoners, non-Jewish Poles and captured Soviet soldiers.\n\nFurchner was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murder of 10,505 people and complicity in the attempted murder of five others. As she was only 18 or 19 at the time, she was tried in a special juvenile court.\n\nAt Stutthof, located near the modern-day Polish city of Gdansk, a variety of methods was used to murder detainees and thousands died in gas chambers there from June 1944.\n\nThe court at Itzehoe in northern Germany heard from survivors of the camp, some of whom have died during the trial.\n\nWhen the trial began in September 2021, Irmgard Furchner went on the run from her retirement home and was eventually found by police on a street in Hamburg.\n\nStutthof commandant Paul-Werner Hoppe was jailed in 1955 for being an accessory to murder and he was released five years later.\n\nA series of prosecutions have taken place in Germany since 2011, after the conviction of former Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk set the precedent that being a guard was sufficient evidence to prove complicity.\n\nThat ruling also meant that civilian worker Furchner could stand trial, as she worked directly to the camp commander, dealing with correspondence surrounding Stutthof detainees.\n\nIt took 40 days for her to break her silence in the trial, when she told the court \"I'm sorry about everything that happened\".\n\n\"I regret that I was in Stutthof at the time - that's all I can say,\" she said.\n\nHer defence lawyers argued she should be acquitted because of doubts surrounding what she knew, as she was one of several typists in Hoppe's office.\n\nAfter the war, Furchner married an SS squad leader called Heinz Furchstam whom she probably met at the camp.\n\nShe went on to work as an administrative worker in a small town in northern Germany. Her husband died in 1972.\n\nSurvivor and co-plaintiff Manfred Goldberg returned to Stutthof in 2017 with the Prince and Princess of Wales\n\nHistorian Stefan Hördler played a key role in the trial, accompanying two judges on a visit to the site of the camp.\n\nIt became clear from the visit that Furchner was able to see some of the worst conditions at the camp from the commandant's office.\n\nThe historian told the trial that 27 transports carrying 48,000 people arrived at Stutthof between June and October 1944, after the Nazis decided to expand the camp and speed up mass murder with the use of Zyklon B gas.\n\nMr Hördler described Hoppe's office as the \"nerve centre\" for everything that went on at Stutthof.\n\nDuring his evidence he read out evidence provided by Furchner's husband in 1954 when he said: \"At the Stutthof camp people were gassed. The staff at the commandant's HQ talked about it.\"\n\nPresiding judge Dominik Gross said it was \"beyond imagination\" that Furchner could not have noticed the smoke and stench of mass killing: \"The defendant could have quit at any time.\"\n\nJosef Salomonovic was persuaded by his wife to travel from Vienna to northern Germany to give evidence last December\n\nCamp survivor Josef Salomonovic, who travelled to the court to give evidence at the trial, was only six when his father was murdered by lethal injection at Stutthof in September 1944.\n\n\"She's indirectly guilty,\" he told reporters at the court last December, \"even if she just sat in the office and put her stamp on my father's death certificate.\"\n\nAnother Stutthof survivor, Manfred Goldberg, said his only disappointment was in the nature of the sentence.\n\n\"It's a foregone conclusion that a 97-year-old would not be made to serve a sentence in prison - so it could only be a symbolic sentence,\" he told the BBC.\n\n\"But the length should be made to reflect the extraordinary barbarity of being found to be complicit in the murder of more than 10,000 people.\"\n\nFurchner's trial could be the last to take place in Germany into Nazi-era crimes, although a few cases are still being investigated.\n\nTwo other cases have gone to court in recent years for Nazi crimes committed at Stutthof.\n\nLast year a former camp guard was declared unfit for trial even though the court said there was a \"high degree of probability\" he was guilty of complicity.\n\nIn 2020, another SS camp guard, Bruno Dey, was given a two-year suspended jail term for complicity in the murder of more than 5,000 prisoners.", "New reforms will make it easier for people to apply for a gender recognition certificate\n\nA top UN official has backed the Scottish government's plan to reform gender recognition laws.\n\nMinisters want to make it easier for trans people to change their gender.\n\nThe UN high commissioner for human rights said the Scottish bill as a \"significant step forward\".\n\nLast month, a UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, warned the Scottish bill could endanger women.\n\nReem Alsalem said it \"would potentially open the door for violent males who identify as men to abuse the process of acquiring a gender certificate and the rights that are associated with it\".\n\nThis was disputed by a separate independent UN expert on gender identity, who said the legislation would bring Scotland in line with international human right standards.\n\nUnder the terms of the proposed new laws, people will no longer need a diagnosis of gender dysphoria to apply for a gender recognition certificate.\n\nThe Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which is expected to pass next week, will also reduce the time required for an applicant to live in their acquired gender.\n\nThe Scottish government argues the current process to change a person's legal gender is too difficult and invasive.\n\nIt said there was \"no evidence\" women and girls would be harmed by the bill.\n\nHowever critics, including Harry Potter author JK Rowling, have voiced concern that it could undermine hard-fought for women's rights.\n\nIn a letter published on Friday, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN's independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, argued the evidence from other countries where self-identification is standard does not support fears about abuse of the system by predatory males.\n\nLiz Throssell, spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, backed the view of Mr Madrigal-Borloz.\n\nShe said: \"The key point for the UN Human Rights Office is that everyone - and that includes trans women - should have access to legal recognition of their gender identity based on self-identification, through a simple administrative procedure without requirements such as medical certification, diagnosis, treatment or surgery.\"\n\nCampaigners have raised concerns about the gender recognition reforms\n\nThe UN official said the Scottish legislation would be a \"significant step forward\" in ensuring Scotland met international recognised standards on human rights.\n\nShe added: \"We have not seen any evidence to back the claim that allowing legal recognition of gender identity based on self-identification hinders efforts to combat violence against women.\n\n\"Around the world, including in the UK, there is clear data highlighting disproportionate rates of violence, harassment and hate crimes against trans women.\n\n\"This highlights why it is so important to remove - rather than maintain or create - obstacles for transgender women to access support and services for survivors of gender-based violence, and to combat harmful narratives about trans women, that often contribute to the violence and discrimination they face.\"\n\nSNP MP and lawyer Joanna Cherry challenged claims the legislation would bring Scotland into line with international human rights standards.\n\nMs Cherry, who has been critical of the Scottish government's plans, argued self-identification was not required to comply with international human rights standards.\n\nResponding to Mr Madrigal-Borloz, she tweeted: \"This 'legal opinion' contains no analysis of the potential conflict between the proposed system of self-identification and the Equality Act and, in particular, of how self-ID could undermine the sex based rights of women & same sex attracted people.\"\n\nIn theory, only a small number of people would be directly affected by any reforms, with the NHS estimating that transgender people make up about 0.5% of the population.\n\nHowever, some campaigners are concerned that allowing anyone to \"self-identify\" as a woman could impact on the rights women have fought for decades to secure, and which are themselves enshrined in equalities law.\n\nThere are also concerns about access to women-only spaces and services, including hospital wards and refuges.\n\nFirst Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that some people have \"genuinely held concerns\" about the plans but argued that others have latched onto the issue to spread transphobia.\n\nMr Madrigal-Borloz, a senior visiting researcher at the Harvard University Law School Human Rights Program, also has expressed concern about \"arbitrary obstacles\" for legally recognising gender identity. He said such measures contravene human rights obligations, branding them \"authoritarian and anti-democratic\".\n\n\"United Nations human rights bodies that have spoken on the matter have constantly found that legal recognition of gender identity through self-identification is the most efficient and appropriate way to ensure the enjoyment of human rights, and I am yet to learn of a country in which this is not the case,\" Mr Madrigal-Borloz said.\n\nFollowing the UN expert's comments, Scottish Conservative equalities spokesperson Rachael Hamilton called for the legislative changes to be halted\n\nShe said: \"This latest intervention is all the more reason to pause this rushed legislation, not press ahead with it.\"\n\nThe MSP added: \"The views of this UN expert do not cancel out the concerns of the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, and both positions need to be carefully considered by the Equalities Committee and MSPs before this legislation is passed.\n\n\"Everyone accepts the need to improve the gender recognition process for trans people, but this cannot come at the expense of the rights and safety of women and girls.\n\n\"While the aim of self-ID policies are clearly well-intentioned, ultimately a system of self-declaration without safeguards will always be open to abuse from predatory men or those acting in bad faith.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Video provided by activist Sayed Alwadaei shows his confrontation with Tory MP Bob Stewart\n\nPolice are investigating an allegation of racial abuse after Tory MP Bob Stewart told a human rights activist to \"go back to Bahrain\".\n\nScotland Yard said they had opened the case following a complaint from Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, who had a confrontation with the MP in central London.\n\nThe Beckenham MP also told the campaigner to \"get stuffed\".\n\nMr Stewart said he regretted the comments but insisted he was \"not being racist in any way\".\n\nMr Alwadaei, the director of advocacy at the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, challenged Mr Stewart on his connections with Bahrain outside an event to mark the National Day of Bahrain last Wednesday.\n\nFootage of the incident outside the Foreign Office's Lancaster House shows Mr Stewart responding: \"Bahrain's a great place. End of.\"\n\nHe later added: \"Go away, I hate you. You make a lot of fuss. Go back to Bahrain.\"\n\nAfter being repeatedly asked if he had accepted any money from the Bahraini government, Mr Stewart said: \"You're taking money off my country, go away!\"\n\nMr Stewart, a former Army officer who was stationed in Bahrain in the 1960s, later expressed contrition for his original remarks.\n\n\"The protesters persistently taunted me by saying I had taken money from Bahrain,\" he said.\n\n\"That deeply offended me. I certainly have not and told them so repeatedly.\n\n\"I admit I fell for the taunts and should not have responded which I regret. My comments were meant to tell them they could protest safely in Bahrain... Bahrain gets a very unfair press and I feel that strongly.\n\n\"I am sorry if anyone thought I was being racist in any way. Honestly I was not. I wish now I had not been drawn by the taunts (a mistake) but I was and I repeat, I apologise for that. The last thing I meant to be was racist as I have so many good Bahraini friends.\"\n\nMr Alwadaei fled Bahrain in 2011 after being arrested for taking part in anti-government protests and was able to claim political asylum in the UK in 2012.\n\nSpeaking following the incident with Mr Stewart. Mr Alwadaei said: \"I still have the scars from where the authorities kicked me in the head, and if I went back to Bahrain I would face further torture and imprisonment. My family members are still suffering from reprisals.\"\n\nHe added: \"I don't believe I would have been told to 'go back' to the country that violently tortured me if it weren't for the colour of my skin. No-one should be subjected to racial abuse.\"\n\nMr Alwadaei said he had also complained to the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone and the Conservative party chairman Nadhim Zahawi.\n\nA Conservative Party spokesman said: \"We have an established code of conduct and formal processes where complaints can be made in confidence. This process is rightly confidential.\"", "A mother has admitted the manslaughter of her teenage daughter after letting her become morbidly obese.\n\nSarah Jane Lloyd-Jones, 39, pleaded guilty to the charge when she appeared at Mold Crown Court on 12 December.\n\nKaylea Louise Titford, 16, was found dead at her Powys home in October 2020.\n\nIt was alleged at an earlier hearing that her parents failed to meet Kaylea's dietary needs, leading to her obesity.\n\nAlun Titford and Sarah Jane Lloyd-Jones arriving at Mold Crown Court before an earlier hearing\n\nAlun Titford, 44, is due to go on trial in January. He denies manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable person.\n\nLloyd-Jones will be sentenced at a later date.", "A vintage Hawker Hunter jet crashed on to the A27 killing 11 men in 2015\n\nEleven men who died when a jet crashed on a dual carriageway during an air show were unlawfully killed, a coroner has concluded.\n\nThe men died when a Hawker Hunter plane crashed on the A27 in West Sussex as it carried out a stunt at the Shoreham Airshow on 22 August 2015.\n\nThe pilot, Andrew Hill, was cleared of manslaughter by gross negligence.\n\nSenior coroner Penelope Schofield said the plane crashing was \"a result of the manner in which it was flown\".\n\n\"This was not a small misjudgement,\" she told the inquest in Horsham, finding the pilot had two opportunities to escape the manoeuvre and prevent the crash.\n\n\"In my view, this goes beyond a mere mistake,\" the West Sussex coroner added.\n\nMs Schofield said that although she recorded a narrative verdict of unlawful killing, it did not \"detract from the fact\" Mr Hill was acquitted in a criminal court in 2019.\n\nPilot Andrew Hill was acquitted of gross negligence manslaughter in 2019\n\nMr Hill has always maintained he has no recollection of the crash.\n\nThe former RAF instructor claimed at his trial that he had blacked out in the air, having experienced \"cognitive impairment\" brought on by hypoxia possibly due to the effects of G-force.\n\nHowever, the coroner found there was no evidence of any G-force related impairment of the pilot during the loop-the-loop stunt he performed.\n\nMr Hill was not called as a witness to the inquest, having submitted evidence to the investigation.\n\nAt the pre-inquest review in September, his request for Ms Schofield to rule out a verdict of unlawful killing was denied.\n\nThe crash injured another 13 people, including the pilot.\n\nA number of the victims' family members were present and in tears as the conclusion was delivered.\n\nMs Schofield said: \"Eleven innocent lives were cruelly lost, lives that were cut too short.\n\n\"This huge loss will be borne by their families for the rest of their lives.\"\n\nThe eleven men who died were: Matt Jones, Matthew Grimstone, Jacob Schilt, Maurice Abrahams, Richard Smith. (Bottom row, left to right) Mark Reeves, Tony Brightwell, Mark Trussler, Daniele Polito, Dylan Archer, Graham Mallinson\n\nUK law firm Stewarts represented some of the families who lost loved ones in the disaster.\n\nPartner Sarah Stewart said: \"The bereaved families have waited more than seven years to reach this point and although the senior coroner's conclusion will not ease the pain of their loss, their voices have been heard.\"\n\nThe families, she added, said they had reached \"the end of their road\" in terms of legal proceedings.\n\nAn Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) inquiry concluded that the crash could have been avoided and was caused by pilot error when Mr Hill flew too low and too slowly while carrying out a manoeuvre.\n\nAll 21 safety recommendations made by the AAIB were accepted by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).\n\nThey included a review into whether changes should be made to the minimum distance required between the public and display aircraft, and a review of guidance for air show organisers, including how they carry out risk assessments.\n\nFollow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.", "This is the moment a BBC correspondent was surrounded by fans celebrating Argentina's World Cup win.\n\nKaty Watson was close to Buenos Aires Obelisk monument, when she was mobbed by ecstatic fans waiting to see their idols.\n\nThousands have taken to the streets for the festivities, with crowds stretching into the distance.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: 'All that matters is winning', Trump aide recalls\n\nA US congressional inquiry into last year's Capitol riot says ex-President Donald Trump should face criminal charges, including insurrection.\n\nThe Democratic-led committee voted unanimously for the justice department to prosecute Mr Trump.\n\nThe panel also aired a new clip of former Trump aide Hope Hicks on her warning to him about his legacy.\n\nMr Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, released a statement slamming the panel as a \"kangaroo court\".\n\nAfter spending around 18 months investigating the riot, the House of Representatives select committee recommended at their final meeting on Monday that Mr Trump face four charges:\n\nThe justice department - whose prosecutors are already considering whether to charge Mr Trump - does not have to follow a congressional committee's referral.\n\nWhile the panel's actions are mostly symbolic, the chairman described the proposed charges as a \"roadmap to justice\".\n\nA justice department spokesman declined to comment on Monday about the referral.\n\n\"An insurrection is a rebellion against the authority of the United States,\" said congressman Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who serves on the committee.\n\n\"It is a grave federal offence, anchored in the Constitution itself.\"\n\nThe panel's seven Democrats and two Republicans released their preliminary 161-page executive summary on Monday.\n\nIt accused Mr Trump of a \"multi-part conspiracy\" to thwart the will of voters in the run-up to the Capitol riot and during the riot itself.\n\nThe House committee has argued Mr Trump spread claims that he knew were false about the 2020 presidential election being stolen, before pressuring state officials, the justice department and his own vice-president to help overturn his defeat. The panel accuses him of inciting the riot at Congress in a last-ditch bid to block the peaceful transfer of power to Mr Biden.\n\nThe full report, spanning hundreds of pages, is due to be released on Wednesday.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nOn Monday, the panel also released a new video from their deposition with longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks, who said she had warned Mr Trump that by continuing to make false claims about the election, he and his team were \"damaging his legacy\".\n\nMr Trump had shrugged off her concern, she said.\n\nThe then-Republican president, she testified, \"said something along the lines of, 'Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won't matter.\n\n\"'The only thing that matters is winning.'\"\n\nThe committee also criticised the president's eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, a former White House aide, for not being \"forthcoming\" with investigators.\n\nMs Trump and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany \"displayed a lack of full recollection of certain issues, or were not otherwise as frank or direct\" as other aides to Mr Trump, the report said.\n\nMr Trump's presidential campaign, which he launched last month, released a statement accusing the committee of holding \"show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country's history\".\n\n\"This Kangaroo court has been nothing more than a vanity project that insults Americans' intelligence and makes a mockery of our democracy.\"\n\nA Trump bust being held up during the day of the riot at the US Capitol\n\nThe committee also said it would refer four Republican members of Congress to the House ethics committee, including Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, for failing to comply with the committee.\n\n\"If we are to survive as a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again,\" said committee chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.\n\n\"If the faith is broken, so is our democracy. Donald Trump broke that faith,\" he added.\n\nMore than 900 people have been charged in relation to the Capitol riot.", "Female students in the capital - Kabul University and others reopened in the spring following the Taliban takeover\n\nThe Taliban have banned women from universities in Afghanistan, sparking international condemnation and despair among young people in the country.\n\nThe higher education minister announced the regression on Tuesday, saying it would take immediate effect.\n\nThe ban further restricts women's education - girls have already been excluded from secondary schools since the Taliban returned last year.\n\nSome women staged protests in the capital Kabul on Wednesday.\n\n\"Today we come out on the streets of Kabul to raise our voices against the closure of the girls' universities,\" protesters from the Afghanistan Women's Unity and Solidarity group said.\n\nThe small demonstrations were quickly shut down by Taliban officials.\n\nFemale students have told the BBC of their anguish. \"They destroyed the only bridge that could connect me with my future,\" one Kabul University student said.\n\n\"How can I react? I believed that I could study and change my future or bring the light to my life but they destroyed it.\"\n\nAnother student told the BBC she was a woman who had \"lost everything\".\n\nShe had been studying Sharia Islamic law and argued the Taliban's order contradicted \"the rights that Islam and Allah have given us\".\n\n\"They have to go to other Islamic countries and see that their actions are not Islamic,\" she told the BBC.\n\nThe United Nations and several countries have condemned the order, which takes Afghanistan back to the Taliban's first period of rule when girls could not receive formal education.\n\nThe UN's Special Rapporteur to Afghanistan said it was \"a new low further violating the right to equal education and deepens the erasure of women from Afghan society.\"\n\nThe US said such a move would \"come with consequences for the Taliban\".\n\n\"The Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all in Afghanistan,\" said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement.\n\n\"No country can thrive when half of its population is held back.\"\n\nWestern countries have demanded all year that the Taliban improve female education if they wish to be formally recognised as Afghanistan's government.\n\nHowever in neighbouring Pakistan, the foreign minister said while he was \"disappointed\" by the Taliban's decision, he still advocated engagement.\n\n\"I still think the easiest path to our goal - despite having a lot of setbacks when it comes to women's education and other things - is through Kabul and through the interim government,\" said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.\n\nThe Taliban had promised a softer rule after seizing power last year following the US' withdrawal from the country. However the hardline Islamists have continued to roll back women's rights and freedoms in the country.\n\nThe Taliban's leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his inner circle have been against modern education - particularly for girls and women.\n\nThere has been opposition to this stance from more moderate officials, and analysts say this issue has been a point of factional division all year.\n\nYet on Tuesday, the education ministry said its scholars had evaluated the university curriculum and environment, and attendance for girls would be suspended \"until a suitable environment\" was provided.\n\nIt added that it would soon provide such a setting and \"citizens should not be worried\".\n\nHowever in March, the Taliban had promised to re-open some high schools for girls but then cancelled the move on the day they were due to return.\n\nThe crackdown also follows a wave of new restrictions on women in recent months. In November, women were banned from parks, gyms and public baths in the capital.\n\nA university lecturer and Afghan activist in the US said the Taliban had completed their isolation of women by suspending university for them.\n\n\"This was the last thing the Taliban could do. Afghanistan is not a country for women but instead a cage for women,\" Humaira Qaderi told the BBC.\n\nThe Taliban had just three months ago allowed thousands of girls and women to sit university entrance exams in most provinces across the country.\n\nBut there were restrictions on the subjects they could apply for, with engineering, economics, veterinary science and agriculture blocked and journalism severely restricted.\n\nPrior to Tuesday's announcement, universities had already been operating under discriminatory rules for women since the Taliban takeover in 2021.\n\nThere were gender segregated entrances and classrooms, and female students could only be taught by women professors or old men.\n\nHowever, women were still getting education. Unesco noted on Tuesday that from 2001 and 2018 - the period between Taliban rule - the rate of female attendance in higher education had increased 20 times.\n\nSeveral women have told the BBC they gave up after the Taliban regained rule because of \"too many difficulties\".\n\nThere has been speculation for over a month now that the Taliban government would ban university education for women.\n\nOne female student predicted it a few weeks ago. \"One day we will wake up and they will say girls are banned from universities,\" she had said.\n\nAnd so, while many Afghans might have expected that sooner or later this decision would be taken, it still comes as a shock.\n\nLast month women were barred from parks, gyms and swimming pools. In March this year, the Taliban government did not deliver on its commitment to open secondary schools for girls.\n\nFrom conversations with Taliban leaders over the past year, it is evident that there is disagreement within the Taliban on the issue of girls' education.\n\nOff the record, some Taliban members have repeatedly said they are hopeful and working to try and ensure girls get an education.\n\nGirls were allowed to sit for graduation exams for secondary schools two weeks ago, in 31 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, even though they haven't been allowed to be in school for more than a year.\n\nThat provided a glimmer of hope, which has now been extinguished.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Women in Afghanistan face an uncertain future following the Taliban's takeover", "Dennis McGrory was found guilty after he raped, stabbed and strangled a 15-year-old girl in 1975\n\nA man who brutally raped and murdered a teenager almost 50 years ago in the oldest double jeopardy case in England and Wales has been found guilty.\n\nDennis McGrory was 28 when he sexually assaulted, stabbed and strangled 15-year-old Jacqui Montgomery in her home in Islington, north London, in 1975.\n\nMcGrory was tried on a circumstantial case but was cleared of murder in 1976.\n\nHe was summoned again after swabs from Ms Montgomery's body made a one-in-a-billion DNA match decades later.\n\nHuntingdon Crown Court heard how the girl's body was found by her father, Robert Montgomery, in their living room in Offord Road on 2 June 1975.\n\nShe had suffered fatal stab wounds, blunt force trauma to her face and was strangled with the flex of an iron.\n\nJurors were told McGrory had been \"wild with rage\" when he killed the teenager as he tried to track down his ex-partner Josie Montgomery, who was the victim's aunt.\n\nThe CPS released images from the day after the murder, which shows Dennis McGrory with cuts and bruises behind his ears and on his hands\n\nProsecuting, Sarah Przybylska said: \"No doubt furious with rage and wanting to attack Josie, the defendant took out his anger on the next best thing, Jacqui Montgomery, both raping and murdering her.\"\n\nDuring the attack, he ripped out a page of the teenager's diary with her aunt's address on it.\n\nMcGrory had threatened to rape Jacqui in the past and, on that night, he \"made good\" on those words, jurors were told.\n\nFollowing a 2003 change in the law on double jeopardy, which meant that retrials could take place if new and compelling evidence came to light, McGrory's case was referred to the Court of Appeal and sent for a fresh trial at the Old Bailey.\n\nThat trial, in March, was halted when McGrory, of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, fell ill.\n\nHe appeared for his retrial at Huntingdon Crown Court by video link and was found guilty of rape and murder.\n\nMax Hill KC, director of public prosecutions, hailed the guilty verdict, saying: \"This crime took place a full decade before the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) opened its doors so it's certainly the oldest case that I've encountered.\n\n\"It is one of the very small handful of double jeopardy cases that I've personally authorised to be taken to the Court of Appeal.\n\n\"It is an extremely serious and rare step to ask the Court of Appeal, as I did, to set aside an acquittal for murder, whether that acquittal took place five years ago or 50 years ago,\" he added.\n\nJacqui Montgomery suffered fatal stab wounds, blunt force trauma and was strangled with the flex of an iron\n\nMr Hill praised the \"excellent\" work of the police and CPS in bringing McGrory to justice.\n\nHe described it as a \"particularly vicious murder\" where a sexual assault was part of the \"murderous attack\".\n\n\"That meant that on further investigation, we were able to prove that there was a scientific link between McGrory and the body of Jacqueline Montgomery.\n\n\"His DNA was found on her body in circumstances where he denies to this day that he was even at the scene or at the house in which she was murdered.\n\nHe said it formed new evidence in addition to finding a page torn from Ms Montgomery's diary.\n\n\"When you put those two elements together, it became impossible for him to explain his possession of the diary page and the DNA sample that he left on this poor girl's body in any way other than him being present and being the killer himself,\" Mr Hill added.\n\n\"I'm sure that this individual McGrory believed that he had gotten away with murder,\" Mr Hill continued.\n\n\"But since the double jeopardy principles were enshrined in statute in 2003, I and my recent predecessors have had the ability to try to put matters right,\" he said.\n\nMr Hill said \"although these cases are rightly rare\", the message was \"the system will catch you in the end\".\n\nActing Det Supt Rebecca Reeves described the murder as an \"extremely brutal attack\" and said she hoped the conviction would bring Ms Montgomery's family \"some element of comfort\".\n\n\"This has been an extremely challenging investigation lasting a number of years,\" she said.\n\nDet Supt Reeves praised the family members who gave evidence in the trial for being brave \"because McGrory was a violent bully who terrified the women in his life and that impact, that influence, was something that some of them still felt today\".\n\nClaire Prodger, from the CPS, said McGrory had \"finally faced justice for his murderous actions\" after \"selfishly and brutally\" ending the teenager's life.\n\nThe jury deliberated on Monday for just over an hour to find McGrory guilty on both charges against him.\n\nMcGrory was remanded into custody to be sentenced on 13 January.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk", "Among the items returned were some of the ceremonial heads from the kingdom of Benin\n\nGermany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has handed 22 artefacts looted in the 19th Century back to Nigeria at a ceremony in the capital, Abuja.\n\nThe return of this set of Benin Bronzes follows a deal made earlier this year to transfer ownership of more than 1,000 of these precious objects.\n\nIn July, Nigeria said it was the first time a European country had entered into this kind of agreement.\n\nMs Baerbock said it was part of efforts to deal with a \"dark colonial history\".\n\nSpeaking in Abuja on Tuesday, she added that it was an opportunity to right some of the wrongs of the past.\n\n\"Officials from my country once bought the bronzes, knowing they had been robbed and stolen.\n\n\"After that, we ignored Nigeria's plea to return them for a very long time. It was wrong to take them and it was wrong to keep them,\" Ms Baerbock is quoted as saying by German broadcaster DW.\n\nAmong the objects returned were some of the famous ceremonial heads, an ivory carving, as well as a decorated plaque.\n\nMoves to return artefacts stolen in the colonial era have been gathering momentum in recent years as European countries and museums grapple with how they came into their possession.\n\nNigeria's Information Minister Lai Mohammed said at the handover ceremony that attitudes have changed quickly, DW reports.\n\n\"Twenty years ago, even 10 years ago, nobody could have anticipated these bronzes returning to Nigeria, because the obstacles to achieving repatriation were seemingly insurmountable,\" he added.\n\nThe term Benin Bronzes refers to thousands of metal sculptures, plaques and carvings made between the 15th and 19th Centuries and looted by British troops in 1897 from the West African kingdom of Benin, in modern-day Nigeria's Edo state.\n\nThe sculptures, prized for their beauty and technical artistry, are of spiritual and historical significance for the people from that part of Nigeria. Their theft still remains a point of pain for the descendants of those from the ancient Benin kingdom.\n\nAfter being shipped to the UK in the late 19th Century, many were auctioned off in London and some were bought by German collectors, Germany's foreign ministry has said.\n\nThe country has been holding around 1,100 of the estimated 5,000 that were taken, it added in a statement.\n\nOthers are in the archives of museums in the UK, including the British Museum, which has the largest single collection of around 900 objects. An act of parliament prevents the British Museum from returning them.\n\nBut last month, London's Horniman Museum, which is a private charity, handed back dozens of items including some Benin Bronzes to Nigerian ownership - making it the first museum in the UK to officially take such action on this scale.\n\nNigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments has issued formal repatriation requests to museums across the world.\n\nIn 2026, the government plans to open the Edo Museum of West African Art in Benin City, which is being designed by British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye, to house the largest collection of Benin Bronzes ever assembled.\n\nIn the colonial era Germany governed parts of West, East and Southern Africa until the end of World War One.\n\nLast year, it officially acknowledged committing genocide during its occupation of Namibia.\n\nGerman colonisers killed tens of thousands of Ovaherero and Nama people there between 1904 and 1908.\n\nIn recent years, Germany has returned human remains to Namibia, some of which were used in now-discredited research into racial classification.", "A care worker in England is paid on average £8,000 a year less than NHS staff with the same skills, research for a care provider suggests.\n\nThe charity, Community Integrated Care, also told BBC News it was having to provide food parcels for some staff who were struggling to pay their bills.\n\nSeparate research shows low pay is the most common reason why care staff quit.\n\nThe government said it was \"incredibly grateful\" to carers and recognised their \"extraordinary commitment\".\n\nA spokesperson added: \"That's why we prioritised social care in the Autumn Statement, providing up to £7.5bn over the next two years.\"\n\nMany health professionals are struggling financially, with nurses due to strike over pay for a second time on Tuesday.\n\nHowever, Community Integrated Care - one of the UK's largest providers of support for people with learning disabilities and autism - says pay pressures facing social care are now \"untenable\" and \"immoral\".\n\nThe research, by job evaluation experts Korn Ferry, found care workers' wages have risen since last year, but the pay gap with the NHS has increased by about £1,000.\n\nOther jobs with similar skill levels, such as senior teaching assistants, are paid an average of £26,327, again significantly more than care workers, Korn Ferry found.\n\nMollie Moorby, 23, works with adults with physical and learning disabilities in Stockport, Greater Manchester. \"This is my dream job, helping people,\" Mollie told the BBC.\n\nMollie Moorby is working in her \"dream job\"\n\nShe is trained to support people with their daily life, including with their health needs and food.\n\nMollie started looking after her own mother as a teenager, and gradually realised she wanted to work in a caring role. However, on £10 an hour she struggles to put food on the table and cannot afford to turn on her heating.\n\n\"When you're working 40 to 50 hours a week and you put in everything, not only physically, but mentally, emotionally - for lack of better words - it doesn't seem fair.\"\n\nWith the cost-of-living crisis, things became so difficult that Mollie asked her bosses at Community Integrated Care for help. As a result, they started providing food parcels for staff in need, and they have given out more than 80 since September.\n\n\"With the food parcels, it has been a lot easier,\" says Mollie. \"You get necessities, things that are expensive, like laundry detergent. That was stressing me out for a while.\"\n\nThe charity says it has already used its financial reserves to increase wages for Mollie and her colleagues. However, it says it cannot raise them further because it is now running at a loss - as the fees it receives from councils for providing support are not enough.\n\n\"We are subsidising the contracts that local authorities are asking us to provide,\" says Teresa Exelby, from the charity. \"We want to do absolutely everything we can, but as a charity that is not sustainable. Fundamentally, the system is absolutely broken.\"\n\nA separate report, published on Monday by the Homecare Association, which represents companies caring for people in their own homes, reaches a similar conclusion, with almost all the firms that responded saying it is harder than ever to recruit and keep staff.\n\nThe latest official figures, published in October, show 165,000 job vacancies in adult social care in England, up 52% in a year.\n\nThe Homecare Association study says among staff, the most common reason for leaving is needing to earn more money and more than half say they feel burnt out, stressed or exhausted.\n\nThe government says its Made With Care recruitment campaign aims to boost careers in adult social care and it is also investing £15m in hiring from overseas.\n\nIn England, the national living wage for over-23s will rise to £10.42 from next April.", "Rail passengers are being warned to avoid travel on Christmas Eve when further strike action over pay and conditions is due to take place.\n\nThe planned walkout by RMT members on 24 December will have a severe impact on services, said Network Rail.\n\nIt advised passengers to travel only if \"absolutely necessary\" or consider travel on another day.\n\nMost people should try to complete their journeys by 15:00, ahead of union members walking out at 18:00, it added.\n\nThe strike by RMT workers will continue until 06:00 on 27 December.\n\nNetwork Rail added that some rail companies will be unable to run any services on Christmas Eve, with further \"significant impacts\" between Christmas and New Year.\n\nAndrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail said: \"I am so sorry that our passengers are having to bear the brunt of the RMT's needless strike when a fair [pay] offer is on the table.\"\n\nPrevious strikes by the RMT have had a major impact on services throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Union members have rejected offers in a dispute over pay, job security and working conditions.\n\nThe RMT has announced further strikes for 3-4 January and 6-7 January.\n\nNetwork Rail said the industrial action meant some rail companies would be unable to run any services on 24 December, with \"very limited\" services on Boxing Day also.\n\nChief executive Mr Haines added that the strikes over the busy Christmas period were \"causing needless misery\" to the railway and to the country's economy.\n\nBut RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has described Network Rail's pay offer to workers as \"substandard\".\n\n\"Our members, along with the entire trade union movement will continue their campaign for a square deal for workers, decent pay increases and good working conditions,\" Mr Lynch said in a statement last week, adding that members were prepared to take further strike action \"in pursuit of a negotiated settlement\".\n\nThe railway strikes come at a time of widespread industry walkouts, including those by ambulance drivers, nurses, driving examiners and highway workers who will all be striking over the festive period.\n\nThousands of postal workers also walked out last week in a dispute over pay and working conditions, with further strikes by Royal Mail workers belonging to the CWU due to take place on 23 and 24 December - some of the busiest days for pre-Christmas deliveries.", "Next year will be warmer than this one, and one of the hottest on record, the UK Met Office is forecasting.\n\nPredictions suggest it will be the 10th year in a row the global temperature is at least 1C above average.\n\nThe Met Office explained that a cooling effect known as La Niña will likely end after being in place for three years - part of a natural weather cycle.\n\nIt also noted the warming impact of human-induced climate change.\n\nScientific evidence shows that climate change is driving up the global temperature.\n\nGovernments globally have promised to cut emissions to keep temperature rise below 1.5C to avoid the worst effects of climate change.\n\nThe world has already warmed by around 1.1C compared to the period before the Industrial Revolution in 1750-1900 when humans began burning large amounts of fossil fuels, releasing warming gases into the atmosphere.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nTemperatures in 2023 are forecast to be between 1.08C and 1.32C above the pre-industrial average.\n\nThe warmest year since records began in 1850 was in 2016, when meteorologists said the weather phenomenon known as El Niño boosted global temperatures.\n\nBut the past three years have been affected by another weather pattern called La Niña when cooler-than-average sea temperatures in the Pacific lowered the average global temperature.\n\nThat effect is now predicted to end, bringing warmer conditions in parts of the Pacific and leading to the global temperature being warmer than in 2022.\n\nUnlike 2016, it is not expected to be a record-breaking year because El Niño will not be boosting global temperature, explains Prof Adam Scaife, head of long-range prediction at the Met Office.\n\nBut some parts of the world such as the Arctic are warming at a faster rate than average.\n\n\"Next year the natural and temporary braking effect of La Niña will wane. The full-on gas pedal will invigorate warming over the coming year and continue into the future, along with more severe wet, dry and hot extremes, until policies are in place to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions,\" Richard Allan, professor of climate science at University of Reading told BBC News.\n\nIn 2022 temperature records were broken in numerous parts of the world, including in the UK which recorded above 40C.\n\nDevastating wildfires hit parts of Europe and Australia linked to hot weather, and Pakistan and India sweltered with temperatures reaching 51C in May.\n\nIn a series of studies scientists concluded that these temperatures were made much more likely by climate change.\n\nRising temperatures are predicted to lead to devastating effects on humans and nature, including more drought, desertification and heat-related illness.", "Gaby Hutchinson died in hospital in the early hours of Monday\n\nA second person has died after being injured in a crush at a gig at London's Brixton O2 Academy.\n\nGaby Hutchinson, 23, who was working as a security contractor that night, died in hospital in the early hours of Monday.\n\nThe concert, by Afro-pop singer Asake, was cut short on Thursday after a \"large number of people\" tried to force their way inside, the Met Police said.\n\nA 21-year-old woman remains in a critical condition in hospital following the crush at Asake's third sold-out show at the south London venue last week.\n\nIn its initial statement, the Metropolitan Police stated that a second woman had died following the crush.\n\nHowever, Scotland Yard issued a further press release on Monday evening, updating the name and gender to that of Gaby Hutchinson.\n\nThe Met said: \"At this time we have established that the three people who were critically injured, including Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson who have tragically died, were all in the foyer of the building.\"\n\nIt added detectives were \"working hard to establish exactly what happened on Thursday night\", and described the investigation as \"large and complex\".\n\nPolice are reviewing CCTV, phone footage, speaking to witnesses and conducting forensic examinations.\n\nThe first officers were reported to be on the scene at 21:11 GMT, seven minutes after they were called.\n\nVideos on social media showed the crowd stretching from the road outside to the venue's doors, one of which was smashed.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nCh Supt Colin Wingrove, policing commander for Lambeth and Southwark, said: \"It is devastating news that a second person has lost their life following the events on Thursday.\n\nHe expressed \"heartfelt condolences\" to the families.\n\nThe O2 Academy tweeted its \"heartfelt condolences\" to Gaby Hutchinson's family and friends.\n\n\"We continue to be devastated by this tragic situation and are fully supporting the ongoing situation,\" it said.\n\nFlorence Eshalomi, the MP for Vauxhall whose constituency includes Brixton, said she felt \"utterly heartbroken\" by the deaths.\n\nLondon's mayor Sadiq Khan said he was \"devastated\".\n\nMs Ikumelo was a nursing graduate who had been attending the concert.\n\nHer cousin Babatunde Oyejide told the BBC she was a \"true, special person\" and encouraged people to send prayers to Ms Ikumelo's partner and children.\n\nHe said: \"She was a very loved person in the neighbourhood and a very caring person, family orientated. She is going to be truly missed and we love her forever.\"\n\nThe south London venue was evacuated on Thursday night\n\nAsake, who had urged fans without tickets not to turn up at the venue before his first Brixton concert, released a statement following Ms Ikumelo's death in which he said he was \"devastated\".\n\n\"I am overwhelmed with grief and could never have imagined anything like this happening,\" he wrote.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Lyndsey Foley says the experience was \"horrific\"\n\nA mother whose four-year-old son nearly died after swallowing 52 magnets from a toy has urged parents to be aware of the dangers.\n\nDoctors had to remove Jude's appendix and cut his bowel in five places where the magnets got trapped.\n\nHis mother Lyndsey Foley said she feared she was going to lose him.\n\nPublic Health Wales (PHW) urged people to think before buying products containing mini magnets and button batteries for children.\n\nMs Foley, 34, from Merthyr Tydfil, said she became concerned after her son, now five, had recurring bouts of sickness over an eight week period this summer.\n\nAfter concern grew, in August she took Jude to Prince Charles Hospital when he was in severe pain.\n\nBlood tests and physical examinations appeared normal until something appeared on an X-ray.\n\nJude swallowed beads, similar to these, in the summer\n\n\"The doctor thought that he was lying on a necklace at first but upon looking at it, I knew straight away that it was these beads,\" she said.\n\n\"Then within five minutes the doctors were arranging for an ambulance to take us down to the Children's Hospital in Cardiff.\n\n\"We got blue lighted down. I started to panic. It was only then that I realised how serious it was.\"\n\nMs Foley said she had bought the magnetic beads toy for her eight-year-old daughter Poppy.\n\nThe toys are popular with children, with a variety of videos on YouTube showing how you can make shapes, objects and houses with the tiny magnetic balls.\n\nJude's mother says the experience which left him in hospital for weeks was \"horrific\"\n\nLyndsey however had no idea her son had been swallowing \"one or two, here or there\" over the space of a couple of months.\n\n\"The surgeon said if I hadn't brought him in when I did, it could have been fatal,\" she said.\n\n\"Due to the nature of the bowel and the force of the beads, it was tearing holes in his bowel which was causing his bowel to leak so an infection was spreading through his body. He was getting poisoned.\"\n\nSurgeons were operating on Jude for seven hours due to the complexity of the operation.\n\nJude could not eat anything and was bed-bound for seven days during his two-week hospital stay.\n\nJude has been left with a five-inch scar after surgery\n\nHis mother said: \"He was in pain. It was traumatic for him. It was horrible for me because I couldn't give him a cwtch because he was hooked up to so many pipes.\n\n\"I am very lucky Jude has no long-term health affects, but the surgeon did warn us that he may have had a colostomy bag for life or he could have been on monthly vitamin injections because of the shortness of the bowel.\"\n\nMs Foley now wants to warn other parents of the dangers from small toys.\n\n\"If you've got these beads at home, remove them. They are so dangerous.\n\n\"I still have that guilt, thinking what I put my child though or what could have been... How his life could have changed through me purchasing a toy that you think is safe. I never would have thought the damage it would have caused.\"\n\nJude is having regular check-ups and is doing well, but a five-inch scar on his tummy will be a reminder of what happened.\n\n\"Jude has learnt his lesson now - don't put anything in your mouth,\" said Ms Foley. \"And me, as a parent, I am more aware of what I am buying.\"\n\nAlison Farrar, of Trading Standards Wales, said it's important to make sure children \"don't play with toys designed for older children\".\n\n\"There are rules round what goes on products and those rules are tighter when something is designed that might appeal to a small child - even if that is not a toy for small children,\" she said.\n\n\"Children follow crazes on social media and you can watch videos of other children playing with toys, what we need to be sure is that the right age group is playing with the right toy.\n\n\"And that's what's happened here, the child didn't realise the magnets were dangerous and the parents didn't know the child was playing with them.\"\n\nSarah Jones, consultant in environmental public health at Public Health Wales, said: \"We are asking parents to think carefully before buying products containing magnets and button batteries for children.\n\n\"Mini magnet toys don't make good stocking fillers. They should always be stored out of the reach of small children.\n\n\"Similar dangers come from children swallowing button batteries too.\"", "A heart surgeon says he \"probably saved the life\" of a baby by carrying out a \"world-first\" operation using stem cells from placentas.\n\nProfessor Massimo Caputo from the Bristol Heart Institute used pioneering stem cell injections to correct baby Finley's heart defect.\n\nHe hopes to develop the technology so children born with congenital cardiac disease won't need as many operations.\n\nFinley, now two, is \"a happy growing little boy\".\n\nBut he was born with the main arteries in his heart the wrong way round and at just four days old had his first open-heart surgery at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.\n\nUnfortunately the surgery did not solve the problem and his heart function deteriorated significantly, with the left side of the heart suffering from a severe lack of blood flow.\n\nHis mother, Melissa, from Corsham, in Wiltshire, said: \"We were prepared from the start that the odds of him surviving were not good.\n\n\"After 12 hours, Finley finally came out of surgery but he needed a heart and lung bypass machine to keep alive, and his heart function had deteriorated significantly.\"\n\nMelissa celebrating Christmas with her two-year old Finley\n\nAfter weeks in intensive care it looked like there was no conventional way to treat Finley's condition and he was reliant on drugs to keep his heart going.\n\nBut a new procedure was tried, involving stem cells from a placenta bank.\n\nProf Caputo injected the cells directly into Finley's heart in the hope they would help damaged blood vessels grow.\n\nThe so-called \"allogeneic\" cells were grown by scientists at the Royal Free Hospital in London, and millions of them were injected into Finley's heart muscle.