Police are investigating the illegal release of two lynx in the Highlands and have urged the public not to approach the wild cats.

The alarm was raised at about 16:20 when they were spotted in the Drumguish area, near to Kingussie.

Specially trained staff from the Highland Wildlife Park are assisting officers to trace the animals.

The Cairngorms National Park Authority said they were shy and a "low risk" to humans but added they should not be approached.

A spokesperson said: "We condemn the illegal release of wild animals in the strongest possible terms and we are also concerned for the welfare of the lynx that have been released."

The authority also said people should not attend the area and appealed to anyone with information about the lynx to contact police.

The wild cats were once native to Britain, but were driven to extinction 500 to 1,000 years ago.

But some conservation groups have been campaigning to have the wild cats reintroduced to Scotland.

Lynx to Scotland, a three-charity partnership working to restore lynx to the Scottish Highlands, said it had been made aware of the release.

Peter Cairns, executive director of Scotland: The Big Picture, one of the charities involved, said: "The Lynx to Scotland Project knows nothing of the origin of these two lynx, their history, health status, or who may have released them.

"We understand the frustration of all those who wish to see lynx restored to the Scottish landscape, but an illegal release is not the way to achieve that aim."

Mr Cairns said the project had never supported or condoned illegal releases.

He added: "This is unwelcome and grossly irresponsible, but comes at the worst possible time, when stakeholders are engaging in good faith with productive discussions about the possibility of a responsibly managed and fully resourced legal reintroduction."

RSPB Scotland said it was collaborating with the police, relevant governing bodies and partner organisations.

A spokesperson said: "Whilst we support lynx reintroduction as a formerly native species to Scotland, we work within official conservation translocation guidelines and therefore do not support unofficial releases which only set back approved conservation projects."

A spokesperson for farmers' union NFU Scotland said: "We hope that the released predators are caught as soon as possible and before any livestock or any other animals are destroyed.

"We ask all those living and working in the local rural community to be vigilant and report any sightings."

There is huge anger among campaigners who have long been arguing for these apex predators to be returned to the wild in Scotland.

It is a highly controversial plan and has required some careful manoeuvring by conservationists to try and make it a reality.

They are convinced these two animals have been illegally released by someone who has grown tired of that process and taken the law into their own hands.

It has happened before with another species.

Beavers were released illegally in Perthshire while consultations over their formal reintroduction were still ongoing and the population has since exploded.

Farmers hate the idea of wild lynx because of concerns they might target their lambs for food.

If that happens in the coming days, campaigners fear it would end their ambitions of a reintroduction for decades.

It is possible the two cats could disappear into the wild, mate and produce the first genuinely wild lynx in more than five centuries.

But experts say the fact these secretive animals have been spotted several times suggests they might actually be too domesticated to survive in the wild.

If you think Ezra Collective's music is life-affirming, just wait until you meet them in person.

Tumbling into the BBC's Maida Vale studios, the band are boisterous and charming, the sort of people to greet a perfect stranger like a long-lost cousin.

Bandleader and drummer Femi Koleoso has a room-filling smile and a zest for life that infuses his music.

"We're just trying to bring something positive and joyful to whoever will listen," he says. "So anything that exposes us to more people is always gratefully received."

Today, that means the honour of being named runner-up in the BBC's Sound Of 2025.

The annual poll, which has been running since 2003, has tipped everyone from 50 Cent and Adele, to Raye and Dua Lipa for success.

Ezra Collective's addition to the list comes relatively late in their career. They've already won the Mercury Prize, for their second album Where I'm Meant To Be, and last November, they became the first jazz act to sell out Wembley Arena.

But to their minds, the band are still newcomers.

Koleoso recalls the thrumming intensity of making his Wembley debut.

"Fifteen minutes before the gig, I made the horrific mistake of reading the wall backstage," he says.

"They'd put up the names of everyone who'd played there before us. So it was like, 'OK, Beyoncé played here, and Jay-Z and Stormzy and Madonna… And now it's Ezra Collective's turn'."

If they were intimidated, it didn't show. The quintet turn audience participation into an artform, venturing out into the crowd and making fans part of their ensemble, almost like a New Orleans parade.

Reviews were ecstatic, calling the show a "masterclass in musicianship" that left "every single person with a smile on their face."

As a result, Ezra Collective's name will be added to the Wembley Wall – but Koleoso wants it to have a radically different effect.

"Wouldn't it be great if, in 10 years' time, some band is getting intimidated by Beyoncé and Madonna, and then they see our name, and they're like, 'Oh yeah, they came into our school to do an assembly - so we'll be fine'?".

Community and musical kinship is Ezra Collective's foundation stone; one that can be traced back to the youth club Tomorrow's Warriors, where they first met in central London in 2012.

The charity offers training to musicians who can't afford private tuition, with a special focus on "those with a background from the African Diaspora and girls, who are often under-represented in the music industry".

"It's where I met my best friends," says Koleoso, who remains a passionate supporter of youth clubs.

"Not to get too deep, but how do you fix domestic violence or the male suicide rate? You teach a 14-year-old boy how to deal with rejection, how to love people, how to control anger, how to respect others.

"Youth clubs can help with that. By the time someone's 24, it's almost too late."

When Koleoso first visited Tomorrow's Warriors with his brother TJ, they'd already formed a tight rhythm section in their church band. In fact, Femi had been playing drums since he was four.

"Maybe I'm slightly biased, but I think the drums are the best instrument, because you can see what's going on," he says.

"When I watch our horn section, I'm hearing thousands of notes, but I'm only seeing three valves. It doesn't quite make sense. But with the drums, you hit them and they make a sound.

"I wish everything was as simple as that."

Tomorrow's Warriors introduced Koleoso to jazz, a genre he'd previously considered elite and inaccessible, and to his future bandmates James Mollison (sax), Ife Ogunjobi (keyboards) and Dylan Jones (trumpet).

Together, they ripped the genre rulebook to shreds, magpie-ing elements of Afrobeat, hip-hop, grime, reggae, Latin, R&B, highlife and jazz to create a sound that bulges with possibility.

"We're the shuffle generation," explains Koleoso. "We listen to Beethoven and 50 Cent comes on straight after. That influences the way we approach music: We love jazz but at the same time I love salsa too, so why not try and get that in there?"

After playing their first gig in a Foyles bookshop, they released their debut EP, Chapter 7, in 2016, and a debut album, You Can't Steal My Joy in 2019.

Then Covid hit.

"We were meant to do a world tour but shortly after we arrived in New Zealand, we were told get back to London because the world was collapsing," says Koleoso.

Lockdown inspired their second album, but instead of introspection and gloom, it's an immensely energetic record, fuelled by the promise of post-pandemic reconnection.

"What we found was we had each other," says Koleoso. "It felt like we were meant to be together, and we made as many tracks as we could that articulate that."

When it won the Mercury Prize, the follow-up was already in the bag.

Dance, No-One's Watching was recorded over three days ("one was just setting up") at Abbey Road Studios, with the band still slightly worse-for-wear after a weekend at the Notting Hill Carnival.

The idea was to capture the excitement of their live show direct to tape – with an audience of family and friends to stop them obsessing over the technicalities of recording.

"What you're hearing is very, very real. We just played it and then had a listen back, and were like, 'Yeah, put it on a vinyl'."

That's why the album features a short, aborted performance of Ajala, with Koleoso instructing his bandmates to play harder on the next take.

"A lot of people think that's a skit, but it was a very real moment," he says. "I wanted the song to go off, but it didn't, so we stopped and tried again.

"Those things are precious, because they will never happen again.

"There's a lot of things in the world that don't feel real enough, but music shouldn't be one of them."

In contrast to its predecessor, the album is immersed in the real world. Themed around a night out in London, it celebrates the sacred power of dancing and losing yourself in music with other people.

