Published
2 minutes ago

Thousands of people are gearing up to take part in this year's Great North Run.

About 60,000 runners have signed up to the half marathon which starts in Newcastle, external, heads through Gateshead, South Tyneside and finishes in South Shields.

Olympic silver medallist Kieran Reilly will be the honorary starter for the 43rd event.

Light rain showers and winds have been forecast with temperatures expected to hit 16C, with the main race set to start at 10:55 BST.

Drivers have been warned to plan their journeys home ahead as there will be a number of road closures in place, including a section of the key cross-country M62.

The first race, the elite wheelchair race, is due to start at 10:30 BST.

Over on South Shields beach, artist Claire Eason and the Soul 2 Sand team etched and raked a good luck message in sand to the runners.

"Just keep cannin', howay the lads and lasses!", it read.

Entrepreneur Lines Behind, who collaborated on the project, offered a "gentle and Geordie reminder to enjoy every minute".

North East mayor Kim McGuinness said it would a "privilege" to be on the start line, external.

She described it as the "best of our great North East".

Among those running will be Chris Johnson, from Sunderland, who has raised more than £40,000 for a children's charity since being diagnosed with incurable cancer.

Mr Johnson said the event would be his last race.

"I can't really run anymore, but I'll just get round somehow and I'll know I'll get plenty of support," he added.

Debbie Bowling-Mowatt was challenged to take on the Great North Run by her late wife, Lindsay, who was a firefighter.

Ms Bowling-Mowatt and a team, including her father's former colleagues from the fire service, will be fundraising for The Brain Tumour Charity.

She said: "It's coming up to nearly a year since Lindsay passed, this just means the absolute world to me and everybody else that's doing it - I just want to get over that finish line."

Roads including the A167(M), Newcastle Central Motorway A167(M), the A167 and the A194 will shut on Sunday.

A section of the M62 in Greater Manchester has also been shut until 06:00 BST on Monday to carry out infrastructure works which may affect heading back to the North West.

AA spokesman Tony Rich said: "Runners heading from the North West to the Great North Run are advised to familiarise themselves with the diversion route, in addition to their running route, to avoid heavy traffic scuppering a personal best."

You can find the full list of road closures here, external.

Coverage begins from 06:00 BST on BBC Radio Newcastle and from 10:00 BST on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

Follow BBC North East on X, external, Facebook, external, Nextdoor, external and Instagram, external. Send your story ideas to northeastandcumbria@bbc.co.uk.

Published
2 minutes ago

The return of BBC series Sherwood has once again had viewers gripped.

The hard-hitting, gritty drama focuses on gun crime and gangs in post-industrial Nottingham.

But some viewers have taken to social media to debate the credibility of its opening plotlines.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from episodes of the second series

Sherwood is written by the award-winning Nottinghamshire playwright, James Graham.

It opens with a disclaimer. The drama is "inspired by stories and events" in the author's community, but "all characters and events have been fictionalised".

I have been covering those real-life crime stories for the BBC in Nottingham for more than two decades.

Much of the latest series of Sherwood feels strikingly familiar.

Some plotlines echo headlines from the early 2000s when the tabloids branded Nottingham as "Shottingham" and "Assassination City".

Gun crime spiralled out of control amid murders, revenge and police corruption.

So how closely does the fictional plot of Sherwood reflect those real-life characters and crimes?

Oliver Huntingdon plays a volatile new character, Ryan Bottomley, who sparks a cycle of revenge by shooting and killing the son of a notorious criminal.

Ryan's character mirrors Michael O'Brien, who was jailed for the fatal shooting of Marvyn Bradshaw outside the Sporting Chance pub in Bulwell, Nottingham, in August 2003.

O'Brien's intended target was believed to have been Marvyn's teenage friend, Jamie Gunn, who was in the same car.

Jamie was the nephew of a notorious Nottingham crime boss called Colin Gunn, and died of pneumonia a year later after going into a spiral of decline.

As O'Brien was sentenced in 2004, he shouted abuse at Marvyn's family who were sitting in the public gallery. The fictional Ryan in Sherwood did the same thing.

Ryan's adopted mother, Pam Bottomley, and her brother, Dennis, are played by Sharlene Whyte and David Harewood.

The fictional Bottomleys' story in Sherwood closely mirrors what happened to Michael O'Brien's innocent mother and stepfather, Joan and John Stirland, two decades ago.

The Stirlands fled their home in Nottingham after shots were fired through their front window.

Then in August 2004, the couple were shot dead by two hitmen in their seaside bungalow at Trusthorpe on the Lincolnshire coast.

They were traced to Trusthorpe by Colin Gunn, one of three men who were jailed for life for conspiracy to murder the Stirlands. The two gunmen were never caught.

In Sherwood, Pam Bottomley tries to raise concerns with her police contact shortly before the couple's murder. That call is intercepted by an officer who lies to her and does not pass on those concerns.

Could that fictional officer be inspired by a corrupt detective who fed intelligence to Colin Gunn and was paid in designer suits?

Det Con Charles Fletcher searched for confidential information about Gunn only two days before the Stirlands were shot dead in Trusthorpe.

He had also searched for intelligence about the Stirlands' previous address in Nottingham after shots were fired through their window.

The former detective was jailed for seven years after being caught by internal investigators who bugged him at a Nottingham police station.

Lorraine Ashbourne returns to Sherwood as Daphne Sparrow, the matriarch of a crime family who had been an undercover police officer during the miners' strike.

Nottinghamshire's notorious real-life "spycop" had a very different cover story.

Mark Kennedy was a married Metropolitan Police officer who spent seven years posing as an environmental activist.

Kennedy infiltrated Nottingham's Sumac Centre, and formed intimate relationships with several women under his alias, Mark Stone.

He was unmasked in 2010 after a trial collapsed, when it emerged that Kennedy was part of a group accused of plotting to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire.

That prompted similar revelations about other officers, which led to a major public inquiry into undercover policing.

David Morrisey's character, Ian St Clair, has left his job as a senior police officer and now heads up Sherwood's fictional "Violence Intervention Team".

His storyline reflects the careers of several real-life former police officers after they left the Nottinghamshire force.

David Wakelin went on to head the local Violence Reduction Unit, which supported vulnerable young people to deter them from serious crime.

Another former Nottinghamshire police officer, Gary Godden, is now the local police and crime commissioner.

Mr Godden recently told the BBC that good policing is not just about enforcement. The fictional Ian St Clair used an almost-identical line in Sherwood.

If you've been watching Sherwood, you'll know there are clear differences between those real events and the storyline that it inspired.

The fictional plot and characters have taken this drama to a very different place.

But it is shining a light on why Nottingham went through such dark times all those years ago.

And it raises a simple question: Is truth stranger than fiction?

The final episodes of Sherwood are on BBC One at 21:00 on 8-9 September and then available on the BBC iPlayer

Follow BBC Nottingham on Facebook, external, on X, external, or on Instagram, external. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk, external or via WhatsApp, external on 0808 100 2210.

Published
8 minutes ago

We asked our readers to send in their best pictures on the theme of "still life". Here is a selection of the photographs we received from around the world.

The next theme is "railways" and the deadline for entries is 17 September 2024.

The pictures will be published later that week and you will be able to find them, along with other galleries, on the In Pictures section of the BBC News website.

You can upload your entries directly here or email them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk.

Terms and conditions apply.

Further details and themes are at: We set the theme, you take the pictures.

All photographs subject to copyright.

Published
10 minutes ago

"When we first started in the music industry, it was pretty much a boys' club," says Hannah Richardson, Cherym's lead singer and guitarist.

"We were like, why can't girls do it? There's no reason why we can't."

Hannah makes up the Londonderry punk trio with Allanagh Doherty and Emer McLaughlin and says the industry - particularly the alternative music scene - is still not where it needs to be when it comes to equality and diversity.

That was thrown into focus when earlier this week, Slam Dunk festival revealed part of its 2025 line-up, featuring only two acts that included women.

"I'm so sick of seeing of seeing line-ups that are predominantly cis, straight, white men all the time," Hannah tells BBC Newsbeat.

"Because it's not just women that are overlooked. It's black people, it's trans people, it's marginalised people in general."

The band's drummer and singer Allanagh adds that women are so overlooked in the industry, they're often mistaken for other bands' girlfriends when they show up to gigs.

"We have to constantly prove ourselves and prove that we're worthy of what we're doing," she says.

Slam Dunk revealed its first line-up announcement on Wednesday for its festivals in Leeds and Hatfield, featuring bands including The Used, A Day To Remember and Neck Deep.

Of the 20 featured acts, only two - Delilah Bon and Dream State - included female musicians, sparking a disappointed reaction from fans.

"It's giving, 'for a dollar, name a woman'," Allanagh says.

Slam Dunk is one of the UK's biggest independent rock festivals and its spokesperson declined to say anything about the line-up announcement when approached by Newsbeat.

They said it wouldn't be appropriate or proportionate to comment when about half of its acts were yet to be confirmed.

But Allanagh thinks the backlash against the line-up poster is "justified".

"It's like putting out a trailer for a film," she says.

"It's the first look and the look is 99% male."

Research by the BBC in 2017 found that 80% of festival headliners were male and dozens of festivals went on to pledge to achieve a 50/50 gender split by 2022.

But by the time 2022 arrived, Newsbeat discovered that only one in 10 headliners at the UK's top music festivals were women that summer.

In 2018, campaign group Keychange presented a manifesto to the European Parliament calling for more to be done to improve representation in the industry.

This year, it released a second manifesto , externalrenewing that call, along with other measures to make the music industry more equitable.

Slam Dunk's 2024 line-up poster featured five acts that included women out of the 27 that were advertised - about 20% - while in 2023, it was five out of 22, or 23%.

Meanwhile Download, which is a bigger rock festival spread across three days, filled 32 of its 111 slots - just under 30% - with acts featuring women and non-binary artists this summer.

Seeing the lack of representation is "literally why we started," says Megan Fretwell from Panic Shack, an alternative girl group from Cardiff who blew up on TikTok for their viral track The Ick.

"Women aren't even encouraged to try," she says. "We've had to build our confidence over time.

"[Festivals] might argue that there's not as many girls or women on the scene.

"But look a little harder."

Megan says fans might also think there aren't enough "headline worthy" female acts but says she'd urge them to "question why that might be".

"Women need to be given these opportunities to boost our profiles," she says.

"Where can we start to build up that ladder to headliner status? It's hard, and we've been grafting at this for years now."

She says the band's inspired by other female acts including Spice Girls and Girls Aloud but they're "few and far between" in the alternative scene - something they want to change.

"If a teenage girl watches us and feels in any way inspired to pick up a guitar then our job is done," says Megan.

Hanni Pidduck and Clara Townsend make up two halves of Brighton duo ARXX and describe their sound as "like Taylor Swift if she only ever listened to Nirvana".

Hanni tells Newsbeat when they saw the Slam Dunk line-up they weren't surprised - "sadly".

"You can be outraged but it's still not surprising. It's really upsetting that we're still at that point."

The singer and guitarist, who identifies as non-binary, says representation is simply "not there".

