Senior government figures believe they are on the cusp of achieving a breakthrough with Emmanuel Macron on a deal that would see France take back at least some of those who have crossed the English Channel on small boats.

In return, the UK would take asylum claimants from France who wish to come to the UK and are believed to have a legitimate reason to do so.

It's being called a "one-in-one" out deal, although the numbers will be greater than that.

But the key word to watch out for, when the deal is announced later, is "deterrent".

Sir Keir Starmer has said both he and the French president agree on the need for "a new deterrent to break the business model of the gangs".

The big question is the extent to which what is agreed to amounts to that, particularly in the short term.

Will it put people off getting in a small boat?

The pilot scheme is expected to involve around 50 migrants a week being returned to France, in return for the UK taking the same number of asylum seekers in France who are deemed to have a legitimate case to move to the UK.

Critics, including the Conservatives, say this would amount to about 5% of those who are attempting crossing currently, and so would be an inadequate deterrent.

The Tories point to the deterrent they planned but never got started - the idea of sending migrants to Rwanda. This scheme was scrapped when Labour won the election.

But it is true to say this agreement, albeit limited in scale initially, marks a new moment in Franco British diplomacy on this issue - the willingness of France to take back some of those who embark on the cross Channel journey.

The test, in the months and years ahead, can it be scaled up sufficiently to make a noticeable impact on the numbers?

Or, to put it more bluntly, do the numbers attempting a crossing start to fall, or not?

Because unless they do, the scheme, on this side of the Channel at least, is likely to be seen as a failure.

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Royal Mail can deliver second-class letters on every other weekday and not on Saturdays to help cut costs, the industry regulator has said.

Ofcom said a reform to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) was needed as people are sending fewer letters each year, so stamp prices keep rising as the cost of delivering letters goes up.

The current one-price-goes-anywhere USO means Royal Mail has to deliver post six days a week, from Monday to Saturday, and parcels on five from Monday to Friday.

Ofcom said Royal Mail should continue to deliver first-class letters six days a week but second class will be limited to alternate weekdays.

"These changes are in the best interests of consumers and businesses, as urgent reform of the postal service is necessary to give it the best chance of survival," said Natalie Black, Ofcom's group director for networks and communications.

However, just changing Royal Mail's obligations will not improve the service, she said.

"The company now has to play its part and implement this effectively."

The regulator is also making changes to Royal Mail's delivery targets.

The company will have to deliver 90% of first-class mail next-day, down from the current target of 93%, while 95% of second-class mail must be delivered within three days, a cut from the current 98.5%.

However, there will be a new target of 99% of mail being delivered no more than two days late to incentivise Royal Mail to cut down on long delays.

A North Korean defector is filing civil and criminal charges against the country's leader Kim Jong Un for abuses she faced while detained in the country.

Choi Min-kyung fled the North to China in 1997 but was forcibly repatriated in 2008. She said she was sexually abused and tortured after her return.

When she files the case in Seoul on Friday, it will be the first time a North Korean-born defector takes legal action against the regime, said a South-based rights group assisting Ms Choi.

South Korean courts have in the past ruled against North Korea on similar claims by South Koreans but such verdicts are largely symbolic and ignored by Pyongyang.

The case names Kim and four other Pyongyang officials. The rights group, the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), says it also plans to take Ms Choi's case to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.

"I earnestly wish for this small step to become a cornerstone for the restoration of freedom and human dignity, so that no more innocent North Koreans suffer under this brutal regime," Ms Choi said on Wednesday, according to a statement by NKDB.

"As a torture victim and survivor of the North Korean regime, I carry a deep and urgent responsibility to hold the Kim dynasty accountable for crimes against humanity," she said.

Ms Choi fled North Korea again in 2012 and settled in the South. She said psychological trauma from the ordeal remains and that she continues to rely on medication.

For years international rights groups have documented alleged human rights violations by North Korea, ranging from the abuse of political prisoners to systematic discrimination based on gender and class.

Hanna Song, executive director of the NKDB, told BBC Korean that the lawsuits were significant because they were pursuing criminal charges "in parallel" to civil cases.

Previous court cases against North Korea had been "limited to civil litigation", she said.

