US President Donald Trump has said he thinks talks to end the war in Gaza have been "going along very well", as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC.

Trump also expressed confidence that Hamas was willing to end the 21-month conflict. "They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire," he said in unexpected remarks to reporters at the White House.

Both leaders were asked about potential plans to relocate Palestinians, with Trump saying he has co-operation from countries neighbouring Israel.

The meeting came after the latest rounds of indirect ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas in Qatar ended without a breakthrough, though negotiations were expected to continue this week.

In Monday's remarks, Trump was asked by a journalist what was preventing a peace deal in Gaza, and he said: "I don't think there is a hold-up. I think things are going along very well."

Netanyahu, meanwhile, said he was working with the US on finding countries that will "give Palestinians a better future".

The Palestinian presidency has previously rejected plans to relocate Palestinians, which it pointed out would violate international law.

Netanyahu also appeared to play down prospects of full Palestinian statehood, saying that Israel will "always" keep security control over the Gaza Strip.

"Now, people will say it's not a complete state, it's not a state. We don't care," Netanyahu said.

At the meeting, the Israeli PM also said he had nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, reportedly a long-held goal of the US president.

"He's forging peace as we speak, in one country, in one region after the other," Netanyahu said as he presented Trump with a letter he sent to the prize committee.

Trump has previously said he would be "very firm" with the Israeli PM about ending the war and indicated that "we'll have a deal" this week.

The White House initially said it would not make the meeting between the two leaders open to media, with officials describing it as a private dinner during which Trump would prioritise the push for an end to the war and the return of all hostages.

Keeping the meeting closed to journalists would have been unusual for a president who likes to platform his positions with foreign leaders in front of the world's press.

The US-backed ceasefire proposal would reportedly see Hamas release 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 dead hostages in five stages during a 60-day truce.

Israel would be required to release an unknown number of Palestinian prisoners and withdraw from parts of Gaza, where it now controls about two-thirds of the territory.

Obstacles to a deal remain significant.

The main outstanding issue relates to aid, as Hamas insists on ending the work of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, while the Israeli delegation refuses to discuss the issue, saying they are not authorised to discuss it.

During his visit, Netanyahu met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

As Netanyahu's armoured limousine travelled to the White House, dozens of protesters gathered at security gates, waving Palestinian flags and shouting calls for the Israeli's PM's arrest.

Netanyahu, along with his former defence minister Yoav Gallant and a Hamas commander Mohammed Deif, were made subjects of an arrest warrant in November from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Netanyahu has rejected the allegations, calling the warrants antisemitic, while the Trump administration has imposed sanctions on four ICC judges for what it called "baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel".

The latest round of negotiations on the war in Gaza began on Sunday in Doha, with representatives seated in different rooms in the same building.

A second session was held on Monday and ended without a breakthrough, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations told AFP.

Witkoff was due to join the talks in Doha later this week in an effort to get a ceasefire over the line as the Gaza conflict nears its 22nd month.

Speaking to the BBC, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee declined to say whether Trump would give a written guarantee that a proposed 60-day ceasefire would be extended, so long as negotiations continue.

"I simply don't know," Huckabee said.

This is one of Hamas's key demands and a stumbling block in the current negotiations.

When asked whether he believes Trump can achieve a breakthrough with the Israeli leader, Huckabee said: "I'm not a prophet. I cannot predict the future, so I won't try to tell you what will happen."

Netanyahu is visiting the White House for the third time since Trump returned to power nearly six months ago.

But the leaders are meeting for the first time since the US joined Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites and then brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.

There is a strong sense that the recent 12-day war has created more favourable circumstances to end the Gaza war.

Witkoff said at Monday's dinner that a US meeting with Iran would take place in the next week or so. Trump also said he would like to lift sanctions on the Islamic Republic at some point.

The US president has expressed increasing concern over the conflict in Gaza in recent weeks and believes there is a "good chance" of reaching a ceasefire.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said it was Trump's "utmost priority" to end the war in Gaza and that he wanted Hamas to agree to the 60-day deal "right now".

In the aftermath of the fatal Texas floods, some Democrats have warned about the "consequences" of the Trump administration's cuts to the federal government workforce, including meteorologists, with Senator Chris Murphy saying that: "Accurate weather forecasting helps avoid fatal disasters."

The suggestion is that the cuts may have impeded the ability of the National Weather Service (NWS) - the government agency which provides weather forecasts in the US - to adequately predict the floods and raise the alarm.

But the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said on Monday: "These offices [of the NWS] were well staffed… so any claims to the contrary are completely false."

BBC Verify has examined the impact of cuts under President Trump in this area and while there has been a reduction in the workforce at the NWS, experts who we spoke to said the staffing on hand for the Texas floods appears to have been adequate.

What are the cuts?

The Trump administration has proposed a 25% cut to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) current annual budget of $6.1bn (£4.4bn). NOAA is the agency which oversees the NWS.

This would take effect in the 2026 financial year which begins in October this year - so these particular cuts would not have contributed to the Texas tragedy.

However, the staffing levels of the NWS have already been separately reduced by the Trump administration's efficiency drive since January.

The Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), previously run by Elon Musk, offered voluntary redundancies, known as buyouts, as well as early retirements to federal government workers. It also ended the contracts of most of those who were on probation.

As a result, about 200 people at the NWS took voluntary redundancy and 300 opted for early retirement, according to Tom Fahy, the director of the NWS union. A further 100 people were ultimately fired from the service, he said.

In total, the NWS lost 600 of its 4,200 staff, says Mr Fahy, causing several offices across the country to operate without the necessary staffing.

In April 2025, the Associated Press news agency said it had seen data compiled by NWS employees showing half of its offices had a vacancy rate of 20% - double the rate a decade earlier.

Despite this, climate experts told BBC Verify that the NWS forecasts and flood warnings last week in Texas were as adequate as could be expected.

"The forecasts and warnings all played out in a normal manner. The challenge with this event was that it is very difficult to forecast this type of extreme, localised rainfall," says Avantika Gori, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University in Texas.

And Andy Hazelton, a climate scientist who modelled hurricane paths for the NOAA until he was fired during the layoffs in February, says: "I don't think the staffing issues contributed directly to this event. They got the watches and the warnings out."

What about the impact on offices in Texas?

However, some experts have suggested that staffing cuts may have impeded the ability of local NWS offices in Texas to effectively co-ordinate with local emergency services.

"There is a real question as to whether the communication of weather information occurred in a way that was sub-optimal," says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at University of California Los Angeles.

"The impact might have been partially averted if some of the people at the weather service responsible for making those communications were still employed - which they were not in some of these local offices," he adds.

The San Angelo and San Antonio offices, which cover the areas affected by the flooding, reportedly had some existing vacancies.

For example, the San Antonio office's website lists several positions as being vacant, including two meteorologists.

The NSW union director told BBC Verify that the San Angelo office was missing a senior hydrologist, a scientist who specialises in flooding events.

The San Antonio office also lacked a "warning coordinating meteorologist", who coordinates communications between local forecasting offices and emergency management services in communities, Mr Fahy said.

However, he noted that both offices had temporarily upped their staffing in anticipation of a dangerous weather event, which is typical in these circumstances.

"The NWS weather forecast offices in Austin/San Antonio and San Angelo, Texas had additional forecasters on duty during the catastrophic flooding event," NWS spokeswoman Erica Grow Cei said in a statement to BBC Verify. "All forecasts and warnings were issued in a timely manner," she added.

NWS meteorologist Jason Runyen, who covers the San Antonio area, also said in a statement that where the office would typically have two forecasters on duty during clear weather, they had "up to five on staff".

When asked on Sunday if government cuts had left key vacancies unfilled at the NWS, President Trump told reporters: "No, they didn't."

Were weather balloon launches reduced?