\n\nAllogeneic cells have the ability to grow into tissue that is not rejected and in Finley's case, have regenerated damaged heart muscle.\n\n\"We weaned him from all the drugs he was on, we weaned him from ventilation,\" said Prof Caputo.\n\n\"He was discharged from ITU and is now a happy growing little boy.\"\n\nThe stem cell scaffold can be bio-printed into any shape\n\nUsing a bio-printer, a stem cell scaffold is made to repair abnormalities to valves in blood vessels, and to mend holes between the two main pumping chambers of the heart.\n\nArtificial tissue is normally used used on babies for cardiac repairs, but it can fail and it does not grow with the heart, so as the children grow, they require more operations.\n\nProf Caputo hopes a clinical trial on the patches will happen in the next two years, after successful laboratory work.\n\nLouie from Cardiff has a number of congenital heart defects\n\nThe trial of the stem cell plasters offers hope for patients like Louie from Wales, who has a number of congenital heart defects.\n\nThe 13-year-old from Cardiff had his first open heart surgery with Prof Caputo at just two weeks' old and then again aged four to replace the material fixing his heart.\n\nBut because the materials are not completely biological, they are unable to grow with him and he needs repeat operations.\n\nLike Louie, every day in the UK, around 13 babies are diagnosed with a congenital heart defect - a heart condition that develops before the baby is born, according to the British Heart Foundation.\n\nBecause the materials used to fix the heart can be rejected by the patient's immune system, they can cause scarring in the heart that can lead to other complications, and can gradually break down and fail in just a few months or years.\n\nA child might therefore have to go through the same heart operation multiple times throughout its childhood - around 200 repeat operations for congenital heart defects are carried out every year in the UK.\n\nLouie hopes the breakthrough means the number of operations he faces will be significantly reduced thanks to the stem cell technology and tissues able to grow with his body.\n\n\"I don't like having the procedures,\" he said.\n\n\"It's not good in the long term, knowing every couple of years I need an operation so that would make me a lot more relaxed.\"\n\nProf Caputo and his team say the stem cell technology could save the NHS an estimated £30,000 for every operation no longer needed, saving millions of pounds each year.\n\nDr Stephen Minger, an expert in stem cell biology and director of SLM Blue Skies Innovations Ltd, applauded the research.\n\nHe said: \"Most studies that I am aware of in adults with heart dysfunction or failure show only minimal therapeutic benefit with stem cell infusion.\n\n\"I'm happy that the clinical team will go on to do a standard clinical trial which should tell us if this was a 'one-off' success and also give us some better understanding of mechanisms behind this.\"\n\nFollow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: bristol@bbc.co.uk", "Michelle Mone is on a leave of absence from the House of Lords\n\nThe government is suing a company that supplied it with personal protective equipment (PPE) for £122m plus costs.\n\nPPE Medpro won contracts through the so-called VIP lane in 2020, after being recommended by Tory peer Baroness Mone.\n\nThe government is attempting to get its money back on one of the deals in the High Court, claiming the medical gowns supplied \"did not comply with the specification in the contract\".\n\nPPE Medpro said it would \"rigorously\" defend the claim.\n\nThe company accused the government of a \"cynical attempt\" to recover money from suppliers who had acted in good faith and to contract specifications.\n\nThe government says along with the £122m contract, it has so far spent £6.9m on storage costs for the kit and each week it costs over £61,000 to store the gowns. It estimates the cost to dispose the gowns would be £4.7m.\n\nAccording to legal documents seen by the BBC, the government claims the \"the gowns did not comply with the specification in the contract\" and could not be used in the NHS. It also accuses PPE Medpro of a \"breach of contract and unjust enrichment\".\n\nA Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said: \"We can confirm that we have commenced legal proceedings in the High Court against PPE Medpro Limited for breach of contract regarding gowns delivered under a contract dated 26 June 2020.\n\n\"We do not comment on matters that are the subject of ongoing legal proceedings.\"\n\nLabour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said: \"After nearly a year of hiding behind a mediation process with a company linked to one of their own peers, Conservative ministers have finally been shamed into action to recover taxpayers' money after damning revelations, public outcry and Labour pressure.\n\n\"Time will now tell if the shoddy contracts they drew up are sufficiently robust to retrieve the public money they carelessly handed over.\"\n\nThe government has previously described the PPE Medpro medical gowns deal as an \"underperforming\" contract.\n\nIn a statement, the company said it was clear by the end of 2020 that the government had \"vastly over-ordered\" PPE and would never be able to use it all.\n\nIt said consultants had been brought in to \"pick over all the contracts\" on \"technicalities\".\n\n\"PPE Medpro will demonstrate to the courts that we supplied our gowns to the correct specification, on time and at a highly competitive price,\" the company said.\n\n\"The case will also show the utter incompetence of DHSC to correctly procure and specify PPE during the emergency procurement period.\"\n\nThe company said while it was examining the allegations made by the government it refuted all of them and said its case would \"seek to dismantle\" them and \"make uncomfortable reading for both the government and DHSC\".\n\nThe government revealed last year that Baroness Mone was the \"source of referral\" for PPE Medpro getting a place on the so-called VIP lane for PPE offers coming from ministers, officials or peers.\n\nIn other words, she recommended the company.\n\nVIP lane offers were treated with greater urgency and were 10 times more likely to result in contracts than offers being made outside this route.\n\nBaroness Mone contacted Lord Agnew, the Cabinet Office minister, about the firm and he directed the offer to the VIP lane.\n\nShe is taking a leave of absence from the House of Lords, meaning she will not sit as a Conservative peer. She says she wants to clear her name amid allegations she benefitted from the contracts.\n\nIn December 2020, lawyers for Baroness Mone said she \"had no role or function in PPE Medpro, nor in the process by which contracts were awarded to PPE Medpro\".\n\nThe House of Lords commissioner for standards has launched an investigation into her \"alleged involvement in procuring contracts for PPE Medpro\".\n\nBut the Commissioner's website says his investigation has been paused while the matter is investigated by the police or another agency as part of a criminal investigation.", "Martin Duffy (left) with Primal Scream bandmates Bobby Gillespie and Mani and their Q Award in 2006\n\nMartin Duffy, who played keyboards for Primal Scream and The Charlatans, has died at the age of 55.\n\nDuffy started out in cult 1980s indie band Felt before joining Primal Scream for their 1991 album Screamadelica.\n\nHe started performing with The Charlatans in 1996. Their singer Tim Burgess said his death was \"another tragic loss of a beautiful soul\".\n\nPrimal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie described Duffy as a \"soul brother\" and a \"very special character\".\n\nHe added: \"He had a love and understanding of music on a deep spiritual level. Music meant everything to him...\n\n\"Martin was the most musically talented of all of us. His style combined elements of country, blues and soul, all of which he had a God given natural feel for.\"\n\nThe singer continued: \"Martin was also in possession of a unique wit. He had a swift eye for the absurd, the surreal and the ridiculous.\n\n\"He lived to laugh and play music. He was loved by all of us in the Scream. A beautiful soul. We will miss him.\"\n\nThe group's bassist Simone Marie Butler added: \"No words x i miss u already Duff. This is the saddest day and i'm [in] tears writing this. So loved x\"\n\nBirmingham-born Duffy played on every Primal Scream album and also featured on songs by Oasis, the Chemical Brothers and Beth Orton.\n\nHe had joined Felt at the age of 18 after answering an advert placed by the group's frontman Lawrence that read: \"Do You Want To Be A Rock 'n' Roll Star?\"\n\nHe later became part of The Charlatans after their keyboardist Rob Collins died in a car crash, three weeks before they were due to be on the bill at Oasis' famous Knebworth concerts in 1996.\n\n\"Martin Duffy stepped in to save The Charlatans when we lost Rob,\" Burgess wrote.\n\n\"He played with us at Knebworth and was a true friend. He toured with me in my solo band too - he was a pleasure to spend time with. Safe travels Duffy.\"\n\nDuffy also released a solo album on Burgess' record label in 2014. He toured with Edwyn Collins and the Beta Band's Steve Mason, and last performed live in October in an impromptu appearance with US band Pere Ubu.\n\nSuper Furry Animals singer Gruff Rhys was among the others paying tribute. He tweeted: \"Martin Duffy's music has been with me since the 1980s - sending all the best to Primal Scream & all his friends and family on this very sad day - going to put some of his instrumental records on.\"\n\nA family statement posted on Twitter by Duffy's brother Steve, a BBC journalist, said: \"Everyone who knew Martin loved him; he was the real deal, our shining star.\"\n\nMartin suffered a brain injury after a fall and died peacefully surrounded by family including his beloved son Louie, they said.\n\n\"He was loved by his mother, brothers, wider family and close friends.\"\n\nThe message added: \"He had a gift with music but even more of one with people. Love you Martin, proud of what you did and all you were. We're with you brother xx\"", "Last updated on .From the section Sports Personality\n\nCoverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app\n\nA shortlist of six contenders has been announced for the 2022 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.\n\nThe nominees are gymnast Jessica Gadirova, footballer Beth Mead, curling's Eve Muirhead, cricketer Ben Stokes, snooker player Ronnie O'Sullivan and athlete Jake Wightman.\n\nVoting will be open during the show on BBC One on Wednesday, 21 December.\n\nGary Lineker, Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott will present the 69th annual awards.\n\nThe programme, filmed at Media City in Salford, will celebrate 12 months of incredible sporting action.\n\nThe public can vote by phone or online on the night for the main award, with full details announced during the show.\n\nOther awards to be announced include Young Sports Personality of the Year, Team and Coach of the Year, Unsung Hero and the Helen Rollason Award.\n\nEight-time sprinting gold medallist Usain Bolt will be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award, while football World Cup winner Lionel Messi is the World Sport Star of the Year.\n• None Sports Personality 2022 - All you need to know\n\nA rising star of British gymnastics, Gadirova claimed floor gold on the final day of the world championships.\n\nIt was the English gymnast's third medal at the event in Liverpool after winning silver in the team event and a historic bronze in the all-around competition.\n\nThat was Britain's first world all-around medal and Gadirova became only the fifth British gymnast to be individual world champion.\n\nGadirova, who took floor gold and team silver at the European Championships, is also on the Young Sports Personality shortlist along with skateboarder Sky Brown and diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix.\n\n\"I'm just so shocked to be in that shortlist with such incredible athletes and to be recognised for my hard work and achievements - it's incredible,\" she told BBC Sport.\n\nMead won the Golden Boot and was player of the tournament as England claimed a historic triumph at Euro 2022.\n\nThe Lionesses lifted their first trophy at a major women's tournament with a 2-1 victory after extra time against eight-time champions Germany at Wembley.\n\n\"It was a proud moment for me and a surreal moment - walking out of that tunnel and going to play in front of a home crowd,\" Mead said of the final, watched by a record 87,192 crowd.\n\n\"The day in general, the noise in general, the atmosphere was honestly something I'll never feel or experience again.\"\n\nMead scored six goals and contributed five assists during the tournament as she bounced back from the disappointment of not being selected to represent Team GB at the Tokyo Olympics a year earlier.\n\nThe Arsenal forward was voted BBC Women's Footballer of the Year 2022 and was runner-up in the Women's Ballon d'Or, the prize awarded to the world's best footballer of the year.\n\nMuirhead led the Great Britain women's team that won curling gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.\n\nAs skip, she claimed an elusive gold medal in China at the fourth time of asking, the pinnacle of a career during which she became Scotland's most decorated curler.\n\n\"I look back and I still wonder how I got myself through lockdown, Covid, everything. It was such a rollercoaster, standing on the podium at the end of it all was very, very special,\" she told BBC Sport.\n\nFor Scotland, Muirhead claimed the mixed doubles world title earlier this year alongside Bobby Lammie, before later announcing her retirement from the sport.\n\nO'Sullivan claimed his seventh World Championship title to equal Stephen Hendry's record in the modern era.\n\nAged 46, he became the oldest world champion in Crucible history, eclipsing Ray Reardon, who won his sixth title aged 45 in 1978.\n\n'The Rocket' cemented his position as one of snooker's all-time greats with an 18-13 final win against Judd Trump.\n\nIt was a 39th ranking title for the English player, who holds almost every major record in the game and also won the Champion of Champions and Hong Kong Masters in 2022.\n\nO'Sullivan, who has on occasion been outspoken about snooker and his fellow players, told BBC Sport: \"The love/hate doesn't come from hating the game, I've always loved the game, just my frustrations would spill over and it would look like I had fallen out of love with the game.\n\n\"But it was only because I wasn't playing the game to the standard that I wanted to play.\"\n\nStokes, the 2019 Sports Personality winner, starred as England won the men's T20 World Cup by beating Pakistan in a thrilling final.\n\nUnder intense pressure at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, Stokes was there at the end on 52 not out.\n\nHaving inherited a side with one win in their last 17 Tests, Stokes' England claimed nine victories from 10 games in increasingly audacious fashion against New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan.\n\nHe captained England to one of their greatest overseas performances, with a bold declaration helping secure victory with a record run rate in their first Test in Pakistan for 17 years. It set his side on the path to a historic 3-0 series win.\n\nStokes told BBC Sport: \"I think it shows that you don't have to be stuck in a particular way of playing Test cricket just because it's been done for however long, a long period of time. It's different but it's exciting to watch.\"\n\nWightman produced a stunning run to take 1500m gold at the World Championships in Oregon.\n\nThe Scot was the first British man to win the world title in the event since Steve Cram in 1983.\n\nHe produced a brilliant final burst to pass Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and clinch the title, called home by his father Geoff who was the stadium announcer.\n\n\"It's that moment you cross the line, it's just such euphoria, I just wish you could bottle that up because it soon fades away a little bit,\" Wightman told BBC Sport.\n\n\"The disbelief and the shock are something that I will never have again.\"\n\nWightman also won 800m silver at the European Championships and 1500m bronze at the Commonwealth Games.\n• None Sports Personality of the Year: Terms and conditions\n\nWho was on the judging panel?\n\nThe industry panel for this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year included former Olympian Denise Lewis and Paralympian Kelly Gallagher as well as ex-snooker player Stephen Hendry.\n\nSports journalists Nancy Gillen (GiveMeSport), Jack Fox (Metro) and Tumaini Carayol (The Guardian) were also on the 2022 panel, in addition to Sue Butler (head of sports, S4C) and Sally Munday (CEO, UK Sport).\n\nRepresenting the BBC were director of sport Barbara Slater, head of TV sport Philip Bernie and Sports Personality of the Year executive producer Gabby Cook.", "Terry Hall, the frontman of socially conscious ska band The Specials, has died at the age of 63.\n\nKnown for his dour image and sharp wit, the singer found fame in the 1970s and 80s with hits like Ghost Town, Gangsters and Too Much Too Young.\n\nHe left The Specials in 1981 to form Fun Boy Three with fellow-bandmates Neville Staple and Lynval Golding, scoring another run of hits.\n\nThe singer died after a brief illness, The Specials said in a statement.\n\n\"Terry was a wonderful husband and father and one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls,\" they wrote.\n\n\"His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life… the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but mostly the love.\n\n\"He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him and leaves behind the gift of his remarkable music and profound humanity.\"\n\nIn a separate message, Staple told the BBC he had learned of his friend's passing as he landed in Egypt for a holiday with his wife.\n\n\"It's really hit me hard,\" he said. \"We fronted The Specials and Fun Boy Three together, making history.\n\n\"Terry, he surely will be missed.\"\n\nJane Wiedlin, co-founder of band The Go Gos who co-wrote the band's hit Our Lips Are Sealed with Hall, said he was a \"lovely, sensitive, talented and unique person\".\n\n\"Our extremely brief romance resulted in the song Our Lips Are Sealed, which will forever tie us together in music history.\"\n\nSinger Elvis Costello described Hall's voice as \"the perfect instrument for the true and necessary songs on The Specials\".\n\n\"That honesty is heard in so many of his songs in joy and sorrow,\" he said.\n\nThe band asked for respect for Hall's family's privacy. No cause of death was shared.\n\nThe musician was born in 1959 and raised in Coventry, where most of his family worked in the city's then-booming car industry.\n\nBut his life took a dark turn when, at the age of 12, he was kidnapped by a teacher.\n\n\"I was abducted, taken to France and sexually abused for four days,\" he told The Spectator in 2019. \"And then punched in the face and left on the roadside.\"\n\nHall said the incident left him with lifelong depression and caused him to drop out of education at the age of 14, after becoming addicted to the Valium he had been prescribed.\n\n\"I didn't go to school, I didn't do anything. I just sat on my bed rocking for eight months.\"\n\nMusic was some form of solace; and Hall joined a local punk band called Squad, receiving his first writing credit on their single Red Alert.\n\nHe was spotted by The Specials' Jerry Dammers, who recruited him as a frontman by deploying a terrible pun.\n\n\"He worked in a stamp shop\" the musician told Mojo magazine. \"I told him, Philately will get you nowhere'\".\n\nAfter gaining a fearsome live reputation at home, the band rose to national prominence after Radio 1's John Peel played their debut single, Gangsters, on his show.\n\nThe song - a tribute to Prince Buster's ska classic Al Capone - established the band and their record label 2-Tone as a major force in British music.\n\nThey were a multi-racial group, documenting the turbulent Thatcher years by playing songs directly indebted to Jamaican ska - a pre-reggae style that remained popular in Britain's West Indian communities.\n\nBut Hall, never one for hyperbole, said the band's success was almost an accidental by-product of the punk movement.\n\n\"When I saw the Pistols and The Clash I realised it didn't seem that difficult,\" he told The Big Issue. \"They didn't seem like they could play very well either, so the thing was to form a band then work it out.\n\n\"We didn't even know who was going to play what - we passed around all the instruments until we found what we were comfortable with. I wasn't comfortable with any of them so I became the singer.\"\n\nNonetheless, the band rode an extraordinary wave of popularity, scoring seven consecutive top 10 singles between 1979 and 1981.\n\nThat period culminated with 1981's Ghost Town, a hypnotic, menacing song that seemed to predict and then soundtrack that summer's riots on the streets of London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham - a response to the police's use of stop-and-search tactics.\n\nHall said his political awakening came in his teenage years \"when I discovered that working men's clubs had a colour bar on their doors\".\n\n\"That really shook me,\" he said, and resolved to take a stand.\n\n\"When you see injustice, all you can do is think: what can I do to help, what can I say about this, how can I make people aware of this?\"\n\nGhost Town spent three weeks at number one, and is widely regarded as one of the all-time great British pop songs.\n\nBut Hall - who was only 22 - found it hard to bridge the discrepancy between chart fame and the band's political message.\n\n\"When we picked up a gold disc for Ghost Town, I felt really bad about it,\" he said. \"You are being told to celebrate this number one record that is about what is happening, the mess that we are in, and I felt very uncomfortable.\"\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by The Specials This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video by The Specials\n\nHall left the band to start Fun Boy Three with Golding and Staple, abandoning ska for a more experimental, skeletal pop sound.\n\nTheir debut single The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum) picked up where Ghost Town left off, and Hall wrote about his childhood abuse on the album track Well Fancy That.\n\nBut the band found more commercial success by teaming up with the era's biggest girl groups.\n\nThey duetted with Bananarama on Really Saying Something and a cover of the jazz standard It Ain't What You Do.\n\nHall also teamed up with Wiedlin of The Go Gos to write Our Lips Are Sealed, a song that both bands recorded and took into the charts separately.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by Chrysalis Records This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nAfter Fun Boy Three, Hall formed numerous other bands, including The Colourfield; Terry, Blair, and Anouchka; and Vegas, a collaboration with Eurythmics star Dave Stewart.\n\nHe launched a solo career in 1994 with the critically acclaimed Home, by which time he was being cited as a key influence by artists like Massive Attack and Damon Albarn (who appeared on the song Chasing A Rainbow).\n\nFor new fans, he offered some listening advice: \"The Specials and Fun Boy Three should be played loud with gay abandon and my solo/personal records need to be listened to with a healthy dose of melancholy & self-pity.\"\n\nHe went on to record with trip-hop artist Tricky and Albarn's hip-hop side project Gorillaz, before reuniting with The Specials for a tour in 2008, and performed at the 2012 London Olympics closing concert.\n\nIn 2019, the band released a new album, Encore, which gave them their first ever number one; and spawned gigs up and down the UK, before Covid put their comeback to an unexpected halt.\n\n\"The arrival of the pandemic affected me enormously,\" Hall later told The Quietus. \"I spent around three months trying to figure out what was going on. I couldn't write a single word. I spent the time trying to figure out how not to die.\"\n\nThe solution, he later decided, was to record an album of covers, inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.\n\nReleased in October 2021, it featured new versions of Bob Marley's Get Up, Stand Up, and The Staples Singers' Freedom Highway among others.\n\nSimply called Protest Songs, it charted at number two, marking Hall's final appearance in the Top 75 - and a fitting bookend to a legacy of powerful, meaningful music that defined an era of outspokenly political British pop.\n\nHall is survived by his wife, the director Lindy Heymann. They had one son, while Hall has two older sons with his ex-wife, Jeanette Hall.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.\n• None Singer Terry Hall was 'truly one of the greats'", "Two more ambulance services - Yorkshire Ambulance Service and South Central Ambulance Service - have declared critical incidents, bringing the total to five.\n\nYorkshire Ambulance Service says that as of 13:00 GMT on 20 December, a critical incident has been declared due to \"high levels of demand, significant delays for patients waiting for an ambulance and delays in handing over patients at hospitals\".\n\nEarlier, Mark Ainsworth, Director of Operations at South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS), said: “Last week was an extremely difficult week, which has only escalated over the course of the weekend and into this week, leading to us declaring a critical incident.\"\n\nCalls to 999 are up 50% on this time last year, while 111 calls are up 75% over the same period, the service says.\n\nIt says it faces the additional challenges of \"ambulances being unable to handover the care of their patients at some of our acute hospitals which prevents us getting crews back on the road to respond to other patients\".\n\nIt said tomorrow's strike action \"may add further pressure\" but the impact is expected to be mainly on non-emergency patient transport.\n\nA critical incident allows services to prioritise certain patients and cancel non-urgent demands on staff such as training.", "Police say the 58-year-old victim crashed his car into a nearby property after the attack\n\nA 58-year-old man killed in Newry was shot a number of times at close range, possibly as part of a feud, police have said.\n\nThe shooting occurred in Ardcarn Park, a residential area, shortly after 18:00 GMT on Thursday.\n\nThe victim died at the scene. His name has not been released by the police.\n\nPolice said one line of inquiry is that the shooting was part of a cross-border crime feud, possibly involving drugs, and a murder investigation has begun.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Supt Norman Haslett says the \"level of violence used was reprehensible\"\n\nThe killing was a \"brutal and a senseless attack on a defenceless man\", said Supt Norman Haslett on Friday.\n\nHe said the 58-year-old victim, who was a husband and father, crashed his car into a nearby property after the attack.\n\nEarlier reports suggest the victim was shot a number of times as he stood behind his car.\n\nShocking and brutal - that's how this killing has been described.\n\nNeighbours describe hearing what they thought was fireworks going off, only to realise someone had been killed outside their door.\n\nPolice and forensics remain at the scene, trying to establish what happened here.\n\nPoliticians have condemned the attack and urged anyone with any information to get in contact with the police.\n\nSDLP councillor Michael Savage called the attack \"a reckless act... when families would have been about\".\n\nSinn Féin assembly member Liz Kimmins said: \"This was a very brutal killing and a family have now been left grieving and the community left very, very frightened.\n\nThe man died at the scene at Ardcarn Park\n\n\"It's just horrendous news. There's just absolutely no room for this type of criminality on our streets and those responsible have nothing to offer.\"\n\nUlster Unionist leader Doug Beattie described the murder as terrible.\n\n\"More guns on our streets, more victims, more families grieving. Senseless, just senseless,\" he tweeted.\n\nAlliance Party assembly member and Policing Board member Nuala McAllister said: \"This is a call back to the dark old days and we cannot allow those who want to drag us back to the past to do so.\"", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Wedlock says she has been living in the mobile home in the seaside town due to a shortage of accessible housing.\n\nA woman from Portrush in County Antrim has said she has been living in a mobile home in the seaside town due to a shortage of accessible housing.\n\nNicola Wedlock, 51, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), has been on a social housing waiting list since May 2020.\n\nShe was living with her mother, 75, in an upstairs flat but said she needed to move out due to mobility needs.\n\nThe Housing Executive said it made offers of accommodation but \"these were declined for a variety of reasons\".\n\nMs Wedlock said: \"They made me an offer for two bungalows which my occupational therapist turned down because they weren't wheelchair accessible.\"\n\nShe said she moved from her mother's flat at least eight months ago.\n\n\"My mum had to lift my legs on to the next step to help me get up the stairs,\" she told BBC News NI.\n\n\"It wasn't fair on mum, it wasn't fair on me,\" she added.\n\n\"I was lying in a bed looking out the window every day, which is no type of a life to live,\" she said.\n\nThe Housing Executive said it had not been informed that Nicola was living in a mobile home, something she disputes.\n\nThe organisation said it has tried to contact her several times in recent days.\n\n\"We received correspondence that advised us the applicant was living upstairs with a parent,\" said a spokesperson.\n\n\"We would urge the applicant to keep in contact her housing adviser to ensure all relevant details are updated.\"\n\nMs Wedlock said she used her savings to buy a mobile home but hoped it would only be a temporary move.\n\n\"My occupational therapist would like me to be in a wheelchair full time but I can't do that in the caravan.\n\nMs Wedlock says she has had several falls\n\n\"I have to walk and I have had several falls.\n\n\"The next time I fall, am I going to have to really hurt myself before I get listened to?\"\n\nFigures supplied to BBC News NI by the Housing Executive show 79 people required ground-floor accommodation in Portrush in June 2022.\n\nFewer than 10 people were allocated it in the previous 12 months, none of whom were wheelchair users.\n\nNuala Toman, head of policy at Disability Action said that urgent investment is needed to find accessible housing solutions.\n\n\"Disabled people's right to independent living is being heavily restricted by unsuitable and unsafe housing,\" she said.\n\n\"The ability to move around, leave the house and take as full and active role in the community as possible is vital to disabled people, and essential in ensuring we have access to education and employment.\"\n\nA Housing Executive spokesperson said a high level of housing points had been applied to Ms Wedlock's case.\n\n\"A ground floor, two-bedroom, wheelchair-friendly property has been requested,\" they said.\n\n\"The applicant's areas of choice are in high demand, with very low housing turnover and fewer properties in this area are suitable to ensure independence in the home.\n\n\"With a very limited stock of ground floor properties available in the Portrush area, it is difficult to predict when a suitable home will become available.\n\n\"However, we will continue to work with the applicant to find a successful housing solution.\"", "Public Health Wales wants to raise awareness of invasive Group A Streptococcal disease\n\nThe pupil at Victoria Primary School in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, died from invasive Group A Streptococcal disease (iGAS), or Strep A.\n\nParents and guardians of children are being urged to find out the symptoms, and what action to take if needed.\n\nSymptoms include a high temperature above 38C, sore throat, muscle aches, muscle tenderness and redness at the site of a wound.\n\nThe child is one of four to have died recently with Strep A, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed.\n\nLast week, a child died and another was taken to hospital after an outbreak of the infection at a primary school in Surrey.\n\nThe death of a child who attended St John's School in Ealing, West London, was announced on Friday.\n\nDr Ardiana Gjini, from Public Health Wales, said it was working closely with the Penarth school to raise awareness about the disease.\n\n\"Although it is unlikely that their child will be affected by iGAS infection, relevant individuals are being advised that they should familiarise themselves with the symptoms and what to do if these symptoms occur,\" said Dr Gjini.\n\n\"Contracting iGAS disease from a contact is very rare.\n\n\"Most people who come into contact with Group A Streptococcal Infection remain well and symptom-free, or develop mild throat or skin infections.\n\n\"We offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and all those affected.\n\n\"We ask that the privacy of the family is respected.\"\n\nVictoria Primary School and Vale of Glamorgan council said: \"Earlier this week, it was confirmed that a pupil from Victoria Primary School had tragically passed away after contracting Strep A.\n\n\"Both the school and Council would like to pass on their heartfelt condolences to the family at this incredibly difficult time.\"\n\nThey said it was unlikely other pupils would be affected and severe symptoms were extremely rare.\n\nFigures from Public Health Wales showed there were 124 Strep A infections in Wales in 2019, 69 in 2020, and 21 in 2021.\n\nThe prevalence rate was highest in the over 70s.", "Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby described the war as \"an evil invasion\"\n\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury has said Ukraine must not be forced to accept a peace deal with Russia, while on a visit to the war-torn nation.\n\nThe Most Reverend Justin Welby told the BBC \"justice demands that there is defeat\" of \"an evil invasion\".\n\nHe visited Bucha where evidence of atrocities and civilian killings were found after Russian troops withdrew.\n\nIt comes as millions of people remain without power or heating due to Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid.\n\nThe most senior cleric in the Church of England was highlighting the need for support for the country ahead of a tough winter.\n\n\"I am clear that President (Vladimir) Putin chose to start the war and release the evil\" that comes from that, he said.\n\nIt is proper to support a \"victim nation\" that is \"being overrun by aggression\", the archbishop continued, adding the international community had a \"duty of care\" to protect weaker nations.\n\nThe consequences of letting Ukraine down would be \"infinitely worse\" than of carrying on the support for Kyiv, he said.\n\n\"It would be more expensive and politically catastrophic because it will prove that Putin was right when he thought the West would not stand together for long enough for this to end justly and fairly.\"\n\nThe archbishop visited the city of Bucha which was occupied by Russian forces for just over a month earlier this year.\n\nWhen troops retreated in March, evidence of civilians being killed - a war crime - were found.\n\nAt St Andrew's church, where a mass grave was uncovered, the local priest showed the archbishop a display of photographs of the atrocities committed during Russia's occupation.\n\nThese included the bodies of civilians shot in the head, a man lying dead on the verge beneath his bicycle, and a dog apparently waiting by his side.\n\nReminded that Russian officials claim the killings were all staged by Ukraine, Justin Welby pointed out: \"And they tied their hands behind their backs?\"\n\nOutside, he paused quietly for a moment's contemplation in the church grounds at the spot of the former mass grave, now covered in snow.\n\nOne hundred and sixteen bodies were found there, when Bucha was freed by Ukrainian troops.\n\n\"I went over there to imprint it on my mind, so that whatever I hear, I don't forget that,\" he explained, referring again to Russian disinformation about the killings in Bucha.\n\nHe also visited the so-called Bridge of Hope - which was the only route out of Russian-occupied Bucha and neighbouring Irpin in March, and where local priests helped people escape under fire.\n\nThe archbishop observed the site of a mass grave in Bucha\n\nHe suggested there could be no peace in Ukraine until Russia \"stops lying\" about what it is doing, including the massacre of civilians in Bucha.\n\n\"He's got to stop lying. Lavrov and Putin,\" the archbishop said, referring to the Russian president and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.\n\n\"There were atrocities committed here. There will be no peace until we stop lying.\n\n\"We have to tell the truth however painful. There can be no way forward based on lies.\"\n\nBefore leaving Bucha, the archbishop lit a candle in a chapel beneath St Andrew's church and began a prayer with the words, \"our hearts cry out in anger and protest\", and called for peace and for justice.", "Former chancellor and health secretary Sajid Javid has said he will stand down as an MP at the next general election.\n\nMr Javid, MP for the Worcestershire seat of Bromsgrove, said he had made the decision \"after much reflection\".\n\nHe said his decision had been accelerated by a Tory Party review, which is asking sitting MPs to indicate now whether they want to stand again.\n\nEleven other sitting Tory MPs are set to quit at the next election, expected in 2024.\n\nMr Javid previously served as home secretary under former Prime Minister Theresa May, and in 2019 was promoted to chancellor by Boris Johnson.\n\nBut he dramatically quit as chancellor after six months in the role, following tensions with Mr Johnson's then-advisor Dominic Cummings.\n\nIn a reference to their shared love of the Star Wars film franchise, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak paid tribute to Mr Javid by tweeting \"May the Force be with you, Saj\".\n\nThe Conservative Party has asked its MPs to indicate by Monday if they want to run again, to aid the party's preparations ahead of the next election.\n\nAmong those to announce they are quitting Parliament in recent days are Dehenna Davison, a levelling up minister, backbenchers William Wragg and Charles Walker, and former work and pensions secretary Chloe Smith.\n\nEleven current Labour MPs have also said they will be standing down, but they are mostly older - with five over the age of seventy.\n\nMr Johnson, as well as former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg, are among Tory MPs to have made public their intention to stand again.\n\nMr Javid, who turns 53 on Monday, has a large 23,000 majority in his Bromsgrove constituency. Unlike some MPs, the boundaries of his seat are not due to be changed under a scheduled review of the electoral map.\n\nConfirming his decision in a letter to the area's Conservative association, he did not give a reason why he had decided to stand down.\n\nHowever, in a signal that he will continue to operate within the political world, he said quitting as an MP would not \"mark the end of my Parliamentary activity\".\n\nSajid Javid and Rishi Sunak attended a Star Wars film premiere together in late 2019\n\nSince entering Parliament in 2010, Mr Javid has held ministerial or cabinet-level roles at six different government departments.\n\nHe was the first cabinet minister to announce he was quitting Boris Johnson's government in July, minutes before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak did the same.\n\nTheir departures - which both have denied co-ordinating - led to a slew of further resignations that eventually led to Mr Johnson's departure.\n\nMr Javid then put himself forward to succeed Mr Johnson at this summer's Conservative leadership contest, but pulled out of the race ahead of the first round of voting by Tory MPs.\n\nHe threw his weight behind eventual winner Liz Truss, attacking her leadership rival Mr Sunak for saying tax cuts would have to wait until the economy grows.\n\nHe then backed Mr Sunak in his successful bid to replace Ms Truss in October, but he was not given a ministerial position.\n\nMr Javid had stood to be Conservative leader once before in 2019 - when he was knocked out at the final round of Tory MPs' voting.\n\nSince leaving government this summer, has given a number of lucrative speeches to banks - a sector in which he had a career before entering politics.\n\nAccording to the latest register of MPs' interests, he is set to receive £30,000 for a speech to HSBC executives in September, and £36,000 for a speech to clients of Deutsche Bank in October.\n\nAccording to the Financial Times, he has held talks with a number of banks and investment groups about his career after politics.", "Ukrainian servicemen ride a self-propelled howitzer, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, on a frontline in Donetsk region\n\nWhat does it mean when US President Joe Biden says he's willing to sit down with Vladimir Putin \"to see what he has in mind\"; or when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz conducts an hour-long phone call with the Russian leader, his first since September?\n\nIt certainly doesn't mean that high-level peace talks are about to begin.\n\nAs the US president himself said; it can only happen when the Russian leader indicates he is willing to end the war in Ukraine. This is something which has not yet happened.\n\nThe Kremlin's complaint that Washington does not recognise Russia's sovereignty over parts of Ukraine annexed at the end of September and the West's arming of Ukraine is responsible for Kyiv's alleged intransigence does not suggest that we are on the cusp of a breakthrough.\n\nBut, as the war drags on into its ninth month and Ukraine's bitter winter sets in - raising the prospect of yet more death, destruction and misery - the question of when peace talks should begin keeps coming up.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nRecent remarks by Gen Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggesting that an opportunity to negotiate should be grasped caused a flurry of speculation over possible divisions within the US administration.\n\nSince then, officials and Western leaders have generally insisted that it is up to Ukraine to determine when and how to negotiate.\n\n\"We have to respect the Ukrainians to decide the moment and conditions in which they will negotiate about their territory,\" French President Emmanuel Macron said as he stood beside Mr Biden at the White House.\n\nPrivately, Western officials insist the time for talking has not yet arrived. They see no indication from Moscow of a serious desire to conduct meaningful negotiations.\n\nUS President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands after speaking at a press conference in Washington\n\nWith Ukraine on the front foot militarily and Russia's war effort facing multiple challenges, there is an implicit sense the West believes Russia will be in a weaker position in the coming months than it is now.\n\n\"There will be a moment, but now doesn't feel like the right time\" was how one senior western diplomat put it recently.\n\nFor now, he said, the West's job is to continue supporting Ukraine militarily \"to put them in the best position, whenever that point it\".\n\nOfficials are extremely reluctant to be drawn into when that point will come.\n\nBut, if Ukraine continues to win back territory in the coming months, the debate will become more acute: just how far are Ukraine's Western allies prepared to support Kyiv's war aims?\n\nIn blunt terms, returning to the front lines which existed on 24 February, when Russia launched its all-out invasion, is one thing.\n\nEncouraging Ukraine to go beyond them, to recapture areas seized by Russia in 2014 - Crimea and large parts of the Donbas - is another.\n\nQuiet channels of communication do continue, involving the Pentagon and the Russian Defence Ministry, or CIA director William Burns and his Russian counterpart Sergei Naryshkin.\n\nBut, for all the talk of when and how peace talks should begin, we still seem to be a long way from a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nMorocco ended 36 years of World Cup hurt by progressing to the knockout stage - then set their sights on going all the way.\n\nWalid Regragui's men edged past Canada 2-1 to finish top of Group F, the first African team to achieve the feat since the brilliant Nigeria side from 1998.\n\nThe Atlas Lions were unbeaten in their three games, with a goalless opening draw against Croatia - who finished second - followed up by one of the shocks of the tournament as they beat Belgium.\n\nIn the post-match news conference, Regragui and man of the match Achraf Hakimi were applauded into the room by journalists from their country.\n\nBut it was a question from a Libyan journalist which sent chuckles around the room and one which Regragui did not shy away from answering.\n\n\"Do you think you are likely to win the World Cup?\" he asked.\n\nRegragui looked at Hakimi and smiled before replying: \"We set ourselves an objective to give everything we have and get out of the group stages.\n\n\"After that, why not? Aim for the sky. We need to change our mentality and we will be a difficult team to beat.\n\n\"Why not dream about winning that trophy? As African teams we need to set this objective.\"\n\n'One of the best performances we have had'\n\nTournament organisers have said this World Cup is not just about Qatar, but is for the Middle East region and Muslims as a whole.\n\nBefore the game, Morocco fans were in fine voice, dancing and singing outside the stadium with chants of \"Allez les Maghreb, Allez les Maghreb\".\n\nVictory for Maghreb - which is Morocco in Arabic - is a one not just for the country but for the whole of the Arab and Muslim world.\n\nRaucous Morocco fans were on their feet in the ground the whole game, cheering every tackle and jeering every time Canada players got their foot on the ball.\n\nIt took just four minutes for their opener, Hakim Ziyech profiting from poor goalkeeping, while Youssef En-Nesyri added a second before Nayef Aguerd's own goal.\n\nThe last time Morocco made it out of the group was 36 years ago, failing to achieve the feat in 1994, 1998 and last time out in Russia.\n\nBut they face a tough task next against former champions Spain.\n\n\"It wasn't very easy but when you have this opportunity to make history, you remember it,\" said Regragui, who was appointed as manager in August.\n\n\"Honestly, today's first half was one of the best performance we have had. We made Morocco people pretty happy.\n\n\"The own goal shook us a bit. We got into the second half and there was pressure but I loved it. These players were there and hung on.\n\n\"We fought and fought. I am happy for my players, they trusted in me and my country did too.\"\n\nOutside the Al Thumama Stadium after the game, cars were beeping their horns and supporters were waving Morocco flags from open sunroofs.\n\nFormer Chelsea striker Didier Drogba said on BBC One: \"In 2018 none of those teams qualified for the next round so to see Morocco winning the group, the way they played, with a lot of intensity - I'm really happy for what the manager has done there.\n\n\"I know that he won the African Champions League with his team and then came to the national team.\n\n\"I knew he would bring the intensity but I didn't expect them to finish top of the group and be the best team of the group.\"\n\nA photo of Hakimi went viral after the win over Belgium, when he jumped into the stands and was given a kiss on his cheek by his mum.\n\nThe Paris St-Germain full-back and captain Romain Saiss were in tears on Thursday and when asked by BBC Sport why he was so emotional, Hakimi said: \"I never dreamed of achieving something for my country. Playing with Morocco is something amazing.\n\n\"To do something big for your country is better than with the club. I am here to help all the Moroccan people.\n\n\"When I was young I saw the last generation that came to the World Cup and I dreamed to be like them.\n\n\"For that I cry because I saw my family and those around me. We want to help the team, you never know when we can do it again. We are happy and need to enjoy the moment.\"\n\nHakimi was an injury doubt but played the full game and provided a glorious assist for the second goal.\n\n\"Achraf is a warrior that you should praise every day,\" said Regragui. \"I asked him if he wanted to carry on and he said 'for my country I will play'.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Ms Braverman stepped down as home secretary during the final chaotic week of Liz Truss's premiership\n\nThe reappointment of Suella Braverman as home secretary - after she broke ministerial rules - sets \"a dangerous precedent\", MPs have said.\n\nMs Braverman was sacked from her role after leaking restricted material but given her job back just six days later, when Rishi Sunak became prime minister.\n\nDefending the move, Mr Sunak said she had \"learned from her mistake\".\n\nBut a Commons committee said there should be \"significant\" punishments for ministers leaking documents.\n\nWilliam Wragg, who chairs the public administration and constitutional affairs committee, said a \"robust\" system for upholding standards was needed, \"with proper sanctions for those who break the rules\".\n\nMs Braverman stepped down as home secretary during the final chaotic week of Liz Truss's premiership.\n\nIn her resignation letter, Ms Braverman admitted committing a \"technical infringement\" of the rules by sending an official document to someone unauthorised to receive it.\n\nThe following week, Mr Sunak, who had replaced Ms Truss as prime minister, reappointed Ms Braverman to the Home Office.\n\nBut the committee said: \"A subsequent change in prime minister should not wipe the slate clean and allow for a rehabilitation and a return to ministerial office in a shorter timeframe.\n\n\"To allow this to take place does not inspire confidence in the integrity of government nor offer much incentive to proper conduct in future.\"\n\nThe role of ethics adviser to the prime minister has been vacant since June\n\nThe committee also expressed concern the government had said its new ethics adviser would not investigate the circumstances surrounding Ms Braverman's resignation.\n\nThe government should not have the power to determine what the adviser - yet to be appointed - could investigate, the MPs said.\n\nTwo ethics advisers to Downing Street have quit in the past two years - most recently Lord Geidt, in June.\n\nMr Sunak had pledged to fill the role when he came into office - but Labour has expressed concern the post remains vacant.\n\nIn its report, the committee also said former ministers who broke rules by taking certain jobs after leaving government should face legal action.\n\nFormer ministers are supposed to seek advice from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) - but its powers are limited and it cannot make politicians take its advice.\n\nResponding to the report, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: \"The buck stops with the prime minister - but despite all the promises of integrity, Rishi Sunak clearly has no plan to restore standards in public life after years of sleaze and scandal.\"\n\nLabour would \"stop the revolving door between government and the companies that ministers are supposed to regulate, banning ministers from lobbying for at least five years after they leave office and with proper enforcement against those who break the rules\", she added.\n\nA Cabinet Office spokesperson said: \"We have been clear that this government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level and we are already taking action to improve the effectiveness of the business appointment rules.\"", "The rats of New York City have been put on notice. There will soon be a new sheriff in town.\n\nMayor Eric Adams' office is seeking a \"director of rodent mitigation\" - or rat tsar, as many are calling it - to fight the Big Apple's \"real enemy\".\n\n\"The ideal candidate is highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty,\" the irreverent job advert posted this week reads.\n\nWhoever is chosen for the role could be paid up to $170,000 (£139,000).\n\nIt is described as \"a 24/7 job requiring stamina and stagecraft\" for city residents with a \"swashbuckling attitude, crafty humour and general aura of badassery\".\n\nResponsibilities include developing rat mitigation strategies, managing projects and policy initiatives across city agencies, and leading from the front with hands-on extermination techniques.\n\n\"Rats will hate this job posting. But 8.8 million New Yorkers and your city government stand ready to work with you to reduce the rat population, increase cleanliness, and prevent pestilence,\" the statement of values for the job proclaims.\n\nIt is the latest development in a \"war on rats\" that began in October, after previous efforts to control the city's rodent population brought mixed results.\n\nOther measures taken have included installing street-wide storage bins, changing when New Yorkers leave their rubbish out and setting rules for vermin-proof heavy-duty bin bags.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Meet the rat killers of New York City\n\nRat sightings have skyrocketed in recent years, with complaints to the city's customer service number up 67% from 2019.\n\nThere are an estimated two million rats crawling through the city's streets and subways, or about one for every four New Yorkers.\n\nBut a new report, based on 2021 American Housing Survey data, may vindicate the city somewhat.\n\nThe survey puts New York City in third place for the most rodent sightings in large US metro regions.\n\nAhead of the city that never sleeps in the ratty ratings are Boston and Philadelphia.", "The Covid virus can reside on some ready-to-eat groceries for days, UK experts have confirmed.\n\nScientists carried out tests for the Food Standards Agency (FSA), purposely smearing the virus on to packaging and food products, including fruit, pastries and bottled drinks.