"The feeling and the general experience right now is that opportunities are afforded much more for a certain demographic," they say.

"And because of that, they're then taken away from women and other marginalised communities."

For that to change, Hanni says diversity needs to be seen as an opportunity and not "a problem".

"You need someone to actively say, 'This year's going to be different'," they say.

"And part of the problem is no one's deciding that."

Slam Dunk would have been "naive" not to expect some backlash to the line-up announcement, Hanni says, and even though more acts are yet to be revealed, they agree with Allanagh that it doesn't set the best tone for what to expect.

"If you're embracing the idea that representation is a positive thing, then I think you would understand that that needs to come from day one," they say.

Cherym, Panic Shack and ARXX all agree the alternative scene can be a "boys' club".

In other genres though, 2024 has been punctuated by women breaking records, from Taylor Swift's Eras tour, to Sabrina Carpenter's chart domination and Glastonbury having two female headliners for the first time.

Megan says outside of those genres, there's an element of "gatekeeping" from women and Hannah says there can be an expectation of the kinds of music they should make.

"There was an assumption that we made a particular type of music because we're women," she says of when Cherym first started performing.

"It's about breaking down those stigmas and taking people for what they are."

Hanni says they had a similar experience, starting in music by playing "folksy, country music".

"I don't think that's the music I was wanting to make," they say.

"I think it's the music I thought I had to make."

And they say it's only through better representation that aspiring artists have the opportunity to "embrace all the other possibilities".

"It can't be stressed how important representation is," they say.

"You learn what's possible from what you see."

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

Published
13 minutes ago

Pope Francis, who has often appeared to revel in confounding and surprising others, is at it again.

Many times over the years, he has seemed to suggest he is slowing down, only to ramp up his activities again.

At nearly 88 years old, he has a knee ailment that impairs mobility, abdominal problems caused by diverticulitis and is vulnerable to respiratory issues owing to the removal of most of one of his lungs.

Last autumn, the Pope said his health problems meant that foreign travel had become difficult. Soon after, when he cancelled a trip to the UAE, it led to heightened speculation about the extent of his medical difficulties.

But that was then.

Now, he is in the middle of the longest foreign visit of his 11-and-a-half year papacy. It has been one packed with engagements, and as well as Timor-Leste it involves three countries – Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore – in which Catholics are a minority.

So why is the Pope travelling so extensively and so far from home?

His supporters say his passion drives him.

“He obviously has an enormous amount of stamina and that is driven by his absolute passion for mission,” says Father Anthony Chantry, the UK director of the Pope’s mission charity Missio, who has just been appointed to the Vatican administration’s evangelisation department.

“He talks about all of us having a tireless mission to reach out to others, to set an example.”

Christian “mission” is something that has evolved over the centuries. It is still about spreading the gospel but now the stated aim is focused on social justice and charitable endeavours.

Throughout his trip Pope Francis will meet missionaries, including a group from Argentina now based in Papua New Guinea. But on numerous trips around Asia including this one, he also skirts close to China, a country with deep suspicions about the Church, its mission and its motives.

The Pope has frequently emphasised the importance of evangelisation for every Catholic. Yet in many parts of the world, it is still hard to separate ideas of “missionaries” and “evangelisation” from notions of European colonisation.

As the number of Catholics in Europe declines, is “mission” and “evangelising” in Asia and Africa now about Church expansion in those parts of the world?

“I think what he is preaching is the Gospel of love that will do no one any harm. He's not trying to drum up support for the Church, that's not what evangelisation is about,” says Father Anthony.

“It isn't to be equated with proselytising, that is not what we have done for a long time. That is not the agenda of the Holy Father and not the agenda of the Church. What we do is we share and we help people in any way we can, regardless of their faith or not having any faith.”

Father Anthony says being a Christian missionary in the modern day, for which Pope Francis is setting an example, is about doing good work and listening, but sometimes, “where necessary”, also challenging ideas.

“We believe God will do the rest, and if that leads to people accepting Jesus Christ, that's great. And if it helps people to appreciate their own spirituality – their own culture – more, then I think that is another success.”

Certainly the Pope has long talked of interfaith harmony and respect for other faiths. One of the most enduring images of his current trip will be his kissing the hand of the Grand Imam of the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta and holding it to his cheek.

He was warmly welcomed by people coming out to see him in the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world.

Pope and top Indonesian imam make joint call for peace

Pope Francis will end his marathon trip in Singapore, a country where around three-quarters of the population is ethnic Chinese, but also where the Catholic minority is heavily involved in missionary work in poorer areas.

For centuries now, Singapore has been something of a strategic regional hub for the Catholic Church, and what Pope Francis says and does there is likely to be closely watched in China, not least by the Catholics living there. It is hard to get a true picture of numbers, but estimates suggest around 12 million.

The lack of clarity over numbers is partly because China’s Catholics have been split between the official Catholic Church in China and an underground church loyal to the Vatican that evolved under communism.

In trying to unite the two groups, Pope Francis has been accused of appeasing Beijing and letting down Catholics in the underground movement who had not accepted the Chinese government’s interference, and who face the continued threat of persecution.

Deals struck between the Vatican and Beijing in recent years appear to have left a situation where the Chinese government appoints Catholic bishops, and the Pope gives in and recognises them. China says it’s a matter of sovereignty, while Pope Francis insists he has the final say – though that is not the way it has looked.

“He won't be pleasing everyone all the time, but I think what the Holy Father really wants to indicate is that the Church is not a threat to the state,” says Father Anthony Chantry. “He is treading a very careful path and it's fraught with difficulties, but I think what he's trying to do is just to build up a respectful relationship with the government in China.”

Rightly or wrongly, it is all in the name of bringing more people into the fold. Some of Pope Francis’ predecessors have been more uncompromising in many ways, seeming to be more accepting of a smaller, “purer” global Catholic community, rather than make concessions in either foreign relations or in the way the Church views, for example, divorce or homosexuality.

While some popes have also clearly been more comfortable in study and theology than travel and being surrounded by huge crowds, some have leaned into the politics of their position.

It is very clear when travelling with Pope Francis that while he can often look tired and subdued during diplomatic events, he is quickly rejuvenated by the masses who come out to see him, and energised by the non-dignitaries he meets, particularly young people.

This is certainly not a pope who shuns the limelight – it is being among people, some would say mission, that appears to be his lifeblood.

Father Anthony Chantry says this latest, longest papal trip is just a continued display of how the Pope feels the Church should engage with both Catholics and non-Catholics.

“The whole thrust is that we have got to reach out to others. We have to make everyone feel welcome. I think he (Pope Francis) does that really well, but I don't think he's trying to score any points there, it's just him.”

There is very little the Pope has done since his election in 2013 that has not rankled Catholic traditionalists, who often feel that his spirit of outreach is taken too far. His actions on this trip are unlikely to change that.

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Published
32 minutes ago

Terry Wiggins, a chef who leads the catering team at Westminster's Portcullis House, is retiring this month after 50 years. He reckons he has served 13 prime ministers in that time and is still dreaming up new recipes.

“Can I have more pork please?”

Terry bellows in the direction of the kitchen.

Under the heat lamps of the serving counter his team of chefs are busy carving a chunk of crispy pork belly, plating haddock fishcakes and replenishing huge bowls of new potatoes and roasted carrots.

A long line of parliamentary staff, MPs, a few police officers, political journalists and visitors are all waiting with their trays.

We’re in the Debate canteen in Portcullis House, the relatively new building beside the River Thames where many MPs have their offices.

It’s just across the road from the Palace of Westminster. There are many places on the Parliamentary estate to eat but this is always one of the busiest.

“It’s a hub, a meeting place. Everybody eats together, MPs queue up with the general staff... they all stand together and chat,” sous chef Terry tells me proudly as we talk beside a vat of soup.

After 50 years spent feeding our politicians, he is retiring this month.

Today he has swapped his chef's whites for a floral shirt and a green tweed blazer.

He’s just back from meeting the Speaker of the Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and is mid-way through a celebratory lunch with his wife.

Terry started working in the House of Commons in September 1974. Harold Wilson had been elected prime minister, Brian Clough had been dismissed as the manager of Leeds United and Kung Fu Fighting was topping the charts.

He was just 16 when his school’s careers office suggested he apply for a catering job in Parliament.

“I’d done home economics at school and I cooked with my mum. I thought it was a great opportunity."

He remembers being very shy as he went to work with the “older gentlemen”.

“Now it has come full circle and I am one of the older gentlemen.”

David Cameron once asked for the recipe of Parliament's famous (it had its own social media account) jerk chicken.

John Major used to send his staff over from Downing Street to pick up one of his curries.

He remembers Margaret Thatcher as “a lovely lady” and Sir Keir Starmer as a busy “grab and go” man.

It’s not just politicians. Terry also counts Frank Bruno, Brian May, Rick Wakeman and Gary Lineker among his customers.

Over the years politicians have changed and so have their palates.

House of Commons catering services began in 1773 when the deputy housekeeper, John Bellamy, was asked by MPs to set up a dining room.

Famous at the time for its veal pie, tastes hadn’t evolved much by the time Terry arrived in 1974.

There was a lot of what he calls “school food” – dishes such as spotted dick.

Classical French dishes were popular and there was an experiment of offering “nouveau cuisine”. That didn’t last very long, says Terry.

There was also plenty of beef tongue and halibut.

He remembers two politicians who would eat together and regularly put in the same order: "Two working man's portions of your beef and two pewter mugs of your finest ales."

"They reminded me of Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets."

These days he says MPs tend to be healthier but also have more cosmopolitan tastes.

“People go on international holidays,” he says and like dishes that replicate what they ate when abroad.

Jambalaya, jollof and pho are all popular.

Terry says he researches his own recipes but also gets help from members of staff who come from places like the Caribbean or Vietnam.

“They know the little tricks that make that dish memorable.”

Food tastes have changed and so has Parliament.

Back in 1974, Terry says Parliament was “Hogwarts and Eton all joined into one".

“That was a great time but that was that time. Now we have moved forward.

In particular, he welcomes the change to hours, which has reduced the number of late night sittings.

“When I first started we were here until two in the morning, three or four days a week.”

“Female members have helped to change that – that’s for the good. MPs should have a work-life balance.”

He says people often have the wrong idea about MPs.

“People think they’ve got two heads and talk funny but they are just the general public who we have voted in.

“It is very sad that society puts them under the amount of pressure that they do.

“They are just really good people.”

Parliament has been his workplace for 50 years. It is also the place where he met his wife, Christine.

He was serving cold cuts of meat at the buffet. She worked in one of the members’ dining rooms.

One day, by the hot plates, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him.

Thirty-seven years later, they are still together.

Terry admits he feels “a little bit nervous” about his impending retirement.

“I had structure in my life for 50 years – maybe there is hardship in getting up at five in the dark and going home in the dark.

“But it is a fantastic job, like working in a museum.

“Everyday is busy or an adventure."

Listen to Ben Wright's interview with Terry Wiggins on BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour at 2200 GMT on Sunday

Published
25 minutes ago

“If the old parties had done their jobs properly then the AfD would not exist,” Ingolf complains, echoing a common sense that the rest of Germany looks down on so-called “Ossis” in the east.

Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) have already won the most votes in regional elections this month in the eastern state of Thuringia. Now Germany’s bracing for a further political shockwave, as polls suggest the AfD could also take the most votes in Brandenburg state's election in a few weeks time.

Tucked away near the Polish border, in the two tiny villages of Jämlitz and Klein Düben, support for the far right has soared.

A former conservative (CDU) voter, Ingolf is frustrated about how successive governments have handled education, saying standards were better when he was a boy growing up in the communist German Democratic Republic.

He voices anxiety about Germany’s flatlining economy as well as immigration, comparing the far-right riots in England this summer to “civil war-like conditions”.

Disorder that, while nothing like a civil war, has stoked narratives about the potential for violent clashes within multicultural communities.

“That’s not what we want here in Germany,” he says.

In Jämlitz, most notable for a large goose farm, the idea of civil strife couldn’t feel further away.

Nor could the war raging in Ukraine. But the AfD’s call to stop sending weapons to Kyiv is also resonating strongly.

“The money for Ukraine is an issue,” says Yvonne, who sees all war as “senseless” as we chat to her just down the road.

“And this is our tax money that is sent abroad. We have enough things to fix in our own country.”

However, Yvonne is leaning towards another anti-establishment party launched only this year that also opposes supplying arms to Ukraine and which is a surging force in German politics: the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).

Ms Wagenknecht’s personal brand of “left-wing conservatism” has already propelled her party this month into the potential role of kingmaker in Saxony and Thuringia.

However, for her critics, she has simply fashioned another unwelcome populist, pro-Putin movement that’s actively undermining central pillars of German foreign policy.

I challenge Yvonne about the idea of ending arms supplies to Ukraine, which could help Russia win a war it began, by invading its neighbour.

“I can understand both sides,” she says after a little hesitation.

This is the part of Germany where the older generation, from the GDR years, grew up learning Russian language and culture.

It’s also a country, scarred by two World Wars, that retains a strong pacifist streak fed by fears the existing conflict could escalate.

“Poland is not big,” Yvonne says, as she points out the Polish border is only a few miles away. “And we are then the first ones to go when the tanks come across.”

In these two villages, that have a population of under 500 people, 57.5% of voters backed the far-right party in a recent local council election, external, the largest proportion in Brandenburg.

Across the wider district, that number was 43.7%, also unusually high.

It comes ahead of a larger, state-parliament level vote on 22 September, where the AfD is leading the polls – after they already won the most votes in Thuringia and came a close second in Saxony on 1 September.

In Thuringia, the AfD attracted 36% of the under-30s vote, say election researchers.

Their relative strength in the east is despite the fact the party is viewed by many – and officially classed in three states – as right-wing extremist, a charge its supporters avidly reject.

Not far away, I visit one of the beautiful lakes that have been transformed from their original purpose as open cast coal mines.

As I wander around asking people if they want to talk about German politics, most, perhaps unsurprisingly, are not all that tempted.

A woman called Katrin does agree to speak, although she doesn’t want her picture taken.

Ushering us away from a small crowd sunbathing on the grass and a little beach, she lights a cigarette and is watchful as we wait to hear what she has to say.

It feels like it’s going to be really controversial.

She doesn’t like the AfD – something that can feel like a rogue opinion around here.

“Half the people here didn’t vote for the AfD,” she reminds us, adding she is “devastated” by local levels of support for a far-right party.

But why are they so popular, I ask?

“That’s a good question,” says Katrin. “That’s what I ask myself all the time.”

“There is an old saying,” she recalls. “If a donkey is too comfortable it goes on black ice.”

Katrin is saying that she believes life, actually, is relatively good for people in the community, leading to a misguided “grass-is-greener” syndrome - whether that’s with an eye on the past or present.

Average wage levels and household wealth are lower in the east when compared to the west, although inequalities have narrowed through the years.

Overall, Katrin doesn’t understand it. “I’m still thinking myself, why, why, why?”

You get the feeling that mainstream parties, including those in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government, are similarly unable to quite comprehend, or respond, to the success of either the AfD or BSW, parties polling nationally at about 18% and 8% respectively.

The traditional parties of power are casting a nervous eye to the east and the Germany’s reputation for relatively calm, consensus politics is under strain.

Published
58 minutes ago

Post Office campaigner Sir Alan Bates has married his long-term partner on Sir Richard Branson's private island in the Caribbean.

The 70-year-old tied the knot with Suzanne Sercombe on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands last month, the Sunday Times reported, external.

The pair have been together for 34 years but had never married.

Sir Alan was thrust into the limelight after an ITV drama highlighted how he led a campaign on behalf of sub-postmasters wrongly prosecuted for stealing.

The Times reported the wedding was a surprise to the new Lady Bates, 69, who wore a sun dress she packed for the holiday.

“It just seemed a good idea being on Necker and it being a wonderful place," Mr Bates told the paper.

Sir Richard reportedly invited the couple to the island after Sir Alan said in a January interview with the Times, external: "If Richard Branson is reading this, I’d love a holiday.”

The Virgin tycoon, who officiated the ceremony and made a speech, told the Sunday Times: “It was an absolute joy to play a small part in Alan and Suzanne’s love story, and I know they will continue to spread the beautiful light they share with everyone around them.”

Necker Island is one of the most exclusive holiday destinations in the world, and has welcomed guests including Princess Diana, Nelson Mandela, the Obamas and Harry Styles

Sir Alan and Suzanne had poured their life savings into their post office business, but he was sacked in 2003 after the faulty computer system showed money was appearing to go missing.

He was knighted this year in the King's Birthday honours for his over 20-year campaign for justice.

In July he was also awarded a honorary law doctorate by Bangor University.

More than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted by the Post Office and given criminal convictions between 1999 and 2015, as Fujitsu’s faulty Horizon IT system made it appear as though money was missing at their branches.

The Post Office Inquiry will resume on 23 September.

Published
37 minutes ago

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find disturbing

Outside the house where Rebecca Cheptegei lived, flowers have been placed on grass that was charred as the runner rolled on the ground to try to put out flames engulfing her.

The 33-year-old Olympic runner died on Thursday from injuries sustained when her former partner allegedly doused her with petrol and set her ablaze days earlier while at home with her two daughters.

“I was in the house and heard people screaming, 'fire'. When I came out, I saw Rebecca running towards my house on fire, shouting 'help me," Agnes Barabara, Ms Cheptegei’s immediate neighbour, tearfully told the BBC.

“As I went to look for water and started calling out for help, her assailant appeared again and doused more petrol on her, but then he too got burned and he ran off towards the garden to try to put it out. We then went to help Rebecca.”

“I have never seen anyone burn alive in my life. I didn’t eat for days after that incident.”

“She was a very good neighbour and just recently she shared with me maize she’d harvested.”

Police are treating the death as a murder, with her ex-partner named by police as the main suspect. Local administrators said the two had been in conflict about the small piece of land where Ms Cheptegei lived, with the case awaiting resolution.

He will be arraigned in court on charges once he is out of hospital, where he continues to recover from injuries he sustained during the incident.

“We have opened a file, investigations are at an advanced stage,” divisional criminal investigations officer Kennedy Apindi told the BBC.

Ms Cheptegei's mother Agnes said her daughter "was always obedient as a child, and very kind and jovial all through her life".

Emmanual Kimutai, a friend and neighbour who attended school with Ms Cheptegei, described her as a "very exciting" and "determined" person.

“Even in primary school she was already doing very well in athletics, she was our champion," Mr Kimutai said.

The Olympian was born on the Kenyan side of the Kenya-Uganda border, but chose to cross over and represent Uganda to chase her athletics dream when she did not get a breakthrough in Kenya.

When she started getting into athletics, she joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces in 2008 and had risen to sergeant rank. Her career included competing in the Olympics in Paris this year. Although she placed 44th in the marathon, people in her home area called her "champion".

She lived in Chepkum, a village in Kenya about 25km (15 miles) from the border with Uganda, in a rural area whose main economic activity is farming. Residents also tend to cattle and it is common to see cows, goats, and sheep grazing outside homes. The wider area, called Trans-Nzoia county, is well known as Kenya’s biggest producer of maize, which is the main ingredient for the country’s staple food.

Locals at a shopping centre near her house spoke fondly about a woman they sometimes waved at as she trained along the road whenever she was not in competition or training in Uganda. Kind and humble were the words often mentioned by people there.

While celebrated as an athlete, her personal life was in turmoil. Her former classmate said her performance at the Olympics was because she did not "have peace" owing to the conflict with her ex-partner that began last year.

“They used to live together but began falling out last year because of money," her brother Jacob recalled. "He asked my sister, 'what do you do with all the money you make?"

Police told the BBC that the two had previously reported domestic disputes in different stations - which they withdrew.

As Ms Cheptegei’s family waits for justice, they continue to prepare her final journey. She will be laid to rest on 14 September at their ancestral home in Bukwo, Uganda.

The Ugandan is the third athlete to be killed in Kenya in the last three years, where intimate partners are named as the main suspects by police. Athlete-led gender-based violence activist group, Tirop’s Angels, said the trend must end.

“What is heart-breaking is her children witnessed their mother’s attack," Joan Chelimo, a co-founder of Tirop’s Angels said, as she fought back tears.

“This violence against athletes must stop.”

Published
1 minute ago

Chinese car giant Chery is weighing up the possibility of building cars in the UK, according to a senior executive.

Its UK head Victor Zhang told the BBC it was a "matter of time" before the company made a final decision.

He said Chery, which is already preparing to build cars in Spain, was determined to take a "localised" approach to the European market.

Mr Zhang denied the company’s exports had benefitted from unfair subsidies.

Chery, which was set up in 1997, is one of China’s largest car companies. It is already the country’s biggest exporter of vehicles, but has ambitious plans to expand further.

To help take that plan forward, it has set up two new brands focused entirely on the international market, Omoda and Jaecoo.

Last month, Omoda was officially launched in the UK. It has begun selling a mainstream SUV, the Omoda 5, in both electric and petrol-powered versions.

It has built a network of 60 dealerships, and hopes to have more than 100 here by the end of the year.

But it is far from the only Chinese manufacturer to see the British market as potentially lucrative.

BYD, which has been vying with Tesla for the title of the world's biggest manufacturer of electric cars, has also opened dozens of dealerships here.

SAIC is already well-established in the UK, selling cars under the classic British MG marque.

Cars for sale in Europe are currently built at Chery’s manufacturing HQ in Wuhu, in Eastern China. But that situation is expected to change.

The company already has a deal with the Spanish firm EV Motors, which will allow Omoda and Jaecoo models to be built at a former Nissan factory in Barcelona. But it wants to establish other bases as well.

Earlier this year, the company said the UK could also be a candidate for an assembly plant. That option remains on the table.

“Barcelona, this is something we are already commited to”, explained Mr Zhang

“For the UK, we are also evaluating. To be honest, we are open for all options and opportunities.

“So I think it’s just a matter of time. If everything is ready, we will do it”.

The UK is not the only country on Chery’s list. It has also been talking to the Italian government about setting up production in Italy, for example.

