Elaina Clapper had been divorced for about 40 years when she remarried, to her husband David. “We just kind of talked about what we were both bringing to the marriage financially,” she said.
"A failed free market experiment" – that's how the home secretary will describe the approach that's seen vast numbers of people from around the world come to the UK to pour pints in pubs, to cut hair, to care for the most vulnerable, to pick fruit, or to fix our plumbing.
Yvette Cooper's getting ready to unveil the government's overhaul of the rules that determine who can come to the UK with permission, and for how long.
Her White Paper, which will be called "Restoring Control Over the Immigration System" and be 69 pages long, is a big moment for Labour to try to sort a messy system, under which the numbers of people moving here rose way over most people's imagination.
With Reform hard on Labour's heels, capitalising on public concern about immigration, the success or failure of Cooper is vital to the government.
So what has Labour come up with?
It will emerge in full on Monday, but we know a lot about what's on the table.
It's expected that work visas will be strictly time-limited for jobs that don't need graduate-level skills.
Foreign students who have studied for degrees here could lose the right to stay in the UK after they finish at university.
Overseas workers will be expected to have a better understanding of English, but reported suggestions of A-level equivalent are wide of the mark.
And companies who repeatedly can't show efforts to recruit UK-based staff, rather than hunt abroad, might lose their right to sponsor foreign workers to come here at all.
EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
There are also likely to be proposals designed to change how judges apply what's known as Article 8 of the Human Rights Act. It is designed to protect everyone's right to a family life.
But how it's used sometimes by immigration lawyers to stop deportations has long been a concern of politicians – in 2011, I even remember Theresa May claiming an asylum seeker had been allowed to stay in the UK because of their cat.
More than a decade later, recent cases like this one raised at Prime Minister's Questions have led the government to review how the courts have been interpreting everyone's right to a family life. We'll hear more of the details from the home secretary in the studio tomorrow, and likely from the prime minister on Monday.
Some Conservatives and Reform argue the only way of making a material difference is to leave the European Convention on Human Rights altogether, rather than see ministers stick their nose into the courts. Whether the government's proposals here make a difference, we'll have to see.
But the big principle in Cooper's thinking is that the immigration system should be fundamentally linked to the labour market – helping British workers get the skills to fill vacancies, rather than overseas workers being brought in again and again, to plug the gaps.
EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The Whitehall wiring will be redirected to try to make that happen with a new approach under a 'quad' – where employers, the Department for Work and Pensions, the job centres, skills bodies, and the Migration Advisory Committee, that sets the specific rules, all work together.
The idea, to wean the economy off relying on staff from overseas, by pushing employers to work much harder to find staff from here at home.
That's the theory. Here are the politics: for years, conventional thinking in both main parties was the immigration was broadly good because it helped the economy. Politicians and members of the public who raised concern about the pace and scale of workers coming were sometimes dismissed.
One Cabinet minister says last time Labour was in power, when "people raised concerns, it was too easy to say it's a race question – there's a good understanding now that good, decent people worry about immigration – it's about fairness".
When it emerged that 900,000 people came to the UK in 2023 the prime minister held an emergency press conference accusing the Tories of a failed "open border experiment"'.
A senior government source says now the previous government wasn't "bringing in 100,000 scientists to live in central London, it was bringing in people to fix problems of the economy everywhere, often in poor communities".
Ministers accept there might always be a need for overseas staff with specific expertise to come to the UK. But Sir Keir Starmer's allies say he's been making the case for years, since a speech to the CBI in 2022, warning employers they wouldn't be able to rely on cheap foreign labour on his watch.
Since then, partly down to the Conservatives' tightening up of visa rules before they left office, the numbers of people coming to the UK legally has dropped a lot and is expected to fall further this year. But the political prominence of the issue overall has gone the other way.
By some polling measures in spring this year immigration and small boats passed the NHS as the biggest worry for voters in 2025.
If the numbers of workers coming is falling, why is the public more concerned?
Sources inside government acknowledge that for many of the public, the issues of legal and illegal migration are bundled together.
While legal migration has been falling, the numbers of those coming in ways considered illegal and trying to claim asylum has gone the other way, hitting the highest level since 1979.
And there are two highly visible signs of that – small boat crossings, and asylum seekers being housed in hotels around the country.
One member of the government told me, "it's the boats, and everything is amplified on social media, we know it's having an effect as it's fed back to us on the doorstep – as a party we just seem to be floundering".
The use of hotels isn't just costly – projected recently to be £15bn, triple the amount the Conservatives reckoned when they signed the contracts back in 2019 – they can also create unease and resentment in communities.
A Labour MP with an asylum hotel in their constituency tells me a big part of the problem is that constituents link spending on hotels with the government squeezing cash elsewhere.
"It is impossible to make the case we need to do some form of austerity while we are spending so much money on putting people up here – whether it's winter fuel and PIP (welfare payments) – you haven't got money for this, but you have money for that."
PA Media
There's even a belief in Downing Street that had there not been an asylum hotel in Runcorn, Labour would likely have held on to its seat in the by election last week.