\n\nThey chose items that people might put in their mouth without cooking or washing.\n\nThe risk to consumers remains very low, they say.\n\nTheir report says it should be noted that \"foods and packaging considered as part of this study were artificially inoculated with Sars-Cov-2 and therefore are not a reflection of contamination levels found on these foods at retail, and lower levels of contamination will require less time to decline to undetectable levels.\"\n\nFor most food products tested there was a \"significant drop\" in the levels of virus over the first 24 hours.\n\nBut in some cases traces survived for about a week, the University of Southampton team found.\n\n\"For a highly infectious agent such as Sars-Cov-2, which can be transmitted through touching contaminated surfaces and then the face, these findings are highly noteworthy,\" they say.\n\n\"The public may be interested in the finding that virus may persist in an infectious state, on foods and food packaging surfaces, for several days under certain common conditions.\"\n\nBut they add that there is no need for shoppers to take extra precautions when handling food - other than washing your hands before preparing and eating it, and rinsing fresh produce to help to remove any contamination on the surface.\n\nThey picked foods often sold loose at grocery, deli or bakery counters, such as apples, peppers, cheese, ham, olives, crusty bread and croissants.\n\nThe amount of virus they applied was designed to simulate how much might land on food if someone who was infected coughed or sneezed near it, for example, because Covid is spread by respiratory droplets.\n\nBreathing in infected droplets, rather than touching infected surfaces, is still the main way people catch Covid.\n\nAnthony Wilson, microbiological risk assessment team leader at the FSA, said: \"In the early stages of the pandemic, we didn't know much about how the virus would survive on different food surfaces and packaging, so the risk assessment was based on a worst-case assumption.\n\n\"This research gives us additional insight into the stability of coronavirus on the surfaces of a variety of foods and confirms that assumptions we made in the early stages of the pandemic were appropriate, and that the probability that you can catch Covid via food is very low.\"\n\nThe team examined a range of temperatures and humidity levels to mimic typical storage conditions, measuring the rate of inactivation of the virus, and found:\n\nThe virus appears to last longer on produce with uneven surfaces - broccoli and raspberries - than on smooth skinned ones such as apples (although some chilled fresh peppers had detectable virus a week later).\n\nApples contain natural chemicals in their skin that may start to break down the Covid virus within minutes or hours, the scientists say.\n\nPastries such as pain au chocolat appeared to have little virus after a few hours - perhaps because they are coated in a fine layer of egg wash during baking, say the FSA scientists. Eggs contain arachidonic acid which might have an antiviral effect.\n\nCheese and cold meat, with a high protein and fat content, appear to allow the virus to survive for days - possibly a week.\n\nCovid can survive for up to a week on plastic surfaces. For cartons, it could be several days. For aluminium cans, it is probably only hours, say the researchers.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 'Inevitable' people will spend less this Christmas - Tesco\n\nHouseholds are switching from buying fresh food to cheaper frozen goods as the cost of living bites into budgets, the boss of Tesco has said.\n\nKen Murphy, chief executive of the UK's largest supermarket, said some shoppers were also swapping pricier red meat for cheaper white protein to save money.\n\nHe added that people were using barcode scanners more when shopping to avoid being \"embarrassed\" at the tills.\n\nFood prices are rising at their fastest rate for 45 years.\n\nIn an interview with the BBC, Mr Murphy said shoppers were \"managing their budgets much more tightly\" and had changed their behaviour by \"trading down\" to cheaper food and own brand products.\n\nOther examples he said included seeking out cheaper frozen meat and vegetables instead of fresh produce, batch cooking meals and cutting back on eating out.\n\nThe Tesco boss said the hand-held barcode scanners allowed people to \"keep to a specific budget\" by being able to keep an eye on the running total, instead of being \"worried about being embarrassed at the till\" if it turned out they could not afford their shopping or were over budget.\n\nThe hand-held scanners allow shoppers to scan the barcodes on food and other goods as they pick it up - and keep an eye on the running total - instead of waiting until the checkout and potentially discovering they cannot afford their groceries.\n\nTesco said it has sold double the number of frozen turkeys this year compared to the amount in 2019, due to shoppers cutting back.\n\nThere has also been a huge spike in luxury frozen desserts, and searches for frozen food in general on Tesco's website are up 40% from last year.\n\nMr Murphy said that the UK was living in \"times of turbulence and times of change\" and people were worried about the \"affordability of life today\".\n\nBut he said he believed customers were \"really determined to enjoy Christmas this year\", with 2022 being the first festive period for three years without Covid restrictions.\n\nHe said shoppers had been spreading out the cost of Christmas by purchasing goods earlier and had also bought \"more modest gifts\".\n\n\"People will spend less. That is inevitable,\" he said.\n\nLatest official figures revealed food price inflation hit 16.2% in the year to October, up from 14.5% in September.\n\nInflation is the rate at which prices are rising. To calculate it the Office for National Statistics (ONS) keeps track of the prices of hundreds of everyday items, known as a \"basket of goods\".\n\nThe ONS said that food prices had risen sharply in October with milk, pasta, margarine, eggs and cereals all going up.\n\nHigher electricity and gas bills have left many households facing hardship heading into the festive season.\n\nAsked when he thought food price inflation would slow down, Mr Murphy said it depended on a \"number of factors\".\n\nHe said the global energy crisis was the main driver behind high food prices, but added the squeeze on goods since the pandemic was having an impact, as well as the pound's weakness against the US dollar.\n\nTesco has overhauled its \"reduced to clear\" line - which includes food approaching its use-by date - and created \"Reduced in Price, Just as Nice\" sections, which will be rolled out to 100 stores by the end of the year.\n\nThe supermarket has also launched its food collection drive in UK stores, asking customers to buy items needed for food banks.\n• None Why is UK inflation so high?", "The trailer uses black and white images of the couple's relationship\n\nA trailer for Prince Harry and Meghan's Netflix documentary has been released, offering a first glimpse at what the couple say is the inside story of why they stepped down from royal duties.\n\n\"No one sees what's happening behind closed doors,\" said Prince Harry.\n\n\"When the stakes were this high, doesn't it make more sense to hear our story from us?\" Meghan adds.\n\nThis comes against a backdrop of a royal race row about comments to a black guest at Buckingham Palace.\n\n\"I had to do everything I could to protect my family,\" Prince Harry also said in the teaser script for this 15-rated six-part series, called Harry and Meghan.\n\nThe minute-long trailer features images of the story of their relationship\n\nThere were also tearful images of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex\n\nThe trailer sets the scene with a fast-forward set of some previously unseen black and white images - from a young couple messing around to later tense and tearful images of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Netflix This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.\n\nThis is intercut with a picture of the Princess of Wales looking rather ferociously ahead.\n\nThe minute-long trailer for the series, directed by Liz Garbus, is set against increasingly ominous music - and the approach of the series will cause some royal anxiety.\n\nAn image of Kate is intercut with a tearful image of Meghan\n\nHarry is heard saying: \"I had to do everything I could to protect my family\"\n\nIt's not clear yet how hard-hitting the series might be and it will be followed by the prospect of further revelations in Prince Harry's memoir, due to be published in January.\n\nThere are likely to be worries within the Royal Family about the trailer cutting across Prince William and Catherine's high-profile visit to Boston in the US this week.\n\nTheir trip has already been threatened with being overshadowed by the race row at Buckingham Palace.\n\nPrince William's godmother Lady Susan Hussey stood down from her honorary duties for the Royal Family on Wednesday, after Ngozi Fulani, founder of the charity Sistah Space, described how she had been repeatedly asked where she \"really\" came from at a Buckingham Palace reception.\n\nA spokesman for Prince William had responded to the row by saying that \"racism has no place in our society\".\n\nBut the BBC's Daniela Relph, who is in Boston, says not to expect the Prince and Princess of Wales to comment on the Netflix series during their US trip. Royal sources say they want to concentrate on meeting communities and local people.\n\nPrince William and Catherine's visit to the US will end with a ceremony on Friday for their Earthshot Prize - which is awarded for innovative ideas for the environment. Harry and Meghan are not expected to attend the event.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales were presented with flowers by a boy dressed as a guardsman during their US trip\n\nThe Harry and Meghan Netflix series promises to show the \"clandestine days of their early courtship\" and will have commentary from friends and family who have not spoken before \"about what they'd witnessed\".\n\nThe behind the scenes story says it will reveal a \"picture of the world and how we treat each other\", including Prince Harry and Meghan's relationship with the media.\n\nNetflix has not confirmed the release date, although it is expected to begin next week.\n\nThe documentary series is expected to start next week", "Rebecca Contois' remains were discovered in May\n\nA Canadian man already accused of murdering one woman has been charged by police in the city of Winnipeg in connection with three more deaths.\n\nIn May, police charged the 35-year-old man with killing one victim, 24-year-old Rebecca Contois.\n\nOn Thursday, they charged him with three more counts of first-degree murder.\n\nAll of the victims are believed to be indigenous women, Winnipeg police said.\n\nPolice identified the suspect as Jeremy Skibicki of Winnipeg, who was first arrested on 18 May in connection to the murder of Ms Contois, a member of O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation in the province of Manitoba.\n\nIn a Thursday press conference, investigators said they believe Mr Skibicki is responsible for three other deaths.\n\nPolice Chief Danny Smyth said \"it's always unsettling when there's any kind of a serial killing\", adding these homicides are particularly disturbing as \"they involve indigenous women\".\n\nMorgan Beatrice Harris, 39, was killed on or around 1 May, while Marcedes Myran, 26, was killed on or around 4 May. Both women are members of the Long Plain First Nation but lived in Winnipeg.\n\nPolice have yet to identify the fourth victim. They have appealed to the public for information and released photos of a reversible winter jacket that belonged to her.\n\nInvestigators, however, said they believe the unidentified victim is also an indigenous woman in her mid-20s.\n\nWinnipeg police released photos of a reversible jacket that belonged to an unidentified fourth woman killed earlier this year.\n\nThe bodies of Ms Harris, Ms Myran and the unidentified woman have yet to be recovered.\n\nMs Cantois' remains were discovered on 16 May in a bin on the northside of Winnipeg.\n\nCanada has a history of disproportionate violence faced by indigenous women, which was called a \"genocide\" by a national public inquiry in 2019.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls found that about 1,200 First Nations women in Canada had been murdered or gone missing between 1980 and 2012. Advocates believe the number is higher.\n\nThe country's federal statistics agency reported in 2014 that indigenous women were six times more likely to be the victim of a homicide than non-indigenous women.\n\nIn 2014, the murder of Tina Fontaine, a 15-year-old indigenous girl whose body was discovered in Winnipeg's Red River, galvanised national support for the better protection for indigenous women and girls.\n\nA man accused of killing Ms Fontaine was acquitted by a jury in 2018, and prosecutors did not appeal the case.", "The G7 group and its allies have officially approved a cap on the price of Russian oil.\n\nIn a joint statement, the G7 and Australia said the price cap would come into force on 5 December or \"very soon thereafter\".\n\nIt comes after the European Union agreed on the price cap after persuading Poland to back it.\n\nThe plan, which stops countries paying more than $60 (€57; £48) a barrel, needed the agreement of all EU states.\n\nPoland announced its support on Friday after being reassured the cap would be kept at 5% lower than the market rate.\n\nA price cap was put forward by the G7 group of nations in September and aims to stop Moscow profiting from oil exports while avoiding a price spike.\n\nIt had been reported that the EU wanted to set the cap at $65-70 but this was rejected by Poland, Lithuania and Estonia as too high.\n\nWarsaw had wanted the value to be as low as possible and had held out while it examined an adjustment mechanism which would keep the cap below the market rate as the price of oil changed.\n\nOn Friday, Russian Urals crude was trading at $64 a barrel.\n\nThe decision to impose a price cap was taken to \"prevent Russia from profiting from its war of aggression against Ukraine,\" the joint statement read.\n\nIt said the move aims to \"support stability in global energy markets and to minimise negative economic spillovers of Russia's war of aggression, especially on low-and middle-income countries, who have felt the impacts of Putin's war disproportionately\".\n\nThe agreement of a price cap comes just days before an EU-wide ban on Russian crude oil imported by sea comes into force, also on 5 December.\n\nThe price cap - which is meant to affect oil exports worldwide - is meant to complement that.\n\nCountries that sign up to the G7-led policy will only be permitted to purchase oil and petroleum products transported via sea that are sold at or below the price cap.\n\nUkraine's western allies plan to deny insurance to tankers delivering Russian oil to countries that do not stick to the price cap. This will make it hard for Russia to sell oil above that price.\n\nG7 finance ministers said in September that their plan to limit the price of Russian crude would reduce Moscow's oil revenues and its ability to \"fund its war of aggression\".\n\nWhite House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby welcomed the agreement of an EU price cap on Friday, saying it would slow Russian President Vladimir Putin's \"war machine\".\n\nRussia denounced the scheme, saying it would not supply those countries which enforced a price cap.\n\nBefore the war, in 2021, more than half of Russia's oil exports went to Europe, according to the International Energy Association. Germany was the largest importer, followed by the Netherlands and Poland.\n\nBut since the war, EU countries have been desperately trying to decrease their dependency. The US has already banned Russian crude oil, while the UK plans to phase it out by the end of the year.\n\nThough the measures will most certainly be felt by Russia, the blow will be partially softened by its move to sell its oil to other markets such as India and China - who are currently the largest single buyers of Russian crude oil.", "Peter Kay played the first of 42 nights at the Manchester Arena to kick off his 110-date tour\n\nComedian Peter Kay was moved to tears as he was given a standing ovation at the start of his first tour for 12 years.\n\nThe crowd chanted his name as he took to the stage at Manchester's AO arena.\n\nHe had to compose himself before telling fans: \"How am I supposed to do comedy now? You'll have me in bits... I can't believe you made me cry.\"\n\nIt was the first of 110 arena dates that the Bolton star will perform over the next two-and-a-half years.\n\nHe had been due to go on tour in 2018, but cancelled that due to \"unforeseen family circumstances\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Peter Kay talks to Zoe Ball: 'I should only be on the news if I'm dead!'\n\nOn Friday, he showed about 20,000 fans in Manchester that he was still the king of making us laugh at seemingly ordinary stuff that we all remember and recognise - and pointing out the ridiculous things about real life.\n\n\"It's stuff that people relate to, but he just makes it so daft. It's so funny,\" said Calum Burns, 23, from Manchester, who was seeing Kay in person for the first time.\n\nOlivia Matthews, also 23, added: \"There's nothing too serious. Everything's light-hearted. That's what we like about him.\n\n\"His last tour was 12 years ago and we were 10 or 11, so we're a new audience coming into it. I've always known him and always liked him, growing up. We've got to see his material, but never live.\"\n\nJill Fraser, 36, from Edinburgh said of Kay's appeal: \"He's got a style of comedy that's just nice and easy, it's inoffensive, it's funny. He's got a lot of energy, and it's just everything you want from a Friday night comedy show.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Fans in Manchester give their verdict on Peter Kay's performance\n\nPaul Stokes, 63, from Wigan, said afterwards: \"He was a little bit overwhelmed when he first came out, but he was excellent.\"\n\n\"He's genuine,\" added Deborah Evitt, 56, from Manchester. \"He's a genuine person. You could tell what he did on that stage, he did from the heart. That's why I enjoyed it.\"\n\nHis down-to-earth, cheeky stand-up style and everyday subject matter haven't changed much.\n\nThere were nostalgic jokes about childhood chocolate bars, TV theme tunes, bingo and baked beans, plus more of his favourite misheard pop lyrics - and a routine putting a clever new spin on his \"garlic bread\" catchphrase.\n\nThe march of tastes and technologies - and the bewilderment that causes among an older generation - have always provided him with rich material.\n\nBut while he's still ridiculing his befuddled elders, Kay is now also trying to get his head around the habits of his own children, with their reliance on devices and online deliveries.\n\nHe felt freshest when poking fun at both modern life and himself - whether that was highlighting the challenges of ordering from Just Eat, or the perils of taking intimate photos to send to a GP.\n\nHe became Britain's most popular stand-up comedian by being rude enough to avoid being bland, but not so offensive or controversial that he alienated people.\n\nThis time, there were occasions where he sailed close to political incorrectness, although he was at pains to claim he wanted to steer clear of cancel culture territory.\n\nHe didn't answer why he retreated from the spotlight - but we never expected, or really wanted him to, given the night's celebratory air. People were just glad to have him back.\n\nAnd a spectacular and big-budget (by stand-up standards) final act took his love of pop culture nostalgia and silliness to new crowd-pleasing heights.\n\nKay returned to the arena where he worked as a steward when it opened in 1995\n\nKay has made occasional live appearances since scrapping his last tour, but this set of dates is the first time most fans have seen him live for more than a decade.\n\nThe 49-year-old will play 41 more times at the Manchester venue, the biggest arena in the UK, culminating with his final scheduled tour date on 25 July 2025.\n\nThe tour will see him play 27 times at London's O2 arena - appearing there once a month between now and February 2025.\n\nHe will also visit cities including Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds and Belfast. The current 110-night total is only just short of the 113 dates he played in 2010-11, which broke the world record for the biggest-selling comedy tour ever, playing to more than 1.1 million people.\n\nThere was huge demand when tickets for these shows went on sale last month. He said he decided to keep the cost of the cheapest seats at £35 - the same as they were on his last tour - because of the cost of living crisis.\n\n\"You've got to meet people halfway. It's bad times, plus that's why people need a laugh,\" he recently told BBC Radio 2's Zoe Ball. The cost rises to £150, including fees, for the best seats.", "Ukrainian servicemen carry a coffin during a funeral ceremony for troops killed in fighting with Russia\n\nThe most senior US general estimates that around 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the war in Ukraine.\n\nGen Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, also suggested that around 40,000 civilians had died after being caught up in the conflict.\n\nThe estimates are the highest offered yet by a Western official.\n\nHe also said that signs Kyiv was willing to re-enter talks with Moscow offered \"a window\" for negotiations.\n\nIn recent days, Ukraine has signalled a willingness to hold some discussions with Moscow, after President Volodymyr Zelensky dropped a demand that his opposite number, Vladimir Putin, must be removed from power before negotiations could resume.\n\nBut speaking in New York, Gen Milley added that for any talks to be successful, both Russia and Ukraine would have to reach a \"mutual recognition\" that a wartime victory \"is maybe not achievable through military means, and therefore you need to turn to other means\".\n\nThe top general - who serves as President Joe Biden's most senior military adviser - said the scale of the casualties could convince both Moscow and Kyiv of the need to negotiate over the coming winter months, when fighting may slow due to freezing conditions.\n\n\"You're looking at well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded,\" Gen Milley said. \"Same thing probably on the Ukrainian side.\"\n\nBoth Ukraine and Russia jealously guard their casualty numbers.\n\nMoscow's last update in September said that just 5,937 troops had been killed since the start of the conflict, with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu dismissing reports of a significantly higher death toll.\n\nGen Milley's estimate is starkly higher. By comparison, 15,000 Soviet soldiers were estimated to have died in the 1979-89 Afghanistan conflict.\n\nUkraine has largely refrained from giving casualty figures. But in August, the armed forces' commander-in-chief, Valeriy Zaluzhniy, was quoted in Ukrainian media saying 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died so far.\n\nThe UN has said it does not consider figures released by those involved in the conflict to be reliable.\n\n\"There has been a tremendous amount of suffering, human suffering,\" said Gen Milley. He also also noted that between 15 and 30 million refugees have been created since Russia launched its invasion on 24 February.\n\nThe UN has recorded 7.8 million people as refugees from Ukraine across Europe, including Russia. However, the figure does not include those who have been forced to flee their homes but remain in Ukraine.\n\nOn Wednesday, Moscow announced its troops would start to withdraw from the key southern city of Kherson - the only major city to fall to Russian forces.\n\nGen Milley said that while \"initial indicators\" suggested that a retreat had begun, he observed that Russia had amassed around 20-30,000 troops in the city, and the withdrawal could take several weeks.\n\n\"They made the public announcement they're doing it. I believe they're doing it in order to preserve their force to re-establish defensive lines south of the [Dnieper] river, but that remains to be seen,\" he said.\n\nThe news of Russia's withdrawal from Kherson comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin called up some 300,000 reservists to fight in Ukraine in September.\n\nMilitary experts in the West and Ukraine say the need for mobilisation showed that Russian troops were failing badly on the battlefield in Ukraine.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "As price rises bite into budgets, many people are cutting back on the weekly food shop.\n\nAs well as buying less, people are looking for ways to make their money go further and to make the most of what they have.\n\nThe BBC spoke to money bloggers for their tried and tested tips.\n\nKeep track of what you already have\n\nRosie Forshaw suggests taking a good look at your cupboards before each shopping trip and making a list of what you already have: \"There's no point in buying more jars of pasta sauce if you've already got five of them in the cupboard.”\n\nHead for the reduced section first\n\nIf you spot something in a store’s reduced section that's on your list, you can tick that off and you've already saved some money, says Lynn. She suggests then going straight to the frozen foods section, then the canned produce aisle.\n\nMake better use of your freezer\n\n\"If things are getting close to their use-by date, you should always try to freeze them,\" Lynn says.\"You'll also be able to buy things cheaper in supermarkets that are close to their sell-by date. Things like milk and cheese, even fruit and vegetables, can all be frozen and kept for when you need them.”\n\nRosie says a lot of what we buy in the supermarket is packaged for their convenience and not ours. She puts hers in a paper bag when she gets them home, but says just taking off the plastic wrapping will help them last longer.\n\n\"Butchers are a great resource and someone we shouldn't be afraid to talk to about saving money,\" Rosie says.\"If you go into your local butcher and tell them you've only got £8 for your meat for the week, they'll be able to tell you how to stretch your money by buying the cheapest cuts.\"", "Matthew George (left) and John Muldoon (right) were convicted after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow\n\nTwo men have been found guilty of a catalogue of physical and sexual abuse against vulnerable children over three decades at a former residential school.\n\nMatthew George and John Muldoon carried out their crimes while working at Kerelaw School in North Ayrshire.\n\nFormer art teacher George, 73, was convicted of 39 offences while Muldoon, 69, who worked in the school's secure unit, was found guilty of 16.\n\nThe High Court in Glasgow heard the pair targeted 28 victims.\n\nThe crimes were committed at the council-run school in Stevenston between 1975 and 2000. They will be sentenced next month.\n\nIt is the second time the pair have been convicted of offences at school\n\nThe new convictions followed a fresh investigation into how youngsters were treated at the school.\n\nJurors heard that physical and sexual attacks were \"rife\" with children too scared to report their ordeals at the time.\n\nDuring the trial victims spoke in person and through recorded evidence of being abused by George at the school and at his home in the seaside town of Largs.\n\nAs well as horrific sexual abuse, the court heard of physical violence which included children being put down holes while also being punched and hit.\n\nGeorge - who also taught physical education - was described by one victim as the \"leader of the boys\" and someone who liked to \"show off\" his karate moves.\n\nProsecutor Paul Kearney KC said: \"Evidence shows us that violence was rife and tolerated by staff.\"\n\nGeorge replied: \"Violence was not rife - absolutely not the case.\"\n\nGeorge also denied one of his \"methods\" was to lure victims to his home even though some who could vividly recall what it looked like.\n\nThe former teacher, who worked at Kerelaw for 29 years, was mainly convicted of indecent and physical assaults. His offences involved 21 boys and girls.\n\nMuldoon, of Irvine, committed crimes against nine children including the rape of two girls.\n\nHe also attacked one boy with a mallet and put a lit cigarette on one girl's arm.\n\nTwo of the victims were abused by both men.\n\nA number of the victims in the case have since died before they could see justice being served.\n\nA victim of abuse at Kerelaw school has told how his ordeal left him \"always scared\".\n\nThomas was 12 when he arrived at the council-run residential school in Stevenson, North Ayrshire, in June 1982.\n\nHe told BBC Scotland how he became a pupil after he began sniffing glue and engaging in minor criminality, such as shoplifting.\n\nHis family life had been blighted by alcoholism and, as he was small for his age, he became an immediate target for bullies.\n\nThomas' first interaction with Matt George came during a staff versus pupils football match.\n\nNow 53, he recalled how he put the ball through the teacher's legs, leading to George being mocked by other teachers and pupils.\n\nThomas said: \"He took it as a sign of disrespect and from then on, he launched a campaign of violence and hatred towards me.\"\n\nThomas' name has been changed to protect his identity. Read his story here\n\nThe judge Lady Drummond told the pair: \"You have been convicted of charges involving sexual and physical abuse on children in your care over decades.\n\n\"You will be sent to prison for a significant period of time.\"\n\nGeorge and Muldoon were previously jailed in 2006 for abuse at Kerelaw for 10 years and two-and-a-half years respectively.\n\nBut they both returned to the dock in 2017 amid new allegations.\n\nThis led to a two-month trial at the High Court in Glasgow, which saw jurors convict them again on Friday.\n\nThe pair had been on bail, but were remanded in custody ahead of sentencing next month in Livingston.\n\nThe school - run by Strathclyde Regional Council and then Glasgow City Council - closed in 2006.\n\nAfter the verdicts, Mr Kearney said eight victims had written statements about their ordeals for judge Lady Drummond to read.\n\nAfter the verdict Det Insp Ross Black thanked everyone who came forward.\n\nHe said: \"Their engagement, bravery and commitment helped secure the verdict today.\n\n\"We hope that people can now be confident in coming forward to police knowing that no matter the passage of time, justice like today's verdict has underpinned what can be achieved.\"\n\nDet Insp Black said the force was committed to bringing those responsible for such times to justice.\n\nHe added: \"We are, and will continue, to investigate all aspects of child abuse in these former residential care establishments and I would urge anyone who may have experienced abuse at the school but not yet come forward to police to do so.\"", "Former Celtic and Scotland striker Leigh Griffiths has been questioned by police investigating gambling in sport.\n\nThe 32-year-old footballer confirmed officers came to his home in South Lanarkshire at 07:00 on Thursday.\n\nOfficers took him to the London Road police station in Glasgow.\n\nGriffiths said he was not arrested and has denied any wrongdoing. He declined to discuss the subject of the questioning.\n\nA spokesperson for Police Scotland said it had carried out a \"pre-planned\" operation on Thursday.\n\nThe force issued a statement, saying: \"Following a pre-planned police operation on Thursday, December 1, three men aged 37, 35 and 32 were arrested in the Bothwell, Bonnyrigg and Airdrie areas in connection with an investigation into alleged gambling incidents in sport.\n\n\"All three men were released without charge pending further inquiries.\"\n\nIt is understood that one of the three men arrested is 35-year-old Dundee player Paul McGowan.\n\nThe club released a statement saying it was aware of the ongoing Police Scotland investigation.\n\n\"The club will support the authorities with their inquiries and will not be making any further statement at this time,\" it said.\n\nLeigh Griffiths won seven league titles, three Scottish Cups and four League Cups with Celtic.\n\nIn 2017 the striker secured his place in Scottish footballing folklore by scoring two free-kicks for the national side in a 2-2 draw against England at Hampden.\n\nHe has been without a club for six months and has been training with Livingston.\n\nMcGowan has played more than 200 times for Dundee, having previously played with Celtic and St Mirren before joining the club in 2014.", "Airline passengers in the European Union (EU) will soon be able to use their phones to full effect in the sky.\n\nThe European Commission ruled airlines can provide 5G technology on board planes, alongside slower mobile data.\n\nThis could mean flyers will no longer be required to put their phone on airplane mode - though the specifics of how it will be implemented are unclear.\n\nThe deadline for member states to make the 5G frequency bands available for planes is 30 June 2023.\n\nThis will mean people can use all their phone's features mid-flight - enabling calls as well as data-heavy apps that stream music and video.\n\nThierry Breton, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, said the plan would \"enable innovative services for people\" and help European companies grow.\n\n\"The sky is no longer a limit when it comes to possibilities offered by super-fast, high-capacity connectivity,\" he said.\n\nThe EU Commission has reserved certain frequency bands for aircraft since 2008, allowing some services to offer mid-air internet access.\n\nBut this service has been historically slow, as it relied on equipment to connect people via a satellite between the aeroplane and the ground.\n\nThe new system will be able to take advantage of the much faster download speeds provided by 5G, which according to mobile network EE can be over 100Mbps - enabling a film to be downloaded in just a few minutes.\n\nDai Whittingham, chief executive of the UK Flight Safety Committee, told the BBC that airplane mode was historically important due to a lack of knowledge about how mobile devices affect aircraft.\n\n\"There was a concern they could interfere with automatic flight control systems,\" he said.\n\n\"What has been found with experience is the risk of interference is very small. The recommendation has always been that once you are in flight, devices should be in in airplane mode.\"\n\nThere has been a concern in the US that 5G frequencies could interfere with flights, and even potentially lead to erroneous altitude measurements.\n\nBut Mr Whittingham said this is not an issue in the UK and the EU.\n\n\"There is much less prospect of interference,\" he said, \"We have a different set of frequencies for 5G, and there are lower power settings than those that have been allowed in the US.\n\n\"The travelling public wants 5G. The regulators will open up that possibility, but there will be steps that will be taken to ensure that whatever they do is safe.\"\n\nGlenn Bradley, Head of Flight Operations at the UK Civil Aviation Authority - the regulator responsible for the safety of aircraft within the UK - said the use of mobile phones to make calls is prohibited on UK airlines, unless the aircraft has been \"equipped with an approved mobile phone control system\".\n\n\"We understand that plans to enable 5G onboard flights will operate in the higher frequency bands and therefore won't interfere with aircraft systems,\" he said.\n\n\"We stand ready to work with the industry to assist the delivery of this innovation.\"", "Emma, the Queen's fell pony stood in a gap in the flowers beside Queen's groom Terry Pendry during her coffin's procession to Windsor Castle\n\nThe late Queen's favourite riding pony Emma, has been named horse of a lifetime at the Horse & Hound awards.\n\nThe fell pony, who made a poignant appearance at the late monarch's funeral, won the accolade following a public vote.\n\nThe award and a bag of carrots was accepted by Lizzie Briant, who competed on Emma in showing classes.\n\nShe said: \"Everybody adores her at the Royal Mews - there isn't a pony in the country that is better loved.\"\n\nEmma took part in three pageants at the Royal Windsor Horse Show over the years including for the Queen's 90th birthday and her Platinum Jubilee.\n\nEmma amongst the blooms as the Ceremonial Procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II arrives at Windsor Castle\n\nThe Queen's stud groom Terry Pendry who stood with Emma in the Castle grounds as the Queen's coffin made its way up the Long Walk at Windsor, said of learning of the award: \"Her Majesty adored Emma.\n\n\"She is a comfortable ride and sure-footed. Emma always enjoyed a carrot out of a brown paper bag after riding.\"\n\nEmma - whose full name is Carltonlima Emma - hacked out in Windsor Great Park with the Queen for 15 years, with their final ride together taking place in July.\n\nOn the day of the monarch's funeral in September, the Queen's sheepskin saddle cover and her silk headscarf which she wore when riding were laid over the saddle.\n\nBuckingham Palace said the Yorkshire-bred pony would continue to be much-loved and cared for at the Royal Mews in Windsor.\n\nFollow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.", "Host nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\nAt one stadium there were tears of joy for South Korea. At the other, Uruguay's emotional players attempted to process what had just happened to them.\n\nAs yet another group reached a dramatic conclusion at the 2022 World Cup, it was Son Heung-min and his team-mates who were overwhelmed with joy as their place in the last 16 was finally confirmed with a 2-1 win over Portugal.\n\nAn inconsolable Luis Suarez and Co were left in disbelief at Al Janoub Stadium after Hwang Hee-chan's injury-time strike had left Uruguay one goal short of qualification, despite a 2-0 victory over Ghana.\n\nHere, BBC Sport looks back at the contrasting moods as Group H was settled in tense fashion.\n• None Quiz: Test your knowledge of the World Cup group stage\n• None What we learned from a wild World Cup group stage\n\nIt was roughly eight minutes after the final whistle at Education City Stadium when South Korea were able to get their party started.\n\nTheir players and coaches had followed the end of Uruguay's game with Ghana in a mass huddle on the pitch - and their thousands of fans in the stands had done the same.\n\nThey were gathered in huge groups and watching on tiny screens, all with their head in their hands, willing the African side to hold out.\n\nWhen it was all over, there was an outpouring of sheer relief. You didn't even have to see it for yourself - it was obvious from the deafening roar that came from their supporters and the entire squad, swiftly followed by a dance of delight.\n\nThe South Korea fans had actually been bouncing about all day, remaining excitable when their team fell behind early on or when they were labouring in search of a winner in the second half.\n\nIconic striker Son created the dream finish they craved, setting up Wolves frontman Hwang to score the stoppage-time goal that was just the start of their happy ending.\n\nSome fans around me were aware that put them above Uruguay on goals scored, others just knew they now had a chance of qualifying. All of them were anxious as they awaited their fate.\n\nBelow us, the players stood motionless too until the end of Uruguay's hopes brought an amazing explosion of emotion that will live long in the memory of anyone who witnessed this remarkable finale.\n\nUruguay and Ghana have met twice at the World Cup and both matches have produced incredible drama that will be talked about for years to come.\n\nPantomime villain Luis Suarez was the main focus before the game, with Ghana fans vowing to gain revenge for 12 years ago, when he handled the ball on the line and was sent off, before Asamoah Gyan missed the resulting spot-kick.\n\nGhana went out that day on penalties and although they also exited on this occasion, there will be some crumb of comfort knowing they took Suarez and Uruguay down with them.\n\nSeven minutes were added on and, as news filtered through of South Korea's victory over Portugal, an image flashed up of Suarez sitting on the bench in disbelief.\n\nGhana fans cheered loudly at his misery, which was compounded at the final whistle when they failed to find an elusive third goal which would have sent them through.\n\nDenied a late penalty when Edinson Cavani felt he was fouled in the box, Uruguay took out their fury and frustration on the match officials in an unsavoury ending.\n\nSuarez, 35, was in floods of tears at the end, consoled by 36-year-old centre-back Diego Godin, and both players may well have played their final games for their country.\n\nAsked about his own future, boss Diego Alonso said: \"It is too early to talk about it. Let us wait for hours, days and then we will discuss. It is not to time answer such questions.\n\n\"On the first day I believed in my players. We were seventh [in the South American qualifying group] when I joined but they responded well with results and good football.\n\n\"I am thankful for what they did and everything we did on the way was perfect. I deeply regret we are out of the World Cup.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Christian Matheson apologised to the complainant for the hurt he had caused\n\nLabour MP Christian Matheson has quit after a parliamentary watchdog recommended he be suspended for \"serious sexual misconduct\".\n\nTwo allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr Matheson by a former member of his staff have been upheld.\n\nThe MP for Chester allegedly invited her on a private trip abroad, which was found to be \"sexually motivated\".\n\nHe admitted he had committed a minor breach of the code and tendered his resignation with \"great sadness\".\n\nThe Independent Expert Panel parliamentary watchdog had recommended the Labour MP was suspended from the Commons for four weeks.\n\nA spokesperson for Labour said there must be a \"zero tolerance for sexual harassment\", adding the party acted immediately following the report findings.\n\nAccording to the report, the invitation for the trip abroad \"was sexually motivated, unwanted, and had placed the complainant under pressure and intimidated her\".\n\nDuring a work event outside Parliament, he also \"linked arms with her and made personal comments about her appearance while looking at her suggestively\".\n\nThe report also found he made her hold his hand as they left and insisted on accompanying her to a bus stop and once there invited her back to his flat, kissed her twice on the forehead and attempted to kiss her on the mouth.\n\nThe commissioner concluded these were all unwanted and unwelcome sexual advances.\n\nChristian Matheson had been the MP for the City of Chester since 2015\n\nIn his resignation statement, triggering a by-election, Mr Matheson said he accepted he had committed a minor breach of the code and had hoped that \"an honest and open approach\" would stand him in a \"fair\" light.\n\nHe said: \"This has proven not to be the case and I am dismayed that I have been found guilty of several allegations that I know to be untrue.\"\n\n\"Indeed my insistence on what I know to be true - that I had no sexual motivation in this matter - was held against me as a refusal to accept my guilt, and caused an increased sanction which I felt was disproportionate.\"\n\nHe said he had appealed against the four-week suspension which he believed to be \"an excessive and unfair penalty\" but he was now unable to \"challenge the process further\".\n\nMr Matheson, pictured during the 2015 general election campaign, said the matter had caused a great toll on his health\n\n\"I believe that the honourable and right thing to do now is to resign my seat and seek to rebuild my life elsewhere,\" he added.\n\n\"I once again apologise to the complainant in my case, for the hurt I have caused.\"\n\nIt is understood the Labour Party launched an investigation and immediately suspended Mr Matheson from the party membership in light of the report.\n\nHe was also asked to stand down as City of Chester MP by Labour.\n\nA spokesperson for Labour said: \"This is an incredibly serious case.\n\n\"There must be a zero tolerance for sexual harassment and the Labour party has acted immediately following the ICGS [The Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme] findings.\n\n\"We will now select a candidate that the people of Chester can be proud to vote for.\"\n\nMr Matheson's resignation will trigger a by-election in the City of Chester.\n\nWhy not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nHost nation:Dates: Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.\n\n\"Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.\"\n\nIt seems an age since former England striker Gary Lineker coined this memorable phrase - yet it reflects a reality that feels even further away following Germany's latest World Cup embarrassment in Qatar.\n\nGermany, once regarded as nailed-on certainties to go deep into major tournaments, bowed out of the World Cup on goal difference despite a chaotic 4-2 win Costa Rica, with Japan's win over Spain proving terminal to their hopes.\n\nThis is the second World Cup in a row that Germany have failed to get out of their group, after they suffered the same fate at Russia 2018.\n\nIt had not happened in 16 previous tournaments before then.\n• None Did it cross the line? Germany out on dramatic night\n• None The best social media VAR explainers of Japan's goal\n• None Who is through in World Cup and who could join them?\n\nGiven that record, Germany now find themselves dangerously close to slipping into football's 'B List'.\n\nThe sight of Germany's players gazing at a bank of empty red seats was the grim conclusion to a painful campaign, their fate already known before the final whistle and prompting many of their fans to vacate the premises.\n\nIt came at the end of a night that promised - for a few minutes at least - to be one of the most momentous in World Cup history, Costa Rica overturning Germany's early lead thanks to goals by Yeltsin Tejeda and Juan Pablo Vargas.\n\nThis meant, for three heady minutes, that Costa Rica were going through alongside Japan.\n\nIncredibly, Germany and Spain were heading towards the exit. What were the odds on that before a ball was kicked?\n\nBut it didn't last. Kai Havertz scored twice to restore some semblance of order, with Niclas Fullkrug's fourth of no consolation whatsoever.\n\nGermany had the win they needed to give them any chance of survival - but it was to no avail. Japan's victory over Spain made sure of that.\n\nGermany head coach Hansi Flick looked devastated at final whistle, defender Antonio Rudiger slumped and veteran goalkeeper Manuel Neuer stared blankly - disbelievingly - into the distance.\n\nGermany's elimination stands as a shock, based on reputation and past history alone, but they can have no complaints, just as they could have no complaints in Russia when they finished bottom of a group that was topped by Sweden, losing to Mexico and South Korea.\n\nSo maybe this latest disappointment for a country with such a proud and rich history should not come as that much of a surprise.\n\nRecent history has chipped away at their previous impregnable reputation, which saw them beat Argentina to win the trophy in 2014, but saw the first signs of the armour being dented just four years later.\n\nGermany were average in Euro 2020, going out to England in the last 16 after an undistinguished tournament, and all the evidence points to there being none of the old fear factor associated with the famous white shirt.\n\nFlick took over from Joachim Low in 2021 but the man who won the Champions League at Bayern Munich inherited a major rebuilding job.\n\nThey started badly in Qatar with a loss to Japan. This left them vulnerable and so it proved despite a hard-earned point against Spain and this win against Costa Rica.\n\nSuch is the demand for success - indeed the expectation of success - in Germany that this latest setback is sure to spark a lengthy inquest into how it went wrong and what is needed to put it right. This will be a shock to their system.\n\nFlick and the Germany football hierarchy will want the rehabilitation to be swift and effective with the country hosting Euro 2024. A similar flop in front of their own support is unthinkable.\n\nGermany have an outstanding young talent in 19-year-old Jamal Musiala and Chelsea's Havertz is still only 23, but there are signs that the old guard who have sustained them through so many successes is just starting to fray at the edges.\n\nNeuer is 36 and surely playing his last World Cup. Thomas Muller is now 33 and was taken off here, his main contribution missing an easy headed chance early on. Manchester City's Ilkay Gundogan is 32.\n\nFullkrug, Flick's World Cup wildcard, scored against Spain and Costa Rica but he is 29 and only found his way into the squad because of injuries to RB Leipzig's Timo Werner and Wolfsburg's Lukas Nmecha.\n\nJoshua Kimmich, at 27, will be vital in the next stage of Germany's development but there is sure to be some hard talking once they return home and recover from the failure in Qatar.\n\nHavertz suggested there were issues to address in his post-match interview: \"When you go out twice in the first round and once in the round of 16, it's extremely bitter,\" he said.\n\n\"We have to be honest and say that for four years, everything hasn't been going well.\n\n\"Now we've been knocked out twice in the group stage. I don't think we're a tournament team anymore.\"\n\nFlick said: \"We have just been eliminated. We can get up quickly and recover. We will see what the future looks like and how we can implement our ideas.\n\n\"We need to assess our World Cup and head in a different direction. This is the next step we will take and we will do it very soon. We need the basics again.\n\n\"I am a very critical person and we will assess everything.\"\n\nThe bottom line is that throughout this tournament Germany have displayed none of their familiar solidity in defence and were complacent whenever they went ahead. It is a deadly combination in tournament football.\n\nGermany's air of invincibility has long since gone and these past couple of weeks were perhaps the final confirmation of that fact.\n\nThey fly out of Qatar as a fallen giant of world football.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Rishi Sunak spoke with police chiefs to discuss their tactics dealing with protest groups like Just Stop Oil\n\nRishi Sunak has said it is \"completely unacceptable\" that people were having their lives disrupted by a \"selfish minority\" who join illegal protests.\n\nHome Secretary Suella Braverman has met with police chief constables to discuss tactics used by some environmental protest groups, such as Just Stop Oil.\n\nThe prime minister said: \"My view is that those who break the law should feel the full force of it.\"\n\nSpeaking after the meeting at No 10 he said the police had his support.\n\nMs Braverman and policing minister Chris Philp met with police chiefs on Thursday and were joined by Mr Sunak at the start.\n\nThe prime minister said the police were already being given new powers to clamp down on illegal protests and would have his full support in acting decisively to end \"the misery and disruption\" caused to ordinary families.\n\n\"I've said to them [the police] whatever they need from government they will have in terms of new powers, we're already giving them some, and I want to back them to use them.\"\n\nFollowing the talks in Downing Street, police chiefs described the meeting as \"constructive\".\n\nChief Constable BJ Harrington said the police were \"not anti-protest, but we are anti-crime\".\n\nA statement said: \"Police are committed to responding quickly and effectively to activists who deliberately disrupt people's lives through dangerous, reckless, and criminal acts.\"\n\nHe said the meeting showed a commitment to tackling criminal activism while respecting lawful protest.\n\nEarlier Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said Just Stop Oil protesters were being \"much less assertive\" because their suspected leaders are in custody.\n\nHe suggested that efforts by officers were having an effect, but admitted some criminal trials might not take place for two years amid delays in the criminal justice system.\n\nSpeaking at the London Assembly, Sir Mark said he was \"absolutely determined\" that anything that goes beyond lawful, reasonable protest would be \"dealt with robustly\".\n\nEarlier this week, Jan Goodey - a Just Stop Oil protester - who took part in a protest which saw \"mile after mile\" of tailbacks on the M25 after climbing up a gantry was jailed for six months. He admitted causing a public nuisance.\n\nThe 57-year-old had been part of a demonstration which forced authorities to close sections of one of the UK's biggest motorways on 7 November.", "An Australian man who became the subject of a popular crime podcast has been jailed for 24 years for his wife's murder.\n\nChris Dawson, 74, was convicted in August after decades of speculation about Lynette Dawson's 1982 disappearance.\n\nA judge ruled Dawson killed his wife so he could continue his relationship with his teenage lover and babysitter.\n\nHis lawyer has indicated he is likely to appeal against the conviction.\n\nMrs Dawson was 33 when she vanished from her Sydney home. Her body is still missing and all the evidence in the trial was circumstantial.\n\nIn his sentencing remarks on Friday, Justice Ian Harrison said Dawson's crime was \"self-indulgent brutality\" that \"was neither spontaneous nor unavoidable\".\n\nJustice Harrison said Dawson would be eligible for parole after 18 years, acknowledging it was likely he would die in prison.\n\nDawson was charged in 2018 after the podcast The Teacher's Pet - by The Australian newspaper - garnered global attention and prompted a renewed investigation, helping build enough evidence to lay charges.\n\nDuring the trial Dawson had denied having anything to do with his wife's disappearance, maintaining she had abandoned him and their two children - possibly to join a religious group.