In a video shared thousands of times on social media, US meteorologist John Morales said: "There has been a 20% reduction in weather balloon releases, launches... What we're starting to see is that the quality of the forecasts is becoming degraded."

Some social media users have been pointing to Mr Morales' words as evidence that budget cuts have limited forecasters' ability to anticipate extreme weather events like the floods in Kerr County, Texas.

Weather balloons are an important tool used by meteorologists to collect weather data - from temperatures, to humidity, pressure, or wind speed - from the upper atmosphere.

In the US, NWS stations would typically launch them twice a day.

In a series of public statements released since February, the NWS confirmed that it either suspended or reduced weather balloon launches in at least 11 locations across the country, which it attributed to a lack of staffing at the local weather forecast offices.

However, there is no evidence to suggest that any of those changes directly affected weather balloon launches in the areas impacted by the floods in Texas.

Publicly available data shows that, in the lead-up to the floods, weather balloon launches were carried out as planned at Del Rio, the launch station nearest to the flood epicentre, collecting data that informed weather forecasts which experts say were as adequate as they could be.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

The US plans to impose a 25% tax on products entering the country from South Korea and Japan on 1 August, President Donald Trump has said.

He announced the tariffs in a post on social media, sharing letters he said had been sent to leaders of the two countries.

The White House has said it expects to send similar messages to many countries in the coming days as the 90-day pause it placed on some of its most aggressive tariffs is set to expire.

The first two letters suggest that Trump remains committed to his initial push for tariffs, with little change from the rates announced in April.

At that time, he said he was looking to hit goods from Japan with duties of 24% and charge a 25% on products made in South Korea.

Those tariffs were included in a bigger "Liberation Day" announcement, which imposed tariffs on goods from countries around the world.

After outcry and turmoil on financial markets following the initial tariffs announcement, Trump suspended some of the import taxes to allow for talks. That deadline is set to expire on 9 July.

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expected "a busy couple of days".

"We've had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations. So my mailbox was full last night with a lot of new offers, a lot of new proposals," he told US business broadcaster CNBC.

Few scenes convey British pomp and soft power more than the King and Queen in a carriage procession through the picturesque streets of Windsor. They are being joined on Tuesday by Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron for the first state visit by a French president since 2008, and the first by a European Union leader since Brexit.

The Prince and Princess of Wales will be there too — a Royal Salute will be fired and Macron will inspect a guard of honour. But at a time of jeopardy in Europe, this three-day visit to Windsor and London promises much more than ceremony.

There is a genuine hope that the coming days will make a difference to both countries.

Macron will address MPs and peers at Westminster, and he and Brigitte will be treated to a state banquet back at Windsor. The trip will culminate with a UK-France summit, co-chaired by Sir Keir Starmer and Macron, during which the two governments hope to reach an agreement on the return of irregular migrants.

They will also host Ukraine's leader by video as they try to maintain arms supplies to his military.

But the wider question is how closely aligned they can really become, and whether they can put any lingering mistrust after Brexit behind them.

And, given that the trip will involve much pageantry — with the tour moving from the streets of Windsor, the quadrangle of the Castle and later to the Royal Gallery of the Palace of Westminster — how crucial is King Charles III's role in this diplomacy?

Resetting a 'unique partnership'

It was less than two months ago that the UK and EU agreed to "reset" relations in London. Ties with France in particular had warmed considerably, driven partly by personal understanding but also strategic necessity.

The two neighbours have much in common: they are both nuclear powers and members of the United Nations Security Council.

They are also both looking to update a 15-year-old defence pact known as the Lancaster House treaties, which established a 10,000-strong Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF), and they have recently been working on broadening it to include other Nato and European countries.

"It has always been a unique partnership," says former French ambassador to the UK Sylvie Bermann. "I think this partnership will be crucial in the future."

All of this is unlikely to escape the notice of US President Donald Trump, who is also promised a state visit, his second to the UK, probably in September.

King Charles is 'more than a figurehead'

King Charles, who is 76, has already navigated some complex royal diplomacy this year.

Macron was the first European leader to visit Trump in the White House in February, but it was Sir Keir who stole the show days later, handing him a personal invitation from the King.

Then, when Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky returned to Europe fresh from a bruising meeting with Trump at the White House in February, it was King Charles who welcomed him to Sandringham, and then met him again at Windsor in June.

He has spoken in the past of the heroism of Ukrainians in the face of "indescribable aggression".

Even before ascending the throne, King Charles amassed decades of experience in international affairs (he is also fluent in French). He was only 21 when he attended the funeral in 1970 of Charles de Gaulle, the wartime general who became the architect of France's current Fifth Republic.

He went on to become the longest-serving Prince of Wales in history, and now he is King he has weekly audiences with the prime minister. "The choreography is a strange dance, I suspect, between Number Ten and the Palace," says royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.

"There's no doubt at all that Charles is considerably more than a figurehead."

Windsor Castle, which dates back to the first Norman king, William the Conqueror, has hosted French presidents before. But there is a quiet significance in the appearance of the Prince and Princess of Wales in welcoming Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, as Catherine recovers from treatment for cancer.

Between them, the King and Macron have played their part in resetting relations between the two neighbours, and by extension with the European Union too.

The King is a francophile, says Marc Roche, a columnist and royal commentator for French media: "He has always had a good relationship with France."

A year after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, it was France that King Charles and Queen Camilla chose for their first state visit in September 2023.

Macron had reminded the world in 2022 that the late Queen had "climbed the stairs of the Élysée Palace" six times — more than any other foreign sovereign. His words were warmly received in the UK.

The King received a standing ovation after an address in French to the Senate, and the Queen played table tennis at a sports centre with Brigitte Macron. France's first lady has since visited her in London for a cross-Channel book award.

Gentle touches they may have been, but it followed a very rough period in Franco-British relations.

Brexit negotiations soured relations

The mood had soured during negotiations over Brexit, which the French president said was based on a lie.

Then four years ago, Australia pulled out of a deal to buy 12 French submarines and signed a defence pact with the UK and US instead. The French foreign minister called it a "stab in the back".

Boris Johnson, who was prime minister at the time, told the French they should "prenez un grip" and "donnez-moi un break".

It had been Macron's idea for a European Political Community (EPC) in 2022 that brought the UK into a broad group of countries all seeking to respond to Russia's full-scale invasion.

In 2023 the then-Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, sought to turn the page on several years of frosty relations at a Franco-British summit in Paris.

British and French prime ministers have come and gone: the UK had three in 2022, and last year France had four. It was Sunak's team that organised last year's EPC summit at Blenheim, but it was Starmer as new prime minister who chaired it.

Sébastien Maillard, who helped advise the French presidency in setting up the EPC, said he believed "on both sides there is still a lack of trust… The memory of these difficult times has not vanished".

"Trust needs time to build and perhaps the Russian threat, support for Ukraine and how to handle Trump are three compelling reasons to rebuild that trust," says Maillard, who is now at the Chatham House think tank.

Susi Dennison, of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Paris, agrees relations with France are not back to pre-Brexit levels, but suggests some things the UK and France are "bickering" about were being argued over even before the Brexit vote.

For Macron, this is a chance to not only improve the relationship but also to shine on the international stage when his popularity at home has sunk, Mr Roche believes. "It's a very important visit, especially the first day, because the French are fascinated by the Royal Family."

After eight years in power, Macron's second term still has almost two years to run, but he has paid the price politically for calling snap elections last year and losing his government's majority. His prime minister, François Bayrou, faces a monumental task in the coming months in steering next year's budget past France's left-wing and far-right parties.

As president, Macron's powers - his domaine réservé - cover foreign policy, defence and security, but traditionally France's prime minister does not travel with the head of state, so Macron comes to the UK with a team of ministers who will handle far more than international affairs.

The difficult question of migration

During the summit, the two teams will also work on nuclear energy, artificial intelligence and cultural ties. Differences still have to be sorted over "post-Brexit mobility" for students and other young people, and France is expected to push the Starmer government on that.