There's even a song titled N29, after the night bus Koleso used to catch home from nights out in London.

Anyone who's braved one of those 3am rides home will recognise the song's mixture of post-club euphoria, random conversations and the backdrop of potential violence.

Koleoso says his first experience of that liminal reality came after his high school prom.

"Our school got one of those fancy little boats on the Thames and everyone paid their £20, which, for a state school in Enfield, was an impressive night out," he recalls.

"This was at the height of grime and funky house, so I'm just having the best time in my life, dancing on this boat in a suit… then I missed the last tube home."

In a time before Google Maps, it took a while to locate the right bus. When he finally clambered on board, it was carnage.

"I grew 10 years in that one journey, do you know what I mean?" he laughs. "I saw waaaay to much life!"

His desire to document life in all its messy, wonderful glory is the album's core.

"In 2022, we got to travel the whole world. We had amazing nights in New Orleans, on colourful streets with so much going on that it's hard to describe.

"And you'd think, 'How do I get this feeling into a song? I want someone in their flat in Edmonton to get a glimpse of this.'

"Or you'd go to the shrine in Lagos and be like, 'I need to convey the feeling of the shrine to someone who lives in Cardiff.'"

Ezra Collective's ever-growing audience suggests they've successfully completed that mission.

But there's one person who'll be surprised: Koleoso's A-level music teacher.

"Here's the secret, I got a D in music," he confesses.

"I was pretty embarrassed, because it made difficult to convince my parents that playing music was gonna be OK.

"But what it tells you is that exams can determine one type of intelligence, but they're not the be-all and end-all.

"If there was an exam in shutting down shows, I think I'd do better than a D."

Amen to that.

Firefighters in Los Angeles are battling a number of blazes in city suburbs, as tens of thousands of residents are forced to flee.

The rapidly changing situation is compounded by Santa Ana winds and extremely dry conditions. Currently authorities say there is no possibility of bringing the fires under control.

The Palisades fire, which is closest to the coast and also the largest, has ripped through picturesque suburbs which are home to many Hollywood stars. More than 1,000 buildings have already been destroyed.

Here's how the fires have spread and are affecting the Los Angeles area.

An overview of the current fires

Four major fires are currently being tackled.

The Palisades fire was first reported at 10:30 (18:30 GMT) on Tuesday, and grew in just 20 minutes from a blaze of 20 acres to more than 200 acres, then more than tenfold in a matter of a few more hours. At least 30,000 people have so far been ordered to leave their homes.

The Eaton fire grew to cover 1,000 acres within the first six hours of breaking out. It started in Altadena in the hills above Pasadena at around 18:30 local time on Tuesday.

The Hurst fire is located just north of San Fernando. It began burning on Tuesday at around 22:10 local time, growing to 500 acres, according to local officials. It has triggered evacuation orders in neighbouring Santa Clarita.

The latest of the four fires is the Woodley fire, currently 75 acres in size. It broke out at approximately 06:15 local time on Wednesday.

• Follow latest updates on the LA wildfires
• Watch: Smoke billows as thousands evacuate in LA
• 'Run for your lives!' residents abandon cars to flee fire on foot
• Timelapse shows rapid spread of Palisades wildfire
• Watch: Inside a neighbourhood totally lost in inferno
• Pacific Palisades: The celebrity LA area ravaged by wildfire

How did the Palisades fire spread?

The Palisades fire has so far burnt through more than 2,900 acres. The map above shows how rapidly the blaze spread, intensifying in a matter of hours. At just after 14:00 on Tuesday it covered 772 acres and within four hours it had expanded approximately to its current size.

Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate, as more than 1,400 firefighters try to tackle the blaze.

How does the Palisade fire compare in size with New York and London?

To give an idea of the size of the Palisades fire, we have superimposed it on to maps of New York and London.

As you can see, it is comparable in size with the central area of UK's capital, or with large areas of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.

How the fires look from space

Another indication of the scale of the Palisades fire comes from Nasa's Earth Observatory.

The images captured on Tuesday show a huge plume of smoke emanating from California and drifting out to sea.

Effects of the Eaton fire

The Palisade fire is not the only one to have a devastating effect on neighbourhoods of Los Angeles.

The above images show the Jewish Temple in Pasadena before and during the Eaton fire.

The Jewish Temple and Centre's website says it has been in use since 1941 and has a congregation of more than 400 familes.

The affluent Los Angeles neighbourhood of Pacific Palisades typically has strangers walking around, trying to catch a glimpse of celebrities' houses.

Now, though, its streets are filled with firefighters battling a 3,000-acre wildfire that is ravaging the area.

Across the city, more than 30,000 have been forced to evacuate their homes as winds stoke three fires. A state of emergency has been declared, leaving roads gridlocked as people flee.

Among them, a number of famous faces have been forced to flee their usually idyllic California homes, including Star Wars' Mark Hamill and Schitt's Creek actor Eugene Levy.

James Woods, who has starred in films including Nixon and Casino, described evacuating his home on social media, and said he was not sure if it was still standing.

"It feels like losing a loved one," he wrote.

Pacific Palisades is known for being exclusive, with a house costing $4.5m (£3.6m) on average as of November 2024, according to Realtor.com.

The north LA neighbourhood is bordered on the south with a three-mile (4.8km) stretch of beaches on the Pacific Ocean, nestled between Malibu and Santa Monica.

It is a hub for trendy shops, cafes and a farmers' market.

But the Palisades fire - which grew from 10 acres to over 2,900 in a matter of hours - has shattered they area's idyllic nature.

Mark Hamill, of Star Wars fame, called the blaze the "most horrific fire since '93" - which burned 18,000 acres and destroyed 323 homes in nearby Malibu - in a post on Instagram.

He said he evacuated his home in Malibu "so last-minute there [were] small fires on both sides of the road".

Levy, who rose to fame for his role in film series American Pie, told local media he was forced to evacuate his home.

"The smoke looked pretty black and intense over Temescal Canyon. I couldn't see any flames but the smoke was very dark," he recounted to the Los Angeles Times.

Reality star's Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag lost their family home in the fire, his sister wrote on Instagram.

"I am beyond heartbroken for my brother, Heidi and the kids," she said. "Even the fire station in the Palisades has burned down."

Miles Teller, best known for his role in Top Gun: Maverick, and his wife Keleigh, also live in the area.

Posting on Instagram, Mrs Teller shared a picture of the fires and a heart-break emoji. She urged people to leave bowls of water for animals as they evacuate their homes.

Meanwhile, Actor Steve Guttenberg, known for Police Academy, stayed to help firefighters by moving cars in order to make room for incoming fire trucks.

He urged residents to leave the keys to their abandoned cars so they could be moved out the way of firefighters.

"We really need people to move their cars," he told news outlet KTLA: "This is not a parking lot."

It is not just famous residents affected by the wildfire - notable buildings in the area are under threat as well.

The Palisades Charter High School - which has served as a set for movies and counts several notable people as former students - has been damaged by fire, local media reports.

The fire-stricken school has been used in films including 1976 horror classic Carrie and Project X, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Former students include director JJ Abrams, musician Will.i.am, and actors Forest Whitaker and Katey Sagal.

The Getty Villa is an art museum in the Palisades that has a large collection of artworks and artefacts, including works by Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.

The museum confirmed on Tuesday that it had closed to the public and that some trees and vegetation on site had burned - but said that "no structures are on fire, and staff and the collection remain safe".

Star studded events due to take place in the area have also been cancelled.

Film premiers for Unstoppable, Better Man and Wolfman have been called off, as has the Screen Actors Guild Awards live nominations event.

Many black staff members at London's world-famous Harrods department store would leave the shop floor before Mohamed Al Fayed toured the premises, former employees have told the BBC.

Staff would be given a warning before he appeared, says a former security guard, which was followed by a "beeline of certain people, certain races", leaving the floor.