\n\nJustice Harrison said in August that the evidence against Dawson was \"persuasive and compelling\", finding Dawson was obsessed with his teenage lover - who is known as JC for legal reasons. She was also a student at the school where Dawson taught and he wanted her as a \"replacement\" for his wife, the judge said.\n\nThe judge said Dawson had become increasingly desperate as previous plans to leave his marriage failed and JC had wanted to end their relationship.\n\nIn an earlier hearing, Dawson's daughter Shanelle Dawson begged him to reveal the location of her mother's body, saying: \"Please tell us where she is.\"\n\nMs Dawson was just four when her mother disappeared.\n\n\"The night you removed our mother from our lives was the night you destroyed my sense of safety and belonging in this world for many decades to come,\" she said. \"Why didn't you just divorce her, let those who love and needed her keep her?\"\n\nSpeaking after the sentencing, the victim's brother Greg Simms said: \"We really didn't believe this day would ever come. What we need now is to find Lyn and put her to rest.\"\n\nWhen asked by reporters whether Dawson would now reveal her body's whereabouts, his lawyer Greg Walsh said his client maintained his innocence.\n\nIn October this year, the New South Wales government passed laws to make it impossible for convicted murderers to be released on parole if they refused to co-operate and reveal the location of victims' remains.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nIf Germany thought the reaction to their elimination at the 2018 World Cup in Russia was bad, wait until they see the headlines back home this time.\n\nDespite their 4-2 win over Costa Rica on Thursday, Hansi Flick's side were eliminated in the group stages for the second successive World Cup as Japan topped the group following their 2-1 victory against second-placed Spain.\n\nFor the four-time winners, whose most recent triumph was in Brazil only eight years ago, it is a steep decline.\n\nThe German press, former players and pundits have had their say on the nation's premature World Cup exit - and the future of manager Flick with Germany set to host Euro 2024.\n• None Did it cross the line? Germany out of dramatic night as Spain and Japan progress\n• None Belgium's Golden Generation fails in its last chance\n\nThe BBC's Berlin correspondent Jenny Hill says \"frustration and fury best sum up the mood in Germany this morning\" with the \"sense of humiliation widespread\".\n\nGerman newspaper Bild has not held back in their criticism of the German's performance, labelling the side a \"soccer dwarf.\"\n\nThey go on to say nobody in the Germany camp - from the players to the coaching staff - is world class and have marked 1 December as \"the end of a once great and proud soccer nation\".\n\nDie Welt , meanwhile, says German football has hit \"rock bottom\" and \"must stop lying to itself\", citing the need for \"fundamental change\" to improve results.\n\nSuddeutsche Zeitung has led with the headline \"the result that fits the big mess\", while Faz says the return to the top of world football is \"just an illusion for Germany\".\n\nElsewhere, Kicker.de says \"only a 9-2\" result would have helped a Germany side who have \"failed again\", and Der Spiegel has started an inquest into the reasons behind the nation's poor performance, labelling the people behind it as \"stubborn\".\n\nThe criticism of Germany from former players and pundits started minutes after the final whistle blew in Al Khor to confirm their exit.\n\nFormer captain Bastian Schweinsteiger, who played 121 times for Germany, said the blame lies with the players.\n\n\"Hansi [Flick] didn't do that much wrong,\" he told German broadcaster Ard.\n\n\"I'm really disappointed and shocked at how it went. The appearance of the national team is not enough, that's not enough.\n\n\"We invited the opponent. The fundamental problem is that we often invite the opponent.\"\n\n\"There are so many reasons [for Germany's exit]), but I am not looking to find excuses,\" he added.\n\n\"We did not have a lot of time to train, but it is not down to that. We fulfilled our duty today and went off the pitch with a victory, but the result could have been better.\"\n\nEx-Germany midfielder Sami Khedira was critical of Flick, telling Ard the manager \"got bogged down a bit with the line-up\" by playing Bayern Munich's Joshua Kimmich at right-back instead of central midfield.\n\nHowever, he did back Flick to stay on as Germany manager.\n\n\"Kimmich wants to be in the middle and Leon Goretzka is not a connection player - Flick gambled a bit on that,\" he said.\n\n\"But he [Flick] has already proven [his credentials] at Bayern.\n\n\"He's very clear, has a great team and a good game idea. He's strict, but at the same time a people catcher. I'd like Hansi to stay.\"\n\nGerman Football Association president Bernd Neuendorf says a meeting will be held next week with Flick and technical director Oliver Bierhoff to identify the reasons behind Germany's World Cup failure, while looking ahead to Euro 2024.\n\n\"You can imagine that today there is deep disappointment,\" said Neuendorf.\n\n\"This elimination is extremely painful. But we have to look ahead and so we will lead a process on how to deal with this.\n\n\"I am a strong supporter of clear processes and expect to hold these talks with respect and in private. We are taking the first step before the second step.\"\n\n\"It's already a hurricane out there\"\n\nFormer Germany striker and BBC pundit Jurgen Klinsmann has likened the reaction in Germany to that of the English press when England fail at major tournaments.\n\n\"The next couple of days will be very, very harsh and difficult because it's pretty much the third disappointment in a row,\" he said.\n\n\"You can imagine if England leave in the group stage, what the media will do in England. It's similar to this in Germany. It's going to be a hurricane - already is.\"\n\nKlinsmann, who was a World Cup-winner with Germany in 1990, says their failure to convert chances played a big part in their World Cup exit.\n\n\"That is definitely an on the pitch issue, that they didn't utilise the chances against Japan, they should have got the second goal far before Japan got back in the game. They've had a strong performance with Spain,\" he said.\n\nDespite the side's disappointing performance in Qatar, Klinsmann adds there is hope for the future - especially in 19-year-old Bayern Munich midfielder Jamal Musiala.\n\n\"I think there's a lot of talent in that squad and they haven't found their high years yet,\" he said.\n\n\"We have one wonder child, there's no doubt about it, in terms of performances in Musiala - he is an exceptional, exceptional player.\n\n\"There is a lot of talent, they can build things fairly quickly towards the Euros.\"\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. 85 out of 106 swimming areas in Wales are ranked excellent\n\nCold water swimmers in Wales say they have been given \"peace of mind\" after the water quality in 80% of bathing areas tested was ranked excellent.\n\nThe highest ranking was given to 85 of 106 places tested, with one ranked as poor.\n\nPenarth in Vale of Glamorgan was added to the rankings after a swimmer used new rules to get its water tested.\n\nThe Welsh government has reaffirmed it will follow a European Commission directive on water quality.\n\nAll but one of the 106 water bodies tested in Wales met EU standards for bathing water quality\n\nThe 106 water bodies assessed were categorised as excellent, good, sufficient or poor.\n\nMarine Lake in Rhyl, Denbighshire, an artificial lake used mainly for water sports, was the only site to be classified as poor.\n\nAll 22 Blue Flag award beaches in Wales can now apply to retain their status for 2023.\n\nDawnstalkers is a group of about 100 cold water swimmers who brave the sea off Penarth each morning.\n\nWith so many people using the water, swimmer James Tennet decided to ask Natural Resources Wales (NRW) to test it.\n\nSwimmer James Tennet used new rules to get water quality tested off Penarth beach, where he swims\n\n\"No-one knew what the water quality was, there was such a range of answers, but there was absolutely no data,\" he said.\n\n\"I did a bit of research and it was a lot easier [to get it tested] than I imagined.\"\n\nDespite murkiness from estuary mud, results showed the water ranked excellent.\n\n\"It's peace of mind,\" he said.\n\n\"Swimming is getting more popular, you want it to be a safe environment so we want to encourage more people to swim too.\"\n\nMae Frank, 25, said she enjoyed her early morning swims: \"It's a good start to the day.\n\n\"It gives you a big surge of energy for the rest of the day, you're super productive afterwards.\n\nMae said she was pleased with the water rating at Penarth.\n\n\"In the summer there were all the alerts about water quality in different places, but we were lucky here that it kept in the green zone,\" she said.\n\nChelsea Smith, 32, is another Dawnstalkers member who said cold water swimming sets them up for the day.\n\n\"We're getting to red leg weather where everything gets pins and needles and it's a little bit painful but as soon as you've done it, it's the best start to the day,\" she said.\n\nChelsea said she was concerned about water quality prior to this testing: \"I know people who've got tummy bugs off swimming in other places or going surfing because they didn't know what's been put in the sea.\"\n\nDawnstalkers is a group of about 100 people who swim at Penarth beach at first light\n\nWelsh government Climate Change Minister Julie James said she wanted to designate more lakes and reservoirs as bathing waters to \"encourage everyone of all shapes, sizes and abilities to don their costumes and brave our brisk waters\".\n\nNRW collected and analysed water samples throughout 2022, with chief executive Clare Pillman saying she was \"incredibly proud of the improvements we've seen in our bathing waters in recent decades\".\n\nShe acknowledged there was more work to be done, with climate change and pollution among the challenges for the future.", "Lady Susan Hussey was a senior assistant to the late Queen and at the heart of the Royal Family for decades\n\nThis began as an awkward private conversation but soon became a big public embarrassment for the Royal Family.\n\nIt is a sign of how seriously it has been taken that Buckingham Palace reacted so rapidly.\n\nWithin hours of a social media post reporting the persistent questioning of a black British charity boss about where she was \"really\" from, there was a resignation and apology.\n\nIt should have been a positive occasion, with Camilla, the Queen Consort, inviting about 300 guests to Buckingham Palace to support her campaign against domestic violence.\n\nA witness described the incident as beginning with \"chit chat\" between a guest at the reception, Ngozi Fulani, and a member of the Royal Household later identified as Lady Susan Hussey.\n\nWhat turned the conversation into such a car crash was the apparent unwillingness to accept a black woman's response that she was from Britain - with the questioning assuming she must really be from elsewhere.\n\nThere seemed to be an underlying misconception that she could not \"really\" be from the UK.\n\nAnd what makes it so toxic is that it once again raises difficult questions about the Royal Family and their ability to reflect a diverse modern Britain.\n\nIt touches raw nerves about a sense of belonging and identity. It suggests Buckingham Palace as a starchy and unwelcoming place.\n\nNgozi Fulani (left) was a guest at the Buckingham Palace reception this week\n\nThe subjects of race and racism and inclusion and diversity have become very difficult territory for the royals - particularly after suggestions by Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, of prejudice within the Royal Family and Royal Household.\n\nThe timing could scarcely be worse.\n\nLady Susan Hussey is the godmother of Prince William, who has arrived in Boston, US, wanting to carve out an international role as a modern, empathetic figure, as he hands out an environmental prize.\n\nThis is his first overseas trip as Prince of Wales and he won't want it to be overshadowed by a race row. A spokesman distanced Prince William from the comments.\n\nMeanwhile, the family has been very publicly trying to send a message about supporting diversity and inclusion.\n\nThe King has talked of wanting his reign to reflect Britain as a \"community of communities\", drawing strength from diversity.\n\nThe latest appointments to the prestigious Order of Merit were mostly people from ethnic minorities.\n\nLady Hussey's role as a lady-in-waiting had itself been swept away in a modernising move by Camilla, but she had retained a less senior role as a lady of the household following the Queen's death.\n\nLady Hussey, in the back row of this family photograph taken in March 1997, wearing a green suit, was one of the late Queen's most trusted confidantes\n\nPrince Harry and Meghan's documentary series is due to be released on Netflix next week - and there will be great scrutiny of whether it reignites claims about racism within the Royal Family.\n\nOne unresolved question, raised during their interview with Oprah Winfrey, concerns the identity of the person supposed to have questioned the colour of their then unborn child.\n\nThe Sussexes are also due to collect a prize in New York next week which commends their efforts to stand up to racism.\n\nIn a recent interview, Meghan suggested there may be more to say about her experiences as a working royal.\n\n\"I think forgiveness is really important. It takes a lot more energy to not forgive,\" she told The Cut.\n\n\"But it takes a lot of effort to forgive. I've really made an active effort, especially knowing that I can say anything.\"\n\nThe incident this week adds more urgency to the King's efforts to modernise the institution he has taken over.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nThe controversy over Japan's winning goal against Spain, which took them into the World Cup knockout stages, had many people on social media doing the same thing.\n\nWith no official images released, football fans created homemade versions to demonstrate how the ball could still be in play - despite appearing to have gone out over the byeline just before Ao Tanaka's goal.\n\nThe high stakes of the goal - which the video assistant referee (VAR) determined could stand - meant not only that Japan topped Group E, but also that Germany were eliminated, despite beating Costa Rica 4-2 in Thursday night's other match.\n\nITV pundit Graeme Souness questioned if \"something untoward\" was going on, while Spain manager Luis Enrique claimed images he had seen after the match \"must have been manipulated\" and \"it cannot be that this photo is real\". Fifa declined to comment.\n\nHawk-Eye goal-line technology, in use during the game, detects if a ball has crossed the goal-line for a goal, not whether it has crossed the line outside of that area.\n\nFifa said on Friday that \"the video match officials used the goalline camera images to check if the ball was still partially on the line\" and added \"other cameras may offer misleading images\".\n\nImagine how social media would have reacted in the days before we were pre-conditioned to technology, such as Frank Lampard's 'goal' for England against Germany at the 2010 World Cup. And the eternal debate over whether Sir Geoff Hurst's goal that made it 3-2 to England in the 1966 World Cup final against West Germany crossed the line.\n\nThese days, we have an army of digitally literate football fans ready to pore over every decision and provide their own evidence.\n\nIn the aftermath of Wednesday's fixture, people online have taken matters into their own hands - demonstrating how a ball can still be in play, even when some camera angles suggest otherwise...\n\nSome in Japan have used graphic design skills to illustrate further...\n\nThere was no sympathy over in Brazil, where supporters haven't forgotten about the humiliation of a 7-1 defeat by Germany in the semi-finals of their home World Cup in 2014.\n\nThis tweet translates as: \"Look how the ball was in - Japan's goal validated by VAR! A millimetre that made the joy of millions of Brazilians.\"\n\nMeanwhile, a new design for Japan's national flag has been submitted...\n\nIn the end, after a day of social media debate, Fifa had the final word...\n\nJapan will now face Croatia in the last 16 on Monday (15:00 GMT kick-off). Meanwhile, Germany are officially in 'fallen giant' territory after failing to make it out of the group in both World Cups since they won the tournament in 2014.\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The inquiry is examining Mr Bayoh's death in police custody in 2015\n\nAn expert witness has criticised the tactics used by police before the confrontation which ended in Sheku Bayoh's death in Kirkcaldy.\n\nJoanne Caffrey said unarmed officers should not have been sent \"sporadically\" to the scene.\n\nInstead, she said the police should have agreed a tactical plan for a \"managed and controlled intervention\".\n\nMs Caffrey, an expert in safer custody, made the comments in a report to the public inquiry into Mr Bayoh's death.\n\nGiving evidence at the hearing in Edinburgh, she also said the approach taken by the first officers at the scene had fallen within the range of tactical options open to them.\n\nMembers of the public called 999 after spotting Mr Bayoh walking through Kirkcaldy on a Sunday morning in May 2015. He was said to have been carrying a knife, behaving erratically and chasing cars.\n\nThe first officers to find him could not see a knife but decided to approach him straight away because they believed he posed a danger to the public.\n\nOfficers Craig Walker and Alan Paton have told the inquiry that Mr Bayoh refused to comply with their commands and walked towards them.\n\nThey used CS and Pava irritant sprays to incapacitate Mr Bayoh but they had no effect and blew back into the officers' faces.\n\nTwo other officers, PC Nicole Short and PC Ashley Tomlinson, then arrived at the scene.\n\nMr Bayoh is alleged to have struck PC Short on the back of the head. Two of the officers have claimed that he stamped on her as she lay on the ground.\n\nThe stamping allegation has been disputed by a civilian eye witness and is so far unsupported by medical or forensic evidence.\n\nPC Tomlinson has said he believed Mr Bayoh had killed PC Short and decided to use potentially lethal force, striking him on the head with his baton.\n\nThe police said Mr Bayoh continued to struggle on the ground, with six officers involved in restraining him. He stopped breathing and later died in hospital. A knife was found near the scene after the incident.\n\nMs Caffrey's 352 page report was published on the inquiry's website after she completed her evidence at this week's public hearings.\n\nIn its executive summary, Ms Caffrey said: \"Unarmed officers should have been deployed to a RV (rendezvous) point to muster and observe until the tactical plan was agreed and a managed and controlled intervention agreed as the tactical plan.\n\n\"Unarmed officers should not attend sporadically as they did. Medical attendance from the outlet should have been considered. Staff should have deployed as a team.\"\n\nMs Caffrey said any use of force should be the minimum required to gain control quickly and place the detainee in a safe position.\n\nNo officer should lay over the torso of a restrained person as it could interfere with breathing, she added.\n\nIn her evidence at the public hearings, Ms Caffrey has also said that sending a dog unit was the best response to an incident involving a moving suspect thought to be armed with a knife.\n\nShe said the first officers at the scene could have monitored Mr Bayoh from a distance and waited for a dog unit to arrive.\n\nThe inquiry has heard that the nearest dog unit was in Edinburgh and would have taken 20 minutes to get there.\n\nIt was dispatched a minute after the first officers had found Mr Bayoh on Kirkcaldy's Hayfield Road.\n\nQuestioned by Roddy Dunlop KC, who is representing the Scottish Police Federation and two of the officers involved in the incident, Miss Caffrey agreed it would have been difficult to have prevented Mr Bayoh from moving away from the scene.\n\nShe also agreed the decision by the officers to approach Mr Bayoh immediately had fallen within the range of tactical options which they could have used.\n\nMr Dunlop asked her: \"If you've got gap closing, if you've got failure to respond to lawful commands, and if you are reasonably of the understanding that he's in possession of a knife, deployment of CS and Pava is a reasonable option open to a reasonable officer?\"\n\nMs Caffrey replied: \"It's one of the tactical options, yes.\"\n\nThe inquiry in Edinburgh is looking into the circumstances of Mr Bayoh's death after he was restrained by police in May 2015, and whether his race was a factor.", "Glasgow was dressed up as 1960s New York for the latest Indiana Jones film\n\nScenes from the new Indiana Jones movie which was partly filmed in Glasgow have been broadcast for the first time.\n\nThe city was dressed up as an American street during filming for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in summer 2021.\n\nA new trailer shows action sequences, including 80-year-old Harrison Ford riding a horse through New York City and on to subway tracks.\n\nThe horseback chase was filmed in Glasgow where a body double for Ford was seen riding through a parade scene.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Lucasfilm This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nOther scenes in the trailer show a younger, de-aged version of the world-famous fictional archaeologist as well as high-speed car chases and multiple shoot-outs.\n\nFord has reprised his role as the iconic adventurer in the film, more than 40 years after playing the same character in Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981.\n\nThe cast also includes Mads Mikkelsen and Antonio Banderas, while Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays Indy's goddaughter Helena.\n\nGlasgow city centre was almost unrecognisable with star-spangled banners, bunting and vintage shop fronts on display throughout the filming.\n\nIn a set built over the course of month, its streets were transformed into 1960s New York.\n\nAnd there were hints to the plot visible to passers-by.\n\nOne sign read \"New York welcomes Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins\" - a reference to the Apollo 11 astronauts who were the first humans to land on the moon in 1969.\n\nOther vintage shop fronts could be seen with \"welcome home\" banners in the window.\n\nA body double for Harrison Ford was seen riding a horse through a parade in Glasgow\n\nIn the trailer, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is seen riding the horse\n\nThe film will be released on 30 June. It follows earlier sequels Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984); Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).", "Prince William and Catherine speak with a young mother during a visit to a charity in Chelsea, Massachusetts\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales have visited a charity that works with young people at risk of urban violence, as their US trip continues.\n\nThey are in America to hand out awards for their Earthshot Prize - given to innovative ideas for the environment.\n\nBut the trip risks being overshadowed by a racism row involving Prince William's godmother.\n\nLady Susan Hussey resigned after asking a black British charity boss where she was \"really\" from.\n\nPrince William's spokesperson has said \"racism has no place in our society\".\n\nThis is the royal couple's first big international appearance since the death of the Queen, and since they became the Prince and Princess of Wales.\n\nWilliam and Catherine took their first walkabout of their US trip on Thursday\n\nThe couple met royal fans and posed for photos\n\nTheir trip will culminate in a star-studded prize ceremony on Friday, in Boston - home town of former US President John F Kennedy, on whose \"Moonshot\" challenge the Earthshot Prize is based.\n\nThe prince's brother Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and Meghan are not expected to attend the awards ceremony.\n\nBut on the second day of Prince William and Catherine's trip, the trailer for Harry and Meghan's \"behind closed doors\" Netflix series was released.\n\nThe minute-long clip features previously unseen pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, including tearful images of Meghan.\n\nThe BBC's Daniela Relph, who is in Boston, says not to expect the Prince and Princess of Wales to comment on the Netflix series during their US trip. Royal sources say they want to concentrate on meeting communities and local people.\n\nPrince William and Catherine visited Greentown Labs, near Boston, which brings together start-ups and investors that are trying to create technology that will support the environment.\n\nIt is described as a community for climate pioneers, and has supported more than 500 companies since it was founded in 2011.\n\nDuring the visit, eight-year-old Henry Dynov-Teixeira, dressed as a guardsman complete with replica bearskin, handed the Princess of Wales a bunch of red roses.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe royals visited Boston Harbour with the city's mayor and Reverend Mariama White-Hammond (right)\n\nThe royals later visited Roca, a charity supporting disadvantaged young people at risk of or involved with urban violence, praising their \"incredible\" work.\n\nThe couple were introduced to Molly Baldwin, chief executive officer of Roca, who founded the organisation in 1988 to work with a small group of high-risk young people.\n\nWilliam said: \"It's trying to get the message across that there's a grey area between when you look at a young person and see a gap between the potential they have and the trouble they cause.\n\n\"As a society how do we tackle that? There is so much happens in between and there is so much potential there.\"\n\nWilliam and Catherine took their first walkabout of the trip in Chelsea, which is close to Boston, where they received an enthusiastic welcome, with one young woman collapsing in tears.\n\nLater in the day, they toured the Boston Harbour Defences with the mayor of the city, to hear about how the area is contending with rising sea levels.\n\nThe visit to Boston was carefully planned, each public engagement considered and researched.\n\nBut sometimes events, not always in your control, can just take over.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales have tried to keep the focus on the people they're meeting and the projects they're learning more about.\n\nBut it has all had to happen against the backdrop of the racism row at Buckingham Palace and then the release of the trailer for Harry and Meghan's new Netflix series that hints at revelation and torment.\n\nTheir final day in Boston will include two significant events.\n\nPrince William will meet President Biden at the JFK Library in a late addition to the schedule. The President is in Boston for a party fundraiser.\n\nThen it is the Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony - the centrepiece of the whole trip. Five projects will win £1m for their ambitious, innovative work.\n\nThe Prince and Princess of Wales will hope the end of this trip will be more straightforward and free of the unexpected challenges of recent days.\n\nFive winners of the Earthshot Prize will be announced in Boston on Friday - each of whom will be given £1m ($1.2m) to develop their environmental projects.\n\nThe awards ceremony will be a mix of good causes and entertainment - performers include Billie Eilish, Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding and Chloe x Halle.\n\nEnvironmental campaigner Sir David Attenborough will voice the opening of the ceremony.\n\nPrince William has said the Earth is at a \"tipping point\" and the awards are intended to support innovative ways of reducing environmental damage.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nCameroon defeated a Brazil side resting a host of regulars but still saw their World Cup campaign ended after an entertaining encounter at Lusail Stadium.\n\nVincent Aboubakar header the winner in stoppage time but his joy immediately turned to disappointment as he was given a second yellow card for taking his shirt off.\n\nCameroon had acquitted themselves well throughout as Bryan Mbuemo brought an outstanding save from Manchester City's Ederson, deputising for Liverpool keeper Alisson, but Switzerland's victory over Serbia ended the African team's chances of reaching the last 16.\n\nWith his side having already qualified after their first two games, Brazil coach Tite made 10 changes and Arsenal's Gabriel Martinelli took the chance to impress with a fine performance in which he was thwarted on several occasions by Cameroon keeper Devis Epassy.\n\nThe pre-tournament favourites finished top of Group G despite the loss and now meet South Korea in the knockout phase after their dramatic late win against Portugal saw them edge out Uruguay, who beat Ghana, on goals scored.\n\nBrazil were in the comfort zone after winning their group games against Serbia and Switzerland, affording coach Tite the opportunity to shuffle his powerful squad while demonstrating the range of resources at his disposal.\n\nThey may have lost this game, but with qualification assured Tite may not be too disappointed at the defeat as it did not inflict any damage on their group standing, and he now has fresh legs for when the knockout stage starts.\n\nArsenal's 21-year-old Martinelli was Brazil's outstanding performer, with Cameroon keeper Epassy producing fine stops from an early header, and a shot destined for the top corner in the second half.\n\nMartinelli's tireless running combined with quality proved a thorn in Cameroon's side and made an eloquent case for his inclusion should Tite wish to make changes as the World Cup progresses.\n\nBrazil have shown enough in their two victories to justify the pre-tournament optimism surrounding their chances - now they will hope Neymar, who acclaimed the fans with his team-mates on the pitch after the final whistle, can recover from the ankle injury sustained against Serbia in time to make his expected contribution.\n\nCameroon may be out of the World Cup but Rigobert Song's side certainly added to the quality and excitement that has marked the group stages here in Qatar.\n\nBrazil had most of the chances at Lusail Stadium but Cameroon were always in the game and posed a threat, which came to fruition when the extrovert Aboubakar directed his header past Ederson during nine minutes of stoppage time.\n\nHe paid the price for ripping his shirt off in celebration as referee Ismail Elfath almost apologetically pulled out a second yellow card, followed by the red.\n\nGoalkeeper Epassy also distinguished himself, particularly at the expense of Martinelli, to earn the award as man of the match.\n\nCameroon were ultimately undone by their opening-game defeat against Switzerland but showed character and quality to fight back from 3-1 down to earn a 3-3 draw against Serbia, and then beat mighty Brazil in front of 85,986 fans here in Lusail.\n\n\"The Indomitable Lions\" may be going home but they have certainly had their moments in Qatar.\n• None Attempt missed. Bruno Guimarães (Brazil) right footed shot from very close range is too high. Assisted by Marquinhos.\n• None Attempt missed. Gabriel Martinelli (Brazil) header from very close range is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Marquinhos with a headed pass.\n• None Attempt saved. Bruno Guimarães (Brazil) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Marquinhos with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Pedro (Brazil) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Gabriel Martinelli with a cross.\n• None Second yellow card to Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon) for excessive celebration.\n• None Goal! Cameroon 1, Brazil 0. Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon) header from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Jerome Ngom Mbekeli with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Pedro (Brazil) left footed shot from the centre of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Raphinha.\n• None Bruno Guimarães (Brazil) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt blocked. Bruno Guimarães (Brazil) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is blocked. Assisted by Raphinha with a cross.\n• None Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Gabriel Martinelli (Brazil) wins a free kick on the right wing.\n• None Attempt missed. Christopher Wooh (Cameroon) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Karl Toko-Ekambi with a cross following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Tests of missile fragments did not show abnormal levels of radioactivity, Ukraine's military says\n\nRussia is now using nuclear-capable missiles with non-explosive warheads to exhaust Ukraine's air defences, the Ukrainian military has said.\n\nIt displayed what it said were fragments of Soviet-made X-55 cruise missiles - designed for nuclear use - found in Ukraine's two western regions.\n\nThe rockets are being launched to \"exhaust the air-defence system of our country,\" a Ukrainian official said.\n\nHe said tests on the fragments did not show abnormal levels of radioactivity.\n\nUkrainian military experts say Russia may have significantly depleted its vast missile arsenal after carrying out wave after wave of massive strikes on Ukraine's critical infrastructure in recent weeks.\n\nMoscow is now resorting to using blunt projectiles that still cause devastation, they say. A UK intelligence report in November came to similar conclusions.\n\nRussia - which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February - has made no public comments on the issue.\n\nAt a briefing on Thursday in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, military official Mykola Danyliuk showed reporters what he described as fragments of X-55 cruise missiles (known as AS-15 by Nato) found in the Lviv and Khmelnytsky regions.\n\nHe said the projectiles were designed in Soviet times to hit \"strategic targets with predetermined co-ordinates\".\n\nThe UK said the missiles were designed \"exclusively as a nuclear delivery system\".\n\nHowever, it is believed the Russian military removed the nuclear warheads from the missiles fired at Ukraine and replaced them with an inert system.\n\nMr Danyliuk stressed that even a missile armed with a non-explosive warhead \"posed a significant danger\" because of its kinetic energy and fuel residues.\n\n\"This is evidenced by the latest strike when a X-55 missile hit a residential building.\"\n\nTesting indicated \"no contact [of the missile] with nuclear elements\", he added.\n\nOn Thursday, an air alert was briefly in place across all of Ukraine - with the exception of the Russian-annexed southern Crimea peninsula - after reports that Russian war planes may be preparing to carry out a fresh wave of missile strikes. The alert was later discontinued.\n\nIn other developments on Thursday:", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. \"You are now, properly, a city,\" says Princess Anne during her visit to Bangor\n\nBangor in County Down has formally received city status in a ceremony attended by the Princess Royal.\n\nThe ceremony took place at Bangor Castle with Princess Anne unveiling the city's official warrant.\n\nCity status was granted by Queen Elizabeth II to mark her platinum jubilee, three months before her death in September.\n\nBangor is now one of six cities in Northern Ireland, along with Belfast, Londonderry, Armagh, Lisburn and Newry.\n\nPrincess Anne said it was \"always a pleasure\" to visit Bangor, reminiscing on her previous trips in 2013 and 2016.\n\nThe official letters patent for Bangor reads that the area will \"have all such rank liberties, privileges and immunities as are incident to a city\"\n\nShe spoke about Bangor's historical importance as a centre of learning, noting its appearance on the medieval Hereford Mappa Mundi as \"civitas benair\" (city of Bangor).\n\n\"I can only apologise for taking so long to make sure that in fact you are now properly a city in 2022,\" she said.\n\nThe princess praised recent investment in the area, adding that she hoped city-status \"provides a real boost to these exciting plans\".\n\nNorthern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris was also at the event, which was hosted by Ards and North Down Mayor Karen Douglas.\n\nMr Heaton-Harris said he hoped city-status would attract visitors and boost the economy.\n\nPrincess Anne was joined by Chris Heaton-Harris and Ards and North Down Mayor Karen Douglas as she unveiled the city's royal warrant\n\nBangor was one of eight UK towns elevated to a city in May after a competition in which it was required to show its royal associations and cultural heritage.\n\nIts application pointed out that in 1961 the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited Bangor Castle and had lunch at the Royal Ulster Yacht Club, before the duke raced in a regatta.\n\nCity status is often associated with having a cathedral, a university, or a large population.\n\nHowever, there are no set rules for being granted the status, which is awarded by the monarch on advice of ministers.\n\nTwenty years ago, Lisburn and Newry were awarded city status in a competition to mark the Queen's golden jubilee.\n\nThe coastal town has been popular with day-trippers for decades\n\nIn the 2011 census the population of Bangor was just over 60,000.\n\nIt is situated beside the coast, at the mouth of Belfast Lough.\n\nA number of famous faces come from Bangor, including the lead singer of Snow Patrol, Gary Lightbody, author Colin Bateman, golfer David Feherty and artist Colin Davidson.\n\nNobel Peace Prize winner Lord David Trimble, who died earlier this year, spent much of his early life in the town, attending Bangor Grammar, one of 19 schools in the area.\n\nIn the past it was a seaside resort which was popular with day trippers and tourists who gathered on the beach in front of the town.\n\nIn the late 1980s a marina was built, transforming the seafront.\n\nArtist Colin Davidson is one of the famous faces from Bangor\n\nLike many places it has been hit hard by the building of shopping centres on the outskirts of the central district.\n\nThere are plans in place to try to rejuvenate Bangor, with the hope that its new city status will help.\n\nThe city's courthouse was recently turned into a music venue, and other projects are in the pipeline.\n\nBangor's road signs will not change immediately to reflect its new status as a city - they will continue to refer to \"town centre\".\n\n\"Officials are content to liaise with Ards and North Down Borough Council representatives to consider a possible phased renewal of signs in conjunction with any replacement of signs the council is responsible for,\" said the Department for Infrastructure.", "Mermaids supports transgender children and young people up to the age of 25\n\nTransgender youth support charity Mermaids is the subject of a statutory inquiry, the Charity Commission says.\n\nThe regulatory body began investigating Mermaids in September, after reports about the supply of chest-binding devices to teenagers.\n\nA formal inquiry has now been launched because of \"newly identified issues\" with Mermaids' governance and management, the Commission says.\n\nMermaids says it will co-operate \"fully and openly\" with the Commission.\n\nMermaids is the country's leading charity in services offering support around gender and identity to children and young people up to 25 years of age.\n\n\"The charity has an unwavering commitment to safeguarding which is, and always will be, our top priority,\" a statement on Mermaids' website said.\n\n\"We will continue to co-operate fully, openly and with complete transparency with the Charity Commission as its inquiry gets under way.\"\n\nMermaids said it was already prioritising acting on \"a number of significant challenges\" that had been highlighted by a report which the charity commissioned earlier this year, into its own \"equity, diversity and inclusion\".\n\n\"We know we must do better and we are absolutely committed to doing so,\" it said.\n\nThe Charity Commission said opening the inquiry does not mean it has found any wrongdoing.\n\nThe Commission, which regulates charities in England and Wales, started its investigation into Mermaids in September, when it received complaints following reports in the Telegraph about the charity supplying chest-binding devices to teenagers.\n\nThe NHS defines binding as \"reducing the appearance of soft tissue by flattening your chest\".\n\nIt can be used by transgender or non-binary people to help relieve the symptoms of gender dysphoria, which is a sense of unease because of a mismatch between biological sex and gender identity.\n\nPeople who choose to bind their chest often use specifically-designed devices known as binders. Others may make their own using sports bras, compression clothing designed for use in the gym, or bandages and body tape.\n\nThere is little medical evidence of the risks or advantages of chest binding. An interim report into gender services for children in March raised concerns that some binding devices may be potentially harmful.\n\nThe Charity Commission said the inquiry, which opened on 28 November, will examine:\n\nA report will be published of the inquiry's findings, once it is concluded.", "Sir Elton is the first headliner to be announced for the sold out 2023 Glastonbury festival\n\nSir Elton John is to headline the Glastonbury Festival next summer, playing what will be the last UK date of his farewell tour.\n\nThe star will top the bill on the Pyramid Stage on Sunday, 25 June, and has promised a spectacular farewell.\n\n\"There is no more fitting way to say goodbye to my British fans,\" he said in a statement announcing the show.\n\n\"I can't wait to embrace the spirit of the greatest festival in the world. It's going to be incredibly emotional.\"\n\nThe show will come more than five years after Sir Elton announced his 350-date Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.\n\nIt was originally due to wrap up in 2021, giving the 75-year-old more time to spend with his young family, but multiple dates had to be rescheduled due to both the Covid pandemic and a hip injury the singer sustained in a fall.\n\nHe recently completed the US leg of the tour with a three-night stand at LA's Dodger Stadium - where, in 1975, he cemented his superstar status with two historic gigs, bedecked in a sequinned Dodgers Baseball uniform.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by EltonJohnVEVO This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nThat kit appeared again at his last US concert, as he played hits including Rocket Man, Tiny Dancer, Your Song and Philadelphia Freedom.\n\nHe was also joined by star guests Brandi Carlile, Kiki Dee and Dua Lipa, who duetted on the Pnau remix of Cold Heart - a song that introduced Sir Elton to a new generation of fans last year.\n\nHis Glastonbury set will undoubtedly contain similar surprises.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video 2 by Disney Plus This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. End of youtube video 2 by Disney Plus\n\nThe star teased the announcement on Thursday, posting an Instagram photo captioned: \"One final date to announce... the Rocket Man is incoming.\"\n\nAround the same time, the BBC's Glastonbury webcam featured an image of a rocket ship in the sky above the Pyramid stage.\n\nThe hint dropped 24 hours before the official announcement of Sir Elton's Glastonbury performance\n\nConfirming the news on Friday morning, festival organiser Emily Eavis said: \"It gives me enormous pleasure to let you know that the one and only Elton John will be making his first ever Glastonbury appearance, headlining the Pyramid Stage on the Sunday night next year.\n\n\"This will be the final UK show of Elton's last ever tour, so we will be closing the Festival and marking this huge moment in both of our histories with the mother of all send-offs.\"\n\nSir Elton added that he \"couldn't be more excited\" to play at Worthy Farm.\n\n\"Every week I speak to new artists on my radio show and Glastonbury is often cited as a pivotal moment in launching their careers,\" he said.\n\n\"The festival's genuine, enthusiastic support for the best emerging talent is something I've long admired.\"\n\nBy the time his tour wraps up, Sir Elton will have spent more than 50 years on the road, playing 4,000 shows in 80 countries\n\nThe show will come at the end of the UK leg of Sir Elton's farewell tour, which kicks off in Liverpool next March.\n\nAfter Glastonbury, he only has seven dates left to play in Europe before he retires from touring.\n\nHowever, the star has not completely ruled out the possibility of one-off concert dates in the future - telling the BBC in 2018 that his \"dream thing\" would be a theatrical residency where he could play lesser-known tracks like Amoreena and Original Sin instead of hits like I'm Still Standing and Candle In The Wind.\n\n\"I've sung these songs nearly 5,000 times, some of them, and although they're wonderful songs, and I'm very appreciative of them, I've sung them enough,\" he said.\n\nSir Elton is the first headliner to be announced for next year's Glastonbury festival - for which tickets have already sold out.\n\nFollow us on Facebook or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Angela Rayner on Chester by-election: Rishi Sunak failed in first test as leader\n\nRishi Sunak has \"failed\" his first electoral test as Labour held Chester in a by-election with an increased vote share, Angela Rayner has said.\n\nLabour's deputy leader said voters \"have given a big message to the Conservatives that they want change\".\n\nSamantha Dixon was elected with a 10,974 majority, and a 61% vote share - Labour's best ever result in the seat.\n\nRepeating the 13.6% swing from the Tories nationally would win Labour a majority, pollster John Curtice said.\n\nCulture Secretary Michelle Donelan said that the result was \"pretty much expected\".\n\nMs Donelan argued the Conservative Party was \"focused on delivering for the British public\".\n\nLord Hayward, a Conservative peer and elections analyst, said: \"Rishi has to convince the public at large that he can manage out of this crisis, whichever crisis one's looking at - and there's a lot of them.\"\n\nMs Rayner said Chester voters had shown they \"want a Labour government\".\n\nLabour Leader Keir Starmer, called the election \"a very, very good result for the Labour Party\".\n\nSir Keir said: The Labour Party has been putting forward a positive plan for the future, how we stabilise and grow our economy.\n\n\"The government is worn out, tired and crashed the economy and the verdict was very clearly given.\"\n\nIn her victory speech, Ms Dixon said voters had delivered a message to Mr Sunak that the Conservatives \"no longer have a mandate to govern\".\n\nLabour had been expected to retain the seat, which it won in 2019 by a majority of 6,164.\n\nIn that election, the Conservatives came second, winning 38% of the vote. Labour and the Liberal Democrats secured 50% and 7% respectively.\n\nThis time around, Ms Dixon won with a 61% share, easily defeating Conservative Liz Wardlaw on a 41% turnout.\n\nVery little about this result is surprising, but that doesn't mean it's not significant.\n\nLabour held the seat and boosted their share of the vote, while support for the Conservatives dropped.\n\nSir Keir Starmer can point to this win as evidence that Labour's lead in the opinion polls is reflected in the real world.\n\nConservatives say they've been given a \"bloody nose\", as is often the case for governments mid-term, and a message from voters that they need to deliver.\n\nLabour insiders are talking up the win as a \"thumping result\", with the party's biggest ever majority in the city of Chester.\n\nBut Tories in the region, braced for defeat, say with some relief that it could've been worse.\n\nIt's always risky projecting by-election results onto the national picture - but as a snapshot, this one tells us Labour has built on its support in a seat that's been Conservative in the past and for the Tories, the electoral outlook is bleak.\n\nSir John Curtice told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: \"Labour are in a stronger position than they have been at any point in the last 12 years.\"\n\nThe 13.6% swing from Conservatives to Labour would be enough for Labour to form a new government, Sir John said, but \"wouldn't produce an enormous majority\" were it to be replicated in a general election.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Labour's Samantha Dixon won the city's by-election, securing more than 61% of the vote.\n\nThe contest was triggered by the resignation of previous Labour MP Christian Matheson.\n\nHe stood down after Parliament's watchdog recommended his suspension for \"serious sexual misconduct\".\n\nThe Conservatives have performed badly in recent by-elections, losing Wakefield to Labour and the historically safe Tory seat of Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats.\n\nThose defeats increased political pressure on Boris Johnson, who later resigned as prime minister.\n\nThursday's by-election was the first to take place since Mr Johnson quit and his successor Liz Truss caused market turbulence with her mini-Budget.\n\nEven though it wasn't a completely unexpected result, people from the Labour Party here in Chester are very happy with a near 11,000 majority.\n\nThis has been a Labour seat since 2015 and, out speaking to people on the streets, there were more people saying they were going to vote for them.\n\nThe Labour campaign was a lot more active too. We saw a lot of shadow ministers coming to visit - big hitters like Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves and former leader Ed Miliband.\n\nSam Dixon - a former leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council - was keen to showcase her local links.\n\nThat localness has mattered - some of the candidates told me the first question asked of them was: \"Are you from Chester?\"\n\nWith a Conservative candidate living in a neighbouring council area and minimal ministerial visits, the question can be asked: Did the Conservatives really have their heart in this one?", "The Welsh government says it would like to see about 30% of employees working from home\n\nOnly one in 10 Welsh government staff are currently working in the office every day.\n\nWith so many civil servants working from home, the Welsh government is aiming to offer space in its 10 offices to other public sector workers.\n\nIt said its vision is to \"maximise the benefits of office, remote and hybrid working\".\n\nBut Welsh Conservatives said the majority of Welsh civil servants should not be working from home.\n\nThe party's Senedd leader Andrew RT Davies said it was \"concerning just how few civil servants are in the office to ensure the smooth running of government operations in Wales\".\n\nBut the government's aim is to have 30% of the Welsh workforce working at or near to home by 2026.\n\nAs part of its strategy, it hopes to \"be an exemplar\" for remote working with \"no more than 50%\" of civil servants working in one of its offices at a time.\n\nIn September, 10.4% of staff attended the various Welsh government offices on a daily basis.\n\nOf the more than 5,200 staff contracted to work for the government, an average of 549 went to the office every day.\n\nThe average daily attendance at Welsh government offices in October was 11%\n\nAttendance was highest in the Caernarfon office (13.8%) and lowest in Merthyr Tydfil (5.9%).\n\nThe Welsh government said average daily attendance in October reached 11%.\n\nMr Davies said it means that there are huge parts of the Welsh government estate not being used, and some lying empty, with all the cost implications for this.\n\nHe asked if entire floors of buildings were being heated for one worker.\n\n\"When circumstances demand it, no one would begrudge civil servants or anybody else working from home,\" he said.\n\nWelsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies wants to see the majority Welsh government staff working in the office\n\n\"I don't believe it should form the basis of standard working patterns for the majority of civil servants,\" he added. \"We have exceptional facilities for our public servants to work in.\n\n\"If they are not being used, where is the value for money for the taxpayer?\"\n\nFor all the talk of Covid-19 ushering in a new normal, the normalisation of working from home, or hybrid working, is perhaps one of the biggest societal changes.\n\nIt has clearly led to what could be a major and permanent shift in the working culture among Welsh government civil servants.\n\nLabour's approach in Wales could not be more different from the Conservatives' at a UK level: The Welsh government is actively encouraging its staff to work flexibly, while ministers in Westminster have been calling for civil servants to return to the office.\n\nBut with such a significant change in Welsh civil servants' working patterns, it does raise questions around what the government intends to do with its many offices spread across the country.\n\nGareth Hills, national officer of the civil service union FDA Cymru Wales, said the current number of staff working from home showed that \"the pandemic has changed the world of work and I think that change is permanent\".\n\n\"We're seeing increased hybrid working and that can allow for even more savings for the taxpayer as less office space is needed,\" he added.\n\nHe said he believed hybrid working \"opens up opportunities\" for people in rural areas to gain employment with the government so that \"it can better reflect the public that it serves.\"\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nThe Welsh government is in discussion with other public bodies about whether they could use some of the spare office capacity.\n\nLast week, it was announced the Senedd intends to close its office in Colwyn Bay with staff relocating to the Welsh government offices in Llandudno Junction.\n\nAsked if it intends to keep all of its 10 core offices, it said it would assess the need for each office ahead of the leases at the individual sites coming to an end.\n\nPlaid Cymru's Llyr Gruffydd said hybrid working was one of the positives of the pandemic and \"should be something we retain\".