In 2023, a Seoul court ordered North Korea to pay 50 million won ($36,000; £27,000) each to three South Korean men who were exploited after being taken as prisoners of war in North Korea during the Korean War.

In 2024, the North Korean government was also ordered to pay 100 million won to each of five Korean Japanese defectors. They were part of thousands who had left Japan for North Korea in the 1960s and 1980s under a repatriation programme.

They said they had been lured to North Korea decades ago on the promise of "paradise on Earth", but were instead detained and forced to work.

North Korea did not respond to either of the lawsuits.

But Ms Song, from the NKDB, argued that the rulings offered much-needed closure to the plaintiffs.

"What we've come to understand through years of work on accountability is that what victims really seek isn't just financial compensation - it's acknowledgment," said Ms Song.

"Receiving a court ruling in their favour carries enormous meaning. It tells them their story doesn't just end with them - it's acknowledged by the state and officially recorded in history."

Smoke from Canadian wildfires is drifting south and making it difficult for Americans to enjoy summer, six members of Congress have said in a letter to Canada's embassy.

"We write to you today on behalf of our constituents who have had to deal with suffocating Canadian wildfire smoke filling the air to begin the summer," they wrote to Ambassador Kirsten Hillman.

It was signed by Tom Tiffany and Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin and Michelle Fischbach, Brad Finstad, Pete Stauber and Tom Emmer of Minnesota. The Canadian embassy told the BBC that Canada takes wildfire prevention "very seriously".

Two Canadians have died in this year's wildfires and tens of thousands of others have evacuated.

Tom Emmer is a senior member of Congress, serving as Majority Whip in the House of Representatives.

He and his five fellow Republican lawmakers wrote in the letter, published Monday: "We would like to know how your government plans on mitigating wildfire and the smoke that makes its way south."

They continued: "Our constituents have been limited in their ability to go outside and safely breathe due to the dangerous air quality the wildfire smoke has created.

"In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of the year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all those things."

Tarryn Elliott, spokeswoman for the Canadian embassy in Washington DC, told the BBC the Canadian government "takes the prevention, response, and mitigation of wildfires very seriously".

"I can confirm that the letter has been received by the Embassy and has been shared with the relevant Canadian agencies," she said. "We will respond in due course."

Canada faces wildfires every summer. The worst year on record was 2023, when the fires killed eight people and torched an area larger in size than England, according to the Canadian government.

There have been 2,672 fires so far this year, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

May and June were particularly bad months in western Canada, when around 30,000 people were evacuated in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where officials declared a state of emergency.

"As I'm sure you know, this is not the first year Canadian wildfire smoke has been an issue," the lawmakers wrote, blaming a "lack of active forest management" and arson.

"With all the technology that we have at our disposal, both in preventing and fighting wildfires, this worrisome trend can be reversed if proper action is taken," they stated.

Wildfires are part of the natural cycle, and play an essential role in the regeneration of Canada's boreal forests, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources of Canada.

Many are caused by lightning strikes. In 2023, 93% of the fires in Canada were caused by lightning, according to the Canadian Climate Institute.

Scientists have linked worsening wildfire seasons to climate change, an issue that affects Canada significantly.

The country is warming at a rate twice that of the global average due to its large land mass, and its Arctic region is warming three times as fast, according to scientists.

The sun was rising over the village of Brantham in Suffolk when Anita Rose set off for an early morning dog walk. She was a mother of six, and a grandmother of 13. Within an hour, she had been assaulted so brutally that her injuries were akin to those of someone in a head-on car crash. She died four days later.

The man responsible, Roy Barclay, was on a list of Suffolk Police's most wanted criminals but he had managed to avoid being recalled to prison for the past two years by sleeping in makeshift camps.

But despite this, Barclay had left a sizeable digital footprint - using his bank card to order items online and leaving hundreds of reviews on Google Maps.

With all this online activity, how did he manage to evade police and remain free to murder Anita?

Anita was an "early bird", her partner Richard Jones said. She loved to walk her springer spaniel Bruce around Brantham, a village where she'd lived for six years and always said she felt safe. The 57-year-old loved watching the sun come up before other people were awake.