But most of the headlines on Thursday's UK-France summit will cover the two main issues: defence and migration.

Defending Ukraine will take pride of place. An Élysée Palace source said it would discuss "how to seriously maintain Ukraine's combat capability" and regenerate its military.

"On defence our relationship is closer than any other countries," says former ambassador Sylvie Bermann. "We have to prepare for the future… to strengthen the deterrence of Europe."

And if a ceasefire were agreed in Ukraine, the two countries could provide the backbone of the "reassurance force" being proposed by the "coalition of the willing". Sir Keir and Macron have played a prominent part in forming this coalition, but so too have the military chiefs of staff of both countries.

Migration is the stickiest problem the two countries face, however. How they deal with their differences on it — particularly on small boats — is crucial to their future relationship.

They are especially keen to sign an agreement on migrant returns and on French police stopping people boarding "taxi boats" to cross the Channel.

France has long argued that the UK has to address the "pull factors" that drive people to want to risk their lives on the boats — the UK, for its part, already pays for many of the 1,200 French gendarmes to patrol France's long northern coastline to stop the smugglers' boats.

The countries are believed to have been working on the terms of a "one-in, one-out" agreement, so that for every small-boat arrival in the UK that France takes back, the UK would allow in one asylum seeker from France seeking family reunification.

Several countries on the southern coasts of Europe are unimpressed because it could mean France sending those asylum seekers handed back by the UK on to their country of entry into the EU, bordering the Mediterranean.

In the UK, the opposition Conservatives have branded the idea "pathetic", accusing the government of a "national record - for failure" on curbing small-boat crossings.

And yet every country in Europe is looking for a way to cut illegal border crossings. Meghan Benton, of the Migration Policy Institute, believes a Franco-British deal could work as a possible pilot for the rest of Europe: "What works for the Channel could also work for the Mediterranean."

Any agreement on this tricky issue could also signal a real, practical improvement in the countries' political relationship. France's right-wing Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, has already been working with Labour's Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to try to find a workable solution.

How far they get, and its wider impact on Europe, is still to be decided, but it does reflect a new willingness between the two neighbours to tackle the divisions between them.

Boris Johnson once accused France of wanting to punish the UK for Brexit. That difficult chapter appears to be over.

As Susi Dennison puts it: "There's a certain distance that will always be there, but things are operating quite well."

During King Charles' 2023 state visit to France he called on the two countries to find common ground, "to reinvigorate our friendship to ensure it is fit for the challenge of this, the 21st Century".

And so this visit will help show — both in the relationships between individuals and on concrete policy debates — whether his call has been answered.

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The winters in Victoria's Gippsland region are known for being chilly. Frost is a frequent visitor overnight, and the days are often overcast.

But in the small town of Korumburra - a part of Australia surrounded by low, rolling hills - it's not just the weather that's gloomy; the mood here is plainly subdued.

Korumburra is where all of Erin Patterson's victims made their home. Don and Gail Patterson, her in-laws, had lived there since 1984. They brought up their four children in the town of 5,000. Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson lived nearby - her husband Ian was the pastor at the local Baptist church.

The four were invited to Erin's house on 29 July 2023 for a family lunch that only Ian would survive, after a liver transplant and weeks in an induced coma.

And on Monday a jury rejected Erin's claim she accidentally served her guests toxic mushrooms, finding her guilty of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

Her 10-week trial caused a massive stir globally, but here in Korumburra they don't want to talk about it. They just want to return to their lives after what has been a difficult two years.

"It's not an easy thing to go through a grieving process... and it's particularly not easy when there's been so much attention," cattle farmer and councillor for the shire Nathan Hersey told the BBC.

"There's an opportunity now for a lot of people to be able to have some closure."

The locals are fiercely loyal - he's one of the few people who is willing to explain what this ordeal has meant for the many in the region.

"It's the sort of place that you can be embraced in very quickly and made to feel you are part of it," he explains.

And those who died clearly helped build that environment.

Pretty much everyone of a certain generation in town was taught by former school teacher Don Patterson: "You'll hear a lot of people talk very fondly of Don, about the impact he had on them.

"He was a great teacher and a really engaging person as well."

And Mr Hersey says he has heard many, many tales of Heather and Gail's generosity and kindness.

Pinned to the Korumburra Baptist Church noticeboard is a short statement paying tribute to the trio, who were "very special people who loved God and loved to bless others".

"We all greatly miss Heather, Don and Gail whether we were friends for a short time or over 20 years," it read.

It's not just Korumburra that's been changed by the tragedy though.

This part of rural Victoria is dotted with small towns and hamlets, which may at first appear quite isolated.

The reality is they are held together by close ties - ties which this case has rattled.

In nearby Outtrim, the residents of Neilson Street – an unassuming gravel road host to a handful of houses – have been left reeling by the prosecution claim their gardens may have produced the murder weapon.

It was one of two locations where death cap mushrooms were sighted and posted on iNaturalist, a citizen science website. Pointing to cell phone tracking data, the prosecution alleged that Erin Patterson went to both to forage for the lethal fungi.

"Everyone knows somebody who has been affected by this case," Ian Thoms tells the BBC from his small farm on Nielson Street.

He rattles off his list. His son is a police detective. His wife works with the daughter of the only survivor Ian. His neighbour is good friends with "Funky Tom", the renowned mushroom expert called upon by the prosecution – who coincidentally was also the person who had posted the sighting of the fungi here.

Down the road another 15 minutes is Leongatha, where Erin Patterson's home sits among other sprawling properties on an unpaved lane.

She bought a plot of land here with a generous inheritance from her mother and built the house assuming she would live here forever.

It has been sitting empty for about 18 months, a sign on the gate telling trespassers to keep out. A neighbour's sheep intermittently drop by to mow the grass.

This week, the livestock was gone, and a black tarpaulin had been erected around the carport and the entrance to her house.

There's a sense of intrigue among some of the neighbours, but there's also a lot of weariness. Every day there are gawkers driving down the lane to see the place where the tragic meal happened. One neighbour even reckons she saw a tour bus trundle past the house.

"When you live in a local town you know names - it's been interesting to follow," says Emma Buckland, who stops to talk to us in the main street.

"It's bizarre," says her mother Gabrielle Stefani. "Nothing like that has [ever] happened so it's almost hard to believe."

The conversation turns to mushroom foraging.

"We grew up on the farm. Even on the front lawn there's always mushrooms and you know which ones you can and can't eat," says Ms Buckland. "That's something you've grown up knowing."

The town that's felt the impact of the case the most in recent months, though, is Morwell; the administrative capital of the City of Latrobe and where the trial has been heard.

"We've seen Morwell, which is usually a pretty sleepy town, come to life," says local journalist Liam Durkin, sitting on a wall in front of Latrobe Valley courthouse.

He edits the weekly Latrobe Valley Express newspaper, whose offices are just around the corner.

"I never thought I'd be listening to fungi experts and the like for weeks on end but here we are," he says.

"I don't think there's ever been anything like this, and they may well never be in Morwell ever again."

While not remote by Australian standards, Morwell is still a two-hour drive from the country's second largest city, Melbourne. It feels far removed from the Victorian capital – and often forgotten.

Just a few months before that fateful lunch served up by Erin Patterson in July 2023, Morwell's paper mill - Australia's last manufacturer of white paper and the provider of many local jobs - shut down. Before that, many more people lost their jobs when a nearby power station closed down.

Older people here have struggled to find work; others have left to find more lucrative options in states like Queensland.

So locals say being thrust in the spotlight now is a bit bizarre.

In Jay Dees coffee shop, opposite the police station and the court, Laura Heller explains that she normally makes about 150 coffees a day. Recently it's almost double that.

"There's been a lot of mixed feelings about [the trial]," she says.

There's been a massive uptick for many businesses, but this case has also revived long-held division in the community when it comes to the police and justice systems, she explains.