Mr Zhang denied the decision would come down to whichever country was able to offer the best incentives.

“For such a big investment project, it’s a combination of factors”, he said.

“It’s not just government policy or incentives. You also need to look at the market itself; education, because you need good talented people such as engineers and factory workers; there’s also supply chain, logistics.

"So there will be many factors involved in our final decision”.

The pressure to set up manufacturing bases in Europe has increased since July, when the EU imposed steep tariffs, or taxes, on imports of electric vehicles from China.

This was done, Brussels said, because carmakers in China were benefitting from "unfair subsidies" which allowed their cars to be sold abroad very cheaply, undermining local manufacturers. China accused the EU of protectionism.

By building its products in Europe, Chery would avoid paying those tariffs. But Mr Zhang insisted his company was always committed to local production.

“We are not trying to use any unfair methods”, he insisted.

“We want to be adaptable to the local market, and provide the best products, using the best dealerships. To be localised is the only strategy for the long term," he said.

The UK has yet say whether it will take a similar approach with tariffs of its own.

China's domestic car market is vast, with more than 30 million vehicles sold each year.

Its stake in the global market is also already significant, with roughly 5 million cars exported last year. That was a 64% increase on the year before.

In the UK, Chinese brands still account for a relatively small proportion of cars sold, around 5%.

But established carmakers are concerned that figure could grow quickly, with the prices offered by Chinese brands expected to play a key role.

Published
1 hour ago

The government’s plan to tackle the hospital backlog in England will fail without a fundamental reform in how services work, health leaders say.

Labour aims to increase the number of appointments and operations done each week by 40,000, to help hit the 18-week waiting time target.

But NHS Confederation research found that would only deliver about 15% of the extra capacity needed to get back to reaching the target, which has not been hit since 2006.

It called for a wider transformation of hospital care, including greater use of digital technologies to improve productivity.

The warning comes ahead of the release of a government review of NHS performance later this week.

Led by NHS surgeon and independent peer Lord Ara Darzi, the review was ordered by Health Secretary Wes Streeting shortly after the election, to help identify the biggest barriers to improving waiting times.

Sources close to the review said it would be a warts-and-all report, including criticism about the lack of productivity in some areas.

There will also be a warning about the state of children's health, and how that has deteriorated in the past decade.

Sir Keir Starmer referred to Lord Darzi's upcoming review in his first major interview this weekend, telling the BBC the NHS had been "broken" by previous Conservative-led governments.

The review is likely to pave the way for an expansion of surgical hubs, which are used to carry out low-complexity, high-volume treatments such as hip replacements and cataract surgery.

This week a study by the Health Foundation think tank said in places where they had been introduced, the number of treatments had risen by a fifth.

Existing hospitals will also be asked to do more, with staff paid time-and-a-half to work weekends to ensure 40,000 more appointments and treatments a week can be done, as promised in Labour’s election manifesto.

But the NHS Confederation research, carried out jointly with consultancy Carnall Farrar, said this alone would not be enough to start hitting the 18-week target again.

Currently there are 7.6 million people on the NHS waiting list, with more than 40% having waited over 18 weeks. The target is for 92% to be seen within 18 weeks.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents managers, said the scale of the challenge facing the government should not be underestimated.

“Forty-thousand more operations and appointments a week won’t be nearly enough to hit the target. The NHS needs reform, not just ever more activity.”

The NHS Confederation called for fundamental changes, including investment in digital technologies and greater use of robotic surgery and AI.

Significant savings could be achieved through carrying out fewer appointments before and after treatment, it said.

Follow-up checks could be done remotely and in some cases scrapped altogether, leaving it to the patient to decide whether they needed to be seen.

The number of assessments and appointments carried out could also be reduced by joining up care better for the 1.2 million people who are waiting for more than one treatment.

The report also said hospitals had to do better at vetting their waiting lists, warning time was being wasted chasing up patients who no longer needed treatment, either because they had already paid for it privately, decided not to have it or, in some cases, had died.

But it said achieving these productivity improvements would require upfront investment in buildings and technology.

The report also called for more to be done to prevent ill health, to reduce the numbers needing treatment.

The Department of Health and Social Care said improving productivity and investing in technology would be part of its plan, alongside expanding the number of appointments and operations.

"Fixing the NHS will be difficult and will take time, but this government will deliver the investment and reforms needed to turn the service around," its spokesperson added.

Published
1 hour ago

Surrounded by food trucks, Ferris wheels and funnel cake stands on a hot August afternoon, Stephanie Soucek has one goal in mind.

The 42-year-old chair of the Republican Party in Door County, a bellwether district in the battleground state of Wisconsin, is at the county fair to urge undecided voters to cast a ballot for Donald Trump.

Upon meeting Tammy Conway, a Democrat who is considering voting Republican for the first time in decades, Ms Soucek begins talking about her own family’s two expensive car payments, an economic message that seems to resonate.

Ms Conway is concerned about “sky-high” housing interest rates and said Trump might make the economy “a lot less complicated”.

But as Ms Soucek lays out her case for the Republican presidential candidate, she avoids mentioning the latest spate of controversial remarks Trump has made, including personal attacks on Democratic challenger Kamala Harris.

“I try to tell people to focus on the policies and ignore the candidates,” she said, knowing that Trump’s brash personality has deterred women previously.

Republican officials in a handful of swing states – where the election is likely to be decided – are adopting Ms Soucek’s strategy of promoting policy over personality with white suburban female voters. It's a pivotal voting bloc Trump narrowly won in his first presidential race but has struggled to appeal to since.

Local Republicans say they wish Trump would adopt a similar approach against Vice-President Harris, whose campaign has been powered by female voters since she replaced Joe Biden at the top of the ticket in July.

The concern brings into focus the widening gender gap that has come to define the election. Trump is courting young – especially black and Hispanic – men while Democrats are working to attract female voters motivated by the overturning of Roe v Wade, a landmark Supreme Court ruling that had enshrined the constitutional right to an abortion.

An ABC News/Ipsos released in September suggested the vice-president led the former president 54% to 41% among women - a seven-point jump since the Democratic National Convention late last month.

It has some Republicans worried about whether Trump can reverse the trend, Ms Soucek said.

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Ms Harris’s has "implemented dangerously liberal policies that have left women worse off financially and far less safe than we were four years ago under President Trump”.

But some who spoke to the BBC said his campaign has remained fixated on men - not women.

Republican pollster Christine Matthews said Trump’s team is “doubling down on a strategy of motivating the Maga base and hoping to motivate men - particularly non-college-educated men including those who are Hispanic in addition to white - in a way that will overpower the gender gap”.

The Trump campaign has leaned into “bro culture”, emphasising masculinity and a contrast of “weak versus tough”, said Chuck Coughlin, a political strategist who works with Republicans in the battleground state of Arizona.

“That appeals to a lot of men,” he said. “It doesn’t appeal to unaffiliated voters.”

Trump’s choice of JD Vance as his running mate reinforced how the campaign is prioritising outreach to men. They may not have expected his addition to the ticket to have been so damaging with women voters, however.

The Ohio senator has faced a backlash over previous comments about women, in particular a 2021 clip in which he calls several Democrats, including Ms Harris, “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives”.

These types of comments do not help attract swing women voters, according to Betsy Fischer Martin, executive director of the nonpartisan Women & Politics Institute.

“There are plenty of childless cat ladies voting in the suburbs,” she said.

But the former president’s campaign rhetoric does not bother some ardent female supporters like Dixie, a 59-year-old Republican from Door County.

“He’s not going to tell you what you want to hear. He’s going to tell you the truth,” said Dixie, who declined to share her last name for privacy reasons.

Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, who served as his 2016 campaign manager, told the BBC that voters could not have his policies without his “strong and resolute and tough” personality.

“People, and particularly women, tend to kvetch and converse and complain about what offends them, and then they vote according to what affects them,” she said.

Local Republicans in battleground states are hoping to stop the erosion of female support by steering the conversation back to issues that affect families on a daily basis, like crime and the economy, where polls suggest the party is more popular.

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic make it difficult to compare how the US economy performed under the Trump and Biden administrations. While both enjoyed notable economic growth, inflation has been a persistent problem in the last three years as wages have struggled to keep up with rising prices.

And a recent KFF poll indicated inflation was the top issue in this race for 40% of suburban women voters.

For Lyla Juntunen, 88, a former stay-at-home mom from the suburbs of Green Bay, Wisconsin, the price increases under Mr Biden have been hard to ignore.

“Look at these groceries that you get and how much you pay,” she told the BBC, gesturing toward a full shopping cart in a grocery store car park.

Strategists say Trump would do well to focus more on these specific economic policy points to win over voters like Ms Juntenen.

"If he dials down the attacks and his brand of fiery kind of politics, then he can pick up...female voters in particular," said Ariel Hill-Davis, co-founder of Republican Women for Progress, which advocates for female representation in the party.

"If your top three issues are the economy, inflation, public safety, I think he could easily sway those voters."

Republicans in swing states have struggled with another issue that has animated women across the country: reproductive rights.

Democrats have seized on abortion rights as a way to galvanise voters after the fall of Roe v Wade in 2022, while Ms Harris has become the White House’s leading voice on the issue.

Voters in several states - including Republican strongholds - have passed referendums protecting the right to abortion. The issue is on the ballot in at least eight states in November, including in the battleground territories of Nevada and Arizona.

Republicans have struggled to reach a unified message on reproductive rights. Trump has repeatedly said policy should be left up to the states, declining to endorse a national abortion ban that many Republican lawmakers support.

He was roundly criticised by anti-abortion conservatives in recent weeks after giving contradictory remarks on whether he would support a referendum in Florida to protect abortion rights - he later clarified he would vote against it.

The same week, he told a Michigan crowd that if he were re-elected, his administration would cover the costs of IVF, a fertility treatment that Democrats have claimed Republicans are trying to take away through restrictive state abortion laws.

Tom Eddy, the chair of the Erie County Republican Party, a swing district in the must-win state of Pennsylvania, said he’s found the best approach is to avoid the issue altogether.

“I tell my candidates, ‘Stay the hell away from it,’” he said. “I can tell no matter what policy you promote with regard to abortion, you’re going to be wrong, because half the people are going to think the other way.”

Though the KFF poll indicated abortion to be lower on the list of priorities for female suburban voters - behind immigration, border security and the economy - it remains a motivating issue for a growing share.

A survey from the New York Times and Siena College last month suggested it had become the most important issue for female voters under the age of 45.

With polls suggesting the majority of suburban women support access to abortions, Ms Soucek said the Republican Party needs to find a unified message.

“It’s just a matter of making sure that we’re sending the right message to women that we care about women, while also caring about unborn babies,” she said.

Mr Trump’s former senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, said that while Democrats are focused on “the waist down”, the Republican Party is concentrating on the “waist up”.

“We women, from the waist up, are where our brains, ears, eyes, hearts and mouths are, so we can figure out all the issues: the kitchen table economics, entrepreneurship, taxes, regulation, energy independence,” she said.

But that language isn’t landing with all women voters in Wisconsin.

Holly Rupnow, a 56-year-old former Republican from Green Bay, said one of the reasons she planned to vote for Ms Harris was because of reproductive rights.