The other blindingly obvious reason immigration has become so fraught politically is that for decades, successive governments have told the public one thing but done another. Under Tony Blair, people from countries joining the EU were allowed immediately to come and work in the UK.
The government had publicly estimated the numbers likely to move would be around 13,000, but hundreds of thousands of people from Eastern Europe made the UK their home in the following years. Papers released at the end of last year reveal that some of Blair's team worried precisely about that happening.
David Cameron then promised repeatedly that he'd get the number of extra people settling in the UK under 100,000. That vow was repeatedly broken. His government's lack of ability to control migration from Europe was at the core of the Brexit argument.
With deep irony, Boris Johnson won that argument in the referendum, then set up an immigration system that allowed even more people to move to the UK, peaking at 900,000 in 2023. Rishi Sunak then promised to "Stop the Boats" - but they still came.
A No 10 insider says the "public has been gaslit for years – taxpayers have been told it's happening, but nothing has been changing".
It's Cooper and Sir Keir who are now under huge pressure to get the numbers down and keep their vow to "smash the gangs".
The plans for managing legal migration better on Monday will be followed by a meeting in Albania later in the week, where the focus will be on cracking the illegal trade that smuggles people across Europe.
Ministers hope their plans will make a difference, although screeds of extra immigration law have not exactly improved the situation in recent years.
Making a complex system that doesn't work even more complicated will not necessarily be a success. But in government there's no doubt how vital it is– not just to fix a system that's been failing, but to demonstrate to voters that something is being done.
The plans we'll talk about in the next couple of days have been long in the making. But Reform's massive success at the ballot box shows why Labour has to get this right.
As one member of the government reckons, the public "got rid of the Tories by voting for us, there was no love for Labour, and they are prepared to do the same to us".
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Taylor Swift and Blake Lively, seen here in 2023, have been close friends for many years
Taylor Swift's representatives have told the BBC she is being brought into a legal row between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively to create "tabloid clickbait".
The 35-year-old singer was summoned to a US court after it was alleged she encouraged Baldoni to accept script re-writes by Lively for It Ends With Us, a film that both starred in and is the centre of a sexual harassment case.
Baldoni says he was invited to Lively's New York home in 2023 to discuss script changes, where Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, and Swift were there to serve as her "dragons".
Representatives for Swift said "she was not involved in any casting or creative decision" and "never saw an edit or made any notes on the film".
Lively, 37, sued Baldoni, 41, in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment and a smear campaign. Baldoni is counter-suing Lively and her husband, the actor Ryan Reynolds, on claims of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy.
Lively and Baldoni have been locked in a dispute since the film, which is an adaption of a Colleen Hoover novel, was released last summer.
According to Baldoni, there were tensions over the 2023 re-write of the scene, at which he was surprised to find Reynolds and Swift present.
He alleges Lively wrote in a text to him: "If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you'll appreciate that I'm Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for."
Baldoni says he responded supportively, writing: "I really love what you did. It really does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor).
"You really are a talent across the board. Really excited and grateful to do this together."
It is also alleged that Swift was involved in the casting of Isabela Ferrer in the film, who played a younger version of Lively's character, Lily Bloom.
But Swift's representatives said the only involvement she had in the film was permitting the use of her song, My Tears Ricochet, noting that she was among 20 artists featured in the film.
Swift "never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, [and] she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film", they said.
They added that Swift did not see It Ends With Us until "weeks after its release" as she was "travelling around the globe" on tour at the time.
The popstar's spokespeople argued that the subpoena "designed to use Taylor Swift's name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case".
Being sealed off from the world in the conclave to choose the new Pope was "immensely peaceful", England and Wales's most senior Roman Catholic has told the BBC.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, was one of 133 cardinals who were shut into the Vatican's Sistine Chapel and later elected Pope Leo XIV on Thursday.
He told BBC Breakfast on Saturday that nobody in the highly-secretive meeting was saying who to vote for or who to not vote for, adding that there was "no rancour" or "politicking" among the cardinals.
"It was a much calmer process than that and I found it actually a rather wonderful experience," he added.
Conclaves have take place in the Sistine Chapel since the 15th Century and cardinals must have no communication with the outside world until a new Pope is elected. The recent conclave came after the death of Pope Francis on 21 April.
The 79-year-old Cardinal Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, said that his mobile phone was taken off him, adding that he found he had "more time on my hands just to be prayerful, just to reflect, just to be still, rather than being constantly agitated... or prompted by what might be coming in" on his phone.
"For me, one of the experiences of these last few days was to learn a bit of patience, to just take this step by step," he said.
"There was a calmness, a bit of solemnity," he continued, adding that everyone he spoke to when in it was "peaceful and just wanting to do this well".
Cardinal Nichols spoke to BBC Breakfast on Saturday about the conclave
There is no timescale on how long it takes for a conclave to elect a new Pope, with previous ones in 2005 and 2013 lasting two days. The conclave that elected Pope Leo lasted for one day.
"I think it was a short conclave in part because Pope Francis left us with a good inheritance," the cardinal said.
"He left a college of cardinals who were dedicated, who had this desire for the church to be more missionary, and that led us forward actually very, very easily to the decision that we made."