"The level of racism was very clear," said "Henry" (not his real name).

These accounts follow a BBC documentary broadcast in September which included claims from more than 20 women that Mohamed Al Fayed sexually assaulted or raped them.

Harrods responded to the latest claims about racism by referring us to a previous statement in which it said it was "utterly appalled" by the abuse allegations made against Al Fayed, adding that it was a "very different organisation to the one owned and controlled" by him.

In November, the Met Police said it had launched a new investigation after 90 alleged new victims had come forward.

Henry told BBC Radio 5 Live's Clare McDonnell that before Al Fayed's daily walks around the store, there was a five-minute warning announced on guards' radios.

He said black people, and also other staff who didn't fit a certain look, would then leave the shop floor, in a "robotic" movement.

"It seemed very much like the protocol that [they] would disappear," he added.

He said the staff would leave the building via an underground tunnel, connecting the main store to an office across the road. Henry said they would then file back once Al Fayed had gone.

Another former staff member, who wishes to remain anonymous, also told the BBC that many black members of staff went to stock-rooms or "on tea breaks" when Al Fayed was visiting the shop floor. They also said that some women were sent to put on make-up.

Henry said the only staff who stayed on the shop floor were "young, thin, blonde", although some non-white door guards also remained.

Since the BBC's investigation was broadcast, we have heard scores of accounts of Al Fayed - who died in 2023 aged 94 - favouring women with these traits.

'Here today, gone today'

Lisa, who used to work in HR at the store, confirmed that security would "warn" staff members when Al Fayed was about to come onto the shop floor, so people he would be likely to "pick on" negatively could hide.

"Not the girls that he would like," she said, adding that those "hidden" would also include people who were "overweight".

"They were good at their jobs," she said. "We didn't want to keep losing staff."

The BBC has been told that staff were frequently sacked. Jon Brilliant, who worked in Al Fayed's private office for 18 months, has previously told the BBC that within Harrods there was surveillance, sackings and a culture designed to keep top managers from trusting or communicating with one another.

Henry agreed there was a culture of "paranoia, fear and bullying" while he worked as a security guard there.

During his initial training, he said he had been warned not to invest in a monthly travel pass because "you could be here today and you [could] be gone today".

Another former member of Harrods HR staff, Anna, said when she worked for the men's tailored suit division she was told not to employ anyone who was black, because "the customers wouldn't like it".

Once, she said, the best candidate was a Caribbean man, who was "head and shoulders above anyone else".

"I just sat there thinking, 'What a waste of my time and your time. I cannot employ you because of the colour of your skin.'"

Anna said she recorded that in his recruitment notes, and was reprimanded for doing so.

Lisa said on one occasion, Al Fayed "came right up to my face" and used a racist word to describe the type of people he didn't want her to hire.

'Culture of paranoia, fear and bullying'

A number of employment tribunals, successfully brought by people claiming racial discrimination, took place during Al Fayed's ownership of Harrods.

Henry said he didn't witness any sexual assault when he worked at the store, but there was "hearsay" amongst staff.

"I had lots of people tell me things, I suspected a lot of things, I saw some things, but who am I going to tell?" he said. "You can suspect all you want, but without having some proof… it's not evidence in court."

Al Fayed was accused of racism by Vanity Fair in 1995, an allegation he vehemently denied. It sparked a libel lawsuit that the billionaire later agreed to drop, as long as further evidence the magazine had gathered in preparation for a trial was locked away.

Many years after leaving his post, Henry said he still feared reprisals from people in the former chairman's security team.

"Just a few things I said to you could cost me my life - and if not my life, my livelihood," he said.

Despite these fears, he said other members of Harrods security staff should come forward to the authorities.

"If they have daughters, they have granddaughters, they have a mother, they should tell [what they know]… but I can assure you those people would keep their mouths shut."

The statement received from Harrods also said: "These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms. We also acknowledge that during this time his victims were failed and for this we sincerely apologise."

It added: "While we cannot undo the past, we have been determined to do the right thing as an organisation, driven by the values we hold today, while ensuring that such behaviour can never be repeated in the future."

If you are affected by issues of sexual assault, information and support is available from BBC Action Line here

Hear the full interview with Henry on BBC Radio 5 Live's Drive programme on BBC Sounds, from 1600 GMT on Thursday 9 January

If you have information about this story that you would like to share please get in touch. Email MAFinvestigation@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.

Some local councils in England would need to see at least a five-fold increase in new housing to meet government targets, analysis by BBC Verify suggests.

The BBC's figures lay out the immense challenge Labour has set itself in government with its "milestone" of building 1.5 million new homes in England over five years.

In total, 16 local authorities across England have new annual targets that are five times or more what they have recently delivered.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said setting a specific target will "give the British people the power to hold our feet to the fire".

With that in mind, the BBC has created a new online tool for tracking the government's progress towards this key goal.

Type in your postcode and see the house building situation in your own area.

The government has also set annual housing targets for each local authority in England, based on what it judges their contribution to the overall total should be.

The most demanding target is for the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which has been set a target for new homes nearly 22 times its recent average.

The target for Sevenoaks in Kent is five times what it has been delivering on average in recent years, while the target for Portsmouth is more than eight times the average.

These specific targets will enable us to incorporate information into the tracker on what's happening on house building in every district in England.

It will show the number of homes added in an area and compare it with the local target set by ministers.

Our postcode lookup tool also shows the share of planning applications for new homes granted permissions in an area in the most recent year there is data for, and compares it with the England-wide average rate, so you can judge whether your council is approving enough building plans.

The tracker will be updated when relevant official data becomes available.

Hugely ambitious

The new government has described its housebuilding objective as "hugely ambitious" and that is no exaggeration.

To deliver 1.5 million homes, defined as "net additional dwellings", over five years implies a strike rate of about 300,000 a year - a number not achieved since the 1970s.

But while the England-wide target is highly ambitious in a historical context, the targets handed down to some local authorities are arguably even more so.

To create our postcode tracker we processed local data on:

• the number of annual net additional dwellings required
• the number of net additional dwellings created on average each year since 2021
• recent residential planning decisions by councils.

BBC Verify's analysis shows Kensington and Chelsea, a London borough, has been given a target of 5,107 new homes every year for the next five years. But the borough delivered an average of only 236 net additional dwellings between 2021-22 and 2023-24.

It did, however, approve 89% of planning applications for housing in the year to June 2024, considerably higher than the national rate of 71%.

Portsmouth, on the south coast, also has a very stretching target. The local council is being asked to deliver 1,021 new homes per year, almost nine times the 120 it delivered on average over the most recent three years.

Hastings has been tasked with a smaller total: 710. But this is still five times the 142 it has delivered on average in recent years.

Portsmouth approved 74% of residential planning applications in the year to June 2024 and Hastings 75%.

Councils were consulted on the targets last summer, with many expressing concerns they were "unrealistic", and the numbers were revised.

Councillor Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea, said it was "out of touch to let algorithms set targets without understanding local context".

"You only have to walk through the streets of our densely built borough to see how unachievable it would be to build 5,107 homes a year here; this borough is only 4.5 miles squared."

She said there were two major sites in the borough that would provide 6,000 new homes in total.

Councillor Darren Sanders, cabinet member for housing at Portsmouth City Council, said the target "does not work" because "most of the city is an island" with a dense population and "important heritage and natural assets".

"Portsmouth has approved more than 4,000 new homes in 2023 and 2024. Any lack of delivery is down to the rising cost of development," he said, "not whether the council approves them."

Sevenoaks councillor Julia Thornton said it was a "top priority" to protect greenbelt land, but added: "We will have a duty to do everything possible to meet the government's new housing targets."

Sir Keir's housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, has said if councils fail to deliver enough houses the government could intervene.

"The government can take a local plan off a local authority that is resisting putting one in place, and we are absolutely willing to do it, if we have evidence that [they] are refusing to comply," he told the BBC.