“I like the things that she’s going to try to do for us - get us back women’s rights,” she said.

Experts say the political landscape has changed dramatically since Donald Trump first ran for president.

Some female voters in 2016 brushed aside their worries about Trump, believing he would act differently once he was in the White House, according to Ms Fischer Martin.

But the 2016 “Let Trump be Trump” rallying cry would not work now, she said.

During the 2018 midterm elections, suburban and college-educated women largely rejected Trump and Republicans and helped power the so-called blue wave that elected more than 100 women to the US House.

In 2022, reproductive rights played a central role in helping Democrats perform better than expected, raising fears among Republicans it could do so again.

Trump could make strides with female suburban voters by directly addressing their concerns about his personality, according to political experts.

“If he were to say something like: ‘You may not like me personally, you may not like my rhetoric, but if you want to worry less about grocery bills .. I'm your guy,’” Ms Fischer Martin said.

“I don't know if he's quite capable of getting there.”

Kellyanne Conway knows Trump better than most. She believes his core message - are voters better off now then when he was in office? - is the same for all Americans, regardless of gender.

“As I told him recently,” she added, “He beat a woman before. He can beat a woman again.”

Published
11 minutes ago

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Published
5 minutes ago

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to London on Monday for a two-day visit during which he will meet Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

The US state department says Mr Blinken will open a so-called “US-UK strategic dialogue” - understood to be a series of meetings between senior officials which Washington describes as “reaffirming” the “special relationship” between the two countries.

Mr Blinken will “discuss a range of critical issues, including the Indo-Pacific, AUKUS partnership, the Middle East, and our collective efforts to support Ukraine,” the state department said.

It is understood Mr Blinken is also likely to meet Prime Minister Keir Starmer while he is in the UK.

The foreign secretary and Mr Blinken met on the Keir Starmer's first visit to Washington as prime minister back in July for the Nato summit.

Following that meeting, the state department said that Mr Blinken and Mr Lammy "re-affirmed the importance of ensuring Ukraine has the economic, security, and humanitarian assistance it needs to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity".

The pair also "discussed the need to reach a ceasefire in Gaza that secures the release of hostages and lays the groundwork for durable peace".

Mr Blinken has been a frequent visitor to Israel,, external having been 10 times since the Hamas attacks on 7 October last year.

Following his most recent meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Blinken said the Israeli prime minister had accepted Washington's so-called "bridging proposal" aimed at trying to solve sticking points and bring Israel and Hamas closer to a deal.

Pressure has been growing on Mr Netanyahu to close out a deal, amid widespread protests in Israel last week.

On Friday, the White House announced that the UK prime minister will also travel to Washington for his second bilateral meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday 13 September.

The PM said his first face-to face talks with President Biden in July were an opportunity to "recommit" to Nato and the "special relationship" between the UK and US.

Speaking ahead of next week's meeting, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Mr Starmer and Mr Biden will have "an in-depth discussion on a range of global issues of mutual interest".

The White House added "robust support to Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression" will also be discussed, as well as securing a hostage release and ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza.

"President Biden will underscore the importance of continuing to strengthen the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom," the White House also said.

Published
1 hour ago

In a tucked-away corner of paradise, overlooking the clear waters of the South Pacific, a cyclone of controversy was about to descend on Fiji’s Pearl Resort & Spa.

Standing on stage clutching a bouquet of flowers, 24-year-old MBA student Manshika Prasad had just been crowned Miss Fiji.

But soon after, according to one of the judges, things at the beauty pageant “turned really ugly”.

Ugly is potentially an understatement: what unfolded over the next few days would see beauty queens crowned and unseated, wild allegations thrown around and eventually the emergence of a shadowy figure with a very personal connection to one of the contestants.

Ms Prasad first found out something was wrong two days after her win, when Miss Universe Fiji (MUF) issued a press release. It said a “serious breach of principles” had occurred, and “revised results” would be made public shortly.

A couple of hours later, Ms Prasad was told she wouldn’t be travelling to Mexico to compete for the Miss Universe title in November.

Instead, runner-up Nadine Roberts, a 30-year-old model and property developer from Sydney, whose mother is Fijian, would take her place.

The press release alleged the "correct procedures" had not been followed, and that Ms Prasad had been chosen in a rigged vote which favoured a “Fiji Indian” contestant to win because it would bring financial benefits to the event's manager.

A distraught Ms Prasad issued a statement saying she would be taking a break from social media, but warned that there was “so much the public did not know about”.

The new queen, meanwhile, offered a message of support. “We are all impacted by this,” Ms Roberts wrote on Instagram, before thanking Miss Universe Fiji for its “swift action”.

But those who took part in the contest were not satisfied: there were too many things that didn’t add up.

“Everything had been running so smoothly,” says Melissa White, one of seven judges on the panel.

A marine biologist by trade, she had been flown in from New Zealand to weigh in on the charity and environmental aspects of the contest.

“It was such a great night, such a successful show. So many people were saying they’d never seen pageant girls get along so well,” Ms White tells the BBC.

As the competition drew to a climax on Friday night, the judges were asked to write down the name of who they thought ought to be the next Miss Fiji.

“By this stage, Manshika [Prasad] was the clear winner,” says Jennifer Chan, another judge, who’s a US-based TV host and style and beauty expert.

“Not only based on what she presented on stage but also how she interacted with the other girls, how she photographed, how she modelled."

Ms Chan says she was “100% confident” that Ms Prasad was the strongest candidate to represent Fiji.

Enough of her fellow judges agreed and Ms Prasad was declared the winner - receiving four of the seven votes.

But as the newly-crowned Miss Universe Fiji stood on stage, beaming in her sparkling tiara, the judges sensed something was wrong.

To her right, Nadine Roberts - wearing her runners-up sash - was "seething", alleges Ms Chan.

“I remember going to bed thinking, how could someone feel so entitled to win?

“You win some, you lose some. She’s a seasoned beauty pageant contestant - surely she knew that?”

The next day, Ms Prasad took a celebratory boat trip with the judges.

“She was just in awe, saying: my life will be changed now,” says Ms Chan.

“She’s the embodiment of that good-hearted person who deserves it - it just affirmed to me that I’d picked the right girl."

But there had still been no official confirmation of Ms Prasad’s victory.

Not only this - one of the judges was conspicuously absent from the trip: Riri Febriani, who was representing Lux Projects, the company that bought the licence to hold Miss Universe in Fiji.

“I remember thinking that was odd,” says Ms White, who shared a room with Ms Febriani. “But she just said she had lots of work to do and she needed to talk to her boss.”

Ms Febriani says she didn’t go on the boat trip as she needed to rest - and there's no way the others would know who she was messaging on her phone.

But Ms White says she worked out her roommate was fielding calls and texts from a man called “Jamie”.

Miss Universe is a multi-million-dollar business which operates like a franchise - you need to buy a licence which enables you to use the brand and sell tickets for the event.

Those licences are expensive and in small countries it’s hard to find anyone willing to fund a national pageant - which is why Fiji hasn’t entered a contestant since 1981.

But this year, one organisation was willing to buy the licence: property development firm Lux Projects.

Ms Febriani was its representative on the judging panel, but also looked after media communications.

“I’d got on so well with her, she seemed a very sweet person,” says Ms White.

“But that day when she didn’t come on the boat, her demeanour kind of changed. She just kept saying she was super busy with work, always on the phone with this ‘Jamie’ guy."

It turned out that, despite having Ms Febriani on the panel, Lux Projects was not happy with the outcome of the vote.

Its press release on Sunday said the licensee itself should also get a vote - one which the contracted organiser, Grant Dwyer, had “failed to count”.

Lux Projects would have voted for Ms Roberts, bringing the results to a 4-4 tie.

What’s more, it said, the licensee also had the “determining vote” - making Ms Roberts the winner.

“Never at any point were we told about an eighth judge or any kind of absentee judge,” says Ms Chan.

“It wasn’t on the website, it wasn’t anywhere. Besides, how can you vote on a contest if you’re not even there?”

Ms White was also suspicious.

“I did some digging and it turns out that Lux Projects was closely associated with an Australian businessman called Jamie McIntyre,” says Ms White.

“And Jamie McIntyre,” she told the BBC, “is married to Nadine Roberts.”

Mr McIntyre describes himself as an entrepreneur, investor and "world-leading educator", who has - according to information available online - been married to Ms Roberts since 2022.

He was also banned from doing business in Australia for a decade in 2016 due to his involvement in a property investment scheme that lost investors more than A$7m ($4.7m; £3.6m). The judge in the case said there was “no evidence to suggest that successful reform is likely”., external

A senator who questioned him as part of a parliamentary committee hearing later described him as “the most evasive witness I have had to deal with - and that's saying something", according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

But what was he doing here?

“[Mr McIntyre] isn't a director or shareholder of the MUF licensee company, but has acted as an adviser, as he is a shareholder in associated companies,” Jamie McIntyre’s representatives told the BBC.

However, the company's Instagram page does feature a video of Mr McIntyre giving property investment advice, as well as a link to 21st Century University, a Bali-based property company owned by Mr McIntyre.

The BBC also understands that a "Jamie" was on the line during phone calls between Ms Roberts and the event organiser, Grant Dwyer.

Mr McIntyre’s representatives insist that allegations that he was involved in the judging controversy are a “conspiracy theory” - although they did concede that he had “provided advice to the licence holder”.

Additionally, the press release’s allegation that Mr Dwyer had pressured the panel to choose Ms Prasad because of her race is undermined by the fact that Mr Dwyer is understood to have voted for Ms Roberts.

“It’s just gross to even bring up race,” says Ms Chan. “It was never, ever once uttered amongst any of the judges,” she adds.

The BBC has sought comment from both Ms Roberts and Ms Prasad, but neither has responded.

Several of those involved - including some judges and contestants - have been sent “cease and desist” emails by Lux Projects, the BBC understands, which have been taken as tantamount to gagging orders by the recipients.

This scandal in Fiji is by no means the first to hit the world of beauty pageants, which historically has seen its fair share of controversies.

“Pageants are full of drama, of controversies, of people saying the contest was a fix,” says Prof Hilary Levey Friedman, author of ‘Here She Is: The Complicated Reign of the Beauty Pageant in America.’

“But I will say that in more recent years, these issues have become much more pronounced thanks to social media,” she adds.

Apart from a voting scandal at the Miss America contest in 2022, recent controversies have tended to be in less developed parts of the world.

This is probably because they tend to be non-profit affairs in many Western countries, according to Prof Friedman, while pageants elsewhere have become more popular and more lucrative than ever.

“Historically, beauty pageants have been an amazing tool for social mobility for women,” says Prof Friedman.

“Apart from the prestige and the glory, it gives you a platform to attract followers and sponsorships. When there’s money involved, the stakes are higher.”

For Ms Prasad though, it turns out there is a happy ending.

On Friday, she posted on one of her social media accounts that she had indeed been re-crowned as Miss Fiji 2024.

“What an incredible journey this has been,” she wrote on Instagram.