Pope Leo will be formally inaugurated at a mass in St Peter's Square on 18 May, which delegations from countries around the world will attend.
The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward, will attend on behalf of King Charles, Buckingham Palace confirmed on Saturday.
Speaking about the new Pope, Cardinal Nichols said Pope Leo is "very decisive" in a "quiet way", adding that he has seen him "make decisions which disappoint people but don't destroy them".
"A good thing about a pope is if he's able to say, 'No', to you when he thinks something is not right and then give you a hug so you don't go away offended, and I think he's got that ability to do both those things, which is very important."
Australia's Go-Jo is one of 37 artists hoping to lift the Eurovision trophy in Basel, Switzerland
The 2025 Eurovision Song Contest pops its cork on Sunday, with a "turquoise carpet" parade featuring competitors from all 37 nations.
But the competition really begins on Tuesday, when the first semi-final will see five countries unceremoniously kicked out.
Another six will lose their place at the second semi-final on Thursday, before the Grand Final takes place in Basel, Switzerland, on Saturday, 17 May.
This year's entrants include two returning contestants, one professional opera singer, a thinly veiled allusion to sexual emissions and a dance anthem about a dead space dog.
It's a lot to take in.
To help you prepare, here's a guide to all 37 songs in the contest, which I've sorted into rough musical categories, mainly for my own sanity (it didn't work).
Left-field pop bangers
Pavla Hartmanova / BBC / Alma Bengtsson
From left to right: JJ, Remember Monday and KAJ
Win or lose, UK contestants Remember Monday have given headline writers a gift with the title of their entry: What The Hell Just Happened?
A souped-up, full throttle pop anthem, it cherry-picks the best bits of Queen, Andrew Lloyd Webber and the Beatles, presumably to remind voters of Britain's rich musical heritage.
With eight tempo changes, it could prove tricky for voters to grasp, but the band's stellar harmonies and sparkling personalities should carry them through.
Crucially, the song avoids the Eurovision cliches of jackhammer dance anthems and windswept balladry – something Remember Monday have in common with this year's favourites.
Sweating it out at the top are Swedish representatives KAJ, whose song Bara Bada Bastu is an ode to the restorative powers of the sauna, complete with dancers in skimpy towels.
Where the original was about a "fashion doll" operated by songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, Thorn's response is all about taking control.
"If you think a man like you can manipulate me, go back to your mum," she scolds. Yeouch.
Other countries sucking up to Italy
ERR / Sarah Louise Bennett
Tommy Cash and Gabry Ponte will represent Estonia and San Marino with tributes to Italian culture
Rome must be blushing. This year features not one, but two, songs about the vibrant culture of Il Bel Paese.
The first comes, not surprisingly, from San Marino – the independent microstate that nestles inside north-central Italy.
Titled Tutta L'Italia, it celebrates everything from the county's football team and its vineyards, to the Mona Lisa (under her Italian name Gioconda).
Written by Gabry Ponte – one of the brains behind Eiffel 65's Blue (Da Ba Dee) – it's a slight, but fun, mixture of dance beats, traditional accordion playing and the folk dances of Calabria.
The staging could be its downfall, though, with Gabry marooned behind his DJ decks while the singers, who for some reason wish to remain anonymous, obscure their faces with masks.
More memorable, but definitely more unhinged, is Estonia's Espresso Macchiato.
Performed by Tommy Cash (the only Eurovision contestant to have appeared on a Charli XCX record) it's an affectionate-ish caricature of Italian stereotypes, featuring the indelible lyric: "Life is like spaghetti, it's hard until you make it".
Smut!
Sarah Louise Bennett / Alma Bengtsson
From left to right: Go-Jo, Erika Vikman and Miriana Conte
I'm trying to give up sexual innuendo, but Eurovision is making it har... difficult.
A trio of artists are trying to sneak smut past the censors, led by Malta's Miriana Conte, with a throbbing club track called Serving.
In its original form, the song's chorus revolved around the phrase "serving kant" – the word kant being Maltese for "singing" and a homophone for an English term that definitely doesn't mean singing.
It's a reference to a well-known phrase in the drag / ballroom world; but several countries complained it broke broadcasting guidelines, prompting a hasty re-write.
If the stunt was meant to generate headlines it worked, but now that Miriana has our attention, she's not letting go.
Her performance, featuring a giant disco ball pursed between two red lips, is gloriously OTT, and she has an enviable set of pipes. Too bad the song is riddled with Europop cliche.
Another contestant doubling his entendres is Australia's Go-Jo, who wants us to "take a sip" of milkshake from his "special cup". Interpret that how you want but I'd be wary of hitching a lift in his ice cream van, if I were you.
With a smattering of Electric Six's saucy disco funk, Milkshake Man is tasty enough to get Australia back in the finals after only achieving a semi last year.
Finally, we have Finland's Erika Vikman, whose song Ich Komme is billed as a "joyous message of pleasure, ecstasy and a state of trance".
Structured to mimic the pneumatic realities of lovemaking, it recalls iconic gay anthems such as Kylie's Your Disco Needs You and Donna Summer's Hot Stuff – and ends with Erika shooting into the sky astride a massive gold microphone that's definitely not a stand-in for a phallus.