The obstacles

The government said it had "inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory" and "all areas must play their part".

It has set out "a major planning overhaul… unblocking barriers to building, and setting out targets for councils to ramp up housebuilding, so new homes are built where they are most needed."

Most housing experts agree planning reform is necessary.

Yet analysts say it is not the only obstacle.

The construction industry has warned it is dealing with a chronic shortage of skilled workers.

The Home Builders Federation has cited aging workers and Brexit as some of the factors behind shortages.

The Construction Industry Training Board estimates the sector needs to attract the equivalent of 50,300 extra workers per year to meet the levels of work expected.

There are also concerns about the availability of basic building materials including bricks and timber.

The Construction Leadership Council has warned a shortage of these could hinder the government's ability to get near its target.

Finally, many housing experts doubt private housebuilders are capable of delivering enough new homes each year to reach the targets.

This is because private housebuilders have a commercial interest in not building so many new homes that their average price declines.

The Competition and Markets Authority concluded in February 2024 "private developers produce houses at a rate at which they can be sold without needing to reduce their prices".

A sharp decline in residential planning permissions in England in the year to June 2024 - hitting a new record low - was due to a collapse in applications from private builders, not a decline in the share of applications being approved by local authorities.

This collapse in applications probably reflected the impact of still-high mortgage interest rates and high house prices relative to average incomes, undermining the ability of people to afford newly built houses.

That's why some argue meeting the government's targets will also require a major increase in Whitehall grants to not-for-profit local housing associations, enabling them to build tens of thousands of new social and affordable homes, mainly to be rented out, in the coming years.

Interactive tool developed by Allison Shultes, Scott Jarvis and Steven Connor

About the data

Annual data on new homes for England comes from the government's "net additional dwellings" statistics.

These figures are estimates of changes in the total number of homes in each area, taking account of new build homes and existing building conversions, minus any demolitions.

The targets are the government's new "local housing need" calculations, released following a public consultation.

Planning statistics are taken from quarterly data and combine applications decided for "minor" housing developments (fewer than 10 homes) and "major" schemes (10 homes or more).

The planning data for England is at local authority level. Applications decided by special authorities, such as those in charge of national parks, are not included.

We have included the latest data on new housebuilding "completions" by local authority area for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but the 1.5 million homes target applies only in England.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

Ten-year-old Elliot, who is a big Pokemon fan, says he would like to put posters up and decorate his magnolia-coloured bedroom walls.

It's one of the things he and his four brothers would do if they had a permanent home.

Parents Sam and Jason have been living in temporary accommodation with their five boys for a year now after they were evicted from the house they were renting in Portsmouth.

Like many families, they had to move because the landlord wanted to sell and they couldn't afford "extortionate" rents when they started looking for a new home.

The local council placed them in a hotel for several weeks before moving them to a three-bedroom house.

The couple say living in limbo is incredibly hard and the uncertainty is distressing for the children.

"It doesn't feel like a home," says Jason. "We can't make this a home because we don't know how long we are going to be here for."

They are now one of more than 1,100 families on the waiting list for a council home in Portsmouth. Jason, 49, is a bus driver and says housing in England has become unaffordable for working families like his.

It comes as the government says it is now trying to tackle England's housing shortage by setting ambitious housebuilding targets for areas like Portsmouth, which could help people like Sam and Jason.

The aim is for 370,000 new homes in England every year, to fulfil a government promise for 1.5m new homes within the next five years. Local authorities are being told to give developers permission to build - and planning decisions will be pushed through by the government if necessary.

But some local councils in England will need to see a five-fold increase in new housing to meet government targets, analysis by BBC Verify suggests.

The BBC has created a new online tool to enable people to track the government's progress towards its goal where they live.

Portsmouth is one of a number of areas that will need to add more homes in one year than it has delivered in the previous five.

Between March 2019 and March 2024, Portsmouth added a total of 803 homes, equivalent to an increase of just under 1%.

This was the lowest percentage increase in homes of any local authority area in England, according to BBC analysis of housing data.

Portsmouth's target, set by the Labour government, is to add 1,021 homes a year.

The leader of the council, Steve Pitt says it will be impossible for the coastal authority to deliver that many homes.

He described the target as "stupid and arbitrary" and says it is pointless if there is nowhere to build.

"Portsmouth has a pretty unique geography. Eleven of the 14 wards in Portsmouth are on an island, so we only have a very limited amount of brownfield space," he says.

"We've always tried to explain this to government. They don't tend to listen."

Mr Pitt says the most homes the authority will be able to deliver is 800 a year, falling well short of the target.

"It doesn't matter whether they tell us to build more homes or not, or whether they want to fine us - they won't be built because there's nowhere to build them."

He accepts the area needs more homes and says the government should provide sufficient funding for affordable house building to get plans moving.

At the moment, he says it's "not viable" for social providers or private developers because they cannot guarantee future rental income will cover the build costs.

Housing is one of the biggest issues for people contacting us through Your Voice, Your BBC News.

Lily, 24, got in touch to say homeownership feels impossible and is "depressing".

She and her partner Jacob, 24 have two children and say thinking about where they are going to live is a "constant stress".

In 2023, they were evicted when their landlord wanted to sell the flat they were living in. They are now temporarily renting from a family member but would like their own home.

"All we want is for [our children] to have what we had when we were little, the security of a family home," says Lily.

Lily and Jacob say there are new homes being built in the area, but they aren't affordable for families like hers.

To try to save for a deposit, Jacob quit his job in a school and began working nights in a warehouse but he says he doesn't think there's "a chance in hell" of saving the £25,000 to £30,000 he says they would need to put down on a property.

The family live in the Gloucestershire town of Lydney.

BBC analysis of official data shows that areas in the South West delivered an average of about 23,000 new homes per year in the last three years.

Government targets suggest they are going to have to increase that amount by almost three-quarters, to 40,000 a year. Some recent local plans have been refused or faced opposition.

It's many of the London boroughs that face the most significant challenges. Kensington and Chelsea delivered just 245 homes last year. The authority's target is more than 20 times that; more than 5,000 homes per year.

Zach Murphy, 25, lives at home with his parents in the borough. He says there's little hope of getting on the housing ladder in London.

He moved back into his parents' home while studying for his Masters in environmental science.

"The whole reason why I did my Masters was to get a higher paid job. You need that to set yourself up better. If you want to have a family - you need a house."

Zach has been on the rental ladder before, sharing a home with two friends - each of them paying £1,000 per month. The high rent and cost of living left him with little to save.

BBC analysis has found some outliers in the data. Salford has built more homes in recent years than the government expectation.

Labour's mayor of the city, Paul Dennett, says most have been high-rise apartments in the city centre and not enough of them have been for those on low incomes.

"The market itself isn't delivering the level of truly affordable housing. It really isn't."

Salford currently has 5,000 households in temporary accommodation. The mayor has committed to building 600 council homes for rent during his five-year term.

Indeed, the council has set up its own business called Derive to build homes that will be for rent only. Tenants won't be able to buy them.

"Since 1980 we've lost over 10,000 homes under right to buy here just in the city of Salford," Mr Dennett says.

He believes the country needs to get back to councils building homes again rather than relying on the private sector.

He tells us he doesn't have a problem with the government setting targets - if authorities are delivering "truly affordable housing".

"We have inherited the worst housing crisis in living memory," says a spokesperson for the ministry for housing, communities and local government.

"This is why all areas must play their part to deliver 1.5 million homes."

The government says it has unveiled sweeping changes to the planning system and vowed to override "blockers" standing in the way of building the new homes.

Yet for families like Sam and Jason and Lily and Jacob, owning a home or even renting in the private sector, still feels like an unattainable dream.

Additional reporting by Jade Thompson

About the data

Annual data on new homes for England comes from the government's "net additional dwellings" statistics.