"This town is affected by crime a lot, but it's a very different type of crime," Ms Heller says, mentioning drugs and youth offending as examples.

"Half the community don't really have much faith in the police force and our magistrates."

Back in Korumburra, what has been shaken is their faith in humanity. It feels like many people around the globe have lost sight of the fact that this headline-making, meme-generating crime left three people dead.

"Lives in our local community have changed forever," Mr Hersey says.

"But I would say for a lot of people, it's just become almost like pop culture."

Though the past two years has at times brought out the worst in the community, it's also shone a light on the best, he says.

"We want to be known as a community that has been strong and has supported one another... rather than a place that is known for what we now know was murder."

Additional reporting by Tiffanie Turnbull

US President Donald Trump has urged Brazilian authorities to end their prosecution of the country's former President Jair Bolsonaro, accusing them of carrying out a "WITCH HUNT".

Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil between 2019 and 2022, is standing trial for allegedly attempting a coup against current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The former leader has denied involvement in any alleged plot.

In a social media post, Trump said Bolsonaro was "not guilty of anything, except having fought for THE PEOPLE" and told prosecutors to "LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!"

President Lula said Brazil is a sovereign country that "won't accept interference or instruction from anyone."

"No one is above the law. Especially those that threaten freedom and the rule of law," he wrote in a post on X.

In his earlier post on Truth Social, Trump praised Bolsonaro as a "strong leader" who "truly loved his country".

The US president compared Bolsonaro's prosecution to the legal cases he himself faced between his two presidential terms.

"This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent - Something I know much about! It happened to me, times 10," Trump said.

Bolsonaro thanked Trump for his comments, describing the case against him as "clear political persecution" in a social media post.

Responding to Trump's remarks, Minister of Institutional Affairs Gleisi Hoffmann said: "The time when Brazil was subservient to the US was the time of Bolsonaro."

"The US president should take care of his own problems, which are not few, and respect the sovereignty of Brazil and our judiciary," she added.

The back and fourth comes as Lula hosted representatives from China, Russia and other nations at a Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Trump had earlier threatened to levy additional tariffs against countries aligned with what he called the bloc's "anti-American" policies.

Trump and Bolsonaro enjoyed a friendly relationship when their presidencies overlapped, with the pair meeting at the White House in 2019.

Both men subsequently lost presidential elections and both refused to publicly acknowledge defeat.

A week after Lula's inauguration in January 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in the capital, Brasilia, in what federal investigators say was an attempted coup.

Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time and has always denied any links to the rioters.

He has been barred from running for public office until 2030 for falsely claiming Brazil's voting system was vulnerable to fraud, but he has said he intends to fight that ban and run for a second term in 2026.

Speaking in court for the first time last month, Bolsonaro said a coup was an "abominable thing". The 70-year-old could face decades in prison if convicted.

Kenya's security forces have blocked all major roads leading into central Nairobi, ahead of planned nationwide protests.

Much of the city centre is deserted, with businesses shut and a heavy security presence on the streets. Some schools have advised students to stay at home.

Hundreds of early-morning commuters and overnight travellers were stranded at checkpoints, some located more than 10km (six miles) from the city centre, with only a few vehicles allowed through.

Within the city, roads leading to key government sites - including the president's official residence, State House, and the Kenyan parliament - are barricaded with razor wire.

In a statement issued on Sunday evening, the police said it was their constitutional duty to protect lives and property while maintaining public order.

Monday's protests, dubbed Saba Saba (Swahili for 7 July), commemorate the 1990s struggle for multiparty democracy in Kenya.

These demonstrations have been organised primarily by young people, demanding good governance, greater accountability, and justice for victims of police brutality. They are the latest in a wave of anti-government protests that began last year.

On 25 June, at least 19 people were killed and thousands of businesses looted and destroyed in a day of nationwide protests that were being held in honour of those killed in last year's anti-tax protests.

Recent demonstrations have turned violent, with reports of infiltration by "goons", who are accused of looting and attacking protesters. Civil society groups allege collusion between these groups and the police - accusations the police have strongly denied.

On Sunday, an armed gang attacked the headquarters of a human rights NGO in Nairobi. The Kenya Human Rights Commission had been hosting a press conference organised by women calling for an end to state violence ahead of Monday's protests.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the original Saba Saba protests - a key moment that helped usher in multiparty democracy in Kenya after years of one-party rule.

The response by the then government under President Daniel arap Moi was brutal. Many protesters - including veteran politician Raila Odinga, who is now working with the government, were arrested and tortured, while at least 20 people were reportedly killed.

Since then, Saba Saba has come to symbolise civic resistance and the fight for democratic freedom in Kenya.

You may also be interested in:

• Why the death of a blogger has put Kenya's police on trial
• Are East African governments uniting to silence dissent?
• Kenyan vendor shot by police during protests dies after life support switched off

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

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

The death toll from flash floods that struck central Texas on Friday has now climbed to more than 100 people and an unknown number of others are missing.

Search and rescue teams are wading through mud-piled riverbanks as more rain and thunderstorms threaten the region, but hope was fading of finding any more survivors four days after the catastrophe.

Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls' summer camp, confirmed at least 27 girls and staff were among the dead. Ten girls and a camp counsellor are still missing.

The White House meanwhile rejected suggestions that budget cuts at the National Weather Service (NWS) could have inhibited the disaster response.

At least 84 of the victims - 56 adults and 28 children - died in Kerr County, where the Guadalupe River was swollen by torrential downpours before daybreak on Friday, the July Fourth public holiday.

Some 22 adults and 10 children have yet to be identified, said the county sheriff's office.

• Why Texas floods were so devastating

Camp Mystic said in a statement on Monday: "Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy."

Richard Eastland, 70, the co-owner and director of Camp Mystic, died trying to save the children, the Austin American-Statesman reported.

Local pastor Del Way, who knows the Eastland family, told the BBC: "The whole community will miss him [Mr Eastland]. He died a hero."

In its latest forecast, the NWS has predicted more slow-moving thunderstorms, potentially bringing more flash flooding to the region.

Critics of the Trump administration have sought to link the disaster to thousands of job cuts at the NWS' parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The NWS office responsible for forecasting in the region had five employees on duty as thunderstorms brewed over Texas on Thursday evening, the usual number for an overnight shift when severe weather is expected.

• Did US government cuts contribute to the Texas tragedy?

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected attempts to blame the president.

"That was an act of God," she told a daily briefing on Monday.

"It's not the administration's fault that the flood hit when it did, but there were early and consistent warnings and, again, the National Weather Service did its job."

She outlined that the NWS office in Austin-San Antonio conducted briefings for local officials on the eve of the flood and sent out a flood watch that afternoon, before issuing numerous flood warnings that night and in the pre-dawn hours of 4 July.

Trump pushed back when asked on Sunday if federal government cuts had hampered the disaster response, initially appearing to shift blame to what he called "the Biden set-up", referring to his Democratic predecessor.

"But I wouldn't blame Biden for it, either," he added. "I would just say this is a 100-year catastrophe."

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, told a news conference on Monday that now was not the time for "partisan finger-pointing".

One local campaigner, Nicole Wilson, has a petition calling for flood sirens to be set up in Kerr County - something in place in other counties.

Such a system has been debated in Kerr County for almost a decade, but funds for it have never been allocated.

Texas Lt Gov Dan Patrick acknowledged on Monday that such sirens might have saved lives, and said they should be in place by next summer.

Meanwhile, condolences continued to pour in from around the world.

King Charles II has written to President Trump to express his "profound sadness" about the catastrophic flooding.

The King "offered his deepest sympathy" to those who lost loved ones, the British Embassy in Washington said.

The US plans to impose a 25% tax on products entering the country from South Korea and Japan on 1 August, President Donald Trump has said.

He announced the tariffs in a post on social media, sharing letters he said had been sent to leaders of the two countries.