Miss Universe Organization (MUO) has not responded to a request for comment, but the BBC understands it is extremely unhappy with the events in Fiji and, after having established the facts, worked hard to reinstate Ms Prasad as the island’s queen.

For Ms Prasad there is elation. For the judges, relief.

As for Ms Roberts, she is calling herself the “real Miss Universe Fiji 2024” on Instagram.

Judge Ms White says she’s “so proud of how Manshika [Prasad] has conducted herself throughout this journey. She’s a brilliant, compassionate, and beautiful young woman, who didn’t deserve this.

“We just wanted the truth to come out and now it has.”

Published
3 hours ago

When Elliott was taken into care at 12 years old, he was told to pack all his belongings into black bin bags.

A pendant given to him by his nan - who he did not know when he would see again - was lost on the way.

He is not the only child in care that this has happened to. BBC Wales has spoken to children in care, and young care-leavers, who say they were made to move their belongings in bin bags and saw them go missing as a result.

Elliott - now 15 – said moving his things in this way caused additional trauma to his experience of coming into the care system.

“The pendant that I lost when I went to my first placement, it meant a lot to me because my nan didn’t know when she would see me again when I moved into care," he said.

“It was supposed to be my 18th birthday present, so my grandmother spent a lot of money on it, and it had a lot of sentimental value.”

Comfort items such as teddies and blankets also went missing when Elliott was moving between placements.

He said: “Having those pieces from home, it means a lot to us. It can mean the difference between breaking down the placement and keeping it up."

During another move, a bin bag containing Elliott’s belongings broke.

“I grabbed my bag out of my social worker's car and the bottom of it just ripped and all my clothes just fell out in the middle of the road," he said.

“It’s dehumanising. If your child was moving out, you wouldn’t make them move in black bin bags, you would take the time out of your day to get duffle bags or suitcases and boxes as well."

Jo-Anne, now 22, said that every time she moved placement as a child, she did so with black bin bags.

But there was one move she has never forgotten.

Jo-Anne’s belongings were placed in a bin bag, which went missing.

“There were photos of my older and younger sibling, we were separated practically as soon as we were put into care," she said.

Those pictures were the only thing Jo-Anne had left to remember them by.

Her baby blanket was also lost during the move.

She added: “That’s something from home, that’s something that meant something to me, but they couldn’t look after it enough for me to keep it.”

When she asked what had happened to the bag, no one seemed to know.

“The local authority didn’t have them, the foster placements didn’t have them, and I kept questioning where were they and I never got to bottom of it," she said.

“My best guess is that they’ve been used as rubbish, they’ve ended up in the bins because they were black bags and I’ve left them outside the house.

"Bin men are going to think its rubbish, let’s collect it."

It left Jo-Anne feeling like she did not deserve her belongings.

“It made me feel very worthless," she said.

"It made me feel like I wasn’t entitled to a normal suitcase to keep my things safe. I felt like I wasn’t entitled to normal belongings and that maybe there was no point in moving my things.”

Care leaver Angel said that when she was 19, she was unexpectedly asked to leave the hostel she was staying in.

Her belongings were packed in bin bags and handed to her at the front door.

When she unpacked them, she found clothes, personal photos and other items were missing.

“This made me feel worthless and lost,” she said.

“I have just had to continue on without half of my belongings and try and build afresh.”

The National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) is now running a campaign, called My Things Matter, asking local authorities to pledge never to ask a young person to move their belongings in a bin bag or throw away a young person’s belongings without their consent.

They have also asked local authorities to work with children in care to ensure they feel supported while moving.

It is not the first time campaigners have raised it, but they say practices like this are still common.

The campaign has also teamed up with social enterprise Madlug, set up by a youth worker in 2015, which donates a travel bag to a child in care for every bag it sells.

It is now donating bulk orders of free bags to local authorities that have signed a pledge.

Nine of the 22 local authorities in Wales have committed to the campaign pledge since it launched in 2022.

Jay Jeynes is the Welsh chairman of the Campaign Advisory Group at NYAS.

He is care-experienced himself and was also made to move his belongings in a black bin bag.

He is urging the remaining 13 Welsh local authorities to commit to the pledge.

“It is staggering how many people are still using black bin bags," he said.

Mr Jeynes said the campaign is about empowering every child in care to be able to move their belongings with dignity.

He added: “No child deserves to carry their lives in a bin bag.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said the belongings of children in care should be "treated with the utmost respect".

They said: “A number of local authorities in Wales already pre-purchase holdall bags for the belongings of children and young people during periods of transition.

“Whilst we understand that there been occasions when these have not been used - primarily during emergencies - we fully expect all local authorities to better plan and use holdalls on all occasions.”

The Welsh Local Government Association, which represents local authorities in Wales, was asked to comment but declined.

Published
5 minutes ago

In attempting to describe Makala Prison - the scene of a deadly and failed breakout this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo - two people who have been inside used the exact same word: “hell”.

“Makala is a true hell,” Stanis Bujakera, a former inmate and journalist, told the BBC about DR Congo's largest jail.

Bujakera was sent to the notorious Makala Prison in September last year, after the authorities accused him of writing an article that alleged the military were involved in an opposition politician's death. He spent six months there.

“Makala is not a prison, but a detention centre resembling a concentration camp, where people are sent to die,” he said.

The prison, located in capital city Kinshasa, has a capacity of 1,500 prisoners but is estimated to hold around 10 times more.

This cramped population ranges from petty criminals to political prisoners to murderers.

Human rights groups have long complained of the dire conditions Makala inmates face, including overcrowding, unsubstantial food and poor access to clean water.

Following a disaster at the facility earlier this week, these conditions have been thrust into the spotlight once again.

After masses of inmates tried to break out of Makala in the early hours of Monday morning, 129 prisoners lost their lives, Interior Minister Jacquemain Shabani said.

Two dozen were shot dead as they tried to escape, Mr Shabani reported, but most were suffocated in a crush.

Four surviving inmates told the New York Times, external that prior to the escape attempt, prisoners had been held in stifling cells without running water or the electricity to power fans for more than a day-and-a-half.

Some prisoners had initially broken out to escape the heat, they said.

Bujakera said these conditions were far from unusual - taps "constantly" run dry at Makala, while "electricity is random, leaving the detainees without light for days on end".

“Inmates are literally abandoned to their fate, exposed to overcrowded and unsanitary conditions that foster contamination and the spread of disease,” he added.

Prisoners die "every day" as a result, Bujakera said.

Rostin Manketa, executive director of Congolese human rights group La Voix des Sans Voix, shares a similar account.

He has visited Makala several times and concluded that when a person has been sent to Makala Prison, "it seems like [they] have been sent to hell".

Stark videos filmed by Bujakera during his time in Makala show dozens of sleeping men, packed tightly together on the floor of an overflowing room.

Their limbs overlap, and in a delicate balancing act some men sleep atop the walls that divide shower stalls.

Conditions are better in Makala's VIP section, a separate pavilion that only the minority can afford - you get a bed and more space, for example.

Bujakera was asked the pay $3,000 (£2,280) to stay in VIP, but he managed to get this price slashed to $450 (£340) for his stay.

He told the BBC: "Economic inequalities between inmates create a hierarchy... the poorest are abandoned to their fate."

What is more, wardens at Makala have little presence. Law and order inside the prison is effectively delegated to the inmates themselves.

“Prisoners govern themselves," Fred Bauma, a human rights activist who was incarcerated in Makala from March 2015 to August 2016, told BBC's Focus on Africa podcast this week.

"It’s like you’ve changed countries and there’s a new government and you need to learn those rules."

This system of self-government is dysfunctional and leads to "harmful power dynamics, acts of violence and conflicts between inmates", Bujakera said.

But Makala is not alone with its abysmal conditions - prisons all over the country are chronically underfunded and overcrowded.

According to the World Prison Brief, external project, DR Congo's jails are the sixth-most overcrowded globally.

The authorities have acknowledged this problem on a number of occasions. Following Monday's jailbreak, Deputy Justice Minister Samuel Mbemba blamed magistrates for prison overcrowding, noting that "even mere suspects are sent to prison".

Many inmates have not actually been sentenced for a crime but are instead held in jail for months - or years - while waiting to be tried.

The food in DR Congo's prisons has also been criticised widely.

In Makala, inmates get only one meal per day - and this dish is often of limited nutritional value.

Pictures taken by Bujakera show a tub of maize meal - a staple carbohydrate in DR Congo - turned hard and dry, accompanied by a watery brown vegetable stew.

In order to avoid malnourishment, many prisoners rely on their relatives to bring food into them.

However, not everyone has these connections.

In 2017, a charity reported that at least 17 prisoners starved to death following food shortages in Makala.

Mr Manketa said it was "possible" that Makala's testing environment led to the tragic attempt to escape.

To avoid a repeat, the authorities should build new prisons and improve existing ones, he argues.

Bujakera, who is now based in the United States, said this change must happen swiftly.

It is a "sick" justice system, he lamented, and as Monday's disaster demonstrated, people are dying while waiting for a cure.

Additional reporting by the BBC's Emery Makumeno in Kinshasa.

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

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, external, on Facebook at BBC Africa, external or on Instagram at bbcafrica, external

Published
13 minutes ago

Pope Francis, who has often appeared to revel in confounding and surprising others, is at it again.

Many times over the years, he has seemed to suggest he is slowing down, only to ramp up his activities again.

At nearly 88 years old, he has a knee ailment that impairs mobility, abdominal problems caused by diverticulitis and is vulnerable to respiratory issues owing to the removal of most of one of his lungs.

Last autumn, the Pope said his health problems meant that foreign travel had become difficult. Soon after, when he cancelled a trip to the UAE, it led to heightened speculation about the extent of his medical difficulties.

But that was then.

Now, he is in the middle of the longest foreign visit of his 11-and-a-half year papacy. It has been one packed with engagements, and as well as Timor-Leste it involves three countries – Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Singapore – in which Catholics are a minority.

So why is the Pope travelling so extensively and so far from home?

His supporters say his passion drives him.

“He obviously has an enormous amount of stamina and that is driven by his absolute passion for mission,” says Father Anthony Chantry, the UK director of the Pope’s mission charity Missio, who has just been appointed to the Vatican administration’s evangelisation department.

“He talks about all of us having a tireless mission to reach out to others, to set an example.”

Christian “mission” is something that has evolved over the centuries. It is still about spreading the gospel but now the stated aim is focused on social justice and charitable endeavours.

Throughout his trip Pope Francis will meet missionaries, including a group from Argentina now based in Papua New Guinea. But on numerous trips around Asia including this one, he also skirts close to China, a country with deep suspicions about the Church, its mission and its motives.

The Pope has frequently emphasised the importance of evangelisation for every Catholic. Yet in many parts of the world, it is still hard to separate ideas of “missionaries” and “evangelisation” from notions of European colonisation.

As the number of Catholics in Europe declines, is “mission” and “evangelising” in Asia and Africa now about Church expansion in those parts of the world?

“I think what he is preaching is the Gospel of love that will do no one any harm. He's not trying to drum up support for the Church, that's not what evangelisation is about,” says Father Anthony.

“It isn't to be equated with proselytising, that is not what we have done for a long time. That is not the agenda of the Holy Father and not the agenda of the Church. What we do is we share and we help people in any way we can, regardless of their faith or not having any faith.”