These figures are estimates of changes in the total number of homes in each area, taking account of new build homes and existing building conversions, minus any demolitions.

The targets are the government's new "local housing need" calculations, released following a public consultation.

Planning statistics are taken from quarterly data and combine applications decided for "minor" housing developments (fewer than 10 homes) and "major" schemes (10 homes or more).

The planning data for England is at local authority level. Applications decided by special authorities, such as those in charge of national parks, are not included.

We have included the latest data on new housebuilding "completions" by local authority area for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but the 1.5 million homes target applies only in England.

Interactive tool developed by Allison Shultes, Scott Jarvis, Steven Connor and Daniel Wainwright

Design by Charlie Colbourne and testing by Preeti Vaghela

A mandatory evacuation order has been issued in the Hollywood Hills following the spread of the wildfires raging across Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) said there was an "immediate threat to life" in the area and that it was being legally closed to the public.

At least five fires are currently active across Los Angeles, with five people confirmed to have been killed.

More than 130,000 people have already had to evacuate, and the homes of a number of celebrities - including Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal - have been destroyed.

The first fire began on Tuesday in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, near Malibu, with others subsequently breaking out across the north of the city.

As of 20:15 local time (04:00 GMT), four fires in the areas of the Palisades, Pasadena, Sylmar, and the Hollywood Hills covered more than 27,000 acres (42 sq miles; 109 sq km) and were 0% contained, according to the LAFD.

One fire in the Acton area had been partially contained, while two others had been completely contained.

The fire in the Hollywood Hills - a residential neighbourhood overlooking the historic Hollywood area of the city - began at around 18:00 local time on Wednesday.

Less than two hours later, much of the heart of Hollywood was blanketed with thick smoke, and the tops of the palm trees that line its streets were barely visible.

People used sweatshirts to cover their faces to help them breathe, while others - clearly surprised by the fire - wore only pyjamas. Many carried bags and suitcases, talking on their phones as they made plans for where to go.

Many of the roads near the fire - including Hollywood Boulevard, home to the Hollywood Walk of Fame - were gridlocked with traffic. Some people even drove on the wrong side of the road as they tried to get out of the area.

Resident Anna Waldman told the BBC she had set out to walk her dog but smelled smoke almost instantly when she went outside.

She went back inside and, looking out her back windows, saw fire, and watched as it moved quickly thought the Hollywood Hills, coming to within a block of her home.

She packed what she could: food, clothes, blankets, food for her three small dogs.

"I can't believe this," she said in exhaustion, pulling down her face mask.

Makayla Jackson, 26, and her two-year-old son, Ramari, had been evacuated from a homeless shelter that was in danger of burning, and now stood on the street waiting for a ride to a high school where help was being offered to people.

"They just told us to get out and go," she said.

Firefighters tackling the blazes have experienced water shortages and have had to resort to taking water from swimming pools and ponds.

Officials said three separate one-million-gallon tanks were full before the fires began, but that the elevation of the fires meant water couldn't move quickly enough to hydrants in the affeted areas.

The city also doesn't typically see fires of this magnitude - the Palisades blaze is already the most destructive in its history - and its systems are designed for urban use, not fighting wildfires.

The Chinese government has expanded a list of products that people can trade in to get a discount of as much as 20% on new goods as the country tries to boost its flagging economy.

The list now includes items like microwave ovens, dishwashers, rice cookers and water purifiers.

State-backed trade-in schemes already covered televisions, phones, tablets and smart watches as well as electric and hybrid vehicles.

The world's second largest economy has been facing several challenges, including weak consumer demand and a deepening property crisis.

On Wednesday, officials said 81 billion yuan (£8.9bn; $11bn) had been earmarked this year for the consumer goods trade-in scheme.

China's top economic planning body has said the schemes, which were launched in March, have already produced "visible effects".

According to the country's Ministry of Commerce, the policies have boosted sales of big items items such as home appliances and cars.

But some economists have questioned whether the schemes will be enough to significantly increase consumer consumption.

"The approach has had mixed success so far," said Harry Murphy Cruise, head of China economics at Moody's Analytics.

"While it has supported sales of some listed goods, such as cars and appliances, it hasn't driven an overall uptick in spending."

In recent months, China has been pushing ahead with more measures to support its domestic economy as the country's exporters face growing challenges.

In December, a key meeting of China's leaders stressed the need for "vigorous" efforts to boost consumer spending.

That came as President-elect Donald Trump, who is due to return to the White House this month, threatened to impose a 60% tariff on Chinese-made products.

China is due to announce its 2024 economic growth figures next week, which Beijing has said it expects will be around 5%.

Ashish Chauhan dreams of pursuing an MBA at an American university next year - a goal he describes as being "stamped in his brain".

The 29-year-old finance professional from India (whose name has been changed on request) hopes to eventually work in the US, but says he now feels conflicted amid an immigration row sparked by President-elect Donald Trump's supporters over a long-standing US visa programme.

The H-1B visa programme, which brings skilled foreign workers to the US, faces criticism for undercutting American workers but is praised for attracting global talent. The president-elect, once a critic, now supports the 34-year-old programme, while tech billionaire Elon Musk defends it as key to securing top engineering talent.

Indian nationals like Mr Chauhan dominate the programme, receiving 72% of H-1B visas, followed by 12% for Chinese citizens. The majority of H-1B visa holders worked in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, with 65% in computer-related jobs, in 2023. Their median annual salary was $118,000 (£94,000).

Concerns over H-1B visas tie into broader immigration debates.

A Pew Research report shows that US immigration rose by 1.6 million in 2023, the largest increase in more than 20 years. Immigrants now comprise over 14% of the population - the highest since 1910. Indians are the second-largest immigrant group - after Mexicans - in the US. Many Americans fear this surge in immigration could harm job prospects or hinder assimilation.

India has also surpassed China as the leading source of international students, with a record 331,602 Indian students in the US in 2023-2024, according to the latest Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. Most rely on loans, and any visa freeze could potentially devastate family finances.

"My worry is that this [resistance to H-1B visas] could also spark animosity towards the Indians living there. But I can't park my ambitions, put my life on hold and wait for the volatility to subside because it's been like this for years now," Mr Chauhan says.

Efforts to restrict the H-1B programme peaked under Trump's first term, when he signed a 2017 order increasing application scrutiny and fraud detection. Rejection rates soared to 24% in 2018, compared to 5-8% under President Barack Obama and 2-4% under President Joe Biden. The total number of approved H-1B applicants under Biden remained similar to Trump's first term.

"The first Trump administration tightened H-1B visas by increasing denial rates and slowing processing times, making it harder for people to get visas in time. It is unclear whether that will happen again in the second Trump administration," Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration scholar at Cornell Law School, told the BBC.

"Some people like Elon Musk want to preserve the H-1B visas, while other officials in the new administration want to restrict all immigration, including H-1Bs. It is too early to tell which side will prevail."

Indians have a long relationship with the H-1B visa. The programme is also the reason for the "rise of Indian-Americans into the highest educated and highest earning group, immigrant or native in the US", say the authors of The Other One Percent, a study on Indians in America.

US-based researchers Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur and Nirvikar Singh noted that new Indian immigrants spoke different languages and lived in different areas than earlier arrivals. Hindi, Tamil and Telugu speakers grew in number, and Indian-American communities shifted from New York and Michigan to larger clusters in California and New Jersey. The skilled visa programme helped create a "new map of Indian-Americans".

The biggest draw of H-1B visas is the opportunity to earn significantly higher salaries, according to Mr Chauhan. The US offers higher pay, and for someone who is the first in their family to achieve professional qualifications, earning that much can be life-changing. "The fascination with H-1Bs is directly tied to the wage gap between India and the US for the same engineering roles," he says.