The White House has said it expects to send similar messages to many countries in the coming days as the 90-day pause it placed on some of its most aggressive tariffs is set to expire.

The first two letters suggest that Trump remains committed to his initial push for tariffs, with little change from the rates announced in April.

At that time, he said he was looking to hit goods from Japan with duties of 24% and charge a 25% on products made in South Korea.

Those tariffs were included in a bigger "Liberation Day" announcement, which imposed tariffs on goods from countries around the world.

After outcry and turmoil on financial markets following the initial tariffs announcement, Trump suspended some of the import taxes to allow for talks. That deadline is set to expire on 9 July.

On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expected "a busy couple of days".

"We've had a lot of people change their tune in terms of negotiations. So my mailbox was full last night with a lot of new offers, a lot of new proposals," he told US business broadcaster CNBC.

An overwhelming amount of drugs being smuggled into prisons in England and Wales is "destabilising" the system and hindering efforts to stop re-offending, a watchdog has warned.

Prisons are being targeted by criminal gangs using drones to fly in contraband to sell to bored inmates being kept in cramped conditions, according to the chief inspector of prisons' annual report.

"This meant in many jails, there were seemingly uncontrolled levels of criminality that hard-pressed and often inexperienced staff were unable to contain," Charlie Taylor wrote.

Prisons Minister Lord Timpson said the report showed the "scale of the crisis we inherited" and that the government was working to end the "chaos".

The damning report published on Tuesday found overcrowding and staffing shortages were contributing to a lack of purposeful activities for prisoners to do that would aid their rehabilitation, with many turning to drugs to keep themselves occupied.

Both staff and prisoners have been saying for several years that far too little is being done to keep drugs out of prisons.

A survey of 5,431 prisoners found 39% said it was easy to acquire drugs, while 30% of random drug tests came back positive.

In one prison, HMP Hindley, this rate was almost double.

An inspection of HMP Bedford found random drug testing had not been conducted for 12 months despite drugs being a "significant threat to safety".

Drugs are smuggled into prisons by visitors or staff, thrown over fences or flown in using drones.

An inmate serving time for a violent offence told the BBC that getting drugs inside was "super easy".

Speaking from his cell on an illegal phone, he said: "If you want spice [synthetic cannabis] or weed or something stronger, you can get it in a jiffy. Everyone inside knows who's got some. You can smell it across the wings.

"The boredom is too much and sometimes you just want something to take your mind off it so you'll get high."

The report said drones were being used to make regular deliveries to HMP Manchester and Long Lartin - which hold "some of the most dangerous men in the country, including terrorists and organised crime bosses".

It said that physical security measures were inadequate, while at HMP Manchester "inexperienced staff were being manipulated or simply ignored by prisoners".

Mr Taylor said the failure to tackle these issues presented a threat to national security.

"The challenge for the prison service must be to work in conjunction with the police and security services to manage prisoners associated with organised crime," Mr Taylor said.

"This is a threat that needs to be taken seriously at the highest levels of government."

The report also found:

• Prisoners were spending too long locked in cells, with limited opportunities to spend time in fresh air or take part in recreational activities
• Prisoners in full-time work or education missed out on other activities
• Prisoners released early to ease overcrowding had placed a "huge burden on already-overstretched" probation units
• The population is growing "faster than new [prison] spaces can be made available"

Lord Timpson said the report highlighted the "unacceptable pressures faced by our hardworking staff".

Addressing the issue of overcrowding, he said the government was building 14,000 extra places, with 2,400 already delivered, and "reforming sentencing to ensure we never run out of space again".

He added that the government had pledged £40m to improve prison security, including enhanced CCTV, new windows and floodlighting.

The Prison Service is also employing x-ray body scanners and detection dogs to combat smuggling.

The government hopes reforms to sentencing will allow more prisoners to be released early, freeing up prison spaces.

But drugs in prison are nothing new, and as long as there is a demand, new ways are likely to be created to bring them in.

With drug dealers and addicts doing time, and a constant appetite to make cash, drugs are something that will continue to be an irresistible temptation to those inside.

Tuesday will mark another big milestone in the long road to justice for the victims of the Post Office IT scandal.

The chair of the inquiry into it – Sir Wyn Williams – will publish the first part of his final report, focusing on compensation and the human impact of the scandal.

Thousands of sub-postmasters were wrongly blamed for financial losses from the Post Office's faulty Horizon computer system, which was developed by Fujitsu.

More than 900 people were prosecuted and 236 were sent to prison in what is believed to be one of the biggest miscarriages of justices in UK history.

Sir Wyn put those victims at the heart of the inquiry's work, which has pored over several decades worth of technical evidence and grilled many of those who had a role in ruining so many lives.

Dozens of sub-postmasters gave evidence too - many who had lost their businesses, their homes and some who served prison sentences.

Sir Wyn's findings on their treatment will surely be damning given everything he has heard since the inquiry began in 2022.

The inquiry became almost box office viewing - racking up more than 20 million views on YouTube, with people with no connection to the Post Office following it closely.

However, it is going to be months before we find out who Sir Wyn will point the finger of blame at.

That will come in part two of the report, meaning that accountability is still a long way off.

'Patchwork quilt'

Sir Wyn has taken a big interest in compensation for the victims, admitting at one point that he'd stretched his terms of reference on the issue, "perhaps beyond breaking point".

He held four separate hearings on redress and issued an interim report in 2023, likening the various schemes to a "patchwork quilt with a few holes in it".

Victims and their legal representatives still battling to secure final payouts will be looking to see what his conclusions are on compensation and whether it is living up to the mantra of being full and fair.

They hope his recommendations will result in more action.

Still, you might be wondering why we're only getting the first part of the final report.

Sir Wyn knows how pressing compensation is to many of the victims and that's why he wants to publish his recommendations on the issue as soon as possible.

"It's something I am very keen to say as much about as I reasonably can," he told the inquiry last year.

But the implication from this is that part two - establishing what happened and who is to blame - isn't coming out any time soon.

This second report may not be published until 2026 given the sheer volume and complexity of the evidence as well as the need to give those who are criticised the chance to respond.

As for justice, any criminal trials may not start until 2028. Police investigating the scandal confirmed last month that files won't be handed to prosecutors until after the final inquiry report is published.

After years of waiting, even after part one of Sir Wyn's report is published, the sub-postmasters' long road to justice will continue.

In the aftermath of the fatal Texas floods, some Democrats have warned about the "consequences" of the Trump administration's cuts to the federal government workforce, including meteorologists, with Senator Chris Murphy saying that: "Accurate weather forecasting helps avoid fatal disasters."

The suggestion is that the cuts may have impeded the ability of the National Weather Service (NWS) - the government agency which provides weather forecasts in the US - to adequately predict the floods and raise the alarm.

But the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said on Monday: "These offices [of the NWS] were well staffed… so any claims to the contrary are completely false."

BBC Verify has examined the impact of cuts under President Trump in this area and while there has been a reduction in the workforce at the NWS, experts who we spoke to said the staffing on hand for the Texas floods appears to have been adequate.

What are the cuts?

The Trump administration has proposed a 25% cut to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) current annual budget of $6.1bn (£4.4bn). NOAA is the agency which oversees the NWS.

This would take effect in the 2026 financial year which begins in October this year - so these particular cuts would not have contributed to the Texas tragedy.

However, the staffing levels of the NWS have already been separately reduced by the Trump administration's efficiency drive since January.

The Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), previously run by Elon Musk, offered voluntary redundancies, known as buyouts, as well as early retirements to federal government workers. It also ended the contracts of most of those who were on probation.

As a result, about 200 people at the NWS took voluntary redundancy and 300 opted for early retirement, according to Tom Fahy, the director of the NWS union. A further 100 people were ultimately fired from the service, he said.

In total, the NWS lost 600 of its 4,200 staff, says Mr Fahy, causing several offices across the country to operate without the necessary staffing.