Father Anthony says being a Christian missionary in the modern day, for which Pope Francis is setting an example, is about doing good work and listening, but sometimes, “where necessary”, also challenging ideas.

“We believe God will do the rest, and if that leads to people accepting Jesus Christ, that's great. And if it helps people to appreciate their own spirituality – their own culture – more, then I think that is another success.”

Certainly the Pope has long talked of interfaith harmony and respect for other faiths. One of the most enduring images of his current trip will be his kissing the hand of the Grand Imam of the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta and holding it to his cheek.

He was warmly welcomed by people coming out to see him in the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world.

Pope and top Indonesian imam make joint call for peace

Pope Francis will end his marathon trip in Singapore, a country where around three-quarters of the population is ethnic Chinese, but also where the Catholic minority is heavily involved in missionary work in poorer areas.

For centuries now, Singapore has been something of a strategic regional hub for the Catholic Church, and what Pope Francis says and does there is likely to be closely watched in China, not least by the Catholics living there. It is hard to get a true picture of numbers, but estimates suggest around 12 million.

The lack of clarity over numbers is partly because China’s Catholics have been split between the official Catholic Church in China and an underground church loyal to the Vatican that evolved under communism.

In trying to unite the two groups, Pope Francis has been accused of appeasing Beijing and letting down Catholics in the underground movement who had not accepted the Chinese government’s interference, and who face the continued threat of persecution.

Deals struck between the Vatican and Beijing in recent years appear to have left a situation where the Chinese government appoints Catholic bishops, and the Pope gives in and recognises them. China says it’s a matter of sovereignty, while Pope Francis insists he has the final say – though that is not the way it has looked.

“He won't be pleasing everyone all the time, but I think what the Holy Father really wants to indicate is that the Church is not a threat to the state,” says Father Anthony Chantry. “He is treading a very careful path and it's fraught with difficulties, but I think what he's trying to do is just to build up a respectful relationship with the government in China.”

Rightly or wrongly, it is all in the name of bringing more people into the fold. Some of Pope Francis’ predecessors have been more uncompromising in many ways, seeming to be more accepting of a smaller, “purer” global Catholic community, rather than make concessions in either foreign relations or in the way the Church views, for example, divorce or homosexuality.

While some popes have also clearly been more comfortable in study and theology than travel and being surrounded by huge crowds, some have leaned into the politics of their position.

It is very clear when travelling with Pope Francis that while he can often look tired and subdued during diplomatic events, he is quickly rejuvenated by the masses who come out to see him, and energised by the non-dignitaries he meets, particularly young people.

This is certainly not a pope who shuns the limelight – it is being among people, some would say mission, that appears to be his lifeblood.

Father Anthony Chantry says this latest, longest papal trip is just a continued display of how the Pope feels the Church should engage with both Catholics and non-Catholics.

“The whole thrust is that we have got to reach out to others. We have to make everyone feel welcome. I think he (Pope Francis) does that really well, but I don't think he's trying to score any points there, it's just him.”

There is very little the Pope has done since his election in 2013 that has not rankled Catholic traditionalists, who often feel that his spirit of outreach is taken too far. His actions on this trip are unlikely to change that.

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Published
25 minutes ago

“If the old parties had done their jobs properly then the AfD would not exist,” Ingolf complains, echoing a common sense that the rest of Germany looks down on so-called “Ossis” in the east.

Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) have already won the most votes in regional elections this month in the eastern state of Thuringia. Now Germany’s bracing for a further political shockwave, as polls suggest the AfD could also take the most votes in Brandenburg state's election in a few weeks time.

Tucked away near the Polish border, in the two tiny villages of Jämlitz and Klein Düben, support for the far right has soared.

A former conservative (CDU) voter, Ingolf is frustrated about how successive governments have handled education, saying standards were better when he was a boy growing up in the communist German Democratic Republic.

He voices anxiety about Germany’s flatlining economy as well as immigration, comparing the far-right riots in England this summer to “civil war-like conditions”.

Disorder that, while nothing like a civil war, has stoked narratives about the potential for violent clashes within multicultural communities.

“That’s not what we want here in Germany,” he says.

In Jämlitz, most notable for a large goose farm, the idea of civil strife couldn’t feel further away.

Nor could the war raging in Ukraine. But the AfD’s call to stop sending weapons to Kyiv is also resonating strongly.

“The money for Ukraine is an issue,” says Yvonne, who sees all war as “senseless” as we chat to her just down the road.

“And this is our tax money that is sent abroad. We have enough things to fix in our own country.”

However, Yvonne is leaning towards another anti-establishment party launched only this year that also opposes supplying arms to Ukraine and which is a surging force in German politics: the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).

Ms Wagenknecht’s personal brand of “left-wing conservatism” has already propelled her party this month into the potential role of kingmaker in Saxony and Thuringia.

However, for her critics, she has simply fashioned another unwelcome populist, pro-Putin movement that’s actively undermining central pillars of German foreign policy.

I challenge Yvonne about the idea of ending arms supplies to Ukraine, which could help Russia win a war it began, by invading its neighbour.

“I can understand both sides,” she says after a little hesitation.

This is the part of Germany where the older generation, from the GDR years, grew up learning Russian language and culture.

It’s also a country, scarred by two World Wars, that retains a strong pacifist streak fed by fears the existing conflict could escalate.

“Poland is not big,” Yvonne says, as she points out the Polish border is only a few miles away. “And we are then the first ones to go when the tanks come across.”

In these two villages, that have a population of under 500 people, 57.5% of voters backed the far-right party in a recent local council election, external, the largest proportion in Brandenburg.

Across the wider district, that number was 43.7%, also unusually high.

It comes ahead of a larger, state-parliament level vote on 22 September, where the AfD is leading the polls – after they already won the most votes in Thuringia and came a close second in Saxony on 1 September.

In Thuringia, the AfD attracted 36% of the under-30s vote, say election researchers.

Their relative strength in the east is despite the fact the party is viewed by many – and officially classed in three states – as right-wing extremist, a charge its supporters avidly reject.

Not far away, I visit one of the beautiful lakes that have been transformed from their original purpose as open cast coal mines.

As I wander around asking people if they want to talk about German politics, most, perhaps unsurprisingly, are not all that tempted.

A woman called Katrin does agree to speak, although she doesn’t want her picture taken.

Ushering us away from a small crowd sunbathing on the grass and a little beach, she lights a cigarette and is watchful as we wait to hear what she has to say.

It feels like it’s going to be really controversial.

She doesn’t like the AfD – something that can feel like a rogue opinion around here.

“Half the people here didn’t vote for the AfD,” she reminds us, adding she is “devastated” by local levels of support for a far-right party.

But why are they so popular, I ask?

“That’s a good question,” says Katrin. “That’s what I ask myself all the time.”

“There is an old saying,” she recalls. “If a donkey is too comfortable it goes on black ice.”

Katrin is saying that she believes life, actually, is relatively good for people in the community, leading to a misguided “grass-is-greener” syndrome - whether that’s with an eye on the past or present.

Average wage levels and household wealth are lower in the east when compared to the west, although inequalities have narrowed through the years.

Overall, Katrin doesn’t understand it. “I’m still thinking myself, why, why, why?”

You get the feeling that mainstream parties, including those in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government, are similarly unable to quite comprehend, or respond, to the success of either the AfD or BSW, parties polling nationally at about 18% and 8% respectively.

The traditional parties of power are casting a nervous eye to the east and the Germany’s reputation for relatively calm, consensus politics is under strain.

Published
37 minutes ago

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find disturbing

Outside the house where Rebecca Cheptegei lived, flowers have been placed on grass that was charred as the runner rolled on the ground to try to put out flames engulfing her.

The 33-year-old Olympic runner died on Thursday from injuries sustained when her former partner allegedly doused her with petrol and set her ablaze days earlier while at home with her two daughters.

“I was in the house and heard people screaming, 'fire'. When I came out, I saw Rebecca running towards my house on fire, shouting 'help me," Agnes Barabara, Ms Cheptegei’s immediate neighbour, tearfully told the BBC.

“As I went to look for water and started calling out for help, her assailant appeared again and doused more petrol on her, but then he too got burned and he ran off towards the garden to try to put it out. We then went to help Rebecca.”

“I have never seen anyone burn alive in my life. I didn’t eat for days after that incident.”

“She was a very good neighbour and just recently she shared with me maize she’d harvested.”

Police are treating the death as a murder, with her ex-partner named by police as the main suspect. Local administrators said the two had been in conflict about the small piece of land where Ms Cheptegei lived, with the case awaiting resolution.

He will be arraigned in court on charges once he is out of hospital, where he continues to recover from injuries he sustained during the incident.

“We have opened a file, investigations are at an advanced stage,” divisional criminal investigations officer Kennedy Apindi told the BBC.

Ms Cheptegei's mother Agnes said her daughter "was always obedient as a child, and very kind and jovial all through her life".

Emmanual Kimutai, a friend and neighbour who attended school with Ms Cheptegei, described her as a "very exciting" and "determined" person.

“Even in primary school she was already doing very well in athletics, she was our champion," Mr Kimutai said.

The Olympian was born on the Kenyan side of the Kenya-Uganda border, but chose to cross over and represent Uganda to chase her athletics dream when she did not get a breakthrough in Kenya.

When she started getting into athletics, she joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces in 2008 and had risen to sergeant rank. Her career included competing in the Olympics in Paris this year. Although she placed 44th in the marathon, people in her home area called her "champion".

She lived in Chepkum, a village in Kenya about 25km (15 miles) from the border with Uganda, in a rural area whose main economic activity is farming. Residents also tend to cattle and it is common to see cows, goats, and sheep grazing outside homes. The wider area, called Trans-Nzoia county, is well known as Kenya’s biggest producer of maize, which is the main ingredient for the country’s staple food.

Locals at a shopping centre near her house spoke fondly about a woman they sometimes waved at as she trained along the road whenever she was not in competition or training in Uganda. Kind and humble were the words often mentioned by people there.

While celebrated as an athlete, her personal life was in turmoil. Her former classmate said her performance at the Olympics was because she did not "have peace" owing to the conflict with her ex-partner that began last year.

“They used to live together but began falling out last year because of money," her brother Jacob recalled. "He asked my sister, 'what do you do with all the money you make?"

Police told the BBC that the two had previously reported domestic disputes in different stations - which they withdrew.

As Ms Cheptegei’s family waits for justice, they continue to prepare her final journey. She will be laid to rest on 14 September at their ancestral home in Bukwo, Uganda.

The Ugandan is the third athlete to be killed in Kenya in the last three years, where intimate partners are named as the main suspects by police. Athlete-led gender-based violence activist group, Tirop’s Angels, said the trend must end.

“What is heart-breaking is her children witnessed their mother’s attack," Joan Chelimo, a co-founder of Tirop’s Angels said, as she fought back tears.

“This violence against athletes must stop.”

Published
1 minute ago

Chinese car giant Chery is weighing up the possibility of building cars in the UK, according to a senior executive.