On the morning of 24 July last year, Mr Jones and Anita chatted on the phone while she walked. He worked as a lorry driver and would spend time away from home during the week, so the couple would catch up while Anita took Bruce on the first of his three daily walks.

The couple had known each other since they were teenagers and had started dating in 2011 after a chance meeting at a petrol station in Copdock where Anita worked.

The pair's final conversation ended with Anita telling the 59-year-old to "drive safe, I love you".

Within an hour of hanging up, she was found unconscious and severely injured on a track road near a railway line by a cyclist and dog walker.

During the trial, Ms Island told the court Anita had "laboured breathing" and patches of blood on her face, and was only wearing leggings and a black sports bra, despite leaving the house wearing her pink Regatta jacket.

Mr Tassel described how her dog Bruce was lying "patiently" next to her body with his lead wrapped twice around her leg - this turned out to be something Barclay had also done in 2015, when he attacked a man.

Neuropathologist Dr Kieran Allinson, who treated Anita at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, likened her injuries to those seen in high speed car crashes and said they were consistent with kicking, stamping and repeated impacts to the head.

In the weeks that followed, Barclay was described during his Ipswich Crown Court trial as having lived in carefully-hidden camps and shaving his head to change his appearance.

He had been wanted by police since 2022, when he breached the terms of his licence by making himself homeless.

Barclay had been jailed in 2015 for the violent, unprovoked assault on an elderly man in an Essex seaside town, and was released on parole in 2020.

After killing Anita, his internet search history showed he had looked up news articles about the attack. He also looked up Anita's partner on social media.

Barclay is also said to have kept some of her belongings - including a pink Regatta jacket - at his makeshift camps.

In the weeks after Anita's murder, Suffolk Police entered into one of its biggest-ever investigations to find the culprit.

A number of people were arrested and bailed.

Barclay, meanwhile, continued to be a prolific reviewer on Google Maps for hundreds of locations around Suffolk and Essex.

Between 2022 and October 2024, he posted thousands of photos of churches, Amazon lockers, libraries, beaches, council buildings, statues and more - earning himself a 'Level 8' contributor status (the highest being level 10).

One review was of Decoy Pond in Brantham, with photos posted between April and July - the month he murdered Anita a short distance away.

Three months after the murder, his final few Google reviews were about Flatford, a historic area on the Essex-Suffolk border famed for inspiring iconic paintings.

"It's a beautiful, unspoilt rural idyll that somehow exists in its own timelessness, as if awaiting the return of John Constable," wrote Barclay in a review posted in October 2024.

By then he was camping out a mile from where he'd killed Anita - but a chance meeting with a Suffolk Police officer near White Bridge, between Brantham and Manningtree, led to his arrest.

Barclay gave the officer, Det Con Simpson, a fake name, coming across as "quite nervous and quite anxious", the detective said.

Six days later on 21 October, at Ipswich County Library, Barclay was arrested and was subsequently charged with Anita's murder, which he denied.

After his conviction, the Crown Prosecution Service described Barclay as "an individual that… has a history for acting violently so we knew that this was somebody that could act unprovoked in a very violent manner".

The 2015 attack in Walton-on-the-Naze left the victim, 82-year-old Leslie Gunfield, with serious injuries to his head, neck, face and jaw.

Barclay was jailed for 10 years for the assault, but was released on licence after five.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which is responsible for probation services, told the BBC that a recall notice for Barclay was issued quickly following the breach of his licence conditions.

In doing this, finding Barclay became the responsibility of Suffolk Police.

The force began looking for him in 2022 but did not issue a press release about his wanted status until January 2024. it asked for members of the public to get in touch if they saw him, saying he had "links across Suffolk and Essex".

Just over a month before he murdered Anita, on 10 June, Barclay had left a comment on an online article called 'Fixing Fixed Term Recalls'.

He accused the MoJ of "deliberately" setting up prison leavers "to fail" and "return like a boomerang".

"Is it really any surprise that so many of those on license are on recall within the first year of release?" he wrote. The MoJ has refuted these claims.

Hamish Brown, a former detective inspector who worked for the Specialist Crime Directorate at New Scotland Yard, said his own experience taught him that officers were often not given "huge amounts of time" to investigate wanted suspects.