But not everybody is happy with the programme. For many, the H-1B programme is an aspirational pathway for permanent residency or a US green card. While H-1B itself is a temporary work visa, it allows visa holders to live and work in the US for up to six years. During this time, many H-1B holders apply for a green card through employment-based immigration categories, typically sponsored by their employers. This takes time.

More than a million Indians, including dependents, are currently waiting in employment-based green card categories. "Getting a green card means signing up for an endless wait for 20-30 years," says Atal Agarwal, who runs a firm in India that uses AI to help find visa options globally for education and jobs.

Mr Agarwal moved to the US after graduating in 2017 and worked at a software company for a few years. He says getting the H-1B visa was fairly straightforward, but then it seemed he had "reached a dead end". He returned to India.

"It's an unstable situation. Your employer has to sponsor you and since the pathway to a green card is so long, you are basically tied to them. If you lose your job, you only get 60 days to find a new one. Every person who is going on merit to the US should have a pathway to a green card within three to five years."

This could be one reason that the visa programme has got tied up with immigration. "H-1B is a high-skilled, worker mobility visa. It is not an immigration visa. But it gets clubbed with immigration and illegal immigration and becomes a sensitive issue," Shivendra Singh, vice president of global trade development at Nasscom, the Indian technology industry trade group, told the BBC.

Many in the US believe the H-1B visa programme is flawed. They cite widespread fraud and abuse, especially by major Indian IT firms which are top recipients of these visas. In October, a US court found Cognizant guilty of discriminating against over 2,000 non-Indian employees between 2013 and 2022, though the company plans to appeal. Last week, Farah Stockman of The New York Times wrote that "for more than a decade, Americans working in the tech industry have been systematically laid off and replaced by cheaper H-1B visa holders".

Mr Chowdhury of Nasscom argues that H-1B visa workers are not underpaid, with their median wages more than double the US median. Companies also invest tens of thousands of dollars in legal and government fees for these costly visas.

Also, it has not been a one-way traffic: Indian tech giants have hired and supported nearly 600,000 American workers and spent over a billion dollars on upskilling nearly three million students across 130 US colleges, according to Mr Singh. The Indian tech industry has prioritised US worker hiring and they bring employees on H-1B visas only when they are unable to find locals with the skills they need, he said.

India is working to ensure the H-1B visa programme remains secure as Trump prepares to take office later this month. "Our countries share a strong and growing economic and technological partnership, and the mobility of skilled professionals is a vital component of this relationship," India's foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told journalists last week.

So what should students aspiring for jobs in the US do? "Any immigration changes in the US will take time to implement. Students should pick the best college for them, wherever that may be. With good immigration counsel, they will be able to figure out what to do," says Mr Yale-Loehr.

For now, despite the political turbulence in the US, Indian interest in H-1B visas remains steadfast, with students resolute in pursuing the American dream.

Commuters are being warned of icy roads and travel disruption, as temperatures plummeted again overnight across the UK.

Fresh weather warnings have been issued, with snow, ice and fog forecast across southern England, Wales, Northern Ireland and northern Scotland on Thursday.

It will be mainly dry elsewhere with winter sunshine, but temperatures could fall again to as low as -16C on Thursday night.

The cold snap has already brought heavy snowfall to some areas, and dozens of flood alerts and warnings are in place due to either heavy rain or melting snow.

On Wednesday the lowest temperature recorded was -8.4C (16F) in Shap, Cumbria, according to the Met Office.

It comes as an amber cold health alert remains in place for all of England until Sunday, meaning the forecast weather is expected to have significant impacts across health - including a rise in deaths.

The Met Office says travel disruption to road and rail services is likely on Thursday in areas covered by warnings, as well potential for accidents in icy places.

There are five warnings in place:

• A yellow warning for snow and ice is in place for northern Scotland until midnight on Thursday
• A yellow warning for ice has been issued until 10:30 across southern England and south-east Wales
• Two yellow warnings for snow and ice are in force until 11:00 GMT - one across western Wales and north-west England, and south-west England; and another for Northern Ireland
• A yellow warning for fog until 09:00 in Northern Ireland

On Wednesday snow caused some roads to close and motorists to be stationary for "long periods of time" in Devon and Cornwall, according to authorities there.

Gritters working into Thursday morning have been fitted with ploughs to clear routes in the area.

Car insurer RAC said it has seen the highest levels of demand for rescues in a three-day period since December 2022.

"Cold conditions will last until at least the weekend, so we urge drivers to remain vigilant of the risks posed by ice and, in some locations, snow," said RAC breakdown spokeswoman Alice Simpson.

National Rail have also advised passengers to check before they travel, as ice and snow can mean speed restrictions and line closures.

On Wednesday evening, poor weather was affecting Northern and Great Western Railway.

Buses are also replacing trains between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog until Monday.

• Get the forecast in your area on BBC Weather

The wintry conditions have caused significant disruption across the UK since snow swept many parts of the country at the weekend.

Hundreds of schools were closed in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including schools in Yorkshire, Merseyside, the Midlands and Aberdeenshire.

The country has also been hit by widespread flooding in recent days. Currently there are 68 flood warnings - meaning flooding is expected - in England and three in Wales.

The weather is expected to be less cold over the weekend.

At 20 years old, Pierre Poilievre already had a roadmap for Canada.

Canada's Conservative Party leader - now 45 - laid out a low-tax, small government vision for the country in an essay contest on what he would do as prime minister.

"A dollar left in the hands of consumers and investors is more productive than a dollar spent by a politician," he stated.

Poilievre is one step closer to making his vision a reality, and even gave a nod to the essay in a recent interview with conservative psychologist and commentator Jordan Peterson.

For months, Poilievre's Conservatives have enjoyed a large lead over the struggling Liberals in national surveys, suggesting they would win a majority government if an election were held today.

Now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced he's standing down, and with an election likely to be called soon, Poilievre is promising a return to "common sense politics".

For Canadians frustrated with a sluggish economy and a housing and affordability crisis, he is offering an alternative to what he has labelled as Trudeau's "authoritarian socialism".

A win would make him part of a wave of populist leaders on the right who have toppled incumbent governments in the west.

While it has invited comparisons to Donald Trump - and he has fans like Elon Musk and others in the US president-elect's orbit - Poilievre story is very much a Canadian one.

A Calgarian with his eyes set on Ottawa

Poilievre was born in Canada's western province of Alberta to a 16-year-old mother who put him up for adoption. He was taken in by two school teachers, who raised him in suburban Calgary.

"I have always believed that it is voluntary generosity among family and community that are the greatest social safety net that we can ever have," he told Maclean's Magazine in 2022, reflecting on his early life.

"That's kind of my starting point."

As a teenager, Poilievre showed an early interest in politics, and canvassed for local conservatives.

Poilievre was studying international relations at the University of Calgary when he met Stockwell Day, who served as a cabinet minister under former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

At the time, Day was seeking the leadership of the Canadian Alliance - a right-wing party with Alberta roots that became part of the modern-day Conservatives in a 2003 merger - and he tapped Poilievre to help with campus outreach.

"He impressed me from the start," Day told the BBC in an interview. "He seemed to be a level-headed guy, but full of energy and able to catch people's attention."

Day's leadership bid was successful, and he set out for Ottawa with Poilievre as his assistant. Some time after, Poilievre walked into his office on a cold winter night to ask his opinion about potentially running for office.

Poilievre went on to win a seat in Ottawa in 2004 at the age of 25, making him one of the youngest elected Conservatives at the time. He has held that seat since.

From "Skippy" to party leader

In Ottawa, Poilievre was given the nickname Skippy by peers and foes alike due to to his youthful enthusiasm and sharp tongue.

He built a reputation for being "highly combative and partisan", said Randy Besco, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto.

Behind the closed doors of Conservative caucus meetings, Poilievre showed his diplomatic side, Day said.