In April 2025, the Associated Press news agency said it had seen data compiled by NWS employees showing half of its offices had a vacancy rate of 20% - double the rate a decade earlier.

Despite this, climate experts told BBC Verify that the NWS forecasts and flood warnings last week in Texas were as adequate as could be expected.

"The forecasts and warnings all played out in a normal manner. The challenge with this event was that it is very difficult to forecast this type of extreme, localised rainfall," says Avantika Gori, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University in Texas.

And Andy Hazelton, a climate scientist who modelled hurricane paths for the NOAA until he was fired during the layoffs in February, says: "I don't think the staffing issues contributed directly to this event. They got the watches and the warnings out."

What about the impact on offices in Texas?

However, some experts have suggested that staffing cuts may have impeded the ability of local NWS offices in Texas to effectively co-ordinate with local emergency services.

"There is a real question as to whether the communication of weather information occurred in a way that was sub-optimal," says Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at University of California Los Angeles.

"The impact might have been partially averted if some of the people at the weather service responsible for making those communications were still employed - which they were not in some of these local offices," he adds.

The San Angelo and San Antonio offices, which cover the areas affected by the flooding, reportedly had some existing vacancies.

For example, the San Antonio office's website lists several positions as being vacant, including two meteorologists.

The NSW union director told BBC Verify that the San Angelo office was missing a senior hydrologist, a scientist who specialises in flooding events.

The San Antonio office also lacked a "warning coordinating meteorologist", who coordinates communications between local forecasting offices and emergency management services in communities, Mr Fahy said.

However, he noted that both offices had temporarily upped their staffing in anticipation of a dangerous weather event, which is typical in these circumstances.

"The NWS weather forecast offices in Austin/San Antonio and San Angelo, Texas had additional forecasters on duty during the catastrophic flooding event," NWS spokeswoman Erica Grow Cei said in a statement to BBC Verify. "All forecasts and warnings were issued in a timely manner," she added.

NWS meteorologist Jason Runyen, who covers the San Antonio area, also said in a statement that where the office would typically have two forecasters on duty during clear weather, they had "up to five on staff".

When asked on Sunday if government cuts had left key vacancies unfilled at the NWS, President Trump told reporters: "No, they didn't."

Were weather balloon launches reduced?

In a video shared thousands of times on social media, US meteorologist John Morales said: "There has been a 20% reduction in weather balloon releases, launches... What we're starting to see is that the quality of the forecasts is becoming degraded."

Some social media users have been pointing to Mr Morales' words as evidence that budget cuts have limited forecasters' ability to anticipate extreme weather events like the floods in Kerr County, Texas.

Weather balloons are an important tool used by meteorologists to collect weather data - from temperatures, to humidity, pressure, or wind speed - from the upper atmosphere.

In the US, NWS stations would typically launch them twice a day.

In a series of public statements released since February, the NWS confirmed that it either suspended or reduced weather balloon launches in at least 11 locations across the country, which it attributed to a lack of staffing at the local weather forecast offices.

However, there is no evidence to suggest that any of those changes directly affected weather balloon launches in the areas impacted by the floods in Texas.

Publicly available data shows that, in the lead-up to the floods, weather balloon launches were carried out as planned at Del Rio, the launch station nearest to the flood epicentre, collecting data that informed weather forecasts which experts say were as adequate as they could be.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

Few scenes convey British pomp and soft power more than the King and Queen in a carriage procession through the picturesque streets of Windsor. They are being joined on Tuesday by Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron for the first state visit by a French president since 2008, and the first by a European Union leader since Brexit.

The Prince and Princess of Wales will be there too — a Royal Salute will be fired and Macron will inspect a guard of honour. But at a time of jeopardy in Europe, this three-day visit to Windsor and London promises much more than ceremony.

There is a genuine hope that the coming days will make a difference to both countries.

Macron will address MPs and peers at Westminster, and he and Brigitte will be treated to a state banquet back at Windsor. The trip will culminate with a UK-France summit, co-chaired by Sir Keir Starmer and Macron, during which the two governments hope to reach an agreement on the return of irregular migrants.

They will also host Ukraine's leader by video as they try to maintain arms supplies to his military.

But the wider question is how closely aligned they can really become, and whether they can put any lingering mistrust after Brexit behind them.

And, given that the trip will involve much pageantry — with the tour moving from the streets of Windsor, the quadrangle of the Castle and later to the Royal Gallery of the Palace of Westminster — how crucial is King Charles III's role in this diplomacy?

Resetting a 'unique partnership'

It was less than two months ago that the UK and EU agreed to "reset" relations in London. Ties with France in particular had warmed considerably, driven partly by personal understanding but also strategic necessity.

The two neighbours have much in common: they are both nuclear powers and members of the United Nations Security Council.

They are also both looking to update a 15-year-old defence pact known as the Lancaster House treaties, which established a 10,000-strong Combined Joint Expeditionary Force (CJEF), and they have recently been working on broadening it to include other Nato and European countries.

"It has always been a unique partnership," says former French ambassador to the UK Sylvie Bermann. "I think this partnership will be crucial in the future."

All of this is unlikely to escape the notice of US President Donald Trump, who is also promised a state visit, his second to the UK, probably in September.

King Charles is 'more than a figurehead'

King Charles, who is 76, has already navigated some complex royal diplomacy this year.

Macron was the first European leader to visit Trump in the White House in February, but it was Sir Keir who stole the show days later, handing him a personal invitation from the King.

Then, when Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky returned to Europe fresh from a bruising meeting with Trump at the White House in February, it was King Charles who welcomed him to Sandringham, and then met him again at Windsor in June.

He has spoken in the past of the heroism of Ukrainians in the face of "indescribable aggression".

Even before ascending the throne, King Charles amassed decades of experience in international affairs (he is also fluent in French). He was only 21 when he attended the funeral in 1970 of Charles de Gaulle, the wartime general who became the architect of France's current Fifth Republic.

He went on to become the longest-serving Prince of Wales in history, and now he is King he has weekly audiences with the prime minister. "The choreography is a strange dance, I suspect, between Number Ten and the Palace," says royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.

"There's no doubt at all that Charles is considerably more than a figurehead."

Windsor Castle, which dates back to the first Norman king, William the Conqueror, has hosted French presidents before. But there is a quiet significance in the appearance of the Prince and Princess of Wales in welcoming Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron, as Catherine recovers from treatment for cancer.

Between them, the King and Macron have played their part in resetting relations between the two neighbours, and by extension with the European Union too.

The King is a francophile, says Marc Roche, a columnist and royal commentator for French media: "He has always had a good relationship with France."

A year after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, it was France that King Charles and Queen Camilla chose for their first state visit in September 2023.

Macron had reminded the world in 2022 that the late Queen had "climbed the stairs of the Élysée Palace" six times — more than any other foreign sovereign. His words were warmly received in the UK.

The King received a standing ovation after an address in French to the Senate, and the Queen played table tennis at a sports centre with Brigitte Macron. France's first lady has since visited her in London for a cross-Channel book award.

Gentle touches they may have been, but it followed a very rough period in Franco-British relations.

Brexit negotiations soured relations

The mood had soured during negotiations over Brexit, which the French president said was based on a lie.

Then four years ago, Australia pulled out of a deal to buy 12 French submarines and signed a defence pact with the UK and US instead. The French foreign minister called it a "stab in the back".

Boris Johnson, who was prime minister at the time, told the French they should "prenez un grip" and "donnez-moi un break".

It had been Macron's idea for a European Political Community (EPC) in 2022 that brought the UK into a broad group of countries all seeking to respond to Russia's full-scale invasion.

In 2023 the then-Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, sought to turn the page on several years of frosty relations at a Franco-British summit in Paris.

British and French prime ministers have come and gone: the UK had three in 2022, and last year France had four. It was Sunak's team that organised last year's EPC summit at Blenheim, but it was Starmer as new prime minister who chaired it.