Three songs inspired by cancer
France Télévisions / Sarah Louise Bennett
From left to right: Louane, Klemen and Kyle Alessandro
Little in life is more devastating than the phrase "I'm afraid it's cancer".
The disease will affect one in two of us and, although survival rates have dramatically improved, the impact can be devastating.
This year, three separate Eurovision contestants have been touched by cancer, inspiring songs of unmatched heartbreak and reflection.
French singer Louane captures it best. Her song Maman, is an intimate conversation with her mother, who died when she was just 17 years old.
Over three verses, Louane describes the "emptiness" she was felt; and how she filled the void with bad behaviour and meaningless love affairs. But, as the song progresses, she tells her mum she's settled down and found purpose... by becoming a mother herself.
She sings it beautifully, with a mixture of regret and strength. And when her daughter's voice appears in the final moments of the song, it would take a steely heart not to shed a tear.
Over in Norway, 19-year-old Kyle Alessandro shared a similar story, when his mother was diagnosed with cancer in autumn 2023. Thankfully, she's now in remission, but something she said during her treatment inspired his Eurovision entry: "Never lose your light."
Kyle took that phrase and turned it into a thumping pop song about surviving adversity. "Nothing can burn me now," he sings. "I'm my own Lighter."
Klemen Slakonja, meanwhile, is a comedian best known in Slovenia for his impressions of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin - but his ballad, How Much Time Do We Have Left was written after his wife, actress Mojca Fatur, was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer.
As he sings, Klemen's dancers raise him into the air and hold him upside down, to represent the disorientation the family felt.
"When she read her diagnosis, our world turned upside down and I felt that rush of blood in my head, the same one I feel whenever I am upside down in the performance," he told Eurovision World.
Defying the odds, Mojca survived, and joins him on stage at Eurovision. It's a deeply intimate and moving moment.
The bops
Sarah Louise Bennett / Valero Rioja / Alma Bengtsson
Left to right: Red Sebastian, Melody and Væb
Listening to this year's line-up, it's like the contestants all heard Cascada's Evacuate the Dancefloor and went, "Nah, we're good, thanks".
There are club bangers everywhere, with Belgium's Red Sebastian (named after the crab in The Little Mermaid, bless him) submitting an entire song about the loved-up liberation of an all-night rave.
"Where no words are needed to feel the connection / Where clocks never tick and where love is the ending."
A favourite with fans, the 90s rave elements of Strobe Lights feel a little dated to me, but his meticulously-choreographed performance is a treat.
Denmark's Sissal takes a similar sound, with a throwback Euro-bop called Hallucination that effortlessly evokes two-time Eurovision winner Loreen.
Sissal said her biggest goal was for the audience to feel they couldn't sit down during the song. Mission accomplished.
Germany, meanwhile, have been hoping to reverse their 15-year losing streak with Baller, a super-catchy trance anthem that wouldn't sound out of place at Berlin superclub Berghain.
Performed by Austrian siblings Abor & Tynna, it's languishing in the middle of the field, after Tynna developed laryngitis, robbing the duo of the chance to impress fans at Eurovision's various pre-parties. But now that she's recovered, the song could rise up the rankings.
That's less likely for Væb, aka the Icelandic Jedward. Their energetic dance-rap song, Roá, is all about rowing from Iceland to the Faroe Islands, "because no matter what happens in life you just keep on rowing through the waves".
Sadly, it's not as deep as it sounds.
Spanish star Melody fares better with Esa Diva, a pumping house track with a sprinkling of flamenco guitar, that documents her journey to fame.
And Azerbaijan's Mamagama go all Maroon 5 on Run With U, a smooth pop song elevated by a twinkling riff on the saz – a long-necked plucked instrument similar to the lute.
Post-immigrant pop
Sarah Louise Bennett / Alma Bengtsson
From left to right: Shkodra Elektronike, Claude and Klavdia
OK, so I've stolen that description from Shkodra Elektronike.
They're an Albanian duo living in Italy, who fuse the ethnic music of their hometown, Shkodër, to a progressive electronic sound.
Their song Zjerm (Fire) imagines a time when cross-cultural understanding would lead to peace and harmony – a world without a need for soldiers and ambulances, and where "oil would smell like lilac" (no, me neither).
Greece's entry, Asteromáta, is also rooted in history and memory, as Klavdia describes the unbreakable bond that refugees share with their homeland.
"Even if they cross the seas / They shall never forget the sacred earth they called home," she sings, in a haunting ballad that blends traditional Greek and Pontic elements with soaring strings.
Taking a more upbeat approach is Dutch singer Claude. A refugee from the bloody civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he moved to the Netherlands at the age of nine and fell in love with Eurovision while waiting in the refugee centre.
His song, C'est La Vie, is a tribute to his mum, who taught him to see the positive in their situation.
Fizzing with freedom and joy, it combines elements of chanson and French-Caribbean zouk, and looks set for a top 10 placing.