"Pierre was always good at saying, 'Okay, you know what? I hadn't thought of that,' or he would listen and say: 'Have you thought of this?'" said Day.

Still, confrontational politics became a cornerstone of Poilievre's public persona. After becoming Conservative leader in 2022, he would target Trudeau with biting remarks as a way to connect with disaffected voters.

It has landed him in trouble at times. In April, he was expelled from the House of Commons for calling the prime minister a "wacko".

Poilievre told the Montreal Gazette in June that he is a fan of "straight talk".

"I think when politesse is in conflict with the truth, I choose the truth," he said. "I think we've been too polite for too long with our political class."

His combative style has also been divisive, and he has been criticised for oversimplifying complex issues for political gain.

While Canadians have been open to the opposition leader's message as a change from Trudeau's brand of progressive politics, just over half of them hold an unfavourable opinion of him, according to the latest polls.

Poilievre has also had to shift his sights since Trudeau's resignation announcement, to get ahead of the inevitable match-up between him and the next Liberal leader.

Poilievre on populism, immigration and Trump

The Conservative leader has been described as a "soft" populist for his direct appeals to everyday Canadians and criticism of establishment elites, including corporate Canada.

He came out in support of those who protested vaccine mandates during the 2021 "Freedom Convoy" demonstrations that gridlocked Ottawa for weeks.

He has pledged to deliver "the biggest crackdown on crime in Canadian history", promising to keep repeat offenders behind bars.

On social matters, Poilievre has rarely weighed in - something Prof Besco said is typical of senior Conservatives, who see these topics as "a losing issue".

While Poilievre voted against legalising gay marriage in the early 2000s, he recently said it will remain legal "full stop" if he is elected.

The Conservatives also do not support legislation to regulate abortion, though they allow MPs to vote freely on the issue.

"I would lead a small government that minds its own business," Poilievre said in June.

Amid a public debate in Canada in recent months on immigration, the party has said it would tie levels of newcomers to the number of new homes built, and focus on bringing in skilled workers.

Poilievre's wife, Anaida, arrived in Canada as a child refugee from Caracas, Venezuela.

The Conservative leader has pushed for the integration of newcomers, saying Canada does not need to be a "hyphenated society".

One of his major promises - to cut Trudeau's national carbon pricing programme, arguing it is a financial burden for families - has raised questions over how his government would tackle pressing issues like climate change.

Canada also faces the threat of steep tariffs when Trump takes office later this month, with the US-Canada relationship expected to be a major challenge.

Poilievre has pushed back at Trump's comments suggesting Canada become a 51st US state, vowing to "put Canada first".

He has not stepped much into foreign policy otherwise, with his messaging focused instead on restoring "the Canadian dream".

Above all, Poilievre says he wants to do away with "grandiosity" and "utopian wokesim" that he believes has defined the Trudeau era, in favour of the "the things that are grand and great about the common people".

"I've been saying precisely the same thing this entire time," he told Mr Peterson.

Inflation, interest rates and tariffs mean 2025 is shaping up to be an intriguing year for the global economy. One in which growth is expected to remain at a "stable yet underwhelming" 3.2%, according to the International Monetary Fund. So what might that mean for all of us?

Exactly a week before Christmas there was a welcome gift for millions of American borrowers - a third interest rate cut in a row.

However, stock markets fell sharply because the world's most powerful central banker, US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, made clear they shouldn't expect as many further cuts in 2025 as they might have hoped for, as the battle against inflation continues.

"From here, it's a new phase, and we're going to be cautious about further cuts," he said.

In recent years, the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine have led to sharp price rises around the world, and although prices are still increasing the pace has slowed markedly.

Despite that, November saw inflation push up in the US, eurozone and UK to to 2.7%, 2.2% and 2.6% respectively. It highlights the difficulties many central banks face in the so-called "last mile" of their battle against inflation. Their target is 2%, and it might be easier to achieve if economies are growing.

However, the biggest difficulty for global growth "is uncertainty, and the uncertainty is coming from what may come out of the US under Trump 2.0", says Luis Oganes, who is head of global macro research at investment bank JP Morgan.

Since Donald Trump won November's election he's continued to threaten new tariffs against key US trading partners, China, Canada and Mexico.

"The US is going into a more isolationist policy stance, raising tariffs, trying to provide more effective protection to US manufacturing," says Mr Oganes.

"And even though that is going to support US growth, at least in the short term, certainly it's going to hurt many countries that rely on trade with the US."

New tariffs "could be particularly devastating" for Mexico and Canada, but also be "harmful" to the US, according to Maurice Obstfeld, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, and a previous economic advisor to President Obama.

He cites car manufacturing as an example of an industry that "depends on a supply chain that is spread across the three countries. If you disrupt that supply chain, you have massive disruptions in the auto market".

That has the potential to push up prices, reduce demand for products, and hurt company profits, which could in turn drag down investment levels, he explains.

Mr Obstfeld, who is now with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, adds: "Introducing these types of tariffs into a world that is heavily dependent on trade could be harmful to growth, could throw the world into recession."

The tariffs threats have also played a role in forcing the resignation of Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Even though the majority of what the US and China sell each other is already subject to tariffs from Donald Trump's first term in office, the threat of new tariffs is a key challenge for the world's second-biggest economy in the year ahead.

In his new year address President Xi Jinping acknowledged the "challenges of uncertainties in the external environment", but said the economy was on "an upward trajectory".

Exports of cheap goods from its factories are crucial to China's economy. A drop off in demand because tariffs push prices up would compound the many domestic challenges, including weak consumer spending and business investment, that the government is trying to tackle.

Those efforts are helping, according to the World Bank, which at the end of December increased its forecast for China's growth from 4.1% to 4.5% in 2025.

Beijing has yet to set a growth target for 2025, but thinks it's on course for 5% last year.

"Addressing challenges in the property sector, strengthening social safety nets, and improving local government finances will be essential to unlocking a sustained recovery," according to the World Bank's country director for China, Mara Warwick.

Those domestic struggles mean the Chinese government is "more welcoming" of foreign investment, according to Michael Hart, who is president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.

Tensions between the US and China, and tariffs have grown under the Biden presidency, meaning some companies have looked to move production elsewhere.

However, Mr Hart points out that "it took 30 to 40 years for China to emerge as such a strong supplier manufacturer", and whilst "companies have tried to mitigate some of those risks... no one's prepared now to completely replace China."

One industry that is likely to continue to be at the heart of global trade battles is electric vehicles. More than 10 million were made in China last year, and that dominance led the US, Canada and European Union (EU) to impose tariffs on them.

Beijing says they're unfair, and is challenging them at the World Trade Organization.

However, it's the prospect of Donald Trump imposing tariffs that is concerning the EU.

"Restrictions on trade, protectionist measures, are not conducive to growth, and ultimately have an impact on inflation that is largely uncertain," the president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, said last month. "[But] in the short term, it's probably net inflationary."

Germany and France are the traditional engines of Europe's economic growth. But their poor performance amid political instability over the past year means that, despite a recent uptick in growth, the eurozone risks losing momentum in the year ahead.

That is, unless consumers spend more and businesses increase their investments.

In the UK higher prices could also come as a result of tax and wage increases, according to one survey.

One barrier to cutting eurozone interest rates is that inflation remains at 4.2%. That's more than double the target of 2%, and strong wage pressure has been a barrier getting it down further.

It's been similar in the US according to Sander van 't Noordende, the chief executive of Randstad, the world's biggest recruitment firm.

"In the US, for instance, [wage inflation] is still going to be around 4% in 2024. In some Western European countries, it's even higher than that.

"I think there's two factors there. There's the talent scarcity, but there's also, of course, the inflation and people demanding to get more for the work they do."

Mr van 't Noordende adds that many companies are passing those extra costs on to their customers, which is adding upward pressure to general inflation.