Sébastien Maillard, who helped advise the French presidency in setting up the EPC, said he believed "on both sides there is still a lack of trust… The memory of these difficult times has not vanished".

"Trust needs time to build and perhaps the Russian threat, support for Ukraine and how to handle Trump are three compelling reasons to rebuild that trust," says Maillard, who is now at the Chatham House think tank.

Susi Dennison, of the European Council on Foreign Relations in Paris, agrees relations with France are not back to pre-Brexit levels, but suggests some things the UK and France are "bickering" about were being argued over even before the Brexit vote.

For Macron, this is a chance to not only improve the relationship but also to shine on the international stage when his popularity at home has sunk, Mr Roche believes. "It's a very important visit, especially the first day, because the French are fascinated by the Royal Family."

After eight years in power, Macron's second term still has almost two years to run, but he has paid the price politically for calling snap elections last year and losing his government's majority. His prime minister, François Bayrou, faces a monumental task in the coming months in steering next year's budget past France's left-wing and far-right parties.

As president, Macron's powers - his domaine réservé - cover foreign policy, defence and security, but traditionally France's prime minister does not travel with the head of state, so Macron comes to the UK with a team of ministers who will handle far more than international affairs.

The difficult question of migration

During the summit, the two teams will also work on nuclear energy, artificial intelligence and cultural ties. Differences still have to be sorted over "post-Brexit mobility" for students and other young people, and France is expected to push the Starmer government on that.

But most of the headlines on Thursday's UK-France summit will cover the two main issues: defence and migration.

Defending Ukraine will take pride of place. An Élysée Palace source said it would discuss "how to seriously maintain Ukraine's combat capability" and regenerate its military.

"On defence our relationship is closer than any other countries," says former ambassador Sylvie Bermann. "We have to prepare for the future… to strengthen the deterrence of Europe."

And if a ceasefire were agreed in Ukraine, the two countries could provide the backbone of the "reassurance force" being proposed by the "coalition of the willing". Sir Keir and Macron have played a prominent part in forming this coalition, but so too have the military chiefs of staff of both countries.

Migration is the stickiest problem the two countries face, however. How they deal with their differences on it — particularly on small boats — is crucial to their future relationship.

They are especially keen to sign an agreement on migrant returns and on French police stopping people boarding "taxi boats" to cross the Channel.

France has long argued that the UK has to address the "pull factors" that drive people to want to risk their lives on the boats — the UK, for its part, already pays for many of the 1,200 French gendarmes to patrol France's long northern coastline to stop the smugglers' boats.

The countries are believed to have been working on the terms of a "one-in, one-out" agreement, so that for every small-boat arrival in the UK that France takes back, the UK would allow in one asylum seeker from France seeking family reunification.

Several countries on the southern coasts of Europe are unimpressed because it could mean France sending those asylum seekers handed back by the UK on to their country of entry into the EU, bordering the Mediterranean.

In the UK, the opposition Conservatives have branded the idea "pathetic", accusing the government of a "national record - for failure" on curbing small-boat crossings.

And yet every country in Europe is looking for a way to cut illegal border crossings. Meghan Benton, of the Migration Policy Institute, believes a Franco-British deal could work as a possible pilot for the rest of Europe: "What works for the Channel could also work for the Mediterranean."

Any agreement on this tricky issue could also signal a real, practical improvement in the countries' political relationship. France's right-wing Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, has already been working with Labour's Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to try to find a workable solution.

How far they get, and its wider impact on Europe, is still to be decided, but it does reflect a new willingness between the two neighbours to tackle the divisions between them.

Boris Johnson once accused France of wanting to punish the UK for Brexit. That difficult chapter appears to be over.

As Susi Dennison puts it: "There's a certain distance that will always be there, but things are operating quite well."

During King Charles' 2023 state visit to France he called on the two countries to find common ground, "to reinvigorate our friendship to ensure it is fit for the challenge of this, the 21st Century".

And so this visit will help show — both in the relationships between individuals and on concrete policy debates — whether his call has been answered.

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The winters in Victoria's Gippsland region are known for being chilly. Frost is a frequent visitor overnight, and the days are often overcast.

But in the small town of Korumburra - a part of Australia surrounded by low, rolling hills - it's not just the weather that's gloomy; the mood here is plainly subdued.

Korumburra is where all of Erin Patterson's victims made their home. Don and Gail Patterson, her in-laws, had lived there since 1984. They brought up their four children in the town of 5,000. Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson lived nearby - her husband Ian was the pastor at the local Baptist church.

The four were invited to Erin's house on 29 July 2023 for a family lunch that only Ian would survive, after a liver transplant and weeks in an induced coma.

And on Monday a jury rejected Erin's claim she accidentally served her guests toxic mushrooms, finding her guilty of three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.

Her 10-week trial caused a massive stir globally, but here in Korumburra they don't want to talk about it. They just want to return to their lives after what has been a difficult two years.

"It's not an easy thing to go through a grieving process... and it's particularly not easy when there's been so much attention," cattle farmer and councillor for the shire Nathan Hersey told the BBC.

"There's an opportunity now for a lot of people to be able to have some closure."

The locals are fiercely loyal - he's one of the few people who is willing to explain what this ordeal has meant for the many in the region.

"It's the sort of place that you can be embraced in very quickly and made to feel you are part of it," he explains.

And those who died clearly helped build that environment.

Pretty much everyone of a certain generation in town was taught by former school teacher Don Patterson: "You'll hear a lot of people talk very fondly of Don, about the impact he had on them.

"He was a great teacher and a really engaging person as well."

And Mr Hersey says he has heard many, many tales of Heather and Gail's generosity and kindness.

Pinned to the Korumburra Baptist Church noticeboard is a short statement paying tribute to the trio, who were "very special people who loved God and loved to bless others".

"We all greatly miss Heather, Don and Gail whether we were friends for a short time or over 20 years," it read.

It's not just Korumburra that's been changed by the tragedy though.

This part of rural Victoria is dotted with small towns and hamlets, which may at first appear quite isolated.

The reality is they are held together by close ties - ties which this case has rattled.

In nearby Outtrim, the residents of Neilson Street – an unassuming gravel road host to a handful of houses – have been left reeling by the prosecution claim their gardens may have produced the murder weapon.

It was one of two locations where death cap mushrooms were sighted and posted on iNaturalist, a citizen science website. Pointing to cell phone tracking data, the prosecution alleged that Erin Patterson went to both to forage for the lethal fungi.

"Everyone knows somebody who has been affected by this case," Ian Thoms tells the BBC from his small farm on Nielson Street.

He rattles off his list. His son is a police detective. His wife works with the daughter of the only survivor Ian. His neighbour is good friends with "Funky Tom", the renowned mushroom expert called upon by the prosecution – who coincidentally was also the person who had posted the sighting of the fungi here.

Down the road another 15 minutes is Leongatha, where Erin Patterson's home sits among other sprawling properties on an unpaved lane.

She bought a plot of land here with a generous inheritance from her mother and built the house assuming she would live here forever.

It has been sitting empty for about 18 months, a sign on the gate telling trespassers to keep out. A neighbour's sheep intermittently drop by to mow the grass.

This week, the livestock was gone, and a black tarpaulin had been erected around the carport and the entrance to her house.

There's a sense of intrigue among some of the neighbours, but there's also a lot of weariness. Every day there are gawkers driving down the lane to see the place where the tragic meal happened. One neighbour even reckons she saw a tour bus trundle past the house.

"When you live in a local town you know names - it's been interesting to follow," says Emma Buckland, who stops to talk to us in the main street.

"It's bizarre," says her mother Gabrielle Stefani. "Nothing like that has [ever] happened so it's almost hard to believe."

The conversation turns to mushroom foraging.