Its UK head Victor Zhang told the BBC it was a "matter of time" before the company made a final decision.

He said Chery, which is already preparing to build cars in Spain, was determined to take a "localised" approach to the European market.

Mr Zhang denied the company’s exports had benefitted from unfair subsidies.

Chery, which was set up in 1997, is one of China’s largest car companies. It is already the country’s biggest exporter of vehicles, but has ambitious plans to expand further.

To help take that plan forward, it has set up two new brands focused entirely on the international market, Omoda and Jaecoo.

Last month, Omoda was officially launched in the UK. It has begun selling a mainstream SUV, the Omoda 5, in both electric and petrol-powered versions.

It has built a network of 60 dealerships, and hopes to have more than 100 here by the end of the year.

But it is far from the only Chinese manufacturer to see the British market as potentially lucrative.

BYD, which has been vying with Tesla for the title of the world's biggest manufacturer of electric cars, has also opened dozens of dealerships here.

SAIC is already well-established in the UK, selling cars under the classic British MG marque.

Cars for sale in Europe are currently built at Chery’s manufacturing HQ in Wuhu, in Eastern China. But that situation is expected to change.

The company already has a deal with the Spanish firm EV Motors, which will allow Omoda and Jaecoo models to be built at a former Nissan factory in Barcelona. But it wants to establish other bases as well.

Earlier this year, the company said the UK could also be a candidate for an assembly plant. That option remains on the table.

“Barcelona, this is something we are already commited to”, explained Mr Zhang

“For the UK, we are also evaluating. To be honest, we are open for all options and opportunities.

“So I think it’s just a matter of time. If everything is ready, we will do it”.

The UK is not the only country on Chery’s list. It has also been talking to the Italian government about setting up production in Italy, for example.

Mr Zhang denied the decision would come down to whichever country was able to offer the best incentives.

“For such a big investment project, it’s a combination of factors”, he said.

“It’s not just government policy or incentives. You also need to look at the market itself; education, because you need good talented people such as engineers and factory workers; there’s also supply chain, logistics.

"So there will be many factors involved in our final decision”.

The pressure to set up manufacturing bases in Europe has increased since July, when the EU imposed steep tariffs, or taxes, on imports of electric vehicles from China.

This was done, Brussels said, because carmakers in China were benefitting from "unfair subsidies" which allowed their cars to be sold abroad very cheaply, undermining local manufacturers. China accused the EU of protectionism.

By building its products in Europe, Chery would avoid paying those tariffs. But Mr Zhang insisted his company was always committed to local production.

“We are not trying to use any unfair methods”, he insisted.

“We want to be adaptable to the local market, and provide the best products, using the best dealerships. To be localised is the only strategy for the long term," he said.

The UK has yet say whether it will take a similar approach with tariffs of its own.

China's domestic car market is vast, with more than 30 million vehicles sold each year.

Its stake in the global market is also already significant, with roughly 5 million cars exported last year. That was a 64% increase on the year before.

In the UK, Chinese brands still account for a relatively small proportion of cars sold, around 5%.

But established carmakers are concerned that figure could grow quickly, with the prices offered by Chinese brands expected to play a key role.

Published
1 hour ago

Surrounded by food trucks, Ferris wheels and funnel cake stands on a hot August afternoon, Stephanie Soucek has one goal in mind.

The 42-year-old chair of the Republican Party in Door County, a bellwether district in the battleground state of Wisconsin, is at the county fair to urge undecided voters to cast a ballot for Donald Trump.

Upon meeting Tammy Conway, a Democrat who is considering voting Republican for the first time in decades, Ms Soucek begins talking about her own family’s two expensive car payments, an economic message that seems to resonate.

Ms Conway is concerned about “sky-high” housing interest rates and said Trump might make the economy “a lot less complicated”.

But as Ms Soucek lays out her case for the Republican presidential candidate, she avoids mentioning the latest spate of controversial remarks Trump has made, including personal attacks on Democratic challenger Kamala Harris.

“I try to tell people to focus on the policies and ignore the candidates,” she said, knowing that Trump’s brash personality has deterred women previously.

Republican officials in a handful of swing states – where the election is likely to be decided – are adopting Ms Soucek’s strategy of promoting policy over personality with white suburban female voters. It's a pivotal voting bloc Trump narrowly won in his first presidential race but has struggled to appeal to since.

Local Republicans say they wish Trump would adopt a similar approach against Vice-President Harris, whose campaign has been powered by female voters since she replaced Joe Biden at the top of the ticket in July.

The concern brings into focus the widening gender gap that has come to define the election. Trump is courting young – especially black and Hispanic – men while Democrats are working to attract female voters motivated by the overturning of Roe v Wade, a landmark Supreme Court ruling that had enshrined the constitutional right to an abortion.

An ABC News/Ipsos released in September suggested the vice-president led the former president 54% to 41% among women - a seven-point jump since the Democratic National Convention late last month.

It has some Republicans worried about whether Trump can reverse the trend, Ms Soucek said.

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Ms Harris’s has "implemented dangerously liberal policies that have left women worse off financially and far less safe than we were four years ago under President Trump”.

But some who spoke to the BBC said his campaign has remained fixated on men - not women.

Republican pollster Christine Matthews said Trump’s team is “doubling down on a strategy of motivating the Maga base and hoping to motivate men - particularly non-college-educated men including those who are Hispanic in addition to white - in a way that will overpower the gender gap”.

The Trump campaign has leaned into “bro culture”, emphasising masculinity and a contrast of “weak versus tough”, said Chuck Coughlin, a political strategist who works with Republicans in the battleground state of Arizona.

“That appeals to a lot of men,” he said. “It doesn’t appeal to unaffiliated voters.”

Trump’s choice of JD Vance as his running mate reinforced how the campaign is prioritising outreach to men. They may not have expected his addition to the ticket to have been so damaging with women voters, however.

The Ohio senator has faced a backlash over previous comments about women, in particular a 2021 clip in which he calls several Democrats, including Ms Harris, “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives”.

These types of comments do not help attract swing women voters, according to Betsy Fischer Martin, executive director of the nonpartisan Women & Politics Institute.

“There are plenty of childless cat ladies voting in the suburbs,” she said.

But the former president’s campaign rhetoric does not bother some ardent female supporters like Dixie, a 59-year-old Republican from Door County.

“He’s not going to tell you what you want to hear. He’s going to tell you the truth,” said Dixie, who declined to share her last name for privacy reasons.

Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, who served as his 2016 campaign manager, told the BBC that voters could not have his policies without his “strong and resolute and tough” personality.

“People, and particularly women, tend to kvetch and converse and complain about what offends them, and then they vote according to what affects them,” she said.

Local Republicans in battleground states are hoping to stop the erosion of female support by steering the conversation back to issues that affect families on a daily basis, like crime and the economy, where polls suggest the party is more popular.

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic make it difficult to compare how the US economy performed under the Trump and Biden administrations. While both enjoyed notable economic growth, inflation has been a persistent problem in the last three years as wages have struggled to keep up with rising prices.

And a recent KFF poll indicated inflation was the top issue in this race for 40% of suburban women voters.

For Lyla Juntunen, 88, a former stay-at-home mom from the suburbs of Green Bay, Wisconsin, the price increases under Mr Biden have been hard to ignore.

“Look at these groceries that you get and how much you pay,” she told the BBC, gesturing toward a full shopping cart in a grocery store car park.

Strategists say Trump would do well to focus more on these specific economic policy points to win over voters like Ms Juntenen.

"If he dials down the attacks and his brand of fiery kind of politics, then he can pick up...female voters in particular," said Ariel Hill-Davis, co-founder of Republican Women for Progress, which advocates for female representation in the party.

"If your top three issues are the economy, inflation, public safety, I think he could easily sway those voters."

Republicans in swing states have struggled with another issue that has animated women across the country: reproductive rights.

Democrats have seized on abortion rights as a way to galvanise voters after the fall of Roe v Wade in 2022, while Ms Harris has become the White House’s leading voice on the issue.

Voters in several states - including Republican strongholds - have passed referendums protecting the right to abortion. The issue is on the ballot in at least eight states in November, including in the battleground territories of Nevada and Arizona.

Republicans have struggled to reach a unified message on reproductive rights. Trump has repeatedly said policy should be left up to the states, declining to endorse a national abortion ban that many Republican lawmakers support.

He was roundly criticised by anti-abortion conservatives in recent weeks after giving contradictory remarks on whether he would support a referendum in Florida to protect abortion rights - he later clarified he would vote against it.

The same week, he told a Michigan crowd that if he were re-elected, his administration would cover the costs of IVF, a fertility treatment that Democrats have claimed Republicans are trying to take away through restrictive state abortion laws.

Tom Eddy, the chair of the Erie County Republican Party, a swing district in the must-win state of Pennsylvania, said he’s found the best approach is to avoid the issue altogether.

“I tell my candidates, ‘Stay the hell away from it,’” he said. “I can tell no matter what policy you promote with regard to abortion, you’re going to be wrong, because half the people are going to think the other way.”

Though the KFF poll indicated abortion to be lower on the list of priorities for female suburban voters - behind immigration, border security and the economy - it remains a motivating issue for a growing share.

A survey from the New York Times and Siena College last month suggested it had become the most important issue for female voters under the age of 45.

With polls suggesting the majority of suburban women support access to abortions, Ms Soucek said the Republican Party needs to find a unified message.

“It’s just a matter of making sure that we’re sending the right message to women that we care about women, while also caring about unborn babies,” she said.

Mr Trump’s former senior adviser, Kellyanne Conway, said that while Democrats are focused on “the waist down”, the Republican Party is concentrating on the “waist up”.

“We women, from the waist up, are where our brains, ears, eyes, hearts and mouths are, so we can figure out all the issues: the kitchen table economics, entrepreneurship, taxes, regulation, energy independence,” she said.

But that language isn’t landing with all women voters in Wisconsin.

Holly Rupnow, a 56-year-old former Republican from Green Bay, said one of the reasons she planned to vote for Ms Harris was because of reproductive rights.

“I like the things that she’s going to try to do for us - get us back women’s rights,” she said.

Experts say the political landscape has changed dramatically since Donald Trump first ran for president.

Some female voters in 2016 brushed aside their worries about Trump, believing he would act differently once he was in the White House, according to Ms Fischer Martin.

But the 2016 “Let Trump be Trump” rallying cry would not work now, she said.

During the 2018 midterm elections, suburban and college-educated women largely rejected Trump and Republicans and helped power the so-called blue wave that elected more than 100 women to the US House.

In 2022, reproductive rights played a central role in helping Democrats perform better than expected, raising fears among Republicans it could do so again.

Trump could make strides with female suburban voters by directly addressing their concerns about his personality, according to political experts.

“If he were to say something like: ‘You may not like me personally, you may not like my rhetoric, but if you want to worry less about grocery bills .. I'm your guy,’” Ms Fischer Martin said.

“I don't know if he's quite capable of getting there.”

Kellyanne Conway knows Trump better than most. She believes his core message - are voters better off now then when he was in office? - is the same for all Americans, regardless of gender.

“As I told him recently,” she added, “He beat a woman before. He can beat a woman again.”