Witchcraft, sorcery and moody goth boys
Sarah Louise Bennett / Alma Bengtsson
From left to right: Theo Evan, Justyna Steczkowska and Marko Bošnjak
The success of "goth gremlin witch" Bambie Thug at last year's Eurovision has conjured a veritable coven of imitators in 2025.
Polish singer Justyna Steczkowska, representing her country for the second time, even includes a Slavic magic spell in her song, Gaja – summoning the spirit of the mother Earth to "cleanse" her of a toxic relationship.
It's a suitably intense performance, with Justyna singing long sustained notes and playing a furious violin solo, before being hoiked into the rafters on a pair ropes.
What a time to be alive.
Marko Bošnjak, meanwhile, is cooking up a Poison Cake to feed to his tormentors - chiefly the people who bombarded him with homophobic hate messages after he was selected to represent Croatia.
The criticism was so intense that he lost his voice and couldn't leave the house for five days.
His song is suitably melodramatic, replete with guttural synths and creepy playground chants. It's a little overbaked, but should still sail through to the finals.
Taking a more ethereal approach are Latvian group Tautumeitas, whose song Bur Man Laimi translates as "a chant for happiness".
Reminiscent of Bjork and Enya, its overlapping folk harmonies are based on traditional Latvian wedding songs, making it one of this year's most captivating entries. I fear it may be too subtle to score well, though.
Further mystery is provided by, Theo Evan, Cyprus's answer to Nick Jonas. The lyrics to his song, Shh, are a riddle, written by former tennis player Elke Tiel, whose "hidden truth will only be revealed on the Eurovision stage in May".
He opens his performance perched between two pieces of scaffolding in a recreation of Leonardo da Vinci's famous Vitruvian Man sketch – so there's a clue.
Shh is one of a number of gothic pop songs, sung by brooding young men with interesting hair.
Among the best is Kiss Kiss Goodbye, by Czechia's Adonxs, who divebombs from an angelic falsetto to an unsettling baritone as he confronts his absent father.
Lithuanian band Katarsis are an interesting experiment, with a deliberately downbeat rock song that declares "the foundations of everything have begun to rot".
Titled Tavo Akys (your eyes), it builds to a compelling climax, but it's hard to see it being a vote-winner, unless Eurovision suddenly attracts an audience of depressed emo teens.
Rounding out the field are Armenian singer Parg, with the Imagine Dragons-inspired Survivor and Serbia's Princ, whose overwrought ballad is called Mila.
Both performers give it their all, but the songs don't feel strong enough to survive the semi-finals.
70s rock throwbacks
Getty Images / Alma Bengtsson
From left to right: Lucio Corsi, Napa and Ziferblat
Four years after Måneskin's victory, Eurovision's rock revival continues apace.
Italy are back at it again, thanks to Lucio Corsi – think David Bowie as Pierrot – and his glam rock ballad Volevo Essere Un Duro (I wanted to be tough).
A delicate anthem for people who feel they don't fit in, it recalls how Lucio was bullied as a kid, and how he's grown to embrace his fragility. At one point, he sings: "Instead of a star, [I'm] just a sneeze."
It's a timeless bit of songwriting that pulls off that crucial Eurovision trick of sounding new and familiar all at once.
Portuguese indie band Napa also have a 70s vibe, channelling Paul McCartney's Wings on the soft rock tear-jerker Deslocado (out of place).
It's another song about migration, written after the band were forced to relocate from Madeira to the Portuguese mainland due to the economic crisis.
"Even though we've been here for a few years we always have that desire to go back, and that anguish of saying goodbye to family," said singer Guilherme Gomes.
Last but not least are Ukraine's Ziferblat, who continue the country's astonishing run of high-quality entries in the midst of a war with Russia.
Their song, Bird Of Pray, is an unexpected mix of 70s new wave band Cars, birdsong and the guitar riff from Rachel Stevens' Sweet Dreams My LA Ex – while the lyrics are full of hope for a peaceful reunion with their loved ones.
It's better than that makes it sound.
The ballads
Shai Franco / Sarah Louise Bennett / Maurice Haas
From left to right: Yuval Raphael, Nina Žižić and Zoë Më
Where would Eurovision be without a raven-haired woman bellowing into a wind machine set to "hurricane"?
Israel has strong form in this category, and sets the bar again with New Day Will Rise, a melancholy piano ballad sung in a mixture of English, French and Hebrew.
It's hard not to interpret her lyrics as a response to those events – "everyone cries, don't cry alone". As a result, her participation hasn't received the same level of criticism as Eden Golan, who represented Israel last year.
That can't be said for Georgia's contestant, Mariam Shengelia, who has been booed during pre-Eurovision appearances for her alleged support of the country's authoritarian, pro-Russian, anti-LGBT ruling party, Georgian Dream.
Shengelia has denied the accusations, pointing out that her song – a stirring, quasi-militaristic ballad called Freedom – is about "freedom of choice, freedom to love, freedom to live as you want to live".
Montenegro's Nina Žižić tackles domestic abuse in Dobrodošli, a brooding and refined orchestral ballad.
The singer, who previously entered Eurovision in 2015 with the cyborg pop oddity Igranka, delivers her lyrics with passion and sincerity, but somehow the song never quite takes off.