\n\nHe added: \"However, no-one wants to see publicly owned buildings remaining largely empty, so it's important that Welsh government shares its plans for these offices as soon as possible, so that the relevant scrutiny can happen, and value for money can be verified.\"\n\nA Welsh government spokesman said: \"Having the flexibility of office, remote and hybrid working brings benefits for local economies, businesses, individuals, and the environment.\n\n\"These flexibilities increase productivity, improve work life balance, and deliver less air and noise pollution.\n\n\"Our vision is to maximise the benefits of office, remote and hybrid working for our people and organisation,\" they added.\n\n\"We want to support our staff to retain the benefits of remote working while also enabling them to come together in an office environment to connect and collaborate in person.\"", "President Putin illegally annexed four regions of Ukraine at the end of September while Russian forces were on the back foot\n\nRussia says the West's refusal to recognise \"new territories\" seized from Ukraine makes peace talks harder, after President Joe Biden indicated he would be ready to meet Vladimir Putin.\n\nThe Kremlin said it was open to negotiations, but not on the West's demand to pull out of Ukraine.\n\nRussia illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions at the end of September, without controlling any of them.\n\nNine months into its invasion, it has lost more than half the land it seized.\n\nPresident Biden told reporters on Thursday night that he was ready to meet the Russian leader \"if in fact there is an interest in him deciding that he's looking for a way to end the war\".\n\nStanding beside him in the White House, France's Emmanuel Macron made clear the two men had agreed they would never urge the Ukrainians to make a compromise \"that will not be acceptable for them\".\n\nThe apparent flurry of diplomatic activity followed months with little sign of enthusiasm for talks. Russia's military has been forced into a retreat in southern Ukraine while launching widespread attacks on civilian infrastructure.\n\nPresident Biden strongly caveated his remarks about potential talks with Russia's leader while standing beside the French president\n\nOn Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke to President Putin for the first time since September. During the hour-long call, Berlin said the German leader had urged his counterpart to find a diplomatic solution that involved pulling Russian troops out of Ukraine \"as soon as possible\".\n\nThe Kremlin said the German side had pushed for the call, and Mr Putin had urged Berlin to \"reconsider its approaches in the context of the Ukrainian events\". President Putin had drawn attention to the \"destructive line of Western states including Germany\" and Kyiv completely rejected the idea of talks, the Kremlin added.\n\nSpokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier that Mr Putin remained open to talks aimed \"to ensure our interests\". But Moscow was certainly not ready to accept US conditions: \"What did President Biden say in fact? He said that negotiations are possible only after Putin leaves Ukraine.\"\n\nIt complicated the search for a mutual basis for talks, he said, that the US did not recognise \"new territories\" in Ukraine. At the end of September, President Putin declared four Ukrainian regions as part of Russia, but while Russian forces in eastern Ukraine occupy most of Luhansk, their invasion of Donetsk has stalled and they are on the back foot in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south.\n\nAhead of Friday's Scholz-Putin call, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov complained that European countries had offered nothing concrete so far in terms of mediation.\n\n\"Macron, by the way, has been regularly stating over the last two weeks that he was planning a conversation with the Russian president,\" he was quoted as saying, while adding that Russia had not had any signals via diplomatic channels.\n\nMr Lavrov named former US Secretary of State John Kerry as the kind of figure who had in the past been able to solve problems and engage in true dialogue.\n\nItalian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Friday that the time had come to work for a just peace for Ukraine, but it had to come through independence for Kyiv and not its surrender. \"The Kremlin must now give concrete signals instead of bombing the population,\" he told La Repubblica newspaper.\n\nTurkey's Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said \"before next spring\" a clearer picture would emerge of how a truce or ceasefire might be established. But he said the situation on the ground had made the task more complicated.\n\nThe Archbishop of Canterbury visited a bombed bridge in Irpin as well as the site of a mass grave of civilians\n\nMeanwhile, on a visit to Ukraine, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said there could be no peace until Russia stopped lying about what it was doing in Ukraine.\n\nSpeaking in Bucha, where Russian troops are accused of committing war crimes in the massacre of hundreds of civilians, he said: \"There can be no way forward based on lies. There were atrocities committed here.\"\n\nA senior Ukrainian official said earlier that between 10,000 and 13,000 of its soldiers had been killed since the start of Russia's invasion on 24 February.\n\nNeither Ukraine nor Russia tend to release figures for casualties, and the remarks by presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak have not been confirmed by the Ukrainian military.\n\nLast month, the most senior US general, Mark Milley, said around 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or wounded since the start of the war.\n\nSpeaking to Ukrainian TV outlet Channel 24, Mr Podolyak said Kyiv was \"openly talking about the number of the killed\". He added that the number of civilians killed could be \"significant\". He also suggested that up to 100,000 Russian soldiers had been killed since the invasion.\n\nIn a video address on Wednesday, EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said that 100,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed. However a spokesperson for the EU Commission later clarified that this was a mistake, and the figure referred to those both killed and wounded. Ms von der Leyen had also spoken of 20,000 Ukrainian civilian deaths.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "A community in Glasgow is calling for its Christmas tree to be set free after it was obscured by boards and a high fence.\n\nThe Baillieston tree has been tradition for decades, but locals have been sharing their disappointment over this year's display, which is also much smaller than previous years.\n\nIt means the fence surrounding it covers more than half of the tree.\n\nThe wooden box has since been removed but the high fence remains.\n\nPeople took to the local Facebook page to share their disappointment, suggesting peep holes would be needed to see the tree this year, calling it \"ugly\" and asking \"what is going on?\".\n\nBaillieston local Robert Murray told BBC Scotland: \"I'm almost 70 and I remember a tree there since I was a wee boy in the 1950s.\n\n\"Everybody is really cheesed off. I'm sure that they are aware of budget pressures on the council but the tree has actually been damaged in transit, it's a mess.\"\n\nThe Baillieston tree was still surrounded by a high fence on Friday\n\nThe wooden box has been removed in the last few days but the tree is still surrounded by a 6ft (2m) fence.\n\nLocal Labour councillor Kevin Lalley said he was ready to get involved in a campaign because he had no answers from Glasgow City Council.\n\n\"That tree costs £3,500 - for installation and lights. I have asked the council to put up a smaller security fence. I even asked the local primary school to make pictures and decorate it. But if they decorate that, you won't see the tree.\n\n\"I have sent numerous letters out but I have no idea what that wooden box was.\n\n\"They don't have a 6ft fence around the tree in George Square or in Shawlands. So why here?\"\n\nMr Lalley said he would love to have a community event to switch the lights on, but had heard nothing from the council.\n\n\"I don't know what happened - if the electrician just turned them on said 'Merry Christmas' and walked away. But as a community I am sure we would be able to find someone of significance to turn on the tree.\"\n\nA spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: \"This Christmas tree does not look like this now.\n\n\"These boards were removed prior to the tree lights being switched on. The Herras fencing is required to prevent anyone touching the 240v electrical supply.\"\n\nThis is not the first time the city council has been accused of keeping a Christmas tree in custody.\n\nIn December 2017, a campaign successfully freed the festive foliage in Shawlands, in the south of the city.\n\nPeople joined a year-long campaign which even saw the tree have its own Twitter account.\n\nThat tree is now surrounded by a small picket fence.\n\nThis Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by Shawlands Xmas Tree This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "William is in the US to give out awards for the Earthshot Prize\n\nThe Prince of Wales has met US President Joe Biden on the final day of his US trip.\n\nPrince William was greeted by Mr Biden following a tour of the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.\n\nWilliam and the Princess of Wales have now arrived for a ceremony in Boston where they will hand out awards for their Earthshot Prize.\n\nHowever, the high-profile trip has been overshadowed by a racism row involving William's godmother.\n\nLady Susan Hussey, a key member of the Royal Household, resigned after repeatedly asking a black British charity boss where she was \"really\" from.\n\nPrince William's spokesperson has said \"racism has no place in our society\".\n\nThis is the royal couple's first big international appearance since the death of the Queen.\n\nPresident Biden travelled to the UK in September for the Queen's state funeral.\n\nWilliam and Catherine will hand out million-pound awards to Earthshot Prize winners\n\nWilliam and Catherine will hand out awards to five Earthshot Prize winners during a ceremony in Boston. Each winner will be given £1m ($1.2m) to develop their environmental projects.\n\nThe awards ceremony will be a mix of good causes and entertainment - performers include Billie Eilish, Annie Lennox, Ellie Goulding and Chloe x Halle.\n\nPresenters at the televised event include David Beckham, Rami Malek, Catherine O'Hara, Shailene Woodley, Clara Amfo and Daniel Dae Kim.\n\nAhead of the event, William labelled himself a \"stubborn optimist\", in an article published in the Huffington Post.\n\nHe said he wanted to \"supercharge\" the impact of the Earthshot Prize finalists to inspire a \"despairing world\" that there is a way forward.\n\n\"Dire predictions about our natural world aren't the only side to this story and they don't have to be our future,\" he wrote.\n\nDavid Beckham was snapped by photographers as he arrived for the Earthshot Prize awards\n\nAnnie Lennox is one of the performers at the awards ceremony\n\nEllie Goulding will also be performing during the televised show\n\nViewers will have to wait to see the awards ceremony - it is due to be broadcast at 17:30 GMT on Sunday on the BBC in the UK, and on Monday in the US.\n\nPrince William's brother Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and his wife Meghan are not expected to attend the ceremony.\n\nOn the second day of Prince William and Catherine's trip, the trailer for Harry and Meghan's \"behind closed doors\" Netflix series was released.\n\nThe minute-long clip features previously unseen pictures of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, including tearful images of Meghan.\n\nThe BBC's Daniela Relph, who is in Boston, says not to expect the Prince and Princess of Wales to comment on the Netflix series during their US trip.\n\nAmong the 15 finalists for the Earthshot Prize are the inventors of a bubble pump designed to catch plastics before they reach the ocean.\n\nFor the first time there are also finalists from the UK, including London start-up Notpla, which makes packaging from seaweed and plants as an alternative to single-use plastic.\n\nPrince William has said the Earth is at a \"tipping point\" and the awards are intended to support innovative ways of reducing environmental damage.\n\nThe prize was inspired by US President John F Kennedy's \"Moonshot\" programme, which resulted in the US Apollo lunar launches and the first man setting foot on the Moon in 1969.", "A still from the film Jeanne Dielman\n\nA film directed by a woman has been chosen as the greatest of all time by a group of experts.\n\nJeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, directed by Chantal Akerman, has topped the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound poll.\n\nIt is the first time a work directed by a woman has reached the top ten. The poll, which runs every decade, has been criticised for a lack of diversity.\n\nThe winning spot was held for 40 years by Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.\n\nIt was overtaken in 2012 by Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.\n\nJeanne Dielman, released in 1975, is the story of a Belgian widow who turns to prostitution to make ends meet, but kills one of her clients. The film runs for almost three and a half hours.\n\nThough not as well-known outside the world of film criticism as previous winners, it has been lauded as a \"masterpiece\", and a ground-breaking piece of feminist film.\n\nLillian Crawford, a film critic and writer who contributed to the poll, said the film was the \"essential text\" in feminist cinema.\n\n\"Jeanne Dielman isn't a film that I would say to someone getting into cinema 'Oh, this is the first film you absolutely must see',\" she told the BBC.\n\n\"I think if you're going to work through the list, maybe do it in reverse order and sort of build towards it, because it's quite an ask to invite people to see this.\n\n\"But in an academic sense and thinking about cinema and encouraging more people to seek out experimental film, films by women, and in terms of the history of feminist cinema, this is absolutely the sort of essential text.\"\n\nA still from the film Jeanne Dielman\n\nIn an article for the British Film Institute, Laura Mulvey, a professor of film studies at Birkbeck University, called the vote a \"sudden shake-up\".\n\n\"Things will never be the same,\" she wrote.\n\nThe poll has been run by the British Film Institute's Sight and Sound magazine each decade since 1952.\n\nIt has faced criticism in the past for a lack of diversity in the experts polled and the list of 100 best films chosen.\n\nIn 2012, Jeanne Dielman was one of just two films directed by women which made it on to the list, along with one by a black director - Djibril Diop Mambéty's Touki Bouki.\n\nOver the years the number and diversity of people consulted have increased. This year, 1,639 critics, programmers, curators, archivists and academics were asked to choose their top ten films.\n\nLast time's winner, Vertigo, claimed the second spot, while Citizen Kane was third.\n\nYasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story came fourth, followed by Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love in fifth place.", "The government is set to miss its target for securing post-Brexit trade agreements, as figures show a 15% fall in the number of UK exporters.\n\nAt the 2019 election the Conservatives promised to get agreements covering 80% of UK trade by the end of this year.\n\nThe most recent figures suggest it will be just 63%.\n\nA government source said a trade deal with the US had been crucial to meeting the target, but the Biden administration was not prioritising it.\n\nThe government also set a target this year to agree a free trade deal with India by Diwali, on 12 November, which was missed.\n\nDeals have been signed with the EU and 71 countries including Australia, New Zealand and Japan.\n\nThe Japanese deal was criticised earlier this year after government figures showed exports in UK goods and services had fallen to that country in the past year.\n\nFormer Environment Secretary George Eustice also criticised the Australia deal, arguing it was \"not actually a very good deal for the UK\".\n\nA Department for International Trade source said: \"We've set our sights high but recognise to meet this ambition we need a deal with the US, and it is clear the Biden Administration are not prioritising negotiating trade deals with other countries.\n\n\"We're ready to progress talks when the US are, and in the meantime are working hard to secure trade wins for British firms such as removing barriers to American markets worth millions of dollars, resolving disputes like the steel and whisky tariff issues, and pursuing agreements with individual US states.\"\n\nSeparately, HM Revenue and Customs data shows the number of UK firms classed as exporters fell from 149,443 in 2020 to 126,812 in 2021.\n\nDavid Overton runs SplashMaps, who produce fabric maps including OS and Michelin maps that are waterproof.\n\nThey sell to consumers, but also to the military.\n\nMr Overton said they have always sold to other countries - predominantly the US, but also to Europe.\n\nTheir third biggest export destination was Germany, but Mr Overton says the company has ceased all trade with Germany now because of changes since Brexit, resulting in a 2-5% drop in turnover.\n\nHe told the BBC he noticed all his exports to Germany were being \"bounced back\" to the UK.\n\nHe realised this was due to an EU directive on plastics and waste in packaging, which Germany requires exporters to sign up to through a register called LUCID.\n\n\"We didn't know there was a registration process,\" he said.\n\n\"I think what the government could really do is pay for expertise to get these messages out.\"\n\nExporters fell in every nation and region of the UK, but the decline was steepest in the South East of England (23%) and the North West of England (15%), with the lowest decline being in Northern Ireland (4%), the figures show.\n\nNorthern Ireland is the only part of the UK that has remained in the EU's single market, which was agreed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland but has led to checks on some goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.\n\nTina McKenzie, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said firms were seeing a \"sustained suppression of exports\" since the UK's trade deal with the EU came into force.\n\nLabour's shadow international trade secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the data highlighted a \"worrying future trend\" and showed the government had \"failed to provide the support necessary for exporters\".\n\nHe said Labour would remove barriers to trade with the EU, but ruled out seeking to re-join the single market or customs union - or return to freedom of movement.\n\nInstead, the party would seek a veterinary agreement to reduce barriers for agricultural exports, and \"sort out\" the Northern Ireland protocol that has increased checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, he told the BBC.\n\nKemi Badenoch says the full impact of Brexit has yet to be seen\n\nLabour would also seek mutual recognition of professional qualifications to allow more service industries to trade with the EU, seek \"equivalent\" data protection rules to enable digital services to compete, and find \"flexible labour mobility arrangements\" for musicians and artists seeking short-term visas to tour in the EU.\n\nOn Wednesday, International Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch said the UK \"should be doing better\" on trade, but was recovering from global factors such as Covid and the war in Ukraine.\n\nShe told a Commons committee the UK had fully left the EU only at the beginning of 2020, and that \"the full impact of what we're going to see post-Brexit and all of the free trade agreements is yet to be seen\".\n\nMs Badenoch's department said exports were \"bouncing back\" after the pandemic and had reached £748bn in the last 12 months, an increase of £132bn.\n• None How many trade deals has the UK done?", "Takeoff, one-third of popular rap group Migos, was shot and killed on 1 November\n\nPolice have arrested a man and charged him with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of rapper Takeoff.\n\nThe 28-year-old, Grammy-nominated musician was shot and killed outside a bowling alley in Houston, Texas last month.\n\nHouston police said the shooting was over a game of dice, but the singer was \"an innocent bystander\".\n\nTakeoff was the youngest member of rap group Migos, and his death was mourned by fans and fellow musicians.\n\nAt a Friday press conference, Houston Police announced they arrested Patrick Xavier Clark, 33, with the help of surveillance footage that was obtained from the night of the shooting.\n\n\"[Clark] was there on the scene and he was in possession of a weapon,\" said Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.\n\nHe added that an investigation is still ongoing, and he has appealed for witnesses to come forward and share information with police.\n\n\"Don't let the fear paralyse you,\" Chief Finner said in his appeal. \"Step up and say something.\"\n\nMayor Sylvester Turner of Houston said he hopes the arrest will bring some comfort to the family of Takeoff.\n\nHe added that Takeoff was more than an entertainer, but also a \"son, brother, cousin and a friend, and a mentor to those in the music industry\".\n\nTakeoff, born Kirsnick Khari Ball, was one-third of the chart-topping Atlanta-based rap group Migos, who are known for several hits like Bad and Boujee and Stir Fry. They were nominated for two Grammy Awards - one for best rap album and one for best rap performance - in 2018.\n\nHis death was met with an outpour of tributes from fans and musicians like Drake, Kid Cudi, Dave and Rick Ross, who remembered Takeoff as \"young legend\" and a pioneer of a distinct style of rapping known as the \"Migos flow.\"\n\nThe 28-year-old musician was one of three people shot outside a downtown bowling alley in Houston at 02:30 local time (07:30 GMT) on 1 November, after a dispute erupted at the end of a private party after a dice game.\n\nSgt. Michael Burrow with the Houston homicide division said on Friday that Takeoff was not involved in playing the dice game or the argument that took place outside the alley, and he was not armed.\n\n\"He was an innocent bystander,\" Sgt. Burrow said.\n\nAnother man and a woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries during the shooting.\n\nCameron Joshua, 22, was also arrested in connection with the shooting on 22 November and charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon.", "The case against a former political adviser accused of raping a colleague inside Australia's Parliament House has been dropped.\n\nBruce Lehrmann, 27, denies sexually assaulting Brittany Higgins on a minister's sofa after a night out in 2019. He maintains no sex took place.\n\nMr Lehrmann's trial collapsed in October because of jury misconduct.\n\nThe ongoing risk to Ms Higgins's mental health means a retrial is not in the public interest, prosecutors say.\n\nNew medical advice found that a planned retrial for February posed a \"significant and unacceptable risk to the life of the complainant\", said Australian Capital Territory Director of Public Prosecutions Shane Drumgold.\n\n\"The evidence makes it clear that this is not limited to the harm of giving evidence in the witness box,\" he told reporters on Friday.\n\nMr Drumgold said this outweighed his belief there would be a reasonable prospect of securing a conviction.\n\nMs Higgins is currently in hospital to help deal with the trauma of the alleged incident and its aftermath, according to her friend Emma Webster.\n\n\"The last couple of years have been difficult and unrelenting,\" Ms Webster said in a statement.\n\n\"While it's disappointing the trial has ended this way, Brittany's health and safety must always come first. Brittany is extremely grateful for all the support she has received, particularly from our mental health care workers.\"\n\nThe jury in October's trial was discharged after 12 days of evidence and five days of deliberation, when it emerged one member had brought in academic research papers looking at false accusations in sexual assault cases.\n\nJuries are required to reach a verdict only on evidence presented in the courtroom.\n\nBefore giving her account to police in early 2021, Ms Higgins gave up her right to anonymity and went public with her claims in high-profile newspaper and television interviews.\n\nHer allegations were a catalyst for what has been called Australia's \"Me Too moment\", sparking huge protests over the safety of women, particularly in politics.\n\nIt also led to a damning review which found that a third of employees in federal parliament had been sexually harassed.\n\nMr Lehrmann and Ms Higgins had worked in the same office - for then-Defence Industry Minister Linda Reynolds. On 22 March 2019, they both had drinks with colleagues and others in Canberra.\n\nMs Higgins told police she had later fallen asleep on a sofa in Ms Reynolds's office and had woken to find Mr Lehrmann having sex with her.\n\nShe reported the alleged rape in the days afterwards but initially did not proceed with her complaint because she feared for her career, a jury heard.\n\nMr Lehrmann chose not to give evidence at the trial, but in a police interview said what was alleged \"simply didn't happen\".\n\nHis lawyer, Steven Whybrow, had argued parts of Ms Higgins's evidence were \"totally and utterly inconsistent\".\n\nIf you are feeling emotionally distressed and would like details of organisations in the UK which offer advice and support, go to bbc.co.uk/actionline.\n\nSamaritans provide a safe place to talk where calls are completely confidential. From UK and Ireland call 116 123 or visit www.samaritans.org.\n\nIf you are in Australia, you can call Lifeline on 131114.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.\n\nA black British charity boss who was repeatedly asked where she was \"really\" from at a royal reception has told the BBC the encounter was \"abuse\".\n\nNgozi Fulani was questioned about her background by Lady Susan Hussey, Prince William's godmother, at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday. The late Queen's lady-in-waiting has since resigned.\n\nMs Fulani likened the conversation with Lady Hussey, 83, to \"an interrogation\".\n\nThe palace described the remarks as \"unacceptable and deeply regrettable\".\n\nAnd a spokesperson for Prince William said \"racism has no place in our society\". The incident has overshadowed the Prince and Princess of Wales's visit to the US to hand out awards for his Earthshot Prize.\n\nMs Fulani was a guest at the reception representing domestic violence charity Sistah Space when she described Lady Hussey moving her hair to see her name badge, and then challenging her repeatedly to explain where she was from.\n\nSpeaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Fulani said: \"It was like an interrogation. I guess the only way I can explain it, she's determined: 'Where are you from? Where are your people from?'\"\n\nMs Fulani also rebuffed suggestions that Lady Hussey's remarks had anything to do with her age.\n\n\"Let us be clear what this is. I've heard so many suggestions it's about her age and stuff like that, and I think that's kind of a disrespect - an ageism kind of thing.\n\n\"I have to really question how this can happen in a space that's supposed to protect women against all kinds of violence.\n\n\"Although it's not physical violence - it is an abuse.\"\n\nMs Fulani continued: \"If you invite people to an event, against domestic abuse, and there are people there from different demographics, I don't see the relevance of whether I'm British or not British.\n\n\"I'm very proud of my African heritage. This is like the Windrush thing to me. You're trying to make me unwelcome in my own space.\"\n\nShe added she felt like she was being asked to \"denounce my British citizenship\".\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Rishi Sunak reflects on his own experiences of racism amid royal race row\n\nRishi Sunak said the UK must \"continually learn the lessons\" from acts of racism. The prime minister said it \"wouldn't be right\" for him to comment on the incident at the palace, adding \"they've acknowledged what's happened and made an apology for it\".\n\nAsked about his own experiences, Mr Sunak said that while he had experienced racism, the country had made \"incredible progress\".\n\n\"But the job is never done,\" he added, \"and that's why whenever we see it we must confront it and it's right that we continually learn the lessons and move to a better future.\"\n\nLady Susan Hussey was a key and trusted figure in the British royal household for decades\n\nLady Hussey was a key figure in the Royal Household for many decades, having started working for the Royal Family in the same year the Queen gave birth to Prince Andrew in 1960, eventually becoming her longest-serving lady-in-waiting.\n\nBuckingham Palace announced last week that Lady Hussey and the other former ladies-in-waiting would subsequently be known as \"ladies of the household\" - a role which involves helping to host occasions at the palace.\n\nAsked if she had wanted Lady Hussey to resign or if she would have been content with an apology, Ms Fulani said: \"I would have preferred it did not happen...\n\n\"I have to keep the focus where it should be and that's against violence against women and girls.\"\n\nAn eyewitness to the conversation, leader of the Women's Equality Party Mandu Reid, told BBC News that Lady Hussey's questions had been \"offensive, racist and unwelcoming\".\n\nNazir Afzal, former chief prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) who was also at the reception, said Lady Hussey also asked him about his heritage once and \"seemed to accept my answer - Manchester currently\".\n\nThe now chancellor of the University of Manchester added \"racism is never far away\".\n\nLady Hussey, in the back row of this family photograph taken in March 1997, wearing a green suit, was one of the late Queen's most trusted confidantes\n\nIn its statement on Wednesday, Buckingham Palace said: \"We take this incident extremely seriously and have investigated immediately to establish the full details.\n\n\"In this instance, unacceptable and deeply regrettable comments have been made. We have reached out to Ngozi Fulani on this matter, and are inviting her to discuss all elements of her experience in person if she wishes.\n\n\"In the meantime, the individual concerned would like to express her profound apologies for the hurt caused and has stepped aside from her honorary role with immediate effect.\n\n\"All members of the household are being reminded of the diversity and inclusivity policies which they are required to uphold at all times.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Prince William said \"racism has no place in our society\", adding: \"The comments were unacceptable, and it is right that the individual has stepped aside with immediate effect\".\n\nNgozi Fulani - pictured on the far left - was one of the campaigners attending a reception which was hosted by the Queen Consort (centre)\n\nMs Fulani later told BBC News: \"Now, violence isn't always physical, it can be verbal.\n\n\"And that felt like violence to me, and when you put your hand in my hair like I'm not even a person - you can just do what you want and say what you want - I don't want to be in your presence.\"\n\nIn an interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain, Ms Fulani also said Buckingham Palace had not contacted her about the incident, insisting she would accept an invitation to discuss it with them.\n\n\"See, what we're about is positive results, so absolutely, I think a discussion should be held,\" she said.\n\nMs Fulani, who was representing her charity which supports women of African and Caribbean heritage across the UK who have faced domestic and sexual abuse, was one of 300 guests at the event where the Queen Consort, Camilla, had warned of a \"global pandemic of violence against women\".\n\nBBC News has approached Lady Hussey for comment through Buckingham Palace.\n\nHere is the full conversation, as recounted by Ms Fulani:\n\nLady SH: Where are you from?\n\nSH: No, where do you come from?\n\nMe: We're based in Hackney.\n\nSH: No, what part of Africa are you from?\n\nMe: I don't know, they didn't leave any records.\n\nSH: Well, you must know where you're from, I spent time in France. Where are you from?\n\nSH: No, but what nationality are you?\n\nMe: I am born here and am British.\n\nSH: No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?\n\nMe: 'My people', lady, what is this?\n\nSH: Oh I can see I am going to have a challenge getting you to say where you're from. When did you first come here?\n\nMe: Lady! I am a British national, my parents came here in the 50s when...\n\nSH: Oh, I knew we'd get there in the end, you're Caribbean!\n\nMe: No lady, I am of African heritage, Caribbean descent and British nationality.", "A man who said he was abused by a former teacher at one of Scotland's top private schools has secured £450,000 in damages.\n\nThe man, who is in his fifties, said the abuse took place at Fettes College in Edinburgh in the 1970s.\n\nThe retired teacher is currently appealing against an extradition order from South Africa where he lives.\n\nThe 83-year-old faces allegations of sexually and physically assaulting boys at two Edinburgh schools.\n\nThompsons Solicitors said it had agreed a £450,000 payout with Fettes College, which is thought to be the largest award made to a victim of historic abuse at the school.\n\nThe former pupil, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: \"I have waited a long time for Fettes to recognise the abuse that I suffered at the hands of one of their teachers.\n\n\"Not just in terms of their public apology but also in the payment of damages. I pursued my case against the school to ensure they fully appreciated the gravity of the harm that we suffered as children there.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Fettes College said: \"The head of Fettes, Helen Harrison, and representatives of the board of governors attended the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry every day to listen to all the evidence.\n\n\"It was a profoundly moving experience and we applaud the bravery of everyone who shared their stories.\n\n\"These accounts to the inquiry, describing the abuse suffered in the 1970s, are now part of the school's history and we must take this as an opportunity to listen, reflect and learn and we offer a full and unreserved apology to anyone who suffered abuse while at Fettes College.\"\n\nThe spokesperson added: \"Fettes is not reflecting alone as this is an opportunity for the education sector as a whole to strive to ensure the voice of the child is central to everything we do.\n\n\"For the Fettes of today, our sector-leading pastoral care ensures that all Fettes College students and staff live together in a safe and secure environment. Safeguarding is central to all that we do and is integral to the ethos of the school.\n\n\"It is the duty of all members of staff, throughout the Fettes community, to play an active role in promoting the wellbeing of all our students.\"\n\nThis is an enormous pay-out.\n\nIt underlines the enormous damage which can be done to a child by abuse at school.\n\nThe pay-out by the school is a tacit admission that its system failed to protect its pupil.\n\nIt sets the scene for other enormous pay-outs to similar claimants at Fettes and other schools from the time.\n\nWe can expect an eventual bill of millions of pounds in compensation for what happened.\n\nIt is a huge warning to all schools about tolerating any sort of abusive behaviour towards pupils.\n\nCould it create a precedent and spark similar claims across Scottish schools from people who were abused or ill-treated at school?\n\nThe retired teacher facing extradition from South Africa taught at Fettes College in the 1970s and also worked at Edinburgh Academy.\n\nSouth Africa approved the UK's extradition request in 2020 but there have been a series of delays to an appeal of this decision by the 83-year-old.\n\nBroadcaster Nicky Campbell, who attended Edinburgh Academy, is one of a number of former pupils at that school who have made allegations about the pensioner.\n\nLaura Connor, who leads Thompsons' historic abuse unit, said: \"We welcome the fact that Fettes have finally acknowledged the gravity of the abuse and the ongoing impact it has had on our client.\n\n\"It is disappointing that they took so long to do so but we are pleased to have achieved the right outcome for our client in the end.\n\n\"We call this historic abuse but the truth is that survivors live with what happened to them every day of their lives.\"", "Mahek Bukhari has denied murdering two men who died in a crash in Leicestershire\n\nThe jury in the trial of a TikTok influencer and her mother accused of murdering two men who died in a crash has been dismissed.\n\nMahek Bukhari, 23, and Ansreen Bukhari, 46, deny the murder of Saqib Hussain and Mohammed Hashim Ijazuddin, both 21.\n\nThe two men, of Banbury, Oxfordshire, were killed after their car left the A46 in Leicestershire in the early hours of 11 February.\n\nA retrial will take place in the new year, Leicester Crown Court heard.\n\nMr Justice Saini said the discharge was \"by reason of jury irregularity\", adding that it had nothing to do with any alleged conduct of the defendants, or the friends and family of either Mr Hussain or Mr Ijazuddin, \"but was purely internal to the jury\".\n\nMohammed Hashim Ijazuddin (left) and Saqib Hussain died at the scene\n\nAll eight defendants have denied two counts of murder and two alternative charges of manslaughter.\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The lifecycle of biting midges was disrupted by weather conditions in some parts of Scotland this year\n\nThis year's weather appears to have taken a bite out of midge numbers but benefited another pest, say experts.\n\nBiting midgies are notorious in parts of Scotland where they swarm in their millions.\n\nBut the Scottish Midge Forecast said an unusually cool spring followed by a hot summer had disrupted the tiny creatures' lifecycle in some places.\n\nMeanwhile, mild weather later in the year appears to have extended the season for ticks.\n\nThe parasitic spider-like pests are usually encountered from early spring through to October, but this year so far were still being seen in the middle of November.\n\nScientists have previously warned that ticks, whose bite can cause harmful infections such as Lyme disease, looked to be becoming a year-round threat.\n\nThe midge forecast, run by Dundee-based insect repellent-maker APS Biocontrol Ltd, said this year's weather had played havoc with the lifecycle of biting midges in some parts of Scotland.\n\nA forecaster said: \"It all started with an unusually cool spring that delayed midge emergence by around two weeks, leading to a later than usual first generation midge peak in mid June.\n\n\"Eggs from these midges would normally give rise to a second-generation peak five to six weeks later, but this was significantly suppressed by the hot, dry weather experienced in Scotland - and the rest of the UK - this year.\n\n\"Being so tiny, with just a 2mm wingspan, midges dehydrate very quickly in warm, dry weather and although resting up in the vegetation improves their survival, it means they have fewer opportunities to fly in search of a bloodmeal required to mature their eggs.\"\n\nMild weather appears to have benefited ticks, this one pictured next to tick removal tools\n\nLow numbers of midges were recorded in traps set in traditional \"hotspots\" in Glencoe in the Highlands and Inveraray in Argyll and Bute.\n\nWetter and cooler weather later in the summer did result in a surge in midge numbers in parts of northern Scotland, according to the forecast.\n\nThe forecast added that it was not clear if this year was a one-off or the start of a trend.\n\nScientists have previously calculated there could be an estimated 21 billion biting midges in the Highlands and Islands, the region they are most commonly encountered.\n\nThat figure was for females of the species, which feed on blood which they require to mature their hundreds of eggs.\n\nIn 2015, autumn's warm weather produced a rare third hatching of biting midges.\n\nA tick picked up by a dog in woodland in Inverness last month\n\nWhat makes viruses tick? - a project led by the Brennan Lab at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research and involving The Conservation Volunteers - is mapping where and when people are finding ticks.\n\nThe project's team said there were suggestions of high tick numbers this year.\n\nSam Langford, of the University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, said: \"Even with the lower temperatures coming in we're continuing to receive tick sightings from people all across the country, with over 700 sightings being logged on our Tick Map.\n\nHe added: \"As part of this, we have had several anecdotal reports from members of the public telling us that 2022 has been a particularly bad year for tick sightings in their local area.\"\n\n\"We'd encourage anyone who comes across a tick to report their sighting on our online platform, and continue to take precautions whenever they spend time in outdoor spaces.\n\n\"If they have any concerns about a recent tick bite, we'd recommend contacting their GP for further advice.\"", "Last updated on .From the section Formula 1\n\nNext year's Chinese Grand Prix has been cancelled by Formula 1 because of \"ongoing difficulties\" with Covid.\n\nThe Shanghai race was due to return in April for the first time since 2019.\n\nProtests have been held in China in recent days over its 'zero Covid' policies, which include regular lockdowns and isolation imposed on infected people and contacts.\n\nF1 says it would not be able to operate normally in China and cannot justify risks to staff involved in travelling.\n\nThe sport's bosses have been in discussions with Chinese officials in recent weeks but were unable to reach a satisfactory conclusion.\n\nThe news, revealed by BBC Sport on 22 November, was officially announced by F1 on Friday.\n\nA statement said the race would not take place because of \"the ongoing difficulties presented by the Covid-19 situation\".\n\nChina had been scheduled to host the fourth race of the 2023 season on 16 April.\n\nThe statement said: \"Formula 1 is assessing alternative options to replace the slot on the 2023 calendar and will provide an update on this in due course.\"\n\nThe sport will only fill the date if it can reach a satisfactory financial deal.\n\nThe Portimao circuit in Portugal, which hosted grands prix in 2020 and 2021 when F1 shuffled its schedule as a result of the pandemic, is one of the tracks under consideration.\n\nIstanbul Park in Turkey, another track that returned in the pandemic, is also likely to be in contention.\n\nNext year's F1 calendar features a record 24 races - the season would be the longest ever even if China is not replaced.\n• None Check out the stellar selection of films on BBC iPlayer\n• None Welcome to the dangerous world of the yakuza...: Watch the slick, stylish drama Tokyo Vice on BBC iPlayer now", "Kanye West has been suspended from Twitter and accused of \"inciting violence\" over offensive tweets - just two months after his last ban.\n\nThe US rapper, who now goes by the name Ye, posted a series of erratic tweets - one of which appeared to show a symbol combining a swastika and a Jewish star.\n\nTwitter's new boss Elon Musk was asked by one user to \"fix Kanye\".\n\nWest had \"violated our rule against incitement to violence\", Musk tweeted.\n\n\"Account will be suspended,\" Musk wrote in a Twitter post.\n\nAlso on Thursday, during an interview with US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and with his face covered in a mask, West praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and ranted about sin, pornography and the devil.\n\nThe head of the UK's Holocaust Educational Trust described West's comments as \"repulsive and sickening\".\n\n\"These comments mixed with his high profile and huge following have dangerous consequences,\" chief executive Karen Pollock said.\n\nIn recent months West has caused controversy with a series of antisemitic and racist remarks - leading to clothing giant Adidas cutting ties with the rapper.\n\nWest was initially locked out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts after posting antisemitic messages in October. Both platforms removed West's posts - which accused rapper Diddy of being controlled by Jewish people - saying the star had violated policies on hate speech.\n\nThese posts came in response to a backlash against his show at Paris Fashion Week, where he wore a T-shirt carrying the slogan \"White Lives Matter\".\n\nThe Anti-Defamation League in the US branded his phrase \"hate speech\" and attributed it to white supremacists, who began using it in 2015 in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.\n\nAdidas dropped Kanye West in October after he made antisemitic comments\n\nEarlier this year, West was suspended from Instagram for 24 hours in March after using a racial slur in reference to comedian Trevor Noah.\n\nIn 2018, singer Will.i.am led a backlash against West after he claimed the enslavement of African-Americans over centuries may have been a \"choice\" - remarks he later tried to clarify.\n\nHis latest Twitter ban comes hours after the right-wing social media platform Parler - which styles itself as a \"free speech\" alternative to mainstream platforms - said West could no longer buy the firm.\n\nIn a statement, Parlement Technologies said: \"The company has mutually agreed with Ye to terminate the intent of sale.\"\n\nThe firm - which runs the much smaller platform, popular with conservatives and the far right - said the decision was made in mid-November.\n\n\"Parler will continue to pursue future opportunities for growth and the evolution of the platform for our vibrant community,\" the firm said in its statement.\n\nMusk took control over Twitter in October and immediately embarked on a series of radical changes within the social media giant - including lifting the bans on controversial accounts.\n\nHe has clarified that he had no role in bringing West back on Twitter, saying the account was restored before he acquired the social media platform.\n\nWest was diagnosed with bipolar disorder years ago and has publicly spoken about his challenges with his mental health.\n\nHowever, medical experts and people who share West's condition have warned that mental health problems do not go hand-in-hand with antisemitism.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nAh penalties, you have to love them. Unless you lose, in which case they are the worst thing ever.\n\nBefore Qatar 2022 started, there had been 30 World Cup penalty shootouts - with 279 kicks taken (excluding Diana Ross' disastrous effort at USA '94).\n\nBBC Sport and Opta crunched the numbers from every shootout between 1982 to 2018 to see what we could learn about maximising your chances of scoring.\n\nYour chances of scoring a penalty are much increased if you go to the right or left - but please avoid putting it down the middle.\n\nSome 74% of penalties placed to the right, and the same percentage of those put to the left, go in. But penalties down the middle are only scored 57% of the time - that is a record of 36 from 63.\n\nYou have a similar chance of having a penalty saved whichever way you shoot (about 21%), but you are much, much likelier to miss the target down the middle.\n\nSome 11% of central penalties hit the crossbar and another 11% go over. Go left or right and those numbers drop to 3% and 1% respectively.\n\nGoing high is usually better too.\n\nSo if you take one thing from this article - we're looking at you, England players - PICK A SIDE.\n• None Quiz: Test your knowledge of the World Cup group stage\n\nTake one of the first penalties\n\nThis shouldn't be too surprising since the best penalty takers usually go first (unless you're Cristiano Ronaldo).\n\nThe conversion rates for the first three penalties by each team are 75%, 73% and 73% respectively. Penalty four goes in 64% of the time and number five is 65%.\n\nSurprisingly, only two World Cup shootouts have gone to sudden death, with a 50% conversion rate from four kicks.\n\nSplitting the different teams' kickers out from one to 10, the most successful takers are the second and fifth - 77% each. Number eight has the worst rate out of the first 10 - 61%.\n\nThe team to take the first kick does not matter - with the team to go first and second winning 15 each.\n\nMidfielders are the most common players to take a World Cup shootout penalty, probably not surprising as most teams - especially in the 4-4-2 days - have more midfielders than forwards.\n\nBut forwards are the most successful kickers, with 63 of 84 scoring (75%). Of the 122 midfielders to take one, 84 have scored (69%). For defenders, the total drops to 49 of 73 (67%).\n\nIt is a cliche, but Germany are the best country at taking penalties at World Cups, winning all four shootouts - against France (1982), Mexico (1986), England (1990) and Argentina (2006).\n\nThey have scored 17 of their 18 kicks - with Uli Stielike the only one to miss in the first World Cup penalty shootout between West Germany and France.\n\nOf course, they've already gone out. So if you can't be German, be Argentine. They have also scored a joint-record 17 penalties - but that is out of 22. They have won four out of five, only losing to Germany.\n\nThree teams actually have a 100% success rate of scoring in penalty shootouts: Belgium, South Korea and Paraguay (all 5/5).\n\nBefore this tournament, England had missed more penalties in World Cup shootouts than anybody else - eight (out of 19).\n\nGareth Southgate's side's win against Colombia in 2018 was their first success.\n\nTheir three spot-kick defeats remains a joint high with Spain and Italy (all W1 L3).\n\nBut the worst team to take part in a World Cup penalty shootout is Switzerland, who missed all three kicks against Ukraine in 2006. They are the only team to take part in a shootout and fail to score any penalties.\n\nThere isn't a huge difference but right-footed penalties go in 71% of the time, with 68% of those taken with a left foot netted.\n\nRight-footed penalties are much more common - 223 compared with 56 left-footed. Unsurprisingly, nobody has taken a penalty with their head...\n\nDon't be a late sub (unless you're a keeper)\n\nTeams occasionally bring on players just for the penalty shootout.\n\nIt is hard to gauge who has come on purely for penalties, but of the players to come on in the second half of extra time and take a penalty, five out of eight (63%) have scored.\n\nOf those to come on in the final 10 minutes, it is two out of three (67%). The final five minutes and we are down to one out of two (50%).\n\nThe least successful example is Jamie Carragher, who replaced Aaron Lennon in the 118th minute of England's 2006 World Cup quarter-final against Portugal.\n\nHe scored his kick before the whistle was blown so had to retake it, and Ricardo tipped his second on to the bar - one of the keeper's three saves in that shootout.\n\n\"The referee said he never blew his whistle so I had to wait until after he blew it. I didn't realise. I obviously don't take that many,\" the Liverpool legend told BBC Sport afterwards.\n\nThere is no doubt about the most successful substitute for a shootout ever - goalkeeper Tim Krul for the Netherlands against Costa Rica in the 2014 quarter-finals.\n\nHe replaced Jasper Cillessen in the 121st minute and - with plenty of mind games - went on to save two penalties as the Dutch won.\n\nWill anyone try the same trick in Qatar this winter?\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The child went to St John's in Ealing\n\nA pupil at a west London primary school has been confirmed as having died with Strep A bacterial disease.\n\nThe child is one of six in England to have died after contracting the bug, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.\n\nThe pupil attended St John's School, Ealing, and died from a severe, invasive form of the bacterial illness Group A Streptococcal.\n\nThe UKHSA said it was \"saddened\" to hear of the child's death.\n\nDr Yimmy Chow, health protection consultant at UKHSA London, said: \"We are extremely saddened to hear about the death of a child at St John's Primary School, and our thoughts are with their family, friends and the school community.\n\n\"Working with Ealing Council public health team, we have provided precautionary advice to the school community to help prevent further cases and we continue to monitor the situation closely.\"\n\nHowever, the UKHSA told the BBC it was important people understood that scarlet fever is a mild illness and the GAS bacteria that cause it only rarely become invasive.\n\nIt is this form of the bacterial infection - invasive Group A Streptococcal (iGAS) - that can lead to serious illness.\n\nDr Liz Whittaker, a expert in paediatric infectious diseases and immunology at Imperial College London, said GAS was a \"very common\" infection.\n\n\"What we worry about is when it becomes invasive and severe,\" she explained.\n\nShe said parents of primary school children \"should not worry, but they should know when to seek medical attention - if a child's temperature is not settling after four or five days or they're breathing fast or lethargic or not drinking properly, then get advice from 111 online or by phone.\"\n\nDr Whittaker added that there had been very few cases like this in the past two years due to coronavirus restrictions.\n\n\"We are seeing more of Strep Group A circulating at the moment, and whenever you see more of anything, you see more the serious side of it.\"\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nHave you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Do you have any questions about Strep A? Share your experiences and questions by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "Rapper Pa Salieu has been nominated for a Brit and was named the BBC's Sound of 2021\n\nAward-winning rapper Pa Salieu has been jailed for his part in \"mob\" violence shortly after the fatal stabbing of his best friend.