But in this case, he said, the force would have serious questions to answer.

"Suffolk Police failed in tracking him down, despite him using his bank card and reviewing places on Google.

"I'm surprised Suffolk Police missed this and didn't find him, despite the trail he was leaving.

"The bottom line is it could have been prevented if the police had done their job and gone looking for the person.

"So the police will have to brace themselves and be answerable."

But Paul Bernal, professor of information technology law at the University of East Anglia, believes there would have been a limit to how useful the Google reviews could have been in tracking Barclay down.

"There is absolutely no way a social media or search provider would know that those things are in any way needed in a police investigation," he told the BBC.

Speaking after the jury found Barclay guilty, Anita's family stood on the court steps and spoke of the changes they said "need to be made within the probation service and justice system".

"We need make sure our communities are safe and criminals are taken back to prison when they break the terms of their probations," her eldest daughter Jess said.

"They cannot remain at large - there's too much at stake."

'Definitive answers'

Suffolk Police confirmed it would conduct a voluntary partnership review which would look at how the force and the probation service handled the search for Barclay.

"It will look closely at the information sharing processes and how the organisations collaborated," said assistant chief constable Alice Scott.

"This review will be a thorough assessment and scrutiny of the processes concerning Barclay.

"It will be expedited as soon as possible so we can provide clear and definitive answers for Anita's family."

Additional reporting by Jodie Halford and Laura Foster.

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For the second time this week, Reform UK have announced a former Conservative cabinet minister has joined them.

The other day they said that former Welsh Secretary David Jones had signed up, back in January.

Two other former Tory MPs defected recently too – Anne Marie Morris and Ross Thomson.

Now it is Sir Jake Berry joining Nigel Farage's party.

A man knighted by Boris Johnson.

A man whose son counts Johnson as his godfather.

A man who used to be the chairman of the Conservative Party and who was a Tory minister in three different government departments.

And yet a man who now says this: "If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you'd be hard pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule."

Read that sentence again and consider it was written by someone who was not just a Tory MP for 14 years but a senior one, occupying high office.

Extraordinary.

And this is probably not the end of it – both Reform and Conservative folk I speak to hint they expect there to be more to come.

Tories are trying to put the best gloss on it they can, saying Reform might be attracting former MPs – Sir Jake lost his seat at the last election – but they are losing current MPs.

The MP James McMurdock suspended himself from Reform at the weekend after a story in the Sunday Times about loans he took out under a Covid support scheme.

McMurdock has said he was compliant with the rules.

But the trend is clear: Conservatives of varying seniority are being lured across by Nigel Farage and are proud to say so when they make the leap.

Reform are particularly delighted that Sir Jake has not just defected but done so by going "studs in" on his former party, as one source put it.

"For us this is really crucial. If you want to join us you need to be really going for the other side when you do. Drawing a proper line in the sand," they added.

They regard Sir Jake's closeness to Boris Johnson as "dagger-in-the-heart stuff" for the Conservatives.

But perhaps the more interesting and consequential pivot in strategy we are currently witnessing is Labour's approach to Reform.

At the very highest level in government they are reshaping their approach: turning their attention away from their principal opponent of the last century and more, the Conservatives, and tilting instead towards Nigel Farage's party.

Again, extraordinary.

It tells you a lot about our contemporary politics that a party with Labour's history, sitting on top of a colossal Commons majority, is now shifting its focus to a party with just a handful of MPs.

Senior ministers take the rise of Reform incredibly seriously and are not dismissing them as a flash in the pan insurgency.

After all, Reform's lead in many opinion polls has proven to be sustained in recent months and was then garnished with their impressive performance in the English local elections in May and their win, on the same day, in the parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in Cheshire.

If Labour folk then were still in need of the jolt of a wake-up call, that night provided it.

In their immediate response to Sir Jake's defection, Labour are pointing to Reform recruiting Liz Truss's party chairman and so are inheriting, they claim, her "reckless economics".

But they know the challenge of taking on and, they hope, defeating Reform, will be work of years of slog and will have to be grounded in proving they can deliver in government – not easy, as their first year in office has so often proven.

Not for the first time in recent months, Reform UK have momentum and are making the political weather.

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