Last but not least, we have defending champions Switzerland, represented by 24-year-old Zoë Më, who describes herself as a "little fairy".
Appropriately enough, her self-penned song, Voyage is delicate as a fairy's wings, fluttering with a soft-spoken plea to treat each other with kindness.
Automatically qualifying for the final, it's a welcome oasis of calm amidst the steamy sauna sessions, moody goth haircuts and thrusting innuendo.
But that's Eurovision for you. All human life is here. See you in Basel!
Deborah Grushkin says she felt panicked when she heard about the end of "de minimis"
Earlier this year, Deborah Grushkin, an enthusiastic online shopper from New Jersey, "freaked out".
US President Donald Trump had signed an order to stop allowing packages from China worth less than $800 (£601) to enter the country free of import taxes and customs procedures.
It was a move, backed by traditional retailers, that had been discussed in Washington for years amid an explosion of packages slipping into the US under the limit.
Many countries, including the UK, are considering similar measures, spurred in part by the rapid ascent of Shein and Temu.
But in the US, Trump's decision to end the carve-out while ordering a blitz of new trade tariffs, including import taxes of at least 145% on goods from China, has delivered a one-two punch that has left businesses and shoppers reeling.
US-based e-commerce brands, which were set up around the system, are warning the changes could spark failures of smaller firms, while shoppers like Deborah brace for price hikes and shortages.
With the 2 May deadline bearing down, the 36-year-old last month rushed in some $400 worth of items from Shein - including stickers, T-shirts, sweatshirts, Mother's Days gifts and 20 tubes of liquid eyeliner.
"I felt like maybe it was my last sort of hurrah," she says.
Use of rules known as "de minimis", which allow low-value packages to avoid tariffs, customs inspections and other regulatory requirements, has surged over the last decade.
Take-up accelerated during Trump's first term in office, when he raised tariffs on many Chinese goods.
By 2023, such shipments represented more than 7% of consumer imports, up from less than 0.01% a decade earlier. Last year, nearly 1.4 billion packages entered the country using the exemption - more than 3.7 million a day.
Advocates of the carve-out, which include shipping firms, say the system has streamlined trade, leading to lower prices and more options for customers.
Those in favour of change, a group that includes lawmakers from both parties, say businesses are abusing rules intended to ease gifts between family and friends, and the rise has made it easier to slip products that are illegal, counterfeit or violate safety standards and other rules into the country.
Trump recently called de minimis a "scam", brushing off concerns about higher costs. "Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls," he said.
However, polls suggest concerns about his economic policies are rising as the changes start to hit home.
Krystal DuFrene
Krystal DuFrene believes it's the consumer who ends up paying the tariff
Krystal DuFrene, a retired 57-year-old from Mississippi who relies on disability payments for her income, says she has nervously been checking prices on Temu for weeks, recently cancelling an order for curtains after seeing the price more than triple.
Though she eventually found the same item for the original price in the platform's US warehouse network, she says the cost of her husband's fishing nets had more than doubled.
"I don't know who pays the tariff except the customer," she says. "Everywhere is selling cheap stuff from China so I actually prefer being able to order directly."
When the rules around de minimis changed last week, Temu said it would stop selling goods imported from China in the US directly to customers from its platform, and that all sales would now be handled by "locally based sellers", with orders fulfilled from within the US.
'End of an era'
Even without the latest tariffs, economists Pablo Fajgelbaum and Amit Khandelwal had estimated that ending de minimis would lead to at least $10.9bn in new costs, which they found would be disproportionately borne by lower income and minority households.
"It does kind of feel like the end of an era," says Gee Davis, a 40-year-old author from Missouri, who used Temu during a recent house move to buy small items such as an electric can opener and kitchen cabinet organisers.
Gee Davis
Gee Davis and her roommate used Temu to get new kitchen organisers as they moved house
She says it was a relief to be able to easily afford the extras and the new rules felt like a "money grab" by the government to benefit big, entrenched American retailers like Amazon and Walmart that sell similar products - but at a bigger mark-up.
"I don't think it's right or fair that little treats should be [restricted] to people who are richer.
"It just would be a real bummer if everyone who was under a certain household income threshold was just no longer able to afford anything for themselves."
As with other Trump policy changes, questions remain about the significance of the shift.
The president was already forced to suspend the policy once before, as packages began piling up at the border.
Lori Wallach, director at Rethink Trade, which supports ending de minimis for consumer safety reasons, says the end of the exemption is significant "on paper", but she fears the administration is taking steps that will weaken its implementation.
She points to a recent customs notice, which said products affected by many of the new tariffs could enter the country through the informal process, a move that eases some regulatory requirements.
"Practically, because all of this stuff can come though informal entry, it's going to be extremely hard to collect tariffs or to be able to inspect really very much more than before the change happened," she says.
'An insurmountable shift'
Customs and Border Protection deny the move will undermine enforcement, noting that firms are still required to supply more information than before.
Businesses have indicated they are taking the changes seriously.
Washington Post/Getty Images
Custom suit company Indochino has said changes to de minimis pose a "significant threat" to its viability
Both Shein and Temu last month warned customers that prices would rise, while Temu says it is rapidly expanding its network of US-based sellers and warehouses to protect its low prices.