\n\nThe artist was captured on CCTV using a tree branch to repeatedly hit a lone 23-year-old man in Coventry in 2018 who spent 10 days in hospital.\n\nSalieu previously admitted violent disorder and was jailed for 33 months.\n\nDuring wider violence, Fidel Glasgow - grandson of Specials singer Neville Staple - was stabbed to death.\n\nNobody has been charged with the 21-year-old's murder following a music event at Coventry's Club M in the early hours of 1 September 2018.\n\nSalieu, who was named the BBC's Sound of 2021, was cleared of a second count of violent disorder at Warwick Crown Court, relating to the mass brawl minutes earlier that led to Mr Glasgow's death.\n\nFidel Glasgow, 21, died in disorder in Coventry city centre in 2018\n\nThe 25-year-old from Hillfields, appearing in court under his full name Pa Salieu Gaye, was convicted of possessing a bottle as an offensive weapon after telling jurors he smashed and brandished it to defend himself.\n\nPassing sentence on Friday, Judge Peter Cooke said: \"Anyone harbouring the view that you are a young man being hard done by should pause to reflect that despite having a conviction for carrying a knife three years earlier - which resulted in a suspended sentence - in the course of these events you used two bottles and a stick.\n\n\"It was your intention to turn a bottle into a jagged weapon.\"\n\nFollowing his arrest, jurors heard that Salieu told police Mr Glasgow was his best friend and then exercised his right to silence.\n\nThe judge added that Salieu and others involved in the violence had acted like a \"mob\".\n\n\"The case illustrates the dangers for any young man of acting with a pack mentality and getting involved in mass disorder,\" he said.\n\n\"If you do that somebody is likely to end up seriously injured or dead.\n\n\"What happened to Fidel could have happened to anyone in that melee.\"\n\nSalieu was one of seven people sentenced at the court on Friday.\n\nProsecutor Oliver Weetch said Ikemefuna Okosisi-Ezeanyika, known as Bobby, was chased away from the scene of Mr Glasgow's murder by a group including Salieu.\n\nPa Salieu was sentenced at Warwick Crown Court on Friday\n\nCCTV showed the rapper using a piece of wood to strike him, before he was brought to the ground in nearby Queen Victoria Road, near Coventry's inner ring road.\n\nHe was also seen hurling a bottle and climbing railings as Mr Okosisi-Ezeanyika was pursued.\n\nMr Okosisi-Ezeanyika was treated in intensive care after suffering a brain injury and needed emergency surgery on a wound to his abdomen.\n\nIn mitigation, defence barrister Jonathan Woodcock said the death of Mr Glasgow was not the only time he had lost a friend.\n\nHe stopped another defendant attacking the victim and \"was not party to the most serious aspects of the violence,\" he added.\n\nThe attack on Mr Okosisi-Ezeanyika occurred after those \"running him to ground\" had witnessed him being attacked near Club M, the judge said.\n\nSalieu was sentenced to 27 months for violent disorder and six months to be served consecutively for possession of an offensive weapon.\n\nThe judge added: \"I want you to focus on getting your life back on track... coming out and making the most of your talents, which I trust you will be able to do.\"\n\nThe six other defendants, all from Coventry and Warwickshire, were jailed with sentences ranging from four years to 18 months.\n\nWest Midlands Police Det Insp Michelle Allen said: \"This violent disorder led to the tragic death of a young man. We are still actively investigating Fidel's murder and we remain in contact with his family to keep them fully updated with developments.\n\n\"Although these convictions are not in relation to the attack on Fidel, it is our dearest wish to hold someone to account for his death and we will follow any new leads.\"\n\nFollow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "The funeral of Senior Sergeant Yuriy Chernenko, who died in Lviv in November\n\nUp to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the start of Russia's invasion, a senior official has said.\n\nMykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said between 10,000 and 13,000 troops had died.\n\nNeither Ukraine nor Russia tend to release figures for casualties, and Mr Podolyak's comments have not been confirmed by the Ukrainian military.\n\nIn June he said between 100 and 200 Ukrainian soldiers were dying daily.\n\nLast month, the most senior US general, Mark Milley, said around 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or wounded since the start of the war.\n\nIn a video address on Wednesday, EU Commission head Ursula Von der Leyen said that 100,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed. However a spokesperson for the EU Commission later clarified that this was a mistake, and the figure referred to those both killed and injured.\n\nSpeaking to Ukrainian TV outlet Channel 24, Mr Podolyak said Kyiv was \"openly talking about the number of the killed\".\n\n\"We have official evaluations by the General Staff, official evaluations by the commander-in-chief [Mr Zelensky], and they range from 10,000 to 12,500-13,000 killed,\" he said.\n\nHe added that the number of civilians killed could be \"significant\". BBC News had identified about 3,600 civilian deaths as of mid-June. The figure is now likely to be much higher.\n\nMs von der Leyen said 20,000 Ukrainian civilians had been killed. While that number was not retracted by the EU Commission, it was removed from later versions of the video along with the assertion that 100,000 troops had been killed.\n\nMr Podolyak also suggested that up to 100,000 Russian soldiers had been killed since the invasion began on 24 February, and that a further 100,000 to 150,000 had been wounded, or were missing or unable to return to combat.\n\nThe BBC's Russian Service has established that at least 9,311 Russian soldiers of all ranks have been killed since the invasion on 24 February while the true death toll could be more than 18,600.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.", "Leah Foster said as she was breastfeeding, Emmett could not be left with parents or a childminder\n\nA student has been suspended by the University of Derby for taking her baby into lectures.\n\nLeah Foster, 35, is half way through a degree and said her tutor had agreed to her taking her son in on a short-term basis but this was overruled.\n\nAfter a warning Mrs Foster said she had no choice but to continue and was then told she could not attend campus.\n\nHer local MP has called on the university to reconsider but officials said it was a health and safety matter.\n\nMrs Foster is studying psychology and hopes to work supporting the mental health of new mothers.\n\nThe university suggested Leah Foster defer her studies for a year\n\nShe said she consulted with her tutor about taking her son Emmett with her and was told it would not be an issue but this decision was later reversed.\n\nAs she was breastfeeding, Mrs Foster said she felt she had no option but to continue and was suspended two weeks ago.\n\nShe said: \"I felt shock and disbelief. It felt so unfair that I am being discriminated against because I have had a baby but am trying to continue my studies.\n\n\"I understand that other people are paying to do their degree and the last thing they want is a crying baby in class.\n\n\"I would never, ever let him sit and cry or make noise or make it difficult to hear what the lecturer is saying.\"\n\nThe university suggested she defer her studies for a year but Mrs Foster said this would delay her getting a job and perhaps having another child.\n\nToby Perkins, MP for Chesterfield, said: \"I think to say to someone like Leah 'You have to step away for a year, we can't accommodate you in any way' - despite how far she has gone out of her way to make sure she wasn't disruptive.\n\n\"I think it sends the wrong message and I am really disappointed that Derby University have taken this approach.\"\n\nIn another two months Leah expects to stop breastfeeding which will mean her parents can look after Emmett.\n\nShe said she was worried about missing out on her studies but was hoping for a compromise for herself and anyone in the same position.\n\nThe University of Derby spokesperson said it did not comment on individual cases.\n\nThey added: \"We would not exclude a student because they wish to continue studying while breastfeeding or caring for children.\n\n\"We have many students who are combining studying with parenthood, and we support them in every way we can, including personal support plans tailored to the individual, as well as providing designated spaces for breastfeeding for those who would prefer to do so away from the more public areas on campus.\n\n\"However, babies and children cannot be brought into teaching sessions due to the potential risk of disruption to other students and to protect the health and safety of the parent, child and others.\"\n\nFollow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "A selection of your pictures of Scotland sent in between 25 November and 2 December.\n\nSend your photos to scotlandpictures@bbc.co.uk. Please ensure you adhere to the BBC's rules regarding photographs that can be found here.\n\nPlease also ensure you take your pictures safely and responsibly.\n\nConditions of use: If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's terms and conditions.\n\nHere is the latest Your pictures of Scotland gallery - bright eyed and bushy tailed as ever. Thank you to Iain Donnachie, of Peebles, for his cheeky Morton Lochs red squirrel.\n\n\"It was worth enduring a temperature of -3 degrees cycling from Linn of Dee to Derry Lodge to witness a cloud inversion on top of Carn a'Mhaim,\" said Michael Curtis.\n\nRosie McGeachan's image of shipbuilding on the Clyde. She said: \"Work on HMS Glasgow as the sun goes down.\"\n\nMembers of a local astronomy club were treated to this view of the Northern Lights from across Thurso Bay. Gordon Mackie, who took this image, said: \"A fine way to end an evening observing the night sky.\"\n\nJim Macdonald, of Maryburgh, said of his picture: \"Strathpeffer emerging from the early morning mist.\"\n\nAngela Pearson said of her shot: \"Otterly adorable. Asian short clawed otters at Camperdown Wildlife Park.\"\n\nJim Smith's picture of Stonehaven harbour being battered by heavy seas, during recent easterly gales.\n\nStuart McMahon took this picture at Aubrey Park, Largs, when the local model boating club members were sailing some yachts on the pond in flat, calm conditions.\n\nFrankline Gituma sent in this image of Connel Bridge near Oban.\n\nMorag Burton's picture of a full moon from the Devorgilla Bridge, Dumfries, after heavy rain flooded the River Nith.\n\nAlexa Kershaw said of this shot: \"A beautiful, dancing aurora taken from Rubha nan Gall Lighthouse Cottages, Tobermory, Isle of Mull, looking towards Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula.\"\n\n\"Monikie Country Park, near Dundee, where the ducks formed an orderly queue to be fed,\" said Mhairi Irving, of Laurencekirk.\n\nClarke Elsby, who took this image in Lanark, said: \"It was eerily calm and all surrounding sounds seemed amplified.\"\n\nGerry Doherty's image of a stunning sunrise over the River Clyde at Dumbarton Rock and Castle.\n\nPauline Mills' picture of Loch Lubnaig. She said: \"The loch was so still after a weekend of torrential rain so it was lovely to spend some time in the quiet.\"\n\nSylvia Beaumont captured this scene. She said: \"Cows sharing a salt lick in a field at North Berwick. Such a long tongue.\"\n\n\"I took this photo of the Forth Bridge during haar on a bike ride to get chips in Queensferry,\" said Ewan MacNeilage.\n\nAn image of Emma McKie's family enjoying a beautiful display of the Aurora Borealis over the Moray Firth.\n\nWalter Baxter, of Galashiels, took this picture of sheep backlit by the sun at Dryburgh.\n\nRetired postman Gerry McGuire, from Dunfermline, captured this scene at the Queensferry Crossing. Gerry said: \"I was heading into North Queensferry to photograph a certain railway bridge when I saw the haar drifting down the River Forth. So I parked up, got out the camera and tripod to try to get something worthwhile.\"\n\nMist in the Tweed and Ettrick valleys in a picture taken from Lindean near Selkirk by Steven McLachlan.\n\nBill Cameron paused on his morning run to take this shot in Lochaber\n\nGillian Cross' view from her house over Loch Poulary, Invergarry.\n\nAeleen Campbell, of Spean Bridge, stopped on a cycle ride to snap this picture at Corpach Basin, Fort William.\n\n\"Sheep in the mist doesn't have the same ring to it as gorillas in the mist but this is as exotic as it gets in the fields around Falkirk,\" said Brian Colston.\n\nPlease ensure that the photograph you send is your own and if you are submitting photographs of children, we must have written permission from a parent or guardian of every child featured (a grandparent, auntie or friend will not suffice).\n\nIn contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way, including in any media worldwide.\n\nHowever, you will still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News.\n\nAt no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe the law.\n\nYou can find more information here.\n\nAll photos are subject to copyright.", "Donald Trump requested that a \"special master\" be appointed to review the documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago home\n\nA US appeals court has ended a \"special master\" review of documents seized from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.\n\nThe ruling is a win for the US Department of Justice, which is probing if Mr Trump took classified documents with him when he left the White House.\n\nThe \"special master\" is an independent lawyer who decides if any of the records are covered under attorney-client or executive privilege.\n\nInvestigators can now review the documents in full.\n\nThe ruling was made on Thursday by a three-judge panel in the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit US Courts of Appeal, after the Department of Justice challenged a September decision that granted Mr Trump's request for the special master review.\n\nIn its ruling, the appeals court wrote that there was no \"judiciary license to interfere in an ongoing investigation\".\n\n\"The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so,\" the court wrote.\n\nA special master review would have delayed the Department of Justice's inquiry into Mr Trump's handling of classified documents, as the government was banned from reviewing or using the materials until it was complete.\n\nRaymond Dearie, a 78-year-old New York judge who was first nominated by Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1986, was assigned as the special master with his case.\n\nIt is unclear if Mr Trump and his lawyers will appeal against Thursday's ruling.\n\nMr Trump is being investigated for allegedly taking national classified documents with him to his private Florida home in Mar-a-Lago after he left the White House.\n\nThe authorities say these documents should have been handed over to the National Archives - as required of US presidents upon leaving office.\n\nThe FBI seized 15 boxes of White House documents in January, which officials said contained \"highly classified reports\", some of which were \"intermixed with other records\" and contained Mr Trump's \"handwritten notes\". They also seized another 20 boxes in August.\n\nIn total, the Department of Justice alleged that 11 sets of classified documents were taken from the White House by Mr Trump.\n\nThe former president denied any wrongdoing, and argued that he had declassified all the documents as president and that they were kept securely at his Mar-a-Lago home.\n\nWhen requesting a special master, Mr Trump's lawyers argued some of the documents are covered by attorney-client privilege - meaning they can be withheld under a US law that allows people to keep conversations with their lawyers private.", "A woman in Aceh, Indonesia, before being caned in November for having sex outside of marriage. Aceh province already has strict laws against sex outside marriage\n\nIndonesia's parliament is expected to pass a new criminal law this month that will punish sex outside marriage with imprisonment of up to a year.\n\nBambang Wuryanto, a politician involved in the draft, said the code could be passed as early as next week.\n\nThe law, if passed, would apply to Indonesian citizens and foreigners alike.\n\nPunishment for adultery can only take effect if there are parties who lodge complaints to the authorities.\n\nFor those who are married, the party entitled to lodge a complaint is the perpetrator's husband or wife.\n\nThe law also allows the parents of unmarried people to report them for having sex.\n\nCohabitation before marriage will also be banned and those convicted could face a six-month prison sentence.\n\nBusiness groups have expressed concern about the damage the rules might do to Indonesia's image as a holiday and investment destination, according to Reuters.\n\nShinta Widjaja Sukamdani, deputy chairperson of Indonesia's Employers' Association (APINDO), said: \"For the business sector, the implementation of this customary law shall create legal uncertainty and make investors reconsider investing in Indonesia.\"\n\nThe previous draft of the code was set to be passed in 2019 but sparked nationwide protests with tens of thousands taking part in demonstrations.\n\nMany, including students, took to the streets in cities across Indonesia with the main clashes taking place in the capital Jakarta.\n\nTear gas and water cannon were used against protesters who had thrown stones at police.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jakarta police battled protesters in 2019 who were angry over a new corruption law and proposed penal code\n\nSuch strict laws on sex and relationships are not without precedent in parts of majority-Muslim Indonesia.\n\nThe province of Aceh enforces strict Islamic law and has punished people for gambling, drinking alcohol and meeting members of the opposite sex.\n\nIn one case in 2021, neighbours denounced two men for having sex. They each received 77 lashes from a police officer in a public caning.\n\nOn the same day a woman and man were each given 20 lashes for being caught in close proximity to each other, and two men were given 40 lashes each for getting drunk.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nGermany crashed out of the Fifa World Cup on a remarkable night of drama despite victory over Costa Rica at Al Bayt Stadium.\n\nJapan's controversial 2-1 victory against Spain would have eliminated Germany anyway, but Hansi Flick's side needed three points to give themselves any chance of reaching the last 16.\n\nThey completed their part of the bargain, but it was to no avail as the four-time champions finished third in the group and were eliminated on goal difference.\n\nIt could have been a different story after Japan's winning goal in the other Group E match was initially ruled out because the officials thought the ball had gone out of play before it was put into the net, but the decision was overturned by VAR.\n\nGermany were in complete control and in front through Serge Gnabry's 10th-minute header, only for Costa Rica to turn the match on its head to raise the remarkable possibility of Spain also going out.\n\nYeltsin Tejeda equalised after Germany keeper Manuel Neuer pushed out Kendall Waston's header in the 58th minute, before Neuer was deemed to have the final touch for the second goal 12 minutes later when Juan Pablo Vargas bundled in from close range.\n\nAt that stage, Costa Rica were going through with Japan, and Spain were heading for the exit.\n\nIt would have capped one of the most astonishing nights in World Cup history, but Germany substitute Kai Havertz restored a measure of normality with two clinical finishes to extinguish Costa Rica's hopes of springing a major shock.\n\nSubstitute Niclas Fullkrug added a last-minute fourth to confirm victory, but it will be of no consolation as Germany failed to reach the knockout stage of the tournament for the second time in succession.\n\nThis was also a match that made history as an all-female officiating team took charge of a men's World Cup game for the first time, with France's Stephanie Frappart refereeing, joined by assistant referees Neuza Back from Brazil and Karen Diaz Medina from Mexico.\n\nGermany's second successive exit at the group stage will come as another shock to their system and they can have no complaints as they leave Qatar.\n\nThe skids were under their campaign when they lost 2-1 to Japan in their opener and, despite showing real character to come from behind to draw 1-1 with Spain, the first-game defeat left them vulnerable.\n\nA Germany win looked a formality as they controlled the first half hour with embarrassing ease and led through Gnabry's strike.\n\nCosta Rica were overpowered but Germany's complacency gave them an entry into the game and suddenly it was they who looked like qualifying as they went ahead, although it did not last long.\n\nGermany have some fine players in the brilliant Jamal Musiala, who was outstanding and hit the post twice in the second half, but this World Cup may spell the end for the older generation such as goalkeeper Neuer and forward Thomas Muller. Neuer was uncertain and could have done better with both goals while Muller missed an easy headed first half chance and was substituted after the break.\n\nThere is certainly likely to be a lengthy inquest into another failure at the finals.\n\nCosta Rica looked for all the world like they were heading for a heavy defeat, in the manner of their 7-0 loss to Spain, in the opening half as they were just unable to deal with the Germans.\n\nOnly the brilliance of Keylor Navas' goalkeeping kept Germany at bay, but what resilience Costa Rica showed to hang in and take their chances when they were presented with them.\n\nAnd the world of football watched in anticipation of a gripping finale after Neuer's own goal put them 2-1 up, leaving Luis Suarez Fernandez's side on course for a remarkable qualification and Germany going out along with Spain.\n\nThe dream only lasted three minutes, but would have felt like an age for those two giants of the game.\n\nGermany had too much quality for Costa Rica in the end, but what a superb effort this was and they have a victory over group winners Japan to savour on their sixth appearance at the World Cup.\n• None Attempt saved. Jamal Musiala (Germany) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Serge Gnabry.\n• None Attempt blocked. Jamal Musiala (Germany) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Joshua Kimmich.\n• None Attempt missed. Niclas Füllkrug (Germany) header from the left side of the six yard box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Kai Havertz.\n• None Attempt blocked. Niclas Füllkrug (Germany) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Serge Gnabry.\n• None Goal! Costa Rica 2, Germany 4. Niclas Füllkrug (Germany) left footed shot from very close range to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Leroy Sané.Goal awarded following VAR Review.\n• None Attempt saved. Mario Götze (Germany) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.\n• None Attempt saved. Kai Havertz (Germany) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jamal Musiala.\n• None Goal! Costa Rica 2, Germany 3. Kai Havertz (Germany) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Serge Gnabry with a cross.\n• None Attempt missed. Jamal Musiala (Germany) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Jones, who founded the conspiracy-laden Infowars website, argued for years that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged\n\nConspiracy theorist Alex Jones has filed for personal bankruptcy after he was ordered to pay almost $1.5bn (£1.2bn) for falsely claiming a 2012 school shooting was a hoax.\n\nJones was ordered to pay the damages to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting following a series of defamation trials earlier this year.\n\nThe most notable came in October when a jury ordered him to pay almost $1bn following a trial in Connecticut.\n\nJones has not commented on the filing.\n\nThe court documents - which were filed in Houston, Texas on Friday - say the Infowars host has between $1m and $10m of assets and between $1bn and $10bn of debt.\n\nThey also estimate that the 48-year-old has between 50 and 99 creditors, including the individually named relatives of the victims and an FBI agent who responded to the attack.\n\nHis show's parent company - Free Speech Systems - filed for bankruptcy in July.\n\nThe latest filing temporarily halts all proceedings in the Connecticut case, including a scheduled hearing examining how the families would receive the money and what assets could be included.\n\nIt could further delay payments as the case plays out in bankruptcy courts. It is unclear how much money the families will receive.\n\nFollowing the filing, a lawyer representing the families said \"the bankruptcy system does not protect anyone who engages in intentional and egregious attacks on others\".\n\n\"Like every other cowardly move Alex Jones has made, this bankruptcy will not work,\" Chris Mattei said in a statement.\n\nJones, who founded the conspiracy-laden Infowars website and talk show, argued for years that the Sandy Hook shooting was a \"staged\" government plot to take guns from Americans and that \"no-one died\".\n\nHe called the parents of the 20 children who died \"crisis actors\" and argued that some of them never actually existed.\n\nHe now acknowledges the attack was \"100% real\", a concession he made in August at a separate defamation trial in Texas.\n\nFamilies who lost loved ones in the shooting alleged Jones' lies led to years of death threats, intimidation and other forms of harassment from his followers.\n\nJones still faces a third defamation trial over the Sandy Hook shooting that begins in Texas later this year.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sandy Hook dad: Trolls said I killed and dismembered my son", "Paul Salsini found the recording while he was tidying up\n\nA rare live recording of one of Stephen Sondheim's earliest musicals has been discovered on a bookshelf in the US city of Milwaukee.\n\nThe American composer and lyricist wrote Phinney's Rainbow when he was an 18-year-old student in 1948.\n\nThe celebrated songwriter, who died last year, is best known for West Side Story and Gypsy.\n\n\"This is the first original cast recording of a Sondheim show,\" Paul Salsini told BBC News.\n\nHe found the CD while he was cleaning his office.\n\n\"I noticed that there was a space between a couple of CDs and I looked at the shelf below and found that this recording had fallen down into the next shelf. It had literally fallen through the cracks.\"\n\nThe show had four performances at Williams College in Massachusetts and someone, possibly even Sondheim himself, recorded it before it was eventually transferred to a CD.\n\nStephen Sondheim was responsible for huge West End Show like Company, which won three Olivier Awards in 2019\n\nBarack Obama awarded Stephen Sondheim the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015\n\nLasting 1hr 20mins, it is a sizeable score with 19 tracks. Salsini, who's 87, and the author of the memoir Sondheim and Me: Revealing a Musical Genius, says \"it's a mystery\" where the recording came from.\n\nIt's an amateur recording and the sound quality is not great.\n\nSome words are muffled and there is background noise, frequent bursts of laughter and applause, as well as a few glitches and silence.\n\nDame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen present Stephen Sondheim with an award in 2015\n\nNonetheless, the eminent music scholar Stephen Banfield, who wrote Sondheim's Broadway Musicals, said he is \"absolutely delighted that it's come to light\" and it is significant.\n\n\"Any complete recording of a live show from 1948 is pretty important, there aren't many,\" he said.\n\n\"I'm not aware that we have recordings of any of the other shows that Sondheim did when he was a youngster. The importance of it is that it's the earliest Sondheim we're likely to hear. Earliest in both senses of him actually playing one of the two pianos in the performance and also in the fact that it's his own music.\"\n\nProfessor Banfield added: \"It's always important to see where an artist came from, what they were aiming for when they were young\".\n\nHe said he could detect \"certain pointers\" in some of the tracks towards songs which appear in later Sondheim musicals including Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods.\n\nPaul Salsini worked as a journalist before writing about Sondheim\n\nPaul Salsini is now donating the CD to the Sondheim Research Collection in Milwaukee to enable the wider public to hear it.\n\nBut he does not think Phinney's Rainbow should be performed again.\n\n\"No, no, it's a college musical ... it's a curiosity piece it really is,\" he said.\n\n\"But it's an interesting curiosity piece not only because it was the first for him but because of how it had showed the imagination and tendencies that he would show through the rest of his career.\"", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nThe Netherlands survived a late scare against the United States to move into the Fifa World Cup quarter-finals with a ruthless display of finishing.\n\nThe US had the game's biggest early chance when Christian Pulisic was denied by the legs of Dutch goalkeeper Andries Noppert and the failure to take that opportunity proved highly expensive.\n\nLouis van Gaal's side responded in the finest Dutch traditions in the 10th minute when Memphis Depay crowned a magnificent 21-pass move by turning in Denzel Dumfries' cross.\n\nThe US battled hard but lacked a cutting edge and were punished in similar fashion with the final kick of the first half when Daley Blind arrived with perfect timing on the end of another Dumfries cut back.\n\nThe Dutch were given anxious moments when the US pulled a goal back in the 76th minute as Haji Wright's freak deflection from Pulisic's cross looped in at the far post.\n\nBut they restored their two-goal lead five minutes later when creator Dumfries turned scorer, side-footing in a volley at the far post from Blind's cross.\n\nVan Gaal has been over this course before with the Netherlands, when he guided them to a World Cup semi-final in Brazil in 2014, only to lose on penalties to Argentina after a goalless draw in Sao Paulo.\n\nAnd his vast experience means they cannot be under-estimated here as they set up a last eight meeting with their 2014 conquerors Argentina.\n\nNo-one would pretend this is a classic Dutch side but they have a sprinkling of quality in all areas and the beauty of their first goal, which would have delighted the purists in their homeland, was a graphic demonstration of their capabilities.\n\nVirgil van Dijk is the world-class defensive leader alongside Nathan Ake, while both full-backs Blind and Dumfries made crucial contributions.\n\nFrenkie de Jong brings control to midfield and there is real threat in the shape of Depay, who scored his first goal of this World Cup, and one of the break-out stars of this World Cup, Cody Gakpo.\n\nIt was a display that delighted the band of Dutch fans inside Khalifa International Stadium as Van Gaal's side march on.\n\nThe States' main man Christian Pulisic looked close to tears after the final whistle as he reflected on the chance that got away in those opening moments, an opportunity that might have made this a very different tie.\n\nPulisic was sent through on goal by Tyler Adams' clever delivery but the outstretched leg of Dutch keeper Noppert made the block. Pulisic should have scored and he knew it.\n\nThe US were soon in arrears and could never get close enough to the Netherlands, apart from Wright's goal, which was heavily laced with good fortune.\n\nThe left side of their defence was brutally exposed by the Dutch for all three goals and this, mixed with poor finishing, meant their World Cup ends in the first knockout round.\n\nThere is something for them to build on after getting out of the group stages here, but there will also be disappointment at the sense of a missed opportunity. They will depart Qatar and start their preparations for the Fifa World Cup 2026, which they will jointly host with Canada and Mexico.\n• None Attempt blocked. Yunus Musah (USA) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Giovanni Reyna with a headed pass.\n• None Attempt blocked. Giovanni Reyna (USA) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Brenden Aaronson.\n• None Frenkie de Jong (Netherlands) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt missed. Walker Zimmerman (USA) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left following a corner. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "Controversy about Qatar hosting football's World Cup has mostly focused on LGBT rights in the country and around same-sex relationships being criminalised. Transgender Qataris can be detained for \"violating public morality\", which requires no trial or official charge. BBC News has spoken to two trans Qataris about their lives.\n\n\"I am very afraid, but I just want people to know that we do exist,\" Shahd says about her decision to speak out about life as a transgender woman. Like the other person in this article, we have changed Shahd's name to protect her.\n\nWe have been messaging her over an encrypted app for her safety, and she travels away from her home to video call us in secret from a darkened room.\n\nShahd shows us her hair which she was forced to cut into a masculine style, but does not reveal by whom.\n\nShe then unbuttons her shirt to show us wounds on top of her chest.\n\nShahd says the wounds are the consequence of being arrested for \"impersonating a woman\". Authorities told her to remove breast tissue that had formed since she started taking oestrogen, which she got without prescription from another country.\n\n\"I lost my job and my friends,\" she says.\n\n\"I was arrested and interrogated several times because of my identity. I lost everything.\"\n\nQatar is one of more than 60 countries where it is illegal to be gay. In Qatar, homosexual acts are against the law because they are considered immoral under Islamic Sharia law.\n\nPunishments include fines, prison sentences of up to seven years - and even death by stoning, although there is no record that this has happened.\n\nPolice are able to detain someone for up to six months on suspicion of breaking \"community protection\" laws without trial or charge if they suspect a person has \"violated public morality\".\n\nShahd says she is constantly in fear of arrest.\n\nA recent report by non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch detailed the arrests of LGBT people in Qatar, and found several trans people were among them, based solely on expressing their gender through clothes, hair or make-up.\n\nShahd avoids crowded places at busy times of the day, because she feels people stare at her and might report her to the police.\n\nShe says she has been arrested for \"imitating a woman\" while wearing make-up, and describes the government's preventive security department - a branch of Qatari law enforcement - as like a \"gang\".\n\n\"They capture you and prevent you from telling anyone where you are. The prison is underground where they treat you like a criminal,\" she says.\n\n\"You will be handcuffed,\" she said, laughing dryly as she added, \"this is to protect society from us.\"\n\nWe were unable to independently verify Shahd's account of being arrested, because she received no official record of being detained.\n\nThe BBC's Lauren Moss spoke to Qataris using encrypted messaging apps. All were too scared to use their real names or show their faces\n\nShahd says anyone who has been to prison for similar reasons to her is sent to a doctor for so-called \"conversion therapy\". She shows us screenshots of her referrals to sessions at a therapy centre in Doha. A Qatari government official denied that the government operates or licenses any \"conversion centres\".\n\n\"They told me I might go to hell because of this, but I believe God created me the way I am,\" she said.\n\n\"I am a woman. If I could be a man, I would. My life would be much easier.\"\n\nThings got so bad for Sara, another transgender woman, that she fled Qatar and is now applying for asylum in Europe.\n\nShe tells us how she left everything she knew behind, taking just one bag of belongings and little money.\n\n\"I was at my breaking point of either committing suicide or leaving and I decided to leave.\"\n\nSara says she too has been forced through conversion therapy several times. But she does not believe calls to boycott the World Cup over Qatar's laws on homosexuality are productive.\n\n\"Many other countries also have these laws, but people are only calling out Qatar and saying Qatar should not be hosting the World Cup.\"\n\nThe chief executive of football's governing body Fifa has called for attention to be on the competition, rather than politics. However, various charities and organisations are continuing to demand that it gives assurances that no other country with anti-LGBT laws is able to host the World Cup in the future.\n\nQatar has \"categorically rejected\" the claims made by Shahd and Sara.\n\nA government official reiterated its much-repeated message that \"everyone is welcome\" at the World Cup, and said that fans \"from all walks of life come together in Qatar to build bridges of friendship and break down barriers of misunderstanding\".\n\nThe official claimed Qatar \"does not tolerate discrimination against anyone\" and is among the safest countries in the world. However, a recent report by Amnesty International disputes these claims.", "University Hospitals Birmingham is one of the largest teaching hospital trusts in England\n\nWhistleblowers at one of England's worst performing hospital trusts have said a climate of fear among staff is putting patients at risk.\n\nFormer and current clinicians at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Trust allege they were punished by management for raising safety concerns, a BBC Newsnight investigation found.\n\nOne insider said the trust was \"a bit like the mafia\".\n\nThe trust said it took \"patient safety very seriously\".\n\nIt said it had a \"high reporting culture of incidents\" to ensure accountability and learning.\n\nStaff concerns included a dangerous shortage of nurses and a lack of communication leading to some haematology patients dying without receiving treatment, an investigation by BBC Newsnight and BBC West Midlands found.\n\nThe trust - which is rated \"requires improvement\" by healthcare regulator the Care Quality Commission - is one of the largest in the UK, with four hospitals serving more than two million patients a year.\n\nThe deaths of 20 patients in the haematology department of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which is run by the trust, led to a review in 2017 by consultant Emmanouil Nikolousis.\n\nMr Nikolousis, who left the trust in 2020, told the BBC he was shocked by the failings he found and believes patients' lives could have been saved.\n\nA report by Mr Nikolousis criticised a lack of \"ownership\" of patients and a lack of communication among senior clinicians. In some cases this led to patients dying without having received treatment, he said.\n\n\"Certainly there should have been different actions done,\" he said. \"They could be saved. Certainly, when you don't have an action done, then you don't really know the outcome.\"\n\n\"All these diseases in haematology, they're highly complex…they require immediate management and they require ownership of the patient. And quite a lot of times they require coordination of the teams, and that certainly hasn't happened.\"\n\nMr Nikolousis said he felt he had no option but to quit after his findings were ignored and his position was made \"untenable\". He left the NHS after 18 years.\n\n\"They were trying, as they did with other colleagues, to completely sort of ruin your career,\" he said.\n\nAnother clinician, who the BBC has agreed not to identify, said when they and other consultants raised safety concerns they would be \"punished quite quickly and quite harshly\".\n\n\"They will make all kinds of spurious investigations and they will try to intimidate you that way,\" the whistleblower said.\n\nIn the past decade, the trust has referred 26 of its doctors to the General Medical Council, which can investigate a doctor's fitness to practise, a Freedom of Information Act request by an NHS safety campaigner found. In all cases the GMC took no further action.\n\nEye surgeon Tristan Reuser was referred to the GMC in 2017, several months after raising concerns about a lack of nurses to support operations at the Heart of England NHS Trust, which merged with UHB in 2018. On one occasion he needed to perform emergency eye surgery, but there were no nurses to help and he resorted to using an untrained, non-clinical staff member to assist the procedure.\n\nHe said that whistleblowers were subjected to \"victimisation and retribution using GMC referrals\".\n\n\"I think my case particularly, I have no doubt that that was true,\" he said.\n\n\"If you criticise senior management, they'll have you.\"\n\nThe GMC took no further action against Mr Reuser, but issued a formal warning against the hospital's medical director David Rosser for not telling them the eye surgeon was a whistleblower. It said his conduct risked \"bringing the profession into disrepute and it must not be repeated\". Mr Rosser is now chief executive of UHB. He is due to stand down at the end of the year for another NHS role in the region.\n\nAlthough the tribunal found that Mr Reuser was unfairly dismissed, the trust told the BBC that the tribunal did not support his claim that he was dismissed because of his whistleblowing and pointed to other whistleblowing doctors against whom they say no action was taken.\n\nMr Reuser said he remains worried that patients would suffer if senior management did not listen to criticism about safety issues.\n\n\"Somebody has to speak up on behalf of the patients,\" he said. \"I felt a moral obligation to speak out about this, because what happens in Birmingham, what happens to Birmingham patients is just shocking.\"\n\nIn the 12 months from April 2020, there were 12 \"never events\" - serious safety incidents which should never happen if proper safety procedures are correctly implemented. That was the highest figure in the country for the period. The number fell to four in the following 12-month period.\n\nThe trust said: \"All patient safety concerns and incidents are rigorously investigated to prevent harm to our patients.\"\n\nIt said there were well-established routes and support in place for staff to raise concerns, and it promoted and encouraged this.\n\nHave you been affected by issues covered in this story? Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.\n\nPlease include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:\n\nIf you are reading this page and can't see the form you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.", "The film tells the story of a bereaved father struggling to make Christmas a special time for his son\n\nAn alternative Christmas advert which portrays a bereaved father struggling to make Christmas special for his son has gone viral on social media.\n\nThe video, entitled The GoKart, was shot by a team of young videographers in West Yorkshire and has attracted millions of views.\n\nFilmmaker Sam Teale, 20, said they wanted to create something that reflected the cost of living crisis.\n\nThe message is \"Christmas is made, not bought\", he said.\n\nMr Teale said the video portrayed the stark reality of what many families were facing amid a cost of living crisis\n\nThe film was shot in Mr Teale's home town of Cleckheaton and features his former school, his local barber shop, park and the graveyard where his grandfather is buried.\n\nIn one of the scenes, the barber asks the boy what he is getting for Christmas, to which he replies \"Santa is poorly this year\".\n\nIt ends with a scene in the graveyard, where the boy - sitting on a go-kart made by his dad - wishes his \"mummy\" a merry Christmas.\n\nThis YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Sam Teale Productions This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts.\n\nMr Teale said the video portrayed the stark reality of what many families were facing amid a cost of living crisis, and brought home the message that Christmas was about \"the people you are with\" and \"thinking about lost loved ones\".\n\n\"It resonated with people in a way I never expected,\" he said.\n\nThe advert has attracted more than seven million views on Facebook and a similar number on TikTok\n\nSince being published on Wednesday, the video, which is billed as an \"alternative John Lewis advert\", has attracted more than seven million views on Facebook and a similar number on TikTok.\n\nMr Teale said it was important to depict \"the true reality of Christmas\" for many this year, adding that the young boy in the advert would gladly sacrifice his go-kart to have his mum back.\n\nTalking about the response, he said the video comments section had also become its own little community, with people sharing their stories and wanting to donate money to help others.\n\nSam Teale, pictured with the actors and his fellow filmmakers Ellie Connell, 21, Sam Brearley, 18 and Jack Green, 21, says he is immensely proud of his team\n\nFollow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.", "This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How common is Strep A and what are the symptoms to watch out for?\n\nSix children have died with an invasive condition caused by Strep A - including five under 10-year-olds in England since September - the UK Health Security Agency has said.\n\nA girl from Wales has also died. No deaths have been confirmed in Scotland or Northern Ireland.\n\nStrep A infections are normally mild but people can become seriously ill.\n\nParents concerned about their child's symptoms should seek medical advice, the UKHSA has advised.\n\nWhile still uncommon, there has been an increase in invasive Group A Strep cases this year, particularly in children under 10.\n\nA child from Ealing, west London, and another from Ashford in Surrey, are among those who have died after contracting the infection.\n\nA four-year-old boy, named as Muhammad Ibrahim Ali, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, also died last month.\n\nPrimary school pupil Hanna Roap, from Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, has also died from the infection.\n\nInfections caused by Group A Strep bacteria are usually mild with symptoms like a sore throat or skin infections.\n\nThe bug can also cause scarlet fever which can, in the majority of cases, be treated successfully with antibiotics and people make a full recovery.\n\nHowever, in a very small number of cases, Group A Strep infection can get deeper into the body - for example, into the lungs and bloodstream - causing an illness known as invasive Group A Streptococcus (iGAS), which is much harder to treat.\n\nThere are a range of symptoms which may be a sign of an invasive infection, including high fever, poor appetite, dehydration, altered behaviour and feeling very sleepy, according to Dr Colin Brown, deputy director of the UKHSA.\n\nHe has advised parents to be on the lookout for these signs and \"see a doctor as quickly as possible so that their child can be treated and we can stop the infection becoming serious\".\n\n\"Make sure you talk to a health professional if your child is showing signs of deteriorating after a bout of scarlet fever, a sore throat, or a respiratory infection,\" he added.\n\nDuring the last high season for invasive Group A Strep infection, in 2017-18, there were four deaths in children under 10, compared to the five this year during the same time period.\n\nThe latest increase is most likely related to high amounts of the bug circulating and increased social mixing, said the UKHSA.\n\nDr Elizabeth Whittaker, honorary clinical senior lecturer, at Imperial College London, said: \"During the first two years of the pandemic, we saw very little Group A Strep and it has started to circulate again in 2022 as restrictions have been lifted.\n\n\"Usually we see a high number of cases in late spring or early summer, often after chicken pox infections. High numbers at this time of year are unusual and probably occurring as normal seasonality has not yet returned.\n\n\"Tragically, when there are high numbers of infections, the severe cases will also occur. We are seeing more pneumonia than usual, most likely as group A strep infections are coinciding with the peak in winter respiratory viruses which are typical for this time of year.\"\n\nAs part of its investigations, the UKHSA is also examining reports of an increase in chest infections caused by Group A Strep resulting in severe illness over the past few weeks.\n\nThe total number of scarlet fever cases also continues to remain higher than would typically be seen at this time of year, according to the latest data.\n\nThere were 851 cases reported in the week of 14-20 November, compared to an average of 186 for the preceding years.\n\nDr Nathalie MacDermott, lecturer at King's College London, said: \"Prompt treatment of scarlet fever and Strep throat reduce the chances of a child developing invasive group A Strep and reduce the chances of the infection spreading to other children at school or household members.\"\n\nThe symptoms of scarlet fever include a sore throat, a swollen, red tongue, headache, and fever, along with a fine body rash with a sandpapery feel.\n\nOn paler skin, this may look pinkish or red but, on darker skin, it may not have the same colour change.\n\nWhile most children do recover quickly from scarlet fever, if they deteriorate further, parents are advised to trust their instincts and seek urgent medical advice.\n\nUKHSA advises people to call 999 or go to A&E if:\n\nThere have been 2.3 cases of the invasive Strep A per 100,000 children aged one to four in England this year, compared with an average of 0.5 in pre-pandemic seasons of 2017-19, the agency said.\n\nThere have also been 1.1 cases per 100,000 children aged five to nine, compared with a pre-pandemic average over the same period of 0.3.\n• None Strep A: What is strep A and what are the symptoms?", "Christopher Mooney's body was found at a house on Thursday morning\n\nThe two men who died at separate locations in County Monaghan on Thursday have been named locally as Christopher Mooney and Kieran Hamill.\n\nMr Mooney, who was 60, was found dead at a house at Knockreagh Lower in Broomfield at about 06:45 local time on Thursday.\n\nGardaí (Irish police) said he had suffered a \"violent death\".\n\nMr Hamill, 37 and from Cullaville in County Armagh, died nearby after he was hit by a car at Ballynacarry Bridge.\n\nHis death is being investigated as a fatal road traffic crash, according to gardaí.\n\nHowever, Irish media outlets are reporting that detectives believe Mr Hamill had been inside the house where Mr Mooney died shortly before the crash.\n\nGardaí said the post-mortem examination of Mr Mooney's body had been completed but the results could not be disclosed for operational reasons.\n\nPolice on both sides of the border closed the road at Ballynacarry Bridge after the collision on Thursday\n• None Investigation after two bodies found near Irish border", "Finnish PM Sanna Marin has said Europe is \"not strong enough\" to stand up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on its own, and has had to rely on US support.\n\nDuring a visit to Australia, the leader of the pending Nato member said Europe's defences must be strengthened.\n\n\"I must be brutally honest with you, Europe isn't strong enough right now,\" she said. \"We would be in trouble without the United States.\"\n\nThe US is by far the largest provider of military assistance to Ukraine.\n\nSince the start of the war in February, it has committed $18.6bn (€17.7bn; £15.2bn) in support, a research briefing last month by the UK's House of Commons said.\n\nThe second largest donor is the European Union, followed by the UK, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy says. But their contributions are dwarfed by those of the US.\n\nAnd with European countries' military stocks depleting as they supply Ukraine, Ms Marin said more needed to be done to bolster European defences.\n\nSpeaking at the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney on Friday, Ms Marin said: \"The United States has given a lot of weapons, a lot of financial aid, a lot of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and Europe isn't strong enough yet.\"\n\nShe added that Europe must make sure it is \"building those capabilities when it comes to European defence, European defence industry, and making sure that we could cope in different kinds of situations\".\n\nWhile in office, US President Donald Trump regularly criticised European countries in Nato for not spending enough on defence.\n\nThis video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. In 2018, Donald Trump told Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg that Germany is \"totally controlled by Russia\"\n\nIn 2020, it was estimated the US spent just over 3.7% of its GDP on defence - while the average for Nato's European members (and Canada) was 1.77%.\n\nDuring her talk, Prime Minister Marin went on to criticise some European countries' attempts at building closer ties with Russia in recent decades.\n\n\"For a long time, Europe was building a strategy for Russia... to buy energy from Russia and to closen those economic ties, and we thought that this would prevent the war,\" she said.\n\nBut she said that mindset was \"proven entirely wrong\".\n\nEuropean countries should have listened to states like Poland and the Baltics, she said, who had warned that Russia does not \"care about their economic ties, they don't care about the sanctions, they don't care about any of that\" when it comes to invading Ukraine.\n\nWide-reaching sanctions have been introduced by the EU and the US, among others, with the aim of limiting the resources Russia has to continue the war.\n\nMany European Union and Nato member countries have also pledged to increase their defence spending following the start of the war.