"We grew up on the farm. Even on the front lawn there's always mushrooms and you know which ones you can and can't eat," says Ms Buckland. "That's something you've grown up knowing."

The town that's felt the impact of the case the most in recent months, though, is Morwell; the administrative capital of the City of Latrobe and where the trial has been heard.

"We've seen Morwell, which is usually a pretty sleepy town, come to life," says local journalist Liam Durkin, sitting on a wall in front of Latrobe Valley courthouse.

He edits the weekly Latrobe Valley Express newspaper, whose offices are just around the corner.

"I never thought I'd be listening to fungi experts and the like for weeks on end but here we are," he says.

"I don't think there's ever been anything like this, and they may well never be in Morwell ever again."

While not remote by Australian standards, Morwell is still a two-hour drive from the country's second largest city, Melbourne. It feels far removed from the Victorian capital – and often forgotten.

Just a few months before that fateful lunch served up by Erin Patterson in July 2023, Morwell's paper mill - Australia's last manufacturer of white paper and the provider of many local jobs - shut down. Before that, many more people lost their jobs when a nearby power station closed down.

Older people here have struggled to find work; others have left to find more lucrative options in states like Queensland.

So locals say being thrust in the spotlight now is a bit bizarre.

In Jay Dees coffee shop, opposite the police station and the court, Laura Heller explains that she normally makes about 150 coffees a day. Recently it's almost double that.

"There's been a lot of mixed feelings about [the trial]," she says.

There's been a massive uptick for many businesses, but this case has also revived long-held division in the community when it comes to the police and justice systems, she explains.

"This town is affected by crime a lot, but it's a very different type of crime," Ms Heller says, mentioning drugs and youth offending as examples.

"Half the community don't really have much faith in the police force and our magistrates."

Back in Korumburra, what has been shaken is their faith in humanity. It feels like many people around the globe have lost sight of the fact that this headline-making, meme-generating crime left three people dead.

"Lives in our local community have changed forever," Mr Hersey says.

"But I would say for a lot of people, it's just become almost like pop culture."

Though the past two years has at times brought out the worst in the community, it's also shone a light on the best, he says.

"We want to be known as a community that has been strong and has supported one another... rather than a place that is known for what we now know was murder."

Additional reporting by Tiffanie Turnbull

The national system for sending emergency alerts to mobile phones in the UK will be tested again this September, the government has said.

It will see compatible phones vibrate and make a siren sound for 10 seconds while displaying a message at 15:00 BST on 7 September, even if they are set to silent.

The alerts are intended for situations in which there is an imminent danger to life, such as extreme weather events or during a terror attack.

Though the system has been deployed regionally five times in the past few years, a previous nationwide test in 2023 revealed technical issues - with some people receiving the alert earlier than expected and some not receiving it at all.

Many on the Three network did not get anything, along with users on other networks - while some received multiple alerts. The government later said the message did not reach around 7% of compatible devices.

The Cabinet Office said at the time that the problems uncovered would be reviewed and addressed ahead of another test.

It said September's test is intended to ensure the system works well and to make sure people are familiar with the alerts, in line with other countries that also use them, like the US and Japan.

Of the approximately 87 million mobile phones in the UK, the alert will only appear on smartphones on 4G or 5G networks. Older phones, and phones connected to 2G or 3G networks, will not receive the message.

Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said: "Just like the fire alarm in your house, it's important we test the system so that we know it will work if we need it."

The system was used to send alerts to 4.5 million phones in Scotland and Northern Ireland during Storm Eowyn in January 2025, and 3.5 million in England and Wales during Storm Darragh the previous month.

It was also used to aid the evacuation of more than 10,000 residents in Plymouth as an unexploded 500kg World War Two bomb was carefully removed and taken out to sea to be detonated after being uncovered.

Tracey Lee, chief executive of Plymouth City Council, said it had been an "invaluable tool" and provided residents with "clear information at a critical moment".

While devices that are not connected to mobile data or wi-fi will still receive the alert, those that are switched off or in airplane mode will not.

Domestic abuse charities previously warned the system could endanger victims by potentially alerting an abuser to a hidden phone. The National Centre for Domestic Violence advised people with concealed phones to turn them off for the duration of the test.

The government stresses that emergency alerts should remain switched on, but has published a guide for domestic abuse victims on how to opt out.

The new test will also feature a version of the message in British Sign Language for deaf people.

Employers will be banned from using non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to silence victims of workplace sexual misconduct or discrimination, the government has said.

An amendment to the Employment Rights Bill, which is expected to become law later this year, will void any confidentiality agreements seeking to prevent workers from speaking about allegations of harassment or discrimination.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said it was "time we stamped this practice out".

The use of NDAs to cover up criminality has been in the headlines ever since Zelda Perkins, the former assistant to Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, broke her NDA in 2017 to accuse him of sexual abuse.

More recently, the now deceased Mohamed Al Fayed, who used to own Harrods, was accused of deploying confidentiality clauses to silence women who accused him of rape and abuse.

An NDA is a legally binding document that protects confidential information between two parties. They can be used to protect intellectual property or other commercially sensitive information but over the years their uses have spread.

Ms Perkins began campaigning for a change in the law more than seven years ago.

She now runs the campaign group Can't Buy My Silence UK and said the amendment marked a ''huge milestone'' and that it showed the government had ''listened and understood the abuse of power taking place".

But she said the victory ''belongs to the people who broke their NDAs, who risked everything to speak the truth when they were told they couldn't".

The change in the law would bring the UK in line with Ireland, the United States, and some provinces in Canada, which have banned such agreements from being used to prevent the disclosure of sexual harassment and discrimination.

Ms Perkins said that while the law was welcome, it was vital "to ensure the regulations are watertight and no one can be forced into silence again".

Employment rights minister Justin Madders said there was "misuse of NDAs to silence victims", which he called "an appalling practice".

"These amendments will give millions of workers confidence that inappropriate behaviour in the workplace will be dealt with, not hidden, allowing them to get on with building a prosperous and successful career," he added.

Peers will debate the amendments when the Employment Rights Bill returns to the House of Lords on 14 July and, if passed, will need to be approved by MPs as well.

The maternity fashion retailer Seraphine, whose clothes were worn by the Princess of Wales during her three pregnancies, has ceased trading and entered administration.

Consultancy firm Interpath confirmed to the BBC on Monday that it had been appointed as administrators by the company and that the "majority" of its 95 staff had been made redundant.

It said the brand had experienced "trading challenges" in recent times with sales being hit by "fragile consumer confidence".

The fashion retailer was founded in 2002, but perhaps hit its peak when Catherine wore its maternity clothes on several occasions, leading to items quickly selling out.

Prior to the confirmation that administrators had been appointed, which was first reported by the Financial Times, Seraphine's website was offering discounts on items as big as 60%. Its site now appears to be inaccessible to shoppers.

The main job of administration is to save the company, and administrators will try to rescue it by selling it, or parts of it. If that is not possible it will be closed down and all its saleable assets sold.

Will Wright, UK chief executive of Interpath, said economic challenges such as "rising costs and brittle consumer confidence" had proved "too challenging to overcome" for Seraphine.

Interpath said options are now being explored for the business and its assets, including the Seraphine brand.

The retailer's flagship store was in Kensington High Street, London, but other well-known shops, such as John Lewis and Next, also stocked its goods.

The rise in popularity of Seraphine, driven in part by Royalty wearing its clothes, led to the company listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2021, before being taking back into private ownership in 2023.

Interpath said in April this year, the company "relaunched its brand identity, with a renewed focus on form, function and fit".

"However, with pressure on cashflow continuing to mount, the directors of the business sought to undertake an accelerated review of their investment options, including exploring options for sale and refinance," a statement said.

"Sadly, with no solvent options available, the directors then took the difficult decision to file for the appointment of administrators."

Staff made redundant as a result of the company's downfall are to be supported making claims to the redundancy payments service, Interpath added.