Other business groups say many smaller, less high-profile American brands that manufacture abroad for US customers are struggling - and may not survive.
"If the tariffs weren't in place, it would be like taking a little bit of bitter medicine," says Alex Beller, board member of the Ecommerce Innovation Alliance, a business lobby group and a co-founder of Postscript, which works with thousands of smaller businesses on text messaging marketing.
"But paired with the other tariffs, especially for brands that manufacture in China, it just becomes an insurmountable shift."
In a letter to the government last month, men's clothing company Indochino, known for its custom suits made-to-order in China, warned that ending de minimis posed a "significant threat to the viability" of its business and other mid-size American firms like it.
Steven Borelli is the chief executive of the athleisure clothing firm CUTS, which manufactures outside the US, shipping products to a warehouse in Mexico, from where packages are mailed to customers in the US.
His firm has been pushing to reduce its reliance on China, halting orders in the country months ago. Still, he says he is now considering price increases and job cuts.
He says his business has room to manoeuvre, since it caters to higher income customers, but he expects "thousands" of other brands to die without changes to the situation.
"We want more time," he says. "The speed at which everything is happening is too fast for businesses to adjust."
In a wide-ranging interview, Stephen Miran, the chair of President Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, said, “Volatility doesn’t necessarily mean anything greater for the long term.”
Hamburger patties grilled in American backyard barbecues and fast-food restaurants are often a blend of ground beef, both homegrown and imported from other countries, especially Brazil.
Billy Evans has two children with the Theranos founder, who is in prison for fraud. He’s now trying to raise money for a testing company that promises “human health optimization.”
The 85-year-old Motown star performed for an adoring crowd and made no mention of the claims against him at his first concert since being named in a lawsuit.
Catholics around the world were skeptical at first about an American pope. But Pope Leo XIV’s multicultural and multilingual identity has put them at ease.
The leaders of Poland, the UK, France and Germany joined Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky (centre) in Kyiv
European leaders have called US President Donald Trump to discuss proposals for a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine from Monday while on a visit to Kyiv.
The call came after leaders of the so-called "coalition of the willing" held a meeting to discuss advancing peace talks.
The leaders of France, Germany, the UK and Poland were hosted in person by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, while others joined remotely.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the coalition backed a "full and unconditional" ceasefire - originally mooted by Trump - and that the EU was ready to "impose further biting sanctions" if it was broken.
In a joint statement ahead of the visit, they said they "will stand in Kyiv in solidarity with Ukraine against Russia's barbaric and illegal full-scale invasion".
The leaders added: "Alongside the US, we call on Russia to agree a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace."
A 30-hour ceasefire, unilaterally called by Putin to mark Russia's Victory Day, is due to end on Saturday. It has seen a decrease in fighting but both sides have accused the other of breaches.
The "coalition of the willing" was formed to reinforce any eventual peace agreement with security guarantees, including the possibility of placing troops in Ukraine.
Trump earlier reiterated the call for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire after a phone call with Zelensky.
"If the ceasefire is not respected, the US and its partners will impose further sanctions," he wrote on social media.
As the meeting was going on, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was already "used to sanctions" and knew how to minimise their impact, adding: "There is no point in trying to scare us with these sanctions."
Meanwhile, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and now deputy head of Russia's Security Council, told the European allies to "shove these peace plans".
Other leaders who joined the meeting remotely included Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Canadian PM Mark Carney, von der Leyen, and Mark Rutte, the secretary-general of Nato.
Reports of Russian attacks across Ukraine continue, despite Russia's claims of a temporary ceasefire.
In northern Sumy region, an 85-year-old woman was killed, three others were injured, 19 residential homes and 10 other buildings were destroyed or damaged, Ukrainian police said.
In Kostyantynivka, eastern Donetsk region, one person was injured and two apartment blocks caught fire after Russian attacks, Ukrainian state emergency service DSNS said.
And in the southern city of Kherson, a 58-year-old local resident sought medical help after being attacked by a Russian drone carrying explosives, the regional administration said.
Taylor Swift and Blake Lively, seen here in 2023, have been close friends for many years
Taylor Swift's representatives have told the BBC she is being brought into a legal row between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively to create "tabloid clickbait".
The 35-year-old singer was summoned to a US court after it was alleged she encouraged Baldoni to accept script re-writes by Lively for It Ends With Us, a film that both starred in and is the centre of a sexual harassment case.
Baldoni says he was invited to Lively's New York home in 2023 to discuss script changes, where Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, and Swift were there to serve as her "dragons".
Representatives for Swift said "she was not involved in any casting or creative decision" and "never saw an edit or made any notes on the film".
Lively, 37, sued Baldoni, 41, in December 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment and a smear campaign. Baldoni is counter-suing Lively and her husband, the actor Ryan Reynolds, on claims of civil extortion, defamation and invasion of privacy.
Lively and Baldoni have been locked in a dispute since the film, which is an adaption of a Colleen Hoover novel, was released last summer.
According to Baldoni, there were tensions over the 2023 re-write of the scene, at which he was surprised to find Reynolds and Swift present.