\n\nIn February, Germany announced an extra $113bn (£84bn) for its army, and a constitutional commitment to Nato's military spending target of 2% of GDP.\n\nIn June, the UK - under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson - said its defence spending would hit 2.5% of GDP by the end of the decade.\n\nAll Nato members must commit to 2% to \"to ensure the alliance's military readiness,\" Nato says. And there have been recent calls on Nato members to increase their defence spending to 3% of GDP.\n\nFinland, which shares a long border with Russia, formally applied to join Nato in May. Accession protocols were signed in July, although they are yet to be ratified by all other members.", "Last updated on .From the section World Cup\n\nBy Emma Sanders BBC Sport at 974 Stadium in Doha\n\nSwitzerland sealed their place in the World Cup last 16 following an entertaining five-goal victory over Serbia to round off the group stage.\n\nSwitzerland, who knew a draw would be enough to qualify, took an early lead through former Stoke and Liverpool forward Xherdan Shaqiri.\n\nSerbia turned it around in the first half, going 2-1 up with goals from Fulham's Aleksandar Mitrovic and centre-forward partner Dusan Vlahovic - and they would have gone through as things stood.\n\nThe entertainment did not stop there though, as Switzerland's Breel Embolo equalised on the stroke of half-time when he poked in from close range.\n\nWith Serbia needing to win, the second half promised further twists but it was Switzerland who struck next - Embolo coolly flicking it on for Nottingham Forest's Remo Freuler to thump a half-volley into the net and make it 3-2 in their favour.\n\nFurther chances came for both sides but Switzerland held on to set up a meeting with Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal in the next round, while Serbia are eliminated.\n• None Quiz: Test your knowledge of the World Cup group stage\n\nIt was a game which swung back and forwards with both teams showing plenty of attacking intent and purpose.\n\nWithin 30 seconds of kick-off, Serbia goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic had to pull off a smart triple save to block efforts from Granit Xhaka and Embolo.\n\nThat set the tone for the match and Serbia midfielder Andrija Zivkovic struck the post before Shaqiri put Switzerland in front when his low shot was deflected off Strahinja Pavlovic.\n\nShaqiri, who was jeered loudly by Serbia fans during the warm-up, ran straight over to them in celebration, putting his finger to his mouth and pointing to his name on the back of his shirt.\n\nHe caused controversy with his double eagle celebration in a 2-1 win over Serbia at the Russia World Cup four years ago.\n\nFulham striker Mitrovic responded moments later when he superbly headed a Dusan Tadic cross inside the far post and Serbia shortly went 2-1 up when Vlahovic squeezed a left-footed shot into the corner.\n\nBut there was more to come as Switzerland's Embolo equalised on the stroke of half-time, poking the ball over the line from close range after a great pass in by Silvan Widmer.\n\nHe later turned provider with a smart backheel flick to set up Freuler's matchwinner and from then on, Switzerland grew in stature and looked favourites to see out the victory.\n\nTensions flared towards the end as Xhaka was pushed in the chest by Serbia's Nikola Milenkovic and a retaliation earned both players a yellow card as Switzerland held out.\n• None Attempt missed. Nemanja Radonjic (Serbia) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Luka Jovic following a set piece situation.\n• None Sasa Lukic (Serbia) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Fabian Schär (Switzerland) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.\n• None Attempt missed. Luka Jovic (Serbia) header from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Nemanja Radonjic with a cross. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page\n\nGet the latest results and goal notifications for any team at the Fifa World Cup by downloading the BBC Sport app: Apple - Android - Amazon\n\nGet your daily dose of Fifa World Cup reaction, debate & analysis with World Cup Daily on BBC Sounds", "The victims were named as Kearne Solanke (left) and Charlie Bartolo\n\nTwo teenage boys have been charged with murdering two boys who were stabbed to death a mile apart from each other in south-east London.\n\nKearne Solanke, 16, was found fatally wounded in Titmuss Avenue in Thamesmead on Saturday.\n\nCharlie Bartolo, also 16, was discovered in Sewell Road in Abbey Wood, on the same day.\n\nTwo boys, aged 15 and 16, will appear before Bexley Magistrates' Court later.\n\nPolice said a third person, an 18-year-old man, had been on arrested on Friday morning on suspicion of the murders and remains in custody.\n\nOfficers from the Metropolitan Police were called to reports people had been injured in two separate locations at about 17:10 GMT.\n\nThey attended the scenes alongside the London Ambulance Service and the capital's Air Ambulance.\n\nA spokesperson for the Met said despite the best efforts of the emergency services both boys died.\n\nFollow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk\n\nThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites."], "link": ["http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64040311", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-64038743", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64057492", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-64059738", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64037376", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64052268", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-64012250", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64059000", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64037261", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64045066", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64052197", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64046462", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-64044730", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64048082", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63947246", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-64045457", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63961071", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64050020", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-64055796", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64053099", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64043121", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64050002", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64047058", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64052849", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-64055639", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64043030", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64037136", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64050711", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64047152", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64059777", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62002218", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64025508", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64053696", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64054606", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-64042694", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64046956", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64047688", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64042718", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64050826", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64003237", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64059854", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-64051235", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/sports-personality/64045751", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64037292", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-64050611", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64043540", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64036465", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64049136", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63994648", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64048908", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64041140", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64045049", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64055018", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64041684", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-63991278", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64051438", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64057847", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64056549", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64045497", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-64038626", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64052327", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64039748", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64033750", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64043502", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-64055030", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64038944", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-63829213", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63832696", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63756549", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/63846783", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63842826", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63846031", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63847338", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63846157", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63834307", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-63822096", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63843890", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63846935", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63848998", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63765129", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63847173", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63846154", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63845497", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63837309", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63845838", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63829127", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63843893", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63832928", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63765128", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63834683", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63832753", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63846029", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63848878", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63835779", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63840591", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63840412", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63837585", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63834515", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-63845680", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63838350", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63844880", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63833495", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63846449", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-63838932", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63795448", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63825894", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63752145", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63848257", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63839776", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63845112", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63987624", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64005819", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64013862", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64010416", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64000237", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64000376", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64009203", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64013430", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64007526", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/64011657", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64010597", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63996981", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64009545", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-64010676", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64012800", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63973315", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64007299", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-64013230", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63996982", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64010209", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63945064", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-64009544", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63873505", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64010869", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63990580", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64011426", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63997749", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-63999346", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64013052", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64014920", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/63988517", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64005705", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64006315", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64010642", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64006121", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64012167", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64006161", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64006885", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64008832", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64005274", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64010202", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-64007265", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64010682", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64010677", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63989845", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63926145", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63908240", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63963239", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63959182", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63956314", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63961179", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63954211", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63939650", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63956994", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63958206", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63957055", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63949151", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-63943002", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63966337", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-63911965", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63966778", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63955617", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-63952882", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63953022", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-63943464", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63949576", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63906480", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-63955055", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63951794", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63952291", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63957020", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63947889", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63952998", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63946772", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63950532", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63954733", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63947946", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-63947507", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63948011", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-63953033", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63956480", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63954860", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63959843", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63868610", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63951354", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63947584", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63950962", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63945810", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63950210", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63952993", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63889127", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-63955189", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63959729", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63963051", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63941509", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63873505", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63944860", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63954859", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63956634", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63941232", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63944005", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63956738", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63948823", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63953096", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/63956614", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63954268", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63951125", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-63956428", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-63948089", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63957254", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63865392", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63891100", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63871577", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-63887910", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-63858626", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63867164", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63479809", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-63880157", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63807822", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63871448", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63887960", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63896445", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63873445", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63885426", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63879808", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63886414", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-61974313", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-63883964", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-63878261", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63892381", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-63876517", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63876993", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-63890775", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63884435", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63856070", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-63879548", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63894221", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63895825", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63895505", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63892321", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63895493", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-63879596", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63881031", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63890081", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63893130", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63877830", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63882955", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63892081", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63891285", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-63857673", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63895365", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63882290", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-63889741", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-63855508", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63897387", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-63888941", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-63886282", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17299607", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63886806", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63889794", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63883074", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-northern-ireland-politics-63886766", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63889636", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63886983", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63877555", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63884695", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63885549", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63881217", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63874187", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63884696", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63885058", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63888582", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64090081", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64090981", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64091843", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64088168", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64052465", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64013606", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64085604", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64031342", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64090038", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64045497", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64087775", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64088175", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64088047", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64089428", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64091433", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64088985", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64091560", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-64088063", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-64086021", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64089455", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64088046", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64083129", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64091438", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64086257", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64086680", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64088056", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-64090474", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63887570", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-64086918", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-64040332", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64090401", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64089661", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64041683", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64090171", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64087315", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64086682", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64075643", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64090549", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64053758", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64060437", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64079260", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64062741", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64068756", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-64038743", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64057492", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-64059738", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64069236", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64065840", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-64063109", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64067372", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64065004", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64052197", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64069390", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64063047", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64068356", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64061588", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-64064250", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64062631", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-64055796", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64065206", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64052031", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-64064962", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64065527", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64052849", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-64055639", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64069346", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64069392", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64059777", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62002218", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64070637", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-64062675", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64063387", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64063660", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64068810", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64071206", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64060437", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64063046", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63887570", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64063213", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64066584", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/64069729", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64054604", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63248418", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64070392", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64065895", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64059854", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-64051235", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/sports-personality/64045751", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64063588", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64050811", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-64055030", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63994648", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64061175", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64036615", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-64058100", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64062447", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64055018", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64057847", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64056549", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-64064799", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64053322", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63999140", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64052327", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64027186", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64069052", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64063665", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64033750", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-64066938", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64014901", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-64066820", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64066678", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-64063067", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64062548", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64067393", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64071724", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63963239", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-63757087", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63959182", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63973929", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63976593", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63961179", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63967010", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63939650", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63970290", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-63948562", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63936337", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63922196", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-63970351", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63972820", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63967318", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63966337", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-63911965", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-63971775", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63966778", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-63967778", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63966881", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63938628", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/business-63923932", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63975173", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63976589", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63975373", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63961595", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63952291", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63959512", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63972640", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63963835", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63882918", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63957020", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63974538", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63969020", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63968483", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-63920547", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-63957800", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63972362", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63950532", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63969712", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63954733", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63966798", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63908301", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63917328", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-63963436", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-63969126", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-63944861", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63961380", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63959109", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-63977885", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-63962664", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63973221", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63868610", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63967017", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63975286", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63970659", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63950962", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63972353", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63967227", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63968941", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63963051", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63971586", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63954268", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-63956268", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63974978", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63957254", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63931391", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63927386", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63918206", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63929487", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63927502", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/61666027", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63911363", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63905269", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63794012", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63925416", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63929130", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63920538", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63915304", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63921007", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-63926374", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63888290", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63928800", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63917667", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-63921941", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63911045", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63915330", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63917621", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63916638", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63843785", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63923234", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63925341", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/63927656", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63920920", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63885578", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63904607", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-63916194", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63927607", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63921383", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63922302", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63931761", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63926328", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63927939", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63928336", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63914635", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63925260", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63923484", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63921002", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63921529", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-63924684", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63927608", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-63922734", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63923927", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63876823", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63930916", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63931904", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63927507", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63846964", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63922657", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63924098", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63930469", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63924598", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/63930633", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63916812", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63921256", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63925477", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63843792", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18175986", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63927054", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63849268", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-63851710", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63853079", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63832696", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-63850913", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63828326", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/63846783", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63817183", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63771032", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63843056", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-63854699", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63838215", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63834675", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63847338", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63853904", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-63822096", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63845787", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63834755", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63803248", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63848998", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63854557", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63846935", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63834111", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-63846865", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63765129", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63847173", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63854309", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63853669", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63846154", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63852394", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63850653", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63852395", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63749378", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63781000", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63850875", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63851251", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63851751", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63849076", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-63853642", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63853235", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63848878", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63848226", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-63848589", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63849266", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63846964", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63854197", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63848257", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-63845680", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63844880", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63839738", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63850899", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63777438", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63850466", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63771033", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63849546", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63850615", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63847951", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63828321", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64090081", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64022710", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64094261", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64052740", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64094219", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64091843", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64090981", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64094088", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64093155", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64013606", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64097159", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64092250", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64099145", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64090038", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64083084", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64087775", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/64051893", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64092178", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-64094999", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64094223", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-64094801", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64089428", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64091433", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64094143", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64091560", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63857451", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64089455", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64091637", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64093696", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64062900", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64099387", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64095537", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64092254", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64091438", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-64095446", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63887570", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-64090474", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64098701", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-64040332", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64089661", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64041683", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64097063", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64092180", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64090171", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-64094995", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64097785", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64062640", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64090549", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64053758", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64097497", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64097382", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64096509", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-64074758", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64066163", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63603489", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63987624", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-64015289", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64013862", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64016599", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64000376", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64018448", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64013430", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64016527", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-64017204", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64010597", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-64001753", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64012800", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/64020566", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64016356", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64019570", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-64015596", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63973315", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/64021177", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-64007319", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-64018129", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64018300", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64018467", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64018290", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-64018735", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64016600", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63945064", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63999140", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63990580", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/55089900", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/64020570", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64021057", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64019067", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-64017542", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64011888", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63943512", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64013052", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64014920", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63885117", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64006315", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64010642", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64016748", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63932622", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64012167", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63954268", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64017665", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64016598", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64014901", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/64019609", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64017092", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64010677", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63926145", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63893666", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63902852", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-63908365", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63873445", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63895125", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63901698", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63895296", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63895297", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63904248", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63876934", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63895825", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63895505", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63895493", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63901482", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63888781", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-63887870", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63746844", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63889126", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63904952", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11036569", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63896059", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63867164", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-63901961", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59102136", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/63748369", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63897608", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63901142", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63896194", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63905272", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62176522", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63903676", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63905112", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63900099", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63307833", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-63883431", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63907568", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-63328168", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63904706", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63905113", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63807822", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63794296", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-61974313", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63897640", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63884435", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63894221", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63905399", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59291060", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57605214", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63895365", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/63906382", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63865194", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63889636", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63891100", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63899393", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63336928", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-63814069", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63899457", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63887960", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-63891657", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63886414", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63905505", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63743383", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63892381", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63890726", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63909559", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-63654942", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63906490", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63882290", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63904774", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63897387", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63907803", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-northern-ireland-politics-63886766", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63880069", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63899515", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63889700", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63899465", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63836496", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63858459", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63828326", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63817183", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63857329", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63854557", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-63859995", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63851922", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63854309", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63852394", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-63468280", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63852395", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63857739", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63858934", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63861339", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63777439", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63857451", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63851967", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63796570", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63867226", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63865890", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