A slowdown in the global jobs market reflects a lack of "dynamism" from companies and economic growth is key to reversing that, he says.

"If the economy is doing well, businesses are growing, they start hiring. People see interesting opportunities, and you just start seeing people moving around".

One person starting a new role in 2025 is Donald Trump, and a raft of economic plans including tax cuts and deregulation could help the US economy to continue to thrive.

Whilst much won't be revealed before he's back in the White House on 20 January, "everything points to continued US exceptionalism at the expense of the rest of the world," says JP Morgan's Mr Oganes.

He's hopeful that inflation and interest rates can continue to come down around the world, but warns that "a lot of it will depend on what are the policies that get deployed, particularly from the US."

"They have already tortured me and repressed me, but they will not silence me. My voice is the only thing I have left."

This is how Juan, a young man aged around 20, begins his story. He alleges he was physically and psychologically tortured by Venezuelan security forces after being detained in connection with the presidential elections on 28 July.

He was one of many hundreds of people arrested during protests after the electoral authorities - which are dominated by government loyalists - announced that the incumbent, Nicolás Maduro, had won.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) did not make the voting tallies public and the Venezuelan opposition has described the official result as fraudulent, pointing out that the voting tallies it got hold of with the help of election observers suggest an overwhelming victory for its candidate, Edmundo González.

Juan was released from prison in mid-November, days after Maduro called on judicial authorities to "rectify" any injustices in the arrests.

The BBC spoke to him via video call. For his own safety, we have decided to withhold some of the details of his case and have changed his name.

The young man alleges that many of the detainees are mistreated, given "rotten food" and that the most rebellious are locked up in "torture chambers".

He showed the BBC documents and evidence that corroborate his story, which coincides with other testimony and with the complaints of non-governmental organisations.

Juan, an anti-government political activist, says the election campaign and the days leading up to the election were "marked by hope" and many people were keen to vote for change.

But the announcement of Maduro's victory shortly after midnight that Sunday turned what for many was a celebratory mood into confusion and anger.

Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest against a result they decried as fraudulent.

The opposition and international organisations say what followed was police repression which caused the deaths of more than 20 protesters.

Maduro and some of his officials in turn have blamed the opposition, the "extreme right" and "terrorist" groups for the deaths.

Gonzalo Himiob of Venezuelan non-governmental organisation Foro Penal says people were arrested for as little as "celebrating the opposition's declaration of Edmundo González as the winner, or for posting something on social media".

"We also have cases of people who were not even protesting, but for some reason they were near a protest and they were arrested," he added.

Juan says that is what happened to him.

'It felt like a concentration camp'

The young political activist says he had been running an errand when a group of hooded men intercepted him, covered his face and beat him, accusing him of being a terrorist.

"They planted Molotov cocktails and petrol on me, and then took me to a detention centre," he continued.

He was held in a prison in the interior of Venezuela for several weeks until he was transferred to Tocorón, a notorious high-security prison about 140km south-west of the capital, Caracas.

There he would go through what he describes as the worst experience of his life.

"When we arrived at Tocorón, they stripped us, beat us, and insulted us. We were forbidden to raise our heads and look at the guards; we had to lower our heads to the floor," Juan recounts.

Juan was assigned a small cell measuring three metres by three metres, which he had to share with five other people.

There were six beds arranged in three bunk beds, and in one corner there was a septic tank and "a pipe that served as a shower". That was the bathroom.

"In Tocorón I felt more like I was in a concentration camp than in a prison," says the young man. He describes the beds as "concrete tombs" with a very thin mattress.

"They tortured us physically and psychologically. They wouldn't let us sleep, they were always coming to ask us to get up and line up," he explains.

"They would wake us up around 05:00 to line up behind the cell. The guards would ask us to show our passes and numbers."

He adds that at around 06:00 they would turn on the water for six minutes so they could bathe.

"Six minutes for six people and just one shower, with very cold water. If you were the last one there and you didn't have time to take off the soap, you were left covered in soap for the rest of the day," he says.

Then, he adds, they waited for breakfast, which sometimes arrived at 06:00 and other times at 12:00.

Dinner was sometimes at 21:00, and sometimes at 02:00.

"Apart from waiting for meals, there was nothing else to do. We could only walk around inside the small cell and tell stories. We also talked about politics, but in low voices, because if the guards heard us, they would punish us."

'I thought I was going to die'

Juan says that many of his fellow inmates were depressed and acted like zombies.

"They gave us rotten food – meat scraps like you would give to chickens or dogs or sardines that had already expired."

Some detainees were routinely beaten or made to "walk like frogs" with their hands on their ankles, he says.

He describes "punishment cells" where those considered the most rebellious would be sent, or those who dared to talk about politics or ask to make a phone call to relatives.

Juan says that he had been in one of the punishment cells in Tocorón, and that he had only received one meal every two days.

"It's a very dark cell, one metre by one metre. I was very hungry. What kept me going was thinking about all the injustices that were happening and that one day I would get out of there," he says.

Another torture cell is known as "Adolfo's bed", Juan says, named after the first person who died there.

"It's a dark, oxygen-deprived room the size of a vault. They put you in there for a few minutes until you can't breathe and you faint or start banging on the door in desperation. They put me in there and I lasted just over five minutes. I thought I was going to die," he recalls.

Reports of crimes against humanity

The young man says that in this prison, inmates have 10 minutes to exercise outside three times a week, but many just stay in their cells.

Foro Penal's Gonzalo Himiob describes the conditions in Tocorón as "deplorable" and says that detainees' fundamental rights, such as having access to a lawyer of the detainee's choosing, are being violated.

"They all have public defenders - the government knows that if it allows access to a private attorney who is not a public official, he or she can document all the due process violations that are occurring."

In October, United Nations (UN) experts reported serious human rights violations committed in the run-up to the presidential election and during the protests that followed, including political persecution, excessive use of force, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions by state security forces and related civilian groups.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently investigating the Venezuelan government for possible crimes against humanity.

The Venezuelan government denies the accusations and says this investigation "responds to the intention of instrumentalising the mechanisms of international criminal justice for political purposes".

The BBC requested an interview with the Public Prosecutor's Office about the allegations of mistreatment and torture of detainees, but had not received a response by the time of publication.

'I'm no longer afraid of the government'

Juan was released in November, but according to Foro Penal's figures, there were still 1,794 political prisoners in Venezuela as of 30 December.

According to Juan, many of those detained in Tocorón have pinned their hopes on one date: that of the presidential inauguration on 10 January 2025.

It is the day that opposition candidate Edmundo González, who has been living in exile in Spain, has said that he will return to Venezuela and take up office as president.

He bases his claim to the presidency on official voting tallies the opposition managed to gather with help of election observers.

These tallies, which amount to 85% of the total, have been uploaded to a website and reviewed by independent observers who say that they suggest an overwhelming victory for González.

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden met González and called him the "true winner" of the Venezuelan election.

However, it is not clear how González, for whom the authorities have issued an arrest warrant, plans to enter Venezuela or who would swear him in given that the National Assembly is dominated by Maduro loyalists.

Nevertheless, Juan says that the prisoners held in Tocorón are hoping against hope that Friday will see a change of government and their release from jail.

Meanwhile, the Maduro government has labelled any talk of a political transition as "a conspiracy" and has threatened that anyone who backs a change of leader "will pay for it".

Juan admits feeling a certain sense of guilt for being free when hundreds of his "comrades are still suffering" in prison.

But he says he is determined to return to the streets to show his support for Edmundo González on 10 January.

"I no longer fear the Venezuelan government," he explains.

"They already accused me of the worst crimes, such as terrorism, even though I'm just a young man who has done nothing more than love his country and help those around him."

"I'm not afraid," Juan repeats, before admitting that he has left some written testimony in a safe place "in case something happens to me".

Illustrations by Daniel Arce-Lopez.