He alleges Lively wrote in a text to him: "If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you'll appreciate that I'm Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for."
Baldoni says he responded supportively, writing: "I really love what you did. It really does help a lot. Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor).
"You really are a talent across the board. Really excited and grateful to do this together."
It is also alleged that Swift was involved in the casting of Isabela Ferrer in the film, who played a younger version of Lively's character, Lily Bloom.
But Swift's representatives said the only involvement she had in the film was permitting the use of her song, My Tears Ricochet, noting that she was among 20 artists featured in the film.
Swift "never set foot on the set of this movie, she was not involved in any casting or creative decisions, she did not score the film, [and] she never saw an edit or made any notes on the film", they said.
They added that Swift did not see It Ends With Us until "weeks after its release" as she was "travelling around the globe" on tour at the time.
The popstar's spokespeople argued that the subpoena "designed to use Taylor Swift's name to draw public interest by creating tabloid clickbait instead of focusing on the facts of the case".
The quake on Saturday morning had a preliminary magnitude of 4.1, with an epicenter about 30 miles southwest of Knoxville, Tenn. Residents in Atlanta reported feeling it.
The new pope said he would be guided by a key document that his predecessor wrote listing the church’s priorities, including a “loving care for the least and the rejected.”
Leo XIV, on Thursday, after he became pope. On Saturday, the pope said that advances in artificial intelligence would “pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.”
Sir Tom built the company into the world's biggest independent tyre and automotive chain
The founder of the Kwik Fit garage chain, Sir Tom Farmer, has died at the age of 84.
The Edinburgh-born businessman died peacefully at his home in the city on Friday, his family said.
He built the company into the world's biggest independent tyre and automotive chain, selling it to Ford for £1bn in 1999.
Sir Tom owned a majority stake in Hibernian FC for more than 20 years, selling his interest in the club in 2019.
Sir Tom was born in Leith in 1940 and first opened a tyre business in 1964.
He started Kwik Fit in 1971, eventually operating in more than 2,000 locations in 18 countries.
He was knighted in 1997 for his services to the automotive industry, and he was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 2009.
A statement from his family said: "Sir Tom's long and extensive career touched many aspects of Scottish and UK life.
"His business career is well documented, as was his commitment to philanthropy, his many public roles and his unwavering support and appreciation for the communities and people that he lived his life within."
PA Media
Sir Tom was awarded the Carnegie Medal for his charitable work
Sir Tom's philanthropic work saw him awarded the Carnegie Medal and he became a Knight Commander with Star of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, an honour bestowed by the Pope, in 1997.
"Sir Tom's Roman Catholic faith was present throughout all areas of his life. He attended mass weekly in Edinburgh and enjoyed the friendship and company of many people with the Catholic community both here in Scotland and further afield," his family said.
"Sir Tom will be remembered by many for his deep commitment to his family, his work and his faith and for being at all times a proud Scotsman," they added.
Being sealed off from the world in the conclave to choose the new Pope was "immensely peaceful", England and Wales's most senior Roman Catholic has told the BBC.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, was one of 133 cardinals who were shut into the Vatican's Sistine Chapel and later elected Pope Leo XIV on Thursday.
He told BBC Breakfast on Saturday that nobody in the highly-secretive meeting was saying who to vote for or who to not vote for, adding that there was "no rancour" or "politicking" among the cardinals.
"It was a much calmer process than that and I found it actually a rather wonderful experience," he added.
Conclaves have take place in the Sistine Chapel since the 15th Century and cardinals must have no communication with the outside world until a new Pope is elected. The recent conclave came after the death of Pope Francis on 21 April.
The 79-year-old Cardinal Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, said that his mobile phone was taken off him, adding that he found he had "more time on my hands just to be prayerful, just to reflect, just to be still, rather than being constantly agitated... or prompted by what might be coming in" on his phone.
"For me, one of the experiences of these last few days was to learn a bit of patience, to just take this step by step," he said.
"There was a calmness, a bit of solemnity," he continued, adding that everyone he spoke to when in it was "peaceful and just wanting to do this well".
Cardinal Nichols spoke to BBC Breakfast on Saturday about the conclave
There is no timescale on how long it takes for a conclave to elect a new Pope, with previous ones in 2005 and 2013 lasting two days. The conclave that elected Pope Leo lasted for one day.
"I think it was a short conclave in part because Pope Francis left us with a good inheritance," the cardinal said.
"He left a college of cardinals who were dedicated, who had this desire for the church to be more missionary, and that led us forward actually very, very easily to the decision that we made."
Pope Leo will be formally inaugurated at a mass in St Peter's Square on 18 May, which delegations from countries around the world will attend.
The Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward, will attend on behalf of King Charles, Buckingham Palace confirmed on Saturday.
Speaking about the new Pope, Cardinal Nichols said Pope Leo is "very decisive" in a "quiet way", adding that he has seen him "make decisions which disappoint people but don't destroy them".
"A good thing about a pope is if he's able to say, 'No', to you when he thinks something is not right and then give you a hug so you don't go away offended, and I think he's got that ability to do both those things, which is very important."
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