-63851896", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-63841976", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63835475", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63866949", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63749378", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-63858303", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-63863828", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63863138", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63862084", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63854197", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63800307", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63771033", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-63858962", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63707429", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63828321", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/63852484", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63853904", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63860028", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63857309", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63707429", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63703648", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63856464", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63857762", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63834777", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63850875", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63809715", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63851251", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63851965", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-63542095", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63867587", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63777438", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63850466", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63861642", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63856944", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/63854243", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-63854699", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63854700", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63853669", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63835914", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-63848589", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-63859797", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63866797", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63836639", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63864192", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64103150", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64102180", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64103759", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64093698", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64022710", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-64105505", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64103683", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64094088", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-64101304", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64097159", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-64099145", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64099388", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64100917", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-64106030", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64094143", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64102086", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64103969", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64101808", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64100914", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64093696", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64099387", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64100577", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-64098548", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64099642", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64101556", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64098701", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64099508", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64101437", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64005022", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64096509", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64100975", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64097063", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64097785", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64102062", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64102176", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64097497", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64097382", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64097104", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-63989057", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63933748", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63929487", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63910732", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63933132", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63843792", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63937345", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63938234", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63929130", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63937180", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63927708", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63921007", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63928800", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63907870", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63938958", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63934519", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63916729", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63937184", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63907649", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63937482", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63933501", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-63929211", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63933837", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63843785", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-63934474", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63928003", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63937966", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63908951", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/63938344", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-34541363", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63921383", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63932074", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63926328", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59838210", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63933571", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63917114", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63927710", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63921002", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63859184", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-63924684", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63930916", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63931904", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63938673", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63927507", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63937360", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63937739", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63917578", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63416465", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63935416", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63934847", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63910573", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63936840", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63936360", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63927054", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63988944", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-63983666", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63985539", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63976802", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-63757087", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-63988687", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63982801", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63973929", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63976593", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63963343", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63978323", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63970290", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-63983481", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63986827", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63983728", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63988540", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63983803", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-63970351", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63991359", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/business-63985437", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-63970360", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/63987543", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-63971038", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63984432", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-63979369", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63984311", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63987228", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63976589", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-63982839", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63908951", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63982819", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63983062", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63975270", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63983843", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-63981527", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-63992286", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63993385", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63972640", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63963835", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63970596", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63882918", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63962155", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63989845", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63982143", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63984056", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63979876", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63986755", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63970068", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63948011", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-63984887", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-63977885", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63973221", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63975286", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-61587084", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63972353", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63978047", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-63984753", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63968941", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63983600", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63994729", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63986523", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63992960", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63975671", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63983730", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-63908018", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64081268", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64074088", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64075088", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64076956", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64083144", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64053759", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64071724", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-64078593", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64077173", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-64075014", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64074768", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64069236", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-64063397", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64077668", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-64078112", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64065830", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64012800", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64070392", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64074797", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64065527", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64050826", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-64074455", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64072575", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64080863", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64072570", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-64082342", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64072022", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64042271", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64079793", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-64080837", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64069346", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64079476", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64025729", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64050811", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64052327", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52184395", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64069630", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64071207", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64076644", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64068921", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64076747", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64069052", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64063047", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64033750", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64076647", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-64075457", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-64066938", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64068810", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64075643", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64071206", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64073271", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64061588", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64066678", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-64050450", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63981450", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64062447", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64078143", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63816110", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-63676588", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63828326", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63828857", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63803689", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63817378", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63810284", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63814194", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63824268", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-61879823", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/63814319", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63778368", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63824394", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63829124", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-63805188", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63818847", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63810468", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63816454", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63814934", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63811484", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63821133", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-63811318", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63675819", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63812608", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63822189", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63828971", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-63823227", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63307833", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-63817164", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63808613", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63821067", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63777041", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63809720", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63797700", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63814130", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63800948", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63824727", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63826082", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63825130", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63818778", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63825611", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63826052", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63739245", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63819322", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-63830015", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-63812407", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63821836", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63819482", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63820159", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63817165", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63805851", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63805284", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-63820428", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63818942", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63808516", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63818842", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-63820126", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63807748", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-60692922", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63819000", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63336928", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63815461", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-63823214", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63808775", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63739248", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63743383", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-63825295", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63809620", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63817522", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56014732", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63827648", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-63824716", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63819582", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63811994", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63807159", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-63799638", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63829053", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-63793572", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63725317", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63908240", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63893666", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-63921941", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63860864", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63914891", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63904248", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63912186", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63911176", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63916328", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63920920", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-63916194", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63922302", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-63915650", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63914682", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-63922734", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63911473", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63911944", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63916101", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63901336", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11036569", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63913966", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63921007", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63830320", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63917667", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63911045", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63916733", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63915477", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63896194", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63905272", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63923234", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63290169", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63830319", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-63917713", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63905112", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63903488", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63923484", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63916032", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63891697", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63911753", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63913696", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63904706", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63905113", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63915301", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63924098", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63807822", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-63914344", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63888290", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63794296", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63911557", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63894221", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63916838", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63903853", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63915851", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63923098", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63908284", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63909309", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63913985", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63865194", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-63904655", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63843792", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63890246", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63912502", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63923288", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63914275", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63895762", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-63891657", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63905505", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-63246005", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37751599", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63912743", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63882290", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63904774", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63922657", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63912668", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63907803", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63880069", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63916812", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63899515", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63924598", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63899465", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63603489", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64019324", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-64025852", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64016599", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64018448", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64016527", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64024023", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56004916", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64024827", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64013448", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64029690", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64012628", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64030975", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63885117", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/64006557", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64016748", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-64004037", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-64018123", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64025074", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64017092", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64024884", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64023987", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63987512", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63987624", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-63994477", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64023996", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63977668", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64031059", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64018567", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64018300", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64018467", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64024306", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-64024647", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64031252", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-64018735", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63945064", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64025754", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-64019785", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64019067", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64006417", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-64007371", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/64025771", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64033838", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64017665", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-64029162", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-64024148", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64024992", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63991453", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64003232", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-64033817", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/sports-personality/64027088", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-62834946", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-64017542", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63932622", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64024082", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64026863", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64034559", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64029133", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64029555", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64023249", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64018290", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64019545", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63999140", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64027190", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64025830", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64018562", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64019806", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64027186", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64021057", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64032088", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64029040", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64029430", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-your-money-64021415", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63058439", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63858459", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63876993", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-63859995", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-63861734", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-63875864", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63868158", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63870200", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63872789", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63861339", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63864786", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63871270", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63863022", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63789753", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63851967", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63882140", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63871448", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63796570", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63877657", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63867226", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63865890", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-63879596", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63879887", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63866949", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63872467", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-63871733", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-57776429", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63871368", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63868991", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63863138", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-63878201", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63871766", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63798633", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63800307", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63864249", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63869013", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62610729", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-63869077", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63860028", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63874112", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63870910", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63703648", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63857762", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63789751", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63877551", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63871863", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63880999", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-63878701", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63877583", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/63746930", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63777438", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63867587", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63869078", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63861642", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63856944", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/63801857", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63868992", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63834016", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63868475", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63871046", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63871286", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-63860132", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63880969", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63860764", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63873505", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63837131", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63799670", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63878115", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63866797", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63864192", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64083507", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64081268", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64085597", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64081762", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64083144", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64053759", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-64078593", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64080993", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64077173", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64052465", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64006536", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64085604", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64031342", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64083515", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64077668", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64045497", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64085480", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64074797", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64080863", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-64082342", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64085216", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63627177", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-64085466", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64084709", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64079793", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-64088063", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-64080837", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-64086021", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64088046", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64083129", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64050811", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63892691", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64086257", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64086680", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64083802", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-64086918", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64077191", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64069630", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64068921", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-64086198", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64087315", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64076647", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-us-canada-64075457", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64086998", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64086682", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64085170", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64075643", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64083562", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64032220", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-64074758", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64083084", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63941122", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63933132", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63950210", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63937345", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63946772", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63938234", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63940492", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63947647", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63938958", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63939426", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63946843", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63916729", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63939396", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63937482", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63947946", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63940636", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63933837", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63942582", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63942172", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63941509", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63950032", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63937966", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63943766", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-63943464", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63939428", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/63938344", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63939132", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63943475", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-63941232", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63891327", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63949576", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-63941512", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63944005", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63937640", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63938566", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63926328", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63917114", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-63943662", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63952291", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63947938", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-63943292", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63938698", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63938673", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63943162", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63947246", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63917575", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63940390", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63916810", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63935416", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63951354", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63941050", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63944082", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63945810", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63936840", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63994800", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64001358", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63988944", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-northern-ireland-64002346", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-63988687", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63982801", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63993575", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63963343", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63993178", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63998585", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63997749", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64000428", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64006121", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63990091", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64006885", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64000314", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-63996035", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-63971038", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64004778", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-63992773", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-63995469", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63998821", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63999452", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64007299", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-63999536", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-63982839", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63983062", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64005705", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64006315", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63995931", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63997158", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-63992286", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63993385", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-64007265", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63999676", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63989845", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63996952", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64007526", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64000274", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63996061", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63987153", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-64001276", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63984056", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63961659", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63979876", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63942962", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-63948011", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63998488", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64002094", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63998198", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63993240", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-63998267", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63978047", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64005819", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-64001876", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64002174", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63996981", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64000396", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64006185", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64002936", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63995244", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63996982", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63873505", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63994729", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64003276", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63992960", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64000910", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64006161", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64005274", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63983730", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63990487", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64035534", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64030253", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63985539", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63867784", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64037376", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-64039563", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56004916", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64026683", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64036529", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64038352", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64030975", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64046462", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/64006557", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64006377", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59225062", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64037994", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64027344", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64031563", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64047058", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-64024306", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64043030", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64038140", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64033838", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64044204", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64042796", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-64029162", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-63858962", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59260354", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64032916", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64036207", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64034720", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-64041860", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-64042718", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64041770", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-64033817", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64042600", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64039480", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64037292", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64026344", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64036259", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/sports-personality/64027088", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64043540", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64036892", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64036465", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63993415", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64041140", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64045049", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-64040265", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-64037345", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64034559", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-64045497", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64029555", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-64038626", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64025830", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64027186", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64032458", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64019806", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64028132", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-63946248", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64029040", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64038944", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/sports-personality/63887059", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64029430", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/health-64027867", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63828326", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63817183", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63828857", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63833573", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63835091", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63838215", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63829153", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63825127", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63837306", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63819818", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63832753", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63824394", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63829124", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63840412", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63837585", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63580372", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-63748223", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63833495", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63825310", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63786591", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-63832431", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63840635", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63344752", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63829138", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63828971", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-63830021", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63832705", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63822712", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63808613", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63832775", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63835779", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-63834515", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63824727", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63752145", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63826082", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-63828321", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63837761", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63824422", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63825130", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63822720", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63832151", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63834117", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63837781", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63829976", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63808657", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63829127", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-63830015", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63819482", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-63828092", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-63834369", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-63795038", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/63831931", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-63826675", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63204343", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63835595", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-63838932", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63829973", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-63829213", "https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63756549", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63829125", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63838213", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63739248", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-63837309", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-63798222", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63765128", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-63783327", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-63827648", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-63829186", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-63840591", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63833715", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63838350", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/63752146", "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63780536"]}